NEW RESOURCES

University of Sydney: New tool tracks countries’ resource footprints . “Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, has teamed up with fellow researchers from the University of Sydney, UNSW Sydney, Vienna University and the United Nations Environment Programme to develop the material footprint indicator. The tool tracks and monitors reporting done by each country on international material supply chains to deliver credible, science-based information on countries’ material footprints, and was described in Nature Sustainability today.”

RVA Hub: Library of Virginia launches Virginia’s Deaf Cultural Digital Library Website. “The Library of Virginia is pleased to present Virginia’s Deaf Culture Digital Library…. a website with resources and information for the commonwealth’s Deaf community. A collaboration between the Central Rappahannock Regional Library and the Library of Virginia, the Deaf Culture Digital Library was established in 2021 after a two-year review and development process that included interviews with Deaf community members and research into Virginia resources for the Deaf.”

Down the Tubes: Who remembers “Spellbound”, DC Thomson’s mystery comic? New database launched. “Comics archivist Julia Round has created a guide to DC Thomson’s fondly-remembered girls ‘mystery-thriller’ comic of the 1970s, Spellbound, complementing her ongoing research into gothic comics, which also includes Misty.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Washington Post: Dive into the data behind the news with How To Read This Chart, a newsletter from Philip Bump. “In How To Read This Chart, we’ll consider good charts, parse complex ones and discuss how bad ones might be improved. We’ll look at ways in which information might be conveyed more effectively with lines than words. Analyses of pop culture, politics, economics — anything where there’s a number in the news. I’ve done this for a while, having worked as a designer at the software company Adobe and spending years translating data from the news into visuals, so I’m confident in serving as your tour guide.”

MakeUseOf: Blender 3.0 Has Arrived! The Best New Features to Try . “Blender has released its highly-anticipated third version, logically named Blender 3.0. And we’re pleased to report that you won’t be disappointed with the release. We certainly aren’t. Long-time Blender fans and newcomers alike will find a lot to love about Blender 3.0. So here are some of the new Blender features that have already significantly improved our own workflow.”

Ars Technica: Take one last look at Google Toolbar, which is now dead. “December 11 marked the birthday of Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer, which Google inexplicably left running nearly 21 years. We say ‘nearly’ because we had this hands-on birthday post written ahead of time, asking, ‘How is this project still running?’, but someone at Google was apparently on the same wavelength. We gave the website one last check before publishing and discovered Google Toolbar is dead. Google shut down the website sometime in the past week, just before its birthday. RIP.”

USEFUL STUFF

PC World: 13 must-know Slack keyboard shortcuts for powerful productivity. “Slack is an incredible communication tool for teams of all shapes and sizes. In order to provide a comprehensive chat and sharing solution, Slack has tons of capabilities beyond just the basic chat functionality. And much of these capabilities can be implemented with easy keyboard shortcuts. Here are some of the best Slack keyboard shortcuts you should absolutely know about.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Where the Despairing Log On, and Learn Ways to Die. WARNING: this is a disturbing story that mentions mental health issues and suicide. “It has the trappings of popular social media, a young audience and explicit content on suicide that other sites don’t allow. It is linked to a long line of lives cut short.”

ABC News (Australia): Wikipedia ‘edit-a-thons’ set to amplify Australian music scene’s Wikipedia presence . “The Record — Australian Music on Wikipedia is holding the first of four events as part of Melbourne Music week this Saturday at the Collingwood Yards. The idea is to train volunteers to edit or create new Wikipedia articles about the domestic music scene to increase its visibility worldwide.”

BBC: Dog mutilation: Breeders cropping ears to follow social media trend . “Networks of breeders are offering to mutilate puppies to follow a social media trend, a BBC investigation has found. Cutting or ‘cropping’ ears involves removing part of the ear flap for cosmetic reasons.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Massive attack against 1.6 million WordPress sites underway. “Wordfence analysts report having detected a massive wave of attacks in the last couple of days, originating from 16,000 IPs and targeting over 1.6 million WordPress sites. The threat actors target four WordPress plugins and fifteen Epsilon Framework themes, one of which has no available patch. Some of the targeted plugins were patched all the way back in 2018, while others had their vulnerabilities addressed as recently as this week.” I’m seeing a definite uptick in compromised WordPress sites in my Google Alerts.

RESEARCH & OPINION

Duke Learning Innovation: Recipe for an Online Course Series: Drones in Environmental Science. “For the past nine months, the Online Duke team has been working on a new course series on unoccupied aircraft systems (UAS or drones), UAS Applications and Operations in Environmental Science, in partnership with the Nicholas School of the Environment (NSOE) and instructor Dave Johnston. The goal of the three-course series is for learners to be able to plan and fly successful drone missions that collect and analyze accurate environmental data.” Good morning, Internet…

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