NEW RESOURCES

San Antonio Express-News: Police accountability advocacy group launches online database of officer firings. “ACT 4 SA on Thursday announced its launch of the website… which contains information regarding San Antonio police misconduct from 2010 to 2022. The website features a dashboard that illustrates the suspensions in various forms, including pie charts and bar graphs, and offers perspective on trends identified amid the data.”

YouTube Blog: A new path to higher education that begins on YouTube!. “Starting today, students can sign up here for four ‘College Foundations’ courses which start on March 7, 2023 and offer eligibility for transfer credit. This suite encompasses the most common first-year college courses at many higher-education institutions: English Composition, College Math, US History and Human Communication.”

EVENTS

UNC University Libraries: Panel Discussion: Finding Your People. “This panel discussion will bring together faculty researchers and archival practitioners to discuss the representation of Black families in the archive, the history, and impact of collecting, examine where we are at this current moment, and what the future of Black family collections might look like.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NiemanLab: @nytimes is now on TikTok. “When The New York Times launched its flagship TikTok this week, on January 24, it started with hard news, featuring Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old who disarmed a gunman at a dance hall in Alhambra, California.”

USEFUL STUFF

PC World: Get your email privacy in order with these free must-use tools. “Getting unwanted messages in your inbox can feel like a major breach of trust, and knowing senders can see a record of everything you’ve opened and clicked can feel downright creepy. That’s why it’s worth getting familiar with all the ways you can protect your email privacy. From resistance against email tracking to masked email addresses that hide your identity, here are some of my favorite free tools you can use right now.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Big Issue: The UK has 2,500 museums, but not one dedicated to Black British history. That could soon change. “If you’re looking to learn more about the storied history of the pencil, there’s a dedicated museum located just off the A66. Those curious about lawnmowers can make their way to Southport for a journey of discovery at the British Lawnmower Museum. In fact, the more than 2,500 museums in the UK cover a dizzying range of topics, from wide-ranging history to esoteric household items. But among that vast number there is no museum devoted to telling the story of Black British history. A group of campaigners is on a mission to change that.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

United States Courts: Judiciary Studies Use of Online Tool in Presentence Reports. “The Federal Judicial Center (FJC) will soon begin a two-year pilot study of the impact of including data from a U.S. Sentencing Commission online tool in presentence investigation reports used during the sentencing phase of criminal cases. Called the Judiciary Sentencing Information platform (JSIN), the publicly available tool provides five years of cumulative data for people who were convicted of a similar or the same crime, have a similar criminal history, and have been convicted of an offense that falls under the same sentencing guideline.”

Wall Street Journal: Virtual Birkin Bags on Trial in Hermès Case Testing IP Rights. “Mason Rothschild created a series of 100 digital images he called MetaBirkins, depicting fur-covered purses in the same shape and style as the Hermès luxury product, which he sold as digital tokens on virtual marketplaces. The NFTs sometimes have sold at prices similar to the real handbags. Beginning Monday, Mr. Rothschild’s MetaBirkins go on trial in New York in a case at the intersection of trademark law and constitutional protections for freedom of expression.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: Ukraine’s Scientists Receive a Funding Lifeline From Abroad. “Larissa S. Brizhik didn’t have to stay. Like many Ukrainian women and children, she could have fled the war zone. But as a department head at the Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyiv, responsible for a staff of 18, she decided to remain on the job. Late last year, Dr. Brizhik’s institution received a one-year grant of $165,000. The funds were part of a tranche of $1.2 million in grants by the Simons Foundation that was announced on Wednesday.”

PsyPost: Tweets with moralized language are more likely to get replies that use hate speech.. “Researchers at Justus Liebig University Giessen recently investigated the relationship between moralized language used in a tweet and hate speech found in the replies. Their findings indicate that the more moralized words are used in a tweet, the more likely the replies to the tweet will contain hate speech. This research may provide clues to what triggers the expression of hate speech in social media contexts.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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