NEW RESOURCES

EU Science Hub: A new tool maps the state of soil health across Europe. “EU-wide harmonised soil datasets and a novel methodology are among the main features of the soil health dashboard, a new tool of the EU Soil Observatory (EUSO), developed and run by the JRC. The dashboard supports the forthcoming European Commission proposal for a soil health law and indicators proposed by the Soil Mission of EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon Europe.”

New-to-me, via the University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Beyond Elijah Rock: The Non-Idiomatic Choral Music of Black Composers. “Non-idiomatic, as it relates to black composers, refers to the original concert music that is not part of the traditional idiomatic canon associated with black musicians. That canon includes spirituals, gospel, jazz, hip-hop, and rap among others. There will be pieces that may be based on spirituals or gospel tunes but are, at their core, original songs similar to ones that use chorale tunes in cantatas and popular songs parodied in Renaissance masses.”

Cosmos: Kaurna online: new website to help people learn the language . “The just-established Kaurna Warra website has a host of resources for learning and teaching the language, including courses, guides, and a dictionary. The website also features educational videos, an online shop, and even a few games in Kaurna, like Wordle and Solitaire.” Kaurna is an Indigenous language of Australia that was almost wiped out in the 19th century.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ukrainska Pravda: “Losing battle for Bakhmut”: Russians launch new wave of fake news in social networks. “The Russian occupiers began to actively spread new disinformation in social networks and spread publications about Ukraine’s alleged defeat in Bakhmut and the decrease in the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: The 6 Best Free XML Editors Online . “Whether you’re new to writing in XML and wanting to make sure that you haven’t produced any errors, or are an old hat with the language and want some tools to quickly clean up your code, there are a variety of online tools that can help. So, no matter why it is that you’re looking for an XML editor, know that there’s a free online XML editor that will work perfectly for you. Here are six of the very best to consider.” Heartily recommend CodeBeautify. It also has a JSON viewer and an HTML viewer; I use both constantly.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Times of Malta: Film commissioner Johann Grech’s IMDB portfolio ‘completely unethical’ . “Film insiders have questioned why Johann Grech is credited with 64 film productions on a popular online movie database when he is merely serving as Malta’s film commissioner. Grech has been linked to 64 productions on his IMDB page – an online database for the audio-visual industry – sparking accusations of unethical behaviour.”

New York Times: The Satisfaction of Viral Quitting. “TikTok is full of advice about what to do after quitting a job. Ms. Garcia is part of a different trend, one that predates TikTok, in which young people are posting mini dramas that draw millions of viewers. And in some cases, these very public videos can translate into new career opportunities, helping those who post them build their online personalities.”

PC Gamer: Put another notch on Google’s axe, Stadia’s switch to a licenced streaming platform is dead too. “In the midst of promoting a bundle of tools Google Cloud offers game publishers to support their live service games, reporter Stephen Totilo mentioned that the Stadia tech is no longer available to license.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: UK Probing TikTok’s Ownership, Security Minister Tugendhat Says. “The UK is carrying out an ‘important’ investigation into Chinese social media app TikTok, Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said, but he refused to be drawn on whether it would be banned from UK government mobile devices.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Verge: How a social network falls apart. “Twitter is in a period of decline. The site still functions, people are still using it, but there’s a familiar stink that lingers on the website. It reminds me of the twilight days of two other social media platforms I’ve used: LiveJournal and Tumblr — onetime vibrant communities that grew in popularity until everyone seemed to be using them, which then began a long, slow death.”

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: Fake and Extremely Biased Twitter Content Decreased Between 2016-2020, But Top Influencers Were More Polarized. “On one hand, the amount of fake and extremely biased content decreased by 2020 compared to 2016, perhaps because of Twitter’s efforts to limit disinformation from going viral. The volume of tweets linking to disinformation websites dropped by half and the number of users sharing fake news dropped even more. On the other hand, users in 2020 were less likely to share information or interact with users who do not share their political beliefs than they were in 2016.”

ScienceDaily: A new and better way to create word lists. “Word lists are the basis of so much research in so many fields. Researchers have now developed an algorithm that can be applied to different languages and can expand word lists significantly better than others.” Good morning, Internet…

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