afternoonbuzz

Farming Mentors, Continuing Care Retirement Communities, Ubuntu, More: Friday Afternoon Buzz, December 22, 2017

NEW RESOURCES

Mother Earth News: New Database Connects Students to Farming Mentors. “Frustrated about turning away hundreds of applicants each year for internships at Polyface, Sheri [Salatin] founded the Eager Farmer database to improve the accessibility of on-farm experience for people around the world. She aims to help landowners find farm managers; hook up landless farmers with property they can lease or purchase; and connect young people with experienced farmers who can mentor them. By cultivating these connections, Eager Farmer hopes to preserve America’s agricultural landscapes for the next generation.”

PRWeb: myLifeSite Continues Growth Momentum with CCRC Online Database (PRESS RELEASE). “myLifeSite is an online tool for consumers, consultants, financial advisors and organizations to view and understand data for continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs, also referred to as life plan communities) all in one easy location, free of charge. They also offer a paid premium content service that provides complete access to communities’ entry pricing, monthly fees and contracts, as well as a proprietary financial calculator that projects the long-term financial impact of moving to a retirement community. myLifeSite strives to simplify the CCRC decision process with their easy online comparison database, eliminating informational barriers to entry. myLifeSite covers and frequently updates records for nearly 700 CCRCs primarily located in in California, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. Recently, the company added Pennsylvania CCRCs to their records and plans to add additional states such as Arizona in the near future.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Register: Ubuntu 17.10 PULLED: Linux OS knackers laptop BIOSes, Intel kernel driver fingered . “Canonical has halted downloads of Ubuntu Linux 17.10, aka Artful Aardvark, from its website after punters complained installing the open-source OS on laptops knackered the machines. Specifically, the desktop flavor of Artful Aardvark, released in October, has been temporarily pulled – the server builds and other editions remain available. A corrected version of 17.10 for desktops is due to be released soon.”

Dallas News: New JFK files show FBI misplaced Oswald’s fingerprints, and CIA opened his mail — and John Steinbeck’s. “The National Archives unsealed thousands of pages from the Kennedy files on Friday [This was seven days ago, not today – TJC] And while assassinations buffs weren’t likely to find any major revelations — no proof of a second gunman, a Cuban plot, or evidence the killer could have been stopped — they’ll have plenty to chew on.”

USEFUL STUFF

Current: How to make tweets talk. “In a previous article, I outlined ways to sneak sound into Facebook posts. With Twitter you need not be sneaky: They designed their Player Card feature to accommodate audio in tweets….The public media CMSes (Public Radio Exchange, Public Media Platform, American Archive, NPR Core Publisher, COVE Media Manager and PBS Bento) don’t have Player Cards built-in. To make your tweets talk, you’ll need some HTML.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Columbia Journalism Review: Trump Twitter spreadsheet tracks “a perpetual campaign against the press”. “INCE DECLARING HIS PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY in 2015, Donald Trump has posted nearly 1,000 tweets critical of the press. To be precise, as of this writing, it’s 990 tweets since June 16, 2015. For perspective, if you’re feeling lighthearted: That’s more than the number of goals Wayne Gretzky scored in his NHL career, more than the number of airports in Japan and China combined, and more than the number of Pokémon across all generations of the franchise.”

NBC News: Russian trolls went on attack during key election moments. “Thousands of Russian trolls targeted national events during the 2016 U.S. presidential election to infiltrate the online conversations of millions of Americans, according to a new analysis of a database of recovered troll tweets by NBC News. The records show how digital communications tools invented by U.S. companies, such as Twitter and Facebook, were instead exploited by the Kremlin-backed agents to promote autocracy and fear.”

LA Times: Instagram or it didn’t happen? L.A. restaurants show how the app has changed their industry. “In recent years, the social media app has become much more than an outlet for selfies. Restaurants in Los Angeles and elsewhere are experiencing firsthand how Instagram has changed the way the culinary industry operates. The app is now home to 25 million business accounts, the vast majority of which are small businesses. That number has rapidly increased in recent months, expanding by 10 million since July. According to Instagram, more than 80% of users follow a business account, while 200 million users actively visit a business profile every day.” I am writing this at 5:24am and this article is making me hungry.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Digmine Malware Spreading via Facebook Messenger. “Users across several countries are being targeted in a campaign that delivers a new strain of malware named Digmine that installs a Monero cryptocurrency miner and a malicious Chrome extension which helps it propagate to new victims. The malware spreads via Facebook Messenger, which is Facebook’s official instant messaging platform.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

STAT: Deal struck to mine cancer patient database for new treatment insights . “he plan took shape over a decade: A prominent society of cancer doctors would create a massive patient database and use it to discover the most effective treatments for specific cancers. The first part of the effort worked — the American Society of Clinical Oncology secured data from more than 100 oncology practices nationwide. But it has since struggled to reconcile myriad conflicts in language and formatting, leaving crucial insights buried in the records. On Thursday, the 40,000-member organization unveiled an unusual arrangement to solve that problem by partnering with two private companies that will pay for the rights to analyze the database, known as CancerLinQ, and deliver clinical information to doctors nationwide.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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