YouTube Blog: Greater transparency for users around news broadcasters. “A big goal for us in 2018 is to provide greater transparency across the board to our community of creators, advertisers, and viewers. In one small step towards that commitment, today we will start rolling out notices below videos uploaded by news broadcasters that receive some level of government or public funding. Our goal is to equip users with additional information to help them better understand the sources of news content that they choose to watch on YouTube.”
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Culture Shock: Precious Microbe Collections Languish in Threatened Bio-Libraries (Scientific American)
Scientific American: Culture Shock: Precious Microbe Collections Languish in Threatened Bio-Libraries. “Freeze-dried and locked away in liquid nitrogen–filled vaults around the world are hundreds of thousands of microbial cultures. In the U.S. these living libraries include 91,000 bacterial and fungal strains in Peoria, Ill., as well as 13,000 fungal strains in Ithaca, N.Y., and 7,500 wild yeasts at the University of California, Davis. Researchers have used strains from such publicly accessible culture collections to develop penicillin as well as the CRISPR gene-editing systems and the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) DNA-amplifying technique. But as government priorities apparently change, and as the federal money that historically created and preserved many of these biological resource repositories in the U.S. dries up, their infrastructure is at risk of deteriorating. “
FoodDive: Global database matches agrifood projects with resources
FoodDive: Global database matches agrifood projects with resources. “A new global database, which went public Monday, is designed to assist innovative food and agriculture startups with finding early-stage resources such as incubators and accelerator programs to help them grow.”
Press Herald (Maine): State budget error costs heavily used mapping agency its funding
Portland Press Herald (Maine): State budget error costs heavily used mapping agency its funding. “The accidental defunding of the Maine Office of Geographical Information Systems, or MEGIS, threatens services widely used by towns and cities, other state agencies, real estate professionals, developers, conservationists, foresters, planners and surveyors.”
Chronicle of Higher Education: After Professors’ Criticism, Group Updates List of Google-Funded Scholars
Chronicle of Higher Education: After Professors’ Criticism, Group Updates List of Google-Funded Scholars. “A group that created a list of scholars who’d received money from Google has updated the database in response to critics, including professors who said they didn’t belong on the list. In some cases the Campaign for Accountability, the creator of the dataset, defended putting professors on its list; in others, it clarified why scholars had been included; and in others, it removed academics from the list altogether.”
Bloomberg: Reddit Is Raising Funds Valuing Startup at $1.7 Billion
Bloomberg: Reddit Is Raising Funds Valuing Startup at $1.7 Billion. “Reddit is one of the few relics of the mid-2000s internet that has not only survived but thrived in recent years. Now venture capitalists are giving a major boost to the link-sharing website, with funding that will give the company a valuation of about $1.7 billion, two people familiar with the matter said.”
TechCrunch: Algolia raises $53 million for its search engine API
TechCrunch: Algolia raises $53 million for its search engine API. “French startup Algolia just raised a $53 million Series B round led by Accel, a couple of years after raising $18.3 million with… Accel also leading the round. So it looks like it’s a love story between the VC firm and the software-as-a-service startup. The reason is quite simple. Algolia is still growing like crazy, with its annual recurring revenue doubling every year. Algolia’s goal hasn’t changed — the startup wants to provide the best search experience to everyone building websites and apps out there.”
