Technology • Innovation • Publishing — Issue #219

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Innovation

NASA Tests Gigantic Slingshot for Hurling Objects Into Space

gizmodo.com 
The successful 10th test of SpinLaunch’s suborbital accelerator included a NASA sensor and other partner payloads.

Meta AI predicts shape of 600 million proteins — www.nature.com

When London-based AI company DeepMind unveiled predicted structures for some 220 million proteins earlier this year, the trove covered nearly every protein from known organisms in DNA databases. Now, another tech giant is filling in the ‘dark matter’ of the protein universe. Researchers at Meta used AI to predict the structures of some 600 million proteins from bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms that haven’t been characterized.

Gmail to add a new package tracking feature ahead of holiday shopping season

techcrunch.com 
Google announced today a small update to Gmail that will allow users to track their upcoming package deliveries directly from their inbox.

The Supply Chain Broke. Robots Are Supposed to Help Fix It. — www.nytimes.com 
The companies behind e-commerce are embracing automation as the means of transcending the limitations of humans.

Technology

DeviantArt provides a way for artists to opt out of AI art generators — techcrunch.com 
DeviantArt is introducing a way for artists to exclude their work from AI training sets. It’s also launching its own generative art tool.

How Realistic AI Image Generators Are Filtering Into Creative Platforms — www.adweek.com

RT @Adweek A series of partnerships have begun to integrate machine-learning-powered image generation technology into software and online platforms on which designers rely.

Instagram Lets Users Schedule Posts & Reels In The App — www.searchenginejournal.com 
Instagram is rolling out the ability to schedule posts and reels in the mobile app up to 75 days in advance.

How TikTok scrutinizes and scores the creators on its shopping platform — www.marketwatch.com

Tiktok rolled out a ranking platform meant to score metrics like “diligence” and “enthusiasm” and “cooperability” among its commerce creators.

Google Play to pilot third-party billing in new markets, including US; Bumble joins Spotify as early tester — techcrunch.com

How Reddit defied the crypto winter and created a $10 million market for customizable avatars — just don’t call them NFTs — fortune.com 
The social media platform onboarded 3 million crypto wallets. Is it sustainable?

Netflix Explores Investing in Sports Leagues, Bidding on Streaming Rights — www.wsj.com

Netflix is looking at buying smaller sports leagues, such as tennis and surfing; Co-CEO Reed Hastings has been wary of rising costs for rights

The Most Vulnerable Place on the Internet — www.wired.com 
Underwater cables keep the internet online. When they congregate in one place, things get tricky.

Meta Myths — stratechery.com 
Meta deserves a bit of a discount off of its recent highs, but a number of myths about its business have caused the market to over-react.

Amazon ads are everywhere. It’s only the beginning.

www.vox.com

“Amazon has essentially given up on effectively surfacing the best products to customers in an organic fashion, and has outsourced that key function to advertisers.”

Publishing & Media

CLPE Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK Children’s Literature 2017–2022 — clpe.org.uk

MT @clpe1 Our #ReflectingRealities report is an insight into minority representation in children’s literature 2017–2021. There are both significant growth & glaring gaps, which we’ll continue to highlight in our pursuit of the authentic portrayal of children in books

Why Read a Book When You Can Ban It Instead? Inside Florida’s Clay County School District — bookriot.com

RT @BookRiot There are “nearly 2,000 books on a list that the president of the Florida chapter of No Left Turn in Education claims to have that are inappropriate and he will be challenging in the district.”

Forbes Nears Deal With Investor Group

www.nytimes.com

Forbes says it is in advanced talks to sell itself to a group of investors; sources: it had been seeking $800M, but the final price will likely be lower

News Deserts Are Growing, Publishing Executives Say

www.mediapost.com

Almost half say access to local news has decreased in the past decade, PressReader reports.

Resources & Opportunities

Pinterest, Headspace offer free mental health resources to content creators: ‘We wanted to inspire the people who do the inspiring’

www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org 
Pinterest and Headspace are offering free mental health resources to content creators to help them find the joy that “gets separated because of burnout.”

Twitter Auction Fundraiser Raphael Warnock in GA

twitter.com

Editors, authors, artists, bookstores, agents donated critiques, dummy reviews, 1-on-1 mentoring, illustrations, merch. The Twitter best bids auction will be Wednesday, 11/16, and closes 9 am Thursday 11/17. Go to @helloomabel’s Twitter account at that time.

WNDB Holiday 2022 Auction Item Donation Form

docs.google.com

MT @diversebooks Authors, illustrators, publishing pros: next month we’re launching our fundraising campaign for #BooksSaveLives, our new initiative to fight back against book banning and soft censorship! Please consider donating an item to our auction for the cause.

WMG New Member Social

www.womensmediagroup.org

Are you a new member of @WMG_NYC? If you’ve joined WMG between November 2021 and now, join us next Tuesday, 11/15 at 12:30pm ET for a FREE, virtual New Member Social!

Financial Stability as a Literary Writer — authorsguild.org

Current Students and Recent Grads: Center for Communication 2022 Women + Media Career Summit

centerforcommunication.kindful.com

MT @CenCom Registration for our 6th annual Women + Media Career Summit is open! This event is designed to help students & recent grads break into the media industry & be successful in their early careers through keynotes, panels, & skill workshops.

Find the book titles with National Book Tokens’ Hidden Books Game

caboodle.nationalbooktokens.com

MT @book_tokens Booklovers, your favourite game is back! Guess all 20 books in the #HiddenBooksGame and you could win a £500/€500 National Book Token to spend in your local UK bookshop (the best gift ever, in our opinion).