NEW RESOURCES

Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation: IPLC Launches the LGBTQ+ Communities of the Former Soviet Union & Eastern Europe Web Archive. “The collection archives a broad range of websites maintained by and for the benefit of LGBTQ+ communities in the independent countries of the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. These websites document news, events, and issues within these diverse communities, and often provide helpful information about where to seek health, legal, and other assistance in their countries of origin.”

ABC News: First public global database of fossil fuels launches. “A first-of-its-kind database for tracking the world’s fossil fuel production, reserves and emissions launches on Monday to coincide with climate talks taking place at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The Global Registry of Fossil Fuels includes data from over 50,000 oil, gas and coal fields in 89 countries. That covers 75% of global reserves, production and emissions, and is available for public use, a first for a collection of this size.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Oneida Daily Dispatch: Hamilton College releases new ‘Jazz Backstory’ podcast. “Hamilton College Jazz Archive Director Monk Rowe has helped collect over 400 video and audio recordings of jazz greats, their band members, critics, writers, and composers who tell their personal histories in the world of jazz for the Hamilton College Jazz Archive. Rowe, who conducted the majority of these original interviews, combed through the interviews to focus on topics inherent to the creative life – inspiration, improvisation, training, back-stage dramas and touring challenges. The result was his creation of a new podcast series.”

Rolling Stone: Trump’s Social Media Company Is Trying to Hide Its Struggles From the Public. “Like Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms, Truth Social used to allow users to endlessly scroll through an account’s followers and the accounts who amplified or engaged with its posts. That data is helpful in assessing the site’s overall health and legitimate growth rate. But now, Truth Social is guarding access to that information more closely.”

USEFUL STUFF

Boing Boing: Scream your grievances into the void, online. “Simply type out what you need to get off your chest and click the ‘scream’ button. Repeat as many times as necessary. You’ll hear someone let out a blood-curdling scream as your text disappears into the void.”

WIRED: How to Create an Augmented Reality Filter for TikTok. “From Paris to Dubai, I spoke with designers around the world about the process of creating AR effects for social media.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

TechCrunch: Google cancels half the projects at its internal R&D group Area 120. “Google CEO Sundar Pichai, speaking at the Code Conference last week, suggested the tech company needed to become 20% more efficient — a comment some in the industry took to mean headcount reductions could soon be on the table. Now, it seems that prediction may be coming true. TechCrunch has learned, and Google confirmed, the company is slashing projects at its in-house R&D division known as Area 120.”

The Straits Times: NLB to launch new website for submission of heritage material in digital formats . “The National Library Board (NLB) will be expanding its Citizen Archivist project next year with the launch of a new website that will allow people to submit materials about Singapore in digital formats such as images and videos.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: At eBay, Lurid Crimes and the Search for Punishment. “‘If you are ever going to take her down .. now is the time.’ Devin Wenig, the chief executive of the e-commerce company eBay, texted those words to a deputy one summer afternoon three years ago. He was upset about a story he had just read. Within days, the writer who was the subject of Mr. Wenig’s wrath and her husband were inundated with offensive material, including live cockroaches and spiders, a funeral wreath, a Halloween mask of a bloody pig face and a manual on surviving the death of a spouse.”

Android Police: Microsoft Teams deemed unsafe to use by security researchers. “Microsoft’s workplace-oriented messaging app, Teams, has gone through a number of controversies that you wouldn’t expect other chat apps to deal with, including last year when the Android app was considered responsible for breaking the ability to place 911 calls on devices last year. Well, the Teams app — not the Android one this time, at least — is in the news again and it’s not for the right reasons.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Stanford Medicine: Training physicians and algorithms in dermatology diversity. “There’s a long-standing challenge in dermatology: Textbooks, databases, journals and lectures are largely bereft of images that feature darker skin. Their absence can cause gaps in clinical expertise and in diagnosis, as symptoms of a disease don’t necessarily appear the same on all skin tones. Physicians trained to identify signs of illness on lighter shades can overlook them in people with a darker complexion, and algorithms trained on a sea of beige pictures may miss signs of disease when evaluating images from a patient with brown skin.”

The Conversation: From curry nights to ‘coal kills’ dresses: how social media drives politicians to behave like influencers. “Why do politicians often post content that seems awkward, outrageous or strange? The answer could be an appeal to authenticity – something that has become a valuable currency in the world of politicians, influencers and social media.” Good morning, Internet…

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