New researches

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Artifact Geochemistry, National Protests, Cars, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, June 10, 2020

Artifact Geochemistry, National Protests, Cars, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, June 10, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

ScienceDaily: Pofatu: A new database for geochemical ‘fingerprints’ of artefacts. “Due to the improvement and increased use of geochemical fingerprinting techniques during the last 25 years, the archaeological compositional data of stone tools has grown exponentially. The Pofatu Database is a large-scale collaborative project that enables curation and data sharing. The database also provides instrumental details, analytical procedures and reference standards used for calibration purposes or quality control. Thus, Pofatu ensures reproducibility and comparability between provenance studies.”

Mercer Island Reporter: Mercer Island teen, who went viral for his COVID-19 dashboard, launches new website . “The site, which [Avi] Schiffmann announced June 2 on Twitter, aggregates and continually updates resources and information relevant to the recent wave of police-brutality protests happening nationally in response to the police killing of George Floyd and other black Americans.”

Paul Scherrer Institute: Life cycle assessment of cars – new web tool helps consumers and researchers. “Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute have developed a web tool called the Carculator that can be used to compare the environmental performance of passenger cars in detail. The program determines the environmental balance of vehicles with different size classes and powertrains, and presents the results in comparative graphics. The entire life cycle of the passenger cars is taken into account, including the manufacture of the vehicles and the environmentally relevant emissions from driving.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNBC: Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Google Assistant have been updated to express support for Black Lives Matter. “Apple, Amazon and Google recently updated their smart voice assistants. They now explain the Black Lives Matter movement when asked ‘Do black lives matter?’ and also provide updated responses to ‘Do all lives matter?’ ”

Jerusalem Post: IDF Archive allows Israelis to copy declassified documents. “Israelis are now allowed to copy documents from the IDF and Defense Establishment Archive, the Ombudsman’s Office ruled last week after more than three years of discussions, the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research said. According to Akevot, manual copying of declassified documents in the archives will not be restricted. Until the decision, one was only allowed to read documents on the computers in the archive’s reading room, while the archive did offer copies of the documents for a significant fee.”

USEFUL STUFF

CNET: Pride Month: Celebrate the LGBTQ community at these online events. “Global Pride is part of a wave of digital celebrations launching over the course of this month. Here are some of the virtual festivals you can attend.”

Wired: How to Set Your Social Media to Control Who Sees What. “SOCIAL MEDIA CAN bring us together, and even distract us sometimes from our troubles—but it also can expose us to scammers, hackers, and…less than pleasant experiences. Don’t panic though: you can keep the balance towards the positive with just a few common-sense steps, and we have some of the most vital ones below. When it comes to staying safe on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, a lot of it is common sense, with a sprinkling of extra awareness.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Search Engine Journal: Google Finds Over 25 Billion Spammy Pages Every Day. “Google’s efforts to keep spam out of search results are detailed in the company’s annual webspam report, published today. According to the report, over 99% of Google’s search results are spam-free, and the company goes to great lengths to keep it that way.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Vice: Why LGBTQ YouTubers Are Suing Google for Discrimination. “If you’re a full-time content creator trying to reach an audience, the Google algorithms can be brutal, especially if they seem to be discriminatory. That’s what a group of LGBTQ YouTubers is alleging in its suit against the tech giant, which finally went to its first hearing in a California court last week after months of delays.”

Pickr: Google Drive scam leaves dodgy PDFs in your drive . “Scammers are getting better at hitting the services we use, and that last one — the calendar scam — has become so frequent, you can almost bet on receiving one every month or two if you’re someone who relies on Google Calendar, which tends to process the spam calendar invites on email without you even realising it. But it’s not the only way scammers are trying to use Google’s tools and services against users, and appear to have turned to another to get people to click: Google Drive.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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June 11, 2020 at 12:50AM
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TVS diode arrays protect high-reliability applications

Microchip has released a family of 25 high-reliability 3-kV TVS diode arrays that protect aircraft, space systems, and critical infrastructure from surges, spikes, and electrostatic events.

from Electronic Products Technology Center Articles https://ift.tt/37iFC5v

Sensor platform adds AI for smart odor sensing

Renesas has expanded its indoor air quality sensor platform with embedded AI to improve odor sensing for ventilation systems, bathroom monitoring and controls, and air quality monitors.

from Electronic Products Technology Center Articles https://ift.tt/2ATlw5Q

Memory controller reference design targets edge AI and video processing

Lattice and Etron leverage their respective ECP5 FPGA and RPC DRAM technologies to develop a memory controller reference design as a replacement for external memory cards in edge AI and smart vision applications.

from Electronic Products Technology Center Articles https://ift.tt/30ADkxr

Designing with WBG semiconductors takes a little extra know-how

Electromagnetic interference, paralleling, and layout are all things that engineers understand, but when transitioning from silicon-based chips to silicon carbide or wide-bandgap devices, it requires a little more attention to these issues.

from Electronic Products Technology Center Articles https://ift.tt/30tK7Zr

Canadian Protest Songs, Rembrandt Painting, Rave Ephemera, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, June 10, 2020

Canadian Protest Songs, Rembrandt Painting, Rave Ephemera, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, June 10, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Complex: A Toronto Hip-Hop Professor Made a Playlist of Canadian Protest Songs. “Even as protests against racial injustice and police brutality continue to rage on across North America this weekend, there are still some who like to claim that systemic racism somehow doesn’t exist north of the border. We don’t have to tell you how idiotic that statement is—just ask Maestro, or the many other Canadian hip-hop artists who’ve been speaking out about these issues in their music over the last three decades. Echoing these sentiments, the North Side Hip Hop Archive—an ever-growing digital collection of Canadian hip-hop history and culture, spearheaded by Mark V. Campbell, a Toronto professor—recently shared an incendiary playlist showcasing tunes of resistance by Canuck artists over the years.”

CNET, from mid-May (still catching up): See Rembrandt’s The Night Watch in ‘hyper resolution’ as 44.8-gigapixel photo. “A museum in the Netherlands has published the largest, most detailed photograph ever of Rembrandt’s famed 1642 painting The Night Watch, making it possible for anyone to zoom in on the masterpiece in exquisite detail…. It’s 44.8 gigapixels (44,804,687,500 pixels) and made up of 528 exposures divided into 24 rows of 22 pictures stitched together with the help of neural networks.”

Mixmag Asia: Desa Potato Head unveils an online archive of 4,000+ pieces of rave ephemera. “Steve Terry’s Wild Life Archive is a world-renowned collection of ephemera, books, magazines and other related artefacts documenting dance music culture from its early origins all the way through to today’s global scene. 25 years in the making, the collection is made up of more than 4,000 items that date back to the early 1970s from as far as Paradise Garage and Hacienda to Berghain and Dekmantel.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: WhatsApp resolves issue that exposed some users’ phone numbers in Google search results. “WhatsApp has resolved an issue that caused phone numbers of some of its users to appear in Google search results. The fix comes days after a researcher revealed that the phone number of WhatsApp users who created a simplified link to allow others to chat with them or join a group appeared in search results.”

UC Davis: Special performance on Facebook Live supports autism community. “The Balcony theater group, in collaboration with the UC Davis MIND Institute, is hosting a Facebook Live event in support of the autism community on June 13 at 5 pm PT. The event…, streamed on the MIND’s Facebook page, includes a 30-minute expert panel on building awareness around autism, followed by a 90-minute live performance of Through Andrew’s Eyes, a play by Oscar Cabrera featuring neuro-diverse actors.”

USEFUL STUFF

Bustle: How To Confront People On Social Media About Racist Comments. “Social media can feel like a minefield right now. Whether it’s your aunt digging her heels in about ‘Blue Lives Matter,’ your old college friend declaring that looting is the ‘wrong’ way to protest, or endless Twitter back-and-forth about curfews and police brutality, it can be tempting to wonder if confronting racist posts on social media can ever achieve anything. Experts say that it really does — and that standing up to racial microaggressions and subtle racist behavior online is a good way to begin change, though it’s nowhere near enough.”

Bleeping Computer: New BotSight browser extension reveals Twitter bots. “Released by the NortonLifeLock Research Group (formerly known as Symantec Research Labs), the BotSight browser extension will display a small icon and a percentage score next to each account to indicate whether it’s classified as a real person or a bot.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

AOPA: FAA Contacting Private Airport Owners To Update Data. “Almost 3,000 privately owned airports could be listed as ‘closed’ in the FAA’s online database and be removed from aeronautical charts if owners don’t verify their airport records by June 30.”

PR Week: Not just listening: Podcast monitoring tools find their place in the dashboard. “Nearly 90 million Americans are listening to podcasts each week, according to Edison Research. And while the media type has been on the scene for more than a decade, monitoring capabilities have appeared much more recently amid growing demand.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: French parliament passes law requiring social media companies delete certain content within an hour. “The French parliament passed a controversial hate speech law on Wednesday that would fine social media companies if they fail to remove certain illegal content within 24 hours — and in some cases, as little as one hour.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New Zealand Herald: The Conversation: Google and Facebook pay way less tax in New Zealand than in Australia – and we’re paying the price. “While the internet has created new opportunities for media and audiences alike, those opportunities have come at a price. Traditional media organisations now compete with giant digital platforms, not only for the attention of readers, but also for the advertising revenue that was once their lifeblood. Adding insult to injury, the digital platforms compete for audiences’ attention partly by distributing the news content that was first created and published by those now-struggling media organisations. This not only damages the media and public discourse, it is harmful to taxpayers.”

Scientific American: The Quantum App Store Is Coming. “Currently, quantum computing researchers and enthusiasts need to know quantum programming; it’s simply a must. Soon, though, all they will need is a quantum app store and a line of code. Not an app store like in your smartphone, but similar to a code repository of today, such as GitHub—a type of digital library where software developers make the code they have written available to anyone. And in the near future, developers will be able to put in their lines of code that will call on quantum computers to deal with specific tasks a regular computer can’t.” Good morning, Internet…

June 10, 2020 at 05:31PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/3dR6Wu6

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

NYUAD Art Gallery, Tobacco Pipes, Miniature Wargames Magazine, More: Tuesday Evening ResearchBuzz, June 9, 2020

NYUAD Art Gallery, Tobacco Pipes, Miniature Wargames Magazine, More: Tuesday Evening ResearchBuzz, June 9, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The National: NYUAD Art Gallery traces history in newly launched digital archive. “In its five years of existence, the New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Art Gallery has put on a number of notable shows. It has featured towering sound sculptures by Zimoun, Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti’s contemplative The Concrete Tent and most recently, Amar Kanwar’s poignant installation The Sovereign Forest. The public will soon be able to revisit these exhibitions online as the gallery prepares to open its first digital archive on Monday, May 18. It will be launched alongside a series of virtual events, primarily discussions, as part of the gallery’s digital programme Trace: Archives and Reunions.”

New-to-me, from Cigar Journal: Prestigious European Award For Don Duco . “Indeed, Don Duco has dedicated his life to securing a neglected theme: the global heritage of the tobacco pipe and the culture of smoking. Nobody asked him, nobody paid him for it. As a collector, later as curator of the museum he founded, he brought together tobacco pipes and other smoking utensils from all over the world and from all periods. He has now housed the world’s most varied collection in that field in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. Duco has distributed the results of his studies in more than two hundred scientific publications and ten books. The online database of the museum contains accurate determinations of more than 30,000 objects with more than 150,000 photos. All this freely accessible to visitors from all parts of the world.”

InPublishing: Miniature Wargames Magazine goes digital with new archive. “Dating back to 2010, the online resource comprises over 130 issues and is available for individual and institutional subscriptions. Published by Warners, Miniature Wargames covers all forms of the hobby; primarily historical, but also including fantasy, sci-fi, pulp, steampunk and roleplaying. The monthly magazine features ‘how-to’ guides for painting and scratch-building both figures and scenery, item reviews, opinion pieces and historical information from leading aficionados.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Tom’s Guide: Google Home is about to get this huge upgrade. “After Alexa, Google Home is the largest smart home platform, enabling you to control any number of lights, locks, and plugs just by saying ‘Hey Google.’ However, navigating the Google Home app isn’t the most intuitive. That could change with the newest version of the Google Home app, which promises a streamlined interface that will make it easier to connect to and control smart speakers and other smart home devices.”

9to5 Google: Blogger gets Material Theme revamp, responsive design on the web. “Blogger’s ‘improved web experience’ was quietly announced in May and very much in line with other Google Material Theme revamps. The new look increases spacing, while the navigation drawer can now be hidden by tapping the hamburger icon in the top-left corner. Meanwhile, articles are displayed in cards with faint outlines, which is again par for the course.”

USEFUL STUFF

Council of Europe: No Hate Speech Training Course goes online. “The course gathers some 40 multipliers active with young people on combating hate speech, experts working on standards on fighting discrimination and hate speech, and activists using human rights education and counter-narratives for awareness-raising against hate speech. The participants represent various stakeholders in society, notably youth movements, educational organisations, local authorities, equality bodies/ ombuds-offices, and Human Rights NGO’s.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Wired UK: Inside Radiohead’s mission to archive everything . “In January 2020, the many strange iterations of Radiohead’s multiple websites were brought back to life when the band launched the Radiohead Public Library. If you visit radiohead.com today, you’re greeted with neatly organised digital ‘shelves’, stacked with music, high-quality videos, merch and ephemera from every era of the band. Most of those preserved websites are deliberately opaque. One, from the era of The Bends (the critically acclaimed album released in 1995), collects negative reviews of the website itself on a neon background. (‘Do NOT visit this site. It is confusing, garbled rubbish,’ reads one.) But, if the Radiohead of the early 2000s found innovation in obfuscation, in 2020 the band has recognised that a truly radical online act is to actually provide clarity.”

University of Northern Colorado: Professor Receives $6,500 Grant to Create Digital Archive for Artifacts. “In May of 2019, Andy Creekmore, Ph.D., an associate professor of Anthropology at the University of Northern Colorado, received a $6,500 grant from the Colorado Statewide Internet Portal Authority (SIPA) Micro-Grant Program. The grant is being used to make UNC’s collection of more than 3,000 southwestern and plains prehistoric and historic artifacts publicly accessible through an online database that’ll be searchable and Google indexed through Digital UNC.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

NPR: In Settlement, Facebook To Pay $52 Million To Content Moderators With PTSD. “Facebook will pay $52 million to thousands of current and former contract workers who viewed and removed graphic and disturbing posts on the social media platform for a living, and consequently suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a settlement agreement announced on Tuesday between the tech giant and lawyers for the moderators.”

Security Boulevard: High-Profile Data Thefts Shine Spotlight on Dark Web. “Recent ransomware threats leveled at President Trump, Lady Gaga and Madonna have raised awareness of the need to not only better secure data but also devoting more resources to determine what data has been exposed on the Dark Web. The cybercriminals who make up the REvil (Sodinokibi) ransomware gang this week launched an auction site where they plan to sell stolen data they were unable to ransom. Previously, REvil claimed to have stolen data from Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, a law firm that primarily serves celebrities, and Agromart, an agricultural company based in Canada. Other apparent victims include Wartman Law Firm, Fraser Wheeler and Courtney LLP and Vierra Magen Marcus LLP.” Good evening, Internet…

June 10, 2020 at 06:11AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/2MH8HhD