NEW RESOURCES

Washington Post: More than 208,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine. “The Washington Post has spent the past year determining how many children have been exposed to gun violence during school hours since the Columbine High massacre in 1999. Beyond the dead and wounded, children who witness the violence or cower behind locked doors to hide from it can be profoundly traumatized. The federal government does not track school shootings, so The Post pieced together its numbers from news articles, open-source databases, law enforcement reports and calls to schools and police departments.”

Tire Industry Association: TIA Announces New Online Search Tool to Locate TIA Certified Trainers Nationwide. “The online search tool is featured on TIA’s official website… and includes a listing of TIA certified trainers from across the country. Users will be able to locate certified trainers in their area by typing in their preferred city, state, or zip code. Each listing will include the trainers first and last name, along with their contact information and specific tire service expertise.”

American Folklife Center: AFC’s James Madison Carpenter Collection Is Online. “The collection itself was the work of James Madison Carpenter, a Harvard-trained scholar who gathered more than 3,000 traditional songs and 300 folk plays, as well as fiddle tunes, folk customs, children’s games, and traditional tales. He collected most of them in Britain between 1928 and 1935, with a smaller number coming from the USA, between 1927 and 1943…. He spent time in local communities recording traditional ballads, ‘bothy songs,’ seasonal carols, sea shanties, and more. Unlike earlier collectors, he made sound recordings of some of his contributors on wax cylinders, including some performers whose songs and tunes had previously been notated only by hand.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Journal: Google Confirms Algorithm Update Released on April 16th. “Google rolled out another broad core algorithm update this week. It was confirmed on Twitter that this algorithm update was released on Monday, April 16th.”

The Verge: Google is ‘pausing investment’ in Allo. “If you’ve been using Google’s messaging app, Allo, it’s probably a good time to start thinking about switching to something else. The app isn’t getting dropped in a Google-style ‘Spring Cleaning,’ but development on the app is being ‘paused.’ Specifically, the new head of the communications group at Google, Anil Sabharwal, has made the decision to “pause investment” in Allo and move that team over to focus on Android Messages.”

Google Blog: New in Google Slides: linking in Docs, guides and rulers, and improved commenting. “Today we’re introducing several features in Google Slides on the web that will make it easier to create, collaborate on, and share presentations. Read on for more information.” You don’t hear a lot from Google about Google Slides…

USEFUL STUFF

Popular Science: How to purge all your search histories. “Ostensibly, these sites use your search history to assemble a profile of you, allowing them to show you content or products that will appeal to your interests. Conveniently for these tech companies, better understanding your preferences also lets them serve you targeted advertisements. On the bright side, a service can only collect this information while you’re logged into your account for that site. Still, if you’re uncomfortable with this record of your past searches, or you don’t want them to influence your future browsing (maybe you’ve run a lot of queries for camping accessories but no longer want to see ads for related products), you can scrub them from existence.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Techdirt: How Twitter Suspended The Account Of One Of Our Commenters… For Offending Himself?. “If you spend any time at all in Techdirt’s comments, you should be familiar with That Anonymous Coward. He’s a prolific and regular commenter (with strong opinions). He also spends a lot of time on Twitter. Well, at least until a week or so ago when Twitter suspended his account…. As we’ve pointed out in the past, people who demand that sites shut down and suspend accounts often don’t realize how difficult it is to do this at scale and not f*ck up over and over again. Indeed, we have plenty of stories about sites having trouble figuring out what content is really problematic. Indeed, frequently these stories show that the targets of trolls and abusers are the ones who end up suspended.” F-bomb asterisked by me… and warning, this story does have offensive language in it.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Times of Malta: Britain hints it may regulate young people’s use of social media. “Britain’s health minister Jeremy Hunt threatened to impose new regulations on social media firms unless they do more to protect young people using their services. Hunt said the groups were ‘turning a blind eye’ to the effect social media had on children’s well-being – an accusation that comes as Facebook and others face heightened scrutiny worldwide over their impact and influence.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Phys .org: Multidisciplinary study provides new insights about French Revolution. “New research from experts in history, computer science and cognitive science shines fresh light on the French Revolution, showing how rhetorical and institutional innovations won acceptance for the ideas that built the French republic’s foundation and inspired future democracies. The researchers, including an Indiana University professor, doctoral student and undergraduate, used data-mining techniques to comb through transcripts of 40,000 speeches from the two-year tenure of the National Constituent Assembly, the first parliament of the revolution.” Good evening, Internet…

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