HuffPost: U.S. COVID Deaths Are Set To Blow Past Trump’s Own Targets. “On April 10, President Donald Trump gave somber remarks on COVID-19, which by then had been spreading in the U.S. for months. He cited models that it would kill as many as 220,000 Americans ― although he predicted ‘substantially’ below 100,000 ― and said ‘our people had to be extremely strong and brave to be able to put up with what they’ve put up with.’ Five months later, the nation is hurting even more.”
Author: ResearchBuzz
Coronavirus: Saudi Arabia to gradually resume Umra pilgrimage (BBC)
BBC: Coronavirus: Saudi Arabia to gradually resume Umra pilgrimage. “Saudi Arabia is to gradually resume a Muslim pilgrimage which has been suspended for seven months because of the coronavirus pandemic. From 4 October, up to 6,000 Saudi citizens and residents will be allowed to undertake the Umra each day. Pilgrims from countries deemed safe will be permitted from 1 November, when the daily capacity will rise to 20,000.”
CNET: New Twitter prompt gets users to read news before retweeting it, says firm
CNET: New Twitter prompt gets users to read news before retweeting it, says firm. “After rolling out a test in June that prompts users to consider reading an article before retweeting it, Twitter says the company has seen ‘more reading’ and ‘more informed tweeting.’ In fact, people open articles 40% more often after seeing the prompt, the social media giant says, and the amount of people opening articles before retweeting went up by 33%. “
9to5Google: Google is shutting down Area 120’s popular ‘Rivet’ kids reading app
9to5Google: Google is shutting down Area 120’s popular ‘Rivet’ kids reading app. “Google’s Area 120 incubator launched an app called Rivet in beta in 2018 as a ‘fun and supportive reading app for kids.’ It finally exited beta on Android and iOS in May of 2019, and in its time has grown to be one of the most beloved teach-your-kids-to-read apps on the Play Store. Now Google says that it’s shutting the app down.”
Savannah Business Journal: DNR launches updated Georgia Birding & Wildlife Trails website
Savannah Business Journal: DNR launches updated Georgia Birding & Wildlife Trails website. “The Georgia Birding and Wildlife Trails website introduces each trail site with access tips, a map, a list of amenities, wildlife highlights and a link to eBird hotspots. Wildlife viewing resources include a printable species checklist with seasonality data, as well as information on birding basics, Georgia Audubon chapters, citizen science projects, bird curricula and conservation organizations. A new program logo showcases the great blue heron, a familiar species found throughout the state.”
The Verge: Telepath is a buzzy new social network trying to fix what’s broken on Twitter
The Verge: Telepath is a buzzy new social network trying to fix what’s broken on Twitter. “The app, which like Clubhouse is available only in private beta and requires an invitation to use, resembles a hybrid of Twitter and Reddit. As on Twitter, the app opens to a central scrolling feed of updates from people and topics that you follow. And as on Reddit, every post must be created within a group, which Telepath calls a ‘network.’ But what stands out about Telepath is its approach to moderation — which is both more aggressive and more constructive than any I have ever seen in a venture-backed social app at this stage of development.”
Montana State University: MSU Extension, Montana Legal Services announce do-it-yourself Will-in-a-Box for tribal communities
Montana State University: MSU Extension, Montana Legal Services announce do-it-yourself Will-in-a-Box for tribal communities. “A new online program featured on the Montana State University Extension website aims to provide free help for Native Americans looking to write an Indian will. The program, called Will-in-a-Box, is the result of a partnership between the Montana Legal Services Association and the Indian Land Tenure Foundation. It is featured on Extension’s website on planning for the passing reservation lands to future generations, which explains major sections of the American Indian Probate Reform Act.”
Wall Street Journal: Google Will Be Hard Habit to Break
Wall Street Journal (unpaywalled for me): Google Will Be Hard Habit to Break. “The Justice Department has been meeting in recent days with state attorneys general to map out a course for pursuing an antitrust case against the internet-search company owned by Alphabet Inc. The outcome remains highly uncertain given the charged political environment. The Wall Street Journal reports that not everyone is on board with the speed at which U.S. Attorney General William Barr wants to move.”
Olympic .org: Catherine Freeman’s Golden Olympic Moment To Last Thousands Of Years With New Technology
Olympic .org: Catherine Freeman’s Golden Olympic Moment To Last Thousands Of Years With New Technology. “To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Olympic Games Sydney 2000, the famous white exterior sails of the Sydney Opera House are becoming an enormous movie screen, showing Australian Catherine Freeman’s 400-metre gold medal win on 25 September 2000. She ran her final in 49.11 seconds, becoming the first Aboriginal athlete to win gold in an individual event at the Olympic Games. The cinematic event celebrates not only Freeman’s historic achievement, but also its audiovisual preservation for future generations on an innovative, sustainable, long-term storage technology called ‘synthetic DNA’.”
Coronavirus Scotland: Glasgow University to give students in halls month’s free rent and vouchers after outbreak (The Scottish Sun)
The Scottish Sun: Coronavirus Scotland: Glasgow University to give students in halls month’s free rent and vouchers after outbreak. “GLASGOW University will give students in halls a month’s free rent and shopping vouchers to help them out after a campus Covid outbreak. University chiefs confirmed they would offer financial support to those impacted by the virus clusters – with free accommodation for the next month and £50 for shopping.”
Data Horde: Help Archive YouTube’s Community Contributions!
Data Horde: Help Archive YouTube’s Community Contributions!. “YouTube is removing their community contributions feature on September 28. In case you haven’t already heard, that’s the feature which allows viewers to add captions/subtitles, translated titles and video descriptions on videos. And YouTube seems to be pretty insistent on removing the feature, despite massive backlash. Now although YouTube have given their word to keep published community captions (and other contributions) online, there’s a small detail many people have overlooked. Last year, YouTube restricted the feature to only allow uploaders to publish contributions. As such, there are many many unpublished captions, title/description translations stuck in review.”
Volcano Watch: HVO’s new website is more accessible and mobile-friendly (West Hawaii Today)
West Hawaii Today: Volcano Watch: HVO’s new website is more accessible and mobile-friendly. “On the full-sized version (using a tablet or computer), users can still access Hawaiian volcanoes information and data via a menu of options viewed on the left-hand side of the screen, with a list of shortcuts to our most popular pages available on the right-hand side. News items are listed at the bottom of the homepage. The new website maintains the dynamic data streams — seismic maps, deformation plots, and webcam imagery of Hawaiian volcanoes — of the old website.”
National Library of New Zealand: Papers Past data has been set free
National Library of New Zealand: Papers Past data has been set free . “Papers Past is the National Library’s fully text searchable website containing over 150 newspapers from New Zealand and the Pacific, as well as magazines, journals and government reports. As a result of the data being released, people can now access the data from 78 New Zealand newspapers from the Albertland Gazette to the Victoria Times, all published before 1900. The data itself consists of the METS/ALTO XML files for each issue. The XML files sit in the back of Papers Past and are what allows you to locate keywords within articles.”
KrAsia: [Tuning In] Peter Bol on creating the China Biological Database and the power of digital humanities
New-to-me, from KrAsia: [Tuning In] Peter Bol on creating the China Biological Database and the power of digital humanities . “Professor Bol directs the China Biographical Database project, which is maintained by Harvard University, Academia Sinica, and Peking University. This online relational database currently contains some 350,000 historical figures and is being expanded to include all biographical data in China’s historical records from the last 2,000 years.”
Forbes: Otis Works To Make Elevators Safe For Covid-19
Forbes: Otis Works To Make Elevators Safe For Covid-19. “You know that elevators are problematic if only because you’re shut into a tiny room with lots of other people. Getting six feet apart is not always possible. And you have no idea who those other people are. And unfortunately, it’s impossible to make an elevator any larger than it already is. But that doesn’t mean you can’t update technology that’s over 150 years old. To do that, Otis, the largest maker of passenger elevators in the world, decided to take a look at other aspects of elevator usage to find ways to make them safer.”
