NEW RESOURCES

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: Statistical Insights: A new near-real-time global database on CO2 emissions from air transport. “Air transport facilitates international trade and tourism and contributes to economic growth and job creation, but it also produces carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that contribute to global warming. The OECD has developed a new database using a near real-time data source from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to produce estimates of CO2 emissions from air transport.”

EVENTS

The Verge: Google I/O takes place May 11th and 12th, and it will be fully available online. “Google’s big annual developer conference, Google I/O, will take place May 11th and 12th, the company announced Wednesday. The event will once again be fully online, though it sounds like at least some of the conference will be streamed live from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, a frequent Google I/O venue.” The event will be free and open to the public.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Campus Technology: Open Textbook Library Reaches 1,000 Titles. “Just in time for its 10-year anniversary, the Open Textbook Library’s collection of open education resources has surpassed 1,000 titles. Launched in 2012, the Library is an online catalog of openly licensed materials hosted by the Open Education Network (OEN), a membership community based at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Open Education.”

Google Blog: New tools for hotels to reconnect with travelers. “As travel interest rebounds, businesses need easy ways to connect with potential customers. So today, we’re announcing new tools to help hoteliers find people who are ready to book their next trip.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: These 4 Chrome Extensions Let You Browse With Your Voice. “Google has a huge range of impressive accessibility functions baked into its Chrome browser by default. But if you’re the type of person who struggles with extended typing and clicking, or just prefers to use their voice, then you might find the browser a little wanting. Luckily, the Chrome Web Store has an incredible slew of extensions you can use to adjust just about any part of your browsing experience.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

STAT News: Doctors often turn to Google Translate to talk to patients. They want a better option. “‘I do think it is the future,’ said Breena Taira, a clinical emergency medicine researcher at UCLA Health whose recent study evaluated Google-translated discharge instructions in seven languages. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft, which have invested heavily in voice recognition software, have expressed interest in exploring medical translation. ‘We just have to be really aware of what the limitations are,’ Taira said, including significantly lower accuracy rates for languages that aren’t widely spoken.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

KCRA: Bill would allow lawsuits against social media companies for addicting children. “A new assembly bill being introduced in California would put big tech companies on the hook if children get addicted to the technology and experience side effects, like depression or even suicide. The bill would establish that companies running big social media platforms, like TikTok and Instagram, would have a duty not to addict children. Violating that duty could then open them up to facing lawsuits.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Laptop Magazine: Google-inspired smart glasses for the blind adds eye-catching new features — here’s how it works. “AI-powered smart glasses, tailor-made for the blind and visually impaired, made a splash in the adaptive tech industry when Envision, an award-winning assistive technology innovator, debuted the snazzy, tech-infused eyewear at the 2020 CSUN Conference. Today, Envision announced that it packed its high-tech spectacles with brand spankin’ new, eye-catching features that will enhance the day-to-day lives of low-vision users.”

WIRED: The End of Infinite Data Storage Can Set You Free. “WHILE THE AGE of inexpensive or free personal data storage is far from over, its slowing expansion presents an opportunity to reimagine our relationship with the information that we possess as individuals and as a society. At the individual level, we might develop better systems for organizing, prioritizing, and even discarding the information that we accumulate—not because we’re concerned about running out of space, but because our hoarding behavior diminishes the utility of the information that is truly valuable. A more decisive attitude toward what belongs in our personal archives might improve our understanding of what information we actually value, while also enabling us to undertake similar efforts at the collective scale.”

Techdirt: With Truth Social Having Trouble Attracting Users, Will Trump/Nunes Realize That There’s More To Managing A Social Media Site Than Grievances?. “…some of us have been pointing out for years that there’s a lot more to building a successful internet company than the idea or publicity. Execution matters, and mere grievances are not execution. And, sometimes, part of that execution is figuring out how to make your site into the kind of place people actually want to visit. And, sometimes, that means banning trolls, assholes, and hate mongers… rather than pretending that’s what makes a site useful.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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