NEW RESOURCES

North Carolina State University: Interactive Tool Offers Window Into History of Arab-Americans in NYC. “NC State researchers are unveiling an interactive site that allows scholars and the public to better understand the long history of Syrian and Lebanese immigrants to the United States. Focused on New York City in the early 20th century, the tool highlights the growth of Arab-American communities in the city and their integration into American life. The project, Syrians in New York: Mapping Movement, 1900-1930, was developed by the Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies as part of the center’s ongoing efforts to conduct digital mapping and analysis of Arab-American immigrants.”

FoodDive: Global database matches agrifood projects with resources. “A new global database, which went public Monday, is designed to assist innovative food and agriculture startups with finding early-stage resources such as incubators and accelerator programs to help them grow.”

Library of Congress: New Online: James K. Polk Papers. “‘Twelve months ago this day, a very important conversation took place in Cabinet between myself and Mr. Buchanan on the Oregon question. This conversation was of so important a character, that I deemed it proper on the same evening to reduce the substance of it to writing for the purpose of retaining it, more distinctly in my memory,’ President James K. Polk wrote on August 26, 1846. ‘It was this circumstance which first suggested to me the idea, if not the necessity of keeping a journal or diary, of events, and transactions which might occur during my Presidency.’ Polk fulfilled his pledge to keep a presidential diary, recording the significant or noteworthy events in his life from August 26, 1845, to June 2, 1849. Consisting of 25 volumes, Polk’s diary is part of the James K. Polk Papers at the Library of Congress, now available online.”

New-to-Me: an archive of music recorded at Burning Man. From the home page: “Music recorded at Burning Man from 2010 to 2017. Over 1,500 sets.” They’re divvied up into SoundCloud playlists by year.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: Instagram brings face filters to live video. “On Thursday, the Facebook-owned photo site said it’s bringing face filters, which superimpose digital graphics like sunglasses or a dog nose on your face, to its live video feature. The filters were already available for photos and Instagram Stories, which lets people post strings of videos and photos that disappear after 24 hours.”

USEFUL STUFF

Upfront with NGS: BCG Offers Six Free Lectures (Live or by Webinar) on 6 October 2017. “Top genealogists Jeanne Bloom, Martha Garrett, LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, Jill Morelli, Ann Staley, and Tom Jones will present six one-hour lectures held at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City Friday, 6 October 2017 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Mountain U.S. time. The lectures are free and open to the public (registration is not required), sponsored by the Board for Certification of Genealogists. All will be broadcast online (free registration is required, see below).”

PetaPixel: Here’s a Handy New Site That Converts iOS 11 .heic Photos to JPEG. “With the upcoming release of iOS 11, Apple’s new HEIF/HEVC photo formats will make it trickier to use and share iPhone photos in a world still dominated by JPEG images. Luckily, heictojpg.com is here to save the day with an easy-to-use conversion service.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Science Magazine: Publishers go after networking site for illicit sharing of journal papers. “A major scientific publishing group is taking aim at a social networking site for allowing researchers to illegally post copies of their journal papers. The International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers (STM) in Oxford, U.K., and The Hague, the Netherlands, has written to ResearchGate, a networking website for researchers, to express concerns over its article-sharing practices.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

I am so angry at Experian I don’t even know what to do with myself. The latest, from Krebs on Security: Experian Site Can Give Anyone Your Credit Freeze PIN. “An alert reader recently pointed my attention to a free online service offered by big-three credit bureau Experian that allows anyone to request the personal identification number (PIN) needed to unlock a consumer credit file that was previously frozen at Experian.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Phys.org: Political polarization? Don’t blame the web, study says. “Despite the popular narrative that the web is to blame for rising political polarization, a study by a Brown University economist has found that recent growth in polarization is greatest for demographic groups in which individuals are least likely to use the internet and social media. This means that data does not support the claim that the internet is the most significant driver of partisanship.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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