NEW RESOURCES

AdWeek: Adobe Launches a Striking Digital Collection That Celebrates Black Roller Skating Culture. “…while the sport found a new audience (and some viral love on TikTok), roller-skating has deep roots in Black culture, with skating rinks serving as venues for desegregation protests in the ‘60s and hip-hop concerts in the ‘80s. Adobe and Emmy, Grammy and Tony-award winning actress and singer Cynthia Erivo are highlighting that connection with ‘Stories on Skates,’ a series of six digital animations created using the software company’s 3D tools.

University of Florida: Identify weeds fast with new online tool. “Florida weeds run aplenty, especially in the summer. Getting rid of weeds starts with proper identification, and UF/IFAS experts developed an online tool that organizes weeds by flower color for fast identification. The tool helps identify 130 of the most common weeds found in Florida.”

Smithsonian Magazine: James Smithson’s Family Squabble. “James Smithson, … was the illegitimate child of the first Duke of Northumberland and Elizabeth Hungerford Keate Macie. In the late 18th century, his mother and her sister went head-to-head in court over ownership of property springing from their ancestral roots in the Hungerford family, which had been prominent in the medieval era. Today, to mark the Institution’s 175th anniversary, the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives launches the virtual exhibition ‘A Tale of Two Sisters: The Hungerford Deed and James Smithson’s Legacy,’ providing viewers an opportunity to ‘turn the pages’ of this recently recovered document.'”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BBC: TikTok named as the most downloaded app of 2020. “TikTok was the world’s most downloaded app in 2020 as it took the top spot from Facebook Messenger, according to digital analytics company App Annie. The Chinese video-sharing platform is the only app not owned by Facebook to make the global top five of downloads.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Scotsman: Loch Ness Google Maps: what is the street view picture glitch, why has it gone viral – and has it been sorted?. “Google Maps users were met with the unexpected when they tried to look up the famous loch via the app’s street view mode. Instead of an image of the striking Scottish landscape, they found a selfie of a naked man standing on what appeared to be the patio of an apartment.”

Institute of Museum and Library Services: IMLS Awards More Than 200 Grants to Help Museums Meet Community Needs. “The Institute of Museum and Library Services today announced grant awards totaling $29,545,363 for museums across the nation to improve services to their communities. Through the agency’s largest competitive grant program, Museums for America, and its special initiatives, Museums Empowered and Inspire! Grants for Small Museums, a total of 208 projects were selected from 758 applications requesting $99,543,356. Institutions receiving awards are matching them with $35,214,339 in non-federal funds.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Deutsche Welle: Bangladesh arrests social media star over dance video at mosque. “Police in Bangladesh on Monday announced the arrest of a 20-year-old for his role in filming, starring in, and distributing, a video of himself dancing with a woman on the steps of a mosque in Cumilla, just east of the capital Dhaka. Authorities say they arrested social media personality Yasin at his home in nearby Devidwar on charges that he hurt Muslim religious sentiment as defined under Bangladesh’s 2018 Digital Security Act.”

Ars Technica: New “Glowworm attack” recovers audio from devices’ power LEDs. “Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have demonstrated a novel way to spy on electronic conversations. A new paper released today outlines a novel passive form of the TEMPEST attack called Glowworm, which converts minute fluctuations in the intensity of power LEDs on speakers and USB hubs back into the audio signals that caused those fluctuations.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Mongabay: New artificial intelligence tool helps forecast Amazon deforestation. “Nearly 10,000 square kilometers of the Brazilian Amazon, an area the size of Lebanon, is at high risk of being cleared, according to a new tool using artificial intelligence technology to help forecast deforestation before it actually happens. Named PrevisIA (from the Portuguese previsão for ‘forecast’ and IA for ‘artificial intelligence’), the tool analyzes images provided by European Space Agency satellites, and through an algorithm created by the Brazilian conservation nonprofit Imazon, finds areas prone to deforestation.”

Phys .org: Importance of saving Indigenous languages. “Connection to country, culture and community is intrinsically linked to teaching and retaining Indigenous languages, a Flinders University communications expert says. Flinders University Emeritus Professor Andrew Butcher, who has been researching Aboriginal languages of Australia for more than 30 years, highlights the importance of preserving First Nations language, including pronunciation and other details in a recent paper in three Central Australian languages.” Good evening, Internet…

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