NEW RESOURCES

University of Michigan: New online tool can calculate your neighborhood’s ‘cognability’. “A new tool, an interactive map developed by University of Michigan researchers, allows you to plug in your address and assess how your neighborhood could support healthy cognitive aging under a theory U-M scientist Jessica Finlay and colleagues developed, called ‘cognability.'” I couldn’t get this to work with an address search, but it worked great when I searched by zip code.

Houston Chronicle: Megan Thee Stallion launches online hub for mental health resources. “Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion is out with a new message for her fans: bad bitches have bad days too. That’s the name of a new website she’s launched as a guide to diverse mental health resources, including the LGBTQ Psychotherapists of Color directory, Therapy for Black Girls and the StrongHearts Native Helpline.”

USEFUL STUFF

Search Engine Journal: Google Surveys Is Shutting Down; Here Are 6 Alternatives. “Google announces it’s shutting down market research product Google Surveys. The service will be unavailable after November 1, and users will have another month to download historical data.”

Fast Company: How to go live on TikTok: Everything you need to know to get started. “Although going live on TikTok might seem a little intimidating at first, it’s well worth considering if you want to connect with your followers on a deeper level. Here’s everything you need to know to go live on TikTok, no matter how many followers you have.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Vulture: Podcasting Is Just Radio Now. “It’s been almost eight years since Serial dropped. An entire industry has roared to life, drawing in Hollywood studios, corporations, celebrities, and billions of dollars. But the blockbuster podcast — a subgenre or prestige tier essential to the medium’s rise as an artistic force — is in a serious funk.”

WIRED: The Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn ‘Shameware’ Apps. “Covenant Eyes is part of a multimillion-dollar ecosystem of so-called accountability apps that are marketed to both churches and parents as tools to police online activity. For a monthly fee, some of these apps monitor everything their users see and do on their devices, even taking screenshots (at least one per minute, in the case of Covenant Eyes) and eavesdropping on web traffic, WIRED found.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: TikTok Seen Moving Toward U.S. Security Deal, but Hurdles Remain. “The Biden administration and TikTok have drafted a preliminary agreement to resolve national security concerns posed by the Chinese-owned video app but face hurdles over the terms, as the platform negotiates to keep operating in the United States without major changes to its ownership structure, four people with knowledge of the discussions said.”

Bleeping Computer: UK Police arrests teen believed to be behind Uber, Rockstar hacks. “While there are no details about the investigation, the arrest is believed to be tied to the Lapsus$ hacking group, which is suspected to be behind recent cyberattacks on Uber, Rockstar Games, and 2K.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Verge: I tried replacing Google with TikTok, and it worked better than I thought. “What I found was, in a sense, not terribly surprising: there are things for which TikTok is an absolutely useful search engine, even if TikTok’s algorithm and content aren’t quite tuned for that yet. But for what Google does best, there’s no competition. Ultimately, I don’t think Google is actually nervous about TikTok’s growing search prowess. But YouTube probably should be.”

University of British Columbia: Emo-jional rescue: UBCO researchers create tool to measure the emotion in emojis. “How much is really known about those smiley faces staring back at from smartphone screens? Anyone who has ever wondered if the people sending them are really that happy is not alone. Thanks to a pair of UBC Okanagan colleagues, researchers striving to better understand the ever-expanding world of emojis now have a new tool to keep pace with technology—what they call a multidimensional lexicon of emojis (MLE).” Good afternoon, Internet…

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