TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Yelp: Yelp makes it easy to support LGBTQ-owned businesses, and find “Open to All” places to celebrate Pride. “To celebrate Pride Month, Yelp is making it easier than ever for consumers to support businesses that align with their values, and find safe and welcoming places to enjoy Pride celebrations all month long. Starting today, Yelp is introducing an LGBTQ-owned business attribute that will allow business owners to self identify as LGBTQ-owned. In addition, restaurant, food and nightlife businesses that identify as LGBTQ-owned or Open to All will be highlighted on Yelp with rainbow-colored map pins for the entire month of June to help people find places to celebrate Pride Month.”

Engadget: Google Docs will let you overlay text on images like it’s 1997. “Google announced some major changes to Workspace at its recent I/O event, including deeper connections between its productivity and chat apps. But, while eye-catching improvements like ‘smart canvas’ could potentially boost collaboration, some of its online tools still lack rudimentary functions. A new update aims to fix that by bringing a feature available on most word processors to Google Docs. Basically, you can now place an image in front of or behind text while editing a document.” Came for the news and honestly? Stayed for the snark.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Broadway World: Canadian Musical Theatre Database Announced. “Today, TIFT Artistic Producer Arkady Spivak announced the new project, the Canadian Musical Theatre Database (CMTDB). This inclusive online resource will advocate for greater access, leading to increased production of Canadian musicals by professional, community and youth theatre companies, as well as by student productions within the education sector.”

Pulse: Naver to enhance internet search engine to fend off Google’s ascent in Korea. “South Korean internet giant Naver Corp. will update its internet search platform that takes up more than 50 percent of its total revenue, with a deep learning-based new search feature that finds information reflecting user intent next month to defend its dominance internet search market from Google.”

Stuff New Zealand: Major project to allow digital access to 130 years of The Press archives. “The Press archives up to 1995 will be digitised and made freely available for searching online under a landmark agreement with the National Library. The library’s Papers Past website already publishes editions of The Press from 1861 to 1945 which can be searched by words, phrases and dates. They are part of a substantial catalogue of 167 historic newspapers dating from 1839 to 1950, plus magazines, letters and Parliamentary papers.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

SangFroid Web: Phishing SCAM Alert: Beware of Fake Email from an “Experienced Photographer and Illustrator” Claiming Copyright Infringement. “We have received reports from clients about a malicious scammer named ‘Mel’ (‘Mellie’ in one case and ‘Melina’ in the other) filling out their website form, and very aggressively claiming copyright infringement. The email arrives via your website contact form and accuses you of using copyrighted website images and asks you to click on a link to see the list of the images that are in violation. (DON’T CLICK THE LINK.) The writer threatens to file a complaint with your hosting company and sue you.” The one I got, the person was named Rochelle.

Department of Justice: Russian Hacker Sentenced to 30 Months for Running a Website Selling Stolen, Counterfeit and Hacked Accounts . “Kirill Victorovich Firsov, a Russian citizen, was sentenced to 30 months in custody for his role as the administrator of a website that catered to cyber criminals by virtually selling items such as stolen credit card information, other personal information and services to be used for criminal activity.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Transparency International: Lack Of Transparency Over Vaccine Trials, Secretive Contracts And ‘science By Press Release’ Risk Success Of Global Covid-19 Response. “For Whose Benefit? is an in-depth study of the development and sale of the world’s top 20 COVID-19 vaccines, including those developed by AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech. Through detailed analysis of clinical trial data and nearly 200 contracts for vaccine sales up to March 2021, the report reveals a pattern of poor transparency and a disturbing trend of governments censoring key details of their orders from drug companies.”

Duke Today: ’Smart Toilet’ Uses Artificial Intelligence To Monitor Bowel Health. “An artificial intelligence tool being developed by Duke scientists can be added to the standard toilet to help analyze patients’ stool and give gastroenterologists the information they need to provide appropriate treatment for chronic issues such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).”

CNET: Discovery’s live cicada cam puts you in the heart of Brood X country. “This morning, a co-worker in Louisville, Kentucky, described hearing a chorus of cicadas buzzing outside her window. The most insect action I’ve gotten here in San Francisco today, on the other hand, is the lone bee I spotted outside my home office window. Yeah, I’m feeling pretty left out as trillions of Brood X cicadas descend on the Eastern US for the first time in 17 years. Thankfully, Discovery has launched a 24-hour live cicada cam to ease the cicada-FOMO of those of us fascinated by this natural phenomenon but not situated in Brood X country.” There are links to the livestream at the end of the article, but the only one I found with an actual LIVE feed was the Discovery site itself, so start there. Good evening, Internet…

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