NEW RESOURCES

National Library of Latvia: National Library Of Latvia Collection Of The Latvian Song And Dance Celebrations Supplemented. “The National Library of Latvia (NLL) is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Song Celebration with significant additions to its digital Collection of the Latvian Song and Dance Celebrations. The Collection is dedicated to the history and traditions of the Latvian Song and Dance Celebration, from its origins to the present day, offering a wide range of digitised resources and a richly expanded Personalities section. Its content is now also available in English.”

International Institute for Sustainable Development: World Bank Atlas Highlights Role of Data in SDG Implementation. “The World Bank launched an online publication that presents interactive storytelling and data visualizations about the 17 SDGs. Drawing from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators database, the Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2023 ‘highlights trends for selected targets within each goal and introduces concepts about how some SDGs are measured.'”

Government of Western Australia: Free online resource helps Aboriginal families trace links with WA orphanages and missions. “A free online resource will help Aboriginal families establish links to children sent to Perth orphanages and missions from 1868 to 1920. The Perth and Swan Orphanages and Mission Index is a searchable database holding information on children admitted to four institutions located in Perth and the Swan Valley.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Twitter silently removes login requirement for viewing tweets. “Days after requiring users to log in to view tweets, Twitter has silently removed these restrictions. This means you can open Twitter links in a browser without an account. We at TechCrunch noticed that tweet previews are unfurling in Slack and WhatsApp. Folks at Engadget noted that Twitter previews were visible on iMessage as well.”

New York Post: UK tourist who defaced Colosseum offers jaw-dropping explanation for vandalism. “The UK tourist who was caught on video carving his and his fiancée’s names into the wall of Rome’s Colosseum offered a groveling apology to the city, along with a mind-boggling explanation — claiming that he didn’t realize just how ancient the world-famous landmark was before he defaced it.”

CNBC: ChatGPT app downloads are slowing down, BofA finds. “ChatGPT downloads on iPhones in the U.S. were down 38% month over month in June, according to the note. Bing app downloads, which includes a ChatGPT-based chatbot in the U.S., were also down 38% in June. Google’s search engine market share is slightly up year over year at over 92%, according to the note, citing SimilarWeb data.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Reuters: Twitter not suited for emergency communications, Dutch say after storm. “Twitter is not the right place to seek information during an emergency, Dutch politicians and a prominent online group said on Wednesday, following an incident in which citizens were directed to the platform for updates during a large storm.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Politico: Macron floats social media cuts during riots. “French President Emmanuel Macron told mayors on Tuesday that one option when riots are out of control could be to cut access to social media platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok, according to footage of his speech seen by POLITICO.”

Ars Technica: Actively exploited vulnerability threatens hundreds of solar power stations. “Hundreds of Internet-exposed devices inside solar farms remain unpatched against a critical and actively exploited vulnerability that makes it easy for remote attackers to disrupt operations or gain a foothold inside the facilities.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Duke Global Health Institute: What Would it Take to Make Social Media Healthier?. “Social media is so often plagued by disinformation that it’s easy to overlook its positive effects. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, when vaccine denialism and dangerous fallacies flooded platforms, millions of people around the world relied on those same channels for timely knowledge on the virus and how to avoid it. In fact, several research studies have shown regular social media users were better informed about the virus and more likely to follow public health guidelines. Those contradictions run through a new analysis of the uses and misuses of social media in public health campaigns.”

Yale News: Yale researchers encourage brain data reuse with CAROT. “The ability to map connections between different regions of the brain has helped scientists better understand the brain’s relationship to behavior, how brains differ between people, and how they’re affected by disease. These maps, called connectomes, consist of imaging data superimposed on atlases that define the locations and borders of different brain regions. But there are many different versions of brain atlases, and a connectome built on one can’t be directly compared to one built on another. In a new study, Yale researchers have developed a publicly available tool that allows for those comparisons.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

FT Magazine: How three amateurs cracked a 445-year-old code to reveal Mary Queen of Scots’ secrets. “For centuries, a trove of letters lay unidentified in an archive. Then a patents expert, a music professor and a software engineer set to work.” Good morning, Internet…

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