NEW RESOURCES

AP: Tennessee Supreme Court Full Case Records Now Online. “The opinions have long been available electronically, but the associated case files were stored in more than 10,000 boxes in the attic of the Capitol building, according to a news release from the Administrative Office of the Courts. For more than a decade, Library and Archive staff has been cleaning and indexing these records. Today, around 85% of the collection is available online.”

Inside NoVa: Vintage Arlington newspapers digitized, placed online. “As part of a partnership that includes the Library of Virginia, the Center for Local History of the Arlington library system and the Sun Gazette, archive materials from a number of Arlington newspapers can now be found online. Editions of the Northern Virginia Sun from 1935 to 1978 have been digitized and made available through the Virginia Chronicle, a free online resource tool. Copies of the Columbia News also were digitized as part of the effort.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Instagram tests putting suggested posts ahead of your friends’. “Instagram says reception to its ‘suggested posts’ feature has been so positive that it’s launching a new test: this time, suggested posts will be mixed throughout your primary feed, sometimes ahead of photos and videos from people you follow.” How dare you choose what you want to look at.

TimesColonist: First Nations win access to archives of Sisters of St. Ann. “First Nations have won access to the private archives of the Sisters of St. Ann, an order of Catholic nuns that ran four residential schools, including the Kamloops Indian Residential School. The Royal B.C. Museum said Wednesday it had signed a memorandum of agreement with the Sisters of St. Ann to provide access to the order’s archives to the museum and to the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at UBC.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Cointelegraph: Activists archive Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper on blockchain. “Hong Kong cyber-activists are not giving up on the freedom of speech and are backing up articles from the pro-democracy tabloid newspaper Apple Daily using blockchain technology. Following a national security probe, Apple Daily printed its last edition on Thursday. But Hong Kong activists took it from there and uploaded the publication’s articles on a distributed network, Reuters reported.”

Yonhap News Agency: S. Korea to inject 50 bln won into animation industry . 50 billion won is a little more than $44 million US. “In addition to injecting more funds into the industry, the five-year plan also includes plans to diversify animations, which are currently largely concentrated on films for toddlers and children. The government also plans to beef up commercial support by expanding channels for animation distribution and helping companies make merchandise based on animations. The plan also includes setting up a digital archive for animation sources.”

The Register: Syria and Sudan turn off the internet to suppress … cheating by kids sitting exams. “Access Now reports as a part of its #KeepItOn campaign that there were 115 internet shutdowns in 2019, 60 in 2020 and 50 between January and May of 2021. Of those so far in 2021, 24 affected a whole country or region, 11 took in more than one city or area, and 13 cut off only one city, county or village.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BBC: US cheerleader wins free speech case against her former school. “The US Supreme Court has ruled in favour of a teenager who was kicked off her school cheerleading squad over a profane social media post. In an 8-1 ruling, it concluded that the Mahanoy Area School District had violated Brandi Levy’s freedom of speech under the First Amendment.”

Meduza: Russia’s censorship agency asks Google to shut down ‘Smart Vote’ website. “Following a complaint from a Yekaterinburg lawyer, Russia’s federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor (RKN), has sent a letter to Google asking the company to halt technical support for the website of Alexey Navalny’s ‘Smart Vote’ initiative.”

Los Angeles Times: He tried to commemorate erased history. China detained him, then erased that too. “Thousands of politically sensitive cases disappeared last month from China Judgments Online, the public archive. The deletions were first noticed by a Chinese activist with the Twitter handle @SpeechFreedomCN, who has been keeping an archive of speech crime cases. He has tracked more than 2,040 cases, dating to 2013, based on official documentation in China Judgments Online or public security bureaus’ reports on the social media apps Weibo and WeChat.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

National Alliance on Mental Illness: How To Navigate the Overwhelming Volume of Mental Health Apps. “Research and our initiatives at the Division of Digital Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School suggest that there are issues and limitations that app users need to be aware of. However, certain apps have the potential to be a successful supplement to mental health treatment if users find the right program to fit their individual needs.”

Gizmodo: Google Glass Was Ugly, but Facebook’s AR Baseball Hat Might Actually Be Worse. “One of the biggest hurdles for augmented reality devices is design: No one wants to wear an obvious gadget on their face. Realising the issues Google Glass had with gaining consumer traction, it seems Facebook may embrace a unique design for a future wearable. Folks, it’s a baseball hat.” Good morning, Internet…

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