Tuesday, October 19, 2021

LGBTQ Colorado, Medieval Illuminated Manuscript, PFAS Sites, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, October 19, 2021

LGBTQ Colorado, Medieval Illuminated Manuscript, PFAS Sites, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, October 19, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Colorado State University: CSU’s Queer Memory Project rediscovers Northern Colorado’s forgotten LGBTQ+ Past. “A new website and online archive featuring 200-plus news stories, artifacts and images from Northern Colorado’s LGBTQ+ past was launched earlier this month to educate the public about the region’s LGBTQ+ history.”

British Library: Antoine de Lonhy and the Saluces Hours . “The Saluces Hours is a manuscript with a complicated genesis. It was produced in Savoy, which in the 15th century was in independent duchy, and today comprises an area of southeast France and northwest Italy. The manuscript was originally begun around the 1440s, several decades before Lonhy’s involvement in the project. In this first stage, the text was probably completed and the process of illuminating the book begun.” Breathtaking! I probably say that half the time for illuminated manuscripts, but it’s always true.

The Guardian: Revealed: more than 120,000 US sites feared to handle harmful PFAS ‘forever’ chemicals. “The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified more than 120,000 locations around the US where people may be exposed to a class of toxic ‘forever chemicals’ associated with various cancers and other health problems that is a frightening tally four times larger than previously reported, according to data obtained by the Guardian.”

EVENTS

Wilton House Museum: Black Craftspeople Across the Virginia Landscape. “The Black Craftspeople Digital Archive seeks to enhance what we know about Black craftspeople by telling both a spatial story and a historically informed story that highlights the lives of Black craftspeople and the objects they produced. This fall, the BCDA will launch the Virginia portion of the archive and map. Together, we will dive into the lives of these Virginians, learn their stories, and understand how they shaped the landscape and material culture of the state.” October 21.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Internet Archive Blog: The Internet Archive’s Community Webs Program Welcomes 60+ New Members from the US, Canada and Internationally. “Community Webs, the Internet Archive’s community history web and digital archiving program, is welcoming over 60 new members from across the US, Canada, and internationally. This new cohort is the first expansion of the Community Webs program outside of the United States and we are thrilled to be supporting the development of diverse, community-based web collections on an international scale.”

Bing Blogs: IndexNow – Instantly Index your web content in Search Engines. “IndexNow is a new protocol created by Microsoft Bing and Yandex, allowing websites to easily notify search engines whenever their website content is created, updated, or deleted. Using an API, once search engines are notified of updates they quickly crawl and reflect website changes in their index and search results.”

USEFUL STUFF

Wired: How to Switch From Google Authenticator to Another 2FA App. “There’s nothing wrong with Google Authenticator, but more feature-rich alternatives are available, which is where this guide comes in. The good news is that it’s possible to transfer all your 2FA login information to another app without getting locked out of your accounts along the way.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Flickr Blog: Partnering with Black Women Photographers to Further Photography. “Today, we’re excited to officially announce a new grant in partnership with the Black Women Photographers community. With this grant, we hope to help one photographer that is part of both Black Women Photographers and Flickr further their photography practice. The grant includes funds of $1,200 to be used by the recipient towards furthering their photography practice, a two-year Flickr Pro membership, and a one-year SmugMug Pro membership.”

BBC: New prototype embeds BBC sound archive in the real world. “[Emily Sorrell’s] first major work, The Sonosynthesiser, creates a layer of archive sound on top of a physical environment. Users can locate and tune into different fragments of sound using a hand-held device.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

HackRead: Minecraft declared the most malware-infected game. “Malware strains have gradually become the leading cause of infection targeting millions of devices worldwide annually. A new report from Atlas VPN revealed that the PC and mobile gaming industry is the current big target of malware authors and Minecraft is their favorite game to bait gamers.”

Reuters: Russia to go after Google this month with fine of up to 20% of annual turnover. “Communications regulator Roskomnadzor said Google had failed to pay 32.5 million roubles ($458,100) in penalties levied so far this year and that it would now seek a fine of 5-20% of Google’s Russian turnover, which could reach as much as $240 million, a significant increase.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Wall Street Journal: Facebook is counting on AI to clean up its platform, but its own engineers have doubts. “Facebook Inc. executives have long said that artificial intelligence would address the company’s chronic problems keeping what it deems hate speech and excessive violence as well as underage users off its platforms. That future is farther away than those executives suggest, according to internal documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Facebook’s AI can’t consistently identify first-person shooting videos, racist rants and even, in one notable episode that puzzled internal researchers for weeks, the difference between cockfighting and car crashes.” 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!



October 19, 2021 at 08:23PM
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Monday, October 18, 2021

History of Mathematics, Microsoft Office, Windows 11, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 18, 2021

History of Mathematics, Microsoft Office, Windows 11, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 18, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Wolfram Blog: Change Your Perspective on the History of Mathematics with These Eight Learning Journeys. “Amid COVID’s first wave, I had the privilege to join forces with Eric Weisstein and his team at Wolfram Research to create the History of Mathematics Project, a virtual interactive gallery highlighting physical artifacts that are important to the history of mathematics, for the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) in New York City. Most of my mandatory confinement at home was spent navigating through online collections from world-class museums, locating outstanding mathematical artifacts and creating interactive and computational explanations for them.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: New Microsoft Office rollout: When you’ll get it, pricing and major changes . “Microsoft’s new, flat-price version of its Office productivity software started rolling out Oct. 5 — the same day as Windows 11. The company previously emphasized that while its main focus remains on its Microsoft 365 subscription offering, it will release the one-time purchase Office 2021 for those who aren’t yet ready to move to the cloud.”

The Register: Microsoft admits to yet more printing problems in Windows as back-at-the-office folks asked for admin credentials. “Microsoft’s brand new operating system, Windows 11, appears to be just as iffy when it comes to printing as its predecessors. The latest problem turned up in the Windows Release Health dashboard last week and warned that a prompt for administration credentials might pop up when the print server and client are in different time zones.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: 15 Sci-Fi Podcasts to Listen to When You Need a Break From This Reality. “What follows are 15 of the best and most interesting sci-fi podcasts in this reality, representing a wide array of styles and sub-genres: from full-cast productions to stories told by a single narrator, from cyberpunk to adventures with aliens, they’re all the products of talented creators shooting their freaky, whacked-out, forward-looking ideas directly into our brains—via our ears.” Slideshow, but well-annotated.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Guardian: Facebook’s policing of vitriol is even more lackluster outside the US, critics say. “On a cloudy evening in Nairobi, Berhan Taye is scrolling through a spreadsheet in which she has helped document more than 140 Facebook posts from Ethiopia that contain hate speech. There are videos of child abuse, texts of hate speech against different ethnic groups, and hours-long live streams inciting hatred. These posts breach Facebook community guidelines in any context. Yet for Taye and her colleagues, this is what Facebook’s news feed has looked like for years in Ethiopia.”

MyNorthwest: Priceless archive keeps the history of Pacific Northwest trains running. “A unique partnership between five nonprofit groups devoted to Northwest railroad history means an incredible archive of priceless photos and documents is being preserved and made accessible in person and online from a location in Burien.”

Tubefilter; TikTok Is Bringing In The Beatles. “Thanks to a deal with record labels Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe, TikTok has added 36 of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr’s songs to its sound library, which means creators will be able to use them in videos. Also part of the deal is a Beatles TikTok account…”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BBC: New database launched to counter extremism. “The EMAN Network, standing for Extremist Monitoring Analysis Network aims to ‘combat hate speech and extremist ideologies by profiling radical individuals and organisations of all faiths’. Far-right extremists, anti-Semitic tweeters and those who propagate a violent interpretation of Islam and other religions, are all profiled in EMAN’s database which currently holds around 150 entries.”

Bleeping Computer: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink. “Canon USA is being sued for not allowing owners of certain printers to use the scanner or faxing functions if they run out of ink. David Leacraft, a customer of Canon, filed the class action lawsuit on Tuesday alleging deceptive marketing and unjust enrichment by the printer manufacturer.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Verge: Facebook disputes report that its AI can’t detect hate speech or violence consistently. “The post appeared to be in response to a Sunday article in the Wall Street Journal, which said the Facebook employees tasked with keeping offensive content off the platform don’t believe the company is able to reliably screen for it.” A link to that article will be in tomorrow morning’s issue, due to me not wanting to overload categories. 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!



October 19, 2021 at 12:55AM
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Georgia Open History Library, Canadian Music Centre, Arizona Addiction Recovery, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, October 18, 2021

Georgia Open History Library, Canadian Music Centre, Arizona Addiction Recovery, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, October 18, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Digital Library of Georgia: The Georgia Open History Library launches today!. “The Georgia Open History Library is an open-access selection of single-authored scholarly titles and two multivolume series and primary documents going back to the founding of Georgia as a colony up to statehood and beyond. It is important to note that new forewords written by contemporary historians were commissioned by UGA Press for each volume in this collection, adding important current scholarly context to these materials.”

Toronto Star: Is there really a Canadian music? With its digital platform Picanto the Canadian Music Centre provides an answer. “Look up the Canadian Music Centre in that indispensable sourcebook, the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, and you will find four columns of type describing ‘a non-profit, non-governmental library and information centre for the dissemination and promotion of Canadian concert, operatic, educational and church music.’ The encyclopedia was published in 1992 (second print edition) and, judging from the latest project of the CMC, as the institution is popularly known, the definition now needs some updating.”

12 News: Arizona offers tool to help residents find treatment for opioid addictions. “The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System has a new online map that can help residents find providers for treating addictions to opioids. Users can enter their zip code into the AHCCCS website and find a list of nearby recovery centers that offer in-patient treatment programs or doses of Naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal medication.”

EVENTS

Smithsonian: Native Cinema Showcase Returns as a Virtual Program With Messages of Strength and Resilience. “The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian brings its annual Native Cinema Showcase to online audiences Nov. 12–18. This year’s showcase focuses on Native people boldly asserting themselves through language, healing, building community and a continued relationship with the land. Activism lies at the heart of all these stories. The showcase provides a unique forum for engagement with Native filmmakers from Indigenous communities throughout the Western Hemisphere and Arctic.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Stuff New Zealand: International concern about Internet Archive-National Library deal. “An international group of authors including Sir Philip Pullman are concerned about the National Library’s partnership with the Internet Archive. ‘To find that a great national library like that of New Zealand is collaborating in a scheme to break the cherished copyright laws and give our work away for nothing is profoundly shocking,’ said Pullman, the president of the United Kingdom Society of Authors, in a recent letter sent to the library.”

Chrome Unboxed: Google Launches Interactive Tool To Help You Decide On The Perfect Halloween Costume. “Are you trying to decide what you’d like to be for Halloween? Being yourself or the new kid on the block doesn’t count, and you’ve only got a few weeks left! What are you going to do, perform a simple Google search for the most popular costumes? That could take a while. Luckily for you, Google has compiled all of this data into a new interactive tool called Frightgeist, and you can access it right now!”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Axios: Groups launch “How to Stop Facebook” effort. “The more than 30 groups involved include Accountable Tech, Article 19, Center for Digital Democracy, Fairplay, Global Voices, Media Justice, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Presente, Public Knowledge, United We Dream, Ranking Digital Rights, SumOfUs, Win Without War, and the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center. Between the lines: The groups aren’t being subtle about their goal. The campaign page calls for a law ‘strong enough to end Facebook’s current business model.'”

The Guardian: Will the increase of online exhibitions kill the physical gallery?. “Last year, when Covid-19 left galleries with highly restricted access and 61% of all global art fairs were canceled, the market was forced to evolve digitally. Physically experiencing art was no longer a prerequisite to purchase or enjoy works. For some galleries, the growth of online viewing rooms remains exciting and brings respite from time-consuming global fairs. Yet, others are conflicted on whether digitalization is eroding the physical power of art and abandoning the community.”

SF Gate: ‘They start calling you Hitler’: Why Disneyland has some of the most toxic fans on the internet. “There is a serious issue with toxicity in Disney social media as a whole, and it has increased so much over the past few years that the topic has become a growing area of academic study.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

VentureBeat: More than 82M records exposed by an enterprise software developer. “In early July, security researcher Jeremiah Fowler, in partnership with the CoolTechZone research team, discovered a non-password-protected database that contained more than 82 million records. The records had information that referenced multiple companies, including Whole Foods Market (owned by Amazon) and Skaggs Public Safety Uniforms, a company that sells uniforms for police, fire, and medical customers all over the United States.” This incident did not, despite earlier reporting, result in a data leak of Whole Foods’ customer information.

Associated Press: Feds warn companies: Fake online reviews could lead to fines. “Federal regulators say they are cracking down on ‘an explosion’ of businesses’ use of fake reviews and other misleading messages to promote their products and services on social media. The Federal Trade Commission said it has warned hundreds of major corporations and smaller businesses that they could face fines if they use bogus endorsements to deceive consumers.”

Hollywood Reporter: Local TV Programming Disrupted as Sinclair Hit by Ransomware Attack. “Sinclair Broadcast Group said Monday that it was the victim of a ransomware attack, resulting in dozens of local newscasts and other programming being pulled off the air Sunday and Monday. Sinclair is one of the largest owners of local TV stations in the U.S., operating 184 stations in 86 markets. The incident began on Sunday, with a source saying that emails and corporate phone lines were also taken down, complicating the incident further.” 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!



October 18, 2021 at 06:58PM
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Sunday, October 17, 2021

German Talmud Translation, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Canva, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, October 17, 2021

German Talmud Translation, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Canva, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, October 17, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Jerusalem Post: German Talmud translation from 1935 goes online. “Scholars of Judaism in Germany have sought to make Jewish texts available in German for decades, but the Talmud translation project gained steam after [Igor] Itkin and his colleagues, German and Austrian scholars, took on the project after he realized that [Lazarus] Goldschmidt’s work would enter the public domain at the beginning of this year.”

University of North Carolina School of the Arts: New UNCSA Archives Digital Collections portal now available. “The UNCSA Archives staff is excited to introduce the new UNCSA Archives Digital Collections, your portal to digitized material from the Archives. Here you can search or browse over 13,000 digitized photographs and posters from the Archives collections.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Lifehacker Australia: How to Get the Most Out of Canva’s New Video Editing Tools. “If you’re feeling ready to kick off your TikTok career, or are just hoping to add a little colour to your home videos (which many of you are probably getting more creative with now that the iPhone 13 is here), the range of production options with Canva’s Video Suite is broad and they’re wildly easy to use. I chatted with Rob Kawalsky, Head of Product at Canva, to gain some insight into the Video Suite and the best ways to put the product to good use. Here’s everything you need to know.”

Mashable: Twitch says user passwords weren’t compromised in huge data leak . “Earlier in October, pretty much the entirety of Twitch was hacked and leaked onto the internet. Apparently, passwords weren’t included, though. That’s what Twitch says, anyway. The streaming site issued an update on Friday in the aftermath of the big hack, saying that user passwords, credit cards, and banking info weren’t accessed by the hackers.”

USEFUL STUFF

FamilySearch: 6 Online Journals to Make Journaling Easier. “Keeping a personal, handwritten journal may be difficult in this busy time of your life. Why not give online journaling a try? There are dozens of apps, websites, and social media platforms that offer online journaling options. Let’s take a look at what online journaling is and a few terrific options to get started.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Gizmodo: How WhatsApp Swallowed Half The World. “You may know Facebook as an awful site with awful design that’s full of awful people, and the less time anyone spends on it the better. But if you live in a place like Brazil, Uganda, or any other country in the ‘Global South,’ Facebook’s services aren’t just apps where your weird uncle goes to share Trump memes. In fact, they’re not apps at all. They’re utilities. They’re communication and commerce, newspapers and yellow pages, all at once. So when all of that goes down in one fell swoop, you’re not relieved. You’re panicked.”

Wolfram Blog: Celebrating Computational Excellence with the 2021 Wolfram Innovator Awards. “Leaders in many top organizations and institutions have played a major role in using computational intelligence and pushing the boundaries of how the Wolfram technology stack is leveraged for innovation across fields and disciplines. We recognize these deserving recipients with the Wolfram Innovator Award, which is awarded at the annual Wolfram Technology Conference. We are pleased to introduce the 2021 Wolfram Innovator Award winners.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Motherboard: The White House’s Plan to Stop Government Employees From Getting Phished. “The White House has an ambitious plan to greatly reduce the risk of phishing to the U.S. government. Part of that is having agencies phase out the use of SMS and app-based multi-factor authentication, and replace them with phishing-resistant methods such as hardware security keys.”

Business Insider: Facebook is fighting to keep records of its own investigation into the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar out of court. “Facebook on Wednesday challenged part of a judge’s order that would require the tech giant to release internal documents and private user content connected to the genocide of 24,000 Rohingya people in Myanmar. The company is appealing US Magistrate Zia Faruqi’s September mandate that said Facebook must disclose records from the company’s private investigation into its role in the systematic mass executions of Rohingya civilians by the Myanmar military.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

World Wildlife Federation: Walrus From Space – Animal Spotters Wanted to Join Mass Survey. “WWF and British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are seeking the public’s help to search for walrus in thousands of satellite images taken from space, with the aim of learning more about how walrus will be impacted by the climate crisis. It’s hoped half a million people worldwide will join the new ‘Walrus from Space’ research project, a census of Atlantic walrus and walrus from the Laptev Sea, using satellite images provided by space and intelligence company Maxar Technologies’ DigitalGlobe.”

Fast Company: Which Disney movies should your child watch? Scientists created this database to help you decide. “A group of Texas academics recently analyzed the effect of animated films—culled from the vast catalog of productions released by Walt Disney Pictures between 1937 and 2020—on children’s cognitive and behavioral functions, and they found the movies played a valuable role in inspiring dialogue from children, about tough issues they may be facing at that delicate time in their lives.”

The Conversation: What happens to your life stories if you delete your Facebook account?. “Millions of people have invested billions of collective hours building what scholars call a networked life narrative, in which people ‘co-construct’ their social identities through their interactions with one another. Perhaps you’ve never thought about how archiving the small moments of your life would eventually amass into a large narrative of yourself. Or how interactions from your family, friends, colleagues and strangers would create meaningful dimensions of that story.” 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



October 17, 2021 at 05:48PM
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Saturday, October 16, 2021

MyHeritage, Clubhouse, Twitter, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 16, 2021

MyHeritage, Clubhouse, Twitter, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 16, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

BusinessWire: MyHeritage Publishes Huge Collection of 463 Million Historical Records from France (PRESS RELEASE). “MyHeritage, the leading global service for discovering your past and empowering your future, announced today the publication of 463 million historical records from France. The collections published by MyHeritage provide the most comprehensive coverage available for vital records from France in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Until now they have been available exclusively through Filae, a leading French genealogy company recently acquired by MyHeritage. By the end of the year, MyHeritage will publish hundreds of millions of additional records from Filae, further solidifying its position as the market leader for European genealogy.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Clubhouse has a new Music Mode that could make it the place to play. “If you’re a musician on Clubhouse, or you love listening to live music on the app, the new Music Mode ‘optimizes Clubhouse to broadcast your music with high quality and great stereo sound,’ according to the company’s blog post. Clubhouse doesn’t say what it means by high quality, but it does also mention that you can now hook up professional equipment, like a USB mic or mixing board, and use it during your broadcast.”

Mashable: Twitter pulls the plug on vibe checks . “The vibes, it turns out, didn’t need checking. Twitter quietly ended its brief foray into preemptively warning users that things might get ‘heated or intense’ in tweet replies. The feature, announced Oct. 6, was initially positioned as a test and appeared part of Twitter’s larger “conversational health” initiative.” If the examples I saw circulating on Twitter are indication, it deserved both roasting and removal.

USEFUL STUFF

Digital Inspiration: How to Change the Date Format in Google Sheets. “You can customize the date format in a Google Sheet with the TEXT function and completely change the way the date and time values are displayed in the worksheet.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Instagram Struggles With Fears of Losing Its ‘Pipeline’: Young Users. “When Instagram reached one billion users in 2018, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, called it ‘an amazing success.’ The photo-sharing app, which Facebook owns, was widely hailed as a hit with young people and celebrated as a growth engine for the social network. But even as Mr. Zuckerberg praised Instagram, the app was privately lamenting the loss of teenage users to other social media platforms as an “existential threat,” according to a 2018 marketing presentation.”

WECT: Grave of 1898 victim discovered, funeral planned 123 years later. “It’s been 123 years since the infamous 1898 Wilmington Massacre and the first grave of one of the Black people killed during that tragic day has been discovered. Joshua Halsey is buried in an unmarked grave in Pine Forest Cemetery off Rankin Street. Members of a non-profit research group called Third Party Project were able to locate his grave after handwritten maps in the Pine Forest registry were digitized.”

Hollywood Reporter: Claire Foy to Play Sheryl Sandberg in TV Series About Facebook. “The Crown Emmy winner Claire Foy will take on another real-life character for her next TV project: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Foy is set to play Sandberg in a drama from Anonymous Content and Wiip titled Doomsday Machine. The project, which doesn’t have an outlet attached yet, is based on New York Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang’s book An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination (published by Harper in July), as well as their reporting for the Times and that of The New Yorker‘s Andrew Marantz.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Associated Press: Washington AG: Facebook gave false info in campaign suit. “Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson says a Facebook representative provided false testimony in a lawsuit that accuses the company of violating state campaign finance laws. The Seattle Times reports that in court filings the Democratic attorney general says both the social media giant and its attorneys knew the testimony was false.”

Malwarebytes Labs: “Free Steam game” scams on TikTok are Among Us. “What we sometimes see on TikTok is gaming-themed accounts making many of the same promises you see on other platforms. Free games, free items, free stuff. Everything is definitely free with no strings attached. Would RandomAccountGuy3856 lie to you? The answer is, of course, ‘Yes, RandomAccountGuy3856 absolutely would lie to you’.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Garbage Day: Automated Facebook Pages About Cats Are Outperforming Ben Shapiro. “I’m not going to go full tin foil hat and say that, in response to accusations that the website has politically radicalized the country, the company’s algorithm guy flipped a switch and suddenly a bunch of viral animal posts started doing well. I don’t think Facebook’s recommendations are that simple. But I do think it’s worth remembering that, over the last six months, there were basically four kinds of content doing well on the platform: Right-wing pundits, K-Pop blogs, the occasional NPR story, and years-old posts about animals from weird content farms.” 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!



October 17, 2021 at 12:47AM
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Block Party, Instagram Live, Podcast Knowledge Panels, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, October 16, 2021

Block Party, Instagram Live, Podcast Knowledge Panels, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, October 16, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The Verge: Block Party is out of beta and ready to block anyone who likes bad tweets. “Block Party, the anti-harassment service that specializes in making Twitter more tolerable to use, is out of beta and available now. Block Party automates the time-consuming process of moderating your Twitter feed, filtering out content from people you don’t want to see for later review and, starting today, blocking accounts that retweet or like a bad tweet of your choice with blocklists.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mashable: Instagram will now let creators practice live videos . “Anyone who’s ever done an Instagram Live will know the prep behind it, making sure everything is just right: lighting, volume, Internet connection, the works. I do not count myself amongst these creators, but I can imagine it’s a stressful enough process for those that do. Instagram is changing this, though, and helping its dedicated Live creators out. A flock of new features are coming to the app, allowing a shift in how Live is used.”

Search Engine Journal: Podcast knowledge panels go live in Google Search. “Google seems to be rolling out podcast-based knowledge panels in Google Search. When you search for your favorite podcast, you might see a new knowledge panel show up in the search results.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Tubefilter: Netflix Launching Virtual Book Club On Its YouTube And Facebook Channels. “Netflix Book Club content will be hosted by Orange Is The New Black star Uzo Aduba, and videos will live on Netflix’s Still Watching YouTube channel and the Netflix U.S. Facebook channel, beginning Nov. 16. A flagship Starbucks-sponsored series, titled But Have You Read The Book?, will see cast, creators, and authors chatting over a cup of coffee.”

New York Times: ‘Disability Drives Innovation’. “Do you love audiobooks? ‘You have blind people to thank for that,’ said Catherine Kudlick, director of the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University. The godfather of the book being read aloud through your smartphone headphones was Talking Books, the records developed in the 1930s in the United States for people with impaired vision as an alternative to Braille.”

BBC: Cambridge University’s Jesus College bronze cockerel to be returned. “A bronze cockerel kept at Cambridge University that had been looted in a British raid on what is now Nigeria will be handed back this month. The Benin bronze, known as an ‘okukor’, was given to Jesus College in 1905.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Techdirt: Court Says Google Translate Isn’t Reliable Enough To Determine Consent For A Search . “Pre-printed consent forms have been vetted and edited. Google Translate, as powerful as it is, generates what it thinks is the best translation of what it’s hearing, and its best is years away from being at the level of someone truly bilingual. Thus, it’s fallible enough it shouldn’t be used to ask people who speak other languages to waive their rights.”

TechCrunch: DocuSign phishing campaign targets low-ranking employees. “Phishing actors are following a new trend of targeting non-executive employees but who still have access to valuable areas within an organization. As reported by Avanan researchers, half of all phishing emails they analyzed in recent months impersonated non-executives, and 77% of them targeted employees on the same level.”

ANI: Pakistan’s new social media rules give more powers to govt. “Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Technology announced new social media rules on Thursday that will empower the telecom regulator to block any website or platform on the directives of court and federal government or under any law, reported local media.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Georgia Tech: Through Another’s Eyes: University Researchers, Facebook Release Massive Dataset to Expand Innovation in AI. “Imagine a collection of assistive technologies that could help a user learn a new skill, assist an elder individual with a task around the home, or help detect autism in early childhood. There exists an endless list of possibilities where artificial intelligence could impact humanity, but to do so it must see the world as we do — in the first person. A consortium of universities brought together by Facebook AI, including Georgia Tech, has collaborated to compile the largest dataset ever collected on egocentric computer vision — or computer vision from the first-person point of view.”

The Conversation: Squid Game and the ‘untranslatable’: the debate around subtitles explained. “Not many people know the difference between translation and interpreting. To put it simply, translation refers to rendering of written texts from one language into another, whereas interpreting refers to spoken language. Subtitling falls between translation and interpreting, because a subtitler listens to spoken language just as an interpreter does, and translates the oral language into written form for viewers. Subtitling requires not only bilingual competence but specific skills essential to deliver messages within a limited space on screens.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

Boing Boing: Draw a picture and this AI matches it to a movie image. “Hugging Face, a company that makes AI language-and-image-processing tools, just released this little web toy ‘Draw To Search’. You draw something and it attempts to recognize what you’ve drawn and match it to an image from a movie.” 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!



October 16, 2021 at 07:56PM
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Friday, October 15, 2021

West Virginia Careers, Defence Imagery, Chromebook Accessibility, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 15, 2021

West Virginia Careers, Defence Imagery, Chromebook Accessibility, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 15, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

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NEW RESOURCES

West Virginia Public Broadcasting: West Virginia Launches New Online Database To Help Students Find Careers. “West Virginia’s K-12 and higher education leaders launched a new resource this week that will assist students by helping them find college and career options that meet their specific interests and needs after high school.”

BetaNews: Defence Imagery is a new public image archive from the UK’s Ministry of Defence . “If you’re looking for military images and videos, there’s a new resource which offers over 5,000 videos and 10,000 images from the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MOD). Created in conjunction with Norwegian software provider FotoWare, the new Defence Imagery site complies with the strict requirements laid out by the UK Government and makes it clear what you can and can’t do with any content you download.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Google Blog: Check out Chromebook’s new accessibility features. “With accessibility features on Chromebooks, we want everyone to have a good experience on their computer – so people can get things done, families can play together, students and teachers can learn together, and employees can work productively and efficiently, wherever they are. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, so we wanted to share a few recent and new Chromebook features that help people access information in a way that works for them.”

ZDNet: The newest Ubuntu Linux, Impish Indri, arrives. “First things first. An Indri, aka a Babakoto, is a very large lemur. Ubuntu 21.10, Impish Indri, is Canonical’s latest Ubuntu Linux release. It’s the short-term — nine months of support — predecessor to the company’s next long-term support (LTS) version, Ubuntu 22.04.”

USEFUL STUFF

KnowTechie: Here’s why your Twitter feed is filled with these red flag emojis. “If you’ve spent any time on Twitter over the last couple of days, no doubt you’ve seen a bunch of posts using the red flag emoji quite liberally. As tends to happen on social media, the emoji has become the subject of a pretty major trend, with its use on the platform skyrocketing over the last couple of days. So what does it mean?”

For a given value of “useful,” also it’s Friday. Make Tech Easier: 8 Scary Apps to Freak Out Your Friends on Halloween (2021). “Halloween’s coming up, so prepare a list of SpOoOoOky movies, carve up some pumpkins, and set a tripwire across your front gate to protect yourself from trick-or-treaters. It’s also a good time of year to play tricks on people (like April Fool’s, but scarier), and there are some great apps designed just for that purpose. So get your spook on with our list of scary and creepy apps to try out on yourself and your friends this Hallow’s Eve.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Guardian: Facebook is ‘biased against facts’, says Nobel prize winner. “The campaigning Philippines journalist Maria Ressa, who was last week awarded the Nobel peace prize, has launched a stinging attack on Facebook, accusing the social media firm of being a threat to democracy that was ‘biased against facts’ and failed to prevent the spread of disinformation. She said its algorithms ‘prioritise the spread of lies laced with anger and hate over facts’.”

Variety: Solange’s Saint Heron Unveils Free Library of Rare Books and Art by Black Creators. “Solange’s Saint Heron studio and platform has announced the launch of its free library of ‘esteemed and valuable’ books by Black creators for research, study and exploration. Each reader will be invited to borrow a book of their choice for 45 days, completely free of charge. It is available via Saint Heron’s website, saintheron.com starting Monday, Oct. 18 — further details on taking out the books is below.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: White House ransomware summit calls for virtual asset crackdown, without mentioning cryptocurrency. “The 30-nation gabfest convened under the auspices of the US National Security Council’s Counter-Ransomware Initiative has ended with agreement that increased regulation of virtual assets is required to curb the digital coins’ allure to criminals. A joint statement issued after the event’s conclusion opens with anodyne observations about the need for good infosec, international collaboration, and the benefits of private sector engagement.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: YouTube’s stronger election misinformation policies had a spillover effect on Twitter and Facebook, researchers say.. “YouTube’s stricter policies against election misinformation was followed by sharp drops in the prevalence of false and misleading videos on Facebook and Twitter, according to new research released on Thursday, underscoring the video service’s power across social media.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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October 16, 2021 at 12:47AM
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