NEW RESOURCES

Meridian Star: Mississippi health department launches online database . “The Mississippi State Department of Health has launched an online database of the more than 1,500 statewide licensed child care facilities. The database includes the facilities’ licensing status, inspection reports, complaint investigations, and monetary penalties assigned during routine visits or inspections.”

My Modern Met: 20,000 Artworks Available for Free Download on LACMA’s Robust Digital Archive. “You don’t have to travel the world to see great art. As museums continue to digitize their collections, you can view paintings, sculptures, and other artwork that spans thousands of years and geographical locations. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has worked for the past two years to make their acquisitions viewable online. There are 20,000 images available and in the public domain, making them also free downloadable art for anyone. Altogether, the museum has uploaded 80,000 works on their website with both restricted and unrestricted use—a quarter of the art that’s in their physical collection.”

WTNH: New website helps addicts find beds available in detox programs. “The Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services has launched a new website to help individuals, families and medical professionals find available beds in detox and recovery programs across the state.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Quartz: Facebook debuts Messenger Kids, an ad-free app that gives parents control. “Technically, children under the age of 13 aren’t allowed on Facebook. But many kids manage to sign up for Facebook and Instagram quite easily, making them vulnerable to all of the internet’s dangers. Now Facebook is rolling out a platform that will allow children to use one of its services—with plenty of parental supervision. Opening up a massive new pool of users, the company is introducing Messenger Kids, a standalone app that lets kids communicate with their family and friends.”

Mashable: Hundreds of Instagram hashtags will now trigger animal abuse alerts. “That selfie with the adorably lazy sloth can have an impact on the animal more than people realize — so starting Monday Instagram is warning users about their photos’ potential link to animal abuse and harm. The photo-sharing social network has hundreds of hashtags in their system that will now trigger a pop-up message when used or searched.”

USEFUL STUFF

The Next Web: 5 Chrome extensions for improving your focus at work. “The internet is a rich, diverse and utterly distracting experience. If you work on a computer, which an increasing number of people do, you know it’s not hard for some shiny digital object to catch your attention and draw you away from what you’re doing. We’ve shown you extensions that can help boost your productivity with to-do notes and other useful tools. These apps function more like restraining bolts. So if you are one of the several million people who regularly use Google Chrome, here are some extensions that can help you stay on target.”

AncestorNews: How to Pinterest Your Genealogy. “Not long ago I started a Pinterest board about my dad and another about the Lone Jack Missouri cemetery. Although I’ve been using Pinterest a long time (genealogyteach) it’s only recently that I’ve really crafted a game plan for sharing my genealogy research on Pinterest. Right now, my dad’s board is sparse as is the cemetery board, but I’ve been working on creating a ‘blueprint’ for how to best share genealogy research, findings, and family information by pinning. For example, I just created a section for dad’s board on his World War II experience. Today there are only a few pins, but it’s in progress.” Interesting ideas!

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CNET: Google’s first-ever coding Doodle is as cute as it is fun. “Google’s Doodle team went above and beyond to celebrate Computer Science Education Week on Monday with its very first coding Doodle. Available to tinker with globally, the Doodle lets you direct a cute, little bunny around a garden in search of carrots.”

SBS: Database flags 40,000 videos as extremist. “A consortium of tech companies including Facebook, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Twitter say a database it created to identify extremist content now contains more than 40,000 videos or images. The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism was created in June under pressure from governments in Europe and the US after a spate of deadly attacks.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: International team takes down virus-spewing Andromeda botnet. “Police and private companies have taken down a massive botnet used to move malware onto compromised PCs. The Armageddon botnet, also known as Gamarue, is thought to have spanned over two million PCs and distributed over 80 types of malware onto infected PCs. It was shut down on November 29 in a combined operation by Europol, the FBI, security vendor ESET and Microsoft.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

LSE Impact Blog: Academic journals with a presence on Twitter are more widely disseminated and receive a higher number of citations. “Previous research has shown that researchers’ active participation on Twitter can be a powerful way of promoting and disseminating academic outputs and improving the prospects of increased citations. But does the same hold true for the presence of academic journals on Twitter? José Luis Ortega examined the role of 350 scholarly journals, analysing how their articles were tweeted and cited. Findings reveal that articles from those journals that have their own individual Twitter handle are more tweeted about than articles from journals whose only Twitter presence is through a scientific society or publisher account. Articles published in journals with any sort of Twitter presence also receive more citations than those published in journals with no Twitter presence.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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