Saturday, March 27, 2021

Saturday CoronaBuzz, March 27, 2021: 32 pointers to updates, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Saturday CoronaBuzz, March 27, 2021: 32 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

CBS Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Launches New Tool To Track COVID Pandemic’s Impact On Education. “The Global Education Recovery Tracker — which was a collaborative effort between the Baltimore-based university, The World Banka and UNICEF — will help assist countries’ decisions on their reopening and recovery efforts. The tool captures information on the status of schooling, modalities of learning, availability of remedial education support and status of vaccines for teachers.”

NEW RESOURCES – LEGAL / SECURITY / PRIVACY / FINANCIAL

UNESCO: UNESCO & Columbia University collaborate on case law on freedom of expression in the context of COVID-19. “In partnership with UNESCO, Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression initiative published an online collection of case law related to COVID-19 from across the world, in English, French and Spanish. These decisions highlight the essential role of judicial actors in upholding the rule of law and human rights, especially in exceptional states of emergency.”

NEW RESOURCES – STATE-SPECIFIC

Columbus Dispatch: Columbus group creates website to help Ohioans find COVID vaccine appointment. “Users can find places offering the shots by entering their ZIP codes, which brings up a map with providers nearby. The website then provides an address, phone number and link to a scheduling website for each vaccine provider.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: How to Recognize Scam Sites That ‘Help’ You Schedule Your Vaccine. “As vaccine supply struggles to meet demand, grassroots social media groups known as ‘vaccine hunters’ have sprung up all over the country, helping people find and book appointments. As helpful as these groups can be, they’ve also become the new favorite target for scammers. Here’s how you can protect yourself.”

UPDATES

AP: Michigan sees virus surge, but tighter restrictions unlikely. “Michigan, which not long ago had one of the country’s lowest COVID-19 infection rates, is confronting an alarming spike that some experts worry could be a harbinger nationally. In what public health authorities across the U.S. have been warning for months might happen around the country, the resurgence is being fueled by loosened restrictions, a more infectious variant and pandemic fatigue.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

The Guardian: ‘A new obsession’: the people who learned to play instruments during lockdown. “Many people dream of playing the piano or learning the guitar, but what about the Celtic harp? Or the dulcimer? Perhaps the kalimba is more your style. The Guardian has spoken to dozens of people who have used their time in lockdown to fulfil an ambition to make music, with a diverse array of musical instruments being reported.”

Route Fifty: COVID-21: A Primer. “The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic may drag on for years, but the nightmare of last year—of an entirely new viral illness, emerging in a specific sociopolitical context—is behind us. Instead we’re facing a new set of challenges, and they are not easily comparable to what has come before. It’s worth considering a new way of thinking about the period of the pandemic now ahead of us—one that leads us neither to complacency nor to paralyzing despair. In many ways COVID-19 is already over. What lies ahead is COVID-21.”

Stateline: In Some States, Unemployment Stays Stubbornly High. “At the height of the jobless crisis in April, 78% of the then 23 million unemployed Americans were temporarily laid off and only 9% were in the permanent loss category. As of last month, more than a third of the remaining 10 million unemployed were in the permanent loss category.”

Reuters: France’s lockdown vice? Cheese. “The amount of cheese purchased by French shoppers for at-home consumption increased by more than 8% in 2020, compared with just 2% the previous year, according to figures from farming agency FranceAgriMer and market data firm Kantar. That was part of a shift in food consumption in many countries last year as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, with households initially bulk buying staples like pasta and flour, and later settling into home-eating habits with extra purchases of products like butter.”

MISINFORMATION / DISINFORMATION

BBC: The vaccine misinformation battle raging in France. “France is one of the most vaccine-sceptical countries in the world – fertile ground for hard-line anti-vaccine activists spreading online misinformation, writes the BBC’s specialist disinformation reporter Marianna Spring.”

BBC: Facebook freezes Maduro’s page over Covid claim. “Facebook has frozen Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s page after he claimed without evidence that a herbal remedy could cure Covid-19. He claimed in January that a thyme herb solution could cure the disease. He will be unable to post for 30 days. The company said the leader had repeatedly violated its policies on coronavirus disinformation.”

HEALTH CARE / HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS

BBC: Ivermectin: South African medics using unproven worm drug to treat Covid-19. “The drug Ivermectin, which has been touted by some as an effective coronavirus treatment even though it is clinically unproven, is at the centre of a legal battle in South Africa as some medics want it licensed for human use, as Pumza Fihlani reports.”

INSTITUTIONS

Evening Standard: Crufts cancelled for first time in more than 60 years amid coronavirus pandemic. “The Crufts 2021 dog show has been cancelled for the first time in more than 60 years due to ‘ongoing uncertainty’ from the coronavirus pandemic. The Kennel Club said that the global event due to take place from July 18 to 15 this year, has been postponed until 2022.”

BBC: Lockdown hair given to South Shields Covid-19 archive. “Two men and two women have donated the hair they grew during the roughly 21 weeks of the first lockdown. Adam Bell, assistant keeper of history at South Shields Museum and Art Gallery, said it was ‘unusual, quirky and dare I say a little bit weird’ to collect hair, but the stories behind them should resonate with a lot of people.” You’d need a wheelbarrow for mine.

BUSINESS / CORPORATIONS

CNBC: Free Krispy Kreme doughnuts, popcorn and even marijuana — businesses pile on more perks for getting vaccinated. “Getting America vaccinated will go a long way toward helping the country return to some sort of normal. Now some businesses are doing their part to sweeten the pot.”

NBC News: Johnson & Johnson to deliver 11 million vaccine doses next week, Biden administration says. “Johnson & Johnson is set to deliver 11 million doses of its single-shot Covid-19 vaccine to the U.S. next week, the White House announced, after concerns the company could fall short of its production goal of 20 million doses by the end of the month. The U.S. received 4 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine shortly after it was cleared for use at the end of February. But since then there has been a lag in production as the manufacturer scaled up operations.”

CNET: Facebook plans to start reopening offices on May 10. “Facebook on Friday confirmed plans to open its Menlo Park, California, headquarters at 10% capacity on May 10 if coronavirus case numbers continue to fall, as previously reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. The social network’s Fremont, California, offices will follow on May 17, its Sunnyvale, California, location on May 24 and its downtown San Francisco towers on June 7.”

WORLD / FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

CNBC: Covid masks and hand sanitizer can get you a tax break, IRS says. “Americans can get a tax break this filing season for masks, hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes and other personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the IRS announced Friday. The tax code lets taxpayers deduct medical costs that exceed 7.5% of their adjusted gross income each year. The IRS is counting costs incurred for PPE as a medical expense that qualifies for the tax break.”

Voice of America: European Medicines Agency Reviewing Russian Vaccine Sputnik. “The executive director of Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, (EMA) said Tuesday it is evaluating Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine for possible authorization of use in the European Union. In comments to European Parliament lawmakers, EMA Executive Director Emer Cooke said the agency is also planning inspections of the manufacturing and clinical sites in Russia to make sure production for the vaccine is adequate.”

STATE / LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Mississippi Today: Gov. Tate Reeves disputes state’s COVID-19 vaccine data. “Gov. Tate Reeves, on national television on Friday, was confronted with two troubling statistics: Mississippi has fully vaccinated just 14% of the state’s residents and ranks 47th in the nation in administering the COVID-19 vaccines that the state has received. That data — widely reported by Mississippi Today and other state and national outlets — comes from the Mississippi State Department of Health, which Reeves has heavily relied on the past year, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”

NPR: New York Launches First COVID-19 Vaccination, Test Result App For Event Attendance. “New Yorkers will become the first Americans to try out a new digital pass that shows their vaccination status and COVID-19 test results. It’s an effort to help venues open up to larger groups, says New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.”

NBC News: Covid-19 cases are rising. States are opening up anyway.. “After several weeks at a plateau, Covid-19 cases in the United States are rising again, the clearest warning sign yet that the country could face another “avoidable” surge, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The uptick comes at a critical time, when Americans are exhausted and desperate for a return to normalcy, but also perhaps better equipped than at any other point in the pandemic to turn the tide, thanks to increased vaccine supply.”

HEALTH

Harvard Gazette: The main public health tool during 1918 pandemic? Social distancing. “Analyses of 1918 public health responses found that interventions in U.S. cities helped reduce influenza transmission and lower mortality rates when they were implemented early in the pandemic. In a 2007 article, researchers examined data from 17 U.S. cities and included a graph that compared the mortality rates of Philadelphia and St. Louis, based on the timing of social-distancing measures. Philadelphia, which waited more than two weeks after the first cases were reported — even allowing a city-wide parade — reported 748 deaths per 100,000. St. Louis, which rushed to ban public gatherings two days after the first cases were detected, ended up with 358 deaths per 100,000.”

Voice of America: Global TB Fight Set Back 12 Years by COVID Pandemic, Doctors Warn. “In nine countries with a high prevalence of TB — including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Tajikistan and Ukraine — diagnosis and treatment fell by an average of 23%, according to analysis by the Stop TB Partnership, a non-profit hosted by the United Nations in Geneva.”

TECHNOLOGY

Israel 21c: 30-second baggage disinfection coming to airports. “It takes less than 30 seconds for AirFort’s proprietary 3D array of ultraviolet lights to disinfect surface contamination from carry-on and checked bags, personal items and oversized bags and parcels before they enter an airport concourse or the plane’s cargo hold.”

Search Engine Journal: 4 COVID-19 Search Trends & How They Impact SEO. “One unexpected offshoot of COVID-19 has been that more businesses have realized the benefits SEO can provide. Google Search interest in SEO spiked at the onset of the pandemic to its highest level ever and has remained strong as companies try to stay relevant, visible, and viable. Here’s a look at 4 other ways SEO has been impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic.”

RESEARCH

Israel 21c: SonoMask for Covid also kills acne-causing bacteria. “Clearer skin may be an unexpected bonus of wearing a Sonovia facemask to protect against Covid-19. It turns out that in addition to actively eliminating 99.9% of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles that encounter the Israeli-made zinc oxide-embedded fabric SonoMasks, over 99% of acne-causing bacteria also is eliminated.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

USA Today: Exclusive: 43% of Americans say a specific organization or people to blame for COVID-19. “One in 4 Americans, including nearly half of Asian Americans, in recent weeks have seen someone blame Asian people for the coronavirus epidemic, a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds. The nationwide survey was taken Thursday and Friday in the wake of last week’s mass shooting in Georgia that killed eight people, six of them women of Asian descent. Reports across the country of physical assaults and verbal abuse against Asian Americans have jumped during the yearlong pandemic.”

ABC News: Indiana nurse allegedly removed COVID-19 patient’s oxygen. “A southern Indiana nurse has been charged with practicing medicine without a license for allegedly removing a nursing home resident’s oxygen mask hours before he died from COVID-19 last year. Connie Sneed, 52, was charged Thursday with the felony, which in Indiana carries a potential penalty of one to six years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.”

NPR: DOJ Has Charged Nearly 500 With COVID-Related Fraud In The Past Year. “Early on in the pandemic, the Justice Department made fighting such crimes a priority. There was added urgency after Congress passed the massive CARES Act a year ago Friday, which provided a lifeline of cash to help support the country’s economy. Now, on the anniversary of the CARES Act, the Justice Department says that over the past year it has charged 474 defendants with fraud or other criminal schemes tied to the pandemic. The grand total that fraudsters tried to scam from the government and the public in those cases is more than $569 million.”

POLITICS

Washington Post: In show of bipartisan solidarity, 26 governors and more than 60 former officials condemn anti-Asian attacks. “In a show of bipartisan solidarity, 26 governors and dozens of Asian Americans who have served in top roles across six presidential administrations on Friday issued a pair of statements forcefully condemned the spike in anti-Asian harassment over the past year. Among the governors to speak out were two Republicans, Larry Hogan (Md.) and Charlie Baker (Mass.), who signed on with all 23 of their Democratic counterparts, as well as the governor of Guam, to a letter that cited a recent university study that found an increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans in 2020, despite such crimes dropping overall.”

Washington Post: Not a single reporter at Biden’s first presidential news conference asked about the pandemic. “President Biden began his first White House news conference by practically inviting reporters to ask him about the major story of the past year. He talked about his administration’s efforts to reopen schools closed during the pandemic, celebrated a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package and announced a new goal to administer 200 million doses of coronavirus vaccines by his 100th day in office. But the president’s introductory remarks were the last time the pandemic was mentioned during Thursday’s Q&A. Over the next hour, not a single one of the masked and socially distanced journalists assembled in the East Room asked about it.”

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 28, 2021 at 02:00AM
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Queer Heritage South, Spotify, Cloud Storage, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 27, 2021

Queer Heritage South, Spotify, Cloud Storage, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 27, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Fyne Times: Queer Heritage South Launches Digital Museum. “As museums across the country await reopening, Queer Heritage South are thrilled to launch an extensive new Queer Heritage South Digital Museum this month. Queer Heritage South is where LGBTQ+ heritage can be preserved, sourced and celebrated. This is not just a collection of exhibits but a comprehensive LGBTQ+ archive that the community of Brighton and beyond are invited to contribute to, enjoy and share.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Spotify rolls out redesigned desktop and web apps. “The changes, which will be made available to all global users, focus on improving the navigation and providing users with access to new controls and features across playlists, search, radio, their queue, library and more.” Spotify should let you block songs from your recommendation lists, banishing the songs with bad memories attached.

USEFUL STUFF

Tom’s Guide: Google Drive vs Microsoft OneDrive: Which is best?. “In this article, we pit Google Drive against Microsoft OneDrive in a one-on-one showdown to find out which can be considered among the best cloud storage software providers. We’ll examine their features, performance, support, and pricing in order to come to our decision.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

If I wanted to I could make ResearchBuzz 100% NFT stories right now. I don’t want to. But I do want to pick out a few here and there. New York Times: Why Did Someone Pay $560,000 for a Picture of My Column?. “When I pitched the idea to my bosses, I thought the stunt might attract a handful of bids from curious Times readers who had spare Ethereum, the cryptocurrency being used for the auction, burning a hole in their digital wallets. Maybe we’d raise a few hundred dollars for charity and explain the complicated process of creating and selling NFTs along the way. I set the auction’s minimum price low — 0.5 Ether, or about $800 — and was nervous I might not get even that much.”

BBC: China: 3,000-year-old gold mask sparks online memes. “The artefact was one of 500 Bronze-Age relics found at the Sanxingdui archaeological site. Experts say the discovery could provide new insights on the ancient Shu state, which ruled the area before 316 BC. But the mysterious half-faced mask has also spawned a popular meme and tribute videos on social media.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Search Engine Journal: Facebook for WordPress Plugin Vulnerability Targets +500,000 Sites. “Two vulnerabilities were patched in the Facebook for WordPress Plugin. The exploits could allow a malicious attacker to install backdoors, create administrator level accounts and stage a complete site takeover.”

Independent: Facebook apps used in over half of online child sex crimes, says NSPCC. “More than half of online child sex crimes are committted over Facebook-owned apps, data from the [National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children] suggests, as the charity called for more to be done to tackle abuse in private messaging.”

StateTech Magazine: How 4 Cities Are Trying to Close the Digital Divide. “The coronavirus pandemic has exposed many fault lines in American society, but one that quickly became remarkably visible is the digital divide, a term used for decades that has lately described those who have access to broadband internet and those who do not.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Coast Reporter: Mapping project illuminates links between poor environment, historical racism. “A new tool that measures the environmental quality of any urban street in Canada — and maps it out in colour — illustrates vividly the many neighbourhoods in the country that have poor environment scores, neighbourhoods that are often home to racialized communities.”

Medium: Building a Better Search Engine. “To take it back a step, when was the last time you ever looked past the first page of Google? If I’m doing that, I almost instantly know I’ve used the wrong search terms…. In the end, we decided that the most interesting search engine is one that gives you more control, not less. One that lets you decide if you want to see ads, if you want to see 1.6 billion results or 5.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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March 28, 2021 at 12:03AM
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Louvre Museum Collection, The Pinnacle Club, Browser Compatibility, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, March 27, 2021

Louvre Museum Collection, The Pinnacle Club, Browser Compatibility, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, March 27, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

France24: Louvre museum makes its entire collection available online. “The Louvre museum in Paris said Friday it has put nearly half a million items from its collection online for the public to visit free of charge. As part of a major revamp of its online presence, the world’s most-visited museum has created a new database of 482,000 items… with more than three-quarters already labelled with information and pictures.”

British Mountaineering Council: The Pinnacle Club marks centenary by launching website with fascinating digital history. “Today marks one hundred years since the founding of the Pinnacle Club – the UK’s national women’s rock-climbing club. Centenary celebrations include the launch of a new website bringing the Club’s fascinating history to life.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Register: Microsoft and Google, sitting in a tree, working on browser compatibility . “While its managers squabble, engineers at Microsoft and Google have put their heads together to ease some of the more severe developer pain points in browsers. Spoiler: it involves CSS. Those who remember Microsoft’s shenanigans during the heyday of Internet Explorer will doubtless be feeling a twinge of irony at the thought of the Windows giant signing up to a browser compatibility initiative, but here we are.”

Neowin: Facebook completes first phase of its Indiana fiber network. “Facebook has announced the successful completion of the first phase of its latest fiber network in Indiana. The firm said that new fiber routes will help it support its 3 billion users around the world as the connections between its data centers become faster. The network route, which spans 80 miles, runs along Interstate 70 between Indiana and Ohio.”

Search Engine Land: YouTube experiments with automated lists of products detected in videos. “Google is testing a new feature that automatically detects products in videos and displays them, and related products, to viewers as a list, the company posted on its YouTube tests and experiments page yesterday. On Thursday, it also announced a new way to watch YouTube videos directly within Twitter on iOS.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Protocol: How a social app you’ve never heard of became a haven for Gen Z. “At its core, Yubo turns the idea of ‘stranger-danger’ on its head. The app very openly wants young people to make new friends with strangers on the internet. If that makes you afraid for your own children, or for the future as a whole, you’re not alone. And, in the eyes of Yubo CEO and co-founder Sacha Lazimi, you’re also very wrong.”

BBC: Body-editing apps on TikTok ‘trigger eating disorders’. “Body-editing apps advertised on social media platforms TikTok and Instagram are ‘triggering’ young people with eating disorders, campaigners fear. Adverts show how the apps can be used to alter body parts, including making waists slimmer and adding muscles.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Huffington Post: The Hidden Hand Of Facial Recognition In The Capitol Insurrection Manhunt. “Facial recognition tools use one or more pictures of an individual to pull their biometric facial characteristics, and run them against an often gargantuan database of photos to find possible matches. In criminal justice matters, this can help create a narrowed pool of suspects. This software is not always accurate, though ― and its use bears serious implications for privacy, freedom of expression and other civil liberties.”

Thompson Reuters Foundation News: Russian social network users should divulge personal, passport data – proposal. “Russia’s communications regulator wants to ask social media and online messenger users to hand over their passport data, addresses and other information, a draft law published on a government website showed.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Guardian: Climate fight ‘is undermined by social media’s toxic reports’. “Fake news on social media about climate change and biodiversity loss is having a worrying impact in the battle to halt the growing environmental threats to the planet, a group of scientists and analysts have warned.”

Times Colonist: Game changer: Video game could help improve brain function for children with disabilities. “Researchers at the University of Victoria have tapped into a booming gaming industry to help improve brain function and cognitive abilities in children with disabilities. A team at UVic, building on years of study, have partnered with the private sector to create Dino Island, a video game that takes children with neurodevelopment disabilities on a tour of a fictitious, digitized island where they face a progressive series of challenges in the hopes of improving their brain function.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

Mashable: See the growing Suez Canal traffic jam from space. “One of the largest ships in the world, Ever Given, is lodged in the relatively narrow canal, a major artificial waterway where some $9 billion in merchandise passes daily. Around 12 percent of global trade carefully navigates via the historic canal, which opened more than 150 years ago. Satellite images captured by the European Space Agency show the backlog of ships created by the accidentally stuck Ever Given, which is deeply lodged in the canal’s sandy floor.” 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 27, 2021 at 05:44PM
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Friday, March 26, 2021

Hymnology, Unemployment Fraud, Firefox, More: Friday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2021

Hymnology, Unemployment Fraud, Firefox, More: Friday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Park Bugle: People in Your Neighborhood: Peter Mercer-Taylor. “In October, 2020, Mercer-­Taylor celebrated the publication of his second and most recent book, ‘Gems of Exquisite Beauty: How Hymnody Carried Classical Music to America.’ Equally significant is his project’s digital archive… that includes 278 hymn tunes’ scores with piano recordings.”

Department of Labor: US Department Of Labor Launches Website For Victims Of Unemployment Fraud . “The new website at http://www.dol.gov/fraud provides key steps to help victims address issues that might arise because of previous identity theft and outlines steps to report the theft of unemployment benefits. To assist victims, the department worked closely with other federal agencies and state workforce agencies to consolidate necessary steps and resources. Site developers recruited actual victims of unemployment benefit theft to test the site and confirm its instructions were clear and easy-to-understand.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Neowin: Firefox 87 reduces ETP site breakage with SmartBlock. “Mozilla has announced the release of Firefox 87 which introduces several features including SmartBlock which aims to reduce website breakage while using private browsing mode with Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP). SmartBlock provides local scripts to fill the place of those blocked by third-parties, helping websites to function properly.”

ZDNet: The good and the bad with Chrome web browser’s new security defaults. “First, the good news. Starting with the mid-April release of Google’s Chrome 90 web browser, Chrome will default to trying to load the version of a website that’s been secured with a Transport Layer Security (TLS). These are the sites that show a closed lock in the Chrome Omnibox, what most of us know as the Chrome address (URL) bar. The bad news is that just because a site is secured by HTTPS doesn’t mean it’s trustworthy.”

USEFUL STUFF

Mashable: Free recipe apps for whatever (and however) you want to cook. “With a decent recipe app, you can instantly convert your smartphone or tablet into a veritable library of cookbooks. We’ve tried and tested five fabulous free recipe apps that together offer you well over 100,000 recipes from all around the world. Many of these also give you the ability to save recipes you want to make, allow you to easily create shopping lists of the exact ingredients you need, and even let you shop for the ingredients with integrated purchasing abilities.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Guardian: Berlin’s plan to return Benin bronzes piles pressure on UK museums. “Berlin is negotiating to fully restitute hundreds of the Benin bronzes in a shift of policy that has been welcomed in Nigeria but will put pressure on museums in London and Oxford to also return artefacts looted from Britain’s former west African empire in 1897.”

Online Journalism Blog: “Don’t give me more data — give me a story.” AJ Labs’ Mohammed Haddad on spotlighting human driven data journalism. “Mohammed Haddad joined Al Jazeera just as the Egyptian revolution began to unfold in 2011. Since then he has been behind some of Al Jazeera’s most prolific data stories, covering everything from UN General Assembly voting to mapping India and China’s disputed borders. And, while many of the issues Al Jazeera covers are deeply complex, AJ Labs often help to explain such narratives using data journalism. The key is to avoid overcomplicating the charts, says Mohammed.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

South China Morning Post: Singapore opposition politician ordered to pay PM Lee Hsien Loong US$99,000 in defamation case. “A Singapore court has ordered an opposition politician to pay Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong S$133,000 (US$99,000) in damages for defamation in one of two recent libel suits launched by the island nation’s premier over online comments about him.”

Governing: Judges Are Banning Capitol Rioters from the Internet. “Judges have long been reluctant to ban anyone from the internet, a restriction that essentially cuts a person off from much of modern society and has been reserved mostly for accused and convicted pedophiles. But as toxic disinformation becomes an increasingly dangerous threat, driving domestic terrorism and violence, the courts are facing vexing new questions around how often and under what circumstances those accused of taking part should be taken offline altogether.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Hyperallergic: Listen to the Sounds of an 18,000-year-old Conch. “Music elites better table your ukuleles and unplug your theremins; science is bringing the noise with the newest in niche musical instruments. Or, more accurately, one of the oldest. A massive conch shell, unearthed by archaeologists in 1931 amid the remains of the Upper Paleolithic Marsoulas cave society, has been recently determined to be a musical instrument.” 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 27, 2021 at 06:36AM
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AgLab, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Windows Screen Recorders, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2021

AgLab, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Windows Screen Recorders, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

AGDAILY: USDA launches new website for science-minded students. “Geared toward K-12 students with an interest in food and science, AgLab offers a variety of content to promote a greater understanding of how agricultural research is helping meet the food, fiber, feed and fuel needs of a growing world population while also safeguarding our environment and natural resources.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Sydney Morning Herald: ABC terminates New Daily contract, focuses on Google and Facebook. “The [Australian Broadcasting Corporation] will terminate its commercial agreements with several news websites, including industry superannuation fund-backed website, The New Daily, in a strategic shift that will focus on agreements with aggregation platforms like Facebook and Google.”

USEFUL STUFF

BetaNews: iFun Screen Recorder 1.0 gives Windows users a fully-featured screencast tool with no strings attached. “There are plenty of screencast tools out there, but while many offer cut-down free versions, they’re often more crippleware than freeware. Eyeing a spot in this market is IObit, which claims — with some justification — to provide a genuinely usable free screen-recording tool with its latest new release: iFun Screen Recorder 1.0.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Yale University Library: First endowment for digital preservation spotlights a rising need—and Yale Library expertise. “Library leaders hope the new fund will also draw attention to digital preservation as an area of ongoing need and rising importance. Increasingly, Yale Library collections extend far beyond print books, physical manuscripts and other tangible objects to ‘born-digital’ content created and existing only in digital form. Yet, even as digital content proliferates, its existence is threatened by obsolescent technologies, expensive data storage, and degradation of hardware and software.”

Mashable: Parler is trying to throw Facebook under the bus for the U.S. Capitol riots. “In early February, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform asked social media platform Parler to produce information regarding its finances and potential ties to foreign entities. The request came in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, which allegedly involved numerous Parler users. Now Parler has responded, mounting a defense that essentially boils down to: ‘We aren’t bad because Facebook is worse.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Route Fifty: Lawmakers Urge Internet Companies to Join New Discount Broadband Program. “The $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, approved in December, will offer a $50-a-month discount to eligible households. The Federal Communications Commission is working to get the program up and running by the end of April, and lawmakers said providers should do their part to let consumers across the country know about it.”

University of Michigan: U-M computer chip pitted against 500+ hackers. The chip won.. “An ‘unhackable’ computer chip lived up to its name in its first bug bounty competition, foiling over 500 cybersecurity researchers who were offered tens of thousands of dollars to analyze it and three other secure processor technologies for vulnerabilities.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

TIME: Facebook Acted Too Late to Tackle Misinformation on 2020 Election, Report Finds. “The report, by the online advocacy group Avaaz, found that if Facebook had not waited until October to tweak its algorithms to stem false and toxic content amplified on the platform, the company could have prevented an estimated 10.1 billion views on the 100 most prominent pages that repeatedly shared misinformation on the platform ahead of the election.”

Arab News: A digital library offers Saudis affordable access to scholarly research. “Academic literature is usually hidden behind expensive paywalls or restricted to those who are affiliated with big organizations. Now Zendy, developed by Knowledge E, is offering users affordable access to scholarly works from around the world. In step with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 development agenda and its efforts to foster a culture of research, innovation and entrepreneurship, Zendy will give students, professionals and hobbyists access to thousands of articles, e-books and scholarly resources.”

Phys .org: New tool can help predict the next financial bubble. “An international team of interdisciplinary researchers has identified mathematical metrics to characterize the fragility of financial markets. Their paper ‘Network geometry and market instability’ sheds light on the higher-order architecture of financial systems and allows analysts to identify systemic risks like market bubbles or crashes.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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March 27, 2021 at 01:19AM
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Friday CoronaBuzz, March 26, 2021: 34 pointers to updates, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Friday CoronaBuzz, March 26, 2021: 34 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 – MEDICAL/HEALTH

Scientific Data: AI-assisted tracking of worldwide non-pharmaceutical interventions for COVID-19. “We present the Worldwide Non-pharmaceutical Interventions Tracker for COVID-19 (WNTRAC), a comprehensive dataset consisting of over 6,000 NPIs implemented worldwide since the start of the pandemic. WNTRAC covers NPIs implemented across 261 countries and territories, and classifies NPIs into a taxonomy of 16 NPI types. NPIs are automatically extracted daily from Wikipedia articles using natural language processing techniques and then manually validated to ensure accuracy and veracity.”

UPDATES

Deadline: Los Angeles Covid-19 Transmission Rate Creeping Up In Recent Weeks; Unclear If Cases, Hospitalizations, Deaths Will Jump Also. “County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer reported in a Zoom meeting with reporters that the estimated transmission number was 0.93 in early March, up from 0.87 the week before. The range of uncertainty is from .085 to 1.04. Any R number over 1 means that every person infected is passing the virus on to more than one other county resident. In a region of 10 million, infections can quickly snowball.”

Route Fifty: U.S. Unemployment Claims Fall to Under 700,000, Lowest Since Pandemic. “Claims fell to 684,000 for the week ending March 20, a drop of 97,000 from the previous week and the first time that claims have dipped below 700,000 since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. Applications had never totaled above 700,000 before then, according to federal data. The previous record was 695,000, in October 1982.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

AP: Weaned on Hollywood endings, Americans now face a messy one. “There will come a day — maybe even a day in the next few months — when Americans wake up, emerge from their homes, cast away their masks and resume their lives. On that day, the Great Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020-21 will be over. Ridiculous, right? A consummation devoutly to be wished, but highly unlikely. Here’s the problem with anticipating the end of the pandemic: No one is sure just what that ending will look like or when it will arrive — or even if we’ll know it when we see it.”

MISINFORMATION / DISINFORMATION

ABC News: From COVID-19 vaccine to Jan. 6 siege, America’s adversaries continue to stoke online misinformation: DHS. “After a year that saw foreign governments trying to interfere with U.S. elections and cause chaos amid a pandemic, America’s adversaries continue to try to weaken the nation by stoking divisions on issues ranging from the COVID-19 vaccine to the Jan. 6 siege, a new intelligence bulletin obtained by ABC News warns.”

New York Times: Far-Right Extremists Move From ‘Stop the Steal’ to Stop the Vaccine. “If the so-called Stop the Steal movement appeared to be chasing a lost cause once President Biden was inaugurated, its supporters among extremist organizations are now adopting a new agenda from the anti-vaccination campaign to try to undermine the government. Bashing of the safety and efficacy of vaccines is occurring in chat rooms frequented by all manner of right-wing groups including the Proud Boys; the Boogaloo movement, a loose affiliation known for wanting to spark a second Civil War; and various paramilitary organizations.”

HEALTH CARE / HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS

Gothamist: Why COVID-19 Is Surging In New Jersey But Flat In New York. “The difference may be due to vaccine disparities. About 14% of the state’s 8.8 million residents have been fully vaccinated in New Jersey, and more than 3.6 million doses have been administered. But Black and Latino residents in the state are getting inoculated at much lower rates—5% and 7%, respectively—compared to white residents. Latinos make up about 21% of the population and Black residents about 15%.”

BBC: Coronavirus: France accuses UK of ‘blackmail’ over vaccine exports. “Vaccine rollouts have started sluggishly across the bloc, and the EU has blamed pharmaceutical companies – primarily AstraZeneca – for not delivering its promised doses. AstraZeneca has denied that it is failing to honour its contract. The EU is expecting to receive about 30 million AstraZeneca doses by the end of March, less than a third of what it was hoping for.”

BUSINESS / CORPORATIONS

USA Today: Grape-Nuts shortage is over: Cereal brand to reimburse consumers who paid inflated prices during COVID shortage. “For those with pandemic pangs for the sweet crunch of Grape Nuts, take heart. The Great Grape-Nuts Shortage of 2021 is officially over. After months of being out of stock, the cereal is shipping at full capacity to stores nationwide, parent company Post Consumer Brands told USA TODAY exclusively. And if you paid wildly inflated prices on the black market to get your hands on a box, you may be eligible for reimbursement.”

BBC: Coronavirus: EU says AstraZeneca must ‘catch up’ on vaccine deliveries. “The vaccine producer AstraZeneca must “catch up” on its promised deliveries to the EU before exporting doses elsewhere, the bloc’s chief has said. ‘The company… has to honour the contract it has with member states,’ European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday evening. She spoke after EU leaders held a summit to discuss vaccine supplies.”

CNBC: Cruise and shipping industries could take a hit due to lack of Covid vaccines. “The lack of access to Covid-19 vaccines for maritime crews will expose the global shipping industry to a ‘legal minefield’ and leave global supply chains vulnerable, according to internal legal guidance from the International Chamber of Shipping.”

WORLD / FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Health Analytics: NIH Funds National Project to Promote COVID-19 Data Sharing. “UC hospitals have received a $500,000 grant from NIH to enable COVID-19 data sharing on a national scale, allowing collaborations among researchers, providers, and patients. Led by the University of California, Irvine (UCI), leaders will manage a transfer of UC data on COVID-19 cases into the National COVID Cohort Collaborative’s (N3C) centralized data resource at the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.”

CNN: US government stops distribution of Eli Lilly Covid-19 antibody treatment due to spread of coronavirus variants. “The US government in coordination with Eli Lilly said it will no longer distribute the Covid-19 monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab for use on its own. The halt is due to the ‘sustained increase’ in coronavirus variants in the United States.”

ProPublica: How a Federal Agency Excluded Thousands of Viable Businesses From Pandemic Relief. “Like every other storefront in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska, the Coffee House — a cavernous student hangout slinging espresso and decadent pastries since 1987 — saw its revenue dry up almost overnight last spring when the coronavirus pandemic made dining indoors a deadly risk. Unlike most, however, the business wouldn’t have access to the massive loan fund that Congress made available for small enterprises in late March.”

BBC: Covid-19: Dutch sign up for test holiday on Greek island. “A Dutch travel firm will take nearly 200 people for an eight-day holiday in Greece aimed at seeing if tourism is feasible during the Covid-19 pandemic. Those picked will have an all-inclusive getaway on the island of Rhodes at a cost of €399 (£344; $472) per person, but there are some catches.”

Reuters: U.S. COVID response could have avoided hundreds of thousands 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. That is the conclusion of a group of research papers released at a Brookings Institution conference this week, offering an early and broad start to what will likely be an intense effort in coming years to assess the response to the worst pandemic in a century.”

CNET: Biden holds first news conference, ups COVID-19 vaccine goal to 200M shots in 100 days. “US President Joe Biden has announced a new COVID-19 vaccine goal: 200 million shots during his first 100 days in office. The president announced the new target on Thursday during his first formal press conference at the White House.”

BBC: Coronavirus: Germany tightens borders amid alarm over pandemic. “Germany could see 100,000 infections a day if the third wave of coronavirus spreads unchecked, the head of the RKI public health institute has warned. Random checks and compulsory tests will be enforced on the border with France, says the French foreign minister, because ‘the pandemic in Germany is exploding faster than they thought’.”

Politico: White House nixed Deb Haaland’s Southwest-themed party over Covid concerns. “The White House recently ordered that a 50-person, Southwest-themed indoor party the Interior Department was planning to celebrate Secretary Deb Haaland’s confirmation be canceled after senior administration officials raised concerns that it could become a superspreader event.”

Washington Post: White House faces new pleas to avert ‘tidal wave’ of water shut-offs as state bans continue to lapse. “… the wave of potential water shut-offs in Michigan reflects a broader, national crisis in the making: Utility protections enacted in the early months of the pandemic are slated to expire in some states — including Hawaii, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont — over the next few weeks. The looming lapses have registered new urgent alarm among congressional lawmakers and community activists nationwide, who say the Biden administration should have acted faster, and sooner, to distribute federal aid to households at risk.”

INDIVIDUALS / BANDS / GROUPS

New York Times: What the ‘Invisible’ People Cleaning the Subway Want Riders to Know. “The thousands of workers the contractors hired — largely low-income immigrants from Latin America — were envisioned as a stopgap measure, as M.T.A. workers were falling ill and dying of the virus. At the same time, ridership and revenue had plummeted and the agency found itself in an intense budget crunch. But nearly a year later, the workers are still toiling at stations all over the city, some paid as little as half as much as the M.T.A. employees who did the same work before the pandemic began, and many without access to health insurance.”

The Root: Chicago Hospital Exec Resigns After Bragging About Vaccinating Eric Trump From Supply of COVID-19 Doses Meant for Underserved Residents. “Anosh Ahmed, the chief operating officer at Loretto Hospital on the West side of Chicago, has resigned from his post following the revelatory reports that he had sent vaccine doses meant for residents of the majority-Black, low-income neighborhood to considerably richer and whiter people in Chicago—including Eric Trump.”

CNN: Autopsy of a pandemic: 6 doctors at the center of the US Covid-19 response. “This past January, just a few days after the inauguration of President Joe Biden, six of the doctors responsible for the previous administration’s Covid-19 response agreed to sit down — in strict confidence — and talk with me about the events of the past year. Over the period of a few weeks, in Houston, Washington, DC, and Baltimore, our team secured nondescript, large hotel ballrooms with plenty of space and ventilation to allow these extraordinary one-on-one conversations to take place with Dr. Deborah Birx, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Brett Giroir, Dr. Stephen Hahn, Dr. Robert Kadlec and Dr. Robert Redfield.”

The National: A year in lockdown: ‘Art is playing a massive part in the pandemic’. “WHEN the pandemic struck, painter Mousa AlNana turned his home into a giant work of art. The 34-year-old – now holding online workshops to help learners beat isolation – says art has been the one thing helping most people through the lockdown as they sought solace in film, music and books. He says it’ll also help us make sense of what we’ve been through these last 12 months.”

HIGHER EDUCATION

1010 WINS: Rutgers to require COVID-19 vaccination for students this fall. “Rutgers University has announced that all students planning to attend in-person classes in the fall semester must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with limited exceptions.”

HEALTH

UC Riverside: Review paper links air pollution to COVID-19 susceptibility. “Exposure to air pollution increases susceptibility to severe COVID-19 and creates a pre-inflammatory state in patients, a team that includes a University of California, Riverside, biomedical scientist reports in a literature review focusing on the impact of air pollution and COVID-19 on the cardiopulmonary system.”

RESEARCH

Gizmodo: Researchers Put Cloth Face Masks Under a Microscope. The Images Are Out of This World. “After seeing the destruction covid-19 has wreaked around the world, it can seem incredible that something as simple as a cloth face mask could slow the spread of the virus. (PSA: They do. Please wear a mask). However, you probably won’t feel the same way once you see the spectacular images of cloth face masks under a scanning electron microscope captured by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.”

EurekAlert: X-rays combined with AI offer fast diagnostic tool in detecting COVID-19. “X-rays, first used clinically in the late 1890s, could be a leading-edge diagnostic tool for COVID-19 patients with the help of artificial intelligence, according to a team of researchers in Brazil who taught a computer program, through various machine learning methods, to detect COVID-19 in chest X-rays with 95.6 to 98.5% accuracy.”

PsyPost: Watching Anthony Fauci on Fox News makes people more willing to engage in pandemic reducing behaviors, study finds. “How warmly or coldly people feel toward scientists is associated with their compliance with measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, according to new research published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. The study also found evidence that medical experts such as Anthony Fauci can help motivate people to maintain social distance from others and use disinfectant products amid the pandemic.”

OUTBREAKS

Boston Herald: 32 Massachusetts cities and towns at high risk for coronavirus transmission as red zone doubles over two weeks. “The number of Massachusetts cities and towns at high risk for COVID-19 transmission has more than doubled in the past two weeks, rising to 32 this week from a low of 14 as officials sound alarms about local outbreaks.”

East Hampton Star: Students Contract Covid at Party, Dozens Quarantine. “By now, it’s an open secret: A single gathering of teens, reportedly held two weekends ago at a house in Sag Harbor and attended by students from multiple schools, has resulted in a spate of positive Covid-19 cases and related quarantines at at least two schools.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

Times-Union: Batavia ICE detainees among first in country to get COVID-19 vaccine. “The news comes a month and a half after a COVID-19 outbreak hit the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility. In the past month, 119 of the 187 detainees have contracted COVID-19, according to court documents. ICE’s website says there are 63 active positive cases at the facility. At the start of the outbreak, the New York Civil Liberties Union and Prisoner Legal Services of New York sued the facility and ICE over providing vaccines to 85 detained immigrants who are medically at-risk.”

Mashable: FTC warns of ‘vaccine survey’ scams, because people are the worst. “There’s no good thing that scammers won’t try to ruin. The Federal Trade Commission issued a warning Wednesday that unscrupulous actors are preying upon the newly vaccinated, attempting to trick those in the throes of post-jab joy out of their cash.”

OPINION

Miami Herald: Blame Gov. DeSantis for Florida’s COVID super-spreader spring break beach madness | Opinion. “Florida’s spring break debacle — rowdy COVID super-spreader crowds at beaches around the state, at some spots with violence thrown in for special effect — is the perfect showcase for what ails the state’s governor: recurring poor judgment.”

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 27, 2021 at 01:01AM
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African-American Revolutionaries, ABCs of Racial Literacy, Online Free Speech Legislation, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2021

African-American Revolutionaries, ABCs of Racial Literacy, Online Free Speech Legislation, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

National Library of Scotland: New digital resource on African American revolutionaries . “Struggles for Liberty takes its name from the phrase ‘struggles in the cause of liberty’, written by Lewis Henry Douglass (eldest son of Frederick Douglass) of his mother, Anna Murray Douglass’s tireless, heroic antislavery and social justice activism. The resource is structured by theme: the ‘Story of the Slave’; the History of Black Abolition; the US Civil War; African American activists in Scotland; and the Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass Family. It also includes interactive maps and downloadable learning activities for teachers, including activities mapped to the Curriculum for Excellence.”

PR Newswire: Sesame Workshop Continues Major Commitment to Racial Justice with New “ABCs of Racial Literacy” Content to Help Families Talk to Children About Race and Identity (PRESS RELEASE). “Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, is releasing new resources to support families in talking to their children about race and racism. The ‘ABCs of Racial Literacy’ is part of Coming Together, Sesame Workshop’s ongoing commitment to racial justice.”

Duke Today: Duke, American University Students Publish Tracker For Online Free Speech Legislation. “Reporters covering the complicated yet bipartisan reform of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act can more easily monitor the legislation through a new tracker designed by students at Duke and American universities and Future Tense.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Illinois News Bureau: Illinois researchers to digitally preserve history of live musical performances, including Krannert Center events. “‘The Internet of Musical Events: Digital Scholarship, Community, and the Archiving of Performances,’ known as InterMusE, aims to preserve access to the record of historical live musical performances through digital archiving of concert ephemera such as programs and posters. It also will collect oral history interviews with concertgoers.”

Gulf News: Google bungles Hindi translation of the word ‘unworried’ sparking social media storm. “What does ‘unworried’ mean in Hindi? For a few hours on Thursday, Google’s answer had Indians on Twitter in splits before the tech giant rushed to correct the Google Translate glitch. With viral memes and jokes on Twitter, Whatsapp, and other social media channels, many pointed out that Google was translating the word ‘unworried’ to ‘avivahit’, which means unmarried in Hindi and ‘ghair shaadi shuda’ in Urdu.”

The Verge: The Mess At Medium. “Medium entered the year with more than 700,000 paid subscriptions, putting it on track for more than $35 million in revenue, according to two people familiar with the matter. That’s a healthy sum for a media company. But it represents a weak outcome for Williams, who previously sold Blogger to Google and co-founded Twitter, which eventually went public and today has a market capitalization of more than $50 billion.”

Washington Post: Preachers and their $5,000 sneakers: Why one man started an Instagram account showing churches’ wealth. “On his feed, [Ben] Kirby has showcased Seattle pastor Judah Smith’s $3,600 Gucci jacket, Dallas pastor T.D. Jakes’s $1,250 Louboutin fanny pack and Miami pastor Guillermo Maldonado’s $2,541 Ricci crocodile belt. And he considers Paula White, former president Donald Trump’s most trusted pastoral adviser who is often photographed in designer items, a PreachersNSneakers ‘content goldmine,’ posting a photo of her wearing $785 Stella McCartney sneakers.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Protocol: Beijing sours on facial recognition, unless it’s the one doing it . “Hundreds of thousands of surveillance cameras throughout China have been hoovering up facial recognition data without notifying the people attached to the faces. Now, the companies behind the tech are finally under the microscope after a blistering recent exposé — one carried by a major mouthpiece for Beijing, the same government known for its own untrammeled intrusions into private life.”

Vanity Fair: Cracking the Case of London’s Elusive, Acrobatic Rare-Book Thieves. “‘Impossible,’ said David Ward. The London Metropolitan Police constable looked up. Some 50 feet above him, he saw that someone had carved a gaping hole through a skylight. Standing in the Frontier Forwarding warehouse in Feltham, West London, he could hear the howl of jets from neighboring Heathrow Airport as they roared overhead. At Ward’s feet lay three open trunks, heavy-duty steel cases. They were empty. A few books lay strewn about. Those trunks had previously been full of books. Not just any books. The missing ones, 240 in all, included early versions of some of the most significant printed works of European history.”

AZFamily: Proof of Innocence: New Arizona law opens testing national databases. “For the last 20 years, Arizona inmates have been able to petition the courts to have DNA evidence from their case run through the national database to try and prove their innocence. A new state law passed this week heading for the governor’s desk will expand access to fingerprints, firearms, and all the local and national law enforcement databases detectives use right now to solve cold cases.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Rest of World: TikTok is repeating Facebook’s mistakes in Myanmar. “Activists and experts told Rest of World that TikTok’s failures were distressingly familiar to anyone acquainted with how Facebook was used to help drive an ethnic-cleansing campaign in Myanmar in the 2010s. Members of the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, spread misinformation across the platform, stoking division, hatred, and, eventually, violence. In 2018, United Nations human rights experts said that unchecked hate speech on Facebook contributed to the genocide against the country’s Rohingya minority.”

CNET: Artificial intelligence: Are we doing it all wrong?. “Jeff Hawkins is co-founder of machine intelligence company Numenta and author of a new book ‘A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence’ that offers a theory of what’s missing in current AI. I don’t normally do author interviews, but Jeff has a history of knowing where things are going in tech, including, in my opinion, being a primary developer of the modern smartphone at Handspring and Palm.” 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 26, 2021 at 08:17PM
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