Friday, August 27, 2021

Friday CoronaBuzz, August 27, 2021: 61 pointers to updates, health information, research news, and more.

Friday CoronaBuzz, August 27, 2021: 61 pointers to updates, health information, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Good morning. I thought I would pass 10,000 articles indexed by the end of September, but thanks to my new improved workflow I passed it yesterday. You can read about how to search and monitor the collection (via RSS feeds!) at https://researchbuzz.me/2021/08/26/10000-coronavirus-related-articles-indexed-at-researchbuzz-firehose/ .

Please stay safe. Please get vaccinated. Please wear a mask when you’re inside with a bunch of people. Much love.

NEW RESOURCES – STATE-SPECIFIC

KCAL: Advocacy Group Creates LAUSD-Wide Dashboard Of Positive COVID-19 Cases In Each School. “An advocacy group has created a comprehensive dashboard of all positive COVID-19 cases in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Parents Supporting Teachers, an L.A.-based advocacy group, said that after repeated requests to create a comprehensive database of positive COVID-19 cases across LA’s school districts was ignored, they created one on their own.”

NEW RESOURCES – OTHER

University of Kansas: Project Chronicles How The Pandemic Changed Community Newspapers’ Business Model . ” In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, community newspapers faced a nonstop news cycle and new challenges in providing vital information to their readers. At the same time, the pandemic presented a financial crisis as advertising revenue declined. A University of Kansas researcher has co-created an oral history of how newspapers in the middle of the country demonstrated resilience in the crisis, finding new methods of funding and developing new business models.”

UPDATES

The Advocate: COVID death tolls soar in Livingston and Tangipahoa. ‘We’re swamped,’ coroner’s office says. “Louisiana Department of Health data show the average number of Livingston Parish residents who died from COVID-19 each week has nearly tripled in the state’s fourth wave, from 2.7 per week in the 15 months before July 4, 2021 to seven each week after that date. Weekly deaths in Tangipahoa more than doubled over the same period, from 3.9 before July 4 to 10 thereafter.”

South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Florida’s COVID-19 resurgence: State reports 26,203 new cases, highest daily total of the pandemic. “The 7-day trend of new cases stands at 21,604 as of Wednesday, a slight increase that ended a short-lived downturn in the COVID case surge. The 7-day average for new deaths is at 228, calculated by date the deaths were reported, according to the Sun Sentinel’s analysis of the CDC data.”

San Francisco Chronicle: 7 counties in Northern California are seeing all-time high rates of hospitalized COVID patients . “Rural California counties are reeling under the latest COVID-19 surge as the delta variant rips across the state and strains already-limited resources in mostly vaccine-hesitant communities. Patients have to wait for beds. Burned-out nurses want to quit. In county after county, intensive care units, which care for the sickest patients, are full.”

Miami Herald: Florida COVID update: 901 added deaths, largest single-day increase in pandemic history. “Florida on Thursday reported 21,765 more COVID-19 cases and 901 deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data. All but two of the newly reported deaths occurred after July 25, with about 78% of those people dying in the past two weeks, according to Herald calculations of data published by the CDC. The majority of deaths happened during Florida’s latest surge in COVID-19 cases, fueled by the delta variant.”

MISINFORMATION / FACT-CHECKING

Washington Post: No, there weren’t thousands of covid deaths in New York that no one reported. “State numbers presented on New York’s covid dashboard included only deaths reported through a state data-collection system by health care facilities, meaning deaths that occurred in hospitals or at places such as nursing homes after positive coronavirus tests. This data excluded deaths that occurred in other types of facilities or in private homes, or deaths that weren’t preceded by a confirmed coronavirus test. (The AP’s story makes this clear.) The result is that the state tracker highlighted 43,415 deaths (as of writing) as reported through its system, while it reported 55,395 deaths to the CDC, a figure now included on the state dashboard. That’s the 12,000-death discrepancy.”

Houston Chronicle: Editorial: Step away from the livestock meds. The Pfizer vaccine just got full approval.. “News flash: Livestock medicines have not been approved for human consumption by the FDA. But on Monday morning, the FDA announced that the two-dose Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, which more than half of all vaccinated Americans have received, had earned full authorization for people 16 and older.”

CNET: Facebook displays FDA approval for Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine as it fights misinformation. “Facebook on Wednesday said that it’ll be “sharing messages across Facebook in both English and Spanish” about the US Food and Drug Administration’s full approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine became the first to win full approval by the FDA on Monday.”

Mashable: Reddit rejects moderators’ call for harsher measures against COVID-19 misinformation. “Reddit’s volunteer moderators have shared an open letter demanding the company ban subreddits dedicated to spreading COVID-19 misinformation. In response, Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman released the tech bro statement equivalent of a shrug emoji.”

Poynter: Evidence shows that COVID-19 variants are largely spread among unvaccinated people. “A Facebook post authored by someone touting toxicology credentials joined the growing field of inaccurate claims that falsely blame the vaccine for a pandemic that has stretched into a second year.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

Newswise: Grief and Loss for cancer patients in the Era of COVID . “The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a time period of grief in many forms, even grief unrelated to the loss of life – some caused by the need for isolation measures to slow the spread of the virus. You might grieve for people who have caught the virus, grieve your loss of routine and grieve the loss of feelings of safety and security in the world. As a cancer patient, you may feel grief about not having loved ones present for treatment.”

New York Times: It’s ‘Back to That Isolation Bubble’ for Workers Pining for the Office. “While workers who want to stay at home forever have been especially vocal about their demands, a silent majority of Americans do want to get back to the office, at least for a few days a week. But as the latest coronavirus surge has led employers to delay return-to-office plans, that larger group is growing increasingly glum.”

USGS: New Research Shows Recreational Fishing Popular During Pandemic Due to ‘Social Fishtancing’. “National CASC Research Fish Biologist Abigail Lynch and co-authors analyzed a survey on recreational anglers and found that recreational angling remained a popular activity for many U.S. anglers during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the perceived safety of social fishtancing.”

NiemanLab: How the pandemic (sort of) changed the way we consume news. “From the moment the pandemic hit in full force in March 2020, it was clear that its seemingly all-encompassing magnitude was having a seismic impact on many people’s news consumption habits. Conversations on and offline routinely included discussions of how we were either unplugging from the news or being sucked in more deeply than ever. (Or both!) We even began using a new word — doomscrolling — to capture the mesmerizing continual intake of fear- and despair-inducing news on our devices. The pandemic bores on, but the implications of that initial shift in news consumption remain cloudy. ”

HEALTH CARE / HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS

Washington Post: The lament of covid-19 caregivers in the nation’s safety-net hospitals: ‘What could be next?’. “Every now and then, Chiquita Scott’s mind wanders. Sometimes, it happens in the middle of scheduling additional shifts for an already overworked staff during the coronavirus’s fourth wave of sickness and death. Other times, it is on the drive to the hospital, where some veteran respiratory therapists have seen more death these past 18 months than they have experienced in a decade on the job. Scott works at one of the nation’s safety-net hospitals, places with a mission to provide medical care to people regardless of their ability to pay.”

CNN: ‘I think we already broke’: Mississippi’s nurses are resigning to protect themselves from Covid-19 burnout. “Mississippi now has at least 2,000 fewer nurses than it did at the beginning of the year, according to the Mississippi Hospital Association’s Center for Quality & Workforce. The staff shortages add to the growing strain on the state’s hospital system — both due, in large part, to the Covid-19 pandemic. When asked if the health care system is reaching a breaking point, Singing River Nursing Manager for Personal Care Buddy Gager said, ‘I think we already broke.'”

WFLA: ‘It hurts to breathe’: 2-hour wait for drive-thru Regeneron in Florida. “Tropical Park in Miami is normally known for jogging or shooting hoops, but now it’s a one-stop shop for COVID-19: tests, vaccines, and Regeneron. They’re all available in one spot. There’s no line for the vaccine or for the test, but there is a two-hour wait for Regeneron – the monoclonal antibody treatment for people who have already tested positive. Many of the people showing up are very sick.”

HEALTH CARE – PEDIATRICS

CNN: US Covid-19 cases among children are surging. Experts warn it may get worse. “After a decline in early summer, child cases have increased exponentially — with more than a four-fold increase in the past month, according to the latest report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. From about 38,000 cases a week near the end of July, the week ending August 19 saw more than 180,000 cases in children, the report said.”

HEALTH CARE – CAPACITY

AL: Space for the dead: Temporary morgues sent to two south Alabama counties for COVID deaths. “Two morgue trailers have been moved into Mobile and Baldwin counties in anticipation of a rise in deaths from COVID-19. A portable mobile morgue has been placed at the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Mobile, and a refrigerated trailer was placed at the South Baldwin Regional Medical Center in Foley, according to Ryan Easterling, a spokesman with the Alabama Department of Public Health.”

Axios: ICU beds are running out again. “More than 77% of America’s ICU beds are being used right now as hospitals grapple with a crush of severely ill COVID patients, almost all of them unvaccinated. Why it matters: Hospitals are once again overwhelmed, and this time, they’re also facing staff shortages and burnout that only make matters worse, especially in the face of illness that was largely preventable.”

Houston Chronicle: Houston ambulances face lengthy wait times at ERs as COVID patients flood hospitals. “As local hospitals are strained with people ill with COVID-19, ambulance crews face long delays in emergency departments to deliver patients. Houston Fire Department medics have waited an average of 29 minutes at ERs in August, longer than an any month of the pandemic, according to department logs. The average wait time was 16 minutes in 2019.”

CBS 46: Georgia hospitals on diversion due to surge in COVID-19 cases. ” Several hospitals across the state are no longer able to provide normal emergency care to patients arriving by ambulance due to the strain on resources currently committed to fighting the surge in COVID-19 patients. As a result, many hospitals are having to declare themselves on diversion which, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health, is a request to ambulances to transport patients to other local facilities if possible.”

HEALTH CARE – CAPACITY – FLORIDA

Palm Beach Post: Only 7 ICU beds available in Palm Beach County due to COVID. “On Thursday, 951 adults and 16 children under the age of 18 were being treated in county hospitals for COVID-19. Of those, 222 adults and five children were in intensive care units. The demand on adult ICUs was particularly severe. With others needing critical care for other serious ailments, only seven ICU beds were empty in the county.”

CNN: Hospital filled with Covid-19 patients was forced to turn away someone needing emergency cancer treatment, doctor says. “Dr. Nitesh Paryani, a third-generation radiation oncologist in Tampa, Florida, recently was forced to make a decision that he says he and his family have never had to make in 60 years of treating patients. A nearby hospital was working to transfer a cancer patient to a location that had adequate treatment options. Paryani said he regularly accepts such patients, but for the first time, could not do so due to the number of those sick from Covid-19.”

WMFE: Survey: 68 Florida Hospitals Have Less Than 48 Hours Worth Of Oxygen. “The Florida Hospital Association is sounding the alarm, saying a survey shows 68 hospitals have less than a 48-hour supply of oxygen. Hospitals are using three to four times as much oxygen as they were before the pandemic because more than 17,000 patients are hospitalized statewide with COVID-19. The FHA survey, which was done today, shows 68 hospitals have less than 48 hours worth of supply, with about half of these have less than 36 hours.”

BUSINESS / CORPORATIONS

Click Orlando: COVID-19 oxygen demand delaying launches from SpaceX and ULA. “Despite a breakneck cadence of launches during the first half of the year, neither Cape Canaveral Space Force Station nor Kennedy Space Center have hosted a mission since June 30. Had the cadence held, the spaceport was well on its way to approaching a record-breaking 40 to 50 launches in 2021. But changing demands for oxygen have forced suppliers to prioritize hospitals overrun with COVID patients – and high-priority customers like launch providers are not immune to seeing their tanks slowly lose pressure.”

KAKE: These four Chick-fil-A locations closed their dining rooms because they didn’t have enough workers. “In April, May and June the rate of quits per share of employment in the accommodation and food services sector, which includes restaurants, held steady at 5.7%, according to seasonally adjusted data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s far higher than the quit rate across all sectors, which was 2.7% in June. Experts say that when restaurants are short-staffed, it can be even trickier to hire because of the stress placed on remaining employees, among other things.”

CNBC: Delta Air Lines is raising health insurance premiums for unvaccinated employees by $200 a month to cover higher Covid costs. “Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian notified employees Wednesday that they will face $200 monthly increases on their health insurance premiums starting Nov. 1 if they aren’t vaccinated against Covid-19, citing steep costs to cover employees who are hospitalized with the virus.”

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

CNN: US Surgeon General urges parents and officials take these steps to protect children from Covid-19. “A return to in-person learning has led to thousands of students having to quarantine across the US, with Covid-19 cases among children surging to levels not seen since winter. With the increased threat, the US Surgeon General is urging parents and officials to take measures that reduce the risk of a child’s environment.”

Route Fifty: Full FDA Approval of Pfizer Vaccine Prompts Swift Mandates for State, Local Government Workers. “Cities, states and universities began enacting Covid-19 vaccine mandates Monday afternoon after the Food and Drug Administration announced full approval of the two-dose Pfizer shot. The vaccine, manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech, had been available in the United States under an emergency use authorization since December. That order remains in place for children between the ages of 12 and 15, and for extra doses for some immunocompromised patients.”

AP: Pentagon: US troops must get their COVID-19 vaccines ASAP. “Military troops must immediately begin to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a memo Wednesday, ordering service leaders to ‘impose ambitious timelines for implementation.'”

WORLD/COUNTRY GOVERNMENT

BBC: Covid: Taiwan rolls out homegrown vaccine amid criticism. “Taiwan has begun administering its first domestically developed Covid-19 vaccine, amid criticism that its approval was rushed. The island’s health ministry authorised emergency use of the Medigen vaccine last month although clinical trials are yet to be completed. Taiwan’s vaccination efforts have been hampered by delivery delays and hesitancy amongst its population.”

BBC: Japan suspends 1.6 million Moderna doses over contamination fears. “Japan has suspended the use of about 1.63 million doses of the Moderna vaccine due to contamination. The health ministry said ‘foreign materials’ were found in some doses of a batch of roughly 560,000 vials.”

STATE GOVERNMENT – FLORIDA

WFLA: Florida surgeon general leaving position next month . “Florida’s surgeon general will leave his position next month when his contract comes to an end. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office confirmed the news, that was first reported by Florida Politics, on Thursday night in an email to WFLA. According to Press Secretary Christina Pushaw, Dr. Scott Rivkees will depart from the Florida Department of Health when his contract ends in September.”

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

New York Post: NYPD’s largest police union vows to sue over possible COVID vaccine mandate. “The Big Apple’s largest police union told its members Wednesday that it would sue the city if cops are required to get the COVID-19 vaccine, The Post has learned.”

Tampa Bay Times: Tampa Bay Water asks users to cut back as COVID-19 saps oxygen supplies. “Efforts to keep the sickest COVID-19 patients breathing are draining resources across the state and in Tampa Bay — creating competition between hospitals and municipal water systems for crucial supplies of liquid oxygen. For hospitals, oxygen is easier to store as a liquid in the large volumes they now require for COVID-19 patients. For many municipal water systems, liquid oxygen is a key component in water purification.”

INDIVIDUALS / BANDS / GROUPS

Religion News Service: Episcopal Diocese of Maine mandates vaccine for clergy. “The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine mandated Monday (Aug. 23) that all clergy and staff in the diocese be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of September. It is one of the first COVID-19 vaccine mandates for clergy in the U.S.”

WRAL: Kenya’s coffin makers say Covid means they’re busier than ever. Some still won’t get vaccinated. “Kenya has struggled with vaccine supply since day one, so far only 3.6 million doses of vaccine have arrived in Kenya, the latest shipment coming from the UK just this week. Even with every available dose, it would only be enough to inoculate roughly 3.5% of the population. But even as supply issues slowly ease, vaccine hesitancy is quickly emerging as a very serious problem.”

INDIVIDUALS – HEROES

New York Times: Chinese Citizen Who Documented Wuhan Outbreak Falls Ill in Prison Hunger Strike . “A Chinese citizen journalist who was imprisoned for exposing the failures of the government’s initial response to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan is seriously ill from a hunger strike, according to messages from her family shared by her former lawyer and a friend. The journalist, Zhang Zhan, 37, had traveled to Wuhan from her home in Shanghai and spent the early days of the outbreak documenting the city’s strict lockdown and the severe impact it had on residents’ livelihoods and freedoms.”

INDIVIDUALS – DEATHS

New York Times: Lucille Times, Who Inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Dies at 100. “Lucille Times, whose encounter with a bus driver in Montgomery, Ala., in June 1955 led her to begin a one-woman boycott of the city’s public transportation, an act of defiance that inspired a mass boycott six months later after another Black woman, Rosa Parks, was charged with defying the same bus driver, died on Aug. 16 at the home of her nephew Daniel Nichols. She was 100. Mr. Nichols, with whom she had been living for several years, said the cause was complications of Covid-19.”

WESH: ‘A nightmare’: Florida woman survives COVID-19, discovers husband had died at home. “A Winter Haven woman thought her COVID-19 troubles were coming to an end when she went home from the hospital. Instead, it was the start of her grief. ‘It’s just been a nightmare. Just a nightmare,’ said Lisa Steadman. The nightmare began when her husband, Ron, tested positive for COVID-19.”

K-12 EDUCATION

Mississippi Free Press: Mississippi Has Quarantined 15% of All K-12 Students For COVID Cases or Exposures. “About 15% of all Mississippi K-12 students have now been quarantined since the start of the year either for testing positive for COVID-19 or due to known exposures. That figure, based on new data from the Mississippi State Department of Health, includes 65,525 students who have been ordered to isolate in the weeks since classes began.”

Newswise: National Poll: COVID influences families’ back-to-school worries. “After more than a year of pandemic disruptions, families are heading into the next school year worried about COVID’s looming impact on students, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. Top of mind for many: a possible repeat of virtual school, falling behind academically and problems connecting with friends as well as wanting to know vaccination rates among teachers and students to feel safer.”

HIGHER EDUCATION

NiemanLab: The pandemic is killing print products at student news organizations. “The print products of student news organizations have been standing on a precipice for a while now. The pandemic — which has disrupted university life and kept student journalists away from their campuses — has given many of them a fatal shove.”

Louisiana State University: Welcome To Fall; Vaccine Requirement Update. “As you may know, yesterday the FDA granted full approval to the Pfizer vaccine for anyone 16 and over, paving the way for LSU to require vaccines for students, faculty and staff. Louisiana law allows for students to opt out of vaccinations, and those who choose this route will be required to be tested for COVID on a regular basis. Students have until Sept. 10 to submit proof of their first vaccination or formally opt out via the exemption/waiver form on the LSU Student Health Center Patient Portal. Students have until Oct. 15 to submit proof of full vaccination.”

HEALTH

Press-Enterprise: Unvaccinated residents 120 times likelier to die of coronavirus in Riverside County, official says . “Unvaccinated Riverside County residents 12 and older are 37 times more likely to get the coronavirus and 120 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than residents who are fully vaccinated, the county’s public health director said Tuesday, Aug. 24. Data presented by Kim Saruwatari during the Board of Supervisors meeting mirrors what’s happening statewide and nationally.”

Washington Post: ‘I’m still not planning to get it’: FDA approval not swaying some vaccine holdouts. “For five months, Chris Brummett has ignored his wife’s pleas that he get a coronavirus vaccine. He cares even less that federal regulators finally issued a long-awaited approval for one of them. ‘My wife is on me all the time to do it,’ said Brummett, 43, from Jackson County, Ind., who followed news this week of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine. But Brummett, a libertarian critical of both the Biden and Trump administrations, said he’s struggling to trust any government messages about the virus. ‘I guess for now it’s a no for me.'”

New York Times: Heart Problem More Common After Covid-19 Than After Vaccination, Study Finds. “The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is associated with an increased risk of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, a large new study from Israel confirms. But the side effect remains rare, and Covid-19 is more likely to cause myocarditis than the vaccine is, scientists reported on Wednesday.”

NBC News: NBC News poll shows demographic breakdown of the vaccinated in the U.S.. “So who’s been vaccinated in the United States? And who hasn’t? Well, our most recent NBC News poll sheds some light on those question, with the survey finding that 69 percent of all adults say they’ve already been vaccinated, versus 13 percent saying they won’t get vaccinated under any circumstance.”

Slashgear: New CDC study shows just how big a COVID risk the unvaccinated are taking. “As of July 25, the CDC found that unvaccinated people were 4.9 times more likely to become infected with SARS-CoV-2 compared to vaccinated people, and that the unvaccinated were 29.2 times more likely to end up hospitalized from the infection. The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant was the most common case of these infections last month.”

TECHNOLOGY / INTERNET

Mashable: The weird world of anti-vax Etsy. “It’s not that Etsy’s anti-vax problem is wildly awful — unfortunately anti-vax sentiments feel unavoidable online these days — it’s that it’s so…strange. And it’s quite weird to get flooded with these results when searching things like ‘trespass.’ Etsy is a place you expect neutral, harmless home products and not get your vaccine out of my face nonsense. It’s disorienting to come across these products so suddenly.”

RESEARCH

Al Arabiya: Flu shots may be less effective due to limitations caused by COVID-19 on data: Expert. “Flu shots may be less effective this season due to limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic which have affected data collection, a health expert said on Sunday. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that health care workers and people who are most at risk of developing serious complications from influenza infection be vaccinated every year before the influenza season, which typically occurs during autumn and winter, begins.”

NewsWise: Like Venom Coursing Through the Body: Researchers Identify Mechanism Driving COVID-19 Mortality. “An enzyme with an elusive role in severe inflammation may be a key mechanism driving COVID-19 severity and could provide a new therapeutic target to reduce COVID-19 mortality, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.”

NewsWise: Individualistic COVID-19 vaccine messages had best effect in US study. “The study… tested messages on nearly 400 participants from across the United States in July 2020 before COVID-19 vaccines were available—and before misinformation on them was widespread. The researchers also found that ‘loss’ framing, highlighting the potential health problems from not getting a vaccine, was slightly more effective than the positive ‘gain’ framing that stresses the benefits.”

Science: Airborne transmission of respiratory viruses. “Wang et al. review recent advances in understanding airborne transmission gained from studying the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections and other respiratory pathogens. The authors suggest that airborne transmission may be the dominant form of transmission for several respiratory pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, and that further understanding of the mechanisms underlying infection from the airborne route will better inform mitigation measures.”

ScienceBlog: Hospital-Acquired COVID-19 Tends To Be Picked Up From Other Patients, Not From Healthcare Workers. “The majority of patients who contracted COVID-19 while in hospital did so from other patients rather than from healthcare workers, concludes a new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Hospital.”

ScienceBlog: Social Media Messages From Health Care Workers Help Reduce Travel-Related Covid-19 Spread. “A randomized evaluation of a nationwide information campaign on Facebook found that short messages from physicians and nurses had a significant impact on reducing holiday travel and decreasing subsequent Covid-19 infection rates. Researchers found that the campaign, which reached almost 30 million Facebook users, was an impactful and cost-effective way to slow the spread of Covid-19 and enact behavior change.”

Phys .org: Research shows children have natural ability to survive, thrive and learn during lockdowns. “The research focussed on the national COVID-19 lockdown during school Term One and continuing in Term Two, 2020 and looked at children’s experiences of informal, everyday learning in their household bubble. In Terms Three and Four, primary school children in Years 4–8 took part in a group activity and were interviewed about their own experiences.”

OH THAT’S SO NICE

BBC: Australian farmer draws heart with sheep in tribute to aunt. “Like so many families separated during the pandemic, Ben Jackson wasn’t able to say goodbye to a loved one. The Australian farmer was 400km (248 miles) away in New South Wales when his Aunt Debby lost her two-year cancer battle in Queensland. Restrictions forbade him from travelling to Brisbane to attend her funeral. So he turned instead to his own sheep and pasture to show his love, laying out grain in the shape of a heart.”

OPINION

New York Times: Show Me the Data!. “Who should get vaccine booster shots and when? Can vaccinated people with a breakthrough infection transmit the virus as easily as unvaccinated people? How many people with breakthrough infections die or get seriously ill, broken down by age and underlying health conditions? Confused? It’s not you. It’s the fog of pandemic, in which inadequate data hinders a clear understanding of how to fight a stealthy enemy.”

CoronaBuzz is brought to you by ResearchBuzz. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you.



August 27, 2021 at 07:55PM
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Black Film Archive, Auckland War Memorial Museum, BBC History, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, August 27, 2021

Black Film Archive, Auckland War Memorial Museum, BBC History, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, August 27, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Black Film Archive: Introducing BlackFilmArchive.com. “For the past year, I’ve spent most of my time pondering one question: What does it mean to make Black film history accessible? Today, I’m proud to launch Black Film Archive, an evolving project that serves as my current response to this expansive question. In its first iteration, Black Film Archive lists every* Black film made between 1915 and 1979 currently streaming with every description written by yours truly. This free platform and open resource has been created with you all in mind. There are over 200 films for you to discover… right now!”

Auckland War Memorial Museum: While the doors of Auckland War Memorial Museum are closed, visitors can still experience some of their favourite parts of Tāmaki Paenga Hira online.. “Launched in the initial 2020 COVID-19 Level Four lockdown, Auckland Museum at Home is an online hub filled with stories, activities, videos and jigsaw puzzles for the whole family to enjoy. It’s been updated with fresh content for the current lockdown, with the most popular to date being the Museum’s jigsaw puzzles, virtual tours and activities for kids.”

BBC: BBC History release archive to mark 85 years of entertainment television. “As part of its 100 Voices That Made The BBC archive project, BBC History has today launched its Entertaining the Nation Collection, offering a rare insight into broadcast entertainment across the years through newly released interviews from the BBC Oral History Collection, plus an array of rarely seen photographs.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

DigitalNC: Additional Materials from the Crystal Lee Sutton Collection at Alamance Community College Now Online . “Alamance Community College houses and cares for a wide variety of materials and artifacts documenting the career of Crystal Lee Sutton, a labor activist who came to national prominence when her story was fictionalized in the movie Norma Rae. Before her passing, Sutton donated the collection to the College and we have helped digitize another batch to share on DigitalNC.”

New York Times: Facebook Said to Consider Forming an Election Commission. “The social network has contacted academics to create a group to advise it on thorny election-related decisions, said people with knowledge of the matter.” I suppose these are not the same academics it’s banning from research on its online advertising?

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Pantagraph: $100,000 being spent to digitize Lincoln photos. “The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is launching ‘Picturing Lincoln,’ a project to digitize thousands of rare Lincoln images. Support comes from a $100,000 Illinois State Library grant. Images will be made available to the public through the office’s Illinois Digital Archives. ‘Picturing Lincoln’ will create digital versions of 7,896 posters, photographs, stickers and other items. The work will begin with hundreds of ‘broadsides,’ or posters, such as the one announcing a $100,000 reward for Lincoln’s killer.”

Slate: “We’re Basically the Non-Porn People”. “According to the public face the company presents via the pages it chooses to promote on its YouTube channel, Twitter account, and internal blog, the platform isn’t a haven for sex workers, heavens no, but a diverse community full of photographers, fitness coaches, makeup gurus, and other creatives. These non-porn accounts are real and there are even a fair number of them—but what are they doing on OnlyFans? And how do they view their place on the platform, especially after the past week?” I subscribe to the YouTube channel of an asexual artist named Echo Gillette. She started an OnlyFans because she needed a safe place to display her NFSW art!

Washington Post: The D.C. Peace Museum That Never Happened. “A promised public museum at the congressionally chartered U.S. Institute of Peace failed to materialize. Why?”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BNN Bloomberg: Google Says Staff Have No Right to Protest Its Choice of Clients. “Google employees have no legal right to protest the company’s choice of clients, the internet giant told a judge weighing the U.S. government’s allegations that its firings of activists violated the National Labor Relations Act.”

Tech Transparency Project: Apple’s App Store Loopholes Put Children at Risk. “Apple announced a controversial plan this month to scan U.S. iPhones for images of child sexual abuse—a response to mounting concerns about the digital explosion of such content. But a new investigation by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) shows that Apple is failing to take even the most basic steps to protect children in one of its core profit engines: the App Store.”

MarketWatch: Microsoft warns cloud customers of flaw that may have exposed databases: report. “Reuters reported that Microsoft warned of a major flaw in its flagship Azure Cosmos DB database service, which could allow hackers to read, change or delete data. The vulnerability was discovered by cybersecurity company Wiz, whose chief technology officer used to be CTO for Microsoft’s cloud security unit. Microsoft agreed to pay Wiz $40,000 for reporting the flaw, Reuters reported, citing an email.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PsyPost: People with social anxiety disorder show improved symptoms and changes in brain activity following virtual reality therapy. “In an experiment published in JMIR Mental Health, people with social anxiety disorder showed reduced social anxiety and less negative rumination following a virtual reality based exposure therapy. Moreover, this reduction in symptoms was associated with changes in brain activity when participants judged whether positive words were self-relevant.” Good morning, Internet…

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August 27, 2021 at 05:29PM
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Thursday, August 26, 2021

Martin Luther King Jr., Snapchat, AQI, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, August 27, 2021

Martin Luther King Jr., Snapchat, AQI, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, August 27, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

CNET: Fortnite lets players re-live Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. “The experience, called March Through Time, will let players visit a ‘reimagined’ Washington, DC, of 1963. It will include collaborative quests and mini games, pop-up galleries, educational resources, ‘museum-inspired points of interest and historical imagery’ intended to give context to the speech, Fortnite said Thursday.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Snapchat’s New AR Features Can Identify The World Around You. “Starting Thursday, a feature called Scan is being upgraded and placed front and center in the app’s camera, letting it identify a range of things in the real world, like clothes or dog breeds.”

TechCrunch: BreezoMeter, which powers air quality in Apple’s Weather app, launches Wildfire Tracker. “BreezoMeter has been on a mission to make environmental health hazard information accessible to as many people as possible. Through its air quality index (AQI) calculations, the Israel-based company can now identify the quality of air down to a few meters in dozens of countries. A partnership with Apple to include its data into the iOS Weather app along with its own popular apps delivers those metrics to hundreds of millions of users, and an API product allows companies to tap into its data set for their own purposes.”

The Next Web: Facebook’s ‘Project Aria’ wearable looks like lame old Snap-style glasses. “It’s been almost a year since Facebook first unveiled its ambitious AR vision called project Aria. While it was mostly about conceptual ideas and providing a ‘sensor platform’ to developers, we never got to hear more about it — until now.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: How to Secure Your WordPress Website in 5 Simple Steps . “WordPress powers over a third of all websites on the internet today. It’s a favorite for many webmasters because of its low barrier to entry for rookies, and virtually unlimited extendability for pro users. With this popularity, WordPress also attracts lots of hackers and security threats. There’s no reason to panic, however, if you take a few simple precautions. Here they are.”

Lifehacker: The Fastest Way to Clear Your Recent Browsing History in Every Browser. “Listen, we’re not here to judge or ask questions. You need to clear your recent browsing history—and fast. Lucky for you, we can help. Whether you use Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Brave, there’s a keyboard shortcut to help you delete your most recent web history as fast as possible, should you need to do so for reasons that are none of our business.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Indian Country Today: $517K Grant awarded to team addressing digital inclusion in tribal libraries. “The Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM) and the Simmons University Community Informatics (CI) Lab have been awarded $517,078 through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) 2021 National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program. This year, just 22.7% of applicants saw their projects get approved.”

The Scotsman: Google-rivalling Scottish search engine with green credentials secures investment . “Google rival Better Internet Search is an ad-free search engine that also pledges to preserve user privacy. The venture is said to have attracted support from a coalition of British and European companies, committed to advancing a next-generation internet that is ‘more tailored to the needs of users rather than a small number of tech giants’.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Motherboard: How Data Brokers Sell Access to the Backbone of the Internet. “There’s something of an open secret in the cybersecurity world: internet service providers quietly give away detailed information about which computer is communicating with another to private businesses, which then sells access to that data to a range of third parties, according to multiple sources in the threat intelligence industry.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Newswise: New cell phone and smart watch models can interfere with pacemakers and defibrillators. “After reports of smart phone and watch interference with implanted medical devices, investigators affiliated with the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) at the US Food and Drug Administration conducted a study that supports the FDA recommendation that patients keep any consumer electronic devices that may create magnetic interference, including cell phones and smart watches, at least six inches away from implanted medical devices, in particular pacemakers and cardiac defibrillators.” Good evening, 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!



August 27, 2021 at 05:41AM
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UNC-Pembroke, Windows 11, Apps for College, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 26, 2021

UNC-Pembroke, Windows 11, Apps for College, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 26, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

DigitalNC: Over 100 videos from UNC-Pembroke now on DigitalNC. “The films cover a range of topics, from promotional films about degree programs at the school, to graduation videos from the 1980s and 1990s. Some of the films document a trip to Georgia to do a cemetery cleanup at the Croatan Indian Memorial Cemetery.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

PC Gamer: Here’s how to try Windows 11 right now without installing a thing. “If you find yourself curious about the Windows 11 UI, and feel like trying it out before you commit to a clean ISO install, it’s now possible to do so through the comfort of your browser. Developer, Blue Edge, built the Windows 11 demo webpage so users could test drive the operating system software, even if their PC doesn’t meet the stringent hardware requirements.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: 10 Apps Every College Student Should Have on Their Phone. “In 2021, a smartphone and a tablet are a college student’s lifeline. Thanks to innovative and useful apps, these devices can help you manage your tasks, keep your calendar, and even help you be a better student through innovative note taking, flashcard, and visualization tools. Here are some of the most useful apps every college student should have on their phone before the semester starts.” This is a slideshow, and I really need to install Forest.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Next Web: This site perfectly encapsulates the horrors of today’s internet. “Surfing the web isn’t what it used to be. The halcyon era of peaceful browsing on clean sites is now a distant memory. Today’s internet is a digital hellscape of pop-up ads, notification prompts, and paywall blocks.” Halcyon era? I’m remembering the time of “punch the monkey” banner ads and just howling. The recent quiet browsing wasn’t halcyon, it was an intermission until people decided to start squeezing more money of their audiences again.

JCK: GIA Acquires Rare Books Detailing the Largest Jade Collection in the World. “The Bishop Collection: Investigations and Studies in Jade is a two-volume set— limited to just 100 copies—that catalogs the jade collection of [Heber Reginald] Bishop, who was an avid collector of antiquities. Jade was his last and most notable obsession….The set is now at the Richard T. Liddicoat Gemological Library and Information Center at the GIA headquarters in Carlsbad, Calif. The Institute plans to create a free digital version of the work, which will be included in its digital library.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Moscow Times: Russia Orders Apple, Google to Remove Navalny App. “Russia has ordered Apple and Google to remove jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s app from their app stores as his movement faces unprecedented pressure ahead of key elections next month. Navalny began actively promoting the app after the authorities last month blocked access to his main website and 49 other associated sites and called for blocking social media linked to him.”

The Register: Facebook used facial recognition without consent 200,000 times, says South Korea’s data watchdog . “Facebook, Netflix and Google have all received reprimands or fines, and an order to make corrective action, from South Korea’s government data protection watchdog, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC). The PIPC announced a privacy audit last year and has revealed that three companies – Facebook, Netflix and Google – were in violations of laws and had insufficient privacy protection.”

Wired: Hackers Could Increase Medication Doses Through Infusion Pump Flaws. “FROM pacemakers and insulin pumps to mammography machines, ultrasounds, and monitors, a dizzying array of medical devices have been found to contain worrying security vulnerabilities. The latest addition to that ignoble lineup is a popular infusion pump and dock, the B. Braun Infusomat Space Large Volume Pump and B. Braun SpaceStation, that a determined hacker could manipulate to administer a double dose of medication to victims.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Newswise: Stressed Teens Benefit from Coping Online, but a Little Goes a Long Way. “New research published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science reveals that teenagers (ages 13–17) in low socioeconomic settings who spend a moderate amount of time online after a stressful experience deal with adversity far better than those who spend many hours online or avoid digital technology altogether.”

The Register: 3 ways ‘algorithmic management’ makes work more stressful and less satisfying. “If you think your manager treats you unfairly, the thought might have crossed your mind that replacing said boss with an unbiased machine that rewards performance based on objective data is a path to workplace happiness. But as appealing as that may sound, you’d be wrong. Our review of 45 studies on machines as managers shows we hate being slaves to algorithms (perhaps even more than we hate being slaves to annoying people).” Good afternoon, 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!



August 27, 2021 at 12:05AM
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10,000 Coronavirus-Related Articles Indexed at ResearchBuzz Firehose

10,000 Coronavirus-Related Articles Indexed at ResearchBuzz Firehose
By ResearchBuzz

When I first started indexing coronavirus articles in March of last year, I knew I was not going to get a comprehensive overview. I mean, I’ve been writing about the Internet for 25+ years, and I gave up on keeping up with the Web around 1995. I knew there was no way one person could get the whole picture. I might, I thought, get a bit of a slice.

Instead I think it’s more like a pixel. A single dot in a vast strange time in our history. But it’s a pretty good-sized dot, I think: there are currently over 10,000 articles indexed in the Covid-19 category at https://rbfirehose.com/category/covid-19/ .

You can search just that category by using the category-specific search feature on the right side of the page.

 

Category-specific searching in ResearchBuzz Firehose

Every item is also tagged. The tags are at the bottom of each indexed article. Here’s an example:

What tags look like in ResearchBuzz Firehose

Let me give you some pointers for monitoring the items in this category. You may not want to flood yourself with covid news (and who can blame you) but there may be specific people or places or topics you want to keep up with. Here’s how.

Monitoring Firehose Covid News With Tags

The URL structure for a tag listing in ResearchBuzz Firehose looks like this:

https://rbfirehose.com/tag/face-masks/

This will take you to all the articles tagged with face masks. The – between them substitutes for a space because spaces in URLs lead to weird happenings. You can also add another tag by using + to connect it. Say I wanted to know face mask news, but only Florida face mask news. Here’s what that tag URL would look like:

https://rbfirehose.com/tag/face-masks+Florida/

You can search for several tags at a time. You’re not limited to just a couple.

https://rbfirehose.com/tag/face-masks+Florida+Ron-DeSantis/ 

See how focused that URL is? You’re getting a very specific aspect of coronavirus news with no fluff. Even better, you don’t have to come back to my site over and over again! Just add /feed/ to the end of the URL, like this:

https://rbfirehose.com/tag/face-masks+Florida+Ron-DeSantis/feed/ 

Now the URL is an RSS feed that you can add to your favorite RSS feed reader to keep up with the news.

Of course the downside to this setup is that I have to have made a tag that suits your needs. Maybe I didn’t, and you’re looking for something really specific. In that case try a keyword search.

Monitoring Firehose Covid News With Keywords

Say you want news about coronavirus and … pianos, for some reason. (It’s perfectly valid. Do you.) Here’s what the search URL would look like:

https://rbfirehose.com/category/covid-19/?s=piano 

Use a hyphen to add more words:

https://rbfirehose.com/category/covid-19/?s=piano-concerts 

When you’ve got your search just the way you want it, add &feed=rss to the end of the URL to create an RSS feed.

https://rbfirehose.com/category/covid-19/?s=piano-concerts&feed=rss

Monitoring the Whole Category

Maybe you DO want to get all the coronavirus news I post. Nothing easier. The entire feed is available as RSS using  https://rbfirehose.com/category/covid-19/feed/ . Warning: this is a lot. It will be a lot.

Looking Forward

I will continue adding coronavirus-relevant news to this category until it seems unnecessary. Doing this has taught me a lot about both getting my Google Alerts right and how one person should set up for processing two entirely different flows of information. Unfortunately I think I still have a lot of learning to do on that second item.



August 26, 2021 at 09:49PM
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Independent Watchmakers, Otter Transcription, Silicon Valley, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, August 26, 2021

Independent Watchmakers, Otter Transcription, Silicon Valley, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, August 26, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Quill & Pad: ‘The Persistence Of Memory’: Online Museum And Ode To Independent Watchmaking. “The ‘great lockdown of 2020’ gifted us with something unique and outstanding: from the depths of an anxiety-inducing existence arose an online exhibition called ‘The Persistence of Memory,’ which can perhaps best be described as an online museum honoring some of the most influential and important independent watchmakers of the modern era.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: Otter’s transcription tech now supports Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Webex. “Otter has a solution for that pile-up of virtual meetings in your calendar. The AI transcription tool essentially attends the gathering or conference in your place and jots down what was said. After launching with Zoom support in May, Otter is now expanding to include Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Cisco Webex.”

CNBC: Google, Microsoft plan to spend billions on cybersecurity after meeting with Biden. “The commitments range from working toward new industry standards to supplying other businesses with stronger security tools and providing skills training to workers to fill the roughly 500,000 unfilled U.S. cybersecurity jobs. Biden recently signed an executive order requiring U.S. agencies to use two-factor authentication for logins, which can help prevent cyberattacks.”

CNET: TikTok is reportedly testing 5-minute videos. “If you’re still getting used to TikTok’s longer, three-minute videos that rolled out to the masses last month, buckle up for this possible update. The company is reportedly testing videos that are up to five minutes long, according to social media commentator Matt Navarra.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Seton Hall University: Following the Path of the Ukrainian Diaspora . “The Ukrainian Diaspora oral history project is an outgrowth of a 13-year collaboration between the College’s Secondary Education Program and the Borys Grinchencko Kyiv University. Under the leadership of Professor James Daly, the project was launched with funding from a digital humanities grant from Seton Hall. In addition to documenting first-hand historical accounts of the immigrant experience, the partnership hosts virtual seminars, and is developing an interactive web site to display research related to the history of Ukrainian immigrants to the U.S.”

NiemanLab: Should you turn your “read next” links into a game? There’s a widget for that.. “A reader comes to your site, maybe through search or a post on social. Metrics like time-spent-on-site suggest that converting them into a dedicated reader is difficult. Many publishers use recirculation links — ones that guide users to stories they might like to read next — to try and convince readers to stay awhile. But what if you could make a game of it?”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Verge: Most US government agencies are using facial recognition. “A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that 19 of the 24 US government agencies surveyed are using facial recognition in some way, illustrating how commonplace the controversial technology has become within the federal government. The list of agencies includes agencies like the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that maintain in-house systems, alongside smaller agencies that use the system to control access to high-security locations.”

Library of Congress: Library of Congress and Harvard University Form Historic Collaboration on Islamic Law Collections. “The Library of Congress and Harvard Law School have initiated an unprecedented, multifaceted joint collaboration to identify, select and assess the copyright status of materials focusing on national legal gazettes. The effort, initially set for three years, will coordinate access to, knowledge-sharing, and legal analysis of Library of Congress’ collections related to Islamic law, including national legal gazettes, manuscripts and other materials.”

Wall Street Journal: Hollywood Movies Flood Piracy Sites Hours After Release. “Millions of people are watching high-quality, pirated online versions of Hollywood’s top movies sooner than ever after their releases, undermining potential ticket sales and subscriber growth as the industry embraces streaming.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Ars Technica: The secret to preventing color fading in art may lie in veils of graphene. “Graphene is the thinnest material yet known, composed of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. That structure gives it many unusual properties that hold great promise for real-world applications: batteries, super capacitors, antennas, water filters, transistors, solar cells, and touchscreens, just to name a few. And now this wonder material might just provide a solution to the fading of colors of many artistic masterpieces, according to a recent paper published in Nature Nanotechnology.”

Wired: Social Media Algorithms Are Controlling How I Grieve. If death has passed close to you during the pandemic, you may want to skip this one or save it for later. “I’ve been letting algorithms dictate the way I grieve for more than a year. Whoever created the code that leafs through my photo albums and finds the most important people in my life, then displays said photos in random order, has drastically shaped the emotional contours of my day. I realize there’s an easy fix to this. I can hide my mom’s photos or block her zombie Facebook account. But I’ve become accustomed to grieving this way. Technology has dictated what I remember and when, because I’ve let it.”

NIST: Putting Together the Big Picture for the World Trade Center Disaster Investigation. “We needed to be able to organize this material in such a way that the stills and clips could quickly and easily be called up to answer questions. NIST researchers would want to know such things as where and when fire or smoke was visible inside specific parts of the buildings, what time particular windows were broken, and which areas appeared to resist fire spread. By the time NIST was officially assigned the responsibility for an investigation into the collapse of the WTC towers, we had already selected a digital asset management software system, thought out how a database might be used by researchers, developed search terms, and started to populate that database with early sets of photographs.” 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!



August 26, 2021 at 05:26PM
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Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Regenerative Agriculture, Microsoft Teams, Google Sheets, More: Wednesday Evening ResearchBuzz, August 25, 2021

Regenerative Agriculture, Microsoft Teams, Google Sheets, More: Wednesday Evening ResearchBuzz, August 25, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

DRG News: New website offers regenerative agriculture resources. “Regenerative agriculture has sparked considerable interest over the last few years, offering a toolbox of practices that aim to increase soil health, protect water quality, and enhance conservation approaches on farms…. The website aims to allow farmers, landowners, farm advisors, and even consumers to access a wide range of information on regenerative agriculture practices and concepts.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNN: OnlyFans suspends proposed ban on sexually explicit content. “OnlyFans said Wednesday that it will suspend its upcoming policy change to restrict sexually explicit material, citing ‘assurances’ it received that would allow it to be ‘a home for all creators.'”

ZDNet: Microsoft Teams just got new breakout room controls and better search. “The Microsoft Teams collaboration platform will soon gain improved AI-powered text-based search and more controls for presenters when using Teams Breakout Rooms.”

USEFUL STUFF

Digital Inspiration: Essential Date Functions for Google Sheets. “Master all the important date functions for Google Sheets with working formula examples. Whether you are looking to calculate the number of working days before the project is due or days until your upcoming birthday, this is the place to start.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Verge: The Rise Of The TikTok Tour Guide. “TikTok tour guides like [Jack] Gillespie now seem to exist in every major city, introducing viewers to trendy new shops and restaurants, often in a minute or less. You can get recommendations for soju margaritas in Manhattan, crystal shops in Los Angeles, or burgers in Boston. These accounts can be great ways to learn about new locations and a boon for local businesses that suddenly see lines out the door. But they also come with hidden limitations, with influencers gravitating toward newer, hipper businesses — and often ones that are willing to compensate them for the chance to go viral.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Mercury News: California man steals over 620,00 images from Apple iCloud accounts looking for nudes. “A Southern California man broke into thousands of Apple iCloud accounts and collected more than 620,000 private photos and videos in an effort to steal images of nude young women, federal authorities said. Hao Kuo Chi, 40, of La Puente, has agreed to plead guilty to four felonies, including conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to a computer, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.”

New York Times: A Thumbs Down for Streaming Privacy. “Common Sense Media, a nonprofit advocacy group for children and families, published a report this week that found that most of America’s popular streaming services and TV streaming gadgets such as Netflix, Roku and Disney+ failed to meet the group’s minimum requirements for privacy and security practices. The lone exception was Apple.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Techdirt: Political Consultant Misrepresents Nearly Everything In Arguing That The Gov’t Should Make Google/Facebook Pay News Orgs. “If you don’t know who Doug Schoen is, he’s a quintessential political/lobbying insider, who has worked for the Clintons and more recently for Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign. It might surprise some people to find that he also was a regular on Fox News… before switching to propaganda purveyor Newsmax, where he was hired earlier this year as an ‘analyst.’… He has penned a truly facts-optional op-ed for The Hill to argue that it is imperative for the government to force Google and Facebook to pay news organizations (presumably including his employer, Newsmax — though The Hill fails to note Schoen’s affiliation with Newsmax).”

The Register: GitHub’s Copilot may steer you into dangerous waters about 40% of the time – study
. “Copilot arrived with several caveats, such as its tendency to generate incorrect code, its proclivity for exposing secrets, and its problems judging software licenses. But the AI programming helper, based on OpenAI’s Codex neural network, also has another shortcoming: just like humans, it may produce flimsy code.”

Laughing Squid: A Colorful Animated Short About the Inevitable Isolation That Comes With Digital Addiction. “‘Blip’ by Hannah Sun is a colorful 2D animation that zeroes in on the ever-growing issue of digital addiction, the increasing isolation that is the inevitable result of such an addiction, and a worldwide pandemic that left many people to fend for themselves while locked inside their homes.” Good evening, 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!



August 26, 2021 at 05:31AM
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