morningbuzz

Louvre Museum Collection, The Pinnacle Club, Browser Compatibility, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, March 27, 2021

NEW RESOURCES

France24: Louvre museum makes its entire collection available online. “The Louvre museum in Paris said Friday it has put nearly half a million items from its collection online for the public to visit free of charge. As part of a major revamp of its online presence, the world’s most-visited museum has created a new database of 482,000 items… with more than three-quarters already labelled with information and pictures.”

British Mountaineering Council: The Pinnacle Club marks centenary by launching website with fascinating digital history. “Today marks one hundred years since the founding of the Pinnacle Club – the UK’s national women’s rock-climbing club. Centenary celebrations include the launch of a new website bringing the Club’s fascinating history to life.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Register: Microsoft and Google, sitting in a tree, working on browser compatibility . “While its managers squabble, engineers at Microsoft and Google have put their heads together to ease some of the more severe developer pain points in browsers. Spoiler: it involves CSS. Those who remember Microsoft’s shenanigans during the heyday of Internet Explorer will doubtless be feeling a twinge of irony at the thought of the Windows giant signing up to a browser compatibility initiative, but here we are.”

Neowin: Facebook completes first phase of its Indiana fiber network. “Facebook has announced the successful completion of the first phase of its latest fiber network in Indiana. The firm said that new fiber routes will help it support its 3 billion users around the world as the connections between its data centers become faster. The network route, which spans 80 miles, runs along Interstate 70 between Indiana and Ohio.”

Search Engine Land: YouTube experiments with automated lists of products detected in videos. “Google is testing a new feature that automatically detects products in videos and displays them, and related products, to viewers as a list, the company posted on its YouTube tests and experiments page yesterday. On Thursday, it also announced a new way to watch YouTube videos directly within Twitter on iOS.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Protocol: How a social app you’ve never heard of became a haven for Gen Z. “At its core, Yubo turns the idea of ‘stranger-danger’ on its head. The app very openly wants young people to make new friends with strangers on the internet. If that makes you afraid for your own children, or for the future as a whole, you’re not alone. And, in the eyes of Yubo CEO and co-founder Sacha Lazimi, you’re also very wrong.”

BBC: Body-editing apps on TikTok ‘trigger eating disorders’. “Body-editing apps advertised on social media platforms TikTok and Instagram are ‘triggering’ young people with eating disorders, campaigners fear. Adverts show how the apps can be used to alter body parts, including making waists slimmer and adding muscles.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Huffington Post: The Hidden Hand Of Facial Recognition In The Capitol Insurrection Manhunt. “Facial recognition tools use one or more pictures of an individual to pull their biometric facial characteristics, and run them against an often gargantuan database of photos to find possible matches. In criminal justice matters, this can help create a narrowed pool of suspects. This software is not always accurate, though ― and its use bears serious implications for privacy, freedom of expression and other civil liberties.”

Thompson Reuters Foundation News: Russian social network users should divulge personal, passport data – proposal. “Russia’s communications regulator wants to ask social media and online messenger users to hand over their passport data, addresses and other information, a draft law published on a government website showed.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Guardian: Climate fight ‘is undermined by social media’s toxic reports’. “Fake news on social media about climate change and biodiversity loss is having a worrying impact in the battle to halt the growing environmental threats to the planet, a group of scientists and analysts have warned.”

Times Colonist: Game changer: Video game could help improve brain function for children with disabilities. “Researchers at the University of Victoria have tapped into a booming gaming industry to help improve brain function and cognitive abilities in children with disabilities. A team at UVic, building on years of study, have partnered with the private sector to create Dino Island, a video game that takes children with neurodevelopment disabilities on a tour of a fictitious, digitized island where they face a progressive series of challenges in the hopes of improving their brain function.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

Mashable: See the growing Suez Canal traffic jam from space. “One of the largest ships in the world, Ever Given, is lodged in the relatively narrow canal, a major artificial waterway where some $9 billion in merchandise passes daily. Around 12 percent of global trade carefully navigates via the historic canal, which opened more than 150 years ago. Satellite images captured by the European Space Agency show the backlog of ships created by the accidentally stuck Ever Given, which is deeply lodged in the canal’s sandy floor.” Good morning, Internet…

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