NEW RESOURCES

Stabroek News: Virtual platform FineArt.gy launched to showcase Guyanese artwork. “The platform allows artists to showcase and sell their work, with information about the various pieces displayed through individualized links created on the website. The display includes paintings, photography, ceramics, sculptures and mixed media. Among others, the website features paintings from Jermana Defreitas, Akeem King and Michael Griffith, along with photography from Reshi Rampersaud, Keno George and Michael Lam.” This site is nominally about ecommerce, but I get so little about Guyana I wanted to include it.

NASA: Track Sea-level Changes Anywhere with NASA’s New SEA Tool. “NASA’s newly updated online tool, SEA (Sea-level Evaluation and Assessment), provides a snapshot of the ocean’s rise or fall for locations across the planet. It covers the period between 1993 and 2019. In most places, you’ll find sea levels rising; globally averaged sea level has increased significantly over decades. But quirks of ocean currents, rising or falling coastlines, and even gravity itself mean sea-level change is not uniform across the planet.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CDC: New Updates to the US Cancer Statistics Data Visualizations Tool. “The US Cancer Statistics Data Visualizations tool provides quick access to data for researchers, clinicians, policy makers, and public health professionals. New data have been added, and the tool’s layout has been redesigned to improve navigation, data-sharing options, and visual displays.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: Google vs. Bing vs. DuckDuckGo: The Ultimate Search Engine Showdown. “Choosing your go-to search engine is a very personal choice. It’s important to consider your needs and preferences when selecting one. While Google certainly dominates the search engine market, its two rivals, Bing and DuckDuckGo, also offer impressive features. Let’s take a closer look at each of the search engines and examine which one is the best.”

Make Tech Easier: 9 of the Best Apps and Tools to Create and Edit GIFs. “GIF is an image file format that, unlike other image formats, supports animations. Basically, you can record short animations and save and share them in the GIF format. The format is now widely used for Internet jokes as well as for tutorials. We cover several apps and services that will let you create and modify GIF images on your device. Once you get them on your device, you’ll be able to create GIFs, convert videos to GIFs, turn data into GIFs, and even modify your existing GIF images.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BBC: DR Congo’s Gungu museum: Thousands of artefacts destroyed in fire. “Thousands of historic artefacts have been destroyed in the Congolese town of Gungu after a private museum burnt to ashes. The objects at the National Museum of Gungu represent one of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s most important collections, says the BBC’s Emery Makumeno in the capital, Kinshasa. At least 8,000 or 9,000 items dating back to the end of the 18th Century were ruined.”

9to5 Google: Google Assistant on Pixel 6 is randomly placing phone calls for some, here’s how to stop it. “Between the impressive camera upgrade and the all-new Google Tensor chip inside, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have been surprisingly popular phones. As is often the case, though, Pixel phones are not without their issues, especially at launch. The latest issue, reported numerous times on Reddit and confirmed to us by a few readers, sees Pixel 6 phones placing unexpected calls – sometimes referred to as ‘pocket dialing’ or ‘phantom calling’ – to people in the contacts list. Typically, this issue occurs when the phone is not in active use, which makes it all the more confusing for the person receiving the call.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Fox 8 Cleveland: Missing teen girl rescued after using TikTok hand gestures to let driver know she was in danger. “Investigators rescued a missing North Carolina teen and arrested the man with her during a traffic stop in Kentucky Thursday afternoon. According to the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, a caller told 911 that the female passenger in the silver Toyota in front of them on I–75 was making hand gestures that are known on TikTok to represent ‘violence at home,’ ‘I need help’ and ‘domestic violence.'”

CNET: World Cup phishing scams spotted a year ahead of the event. “Researchers for Kaspersky said Friday that between Aug. 15 and Oct. 15 of this year, they detected 11,000 phishing emails mainly containing scam invites to bid on contracts to supply goods or services for the World Cup. According to the researchers, this is a new tactic that’s not typical of sports-related fraud.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

Boing Boing: Fun web app for doodling inspired by its creator’s elementary school doodling “rules” . “Boing Boing contributor and esteemed author Clive Thompson created a delightful Web app for doodling. The design of the ‘Right-Angle Doodling Machine’ was inspired by a curious set of rules that Clive followed when doodling in elementary school.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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