NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from Deccan Herald: Wondering what to do with old gramophone records?. “Vikram Sampath, historian and author, launched Archive of Indian Music (AIM) in 2011, a private non-profit trust, to digitise and preserve old and rare Indian gramophone records. The digitised collection is available online on Soundcloud, for free.”

Public Religion Research Institute: PRRI Releases Groundbreaking 2020 Census of American Religion. “The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) today released the inaugural 2020 Census of American Religion, which provides unprecedented county-level data on religious identity and diversity in the United States. Based on interviews with more than 500,000 respondents between 2013 and 2020, the census report reveals the shifting dynamics of American religious affiliation across geography, race and ethnicity, age, and political affiliation over the last decade. It provides the most detailed estimates of American religious affiliation since the U.S. Census Bureau last collected religious data in 1957.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NewsBlur Blog: Redesigning NewsBlur on the web, iOS, and Android. “This past year we’ve focused on maintenance and improving quality behind the scenes. It just so happens that the urge to clean is so strong that this work extended to the front-end. After months of work, today we’re launching a redesigned NewsBlur for all three platforms: on the web, on iOS, and on Android.”

I have been a happy, full-freight-paying customer of NewsBlur for many years. Their new design was rough on my eyes as there wasn’t much contrast between the text and background, but after I tagged them on Twitter they gave me a bit of CSS to fix it and showed me in the preferences where to install it . Now everything’s great. I LOVE NewsBlur.

Ars Technica: Google Meet puts the clamps on free users, imposes 1-hour meeting limit. “Google Meet was rushed out the door to meet the video-conferencing needs of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the service’s launch presented a deal for free users: a video call limit of 24 hours for group calls. Today, 9to5Google confirmed that Google’s pandemic promotion is over, and Google Meet now limits free users to 1-hour group video calls.”

TechRadar: Smugmug Source is like Google Photos for pro photographers. “Most free online photo storage services play well with JPEGs, but support for all flavors of raw format is less common, as is the ability to preview, organize and search them easily. This is the aim of Smugmug Source, which is an add-on to its existing photo storage source for keen snappers who want unlimited online backups for their raw snaps.”

USEFUL STUFF

State Archives of North Carolina: Family Oral Histories: Pre-Interview. “In this post, 2 out of 4, we will explore the pre-interview portion of creating oral histories. Specifically, we are interested in thinking about the physical and digital considerations and limitations about conducting oral history. You will learn how to take the thoughts, themes, and tailored questions you created in the planning stage and begin to apply them to the interview.”

PC Magazine: Done With Facebook? How to Transfer Your Posts to Another Service. “Facebook now allows you to transfer a copy of your posts to Google Docs, Blogger, and WordPress…. One limitation here is that the transfer option didn’t work for me in Firefox. Instead, you may have to use Chrome or Edge for this process. For a more in-depth understanding of this feature, check out Facebook’s help page. Now, let’s see how it plays out.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Daily Dot: This crowdsourced campaign wants to know the truth about everyone’s actual internet speeds. “Consumer Reports launched a website, called BroadbandTogether, where internet users can take an internet speed test, upload their internet bill, and answer a few questions that will be analyzed and help Consumer Reports ‘to press internet service providers and government officials to deliver greater access to fair, affordable, reliable internet services.'”

ZDNet: Best free website builder 2021: Easy-to-use top picks . “Working with a website builder is relatively easy because they offer a what-you-see-is-what-you-get editing interface — meaning what you see. At the same time, you edit your site is what you will actually see if your website was live and viewed in a browser. The best website builders are rich in features that include professionally designed website templates, easy-to-use, drag-and-drop editors, and onboard hosting services.”

Dallas Observer: ‘Find Those Bodies’: Behind One Man’s Push to Restore a North Texas Freedman’s Cemetery. “Willie Hudspeth drove past the burial site the first time he went looking for the bodies. The longtime activist was trekking down a country road in search of a freedman’s cemetery in Pilot Point, a small town north of Denton. But over time, nature had run its course. Grass and weeds blanketed some 400 graves of St. John’s Cemetery, the final resting place for a community composed of freed slaves. Before a fence was installed, cattle would occasionally roam through the wooded grounds.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: Google Seeks Settlement With Putin Ally as Huge Fines Loom. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google is seeking an out-of-court settlement after a Russian ruling that it must unblock the YouTube account of a TV channel owned by a U.S.-sanctioned backer of President Vladimir Putin.”

BBC: REvil: Ransomware gang websites disappear from internet. “Websites for a Russian-linked ransomware gang blamed for attacks on hundreds of businesses worldwide have gone offline. Monitors say a payment website and a blog run by the REvil group became suddenly unreachable on Tuesday.” Good morning, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!