NEW RESOURCES

Paper: New Database Compiles Female, Trans & Gender Nonconforming DJs. “A new database aims to tackle the gender inequality in booking nightlife acts by compiling a list of female, trans and gender nonconforming DJs, and they already have a list of over 200 on the East Coast alone.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mashable: Facebook tests feature that makes it easier to creep on mutual friends. “Facebook wants you to learn more about your mutual friends. The social network is experimenting with a new feature called ‘Things in Common’ that highlights details you have in common with your friends’ friends.”

BetaNews: YouTube ripping site YouTube-MP3 to close after record label lawsuit. “YouTube-mp3.org — ‘the easiest online service for converting videos to mp3’ — is closing down. The ripping site faced action from numerous record labels, but it has now come to an arrangement with the RIAA.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TechCrunch: Twitter’s terms of service are making people mad — but they’re not new. “The main issue here is over a section where the ToS mention Twitter’s ability to offer up the use of user-generated content and embedded tweets to other companies for promotion and distribution. This would apply to news organizations that may want to broadcast that content during a syndicated show, for instance, or really anybody who wants to embed a tweet.” I admit getting caught up in this – I did not remember that Twitter’s policies were quite so bad. I rarely post photos etc to Twitter and now I absolutely will not do it..

Digital Trends: Askedoo, A Q&A Live-stream App, Will Remind You To Never Take Google For Granted . “It’s tough to envision a world where our questions aren’t answered with one simple Google search. But sometimes, the search engine has you going past the second page only to realize you’ve reached a dead end. This week, we have an app specifically created for answering your questions in an unconventional way: Live-streaming.”

Quartz: Instagram says those perfect-looking photos just don’t produce the results they used to. “Here’s a tip for you the next time you’re about to post a photo to Instagram of your perfect-looking avocado toast, neatly positioned beside your folded sunglasses and a cappuccino with the heart drawn in the foam: Don’t. An expertly curated feed of flawless imagery just doesn’t produce the same results it used to, according to a group of Instagram’s in-house experts. So enough with perfectly lit selfies—and stop treating breakfast like a fashion shoot.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

University of Colorado Boulder: New state law modernizes Colorado Open Records Act. “While prior to this summer the law allowed for the release of records in a paper format, the new bill requires a requested public record to be provided in the format in which its kept. For example, a Microsoft Excel database of employee names and salary figures may be provided to a requester in a digital and sortable format.” NICE.

Gadgets360: With Torrent Sites Facing the Heat, Pirates Get Creative With Google Drive and Other Services . “As crackdown on torrent sites continues around the world, people who are pirating TV shows and movies are having to get a little more creative. Cloud storage services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Kim Dotcom’s Mega are some of the popular ones that are being used to distribute copyrighted content, according to DMCA takedown requests reviewed by Gadgets 360.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: How to Regulate Artificial Intelligence. “I propose three rules for artificial intelligence systems that are inspired by, yet develop further, the ‘three laws of robotics’ that the writer Isaac Asimov introduced in 1942: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except when such orders would conflict with the previous law; and a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the previous two laws. These three laws are elegant but ambiguous: What, exactly, constitutes harm when it comes to A.I.? I suggest a more concrete basis for avoiding A.I. harm, based on three rules of my own.”

Times of Israel: Spanish Google search for ‘Jew’ gives 30% anti-Semitic sites. “Some 30 percent of the page results returned in a Google search for the word Jew, or Judio, on Spanish-language websites contain anti-Semitic content…. Another trend is that anti-Semitic videos on YouTube, the leading social network video platform, had a growing number of likes throughout last year. In January they received 3 likes for every 1 dislike, but by the end of the year the figure changed to 4-1, revealing an increased proportion of approbation, according the report (in Spanish) released on Friday.”

Phys.org: Indigenous storytelling is a new asset for biocultural conservation. “Some of the areas hosting most of the world’s biodiversity are those inhabited by indigenous peoples. In the same way that biodiversity is being eroded, so is the world’s cultural diversity. As a result, there have been several calls to promote biocultural conservation approaches that sustain both biodiversity and indigenous cultures.”

The Register: Google’s Hollywood ‘interventions’ made on-screen coders cooler. “Google operates a ‘Computer Science in Media Team’ that stages ‘interventions’ in Hollywood to steer film-makers towards realistic and accurate depictions of what it’s like to work in IT. The company announced the team in 2015 and gave it the job of ‘making CS more appealing to a wider audience, by dispelling stereotypes and showcasing positive portrayals of underrepresented minorities in tech.’ … The efforts of that team have now been detailed in a study [PDF], Cracking the Code: The Prevalence and Nature of Computer Science Depictions in Media.” Good morning, Internet…

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