NEW RESOURCES

La Cruces Bulletin: State museum puts fossil, biological specimens online. “The New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science (NMMNHS) has opened the door to more than 110,000 fossil and biological specimens. Thanks to an anonymous gift, the museum’s collection records are now publicly available through Arctos, an online database.”

Northeastern University: Archive of Sephardi music is released online, with help from a Northeastern administrator. “Joel Bresler’s collaborative work with the Jewish Music Research Centre at Hebrew U is now available for streaming. The Centre has e-released ‘Eastern Mediterranean Judeo-Spanish Songs from the EMI Archive Trust (1907-1912)’ … along with an accompanying booklet representing years of scholarship about the music.

EVENTS

The Caribbean Commons: Upcoming Event: The Jamaica Gaily News Archive Launch. “The Jamaica Gaily News (JGN) was the publication of the first gay activist organization in the anglophone Caribbean, the Gay Freedom Movement (GFM) in Jamaica. Join us as we celebrate the launch of the JGN archive at the Digital Library of the Caribbean. We will hear from the following panelists as they share their reflections on this moment in Jamaica’s history.” (Friday, November 20th, 2020 from 1:00-3:00pm (EST))

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Axios: Ex-Evernote CEO’s video service Mmhmm goes live. “Mmhmm provides a variety of tools that can be used in prerecorded or live video, allowing presenters to put up graphics, a la Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, among other tricks.The project began as something of a joke, Libin said, but got really serious amid the pandemic as workers started spending more and more time on Zoom and other conferencing services.”

NiemanLab: ProPublica experiments with ultra-accessible plain language in stories about people with disabilities. “For an investigation into denied disability benefits in Arizona and an accompanying editor’s note, ProPublica is experimenting with plain language — a type of text that uses common words, short sentences, and clear structure to make information more accessible to those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Georgia State University: Georgia State University Library to Lead New Public Interest Data Literacy Initiative. “University Library faculty Bryan Sinclair and Mandy Swygart-Hobaugh have been awarded a $150,000 grant from the New America Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) to expand programs that promote data literacy for the public good and encourage a more diverse pipeline of students pursuing careers in data science.”

CNN: Zuckerberg: Bannon’s beheading comments aren’t enough to ban him from Facebook. “Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff at a company meeting on Thursday that Steve Bannon suggesting that Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray should be beheaded was not enough of a violation of Facebook’s rules to permanently suspend the former White House chief strategist from the platform, according to a Facebook employee. Bannon was permanently suspended from Twitter last week after making the comments in a video.”

Vice: YouTube Is Doing Very Little to Stop Election Misinformation From Spreading. “Here’s what happens if you post election disinformation on YouTube right now: The video will not be taken down, even if it includes multiple false claims. A small fact-checking label may be applied and the video probably won’t be promoted in YouTube’s recommendations or search results. But, the video will remain on the platform and it can still be monetized. That’s paraphrasing the real policies somewhat, but essentially this is how YouTube’s light-touch approach to moderation works, in the wake of the most hotly-disputed election results in U.S. history.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Google at odds with U.S. over protective order for firms tied to lawsuit. “Alphabet Inc’s Google and the U.S. Justice Department have failed to reach agreement over a protective order for third parties like Microsoft that provided data to the government for its lawsuit against the search and advertising giant.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Associated Press: Sculpture restoration work draws laughs, memories in Spain. “Restoration work on a sculpture in northern Spain has resurrected memories of a restored Christ fresco in another Spanish city eight years ago that drew ridicule as well as tourists. The latest incident concerns a relief sculpture on the exterior of an ornate office building in the city of Palencia. What was once the bust of a smiling woman now looks more like the head of a cartoon character.”

EurekAlert: 3D printing — a ‘dusty’ business?. “To close the substantial gaps in our knowledge, scientists at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) are investigating which particles are released into the environment and what their properties are. Different substances are released into the air depending on the material used for printing. For example, BfR experts were able to detect particles of the widely-used plastic polylactic acid and copper crystals, among other substances.”

University College London: Machine Learning Tool Developed To Detect Fake News Domains Upon Registration. “Academics at UCL and other institutions have collaborated to develop a machine learning tool that identifies new domains created to promote false information so that they can be stopped before the ‘fake news’ can be spread through social media and online channels.” Good morning, Internet…

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