Friday, March 19, 2021

Ancient Egypt Portraits, Facebook, Fake Video, More: Friday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 19, 2021

Ancient Egypt Portraits, Facebook, Fake Video, More: Friday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 19, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Getty: See the Faces of People Who Lived in Egypt under the Roman Empire. “In Egypt, it was customary to mummify the deceased and create a likeness of them, often in the form of a mummy mask or an anthropoid (human-form) coffin. From the first to third centuries AD, after Egypt had become a province of the Roman Empire, the traditional practice of mummification continued but a new trend also arose: some individuals chose to be represented in portraits painted on thin wooden panels or linen burial shrouds that were affixed to their mummy wrappings. These mummy portraits were part of ancient Egyptian traditions and their preparations for the afterlife…. Discover more about these mummy portraits and the stories they tell, in the new Google Arts & Culture exhibition: Faces of Roman Egypt.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Facebook introduces a corporate human rights policy it will ‘strive to respect’. “Facebook is addressing the criticism it’s faced for its role in human rights abuses by putting its values on paper in a new ‘corporate human rights policy’ collecting ‘the human rights standards [it] will strive to respect.’ Under the policy, Facebook is committing to providing an annual report on its impact on human rights and a fund for human rights defenders.” I have no idea what “strive to respect” means.

USEFUL STUFF

Washington Post: How to spot a fake video. “Have you ever felt like you can’t trust all the video on your newsfeed? Videos are often misrepresented or manipulated these days, with few tools on how to determine what’s real versus fake. The Washington Post’s Fact Checker team put together a guide to teach you how to be your own video investigator.”

Make Tech Easier: How to Use Subscript and Superscript in Google Docs. “For most of your day-to-day writing, your text will sit on one line. This seems so obvious, it’s not worth noting. Though, there are many times you’ll use text either above or below the line. These are ‘subscript’ and ‘superscript’ characters, and through a quick couple of button presses, you can add these in Google Docs. We show you here how to use subscript and superscript in Google Docs. First, let’s talk more about what both are.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Vice: Tracing the Sprawling Roots of Flash Preservation. “Once the platform for kooky animations and experimental games, Flash is no longer a staple for weird digital art, having just completed its stagger towards its end-of-life—with the long march towards its decline finally coming to a head.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNET: Google, Facebook, Twitter CEOs will face US lawmakers again: How to watch. “It’s not the first time that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai have been grilled by lawmakers about how they moderate content but the coronavirus pandemic and the election season has put a larger spotlight on the topic. The virtual hearing comes as US lawmakers consider new regulation that could put more pressure on online platforms to do a better job of combating lies.”

Ars Technica: One company wants to sell the feds location data from every car on Earth. “There is a strange sort of symmetry in the world of personal data this week: one new report has identified a company that wants to sell the US government granular car location data from basically every vehicle in the world, while a group of privacy advocates is suing another company for providing customer data to the feds.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Missoulian: Caldera chronicles: Preserving the legacy of geologic mapping in Yellowstone. “Today, geologic mapping is done digitally and is easily accessible in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) database, like the Geology of Yellowstone map, which is made possible by the Wyoming State Geological Survey. But what of the old paper maps, made before digital mapping was possible? It is critical that these maps are preserved and digitized, so that the information we have gained in years past remains accessible to all. A part of that effort is to convert older printed maps, as well as unpublished field mapping and observations, into digital GIS database products.”

EurekAlert: Pretty gameful!. “To get children and young people interested in the topic of quantum physics, the research alliance is developing an entertaining mobile game that is intended to be played around the world. Based on a popular quantum mechanics thought experiment by Erwin Schrödinger, the players accompany ‘their’ cat through a crazy quantum world and solve attractive brainteasers along the way.” 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!



March 20, 2021 at 06:46AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/2OT6LHt

Friday CoronaBuzz, March 19, 2021: 26 pointers to updates, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Friday CoronaBuzz, March 19, 2021: 26 pointers to updates, useful stuff, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Please wear a mask (or even two). Wash your hands. Stay at home if you can. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES – LEGAL / SECURITY / PRIVACY / FINANCIAL

CNBC: Some cities are paying people up to $16,000 to move there—this online directory will help you find them. “MakeMyMove currently lists 37 relocation offers on its pages, some through paid promotions and others for free. Each destination has its own page listing the incentive programs on offer, how much they’re worth, who qualifies and how to apply.”

NEW RESOURCES – STATE-SPECIFIC

KNDO: New tool now available to help Washingtonians find COVID-19 vaccines. “This week, the Department of Health launched a new, user friendly web tool to help Washingtonians find a vaccination appointment. The web tool looks at various scheduling options from multiple providers to find a vaccination appointment easier and is available in multiple languages.”

BUSINESS / CORPORATIONS

BBC: Lamborghini’s profits soar during Covid. “While sales were slightly lower than the previous year, Lamborghini sold more expensive, customised supercars, pushing profits higher. China has fuelled a lot of demand and would overtake Germany as its second-biggest market this year.”

WGRZ: Two local major retailers say they’re considering whether to sell rapid COVID-19 home tests. “Two local major retailers say they’re looking into the possibility of selling rapid at-home COVID-19 testing kits in stores. And, just this week, the FDA made a move intended to accelerate the delivery of these devices more broadly to consumers. There are numerous efforts locally and nationally already underway to try to get COVID-19 testing kits closer to you.”

CNET: California theme park group wants you to stop screaming on roller coasters. “This may be one of the biggest challenges of the coronavirus outbreak, much more difficult for most people than strapping on a face mask. A California theme-park trade group is joining those in Japan and recommending ways to limit screaming on roller coasters and other thrill rides, since screams produce saliva droplets that can spread COVID-19.”

AP: Trump’s Mar-a-Lago partially closed due to COVID outbreak. “Former President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, club has been partially closed because of a COVID-19 outbreak. That’s according to several people familiar with the situation, including a club member who received a phone call informing them about the closure Friday. A receptionist at the Mar-a-Lago club confirmed the news, saying it was closed until further notice, but declined to comment further.”

WORLD / FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Reuters: U.S. to share 4 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine with Mexico, Canada. “The United States plans to send roughly 4 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine that it is not using to Mexico and Canada in loan deals with the two countries, yielding to requests to share vaccines with allies.”

Sky News: COVID-19: Paris and 15 other French regions go back into lockdown for a month. “Sixteen regions of France – including Paris – have entered into a new lockdown, the country’s prime minister Jean Castex has announced. The measures will be in place for at least four weeks and will be less restrictive than those last March and November.”

BBC: Covid vaccine: PM to have AstraZeneca jab as he urges public to do the same. “The prime minister is to receive his first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine after reassuring the public it was ‘safe’. Boris Johnson, 56, has urged people to get inoculated and said England’s roadmap out of lockdown was ‘on track’.”

CNN: US military says a third of troops opt out of being vaccinated, but the numbers suggest it’s more. “Despite a massive effort by the Pentagon to promote the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines, the US military’s opt-out rate for vaccinations may be far higher than the 33% figure defense officials have used publicly. Conversations with military medical officials and service members, as well as data from several bases and units around the country, suggest the current rejection rate may be closer to 50%.”

New York Times: White House Easter Egg Roll is canceled again because of the pandemic.. “The event was canceled for the second year in a row over concerns about large gatherings. President Biden’s cautious benchmark — small gatherings by July 4, if Americans keep to social distancing protocols and receive vaccines when they are offered — comes well after the Easter holiday and nowhere near the usual capacity for the egg roll, which draws up to 30,000 people to the White House grounds.”

BBC: Coronavirus: How Russia glosses over its Covid death toll. “A year into the pandemic, the virus this team are battling is familiar, but their careful daily routine is a reminder of the risk – it was last autumn that Covid-19 struck hardest in Perm, on its sweep from Moscow across the regions, and the number of sick and dead shot up. But there is very little talk in Russia of the death toll from Covid. The full data revealed by excess mortality is not secret, but it’s never highlighted, and the preliminary tally published each day by the government significantly underplays the impact.”

STATE / LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Washington Post: How Cuomo put a political loyalist in charge of New York’s vaccine rollout. “Around midnight on March 4, county officials across New York received a startling email threat from Larry Schwartz, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s volunteer vaccine czar. Their counties had kept more than 250 doses of vaccines on hand for more than a week, Schwartz claimed, and if they did not begin administering them, they could face penalties of $100,000 a day — and even lose access to more inoculations.”

New York Times: F.B.I. Investigating Whether Cuomo Aides Gave False Data on Nursing Homes. “A federal investigation into Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic has focused in recent weeks on whether the governor and his senior aides provided false data on resident deaths to the Justice Department, according to four people with knowledge of the investigation.”

HEALTH

Lifehacker: Vaccine Death Reports Are Not What They Seem. “The US government maintains a database called VAERS, to which anybody can file a report if they think something bad happened to them after receiving a vaccine. It’s an important tool in keeping tabs on vaccine safety, but it’s also being mined by anti-vaccine activists to make vaccines seem scarier than they are.”

Salt Lake Tribune: Utahns find the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine can bring harsher side effects. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not reported a significant difference in side effects among the three approved vaccine brands: The two-shot Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna versions, and the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Among the more than half a million Utahns who have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 184 people had bad reactions — ranging from fever and nausea to muscle and joint pain — that have been reported to a federal database.”

TECHNOLOGY

CNET: Coronavirus pandemic gives health care workers a chance to shine on social media. “Health care influencers existed long before the pandemic, but the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, has provided a chance for health care workers to showcase their expertise as people spend more time on social media. These workers are turning to TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Google-owned YouTube and other sites to educate the public, debunk misinformation, provide health care tips, boost vaccination rates and tackle hot-button topics such as health equity.”

RESEARCH

National Science Foundation: Chip delivers COVID-19 test results on a phone. “COVID-19 can be diagnosed in 55 minutes or less with the help of programmed magnetic nanobeads and a diagnostic tool that plugs into an off-the-shelf cellphone, according to Rice University engineers. Mechanical engineer Peter Lillehoj has developed a stamp-sized microfluidic chip that measures the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein, a biomarker for COVID-19, in blood serum from a standard finger prick. The nanobeads bind to SARS-CoV-2 N protein in the chip and transport it to an electrochemical sensor that detects minute amounts of the biomarker.”

The Guardian: Covid: viral shedding is greatest in afternoon, study suggests. “The phased return of children to classrooms across the UK has prompted widespread concern that this could lead to an increase in infections. Because of this, college and secondary schoolchildren are required to take twice weekly lateral flow tests, to monitor rates of infection in the community. However, new research, which has not yet been peer reviewed, suggests Covid-19 tests may be less likely to give false negative results if taken during the early afternoon, compared with other times of day.”

CNN: Coronavirus spread on flight, in hotel corridor, New Zealand study finds. “The coronavirus spread on an international flight, in a hotel corridor and then to household contacts despite efforts to isolate and quarantine patients, New Zealand researchers reported Thursday. Careful genomic tracing confirmed the spread of the virus among nine patients and shows how people can infect one another despite careful efforts, the researchers reported in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.”

Science Daily: Having an unhealthy heart could lead to a higher risk of being diagnosed with COVID-19. “People with unhealthy heart structures and poorer functioning hearts have a significantly higher risk of being diagnosed with COVID-19 infection, according to research by Queen Mary University of London, in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit (The University of Southampton).”

JAMA Network: Association of Vitamin D Levels, Race/Ethnicity, and Clinical Characteristics With COVID-19 Test Results. “In this cohort study of 4638 individuals with a measured vitamin D level in the year before undergoing COVID-19 testing, the risk of having positive results in Black individuals was 2.64-fold greater with a vitamin D level of 30 to 39.9 ng/mL than a level of 40 ng/mL or greater and decreased by 5% per 1-ng/mL increase in level among individuals with a level of 30 ng/mL or greater. There were no statistically significant associations of vitamin D levels with COVID-19 positivity rates in White individuals.”

MIT News: Vaccination by inhalation. “Many viruses infect their hosts through mucosal surfaces such as the lining of the respiratory tract. MIT researchers have now developed a vaccination strategy that can create an army of T cells that are ready and waiting at those surfaces, offering a quicker response to viral invaders.”

OUTBREAKS

BBC: Covid: Germany warns of ‘exponential’ rise in coronavirus cases. “Coronavirus cases are rising exponentially in Germany, officials warn, as continental Europe braces for a third wave of infections. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was likely that the country would now need to apply an ’emergency brake’ and re-impose lockdown measures.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

ABC News: Trump’s ‘Chinese Virus’ tweet helped lead to rise in racist anti-Asian Twitter content: Study. “A new study suggests that former President Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric around the coronavirus, which is believed to have originated in China, helped spark anti-Asian Twitter content and ‘likely perpetuated racist attitudes.'”

Orlando Sentinel: Orlando Sentinel sues Florida Department of Health to force release of COVID variant data. “The Orlando Sentinel filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Florida Department of Health for allegedly violating the state’s public records law by refusing to release detailed information on the location of mutated strains of COVID-19, even as such cases rapidly multiplied.”

CoronaBuzz is brought to you by ResearchBuzz. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment, send resource suggestions, or tag @buzz_corona on Twitter. Thanks!



March 20, 2021 at 06:29AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/3vHcKzJ

Guide to Federal Broadband Opportunities, Chrome Live Caption, Instagram, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 19, 2021

Guide to Federal Broadband Opportunities, Chrome Live Caption, Instagram, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 19, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Internet Society: New Guide to Federal Broadband Funding Opportunities in the U.S.. “Today, I am pleased to announce the launch of the Guide to Federal Broadband Opportunities in the U.S. By creating this consolidated resource, especially as large amounts of funding become available as a part of COVID-19 relief and Tribes begin utilizing their Educational Broadband Service spectrum, the Internet Society hopes to assist our community to access these vital funds.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Neowin: Google adds Live Caption for audio and video in Chrome. “Google’s Live Caption feature is now available in the Chrome browser on desktop devices, the Mountain View giant announced today. The feature first debuted as an Android accessibility feature at Google I/O in 2019, and it automatically adds captions to audio and video playing on the device, removing the need for apps to add closed captions individually.”

BuzzFeed News: Facebook Is Building An Instagram For Kids Under The Age Of 13. “Executives at Instagram are planning to build a version of the popular photo-sharing app that can be used by children under the age of 13, according to an internal company post obtained by BuzzFeed News.” Oh sure, why not. Because Facebook’s content moderation in its regular properties is just about PERFECT! Not.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Carl Reiner’s Archives Will Go to the National Comedy Center. “Reiner, who would have turned 99 on Saturday, also left behind a trove of documents, artifacts and personal memorabilia, working on TV programs like ‘Your Show of Shows’ and ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ and films like ‘Oh, God!’ and ‘The Jerk.’ Now this personal archive will live on: his family is donating it to the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, N.Y., so that current fans and future generations can appreciate the breadth of his accomplishments.”

Washington Post: Biden administration revives EPA Web page on climate change deleted by Trump. “The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday relaunched a webpage dedicated to climate change that had gone dark under President Donald Trump, who frequently dismissed the scientific consensus that humans are warming the planet. The restoration of the climate website comes four years after the Trump administration took down much of the EPA’s digital presence that explained global warming and why it is worth fighting.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

KSAT: Proposed African American cemetery database pending in Congress. “Nationally recognized for his work that often bears historical and cultural significance, Everett Fly, is also known for helping descendants find and restore forgotten African-American cemeteries. Word about Fly’s expertise reached the offices of U.S. Reps. Alma Adams, of North Carolina, and A. Donald McEachin, of Virginia. The representatives introduced the African-American Burial Grounds Network Act, which would create a national database of African American cemeteries.”

AP: US charges Swiss ‘hacktivist’ for data theft and leaks. “The Justice Department has charged a Swiss hacker with computer intrusion and identity theft, just over a week after the hacker took credit for helping to break into the online systems of a U.S. security-camera startup. An indictment against 21-year-old Till Kottmann was brought Thursday by a grand jury in the Seattle-based Western District of Washington.”

KARK: New Arkansas bill proposed to collect taxes on social media ad revenue. “SB558 has been filed by State Senator Trent Garner and it looks to tax ad-generated revenues from social media companies. Garner says one way to begin to regulate social media for fairness and to prevent censoring is to implement a tax.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Florida: New AI tool to be tested in NIH-funded study to improve diagnosis of Parkinson’s and related disorders. “The three distinct neurodegenerative disorders — Parkinson’s disease; multiple system atrophy Parkinsonian variant, or MSAp; and progressive supranuclear palsy, or PSP — can be difficult to differentiate because they share overlapping motor and non-motor features, such as changes in gait. But they also have important differences in pathology and prognosis, and obtaining an accurate diagnosis is key to determining the best possible treatment for patients as well as developing improved therapies of the future. Previous research has shown that accuracy of diagnosis in early Parkinson’s can be as low as 58%, and more than half of misdiagnosed patients actually have one of the two variants.”

University of Michigan: New crowdsourced project to digitize Michigan lake and fish records, looking for climate trends. “University of Michigan researchers will enlist the help of citizen scientists in a new project to digitize thousands of historical records—some dating back more than a century—about Michigan inland lake conditions and fish abundances. Scientists will feed the digitized data into computer models to study the impacts of climate change and other factors on the fish in Michigan’s inland lakes.” 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!



March 20, 2021 at 12:08AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/3eVfsvx

African-American Newspapers, Windows 10 Updates, Facebook, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, March 19, 2021

African-American Newspapers, Windows 10 Updates, Facebook, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, March 19, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Digital Library of Georgia: Historic Georgian African American newspapers dating from 1886-1926 are now available freely online, thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. “The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) is pleased to announce that it has completed the digitization of two historically significant Georgia African American newspapers as part of a National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The digital images will be included in the Library of Congress’ newspaper site: Chronicling America.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: Microsoft admits Windows 10 updates are causing even more printer problems than first thought. “Following reports that a recent update to Windows 10 was causing blue screens as well as problems with printing, Microsoft issued a new series of updates to address the issues. But it seems that the problems caused by this month’s Patch Tuesday updates are actually worse than first thought.”

Mashable: Facebook will remove posts praising Atlanta shooting . “According to the company, it’s designating the shooting as a ‘violating event.’ This basically means that Facebook will remove any content on its platform which praises or supports the shooting or the shooter. Such posts are in violation of the company’s policies on promoting or inciting violence.”

Neowin: TikTok will force you to see personalized ads from April 15. “Currently, TikTok lets you choose whether you’d like to see general ads or personalized ones that are based on your in-app activities like the videos you’ve liked and ads you’ve interacted with on the platform. The goal is to help businesses reach more consumers. Starting next month, these options may change ‘and the ads you’ll see may start to be based on what you do on TikTok,’ according to a notice shown on the app.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Artnet: Artists and Scholars From Europe and Africa Are Collaborating to Help Kenya Reclaim Its Art From Foreign Museums. “There are no museum objects on view at a major museum exhibition in Nairobi, only empty display cases. This poignant absence that pervades ‘Invisible Inventories,’ which opens at the Nairobi National Museum on March 18, is the product of a years-long research project by the National Museums of Kenya alongside two German institutions, the Welkulturen Museum in Frankfurt and the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne. Together, they are tackling how to make Kenya’s art and objects—which are currently largely found peppered across Western cultural institutions, either on display or stowed away—present in the African country.”

WTVD: Google to create engineering hub in Durham, add 1,000+ jobs . “Google Cloud will create an engineering hub in Durham, bringing more than 1,000 new jobs to the area. Google said it will initially sublease space in downtown Durham under an agreement with Duke University. However, the company is looking at several locations for its eventual home.”

Otago Daily Times: Google redesignates central city. “Dunedin has a new suburb. At least, according to Google. In a somewhat bemusing shift, all of central Dunedin is now The Exchange on Google. The Exchange has traditionally referred to a single block in Dunedin’s CBD, which includes John Wickliffe House.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: Manhattan district attorney to release years of racial data as part of nationwide accountability push. “The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on Thursday will grant the public access to more than seven years worth of racial data that the top prosecutor here says has informed his approach to criminal justice reform. The database will include race and gender information related to charging decisions, plea-deal offers, bail amounts and sentencing.”

Seattle Times: Redistricting data may be ready a month early, in old format . “States under pressure to redraw congressional and legislature districts but facing a delay in the release of the needed data may be able to get the numbers in an outdated format in August, more than a month earlier than the planned date for their official release, a U.S. Census Bureau official said Thursday. The redistricting data will be available in mid-to-late August, but they will be in an older data format that may be difficult for some states to work with since they require extra steps to be taken to make them usable, Al Fontenot, the bureau’s associate director of decennial census programs, told a Census Bureau advisory committee.”

BNN Bloomberg: Google Makes Bid to Move Texas Monopoly Case to California. “A Google lawyer told U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan on Thursday during a hearing in Plano, Texas, that the case has no special connection to Texas and mirrors claims in lawsuits already filed in California. The company is battling three government claims of abuse of monopoly power. Google’s search business was targeted in separate lawsuits filed by the U.S. Justice Department and a group of states. The complaint in Texas focuses on digital advertising.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Penn State News: New tool could help lessen bias in live television broadcasts. “From Sunday morning news shows to on-air pregame commentary in sports, live telecasts draw viewers into real-time content on televisions around the world. But in these often-unscripted productions, what the audience sees is not always what the producer intends — especially in regard to equity of on-air time for subjects based on their race or gender. A team of researchers, which includes Syed Billah from Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology, has developed an interactive tool called Screen-Balancer, designed to assist media producers in balancing the presence of different phenotypes — an individual’s observable physical traits — in live telecasts.”

EurekAlert: National Eye Institute launches data portal for macular degeneration research. “The National Eye Institute (NEI) Data Commons now enables researchers to access data from patients with macular degeneration who participated in the Age-related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2). The database complements newly available stem cell lines created by the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute (NYSCF) from blood cells of AREDS2 study participants. Together, these resources will accelerate the discovery of therapies for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other blinding conditions.” 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!



March 19, 2021 at 05:19PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/2P9auR3

Thursday, March 18, 2021

YouTube Shorts, Google, Chromebooks, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 18, 2021

YouTube Shorts, Google, Chromebooks, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 18, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: YouTube’s TikTok rival, Shorts, starts rolling out in US. “YouTube is rolling out Shorts, its response to the TikTok phenomenon, in the US starting Thursday and continuing over the next ‘several weeks.’ This suite of creator tools for making short, vertical, looping videos is expected to be available to all creators on YouTube in the US, whether they have millions of channel subscribers or none at all.”

Google Blog: Stay tournament-ready with Google. “We teamed up with the NCAA and Turner Sports to bring the action of both the men and women’s Tournaments to you. Game-related searches including those for specific teams, match-ups or the tournament will trigger either in-game or postgame video highlights, all from the Google Search page. From unbelievable blocks to clutch steals to buzzer beaters, you’ll be able to relive the best moments from every game.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: How to Screen Record on Your Chromebook. “Recording your smartphone or computer’s screen can be useful, but sometimes you have to download third-party apps to do it. Fortunately, Chromebooks have a built-in tool that makes it easy to create screen recordings with no extra software required.”

Search Engine Journal: 8 Useful Python Libraries for SEO & How To Use Them. “There are over 100,000 libraries available to use in Python, which can be used for functions from data analysis to creating video games. In this article, you’ll find several different libraries I have used for completing SEO projects and tasks. All of them are beginner-friendly and you’ll find plenty of documentation and resources to help you get started.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Politico: How Washington fumbled the future. “Few moments in the power struggle between Washington and Silicon Valley have inspired more anger and bafflement than one in January 2013, when antitrust regulators appointed by former President Barack Obama declined to sue Google. The decision still rankles the company’s rivals, who have watched the search giant continue to amass power over smartphones, data-hoovering devices and wide swaths of the internet, unimpeded by laws meant to deter monopolies.”

TechCrunch: Google Area 120’s ThreadIt is bite-size video for team collaborations. “ThreadIt, which launches today as a browser-accessible service and Chrome plug-in, is an attempt to address a perceived hole in the market. The system, which allows users to record short video messages, is positioned to sit somewhere between long-form, live- video teleconferencing and short texts and emails.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Exclusive: Google’s privacy push draws U.S. antitrust scrutiny – sources. “Google’s plan to block a popular web tracking tool called ‘cookies’ is a source of concern for U.S. Justice Department investigators who have been asking advertising industry executives whether the move by the search giant will hobble its smaller rivals, people familiar with the situation said.”

BetaNews: Phishing campaign uses US tax season to lure victims . “Researchers at Cybereason have detected a new campaign targeting US taxpayers with documents that purport to contain tax-related content. These deliver NetWire and Remcos — two powerful and popular RATs which can allow attackers to take control of the victims’ machines and steal sensitive information. The malicious documents used are roughly 7MB in size, which allows them to evade traditional AV mechanisms and heuristic detection.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Newswise: What happens in your brain when you ‘lose yourself’ in fiction. “If you count yourself among those who lose themselves in the lives of fictional characters, scientists now have a better idea of how that happens. Researchers found that the more immersed people tend to get into ‘becoming’ a fictional character, the more they use the same part of the brain to think about the character as they do to think about themselves.”

Drexel Now: Autism Online: A Review of How Autistic People Communicate Virtually. “Various studies have shown how autistic people use information and communication technology (ICT) since the early 2000s, some finding that autistic people may prefer to communicate using the internet instead of in-person. However, no systematic review has been conducted to summarize these findings. To understand what has been discovered so far, researchers from Drexel University’s A.J. Drexel Autism Institute collected and reviewed published research about how autistic youth and adults use the internet to communicate and provide a framework for understanding contributions, gaps and opportunities in online autistic communities.” 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!



March 19, 2021 at 05:34AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/3s3ftkz

Thursday CoronaBuzz, March 18, 2021: 26 pointers to updates, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Thursday CoronaBuzz, March 18, 2021: 26 pointers to updates, useful stuff, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Please wear a mask (or even two). Wash your hands. Stay at home if you can. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES – EDUCATION/ENTERTAINMENT

Nature: Large socio-economic, geographic and demographic disparities exist in exposure to school closures. “This study introduces and analyses a U.S. School Closure and Distance Learning Database that tracks in-person visits to the vast majority of K–12 public schools in the United States from January 2019 through December 2020. Specifically, we measure year-over-year change in visits to each school throughout 2020 to determine whether the school is engaged in distance learning after the onset of the pandemic.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: How to Plan Your ‘Vaxication’ in Advance. “Even though we are still required to wear masks and social distance, people are taking advantage of their enhanced immunity and booking a year or two in advance for their national and international excursions. Here are some helpful tips for planning a vacation six months to a year in advance.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

Laughing Squid: Images of New Yorkers Lost to COVID-19 Projected Onto the Brooklyn Bridge in a Moving Tribute. “COVID Day of Remembrance, a moving tribute to the 30,258 New Yorkers who died from COVID-19, took place on March 14, 2021. This date marked the tragic anniversary of the first New York City death due to this horrific pandemic. To remember those whom the city has lost forever, images of COVID victims were projected onto the Brooklyn Bridge.”

Route Fifty: New Estimates Show the Sharp Rise in Charitable Food Use Last Year. “As the pandemic shook the finances of many American households last year, the share of non-elderly adults accessing charitable food options, like free groceries and meals, increased by almost 50% compared to 2019, a new analysis shows.”

PLOS ONE: COVID-19 lockdowns and demographically-relevant Google Trends: A cross-national analysis. “The spread of COVID-19 and resulting local and national lockdowns have a host of potential consequences for demographic trends. While impacts on mortality and, to some extent, short-term migration flows are beginning to be documented, it is too early to measure actual consequences for family demography. To gain insight into potential future consequences of the lockdown for family demography, we use cross-national Google Trends search data to explore whether trends in searches for words related to fertility, relationship formation, and relationship dissolution changed following lockdowns compared to average, pre-lockdown levels in Europe and the United States.”

MISINFORMATION / DISINFORMATION

Poynter: Do masks really work? Here are PolitiFact’s answers for mask skeptics.. “We’ve been reviewing mask science since the start of the pandemic, and we’re persuaded that mask-wearing is a good idea. But if you’re not, we wanted to address your questions head on. Here’s the latest research on the efficacy of masks and answers to questions, from readers and our own team, on what we know and what we don’t about mask-wearing.”

PsyPost: People with greater intellectual humility show greater scrutiny toward “fake news” about the coronavirus. “New research published in Social Psychological and Personality Science suggests that intellectual humility is a trait that may protect against misinformation in the media or ‘fake news.’ A series of studies found that people with greater intellectual humility were consistently more inclined to investigate fake claims about COVID-19.”

HEALTH CARE / HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS

BBC: Covid: How ethnicity and wealth affect US vaccine rollout. “The US vaccination rollout among people belonging to ethnic minorities is significantly behind that of white Americans – and wealthier areas are often getting jabs first, according to the latest data. We have looked into the numbers and the possible reasons behind the disparities.”

BUSINESS / CORPORATIONS

Search Engine Journal: Google Predicts These 4 Pandemic Changes Are Permanent. “Companies have changed the way they do business since the pandemic. In a new report, Google forecasts which of those changes are here to stay.”

New York Times: Walmart becomes largest U.S. vaccine provider to join push for digital vaccination credentials.. “The retail giant said on Wednesday that it had signed on to an international effort to provide standardized digital vaccination credentials to people. The company joins a push already backed by major health centers and tech companies including Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, Cerner, Epic Systems, the Mitre Corporation and the Mayo Clinic.”

BBC: AstraZeneca: UK clot review confirms safety of vaccine. “There is no evidence the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine causes blood clots, the UK’s medicines regulator says after a ‘thorough and careful review’. The MHRA says people can have confidence in the vaccine’s benefits and should get immunised when invited, despite some countries suspending use.”

WORLD / FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

BBC: India coronavirus: Can its vaccine producers meet demand?. “India, one of the world’s largest producers of coronavirus vaccines, is struggling to meet its export commitments. Its largest manufacturer says doses intended for the UK could be held up, and a big order to supply Nepal has also been put on hold.”

UPI: Pentagon eases COVID-19 travel restrictions. “Travel restrictions between U.S. military bases, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were reduced this week, the Defense Department said. Eight bases lifted travel restrictions while two had restrictions reinstated, meaning that 131 of 271, or 57%, of U.S. military installations around the world are operating without travel restrictions.”

STATE / LOCAL GOVERNMENT

New York Times: New York will expand the opening of sports and arts venues for baseball season, the governor says.. “New York will allow sports and performing arts venues that seat more than 2,500 people outdoors to open at limited capacity starting on April 1, just in time for the Yankees’ first home game of the season, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Thursday. The state will also allow indoor venues that seat more than 1,500 people to open at 10 percent capacity.”

SPORTS

Samford University: Study by Samford University Center for Sports Analytics Finds that Lack of Crowds Helped Visiting Teams this Season. “Data collected and analyzed by the center showed that the average number of fouls called on the visiting team during the 2020-2021 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball season was significantly lower than the number of fouls called on the visiting team during the previous three seasons. Specifically, the number of fouls called on the visiting team declined by 4.8% overall across all NCAA Division I home games played during the 2020-2021 regular season (3,716 games). Meanwhile, the average number of fouls called on the home team during the 2020-2021 season (16.80) was not statistically different than the previous three seasons (16.86).”

K-12 EDUCATION

Route Fifty: States Consider ‘Do-Over Years’ for Students Affected by the Pandemic. “Students in Kentucky whose academic—and athletic—careers were disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic could have the option for a do-over under legislation approved Tuesday by state lawmakers.”

HEALTH

Medical XPress: COVID-19 pandemic impacts mental health worldwide. “A study conducted at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health reports a high global prevalence of both depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic and shows how implementation of mitigation strategies including public transportation and school closures, and stay-at-home orders impacted such disorders. The results are published in Psychological Medicine.”

New York Times: Should You Worry About Your Kid’s Pandemic Weight Gain?. “Last spring, scientists predicted that the Covid-19 pandemic might contribute to a rise in children’s body weight, because of school closures and families hunkering down with comfort foods, lacking access to healthful meal options and exercising less. Yet while we know that childhood hunger has risen precipitously during the pandemic, we don’t have much data on whether children’s body sizes have changed in the past year.”

Poynter: When will we reach herd immunity? Here’s what the experts say.. “First, do public health experts generally consider herd immunity to kick in at 60%? In addition, does current scientific thinking equate protection from the antibodies generated by past COVID-19 infections with the same degree of protection as a vaccination? We decided to find out.”

Washington Post: What to Know About Blood Clots, Anaphylaxis and Other Vaccine Fears. “A vaccine is intended to prevent a specific disease, but many people who receive a Covid-19 inoculation are either elderly or suffer from other severe, chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Still others may harbor unknown health risks. As almost 10 million Covid shots are administered each day, it’s inevitable that some of these people will experience serious symptoms or even die soon after they receive immunizations; the question is, what caused it? This is one of the difficulties in untangling the relationship between shots — deemed safe in trials of tens of thousands of people — and conditions that have arisen in people after getting vaccinated, including blood clots; a serious, but treatable allergic reaction called anaphylaxis; a temporary facial paralysis or weakness known as Bell’s palsy; and death.”

TECHNOLOGY

Medical XPress: Survey finds young Americans are using social media to address mental health issues … caused by social media. “As social media contributes to depression among some U.S. teens and young adults amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they are ironically using that technology to tackle their mental health struggles, a new study shows.”

Mashable: SXSW got canceled by the pandemic. So it built Austin in VR for 2021.. “I was in a freefall high above Congress Avenue, or some acid-dream version of it, in Austin, (definitely not) Texas, with the ‘street’ below me rapidly coming into view….This was SXSW 2021. Or, to be exact, SXSW Online XR — a partial, virtual reality recreation of the familiar streets and venues that typically play host to the annual celebration of interactive, film, and art worlds. And it was alive inside of VRChat, the popular and scrappy social platform.”

RESEARCH

Big Think: MIT study shows ultrasound vibrations may kill coronavirus. “The researchers created various models of the novel coronavirus, and then used computer simulations to determine the frequencies at which acoustic vibrations might damage key parts of the virus, namely the shell and spikes. The results showed that ultrasound vibrations between 25 and 100 megahertz caused the shell and spikes to rupture almost immediately.”

Newswise: Making Communication Clearer During COVID-19. “Realizing that wearing a mask can make communication harder for patients, staff and students, Irvine — along with a group of Medical Center employees — set out to find a solution. The solution: transparent face masks created by ClearMasks LLC.”

PsyPost: Study uncovers severe mental health issues among flight attendants at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Flight attendants who were grounded at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic showed severe symptoms of depression and stress, according to a study published in Frontiers in Psychology. Those who were flying during this time showed severe symptoms of anxiety.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

CNN: Seriously, stop sharing your vaccine cards on social media. “As the Covid vaccine rolls out to more people around the country, I’ve lost track of how many vaccine information cards I’ve seen across social networks and chat apps. While selfies are encouraged as a way to express joy at being vaccinated and broadcast that people are doing their part to help stop the spread of Covid-19, multiple government agencies have warned about the risks of posting vaccine card images online.”

CoronaBuzz is brought to you by ResearchBuzz. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment, send resource suggestions, or tag @buzz_corona on Twitter. Thanks!



March 19, 2021 at 02:37AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/3tAQiWY

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, Rhode Island Historic Preservation, YouTube, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 18, 2021

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, Rhode Island Historic Preservation, YouTube, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 18, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Smithsonian Magazine: A Dictionary of Science Fiction Runs From Afrofuturism to Zero-G. “In the summer of 1987, movie audiences first met Robocop in the science fiction classic about violence and corrupt corporate power in a future, dystopian Detroit. But the title word is much older than that, going back at least to a 1957 short story by writer Harlan Ellison, in which a tentacled “robocop” pursues a character. The prefix ‘robo-,’ in turn, dates at least to 1945, when Astounding Science Fiction published a story by A.E. van Vogt mentioning ‘roboplanes’ flying through the sky…. This is the kind of rabbit hole a reader can go down in the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, a resource decades in the making that is now available to the public in an accessible form. Lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower started the project years ago, when he was an editor at the Oxford English Dictionary.

EVENTS

Cranston Herald: ‘Come Back to the Future’ at 35th RI Historic Preservation Conference. “The 35th Rhode Island Historic Preservation Conference, “Come Back to the Future,” will take place virtually Wednesday, April 21, through Friday, April 23. The three-day program includes two keynote speakers, more than 15 breakout sessions, and numerous on-demand virtual tours and videos. Attendees will also have opportunities to network and participate in discussion groups. The event is organized by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission (RIHPHC) in collaboration with Preserve Rhode Island, Secretary of State Nellie A. Gorbea, and many generous partners.” Registration is all of $25.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: YouTube can now warn creators about copyright issues before videos are posted. “In an effort to make the process of uploading a video and receiving ad revenue easier, YouTube is rolling out a new tool called ‘Checks’ that tells a creator ahead of time if their video contains copyrighted material and complies with advertising guidelines.”

USEFUL STUFF

Enterprise .nxt: The tools that data scientists use. “Look around your house. How many smart devices do you see? The computer in front of you, the phone by your side, the watch on your wrist, and the smart speaker you’re listening to? The Netflix TV show you’ll watch later tonight, perhaps even the lights above you, and soon, the car you’ll drive to the grocery store? While much of that data quickly grows cold and is never used, data science (DS) is growing increasingly more adept at using all data. Paired with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), data science is quickly turning once-obscure data into valuable knowledge.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Post Alley: Her Name is Elisia. “A nearly forgotten collection of old photographs of migrant farm workers in Washington State has resurfaced, enabling a lost history to be recovered. This is the story of the unearthing of this archive and the moving lessons the large archive teaches about ‘the awakening of a people.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: High-schooler and her mother hacked school records to steal homecoming queen election, police say. “In a sparkling silver dress, the homecoming queen at J.M. Tate High School in Cantonment, Fla., stood on the football field on a brisk evening in late October to accept her crown. But among the students, whispers already had begun spreading about her victory. The homecoming queen had bragged for years about abusing the access her mother had to student records as an assistant principal in the same school system, witnesses later told investigators.”

ProPublica: America’s Drinking Water Is Surprisingly Easy to Poison. “The cyberbreach at a plant in Oldsmar, Florida, which could have resulted in a mass poisoning, was a reminder of a disturbing reality: Despite a decade of warnings, thousands of water systems around the country are still at risk.”

Krebs on Security: WeLeakInfo Leaked Customer Payment Info. “A little over a year ago, the FBI and law enforcement partners overseas seized WeLeakInfo[.]com, a wildly popular service that sold access to more than 12 billion usernames and passwords stolen from thousands of hacked websites. In an ironic turn of events, a lapsed domain registration tied to WeLeakInfo let someone plunder and publish account data on 24,000 customers who paid to access the service with a credit card.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

KCBS: Social media drove real police reform in America: Study. “Last year’s widespread social media conversations concerning racial and social justice in America spilled over into actual police reform, a new study says. The report, titled ‘Say Their Names,’ was released by communications and research firm Marathon Strategies and The BLK+Cross. It found a direct correlation between state-level legislature action on social justice issues and the amplified online dialogue about police reform, using analysis and trends from all 50 states and Washington, D.C.”

Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt scientists sketch rare star system using more than a century of astronomical observations. “Vanderbilt astronomers have painted their best picture yet of an RV Tauri variable—a rare type of stellar binary, in which two stars orbit each other within a sprawling disk of dust. To sketch its characteristics, the scientists mined a 130-year dataset that spans the widest range of light yet collected for one of these systems, from radio waves to X-rays.” 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!



March 19, 2021 at 12:27AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/30XnqMw