NEW RESOURCES

WSFA: New user-friendly website highlights Alabama Department of Archives and History resources. “The new website includes robust databases for conducting historical and genealogical research in the ADAH’s extensive archival collections. Those resources are curated by ADAH staff and include an events calendar for at-a-glance information about ADAH programs, a new database of retention schedules and other helpful resources on records management for state and local government offices.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Business Insider: Why Google employees fear the worst as the company quietly extends its hiring freeze. “Google employees are on edge as the company has yet to reverse what was meant to be a two-week hiring freeze, and some have described a ‘real vibe change.'”

CNET: Teen’s Google Doodle Highlights Importance of Having Support. “Sometimes, caring for yourself means recognizing that there are others in the world who are also there to help you. That realization is the cornerstone of a Doodle created by high schooler Sophie Araque-Liu. Google announced Tuesday that her Doodle, titled Not Alone, is the winner of the 2022 Doodle for Google competition, an annual contest open to school kids across the US.”

USEFUL STUFF

WIRED: How to Get the Old Gmail Design Back. “Google is switching up the design for Gmail to bring it more in line with changes across the company’s other services. But if you see the new look and hate it, you can still hold on to the old look for a little longer. It’s unclear how long this option will last, but for now you can switch back to the previous design with just a couple of clicks.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Yale News: Digital project supports ‘bibliographic turn’ in Black literary studies. “Yale’s Jacqueline Goldsby and Meredith McGill of Rutgers University recently received a $1.7 million grant from The Mellon Foundation to support the development of The Black Bibliography Project (BBP), an initiative that aims to revive and transform descriptive bibliography for African American and Black Diaspora literary studies.”

Associated Press: From Mecca to the Vatican, exploring sacred sites with VR. “Click and gape at the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel ceiling up close. Click again and join thousands of pilgrims praying and circling around the cube-shaped Kaaba at Islam’s most sacred site. Or strap on a headset and enter the holy city of Jerusalem. There you’ll hear the murmur of Jewish prayers at the Western Wall or thousands of worshippers saying amen in unison at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. You can even light a virtual candle at the site where Christians believe Jesus rose from the grave. All without ever leaving home.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Hackers attack UK water supplier with 1.6 million customers. “South Staffordshire Water, a company supplying 330 million liters of drinking water to 1.6 consumers daily, has issued a statement confirming IT disruption from a cyberattack. As the announcement explains, the safety and water distribution systems are still operational, so the disruption of the IT systems doesn’t impact the supply of safe water to its customers or those of its subsidiaries, Cambridge Water and South Staffs Water.”

Los Angeles Times: Column: Shame, suicide attempts, ‘financial death’ — the devastating toll of a crypto firm’s failure. “To hundreds of Celsius’ 1.7 million customers, the value of the $11.7 billion in assets they deposited with the firm might as well be zero. ‘[Alex] Mashinsky always talked very confidently about how strong Celsius was and how much better than banks,’ recalls Harold M. Lott, 35, a Nashville-area nurse who had as much as $14,000 in cryptocurrency assets deposited at Celsius at the peak of the crypto market. ‘He never gave any indication that there was a problem,’ Lott says. ‘But suddenly, out of the blue, they just stopped all transfers.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Iowa State University: Researchers explore how people adapt to cybersickness from virtual reality. “In health care, VR has been used to prepare surgeons for complicated operations and help burn patients better manage their pain. In education, it’s opened doors for students to tour world famous museums, historical sites – even the human brain. But Jonathan Kelly, a professor of psychology and human computer interaction at Iowa State University, says the biggest barrier to VR becoming mainstream is cybersickness. Previous studies show more than half of first-time headset users experience the phenomenon within 10 minutes of being exposed to VR.”

Stanford Engineering: How to design algorithms with fairness in mind. “In this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything, computer science professor Omer Reingold explains how we can create definitions of fairness that can be incorporated into computer algorithms. Reingold and host, bioengineer Russ Altman, also discuss how flawed historic data may result in algorithms making unfair decisions and how a technique called multi-group fairness can improve health predictions for individuals.” Audio link and YouTube video with excellent captions. Good afternoon, Internet…

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