Saturday, September 5, 2020

Getty Collections, Google Lo-Fi Player, Facebook Advertising, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, September 5, 2020

Getty Collections, Google Lo-Fi Player, Facebook Advertising, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, September 5, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Getty Iris: First Release of Getty’s New Research Collections Viewer Offers Digital Access to Vast Archives. “Now online in its initial release, the Research Collections Viewer offers a visual way to browse and search Getty’s archival collections. The Viewer aims to make it easier to see what we have in our research collections—rare primary source material such as artists’ papers, prints, and photographs—as well as contextual information such as related works by the same artist.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: Google Magenta’s Lo-Fi Player is an AI-based virtual music studio. “Lo-Fi Player, a new project out of Google Magenta, wants to help people play around with music creation — no experience necessary. Lo-Fi Player is a pixelated, 2D virtual room that runs in a web browser. It lets you mix lo-fi hip hop tracks by clicking on different objects in the room, and it uses machine learning to give the tracks a little finesse.”

ProPublica: Facebook’s Political Ad Ban Also Threatens Ability to Spread Accurate Information on How to Vote. “Facebook this week said it would bar political ads in the seven days before the presidential election. That could prevent dirty tricks or an ‘October surprise’ and give watchdogs time to fact-check statements. But rather than responding with glee, election officials say the move leaves them worried. Included in the ban are ads purchased by election officials — secretaries of state and boards of elections — who use Facebook to inform voters about how voting will work. The move effectively removes a key communication channel just as millions of Americans will begin to navigate a voting process different from any they’ve experienced before.”

PC Magazine: New Tool Lets You ‘Stitch’ TikTok Videos Together. “TikTok rolled out a new video-editing tool today intended to help users better engage with content from other creators. It’s called Stitch, and it lets TikTok users clip and incorporate scenes from another creator’s video into their own. They can build on trends and interact with stories, lessons, recipes, and songs, among other types of TikToks.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: TuneFind and Other Ways to Identify Songs from Movies and TV Shows. “With many shows boasting high production values, everything including the soundtrack is impressive. For many people, while watching your favorite show, your ears perk up thanks to the soundtrack. Great music-identifier apps like TuneFind and Shazam do the job better than ever, but you can now identify your favorite songs without even requiring a third-party app!”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CanIndia: The next Google, Facebook & Twitter are coming from India: PM. “In the quest for the next Google, Facebook and Twitter coming from India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday talked about several homegrown apps which were recently awarded top prizes in the AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge.”

Sierra Leone Telegraph: Social media use and abuse in Sierra Leone. “Over sixty percent of Sierra Leoneans with internet access use Facebook. For those using smartphones, checking Facebook and other social media handles is like a daily devotion. They check more than two or three times a day. Each time you have an event unfolding in Freetown or one of the districts, you will be struck by how densely the event is documented as it unfolds via social media handles. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and twitter will experience the buzz with clashing opinions, updates and pictorial evidence, clips – or could even go live on Facebook to broadcast to the world from the scene as events unravels.”

Harvard Gazette: Crowd-sourcing the story of a people. “Tiya Miles believes a better understanding of the past is as likely to be found in a formal archive, a National Park, or a conversation with an elderly relative as it is in the classroom. Miles, who received a bachelor’s degree in Afro-American Studies from the College in 1992, joined the faculty in 2018 as professor of history and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: Justice Dept. Plans to File Antitrust Charges Against Google in Coming Weeks. “The Justice Department plans to bring an antitrust case against Google as soon as this month, after Attorney General William P. Barr overruled career lawyers who said they needed more time to build a strong case against one of the world’s wealthiest, most formidable technology companies, according to five people briefed on internal department conversations.”

Health IT Security: Search Engines May Expose Patient Health Information, ACR warns. “New search engine capabilities may inadvertently expose patient identifiers and other protected health information, according to a warning from the American College of Radiology (ACR), Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), and Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) to radiologists and other medical professionals.”

Reuters: Colombia orders Google to comply with data protection rules. “Colombian regulators on Friday ordered Alphabet Inc’s Google to clearly ask each user whether the world’s largest search engine can use their personal data which is being captured without authorization. Non-compliance could lead to investigations, sanctions and fines equivalent to 1.76 billion pesos ($480,500), the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce said in a statement.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Business Insider: SpaceX says its Starlink satellite internet can download 100 megabits per second, and ‘space lasers’ transfer data between satellites. “SpaceX says early tests of its rapidly growing fleet of internet-providing satellites are yielding promising results. Internal tests of a beta version of internet service from the company’s Starlink project show ‘super low latency and download speeds greater than 100’ megabits per second, Kate Tice, a SpaceX senior certification engineer, said during a live broadcast of a Starlink launch on Thursday.” Good morning, Internet…

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September 5, 2020 at 06:29PM
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Friday, September 4, 2020

Historic Books, Connecticut Newspapers, Google Podcasts, More: Friday Evening ResearchBuzz, September 4, 2020

Historic Books, Connecticut Newspapers, Google Podcasts, More: Friday Evening ResearchBuzz, September 4, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

From a month ago and I just found it. Fine Books & Collections: Discover the UK’s Historic Books . “Discover Historic Books was put together during UK lockdown this year by the team behind the Unlocking The Archive project, a collaboration between the University of East Anglia (UEA), the National Trust’s Blickling Estate property, and Norfolk Library and Information Service. Visitors to the website can explore ancient books such as Daniel Heinsius’ 1629 In Praise of the Ass (Laus asini) and A History of Lapland by John Scheffer (1674) using interactive hotpoints to explain the text and all the nuts and bolts of the physical books, from Renaissance typefaces to yapp edges and printers’ marks.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Connecticut State Library: Connecticut State Library Announces Historic Newspaper Titles to be Digitized. “The Connecticut State Library is pleased to announce that with a fourth grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the following newspaper titles have been selected to be digitized for the Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project (CDNP), and made freely available online.”

Google Blog: Playlists that bring the news home. “Podcasting is more popular than ever, and news is the fastest-growing category in podcasts. But there often tends to be a focus on national and broader news topics; it’s harder to find on-demand quality audio journalism at the local level, or about things that are personally relevant to listeners…. Last fall, we launched our smart audio news playlist Your News Update on Google Assistant. Now, Your News Update is coming to Google Podcasts to make it easier for millions of podcast users in the U.S. to easily discover and listen to the news that’s especially timely and relevant to them.”

BetaNews: Sony’s latest free app lets you use your digital camera as a webcam. “Sony has released a new app which makes it possible to use your regular digital camera as a webcam. The app is called Image Edge Webcam and it is only available for Windows 10 — it’s not clear if Sony intends to release a macOS or Linux version as well.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: 66 Useful Things to Ask Google Assistant. “Google’s voice-activated AI tool — AKA Google Assistant — is getting smarter and more useful with every new update. If it’s been a while since you used it last, you might be surprised by the huge number of tasks it can now help with. Here are 66 useful questions and commands to try today.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

UMass Lowell: Saab Center Grant Will Help Shine Light on Portuguese-American Experience. “Students, faculty and researchers interested in the rich cultural and historical tapestry of Portuguese-Americans in the Merrimack Valley and beyond will soon have access to a digital archive chronicling generations of immigrants, thanks to a $300,000 grant received by the university’s Saab Center for Portuguese Studies. The grant, from the William M. Wood Foundation, is spread over three years.”

BuzzFeed News: A Man Who Gained A Million Followers On TikTok Overnight Has Been Homeless And Filming In His Car. “Oneya Johnson, a 22-year-old who currently lives in and around the Lafayette, Indiana, area, gained over 1 million followers on his TikTok account in a matter of 24 hours. In late August, Johnson created the account @angryreactions as a running joke and pseudo social media personality where he reacts angrily to other people’s content.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: Three Charged With Leaking Movies as Part of Global Piracy Ring. “Three men are facing federal charges of participating in an international piracy ring that distributed popular movies and television shows online before their release dates, prosecutors announced Wednesday. The men, who have been charged with copyright infringement conspiracy, were accused of being members of the Sparks Group, a sophisticated piracy outfit spanning several continents.”

Reuters: Four state attorneys general back Trump on social media regulation push. “Four Republican state attorneys general led by Texas backed President Donald Trump’s push to narrow the ability of social media companies to remove objectionable content and require new transparency rules.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

EurekAlert: ‘Attack Helicopters’ an online sub-culture to watch out for. “While ‘trolls’ have been around almost as long as the Internet, ‘Incels’ are a more recent and distinctly different cyber sub-culture which warrants more study says a QUT researcher. QUT behavioural economist Dr Stephen Whyte has co-authored a new paper which examines data collected during the national online Australian Sex Survey in 2016, a research collaboration with adultmatchmaker.com and the Eros Association.” Good evening, Internet…

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September 5, 2020 at 05:55AM
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T Chowdiah, Maryland Historical Society, Twitter, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 4, 2020

T Chowdiah, Maryland Historical Society, Twitter, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 4, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New Indian Express: Memories of a maestro. “The man behind the seven-stringed violins’ is a title that is still used to describe legendary violinist T Chowdiah. Though a prominent name in music, his compositions stand the risk of being lost in the annals of history. But now the Indian Music Experience Museum (IME) aims to give people access to an online digital archive of the compositions of the violinist and music guru…. This project has been launched in association with Shankar Mahadevan Academy, which runs a digital initiative called Archive to Alive project, that keeps a record of rare compositions of Indian classical legends.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Baltimore Fishbowl: Maryland Historical Society to relaunch as Maryland Center for History and Culture, open new exhibits. “After 176 years, the Maryland Historical Society is rebranding itself as the Maryland Center for History and Culture….The organization will also unveil a new website and visual identity on Sept. 9 to accompany its name change. With the reopening, the museum will reveal three new exhibitions, including one virtual and two in-person exhibitions.”

CNN: Twitter wants to help you understand what’s trending. “On Tuesday, Twitter announced that it’s adding pinned tweets and descriptions to better explain why something is trending.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Washington Post: Burnout, splinter factions and deleted posts: Unpaid online moderators struggle to manage divided communities. “From Facebook, Reddit and Nextdoor to homes for more niche topics like fan fiction, many online communities and groups are kept afloat by volunteer armies of moderators. The people who moderate these groups often start as founders or enthusiastic members, interested in helping shape and police the communities they’re already a part of. They are both cleaning crew and den parent. Moderators take down spam and misinformation. They mediate petty disagreements and volatile civil wars. They carefully decide between reminding people of the rules, freezing conversations, removing members or letting drama subside on its own.”

The New Times (Rwanda): How social media is influencing the rise of brand ambassadors. “Last week, Miss Rwanda 2020 Naomie Nishimwe, signed a contract that will see her become the brand ambassador for Itel Mobile Rwanda in the next twelve months. She joins a number of local celebrities helping different companies grow their sales by tapping into the presence on social media of different celebrities including musicians Bruce Melodie and The Ben, socialite Shadia Mbabazi a.k.a Shaddyboo, footballer Yves Kimenyi, media personality Luckman Nzeyimana and Miss Rwanda 2018 finalist Claudine Uwase Muyango, among many others.”

BBC: Facebook blocks Thai access to group critical of monarchy. “Facebook has blocked access in Thailand to a million-member group discussing the monarchy, after the Thai government threatened legal action. The firm told the BBC it was preparing its own legal action to respond to the pressure from Bangkok.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BuzzFeed News: Scammers Are Using Facebook To Prey On People In Kenya. “Early last year, Elizabeth, a salon owner in Nairobi, needed business supplies but didn’t have enough money to buy them. She thought she had found an answer when she came across a sponsored post on Facebook from a page called KWFT Loans Kenya. ‘I saw the post had a sponsored sign and there was a Kenya Women Microfinance Bank logo. I thought to myself that this is probably the actual KWFT,’ she told BuzzFeed News, referring to the Kenya Women Microfinance Bank, a reputable microfinance institution that provides loans to women. It wasn’t KWFT.”

TechCrunch: WhatsApp reveals six previously undisclosed vulnerabilities on new security site. “Facebook-owned WhatsApp has revealed six previously undisclosed vulnerabilities, which the company has now fixed. The vulnerabilities are being reported on a dedicated security advisory website that will serve as the new resource providing a comprehensive list of WhatsApp security updates and associated Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE).”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Columbia University: Facebook Can Do More Than Just Ban Political Advertising a Week Before the Election. “It’s no secret that the U.S. electoral system needs to change: turnout is low compared to other democracies and we still haven’t established basic rules such as weekend and universal mail-in voting. Citizens United and other court decisions have allowed dark money and large corporate interests to finance political campaigns. The Federal Election Commission is paralyzed and has been for years. The Honest Ads Act, which would force source disclosure of online political advertising, has not passed Congress and some local laws attempting to require such disclosure have been struck down by the courts. Shockingly, online political advertising is still unregulated in the U.S., and it’s beyond time for Facebook, now a major source of political news, to mend its ways of doing business without waiting for government regulation.”

WRAL: New research: Answering a robocall won’t make it worse. “They call constantly. When you accidentally answer, you’re certain you just set yourself up to get more robocalls. But that may not be the case, according to new research from an expert at NC State.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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September 5, 2020 at 12:55AM
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University of Cape Town Art Collection, UK Charities, Reddit, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, September 4, 2020

University of Cape Town Art Collection, UK Charities, Reddit, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, September 4, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Cape Town: New website for UCT art collection and other updates. “UCT houses a collection of some 1700 artworks – many of which representing the work of South Africa’s most noted artists, as well as the art of emerging talents. The collection is exhibited throughout UCT’s four campuses, dispersed among buildings, offices, lecture halls, passages and plazas. The Works of Art Committee is proud to announce that the collection now has, for the first time in its 42-year history, a dedicated website.”

Gov .UK: New online register of charities “widens the public’s window” into how charities are run. “Financial information includes the number of staff within a charity that receive total income packages over £60,000, and whether trustees, who are usually volunteers, are paid for their services to the charity. It also highlights income that individual charities receive from government grants and contracts. The new display also shows whether individual charities work with a professional fundraiser and whether they have specific policies in place, including on safeguarding.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The American Genius: New tool organizes your Reddit feed (and makes it actually usable). “Yes, Reddit has come a long way from its previous text-heavy form, but there is still a lot to improve on. Charles Yang, a frustrated Reddit user, has created a web app that could change all that: Deck for Reddit, a desktop optimized, alternative way to browse your favorite forums…. Currently, the web app is in open beta. With a very similar experience to Tweetdeck, this Reddit tool seems to hold some promise.” I took a quick look at it. It is a LOT like TweetDeck. The icons on the Reddit posts are a little overwhelming, but to me it’s a lot better than Reddit’s desktop presentation.

Search Engine Roundtable: Google Image Search Licensable Badge Now Live With Updated Search Filters. “In February, Google added a new licensable badge for image search as a beta while it tested out new structured data markup (with Search Console debugging reports). Well, now after months of testing, this new feature is live and images using this markup can see the licensable badge in the Google Image search results.”

Daily Pakistan: Facebook introduces new tool for Pakistan to limit fake information. “Facebook has launched a new product in Pakistan to help limit the spread of misinformation and to provide people using the platform with additional context before they share images that are more than a year old and that could be potentially harmful or misleading.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CNET: Twitter flags Trump’s tweets for ‘encouraging people to potentially vote twice’. “Twitter said Thursday that it labeled two of President Donald Trump’s tweets ‘for encouraging people to potentially vote twice’ because the remarks violated the site’s rules about civic integrity and elections.”

Straits Times: Misleading advertisements: 151 websites, 319 social media accounts blocked. “A total of 151 websites and 319 social media accounts have been blocked from January 2018 until June 19 this year for promoting food products through misleading advertisements. Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba said during the same period, 71 warning letters were issued against those who published advertisements that did not comply with the Food Act 1983, including health claims linking the products to prevention and cure of certain diseases.”

BuzzFeed News: Facebook Said It Removed A Militia Event Page Threatening Violence In Kenosha. It Didn’t.. “[Sandra] Fiehrer’s complaint was one of the 455 sent to Facebook warning of a militia event violating the company’s policies. Together, they inspired four manual and numerous automated reviews of the event page by Facebook’s content moderators, which all concluded it did not violate the company’s rules. CEO Mark Zuckerberg would later tell employees it was ‘an operational mistake.’ In those same remarks, which were made public after being reported by BuzzFeed News, Zuckerberg suggested to employees that the company had removed the event and militia page from the platform the next day. But internal company discussions obtained by BuzzFeed News show that’s not true. The event was actually deleted the day after the shooting, not by Facebook, but by a page administrator for the Kenosha Guard.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Google urges EU to be flexible in setting digital rule book. “Google urged the European Commission on Thursday to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach to the tech industry in its forthcoming Digital Services Act. The EU executive is drawing up new rules for data-sharing and the digital marketplace as well as boosting competition after concluding that multiple antitrust actions against Google have been ineffectual. The Commission’s public consultation period ends on Sept. 8.”

Greater Kashmir: Man held for posting morphed pictures of PM on social media. “A man has been arrested here in Madhya Pradesh for allegedly posting morphed photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and obscene comments on a social media platform, police said on Sunday.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

TNW: OpenAI reveals the pricing plans for its API — and it ain’t cheap. “OpenAI has revealed the projected pricing plans for its API, which lets people use the company’s vaunted AI tools on ‘virtually any English language task.’ But you’re gonna need money to burn if you wanna try it out.”

Earth Institute, Columbia University: What Social Media Can Teach Us About Human-Environment Relationships. “Recent ecological research used Instagram posts to analyze the preferences of visitors to natural areas around the world. Researchers deduced the activities and feelings that people associated with different environments, including Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The study explores the potential of using social media data to understand cultural ecosystem services—the intangible benefits that people receive from nature—and interactions between people and their environments.” Good morning, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!





September 4, 2020 at 05:32PM
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Thursday, September 3, 2020

WWII Internment Camps, GayBlade, Mozilla, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, September 3, 2020

WWII Internment Camps, GayBlade, Mozilla, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, September 3, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Newsweek: PBS Gives You a Virtual Experience of Being Japanese American During WWII. “‘Prisoner in My Homeland’ is the sixth game in the free interactive educational series. The game shows middle and high school students what life was like through the eyes of a Japanese American teenager named Henry Tanaka during World War II. In the game, Tanaka’s family is forced to leave their home on Bainbridge Island, Washington, for a prison camp in Manzanar, California. Players will make decisions based on survival and resistance, and challenge them to think about whether they should help their community, focus on family, support the war effort or resist injustice.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Internet Archive: The Legend of GayBlade. “The recently released video game documentary High Score includes a sequence in the third episode about a game called GayBlade. GayBlade is one of the first commercially-sold LGTBQ-themed video games, a role-playing romp for Windows and Macintosh occasionally referred to as ‘Dungeons and Drag Queens’. Once thought to have been lost, the game’s software was recently discovered and preserved—and is now available in the Internet Archive!”

IT Pro Today: Mozilla Shrinks to Survive Amid Declining Firefox Usage. “Mozilla has been watching the user share of its flagship Firefox web browser shrink for a while, so it was hardly a surprise last week when the company announced it was doing some belt tightening that would result in another round of layoffs. What was a surprise were the numbers involved: The company is laying off about 250 employees, for a staff reduction of 25%, and is completely closing its operations in Taipei, Taiwan. In addition, 60 employees will be shifted to new jobs, and the company will reduce spending on such things as developer tools, internal tooling and platform feature development.”

USEFUL STUFF

Search Engine Journal: 9 Ways You Can Make Your Website More Accessible. “Incorporating accessibility on your website is the right thing to do today. Why? Because 25% of adults in the U.S. live with a disability, according to the CDC. However, too many websites still lack accessibility features. That means millions of users are struggling to use the web.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

RadioFreeEurope: Iran Jailed, ‘Coerced’ Canadian Facebook Whiz To Turn Informant, He Says. “Thirty-seven-year-old Facebook engineer Behdad Esfahbod has made the same wintertime trip every year since 2015. Yet this past January, the 37-year-old programming whiz’s visit to Iran to see his family took a wildly different turn. Within days of his arrival, the Iranian-Canadian dual national and graduate of Tehran’s top Sharif University had been thrown in jail and was being pressured by Iranian security forces to become an informant.”

Chicago Tribune: Column: Library’s digital archives of Blue Island newspaper will soon provide a glimpse into south suburb’s roots. “The Blue Island Public Library is finishing up a grant-funded digitization project that will soon allow public access to editions of the Sun-Standard newspaper from 1911 to 1990 and provide a valuable resource for genealogists, researchers and homeowners. The pages offer a glimpse into the rich history of Blue Island and other south suburban communities. The newspaper chronicled government, crime and other news, but also told stories of everyday life among neighbors.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Publishers Weekly: Publishers, Internet Archive Propose Yearlong Discovery Plan for Copyright Case. “In a joint filing last week, attorneys for the Internet Archive and four publishers suing for copyright infringement proposed a discovery plan for the case that would extend for more than a year. The filing, known as a rule 26(f) report, lays out a potential road map for the case that would begin with the first proposed deadline for initial fact disclosures on September 11, 2020, and would conclude with expert depositions due by September 20, 2021.”

Canada Newswire: Google Faces Class Action in Canada Alleging it Turns Canadians’ Electronics into Tracking Devices Without Their Consent (PRESS RELEASE). “A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against Google on behalf of the millions of Canadians whose personal information the global internet giant collects and profits from, allegedly without Canadians’ consent. The action is part of a coordinated national effort, with additional filings in Toronto and Montreal.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Arizona State University: General public sees government science advisers through political lens, ASU researcher finds. “What people think of the scientists who advise the federal government partially depends on their own political persuasion and where the scientists work, according to new findings published this week by an Arizona State University researcher. The study highlights the risk of politicizing scientific advice given to government agencies.”

CNET: Here’s how Google Maps uses AI to predict traffic and calculate routes. “On Thursday, Google shared how it uses artificial intelligence for its Maps app to predict what traffic will look like throughout the day and the best routes its users should take. The tech giant said it analyzes historical traffic patterns for roads over time and combines the database with live traffic conditions to generate predictions.” Good evening, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!





September 4, 2020 at 05:40AM
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Nevada Civil Rights History, Indigenous Genealogy, Library of Congress Podcasts, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 3, 2020

Nevada Civil Rights History, Indigenous Genealogy, Library of Congress Podcasts, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 3, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources: New tool to preserve historic resources from the African American Civil Rights journey in Nevada. “Whether it is the site of the 1910 Johnson-Jeffries fight in Reno that established Nevada as a live-entertainment destination, or the Harrison House in Las Vegas where African-American performers stayed in the era of segregation, the State of Nevada is home to many iconic buildings and landmarks that have helped shape the story of the Civil Rights Movement in the Silver State. Beyond the most well-known locations, there are many that are yet to be discovered. Commissioned in 2019 and funded by the National Park Service, ‘The African American Civil Rights Experience in Nevada, 1900-1979’ cultural resource guide is now available to help identify significant historic events and locations throughout Nevada that played an integral role in the African American pursuit of civil rights.”

National Indigenous Times: New online resources help Indigenous people trace ancestors. “A series of introductory videos and virtual seminars, Finding Your Ancestors was created in collaboration with members of the NSW Aboriginal community and historians, Paul Irish and Michael Bennett. The resources aim to assist Aboriginal people in New South Wales with tracing their bloodlines to learn about their family and ancestors. The resources were developed to address the concern that whilst there is a wealth of online information for non-Indigenous people to track their family history, there is little support and guidance for Aboriginal people.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Library of Congress: American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress Launches Podcast ‘America Works’. “Each 10-minute episode of ‘America Works’ introduces listeners to an individual worker whose first-person narrative adds to the wealth of our shared national experience. On Thursday, Sept. 3, the first four episodes will become available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and at loc.gov/podcasts. A new episode will be released weekly and featured on the Library’s social media channels beginning Thursday, Sept. 10.”

City A.M.: Exclusive: Google to pass on digital tax cost to advertisers. “Google will increase the price of advertising on its platforms in the UK due to the Digital Services Tax, City A.M. can reveal. In an email sent to advertisers [Tuesday], seen by City A.M., the tech giant laid out plans for a two per cent ‘UK DST Fee’ which will be added to invoices from November 2020. The fee will apply to all adverts served in the UK across both Google Ads and YouTube.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: Bring Back ‘Old Facebook’ With This Chrome Extension. “If you’re a Facebook fan but hate its recent redesign, there’s hope. You can no longer revert back to ‘Old Facebook’ simply by clicking a button in your settings menu, but you can install a Chrome extension that magically transforms the site, restoring the look and feel you previously enjoyed.”

MakeUseOf: How to Access Region Blocked Videos Without a VPN. “Wherever you are in the world there is always a reason to want to bypass region blocking. For example, internet users outside the US might want to access Netflix or Hulu; those in the US might want the UK version of BBC iPlayer. To combat this, VPNs are popular—but they’re not the best solution. Here’s how to watch geo-blocked videos without VPN software.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Threefold Advocate: Instagram Opens Doors To Off-Campus Homes. “Due to the effects of the coronavirus, which restrict gatherings of those who live outside one’s household, groups of off-campus students at John Brown University are seeking ways to connect with others. One way they discovered is through house Instagram accounts, where housemates share photos and videos together.”

Liverpool Echo: Liverpool anti-racism campaigner to be honoured in ‘innovative’ archive project. “A prominent Liverpool anti-racism campaigner who spent 40 years fighting for social justice is to be honoured in a new archive project with Writing on the Wall and Liverpool Record Office which explores the Liverpool 8 community’s struggles against racism and inequality. Activist Solomon Bassey, known as Solly, who died in 2017, was the resource centre manager of the Liverpool 8 Law Centre until he retired prior to its closure in 2010.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Mashable: Facebook and Google probably won’t like this new antitrust agreement. “The U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.K. have signed an agreement to share information about competition laws and policies, with a focus on coordinating cases and investigations spanning international borders. Google and Facebook aren’t going to like this.”

TASS: Google pays 1.5 mln rubles ($20,149) fine for poor filtering of banned content. “In August, the Magistrates’ Court of the Tagansky District of Moscow ruled to impose a 1.5 million rubles on Google for a repeated violation related to insufficient search engine filtering of prohibited content.” Good afternoon, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!





September 4, 2020 at 01:00AM
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Thursday CoronaBuzz, September 3, 2020: 32 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Thursday CoronaBuzz, September 3, 2020: 32 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Please wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay at home if you can. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES – MEDICAL/HEALTH

Imperial College London: COVID-19 hotspots projected with new website. “A new website uses reported cases and deaths to estimate the probability regions in England and Wales will become COVID-19 ‘hotspots’. The team behind the website, from Imperial College London, define a hotspot as a local authority where there are more than 50 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 of the population per week.”

FACT CHECKS / MISINFORMATION

Snopes: Oleandrin Is a Deadly Plant Poison, Not a COVID-19 Cure. “As a medical ethnobotanist, I study the traditional uses of medicinal plants to discover promising leads for new drugs to fight infectious diseases. It’s vital to consider both the potential benefits and risks of plant extracts in such research. I am concerned by recent reports that a chemical found in the oleander plant is being touted as a potential treatment for COVID-19.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

Texas Tribune: A South Texas chaplain prayed with his hospice patients. Then the coronavirus came for him.. “The hospital where he had previously ministered to terminally ill patients was full when Adolfo Alvarado Jr. neared death in his Mission home. He was finally admitted, and his daughter watched on her laptop as he died.”

Washington Post: A daughter’s choice: Her mom didn’t have covid-19. But isolation seemed to be killing her.. “There have been more than 70,000 deaths in long-term care facilities since March due to covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus — 41 percent of all virus-related deaths reported nationwide. But experts say the true toll of the deadly pandemic on the elderly is much higher. Geriatrician Michael Wasserman said cases of neglect and other issues have gone unnoticed because when visitors were barred, residents lost their most important watchdogs: families and the local ombudsmen, who are supposed to regularly visit long-term care facilities and investigate complaints.”

ACTIVISM / PROTESTS

BBC: Germany coronavirus: ‘Anti-corona’ protests in Berlin draws thousands. “Some 38,000 people took part in a march that split into two main groups. Police ordered one group near the Unter den Linden to disperse for flouting safety rules, then arrested 200 after rocks and bottles were thrown. A second group of about 30,000 met peacefully west of the Brandenburg gate to hear speeches from, among others, the nephew of President John F Kennedy.”

GOVERNMENT

Washington Post: Trump administration bars FDA from regulating some laboratory tests, including for coronavirus. “The new policy stunned many health experts and laboratories because of its timing, several months into a pandemic. Some public health experts warned the shift could result in unreliable coronavirus tests on the market, potentially worsening the testing crisis that has dogged the United States if more people get erroneous results. They argued the change is unlikely to solve current testing problems, which at this point are largely due to shortages of supplies such as swabs and chemical reagents.”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Kemp’s latest order allows local mask mandates for the first time. “After months of opposing local mask mandates, Gov. Brian Kemp signed an executive order on [August 14] that empowers many Georgia cities and counties to impose face covering requirements to combat the coronavirus. More than a dozen governments have already adopted those requirements over Kemp’s objections, and the governor had gone to court to block them.”

AP: Politics slows flow of US virus funds to local public health. “Since the pandemic began, Congress has set aside trillions of dollars to ease the crisis. A joint Kaiser Health News and Associated Press investigation finds that many communities with big outbreaks have spent little of that federal money on local public health departments for work such as testing and contact tracing. Others, like in Minnesota, were slow to do so.”

Stars and Stripes: Marines in quarantine on Okinawa served moldy sandwiches and other ‘unacceptable’ fare. “Marines take their chow seriously, particularly while dining in quarantine when the menu may be the highlight of the day. So, higher-ups acted quickly Monday when Marines of 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, mistakenly received moldy sandwiches and prepackaged meals slated for disposal, according to a spokesman for Marine Corps Installations Pacific.”

Daily Beast: The Government’s Workplace Safety Agency Cut Its Staff. Then COVID Hit And The Complaints Poured In.. “As the coronavirus pandemic hit, workers around the country flooded the office of a federal watchdog with reports that they’d been punished for speaking out about unsafe workplace conditions. But that office had just slashed its staff and has been unable to handle the huge influx of complaints. That was the key finding of a report released on [August 18] by the inspector general for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the agency tasked with protecting and promoting workplace safety. The IG’s office found a massive spike in whistleblower complaints submitted to the agency since the coronavirus outbreak began, many alleging employer retaliation against workers who reported unsafe working conditions.”

INDIVIDUALS / BANDS / GROUPS

New York Times: Meet the Philosopher Who Is Trying to Explain the Pandemic. “In a society that respects science, expertise confers power. That has good results, but it brings a terrible problem: Illegitimate political power can be disguised as expertise. This was a favorite idea of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, who used it to explain how experts had expanded definitions of criminality and sexual deviancy. One of Italy’s most celebrated thinkers, Giorgio Agamben, has recently applied similar insights to the coronavirus, at the risk of turning himself into a national pariah.”

BBC: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson: Actor and family had Covid-19. “Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson says he and his family had all contracted Covid-19. The former wrestler, who is now the world’s highest-paid actor, said he, his wife and two daughters caught the virus despite being ‘disciplined’ about health protection. He said the positive tests were ‘a kick in the gut’.”

Los Angeles Times: The surprising story of the salesman who became L.A.’s first known COVID-19 patient. “The family arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on the way home from a Mexican vacation that had been short-lived and unpleasant. They had been exhausted, the father was battling a nasty stomach bug, and even before they settled into their Cancun hotel, they got word of the sudden death of the wife’s mother in their hometown: Wuhan, China. The couple and their toddler son wanted to get back for the funeral and planned to be at LAX just long enough to switch planes. But as they passed through Tom Bradley International Terminal on Jan. 22, the father was overcome with a fever and body aches and approached a customs officer for help.”

SPORTS

Washington Post: Iowa cuts four sports, becoming the first Big Ten school to ax programs during the pandemic. “Four sports that had spanned a combined 328 years at the University of Iowa suffered discontinuation [August 21], trimmed from another athletics budget ailing from the effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic. In an open letter, the university president and the athletic director of a program in an especially stormy year announced the end of the men’s gymnastics, men’s and women’s swimming and men’s tennis programs at the end of the 2020-21 academic year. It signaled the end of programs that had begun, respectively, in 1922, 1917, 1974 and 1939, according to Iowa media guides.”

The Athletic: MLB TV ratings increase over last season, led by women and youth. “That Major League Baseball TV ratings are up in the first month of the abbreviated 2020 season is somewhat of a modest surprise, given the sport is competing with NBA and NHL playoffs and a crush of political and pandemic news — not to mention the longstanding narrative of a graying sport in decline. But what is even more notable is the demographics fueling the rise: women and younger people, two groups that did not exactly flock to baseball in recent years (if not decades). The increases are seen in both national ratings, such as ESPN’s, and across the regional sports channels that air the bulk of MLB games.”

EDUCATION

Mother Jones: Jared Kushner’s Rationale for Sending His Kids Back to School Is, At Best, Misleading. “As former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who later joined Face the Nation on Sunday, pointed out, it’s still unknown how many children have actually been infected with the coronavirus. And as I reported last month, it’s incredibly difficult to know much of anything definitively about kids and COVID-19. One reason for this ambiguity may be because many children don’t show symptoms.”

HEALTH

Politico: Masks, surgical gowns, testing supplies on FDA shortage list. “Surgical gowns, gloves, masks, certain ventilators and various testing supplies needed to respond to the coronavirus pandemic are on the FDA’s first-ever list of medical devices in shortage. The agency is not disclosing who makes any of the devices on the list, which it released [August 14], because that ‘will adversely affect the public health by increasing the potential for hoarding or other disruptions.’ Instead, the agency has released the product codes of devices in shortage.”

ProPublica: Cellphone Data Shows How Las Vegas Is “Gambling With Lives” Across the Country. “Las Vegas casinos reopened June 4, and they have become a likely hotbed for the spread of the novel coronavirus, public health experts said. But if tourists return home and then test positive for COVID-19, the limitations of contact tracing in the midst of a pandemic make it unlikely such an outbreak would be identified.”

Washington Post: Residential segregation plays a role in coronavirus disparities, study finds. “Counties with the highest percentage of White residents have had the lowest rates of coronavirus infections, even as infections have increased with the reopening of some states’ economies, an indication that residential segregation is a significant factor in the pandemic’s spread, a study has concluded.”

New York Times: Why Pooled Testing for the Coronavirus Isn’t Working in America. “The decades-old approach combines samples from multiple people to save time and precious testing supplies. Federal health officials like Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and Adm. Brett Giroir said pooling would allow for constant surveillance of large sectors of the community, and said they hoped it would be up and running nationwide by the time students returned to school. But now, when the nation desperately needs more coronavirus tests to get a handle on the virus’s spread, this efficient approach has become worthless in many places, in part because there are simply too many cases to catch.”

OUTBREAKS

KCUR: Top Hospital Doctors Warn Kansas City Is On The Verge Of Uncontrolled Coronavirus Spread. “An average of 90 people are currently being hospitalized for COVID-19 in the Kansas City area each day. The Kansas City area is poised to become the next major U.S. hotspot for COVID-19, risking a dangerous and previously unseen stage of the virus for the region.”

TECHNOLOGY

CNN: Software company Okta will let most of its 2,600 employees work remotely permanently. “Workplace software company Okta said Thursday it plans to let most of its employees work remotely on a permanent basis, becoming the latest Silicon Valley company to adopt sweeping office policy changes amid the pandemic — and in the face of shifting US immigration policy.”

Phys .org: The music app that helps school children play in socially distanced orchestras. “A team of musicians, composers, technologists and performers at the University of Sussex have developed an app called Syncphonia, which helps students to play music in socially distanced ensembles. Pupils can follow scores on iPads, meaning that they never need to lose their place—something which can be a source of frustration and loss of confidence for children learning to play music.”

RESEARCH

Phys .org: Productivity could be improved by a permanent shift towards remote working, research shows. “Nine out of ten employees who have worked at home during lockdown would like to continue doing so in some capacity, research suggests. The report, by academics at Cardiff University and the University of Southampton, presents the first analysis of employee survey data focusing on homeworking, which was gathered for the Understanding Society COVID-19 Study.”

Washington Post: What the coronavirus can teach us about fighting climate change. “The cartoon flashed across Katharine Hayhoe’s social media timeline in mid-July: Two doctors in lab coats scrutinize a box labeled “covid-19 science” while one says to the other, ‘As long as we just provide the FACTS to the American people.’ Next to them, a pair of climate scientists are clutching their stomachs and laughing themselves to tears. Hayhoe, a climate researcher at Texas Tech University, had to laugh, too. She is all too familiar with the limits of facts when people don’t want to face them.”

NBC News: Poll: Less than half of Americans say they’ll get a coronavirus vaccine. “Less than half of American adults say they would get a government-approved coronavirus vaccine if one becomes widely available, new data from the NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Tracking Poll show, with the majority unsure about getting the vaccine or saying they’re ruling it out entirely.”

ScienceBlog: COVID-19 Is Evaporating Casual Connections And Why That’s Bad. “It’s the conversations with a local barista, a bus driver, a casual work acquaintance, or a person in line at the store that make up what the experts call ‘weak ties’: individuals we don’t know well, if at all, but who nevertheless contribute to our happiness and sense of belonging. These encounters have largely gone missing with the advent of stay-at-home orders and lockdowns issued in an effort to combat the spread of COVID-19, and that loss could be taking a significant toll on our emotional health and professional productivity.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

DCist: People Are Rarely Cited For Large Social Gatherings In The D.C. Area. “D.C., Maryland and Virginia all have ordinances in place that limit large gatherings and require people to wear masks during COVID-19. But according to health departments and police, enforcement of those gatherings has not been particularly punitive, with few area residents receiving fines or citations in connection with mass gatherings.”

POLITICS

New York Times: Kristin Urquiza, Whose Father Died of Covid, Denounces Trump at D.N.C.. “Ms. Urquiza, whose impassioned obituary drew national attention, said her father’s ‘only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump — and for that he paid with his life.'”

Talking Points Memo: Is Your State Ready For The Pandemic Election? A Look At GA, MI, PA, TX, and WI. “While some states have made great strides in adapting their election infrastructure for the COVID-19 outbreak, trouble spots remain. Further complicating the picture is a President eager to trumpet false claims about voter fraud, while his campaign finds other ways to gum up the works. To help you prepare for things getting messier come November, we’re taking a state-by-state look at the places that appear most ready for what the pandemic could bring, and where things are most likely to be knocked off kilter due to coronavirus.”

BBC: Jamaica election: Voters go to polls amid surge in Covid-19 cases. “Jamaicans are voting to elect a new parliament as the country grapples with a surge in coronavirus infections. Prime Minister Andrew Holness called for the early vote last month in what analysts saw as a bid to capitalise on people’s satisfaction with his economic agenda and early response to the virus. But he has faced criticism amid a rise in cases as restrictions are lifted.”

NOLA .com: The Balcony has held big wedding receptions amid coronavirus. This politician asked the state to let them continue.. “A Metairie wedding venue owned by the family of Jefferson Parish Councilwoman Jennifer Van Vrancken has continued hosting large receptions over the past several months, some of which allegedly had over 200 guests, despite state restrictions on gatherings due to the coronavirus pandemic.”

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September 3, 2020 at 10:52PM
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