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TWEAKS AND UPDATES
State Archives of North Carolina: World War II Digital Collection Additions .“The Digital Services Section of the State Archives of North Carolina is pleased to announce new additions to the World War II digital collection online.Since Fall 2018, DSS has been digitizing a large addition of items related to World War II from a variety of collections.These items were selected to commemorate the 75th anniversary of World War II and to increase their usage through online access.The items relate to home front activities in North Carolina, North Carolina military installations, and North Carolina soldiers serving in the war.
BBC: Facebook ‘rethinks’ plans for Libra cryptocurrency .“Facebook is reportedly rethinking its plans for its own digital currency after resistance from regulators.
It is now considering a system with digital versions of established currencies, including the dollar and the Euro, according to Bloomberg and tech site The Information.”
ERR: Tuesday marks century of national archives in Estonia .“The National Archives of Estonia began operating on January 1, 1999, however the establishment of a national archive system took place in the formative years of the Republic of Estonia already.It was on the initiative of an archival committee that convened on March 3, 1920, that a central state archive was established in Tartu as the storage place for historically significant institutions’ documents and a state archive established in Tallinn as the manager of active institutions’ documents.”
TechCrunch: Facebook fact-check feud erupts over Trump virus “hoax” .“Who fact-checks the fact-checkers? Did Trump call coronavirus the Democrat’s ‘new hoax’? Those the big questions emerging from a controversial ‘false’ label applied to Politico and NBC News stories by right-wing publisher The Daily Caller.Its Check Your Fact division is a Facebook act-checking partner, giving it the power to flag links on the social network as false, demoting their ranking in the News Feed as well as the visibility of the entire outlet that posted it.”
Human Resources: Emoji etiquette in the workplace: The good, the bad and the downright inappropriate .“Emojis are everywhere nowadays.
When words fail us or we want to lighten the mood, very often we turn to emojis.In fact even in a professional work setting, 71% of respondents in Perkbox’s latest survey feel emojis should be encouraged.”
SECURITY & LEGAL
ProPublica: Some Election-Related Websites Still Run on Vulnerable Software Older Than Many High Schoolers .“A ProPublica investigation found that at least 50 election-related websites in counties and towns voting on Super Tuesday — accounting for nearly 2 million voters — were particularly vulnerable to cyberattack.
The sites, where people can find out how to register to vote, where to cast ballots and who won the election, had security issues such as outdated software, poor encryption and systems encumbered with unneeded computer programs.
None of the localities contacted by ProPublica said that their sites had been disrupted by cyberattacks.”
Techdirt: Spanish Government Moves Ahead With First ‘Fake News’ Prosecution .“It’s unclear what the punishment is for spreading fake news.The law provides for a jail sentence of up to two years for violators, but that’s tied to the publication of information that ‘compromises the dignity’ of a protected group.It doesn’t say anything specifically about fake news.All that seems to be clear at this point is that the “effective protocols” involve government prosecutors.”
RESEARCH & OPINION
The University of Washington Daily: The complexities of the Anthropocene through multimedia, vampires, and pig farms .“Anna Tsing, professor of anthropology at UC Santa Cruz, presented a lecture Feb.25 as part of the Katz Distinguished Lectures in the Humanities series.The talk featured insights from her new book ‘Feral Atlas and the More-Than-Human Anthropocene.’ Feral Atlas will also be appearing online as an interactive digital medium that explores ecosystems that have been changed and expanded by human facilitation.”
The Verge: Alphabet’s Tidal moonshot tracks individual fish to help sustainably feed humanity .
“Today Alphabet is announcing Tidal, an X division moonshot project with the goal of preserving the ocean’s ability to support life and help feed humanity sustainably.Tidal’s initial goal is to develop technologies that will give us a better understanding of what’s happening under water, with a focus on helping fish farmers to run and grow their operations in environmentally friendly ways.”
Phys .org: Not a ‘math person’? You may be better at learning to code than you think .“New research from the University of Washington finds that a natural aptitude for learning languages is a stronger predictor of learning to program than basic math knowledge, or numeracy.That’s because writing code also involves learning a second language, an ability to learn that language’s vocabulary and grammar, and how they work together to communicate ideas and intentions.
Other cognitive functions tied to both areas, such as problem solving and the use of working memory, also play key roles.” Good mid-afternoon, .
