New researches

Friday, July 23, 2021

Non-Binary Creatives, Bulgaria Photography, Photographer Albert Durant, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, July 23, 2021

Non-Binary Creatives, Bulgaria Photography, Photographer Albert Durant, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, July 23, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

EDM: New Artist Database Launched In Support Of Non-Binary Creatives. “The database currently contains over 200 entries and spans several disciplines with non-binary DJs, producers, dancers, and lighting technicians all represented.”

The Calvert Journal: Get a glimpse of the joys and sorrows of life in 20th century Bulgaria. “The Bulgarian Visual Archive is an extraordinary collection of vintage photos spanning the 20th century. Viewers can flick through the archive on the project’s website, or discover it at a slower pace, via the Instagram account.”

Virginia Gazette: Library wants help finding the faces in the photos of Williamsburg’s first licensed African American photographer. “[Albert] Durant, the first-licensed African American photographer in Williamsburg, photographed life in the area from the late 1930s to the 1960s. Durant documented life from an African American perspective, photographing many sporting, social, school and city events during that time. Now, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library is hoping to fill in some of the blanks in Durant’s photographs. The library is working with the Library of Virginia to provide a digital collection of Durant’s photographs for the public to transcribe.” Currently about 100 photos are available with more on the way.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Google’s new Tokyo Olympics Doodle is an homage to 16-bit video games. “The 2020 Olympic Games are currently still on in Tokyo, Japan — against all odds — and in celebration of Japanese culture and sports in general, Google is debuting a new interactive Doodle on Thursday with art from Japanese animation house Studio 4°C. The new Doodle, called Doodle Champion Island Games, is actually a series of Olympic event-themed 16-bit mini-games that you can play, contributing to the scores of four teams Google will track on a global leaderboard.”

TechCrunch: Amazon aims to inject new life into Alexa with release of developer tools and features. “Amazon is giving its Alexa voice platform a shot in the arm after seeing further declines in skill growth over the past year, indicating lagging interest from third-party voice app developers. At the company’s Alexa Live developer event today, the company announced a slew of new features and tools for the developer community — its largest release of new tools to date, in fact. Among the new releases are those to encourage Alexa device owners to discover and engage with Alexa skills, new tools for making money from skills and other updates that will push customers to again make Alexa more a part of their daily routines.”

Beebom: Instagram’s New Collab Feature Lets Users Co-Author Feed Posts and Reels. “Instagram has started testing a new feature where creators will have the option to co-author posts and Reels with other users on the platform. Called Collab, Instagram is currently testing the feature in India and the U.K.”

USEFUL STUFF

CNET: How to make your own AR face filter. “We’ve already spent years contorting our faces, surrounding them with butterflies or pinning stuff to our heads to find out which Disney villain best represents us. However, it wasn’t until I got my hands on the new iPad Pro and played around with the Face Paint feature in Procreate that I realized how easy it is to make your own face filter. So I made a video about it, which you can watch above.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Stockholm Center for Freedom: Hate speech against refugees increases on Turkish social media as a new wave of Afghan migrants arrives. “Hate speech against refugees on Turkish social media has increased recently, with a new wave of refugee arrivals in Turkey starting as the Taliban increases the territory it controls in Afghanistan amid a US troop withdrawal.”

BBC: China floods: People unite on social media to help flood victims. “When news emerged that some trains were being stranded after rail lines had become submerged, people put together lists of each train number and the resources its passengers needed. Some put together text-only versions of critical contact lists, after discovering that people in some areas could not download images because heavy rains had affected internet speeds. People also helped to organise streams of information so that it was up-to-date and clear.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute: Huntsman Cancer Institute Study Shows Cancer Misinformation Common On Social Media Sites. “A new study published online today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reports that one third of the most popular cancer treatment articles on social media contain misinformation. Further, the vast majority of that misinformation has the potential to harm cancer patients by supporting approaches that could negatively impact the quality of their treatment and chances for survival. The study also showed that articles containing misinformation garner more attention and engagement than articles with evidence-based information.”

KOAA: Virtual Reality being used to curb military suicide rate. “The most recent VA and DOD numbers show 503 service and 193 family members died by suicide in 2019. 17.6 veterans died by suicide daily in 2018. So far, a thousand airmen have taken part in this VR training and 98 percent of them said they would recommend it to others according to Moth and Flame.”

Phys .org: Southeastern US herbaria digitize three million specimens, now freely available online. “A network of over 100 herbaria spread out across the southeastern United States recently completed the herculean task of fully digitizing more than three million specimens collected by botanists and naturalists over a span of 200 years…. In a new study published in the journal Applications in Plant Sciences, researchers involved in the project analyzed the rate at which specimens could be reliably photographed, digitized, and databased to assess how much similar efforts might cost in the future.” Good morning, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!

July 23, 2021 at 06:00PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/3BBoBC6

Thursday, July 22, 2021

Utah Immigrants, Robotics History, Oncology Research, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, July 22, 2021

Utah Immigrants, Robotics History, Oncology Research, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, July 22, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Brigham Young University: BYU professor highlights unsung stories from Utah’s rich pioneer history with Intermountain Histories website. “Immigrant communities such as a Jewish settlement in Clarion and a Thai community in Layton may not be as well-known or remembered but still play an important part of Utah’s history — a history rich with diverse stories of faith and perseverance. With the passage of time, however, many of the stories of Utah’s immigrants are on the verge of being lost. BYU history professor and Associate Director of the BYU Redd Center, Brenden W. Rensink, hopes to change that through a new website and mobile app called Intermountain Histories — a platform dedicated to highlighting significant places and people who helped shape the history of the Intermountain West.”

NEXT Pittsburgh: Robotics Project traces the roots of today’s robots to CMU. “When the definitive history of the robotics revolution is written, researchers will have to contend with the massive amount of groundbreaking work done at Carnegie Mellon University. The Robotics Project at CMU will be ready for them. Launched this summer, the project is presenting its first online exhibit, Building the Robot Archive, which shows how a group of determined researchers started the world’s first academic robotics department in the 1970s, creating a legacy of cutting-edge robotics research that continues to this day and is transforming Pittsburgh into the robotics capital of the world.”

Morgridge Institute for Research: Navigating the unCHARTed: web tool explores public sequencing data for cancer research. “In the past, traditional RNA sequencing methods were limited to bulk gene expression profiles averaging thousands of cells; but the development of single-cell RNA sequencing technology has helped cancer biologists better understand the specific mechanisms that lead to tumor heterogeneity and drug resistance. However, these large, complex datasets are often difficult to navigate. Morgridge Postdoctoral Fellow Matthew Bernstein developed a web tool to explore these public datasets and facilitate analysis for cancer researchers.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNBC: Twitter posts fastest revenue growth since 2014 in pandemic rebound. “Twitter shares rose as much as 9% in extended trading on Thursday after the social media company announced second-quarter earnings that came in stronger than analysts had anticipated.”

TechCrunch: Facebook onboards another 31 newsletter writers on Bulletin. “Late last month, Facebook announced Bulletin, its newsletter platform. Unlike Substack, Medium and other competitors, Bulletin hand-picks its writers to curate a more controlled platform, with stars ranging from Mitch Albom, whose book ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ continues to break hearts in seventh grade English classes, to Queer Eye’s Tan France, who taught a generation of young people how to perfect their French tuck. Today, Facebook announced its first new wave of newsletter writers after its initial beta launch.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Digiday: Recruitment tool TikTok Resumes risks magnifying unconscious biases, execs warn. “TikTok Resumes could become a recruitment tool that inadvertently encourages discrimination, especially in the wake of companies like Target and Chipotle signing on to the new initiative, senior executives in technology, HR and social responsibility roles told Digiday.”

FreshWater Cleveland: The big idea: City Club’s archives inspire one artist to create a video series on important moments . “Theater artist Chris Szajbert found herself without a gig in 2020. She turned to an unlikely source for inspiration—the City Club of Cleveland archives, which feature racial justice activist Rosa Parks reflecting on why she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger at the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955; Cesar Chavez explaining how he united Latinx farm workers in a strike and 300-mile march against poor working conditions in California in 1965; Then-Senator Joseph R. Biden discussing campaign finance reform; and transgender activist Paula Stone Williams advancing transgender rights in the 2019.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Motherboard: A Defunct Video Hosting Site Is Flooding Normal Websites With Hardcore Porn. “As pointed out by Twitter user @dox_gay, hardcore porn is now embedded on the pages of the Huffington Post, New York magazine, The Washington Post, and a host of other websites. This is because a porn site called 5 Star Porn HD bought the domain for Vidme, a brief YouTube competitor founded in 2014 and shuttered in 2017. Its Twitter account is still up, but the domain lapsed.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Verge: The Day the Good Internet Died. “Logging on feels like participating in the setup to a Yogi Berra 2.0 ‘terrible food, and such small portions!’–style joke—except that the punch line is about, like, public health statistics instead of prime rib. In the past week alone, the president of the United States and Facebook, each citing the tech company’s handling of pandemic info, have bickered publicly about, oh, just Facebook’s ratio of murderousness to societal benefit. (In other news, there’s a new Space Jam movie out with a villain who is an evil computer named ‘Al-G Rhythm.’)”

Tech Policy Press: Facebook, Google political ad bans not effective, researchers say. “Two researchers at the Duke University Center on Science and Technology Policy conclude that bans on political advertising put in place by the tech platforms just before and in the period after the November 2020 U.S. elections were not necessarily effective, and had a number of negative side effects.” Good evening, Internet…

July 23, 2021 at 05:24AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/3BqQnkZ

Human Proteins, Magdalene Laundries, EdTech, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 22, 2021

Human Proteins, Magdalene Laundries, EdTech, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 22, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The Guardian: AI firm DeepMind puts database of the building blocks of life online. “Last year the artificial intelligence group DeepMind cracked a mystery that has flummoxed scientists for decades: stripping bare the structure of proteins, the building blocks of life. Now, having amassed a database of nearly all human protein structures, the company is making the resource available online free for researchers to use.”

Galway Advertiser: NUIG law postgrads create school teaching resources on Ireland’s institutional abuses. “The resources, which were created with survivors, school teachers, pupils, activists, and artists, are designed to help secondary school teachers address the human rights violations suffered in the industrial schools, Magdalene Laundries, and mother and baby institutions. The resources are published on the ICHR and Open Heart City project websites, and will be available as a free download.”

PR Newswire: Virginia Researchers Map the “EdTech Genome:” Publish 10 Variables that Affect Effectiveness of Technology in the Classroom. (PRESS RELEASE) “Even before the pandemic, the U.S. was spending between $25 and $41 billion per year on education technology—but schools and districts make these high-stakes purchasing decisions with almost no information about which tools work where or why. As a result, approximately half of all education technology is either used ineffectively, materially underused, or unused entirely. To address this challenge, the EdTech Genome Project brought together researchers, educators, industry representatives, and policymakers to define and measure the 10 variables identified as most likely to have the greatest impact on edtech selection and implementation.”

Notre Dame News: Notre Dame launches platform for online access to library, museum holdings. “The Hesburgh Libraries and the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame have launched Marble (Museum, Archives, Rare Books and Libraries Exploration) — an online teaching and research platform designed to make distinctive cultural heritage collections from across the University accessible through a single portal…. Faculty, students and the general public can browse Marble and download select digitized materials from the Snite Museum of Art, Rare Books & Special Collections and the University Archives in a single platform — including books, manuscripts, sculptures, paintings, photographs, ephemera and more. Each item displays one or more images with descriptive information and linked metadata to view related or similar items.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

9to5 Google: Google Lens coming to desktop Chrome as new integrated image search tool. “This is a significant expansion of Google Lens. It’s already available on mobile web in Image Search, but integration with desktop Chrome is much more significant. It comes after Google added Lens to Photos on the web in April for OCR text capabilities. On Android, long-pressing on any picture in Chrome gives you a similar ‘Search with Google Lens’ option that is powered by the Google app.” It doesn’t appear that the desktop version is quite as powerful as the mobile version, but it’s more than it was.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Wall Street Journal: Investigation: How TikTok’s Algorithm Figures Out Your Deepest Desires. “A Wall Street Journal investigation found that TikTok only needs one important piece of information to figure out what you want: the amount of time you linger over a piece of content. Every second you hesitate or rewatch, the app is tracking you.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Verge: Here’s how to check your phone for Pegasus spyware using Amnesty’s tool. “Amnesty International — part of the group that helped break the news of journalists and heads of state being targeted by NSO’s government-grade spyware, Pegasus — has released a tool to check if your phone has been affected. Alongside the tool is a great set of instructions, which should help you through the somewhat technical checking process. Using the tool involves backing up your phone to a separate computer and running a check on that backup. Read on if you’ve been side-eyeing your phone since the news broke and are looking for guidance on using Amnesty’s tool.” The process is fairly involved; folks without a lot of tech chops will need some help.

WQP: Test Your Well Water Act Introduced. “The Test Your Well Water Act was introduced July 20 by Rep. Mike Gallagher, Reps. Dan Kildee, Antonio Delgado, Elissa Slotkin, and Ron Kind. According to Congressman Mike Gallagher’s website, the bipartisan legislation would create an online tool on the U.S. EPA’s website for Americans with a private well to find resources to test their drinking water and understand the results. The tool aims to promote transparency and modernize access to EPA resources in an effort to educate Americans about their drinking water.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

GeekWire: Interactive new tool using satellites and AI creates more precise wildfire maps for public, firefighters. “The RADRFIRE tool uses infrared satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to create detailed wildfire maps to track and forecast fires. It was developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Eastern Washington, in consultation with numerous agencies responsible for battling the fires — a job that keeps getting harder with worsening droughts and climate change. The Bootleg Fire currently burning in Southern Oregon is so fierce that it’s generating its own weather.”

ZDNet: Quantum computers: Google points the way towards scalable fault-tolerant quantum devices. “Google’s researchers have demonstrated that, subject to certain conditions, error correction works on the company’s Sycamore quantum processor and can even scale exponentially, in what is yet another step towards building a fault-tolerant quantum computer.” Good afternoon, Internet…

July 23, 2021 at 01:15AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/3hZfMdI

Inca Khipus, Food Recalls, Venmo, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, July 22, 2021

Inca Khipus, Food Recalls, Venmo, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, July 22, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Google Blog: Explore the undeciphered writing of the Incas. “‘Khipus,’ which means ‘knots’ in the Quechua language, are the colorful, intricate cords made by the Incas, who inhabited some parts of South America before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. These knotted strings are still an enigma waiting to be unraveled. What secrets are hidden in these colorful knots dating back centuries? What messages from the Incas echo in these intricate cords? Could the ancestral knowledge they hold inform us about our future?

Fresh Plaza: Searchable database of FDA/USDA food recalls launched. “The Food Industry Counsel, LLC launched its ‘FIC Recall Reporter’ business tool, a new, searchable database of all FDA and USDA published Class I, Class II and Class III food and beverage recalls since 2000.” Absolutely free, believe it or not.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bloomberg: Venmo Curbs Visibility on Payments So Strangers Can’t See Them. “Venmo is ditching its global social feed, making it so users can no longer see payments between people they don’t know. The app, owned by PayPal Holdings Inc., will continue to allow users to see transactions among their friends, according to a blog post Tuesday. The move comes after Venmo has seen its customer base swell to 70 million during the pandemic.”

CNET: Chrome 92 blocks phishing attacks faster and gets 3 other security protections. “A new version of Google Chrome, released Tuesday, blocks phishing attacks 50 times faster and uses less battery power in the process. It’s one of several new security abilities built into Chrome 92 as part of its effort to squelch the risks of going online.”

Hypebeast: You Can Now Translate Instagram Stories Into 90+ Languages. “Instagram on Wednesday unveiled a new feature that allows users to effortlessly translate Stories into over 90 languages. The feature, aimed at better connecting global audiences, currently only works for text and not audio.”

USEFUL STUFF

Wired: How to Watch the 2021 Summer Olympics . “Read on for the specific timing of some of the biggest events. NBC hasn’t yet indicated when it will replay most of the events, so these are all live times. Also, the times are likely to change as the actual games play out. You can find the full schedule of events on the official Olympics website. For all the events in Eastern time, use NBC’s official schedule.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

University of New Orleans: History Professor Mary Niall Mitchell Collaborates With New Orleans Teachers, Others on Pilot Project Using Freedom on the Move Data. “University of New Orleans history professor Mary Niall Mitchell is collaborating with New Orleans public school teachers, museum directors and other community leaders to develop a K-12 curriculum using Freedom on the Move’s (FOTM) database of advertisements seeking runaway enslaved people. The digital database, which Mitchell is a lead historian, is the largest digital collection of newspaper advertisements for people escaping from North American slavery. Culled from 18th- and 19th-century U.S. newspapers, the ads, placed by enslavers, are used to document the lives of people escaping bondage.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: EU court to rule on Google’s $2.8 billion EU antitrust fine on Nov. 10 – sources. “Europe’s second-top court will rule on Alphabet unit Google’s challenge against a 2.4 billion euro ($2.8 billion) EU antitrust fine on Nov. 10, the first of a trio of cases, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.”

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Proposes Raising Penalty for Hospitals That Don’t Publish Prices. “The Biden administration on Monday proposed sharply higher penalties for larger hospitals that don’t make their prices public. The proposal would also clamp down on the use of special coding embedded in hospital webpages that prevents Alphabet Inc.’s Google and other search engines from displaying price pages in search results.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

GCN: Outside reviews can limit bias in forensic algorithms, GAO says. “While technology can curtail subjective decisions and reduce the time it takes analysts to reach conclusions, it comes with its own set of challenges. In a follow-up to a May 2020 report on how forensic algorithms work, the Government Accountability Office outlined the key challenges affecting the use of these algorithms and the associated social and ethical implications.”

Yale School of Medicine: Virtual Reality Game Is an Effective Tool for Vaping Prevention Among Teens. “Yale researchers have developed an immersive, virtual reality video game that helps teens learn about the dangers of e-cigarettes and practice strategies for refusing them. E-cigarette use among youth is on the rise—they are the most popular smoking product used by middle and high school students in the U.S. Approximately half of teenagers between 14-18 years old have tried an e-cigarette at least once, while about 10% of teens vape regularly. However, many teens are unaware of the long-lasting effects nicotine can have on a developing brain.”

PubMed: Google Trends Data: A Potential New Tool for Monitoring the Opioid Crisis. “Inexpensive, publicly accessible, real-time GT data could supplement and strengthen the monitoring of opioid overdose epidemic if used in conjunction with the existing official data sources.” Good morning, Internet…

July 22, 2021 at 09:10PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/3ByZhwW

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Brian Wilson, TweetDeck, DuckDuckGo, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, July 21, 2021

Brian Wilson, TweetDeck, DuckDuckGo, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, July 21, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Rolling Stone: Brian Wilson Announces Tour, Drops Demos, Rarities on New Website. “Wilson’s new site contains a timeline feature organized by decades spanning from his birth in 1942 to the present. He previewed the launch with a 1995 demo of ‘Desert Drive,’ which appeared on 2004’s Gettin’ in Over My Head. Other demos from the era, written with Andy Paley, are also available — including the unreleased ‘I’m Broke.'”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Uh-oh. Engadget: TweetDeck could soon look much more like Twitter’s web app. “TweetDeck is a secret weapon for Twitter power users. The column layout allows them to keep tabs on tweets from a large number of accounts at once, using Twitter’s handy lists. That could be about to change, based on an image Twitter shared of the ‘new and improved TweetDeck’ that it’s testing. At first glance, it looks a lot like the standard Twitter web app.”

Bleeping Computer: DuckDuckGo’s new email privacy service forwards tracker-free messages. “DuckDuckGo is rolling out an email privacy feature that strips incoming messages of trackers that can help profile you for better profiling and ad targeting. Users of the service get a free ‘@duck.com’ email address that cleans messages of trackers and forwards them to your normal inbox.”

USEFUL STUFF

Mashable: How to make a Linktree for your Instagram. “Instagram limits users to only one link in their bio, which can be a problem for content creators, and pretty much anyone who might want their followers to visit more than one link. The usual solution — updating your bio every time you have a new link to share — can be time-consuming. Linktree is a tool that helps you share all your links with your followers.”

The Verge: How to find and create live videos on TikTok. “But before we go into making a live broadcast, here’s a quick tip on how to find one. Note that, at present, you can only see live feeds from people you are following, so if you are really into live broadcasts, the best thing to do is follow a bunch of people.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

PR Newswire: First Artworks Selected for Dubai Collection (PRESS RELEASE). “Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Dubai Collection is a community-led and collaborative scheme allowing patrons to lend their works while retaining legal ownership, in addition to benefitting from expert advice to support the growth of both personal and public collections.”

Global Times: Chinese netizens offer advice to Indians on how to prevent deadly selfie accidents. “Has taking selfies become a deadly extreme sport? The answer is yes. On Monday, the news that more people have died while taking selfies in India than any other place around the world shocked Chinese netizens, who took to social media to provide tips on how to safely take memorable photos without putting one’s life in danger.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Wall Street Journal: China Compromised U.S. Pipelines in Decade-Old Cyberattack, U.S. Says. “Hackers working for the Chinese government compromised more than a dozen U.S. pipeline operators nearly a decade ago, the Biden administration revealed Tuesday while also issuing first-of-its-kind cybersecurity requirements on the pipeline industry.”

BNN Bloomberg: Biden to Name Google Foe Jonathan Kanter as DOJ Antitrust Chief. “President Joe Biden plans to nominate Jonathan Kanter as head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, according to a White House official, the latest sign that the administration is preparing a broad crackdown on large technology companies.”

HuffPost: Female Twitch Streamers Spend Their Lives Online. Predators Are Watching.. “There’s no social media platform where women are safe from sexual harassment. Mobs of misogynist trolls have chased countless women and girls off of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and lesser known sites. But when it comes to streaming on Twitch, women are exceptionally vulnerable to this kind of abuse, which has become normalized as an intrinsic part of their experience both on- and off-platform, regardless of the nature of their content.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NASA: Hubble Returns to Full Science Observations and Releases New Images. “NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is back in business, exploring the universe near and far. The science instruments have returned to full operation, following recovery from a computer anomaly that suspended the telescope’s observations for more than a month.”

KDLG: Fishermen as scientists? A new app gathers climate observations from fishermen at sea. “Fishermen have observed changes in ocean ecosystems for years. But, there was no one place to record those observations. This summer, a new mobile app will gather observations from commercial fishermen on the water to bridge the gap between what they see, and what scientists need to know.” Good morning, Internet…

July 21, 2021 at 06:36PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/3kHSiLY

Wednesday CoronaBuzz, July 21, 2021: 30 pointers to updates, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Wednesday CoronaBuzz, July 21, 2021: 30 pointers to updates, useful stuff, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Hi. I was really hoping I was done with this, but Delta is here to stay and I find myself compelled once again to rake information into piles and send it out with this newsletter.

A couple of changes. I am no longer posting these items to Twitter. Frankly my mental health is tattered enough that I don’t care to put additional stress on it in the form of Twitter replies. You can get an RSS feed of CoronaBuzz items at https://rbfirehose.com/tag/coronavirus/feed/ .

Also, they’re not going to be daily. Maybe two or three times a week. When I gather at least 30 items I’ll send it out.

Still love you, still worried about you, still desperately hoping you got vaccinated.

UPDATES

South Florida Sun-Sentinel: New COVID cases nearly double in Florida — the worst in the nation. “A new White House report shows Florida — one of the earliest states to abandon COVID-19 precautions — leads the country with 21.4% of all new COVID cases as of July 14. Just four states, including Florida, accounted for more than 40% of the nation’s new cases this past week. Officials fear vaccination gaps and the highly transmissible Delta variant will lead to even more cases in the near future.”

Daily Beast: U.S. Hits Highest Number of Daily New Coronavirus Cases in the World Again: Nearly 80,000. “The United States recorded 79,310 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number is the highest in the world, exceeding recorded totals from Indonesia (54,000), the United Kingdom (51,949), and Brazil (45,591), and doubling that of India (38,079). ”

BBC: Canada’s vaccination rate overtakes US. “Canada has overtaken the US in second dose vaccination rates, after months of lagging behind its southern neighbour. As of 16 July, 48.45% of Canadians are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, compared with 48.05% of Americans.”

AP: India’s pandemic death toll could be in the millions. “India’s excess deaths during the pandemic could be a staggering 10 times the official COVID-19 toll, likely making it modern India’s worst human tragedy, according to the most comprehensive research yet on the ravages of the virus in the South Asian country. Most experts believe India’s official toll of more than 414,000 dead is a vast undercount, but the government has dismissed those concerns as exaggerated and misleading.”

MISINFORMATION / FACT-CHECKING

New York Times: ‘Anti-Sex’ Beds in the Olympic Village? A Social Media Theory Is Soon Debunked. “The coronavirus has forced a number of social distancing measures at the Summer Games, but the recyclable cardboard beds provided by organizers are not one of them.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

The Guardian: The era of Covid ambivalence: what do we do as normalcy returns but Delta surges?. “For many, the exhilaration of long-overdue hugs is offset by the anxiety of interaction. Optimism bumps against grief. Gratitude, tempered by the sobering rise of the highly contagious Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus (and frustration with the vaccine hesitation that has enabled its rapid spread in the US). As spring turned to summer, new uncertainties took the place of others. Hope keeps pace with pain. A new phase of the pandemic is upon us: the dual reality.”

ABC News: Nearly 120,000 children in US have lost a primary caregiver to COVID-19: Internal CDC data. “An estimated 119,000 children across the country have lost a primary caregiver due to COVID-19 associated death, and more than 140,000 children experienced the death of a primary or secondary caregiver, defined as co-residing grandparents or kin, according to data in an internal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document obtained exclusively by ABC News.”

ACTIVISM / PROTESTS

CNET: French anti-vax protesters condemned for using Nazi icon. “Over 100,000 French citizens protested new restrictions on the unvaccinated. Some wore yellow stars, comparing the new laws to Nazi treatmeant of Jews.”

HEALTH CARE / HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS

BBC: Covid: Global healthcare workers missing out on jabs. “Health and care workers are being ‘left behind’ in efforts to vaccinate the world against Covid-19, nursing leaders say. There were promises they would be among the first to be jabbed. But the International Council of Nurses (ICN), which represents 27 million professionals, says tens of millions have not even had one dose.”

INSTITUTIONS

BUSINESS / CORPORATIONS

CNBC: Nearly 3,000 guests, crew disembark cruise in Singapore after positive Covid case left them confined in cabins. “Nearly 3,000 passengers and crew are disembarking a Dream Cruises ship on Wednesday after being confined in their cabins when a passenger tested positive for Covid-19.”

BBC: Nike trainer output at key factory hit by Covid outbreak. “Production at some of Nike’s largest plants in Vietnam has been disrupted as Covid has spread through factories. The company refused to comment on whether store supplies would see shortages as a result of the outbreak. About half of Nike’s shoes were manufactured in Vietnam in the last financial year, so this will mean challenges for its supply chain.”

TechCrunch: Amazon is now selling its own COVID-19 test kits for $39.99 in the U.S.. “Amazon announced this morning it would begin to sell its own brand of COVID-19 at-home tests to Amazon shoppers in the U.S. The test retails for $39.99 on the Amazon.com website and is available to any U.S. customer without a prescription.”

WORLD / FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

CBS News: Biden accuses social media platforms of “killing people” with spread of COVID misinformation. “President Biden leveled an extraordinary charge against Facebook and other social media platforms on Friday, claiming they are ‘killing people’ by allowing coronavirus misinformation to spread. The accusation comes as health officials are voicing concern over rising cases of the virus and stalling vaccination rates.”

CBS News: Biden nets positive marks for handling pandemic, but vaccine resistance, Delta concern remains – CBS News poll. “Six months into President Biden’s administration, Americans are less apprehensive about the year than they were at the start of it. They think the battle against the pandemic is going somewhat well, though that’s tempered now by concern about the Delta variant. Most say their finances are okay, and most parents think the tax credit will help. On the personal front, Biden gets positive marks, particularly for his handling of the pandemic and how he handles himself. But issues clearly loom.”

INDIVIDUALS / BANDS / GROUPS

BBC: Twitter suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene over ‘misleading’ Covid posts. “Twitter has temporarily suspended Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene for posting ‘misleading’ information about coronavirus. The social media giant said her account would be in ‘read-only mode’ for 12 hours.”

Reuters: Australia to deport Britain’s Katie Hopkins after quarantine breach. “Australia will deport controversial British commentator Katie Hopkins after she admitted breaching the country’s quarantine rules, Australia’s minister for home affairs said on Monday.”

SPORTS

AP: Yanks, Rockies deal with COVID surges after All-Star break. ” For the first time in months, COVID-19 is creating chaos around Major League Baseball. The Yankees and Rockies are dealing with coronavirus outbreaks sidelining a total of 10 players and two coaches, including New York slugger Aaron Judge and Colorado manager Bud Black, as baseball attempts to resume play following its All-Star break.”

Washington Post: Two athletes in Olympic Village test positive for coronavirus, the first instances of athlete infections there. “Two athletes residing in the Olympic Village tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said Sunday, the first instances of athlete infections inside the Village, underscoring growing fears about the spread of the virus during the Games that are set to begin in five days.”

New York Times: Kara Eaker, U.S. women’s gymnastics alternate, tests positive for Covid days before Tokyo Olympics. “Kara Eaker, an alternate on the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, tested positive for the coronavirus just days before the Tokyo Olympics were set to begin, officials said Monday.”

K-12 EDUCATION

CNN: American Academy of Pediatrics recommends masks in schools for everyone over 2, regardless of vaccinations. “The American Academy of Pediatrics released new Covid-19 guidance for schools on Monday that supports in-person learning and recommends universal masking in school of everyone over the age of 2, regardless of vaccination status — a stricter position than that taken this month by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

HEALTH

NBC News: ‘Horrific’: 2 unvaccinated Covid patients require lung transplant, partial lung removal. “The families of two unvaccinated men who underwent major lung surgery after they contracted the coronavirus are encouraging others to get the shots and re-evaluating their own vaccine hesitancy.”

ABC News: As COVID-19 surges again, what experts say about the millions of unvaccinated. “As Americans start packing bars and live venues once again in the age of mass COVID-19 vaccination — with many abandoning masks and social distancing measures — a concerning reality check is taking place.”

Washington Post: In this summer of covid freedom, disease experts warn: ‘The world needs a reality check’. “Coronavirus infections are surging in places with low vaccination rates. SARS-CoV-2 is continuing to mutate. Researchers have confirmed the delta variant is far more transmissible than earlier strains. Although the vaccines remain remarkably effective, the virus has bountiful opportunities to find new ways to evade immunity. Most of the world remains unvaccinated. And so the end of the pandemic remains somewhere over the horizon.”

ABC News: Statistics show the stark risks of not getting vaccinated against COVID-19. “A stark case in point: During June, every person who died of COVID-19 in Maryland was unvaccinated, according to a spokesperson for the governor’s office. There were 130 people who died of COVID-19 in Maryland in June, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

RESEARCH

New York Times: One Dose of J.&J. Vaccine Is Ineffective Against Delta, Study Suggests. “The new study has not yet been peer reviewed nor published in a scientific journal, and relied on laboratory experiments. But it is consistent with observations that a single dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine — which has a similar architecture to the J.&J. vaccine — shows only about 33 percent efficacy against symptomatic disease caused by the Delta variant.”

OUTBREAKS

New York Times: In Undervaccinated Arkansas, Covid Upends Life All Over Again. “While much of the nation tiptoes toward normalcy, the coronavirus is again swamping hospitals in places like Mountain Home, in a rural county where fewer than one-third of residents are vaccinated.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

Slate: Inside the Weird, Thriving World of Fake Vaccine Cards. “First, people cheated to receive a COVID vaccine shot. Now, they cheat to not get one. As some venues, businesses, workplaces, and gatherings of all kinds ask for vaccination proof, people who wish to avoid the shot are turning to the black market to buy vaccination documents.”

BBC: Covid-19: Ireland’s top medical officers targeted by abusive calls. “Two of Ireland’s most senior public health officials have received abusive phone calls, which government ministers described as sickening and ‘appalling’. Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan and his deputy Dr Ronan Glynn were reportedly targeted on Friday night.”

OPINION

New York Times: Dolly Parton Tried. But Tennessee Is Squandering a Miracle.. “The politicization of public discourse around immunization is not unique to Tennessee. The question isn’t why Tennessee is so out of step with science. The question is why politics has anything to do with health policy at all.”

New York Times: How to Reach the Unvaccinated. “On the one hand, there is clearly a hard core of vaccine resistance, based around tribal right-wing identity, that’s being nourished by both online conspiracy theories and the bad arguments and arguers that some Fox News hosts and right-wing personalities have elevated. On the other hand, the ranks of the unvaccinated are much larger than the audience for any vaccine-skeptical information source and far more varied than the stereotype of Trump voters drinking up QAnon-style conspiracies.”

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!

July 21, 2021 at 05:42PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/3kBi84i

Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Whitey Bulger, West Virginia Financial Aid, Lewis and Clark Trail, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, July 20, 2021

Whitey Bulger, West Virginia Financial Aid, Lewis and Clark Trail, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, July 20, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Boston Herald: FBI file on Boston serial killer James ‘Whitey’ Bulger declassified. “Months before sadistic Southie mobster James “Whitey” Bulger was recruited by the FBI, he was hunted for loan sharking where he was wiretapped and beat an agency mole, newly declassified records imply. Bulger ‘slapped around’ that informant, records suggest, over ‘debts’ the agency ordered deliberately left unpaid to spark anger. It’s all part of a 300-page, heavily redacted FBI file on a crazed crook linked to 11 murders, but traced to 19 or more.”

WOWK: New website helps West Virginia students navigate financial aid options. “When it comes to pursuing a college degree, the steps to finding financial aid can be overwhelming. The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission is trying to make that journey easier with a new website.”

National Parks Traveler: Mapping Out Your Lewis And Clark National Historic Trail Trek. “[The site] is designed to help you learn more about the host communities, local businesses, and attractions located along the 4,900-mile trail. Through the portal’s interactive map guide, travelers can plan themed trips and locate recommendations for lodging, historic places, sustainable communities, natural areas, and tribal lands.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Fossbytes: WhatsApp Alternative: Former CBO Of WhatsApp Launches New Private Social Media, HalloApp . “Two former employees have launched a WhatsApp alternative private social media app called HalloApp. Founded by Neeraj Arora and Michael Donohue, both key figures in WhatsApp before and after Facebook’s acquisition. Neeraj was WhatsApp’s chief business officer until 2018, and Donohue was its engineering director for nearly nine years.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Book Riot: Top Reviewers Or Bot Reviewers: The Goodreads Bot Problem. “Bots. Bots are what’s going at Goodreads. Since Goodreads is also used by non-account holders, it is a desirable internet space for advertisers. What happens is that a company or individual will pay for hundreds of positive reviews of their product, so that when a potential buyer sees the reviews, all they see are positive reviews and 5-star ratings. In the case of Goodreads, the product is books. These reviews can be written by a bot or a person with multiple fake accounts.”

Poynter: IFCN launches working group to address harassment against fact-checkers. “The International Fact-Checking Network, a global coalition of fact-checkers, has been monitoring the increasing number of harassment cases against its more than 120 verified signatory organizations operating in 62 countries. Incidents of harassment, ranging from online attacks to in-person threats, often lead to stress among the staff of these organizations beyond the norms of standard journalistic criticism. This effect is particularly pronounced in countries where the freedom of press and expression is systematically challenged.”

Bon Appétit: On TikTok, the “CEO of Chai” Is Making Tea—and Spilling It Too. “Kevin Wilson says that if you are bored at home, ‘forget that chai tea latte from Starbucks.’ In a TikTok video from April 2020, he shows how to do the ‘real thing,’ crushing cardamom and nutmeg, boiling them in milk, adding tea leaves, and stirring until he sees the ‘color of a happy brown boy.’ The video went viral, garnering over 889,000 views. Two weeks later the 30-year-old Californian pastor-turned-TikTok star had over 20,000 followers on the platform. Just over a year after that, with more than 200,000 followers and 4 million likes, Wilson considers himself the ‘CEO of chai.’ ”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: On the list: Ten prime ministers, three presidents and a king. “Spies for centuries have trained their sights on those who shape destinies of nations: presidents, prime ministers, kings. And in the 21st century, most of them carry smartphones. Such is the underlying logic for some of the most tantalizing discoveries for an international investigation that in recent months scrutinized a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers that included — according to forensics analyses of dozens of iPhones — at least some people targeted by Pegasus spyware licensed to governments worldwide.”

Digiday: How a new tool that crowdsources California privacy law violation allegations creates gray areas for businesses. “California Attorney General Rob Bonta has been sending companies so-called ‘notice-to-cure’ letters when they are found by his office to be out of compliance with the state’s California Consumer Privacy Act. Now his Department of Justice is crowdsourcing Californians to do the same using a new tool allowing them to create letters to send to companies via email or snail mail notifying them that they may be in violation of the law if they don’t include a homepage link for people to opt out from data collection.”

Government Technology: Civil Rights Groups Pressure Feds for Social Media Reform. “Various civil rights organizations, including Color of Change and the Anti-Defamation League, are asking the Democrat-controlled White House and Congress to put an end to hate speech and misinformation on social media.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

SF Gate: Opinion: This San Francisco-based website is neo-Nazis’ favorite to spread their hatred. “For the past decade, Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) research has been exposing the Internet Archive’s enabling of Al-Qaeda, ISIS and other jihadi propaganda efforts and its function as a database for their distribution of materials, recruitment campaigns, incitement of violence, fundraising and even daily radio programs. We wrote that ISIS liked the platform because there was no way to flag objectionable content for review and removal — unlike on other platforms such as YouTube. Today, the Internet Archive enables neo-Nazis and white supremacists in the same ways, and its terms of use still deny responsibility for content uploaded to it.”

Wired: The Pentagon Is Bolstering Its AI Systems—by Hacking Itself. “THE PENTAGON SEES artificial intelligence as a way to outfox, outmaneuver, and dominate future adversaries. But the brittle nature of AI means that without due care, the technology could perhaps hand enemies a new way to attack.” Good afternoon, Internet…

July 21, 2021 at 12:52AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/3ixRXbR