NEW RESOURCES

Council on Library and Information Resources: CLIR and Stanford Libraries Announce Digital Library of the Middle East Platform. “The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and Stanford Libraries today announced the release of a public, open platform for the Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME), which aims to become one of the world’s largest online archives of Middle Eastern and North African artifacts. The DLME aggregates, through an ongoing program, digital records of published materials, documents, maps, artifacts, audiovisual recordings, and more from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.”

The Advocate: LABI launches new website about Louisiana judges; see district maps and more. “The website… says that it’s dedicated to making voters as informed about the judges they elect as they are about officials in other branches of government. People can use it to search for their judicial districts and to see which judges represent them at the Louisiana Supreme Court, court of appeal and district court levels.”

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Releases Online Tool to Help College Students Determine How to Pay for College. “‘Your Financial Path to Graduation’ helps students turn financial aid offers into plans to pay for school step-by-step. Along the way, it explains terms, offers money saving tips, and tracks uncovered costs. Once students finish making a plan, the tool estimates the total debt at graduation and offers information to help the student evaluate whether that debt is affordable in the long run. Students can save their plans and revise them if their circumstances change.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bloomberg: Social Media App Parler, a GOP Darling, Isn’t Catching On. “The app has been downloaded 2.5 million times, and almost half those came last month, according to Sensor Tower, a firm that tracks the mobile app business. While that number is substantial, it’s a small fraction of an app like, say, TikTok, which has more than 2 billion downloads and adds tens of millions each month. So far in July, over half of Parler’s installations have come from Brazil. It’s all had the feeling of a fad and, as the Daily Beast noted earlier this week, there are signs it has begun to burn out.”

USEFUL STUFF

The Next Web: Here’s how to claim your payout in the iPhone slowdown settlement. “Apple this year settled a lawsuit over its slowing down of older iPhones. Now you could potentially claim compensation for having owned one of those phones, under the terms of the settlement — though be warned, you’ll get $25 at most for it and probably won’t see that until December. But hey, $25 is $25.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Ola Mae Spinks, Who Helped Preserve a Slave Archive, Dies at 106. “Ola Mae Spinks, a librarian and descendant of slaves who went to the Library of Congress in 1972 to bring order to a vast but scattered archive of interviews with former slaves, thus helping to preserve them for scholars, died on June 16 at her home in Southfield, Mich. She was 106.”

Al Jazeera: Iranians take social media by storm to halt executions. “The ‘unprecedented’ drive saw the ‘Don’t execute’ hashtag in Persian topping Twitter trends in Iran for more than 24 hours, Trendsmap data showed on Wednesday, after reaching 4.5 million retweets worldwide the day before.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Mashable: Police are worried about white extremists organizing on Gab Chat, leaked documents show. “Violent white extremists are sick of getting doxxed on Discord, and will ‘likely’ move their organizing efforts to an encrypted messaging alternative created by Gab, an alt-right favorite. So claims a May 26 law enforcement bulletin leaked, along with 269GB of files from over 200 police departments, in late June by hackers and published by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a journalist organization specializing in the publication of leaked documents.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Arizona State University: Data analytics can predict global warming trends, heat waves. “New research from Arizona State University and Stanford University is augmenting meteorological studies that predict global warming trends and heat waves, adding human-originated factors into the equation.”

NASA: ‘Disk Detective’ Needs Your Help Finding Disks Where Planets Form. “Planets form from gas and dust particles swirling around baby stars in enormous spinning disks. But because this process takes millions of years, scientists can only learn about these disks by finding and studying a lot of different examples. Through a project called Disk Detective, you can help. Anyone, regardless of background or prior knowledge, can assist scientists in figuring out the mysteries of planet formation. Disk Detective is an example of citizen science, a collaboration between professional scientists and members of the public.” 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!