NEW RESOURCES

Bay State Banner: Black, queer and part of Boston’s history. “Inspired by the racial reckonings of 2020, The History Project, New England’s largest archives of LGBTQ materials, is working to flesh out its collection related to Black queer history. Funded by a Mass Humanities Digital Capacity Grant and spearheaded by Community Curator Fellow Micha Broadnax and Community Connector slandie prinston, Documenting Black Queer Boston will provide physical and digital records for the community to experience and build on.”

The Economist: Debrett’s goes digital. “The entire database [of Debrett’s Peerage & Baronetage], dating back to 1769, is now searchable: 2,000 hereditary titles, more than 700 life peers and around 150,000 assorted relatives—or, as Debrett’s calls them, ‘collateral’ (aristocrats, like accidents, cause fallout). Even including collateral, it covers little more than 0.2% of the British population.” I thought because of what it was it would be expensive, but even an independent researcher could afford it.

UCLA: The Indo-Persian Musical Confluence Welcomes Attendees From Across the Globe. “The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s Department of Ethnomusicology held eight virtual panels and performances as part of ‘The Indo-Persian Musical Confluence’ series November 2020 – May 2021…. The symposia offered a series of grand performances, captivating workshops, and enthralling presentations by scholars and artists whose work relates to Indo-Persian musical cultures that span from the Indian subcontinent to Central Asia and Iran….Many thanks to the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive for making all of the lectures and performances available in their online archive, which is found below.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BNN Bloomberg: Google Is Now Helping Travelers Go Green. “Hotels that take sustainability seriously don’t often shout it from the rooftops, while others tout themselves as green just for offering an option to skip daily laundering of linen. The most significant new tool comes courtesy of Google. Starting on Sept. 22, it will label hotels as ‘Eco-Certified’ in global search results, with a leaf-shaped icon next to the hotel’s name. Clicking on the ‘About’ tab will detail the property’s specific sustainability practices, such as having water use audited by an independent organization or using energy from carbon-free sources.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Washington Post: Facebook is like chairs. No, telephones. No, cars. No …. “Whether it’s chairs or newspapers or telephones or churches or the printing press, Facebook has a pattern of reaching for analogies to older, more widely accepted tools to downplay criticism and justify its march to global ubiquity. It’s a tactic that reveals how Facebook’s leaders rationalize the social network’s problems as they navigate seemingly endless waves of backlash. But historians of technology say that these sorts of comparisons can also be revealing in ways that the people drawing them don’t necessarily intend.”

Refinery29: Sewing TikTok Is Social Media’s Own Project Runway. “The public’s interest in fashion’s behind-the-scenes process has long been a pillar of reality entertainment. It’s what shows like Project Runway and Making The Cut owe their success to. Now, as fashion communities grow on TikTok, people are using the app to showcase their own kind of reality show via short videos, diving into sewing challenges worthy of a Tim Gunn compliment.”

Stanford University: Stanford history project centers on marginalized Bay Area community. “Gabrielle Hecht, professor of history in the School of Humanities and Sciences, and PhD student Aliyah Dunn-Salahuddin are producing an open-access, online archive of Bayview-Hunters Point’s toxic legacy from nuclear waste emptied into the neighborhood’s former shipyard after WWII. Their work arose through funding from a 2020 seed grant from the Sustainability Initiative that inspired Stanford’s new school focused on climate and sustainability.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Hollywood Reporter: Marvel Suing to Keep Rights to ‘Avengers’ Characters From Copyright Termination. “Disney’s Marvel unit is suing to hold on to full control of Avengers characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Falcon, Thor and others. The complaints, which The Hollywood Reporter has obtained, come against the heirs of some late comic book geniuses including Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and Gene Colan. The suits seek declaratory relief that these blockbuster characters are ineligible for copyright termination as works made for hire. If Marvel loses, Disney would have to share ownership of characters worth billions.”

CNN: Hackers breached computer network at key US port but did not disrupt operations. “Suspected foreign government-backed hackers last month breached a computer network at one of the largest ports on the US Gulf Coast, but early detection of the incident meant the intruders weren’t in a position to disrupt shipping operations, according to a Coast Guard analysis of the incident obtained by CNN and a public statement from a senior US cybersecurity official.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Aston University: Social media ‘likes’ found to positively influence healthy food choices – new research. “The research, by psychologists from Aston University’s College of Health and Life Sciences, found that study participants who viewed highly liked mock Instagram posts of fruit and vegetables ate a significantly higher proportion of grapes than cookies, with consumption of grapes increasing by 14 per cent more calories, compared to those who viewed highly liked high calorie foods.” Good evening, Internet…

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