New researches: August 2022

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

USPTO Virtual Events, Tweet Tiles, Searching Streaming Media, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 31, 2022

USPTO Virtual Events, Tweet Tiles, Searching Streaming Media, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 31, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

EVENTS

USPTO: Quarterly series introducing intellectual property beginning this week in Spanish and English. “Are you curious about intellectual property (IP) and want to learn more? This free United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) virtual series, Introduction to intellectual property, is offered quarterly and begins again with Intellectual property fundamentals on August 30 at 2 p.m. ET. In addition to the series in English, there is a corresponding series in Spanish, Introducción a la propiedad intelectual.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NiemanLab: Twitter is letting some news publishers post customizable cards. “Have you noticed that some news article cards on Twitter are looking a little different lately? The social media company rolled out Tweet Tiles — ‘a new, customizable way to expand the creative surface area of a Tweet’ — to three news publishers last week, a Twitter spokesperson confirmed.”

USEFUL STUFF

ZDNet: Want to search across all of your streaming channels? These two apps can help . “Fortunately for us, there are some half-a-dozen applications and services that make it possible to easily search across over 100 streaming channels for our favorite TV shows and movies. That said, in my experience, only two of them, JustWatch and Reelgood, are good and mature enough to deserve your TV-watching time.”

Search Engine Journal: 16 Places To Create A Free Brand Logo. “Since a logo is a visual representation of a company’s image and can be the first thing a potential customer sees, it’s important to get it right. That way, people can get a clear picture of the brand identity from the image you create. When creating a logo, it’s essential to consider several things, such as color scheme, font style, and overall design. So, here we’ve put together some of the best sites to help you get your logo ready for your brand.”

For a given value of “Useful”. PC World: 14 popular Google Doodle games you can still play . “Most Google Doodles revolve around art that transforms the iconic search engine’s logo to celebrate anniversaries and special events, or to raise awareness of ongoing issues, like recent ones that shone a spotlight on Route 66 and Teacher Appreciation Day. But a few times each year, the Google Doodle team goes one step further and cranks out some high-quality games that take the drawings to another level.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Washington Post: ‘Mutilated by rats,’ burned, trashed: 200 years of presidential papers lost. “Until the 1970s, former presidents could do pretty much whatever they wanted with their presidential papers. That often was a problem. Some papers ‘were purposely destroyed, while others fell victim to chance destruction,’ concluded a 1978 congressional study. ‘Others have been scattered to the four winds.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BBC: Nato investigates hacker sale of missile firm data. “Nato is assessing the impact of a data breach of classified military documents being sold by a hacker group online. The data includes blueprints of weapons being used by Nato allies in the Ukraine war. Criminal hackers are selling the dossiers after stealing data linked to a major European weapons maker.”

Axios: Anatomy of a text message phishing scam. “The growth of text-based phishing scams hit close to home for Axios last week when several employees got fake text messages claiming to be from company president and co-founder Roy Schwartz…. We dug into the recent campaign targeting Axios employees to learn more about how these scams operate — especially as reports about text message scams continue to outpace reports about email scams this year for the first time, per the Federal Trade Commission.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Thumbsticks: Preserving games media is as important as preserving the games themselves. “Another video game website will soon disappear, along with nearly a decade of articles. In the digital age, more has to be done to preserve video games coverage and criticism.”

Newswise: 41% of teenagers can’t tell the difference between true and fake online health messages . “A new study has found that teenagers have a hard time discerning between fake and true health messages. Only 48% of the participants trusted accurate health messages (without editorial elements) more than fake ones. Meanwhile, 41% considered fake and true neutral messages equally trustworthy and 11% considered true neutral health messages less trustworthy than fake health messages.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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September 1, 2022 at 12:16AM
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North Carolina Cold Cases, LinkedIn, YouTube, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, August 31, 2022

North Carolina Cold Cases, LinkedIn, YouTube, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, August 31, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Carolina Public Press: As NC’s decades-old rape kits are tested, new DNA evidence emerges. “After having the largest backlog of untested kits in the entire country, North Carolina is methodically working through those kits — more than 16,000 of them…. The DNA from another 1,481 kits has already been uploaded to CODIS [Combined DNA Index System], awaiting a hit from a possibly unknown person. That information is now displayed publicly, including down to the law enforcement agency level, on a new website.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Journal: LinkedIn Improves Search Results For Posts. “Search results for posts were previously served by two indexes – one for posts in LinkedIn’s main feed and one for articles. The complex nature made it difficult to build upon, so LinkedIn decided to decouple the two indexes. LinkedIn reveals the entire process in excruciating detail in a new blog post.”

CNBC: YouTube appoints Mary Ellen Coe as Chief Business Officer, following departure of Robert Kyncl. “Long-time YouTube executive Robert Kyncl announced on Monday he’s departing the dominant social video platform in the U.S. after more than 12 years at the company. Google President of global customer solutions Mary Ellen Coe will take over the role of Chief Business Officer at YouTube starting in early October, the company confirmed. Kyncl will temporarily stay at YouTube to help with the transition.”

USEFUL STUFF

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: How to navigate and search ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks Database. “In the first installment of this multi-part video series, ICIJ’s training manager Jelena Cosic walks through the basics of how to search through more than 800,000 offshore entities from the Pandora Papers, Panama Papers and more.”

MakeUseOf: 7 Best YouTube Curators to Find Videos, Movies, and Documentaries Worth Watching. “Finding quality videos on YouTube has become a recurring joke these days, and let’s not even get started on the irrelevant recommendations that YouTube serves you. But that’s why we need video curators. These are the people (or algorithms) that crawl the deep recesses of YouTube’s library to find videos worth watching so that you can spend more time watching and less time searching.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Washington Post: Twitter labeled factual information about covid-19 as misinformation. “Many of the tweets have since had the misinformation labels removed, and the suspended accounts have been restored. But the episode has shaken many scientific and medical professionals, who say Twitter is a key way they try to publicize the continuing risk of covid to a population that has grown weary of more than two years of shifting claims about the illness.”

Bard College: Bard Graduate Center Faculty Member Aaron Glass Awarded $150,000 NEH Grant to Support Enhanced Accessibility for the Digital Publication of Indigenous Cultural Heritage Materials. “Bard Graduate Center Associate Professor Aaron Glass has been awarded a $150,000 Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) to support his collaborative project to create a critical, annotated, digitized edition of anthropologist Franz Boas’s landmark 1897 monograph on the Kwakwaka’wakw culture of the Pacific Northwest Coast.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: Remote Scan of Student’s Room Before Test Violated His Privacy, Judge Rules. “A federal judge said Cleveland State University violated the Fourth Amendment when it used software to scan a student’s bedroom, a practice that has grown during the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Bleeping Computer: FBI: Hackers increasingly exploit DeFi bugs to steal cryptocurrency. “The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is warning investors that cybercriminals are increasingly exploiting security vulnerabilities in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms to steal cryptocurrency. ‘The FBI has observed cyber criminals exploiting vulnerabilities in the smart contracts governing DeFi platforms to steal investors’ cryptocurrency,’ the federal law enforcement agency said.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: The Animal Translators. “Machine-learning systems, which use algorithms to detect patterns in large collections of data, have excelled at analyzing human language, giving rise to voice assistants that recognize speech, transcription software that converts speech to text and digital tools that translate between human languages. In recent years, scientists have begun deploying this technology to decode animal communication, using machine-learning algorithms to identify when squeaking mice are stressed or why fruit bats are shouting.”

Science Daily: Underwater messaging app for smartphones. “Researchers have developed AquaApp, a mobile app for acoustic-based communication and networking underwater that can be used with existing devices such as smartphones and smartwatches.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

How-To Geek: “An Intense Hobby”: Meet the People Making New Retro Games. “It’s easy to think that consoles like the original NES, Sega Mega Drive, or even the Atari are nothing more than museum pieces, mere footnotes in video gaming history. However, there’s plenty of interest in retro gaming: And people are even making new games for these old consoles. Nowhere was this clearer than at Gamescom 2022 in Cologne, Germany, where a decent-sized section of a massive hall was dedicated to retro gaming.” Good morning, Internet…

August 31, 2022 at 05:29PM
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Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Ohio Naloxone, Wolfram Arithmetic, OpenSea, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 30, 2022

Ohio Naloxone, Wolfram Arithmetic, OpenSea, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 30, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

WDTN: New website provides free naloxone to Ohio residents. “A new website will provide Ohioans with a simplified process for accessing naloxone, a lifesaving drug used in the event of an opioid overdose…. The new website makes requesting naloxone possible for all Ohioans, whether they are a first responder, community member or distribution site and enhances access to prevention and treatment information.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Wolfram: Wolfram|Alpha Pro Teaches Step-by-Step Arithmetic for All Grade Levels. “Now, Wolfram|Alpha Pro returns step-by-step solutions for long addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems, including ones involving decimals or negative numbers. We have also developed detailed step-by-step solutions for long division of whole numbers and negative numbers as well as—for the high-school level—multiplication and division of polynomials.”

Fortune: Trading volume on top NFT marketplace OpenSea down 99% since May. “What was once a red-hot market fueled by FOMO during the crypto bull market of 2021 is now just a trickle, with trading volume on the most popular NFT marketplace, OpenSea, down 99% in just under four months. On May 1, OpenSea processed a record $2.7 billion in NFT transactions, but on Sunday the marketplace recorded just $9.34 million worth, according to data compiled by DappRadar.”

USEFUL STUFF

WIRED: The Best RSS Feed Readers for Streamlining the Internet. “RSS has been around awhile now, so there are a lot of very good RSS readers out there. Most of them feature built-in search and suggestions, so you don’t have to go hunting for feeds yourself. You just might discover some cool new sites to read. I’ve been using RSS for more than a decade and recently spent a few months trying almost a dozen RSS reader services. The picks below are the best RSS readers available.” I use both NewsBlur and Feedly daily, and recommend them both.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

On the Wight: Did someone press the button early? Google Maps showing many closed Isle of Wight roads (updated). “As you can see from our screen grabs above and below and from Dan’s short video below it almost looks as though someone has accidentally turned on the rolling road closures two weeks early for the Tour of Britain cycle race – due to take place next Sunday.”

Voice of America: VOA Greek Service Legacy Finds Home at City University of New York. “The physical and digital archive of the Greek broadcasting service of the Voice of America, one of the original language services of the network, is now donated to the Hellenic American Project (HAP), a nonprofit program under the Department of Sociology of Queens College in the City University of New York.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

WIRED: Nothing Is Protecting Child Influencers From Exploitation. “Children can now enter the public gaze of millions with as little as their first ultrasound scan. As early as 2010, studies indicated that a quarter of children had an online presence before their birth, curated by expectant parents. There is something deeply Kafkaesque about a child’s day-to-day existence becoming a vessel for logo-embroidered merch and licensing contracts. But whilst Jackie Coogan may have been able to take back at least a fraction of the money made from peanut butter tins with his face on them, the prospects seem bleak for today’s hashtag babies.”

The Verge: Snap agrees to $35 million settlement over privacy lawsuit . “Snapchat users in Illinois who used filters or lenses may be eligible for a payout. Illinois reached a $35 million settlement with Snap this month, according to the Chicago Tribune, in a class action lawsuit over how user data was collected.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of New South Wales: Unlocking the secret to private messaging apps. “Whether you’re sharing confidential information or swapping movie ideas with a friend, people are turning to private messaging apps that offer end-to-end encryption to protect the contents of their conversations. When data is shared over the internet, it often traverses a series of networks to reach its destination. Apps such as WhatsApp, owned by social media giant Meta (formerly Facebook), provide a level of privacy that even challenges Government agencies from accessing encrypted conversations.”

SmartCompany: Google AI spots 20,000 undeclared pools in $14 million tax windfall for French government. “Artificial intelligence (AI) software developed by Google has found thousands of undeclared swimming pools in the backyards of France, resulting in the owners of those pools being slugged a hefty tax bill totalling $14.5 million.” Good afternoon, Internet…

August 31, 2022 at 12:52AM
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British Royal Air Force Records, Snapchat, FCC Broadband Maps, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, August 30, 2022

British Royal Air Force Records, Snapchat, FCC Broadband Maps, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, August 30, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Fold3: New British Royal Air Force Records! . “We are pleased to announce a new collection of military records from the United Kingdom. The UK, British Air Force Lists, 1919-1945 contains a list of people who served in the British Royal Air Force between the end of the First and Second World Wars.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mashable: Snap’s new Dual Camera actually is a little different from BeReal. “On Monday, Dual Camera launched for Snapchatters using iOS on at least an iPhone XS/XR globally, with an Android rollout expected in the coming months. The mode allows users to capture content via the front and back cameras simultaneously, and though it sounds eerily similar to the Gen Z-beloved BeReal, Snap promises that it’s not exactly the same.”

Techdirt: New FCC Broadband Maps Are A Bit Of A ‘Train Wreck’ “The FCC launched a new data collection portal in June, and gave ISPs until September 1 to provide updated broadband availability data. But smaller ISPs in particular say they’re struggling to meet the new requirements for data collection and transparency, and pretty clearly won’t be ready for launch.”

NBC News: Twitch will allow partners to stream on other platforms now. “Twitch has lifted its exclusivity agreement and now allows partners to create live content for other platforms like YouTube and Facebook, NBC News has confirmed. Twitch partners, who must meet certain criteria to monetize their channel and access exclusive support from the platform, had been long bound to an exclusivity agreement that only allowed them to stream on Twitch.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 10 Useful Command-Line IrfanView Tools for Working With Images. “These days, image editors are a dime a dozen. Beyond new filters, few tools offer exciting features. What if you could integrate image editing directly into your batch jobs or Windows scripts? If you’re familiar with IrfanView and think it’s only a simple image viewer and screenshot app, then we invite you to take another look. You can run all the script commands presented below from the command prompt or Windows Terminal, so long as you are working from the IrfanView directory. Let’s see how it’s done.”

How-To Geek: Google Forms vs. Microsoft Forms: Which Should You Use?. “You can create a form or quiz easily using both services. The interfaces are comparable with no standout differences. So when it comes down to what one service offers over the other, a certain feature might be the tie-breaker you need to decide between them. Let’s look at how Google Forms and Microsoft Forms differ.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Dartmouth University: Dartmouth to Digitize Rare ‘Lobby Card’ Collection. “Dartmouth and its Media Ecology Project have signed an agreement with a prominent film poster and lobby card collector to digitize his significant collection of material related to film history. Under the agreement, Dwight Cleveland—a Chicago-based collector and real estate developer with an interest in historic preservation—will provide access to his collection of more than 10,000 rare and valuable lobby cards from the silent film era to MEP Director Mark Williams.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Verge: The Twitter whistleblower just got a subpoena from Elon Musk. “Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko, the former Twitter security chief whose explosive disclosures alleged serious security flaws and misleading practices within the company, has received a subpoena to appear for a deposition in the ongoing lawsuit between Twitter and Elon Musk.”

BBC: The sudden silencing of Guantanamo’s artists. “Until the end of 2017, Guantanamo detainees were allowed to take their art with them when they were released, or give it to their lawyers to take out. The artists could bring their work to meetings with their lawyers, who would submit it along with their meeting notes to a team which vetted it for classified material or national security issues…. Then in late 2017, under the Trump administration, it became clear that art was no longer being allowed out.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: QAnon Accounts Found a Home, and Trump’s Support, on Truth Social. “NewsGuard, a media watchdog that analyzes the credibility of news outlets, found 88 users promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory on Truth Social, each to more than 10,000 followers. Of those accounts, 32 were previously banned by Twitter.”

Notre Dame News: Gender-diverse teams produce more novel, higher-impact scientific discoveries, study shows. “New research from the University of Notre Dame examines about 6.6 million papers published across the medical sciences since 2000 and reveals that a team’s gender balance is an under-recognized, yet powerful indicator of novel and impactful scientific discoveries.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Newswise: Print, Recycle, Repeat: Scientists Demonstrate a Biodegradable Printed Circuit. “According to the United Nations, less than a quarter of all U.S. electronic waste gets recycled. In 2021 alone, global e-waste surged at 57.5 million tons, and only 17.4% of that was recycled…. But now, a team of researchers from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley have developed a potential solution: a fully recyclable and biodegradable printed circuit.” Good morning, Internet…

August 30, 2022 at 05:26PM
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Monday, August 29, 2022

Twitter, Heroku, Niche Creators, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 29, 2022

Twitter, Heroku, Niche Creators, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 29, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: You Can Now Listen to Podcasts on Twitter. “Podcasts are now available to stream directly from the Spaces tab on Twitter, the social media giant said in a blog post Thursday. Starting today, you can head over to your Spaces tab, which is essentially Twitter’s answer to audio-chat app Clubhouse, and listen to popular podcasts from around the world.”

TechCrunch: Heroku announces plans to eliminate free plans, blaming ‘fraud and abuse’. “After offering them for over a decade, Heroku today announced that it will eliminate all of its free services — pushing users to paid plans. Starting November 28, the Salesforce-owned cloud platform as a service will stop providing free product plans and shut down free data services and soon (on October 26) will begin deleting inactive accounts and associated storage for accounts that have been inactive for over a year.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Washington Post: Niche internet micro celebrities are taking over the internet. “Niche internet micro celebrities are people online who are known to a small but often dedicated group and they represent a growing variant of the attention economy. Online fame is a consequence for a niche internet micro celebrity, never the goal. They rarely make money from their social accounts, choosing instead to post for the fun of it. The term is often used in a tongue in cheek way.”

Clemson University: Summer institute to reconstruct South Carolina’s “Black Archive”. “Clemson English professors Susanna Ashton and Rhondda Thomas will join Furman faculty members Gregg Hecimovich and Kaniqua Robinson to lead a summer institute entitled ‘Reconstructing the Black Archive: South Carolina as Case Study, 1739–1895.’ The three-week residential institute is designed for more than 20 higher education faculty to study ways of reconstructing Black histories, using South Carolina as a case study. The institute is supported by a $198,317 grant from the NEH.”

Wall Street Journal: How Google Remapped the World: The Tech Behind. “Google Maps has transformed the way that we navigate the world, make decisions, and think about our privacy in the 17 years since its launch. Here’s an inside look at how it works and what’s next.” 8:31 video, captioned.

SECURITY & LEGAL

WIRED: Inside the World’s Biggest Hacker Rickroll. “The elaborate high school graduation prank—dubbed The Big Rick by its architects—was one of the largest rickrolls to ever take place, taking months of planning to pull off.”

Inside Imaging: Copyright bot wrongly attacks White House photographer. “Former White House photographer, Pete Souza, who spent two terms documenting US president Barack Obama, has been threatened with copyright litigation for publishing his own public domain pictures.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Newswise: Scientists want to bridge public divide. “There’s a disconnect between the goals and the delivery of scientific outreach and its actual impact. In recent years, communication around diseases like COVID-19 and a growing mistrust in science have made that gap even more apparent. To better understand where these disconnects occur, Northwestern University scientists conducted a survey of 530 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and staff at U.S. academic institutions to examine their motivations and barriers to participation in science outreach.”

Google Blog: Join us in the AI Test Kitchen. “One of our most promising models is called LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), and as we move ahead with development, we feel a great responsibility to get this right. That’s why we introduced an app called AI Test Kitchen at Google I/O earlier this year. It provides a new way for people to learn about, experience, and give feedback on emerging AI technology, like LaMDA. Starting today, you can register your interest for the AI Test Kitchen as it begins to gradually roll out to small groups of users in the US, launching on Android today and iOS in the coming weeks.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

CogDogBlog: Do Look at Don’t Look At My Photos. “The idea is to do the opposite of flickr’s Explore or Interestingness, to try to find some of the obscure photographers in the mix. The whole thing is a bit of duct tape JavaScript tapping into the flickr API. Every hour a server script updates the site’s single page to find a new photographer to feature.” Good afternoon, Internet…

August 30, 2022 at 12:10AM
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Museum Exhibitions, Dell, Anti-Disinformation Efforts, More: Ukraine Update, August 29, 2022

Museum Exhibitions, Dell, Anti-Disinformation Efforts, More: Ukraine Update, August 29, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Museums + Heritage Advisor: Six months on, Ukraine remains in focus. “This week marks six months since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an attack which has continued to devastate the country, its museums and cultural sites among the collateral…. In March, Arts Council England (ACE) provided new guidance for museums planning to work with companies and artists from Russia and Belarus in response to the invasion. Now in August, the pace of support through exhibitions shows no signs of slowing down.”

Reuters: Dell Ceases All Russian Operations After August Offices Closure . “Dell Technologies Inc. said on Saturday it had ceased all Russian operations after closing its offices in mid-August, the latest in a growing list of Western firms to exit Russia. The U.S. computer firm, a vital supplier of servers in Russia, has joined others in curtailing operations since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.”

Reuters: Google to roll out anti-disinformation campaign in some EU countries. “Google’s Jigsaw subsidiary will launch a campaign next week to tackle disinformation in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic about Ukrainian refugees based on research by psychologists at two British universities.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

WIRED: Their Photos Were Posted Online. Then They Were Bombed. “Analysts and online sleuths, such as journalists at the investigative news outlet Bellingcat, have developed and professionalized open source investigation techniques for years. Open source intelligence, also known as OSINT, involves the use of public data—such as social media posts, flight tracking data, and satellite images, among other sources—to let anyone investigate events worldwide, from potential war crimes to human rights violations. Piecing together small details from multiple sources of information can allow investigators to understand a clearer picture of events on the ground.”

BBC: Gamescom: The Ukrainian video game makers who kept working in a war zone. “Like many colleagues in the video game industry, Iryna Bilous and Nika Avayan recently arrived at the world’s largest gaming conference, Gamescom in Germany, to show off their latest title to fans. But for these two Ukrainians, the road to the trade fair has been anything but a normal journey.”

Motherboard: Kaspersky Employees Say They Were Asked to Resign Because They Wanted To Leave Russia . “In the wake of the invasion, at least two employees told Motherboard they asked to be relocated outside of Russia. A third source who still works at the company also told Motherboard that some Kaspersky employees were asked to resign after those employees asked to live and work somewhere else.”

Fast Company: Inside Russia’s cartoonish propaganda website made for kids. “It has been almost six months since the world watched in horror as Russia invaded Ukraine, under the false pretext of protecting Russia from potential aggression. But Russia’s very own presidential website may have been laying the groundwork for years.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Guardian: Russia’s Yandex to sell off news service as state tightens grip on online media. “Russia’s largest internet company is to sell off its news and blogging services to the state-controlled social media platform VK in a deal that will increase direct state control over the news many Russians see online.”

Bleeping Computer: Russia’s ‘Oculus’ to use AI to scan sites for banned information. “Russia’s internet watchdog Roskomnadzor is developing a neural network that will use artificial intelligence to scan websites for prohibited information. Called ‘Oculus,’ the automatic scanner will analyze URLs, images, videos, and chats on websites, forums, social media, and even chat/messenger channels to locate material that should be redacted or taken down.”

Jerusalem Post: Russia’s state watchdog restricts TikTok, Zoom and other IT companies . “Russia’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said on Friday that it was taking punitive measures against a string of foreign IT companies including TikTok, Telegram, Zoom, Discord and Pinterest, according to Russian media.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Foreign Policy: Information Warfare in Russia’s War in Ukraine. “Strategic propaganda campaigns, including those peddling disinformation, are by no means new during warfare, but the shift toward social media as the primary distribution channel is transforming how information warfare is waged, as well as who can participate in ongoing conversations to shape emerging narratives.” This article is partially-paywalled, but enough is available that it’s worth a link.

Stanford Internet Observatory: How Unmoderated Platforms Became the Frontline for Russian Propaganda. “In an essay for Lawfare Blog, Samantha Bradshaw, Renee DiResta and Christopher Giles look at how state war propaganda in Russia is increasingly prevalent on platforms that offer minimal-moderation virality as their value proposition.”

August 29, 2022 at 09:12PM
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Mining Wikipedia’s Page View Counts With Gossip Machine

Mining Wikipedia’s Page View Counts With Gossip Machine
By researchbuzz2

Researching famous people has always been a favorite search puzzle of mine. Google works to a point, and there are little search tricks you can use to narrow down your results, but digging down into substantive news and information about celebrities and the well-known is difficult via a general search engine. If they’re really, really famous it gets even more tough.

Thinking about this, I mused about famous people, and about references to them, and where those references appear, like Wikipedia. Wouldn’t there be a way to gauge public interest in a famous person via Wikipedia?

I came up with a hypothesis: why would a Wikipedia page get an unusually high number of views? Because more people are interested and looking at it, of course. And why are they looking? Because they were reminded of the page’s topic, probably through a news story or similar happening.

Therefore, Wikipedia page view counts aren’t just page view counts, they’re fossilized attention. They’re markers in time for when a topic has an unusual level of interest.

So why not find those markers and translate them to news searches?

That’s what Gossip Machine does. You can use it at https://researchbuzz.github.io/Gossip-Machine/ .

Enter the topic you’re interested in, the year you want to search, and how newsworthy you want the date to be ( When the setting is “VERY Newsworthy,” days must have at least 190% of an average day’s pageviews, while the “Gossip Fiend” setting requires only 150%.)

Gossip Machine goes through every day of a year’s worth of page counts and returns the days that match your settings, along with links to Google News and Google Web searches for that date.

Let’s do a couple of examples. The default search for Gossip Machine is for Snoop Dogg in 2016, with VERY Newsworthy dates to be found. I click the “Fire Up the Gossip Machine” button and get a list of 2016 dates when Snoop’s page had an unusual level of interest and visits. Each date has a link to do a Web search or a News search. Gossip Machine also tells you the average page view count so you can be prepared for the odd results you might get for topics with a low view count.

I clicked on the July 17 news search to see what was going on that day, and yeah, that looks pretty newsworthy!

Clicking on the Web link might bring you links to other news stories or multimedia.

Do you see how that Wikipedia page view count – a marker of increased interest – can super-focus your search results?

It doesn’t work just for people, either. You can search for things like medical conditions, locations (remember, you’re looking for things that people might look up on Wikipedia, so the name of a California city might work better than a really general search like California itself) or even events.

Gossip Machine also does an initial search to find your topic page so don’t worry about getting the name exactly right. If, for example, you look up magic mushrooms in the year 2020, Gossip Machine will get you topical page results, having resolved your query to the topic Psilocybin mushroom:

You’ll note that in this example this topic’s page has a much lower view count than Gossip Machine recommends for good results. It’s still worth checking at least one or two links in the set of results, especially if they’re grouped together around a single date like this one is. In this case there was certainly relevant news:

I don’t think I’m quite done with Gossip Machine. If there’s an interest I can add more sources besides Google News and Web search, and I’ve been thinking about adding a triangulation feature – find the most popular dates that two different Wikipedia pages have in common and get the news for those.

What do you think?

August 29, 2022 at 07:20PM
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Repustar, NASA STEM Activities, Duolingo, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, August 29, 2022

Repustar, NASA STEM Activities, Duolingo, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, August 29, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from Poynter: Repustar debuts a tip line tool for US fact-checking organizations. “Repustar, a fact-checking organization that crowdsources fact checks, is partnering with journalism and fact-checking outlets in the US to provide both fact checks to the public and verifiable claims to fact-checkers. It aims to rollout the service globally in 2023. The remotely operated startup is also responsible for FactSparrow, a Twitter bot that users can tag under tweets with claims they would like to be checked, and The Gigafact Project, a fact-checking editorial platform.”

NASA: New Aeronautics Activities for the Back-to-School Season. “Kids are going back to school across the country – and NASA Aeronautics is here to help educators engage them with educational Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) activities related to our flight research. Part of NASA’s agency-wide Back to School campaign for the 2022-2023 school year, this updated aeronautics-focused STEM engagement portfolio includes topics that span the breadth of the agency’s work in aeronautics for students of all ages.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

KnowTechie: Duolingo will now teach you elementary-level math. “Duolingo is expected to launch its flagship math (or maths, depending on what side of the Atlantic you live on) course today. Duolingo Math is a dedicated app for iOS and iPadOS. It re-uses the company’s gamification mechanics to teach third-grade maths.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: How to Tell If You’re Eligible for Student Loan Forgiveness. “This week, the White House announced a sweeping plan to forgive the student loan debt of millions of Americans. The initiative will cancel up to $10,000 in debt for some borrowers and $20,000 for others. Here’s how to see if you’re eligible for loan forgiveness, how you can get your hands on the money, and a look at how the program will effect student loans in the future.”

WIRED: How to Use the Emergency SOS Feature on Your Smartphone. “Emergency SOS works in a similar way across mobile platforms, as we’ll outline below. Whether you’re dealing with a medical emergency or other safety concerns, its main purpose is to let emergency services and your trusted contacts know that you’re in trouble and where you are.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Reuters: Jack Dorsey says his biggest regret is Twitter became a company . “‘The biggest issue and my biggest regret is that it became a company,’ Dorsey tweeted in response to a question about whether Twitter turned out the way he had envisioned. Dorsey stands to receive $978 million if the agreement for billionaire Elon Musk to buy Twitter is completed.”

ArtsHub: Is social media the new curators’ portfolio?. “Social media platforms such as Instagram have greatly impacted the visibility of curators but can it give them some leverage in their professional practice?” I know what the word curate means but I didn’t entirely grasp what an art curator does. The Art Gallery of South Australia helped me understand.

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: How much trouble is Twitter in with regulators?. “An explosive whistleblower disclosure by Twitter’s former head of security this week exposes the company to new federal investigations and potentially billions of dollars in fines, tougher regulatory obligations or other penalties from the US government, according to legal experts and former federal officials.”

SF Chronicle: I tracked thieves stealing my car in S.F. Then I saw firsthand what police can — and can’t — do next. “In San Francisco, a city rife with gadget-lovers and plagued by high property crime, the technology would seem to be a game changer. But in reality, situations like my stolen Subaru can often be mired in unforeseen complications. The response by police has at times been thwarted by legal constraints — for example, an officer generally can’t enter a home just because the Find My iPhone app says your cell is inside — and at other times by what victims say feels like apathy.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Engadget: Federally funded studies must be freely accessible to the public, White House says . “The White House has updated its policy on federally funded research. Going forward, the results of studies funded by the government must be made public right away. Until now, researchers who receive federal funding have been allowed to publish their findings in academic journals exclusively for one year, effectively adding a paywall to their work. Agencies will need to update their policies accordingly by December 31st, 2025.”

Mashable: Virtual rapper FN Meka underscores how AI perpetuates racial stereotyping. “On Aug. 12, AI-powered rapper FN Meka signed a record deal with Capitol Records, becoming the first digital artist to sign with a major label. Eleven days later, the deal was terminated amidst calls that the character promoted ‘gross stereotypes’ of Black culture, as reported by the New York Times.” There are so many great rappers out there who don’t get enough recommendation. Why make a fake one? Good morning, Internet…

August 29, 2022 at 05:31PM
via ResearchBuzz https://researchbuzz.me/2022/08/29/repustar-nasa-stem-activities-duolingo-more-monday-researchbuzz-august-29-2022/

Sunday, August 28, 2022

iFixit Catalog, Twitter, Android Cross-Compatibility, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 28, 2022

iFixit Catalog, Twitter, Android Cross-Compatibility, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 28, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Review Geek: You Can Now Access iFixit’s Entire Catalog Offline. “To many people, the internet is an invasive, essential, and ever-present force. But nearly half of the world’s population lacks home or mobile internet access, and even in ‘developed’ nations, the internet is held together by superglue. That’s why iFixit has made the entirety of its guides available offline.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNN: How Twitter has been shaken by a whistleblower’s allegations. “In the days since it was first reported that former Twitter head of security Peiter “Mudge” Zatko had filed an explosive whistleblower disclosure, the company has had to confront renewed scrutiny from lawmakers, a dip in its stock price and added uncertainty in its high-stakes legal battle with billionaire Elon Musk.”

The Verge: Google opens the door for Android apps that work across all kinds of devices. “Google’s trying to make it easier for developers to create Android apps that connect in some way across a range of devices. In a blog post, Google explains that it’s launching a new cross-device software development kit (SDK) that contains the tools developers need to make their apps play nice across Android devices, and, eventually non-Android phones, tablets, TVs, cars, and more.”

USEFUL STUFF

Hongkiat: Fresh Resources for Web Designers and Developers (August 2022). “In this edition of the series, we’ll feature some frameworks and resources for web designers, testing tools, and a lot more. If you are a front-end developer or designer, I’m pretty sure you’ll love what we have on the list. Let’s take a look.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Brown University: To advance research on incarceration, Brown acquires personal papers of prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. “The prison records, correspondence and artwork of Abu-Jamal, and related materials from advocate Johanna Fernández, will anchor a collection at the John Hay Library focused on first-person accounts of incarceration.”

Boing Boing: Are YouTubers good or bad for the sport of boxing?. “…boxing is finally getting some mainstream attention thanks to YouTuber super fights. Celebrities like Jake Paul and KSI sell more pay-per-views than most ‘real boxers’ could ever imagine. As a result, boxing purists have become quite vocal in voicing their displeasure toward YouTube boxers, but there’s a strong argument that this new crop of celebrity boxers is great for the sport.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

ZDNet: CISA: Action required now to prepare for quantum computing cyber threats. “Action must be taken now to help protect networks from cybersecurity threats that will emerge in the advent of power of quantum computing, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has warned. While quantum computing could bring benefits to computing and society, it also brings new cybersecurity threats – and the CISA alert warns that critical infrastructure in particular is at risk.”

IANS: Google Play purges over 2K predatory personal loan apps in India this year. “Google on Thursday said it has purged more than 2, 000 controversial personal loan apps from its Play Store in India in the January-June period after consulting with the law enforcement agencies.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Digital Photography Review: Film Friday: How I track each roll of film I shoot using a custom Notion database. “I’m not the most organized person. As such, I can’t count the times over the years I’ve accidentally shot through rolls of film and forgotten what camera they were shot with or how many stops I pushed/pulled them, making for less-than-pleasing results when sending them out to get developed and scanned. To remedy this problem, I decided to try something new this year. I decided to create a database of sorts that would help me track every roll of film I take out of the freezer, load into my camera and send off to my lab of choice.”

Fielding Graduate University: Ring Camera Security Videos as Entertainment. “The use of Ring camera videos for a TV program is a clever marketing move by the company. It challenges existing social norms about security monitoring by classifying it as entertainment. What used to be invasive and creepy is now not only socially acceptable but downright fun stuff. Although scholarly evidence has shown that widespread surveillance leads to greater public approval, despite the rising threat to privacy, autonomy, and civil liberties, researchers have not yet examined the effect of surveillance as entertainment programming.” Good afternoon, Internet…

August 29, 2022 at 12:06AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/Hp3yP9k

Aberlour Child Care Trust, Idaho Public Meetings, NPR Podcasts, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, August 28, 2022

Aberlour Child Care Trust, Idaho Public Meetings, NPR Podcasts, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, August 28, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Stirling: Historic children’s home archive opens with donation from former resident. “The archive is the result of a year-long project led by a team of University experts, who carefully restored, preserved and recorded hundreds of historic documents from Aberlour, including administrative records, case files, annual reports, photographs and issues of the charity’s magazine. Now fully searchable and open to those who have personal or family connections to Aberlour and to researchers, the archive provides a detailed record of the organisation’s work caring for children across Scotland since the establishment of its first orphanage in 1875.”

Idaho Capital Sun: New website allows Idahoans to sign up for public meeting notices for nearly 200 state agencies. “Idaho residents can now subscribe to receive notifications for public meetings for almost 200 state of Idaho agencies, boards and commissions… according to a Thursday press release from Gov. Brad Little and State Controller Brandon Woolf. Other enhancements to the new website include the ability to use a keyword search, copy meetings to your online calendar and use a text reader to find information in documents related to public meetings, according to the release.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: NPR’s podcast catalog comes to YouTube. “Google is partnering with National Public Radio to bring the broadcaster’s podcasts to YouTube. On Thursday, the two announced that more than 20 NPR shows, including Up First and Throughline, are now available on the platform.”

Rolling Stone: Will This Be the First Country Bankrupted by Crypto?. “Today, despite efforts to mitigate financial disaster — including bitcoin-backed ‘volcano bonds,’ and a plan for a tax-free crypto mining hub called ‘Bitcoin City’ — the value of bitcoin has plummeted, and the country is on the brink of defaulting on its debt. The International Monetary Fund has repeatedly warned El Salvador to drop bitcoin if it wants to save its economy.”

Washington Post: Truth Social faces financial peril as worry about Trump’s future grows. “There are signs that the company’s financial base has begun to erode. The Trump company stopped paying RightForge, a conservative web-hosting service, in March and now owes it more than $1 million, according to Fox Business, which first reported the dispute.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: How to Convert an Image to JPG Format. “Many websites have strict rules that limit the size and type of image format you’re allowed to upload. With JPG being the go-to file format of the internet, we’re going to take a look at how you can convert your images into JPG format.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CNBC: Google employees frustrated after office Covid outbreaks, some call to modify vaccine policy. “Google employees are receiving regular notifications from management of Covid-19 infections, causing some to question the company’s return-to-office mandates. The employees, who spoke with CNBC on the condition of anonymity, said since they have been asked to return to offices, infections notifications pop up in their email inboxes regularly. Employees are reacting with frustration and memes.”

Hyperallergic: Why One Organization Is Rushing to Digitize Decades of Broadcast Media. “Today, [New Mexico Public Broadcasting Service] staff and volunteers are at the leading edge of digitizing decades’ worth of irreplaceable New Mexico-produced broadcast media via the New Mexico Public Media Digitization Project. The endeavor will preserve thousands of analog and digital media from the 1960s to the present and includes half-hour episodes, hour-long programs, and rolls of raw footage from five public television and radio stations across the state. The project, which will digitize more than 8,000 video and audiotapes, is expected to be completed later this year.”

Westchester & Fairfield County Business Journals: Housatonic Museum of Art receives grant for online collection database. “The museum, which located on the Housatonic Community College campus in Bridgeport, will use the grant funds in documenting, digitizing and archiving 600 objects into an online collections database, thus expanding visitor access beyond the limited number of collection items that are available for viewing during in-person visits.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNET: Who Andrew Tate Is and Why He’s Been Kicked Off Social Media. “TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have all banned Andrew Tate after a long-running series of inflammatory and grossly misogynistic comments.”

Ars Technica: The number of companies caught up in the Twilio hack keeps growing. “The fallout from this month’s breach of security provider Twilio keeps coming. Three new companies—authentication service Authy, password manager LastPass, and food delivery service DoorDash—said in recent days that the Twilio compromise led to them being hacked.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Scientist: AAAS Shutters Its Center for Public Engagement. “The American Association for the Advancement of Science has confirmed that it has closed its Center for Public Engagement with Science & Technology as part of the final stages of an ongoing strategic planning process. For nearly two decades, the center offered the scientific community programs geared toward increasing the public’s awareness of and trust in science and the process of conducting research.” Good morning, Internet…

August 28, 2022 at 05:26PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/vu8jnew

Saturday, August 27, 2022

Maine Community Services, Google, Google Sheets, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 27, 2022

Maine Community Services, Google, Google Sheets, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 27, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

State of Maine: DHHS Launches New Dashboard Highlighting Services By the Numbers . “Today, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) posted a new ‘DHHS By the Numbers’ Dashboard. It displays current data on services provided by the Department’s 3,400 workers in its eight Offices and two psychiatric hospitals.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Land: Google helpful content update is now rolling out. “Google has started to roll out the new helpful content update that it pre-announced last week. As a reminder, Google’s helpful content update is a sitewide signal. It targets websites that have a relatively high amount of unsatisfying or unhelpful content, where the content is written for search engines first. In short, did you write that piece of content to rank on Google or did you write it to help users?”

9to5 Google: Google Sheets adds XLOOKUP, Named Functions, and a few other advanced features. “Ben Collins, a Google Developer Expert working with Sheets, shared this week an explanation detailing several new features that have been released for Google Sheets. Specifically, 10 new functions that will be helpful for power users.”

USEFUL STUFF

Wirecutter: Free Video Games You Can Download Right Now. “Whether you own a PlayStation, Xbox, or a gaming PC, accounts or memberships you probably already have regularly give away full-length games on a monthly or weekly basis. These games offer great opportunities to break out of your comfort zones and try new genres.”

WIRED: Curious About 3D Printing? Here Are Some Tips Before You Dive In. “For the purposes of this guide, I’m assuming you’re looking for desktop consumer printers. With the recent explosion in the availability of printers, anything less than $500 is sufficient for household jobs. This range will all meet similar standards of accuracy and speed, and maintain options to upgrade.”

Tom’s Guide: How to stream on Twitch. “If you want to start streaming, theoretically, all you need to do is a computer and a somewhat stable internet connection. The whole process itself is so simple that you could set everything up before you reach the end of this article. However, if you’re keen on putting together a more polished setup, you could accomplish this within the hour, whether that’s using your gaming PC, laptop, console, or even your mobile phone.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CNET: Paul Allen’s $1 Billion Art Collection Heads to Auction. “Christie’s auction house said Thursday it would handle the sale of the impressive art collection of Paul Allen, the late co-founder of Microsoft, a collection valued at more than $1 billion that includes masterpieces by Renoir and Roy Lichtenstein.”

CNN: They met on a promenade in Nice. Now this couple makes a living traveling in a world of sounds. “In the six years since that first recording, Libby and Marcel have captured audio in more than 25 countries, mostly in Asia, Europe and North America, spending months at a time in each nation. They have developed a more sophisticated recording setup to encompass stereo, Ambisonic and binaural techniques — but still compact enough to fit their traveling lifestyle.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Privacy complaint targets Google over unsolicited ad emails. “Google has breached a European Union court ruling by sending unsolicited advertising emails directly to the inbox of Gmail users, Austrian advocacy group noyb.eu said on Wednesday in a complaint filed with France’s data protection watchdog.”

Engadget: Plex tells users to reset their passwords after potential data breach. “Plex users may want to change their passwords as soon as they’re able. The digital media player and streaming service said a bad actor had infiltrated its system in a letter sent to users affected by the breach.” Good afternoon, Internet…

August 28, 2022 at 12:30AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/wT3OCqG

Hurricane Harvey, Gene Roddenberry, Monkeypox Guidance, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, August 27, 2022

Hurricane Harvey, Gene Roddenberry, Monkeypox Guidance, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, August 27, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Fox 26 Houston: University of Houston highlighting city’s resilience during Hurricane Harvey. “Entitled Resilient Houston: Documenting Hurricane Harvey, viewers may access an online archive of oral history interviews from residents across the city, learn how different communities were affected, and how people stepped up to assist their neighbors.”

Deadline: The Roddenberry Estate & Otoy Unveil First Immersive Roddenberry Archive Experiences, Multi-Year Roadmap To Preserve History Of The ‘Star Trek’ Universe. “The Roddenberry Archive immersive experience and behind-the-scenes video logs are available for the public to view online at this link. These materials will be augmented with additional archive features throughout 2022.”

CBS 17: CDC launches new website to help colleges deal with monkeypox spread. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have launched a new landing page full of monkeypox resources for people in higher education. It offers tips for students on how teens and young adults can prevent the spread of the disease and other things they need to know.”

EVENTS

NARA: National Archives Public Programs in September . “In September, the National Archives celebrates Constitution Day (September 17), opens its new All American: The Power of Sports exhibit on September 16 at its DC Museum, and continues offering free public programs at the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, at Presidential Libraries nationwide, and virtually on the National Archives YouTube Channel.” Interesting census program on September 8!

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: Elon Musk’s ‘absurdly broad’ Twitter data requests mostly rejected by judge. “Elon Musk’s demands for Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) user details were rejected as ‘absurdly broad’ by a judge on Thursday, although the billionaire will get some data as he pursues his bid to end his $44 billion acquisition of the company.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Mainichi: Ordinary Japanese ‘salarymen’ reach TikTok stardom. “Daikyo Security Co.’s account, which gathers goofy dances, gobbled instant noodles and other everyday fare, is the brainchild of the company president. Despite his unpretentious demeanor, Daisuke Sakurai is dead serious about not only enhancing brand power but also recruiting young people to his company, a challenge he sees as a matter of survival.”

Reader’s Digest: How TikTok is changing book cover designs. “We’ve all heard the saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, but it’s pretty evident that the look of the novel in question has to grab our attention. With a new digital trend that sees readers sharing their beloved purchases on social media apps like Instagram and TikTok, there’s more of a drive than ever to ensure that those covers match their desired target audience.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Conversation: Social media ads are about to change – how new rules on content marketing will affect what you see and share. “We’ve all scrolled through social media and come across a witty post shared by a friend. Perhaps it references a favourite TV show, or speaks to your current mood. If you were intrigued enough to click on it, you may have been surprised to discover it’s actually an ad for fast food, fashion or even gambling. Such ads, with no apparent connection to the product and which are not overtly trying to sell you something, are called content marketing.”

USA Today: Scribbled notes, classified materials and golf carts: Here’s how the millions of White House documents and artifacts should be archived. “Until the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration, former presidents owned their records, although some worked with the National Archives to create presidential libraries. But when Richard Nixon, after resigning, wanted to destroy the White House tapes that incriminated him in the cover-up of the Watergate complex burglary, Congress passed a law giving control over presidential records to the National Archives at the end of an administration.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PBS: Not all scientists wear lab coats. Volunteers are fueling research nationwide. “There’s a term for people who contribute to this knowledge purely out of love of the game: citizen scientists. And opportunities to get involved with federally run or sponsored initiatives — from mapping mosquito habitats with smartphones to tallying up plastic pellets spotted on the beach — have only expanded over time.”

Stanford University: New App VideoSticker Uses AI To Help Students Take Rich Notes from Video Lessons. “At present, note-taking of video means manually taking screenshots, clipping and cropping visual objects, reviewing transcripts and manually taking notes, all the while bouncing back and forth between video player and a note-taking app, [Hari] Subramonyam says. But VideoSticker combines video, audio, transcripts, and a powerful visual and a textual note-taking application. Better yet, using AI, VideoSticker can automatically identify and trim objects out of the video and place them in the note-taking area.”

Science Daily: What makes us share posts on social media?. “A new study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Generalled by University of Pennsylvania researchers Danielle Cosme and Emily Falk analyzed the behavior of more than 3,000 individuals to explore the psychology behind sharing information online. It turns out that the answer is quite straightforward: People share information that they feel is meaningful to themselves or to the people they know.” Yup. Good morning, Internet…

August 27, 2022 at 05:32PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/4DMhw9i

Friday, August 26, 2022

Medieval Manuscripts, Preserving File Formats, Ohio Monkeypox, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 26, 2022

Medieval Manuscripts, Preserving File Formats, Ohio Monkeypox, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 26, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

British Library: Hildegard-go! “Thanks to generous funding from Joanna and Graham Barker, the British Library is digitising many of its manuscripts, rolls and charters connected with women from Britain and across Europe, and made between 1100 and 1600. We have some great news to report: the first batch of ten manuscript volumes is now available to view online.”

NARA: NARA’s Digital Preservation Framework Goes Live as Linked Open Dataset. “Beginning today, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is making its Digital Preservation Framework available as a Linked Open Dataset, a first for the agency…. The Digital Preservation Framework describes best practices for the preservation of 684 file formats, some dating back to the first transfers of electronic records to NARA 50 years ago.”

Ohio Department of Health: Ohio Department of Health launches new monkeypox cases dashboard. “The Monkeypox Cases Overview dashboard and interactive map, available on the Ohio Department of Health website (odh.ohio.gov), shows the total number of cases across the state, the number of cases per county, the age range of people affected by monkeypox, the percentage of cases by sex, and outcomes, including any hospitalizations and deaths. The dashboard, which will be updated weekly on Thursdays, is modeled after other dashboards ODH has developed to share information with Ohioans about infectious disease outbreaks, including the 2018 statewide outbreak of Hepatitis A.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: Google Search and Maps results will confirm if a medical center offers abortions. “In the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, Google announced that it is making it easier to use its Maps and Search products to find medical providers that offer abortions. When someone searches for specific services and Google has confirmation that a location provides those services, it’ll be clearly labeled in Search and Maps.”

How-To Geek: Chrome’s Next Privacy Upgrade Might Break Some Websites. “Most web browsers have been slowly phasing out User Agents, which send details about your computer and browser to sites. Starting in October 2022, the Chrome web browser will take another step towards ditching User Agent strings entirely.”

USEFUL STUFF

The Verge: Find the best AI-powered app to transcribe your audio. “Whenever a popular online app announces a change to its fees, or in the services it provides for those fees, you’re going to get a reaction from its subscribers — especially the long-term ones. The latest app to cause this type of dismay is Otter, a recording and transcription service that recently announced downgrades of the services it provides on two of its plans and raised the price on a monthly plan.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

LastPass: Notice of Recent Security Incident. “I want to inform you of a development that we feel is important for us to share with our LastPass business and consumer community. Two weeks ago, we detected some unusual activity within portions of the LastPass development environment. After initiating an immediate investigation, we have seen no evidence that this incident involved any access to customer data or encrypted password vaults.”

The Guardian: British judge rules dissident can sue Saudi Arabia for Pegasus hacking. “A British judge has ruled that a case against the kingdom of Saudi Arabia brought by a dissident satirist who was targeted with spyware can proceed, a decision that has been hailed as precedent-setting and one that could allow other hacking victims in Britain to sue foreign governments who order such attacks.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: Spiders Are Caught in a Global Web of Misinformation. “Recently, more than 60 researchers from around the world, including Dr. [Catherine] Scott, collected 5,348 news stories about spider bites, published online from 2010 through 2020 from 81 countries in 40 languages. They read through each story, noting whether any had factual errors or emotionally fraught language. The percentage of articles they rated sensationalistic: 43 percent. The percentage of articles that had factual errors: 47 percent.”

University of Alabama at Birmingham: Sponsorship disclosures by social media influencers reduce engagement, study finds. “A new study in the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice by Parker Woodroof, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Collat School of Business, looked at pet influencers marketing and the effect that certain textual and visual cues within sponsored posts have on social media engagement behaviors. Woodroof’s study found that mentions of sponsorships, using brand logos and overall saturation of sponsorships hinder social media engagement in pet influencer marketing.” Good afternoon, Internet…

August 27, 2022 at 12:54AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/H1TZ6CX

Japanese Anime, Medieval Drawings, EarthSnap, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, August 26, 2022

Japanese Anime, Medieval Drawings, EarthSnap, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, August 26, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Crunchyroll: The World’s Largest Japanese Anime Database “Anime Taizen” Opens to The Public Today. “As of the end of July 2022, Anime Taizen has approximately 15,000 registered titles, mainly Japanese commercial anime works released from 1917 to the present. In addition to title name searches, the database has search functions for chronology, Japanese syllabary, keywords, etc. As a result of the research to date, the number of episodes amounts to approximately 180,000.” Apparently the site is somewhat slow at this writing due to demand.

Medievalists: Thousands of medieval images available for free, thanks to Albertina Museum. “The Albertina Museum, located in Vienna, is considered to have one of the best collections of drawings and prints in the world. Recently, they put into the public domain most of the online image collection, which will allow people to use the images freely. Nearly 4,000 of these images date between the 12th and 15th centuries, with another 23,000 dating to the 16th century.”

PR Newswire: EarthSnap Launches Revolutionary App to Identify All Types of Earth’s Plants and Animal Species (PRESS RELEASE). “EarthSnap is citizen science in action: When users upload photos of plants or animals to EarthSnap, the app utilizes a custom-built, patent-pending AI machine learning solution to identify the subject and share details like habitat, global population distribution and known history on Earth. These uploaded photos also contribute to EarthSnap’s ever-growing database – applications of which include recording animal migration habits, shifting habitats and animal behavior.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: DuckDuckGo Opens Email Protection Service Beta to Everyone . “Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo opened its Email Protection service beta to everyone Thursday. The service gives you a free Duck address (name@duck.com) and will detect and strip trackers within emails sent to it. Then the email is forwarded to your personal email address, and DuckDuckGo will let you know how many trackers it got rid of.”

Wall Street Journal: DHS Folds Disinformation Board After Criticism Over Threat to Free Speech. “The Department of Homeland Security has terminated a government board formed earlier this year to combat online disinformation, after a range of critics said it could stifle free expression on the internet and had an unclear mission. It encountered widespread criticism from conservatives, civil liberties advocates and some current and former officials.”

How-To Geek: CrossOver 22 Can Run More Windows Apps on Mac and Linux. “CrossOver is one of the best ways to run Windows software on Mac and Linux, as it’s based on the popular Wine project. CodeWeavers has now released CrossOver 22, with significant changes to the interface and software compatibility.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

TechCrunch: Shuffles, Pinterest’s invite-only collage-making app, is blowing up on TikTok — here’s how to get in . “Collage-style video ‘mood boards’ are going viral on TikTok — and so is the app making them possible. Pinterest’s recently soft-launched collage-maker Shuffles has been climbing up the App Store’s Top Charts thanks to demand from Gen Z users who are leveraging the new creative expression tool to make, publish and share visual content. These ‘aesthetic’ collages are then set to music and posted to TikTok or shared privately with friends or with the broader Shuffles community.”

Reuters: Walmart explores matchmaker marketplace for social media influencers. “Walmart may launch a platform that will use social media influencers to help the retailer and its 100,000 third-party sellers promote their goods and services online, according to trademark filings.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Engadget: Twitter whistleblower to testify about company’s ‘widespread security failures’ at Senate hearing. “Twitter’s former security chief will testify at a Senate hearing about the company’s security practices. Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko, who recently went public with a lengthy whistleblower complaint based on his experiences at the company, will appear at a Judiciary Committee hearing on September 13th.”

Wall Street Journal: NFTs Are Increasingly Targeted by Criminals, Report Says. “Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, are increasingly sought by criminals looking to either steal them or use them to launder illicit gains, a new report from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said on Wednesday. More than $100 million worth of these blockchain-based assets were reported stolen in scams over the past year, according to the study. Over 4,600 NFTs were stolen in July, the most in any month since Elliptic began tracking the data in 2017, the report said.”

Oxford Mail: Lawyer struggles to communicate with client over Google Translate. “AN ADVOCATE said he had battled to communicate with his cannabis farmer-accused client using Google Translate – as no interpreter was available. Pham Hoang, 18, was before Oxford Crown Court accused of producing the class B drug at a commercial scale factory in a flat in Underhill Circus, Barton. The Vietnamese teenager was allegedly found at the 270-plant cannabis farm by police officers during a raid on July 19.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

ProPublica: Visualizing Toxic Air . “Making data public isn’t enough when it’s incomprehensible to the people it affects. ProPublica set out to decode a complex EPA data set to expose hot spots of industrial air pollution across the U.S.” Good morning, Internet…

August 26, 2022 at 05:31PM
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Thursday, August 25, 2022

Illinois State University Performing Arts, Martha’s Vineyard Biodiversity, Google, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 25, 2022

Illinois State University Performing Arts, Martha’s Vineyard Biodiversity, Google, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 25, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Illinois State University: School of Theatre and Dance programs now online. “Did you know that the actor who plays Officer Kevin Atwater in the hit NBC series Chicago P.D. also played Private Driscol in the 2008 Wonsook Kim School of Theatre and Dance production of Bury the Dead? And that actors from The Office and Will & Grace once played harpsichord together on the Westhoff Theatre stage in a 1991 production of Love for Love: A Comedy? You can find all this and more in Illinois State’s institutional repository, ISUReD! Through a partnership between Milner Library and the School of Theatre and Dance, around 190 programs have been added to the School’s collection on ISUReD. Patrons can now browse production programs that date back to 1957 and feature hundreds of the school’s theatre and dance students, faculty, and staff.”

Martha’s Vineyard Times: Recording the Island’s biodiversity . “BiodiversityWorks launched a new website called the Martha’s Vineyard Atlas of Life, where Islanders can record the biodiversity that exists on the Island. This project was launched with support from the Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation. Claire Callagy, the foundation’s philanthropic program manager, said the foundation made a three-year commitment to help launch this project.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BBC: Google “airbrushes” out emissions from flying, BBC reveals. “Flights now appear to have much less impact on the environment than before. That’s because the world’s biggest search engine has taken a key driver of global warming out of its online carbon flight calculator…. The company said it made the change following consultations with its ‘industry partners’.”

USEFUL STUFF

VERIFY: Yes, there is a way to check if you received a Pell Grant. “Pell Grants are need-based federal grants awarded to college students. Unlike loans, they do not need to be repaid, but many Pell Grant recipients also used student loans to help pay for school. The additional forgiveness for Pell Grant recipients was unexpected for many, and top search questions after Biden’s announcement were about Pell Grants and how to check if someone received one.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CNN: New York museums are now required to disclose artwork looted by Nazis. “Museums in New York will now be required to disclose which artworks were stolen in Europe during the Nazi era, thanks to new legislation signed last week by Governor Kathy Hochul.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: She Had an AirTag in Her Lost Luggage. It Led Police to a Baggage Handler’s Home.. “A traveler who put a tracking device in her bag helped sheriff’s deputies in Florida identify an airport worker who was accused of stealing more than $16,000 in goods from passengers’ luggage, the authorities said.”

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah cold case investigators unveil nationwide resource aimed at solving railroad killings. “The database currently has more than 1,000 entries, spanning crimes ranging from the 1960s to 2012, and still more are being added. At least 12 of the cases originated in Utah. Volunteers have pieced together information from newspapers, police and court records and even railroad documents, and they soon hope to visit train archives in other states that may contain more information.” The database is not publicly-available because the information has not been scrubbed of personal information, but the Cold Case Coalition is happy to search it for law enforcement or family of missing persons.

RESEARCH & OPINION

NBC News: Google is trying out ‘pre-bunking’ in an effort to counter misinformation. “In a study published Wednesday, social scientists from Cambridge University and Google reported on experiments where they showed 90-second cartoons to people in a lab setting and as advertisements on YouTube, explaining in simple, nonpartisan language some of the most common manipulation techniques. The cartoons succeeded in raising people’s awareness about common misinformation tactics such as scapegoating and creating a false choice, at least for a short time, they found.”

ReviewGeek: Why I Hate Google’s New Search Interface. “Over the last week or so, you may have noticed a drastic change to the ‘All, Shopping, News, Images, Videos, More’ shortcut buttons under the search bar after you Google something. Or, maybe you noticed they’re missing entirely. Instead of the options we’ve all enjoyed for years, it looks like Google is A/B testing a big visual overhaul, and it’s a convoluted mess.”

University of Florida: Smartphones push consumers to prefer unique, tailored products. “Personalized wine lists. Tailored clothing options. Unique experiences just for you. The world is awash in products and services that promise to provide custom experiences to every consumer. And it turns out our smartphones are pushing us to unconsciously prefer just these kinds of customized options.” Good afternoon, Internet…

August 26, 2022 at 01:02AM
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