NEW RESOURCES

KPAX: New statewide website highlights earn-while-you-learn opportunities for young adults. “Too often, we see young adults leaving the great state of Montana to work somewhere else in the region or the country, and when that happens, Montana’s workforce suffers. Through a collaborative effort between the Missoula Chamber of Commerce and the Montana Department of Labor, Montana’s workforce is gaining some traction through a new website.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNBC: Supreme Court rules in Google’s favor in copyright dispute with Oracle over Android software. “The Supreme Court on Monday sided with Google against Oracle in a long-running copyright dispute over the software used in Android, the mobile operating system. The court’s decision was 6-2. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was not yet confirmed by the Senate when the case was argued in October, did not participate in the case.”

US Air Force: New ‘Air Force Review Boards Agency’ website launched . “The Department of the Air Force debuted a new website for past and present Airmen and Guardians to correct their military records, April 5. Members, and those submitting on their behalf, can submit applications and supporting documents to four boards: The Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records, Air Force Discharge Review Board, Department of Defense Discharge Appeal Review Board and Department of Defense Physical Disability Board of Review.”

The Verge: Yahoo Answers will be shut down forever on May 4th. “Yahoo Answers, one of the longest-running and most storied web Q&A platforms in the history of the internet, is shutting down on May 4th. That’s the day the Yahoo Answers website will start redirecting to the Yahoo homepage, and all of the platform’s archives will apparently cease to exist. The platform has been operating since 2005.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Vice: Alex Jones Incited the Capitol Riot on Facebook Even Though He Was Banned 2 Years Ago. “Research from digital rights group Avaaz published Thursday morning and shared exclusively with VICE News shows that in the 30 days leading up to the riots, content from Jones’ websites, promoting voter fraud claims telling fans to ‘prepare for war,’ amassed over 1.1 million interactions across Facebook.”

Las Cruces Sun News: New Mexico State Police’s first TikTok video goes viral. “About a month ago, the New Mexico State Police started a TikTok account. Last week, the agency debuted its first video, which is of a female officer getting ready for work. The video of Byanca Castro, a patrol officer based out Las Vegas, N.M., has been viewed more than 400,000 times.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

NBC News: Human smugglers use Facebook to connect with migrants and spread false hope of reaching U.S. . “Human smugglers are openly advertising their services on Facebook, falsely telling Central Americans interested in crossing illegally into the United States that they can promise a ‘100 percent’ safe journey. While the use of social media by smugglers is not new, the practice is growing, fueling false hope as more migrants fall prey to misinformation about how the Biden administration will welcome them, according to Department of Homeland Security officials, immigration experts and lawyers.”

Irish Times: Facebook and Twitter face barrage of criticism before Oireachtas committee . “Social media giants Facebook and Twitter faced a barrage of criticism before an Oireachtas committee on Tuesday over anonymous accounts, trolling and micro-targeting. TDs and Senators accused both companies, particularly Twitter, of undermining democracy and coarsening public debate by allowing anonymous accounts make false and misleading statements with neither fact-checking protections or any sanction.”

Chicago Tribune: FOIA for beginners: A state law guarantees access to public records. But it isn’t always that easy.. “At its core, the Freedom of Information Act is about the government being transparent and accountable to the people it’s meant to serve. Illinois’ FOIA law states ‘all persons are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government.’ Enacted in 1984 and updated with changes that took effect in 2010, the statute lays out a pretty straightforward process for citizens to obtain public records. A request doesn’t need to read like a document crafted by a law firm — it just needs to be put in writing and delivered via email, by mail or in person.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

EurekAlert: Exploring how storytelling tropes cluster in popular films. “An analysis of film tropes–common storytelling elements seen in different movies–explores combinations of tropes that tend to co-occur in films, identifying patterns that could help inform development of new movies. Pablo García-Sánchez and Juan Merelo of the University of Granada, and Antonio Velez-Estevez and Manuel Cobo from the University of Cádiz, Spain present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on March 31, 2021.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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