So far Yahoo is not impressing with their response to the e-mail scanning scandal. THREE SENTENCES, which would be fine if they were clear, but they’re a master exercise in ambiguity. At this rate Verizon’s going to buy Yahoo for twelve dollars and a broken gas grill.
NEW RESOURCES
Not new, but newly free: HeinOnline is Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture, & Law database available for free. (Money-free; you do have to register.) “We have created the most comprehensive database available to date on the topic of slavery in the United States and the World. Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law brings together every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, all federal statutes related to slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. The database also contains hundreds of books and pamphlets written about slavery. HeinOnline is dedicated to the dissemination of information and knowledge on this important subject. For the first time, we are making a HeinOnline database available to anyone in the world who would like access, at no cost!”
I mentioned Global Fishing Watch not too long ago. Now there’s Deep Sea Mining Watch. “Unlike the offshore oil industry, which has been drilling in underwater environments for decades (with sometimes devastating consequences), the machinery required to mine gold, zinc, nickel, copper, manganese, and other valuable minerals from the deep sea is only now reaching maturation. It may be less than a year before this type of industrial extraction kicks off, and vessels are already prospecting to get a sense of their potential yield. Now, you can track these ships online with Deep Sea Mining Watch, a web tool launched on Wednesday at the Dreamforce software conference in San Francisco.”
TWEAKS AND UPDATES
Emory University’s Holocaust Denial on Trial Web site has been redesigned and relaunched. “Created in 2005 through a partnership between Emory and the university’s Tam Institute for Jewish Studies, the website catalogues the legal and evidentiary material arising from David Irving v. Penguin UK and Deborah Lipstadt, a libel claim brought against Lipstadt and her publisher in 1996 by Holocaust denier Irving…. In addition to providing an online repository for trial transcripts, witness reports and resources for digital scholarly analysis, the site offers users the opportunity to review scholarly materials refuting frequent Holocaust denial myths.”
USEFUL STUFF
Social Media Examiner: 6 Ways to Use Facebook 360 Photos for Business.
MakeUseOf: 7 Free Slack Alternatives You Will Love. “Here at MakeUseOf, we have a paid Slack subscription. This means we have unlimited members, channels, integrations (extra services you can plug into Slack), and more. But there is an unlimited free option that’s limited to a 10,000 message archive (believe me, that can disappear extremely quickly!) and just 10 integrations. Don’t worry, you can still subscribe to Cat Facts! If you have a smaller team or limited budget, we’ve got a list of seven Slack alternatives you’ll want to check out.”
AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD
Sometimes I put stuff in ResearchBuzz not because I think it’s immediately useful but because I think it’ll be useful to look back on years from now. This is one of those times: Is the Scary Clown Craze a Harmless Hoax or No Laughing Matter? “For the past few months, creepy clowns have been terrorizing America, with sightings of actual clowns in at least 10 different states and the mass hysteria is causing extreme reactions. After eight such sightings, York College sent out a safety alert to the campus and a school in New Haven has outright banned clown costumes. Some states have passed laws that ban masks altogether, apprehending teenagers dressed as clowns.”
SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES
The Federal Trade Commission has released several new publications about identity theft. “Looking for information on dealing with identity theft? The FTC has new and revised identity theft publications that reflect features of IdentityTheft.gov that make it easier to report and recover from identity theft.”
I have been writing ResearchBuzz for 19 years next April. I feel like I’ll still be writing about Oracle v. Google when it’s been 59 years. “Oracle doesn’t know when to quit. After Google beat Oracle yet again this past May, Oracle, of course, appealed. And, of course, they lost again. … In this latest go-around, Oracle argued it should get a new trial because Google concealed its plans to integrate Android apps with desktops and laptops using Chrome OS.”
RESEARCH AND OPINION
Is it like Pringles? Study finds that the more you Google, the more likely you are to keep Googling. “People who use the internet to retrieve information are more likely to use it again and less likely to use their memory, according to a study by UC Santa Cruz psychology professor Benjamin Storm. Published in the journal Memory, Storm finds the internet is changing the way people learn, remember, and solve problems.” Good afternoon, Internet…
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