NEW RESOURCES
Enid News: Interactive Oklahoma map showcases 13-year fish collection data. “Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) launched an interactive map depicting details of the organization’s fish monitoring data of about 400 stream monitoring sites statewide from 2003 to 2016. ‘The OWRB’s water monitoring activities provide a very detailed and comprehensive statewide analysis of fish species populations among several other parameters that we are monitoring. This particular map viewer contains layers that display all fish species collected for more research-minded users. It also provides layers that display sports fish numbers and types for use by anglers,’ said Bill Cauthron, chief of OWRB’s Water Quality Division.”
TWEAKS AND UPDATES
BetaNews: Twitter is working on a ‘save for later’ bookmarking system. “The company’s head of product, Keith Coleman, made the new bookmarking revelation on Twitter, saying it is a frequently requested feature. The new ‘read it later’ option came out of Twitter’s HackWeek, and while no launch date has been announced, it is coming “soon” and an early design has been previewed.”
USEFUL STUFF
Upfront with NGS: FREE NARA 2017 Virtual Genealogy Fair (save the date — 25 October 2017). “The National Archives will host a live, virtual Genealogy Fair via webcast on YouTube. Participate in our biggest genealogy event of the year! Sessions offer advice on family history research for all skill levels. Topics include Federal government documents on birth, childhood, and death; recently recovered military personnel files; Japanese Americans during World War II; 19th century tax assessments; and a ‘how to’ on preserving family heirlooms. For the schedule, videos, handouts, and participation instructions, visit the Virtual Genealogy Fair online.”
Simon Willison: Recovering missing content from the Internet Archive. “When I restored my blog last weekend I used the most recent SQL backup of my blog’s database from back in 2010. I thought it had all of my content from before I started my 7 year hiatus, but in watching the 404 logs I started seeing the occasional hit to something that really should have been there but wasn’t. Turns out the SQL backup I was working from was missing some content. Thank goodness then for the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive! I tried some of the missing URLs there and found they had been captured and preserved. But how to get them back?” Neat!
AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD
BloombergQuint: Google, Facebook and Twitter Scramble to Hold Washington at Bay. “Google summoned about 200 policy staff from around the world last month for a debate on whether the company’s size has made it too attractive as a target for government regulators. The two-day retreat in Monterey, California, where employees from the $682 billion company plied Washington policy experts with questions about the pros and cons of its size, took place as Google confronts European antitrust claims and proposed U.S. legislation that would increase online publishers’ liability for content produced by others.”
Reuters: Microsoft looks at whether Russians bought U.S. ads on search engine. “Microsoft Corp said on Monday it was looking into whether Russians bought U.S. election ads on its Bing search engine or on other Microsoft-owned products and platforms, after rival Google said it had discovered such ads on its products.”
Associated Press: Twitter shuts down Blackburn campaign announcement video. “Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s Senate campaign announcement ad has been blocked by Twitter over a statement the abortion rights opponent makes about the sale of fetal tissue for medical research. Blackburn, who is running for the seat being opened by the retirement of Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, boasts in the ad that she ‘stopped the sale of baby body parts.’ A Twitter representative told the candidate’s vendors on Monday that the statement was ‘deemed an inflammatory statement that is likely to evoke a strong negative reaction.'”
SECURITY & LEGAL
The Verge: Fraudulent ad-blocking extension tricks 37,000 Google Chrome users. “While Microsoft doesn’t have enough extensions for its browser, Google has too many unwanted ones. An extension that tried to mimic the popular Adblock Plus extension was not only allowed into the Chrome Web Store but it was also only taken down after 37,000 users had already downloaded it.”
The Next Web: WhatsApp exploit can reveal how much you sleep and who you talk to. “Adulterers better act extra careful when using WhatsApp to pull their shenanigans. It turns out the Facebook-owned messenger suffers from a vulnerability that can be exploited to spy on your sleeping patterns – and find out precisely at what time you go to sleep and wake up.”
RESEARCH & OPINION
MIT Technology Review: Put Humans at the Center of AI. “As the director of Stanford’s AI Lab and now as a chief scientist of Google Cloud, Fei-Fei Li is helping to spur the AI revolution. But it’s a revolution that needs to include more people. She spoke with MIT Technology Review senior editor Will Knight about why everyone benefits if we emphasize the human side of the technology.” Quick, interesting interview. Good afternoon, Internet…
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