NEW RESOURCES

DigitalNC: Over 90 issues of Lambda, UNC’s LGBTQ student newspaper, now online at DigitalNC!. “Over 90 issues spanning nearly the entire run of Lambda, UNC Chapel Hill‘s LGBQT student newspaper, are now online at DigitalNC. Publication of Lambda started in 1976 and ran until at least 2013. The paper began as simple newsletter for the UNC gay community, but later appeared in a number of formats, from an ‘activist newspaper’ (Lambda January 1993), to a ‘LGBTIQ-Affirming Magazine’ (Lambda Spring 2004), and finally to an online blog.”

Purdue University: Travel back in time with Purdue archives’ new online building database. “A new online database allows users to take a closer look at the metamorphosis of Purdue’s buildings over the years that goes beyond just maps and illustrations.” What an interesting idea.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ars Technica: Google employees demand that Google stop work on censored Chinese search. “Dozens of Google employees have signed on to an open letter demanding that Google stop work on Project Dragonfly, a censored version of Google’s search engine that could be deployed in mainland China.”

CNET: YouTube offers student discount for Premium and Music services. “YouTube is making its streaming services more affordable for college students, the company announced in a blog post Tuesday. The discounts are the biggest changes to the programs since YouTube launched them last year.”

MakeUseOf: You Can Now Add Hashtags to Google Maps. “Google Maps is rapidly evolving into a bigger and (potentially) better platform than it has been previously. And the latest feature Google is adding to the Maps mix is hashtags. Yes, Google Maps will soon be awash with hashtags, for better or worse.”

USEFUL STUFF

Quartz: A new app flags the old tweets that could get you fired. “It is entirely possible that the words that will end your career prospects for the foreseeable future have been written already, and by your own hand. Plenty of promising job candidates have had their hopes scuppered by a potential employer’s discovery of their foul, ignorant, or otherwise offensive social media posts—posts that may have been written during a younger, more foolish phase, but that the candidates must still bear responsibility for. A wise job candidate is a vigilant curator of their own social media history. One web developer has created a tool to help them do it.”

TechCrunch: Amazon opens its internal machine learning courses to all for free . “It’s Cyber Monday and Amazon has one deal for its customers that’s a little unexpected. The company just announced that it has made available, for free, the same machine learning courses that it uses to train its own engineers.”

Make Tech Easier: Which Is the Best Voice Assistant? Here’s What We Found. “It’s still far too early to declare a winner in the ever-evolving AI assistant market, but we can at least take a look at the top contenders. Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa are currently dominating the market, but Microsoft’s Cortana and Samsung’s Bixby are making progress, as is Baidu’s Duer in China.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Guardian: Careful curation is what matters on Instagram – even in the ‘outtakes’. “Instagram influencers: flawless people doing flawless things in flawless places, right? Well, not anymore – or so they would like you to think. Now there is an increasing trend to offer behind-the-scenes glimpses of their “process”, a sort of social media blooper reel. Skateboarder Natalie Hintze this week coupled a typical selfie – bikini-clad, blond hair flowing behind her as she skates beneath a blue sky – with a video of her falling over (or stacking it, in skating parlance) at the bottom of the hill.”

The Verge: Former Facebook manager calls out company for bad treatment of black employees. “Today, former Facebook partnerships manager Mark Luckie published an internal memo that was sent to his co-workers on his last day at Facebook earlier this month, calling out pervasive discrimination issues within the company. The note argues that Facebook has a ‘black people problem’ that involves the mistreatment of black employees. He cites incidents where managers or colleagues called their co-workers ‘hostile’ or ‘aggressive,’ and others where campus security gave extra scrutiny to black employees.”

Washington Post: Google chief executive Sundar Pichai set to testify to Congress in December. “Google chief executive Sundar Pichai is set to testify to Congress in December, facing off against lawmakers for the first time at a hearing that could subject the search giant to the same harsh political spotlight that has faced its tech peers all year.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

EurekAlert: Reliance on ‘YouTube medicine’ may be dangerous for those concerned about prostate cancer . “The most popular YouTube videos on prostate cancer often offer misleading or biased medical information that poses potential health risks to patients, an analysis of the social media platform shows.” Good morning, Internet…

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