NEW RESOURCES

Australian Academy of Science: New educational website to help teachers promote equitable learning. “Teachers are provided with examples that will help their students to ‘figure things out’ through problem-oriented teaching and learning, all aligned to the Australian Curriculum. The program incorporates sensemaking, a way to build on individual student experiences, and is designed to develop each student’s confidence to engage with the world through science.” The resources appear to me to be Australia-focused but not Australia-specific.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Flickr is paywalling the ability to upload NSFW photos. “Flickr isn’t very good at making money, but as the old adage goes, sex sells. So, in an attempt to draw in more paying subscribers, Flickr changed its content guidelines to only allow Flickr Pro users to post ‘restricted’ or ‘moderate’ content, which includes photos of ‘full-frontal nudity and sexual acts.'” Honestly had no idea that Flickr allowed NSFW content in the first place.

USEFUL STUFF

WIRED: How to Leave Your Photos to Someone When You Die. “LEAVING YOUR FAMILY photos to your children, grandchildren, and extended clan used to be easy—you went and died, and they would find the albums gathering dust in your attic or tucked away in a drawer. Sure, there were a lot of terrible holiday snapshots to sort through, but there were always some treasured photos to be kept in a wallet, framed beside a bed, or pinned to a dart board. Now though, things are trickier. Most people’s photos are kept on their smartphones, locked away behind passwords and encryption.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Verge: How WordPress And Tumblr Are Keeping The Internet Weird. “Matt Mullenweg is the CEO of Automattic, the company that owns WordPress.com, which he co-founded, and Tumblr, the irrepressible social network it acquired from the wreckage of AOL, Yahoo, and Verizon. Matt’s point of view is that the world is better off when the web is open and fun, and Automattic builds and acquires products that help that goal along. That bet is perhaps most pronounced with WordPress itself.”

The Guardian: Malaysian government’s ‘gay conversion’ app pulled by Google Play. “An app produced by the Malaysian government that promised to help the LGBTI community ‘return to nature’ has been removed from the Google Play store, after it was found to be in breach of the platform’s guidelines. The app was first released in July 2016, but attracted fresh attention after it was shared on Twitter by the Malaysian government’s Islamic development department.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Sydney Morning Herald: Google admits John Barilaro was defamed in YouTube videos, court told. “Internet giant Google has agreed it published defamatory claims about former NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro in two YouTube videos and when the case proceeds to trial next week it will mainly explore how much should be paid in damages, a court has been told. Mr Barilaro sued Google, which owns YouTube, and political commentator Jordan Shanks in the Federal Court last year alleging he was defamed by videos published on the Friendlyjordies channel titled bruz and Secret Dictatorship.”

Electropages: Google files new patent for skin-touch interface. “The new patent describes different technologies and methods for deploying gestures that can be drawn on the skin with a finger, and the worn device will receive these gestures as commands. Unlike visual systems that see a gesture or a touch screen that can read gestures, the patent describes the earbud’s ability to measure skin acceleration and deformation to determine what gesture has been done. This would effectively turn the user’s body into an interactive system with no interface or need to wear a circuit for reading inputs.”

NJ .com: N.J. Court upholds texting conviction of driver using Google Maps. “A state Appellate Court has upheld the conviction of a motorist who was cited for texting while driving after he tapped the password into his cell phone and opened the Google Maps app to get directions.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: Brain-Imaging Studies Hampered by Small Data Sets, Study Finds. “Researchers have long used imaging technology to try to understand mental-health ailments. But with relatively few participants, such studies may not be producing valid findings.”

Route Fifty: States Must Expand Data Sources for Strategic Flood Resilience. “Failure to incorporate forward-looking climate data and demographic trends will limit states’ ability to develop effective flood mitigation plans, new research finds.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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