TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Techdirt: Announcing The Winners Of The 2nd Annual Public Domain Game Jam!. “The judges have had their fun, the votes are in, and now it’s time: we’ve got the winners of our public domain game jam, Gaming Like It’s 1924! We had some amazing entries this year, and we’ve even got a couple returning winners. Plus, we noticed a really exciting pattern: several of the games didn’t just make use of newly-copyright-free works from 1924, they actually found ways to embody the spirit of the game jam — a celebration of the public domain and the creative power of remixing and reimagining — within their themes and mechanics as well.”

California Genealogical Society: New Website Launched . “The CGS Website Development Team has launched the new CGS website, with a new look and several new user-friendly features. Here is what you will see the next time you visit the site.”

USEFUL STUFF

Search Engine Journal: Introduction to GIF Engine Optimization (GEO). “If you’re reading this, you probably know about SEO. You may even be an SEO professional that spends a significant portion of your time reading, talking, and implementing the latest SEO strategies and tactics. I’m here to introduce you to a new kind of search engine. I’m talking about GIF search engines like GIPHY and Tenor.”

ZDNet: How to back up your Gmail: The ultimate guide for 2020 . “Many of us have years of mission-critical business and personal history in our Gmail archives, and it’s a good idea to have a plan for making regular backups. In this article (and its accompanying gallery), I will discuss a number of excellent approaches for backing up your Gmail data.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Times of India: Buried in dust: Birth, death certificates from Jaipur circa 1890. “Sheaves of birth and death certificates written in Urdu and dating back to 1890 lie wrapped in a dust-caked piece of cloth atop a cupboard in the basement of the Jaipur Municipal Corporation. These are the first birth and death records of the erstwhile princely state of Jaipur, predating the national registration system by almost eight decades.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: Voatz of no confidence: MIT boffins eviscerate US election app, claim fiends could exploit flaws to derail democracy. “Only a week after the mobile app meltdown in Iowa’s Democratic Caucus, computer scientists at MIT have revealed their analysis of the Voatz app used in West Virginia’s 2018 midterm election. They claim the Android app is vulnerable to attacks that could undermine election integrity in the US state.”

WOKV: State reviews LA police use of California gang database. “The California Department of Justice is reviewing the Los Angeles Police Department’s records and policies regarding use of the state’s gang member database after allegations emerged that officers in an elite crime suppression team falsified records and listed innocent people as gang members, Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Monday.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Phys .org: Heart emoji: The language of love in the 21st century. “It may not be a Shakespearean sonnet, but the language of love in the 21st century is just as affectionate and meaningful as it ever was, according to University of South Australia linguist, Dr. David Caldwell.”

Science: World’s largest linguistics database is getting too expensive for some researchers. “To help cover its nearly $1 million in annual operating costs, Ethnologue got its first paywall in late 2015; most nonpaying visitors were turned away after several pages. Since October 2019, the paywall has taken a new form: It lets visitors access every page, but it blots out information on how many speakers a language has and where they live. Subscriptions now start at $480 per person per year.”

Penn State News: Citizen scientists may be an untapped resource for water quality improvement. “Raising awareness and offering technological tools to the thousands of citizens groups in the U.S. that monitor water quality might help community leaders tap these volunteers as a way to improve access to plentiful, clean water and possibly avoid water-related crises, according to a team of researchers.” Good evening, Internet…

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