NEW RESOURCES

UPI: New website allows users to track mesmerizing journey of a raindrop. “A Pittsburgh web developer has made a website that allows anyone to trace the path of a raindrop that falls in the contiguous United States from when it lands on the ground to its final destination and everything in between.” I played with this a little bit. If you try to zoom way in on the map of the US, it’ll slow your computer down. If you just click on the map instead of zooming, it works better.

Gramophone: The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra offers its entire lockdown video archive for free streaming. “Amsterdam’s Concertgebouworkest (the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra) has announced that for the month of July it be making available for free streaming its entire video catalogue filmed between June 2020 and June 2021. The works can all be accessed individually on the orchestra’s website (registration required).”

NBC Montana: Montana launches new wildland fire restrictions website. “Fire officials launched a real time map of Montana detailing current fire restrictions today. It comes as Montana’s DNRC explains fire season started early and indications are we’re in for a bad one.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

South Dakota State News: State Historical Society launching podcast . “The South Dakota State Historical Society is launching a new podcast, History 605, hosted by State Historian and Society Director Dr. Ben Jones. ‘Through conversations with historians, museum curators, tribal historic preservationists, and other experts, I look forward to telling the story of South Dakota and the region through the people, places, and events that have shaped us,’ Jones said.”

The Verge: TikTok is rolling out longer videos to everyone. “TikToks are about to get longer. The app is now rolling out the ability for everyone to publish videos up to three minutes in length, three times the existing one-minute limit. The extension is meant to give creators more flexibility while filming and limit the need for multi-part posts — though I suspect creators love hooking users that way and will keep breaking up stories.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Museums Association: Trustees approve return of Benin bronzes held in Berlin museums. “Trustees of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the federal government body that oversees the city’s state museums, authorised its director Hermann Panzinger to “negotiate the return of objects from the collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin as part of the joint negotiations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the competent authorities in Nigeria.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Daily Beast: Russian Military Hackers Are Pummeling Top Targets in U.S and Europe. “In an alert issued Thursday morning, the National Security Agency warned that hackers working for Russia’s General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 85th Main Special Service Center (GTsSS)—better known among Americans as the hackers who went after the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016—are primarily pummeling targets in the U.S. and Europe.”

Washington Post: The Cybersecurity 202: Activists and lawmakers increase calls for ban on federal use of facial recognition technology. “A new report by the Government Accountability Office, the federal government’s main watchdog, makes it all the more necessary that the technology be banned at the federal level, they argue. At least 20 U.S. government agencies have deployed facial recognition technology since 2015, with many not knowing which systems they’re using, the nonpartisan watchdog found. The watchdog recommended that many of the agencies better track the systems and assess their risks.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Universiteit Leiden: Observation, simulation, and AI join forces to reveal a clear universe. “Japanese astronomers have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) technique to remove noise in astronomical data due to random variations in galaxy shapes. After extensive training and testing on large mock data created by supercomputer simulations, they then applied this new tool to actual data from Japan’s Subaru Telescope and found that the mass distribution derived from using this method is consistent with the currently accepted models of the Universe. This is a powerful new tool for analyzing big data from current and planned astronomy surveys.” Good evening, Internet…

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