Thursday, March 25, 2021

Yale School of Art, Talking to Our Time, Silicon Valley, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 25, 2021

Yale School of Art, Talking to Our Time, Silicon Valley, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 25, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Yale News: Gallery view: School of Art offers ‘virtual’ tours of student work. “Spring is thesis season at the Yale School of Art (SoA) — an opportunity for students to showcase their capstone projects after two years of intensive training and artistic development. Typically, the annual thesis exhibitions draw crowds to the school’s Green Hall Gallery, including visitors from New York City and elsewhere seeking to engage with the work of promising artists. This year, unable to host the public due to the pandemic, the SoA is offering virtual 3D tours that allow viewers to explore the shows from their laptops, smartphones, or tablets.”

EVENTS

Smithsonian: Hirshhorn Announces Fourth Season of Free Online Artist Talks, a Series Enjoyed by Over 22,000 Viewers So Far, March 17–May 26. “The program, which started as a summer series in July 2020, is the first time the museum has hosted conversations with artists consecutively every week. Together with Hirshhorn curators and acclaimed moderators, digital audiences from around the world can engage with renowned creatives and join the crucial conversations happening on a global scale. The upcoming spring season of ‘Talking to Our Time’ will stream 11 live talks, highlighting a diverse group of artists and collectives: Diana Al-Hadid, Teresita Fernández, Charles Gaines, Rachel Harrison, Deana Lawson, Riva Lehrer, Catherine Opie, Jacolby Satterwhite, Michelle Stuart, Danh Vō and Anicka Yi.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

MarketWatch: Big Tech CEOs pounded over social media’s role in promoting misinformation, extremism . “The chief executives of Google parent Alphabet Inc., Facebook Inc., and Twitter Inc. alternately were filleted, grilled and otherwise pummeled before the House Committee on Energy & Commerce on Thursday.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Slate: Non-English Editions of Wikipedia Have a Misinformation Problem . “During World War II, Unit 731 of the Japanese military undertook horrific medical experimentation in Manchukuo (Northeast China). Among other things, members of Unit 731 intentionally infected people with the plague as part of an effort to develop bioweapons. The unit’s crimes have been well documented. But if you read the Japanese Wikipedia page on Unit 731 in January, you wouldn’t get the full story. The article said that it is ‘a theory’ that human experiments actually took place. It was just one example of the whitewashing of war crimes on Japanese Wikipedia, as I discovered when I was researching the war.”

New York Times: Clueless About Discord? Read This.. “The talking and texting app Discord is popular with video gamers who use it to plot strategy for blowing up virtual enemies. But Mieke Göttsche and Bianca Visagie, avid readers from South Africa, use Discord for hosting thoughtful book club discussions. I spoke with Göttsche and Visagie to better understand the appeal of Discord and why it has been in deal talks with Microsoft for a transaction that could top $10 billion. Talking through how their book club uses the app helped me to better understand what the fuss is about.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Houston Chronicle: Texas AG Ken Paxton refuses to release texts, emails sent during pro-Trump rally and Capitol riot. “The Texas attorney general’s office is attempting to withhold all messages Ken Paxton sent or received while in Washington for the pro-Donald Trump rally that devolved into a riot at the U.S. Capitol. Several news organizations in Texas have requested copies of the attorney general’s work-related communications. The Texas Public Information Act guarantees the public’s right to government records — even if those records are stored on personal devices or online accounts of public officials.”

SC Magazine: Policyholders may be the primary target in hack of cyber insurance provider CNA. “Insurance firm CNA Financial, a prominent provider of cyber insurance, confirmed a cyberattack against its systems, which has some concerned that cybercriminals may target policyholders. Cybercriminals generally know that companies represented by a cyber insurance company are more likely to pay a large ransomware demand than an uninsured business that doesn’t have the financial backing.”

DefenseNews: US military conducted 2 dozen cyber operations to head off 2020 election meddling. “In the run up to the 2020 presidential election, U.S. Cyber Command conducted over two dozen missions to block foreign adversaries’ efforts to undermine voting integrity, the commander told senators Thursday.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

BBC: Police warn students to avoid science website. “The City of London police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit says using the Sci-Hub website could ‘pose a threat’ to students’ personal data. The police are concerned that users of the ‘Russia-based website’ could have information taken and misused online.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

The Register: Ticker tape and a binary message: Bank of England’s new Alan Turing £50 must be the nerdiest banknote ever. “Due to hit circulation on 23 June, the design replaces the relatively short-lived incarnation featuring Matthew Boulton and James Watt. Instead, the update will show the scientist Alan Turing and the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) he developed….Also celebrating Turing’s imminent arrival on the note is UK agency GCHQ, which has created a set of puzzles that produce 11 words or names to be tapped into the agency’s Enigma machine simulator.” Good evening, Internet…

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March 26, 2021 at 08:11AM
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National Recording Registry, PowerPoint, Building Websites, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 25, 2021

National Recording Registry, PowerPoint, Building Websites, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 25, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Library of Congress: National Recording Registry Adds ‘Rhythm Nation’ Among 25 New Selections. “Janet Jackson’s clarion call for action and healing in ‘Rhythm Nation 1814’ now joins other groundbreaking sounds of history and culture among the latest titles inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, including Louis Armstrong’s ‘When the Saints Go Marching In,’ Labelle’s ‘Lady Marmalade,’ Nas’ ‘Illmatic,’ Kool & the Gang’s ‘Celebration,’ and Kermit the Frog’s ‘The Rainbow Connection.'”

Pocketnow: Microsoft’s new tool turns Word files into PowerPoint presentation using AI. “Microsoft has announced a new feature that uses AI to turn Word files into a PowerPoint presentation. Called Export to PowerPoint presentation, the feature has started to roll out for Word and PowerPoint on the web, and users with an Office 365 subscription can now access it. All you have to do is open a Word file on the web, hit the Export button on the left sidebar, then tap on the Export to PowerPoint presentation, and you’re good to go.” Apparently this feature only supports text-based Word files, so we’re still at step one, but what a great start.

USEFUL STUFF

ZDNet: How to create a website: The 2021 step-by-step guide. “You don’t have to be a programmer, a geek, or a techie to do this. You also don’t have to be an illustrator or a designer. All you’ll need to do is take some time, make some decisions, spend a few bucks, and write your site’s content, and soon, you’ll have a shiny new website you’ll be proud to promote.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BBC: Apple Music ‘saylists’ to help with speech issues. “‘Saylists’ are being launched on Apple Music to help young people with speech-sound disorders. The project, from Warner Music, uses algorithms to find song lyrics that repeat challenging sounds. The 173 tracks chosen so far include Dua Lipa’s Don’t Start Now, Lizzo’s Good As Hell and Right Here, Fatboy Slim’s Right Now.”

National Gallery of Art: New Undergraduate Paid Internship Program for Careers in Museums Announced by National Gallery of Art’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts in Partnership with Howard University and Supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. “This four-year pilot program aims to create pathways to careers in museums and arts-related organizations for students from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other institutions that serve populations that are underrepresented in the museum field. Following a planning phase focused on building an inclusive, equitable, and supportive infrastructure, the first cohort of students will join the National Gallery in the fall of 2022. Students may begin applying for the program in early 2022, with a specific deadline yet to be finalized.”

New York Times: E.P.A. to Review Attacks on Science Under Trump. “The Biden administration is taking the unusual step of making a public accounting of the Trump administration’s political interference in science, drawing up a list of dozens of regulatory decisions that may have been warped by political interference in objective research.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

KSNT: Kansas bill seeks to prevent social media sites from blocking political speech. “After the 2020 election and the controversies that followed, Hutchinson Senator Mark Steffen decided to sponsor a bill to address what social media allows. The new proposal specifically states that harassing and objectionable speech cannot include political information or expression.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Mashable: Meet the chatbot that simulates a teen experiencing a mental health crisis. “In digital conversation, Riley is a young person who is trying to come out as genderqueer. When you message Riley, they’ll offer brief replies to open-ended questions, sprinkle ellipses throughout when saying something difficult, and type in lowercase, though they’ll capitalize a word or two for emphasis. Riley’s humanness is impressive given that they’re a chatbot driven by artificial intelligence to accomplish a unique goal: simulate what it’s like to talk to a young person in crisis so that volunteer counselors can become skilled at interacting with them and practice asking about thoughts of suicide.”

Next Web: My team experimented with ‘no screen mornings’ — it worked wonders. “Want to feel stressed, anxious, and/or completely exhausted before you even have breakfast? I highly recommend looking at your phone right when you wake up. I tend to look at Slack, email, and (*sigh*) Twitter right after I wake up. But sometimes I wonder if my head would be clearer if I just… didn’t. So I tried it out — and asked my coworkers at Zapier to join me.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

Reddit: Fantasia Archive – The free, offline, world-building software with a unique spin. “Fantasia Archive (or FA for short) is an offline, free software that was created as a reaction to the lack of proper offline world-building and writing tools as most of such programs focus almost entirely on just writing instead of on the world-building and all intricacies it brings. This is what sets FA apart: The focus on the structure of one’s works and relationships of all parts of it to each other instead of solely focusing on the writing experience itself.” Windows-only, unfortunately. Good afternoon, Internet…

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March 25, 2021 at 11:53PM
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Thursday CoronaBuzz, March 25, 2021: 38 pointers to updates, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Thursday CoronaBuzz, March 25, 2021: 38 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

Canada NewsWire: New Interactive Tool Helps Users Better Understand Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on Young Canadians (PRESS RELEASE). “The School Closures and COVID-19: Interactive tool brings together existing information about children and youth who were already known to be vulnerable before the pandemic, as well as available data on the impacts of temporary school closures on young Canadians. The tool, which includes interactive maps that identify the location of vulnerable communities, provides policy makers, industry leaders, teachers and parents with a single point of access to Statistics Canada data about this topic.”

NEW RESOURCES – STATE-SPECIFIC

Argus Leader (South Dakota): Wondering when your next court hearing is? State releases user-friendly tool to find court dates. “A portal on the Unified Judicial System’s website homepage allows users to search for an upcoming court date by their case number or name and birth date. Judicial leaders are hoping it’s another way for those working through cases to know their next hearing and show up for court. The new tool was one of the numerous ‘natural consequences’ of the courts adjusting to COVID-19 pandemic, said Robin Houwman, the presiding judge for the Second Circuit Court, which includes Minnehaha and Lincoln counties.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: Take This Free 10-Day Mental Health Course on Coping With the Pandemic. “Before we go any further, two things to note. First is that this or any online course is no substitute for working one-on-one with a mental health professional and should not be used in place of seeking help if you need it. Second is that therapy isn’t affordable and accessible for everyone, so tools like these are able to provide at least some form of information and guidance. This particular course was created by accredited, licensed clinicians, and includes daily lessons, guided experiences, and other tools to help people manage their feelings and prioritize their mental health.”

UPDATES

Reuters: India detects novel coronavirus variant. “India’s health ministry said on Wednesday that a novel variant of the coronavirus had been detected in the country in addition to many other variants of concern (VOCs) also found abroad.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

Vox EU: Working from home in developing countries. “The ability to work from home, which has proved crucial to the resilience of labour markets during the Covid-19 pandemic, may have shifted employment patterns permanently. Data on this shift have thus far come largely from advanced economies. This column proposes a measure of the ability to work from home in low- and middle-income countries.”

MISINFORMATION / DISINFORMATION

CBS News: 12 state AGs push Facebook and Twitter to crack down on COVID-19 vaccine disinformation. “In a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the attorneys general pressed the social media giants to fully ‘identify and enforce’ the companies’ terms of service to combat against vaccine disinformation and misinformation.”

Solomon Times: Social Media “Bullshit” Threatens Control of COVID-19 Outbreak in PNG. “Misinformation and lack of trust in authority is so widespread in [Papua New Guinea] that social media questions and vilifies the country’s most experienced doctors and scientists. Even the PNG National Pandemic Controller, David Manning, was accused of peddling a hoax when he confirmed the MP for Open Kerema, 53-year old Richard Mendani, had died from COVID-19 at the weekend.”

HEALTH CARE / HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS

University of Alabama at Birmingham: Emergency department staff have high COVID-19 vaccination rates. “An overwhelming majority of health care personnel in hospital emergency departments have received a vaccine against COVID-19, according to findings published in Academic Emergency Medicine, the official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. The study showed that 95 percent of health care personnel were offered vaccination against COVID-19 within the first month of prioritized distribution to this high-risk group and 86 percent accepted vaccination.”

INSTITUTIONS

The Irish News: Music composed and recorded during lockdown to be preserved by British Library. “People who composed and recorded music during lockdown are being given the opportunity to have their songs preserved in the British Library. BBC Radio 5 Live said it has been inundated with tracks from musicians ‘of all standards’ from across the UK. The station is giving listeners the chance to have the music they created behind closed doors to be stored forever in the Sound Archive of the library.”

BUSINESS / CORPORATIONS

BBC: Citigroup launches Zoom-free Fridays to ease pandemic ‘fatigue’. “American investment bank Citigroup has urged its staff to limit video calls on Fridays in an effort to promote a better work-life balance. Chief executive Jane Fraser told staff to observe ‘Zoom-free Fridays’, in a memo on Monday.”

CNET: Over 80% of workers don’t want to go back to the office full time, survey finds. “A survey by Harvard Business School has found 81% of people who have been working from home through the COVID-19 pandemic either don’t want to go back or prefer a hybrid schedule. Of the 1,500 remote workers surveyed for the study, 27% hope to continue working remotely full time indefinitely, while 61% would prefer to mix working from home with going into the office two or three days a week.”

BBC: Covid vaccine: AstraZeneca amends US vaccine efficacy results. “AstraZeneca has downgraded the efficacy result of its coronavirus vaccine trial in the US after health officials questioned the results. The Anglo-Swedish firm adjusted the efficacy rate of its vaccine against Covid-19 symptoms from 79% to 76%, but said the trial results confirm it ‘is highly effective in adults’.”

WORLD / FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

BBC: India: Delhi orders Covid tests at airports as cases surge. “India’s capital, Delhi, will begin randomised Covid tests at airports, bus stops and train stations amid what some experts say is a second wave. Mumbai, a financial hub and virus hotspot, ordered mandatory testing in busy areas earlier this week. Cases have surged in recent weeks – on Wednesday, India reported more than 47,000 new cases and 275 deaths, it’s highest this year.”

CNBC: Navajo Nation reports no new daily Covid cases, deaths for the first time in six months. “The Navajo Nation, which inhabits the largest area of land retained by an indigenous tribe in the United States, reported Monday that it had zero new coronavirus cases and deaths in the previous 24 hours after rolling out an aggressive vaccination campaign. The tribe, whose land stretches across Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, had the highest per capita infection rate in the U.S. at the height of the pandemic.”

Reuters: U.S. COVID response could have avoided hundreds of thousand of deaths – research. “The United States squandered both money and lives in its response to the coronavirus pandemic, and it could have avoided nearly 400,000 deaths with a more effective health strategy and trimmed federal spending by hundreds of billions of dollars while still supporting those who needed it.”

AP: Germany funds vaccine assistance for Holocaust survivors. ” Germany has committed millions of dollars in extra funding to help ensure all Holocaust survivors are able to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, an organization that handles claims on behalf of Jewish victims said Wednesday. By virtue of their ages alone, survivors of the Holocaust are at higher risk of dying of COVID-19. Many suffer serious medical issues related to early childhood malnutrition and mistreatment at the hands of the Nazis during World War II.”

Reuters: Exclusive: India delays big exports of AstraZeneca shot as infections surge, sources say. “India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shot made by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine-maker, to meet domestic demand as infections rise, two sources told Reuters.”

BBC: Coronavirus: Germany’s Merkel reverses plans for Easter lockdown. “German Chancellor Angela Merkel has cancelled plans for a strict lockdown over Easter, just a day after the measures were announced. Mrs Merkel said the plan was a ‘mistake’, adding that she took responsibility for the U-turn. The proposed lockdown was agreed with regional leaders on Monday, with restrictions set to be tightened between 1-5 April.”

Axios: Scoop: Hundreds of migrant kids with positive COVID-19 tests held in shelters. “Nearly 2,900 unaccompanied minors tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival at U.S. government shelters over the past year — including around 300 currently in the system — a Department of Health and Human Services official tells Axios. The big picture: The numbers highlight the staggering challenges in trying to manage a child migration crisis during a pandemic, while weighing human rights and child welfare concerns against immigration laws.”

STATE / LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Times-Union: Top health officials told to prioritize COVID testing for Cuomo’s relatives. “High-level members of the state Department of Health were directed last year by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker to conduct prioritized coronavirus testing on the governor’s relatives as well as influential people with ties to the administration, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.”

Mississippi Free Press: MSDH Axes ‘Misleading, Outdated’ Vaccine Phone Script After Viral Thread. “Misleading information about the safety and efficacy of the Moderna vaccine has led the Mississippi State Department of Health to issue an update to their vaccine hotline script this evening, after a viral Twitter thread raised serious questions about the appointment scheduling process. The conversation in question happened Monday morning, after Bobby Wayne, a Coahoma resident, called the MSDH hotline to request the nearest appointment for his first shot of COVID-19 vaccine.”

KOMO: New sense of urgency as more in Washington set to become eligible for COVID-19 vaccine. “The state intends to comply with a directive from the Biden Administration to open up eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine to all Washingtonians over the age of 16 by May 1, Gov. Jay Inslee’s office confirmed Wednesday.”

INDIVIDUALS / BANDS / GROUPS

UPI: NASCAR to use COVID-detecting dogs at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “The procedure will be deployed on a trial basis as a potential first line of at-track defense designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. NASCAR said teams were notified of the plan Tuesday.”

BBC: Covid: The clarinettist who took on Lebanon’s vaccine scandal. “Eighty-year-old Joseph al-Hajj loves nothing more than playing his clarinet….For the past few months, Joseph has been tucked away in his mountain village of Mtein – a 45-minute drive from the capital, Beirut – shielding himself from the coronavirus pandemic. But when Joseph heard that more than a dozen of Lebanon’s politicians had got the vaccination inside the country’s parliament last month, he was furious.”

Man of Many: Banksy’s ‘Game Changer’ Pandemic Painting Sells for Record $30 Million. “A painting from prominent street artist Banksy that depicts a nurse as a superhero in the eyes of a young boy has sold for more than AUD$30 million. ‘Game Changer’, a painting created as an ode to the hard work of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) now holds the world auction record for Banksy.”

SPORTS

ESPN: Miami Heat to open vaccinated-only sections for fans on April 1. “The Heat announced plans Tuesday to open two sections in their lower bowl only for fully vaccinated fans starting with an April 1 game against the Golden State Warriors. The Heat are the first NBA team to reveal such a plan, though other clubs are believed to be working on similar measures.”

HEALTH

Indiana University: Self-compassion can alleviate feelings of loneliness due to remote work, IUPUI study finds. “When people feel lonely, the study found, they experience more depressive symptoms, and they are less likely to go above and beyond in their jobs, such as helping a co-worker — something many organizations may have hoped their employees would do during the pandemic. But there is hope — in the form of self-compassion.”

TECHNOLOGY

FDA: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Authorizes First Machine Learning-Based Screening Device to Identify Certain Biomarkers That May Indicate COVID-19 Infection. “Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first machine learning-based Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) non-diagnostic screening device that identifies certain biomarkers that are indicative of some types of conditions, such as hypercoagulation (a condition causing blood to clot more easily than normal).”

The Next Web: Digital vaccine passports could deny people services due to algorithmic decisions, experts warn. “China, Israel, and Bahrain have already begun rolling out digital vaccine certificates. On Wednesday, the EU announced its plan to join them. In theory, the passes can provide evidence that someone is safe to travel, return to the office, or enter leisure venues. But critics fear they will exacerbate inequalities and compromise data privacy.”

RESEARCH

New York Times: The Next Trick: Pulling Coronavirus Out of Thin Air. “The [Thermo Fisher Scientific’s AerosolSense Sampler], the company says, can be used to detect a variety of airborne pathogens, including the coronavirus. It could be deployed in hospitals, offices, schools and other buildings to monitor for signs of the virus as society begins to reopen. The AerosolSense, which will sell for $4,995, is not the first air sampler capable of capturing the coronavirus; scientists have used several other models to study the pathogen over the past year. But the new device appears to be simpler and more accessible, experts said.

EurekAlert: Poor diabetes control in children tied to high risk for COVID-19 complications, death. “Children with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes have a 10 times higher risk of COVID-19-related complications and death compared to those with well-controlled diabetes, according to a study presented virtually at ENDO 2021, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting.”

Endocrine Society: Hospitalized COVID patients with obesity are significantly more likely to need ICU care. “People with obesity who are hospitalized with COVID-19 have a significantly higher rate of ICU admissions and longer duration of ICU stay compared to people with a normal body mass index (BMI), according to a study presented virtually at ENDO 2021, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting.”

UC San Diego Health: Novel Coronavirus Circulated Undetected Months before First COVID-19 Cases in Wuhan, China. “Using molecular dating tools and epidemiological simulations, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues at the University of Arizona and Illumina, Inc., estimate that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was likely circulating undetected for at most two months before the first human cases of COVID-19 were described in Wuhan, China in late-December 2019.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

The Register: Scammers tried slurping folks’ login details through 70,000 coronavirus-themed phishing URLs during 2020. “In a post published today, Palo Alto’s Unit 42 threat intel division said COVID-themed phishing lure URLs ‘largely centered around Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and testing kits in March 2020, government stimulus programs from April through the summer 2020 (including a fake US Trading Commission website that posed as the US Federal Trade Commission in order to steal user credentials) and vaccines from late fall 2020 onward.’ It added that it had seen 69,950 phishing URLs between January 2020 and January 2021 which focused on ‘COVID-related topics’.”

Washington Post: Shootings never stopped during the pandemic: 2020 was the deadliest gun violence year in decades. “Until two lethal rampages this month, mass shootings had largely been absent from headlines during the coronavirus pandemic. But people were still dying — at a record rate. In 2020, gun violence killed nearly 20,000 Americans, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, more than any other year in at least two decades. An additional 24,000 people died by suicide with a gun.”

Newswise: The Claim That U.S. Has Seen a Surge in Hate Crimes Against Asian People During the COVID-19 Pandemic Is True. “On March 16, 2021, eight people were killed in shootings at massage parlors in the Atlanta area — most of the victims were women of Asian heritage. The attack put a spotlight on a surge in hate crimes against Asian people in the U.S. since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Caims by major media outlets, like this one from NPR, say that attacks on Asian Americans have risen since the start of the pandemic. These claims are true. A study published in March 2021 by California State University, San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism found that hate crimes reported to police departments in the 16 largest U.S. cities in 2020 increased by 149%.”

OPINION

Epicenter NYC: What we learned registering thousands of our neighbors for vaccines. “As of this writing, we have booked more than 2,600 appointments. More than 5,000 people have turned to us for help. Of those, about 1,000 were ineligible, about 1,000 folks found a vaccine via other means, and roughly 400 are being worked on. They just keep coming. In a recent discussion with Harlem Gunness, the director of St. John’s University’s public health program, we compared notes. Gunness just completed a study of conditions in Jackson Heights, Corona and Elmhurst during the pandemic. After hearing about Epicenter’s efforts, he encouraged us to summarize our findings for broader dissemination.”

Vox EU: Economic preparation for the next pandemic. “The COVID-19 pandemic is the first time in history that closing entire economies has been used as a medical tool, simultaneously and worldwide. This column argues that such ‘pandonomics’ cannot be repeated during future pandemics that are sure to come – the costs are too heavy. Since lockdowns are very costly, future economic non-pharmaceutical interventions need to be designed more intelligently, helping the economy to restructure and support the transition from a basically ignorant and domestically oriented society into a pandemic-aware one.”

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 25, 2021 at 07:52PM
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Opioid Industry Documents, WWI GIFs, Slack, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, March 25, 2021

Opioid Industry Documents, WWI GIFs, Slack, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, March 25, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of California San Francisco: UCSF and Johns Hopkins University Launch Digital Trove of Opioid Industry Documents. “UC San Francisco and Johns Hopkins University today announced the launch of the Opioid Industry Documents Archive, a digital repository of publicly disclosed documents from recent judgments, settlements, and ongoing lawsuits concerning the opioid crisis. The documents come from government litigation against pharmaceutical companies, including opioid manufacturers and distributors related to their contributions to the deadly epidemic, as well as litigation taking place in federal court on behalf of thousands of cities and counties in the United States.”

CNET: New WWI GIFs show the poignant reality of war. “An extensive new collection of GIFs from the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City could expand the perception of the ubiquitous short clips. The GIFs capture daily life during the First World War, from the tragic to the lighthearted, providing a mesmerizing, easily scannable snapshot the museum hopes will help bring history to a younger, GIF-savvy generation.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: Slack rolls back controversial messaging feature within hours of its introduction. “Messaging platform Slack yesterday rolled out a new feature called Connect DM that made it possible to send direct messages to anyone using the service — regardless of whether they are part of the same company or workspace. We say ‘made it possible’ in the past tense because Slack was very quickly forced into something of an embarrassing partial u-turn.”

9to5 Google: Google Search adds practice problems, more step-by-step math explainers. “Google has increasingly made Search a resource for students and others wanting to learn about various topics. The latest additions see Google Search surface practice problems, while expanding other capabilities. You’re now able to find interactive practice problems in Google Search to test your knowledge of high school math, chemistry, and physics.”

NBC News: Zuckerberg calls for changes to tech’s Section 230 protections. “The proposal, which Zuckerberg will present during his testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday, would raise the bar for social media companies that are currently granted immunity from liability for the content that appears on their platforms.” So giant companies which have a leg up in development and resources sail onward while smaller social networks are crushed by compliance costs.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

This article made me start looking around for Allen Funt. MakeUseOf: Don’t Call It a Comeback: “Yahoo+” May Soon Be a Thing. “Verizon is reported to be rebranding all of its consumer-facing media and web properties as Yahoo products while bringing out several new subscription offerings, all under the umbrella of Yahoo+.”

Engadget: 15 years in, Twitter is ready to be more than just tweets. “For 15 years, Twitter has looked pretty much the same. Now, the company is poised to move beyond the tweet with a series of changes that could dramatically alter how people interact on its platform.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Mpls.St.Paul: Minneapolis Launches Just Deeds Project to Discharge Racially Restrictive Housing Covenants. “Minnesota has one of the nation’s highest disparities in home ownership. We owe that in part to racially restrictive covenants—legal clauses in property deeds that prohibited people of color from owning and renting homes in certain areas—that were first recorded in south Minneapolis in the early 20th century. Racially restrictive covenants were outlawed in 1968, but their legacy shapes our neighborhoods to this day. This week, the city of Minneapolis launched the Just Deeds Project to allow homeowners to fully discharge the covenants recorded against their properties and ‘reclaim their homes as equitable spaces.'” This program is available in other Minnesota cities as well.

AP: Facebook finds Chinese hacking operation targeting Uyghurs. “Hackers in China used fake Facebook accounts and impostor websites to try to break into the computers and smartphones of Uyghur Muslims, the social network said Wednesday. The company said the sophisticated, covert operation targeted Uyghur activists, journalists and dissidents from China’s Xinjiang region, as well as individuals living in Turkey, Kazakhstan, the U.S., Syria, Australia, Canada and other nations.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Public Citizen: Big Tech, Big Cash: Washington’s New Power Players. “A report Public Citizen released in 2019 (covering up to the 2018 election cycle) detailed how Big Tech corporations have blanketed Capitol Hill with lobbyists and lavished members of Congress with campaign contributions. This is an update of that report, based on data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics. Since the 2020 election cycle has ended, Public Citizen reevaluated Big Tech’s influence over the government by analyzing the tech companies’ lobbying spending and campaign contributions.”

CNN: Google offered a professor $60,000, but he turned it down. Here’s why. “[Professor Luke] Stark is among a growing number of people in academia who are citing the exits of [Timnit] Gebru and [Margaret] Mitchell for recent decisions to forfeit funding or opportunities provided by the company. Some AI conference organizers are rethinking having Google as a sponsor. And at least one academic who has received a big check from Google in the past has since declared he won’t seek its financial support until changes are made at the company.”

ZDNet: Quantum computing: IBM’s new tool lets users design quantum chips in minutes. “Building the hardware that underpins quantum computers might not sound like everybody’s cup of tea, but IBM is determined to make the idea sound less challenging. The company has announced the general availability of Qiskit Metal, an open-source platform that automates parts of the design process for quantum chips, and which IBM promised will now let ‘anyone’ design quantum hardware.” Good morning, Internet…

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March 25, 2021 at 05:32PM
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Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Tairawhiti Museum, Google, New York Yankees, More: Wednesday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 24, 2021

Tairawhiti Museum, Google, New York Yankees, More: Wednesday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 24, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Gisborne Herald: Opening up the collection. “Only about 1 percent of Tairawhiti Museum’s collection can be exhibited in the museum at any one time but digital technology means the entire collection can be curated online….Due to be launched tomorrow, the museum’s collection website is a work in progress. The museum has more than 40,000 items catalogued in its internal collection database and these will gradually be added to the online database.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Yahoo Finance: Google CEO warns of ‘unintended consequences’ if Congress kills Section 230. “Google CEO Sundar Pichai will join other Big Tech chiefs on Thursday at a Congressional hearing on social media’s role in promoting extremism and misinformation. And in his written testimony ahead of the hearing, Pichai, whose company also owns YouTube, lays out exactly what Google (GOOG, GOOGL) has done to stanch the flow of such content.”

CNET: Amazon to stream 21 regular-season Yankees games on Prime Video. “New York Yankees baseball is coming to Amazon Prime, at least for those in the New York area. The e-commerce giant announced on Wednesday that it will be offering 21 regular-season broadcasts of Yankees games to Prime members in New York state, Connecticut, northeast Pennsylvania, and north and central New Jersey.”

Creative Commons: Our 2020 State of the Commons Report Is Here!. “In our 2020 State of the Commons report, we take you through what we accomplished last year, from effectively unlocking hundreds of thousands of patents to the public through the Open COVID Pledge to hosting over 1300 people in our first virtual CC Global Summit.”

USEFUL STUFF

Hongkiat: 5 Best Web Scraping Tools to Extract Online Data. “These software look for new data manually or automatically, fetching the new or updated data and storing them for your easy access. For example, one may collect info about products and their prices from Amazon using a scraping tool. In this post, we’re listing the use cases of web scraping tools and the top 10 web scraping tools to collect information, with zero codings.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Times of Israel: Archives uncover forgotten names of Auschwitz inmates. “Ewa Bazan, an archivist at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, compares her work on newly accessible records to piecing together a ‘puzzle’ that is revealing new names and stories of the Nazi death camp’s inmates. Ninety percent of the notorious camp’s files were destroyed by its guards before they fled but a recently completed two-year collaboration with the Arolsen Archives in Germany is bringing new information to light.”

Lovin’ Malta: Got Photos From Malta’s 2019 Protests? This Project Needs Your Help To Preserve History. “A publication and online archive aimed at preserving iconic moments that capture protestors’ fury during the 2019 political reckoning in Malta is being curated – and the organisers need your help to make it come to life. ‘Our Island III’ is an incredible art project organised by aditus with the support and sponsorship of the Malta Arts Council Creative Communities, the Embassy of France in Malta and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Malta.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Krebs on Security: Fintech Giant Fiserv Used Unclaimed Domain. “If you sell Web-based software for a living and ship code that references an unregistered domain name, you are asking for trouble. But when the same mistake is made by a Fortune 500 company, the results can range from costly to disastrous. Here’s the story of one such goof committed by Fiserv [NASDAQ:FISV], a $15 billion firm that provides online banking software and other technology solutions to thousands of financial institutions.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Department of Energy: DOE Announces $34.5 Million for Data Science and Computation Tools to Advance Climate Solutions . “The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [March 19] announced up to $34.5 million to harness cutting-edge research tools for new scientific discoveries, including clean energy and climate solutions. Two new funding opportunities will support researchers using data science and computation-based methods—including artificial intelligence and machine learning—to tackle basic science challenges, advance clean energy technologies, improve energy efficiency, and predict extreme weather and climate patterns.”

PubMed: Negative Attitudes and Beliefs Toward the #MeToo Movement on Twitter. “Given recent and growing societal movements focusing on sexual assault, such as the #MeToo Movement, it is imperative to understand current attitudes about sexual assault and these movements. The aim of this study was to examine negative attitudes and beliefs about sexual assault in the context of the #MeToo Movement by qualitatively analyzing social media posts (i.e., tweets) containing the hashtag “metoo” on Twitter, a popular social media platform.” Good evening, Internet…

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March 25, 2021 at 05:29AM
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Historical Wildlife Illustrations, British Intelligence, Slack, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 24, 2021

Historical Wildlife Illustrations, British Intelligence, Slack, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 24, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Wildlife Conservation Society: WCS Releases Archive of Stunning, Forgotten Historical Wildlife Illustrations. “The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released to the public a digital collection of some 2,200 forgotten, historical scientific wildlife illustrations from its Department of Tropical Research (DTR), which it ran from 1916 to 1965. The stunning illustrations include montages of otherworldly deepwater fish, stately portraits of sloths, strange insects, brightly colored birds, snakes, frogs, and other wildlife. Many of the illustrations seem almost whimsical, yet are scientifically accurate.”

PR Newswire: Gale Debuts New Digital Archive Series on British Intelligence (PRESS RELEASE). “Twentieth-Century British Intelligence, An Intelligence Empire brings together previously classified documents from The U.K. National Archives that offer new viewpoints on the machinery of British intelligence, decolonization and global policy and strategy, including important insight into international politics and diplomacy in the 20th century. Available on the Gale Primary Sources platform, this never-before-digitized collection gives scholars and researchers access to thousands of top secret files that provide historical context on the history of British intelligence.” Gale, so not free, obviously…

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Protocol: WhatsApp for Work: Slack is turning into a full-on messaging app. “Starting on Wednesday, any Slack user will be able to direct message any other Slack user. The new system is called Connect DMs, and works a bit like the messaging apps and buddy lists of old: Users send an invite to anyone via their work email address, and once the recipient accepts their new contact is added to their Slack sidebar. The conversations are tied to the users’ organizations, but exist in a separate section of the Slack app itself.”

Google Workspace Updates: Find files shared with you using updated search operators in Google Drive. “We’re updating how some search operators work in Google Drive to make finding shared files easier. This includes adding new search operators and changing the behavior of some existing search operators. You’ll still be able to perform all the same searches, just the operators you’ll use for them may change.”

USEFUL STUFF

Bustle: How To Add Closed Captions To TikTok Videos. “Because TikTok does not yet have an automated closed captioning function, creators have to input the text themselves. While it might sound grueling, there are a few easy ways to add closed captioning to your videos and help make them accessible.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Boing Boing: Take a strange trip through r/QuarterLand, if you dare. “Exploring r/QuarterLand feels like drifting off into a fever dream, one that veers into a full-on nightmare at times. The subreddit’s demented community of 4,000 people (which I admit, I am a part of) seems to have an unspoken understanding of the specific flavor of the content’s strangeness. Beware: the further one ventures through the QuarterLand page, the more they will stray from their sense of reality.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

InfoSecurity Magazine: Forex Broker Leaks Billions of Customer Records Online. “Over 20TB of sensitive customer data has been accidentally leaked online by a popular online trading broker, after it misconfigured a cloud database. Researchers at reviews site WizCase spotted the Elasticsearch server left wide open without any encryption or password protection.”

Vice: Hobby Lobby Exposed 138GB of Data. “Hobby Lobby, the American arts and crafts giant that also happened to purchase thousands of ancient artifacts looted from modern-day Iraq, exposed a large amount of data online, including customer names, phone numbers, physical and email addresses, and the last four digits of their payment card, as well as source code for the company’s app, according to a security researcher.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Register: Vietnam pursues ten-year AI plan, aspires to crack world’s top 50 for R&D by 2030. “Vietnam has set off in pursuit of a ten-year plan to become a middle power in the field of artificial intelligence. The plan is extensive, but modest. By 2025 the nation hopes AI is ‘an important technology of Viet Nam’ and ‘among the top four countries in the ASEAN and in the group of 60 world’s leading countries in research, development and application of AI’.”

ABA Journal: High tech can heighten discrimination; here are some policy recommendations for its ethical use. “From federal surveillance of social justice protests to facial recognition technology that results in inordinately high false positives for certain demographic groups, recent surveillance trends have deep historical roots and troubling future implications for traditionally marginalized groups. These trends threaten our core constitutional values, democratic principles and the rule of law.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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March 25, 2021 at 12:14AM
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World Climate Policy, American Sign Language, Android, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, March 24, 2021

World Climate Policy, American Sign Language, Android, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, March 24, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Cornell Daily Sun: Global Student Policy Alliance Creates Climate Policy Database. “Students from four universities — including Cornell — and two countries have worked to compile a comprehensive database of climate policy initiatives from the 193 member states of the United Nations. These students comprise the Global Student Policy Alliance, a transatlantic association of think tanks based at Cornell, the University of Chicago, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Cambridge. The group of about 30 students met over a planning period this summer to divide up the research as they explored different countries’ policies.”

Boston University: World’s Largest American Sign Language Database Makes ASL Even More Accessible. “The words ‘joke’ and ‘ruin’ might not rhyme in English. But, thanks to a new, interactive database of American Sign Language (ASL), called ASL-LEX 2.0, we can now see that these two words do in fact rhyme in ASL….Since launching in February 2021, in conjunction with a published paper highlighting the ways the database has expanded, ASL-LEX 2.0—now the largest interactive ASL database in the world—makes learning about the fundamentals of ASL easier and more accessible.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CTV News: Google fixes issue causing Android apps to crash. “After hundreds of Android users reported sudden app crashes on Monday, Google has released an update to the operating system.”

Reuters: Google signs deals with Italian publishers for content on News Showcase. “Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Wednesday it had sealed agreements with various Italian publishers to offer access to some of their content on the U.S. tech giant’s Showcase news platform. Google News Showcase is a global vehicle to pay news publishers for their content online and a new service that would allow partnering publishers to curate content and provide limited access to paywalled stories for users.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: How to Maximize Your Instagram Exposure in 2021. “Over the past few years, Instagram has introduced various exciting new features. In the process, the platform has expanded beyond a place to solely share quick snaps taken on your phone. Thanks to these new features, users now have more options for increasing their exposure. Are you looking to grow your profile and connect with more like-minded people? Here are some tips for maximizing your Instagram visibility in 2021…”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

ZDNet: Is ad-free Gravvity a ‘healthier’ social media app?. “Toronto-based social media company Gravvity is about to release an app that aims to address the flaws in the current social media platforms to give them a healthier and happier news feed. The app has moved away from ego-stroking likes and follower counts and is focusing instead on its users’ privacy and wellness to create, as it says, a ‘healthier alternative to the current platforms.'”

Christian Science Monitor: Machines that learn: The origin story of artificial intelligence. “Lee Sedol, a world champion in the Chinese strategy board game Go, faced a new kind of adversary at a 2016 match in Seoul. Developers at DeepMind, an artificial intelligence startup acquired by Google, had fed 30 million Go moves into a deep neural network. Their creation, dubbed AlphaGo, then figured out which moves worked by playing millions of games against itself, learning at a faster rate than any human ever could. The match, which AlphaGo won 4 to 1, ‘was the moment when the new movement in artificial intelligence exploded into the public consciousness,’ technology journalist Cade Metz writes in his engaging new book, ‘Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox vetoes controversial social media legislation. “[Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork]’s bill was rather milquetoast in comparison to other measures under consideration around the country. His proposal required social media companies to define how they moderate content and inform Utah users when their posts ran afoul of those policies. The proposal also mandated that those companies must provide an appeals process for users, and imposed a $1,000 fine per instance if the Utah attorney general decided to take action against those companies.”

Ars Technica: “Expert” hackers used 11 0-days to infect Windows, iOS, and Android users. “A team of advanced hackers exploited no fewer than 11 zero-day vulnerabilities in a nine-month campaign that used compromised websites to infect fully patched devices running Windows, iOS, and Android, a Google researcher said.”

New York Times: What a Gambling App Knows About You. “When Gregg finally stopped gambling in late 2018, he was in a dire financial position. He had lost nearly $15,000 during a nine-month betting binge, on top of two outstanding loans totaling more than $70,000 and a mortgage of more than $150,000 on his small home in Britain. Now he is on a hunt to know whether his favorite gambling app, Sky Bet, knew about his problems and still tried to hook him.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: Too much social media can be harmful, but it’s not addictive like drugs. “As researchers in social media and addiction, we have spent the last 25 years understanding different kinds of addiction. Our research tells us that social media addiction is not the same as an addiction to substances, like alcohol and other drugs.”

Cal Poly Pomona: Signs of Habitability in Venus’ Clouds Found Using 1978 Probe Data. “Signs of biologically relevant chemicals, including phosphine, have been found in the clouds of Venus by a team led by Rakesh Mogul, professor of biological chemistry at Cal Poly Pomona. The data was discovered in archived data from NASA’s Pioneer Venus Multiprobe, which arrived at Venus and collected data almost 42 years ago.” We stan archived data. Good morning, Internet…

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March 24, 2021 at 05:26PM
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