NEW RESOURCES

The Marshall Project: The Books Banned in Your State’s Prisons. “Over the past year, reporters for The Marshall Project asked every state prison system for book policies and lists of banned publications. About half of the states said they kept such lists, which contained more than 50,000 titles. We’ve created a searchable database so you can see for yourself which books prisons don’t want incarcerated people to read.”

Wolfram Blog: New Interactive Course Teaches Useful Tips from an Expert Programmer. “Wolfram Language has a wealth of built-in functions that require little or no programming, but there are special cases that require additional skill and knowledge to get the code to do things that go beyond those built-in capabilities. Wolfram U is pleased to announce a new free interactive course by veteran Wolfram programmer and instructor Dave Withoff that offers a collection of useful tips and instruction for intermediate-level programmers.” The link also includes a recommendation for a beginner course if you’re not an intermediate programmer.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mashable: New Twitter feature lets you watch Tesla stock crater. “The company recently partnered with trading analysis platform TradingView to display price charts in search results for cryptocurrencies, stocks, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The feature works best if you use $cashtags, which are similar to hashtags, only instead of the ‘#’ symbol in front of a keyword, you use the ‘$’ symbol in front of a ticker.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: How to Download Reddit Videos. “Reddit now lets you download videos directly from the app. If you find this feature is not working for you, there are some workarounds you can take advantage of. This tutorial shows you how to download Reddit videos on your Android phone or PC.”

Search Engine Journal: How To Create A Survey Quickly In Google Forms And Microsoft Word. “I find surveys particularly helpful because they are affordable, easy to create, and offer information about customers you can’t find without directly talking to them. This article will outline the benefits of surveys for SEO, tips to create a killer survey that offers great insight, and how to quickly get started with one using Google Forms or Microsoft Forms.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

WIRED: TikTok’s Dream Worlds Thrived in a Nightmare Year. “While economic pressures have made reality a less and less appealing place to reside, numerous TikTok trends over the past year have offered a form of escape. Over 14 billion people have now watched videos about ‘shifting,’ a meditation-like practice where people believe they can ‘shift’ into other realities, often beloved fantasy locations such as Hogwarts.”

CNN: How virtual clothes could help solve fashion’s waste problem. “The textile and fashion industry creates roughly 92 million tons of waste annually, and digital fashion could have a role in reducing that figure…. For example, a designer could release an item of digital clothing in 10 colors in the metaverse, and use the sales data to inform which colors to use for the real-world version.”

New York Times: Times Past. “The end of the year is an opportunity to look back and reflect. So today we’re bringing you something in that spirit: an interview with Jennifer Parrucci, a senior taxonomist at The Times, about the interesting things she has found digging through the paper’s 171-year archives.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Radio New Zealand: Patient records from second psychiatric hospital caught up in Archives NZ breach. “Archives NZ apologised on Monday for a breach of Sunnyside psychiatric hospital records. Now a new OIA response shows patient records from Seaview psychiatric hospital, near Hokitika, were mistakenly put online, too. But Archives NZ said because no one accessed the Seaview records, it chose not to notify the public.”

Atlanta Business Journal: Atlanta homebuilding giant PulteGroup fires incoming COO for alleged Twitter bots. “The founding family of the Atlanta-based homebuilder (NYSE:PHM) filed a civil complaint against Brandon Jones for ‘interfering, stalking, harassing, and defaming the company’s founder, William J. Pulte, his grandson Bill Pulte, and his family,’ according to a news release Friday. The complaint alleges Jones, who was set to succeed executive vice president and chief operating officer John Chadwick on Jan. 1, creating fraudulent Twitter profiles.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Cardiff University: Adolescent wellbeing improved by online contact with close friends. “Frequent online communication with best friends and existing friendship groups is associated with better wellbeing in young people, new research by Cardiff University has found.”

Stanford University: What to Expect in 2023 in AI. “This year’s biggest headline might have been generative AI, but what should we expect from the field in 2023? Four Stanford HAI faculty members describe what they expect the biggest advances, opportunities, and challenges will be for the coming year.” Good morning, Internet…

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