NEW RESOURCES

New Hampshire Union Leader: New website lists gardens open for public viewing. “More than 80 outstanding ornamental gardens in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are opening to the public this year, and all of them are described on a new nonprofit website dedicated to gardening and landscape design in northern New England.” The information is a little hard to find. Look for the Calendar link under the Landscape Lyceum menu.

The Conversation: 3 times political conflict reshaped American mathematics. “In February, my University of Richmond students and I launched … a new website on the history of American mathematics. It showcases the people who create, the institutions that support and the cultures that influence mathematics. This rich history shows that mathematics is much more than equations or multiplication facts. It’s a living, breathing discipline shaped, in part, by the political forces around it.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ubergizmo: Firefox Could Block Website Notification Requests By Default. “A lot of websites ask for permission to send you notifications and most of you may ignore them. You never seem to run out of websites that show similar notifications and it can be a nuisance. This is something that Mozilla has noticed as well. It’s now experimenting with blocking website notification requests by default in a Firefox Nightly browser build. The notification requests will be blocked automatically until the user takes certain actions on the website.”

USEFUL STUFF

The Verge: How to find great books online. “The internet and mobile devices have brought about more ways to read than ever before. While physical books still hold a healthy appeal for some readers, it’s not always a convenient way to consume a story. Now, numerous devices, apps, websites, and online stores offer up novels and other forms of fiction (and nonfiction) to readers, in formats ranging from print books to ebooks, audiobooks, and experimental platforms.” There are a couple more suggestions in the comments.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Digital Trends: YouTube Poop is punk rock for the internet age, and you probably don’t get it. “Now 15 years old, YouTube Poops are as old as their creator when he uploaded the very first one. Their weird brand of humor has become the internet’s de facto sense of humor: the concentrate from which the very dankest memes are derived. Here in 2019, memes are the source of fascination, frustration and, in many cases, derision. They are an artform that could not exist outside of online culture.” I have never considered myself punk but I LOVE YTP. If you want to check something out, Leo Koutakis has a new “Craziness” channel for his stuff – mostly clean, mostly Disney. For more edgy content, check out Nation of Oranges 696. WARNING: If you’re triggered by flashing lights, etc. I recommend against watching any YTP.

Quartzy: In Praise Of Invisibility In The Age Of Ceaseless Self-promotion. “Transcendentalist writers will tell you that a quiet walk through a forest can upend your universe. It happened recently to Akiko Busch, author of How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency, a survival manifesto for the social media age disguised as a collection of personal essays.”

New York Times: How We Hang Out at Work Together Online Now. “TikTok, which encourages users to contribute short videos to hashtags, or to join in on jokes or challenges or to sing along with clips of songs, has, in its manic and frequent demands for content from its users, become an unlikely force for labor visibility.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

All About IP: German Federal Court of Justice Confirms Copyright in Photographs of Public Domain Paintings. “On 20 December 2018, the German Federal Court of Justice confirmed that photographs of public domain paintings ‎are, in principle, protected by a copyright-related right in section 72 of the German Copyright Act (Case No. I ZR 104/17). The case involved a request to take down several pictures hosted on Wikimedia Commons—an online database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses—as public domain images. All pictures featured art on display at the Reiss Engelhorn Museum in Mannheim, Germany.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Ars Technica: Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand. “We are 91 days into the year, and so far, Google is racking up an unprecedented body count. If we just take the official shutdown dates that have already occurred in 2019, a Google-branded product, feature, or service has died, on average, about every nine days.”

Eyerys: ‘Q’, The First Gender-Neutral Digital Voice Assistant In Challenging Gender Stereotypes. “While some people may find a female voice to be more soothing, but in the world where technology is hardwiring sexism into the future, more and more people are demanding equality between genders. With so much female servitude in smart devices, this is where Q resides. Q, is considered the world’s first gender-neutral voice assistant.” Good evening, Internet…

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