NEW RESOURCES

WMTW: A new app will help you plan your next snowmobile trip in Maine. “Maine has more than 14,000 miles of groomed snowmobile trails and now there is a new app to help you plan your next trip out on your sled. The SledTRX app has updated trail maps for the entire state along with listings of points of interest like gas stations, restaurants, lodging and sled shops. It is launching for iOS in the app store soon.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

British Library Endangered Archives Blog: New online – December 2021. “This month’s round-up of newly available collections features archives from India, Romania, Moldova, and Indonesia.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: The 7 Best Distraction-Free Online Writing Tools. “It’s easy to lose focus while writing. And the cluttered editors with distracting menus and buttons make the matter worse. Thankfully, there are several minimalist online editors that let you focus on writing by removing distractions. Here, we discuss the seven best distraction-free online writing tools.” The last tool, Writer, is the one I use to do ResearchBuzz. I’m typing in it right now; it’s excellent.

Noupe: Top 10 online form builders of 2022 . “From designing easy-to-read forms that your prospects want to fill out, to data-collection forms that help with webinar registration, reservations, and contact tracing, it’s important to work with the best online form builder that helps you meet your specific conversion goals.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Census Memo Cites ‘Unprecedented’ Meddling by Trump Administration. “A newly disclosed memorandum citing ‘unprecedented’ meddling by the Trump administration in the 2020 census and circulated among top Census Bureau officials indicates how strongly they sought to resist efforts by the administration to manipulate the count for Republican political gain.”

It’s Nice That: The Al-Ameen archive preserves a precious insight into joyful Palestinian wedding culture between the 1960s-90s. “Raya Manaa is a Palestinian photographer based between Istanbul and Palestine. She grew up in a Palestinian village in upper Galilee called Majd Al-Kurum. One of the oldest olive trees in Palestine grows in this village. It is around 4,000-5,000 years old, Raya tells It’s Nice That. Thus ‘Majd Al-Kurum’ translates as ‘Glory of the Grove’. The wistful way Raya recalls the village of her childhood continues as she begins to tell us the story of her father’s photo archive.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Russia fines Google for not deleting banned content. “A Moscow court on Monday said it had ordered Alphabet’s Google to pay 4 million roubles ($52,526) for not removing access to content banned in Russia, the latest in a string of fines for the U.S. tech giant.”

The Next Web: Cryptobros splash millions on rare ‘Dune’ book, think they own the copyright. “The auction in question closed on November 22, 2021. It was handled by Christie’s and we can confirm that, yes, the book did sell for €2.66 million. The estimate for the lot was between €25 thousand and €35 thousand. This means Spice DAO paid roughly between 76 and 100 times the asking price.”

Houston Chronicle: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton violated open records law, says Travis County DA. “The Travis County district attorney has determined that Attorney General Ken Paxton violated the state’s open records law by not turning over his communications from last January, when he appeared at the pro-Trump rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol. The district attorney gave Paxton four days to remedy the issue or face a lawsuit.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Wired: When It Comes to Health Care, AI Has a Long Way to Go . “THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC has prompted countless acts of individual heroism and some astounding collective feats of science. Pharmaceutical companies used new technology to develop highly effective vaccines in record time. A new type of clinical trial has remade our understanding of what works, and doesn’t work, against Covid-19. But when the UK’s Alan Turing Institute looked for evidence of how artificial intelligence had helped with the crisis, it didn’t find much to celebrate.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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