NEW RESOURCES

Bureau of Land Management: Explore Bears Ears National Monument With 3D Guided Tours Of The Mule Canyon Village And House On Fire. “In partnership with the Bureau of Land Management, the non-profit CyArk has produced a 3D guided tour of two prominent locations in Bears Ears National Monument. This virtual visit is an opportunity to experience locations in Bears Ears National Monument, even if you can’t go there in person. You can listen to BLM employees, explore the site using your mouse or curser, and learn more about the people who build these prehistoric structures.”

9to5 Google: Google Search adds 3D monuments, including Big Ben, Eiffel Tower, Parthenon, & Tokyo Skytree. “Google started showing 3D animals in Search last year but has since expanded to a whole host of AR objects covering space, science, and athletes. The latest expansion sees Google Search add 3D monuments.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Fold3: New UK Royal Navy Records Added! . “We have added a new UK collection of Royal Navy Officer Patrol Service Cards to our archives. These cards are dated 1904-1970 and can provide insights for those who served in the Royal Navy Patrol Service (RNPS). These records were created from microfilm held at The National Archives, with the original paper records located at the Imperial War Museum.”

The Verge: Google announces grab bag of new Android features for the end of 2021. “Google has a bevy of new features coming soon to Android, including new widgets for YouTube Music, Google Play Books, and Google Photos; new Android Auto features; and updates for Google Assistant and Google Photos.”

Reuters: Ex-Google scientist Gebru opens AI institute year after tumultuous exit. “Timnit Gebru, the computer scientist whose disputed exit from Google’s artificial intelligence research team prompted debate across the tech industry about diversity and censorship, said on Thursday she has launched a small lab to continue her work freely.”

Fierce Healthcare: Google rolls out new search tools for health information on Medicare services, languages spoken by providers. “Google is introducing new search features to make finding health information more accessible. Announced Thursday in a blog post by Hema Budaraju, director of Google Search’s social impact division, the additions make it easier for patients to seek out doctors near them that fulfill their individual needs, addressing questions like whether a provider accepts Medicare or what languages that provider speaks.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

ProPublica: How Steve Bannon Has Exploited Google Ads to Monetize Extremism. “Almost a year ago, Google took a major step to ensure that its ubiquitous online ad network didn’t put money in the pocket of Steve Bannon, the indicted former adviser to Donald Trump. The company kicked Bannon off YouTube, which Google owns, after he called for the beheading of Anthony Fauci and urged Trump supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6 to try to overturn the presidential election results. Google also confirmed to ProPublica that it has at times blocked ads from appearing on Bannon’s War Room website alongside individual articles that violate Google’s rules. But Bannon found a loophole in Google’s policies that let him keep earning ad money on his site’s homepage.”

Gobbler Country: UVA’s Scott Stadium Name Changes on Google Maps. “I don’t know how the Google Maps information is maintained or updated. The Google Maps entry for Lane Stadium North has been changed back to the previous name of Scott Stadium and the latest photos reverted to something less VT-centric. I don’t know when it happened, but for a few short hours yesterday it read as what you see above, and I was able to collect the screen shots before the Google Maps information was changed back.” Lane Stadium is apparently the name of the Virginia Tech football stadium; this is a sports prank I’m not fully-equipped to appreciate.

SECURITY & LEGAL

WRAL: Police use-of-force, discipline database to be kept secret under new law. “Not only are local governments and others forbidden from cataloguing critical incidents publicly, they also can’t create a database of what the budget refers to as ‘disciplinary actions taken against law enforcement officers,’ which may not always lead to certification issues.”

Threatpost: Researchers Flag 300K Banking Trojan Infections from Google Play in 4 Months. “Overcoming Google Play app restrictions, attackers have successfully racked up more than 300,000 banking trojan installations over just the past four months in the official Android app marketplace.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Daily Tar Heel: UNC-based researchers developing tool to teach Cherokee language. “The Cherokee language is endangered. Very few native speakers remain in America — much less in North Carolina. To help produce more fluent Cherokee speakers, a group of professors and students are working to create a software program that will translate English materials to Cherokee.”

Search Engine Journal: Google’s New Pathways AI Is Closer to Mammalian Brain. “Google announced a new AI architecture that powerfully expands Google’s AI computing ability in a profound way. The new AI architecture is is a single model that can be trained to do millions of things, which Google says is closer to a mammalian brain.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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