NEW RESOURCES

iNews UK: Beaulieu makes 1m historic motoring images available to the public with new website. “Visitors to the new MPL website can browse through more than 120,000 colour images and more than one million black and white pictures covering everything from motorsport and supercars to commercial vehicles and the social history of motoring, plus promotional materials such as posters and brochures.” This is the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mashable: Google announces I/O 2020 dates. “Even though I/O is primarily a developer conference, Google typically announces some new hardware at the event. Last year, it was the Pixel 3a and 3a XL, and this year, we’ll likely see the new Pixel 4a, possibly accompanied with the new Pixel Buds. A new Nest device is not out of the question, either, given that Google launched the Nest Hub Max at last year’s conference.”

Bloomberg Quint: Google Ban Fails to Stamp Out Short-Term Payday Lending Apps. “In August, Google announced a global crackdown on Android apps that offer short-term loans, saying it wanted to protect consumers from what it called ‘deceptive and exploitative’ terms. But five months later, payday-style applications offering fast money for one or two weeks are still easy to find in many countries on Google Play, the company’s marketplace for Android apps. Some charge interest rates that can exceed 200% annualized.”

USEFUL STUFF

RootsTech: RootsTech 2020 Free Livestream Schedule. “If traveling to Salt Lake City isn’t an option for you, don’t worry! Many of the sights and teachings from the conference will be streamed live on our home page—for free!”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BuzzFeed News: This New Instagram Account Is Dedicated To Capturing The Hilarious Fourth Wall Of People Taking Photos For Instagram. “The account features submissions from people who spot friends or professional photographers going out of their way to capture ‘impromptu’ photo shoots for the ‘gram. The result is a feed full of fun and dystopian moments of ~influencing~ in its raw form.”

New York Times: We’re All in the Bathroom Filming Ourselves. Not this old woman. “Most home bathrooms are well lit and have nice, bright acoustics. Unlike the kitchen, living room or even bedroom, bathrooms are private spaces, where parents and siblings are trained to not barge in. It’s almost inevitable that they would become the perfect stage set for the dramatic entrances, exits, skits, dances and story times of TikTok, the short-form social video app that has grown wildly popular in the last year.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TechCrunch: Facebook’s dodgy defaults face more scrutiny in Europe. “Italy’s Competition and Markets Authority has launched proceedings against Facebook for failing to fully inform users about the commercial uses it makes of their data. At the same time a German court has today upheld a consumer group’s right to challenge the tech giant over data and privacy issues in the national courts.”

ABC News: Veterans group: Lawsuit prompts Pentagon to reopen database. “The Pentagon will reopen a records database that helps service members who are appealing a less-than-honorable discharge, a veterans group said Friday. The National Veterans Legal Services Program had sued the Defense Department over a lack of access to the database, arguing that the military had been breaking federal law since April.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

UC San Diego: Data from Behind Enemy Lines: How Russia May have Used Twitter to Seize Crimea. “Online discourse by users of social media can provide important clues about the political dispositions of communities. New research suggests it can even be used by governments as a source of military intelligence to estimate prospective casualties and costs incurred from occupying foreign territories.”

Phys .org: Can I mix those chemicals? There’s an app for that!. “Improperly mixed chemicals cause a shocking number of fires, explosions, and injuries in laboratories, businesses, and homes each year. A new open source computer program called ChemStor developed by engineers at the University of California, Riverside, can prevent these dangerous situations by telling users if it is unsafe to mix certain chemicals.” Good evening, Internet…

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