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US Supreme Court, Iran Missile Tests, Environmental Legislation, More: Monday Buzz, August 7, 2017

NEW RESOURCES

US Supreme Court: Electronic Filing. “The Supreme Court’s new electronic filing system will begin operation on November 13, 2017. A quick link on the Court’s website homepage will provide access to the new system, developed in-house to provide prompt and easy access to case documents. Once the system is in place, virtually all new filings will be accessible without cost to the public and legal community.”

From Nuclear Threat Initiative: New Database Documents all Iran Missile Tests since 1988. “A new database released today by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) on NTI’s website documents all of Iran’s missile and space launch vehicle (SLV) tests since the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988. This first-of-its-kind, downloadable database is accompanied by an interactive map that illustrates the tests by location, missile name and type, and results. The database will be updated regularly as needed.”

UPI: Schwarzenegger launches climate change project. “Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday unveiled an environmental initiative to answer President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accords. Called the Digital Environmental Legislative Handbook, it is a searchable database of environmental bills and laws designed to help legislators create their own climate change laws.”

AV Club: Rick And Morty now has its own Frinkiac. “Frinkiac—the searchable database of Simpsons images and GIFs created by Paul Kehrer, Sean Schulte, and Allie Young—is one of the delights of the internet, an at-your-finger repository of every ‘Glavin,’ ‘Ha-Ha,’ and ‘My son is also named Bort’ a conversation might demand. (The team also created Morbotron, its non-union, Futurama equivalent.) Now, Rick And Morty—no stranger to smashing its way into the world of Springfield—is getting in on the screen-capped fun, thanks to Master Of All Science, the trio’s latest project.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Neowin: LastPass doubles price of its Premium plan, removes features from its free service tier. “In November, LastPass made a big change to its service, allowing users to keep track of their passwords across all their internet-enabled mobile and desktop devices, free of charge. In addition to the free tier, the cross-platform password manager – available on iOS, Android, and Windows 10 – also offered a Premium plan with additional features, priced at $12 per year. Today, LastPass announced another wave of changes to its lineup for individual users – but this time, the changes are unlikely to be welcomed with open arms by its customers.”

TechCrunch: Facebook finishes its move to neural machine translation. “Facebook announced this morning that it had completed its move to neural machine translation — a complicated way of saying that Facebook is now using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and recurrent neural networks (RNNs) to automatically translate content across Facebook.”

USEFUL STUFF

Digital Trends: Turn Chrome OS Into A Powerhouse With The Best Chromebook Apps. “Chromebooks have won a well-deserved reputation as affordable, lightweight laptops designed around streaming and collaboration. This makes them popular among budget-conscious individuals, even if it’s the apps and extensions that can really make Chrome OS worthwhile. The best Chromebook apps further the operating system’s functionality, allowing you to quickly save content for offline viewing and diagram the small intricacies that make up photosynthesis, among a slew of other actions.”

Lifehacker: How to Send Web Pages From Your Phone to Your PC. “It isn’t hard to go from reading an article on your phone to reading it on your laptop. All you need to do is remember where you found it, right? But searching for something you already have in front of you is redundant, especially since companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple all have ways to take what’s on your phone and bring it to your desktop in an instant. Chances are, with a few settings tweaks, you can enable the feature right now.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Gizmodo: Exclusive: Here’s The Full 10-Page Anti-Diversity Screed Circulating Internally at Google [Updated]. “A software engineer’s 10-page screed against Google’s diversity initiatives is going viral inside the company, being shared on an internal meme network and Google+. The document’s existence was first reported by Motherboard, and Gizmodo has obtained it in full.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BBC: YouTube child protection mechanism ‘failing’. “YouTube’s child protection mechanism is breaking down, according to some of the company’s volunteer watchdogs. There’s a constant anxiety that those seeking to abuse or groom young children will use social media to reach them – and YouTube is aware of the problem. The video-sharing site has a special network of volunteers, called Trusted Flaggers, who help identify worrisome posts and comments on the network.”

The Register: Parents claim Disney gobbled up kids’ info through mobile games . “Disney has been sued in America for allegedly collecting children’s personal information without getting parents’ approvals. A class-action lawsuit [PDF] filed Thursday in northern California accuses the unstoppable children’s entertainment brand and three of its developer partners of violating privacy laws by tracking the locations and activities of kids who use their mobile games – without first asking parents to approve the activity.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Quartz: Scientists made people turned off their notifications for a day, and saw an effect years later. “Just one day of shutting down your notifications can be a fulfilling experience, simply thanks to the comparative lack of distraction and stress that comes from answering to a device in your pocket every few minutes. And while it may seem like a tiny difference, changing a small habit can alter your whole perspective.” Good morning, Internet…

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