NEW RESOURCES

Bonsucro: Pesticides Database Launched. “In collaboration with ISEAL & other ISEAL members, Bonsucro is pleased to support the launch of the IPM Coalition Pesticides Database, an online platform for learning what agrochemicals are banned and why. This tool is important because it brings the PDF list of banned agrochemicals to life, now you can easily search for agro-chemicals (by active ingredient name and CAS number) and read more on why the chemical is considered highly hazardous, including risk of the chemical’s potential impact on the environment (bee toxicity) or on humans (e.g. carcinogenic substances).” If you need it, there’s a backgrounder on Bonsucro here.

Toronto Metro: Cooking on the cloud: New website makes Nova Scotia recipes available for free. “As the temperature falls and more time is spent in kitchens, a new online initiative is being launched to help people easily find local tried and true recipes. On Monday, Halifax Public Libraries and Formac Publishing of Halifax officially launch the Cloud Cookbooks website. The site allows recipe seekers to access more than 3,000 recipes from 40 local cookbooks.” Over 60 different chowder recipes!

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Ello Again…. “Remember Ello? It would like you to know it is not dead. It is now a place for creative types. Let me explain.”

USEFUL STUFF

Salon: A parent’s ultimate guide to YouTube kids. “So many kids love watching videos on YouTube, it seemed like a slam dunk for Google to create a special app specifically for the online video service’s youngest fans. And while YouTube Kids offers a colorful, easy-to-navigate environment, a wide range of high-quality videos, a few parental controls, and fun features for kids, it’s been dogged by concerns over its advertising, branded content, and inappropriate clips slipping through the curation process. So is YouTube Kids right for kids — or not?”

Social Media Today: 12 Overlooked But Powerful Content Curation Tools. “Content curation – or, more simply, the art of sharing content that’s already out there – enables you can tap into the millions of pieces of content being produced every day. No matter who your audience is or what industry you’re a part of, there is already tons of content out there just waiting to be used. Back in the day, curating content was a job in itself – marketers would have to find the time to go through other sites to discover content already out there. Flash forward to now, and technology is on your side – the wide range of new content curation tools enables you to quickly find relevant blog posts, social media content, and videos without having to break a sweat (or spend a lot).” I am just here for Answer the Public. Wow.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Small Wars Journal: Social Media Field Manual: The Iraqi Ministry of Defense Learned to Take the War to Facebook. “Since the Islamic State (ISIS) swept through northern Iraq in the summer of 2014, many observers have examined efforts by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense (MoD) and Security Forces (ISF) to learn and adapt. Such conversations typically revolve around battlefield inputs and effects—the number of recruits, training programs, soldier skills, and territorial gains–and have generally concluded that while the ISF has improved in terms of combat lethality, the force must work still to professionalize. Few, however, have discussed the Iraqi government’s efforts to adapt in the digital domain. But the Iraqi MoD’s presence on social media–and Facebook in particular–has been a crucial element of its military learning process since 2014. This adaptation demonstrates that the MoD has co-opted one of its enemy’s most valuable weapons: social media.”

Cornell Sun: Myanmar’s Hidden Genocide Was Shaped by Hate-Mongering Facebook Memes, Cornell Profs Say. “‘It seems so far, that this is a genocide carried out with impunity,’ Prof. Magnus Fiskesjö, anthropology, said, discussing the geopolitical ramifications of the Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar at a panel discussion concluding Rohingya Week at Cornell. Panelists on Thursday analyzed the current political state of Myanmar as a result of attacks on Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar military. Fiskesjö — who has long worked with issues concerning ethnic minorities in Myanmar — discussed the majority public opinion in Myanmar, against the Rohingya and how the genocide has ‘been shaped and helped by Facebook.'”

Washington Post: Voices on the radio are a crucial part of life, but they’re being lost. Here’s how to fix that. . “It starts with the voices. They reach us through softly modulated morning traffic and weather updates, arguments over sports on the drive home, nighttime recaps of the day’s political events chewed over by familiar radio hosts and their guests. They accompany us on long drives or short trips to the supermarket. They talk us to sleep at night and wake us up in the morning — and have been for almost a century. Radio’s voices are so seamlessly integrated into our lives that we habitually hear them without listening. Radio keeps us from being alone and keeps us from being lonely. And yet those voices are being lost.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BetaNews: MediaProjection vulnerability leaves 77 percent of Android phones open to screen and audio recording attacks. “More than three quarters of Android phones are vulnerable to screen and audio recording by attackers. By exploiting the MediaProjection service, an attacker can easily trick a user into granting the relevant rights to a malicious app. Although the vulnerability has been fixed in Android 8 Oreo, users running Lollipop, Marshmallow or Nougat remain at risk. MediaProjection is — by design — able to capture screen activity and audio, and it does have legitimate uses, but by using a technique known as tap-jacking permission can be given for it to be used for more nefarious things.”

Motherboard: How a Wi-Fi Pineapple Can Steal Your Data (And How to Protect Yourself From It). “The Wi-Fi Pineapple enables anyone to steal data on public Wi-Fi networks. Here’s how it facilitates two sophisticated network attacks and how to protect yourself against them.” This is a bit technical, but it’s fascinating reading.

Bleeping Computer: Terdot Banking Trojan Grows Into a Sophisticated Threat. “A banking trojan first observed in October 2016 has grown into a sophisticated hacking tool that works primarily as a banking trojan, but could also be used as an infostealer or backdoor. Named Terdot, this new malware is not a widespread threat, just yet. For now, the banking trojan has been seen targeting the customers of Canadian banks, distributed via the Sundown exploit kit and through spam email.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

EurekAlert: Can social media users prevent use of online information to characterize and target them?. “A new study examines how organizations use information people disclose on social network sites (SNS) to predict their personal characteristics and whether SNS users can successfully block certain information (and how much) to better protect their privacy. A novel analytical tool called a ‘cloaking device’ to prevent the use of specific information and how effective it may be are discussed in an article in Big Data, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Big Data website.” Good morning, Internet…

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