New researches

Saturday, July 3, 2021

Housmans Bookshop and Peace News, Virginia Traffic Stops, German POW News Journals, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, July 3, 2021

Housmans Bookshop and Peace News, Virginia Traffic Stops, German POW News Journals, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, July 3, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Islington Gazette: How a radical Kings Cross bookshop was HQ to McLibel and spawned Pride marches. “An exhibition celebrating 5 Cally Road’s role in radical politics goes on show this month, sharing people’s memories of marching against nuclear bombs, fighting for gay liberation and being spied on by undercover police. Housmans Bookshop and Peace News has been a centre for social change activism since it was opened in the heart of King’s Cross in 1959 by Vera Brittain.”

WDBJ: New website tracks traffic stops in Virginia. “With each traffic stop, state law requires the officer to collect, and the law enforcement agency to report, several pieces of information, including: the race, ethnicity and gender of the person who was stopped, the reason for the traffic stop and whether or not the officer, or the citizen, used physical force. Anyone can view the statistics online, and officials with the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services are now analyzing the data collected so far.”

Wyoming News Now: German POW news journals get digitized. “The state library just completed the digitization of 5 titles of German POW camp newspapers from World War 2. These newspapers were from the Douglas and Cheyenne war camps. They depicted camp life for prisoners, as well as news that was coming in from Europe at the time. Captured by allies in northern Africa, these prisoners were held in Wyoming, in several camps that were operational from 1942 to 1945.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

MIT News: Letter from President Reif: A new future for edX. “After a thorough and thoughtful process, and with the support of the senior leadership of MIT and Harvard, the edX board has agreed to sell the assets of edX to 2U, Inc., a publicly traded company that provides a platform for lifelong learning. Through this acquisition, edX will become a 2U subsidiary as a ‘public benefit company,’ which will allow edX’s long-standing commitment to the public good to be embedded in its new charter.”

9to5 Mac: ‘OldOS’ developer launches new website that gives classic macOS widgets a new life. “The same developer behind the now incredibly popular ‘OldOS’ TestFlight app for iPhone, Zane Kleinberg, is back with a new tool that lets you use classic macOS widgets through a web browser. Kleinberg explained how classic macOS widgets, first introduced in Tiger, were made entirely out of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This enabled him to revive several old Apple-designed widgets, including calculator, world clock, unit converter, stickies, and the tile puzzle.”

Vox: Google is starting to warn users when it doesn’t have a reliable answer. “Google is testing a new feature to notify people when they search for a topic that may have unreliable results. The move is a notable step by the world’s most popular search engine to give people more context about breaking information that’s popular online — like suspected UFO sightings or developing news stories — that are actively evolving.”

USEFUL STUFF

Search Engine Journal: Just Say No to Hackers: How to Harden Your WordPress Security. “In this column, you’ll learn how to harden your WordPress site against different types of vulnerabilities, though the scope of this article is wider and applies to all types of web applications.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: 5 trends that have shaped TikTok so far this year . “TikTok has been growing in popularity year over year, but for an app that’s been around for a while now it’s surprising just how many new trends are still popping up on it every day. We sorted through it all so you don’t have to. Here are five of the biggest trends that have shaped TikTok this year — so far.”

PC Magazine: Facebook, Google, TikTok, Twitter Pledge to Tackle Online Abuse of Women. “Four of the world’s largest tech companies have pledged to tackle online abuse and improve women’s safety. Facebook, Google, TikTok, and Twitter this week announced a set of commitments at the UN Generation Equality Forum in Paris, promising to build better ways for women to curate their safety online and enhance reporting systems.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Mozilla: Take control over your data with Rally, a novel privacy-first data sharing platform. “Today, we’re announcing the Mozilla Rally platform. Built for the browser with privacy and transparency at its core, Rally puts users in control of their data and empowers them to contribute their browsing data to crowdfund projects for a better Internet and a better society.”

Bleeping Computer: REvil ransomware hits 200 companies in MSP supply-chain attack. “A massive REvil ransomware attack affects multiple managed service providers and their clients through a reported Kaseya supply-chain attack. Starting this afternoon, the REvil ransomware gang targeted approximately six large MSPs, with thousands of customers, through what appears to be a Kaseya VSA supply-chain attack.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

New York Times: Is This Some Kind of Code? You Can Solve the …. “In a 2015 paper, ‘Fun With Fonts: Algorithmic Typography,’ the Demaines explained their motivations: ‘Scientists use fonts every day to express their research through the written word. But what if the font itself communicated (the spirit of) the research? What if the way text is written, and not just the text itself, engages the reader in the science?’ Inspired by theorems or open problems, the fonts — and the messages they compose — can usually be read only after solving the related puzzle or series of puzzles.” Good morning, Internet…

July 3, 2021 at 06:23PM
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Friday, July 2, 2021

Raindrop Journeys, Concertgebouworkest Concerts, Montana Fire Restrictions, More: Friday Evening ResearchBuzz, July 2, 2021

Raindrop Journeys, Concertgebouworkest Concerts, Montana Fire Restrictions, More: Friday Evening ResearchBuzz, July 2, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

UPI: New website allows users to track mesmerizing journey of a raindrop. “A Pittsburgh web developer has made a website that allows anyone to trace the path of a raindrop that falls in the contiguous United States from when it lands on the ground to its final destination and everything in between.” I played with this a little bit. If you try to zoom way in on the map of the US, it’ll slow your computer down. If you just click on the map instead of zooming, it works better.

Gramophone: The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra offers its entire lockdown video archive for free streaming. “Amsterdam’s Concertgebouworkest (the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra) has announced that for the month of July it be making available for free streaming its entire video catalogue filmed between June 2020 and June 2021. The works can all be accessed individually on the orchestra’s website (registration required).”

NBC Montana: Montana launches new wildland fire restrictions website. “Fire officials launched a real time map of Montana detailing current fire restrictions today. It comes as Montana’s DNRC explains fire season started early and indications are we’re in for a bad one.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

South Dakota State News: State Historical Society launching podcast . “The South Dakota State Historical Society is launching a new podcast, History 605, hosted by State Historian and Society Director Dr. Ben Jones. ‘Through conversations with historians, museum curators, tribal historic preservationists, and other experts, I look forward to telling the story of South Dakota and the region through the people, places, and events that have shaped us,’ Jones said.”

The Verge: TikTok is rolling out longer videos to everyone. “TikToks are about to get longer. The app is now rolling out the ability for everyone to publish videos up to three minutes in length, three times the existing one-minute limit. The extension is meant to give creators more flexibility while filming and limit the need for multi-part posts — though I suspect creators love hooking users that way and will keep breaking up stories.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Museums Association: Trustees approve return of Benin bronzes held in Berlin museums. “Trustees of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the federal government body that oversees the city’s state museums, authorised its director Hermann Panzinger to “negotiate the return of objects from the collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin as part of the joint negotiations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the competent authorities in Nigeria.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Daily Beast: Russian Military Hackers Are Pummeling Top Targets in U.S and Europe. “In an alert issued Thursday morning, the National Security Agency warned that hackers working for Russia’s General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 85th Main Special Service Center (GTsSS)—better known among Americans as the hackers who went after the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016—are primarily pummeling targets in the U.S. and Europe.”

Washington Post: The Cybersecurity 202: Activists and lawmakers increase calls for ban on federal use of facial recognition technology. “A new report by the Government Accountability Office, the federal government’s main watchdog, makes it all the more necessary that the technology be banned at the federal level, they argue. At least 20 U.S. government agencies have deployed facial recognition technology since 2015, with many not knowing which systems they’re using, the nonpartisan watchdog found. The watchdog recommended that many of the agencies better track the systems and assess their risks.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Universiteit Leiden: The ethics of returning colonial photography. “Is it ethical to freely redistribute photographs taken in colonial contexts, historically and today? Christoph Rippe, PhD-candidate Cultural Anthropology, suggests that people might not have been always fully aware of what happened to their photographs after they were taken. ‘But nowadays, with the proper consent, these images can be enriching for the life and the history telling of people in South Africa under certain circumstances.'”

EurekAlert: Observation, simulation, and AI join forces to reveal a clear universe. “Japanese astronomers have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) technique to remove noise in astronomical data due to random variations in galaxy shapes. After extensive training and testing on large mock data created by supercomputer simulations, they then applied this new tool to actual data from Japan’s Subaru Telescope and found that the mass distribution derived from using this method is consistent with the currently accepted models of the Universe. This is a powerful new tool for analyzing big data from current and planned astronomy surveys.” Good evening, Internet…

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July 3, 2021 at 05:40AM
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Gay Motorcycle Clubs, Pinterest Ads, Twitter, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 2, 2021

Gay Motorcycle Clubs, Pinterest Ads, Twitter, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 2, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from RideApart: USC Archive Sheds Light On LA’s Gay Motorcycle Clubs. “A massive archive of LGBTQ materials in Los Angeles is bringing attention to some of the oldest gay organizations in the United States: Gay motorcycle clubs. The ONE Archives at the University of Southern California offer a detailed glimpse into their history, existence, and importance.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NPR: Pinterest Bans All Weight Loss Ads. “Pinterest is saying goodbye to weight loss ads. It’s banning them altogether, becoming the first major social platform to do so. The National Eating Disorders Association guided Pinterest in updating its policy as searches for healthy eating, healthy lifestyle and fitness tips grew within the past year.”

9to5 Mac: Twitter working on new alternative timeline exclusively for ‘Trusted Friends’. “Twitter has already announced new ways to deliver content to a specific group of users with ‘Super Follow,’ but these options are more focused on creators and influencers who want to sell exclusive access to their tweets and fleets. Now Twitter is working on an alternative timeline for ‘trusted friends,’ which will let you choose the people who can see content there.”

USEFUL STUFF

Digital Music News: How to Trim Music on TikTok – A Short Guide to Audio Editing for Social Media. “Allowing users to upload whatever they want is a copyright nightmare waiting to happen on TikTok’s part. Thankfully, TikTok now licenses music from record labels, so there are plenty of tracks available to include in your videos. You can trim music on TikTok to suit your needs, thanks to the built-in sound editor. TikTok has an extensive library of music and sound effects – here’s how to edit them with ease.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

KrAsia: Supporters and detractors of Myanmar’s coup take fraught conflict to TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. “Apps and websites like TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter not only host and disseminate text, photos, and videos from Myanmar, but also serve as ideological battlefronts.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Asia Times: HK media erase their archives amid rising arrests. “Several online media outlets in Hong Kong took down opinion articles and videos from their websites or said they would move out of the city after one more columnist of the Apple Daily was arrested at the airport on Sunday.”

The Hacker News: Hacker Wanted in the U.S. for Spreading Gozi Virus Arrested in Colombia. “Colombian authorities on Wednesday said they have arrested a Romanian hacker who is wanted in the U.S. for distributing a virus that infected more than a million computers from 2007 to 2012. Mihai Ionut Paunescu (aka ‘Virus’), the individual in question, was detained at the El Dorado airport in Bogotá, the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia said.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Brookings Institution: The court’s Facebook decision shows why we need a digital regulatory agency. “A federal district court judge’s dismissal of the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit brought against Facebook is graphic evidence that antitrust laws are not sufficient to protect consumers and competition in the digital age. We need a regulatory plan that is more agile and timely than relying on antitrust enforcement as the principal solution.”

Space: World’s largest radio telescope to be built after almost 30 years of planning. “Construction of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) observatory, which is set to become the largest radio telescope ever built, will finally commence after nearly 30 years of preparations.”

Daily Commercial News: Waterloo researchers develop AI tool that analyzes building inspection reports. “Researchers at the University of Waterloo have come up with a new tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze building inspection reports and help make spending decisions about structural repairs more objective.” Good afternoon, Internet…

July 2, 2021 at 11:42PM
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Earshot Jazz Magazine, Financial Crime Risk Scores, Waterways Ireland, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, July 2, 2021

Earshot Jazz Magazine, Financial Crime Risk Scores, Waterways Ireland, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, July 2, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Queen Anne and Magnolia News: SPL and Earshot Jazz partner to create digital collection of magazine archives . “The Seattle Public Library and Earshot Jazz, the city’s preeminent jazz organization, have partnered to create a comprehensive digital collection of the entire Earshot Jazz magazine archives, from 1984 to present. Any SPL.org website visitor can now browse, search and download articles from the collection, and no Library card is needed.”

Finextra: Elucidate launches open database on financial crime risk scores. “During a time when financial crime scandals are increasingly common, the [Elucidate FinCrime Risk Monitor] looks to increase transparency in the finance industry. The EFRM evaluates more than 17000 financial institutions, with data sourced from the Elucidate FinCrime Index (EFI), the company’s regulated financial crime risk benchmark.”

Afloat Ireland: Minister Noonan Launches Waterways Ireland Historical & Cultural Digital Archive. “For the first time visitors will be able to search the free online catalogue and view some of the collections held in the Waterways Ireland Archive. The backbone of the archive is the Engineering Collection which is now available online. It contains the original drawings tracing the development of the waterways from their conception in the eighteenth century through to their construction and their ongoing maintenance during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Included are engineer’s plans for locks, sluices, bridges and harbours, all providing a fascinating insight into our waterway heritage.”

Associated Press: NHTSA unveils new, easy-to-use auto recall search tool. “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Thursday unveiled a new online dashboard for vehicle owners, car shoppers, safety advocates, the media and anyone else to search its massive database for automobile recalls going back 50 years.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Marijuana Moment: Apple Now Allows Marijuana Businesses On Its App Store, While Google Maintains Ban. “Apple will no longer prohibit marijuana delivery services from being hosted on its App Store—one of the latest pro-cannabis developments to come out of the tech industry.”

USEFUL STUFF

My Master Designer: Using Google Sheets As Database With Python. “In this article, we’ll use Google Sheets as a database with the help of Python. Use SQL or NoSQL softwares when large databases and complex operations are required. A reminder before you start reading the article Google Sheets isn’t exactly database software, but it’s a simple spreadsheet program where you can store your data.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Reuters: Google Reports Soaring Attrition Among Black Women. “What Google calls an attrition index, with 100 as a baseline, registered at 121 last year for Black+ workers in the United States compared with 112 in 2020. For Latinx+ employees, it jumped to 105 last year from 97. Attrition soared to 146 from 110 for Black+ women, though it fell to 81 from 93 for Latinx+ women. For White+, attrition dropped to 112 from 117, falling across both men and women.”

GRAMMY Museum: The GRAMMY Museum Grant Program Awards $220,000 For Exciting Music Research & Sound Preservation Projects. “…the GRAMMY Museum(opens in a new tab)’s Grant Program announced that $220,000 in grants will be awarded to 12 recipients, including UCLA, UC San Diego, The Apollo Theater Foundation and more, to help facilitate a range of research on a variety of music-related subjects, as well as support a number of music and film archiving and preservation programs.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: Federal judge blocks Florida law targeting social media platforms. “A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a new Florida law regulating how social media companies can moderate content, saying hours before the law was set to take effect that the legislation violates the First Amendment and contradicts federal law.”

Axios: DC subpoenas Facebook over COVID-19 misinformation. “DC Attorney General Karl Racine has subpoenaed Facebook for documents and data to determine whether the company has kept its word about reducing vaccine misinformation on its platform, his office revealed Thursday.”

HuffPost: ‘Sedition Hunters’: Meet The Online Sleuths Aiding The FBI’s Capitol Manhunt. “They call themselves sedition hunters, and they have receipts. They’re members of a loosely affiliated network of motivated individuals and pop-up volunteer organizations with names like Deep State Dogs and Capitol Terrorists Exposers that developed after the Jan. 6 attack to identify the Trump supporters who organized the Capitol riot and brutalized the law enforcement officers protecting the building.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Mondo Visione: New Open-Access FRESCOS Tool Launched For Accounting The Carbon Sequestration In Forestry Projects. “The overall goal of the FRESCOS Tool is to better account and analyse the carbon balance of forestry and agroforestry projects. This information can then be further used to estimate the annual net emissions of an investment portfolio. However, the tool can be used by any organisation – such as a forestry company or investor – interested in gaining insights on carbon sequestration and a better understanding of the climate impact that forestry projects can have.” Good morning, Internet…

July 2, 2021 at 05:12PM
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Thursday, July 1, 2021

Denmark Nature Accessibility, ORT History, National Archives of Australia, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, July 1, 2021

Denmark Nature Accessibility, ORT History, National Archives of Australia, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, July 1, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The Mayor EU: Denmark makes sure people of all ages and abilities can access nature. “According to a press release by the Ministry, the Danish Nature Agency has collaborated with the Association of Young People with Disabilities to launch a new website which lists 63 experiences that have been made open and accessible to people of all abilities. The website provides users with a map of 63 locations from all over the country. One must simply click on the location that interests them to see what experiences are offered in the area. The activities and sites which are listed on the website include hiking trails, viewpoints, and campsites, among others.”

ORT: New ORT Archive Offers Access to Trove of Historical Documents and Images. “The new World ORT Archive site provides users with access to thousands of images, documents and other artefacts, giving an insight into ORT’s rich past worldwide. There are also dozens of highlights from the organization’s film collection, and the opportunity to search the archive for the most relevant information about a place or time in our network’s 141-year history.” I had never heard of ORT, but you can read about it here. From that page: “Our ORT network now reaches more than 200,000 people a year, in more than 30 countries, and is one of the largest educational charities in the world. We provide a combination of high-level science and technology education with strengthened Jewish identity to bridge the gap between ability and opportunity – and to ensure the continuity of Jewish life worldwide.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Brisbane Times: National Archives gets $67.7m injection to save decaying documents. “Almost 300,000 pieces of Australian history including radio recordings of former prime minister John Curtin and a petition to King George V for Indigenous representation in Federal Parliament will be saved after a $67.7 million funding injection into the National Archives. But the government is facing calls for extra money to protect even more documents, recordings and images as part of an overhaul of an archival system pushed to the brink of collapse by years of funding shortfalls.”

Axios: Facebook launches independent publishing platform “Bulletin”. “It’s the latest feature Facebook has built to go after independent creators. It could also help Facebook’s user base stay better connected to its platform. Details: Bulletin is a standalone feature that includes tools for journalists to write and send newsletters they can share across the web and on Facebook. It also allows journalists to build websites.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: How to Read E-Books for Free Without Pirating Them. “Getting your hands on a good book to read is as easy as clicking ‘borrow’ on your tablet. If you’re a slow adopter to the world of e-books, you should know that you can download thousands of e-books and their audio counterparts from your phone, computer, or tablet—for free. Here’s how to quickly and easily borrow an e-book from your local public library.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Education Technology: Are academic libraries being stamped out?. “When asked whether it’s time to shelve big old campus academic libraries for their online equivalents, digital library pioneer Gary Marchionini files a categorical ‘nope’. By their nature, libraries are repositories of the past, but, says Marchionini, that doesn’t preclude them from moving with the times.”

University of Kentucky: Sounding Spirit Team, Including UK Libraries and Niles Center, Awarded NEH Grant for American Music Digital Library. “The Sounding Spirit Digital Library team, which includes the University of Kentucky Libraries and the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music, as well as archival partners from five other institutions across the United States, has been awarded a third grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to further preserve and enhance engagement with historic Southern sacred songbooks.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

ZDNet: Google releases new open-source security software program: Scorecards. “According to the Synopsys Cybersecurity Research Center (CyRC) 2021 ‘Open Source Security and Risk Analysis’ (OSSRA) report, 95% of all commercial programs contain open-source software. By CyRC’s count, the vast majority of that code contains outdated or insecure code. But how can you tell which libraries and other components are safe without doing a deep code dive? Google and the Open Source Security Foundation (OSSF) have a quick and easy answer: The OpenSSF Security Scorecards.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Silicon Republic: GitHub’s new AI tool is like predictive text for programmers. “The company, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2018, collaborated with OpenAI to develop GitHub Copilot. This will act as an AI programming assistant in GitHub’s visual studio code editor. The new tool will give suggestions for lines of code or entire functions inside the editor, acting like predictive text for coders.”

Natural History Museum (UK): Critical data from millions of insect specimens to be unlocked through cutting-edge 3D imaging technology. “Over 1.6 million of the Museum’s 35 million insects have already been digitised using 2D photography. These specimens have had their images and collections data (information about where in time and space they were collected and what species they are) made available to the public via the Museum’s Data Portal. However, this landmark project is expected to provide valuable new insights and information by providing the beginnings of a high-resolution 3D dataset for all living and fossil insects and their close relatives.” Good evening, Internet…

July 2, 2021 at 04:48AM
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Surfside Tragedy Response, Colombia Butterflies, Great Immigrants, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 1, 2021

Surfside Tragedy Response, Colombia Butterflies, Great Immigrants, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 1, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

WUSF: State Launches Website To Provide Surfside Assistance, Warns Of GoFundMe Scams . “Florida has created a new website that pools together federal, state and community efforts to help victims, families and first responders affected by the Surfside collapse, amid warnings of GoFundMe scams.”

The City Paper: Colombia home to 20% of world’s butterfly species, reveals report. “The yellow butterflies that swarm the imaginary and magical landscapes of Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude are just one species of 3,642 that inhabit the very real Colombia, and country home to 20% of all butterfly species on the planet. The findings are the result of years of research by scientists, collectors, students and amateurs documenting species across topographically challenging terrain. The list of 3,642 species and 2,085 subspecies was compiled by Dr Blanca Huertas, Senior Curator at the Natural History Museum in London.”

New-to-me: a database of great immigrants to the United States. From New York Carib News: Carnegie Corporation of New York honors 34 great immigrants. “The Great Immigrants initiative is intended to increase public awareness of immigration’s role in our country, reflecting the priorities of Andrew Carnegie, a self-made industrialist. In 1911, he established Carnegie Corporation of New York, a grantmaking foundation dedicated to the causes of democracy, education, and international peace. To date, the Corporation has honored more than 600 outstanding immigrants, whose stories can be viewed through the Corporation’s online database, which is among the leading resources of its type.”

KTVB: New database project can help locate ‘problematic hot spots’ for Idaho landslides . “A new statewide inventory of landslides has been released by [Idaho Geological Survey] that will help emergency managers and planners identify ‘problematic hot spots.’ The inventory contains more than 2,400 landslide entries ranging from prehistoric to current. Data were collected from archives, unpublished field observations, satellite images and newly mapped landslides.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mining Weekly: Johannesburg Geology Museum laments threats, frustrations. “The Geological Museum Association (GMA) has lamented the continued challenges, including theft, flood damage and lack of funding, experienced by the Johannesburg Geology Museum over the last decade. GMA Treasurer Bruce Cairncross says the association is actively seeking short- and long-term solutions to preserving what is ‘the most important institutional geological artefact collection’ in South Africa.”

Politico: Team Trump quietly launches new social media platform. “Former President Donald Trump’s team quietly launched a new social media platform on Thursday, billing it as an alternative to Big Tech sites. The platform, called GETTR, advertised its mission statement as ‘fighting cancel culture, promoting common sense, defending free speech, challenging social media monopolies, and creating a true marketplace of ideas.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Motherboard: Norway Law Forces Influencers to Label Retouched Photos on Instagram. “Legislators in Norway have passed new regulations requiring influencers and advertisers to label retouched photos in a bid to fight unrealistic beauty standards.”

Reuters: Putin signs law forcing foreign social media giants to open Russian offices. “President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that obliges foreign social media giants to open offices in Russia, a document published by the government on Thursday showed, the latest move by Moscow to exert greater control over Big Tech.”

AZ Central: Republic takes Senate, Cyber Ninjas to court for audit records. “The Arizona Republic has gone to court to demand records from the state Senate and one of its contractors to shed light on the audit of 2020 election results. The news organization on Wednesday filed a special action in Maricopa County Superior Court seeking financial records and communications about the audit from the Senate and Cyber Ninjas, the contractor it hired to lead the work.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Axios: Conservative social media app frenzy dies down after Capitol riots. “The massive migration by the fringe-right to new social networks has largely died down, according to new data from Sensor Tower. By the numbers: Almost every major conservative social network has seen a dramatic decrease in downloads since the Capitol insurrection.” Good afternoon, Internet…

July 2, 2021 at 12:58AM
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Anishinabek Nation, The Yale Review, Finding Food Pantries, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, July 1, 2021

Anishinabek Nation, The Yale Review, Finding Food Pantries, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, July 1, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

CBC: Anishinabek Nation’s new interactive online resource teaches students about treaties, rights. “The Anishnabek Nation in northern Ontario has launched a new online program to help students learn more about First Nations history, treaties and aboriginal rights. The interactive program, which includes videos from elders, is a resource for educators to reach both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.”

Yale News: TYR gives readers a digital space to read and contemplate. “For more than two centuries, The Yale Review has published works by some of the most notable writers and poets of their times, from Virginia Woolf and Thomas Mann to Louise Glück and Cathy Park Hong. But until recently the journal has not done what many others in the literary world have: dive fully into the digital realm. Last month, America’s oldest ‘little magazine’ took the plunge, launching a new website that captures the literary quality of the quarterly print edition, while adding new layers that offer a richer reader experience.”

WRAL: Google launches new website, connecting families to nearby food pantries. “Nearly one in seven Americans do not know where their next meal will come from. This is roughly 45 million people in 2020, including 15 million children. That’s a nearly 30 percent increase from 2019. This is why Google launched a new ‘Find Food Support’ site to help fight hunger across the country by linking people to their nearest food bank.”

The Arab American News: The Palestine Chronology: A new online database. “The Palestine Chronology will allow researchers, readers, journalists, students, scholars, and activists to easily access day-by-day summaries in a free and accessible digitized format. The Chronology was previously published quarterly in the Journal of Palestine Studies. It is now updated monthly on the platform.”

My Modern Met: Walter Foster Publishing’s Free Tutorials and Downloadables Help Refine Your Art and Craft Skills. “Not only does the website include all of your favorite Walter Foster Publishing books—from Painting with Bob Ross to Color Mixing Recipes for Watercolor to Empowered Embroidery—but there are also new features that allow anyone to learn online. The brand new Art Studio is a place to find your favorite Walter Foster artists and authors and follow their video tutorials. New content is added regularly, so check back often to either learn or hone a new skill. Current tutorials include lessons on how to hand letter a glass frame, create paper mache paste, and fold an origami fox. Artist Sonia Leong also gives a crash course in the visual language of manga so that artists can refine their skills. In addition, the art studio includes free, downloadable projects and activities.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NHK World Japan: Tokyo Games heat index goes online. “Japan’s Environment Ministry has opened a website showing the heat index at various sports venues during the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The website that became accessible on Thursday shows hourly readings of the Heat Stress Index at venues from Hokkaido through Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan. It also offers predictions.”

Neowin: Snap signs music licensing deal with Universal Music Group. “Snap has announced that it has signed a deal with Universal Music Group (UMG) so that its artists can have their music included in Snap’s library and be used in Sounds, Lenses and more. Sounds is a fairly new feature on Snapchat that allows you to add music to your Snaps.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: How to Screen Record on iPhone. “In the past, recording your iPhone’s screen was a nearly impossible task. For a very long time, there wasn’t a built-in option to support screen recording on iOS, while Apple refused to allow such third-party apps to appear in the iOS App Store. However, that all changed a couple of years back in iOS 11, so you probably already have access to this feature. Let’s see how you can screen record on your iPhone.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Daily Beast: YouTube Permanently Bans Right Wing Watch, a Media Watchdog Devoted to Exposing Right-Wing Conspiracies. “According to Right Wing Watch, their appeal of the suspension was also denied by YouTube, which again claimed that the watchdog group—which monitors disinformation, conspiracies, and violent rhetoric from far-right media outlets and personalities—was in violation of its guidelines and terms of service. Meanwhile, many of the far-right extremists merely exposed by RWW remain on the platform.”

Reuters: Google takes down maps targeting hundreds of Thais accused of opposing king. ” Google took down two Google Maps documents on Monday that had listed the names and addresses of hundreds of Thai activists who were accused by royalists of opposing the monarchy, the technology company said.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

EurekAlert: NIST method uses radio signals to image hidden and speeding objects. “Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Wavsens LLC have developed a method for using radio signals to create real-time images and videos of hidden and moving objects, which could help firefighters find escape routes or victims inside buildings filled with fire and smoke. The technique could also help track hypersonic objects such as missiles and space debris.”

Bloomberg: Fired by bot at Amazon: ‘It’s you against the machine’. “Bloomberg interviewed 15 Flex drivers, including four who say they were wrongly terminated, as well as former Amazon managers who say the largely automated system is insufficiently attuned to the real-world challenges drivers face every day. Amazon knew delegating work to machines would lead to mistakes and damaging headlines, these former managers said, but decided it was cheaper to trust the algorithms than pay people to investigate mistaken firings so long as the drivers could be replaced easily.” Good morning, Internet…

July 1, 2021 at 09:29PM
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