NEW RESOURCES

KNDU: New respiratory illness dashboard launches to monitor numbers across Washington. “A new Respiratory Illness Data Dashboard from the Department of Health will allow Washington residents to track COVID-19, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) activity by region across the state.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Twitter/X rival T2 rebrands as ‘Pebble,’ saying the old name was never meant to be permanent . “An X challenger didn’t hide its ambitions to take on the social network formerly known as Twitter when it dubbed itself T2 at launch, but now that name — one which indicates a desire to build a Twitter clone — is no more. The company announced on its platform that the would-be X rival will now be called ‘Pebble.'” “Like the smartwatch?” said my not-quite-keeping-up memory.

Android Police: The Play Store rolls out auto app archiving option for everyone. “Auto archiving was previously only available when you were already running low on storage, with a prompt appearing asking you if you’d like to turn the option on to save some space. As spotted by Mishaal Rahman on X (formerly Twitter) and AssembleDebug on Telegram, the auto archive option is rolling out to a lot more people.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Interview Magazine: Meet Mark Kerrigan, the Man Who Finds Famous People. “As the managing director of Celebrity Service, the online database that most magazines use to find the details of any talent they’re looking to feature, Mark has worked for nearly three decades making the most inaccessible people a little more accessible. We thanked him for his service with some sangria at Sevilla, where he arrived with a briefcase of pre-internet Celebrity Service artifacts, and some stories about his years of seeking out the stars.”

Bloomberg: D Billions Is Creating a YouTube Kids’ Entertainment Empire in Kyrgyzstan. “If you have young children, there’s a good chance they have consumed some of the D Billions videos on YouTube. The videos feature four main characters — Cha-Cha, Boom-Boom, Lya-Lya and Chicky — who dress in primary colors and sing silly songs. One goal of the music is to teach kids words in different languages. Another is to keep them entertained and clicking on more and more videos.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Popular Science: Patch a potential privacy risk by deleting your ancient LiveJournal. “I looked into ways to back up LiveJournal posts. It wasn’t straightforward. At all. LiveJournal offers an official exporting tool, but it can only export one month’s worth of posts at a time, which is basically useless. I tried using Wget to scrape old entries, but this backfired hilariously: LiveJournal blocked my IP address. After a lot of research, I figured out that using WordPress is the best way to back up your old LiveJournal posts. Of course, if you have no interest in saving anything and just want to delete your LiveJournal account, you can skip straight to that section below.”

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: Lindemann family returns 33 long-sought ancient statues to Cambodia. “Billionaire George Lindemann showcased his collection of Khmer treasures and passed them on to his children. But investigations by ICIJ and others traced many of his prized antiquities back to pillaged sacred sites.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: How to Tell if Your A.I. Is Conscious. “In a new report, scientists offer a list of measurable qualities that might indicate the presence of some presence in a machine.”

UNESCO: UNESCO and WMF join Forces to inventory the Jewish Heritage Worldwide. “UNESCO and World Monuments Fund (WMF) will establish a partnership aimed at accelerating the documentation of Jewish cultural heritage worldwide and better protecting these sites. The partnership will initially run for five years. It will benefit from an initial investment of $1 million USD and will be open to external funding.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Ubergizmo: A Canadian Camera Was Able To Capture 4.8 Million Frames Per Second Cost-Effectively. “An innovative camera capable of capturing an astounding 4.8 million frames per second has been developed by Canadian scientists. What sets this camera apart from its commercial counterparts is not just its remarkable speed but also its significantly lower cost, thanks to the utilization of off-the-shelf components. This achievement is detailed in a study published in the journal Optica.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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