CTV: New high-tech web tool aims to enlist Canadians to help find missing kids. “Thousands of children are reported missing across the country each year but only a handful of Amber Alerts are issued, potentially leaving large numbers of people who might be able to help find them in the dark. Now, a new website that aims to reach far more people than is currently the case — especially those who might be close to where the child went missing — is launching on Tuesday.”
This project apparently started last year, but I just heard about it, and the story where I read about it isn’t really useful, so I’m using this Atlas Obscura story from last year, and why am I explaining all this? You probably don’t care and why should you? Anyway, Atlas Obscura: The Quiet Glory of Chronicling America’s Champion Trees. “Not every National Champion tree is an exhibitionist. Awarded by the nonprofit conservation organization American Forests, the accolade goes to the biggest and most majestic specimen (or specimens) belonging to each of more than 700 tree species in the United States, based on criteria such as height, ‘crown spread,’ and trunk girth. But for every imposing oak or towering redwood, there are just as many entrants that don’t seem to merit a second glance.”
Hartford Courant: A new project reveals the hidden history of colonial people of color who are buried in downtown Hartford. “The graves of hundreds of African Americans and Native Americans lie in downtown Hartford’s Ancient Burying Ground, but without headstones they remain invisible. Excluded from official records or referred to only by race, their stories remain as hidden as their graves. Four centuries after enslaved people were first brought to America, a new project organized by the Ancient Burying Ground Association investigates hundreds of these untold stories. ‘Uncovering Their History’ shares the stories of colonists of color: an enslaved couple given away as a wedding present, black men who joined the Continental Navy in hopes of obtaining their freedom, Native American doctors and servants.”
BloombergQuint: Vestager 2.0: Google and Facebook’s Nemesis Gets a Reboot . “Margrethe Vestager, famous for slapping vast fines on the likes of Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google during her tenure as the EU’s top antitrust official, has been given the chance to do it all over again. She’s been handed the same job in Ursula von der Leyen’s proposed European Commission.”
NiemanLab: I create “convincing” manipulated images and videos — but quality may not matter much. “I’m proud of the work we’ve done, and hope it will help people keep track of the truth in a media-flooded world. But we’ve found that a key element of the battle between truth and propaganda has nothing to do with technology. It has to do with how people are much more likely to accept something if it confirms their beliefs.” Good morning, Internet…