NEW RESOURCES

St. Olaf College: St. Olaf team creates Caribbean Studies Network. “Thanks to the research and funding opportunities provided by the Collaborative Undergraduate Research and Inquiry (CURI) program, the TRIO McNair Scholars Program, and the Institute for Freedom and Community, St. Olaf College now serves as the official headquarters of a collaborative network of academics and community leaders who have teamed up to explore these and many other questions. Three students and a Spanish professor created a new online platform — the Caribbean Studies Network (CSN) — that includes interactive materials, multimedia, and virtual maps, among other resources.”

Delaware Online: Look up what chemicals are near your home. “Tourism and agriculture may be the dominant industries in Delaware, but chemical production and related processes remain at the heart of some businesses in the state. There are at least 72 facilities throughout the state that handled hazardous materials or were permitted to emit certain levels of chemicals into the air land and water in recent years. Type in an address to see how close you might be to those sources.”

US News & World Report: Rhode Island Launches Online Tool to Compare Census Records. “Rhode Island’s secretary of state has announced the launch of a free online resource to explore and compare centuries of data from state and federal census records in Rhode Island.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Land: Privacy-focused, rewarded ads browser Brave tops 10M monthly active users. “Brave said it has seen a surge in user adoption since releasing version 1.0 of the privacy-centric browser on November 13, 2019. Monthly active users (MAU) have doubled in a year to 10.4 million as of the end of last month.”

USEFUL STUFF

Bleeping Computer: How to Use Twitter With Keyboard Shortcuts. “If you are using Twitter on the desktop, then it may be helpful to know that there are over 25 different keyboard shortcuts that you can use to perform various functions including creating new tweets, opening the Messages section, and opening Notifications.”

Make Tech Easier: How to Use a Data-Scraping Tool to Extract Data from Webpages. “If you’re copying and pasting things off webpages and manually putting them in spreadsheets, you either don’t know what data scraping (or web scraping) is, or you do know what it is but aren’t really keen on the idea of learning how to code just to save yourself a few hours of clicking. Either way, there are a lot of no-code data-scraping tools that can help you out, and Data Miner’s Chrome extension is one of the more intuitive options.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Washington Post: The genealogy boom has hit a roadblock. The Trump administration plans huge fee hikes for immigration records.. “The fees would nearly triple, and in many cases, they would rise nearly 500 percent, from $130 to $625 to obtain a single paper file. The little-known Genealogy Program administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services allows genealogists, family historians and other researchers to obtain citizenship and alien registration files, visa applications and other records documenting the lives of deceased immigrants who arrived in the United States between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries.” I know I have mentioned this before but this is the first time I’ve seen mention of this in a mainstream publication.

Chapelboro: Carrboro Road Reopens After Google Fiber Construction Hits Gas Line. “The Town of Carrboro announced via Twitter that Stratford Drive has been closed between Tramore Drive and Autumn Drive on Thursday morning. A gas line was hit while directional underground boring was taking place to place conduit under the ground for fiber optics. Officials say the facility was marked.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: China’s Genetic Research on Ethnic Minorities Sets Off Science Backlash. “China’s efforts to study the DNA of the country’s ethnic minorities have incited a growing backlash from the global scientific community, as a number of scientists warn that Beijing could use its growing knowledge to spy on and oppress its people.”

BoingBoing: We need to save .ORG from arbitrary censorship by halting the private equity buy-out . “The .ORG top-level domain and all of the nonprofit organizations that depend on it are at risk if a private equity firm is allowed to buy control of it. EFF has joined with over 250 respected nonprofits to oppose the sale of Public Interest Registry, the (currently) nonprofit entity that operates the .ORG domain, to Ethos Capital. Internet pioneers including Esther Dyson and Tim Berners-Lee have spoken out against this secretive deal. And 12,000 Internet users and counting have added their voices to the opposition.” Good afternoon, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!