NEW RESOURCES

National Archives: National Archives Launches Presidential Library Explorer . “Researchers now have a new pathway into millions of digitized records across the National Archives’ 14 Presidential Libraries. The Presidential Library Explorer, launched this month, provides a more efficient way for visitors to search through records in the libraries’ holdings.”

SYFY Wire: Comixology Releases over 200 issues of Black Panther comics for free. “The world is still celebrating the life of Chadwick Boseman, who died last Friday at the age of 43. Comixology is paying tribute to Boseman by releasing over 200 issues of Black Panther comic books for free on their site.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: Microsoft releases KB4497165 and KB4558130 microcode updates for Windows 10 to fix Intel security flaws. “Earlier in the year, Intel announced that it had completed software validations on fixes for a series of security flaws affecting many of its processors discovered a couple of years ago. Now Microsoft, in conjunction with the chip-maker, released microcode updates for Windows 10 to fix these issues.”

CNET: YouTube TV adds NFL Network, option for RedZone as NFL season nears. “YouTube TV is getting ready for the 2020 football season, whatever it may look like. On Thursday, Google’s live TV streaming service announced that it’s added the NFL Network to its $65-a-month base package.”

USEFUL STUFF

Online Journalism Blog: 3 more angles most often used to tell data stories: explorers, relationships and bad data stories . “Yesterday I wrote the first of a two-part series on the 7 angles that are used to tell stories about data. In this second part I finish the list with a look at the three less common angles: those stories focusing on relationships; angles that focus on the data itself — its absence, poor quality, or existence — and exploratory stories that often provide an opportunity to get to the grips with the data itself.”

Make Tech Easier: How to Easily Extract Clips From Video with LosslessCut. “There are many reasons for which you may want to extract clips from videos. You may, for example, want to use some of your favorite scenes from movies to use as extra material that will spice up your YouTube videos. Using a full-featured video editor would be overkill. LosslessCut can extract clips from a video quickly and with zero loss in quality.” This software is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CNN: Instagram Reels first impressions: A whole lot of TikToks. “As I check my Instagram account’s Explore tab one afternoon, a 15-second video featured prominently at the top catches my attention. It’s a comedy skit I watched on TikTok three weeks ago from one of my favorite TikTok stars about showing up to a family event and getting bombarded with questions about relationship status and life plans.”

Poynter: The Fact-Checking Development Grant has awarded 22 projects in 12 countries. Meet the grant winners. “The Fact-Checking Development Fund will support 22 projects from 12 countries. The winners, who are splitting $1 million from received from YouTube (via the Google News Initiative), will develop new tools to improve fact-checking workflows, new formats to reach new audiences and, especially, use video to disseminate accurate information. Twelve of the 22 awarded projects will focus on videos, five will test formats and five will develop new ways to speed up the fact-checking process.”

CNBC: Amazon is filled with fake reviews and it’s getting harder to spot them. “From Facebook groups where bad actors solicit paid positive reviews to bots and click farms that upvote negative reviews to take out the competition, fake reviews are getting harder to spot. In July, UCLA and USC released a study that found more than 20 fake review related Facebook groups with an average of 16,000 members. In more than 560 postings each day, sellers offered a refund or payment for a positive review, usually around $6.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: Sigh. Another day, another reason for WordPress users to get patching: Hackers abuse bug in popular plugin. “A critical vulnerability in a popular WordPress plugin called WP File Manager was spotted on Tuesday and was quickly patched by the plugin’s developers. But the flaw, which allows arbitrary file uploads and remote code execution on WordPress websites, is already being actively exploited.”

Welland Tribune: Australia is in a fight with Facebook and Google. Canada could be next. “It’s language typically reserved for armed conflicts or natural disasters. This week, Canada’s heritage minister used it for a regulatory spat in Australia. ‘The Canadian government stands with our Australian partners and denounces any form of threats,’ Steven Guilbeault said in an emailed statement to the Star’s Susan Delacourt. The ‘threats’ Guilbeault referred to involved some of the world’s richest and most influential corporations, Facebook and Google, which have separately warned Canada’s friends down under that they will suspend services in Australia or block media organizations from using their platforms if Canberra follows through with a law they don’t like.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Mashable: The algorithms defining sexuality suck. Here’s how to make them better.. “Ever since porn was credited as one of the most innovating forces behind early internet technology, we’ve become obsessed with the idea of tech enhancing our sex lives. We’re so horny for it that we’ve helped build a $30 billion industry that’s expected to keep growing. Sextech often sells people on the promise that algorithms can optimize users’ sexual experiences. But a vast majority of algorithms built explicitly for pleasure remain rudimentary at best and harmful at worst — including those used in smart biofeedback sex toys and AI-generated porn deepfakes.” Good morning, Internet….

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