New researches

Thursday, April 1, 2021

Maine Women Activism, Birds by Zip Code, Carnivore Diets, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, April 1, 2021

Maine Women Activism, Birds by Zip Code, Carnivore Diets, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, April 1, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

ResearchBuzz does not like April Fools Day. If there is any April Fool content that is not labeled as such, please let me know and I’ll remove it and apologize for being taken in.

NEW RESOURCES

University of Maine: Online collection documents activism by women’s organizations in Maine. “The Maine Women’s History Collection documents the efforts of women’s organizations to address a variety of social and political issues including women’s suffrage, the Equal Rights Amendment, child care, health care, environmental pollution, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights and social stratification, and provides evidence of persistent obstacles to gender equality, such as gender stereotypes, employment discrimination and domestic violence.”

StarTribune: Site shows you bird data by ZIP code. “Go to [the site], enter your ZIP code and hit update. You will be given the probability of a species having been reported there during the chosen month. You can click on a species to find out where best to find it during the selected month, a very cool service indeed. This works for any ZIP code in the U.S.”

EurekAlert: Ever wondered what red foxes eat? There’s a database for that. “Research into the diets of a large number of the world’s carnivores has been made publicly available through a free, online database created by a PhD student at the University of Sussex. From stoats in the UK to tigers in India, users are now able to search for detailed information about the diets of species in different geographical locations around the globe.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

USDA: New, Easy-to-Use Conservation Data in RCA Data Viewer. “Looking for [Natural Resources Conservation Service] conservation program data? Whether you need program financial information or number of conservation contracts, civil rights data or which practices are applied on how many acres – this and much more is available in the Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act (RCA) Data Viewer. The Viewer was recently updated with data for fiscal year 2020, and for those who want to use the numbers to create their own analysis, graphs or charts, conservation program data are now available in easier-to-use Microsoft Excel file format.”

GHacks: SimpleCodeGenerator is a new tool from NirSoft that lets you create QR Codes for URLs. “Nir Sofer has released a new program called SimpleCode Generator. It allows you to convert links to QR Codes that you can use with any smartphone.” Windows-only, and as it’s a standalone EXE file I guess it’s portable?

9to5 Google: Google canceling April Fools’ Day jokes for the second year in a row (Good.) “An internal memo sent by Google’s VP of global marketing, Marvin Chow, explains that the company will continue its ‘pause’ of April Fools’ Day pranks in 2021 as ‘much of the world’ is still dealing with ‘serious challenges’ during the pandemic.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CNET: April Fools’ Day 2021: Cauliflower Peeps, Duolingo toilet paper and more pranks. “April 1 is typically a day for silly jokes, and companies have put a lot of effort into trying to make people laugh. Last year was an exception, but some brands are venturing back into the realm of April Fools’ Day for 2021. We’re keeping an eye on the shenanigans all day and will update with the latest knee-slappers as they appear.”

BBC: Facebook bans ‘voice of Trump’ from platform. “Facebook has removed a video of former US President Donald Trump from the page of his daughter-in-law Lara Trump. The social media giant banned Mr Trump from its platform in January following riots by his supporters on the Capitol building in Washington. Lara Trump, a new Fox News contributor, posted a video of herself interviewing Mr Trump on a range of issues.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: Five Tech Commandments to a Safer Digital Life. “Tech is always changing, and so is the way we use it. That means we are always finding new ways to let our guard down for bad actors to snoop on our data. Remember when you shared your address book with that trendy new app? Or when you posted photos on social networks? Those actions may all pose consequences that weaken security for ourselves and the people we care about.”

TechRadar: Google is taking far more data from your Android devices than you may think. “Researchers have discovered that Android devices are collecting far more telemetry data on users than iOS. The findings from Douglas Leith from Trinity College in Ireland were part of a project looking to quantify the data both Android and iOS handsets send to their headquarters.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Phoenix New Times: Angry Residents, Abrupt Stops: Waymo Vehicles Are Still Causing Problems in Arizona. “A driverless Waymo vehicle caused a crash in October by stopping unexpectedly in the middle of the road, displaying a technical malfunction the Google-related company claims is rare. In another 2020 incident, a police officer claimed a sudden stop by a Waymo vehicle caused a rear-end collision, but the officer was cited. The incidents are detailed in newly released police reports obtained by Phoenix New Times that shed fresh light on the function and operations of the driverless vehicles, which are often cloaked in secrecy.”

University at Buffalo: Study: AI tool can help spot Type 2 diabetes trends in the U.S.. “A new University at Buffalo study reports on the advantages of using artificial intelligence to better understand Type 2 diabetes across the United States. The study describes how machine learning — a subset of AI that involves computers acting intelligently without being explicitly programmed — can help explore the prevalence of the disease, which effects more than 34 million Americans, as well as spot future trends.” Good morning, Internet…

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April 1, 2021 at 07:15PM
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Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Self-Driving Vehicle Scenarios, Baalbek Reborn, Unplash, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 31, 2021

Self-Driving Vehicle Scenarios, Baalbek Reborn, Unplash, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 31, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Warwick: World’s largest public scenario database for testing and assuring safe Autonomous Vehicle deployments. “The Safety PoolTM Scenario Database, the largest public repository of scenarios for testing autonomous vehicles in the world, has been launched today by WMG at the University of Warwick, and Deepen AI. The database provides a diverse set of scenarios in different operational design domains (ODDs i.e. operating conditions) that can be leveraged by governments, industry and academia alike to test and benchmark Automated Driving Systems (ADSs) and use insights to inform policy and regulatory guidelines.”

Departures: New Virtual Experience Will Take You Back 2,000 Years to Visit Ancient Roman Ruins. “Virtual visitors can explore incredible landmarks like the 2,000-year-old Temple of Jupiter that’s perched on 3,000-ton stone blocks (it weighs more than the pillars of Stonehenge). The Temple of Bacchus—one of the best-preserved temples in the ancient world—is also on the Sanctuary tour. Those ruins are some of the most incredible examples of ancient architecture in the entire Roman empire. You’ll get to make a total of 35 stops along the virtual journey.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

PR Newswire: Getty Images to Acquire Unsplash, the Preeminent Image Platform for Global Creators (PRESS RELEASE). “Getty Images, a world leader in visual communications, and Unsplash, the preeminent image platform for global creators, today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Getty Images will acquire Unsplash. Getty Images will fund the transaction from existing cash balances and the transaction is expected to close at the close of the month.”

The Verge: Google’s Area 120 incubator releases a powerful AI document scanner for Android. “Google’s Area 120, an internal incubator program for experimental projects, is releasing a new app today called Stack that borrows the technology underlying the search giant’s powerful DocAI enterprise tool for document analysis. The end result is a consumer document scanner app for Android that Google says vastly improves over your average mobile scanner by auto-categorizing documents into the titular stacks and enabling full text search through the contents of the documents and not just the title.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Reuters: Google to contribute $29 million to new EU fund to fight fake news. “Alphabet unit Google will contribute 25 million euros ($29.3 million) to the newly set up European Media and Information Fund to combat fake news, the company said on Wednesday, amid criticism tech giants are not doing enough to debunk online disinformation.”

OCLC: OCLC to convene a diverse group to ‘Reimagine Descriptive Workflows’ in libraries, archives. “OCLC has been awarded a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to convene a diverse group of experts, practitioners, and community members to determine ways to improve descriptive practices, tools, infrastructure and workflows in libraries and archives. The multi-day virtual convening is part of an eight-month project, Reimagine Descriptive Workflows.”

The Courier: Dunfermline heritage gem looks to take its place on the Fife tourism trail. “The old lady is still in the pink, but at the landmark building in Maygate, the finishing touches are being made to a restoration that should take the 500-year-old, A-listed structure well into this century and pin it to the Fife tourism map. There will be a phased opening, with classes in the outside workshop, creative rental space and the opening of an education centre on the first floor, including a digital archive of Abbot House. A digital archive featuring photographs, drawings, architectural plans, documents, and local records relating to the house will also be accessible to the public.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BNN Bloomberg: Google Promises Not to Muzzle Staff on Pay, Settling Labor Case. “Google promised not to silence workers who talk about their pay, part of a settlement resolving one of the first legal complaints filed by a new union representing hundreds of employees and contract workers at the internet giant.”

CNET: In bed with Google: A new Sleep Sensing feature prompts privacy worries. “The focus on sleep tracking underscores an uncomfortable reality about Google’s size and ubiquity. The tech giant already collects vast amounts of data about people in their waking lives: what they search for online, what videos they watch on YouTube and where they’ve traveled, from location data gathered through an Android phone or Google Maps. Now the company is zeroing in on the other half of people’s lives — what they’re doing when they’re not awake.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Electrochemical Society: Free the Science Week Takes Down ECS Research Paywall. “The Electrochemical Society (ECS) celebrates its fifth annual Free the Science Week from April 5-11, 2021, by taking down the paywall to the ECS Digital Library. Throughout the week, the Society’s online collection of published research is freely accessible to everyone. The ECS Digital Library is hosted on IOPscience and includes over 160,000 scientific journal and magazine articles and meeting abstracts, and the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, the oldest peer-reviewed journal in its field.” Good afternoon, Internet…

April 1, 2021 at 02:53AM
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China Censorship, Lebanon Transparency, MIT Press Open Architecture and Urban Studies, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, March 31, 2021

China Censorship, Lebanon Transparency, MIT Press Open Architecture and Urban Studies, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, March 31, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from Quartz: With a Google spreadsheet, a web sleuth tracks the comments that get people jailed in China. “…since October 2019, a young web sleuth surnamed Wang has been creating a database of cases in which people were punished for online or offline comments critical of the central government. Based on media reports and court records, Wang has documented nearly 2,000 speech crimes in a public Google spreadsheet, arguably one of the few comprehensive records of these ‘crimes’ in China. Censorship makes finding information on such cases a challenge, and the risks associated with creating a database like Wang’s are a deterrent for most.”

The 961: There’s An Open & Free Website Showing Data On All Internal Lebanese Affairs To Increase Transparency. “The IMPACT online platform has steadily grown to encompass an increasing number of sectors and domains and provided an ever-growing repository of information readily available to the public in Lebanon. IMPACT, which stands for the Inter-Ministerial and Municipal Platform for Assessment, Coordination and Tracking, is a free online database that links the citizens, local government, and central government to a common, comprehensive platform that operates on the national level.” I took a quick look. The database was presented to me in English, though sometimes when I drilled down into a section the data labels were in Arabic.

MIT Press News: The MIT Press launches new open access collection of 34 classic architecture and urban studies titles . “Today, the MIT Press launched MIT Press Open Architecture and Urban Studies, a robust digital collection of classic and previously out-of-print architecture and urban studies books, on their digital book platform MIT Press Direct. The collection was funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of the Humanities Open Book Program, which they co-sponsored with the National Endowment for the Humanities.”

University of Manitoba: NCTR launches a new website and archive database – nctr. ca. “The new and improved National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) website and archive database is now live. Some of the NCTR’s most important work is sharing the truth of residential schools and providing Survivors and their families access to their school records. The new, easy-to-navigate website and database ensures we help connect Survivors, Educators, Researchers and those interested in the history of residential schools a comprehensive group of resources. The NCTR holds millions of records, many of which are public records, statements and events available to be explored and understood.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

USA Today: Facebook’s new tool lets users control what they see, share on their News Feeds. “The platform will introduce the Feed Filter Bar, which allows users to switch between an algorithmically-ranked News Feed and a feed sorted chronologically with the newest posts first by choosing the ‘Most Recent’ button.”

CNET: LinkedIn is ‘doing early tests’ to build a Clubhouse rival. “LinkedIn is throwing its hat into the live audio ring. The professional networking platform is conducting ‘early tests’ to create an audio experience that’s connected to your professional identity, the company said Tuesday, in a bid to stake out a place in the fast-growing social audio category made popular by Clubhouse.”

ZDNet: Google makes Database Migration Service generally available. “Google Cloud on Wednesday announced the general availability of its Database Migration Service (DMS), a serverless tool to migrate MySQL and PostgreSQL databases to Cloud SQL. Later in the year, Google will introduce support for Microsoft SQL Server. DMS supports migrations from both on-premises and other clouds. It offers a unique migration method that uses MySQL and PostgreSQL’s native replication capabilities and maximizes security, fidelity and reliability.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group: Russia blocks military archives in further effort to distort the truth about World War II. “Russia’s Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu has issued orders which effectively block almost all access to Russian military archives from the period of the Second World War. The move is especially alarming given the current regime’s systematic attempts to push its own narrative about that period, distorting or muffling historical facts, for example, about the Soviet Union’s collaboration with Nazi Germany from 1939 to June 1941.”

Reuters: Indonesia’s map project ignores indigenous land, risks conflicts. “The One Map policy, rolled out a decade ago and meant to be completed by late 2020, aimed to merge 85 thematic maps of the sprawling archipelago’s 34 provinces into one map, with local communities involved to help settle conflicting claims. But to date, the One Map portal is only accessible to government authorities and does not include maps created by indigenous groups, said Rukka Sombolinggi, secretary general of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN).”

RESEARCH & OPINION

IEEE Spectrum: New Tool Strips Manipulative “Dark Patterns” From Mobile Apps. “The mobile apps we use every day are surprisingly manipulative. Subtle design tricks known as ‘dark patterns’ nudge us into doing what the app maker wants—be that buying products or continuing to scroll. But now, researchers are fighting back with a new tool that strips these unwanted features out of Android apps.”

The Engineer: AI tool locates and classifies defects in wind turbine blades. “Computer scientists at Loughborough University have developed a new tool that uses AI to analyse images of wind turbine blades to locate and highlight defects. The system has been ‘trained’ to classify defects by type – such as crack, erosion, void, and ‘other’ – which could lead to faster and more targeted responses.” Good afternoon, Internet…

March 31, 2021 at 10:44PM
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Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Independent Living Technology, West Cork Photography, Fort Oglethorpe Menus, More: Tuesday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 30, 2021

Independent Living Technology, West Cork Photography, Fort Oglethorpe Menus, More: Tuesday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 30, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

THIIS: Professional hub launches with searchable database of independent living tech. “ProAssist has been created by the charity Disabled Living Foundation (DLF) in partnership with the TEC Services Association (TSA), the national body for technology enabled care (TEC) services. With a searchable database of over 10,000 products from more than 900 retailers, this UK-wide resource helps identify the options across a wide range of technologies, from the latest digital devices to simple aids.”

Southern Star: Snap happy! West Cork in the frame. “THE pandemic has sparked an enormous appetite in people for nostalgia and days gone by. And satisfying that appetite is a hugely popular photo archive which gives a snapshot of life in West Cork from the 1950s to the 1970s. Called the Clonakilty Photo Archive, it comprises the thousands of pictures taken by chemist Tony Bluett. A Limerick man, he arrived in Clonakilty in 1958 and worked from his shop on Pearse Street until he retired in 2005.”

Digital Library of Georgia: Historic holiday menus created at the former Army post at Fort Oglethorpe from 1925-1940 are now available freely online in the Digital Library of Georgia. “The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) has partnered with the 6th Cavalry Museum to digitize its collection of historic holiday menus created at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia from 1925-1940, thanks to a digitization grant awarded by the DLG…. Holiday menus combine economic, cultural, and social histories of holidays as well as food and cooking history. Some of these menus also include rosters of US military personnel, as well as guests and family members.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: U.S. lawmakers press Big Tech for internal research on kids’ mental health. “Four Republican U.S. lawmakers requested on Tuesday that Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google turn over any studies they have done on how their services affect children’s mental health. The request follows a joint hearing last week of two House Energy and Commerce subcommittees at which the companies’ chief executives discussed their content moderation practices in the wake of the siege on the Capitol in January.”

CNET: Facebook could block news in Canada like it did in Australia. “In the middle of February, as the Australian government was passing a bill that would force Google and Facebook to pay publishers for news that surfaces on their platforms, Australia’s 16 million users found that news content had vanished from Facebook’s website and app. Now, with Canada’s government mulling similar legislation, it’s possible the story could repeat itself across the Pacific.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BBC: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account. “A young child inadvertently sparked confusion over the weekend by posting an unintelligible tweet to the official account of US Strategic Command. The agency is responsible for safeguarding America’s nuclear weapons.” Every time I read this summary I break down giggling. What an incredibly banal yet dystopian news story. It’s like a throwaway news article an AI would generate in some open world cyberpunk game.

Mashable: Meet the women killing it on taxidermy TikTok. “Data of taxidermists broken down by gender is hard to come by, but in Pennsylvania, where [Kelly] Brong works, the number of female taxidermists nearly doubled from 5% in 2005 to 9% in 2017. Now, TikTok is helping some women artists not only create their own community, but also to make the art form more approachable and lucrative.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: He believed Apple’s App Store was safe. Then a fake app stole his life savings in bitcoin.. “Phillipe Christodoulou wanted to check his bitcoin balance last month, so he searched the App Store on his iPhone for ‘Trezor,’ the maker of a small hardware device he uses to store his cryptocurrency. Up popped the company’s padlock logo set against a bright green background. The app was rated close to five stars. He downloaded it and typed in his credentials. In less than a second, nearly all of his life savings — 17.1 bitcoin worth $600,000 at the time — was gone. The app was a fake, designed to trick people into thinking it was a legitimate app.”

Baltimore Fishbowl: Limits on law enforcement use of DNA databases under consideration in Maryland; would be first in nation. “A first-in-the-nation bill to limit when law enforcement can search consumer genealogical databases in connection with a crime unanimously passed the Maryland House and is advancing in the Senate. HB240 would ensure that databases storing genetic information of individuals, like GEDmatch, provide notice to their consumers that their DNA could be utilized for this purpose and obtain consent from them.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Arizona State University: Center on Narrative, Disinformation, and Strategic Influence to use interdisciplinary approach . “The Global Security Initiative at Arizona State University has always focused on how disinformation influences people, and it has now dedicated a new unit to that research — the Center on Narrative, Disinformation, and Strategic Influence. The center will use an interdisciplinary method of researching disinformation campaigns and developing tools to combat them, according to Scott Ruston, a research professor who will lead the new center, housed within the Global Security Initiative.”

March 31, 2021 at 06:04AM
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Tuesday CoronaBuzz, March 30, 2021: 22 pointers to updates, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Tuesday CoronaBuzz, March 30, 2021: 22 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 – STATE-SPECIFIC

Houston Chronicle: Can’t find a shot? Texas has a new COVID-19 vaccine website to help. “Through the Texas Public Health Vaccine Scheduler, Texans can create a profile to place themselves on a statewide wait list for the vaccine. A day after individuals enter their personal information and preferred appointment times, the state will match them with the next available appointment in their home county.”

UPDATES

AP: Paris doctors warn of catastrophic overload of virus cases. “Critical care doctors in Paris say surging coronavirus infections could soon overwhelm their ability to care for the sick in the French capital’s hospitals, possibly forcing them to choose which patients they have the resources to save. The sobering warnings were delivered Sunday in newspaper opinions signed by dozens of Paris-region doctors.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

NBC News: Coronavirus pandemic slowdown has made the oceans quieter, which has been good for whales. “Visitor numbers have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. But the global slowdown has actually been good for the whales, as human interference has decreased. Ambient noise in the world’s oceans from cruise ships, sonar and construction is way down.”

Reuters: Gen X emerging from pandemic with firmer grip on America’s wallet. “Crammed between the cultural extremes of the baby boomers and the millennials, members of Generation X saw their wealth jump during the Trump administration and through the coronavirus pandemic as they hit their prime earning years during a record bull market for stocks.”

MISINFORMATION / DISINFORMATION

CBC: Marketplace flagged over 800 social media posts with COVID-19 misinformation. Only a fraction were removed. “Marketplace producers, between Feb. 3 and Feb. 16, combed through Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter — using the user tool to flag and report more than 800 posts that breach each company’s policies that cover, among other things, posting misinformation. The result: 12 per cent of the posts were labelled with warnings or taken down entirely. That number jumped to 53 per cent per cent only after Marketplace journalists identified themselves and shared the findings directly with the companies.”

NPR: Few Facts, Millions Of Clicks: Fearmongering Vaccine Stories Go Viral Online. “A new NPR analysis finds that articles connecting vaccines and death have been among the most highly engaged with content online this year, going viral in a way that could hinder people’s ability to judge the true risk in getting a shot.”

WORLD / FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

BBC: Irish pubs could become work hubs in post-pandemic plan. “The Irish government scheme is part of a five year rural development policy, released on Monday. Under the plan, a fifth of public servants would shift to remote or home working by the end of the year.”

Politico: Biden admin remakes vaccine strategy after mass vaccination sites fizzle. “The Biden administration is rethinking a costly system of government-run mass vaccination sites after data revealed the program is lagging well behind a much cheaper federal effort to distribute doses via retail pharmacies.”

CNBC: CDC will extend national eviction ban through June 30. “The eviction ban was scheduled to expire in two days, and advocates warned of a spike in evictions without an extension. Around 20% of adult renters said they didn’t pay last month’s rent, according to a survey published in March by the Census Bureau. Closer to 33% of Black renters reported the same.”

AP: Slovak Premier, Government Resign Over Russian Vaccine Deal. “Slovakia’s Prime Minister Igor Matovic and his government resigned on Tuesday to ease a political crisis triggered by a secret deal to buy Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. It is the first European government to collapse due to its handling of the pandemic but the move will keep the current four-party coalition in power and avoid the possibility of an early election. The coalition holds a comfortably parliamentary majority.”

Arab News: Filipinos voice frustration over Duterte’s handling of COVID-19 crisis. “Filipinos took to social media over the weekend to vent their anger over the government’s move to place the nation’s capital and four surrounding provinces under the strictest lockdown for a week starting from Monday amid a spike in COVID-19 cases.:

STATE / LOCAL GOVERNMENT

New York Times: New York Must Offer Vaccine to All Prisoners Immediately, Judge Rules. “New York must immediately begin to offer Covid vaccines to all incarcerated people in the state’s prisons and jails, a judge ruled on Monday, making the state one of few in the nation to provide doses to such a broad population behind bars.”

CBS New York: Connecticut Deploys Nation’s First FEMA Mobile Vaccination Unit To Underserved Communities. “Connecticut has a new tool to help residents access the COVID vaccine. The state deployed the nation’s first FEMA COVID-19 mobile vaccination unit in Bridgeport on Monday.”

Washington Post: New accounts detail how New York health officials were told to prioritize coronavirus testing of people connected to Andrew Cuomo. “New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s relatives and other well-connected New Yorkers were among those given preferential treatment at state coronavirus testing centers. State troopers were on standby to rush their samples to a lab to be expedited. And those with priority status got results within hours or a day compared to a wait of up to a week that other New Yorkers faced at the time. Seven individuals with firsthand knowledge of testing practices said that some people with access to power were able to largely bypass the overburdened resources available to the general public when the pandemic first gripped New York last year.”

K-12 EDUCATION

Reuters: Another danger for kids in the age of COVID: Failing grades. ” Like millions of American children, Brody Cotton has not seen the inside of a classroom in more than a year. As the COVID-19 pandemic left him navigating 7th grade from his couch in Carlsbad, California, Brody’s grades dropped from As and Bs to a D and two Fs last semester.”

New York Times: Why Virus Tests at One Elite School Ran Afoul of Regulators. “It was supposed to be a pandemic triumph, a way for a prestigious school to keep its doors open when many others could not. Instead, the coronavirus testing program at New Trier High School, outside Chicago, offers a cautionary lesson about what happens when educators are asked to take on public health responsibilities.”

HEALTH

New York Times: We Can’t End the Pandemic Without Vaccinating Kids. “The United States’ coronavirus vaccine rollout has finally hit its stride, with well over two million doses administered daily. Soon, vaccines will be available to all adults who want them. Children are the next vaccination frontier. When it comes time to vaccinate them, the same urgency and large-scale coordination efforts driving adult vaccination must continue if we want to sustainably drive down Covid-19 cases and ultimately end the pandemic.”

TECHNOLOGY

Mashable: Scientists figured out the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine’s code and posted it on Github. “Hackers have posted a brand new trove of reverse-engineered data on Github. And by ‘hackers,’ I mean ‘scientists.’ And that trove of ‘reverse-engineered data’ is the mRNA sequence which makes Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine work.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

CNBC: Fraudsters are laundering millions in Covid relief funds through online investment platforms. “Tech-savvy fraudsters stealing from the government’s Covid pandemic relief programs to help businesses have found a convenient way to launder the money: they’re opening accounts with at least four online investment platforms, law enforcement officials said. The digital platforms, investigators said, are easy to dump the money into by setting up accounts with stolen identities. More than $100 million in fraudulent funds passed through investment accounts since Congress passed the CARES Act last March, according to authorities.”

AP: Pandemic masks ongoing child abuse crisis as cases plummet. “The AP requested public records from all 50 state child welfare agencies and analyzed more than a dozen indicators in 36 states, though not every state supplied data for total reports or investigations. The analysis compared the first nine months of the pandemic — March to November 2020 — with the same time period from the two previous years.And there are signs in a number of states that suggest officials are dealing with more urgent and complex cases during the pandemic, according to the analysis, though most child welfare agencies didn’t provide AP thorough data on severity.”

Daily Beast: COVID-Crazed Brits Are Risking Huge Fines to Go on Vacation. “After more than a year of lockdowns and restrictions, some stir-crazy travelers will do anything to get away from it all—even if that means paying a hefty fine. In the U.K., the government is set to fine anyone who travels abroad without a ‘valid reason’ 5,000 pounds ($6,895) starting Monday. But where there is a will, there is always a way, and we found a number of loopholes that are sure to send people packing.”

OPINION

CNN: The hard lesson of Dr. Deborah Birx. “She, like many of us, had no idea how badly his administration would distort, ignore and deny science and the truth during the pandemic. Although she said she took the job out of a sense of obligation (‘That’s what a civil servant is supposed to do,’ she said a year later), Birx became inextricably tied to the harmful decisions of her negligent, disastrously ignorant boss.”

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March 31, 2021 at 04:41AM
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Krzysztof Penderecki, Campaign Finance, Spotify, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 30, 2021

Krzysztof Penderecki, Campaign Finance, Spotify, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 30, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Culture .pl: Penderecki’s Garden, A Digital Project Celebrating the Life & Legacy of Krzysztof Penderecki, Opens a Year After His Death. “Penderecki’s Garden is a virtual, interactive space inspired by the work of Krzysztof Penderecki, one of Poland’s most celebrated composers, who passed away on 29th March 2020. Through the virtual garden’s layout, architectural structures and vegetation, audiences are invited to explore the life of Penderecki alongside compositions, inspirations and poems.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

JD Supra: FEC Database Now Allows Search by Leadership PAC Sponsor. “The Federal Election Commission (FEC) recently expanded options for searching campaign finance data to include the ability to search by leadership PAC sponsor. The new search allows users to select ‘Leadership PAC’ as the committee type, then enter a sponsor name to search.”

NBC News: Spotify jumps into social audio, acquires sports-focused live audio app. “Spotify said Tuesday it has acquired the company behind the live audio app Locker Room, giving the music and podcast platform a new foothold in a space that has seen a surge of interest following the rise of the app Clubhouse.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Streaming Saved Music. Artists Hate It.. “My colleague Ben Sisario says that musicians complain about streaming economics that can translate millions of clicks on their songs into pennies for them. Last week, a group of musicians protested outside Spotify offices for changes in how they are paid from streaming. Ben spoke with me about why streaming music has been a letdown for many musicians. The challenges reflect a larger question: What happens when the promise of making a living online from music, writing or building apps doesn’t match the reality?”

University of Texas at Dallas: Photographer Pictures UTD as New Home for Collection. “In 1969 Carolyn Brown departed Chicago on the first flight of her life to Egypt to study Islamic art and architecture at The American University in Cairo. Her experience over the next three years began a career in photography that would take her across the Middle East, Mexico and the southwestern U.S. Her archives include thousands of print and digital images from 14 countries, including 24 Mexican states, as well as locations across Texas and the city of Dallas.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

AP: AP sources: SolarWinds hack got emails of top DHS officials. “Suspected Russian hackers gained access to email accounts belonging to the Trump administration’s head of the Department of Homeland Security and members of the department’s cybersecurity staff whose jobs included hunting threats from foreign countries, The Associated Press has learned.”

SCOTUS Blog: Justices return to standing after Spokeo. “Nearly five years ago, the Supreme Court decided Spokeo v. Robins, the case of a Virginia man who alleged that an internet database company violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act when it published inaccurate information about him. The justices ruled that to have standing – that is, a legal right to sue – it is not enough to simply allege that a statute has been violated. Instead, a plaintiff must show an injury that is both concrete and particularized, even if it is not necessarily a tangible one. On Tuesday in TransUnion v. Ramirez, the justices will consider how these requirements apply to class actions.”

The Guardian: Web giants must stop cashing in on pension scam misery, say MPs. “Ministers must force tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft to stop the ‘immoral’ practice of profiting from the £10bn of pension fraud committed by internet scammers, a committee of MPs has urged. Fraudsters use online advertisements, mostly on Google, to trick people out of their pension funds, according to a report published by the work and pensions select committee, but regulators are ‘powerless’ to hold the internet firms to account.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CTV News: Turning to ‘Dr. Google’ may not be as anxiety-inducing or misleading as believed, study finds. “Have you found yourself Googling your symptoms in an attempt to soothe health-related anxieties, and then worried that you were going to accidentally misdiagnose yourself and make those anxieties worse? Well, according to a new study from the U.S., turning to ‘Dr. Google’ does not make a person’s assessment of their symptoms less accurate, or worsen their anxiety regarding their health.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

CNET: Google’s Suez Canal Easter egg brings boatloads of fun. “Now that the Ever Given cargo ship has finally been freed after spending nearly a week stuck in the Suez Canal, Google has launched a celebratory Easter egg in its Search results. A search for ‘Suez Canal’ and ‘Ever Given’ pulls up an animation of little boats rolling across the top of the page.” Good afternoon, Internet…

March 30, 2021 at 11:59PM
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Folk/Indigenous Medicine, Solar Decathlon Virtual Village, Windows 10, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, March 30, 2021

Folk/Indigenous Medicine, Solar Decathlon Virtual Village, Windows 10, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, March 30, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

UCLA: UCLA researchers digitize massive collection of folk medicine. “A project more than 40 years in the making, the Archive of Healing is one of the largest databases of medicinal folklore from around the world. UCLA Professor David Shorter has launched an interactive, searchable website featuring hundreds of thousands of entries that span more than 200 years, and draws from seven continents, six university archives, 3,200 published sources, and both first and second-hand information from folkloric field notes.”

Department of Energy Solar Decathalon: Visit Solar Decathlon’s First Virtual Village To Tour One-of-a-Kind, High-Performance Homes Online!. “The U.S. Department of Energy is excited to announce the opening of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon® Virtual Village on Monday, April 12. The Virtual Village will showcase zero energy homes designed and constructed around the world by Solar Decathlon 2020 Build Challenge teams. Industry partners, schools, future collegiate teams, and the interested public are invited to participate in no-cost, virtual tours of the homes, hosted by participating teams.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: Microsoft releases optional KB5000842 update to fix lots of Windows 10 problems. “For Microsoft, March was marred by a string of problematic Windows 10 updates that caused a series of problems with printing and more. As we reach the end of the month, the company has released an optional patch which it will almost certainly be hoping proves less problematic.” Again.

9to5 Google: Google Discover is increasingly showing old news and content for some . “Over the past week or so, Google Discover users have been complaining about getting served news that is days old. For some, the entire feed is populated this way with no content that’s been published in the past few hours appearing. Refreshing the feed from the Google app does not load newer stories. Others are still getting up-to-date articles but have also noticed an uptick in older content.”

The Verge: Google is making some big upgrades to directions in Google Maps . “Google is announcing a bunch of new features planned for Google Maps, including a new tool to help with indoor navigation and suggestions for eco-friendly driving routes. The features announced today aren’t rolling out all at once, though; many aren’t available just yet, and it’s unclear when some will be available in some parts of the world.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

KFOR: Library of Congress agrees to change subject heading from ‘Tulsa Race Riot’ to ‘Tulsa Race Massacre’. “A task force at the University of Oklahoma has spearheaded an effort to change how the Library of Congress catalogs the Tulsa Race Massacre. Officials say Library of Congress Subject Headings are extremely important and are often used to find important resources on topics when searching online library catalogs. Following a proposal by a task force at the University of Oklahoma Libraries, the Library of Congress agreed that the term ‘Tulsa Race Riot’ was not completely accurate.”

Spotted (and backed) on Kickstarter: Scout. From the project page: “What is Scout? Scout is the world’s next great search engine. It provides organic results, has no ads, and gets smarter over time. Why should you join Scout? To join a new frontier in Search. Most search engines today make money off ads and this creates a privacy disaster. At Scout, your data will never be our business.”

The Guardian: BBC Four to become archive channel as cost-cutting drive continues. “BBC Four is to cease commissioning new programmes and become an archive-focused channel as part of the ongoing significant cost-cutting drive across the corporation. The originator of acclaimed shows such as Charlie Brooker’s Wipe franchise, the Emmy-nominated drama Burton & Taylor and the Bafta-winning comedy Detectorists, BBC Four will now be repositioned as the ‘home’ of archived content, the broadcaster confirmed.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Department of Justice: Popular Instagram Personality Known as “Jay Mazini” Charged with Wire Fraud. “A complaint was filed in federal court in Brooklyn yesterday charging Jegara Igbara, also known as ‘Jay Mazini,’ with wire fraud related to a scheme in which the defendant allegedly induced victims to send him Bitcoin by falsely claiming to have sent wire transfers of cash in exchange for the Bitcoin. In reality, Igbara never sent the money, and stole at least $2.5 million worth of Bitcoin from victims. Igbara is currently being held on state charges in New Jersey and will make his initial appearance in the Eastern District of New York at a later date.”

BBC: ‘We have your porn collection’: The rise of Extortionware. “Cyber-security companies are warning about the rise of so-called ‘extortionware’ where hackers embarrass victims into paying a ransom. Experts say the trend towards ransoming sensitive private information could affect companies not just operationally but through reputation damage. It comes as hackers bragged after discovering an IT Director’s secret porn collection.”

ABC News: Virginia lawmakers ban police use of facial recognition. “Last month, Virginia lawmakers quietly passed one of the most restrictive bans in the country on the use of facial recognition technology. The legislation, which won unusually broad bipartisan support, prohibits all local law enforcement agencies and campus police departments from purchasing or using facial recognition technology unless it is expressly authorized by the state legislature.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Engadget: Google AI is battling a ‘Great British Bake Off’ winner in a dessert face-off. “Baking is as much science as it is art. Perhaps to find out whether the former’s more important, Google Cloud AI is taking on a Great British Bake Off winner in a dessert face-off. Sara Robinson, an amateur baker and Google Cloud developer advocate, built a machine learning model that examined hundreds of baking recipes (including ones for traybakes, cookies and scones) to help her come up with a new one.” Good morning, Internet…

March 30, 2021 at 05:29PM
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