NEW RESOURCES

Science Speaks: Site provides global view of outbreak preparedness. “A project of Resolve to Save Lives, the initiative launched by former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden, [the website] calls itself ‘the world’s first website to provide clear and concise country-level data on epidemic preparedness.’ In addition to country level scores on national abilities to identify, monitor, and control outbreaks, it provides up-to-date news of current outbreaks.”

MapLight: MapLight Unveils New Tool to Track Money in California Politics Ahead of Midterm Election. “MapLight unveiled a new resource today for tracking money in California politics ahead of next month’s election. The California Political Money Tracker provides a user-friendly layout that displays overall campaign contributions as well as independent expenditures supporting and opposing candidates for state office.”

Digital Library of Georgia: Oral histories from Chinese-Americans living in Augusta now available. “The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) is pleased to announce the availability of the Augusta Chinese-American Oral History Project… The collection, which belongs to the Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System (ARCPLS), contains 26 oral history interviews of of individuals who either immigrated to Augusta, Georgia from China, and/or grew up in Augusta during the early to mid-twentieth century.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Arizona State University: Fighting fake photos, one social stream at a time. “In 1855, an English photographer named Roger Fenton traveled to Crimea to document the war there. British troops dubbed one spot on the Sevastopol peninsula the ‘valley of death’ because it was under constant shelling. Fenton photographed the spot, a shallow defile littered with cannonballs. The photo (above), titled ‘Valley of the Shadow of Death,’ became famous as one of the first and most well-known images of war. The problem is it’s faked.”

Google Blog: Get charged up with Google Maps. “We built Google Maps to help people get where they need to go no matter what mode of transportation they use. Our newest feature brings helpful information about electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to the Map, so you can be confident that your car will be charged and ready for your ride, wherever you’re headed.”

TechCrunch: Facebook News Feed now downranks sites with stolen content . “Facebook is demoting trashy news publishers and other websites that illicitly scrape and republish content from other sources with little or no modification. Today it exclusively told TechCrunch that it will show links less prominently in the News Feed if they have a combination of this new signal about content authenticity along with either clickbait headlines or landing pages overflowing with low-quality ads. The move comes after Facebook’s surveys and in-person interviews discovered that users hate scraped content.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lindsay Does Languages: How to NOT Waste Time on Instagram When Learning a Language. “Instagram. Sigh. What a time suck when you should be learning that language, right? Not necessarily. Here’s some tips on how to not waste time on Instagram when learning a language to help you get the most from this potentially game-changing app for your language learning.”

Search Engine Journal: Is There Really a ‘Best Time to Post’ Social Media Updates?. “We all want to know what the best time to post a social media update is, but the answer isn’t always straightforward. With differing algorithms for different social media sites, various time zones to contend with, and different audiences, is there really a universal ‘best time’ to post? I’ll dig into data that helps demystify this issue, so you can figure out how to approach posting social media updates.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNET: Facebook breach hit 3 million in EU, putting new privacy law to test. “Facebook may have a run-in with Europe’s new privacy law. The Irish Data Protection Commission said Tuesday that roughly 3 million Facebook users living in Europe were affected by a data breach at the social network in September, according to CNBC.”

Forbes: Millions of Voter Records Are For Sale On Hacker Forums. “In total, the hacked data includes records from 19 states: Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Researchers at Anomali Labs believe that the data includes records for more than 35 million U.S. voters.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Phys .org: Researchers use deep learning to build automatic speech recognition system to help preserve the Seneca language. “A new research project at Rochester Institute of Technology will help ensure the endangered language of the Seneca Indian Nation will be preserved. Using deep learning, a form of artificial intelligence, RIT researchers are building an automatic speech recognition application to document and transcribe the traditional language of the Seneca people. The work is also intended to be a technological resource to preserve other rare or vanishing languages.”

Motoring Research: Google to create Street View map of London air pollution. “Using two Street View cars, Google will provide detailed data on the state of the city’s air. Their sensors will take readings every 30 metres as the cars trundle around the city. Areas known as pollution blackspots will get static sensors fitted to buildings and lampposts in order to closely monitor fluctuations in air quality (or lack thereof).” Good morning, Internet…

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