NEW RESOURCES

KGW8: Oregon Department of Education launches website addressing mental health. “School may be out but students’ mental health needs are still front and center for a lot of educators and parents after such a tough couple years. Now there’s a new resource to help identify ways to help young people who are struggling. The Oregon Department of Education launched a new website called Oregon Classroom WISE this week to help people better address mental health issues in kids, teens and school staff.”

USDA: Working Lands for Wildlife Launches Literature Gateway. “USDA just launched a new research and visualization tool that summarizes published scientific research on bird species-vegetation relationships in the Eastern and Boreal Forests of North America. The tool, Literature Gateway: A Systematic Map of Bird-Vegetation Relationships in Eastern and Boreal Forests, can be used to identify science-need gaps and guide habitat restoration and forest management practices on the ground.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: Almost a quarter of the ocean floor is now mapped. “Roughly 25 percent (23.4 percent to be exact) of the Earth’s sea floor has been mapped, thanks to an international initiative known as Seabed 2030. Relying largely on voluntary contributions of bathymetric data (or ocean topography) by governments, companies and research institutions, the project is part of a larger UN-led initiative called The Ocean Decade.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times Magazine: The Accidental Media Critics of YouTube. “Even in a world with no gatekeepers and limited moderation, a certain savvy will assert itself. YouTube even has its equivalents of tabloids and trade publications, covering salacious online drama or niche interests. But it’s the commentary YouTubers in particular who have become, in some cases, as popular as the stars they react to, leading to strange conflicts between fame and critical integrity — plus literal run-ins in the influencer-infested studios of Los Angeles.”

New Indian Express: ASI faces uphill task of cataloguing and preserving piles of its archival treasure . “The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has started an uphill task to catalogue and preserve piles of archival records lying in disarray in its offices across states. Historical documents are being searched through and evaluated to fast-track the setting up of the Archive Division at ASI headquarters in Delhi.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Free smartphone stalkerware detection tool gets dedicated hub. “Kaspersky has launched a new information hub to help with their open-source stalkerware detection tool named TinyCheck, created in 2019 to help people detect if their devices are being monitored. Stalkerware is software explicitly created to spy on people via their smartphones by monitoring their whereabouts, communications, photos, browsing history, and more.”

Washington Post: You scheduled an abortion. Planned Parenthood’s website could tell Facebook.. “The Supreme Court’s decision last week overturning the nationwide right to an abortion in the United States may have sent worried people flooding to Planned Parenthood’s website to learn about nearby clinics or schedule services. But if they used the organization’s online scheduling tool, it appears Planned Parenthood could share people’s location — and, in some cases, even the method of abortion they selected — with big tech companies.”

The Verge: New York denies air permit to Bitcoin mining power plant. “Bitcoin miners in New York state faced a regulatory blow today as the state denied air permits for a gas-fired power plant used to mine Bitcoin. It’s the latest step that New York has taken to crack down on crypto mining as it tries to meet its goals on climate change.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Pew (PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!): The Metaverse in 2040 . “Hype? Hope? Hell? Maybe all three. Experts are split about the likely evolution of a truly immersive ‘metaverse.’ They expect that augmented- and mixed-reality enhancements will become more useful in people’s daily lives. Many worry that current online problems may be magnified if Web3 development is led by those who built today’s dominant web platforms.”

Ars Technica: Smart contact lens prototype puts a Micro LED display on top of the eye. “Since 2015, a California-based company called Mojo Vision has been developing smart contact lenses. Like smart glasses, the idea is to put helpful AR graphics in front of your eyes to help accomplish daily tasks. Now, a functioning prototype brings us closer to seeing a final product.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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