NEW RESOURCES

Philadelphia Magazine: Philly Entrepreneur Creates Search Engine for Jobs That Don’t Require Marijuana Testing. “Let’s say you’re on the hunt for a job. So you turn to any of a number of job search engines out there — maybe Monster, maybe Zip Recruiter, maybe Indeed — where you find dozens or even hundreds of jobs that might be a good fit. You go through the application process, only to find out later that your dream job requires drug testing. You, like so many Americans, are a regular marijuana user. This is the problem that the new job search engine Phynally seeks to solve. The Philadelphia-based company accepts job postings only from employers that don’t require job candidates to undergo drug testing for marijuana. The site went into beta mode in the spring and started accepting paid postings — there aren’t many yet — in June.”

NJ: Data detailing millions of N.J. State Police traffic stops available online for first time. “Residents can analyze and download information about more than 6 million stops, from the beginning of 2009 through the end of last year. The website does not name individual troopers or drivers, but it does explain why somebody was stopped, the driver’s race, if physical force was used and if any criminal charges were issued, among other details released Thursday.” I was able to access the data fine and I’m not in New Jersey; I think that’s just the way the story was written.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: Microsoft’s KB5004945 update to fix PrintNightmare is breaking some printers. “The patch is not only ineffective — although Microsoft disagrees — it is also, very much in the tradition of patches for Windows, causing issues. People installing the KB5004945 patch report that they then have problems with printing.”

Tubefilter: TikTok Adds Fast-Forward, Rewind For Longer Videos. “TikTok appears to have quietly rolled out a seek bar that lets users fast-forward and rewind videos. Before now, the platform provided no way for folks to affect video playthrough. If they wanted to watch one specific part of a video again, they had to rewatch the entire clip.”

USEFUL STUFF

Digital Inspiration: How to Replace Accented Characters (diacritics) with English letters in Google Sheets. “The REMOVE_ACCENTED function for Google Sheets will replace all accented characters in the referenced cell, like the letters è, õ, ā, ĝ and so on with their normal Latin equivalents.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Washington Post: Why Palestinians are uniting around watermelon emoji. “Raising the red, green, white and black Palestinian flag is banned in Israel. So the watermelon — locally grown and similarly colored — has for decades served in Palestinian iconography as a subversive stand-in. In recent weeks, the watermelon has resurged on social media, as part of what some Palestinians say are efforts to preempt or circumvent online censorship and content moderation, in the face of heightened enforcement sparked by the Israel-Hamas conflict in May and the attendant wave of grass-roots Palestinian activism.”

WSMV: ‘How to’ videos of false positive Covid tests removed from TikTok. “Faking a positive Covid test to get out of school is what some students in the United Kingdom are doing and they are putting their fake COVID tests on social media. TikTok blocked the hashtag ‘fake Covid tests’ because some TikTok users in the United Kingdom were posting videos of how to create a fake positive COVID test.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Indian Express: Facebook asked to appear before Delhi assembly panel, Supreme Court refuses to quash summons. “‘Developments around the world… reflect rising concerns across borders… whether the liberal debate which… platforms’ like Facebook ‘profess to encourage has itself become a casualty’, the Supreme Court said Thursday while refusing to quash the summons issued by the Delhi Assembly’s Committee on Peace and Harmony to the social media giant in connection with the 2020 Northeast Delhi communal riots.”

New York Times: Four States Start Inquiries Into Recurring Donation Tactics of Both Parties. “Four state attorneys general have begun looking into the online fund-raising practices of both political parties, specifically seeking information about the use of prechecked boxes to enroll contributors in recurring donation programs that spurred a wave of fraud complaints and demands for refunds last year.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Brookings Institution: Facebook’s FTC court win is a much-needed wake-up call for Congress. “Three elements in the court decision bolster the case for change by revealing how US antitrust law as conceived and practiced today is unable to cope with the growing challenges of Big Tech. The many references in the opinion to ‘lawful monopolies’ underscore that current antitrust doctrine, a durable monopoly is not illegal. Indeed, current doctrine also encourages companies to treat the goal of a permanent lawful monopoly as an incentive to develop an attractive new technology or service.”

Akron Beacon Journal: Study: LeBron James has received 4 times more abusive Twitter messages than any other athlete. “Athletes often take abuse on social media. But a new study by Pickswise — a sports betting website — says Akron native and NBA star LeBron James takes much more than any other athlete in the world. The study says James received 122,568 abusive messages, which is an average of nearly 336 per day.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

KRON: San Jose airport launches new free digital library for travelers. “All passengers, regardless of age, can download up to four e-books using a smartphone, tablet or laptop. Once downloaded, readers can access the text offline almost anywhere they are traveling to during their loan period of three weeks. The digital library has a collection of bestsellers, fiction and non-fiction, as well as children’s and young adult books that are available in English and Spanish. The collection is updated monthly.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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