NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from Gandhara: The Amazing Rise And Fall Of Century-Old Afghan Box Cameras. “Irish ethnographer Sean Foley and Austrian photographer Lukas Birk also were fascinated by the kamra-e-faoree photographers they saw during their repeated visits to Afghanistan from 2002 to 2012. Birk and Foley co-authored a book in 2013 called Afghan Box Camera. They also launched an online archive about Afghanistan’s photographic history and culture called The Afghan Box Camera Project.”

All HipHop: Death Row Records Launches “Death Row Experience” Virtual Gallery. “As part of the Death Row Records 30th-anniversary celebration, the Los Angeles-based company presents the ‘Death Row Experience.’ The virtual retrospective gallery is now open to the public online.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Disney Parks Blog: Disney PhotoPass Service x Snap: Announcing New PhotoPass Snapchat Lenses and Can’t-Miss Surprises for the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary!. “The Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse Lenses will be available in the Snapchat app* only at Walt Disney World Resort, but to celebrate the launch – and other special experiences to come! – you can try them at home, anywhere in the U.S., until June 3.”

AP: EPA brings back website showing increased climate change risks. “After a gap of more than four years, the Environmental Protection Agency is relaunching a website highlighting evidence of climate change in the United States, including rising temperatures, increased ocean acidity, sea level rise, river flooding, droughts, heat waves, and wildfires.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Black Art in America: More Museums Are Looking In Their Backyards For Artists To Exhibit. “The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri used the downtime created by the pandemic to take a fresh look not only at its collection but also its relationship to its neighbors. It wasn’t the first time that the museum took a comprehensive inventory. When Julián Zugazagoitia, CEO & Director of the Nelson-Atkins, took over in 2010 he spearheaded an 18 month study where museum leaders concluded that the public wants to ‘discover’ art for themselves rather than have the museum dictate what they should like or consider important. The museum implemented innovative programming and, by 2018, attendance was up 43 percent.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Nikkei Asia: Does China plan an even tougher cryptocurrency crackdown?. “The three industry organizations — the National Internet Finance Association of China, the China Banking Association and the Payment & Clearing Association of China — said a number of actions involving cryptocurrency trading are unlawful…. The joint statement also informed investors of risks associated with cryptocurrency transactions, including fictitious assets, business failures and speculation.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

USC News: Got old sneakers and wine corks to recycle? This USC grad student has an app for that. “Friends and classmates were initially confused about why someone with more than a decade of experience in the oil industry would want to make a recycling app. [Akhtan] Tumyshev gives the credit to his mother, who headed the environmental department of an oil company in Kazakhstan. She traveled the country to visit different oil fields and take soil, air and water samples to monitor pollution levels. Young Akhtan would tag along on some of those trips. The experiences instilled him with a sense of environmental responsibility, he said.”

Phys .org: From Avocet to Zebra Finch: big data study finds more than 50 billion birds in the world. “There are roughly 50 billion individual birds in the world, a new big data study by UNSW Sydney suggests—about six birds for every human on the planet. The study—which bases its findings on citizen science observations and detailed algorithms—estimates how many birds belong to 9700 different bird species, including flightless birds like emus and penguins.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

KIMT: Mayo Clinic Launching “Carillon Cam” Livestream. “The decision to have the tunes streamed comes as more people are still working from home. People who are no longer in The Med City have also reached out and told Mayo Clinic they miss the sounds from it. Carillonneur Austin Ferguson is super excited to have his music reach more ears.” A carillon is a musical instrument consisting of bronze bells which are “played” with a keyboard. You can learn more about them here. Good evening, Internet…

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