New researches

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

The Guggenheim Panza Collection Initiative, Triathlon Data, Texas Podcast Network, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, May 25, 2021

The Guggenheim Panza Collection Initiative, Triathlon Data, Texas Podcast Network, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, May 25, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

City Life Org: New Guggenheim Publication And Digital Archive Share Findings On The Preservation And Presentation Of Minimal, Post-minimal, And Conceptual Art. “The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presents Object Lessons: Case Studies in Minimal Art—The Guggenheim Panza Collection Initiative, a major print publication contributing new scholarship on a critical period in art production and the field of conservation. In addition, the museum has launched a new digital archive, the Panza Collection Initiative Records.”

SportsPro: PTO creates online portal for triathlon data analytics and statistics. “The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has hailed a ‘new era in athlete and fan engagement for triathlon’ after launching a new data analytics and statistics website. The new platform… will become a single destination for key performance stats and analytics on all PTO professionals, including all-time record scores and times, as well as all major long-course triathlon results since 1978.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

University of Texas at Austin: UT Austin Launches the Texas Podcast Network. “Over half of Americans listen to podcasts, and there are a lot out there for them to choose from. The Texas Podcast Network is a great way to discover the podcasts being made across campus. Currently, there are 16 shows on the network, and the number is growing. These shows bring you into conversations about research and campus culture, covering topics from policy to science to student life.” I looked at the list and there was very little here that would be of interest solely to a UT Austin student. Looks like a good list.

TechRadar: Keep prying eyes off your Google search history with this new account tweak. “It’s no secret that Google tracks your activity when you use its hardware and software – whether it be an Android device, smart speaker or even just Google Chrome – but how secure is this activity log? At present, anyone with access to a logged-in device can view this log, but as discovered by Android Police, Google has recently introduced a way to password protect the ‘My Activity’ page.”

US Department of Education: Explore U.S. History at our Nation’s Most Hallowed Ground. “Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) is considered America’s most hallowed ground and a sacred shrine to service and sacrifice. More than 400,000 people are laid to rest at ANC including former presidents, astronauts, civil rights activists, medical professionals, and prominent military figures. ANC recently launched an education program for students, families, and lifelong learners.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Hong Kong Free Press: How China is sweeping up its own social media mess. “…the China Chang’an Web post, which was subsequently deleted, was an embarrassment underscoring a far more widespread problem: rampant negligence and mismanagement among the very government affairs new media that were promoted 12 years ago in China as a breakthrough in communication between the government and the public.”

Al Jazeera: Gaza-based journalists say their accounts blocked by WhatsApp. “According to the Associated Press, 17 journalists in Gaza confirmed their WhatsApp accounts had been blocked since Friday. By midday Monday, only four journalists – working for Al Jazeera – confirmed their accounts had been restored.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: German antitrust watchdog investigates Google over data use. “Germany’s antitrust watchdog has launched a probe into whether Google Germany, Google Ireland and its parent company Alphabet are exploiting their market dominance in the way they handle data, it said on Tuesday.”

Lawfare Blog: Is the Facebook Oversight Board an International Human Rights Tribunal?. “Key Oversight Board design features—such as its ability to issue binding rulings and nonbinding recommendations, as well as the standards it applies—resemble those of international human rights tribunals. In addition, the board is developing answers to procedural questions that resemble the responses these institutions have adopted. The Trump decision also reveals that the board faces challenges to its authority and legitimacy similar to those that new international review bodies have confronted.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

International Atomic Energy Agency: IAEA Tool for Self-Assessment of National Nuclear and Radiation Safety Infrastructure Now Available Online . “The IAEA has launched a web-based version of its self-assessment tool — eSARIS — with additional features and advanced functionalities to support Member States in assessing their nuclear and radiation safety framework, to either strengthen the national regulatory infrastructure or in preparation for an IAEA Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) mission.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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May 25, 2021 at 11:44PM
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San Francisco Concert Photography, Richard Wagner Foundation, Google Photos, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, May 25, 2021

San Francisco Concert Photography, Richard Wagner Foundation, Google Photos, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, May 25, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

SF Weekly: San Francisco’s Musical Legacy Remembered. “It’s hard to choose a favorite among San Francisco photojournalist and diehard environmentalist Greg Gaar’s extraordinary collection of 1,114 concert photos — taken between 1972 and 1989 at venues across the Bay Area — through which icons of the city’s eclectic and vibrant music history live on.”

Richard Wagner Museum, machine translated from German: Online collection: The most important part of the National Archives of the Richard Wagner Foundation Bayreuth is now accessible on the Internet. “The core of the archive, namely the handwritten estate of Richard and Cosima and the artistic estate of Siegfried Wagner, is now accessible online from the previously purely reference inventory…. The convenient search for the high-resolution, highly detailed digitized documents can be carried out by the names of persons involved, such as authors or addressees, by dates and locations of origin, signatures or keywords.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Android Central: Google Photos launches new storage management tool ahead of policy change. “Google Photos will soon enforce its new storage policy, which will no longer provide free storage for high-quality uploads for most users. To help ease the transition, Google is launching a new tool that will help users to manage their Google Photos storage to free up space. The new review tool in Google Photos will help sort the files that users may not want, taking up precious space. It will allow users to pull up blurry images or large files, taking up too much space from the free 15GB allotment.”

Mashable: Twitch’s new content tags are long overdue but they’ll need back-up. “With a bit more than a week to go before Pride Month kicks off on June 1, Twitch is launching a new collection of 350-plus content tags aimed at boosting the discoverability of marginalized voices. It’s a ridiculously late change for a tagging feature that was first introduced in 2018, but still a welcome one for content creators on the site who have long sought ways to increase their visibility on a crowded and noisy streaming platform.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: How to Make a 3D Map in Excel. “When visualizing and exploring geographic data, you can use Microsoft 3D Maps in Excel to project and analyze the data in a more meaningful way. Excel includes the Microsoft 3D Maps, a brand new tool to plot 3D charts using geographical data. This tool is available to Excel users from the 2016 version of Microsoft Office. Microsoft 3D Maps tool enables you to explore geodata in a new and effective approach.” You might see the first three numbered paragraphs and think, “Ugh, shallow overview article with no how-to.” Keep going; Tamal Das gets to the good Excel stuff pretty quick.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Complex: A Guide to the Rap Social Media Universe. “The internet has its corners for everyone, and we put together a guide to highlight some of the most notable communities. This isn’t a completely uniform roundup, because some platforms are actual DSPs whereas others offer mixed media experiences, but the guide shows how different communities, and different rap subgenres, have their ideal digital spaces.” How can you mention rap Twitter and not mention Ice T (@FINALLEVEL) or Missy Elliott ( @MissyElliott )?

ESPN Press Room: The Undefeated and Getty Images Join Forces to Spotlight the Black Experience through Visual Storytelling. “The Undefeated, ESPN’s multimedia initiative exploring the intersection of sports, race and culture, and Getty Images, a world leader in visual communications, today announced a creative agreement that will see the two companies collaborate on visual stories that spotlight the Black experience.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Moscow Times: Russia Gives Google 24 Hour Ultimatum to Remove Banned Content. “Russia’s internet regulator has threatened to slow down Google services in Russia if it does not comply with requests to delete content within 24 hours, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency has reported. The federal communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said Monday that Google had failed to remove 20-30% of links to content which it says are prohibited in Russia — a controversial category which includes content promoting drug use and featuring child pornography, as well as posts Russia says encourage under-18s to attend unauthorized protests.”

TechCrunch: Police in India visited Twitter offices over ‘manipulated media’ label . “Delhi police, controlled by India’s central government, on Monday evening visited two offices of Twitter — in the national capital state of Delhi and Gurgaon, in the neighboring state of Haryana — to seek more information about Twitter’s rationale to label one of the tweets by ruling partly BJP spokesperson as ‘manipulated media.'”

CNET: Facebook, Twitter and Google could get fined for banning candidates under new Florida law. “Large tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google could get slapped with fines if they bar political candidates in Florida from their platforms, under a new law signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Harvard Gazette: Tracking progression of disease through internet searches for symptoms. “You’re not feeling well so you open a search engine and type: fever, dry cough, hoping to find hints of what you may have. A handful of days later, you’re feeling worse, and you type in: trouble breathing. It turns out you’re not the only one who’s doing this, and a Harvard senior’s research project suggests that tracking the results of all those searches can tell us something about the progression of a new disease in individuals and through a population.”

EurekAlert: Posts to Reddit forum “SuicideWatch” spike in the early hours of Monday morning. “New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London has found that people on a social media suicide support forum are most likely to post to the site during the early hours of Monday morning.” Good morning, Internet…

May 25, 2021 at 05:25PM
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Monday, May 24, 2021

Afghanistan Box Cameras, Death Row Records, Disney Snapchat Lenses, More: Monday Evening ResearchBuzz, May 24, 2021

Afghanistan Box Cameras, Death Row Records, Disney Snapchat Lenses, More: Monday Evening ResearchBuzz, May 24, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from Gandhara: The Amazing Rise And Fall Of Century-Old Afghan Box Cameras. “Irish ethnographer Sean Foley and Austrian photographer Lukas Birk also were fascinated by the kamra-e-faoree photographers they saw during their repeated visits to Afghanistan from 2002 to 2012. Birk and Foley co-authored a book in 2013 called Afghan Box Camera. They also launched an online archive about Afghanistan’s photographic history and culture called The Afghan Box Camera Project.”

All HipHop: Death Row Records Launches “Death Row Experience” Virtual Gallery. “As part of the Death Row Records 30th-anniversary celebration, the Los Angeles-based company presents the ‘Death Row Experience.’ The virtual retrospective gallery is now open to the public online.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Disney Parks Blog: Disney PhotoPass Service x Snap: Announcing New PhotoPass Snapchat Lenses and Can’t-Miss Surprises for the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary!. “The Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse Lenses will be available in the Snapchat app* only at Walt Disney World Resort, but to celebrate the launch – and other special experiences to come! – you can try them at home, anywhere in the U.S., until June 3.”

AP: EPA brings back website showing increased climate change risks. “After a gap of more than four years, the Environmental Protection Agency is relaunching a website highlighting evidence of climate change in the United States, including rising temperatures, increased ocean acidity, sea level rise, river flooding, droughts, heat waves, and wildfires.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Black Art in America: More Museums Are Looking In Their Backyards For Artists To Exhibit. “The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri used the downtime created by the pandemic to take a fresh look not only at its collection but also its relationship to its neighbors. It wasn’t the first time that the museum took a comprehensive inventory. When Julián Zugazagoitia, CEO & Director of the Nelson-Atkins, took over in 2010 he spearheaded an 18 month study where museum leaders concluded that the public wants to ‘discover’ art for themselves rather than have the museum dictate what they should like or consider important. The museum implemented innovative programming and, by 2018, attendance was up 43 percent.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Nikkei Asia: Does China plan an even tougher cryptocurrency crackdown?. “The three industry organizations — the National Internet Finance Association of China, the China Banking Association and the Payment & Clearing Association of China — said a number of actions involving cryptocurrency trading are unlawful…. The joint statement also informed investors of risks associated with cryptocurrency transactions, including fictitious assets, business failures and speculation.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

USC News: Got old sneakers and wine corks to recycle? This USC grad student has an app for that. “Friends and classmates were initially confused about why someone with more than a decade of experience in the oil industry would want to make a recycling app. [Akhtan] Tumyshev gives the credit to his mother, who headed the environmental department of an oil company in Kazakhstan. She traveled the country to visit different oil fields and take soil, air and water samples to monitor pollution levels. Young Akhtan would tag along on some of those trips. The experiences instilled him with a sense of environmental responsibility, he said.”

Phys .org: From Avocet to Zebra Finch: big data study finds more than 50 billion birds in the world. “There are roughly 50 billion individual birds in the world, a new big data study by UNSW Sydney suggests—about six birds for every human on the planet. The study—which bases its findings on citizen science observations and detailed algorithms—estimates how many birds belong to 9700 different bird species, including flightless birds like emus and penguins.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

KIMT: Mayo Clinic Launching “Carillon Cam” Livestream. “The decision to have the tunes streamed comes as more people are still working from home. People who are no longer in The Med City have also reached out and told Mayo Clinic they miss the sounds from it. Carillonneur Austin Ferguson is super excited to have his music reach more ears.” A carillon is a musical instrument consisting of bronze bells which are “played” with a keyboard. You can learn more about them here. Good evening, Internet…

May 25, 2021 at 05:54AM
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Fighting Game Glossary, Royal Institute of British Architects, Blocks Magazine, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, May 24, 2021

Fighting Game Glossary, Royal Institute of British Architects, Blocks Magazine, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, May 24, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

IGN: The Fighting Game Glossary Is an Incredible Resource for New Players. “Members of the fighting game community have revealed The Fighting Game Glossary, a new website that explores, defines and breaks down fighting game terminology for old and new players alike…. Per [fighting game community member] Infil, the glossary includes, ‘Over 650 terms carefully explained with 200+ video examples and Japanese translations. Easily search by term or game, share links to terms with your friends, and explore related concepts without losing your place’.”

Wallpaper: RIBA announces Google Arts and Culture partnership. “The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has unveiled a new platform on Google Arts and Culture. The platform launches with 15 online stories free to view, from the creation of New York’s Central Park to a deep-dive into the aesthetically-pleasing Picturesque movement.”

Brickset: Digital archive of Blocks magazine now online. “Blocks is delighted to announce that we’re opening up the back catalogue, providing access to more than 80 digital back issues of the LEGO magazine for fans, including the rare pilot issue. Print subscribers will get this new perk completely free for the duration of their subscription!”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeTechEasier: Everything You Need to Know About the iOS Keyboard. “As a key component for typing anything, the iOS keyboard is an essential and invaluable part of the whole iOS system. Since you are spending a lot of time typing on it, why not learn the best iOS keyboard tips and tricks and get the best out of it? While there are numerous third-party keyboards that promise to make your life better, learning the default keyboard is the best course of action. Here are some of the most important things you need to know about the iOS keyboard.”

Mashable: The 25 best educational podcasts for learning what you missed in school . “Podcasts radically shift the dynamics around who gets to teach, and who gets to learn. A lot of the most beloved and popular shows, like Radiolab and Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, basically boil down to what you wish your science or history class had been like in the first place. Many others, like 1619 and You’re Wrong About, aim to correct the misinformation in many accepted cultural narratives from both our near and distant pasts. Now, obviously, podcasts can’t replace a world-class, bonafide, IRL, teacher-to-student relationship. But they can teach us more than a few vital lessons. Here are a few of our most educational favorites.”

Fstoppers: How to Create a 360×180 Spherical Pano With Any Camera. “First, let me start out by saying that the absolute easiest way to take full 360×180 spherical panos is to buy a 360-degree camera. These cameras used to be really expensive, but now, you can buy some pocket-sized versions for less than $1,000 that can create perfect panos instantly. But, if you don’t want to buy more gear, I’ll tell you how to do it with whatever camera you currently own.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

EurekAlert: Digital disclosure of Dutch East India Company archives by Huygens Institute. “Together with the VU Amsterdam, the National Archives, the International Institute for Social History and the Humanities Cluster of the Royal Netherlands Academy, the Huygens Institute for History of the Netherlands is building a state-of-the-art scientific infrastructure, enabling a better understanding of colonial history, the Dutch East India Company and the early-modern histories of countries and cultures of the Indian Ocean and Indonesian Archipelago Worlds.”

CBC: Black market in Google reviews means you can’t believe everything you read. “When Roman Abramovich, a Russian billionaire and owner of the English Premier League’s Chelsea Football Club, appeared to have posted a Google review complaining that a Manitoba moving company lost three of his watches, Chris Pereira knew something was wrong. The oligarch had never been a customer at Riverbend Moving and Storage, a small business that offers residential and commercial moving services in Winnipeg. The review was fake, and fit a pattern that Pereira, the company’s vice president of sales, had been observing for months — a slew of made-up complaints targeting the company’s online reputation.”

KBS World: Digital Archive on Japan’s Wartime Sexual Slavery to be Set up in UCLA. “A digital archive with translated primary sources and documentary evidence on Japan’s wartime sexual slavery is set to be established at the University of California, Los Angeles(UCLA). Comfort Women Action for Redress and Education(CARE), an advocacy group for the victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery, said Tuesday that the online archive will be set up at UCLA’s Center for Korean Studies as early as July. ”

RESEARCH & OPINION

AFP: Fans of Sci-Hub are mobilizing to save the pirate science platform. “A group of Reddit users are protesting against the FBI’s attempts to pressure Alexandra Elbakyan, creator of the Sci-Hub website, which publishes scientific studies for free. The community is mobilizing around her vision: to create a digital library of scientific articles accessible for free.” Good afternoon, Internet…

May 25, 2021 at 12:16AM
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Lyndon B. Johnson Phone Calls, Compendium of U.S. Jails, Jack Stout, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, May 24, 2021

Lyndon B. Johnson Phone Calls, Compendium of U.S. Jails, Jack Stout, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, May 24, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

LBJ Presidential Library: LBJ Presidential Library celebrates its 50th anniversary with LBJ’s recorded telephone conversations. “Designed and built by the Miller Center’s web team, the website, ‘Inside the Presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson,’ will focus on more than 100 pivotal telephone conversations spanning key areas of the Johnson presidency. While listening to a conversation, users will be able to read the scrolling transcript and each telephone recording webpage includes supporting historical materials such as photographs, documents, biographies, and oral histories from the LBJ Library and Miller Center collections.”

Health & Justice Journal: The Compendium of U.S. jails: creating and conducting research with the first comprehensive contact database of U.S. jails. “Millions of people pass through U.S. jails annually. Conducting research about these public institutions is critical to understanding on-the-ground policies and practices, especially health care services, affecting millions of people. However, there is no existing database of the number, location, or contact information of jails. We created the National Jails Compendium to address this gap. In this paper, we detail our comprehensive methodology for identifying jail locations and contact information. We then describe the first research project to use the Compendium, a survey assessing jails’ treatment practices for incarcerated pregnant people with opioid use disorder.”

EMS1: National EMS Museum publishes online archive of writings by late EMS visionary Jack Stout. “The National EMS Museum has published an online archive of the writings of late EMS visionary Jack Stout through a partnership between FirstWatch and the Academy of International Mobile Healthcare Integration (AIMHI). The Jack Stout Archive is an open-access collection of more than 100 of Stout’s articles and essays, digitized through funding from FirstWatch and AIMHI, according to a press release.”

AP: Old records shed new light on smallpox outbreaks in 1700s. “A highly contagious disease originating far from America’s shores triggers deadly outbreaks that spread rapidly, infecting the masses. Shots are available, but a divided public agonizes over getting jabbed. Sound familiar? Newly digitized records — including a minister’s diary scanned and posted online by Boston’s Congregational Library and Archives — are shedding fresh light on devastating outbreaks of smallpox that hit the city in the 1700s.”

Vice: The Website Amplifying the Search for Missing Black People. “Across the UK, Black people have been going missing in disproportionate numbers. Despite making up only 3.3 percent of the population of England and Wales, National Crime Agency statistics indicate that Black people made up 14 percent of missing persons cases in 2019 and 2020 – over four times their relative population. In London, 36 percent of missing persons in the city were Black, almost three times their city population of 13.3 percent. Dominic Norton, a self-taught software developer, is hoping to step up the search for missing Black people in the UK. ”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Dot LA: Snap Unveils Its New AR Glasses and Innovation Lab. “Snap unveiled its latest AR glasses, pushing deeper into the technology it considers its big bet. Chief executive Evan Spiegel demonstrated the latest version of ‘Spectacles’ that overlay computer graphics atop the wearer’s field of vision during the company’s annual partner summit on Thursday.”

Publishers Weekly: Amazon Publishing, DPLA Ink Deal to Lend E-books in Libraries. “The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) today announced that it has signed a much-anticipated agreement with Amazon Publishing to make all of the roughly 10,000 Amazon Publishing e-books and digital audiobooks available to libraries, the first time that digital content from Amazon Publishing will be made available to libraries.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: QAnon believers go undercover to spread conspiracies online…and it’s working. “The reason you may not be seeing so much QAnon online isn’t because they’re not there. It’s because they’ve gone undercover. QAnon content is still spreading on mainstream social media platforms thanks to a number of tactics its believers are using to get around the bans.”

CNN: Google to open its first retail store to sell devices. “Almost exactly 20 years to the day after Apple opened its first retail store, Google is finally following suit. The company announced Thursday that it is opening its first physical retail store, called Google Store, this summer in New York City. The store will be located under its offices in the Chelsea neighborhood, where it employs many of its more than 11,000 employees in the city.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Monash University: New study finds ancient Australian Aboriginal memory tool superior to “memory palace” learning among medical students. “The researchers found that the students who used the Aboriginal technique for remembering – ie a narrative plus locations from around the campus – were almost three times more likely to correctly remember the entire list than they were prior to training (odds ratio – 2.8). The students using the memory palace technique were about twice as likely to get a perfect score after training (2.1), while the control group improved by about 50% (1.5) over their pre-training performance.”

EurekAlert: Warnings on the dangers of screen time are ill founded — New study. “University researchers have carried out the largest systematic review and meta-analysis to date of how people’s perceptions of their screen time compare with what they do in practice, finding estimates of usage were only accurate in about five per cent of studies.”

Loyola Marymount University: Snapchat, Instagram Linked to Alcohol Abuse Among College Students. “Exposure to alcohol-related content on social media is associated with increased drinking among college students, according to several new studies from researchers at Loyola Marymount University. The effect stems from perceptions of drinking norms — the idea that everyone else is drinking, or drinking a lot, which in turn drives how much or how often college students really do consume alcohol, said Joe LaBrie, LMU psychology professor and lead author of the studies.” Good morning, Internet…

May 24, 2021 at 05:31PM
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Sunday, May 23, 2021

Wholesale Energy Prices, Tennessee Early Readers, Missing Persons Montana, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, May 23, 2021

Wholesale Energy Prices, Tennessee Early Readers, Missing Persons Montana, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, May 23, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Berkeley Lab Electricity Markets & Policy: New data tool explores trends in wholesale power prices and renewable energy supply. “Variable renewable generation can have important impacts to pricing patterns at the local level, but those patterns are often obscured when looking at regional average annual pricing trends. The Renewables and Wholesale Electricity Prices (ReWEP) tool allows users to compare pricing trends across locations, regions, and a number of different timeframes, down to the nodal level. These comparisons illustrate the ongoing interactions between wind and solar generation and wholesale energy prices.”

Chattanooga Times Free Press: State education department launches free decodable books program to strengthen K-2 reading skills. “The Tennessee Department of Education has a new tool in its effort to make students proficient readers by the time they enter third grade. Called ‘decodables,’ the free, at-home reading supplement for students in kindergarten through second grade helps parents work with their youngsters to build reading skills and practice phonics.”

KHQ: New database and portal aims to ‘streamline’ reports of missing indigenous people. “The Blackfeet Community College unveiled a new portal that will help people report cases of Montana’s missing and murdered indigenous people…. People can submit a missing persons report, which will get sent to local law enforcement agencies. The coalition will make sure that agencies got it, and will keep in touch with the person who submitted it. They’ll also post the report on social media pages.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Input: Scan Band turns your lunch into a playable AR musical instrument. “Artiphon, the company behind novel musical instruments the Orba (which we reviewed last year) and Instrument 1, has made an augmented reality (AR) app called Scan Band that lets users turn objects around them into virtual instruments…. Once a user’s opened Scan Band in Snapchat they can point their cameras at quotidien objects (like food, pets, plants) and they’ll be transformed into AR stickers. They can then bang out sounds on the stickers.”

RouteNote: Pinterest launches Idea Pins – TikTok meets Stories. “Even Pinterest has Stories now. The platform’s new Idea Pins let creators add pages of videos to their profile, with voiceovers and music.”

CNET: Twitter’s Ticketed Spaces to launch in coming weeks. “Twitter is preparing to launch its Ticketed Spaces feature in the next couple of weeks, the company announced Friday, enabling people to host live, paid shows on the platform.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: How to Use Zoom Video Filters. “Zoom has become a popular pick for video conferencing. It may be for meetings, webinars, classes, or even catching up with friends. However, if we’re honest, facing a screen full of poker-faced people can be pretty boring if not their still photos or their names. In this article, we guide you on how to use built-in and third-party Zoom filters that you can show off at your next Zoom meeting.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Yahoo: Google CEO: Our ultimate moonshot is still Search. “For Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, his ‘ultimate moonshot’ is still Search, the company’s iconic and enormously successful search engine.” I’d comment but I’m afraid I’d melt the keyboard.

SECURITY & LEGAL

United States Department of Justice: Four Individuals Plead Guilty to RICO Conspiracy Involving “Bulletproof Hosting” for Cybercriminals. “Four Eastern European nationals have pleaded guilty to conspiring to engage in a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) arising from their providing ‘bulletproof hosting’ services between 2008 and 2015, which were used by cybercriminals to distribute malware and attack financial institutions and victims throughout the United States.”

ProPublica: Addressing Rape in Four Minutes or Less: Dating App Reps Left Unprepared to Respond to Assault Victims. “The multibillion-dollar online dating industry has no meaningful standards for responding to reports of offline harm and removing those responsible from its platforms, Columbia Journalism Investigations and ProPublica found. Despite pledges to shield users from sexual predators, the companies have done little to abide by them. Most companies have loosely defined procedures that force employees to rely on their own judgment. Dating app users who report an attack, like [Natalie] Dong, often have to badger companies to take action.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Analytics India: How AI Is Breathing Life Into Animation. “According to Statista, the global animation market is expected to grow from $259 billion in 2018 to 270 billion by 2020. Animation has reached new heights because of the rapid evolution of deep learning and the proliferation of software tools. Here are some examples of how Artificial intelligence and machine learning are bringing animation to life in studios.”

BBC: Could my mum’s toaster help me care for her?. “An emerging technology allows relatives to keep an eye on elderly or vulnerable people living alone by monitoring their electricity usage – but as with all innovations, there is the potential for misuse.” Good morning, Internet…

May 23, 2021 at 09:01PM
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Saturday, May 22, 2021

Helsinki Photography, Ancient Chinese Books, RSS in Chrome, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, May 22, 2021

Helsinki Photography, Ancient Chinese Books, RSS in Chrome, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, May 22, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from PetaPixel: Helsinki Has a Website of 65,000 Free Photos Anyone Can Use. “The collection has been around since 2017 and is operated by Helsinki City Museum, which has free admission and is the world’s only museum focused on Helsinki’s history and heritage. The museum has a vast collection of roughly 1 million photographs, of which a sizable portion has been digitized and put online for the world to view (and more are being added on a regular basis).”

China .org: Digitization helps to build online library of historical tomes. “For the 26th World Book and Copyright Day last week, 10 Chinese libraries jointly released the digitized editions of over 1,700 volumes of ancient Chinese books. This is the fourth expansion of the national database of ancient Chinese books since it went online in 2016. The database was launched by the National Center for Preservation and Conservation of Ancient Books, headquartered at the National Library of China in Beijing.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Lifehacker: How to Try Google’s Experimental New RSS Feature in Chrome Canary. “Google is testing an experimental RSS-based ‘Follow’ feature in Chrome Canary on Android. Google says the feature is only an ‘experiment’ for now and will decide whether to implement the feature publicly based on user and developer feedback, but this seems like good news for RSS lovers like me.” I’d rather Google Reader came back, to be honest.

CNET: Record and transcribe your Zoom meetings with this new tool, here’s how. “Zoom calls are a part of daily life for many professionals and as companies examine hybrid workplace models, that’s not likely to change anytime soon. A new tool from note-taking app Otter.ai aims to help you keep track of what happens during your Zoom meetings by automatically recording and transcribing notes so you don’t have to.”

BetaNews: Microsoft is finally ready to kill off Internet Explorer once and for all… for most people. “Internet Explorer may be a stalwart of the world of web browsers, but it has also been an object of ridicule and derision for pretty much its entire life. Since the emergence of the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, the writing has been on the wall for the browser just about everyone loves to hate, but IE has been lingering for longer than many people would have expected. But now Microsoft is finally ready to pull the plug. Sort of.”

USEFUL STUFF

The World: ‘How to Report a Hate Crime’ booklets empower Asian Americans amid rise in discrimination. “From the kitchen counter of her parent’s house, where she was quarantining last spring, [Esther] Lim created free booklets aptly called ‘How to Report a Hate Crime.’ In about 15 pages, readers learn what to do and who to call if they are a victim. The booklets have now been translated into nine languages, including Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean. Lim says she has plans for expansion to reach other vulnerable communities, but over the past year, the booklets have mostly been distributed to elderly Asians across the US.”

FStoppers: How To Create a Cinematic Photo Series for Instagram. “There once was a time that you took a photograph you liked and you put it on Instagram and received likes, comments, and followers. It feels so ago now that I can barely remember how rewarding it must have been. Then, algorithm change upon monetization upon algorithm change happened, and many of the users were left confused and deflated. In all honesty, it sapped my interest in the platform almost entirely. However, it is still a great tool for photographers to share their work with large audiences and to even find clients and collaborators. The problem is, you need to be smarter than ever before to get even the thinnest sliver of the attention pie.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BNN Bloomberg: Google Request to Move State Antitrust Lawsuit Denied by Judge. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google failed to have a monopoly lawsuit filed against the company by Texas and other states moved to California, where the company is based. U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan in Plano, Texas, on Thursday denied Google’s request to transfer the case, according to a court filing.”

BBC: Ransomware: Should paying hacker ransoms be illegal?. “Ransomware attacks prevent victims accessing computer systems or data until a ransom is paid. Law-enforcement agencies around the world are increasingly urging victims not to pay. But paying ransoms is not illegal. And many organisations pay in secret. Now, the Ransomware Task Force (RTF) global coalition of cyber-experts is lobbying governments to take action.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Phys .org: New AI-based tool can find rare cell populations in large single-cell datasets. “Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence (AI)-based tool that can accurately identify rare groups of biologically important cells from single-cell datasets, which often contain gene or protein expression data from thousands of cells. The research was published today in Nature Computational Science.”

Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago plan for police misconduct database fails to meet the moment. “This week, the Chicago City Council is expected to vote to create a public database of allegations of police misconduct — one-stop-shopping for anybody in town to review all complaints and how they have been handled and resolved. Except it wouldn’t really work that way. The database proposed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and allies in the City Council would be nothing but transparency-lite. More show than tell.”

Pew (PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!): 70% of U.S. social media users never or rarely post or share about political, social issues. “When asked about five potential reasons for why they do not post about these topics, the top two reasons users cite are concerns that the things they post or share will be used against them and not wanting to be attacked for their views. About a third of those who never or rarely post or share about these issues say that each statement is a major reason.” Good afternoon, Internet…

May 23, 2021 at 12:43AM
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