NEW RESOURCES

British Library: Adding 1,277 East African maps to Georeferencer. “I’m delighted that 1,277 maps from our War Office Archive have been added to the Georeferencer in the last few days. These military intelligence maps relate to Eastern Africa, particularly modern-day Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somaliland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and parts of South Africa. The British Library has catalogued, conserved and digitised the archive with generous funding from the Indigo Trust.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Tubefilter: Facebook, Instagram Will No Longer Serve Ads To Users Under Age 18 Based On Interests, Web Activity. “Instagram and its parent company Facebook have announced a series of changes today that are designed to protect younger users. Going forward, both platforms said that advertisers will only be able to target users under age 18 based on their age, gender, and location.”

TechCrunch: Pinterest rolls out new features that let creators make money from Pins. “Now, creators will be able to tag products in their Idea Pins — a video-first feature the company first launched this spring — to make their content ‘shoppable.’ They’ll also now be able to earn commissions through affiliate links and partner with brands on sponsored content, much like on other social platforms like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: How to Create Documents and Collaborate Directly in Google Chat. “Collaborating on a document in Google Chat saves you time and a couple of steps. With a simple click, you can create a Docs, Sheets, or Slides document and work on it together right in a Google Chat room.”

Lifehacker: Use This Free App to Create a Shareable Travel Journal With Minimal Effort. “The app is called Hoptale, and it utilizes photo metadata to pull information about a destination, and uses it to put together a travel journal. In addition to photos and facts, you can document other aspects of your trip, including maps of the places you visited, and your itinerary—which, the company says, can be done in as few as 10 minutes.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Disinformation for Hire, a Shadow Industry, Is Quietly Booming . “Private firms, straddling traditional marketing and the shadow world of geopolitical influence operations, are selling services once conducted principally by intelligence agencies. They sow discord, meddle in elections, seed false narratives and push viral conspiracies, mostly on social media. And they offer clients something precious: deniability.”

StateTech: North Carolina Unveils Digital Equity Office to Help Close Divide. “Earlier this month, Gov. Roy Cooper today unveiled a new Office of Digital Equity and Literacy, which will spearhead efforts to execute on Cooper’s plan to use about $1.2 billion in American Rescue Plan funds to close the digital divide in the state by 2025. The office will be part of the state’s recently created Division of Broadband and Digital Equity within the North Carolina Department of Information Technology.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BBC: Voice cloning of growing interest to actors and cybercriminals. “Voice cloning is when a computer program is used to generate a synthetic, adaptable copy of a person’s voice. From a recording of someone talking, the software is able to then replicate his or her voice speaking any words or sentences that you type into a keyboard.”

Reuters: Google takes legal action over Germany’s expanded hate-speech law. “Google said on Tuesday that it was taking legal action over an expanded version of Germany’s hate-speech law that recently took effect, saying its provisions violated the right to privacy of its users.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Verge: This YouTube channel is using AI to gloriously remaster classic game intros and cutscenes. “Long before Overwatch normalized the practice of releasing Pixar-quality animated shorts for each new character, Blizzard’s Diablo II and Capcom’s Onimusha 3 put us in the demon slaying mood with incredible mini-movies stretching to six minutes each. But if you dare try watching these classics on a modern 4K TV or even a 1080p monitor, they’ll look like a pixelated mess. That’s where a YouTube channel named Upscale and machine learning comes in — making them look nearly as good as they did on your old CRT.” Good evening, Internet…

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