Link Smorgasbord, April 2016

Website Seeks to Make Government Data Easier to Sift Through
Always awesome, and the site in question can be found here: http://datausa.io/

Sincerity is the Watchword
On horror stories and what makes them compelling.

Americanizing Words and Witches
Super interesting, and I'm definitely wanting to read this book even if I tend to eschew horror.

 Blizzard Erases Gaming History By Axing a Fan-Made 'World of Warcraft' Server
A commentary on the impermanent and changing natures of MMOs.

 Encryption bill would force companies to surrender user data
More security theater.  Because weakening protection never goes wrong...

How music streaming service exclusives make pirating tempting again
Irony: the Hulu banner ad at the top of that page.  But access is an issue.  I know that if there's an album that my only option is to buy as a download from a walled-garden account, I will not buy it.  I'd rather give the artist money directly and pirate than deal with walled-garden access.  Also, the Oatmeal also rather succinctly put this whole issue a few years ago when talking about Game of Thrones.

Why The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam
And why people are upset by it.
But as the San Bernardino iPhone fight made clear, the privacy debate in the U.S. is no longer just about legal processes and judicial oversight. It's about whether unhackable devices should be allowed to exist, warrant or no warrant. And a taped-over webcam is about as unhackable as a device can get.
Now they're coming after the librarians
The Library of Congress wanted to drop the "illegal alien" subject heading and replace it with vocabulary that is more understandable, such as "noncitizen" or "unauthorized immigration," which allows better granularity on the part of the cataloger, and removes such accidentally hilarious subject headings as "Church work with aliens."  From a service point of view, changing the subject headings may very well be beneficial for non-citizens seeking to become legal citizens.

10 Books I Wish My White Teachers Had Read
Worth looking at.

Good Omens: Neil Gaiman to adapt Terry Pratchett collaboration for TV
*squee*

Follett Acquires Baker & Taylor
Well... that narrows the seller field a bit.

Google Books just won a decade-long copyright fight
There's a lot on both sides of the fight worth thinking about.

Here Are the 2016 Hugo Award Finalists
Some amazing titles, some whu??? titles, and various presence of the Puppy factions.  Seems like they're actually going with a number of titles that have a high chance of winning and seem oddly out of line with their "anti-SWJ" stance.

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