NEW RESOURCES

Tennessee Aquarium: A “Facebook for Fish”: Public, Scientists to Benefit from Freshwater Information Network’s Interactive Database of Native Species. “With the launch of the Freshwater Information Network (FIN), the Aquarium aims to help Southeasterners get to know the aquatic animals in their own neighborhood a little better. FIN is a searchable database of scientific records, based on museum specimens as well as fish photos taken by citizens and scientists for more than 400 native fish species. Partners at the iCube at Tennessee Technological University helped create a website where users can search by specific address, watershed or species. With a few clicks, anyone can discover which fish have been found in more than 75 watersheds spanning eight states.”

University of Arkansas Little Rock: UA Little Rock Completes Digitization Of History Of Segregation, Integration Of Arkansas Schools. “As a result of this project, a unique group of archival collections are now easily accessible online to students and scholars of civil rights, race, education, and the law, as well as the general public. Anyone around the world now has the opportunity to study the evolution of education in Central Arkansas through the lens of religion, the judicial system, and contemporary students and educators. In addition to the more than 350,000 digital files now available online, CAHC has also published a virtual exhibit featuring digital objects from the project along with a timeline, lesson plans, and short essays by scholars.”

Engadget: ‘Aftermath’ is a 360-degree walkthrough of the Camp Fire devastation. “Camp Fire, the tragedy that killed at least 85 victims and destroyed around 14,000 homes across Paradise, California, continues to torment as residents start returning to the ruin as of yesterday. News channels around the world have been offering a sober look at what little is left behind the walls of fire, but not long after disaster struck, former Lytro exec Steve Cooper already sensed the need to capture a proper first-hand account of this unprecedented catastrophic event.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

9to5Google: Google Earth Studio is a web tool for creating geographic animations and video. “Since Google Earth launched in the early 2000s, its ability to fly to various places and show parts of the world in 3D has been widely used, especially on TV broadcasts. Instead of just capturing a screen recording of the Earth app for these flyovers, Google is releasing a specialized animation tool with extensive customizability and export.”

British Library: Introducing an experimental format for learning about content mining for digital scholarship. “This post by the British Library’s Digital Curator for Western Heritage Collections, Dr Mia Ridge, reports on an experimental format designed to provide more flexible and timely training on fast-moving topics like text and data mining.”

USEFUL STUFF

Medium: How to recognize fake AI-generated images. “Here are some things you can look for when trying to recognize an image produced by a GAN [generative adversarial network]. We’ll focus on faces because they are a common testing ground for researchers, and many of the artifacts most visible in faces also appear in other kinds of images.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TechCrunch: AI desperately needs regulation and public accountability, experts say. “Artificial intelligence systems and creators are in dire need of direct intervention by governments and human rights watchdogs, according to a new report from researchers at Google, Microsoft and others at AI Now. Surprisingly, it looks like the tech industry just isn’t that good at regulating itself.”

New York Times: Live-Streaming Your Broke Self for Rent Money. “Jovan Hill, 25, dropped out of college and is unemployed. So how does he pay for his Brooklyn apartment and marijuana habit? His social media followers chip in.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CNET: Congress should dig in on Google’s China and data issues, not just bias. “In his first congressional hearing, later this week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai will take the hot seat on Capitol Hill, where’s he expected to be grilled by lawmakers. The question is will they use their time to actually query one of the most powerful companies on the planet about some of the big issues — like data privacy, China and censorship — facing Google.”

Online Journalism Blog: FAQ: Do you think that an increase in algorithms is leading to a decline in human judgement?. “The latest in my series of FAQ posts follows on from the last one, in response to a question from an MA student at City University who posed the question ‘Do you think that an increase in algorithmic input is leading to a decline in human judgement?’. Here’s my response.” Good afternoon, Internet..

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