NEW RESOURCES

CityNews 1130: Canadians encouraged to protect, connect with nature through online tool. “… a tool has been launched by the Nature Conservancy of Canada to show you where plants and animals are most at risk. Those interested can access a website, input their postal code, and see which parts in their area require more protection. The tool is part of a study which is considered the first comprehensive look at where nature in southern Canada needs to be protected as the world faces challenges around habitat loss and climate change.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bleeping Computer: How to use Google’s ‘Chrome Labs’ to test new browser features. “When Google creates a new browser feature, it is first tested in Google Chrome Canary and Google Chrome Beta. In many cases, these new features must first be enabled using an ‘experiments’ configuration flag before they are accessible… However, the ‘Experiments’ page contains many options that are not for user-facing features but instead internal tests conducted by the Chrome development team. Due to this, it can get confusing to find new user-facing features that Google is actively developing.”

ABC News: France to speed up opening of secret archives on Algeria War. “French President Emmanuel Macron announced a decision Tuesday to speed up the declassification of secret documents related to Algeria’s 1954-62 war of independence from France. The measure comes amid a series of steps taken by Macron to reconcile France with its colonial past and address its brutal history with Algeria, which had been under French rule for 132 years until its independence in 1962.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Radio Connecting Vets: Military Women’s Memorial wants to hear from women veterans. “Women who have served in the U.S. armed forces have stories to tell — and the Military Women’s Memorial wants to help share them. The MWM recently launched a partnership with PenFed Credit Union to encourage military women and their families to preserve their experiences and submit their stories to the Military Women’s Memorial national registry.”

Israel 21c: New museum to showcase the women who helped build Israel. “The museum will showcase at least 100 noteworthy but not necessarily well-known women, from architects to lawyers to choreographers, says founder Yael Nitzan. A curator, art historian and TV producer, Nitzan has overcome many roadblocks and setbacks in realizing her dream of opening Israel’s first museum dedicated to women.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: University of the Highlands and Islands shuts down campuses as it deals with ‘ongoing cyber incident’. “The University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) in Scotland is fending off ‘an ongoing cyber incident’ that has shut down its campuses. In a message to students and staff yesterday afternoon, the institution, which spans 13 locations across the northernmost part of the UK, warned that ‘most services’ – including its Brightspace virtual learning environment – were affected.”

Reuters: Russia sues Google, Facebook, Twitter for not deleting protest content – Ifax. “Russian authorities are suing five social media platforms for allegedly failing to delete posts urging children to take part in illegal protests, the Interfax news agency cited a Moscow court as saying on Tuesday. Twitter, Google, Facebook each have three cases against them, with each violation punishable by a fine of up to 4 million roubles (around $54,000), and cases have also been filed against Tiktok and Telegram, the report said.”

New York Times: Tech’s Legal Shield Appears Likely to Survive as Congress Focuses on Details. “Former President Donald J. Trump called multiple times for repealing the law that shields tech companies from legal responsibility over what people post. President Biden, as a candidate, said the law should be ‘revoked.’ But the lawmakers aiming to weaken the law have started to agree on a different approach. They are increasingly focused on eliminating protections for specific kinds of content rather than making wholesale changes to the law or eliminating it entirely.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Verge: How Scientists Scrambled To Stop Donald Trump’s EPA From Wiping Out Climate Data. “After hearing the news that then President-elect Donald Trump had appointed a notorious climate change denier to lead the Environmental Protection Agency transition team in 2016, Nicholas Shapiro, an environmental anthropologist, penned an urgent email to a dozen or so fellow scientists. He was worried that the EPA was about to be torn apart from the inside under Trump’s leadership. Others on the email thread were concerned that vital environmental data would be taken down from federal websites and destroyed….So Shapiro took a cue from his sister, an organizer for the Women’s March, and tried to bring researchers together to mount an offensive.”

PsyPost: The memes we read might influence how we love, study finds. “The prevalence and importance of social media has made the sharing of internet memes a primary method of communicating ideas today. Short and punchy, memes are pervasive and often emotionally salient, making them prime candidates for influencers of human behavior. This observation led a team of researchers to explore the influence of romantic memes on relationship beliefs. Their research is published in Psychological Studies.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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