NEW RESOURCES

9News: You can use Colorado’s new search tool to see the oil and gas flowlines under your neighborhood. “What’s underground in Colorado is now being revealed through a searchable oil and gas map online. The location of oil and gas lines underground is being added to a geographic information systems (GIS) database maintained by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. That means the public can search for the pipes that connect oil and gas wells.”

From The Conversation, with a big thanks to Garth W. who pointed it out: Global Storybooks: From Arabic to Zulu, freely available digital tales in 50+ languages. “This portal hosts custom sites with multilingual open-licensed books for over 40 countries and regions on five continents. Our vision is to help democratize global flows of information and resources, to facilitate language learning — including Indigenous languages — and to promote literacy.”

From last month, but I just found out about it now. From the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission: LPC Releases Story Map Highlighting 50 Years of Designations Associated with NYC’s Abolitionist History. “New York City played an important role in the effort to abolish slavery nationwide, and to assist those seeking to escape it. In observation of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to America, LPC wanted to bring greater awareness to the city’s abolitionist history by telling the story through designated landmarks that embody it. Through narrative text, images, maps, and multimedia content, the public can learn the important history behind these buildings.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Microsoft Translator Blog: Dia daoibh! Tá Gaeilge againn!. “Our ongoing mission to break down language barriers continues with Irish: Today, we have added Irish Gaelic to Microsoft Translator. Irish Gaelic, usually referred to as the Irish Language or just Irish, and commonly known in Irish itself as Gaeilge (pronounced “gwael-guh”), is the latest addition to the Microsoft Translator family of languages. This brings Irish to all scenarios powered by Microsoft Translator, including Custom Translator, which helps customers to build translation systems for domain-specific terminology and style.”

USEFUL STUFF

National Association of Home Builders: New App Helps Builders Meet Accessibility Requirements of Fair Housing Act. “NAHB unveiled the Pocket Guide to the Fair Housing Act, a free app designed to help home builders, contractors and designers meet the accessibility requirements of the act, during the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas this week.”

MakeUseOf: 5 Sites to Find Ethical Alternatives to Tech, Fashion, and Unfair Brands. “When we talk about making an ethical choice, there are different aspects to look at. For example, how a company behaves with its employees or a firm’s carbon footprint, or even how they treat animals. Importantly, you don’t need to be strict about ethical choices either. The first step is finding out what’s out there.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Panic and Criticism Spread on Chinese Social Media Over Coronavirus. “Chinese citizens are overcoming a lack of reporting on the crisis in the state-run media by sharing their own videos and information about the coronavirus outbreak.”

Belarus News: Belarus’ National Library to launch online project to celebrate Great Victory. “Belarus’ National Library is launching a new project titled 100 Days Before the Great Victory through the Pages of the Belarusian Newspapers, BelTA has learned from the library. From 30 January to 9 May the website of the National Library will be presenting daily chronicles of news and events as reflected in the periodical press of Soviet Belarus back in 1945.”

The Atlantic: The Divine Origins of the Horny Chain Text. ” At this point in my life, I’m well aware of the unpleasant things that can happen to a person if she doesn’t forward a chain message: She can die, or she can miss out on a chance to make a fortune, or she can disappoint her Father in heaven, or she can have a totally sexless year. These consequences have been threatened for centuries in paper letters, emails—and, recently, smutty, emoji-studded text messages, typically timed to a holiday or major event. They are gross, they are phonetically challenging, and they are extremely compelling.” I guess there are some advantages to getting old; I have never seen one of these.

SECURITY & LEGAL

TechCrunch: An adult sexting site exposed thousands of models’ passports and driver’s licenses. “SextPanther, an Arizona-based adult site, stored more than 11,000 identity documents on an exposed Amazon Web Services (AWS) storage bucket, including passports, driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers, without a password. The company says on its website that it uses these documents to verify the ages of models with whom users communicate. Most of the exposed identity documents contain personal information, such as names, home addresses, dates of birth, biometrics and their photos.”

Techdirt: YouTube Streamer Hit With Demonetization Over Copyright Claims To Numbers ’36’ And ’50’. “Now, if you’re wondering who in the world is claiming trademarks on these two random numbers, it appears to be a company in the YouTube content creation business as well. Why they think they own the copyright on those two numbers and can use them to siphon the income of innocent YouTube streamers is anybody’s guess.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

EurekAlert: Neuroscientists to build video dataset that catches people looking (at everything). “To better understand the organization of the brain and the perceptual tendencies in humans, a team of four scientists are recording video from four head-mounted cameras – with eyetracking and head movement – and assembling a massive video database with more than 240 hours of first-person video that can be used by researchers everywhere.” Good morning, Internet…

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