NEW RESOURCES

Curbed NY: See every single building in Manhattan mapped with this new tool. “There are more than 1 million buildings in NYC, and many of those clustered on the island of Manhattan, spanning architectural styles, hundreds of years, and all manner of types. And now, a nifty new tool, called All the Buildings in Manhattan, takes information about those myriad structures and puts it in one colorful data visualization. The tool was created by Taylor Baldwin, a software engineer at BuzzFeed who has created similar projects that visualize Citi Bike user trips and the various parts of different songs.”

Valley News Live: North Dakota’s education dashboard aims to bring more transparency. “A new education dashboard aims to bring more transparency and accountability to North Dakota schools. State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler says it is now online and includes a wide variety of information about the state’s schools. The dashboard is part of North Dakota’s new accountability system to measure the quality, performance and progress on improvement of its schools, Baesler said.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mashable: Facebook compares itself to a free newspaper in a new statement about data privacy. Yeah, no. “There’s a saying that predates the internet, but is often used to describe the omnipresent and free internet services like Facebook we use on a daily basis: ‘If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer, you’re the product.’ This criticism has been frequently marched out in the fallout of Facebook’s recent Cambridge Analyticia scandal, during which it was revealed that more than 87 million user profiles were improperly shared by academic Aleksandr Kogan to a political consulting firm that helped Donald Trump.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: How to Create the Perfect Facebook Cover Photo. “Your Facebook profile says a lot about you. It’s likely your most visible online presence, so it’s worth making it look good. Here’s how to pick a great cover photo.”

HubSpot: 12 Google Sheets Add-Ons to Streamline Reporting. “Google Sheets can be used for a lot more than just storing and organizing your data. With the right add-ons, you can streamline your reporting process, collect big-picture data predictions and analysis, and even send emails — all from your spreadsheets.”

Lifehacker: How To See All The Apps That Have Access To Your Google Info. “Over the past few weeks, there’s been a huge focus on paying attention to the apps you have connected to your Facebook account. While that’s certainly a great idea, you shouldn’t ignore another large company that you’re also probably handing over a lot of your personal info to as well: Google.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

PR Newswire: Consumer Watchdog: Google’s First-Quarter Lobbying Expenditures top $5 million; AT&T, Comcast Each Surpass $4 Million (PRESS RELEASE). “Google’s lobbying expenditures in the first quarter of this year topped $5 million, as the Internet giant sought to influence federal policymakers on issues including online privacy, competition, online advertising and online sex-trafficking, Consumer Watchdog said today. Google increased its 2018 first-quarter federal lobbying a whopping 42.6 percent, spending $5.02 million compared to $3.52 million spent in the comparable 2017 period. Among 18 major technology and communications companies tracked by Consumer Watchdog, Google spent the most on lobbying, according to mandatory disclosure reports filed Friday with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.”

Rolling Stone: Prince’s Paisley Park is Seeking an Archives Supervisor. “According to a job listing posted on American Alliance of Museums’ career website, the full-time position is in the Archives Department, which is considered a confidential work area. The position entails maintaining and monitoring the exhibits, maintaining and updating the archival database system, photographing and scanning artifacts, assisting with exhibition installations and training staff, among other requirements.” Wow.

SECURITY & LEGAL

TechCrunch: German Supreme Court dismisses Axel Springer lawsuit, says ad blocking is legal . “Germany’s Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit yesterday from Axel Springer against Eyeo, the company behind AdBlock Plus. The European publishing giant (which acquired Business Insider in 2015) argued that ad blocking, as well as the business model where advertisers pay to be added to circumvent the white list, violated Germany’s competition law. Axel Springer won a partial victory in 2016, when a lower court ruled that it shouldn’t have to pay for white listing.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Meb Faber: Why All My Books Are Now Free (Aka A Lesson In Amazon Scams And Money Laundering). “You’ve probably heard much in the media recently about Facebook, fake news, and weaponizing content to influence opinions and elections. You may have seen Mark Zuckerberg dragged in front of Congress to testify about Facebook’s mistakes. Well, what you haven’t heard much of in the media (yet) is how Amazon is an equally bad actor. Whereas Facebook is plagued by fake news, Amazon is littered with fake products. And these fake products encourage fraud and play a role in global money laundering.” I have been looking into creating Amazon ebooks but there’s such a load of absolute junk on there — plus overt criminal activity like is noted in this article — that I’m having a hard time with it. Good afternoon, Internet…

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