New researches

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

PFAS Toxicity Studies, Global Trade Barriers, Ontario Newspapers, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, May 5, 2021

PFAS Toxicity Studies, Global Trade Barriers, Ontario Newspapers, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, May 5, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

I had my second shot Monday and spent Monday night, Tuesday, and last night absolutely flattened out. Feeling pretty good today. Have I told you lately that I love you?

NEW RESOURCES

Chemical & Engineering News: New database amasses toxicity studies on PFAS. “A first-of-its-kind database assembles hundreds of toxicology studies on 29 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The database is aimed at assisting communities exposed to PFAS contamination and helping policy makers access scientific literature on these substances, says Katherine E. Pelch, a professor at the University of North Texas School of Public Health.”

World Trade Organization: New WTO database details impact of regulatory barriers, other factors on costs to trade. “Trade policy barriers such as tariffs and regulations account for at least 14 per cent of trade costs according to estimates from the WTO Trade Cost Index launched on 30 April. The index measures the cost of trading internationally relative to trading domestically, finding that the costs to export are higher for women, smaller businesses and unskilled workers.”

Toronto Star: SDG Counties digital newspaper archives launched. “It was an apropos launch for a digital newspaper archive, to host an online launch event. That was the case as the SDG Newspaper Digitization Project, with over 200,000 pages of history, hit the internet with a celebratory online launch held May 3rd.” SDG stands for United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, a municipality in Ontario Canada.

Daily Sabah: WikiLala, ‘Google’ of Ottoman-Turkish documents, launches in full. “The online digital library project, ‘WikiLala,’ which brings together and aims to digitize all the printed texts from the Ottoman Empire since the introduction of the printing press, has recently launched a full version of its website which had been in beta for a while. Since its launch, the website has attracted more than 200,000 visitors from 107 countries.”

Moving History: Ronald J Sullivan Photography Collection. “Ronald J. Sullivan, an amateur photographer and avid railfan and bus enthusiast, documented Chicago-area transportation and the city’s changing streetscapes over the course of more than five decades in this collection comprising over 1100 photographs and slides, dating from 1946-2000. He supplemented hundreds of original photographs, the bulk of the collection, with slides and photos that he collected, creating a record of Chicago’s transit history.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NPR: Facebook Ban On Donald Trump Will Hold, Social Network’s Oversight Board Rules. “Facebook was justified in its decision to suspend then-President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the company’s Oversight Board said on Wednesday. That means the company does not have to reinstate Trump’s access to Facebook and Instagram immediately. But the panel said the company was wrong to impose an indefinite ban and said Facebook has six months to either restore Trump’s account, make his suspension permanent, or suspend him for a specific period of time.”

CNET: Twitter expands Spaces to all users with at least 600 followers. “Twitter Spaces has graduated from a beta test to a full-fledged feature. On Monday the social media platform announced that starting today it will allow anyone with 600 or more followers to start a new Space.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Hyperallergic: Argentina’s Military Government May Have Stolen from Its Own Museum to Fund Falklands War. “At 1am on December 25, 1980, four burglars entered the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, Argentina, through a gap in the roof, and took 16 Impressionist works and seven early Chinese sculptures. The heist was peculiar for its seamlessness: ladders presumably left by construction workers made it easier for the thieves to break in. Two night guards keeping watch that night were tortured and arrested by state police, but no one has ever been charged with the crime to this day. And according to anecdotal accounts by witnesses, an army truck was seen parked outside the museum.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

ThreatPost: Deepfake Attacks Are About to Surge, Experts Warn. “A drastic uptick in deepfake technology and service offerings across the Dark Web is the first sign a new wave of fraud is just about to crash in, according to a new report from Recorded Future, which ominously predicted that deepfakes are on the rise among threat actors with an enormous range of goals and interests.”

South China Morning Post: Hong Kong protests: former RTHK journalist Bao Choy to appeal conviction over database search, fearing lifelong regret if she gives up ‘pursuit of justice’. “A former journalist at Hong Kong’s public broadcaster is appealing against her conviction for improperly accessing public records during the making of a documentary critical of how police handled a 2019 mob attack, saying letting the case go now would be a source of lifelong regret.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

EurekAlert: Personalised medications possible with 3D printing. “Customised medicines could one day be manufactured to patients’ individual needs, with University of East Anglia (UEA) researchers investigating technology to 3D ‘print’ pills. The team, including Dr Andy Gleadall and Prof Richard Bibb at Loughborough University, identified a new additive manufacturing method to allow the 3D printing of medicine in highly porous structures, which can be used to regulate the rate of drug release from the medicine to the body when taken orally.”

The Vintage News: The Project That Could Turn Ancient Mayan Hieroglyphs into Emojis. “Writing on their website last year, Unicode announced a National Endowment for the Humanities grant enabling the Maya Hieroglyph Project. Its goal is to make historical communications ‘accessible to both expert and non-expert user communities through creating an annotated digital archive.’ Dr. Gabrielle Vail is in charge of the team, which focuses on the Classic period of 250–900 CE.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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May 6, 2021 at 12:11AM
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Monday, May 3, 2021

Performing Arts Web Archive, Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy, Indian Community Cookbook Project, More: Monday Evening ResearchBuzz, May 3, 2021

Performing Arts Web Archive, Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy, Indian Community Cookbook Project, More: Monday Evening ResearchBuzz, May 3, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Library of Congress: Announcing the Professional Organizations for Performing Arts Web Archive . “I am excited to share the Music Division’s latest web archive collection, the Professional Organizations for Performing Arts Web Archive! This collection contains websites and select social media to document professional networks in the performing arts over time. The collection items are those of professional, labor, and advocacy organizations at regional, national, and international levels. Its initial batch of 85 archived websites is ready for you to explore in our digital collections. By the summer, expect at least 100!”

GlobeNewswire: Psychable, the Online Platform for Psychedelic Healthcare, is Live – the Comprehensive Resource Connects Those Seeking Information on Legal Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Treatment Options With Practitioners in Their Area (PRESS RELEASE). “Psychable, the online community for people who are interested in legally exploring or offering psychedelic-assisted therapy, has officially launched. Providing thousands of listings for psychedelic practitioners across the U.S., Canada, and international locations, the platform aims to be the most comprehensive and trusted resource for those curious in exploring the legal use of psychedelics as medicine, and offers a community-reviewed, curated database of practitioners available to connect with clients directly through the platform.”

Atlas Obscura: Cook Your Way Through Regional Indian Recipes With This Online Archive. “Indo-Pakistani Cuisine is one of many cookbooks included in the Indian Community Cookbook Project, a digitized archive that contains written recipes and community cookbooks written by many authors. Despite the name, though, not all the recipes come from printed books. ‘Many of India’s recipes live within oral cultures,’ says Ananya Pujary, one of the founders of the project. ‘We wanted to address those. To document cultures at the risk of disappearing, on the brink of forgetting.'”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

MakeUseOf: How to Get Started on Artfol, “the Social Network for Artists”. “Several attempts have been made to create an artist-friendly social media platform. Sites like DeviantArt, Amino, and ArtStation brought a lot of hope that a big one will emerge. However, they’re not suited to everyone and have their flaws. If you’re an artist looking for a platform to share your work and connect with like-minded individuals, Artfol might be what you’re looking for instead.”

CNET: Facebook’s oversight board to rule on Trump’s suspended accounts. “Facebook’s content oversight board plans to rule on Wednesday whether Donald Trump will be able to access the platform he was booted from, amid concerns the former president could incite violence like the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill. The board tweeted its plans on Monday morning.”

USEFUL STUFF

Popular Science: A complete guide on how to safely take, send, and store nudes. “Being able to instantaneously swap photos with someone no matter the distance can be really fun, but ease can make you ignore potential complications. Just like having sex, sending nudes can have unintended lifelong consequences you might not be willing to deal with. But you can easily minimize risks and protect yourself by being safe.” Even if you’re not interested in taking such pictures of yourself, there are a lot of good tips here for keeping your private things private.

Bustle: 3 Sneaky Hacks To Watch Instagram Stories Anonymously. “The ability to check out who has viewed your Instagram Story is a double edged sword — pretty satisfying when it’s your Story, and pretty exposing when you’re on the other side. Though you might enjoy being able to see who is watching your Stories, you’ve likely wondered how to watch other people’s Instagram Stories anonymously.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BBC: Canadian ‘sign war’ captivates the internet. “For the past week, the Canadian town of Listowel has been embroiled in a war of words via business signs that has captivated local residents and people around the world. It started as a battle between two businesses in the Ontario town – Speedy Glass and Dairy Queen (DQ) – and has since spread to the entire town and even further afield. Locals have been joining in, creating fun mottos for their business’ sign.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Security Week: Tesla Car Hacked Remotely From Drone via Zero-Click Exploit. “The attack, dubbed TBONE, involves exploitation of two vulnerabilities affecting ConnMan, an internet connection manager for embedded devices. An attacker can exploit these flaws to take full control of the infotainment system of a Tesla without any user interaction.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Financial Post: Apple hires ex-Google AI scientist who resigned after colleagues’ firing. “Apple Inc said on Monday it has hired former Google distinguished scientist Samy Bengio, who left the search giant amid turmoil in its artificial intelligence research department. Bengio is expected to lead a new AI research unit at Apple under John Giannandrea, senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy, two people familiar with the matter said.” Good evening, Internet…

May 4, 2021 at 06:02AM
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Monday CoronaBuzz, May 3, 2021: 26 pointers to updates, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Monday CoronaBuzz, May 3, 2021: 26 pointers to updates, useful stuff, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Please wear a mask (or even two). Get vaccinated. Wash your hands. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES – MEDICAL/HEALTH

San Francisco Chronicle: New website collects examples of Asian language discrimination in vaccine access. “Language barriers often hinder Asian Americans’ access to lifesaving coronavirus vaccines, says a coalition led by a Bay Area health center. To measure and highlight the problem, Asian Health Services in Oakland unveiled a new website Monday to collect and publish such stories from around the country.”

NEW RESOURCES – LEGAL / SECURITY / PRIVACY / FINANCIAL

Ars Technica: FCC reveals sign-up date and website for $50-per-month broadband subsidies. “Enrollment for $50-per-month broadband subsidies for US residents with low incomes or those who lost income during the pandemic will begin on May 12, the Federal Communications Commission announced today. The FCC also set up a new website at which people can sign up for the subsidies.”

NEW RESOURCES – STATE-SPECIFIC

ABC News 10: New tool allows NYers to evaluate their risks associated with COVID-19. “Greg Olsen, Director of the New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA), is encouraging all New Yorkers to take the CV19 CheckUp. The new feature is a free, anonymous, personalized, online tool that evaluates a person’s risks associated with COVID-19 based on their circumstances. The CV19 CheckUp provides recommendations and resources to help reduce an individual’s pandemic risks.”

UPDATES

BBC: No sign of infection after test concert in Spain, researchers say. “Researchers in Spain have found ‘no sign’ of higher levels of infection among people who took part in a large test concert last month. Six people tested positive within 14 days of attending the gig in Barcelona, but the incidence was lower than that seen in the general population. Around 5,000 music fans took part in the experiment after testing negative for Covid-19.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

San Francisco Chronicle: Pandemic baby bust unprecedented in Bay Area, California history. “U.S. residents are having fewer babies this year. And California’s birth rates in January and February — around the time when early pandemic babies would be due — declined by 15% compared to the same period last year, the steepest year-over-year decline for those months since at least 1960, according to a Chronicle analysis. We used data from California’s Health and Human Services department, which collects monthly birth totals per county. We found that the state’s births declined from nearly 70,000 in the first two months of 2020 to fewer than 59,000 in the same period in 2021.”

MISINFORMATION / DISINFORMATION

Los Alamos National Laboratory: New AI tool tracks evolution of COVID-19 conspiracy theories on social media. “A new machine-learning program accurately identifies COVID-19-related conspiracy theories on social media and models how they evolved over time—a tool that could someday help public health officials combat misinformation online.”

INSTITUTIONS

Catholic News Agency: Vatican Museums to reopen with strict new measures in May. “Throughout the pandemic, the Vatican Museums have followed the Italian government’s measures. During a national lockdown in the spring of 2020, the museums were closed for a total of 12 weeks before reopening on June 1. The Vatican Museums have published a five-page document listing the new rules for visitors.”

BUSINESS / CORPORATIONS

KPEL: Shots For Shots: New Orleans Bars Offer Vaccines. “Bars in New Orleans are doing their part to battle the coronavirus pandemic. Two of the city’s bars are holding events where patrons can get the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.”

CNET: Amazon sales surge as COVID lockdown continues to provide a lift. “There was no announcement in Amazon’s earnings report Thursday that could touch the drama of the previous quarter’s news. In February, CEO Jeff Bezos announced he would step down at mid-year, Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy would take on his role. In the first quarter, Amazon got back to what has been a recurring theme: Making tons of money as more consumers embrace online shopping not as a luxury, but a way of life, in the midst of a pandemic.”

WORLD / FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

CNET: White House to restrict travel from India beginning May 4. “As the number of COVID-19 cases in India continues to skyrocket, along with anecdotal but unconfirmed evidence that a new coronavirus variant called B.1.617 could be driving them, the White House said Friday that the US will begin restricting travel from India starting Tuesday, May 4.”

BBC: Coronavirus: WHO urges African nations to keep expired vaccine. “The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged African countries not to destroy Covid-19 vaccines that may have passed their expiry date. Countries have been told to keep hold of them and wait for further guidance.”

Bloomberg: China Deletes Social Media Posts Mocking India Amid Backlash. “Photos of the Tianhe module launch and its fuel burn-off were compared with what appeared to be a mass outdoor cremation in India, and captioned ‘China lighting a fire versus India lighting a fire.’ The post on Saturday by the Communist Party’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission on its official Sina Weibo account was accompanied by a hashtag noting that new Covid-19 cases in India had surpassed 400,000 a day.”

BBC: Covid: Germany’s Oktoberfest cancelled for the second time. “Authorities in Germany have cancelled the Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich over coronavirus concerns. This is the second year in a row that the event has been called off due to the pandemic.”

STATE / LOCAL GOVERNMENT

US News & World Report: States Are Banning COVID-19 Vaccine Requirements. “As COVID-19 vaccinations continue across the country, Arkansas and Montana are the latest states to advance legislation or enact laws that ban certain requirements – such as vaccine passports or conditions of employment – based on inoculation status.”

CBS News: New Jersey “Shot and a Beer” program gives the vaccinated free beer. “New Jersey is launching a program it’s calling a ‘Shot and a Beer’ to encourage those 21 and older to get vaccinated, Governor Phil Murphy announced Monday. Any New Jersey resident who gets their first COVID-19 vaccine dose in the month of May can take their vaccination card to one of more than a dozen participating breweries for a free beer.”

INDIVIDUALS / BANDS / GROUPS

BBC: Podcast host Joe Rogan clarifies vaccination comments: ‘I’m not anti-vax’. “Hugely popular US podcast host Joe Rogan has backpedalled on his comments that young, healthy people could forgo the coronavirus vaccine.”

Ultimate Classic Rock: Ted Nugent Says He ‘Officially Tested Positive for COVID-19’. “Ted Nugent announced that he tested positive for COVID-19. The rocker took to Facebook to share the news. ‘I got an announcement to make,’ Nugent explained in a video message, noting that ‘everybody told me that I shouldn’t announce this.'”

Washington Post: How two young math geeks solved the mystery of Mexico City’s covid-19 dead. “The mystery surfaced early in the pandemic. Hospitals were jammed with coronavirus victims, but the official death count in Mexico City appeared suspiciously low. Sitting at her dining-room table one afternoon, Laurianne Despeghel, a 31-year-old economic consultant, clicked from chart to chart on her laptop, puzzling over how to uncover the real toll. ‘I think the data exist,’ she typed to Mario Romero Zavala, a fellow math geek. She’d heard that death certificates were stored in a database at the city’s civil registry. But it would be tough to crack.”

HEALTH

ABC News: Can the COVID-19 vaccine affect women’s menstrual cycles? Here’s what we know. “With nearly 30% of U.S. adults fully vaccinated, scientists and doctors still don’t know why — or even if — vaccines might impact menstruation. However, they’re listening to women’s experiences, and calling for more studies to unpack any potential link. And, experts agree these changes are likely to be temporary, and there is no reason for women to worry about fertility.”

New York Times: There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing. “Colleagues reported that even with vaccines on the horizon, they weren’t excited about 2021. A family member was staying up late to watch ‘National Treasure’ again even though she knows the movie by heart. And instead of bouncing out of bed at 6 a.m., I was lying there until 7, playing Words with Friends. It wasn’t burnout — we still had energy. It wasn’t depression — we didn’t feel hopeless. We just felt somewhat joyless and aimless. It turns out there’s a name for that: languishing.”

CNET: MIT COVID study: Masks may be more important indoors than social distancing. “Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Stand at least six feet away from others. These are the guidelines many of us have lived by for the past year, all of them suggested in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, MIT researchers are taking a closer look at the six-foot recommendation to see how effective social distancing really is.”

RESEARCH

ScienceDaily: Impacts of coronavirus lockdowns: New study collects data on pollutants in the atmosphere. “One consequence of the coronavirus pandemic has been global restrictions on mobility. This, in turn, has had an effect on pollution levels in the atmosphere. Researchers from across the world are using this unique opportunity to take measurements, collect data, and publish studies. An international team has now published a comprehensive review providing an overview of results up to September 2020.”

Arizona State University: New data shows impact of COVID-19 on transportation. “Just over a year ago, governments around the world issued stay-at-home orders, significantly changing day-to-day lives in an instant. Working from home, postponing travel, having groceries delivered to front doors and ordering ‘to go’ at restaurants are just a few ways many habits have changed. But which of these changes are likely to be maintained in a post-COVID-19 world?”

OH THAT’S SO NICE

New York Times: Surprise Family Reunion Videos Are Giving Us All the Feels. “Videos of fully vaccinated people surprising their loved ones are making the rounds on social media. The clips fall somewhere between ‘Candid Camera’ and military homecomings, and show family members spontaneously laughing, crying, hugging and wrapping their heads around the fact that someone they haven’t seen in over a year is there in the flesh.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

The Atlantic: Zoom Court Is Changing How Justice Is Served. “Last spring, as COVID‑19 infections surged for the first time, many American courts curtailed their operations. As case backlogs swelled, courts moved online, at a speed that has amazed—and sometimes alarmed—judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys. In the past year, U.S. courts have conducted millions of hearings, depositions, arraignments, settlement conferences, and even trials—nearly entirely in civil cases or for minor criminal offenses—over Zoom and other meeting platforms. As of late February, Texas, the state that’s moved online most aggressively, had held 1.1 million remote proceedings.”

BBC: Covid: Man arrested after infecting 22 people in Majorca. “A man has been arrested in Spain on suspicion of assault after allegedly infecting 22 people with Covid. The 40-year-old is alleged to have continued to go to work and the gym despite having a cough and a temperature of more than 40C (104F). He is said to have walked around his place of work in Majorca, pulling his mask down, coughing and telling colleagues he was going to infect them.”

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!

May 4, 2021 at 02:54AM
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White Shark Logbook, Tokyo Museum Collections, Dare Coast Pirates Jamboree, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, May 3, 2021

White Shark Logbook, Tokyo Museum Collections, Dare Coast Pirates Jamboree, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, May 3, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Boston Herald: Cape Cod shark archive: See where great white sharks go the most each year. “The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy has launched an online archive that reveals where hundreds of great white sharks have visited along the Cape each year. The new online tool, called the ‘White Shark Logbook,’ helps people see the historical detection data for tagged white sharks along Cape Cod. The White Shark Logbook provides users with data from 2010 to 2020, while the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app is for real-time sighting and detection data.”

TimeOut: Six Tokyo museums have put their prized collections online. “A bulk of the digital collection belongs to the Edo-Tokyo Museum (pictured top), which has an online archive of approximately 370,000 items. Count ’em! They span 400 years from the Edo Period (1600-1668) to present day Japan, showcasing how Japanese art has evolved over the centuries.”

State Archives of North Carolina: New online exhibit honors the Dare Coast Pirates Jamboree. “Staff at the Outer Banks History Center have created a new online exhibit honoring the Dare Coast Pirates Jamboree. This was an annual festival held on the Outer Banks of North Carolina from 1955 to 1964. The Pirates Jamboree was conceived as a method of increasing tourism to the Outer Banks during the spring shoulder season (late April to May).” Not a huge exhibit but I’m always here for pirate jamborees.

Mackay Regional Council (Australia): Artspace’s Collection Goes Digital. “Residents can now curate their own digital art exhibition from more than 620 works with the click of a mouse. The works, about half of the Mackay Regional Council Art Collection, have been made available through the Artspace Mackay online collection database and this will continue to be added to.” The collection includes contemporary indigenous art as well as ceramics and books.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Axios: Verizon sells Yahoo and AOL to private equity firm for $5 billion. “Verizon on Monday announced that it will sell its digital media unit, including Yahoo and AOL, to private equity firm Apollo Global Management. Details: Apollo will pay $5 billion for a 90% stake in the business, with Verizon retaining a 10% stake.”

Engadget: Twitter is testing professional profiles for businesses. “Twitter has started testing its redesigned profile for businesses that allows owners to display more information potential customers can see. The Twitter Business account announced the launch of ‘Professional Profiles’ and posted a photo showing what it would look like.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Standard (Hong Kong): RTHK plan to delete content spurs online push. “People online are discussing plans to back up [Radio Television Hong Kong] programs after the public broadcaster said it will delete content that is more than a year old from its YouTube and Facebook. They called on others to download their favorite RTHK programs and reupload them to another platform, with some even providing step-by-step tutorials teaching others how to download programs from YouTube.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Techdirt: Canadian Government Wants To Regulate Social Media Like Broadcast. “Canada has a long history of requiring broadcasters to support and air Canadian content, setting percentages of airtime that must be dedicated to it. While this is controversial and of questionable efficacy, it is at least coherent with regards to television and radio broadcasting over public airwaves — but Bill C-10 would bring streaming services and many other websites under the same regulatory regime, which also includes even more concerning powers to regulate political speech.” Anybody remember the kerfuffle over Canada regulating zines back in the 1990s? Just me? Okay.

RESEARCH & OPINION

Southern Maryland Chronicle: Introducing mdFIND: a Collector App for Unanticipated Artifact Discoveries. “Several months ago, my colleague, Dr. Zac Singer and I began discussing ways to develop a smartphone app that could streamline the process of reporting unanticipated artifact discoveries in the field. To be clear, this app is not meant to replace completion of our standard Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties (MIHP) Archaeological Site Form for reporting newly discovered sites. Rather, we envisioned it as a supplemental tool, not meant for sites, but for individual artifact finds.”

Wired: Here’s how to fix online harassment. No, seriously. “This entire framing of the problem of ‘content moderation’ is flawed. Someone’s experience on a platform is much more than the abuse-likelihood score of each piece of content they see. It is affected by every feature and design choice. Explicit product decisions and machine learning algorithms determine what is given distribution and prominence in timelines and recommendation modules. Prompts and nudges like text composers and big buttons are designed to encourage certain behavior – which is not always good, for instance if they end up motivating quickly-fired retorts and thoughtless replies.” Good afternoon, Internet…

May 4, 2021 at 12:16AM
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Singapore History, South Dakota Historical Collections, Museum Diversity, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, May 3, 2021

Singapore History, South Dakota Historical Collections, Museum Diversity, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, May 3, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

British Library Asian and African Studies Blog: Bollinger Singapore digitisation project completed. “In 2013, through the generous support of William and Judith Bollinger, the British Library embarked upon a five-year project, in collaboration with the National Library Board of Singapore, to digitise materials in the British Library of interest to Singapore…. The digitised materials are being made accessible through the websites of both the British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts and the National Library of Singapore’s BookSG.”

Capital Journal, South Dakota: State Library digitizes 41 volumes of S.D. Historical Collections. “From 1902 to 1982, the Historical Collection series was published biennially by the Department of History — now the S.D. State Historical Society — as part of its mission to collect, preserve, and make accessible the history of the state. All 41 volumes are now available in the Featured Collections section of the S.D. State Library’s Digital Collections.”

EVENTS

Saint Louis Art Museum: National summit on diversity at museums will focus on the Romare Bearden fellowship. “The Saint Louis Art Museum will host arts professionals from around the country for a summit on increasing diversity among professional staff within museums and cultural institutions. The virtual event will focus on the Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellowship, a nearly 30-year program at the museum that has been hailed as a national model.” The event is May 6. It’s free but requires registration.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Gizmodo: New Google Play Store Rules Aim to Weed Out Spammy Apps. “In an attempt to boost confidence in its Play Store offerings, Google has announced new rules that will look to weed out misleading, low-quality apps from its marketplace. In an update published Thursday, the company announced new metadata policies designed to moderate how developers present their apps. The rules, meant to drive more ‘meaningful downloads’ for consumers, will take effect later this year.”

Reuters: Australia’s Seven West Media signs Google, Facebook deals after media law feud. “Australian television and newspaper firm Seven West Media Ltd signed multi-year content deals with Facebook Inc and Google as tough new media laws enabled the industry to secure new revenue sources and adapt to the internet age.”

ScreenRant: Snapchat’s Five Los Angeles AR Monuments: What Are They & How To View Them. “Snapchat has partnered with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to create five augmented reality monuments around LA. The LACMA × Snapchat: Monumental Perspectives artworks were built using Snapchat’s technology and can be viewed through the Snapchat Camera. They are intended for exploring the histories of LA communities and to highlight their perspectives.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

NPR: ‘Renegade’ Rug Makers Create Community, Tufting On TikTok . “While Justin Clarke was scrolling through his TikTok feed last summer, a tufting video came across his screen. He was hooked. In these TikTok videos, tufters draw with an industrial metal tool, making textured zig zags and bright curves on a blank canvas. Their tufting guns shoot out yarn in shaggy lines of color.”

University of Arkansas: Tyson Family Foundation Gift to Create Digital Library and Art Publication Funds . “Mike Bieker, director of the U of A Press and assistant vice chancellor and director of operations and finance, said, ‘As the University of Arkansas Press celebrates its 40th anniversary, we are grateful for this tremendous gift from the Tyson Family Foundation. These funds will be used for two purposes: to digitize our entire collection of books, making them more widely available and accessible than ever before, and to advance our potential in the field of art publishing by supporting scholarship that explores the history and meaning of art and its effect on our lives. These fantastic initiatives would not be possible without the continued support and generosity of the Tyson family.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: How the A.T.F., Key to Biden’s Gun Plan, Became an N.R.A. ‘Whipping Boy’. “If there was one moment that summed up the current state of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, it was when the floor at the agency’s gun-tracing center caved in a couple of years ago under the weight of paper. The accident was not entirely accidental. The gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association, has for years systematically blocked plans to modernize the agency’s paper-based weapons-tracing system with a searchable database. As a result, records of gun sales going back decades are stored in boxes stacked seven high, waiting to be processed, against every wall.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Foreign Policy: Russia Can’t Afford to Block Twitter—Yet. “On March 16, Russia’s internet and media regulator, Roskomnadzor, threatened to block access to Twitter from within Russia in 30 days if the platform failed to comply with government demands to delete content allegedly related to child pornography, suicide, and drug use. But just three weeks later, Roskomnadzor backed away from that threat, citing discussions with Twitter characterized by both sides as productive—although it then reiterated the threat on April 30. At the same time, however, the regulator expressed its intent to continue slowing down Twitter traffic in Russia, as it has done since March, through May 15, an attempt to make the platform less accessible for Russian users. What explains this seemingly confused and contradictory approach from the Russian government?”

Scienmag: C-Path Opens Access To Duchenne Regulatory Science Consortium Database. “Critical Path Institute (C-Path) announced today that it will open access to the Duchenne Regulatory Science Consortium (D-RSC) database to qualified researchers, through its Rare Disease Cures Accelerator, Data and Analytics Platform (RDCA-DAP®). The D-RSC database includes data from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) clinical trials, natural history studies and clinical data collections. The contributors of these datasets have given permission for this data to be shared externally to accelerate therapy development for DMD. DMD is a rare, fatal, genetic neuromuscular disorder that is diagnosed in childhood and primarily affects males.”

BBC: ‘I was terrible at crosswords so I built an AI to do them’. “Matt Ginsberg is good at a lot of things – he is an AI scientist, author, playwright, magician and stunt plane pilot. But he isn’t very good at crosswords. In fact, despite writing them for the New York Times, he says that when they are published, he often cannot solve his own. So when he was sitting in a hotel ballroom losing yet again in a major US crossword competition, he decided to do something about it.” Good morning, Internet…

May 3, 2021 at 06:18PM
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Sunday, May 2, 2021

Zagat, Instagram, TikTok, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, May 2, 2021

Zagat, Instagram, TikTok, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, May 2, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

PR Newswire: The New Zagat: Supporting Local Restaurants Since 1979, the World’s Most Iconic Name in Restaurant Discovery Officially Relaunches (PRESS RELEASE). “Zagat, the most trusted name in restaurant discovery, has officially relaunched. The all-new digital-only platform is designed to improve upon the current state of user-generated content by emphasizing trust, curation, and utility — timed perfectly to meet the moment after a historic year for the restaurant industry. As of today, Zagat’s new digital service is available exclusively for Miami, FL restaurants and diners. As the new product is in its first stages of launch the company plans to roll out additional features as Zagat expands to more cities across the country in the months to follow.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ubergizmo: Instagram Takes On Clubhouse With Audio-Only Livestreams. “This Instagram Live feature basically allows users to turn their video off. This means that the livestream will be audio-only, similar to that of Clubhouse which allows users to broadcast their audio and speak to each other and other participants in real-time.”

CNET: TikTok names new CEO and COO after 8 months of interim leadership. “In a move that TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, categorized as a strategic reorganization, current ByteDance Chief Financial Officer Shouzi Chew will continue in that position while also assuming the role of TikTok chief, and interim TikTok CEO Vanessa Pappas will move into the position of chief operating officer.”

BetaNews: Surprisingly unproblematic KB5001391 update brings speed boost to Windows 10. “File under ‘color us surprised’: the KB5001391 update that Microsoft released for Windows 10 recently has been well-received by users. Feedback about the update shows that people who have installed KB5001391 are happy not only with the fact that it adds News and Interests to the taskbar, but also that it seems to be stable and problem free. Some users are even finding that their system is performing better after installing this particular update.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Arab News: Pakistan restores social media access after suspension on ‘security grounds’. “Pakistan has restored access to multiple social media apps which it temporarily blocked on security grounds on Friday, the country’s telecommunications authority said. The suspension of social media services was part of a crackdown against a religious political party, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), that held violent nationwide protests this week.”

The Verge: Facebook and Instagram notices in iOS apps tell users tracking helps keep them ‘free of charge’. “Facebook is continuing its campaign against Apple’s iOS 14 privacy updates, adding a notice within its iOS app telling users the information it collects from other apps and websites can “help keep Facebook free of charge.” A similar message was seen on Instagram’s iOS app (Facebook is Instagram’s parent company).”

Idaho Press: Connecting manufacturers: U of I student helps build app for Idaho companies statewide. “Idaho has more than 3,000 manufacturers. What it doesn’t have is a way for them to find and connect with one another. Nicole Handlen, an economics and international studies student at the University of Idaho, is changing that with an app. The foundation of any app is data. Handlen’s research started by identifying as many ways to collect data on manufacturers in Idaho as possible. The senior’s research — and resulting database — created the most extensive picture of the Gem State’s manufacturing sector.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

NBC News: In nod to Trump, Florida is set to ban ‘deplatforming’ by tech companies. “Florida is on track to be the first state in the nation to punish social media companies that ban politicians like former President Donald Trump under a bill approved Thursday by the state’s Republican-led Legislature.”

Miami Herald: Hackers post online thousands of Broward schools files, including student, teacher info . “Hackers who broke into Broward County Public Schools’ computer system last month made good on their threat this week to release thousands of files that they stole from the district. The group, known as Conti, published almost 26,000 files on its website, which threatens other businesses and organizations they target that unless they pay ransoms, their files, which may contain personal information, will be released as well.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

AP: Scientists put GPS in trash to find out how far it travels . “Scientists are placing GPS devices inside plastic bottles to study how trash enters the watershed and travels downstream, with the ultimate goal being to reduce pollution in rivers and oceans.”

The Aggie: The inevitable death of Snapchat has arrived. “We can speculate forever about the features of Snapchat, but one of the main reasons why Snapchat doesn’t do as well as other platforms is that you can’t truly cultivate your online persona on the app, which is sort of the reason why we go on social media. The permanence of posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all contribute to our personal brands. If everything you post on Snapchat eventually disappears, could there ever really be a sense of a persona?”

Analytics India: What Happened When Google Threw All Voice Data To The Blender. Answer: SpeechStew. “Training large models is a massive challenge as it requires collecting and annotating vast amounts of data. It is particularly challenging in the case of speech recognition models. To overcome this challenge, a team from Google Research and Google Brain have introduced an AI model, SpeechStew. The model is trained on a combination of datasets to achieve state-of-the-art results on various speech recognition benchmarks.” Good evening, Internet…

May 3, 2021 at 04:17AM
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Friday, April 30, 2021

First Nations Elders, North Carolina Newspapers, Ballet Dancer Careers, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, April 30, 2021

First Nations Elders, North Carolina Newspapers, Ballet Dancer Careers, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, April 30, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

CBC: Online project aims to preserve voices, knowledge of First Nations elders. “An elder based in Treaty 3 Territory in northwestern Ontario says he hopes a new website will help to preserve traditional Anishinaabe language and culture for generations to come. The recently launched [site] features podcasts, videos and songs recorded by elders eager to share their knowledge.”

DigitalNC: The Jones County Journal, 1949-1961, Added to DigitalNC. “We’re pleased to have added to DigitalNC over 600 issues of the Jones County Journal, dating from the first issue in 1949 through 1961. This paper has been digitized on behalf of the Neuse Regional Library System which serves Greene, Lenoir, and Jones Counties. Due to the quality of the microfilm from which these scans were completed, most of the photographs in the newspaper are of poor quality or completely dark, however the text has rendered clear.”

Penn State Collegian: Penn State student-made database Éclaireur seeks to help ballet dancers further their careers. “Dancers on the website who are looking for programs can search using factors like dates they are available, the location and their tuition budget… Some of the other search factors include in-person or online programs, as well as housing options.” I couldn’t find the actual URL for the database anywhere in the article! It’s https://www.eclaireur.info/ . The site is not finished yet and I couldn’t get some of the searches to work. But there’s already plenty here to browse.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Neowin: Vivaldi 3.8 banishes annoying cookie messages on desktop and mobile. “The web browser maker, Vivaldi, has announced the release of Vivaldi 3.8 on desktop and on mobile. Both come with unique features specific to their environments but they both share a new feature that banishes those annoying cookie pop-ups from appearing.”

Funding updates: both Indigipedia and Scout were fully funded and will proceed. Scout is a new search engine project and Indigipedia is an digital encyclopedia of indigenous knowledge.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CNN: Germany to return looted Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. “In a joint declaration published Thursday, Germany’s Ministry of Culture, state ministers and museum directors committed to ‘substantive returns’ of Benin bronzes — artworks made of bronze, brass and ivory that were taken by the British army in a raid on the Kingdom of Benin, in present-day Nigeria, in 1897.”

New Zealand Herald: Instagram deletes accounts of Kiwi small business owners without a reason. “Hannah Koumakis is one of hundreds of New Zealanders using Instagram to grow her small business, which sells handmade and vintage womenswear. Her account had several thousand followers and she recently quit her day job to focus on the store, which ran exclusively from her Instagram account. But a few weeks ago, the account vanished without explanation.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

WUSA: MPD officer files obtained in server cyberattack, Chief Contee says. “Police files containing personal information on some MPD officers were compromised following a cyberattack on one of the DC Police Department’s internal servers, according to acting Chief Robert Contee. Hackers had previously claimed they’d posted confidential officer dossiers online. In an email sent to DC Police, Contee said files containing personal information had been obtained during a Babuk ransomware attack.”

BBC: Apple charged over ‘anti-competitive’ app policies. “Apple has been charged with breaking EU competition rules over the way it runs its App Store. European Commission anti-trust regulator Margrethe Vestager tweeted that ‘consumers are losing out’. It relates to charges brought two years ago by music streaming app Spotify which claimed that Apple was stifling innovation in that industry.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

News .com .au: Twitter reveals half of all extremist posts on platform advocate for violence against civilians. “Twitter has revealed almost half of all extremists who post on its platform have advocated for violence against civilians. Speaking before Parliament’s intelligence and security committee, Twitter head of public policy Kathleen Reen shared the shocking statistic but said completely wiping out ideological discussion from the platform would only add further tension.”

Johns Hopkins University: Next-generation database will democratize access to massive amounts of turbulence data. “Led by Johns Hopkins University, a team of 10 researchers from three institutions is using a new $4 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation to create a next-generation turbulence database that will enable groundbreaking research in engineering and the atmospheric and ocean sciences. This powerful tool will let researchers from all over the world access data from some of the largest world-class numerical simulations of turbulent flows. Such simulations are very costly and their outputs are traditionally very difficult to share among researchers due to the data sets’ massive size.”

South China Morning Post: China makes ‘world’s largest satellite image database’ to train AI better. “A satellite imaging database containing detailed information of more than a million locations has been launched in China to help reduce artificial intelligence’s errors when identifying objects from space, the Chinese Academy of Sciences said on Wednesday. The fine-grained object recognition in high-resolution remote sensing imagery (FAIR1M) database was tens or even hundreds of times larger than similar data sets used in other countries, it said.” Good afternoon, Internet…

April 30, 2021 at 09:48PM
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