NEW RESOURCES

LDSLiving: 2,000+ pieces of Book of Mormon art now available in new digital database. “The first permanent and comprehensive online database of Book of Mormon art is now available and provides searchable access to more than 2,000 pieces of visual art from public and private collections, museums, and the holdings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Royal Opera House: Royal Opera House Stream – world-class performances now available online. “Launching today, the brand-new streaming service from Royal Opera House offers 45 stunning works from the rich archives of The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera, and over 85 behind-the-scenes features, trailers, talks and Insights.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

New York Times: White House Restores Arts Commission Dissolved Under Trump .”President Biden on Friday issued an executive order re-establishing the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, an advisory board that was dissolved five years ago after its members resigned in protest over President Donald J. Trump’s reaction to the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.”

USEFUL STUFF

Gizmodo Australia: Become a Productivity Gun With These 10 Google Chrome Extensions. “Whether it’s help with focusing on your assignment, sharing video with work colleagues or just trying to maximise your own productivity, we’ve rounded up 10 Google Chrome extensions we reckon will make your life easier.” It’s a solid collection, but even better, it’s NOT a slideshow.

Noupe: Shutterstock alternatives: Best Vector Websites to Find Free Illustrations . “It’s no doubt that when it comes to design, having more options, and more inspiration is never wrong. In this post, I am going to list the 10 best vector websites to find and download free illustrations as Shutterstock alternatives.” I am making a Halloween Gizmo and using Flaticon for the graphics. Recommended.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CNET: Election Misinformation in English Is Bad. In Other Languages, It’s Out of Control. “Misinformation in English is a pressing issue causing concerns about the upcoming midterm elections and the potential damage to the institutions of democracy and responsible for numerous deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media companies continue to update their policies to address the problem. As much as social media companies have worked to curb the spread of disinformation and misinformation, content in different languages remains a critical blind spot.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

WIRED: This Chatbot Aims to Steer People Away From Child Abuse Material. “THERE ARE HUGE volumes of child sexual abuse photos and videos online—millions of pieces are removed from the web every year. These illegal images are often found on social media websites, image hosting services, dark web forums, and legal pornography websites. Now a new tool on one of the biggest pornography websites is trying to interrupt people as they search for child sexual abuse material and redirect them to a service where they can get help.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Ars Technica: Better than JPEG? Researcher discovers that Stable Diffusion can compress images. “Last week, Swiss software engineer Matthias Bühlmann discovered that the popular image synthesis model Stable Diffusion could compress existing bitmapped images with fewer visual artifacts than JPEG or WebP at high compression ratios, though there are significant caveats.”

XDA: If Google wants to be taken seriously, it needs to find ways to assure users it won’t kill new products. “Google’s biggest issue is that its own brand is now associated with killing services that don’t start on the right foot. If people are afraid to invest in Stadia (for fear of it shutting down), then it’s only going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Obviously, people wouldn’t want to invest in a service that everyone sees is doomed to fail. It’s clear that Google needs to find a way past that perception. The problem is: how?”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

MIT News: MIT engineers build a battery-free, wireless underwater camera. “The high cost of powering an underwater camera for a long time, by tethering it to a research vessel or sending a ship to recharge its batteries, is a steep challenge preventing widespread undersea exploration. MIT researchers have taken a major step to overcome this problem by developing a battery-free, wireless underwater camera that is about 100,000 times more energy-efficient than other undersea cameras. The device takes color photos, even in dark underwater environments, and transmits image data wirelessly through the water.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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