New researches

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Pandora Papers, Plant Extinction, AI-Generated Art, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, December 7, 2021

Pandora Papers, Plant Extinction, AI-Generated Art, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, December 7, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: ICIJ releases new Pandora Papers data from two offshore service providers. “With the addition of more than 15,000 companies, foundations and trusts, ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks database now has information on more than 800,000 entities registered in secrecy jurisdictions coming from five different investigations.”

Scienmag: Global database of plants reveals human activity biggest driver of homogenization of plant communities. “In a study published December 6 in Nature Communications researchers have compiled a dataset of over 200,000 plant species worldwide to demonstrate the extent to which species extinctions and non-native invasive plants reorganize plant communities in the Anthropocene, the current geological age dominated by human activity.”

The Verge: This AI art app is a glimpse at the future of synthetic media. “If you’ve been hanging out on Twitter lately, then you’ve probably noticed a profusion of AI-generated images sprouting all over your timeline like weird, algorithmic visions. These pictures have been generated using a new app called Dream, which lets anyone create ‘AI-powered paintings’ by simply typing a brief description of what they want to see. It’s odd, often uncanny stuff — and extremely fun.” Warning: massive timesink.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: YouTube Music rolls out 2021 Recap feature to rival Spotify Wrapped. “YouTube Music on Monday launched a feature called 2021 Recap, which shows users their top artists, songs, music videos and playlists from this year.”

Mashable: From pugs to plants, TikTok has been anything but predictable in 2021. “This year, we know people came for the recipes, nostalgic fashion trends, the myth-debunking, but data-wise, it’s tricky to pinpoint exactly what caught our collective attentions. TikTok’s 2021 trends report solves this conundrum, with the company showing their chosen numbers on what billions were watching, obsessing over, and sharing on the app this year.”

Flickr Blog: NOW OPEN – Your Best Shot 2021. “It’s that time of year again! We’ve just opened the Your Best Shot 2021 group to submissions and will be accepting submissions through January 4. Submit your single best shot of the year for a chance to win one of seven prizes.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BBC: The ‘map nerds’ who are building a national archive. “When Anne Burgess isn’t skiing or flying a glider, you are likely to find her roaming around some of Scotland’s remotest locations, camera and map in hand. The retired tourism officer from Fochabers in Moray is one of an army of volunteers whose mission is to capture and document rural and urban locations and share free-to-use images with the public.”

PR Newswire: Dictionary.com Announces “Allyship” as its 2021 Word of the Year (PRESS RELEASE). “Dictionary.com, the leading online and mobile English-language educational resource, today announced its Word of the Year: allyship. The word carries special distinction this year as it marks the first time Dictionary.com has chosen a word new to its dictionary as its Word of the Year.”

How-To Geek: The Most Popular Emoji of 2021 Fits This Year Perfectly. “Just like last year, 2021 has been a year filled with trials and challenges. The Unicode Consortium has analyzed the most used emoji for the year, and we all used the tears of joy face far more than any other one, which feels fitting for what 2021 was.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CBS News: U.S. imposes first cybersecurity rules for rail transit, despite industry pushback. “The federal government imposed two cybersecurity mandates on ‘higher-risk’ railroad and rail transit systems, despite industry efforts to beat back regulations.”

Bleeping Computer: As Twitter removes blue badges for many, phishing targets verified accounts . “Verified accounts on Twitter refer to those possessing a blue badge with a checkmark. These accounts typically represent notable influencers, prominent celebrities, politicians, journalists, activists, as well as government and private organizations. The phishing campaign follows Twitter’s recent removal of the checkmarks from a number of verified accounts, citing that these were ineligible for the legendary status, and were verified in error.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Boing Boing: Fakelish: generative English words. “Want some more words from the other English language? Ryo Ota’s Fakelish has them all. Unlike Thomas Dimson’s English word generator, it doesn’t use AI, preferring more mundrial generative techniques.” Good morning, Internet…

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December 7, 2021 at 06:27PM
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Monday, December 6, 2021

Indigenous Pennsylvania, Google Voice, Python: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, December 6, 2021

Indigenous Pennsylvania, Google Voice, Python: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, December 6, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Penn State University: Libraries launches Library Guide for Indigenous Peoples in Pennsylvania History. “Penn State University Libraries recently completed development of a new Library Guide to Indigenous Peoples in Pennsylvania History. Finalized in November, in time for the observance of Native American Heritage Month, the Library Guide is a collection of resources related to the history of Native Americans in Pennsylvania, including maps, treaties and land appropriations.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

KnowTechie: Google Voice just got some new tricks to make calling even easier. “Remember when Google Voice was the coolest thing ever, giving you virtual phone numbers so you didn’t have to give out your real number to people? Those were the days, but nowadays it gets only a little bit of love from Google. That changes today, with some new shortcuts so you can access its most used features straight from your home screen.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 9 Free Online Courses for Python Beginners . “Python is a high-level programming language. It’s popular among the programming community due to its simplicity and versatility. You’ll find its usage in high-end computing like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), databases, scientific software, etc. Coincidentally, experts working in these fields also get paid handsomely. If you are a beginner, start by learning the basics of Python programming, and then climb up the ladder as you learn more.”

Make Tech Easier: 15 Interesting AI Experiments You Can Try Online. “From creating realistic people who don’t exist to helping you compose incredible soundtracks of your life, you’ll find AI experiments come in a wide variety of purposes. It’s also eerie just how good these are. If you’ve always been curious about what AI can do, give these experiments a try right in your browser with no special hardware needed.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Rest of World: One man’s quest to put Mexico City’s iconic street food vendors onto Google Maps. “Food stands like [Teresa Dorantes] Hernández’s line the streets of towns and cities across Mexico. In 2018, the government estimated that over 1.6 million people worked in street food establishments, which represent almost 50% of total businesses in the country…. While a small minority are beginning to enter the age of technology — accepting digital payments and even hawking their fares on delivery platforms such as DiDi and Uber Eats — they overwhelmingly operate outside of Google Maps. As our tastes become increasingly dictated by algorithms and user-generated reviews, street carts like Hernández’s are at risk of being left behind.”

Wired: The Twitter Wildfire Watcher Who Tracks California’s Blazes. “During California’s long fire season—roughly May through October—Michael [Silvester] sits at his desk all day, sometimes for 18-hour stretches, keeping watch over that single state’s blazes…. The phones let him keep track of more than 100 agencies across California: Los Angeles County Fire, LAFD, Marin County, Sacramento, Napa County. The app only lets him follow 25 agencies per phone, so he runs another two phone emulators on his PC to cover even more departments. When he hears what he thinks is an essential detail of a fire’s movements, he tweets it in real time to more than 100,000 followers. The irony, perhaps, is that Michael has never been to California. He’s never even left New Zealand.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Everybody’s Libraries: Coming soon to the public domain in 2022. “As I did last year, I’m posting to Twitter, making one tweet per day featuring a different work about to enter the public domain in the US, using the #PublicDomainDayCountdown hashtag. Most of these works were originally published in 1926. But this year for the first time we’ll also be having a large number of sound recordings joining the public domain for the first time, published in 1922 and before.”

Gizmodo: Two Men Allegedly Stole $20 Million in Music Royalties From YouTube. “According to court documents (first reported by MarketWatch), Webster Batista, aka ‘Yenddi’ and Jose Teran, aka ‘Chanel’ fraudulently claimed royalty rights to over 50,000 songs through LLCs which sounded like record labels. A grand jury has charged them with conspiracy, wire fraud, identity theft, and money laundering.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

The Verge: An interactive Doja Cat music video can introduce you to programming. “Girls Who Code, the nonprofit organization that aims to get more women and girls interested in the field of computer science, has debuted what it calls the ‘first ever’ codable music video. The organization partnered with Doja Cat, transforming her new music video for Woman into an interactive experience.” Good afternoon, Internet…

December 7, 2021 at 01:46AM
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Food Nutrition, Food Waste, Singapore Birds: Monday ResearchBuzz, December 6, 2021

Food Nutrition, Food Waste, Singapore Birds: Monday ResearchBuzz, December 6, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Family Safety & Health: New online tool shows the way to healthier food choices. “Food Compass is a nutrient profiling system that looks at more than 8,000 foods’ nutrients, ingredients, processing characteristics and additives, among other characteristics, and grades their healthfulness on a scale of 1 to 100. Experts encourage regular consumption of foods that have a score of 70-100. Foods with scores of 31-69 should be eaten moderately, and those in the 1-30 score range should be minimized.”

Devex: Tracking food waste and loss is hard. A new database makes it easier. “A new database is collecting research on post-harvest food loss and waste to help inform policymakers and academic researchers as they seek to reduce the estimated one-third of food that is grown but not consumed…. The database, which launched in November, currently contains more than 200 papers with information from more than 80 countries and 22 crops.”

Straits Times: New online database details rare bird species in Singapore. “As bird-watching takes flight in Singapore, a group of 17 enthusiasts wants to tap the growing network of birdwatchers here by creating an online platform that allows people to submit their sightings of these rarities. The Singapore Birds Project last month published the first edition of its rare species database, featuring over 150 species. A rare bird is one that has been seen three times or fewer in a year, or belongs to a species that has been recorded more often but can be challenging to identify in the field.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Google is making its first in-house smartwatch that could launch in 2022. “Google is finally making its own in-house smartwatch that’s set to launch in 2022, according to a person familiar with the matter and a new report from Insider. While Google has made its own smartphones for years under the Pixel line (which has since extended to other accessories, like wireless headphones), the company has never designed its own smartwatch, despite the fact that Google has had a companion wearable platform for Android since 2014.”

CNET: YouTube names the top 10 most-viewed videos uploaded in 2021. “YouTube has dropped its list of top trending videos and creators of the year. MrBeast, the YouTuber who made headlines recently for his re-creation of Netflix’s survival drama Squid Game, came No. 1 in the US for the video I Spent 50 Hours Buried Alive. It’s notched up over 147 million views since it was released in March.”

Mashable: Google’s pizza-themed Doodle is actually a fiendish mini-game . “Who would’ve thought slicing pizza could be this much of a head-scratcher? Google unveiled its latest Doodle on Monday, a fiendish mini-game which tasks you with cutting up a pizza into a certain number of slices using only so many strokes.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: How TikTok Reads Your Mind. “There are four main goals for TikTok’s algorithm: 用户价值, 用户价值 (长期), 作者价值, and 平台价值, which the company translates as ‘user value,’ ‘long-term user value,’ ‘creator value,’ and ‘platform value.’ That set of goals is drawn from a frank and revealing document for company employees that offers new details of how the most successful video app in the world has built such an entertaining — some would say addictive — product.”

Northumbria University: Research on US Civil War sailors to create a treasure-chest for genealogists and social historians. “Project Civil War Bluejackets: Race, Class and Ethnicity in the United States Navy, 1861-1865 is being led by Professor David Gleeson from Northumbria, in collaboration with the University of Sheffield Information Scientists Dr Morgan Harvey and Dr Frank Hopfgartner. The research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), will include the creation of newly digitised muster rolls – registers of the officers and men on Union Naval vessels – from the conflict, providing a valuable online resource both for social historians and people looking to discover their family histories.”

AFP: Google to halt election ads ahead of 2022 Philippines vote. “Google will stop carrying election ads in the Philippines ahead of the May 2022 presidential vote, the internet giant said Wednesday, similar to action it has taken in the United States. Alarm has been raised in recent years by governments and election watchdogs over the use of targeted political advertising, especially disinformation campaigns to sway voters.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Gizmodo: Crime Prediction Software Promised to Be Free of Biases. New Data Shows It Perpetuates Them. “Between 2018 and 2021, more than one in 33 U.S. residents were potentially subject to police patrol decisions directed by crime-prediction software called PredPol. The company that makes it sent more than 5.9 million of these crime predictions to law enforcement agencies across the country—from California to Florida, Texas to New Jersey—and we found those reports on an unsecured server. Gizmodo and The Markup analyzed them and found persistent patterns.”

CNN: Suspected Chinese hackers breach more US defense and tech firms. “A suspected Chinese hacking campaign has breached four more US defense and technology companies in the last month, and hundreds more US organizations are running the type of vulnerable software that the attackers have exploited, according to research shared with CNN.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Stony Brook University: Study Suggests New Strategy to Detect Social Bots. “The study looked at more than 3 million tweets authored by 3,000 bot accounts and an equal number of genuine accounts. Based only on the language from these tweets, the researchers estimated 17 features for each account: age, gender, five personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism), eight emotions (such as joy, anger and fear), and positive/negative sentiment.” Good morning, Internet…

December 6, 2021 at 06:35PM
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Sunday, December 5, 2021

Slovenia, Bing, Bookmark Management, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, December 5, 2021

Slovenia, Bing, Bookmark Management, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, December 5, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Google Blog: You cannot spell Slovenia without ‘love’. “This year, to inspire people all around the world when it comes to picking their next travel destination, Google Arts & Culture partnered with the Slovenian Tourist Board and a handful of cultural partners, like the National Library of Slovenia, Beekeeping Museum Radovljica and Slovenian Alpine Association to release the project ‘Slovenian Stories’. This online exploration takes you through the country in the most unexpected ways: users will meet the locals and discover the crafts of one of Europe’s most forested countries.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bing Blogs: Search local stores and more with Microsoft Bing. “Time is important and shoppers are smart. Consumers increasingly check store stock availability and choose to buy online and pick up in-store. These options save time and effort, and searching with Microsoft Bing or Bing Maps makes it even easier now to shop with convenience and certainty.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 3 Ways to Visually Organize Your Bookmarks. “Having the option to save bookmarks within your browser is fantastic. Except when you go to find the link you need, and can’t actually find it. It may have even been faster to try searching for the page again, but instead, you’re staring at a list of text and icons, determined to find it. In this article, we’ll take you through three ways to visually organize your bookmarks. This will help you locate your links faster because you’ll know exactly where everything is.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

City College of New York: CCNY’s MFA in Creative Writing creates “Archives as Muse: A Harlem Storytelling Project”. “The storytelling project, directed by Michelle Valladares, lecturer and director of the MFA in Creative Writing, aims to include symposia, interviews, online workshops and exhibits as well as a resource section with links to public archives.”

Irish Times: The social media chefs demystifying the kitchen for a new generation. “Despite me writing a recipe for feta bake in a national newspaper back in 2013, it took a 30-second video to make a version of it a viral hit last year. The TikTok platform made it easy to share and spread, creating a worldwide spike in feta cheese sales. Being shown how easy this delicious dish is to make has been key to its popularity, as well as the visual element of those bursting tomatoes and yielding soft cheese making it look so appetising.”

Washington Post: Amazon, can we have our name back?. “Alexa Morales wore her name proudly. But after Amazon launched its voice service, also called Alexa, in November 2014, people began speaking to Morales differently. She said they made jokes about her name, giving her commands or asking her questions in a robotic tone.”

The Verge: Google Pixel mail-in repairs have allegedly twice resulted in leaked pics and a privacy nightmare. “After game designer and author Jane McGonigal sent her Pixel 5a to Google for repair, someone allegedly took and hacked her device. This is at least the second report in as many weeks from someone claiming they sent a Google phone in for repair, only to have it used to leak their private data and photographs.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Complete Music Update: Google voluntarily de-lists The Pirate Bay in response to ISP-targeting web-blocking injunction. “Google has seemingly de-listed The Pirate Bay from its search engine in the Netherlands in response to a web-blocking injunction in the country against the infamous piracy site, even though it isn’t actually named on that injunction.”

Sydney Morning Herald: Next level of DNA analysis allows police to build picture of suspects . “Forensic specialists obtain a DNA sample at a crime scene. It doesn’t have any matching profiles in police databases but, using analysis of the genetic material, they deduce the gender, ancestry, eye colour and hair colour of the potential suspect in the investigation. It sounds like something you might see in a science fiction movie, but the technology is now available to law enforcement agencies like the Australian Federal Police – a powerful new tool for investigators.”

Houston Public Media: A federal judge has blocked Texas’ new social media censorship law for now . “House Bill 20, which was set to take effect Dec. 2, would have let Texas users banned by social media platforms sue for reinstatement or have the state attorney general sue on their behalf.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Stanford University: Stanford physicists help create time crystals with quantum computers. “Just as a crystal’s structure repeats in space, a time crystal repeats in time and, importantly, does so infinitely and without any further input of energy – like a clock that runs forever without any batteries. The quest to realize this phase of matter has been a longstanding challenge in theory and experiment – one that has now finally come to fruition.”

Johns Hopkins University: Piecing Together Hard History. “Friday’s forum, organized by the university’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and Hopkins Retrospective, explored the complexities of archival research and scholarship around the institution of slavery and its legacies at universities. The virtual event featured panels on research methodologies, how racism and slavery continue to affect institutions, and the future of such research. Panelists included several historians from Johns Hopkins and elsewhere who are engaged in this work.” Good evening, Internet…

December 6, 2021 at 04:42AM
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Saturday, December 4, 2021

J. William Fulbright, Stoney Nakoda Language, Twitter, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, December 4, 2021

J. William Fulbright, Stoney Nakoda Language, Twitter, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, December 4, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Arkansas: Providing Context: Fulbright’s History Now Online, To Be Added Near Statue. “An overview of key events in former university president and U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright’s life and political career is now available online. The new resource includes an overview of Fulbright’s political and civil rights record, links to educational resources and a summary of events that led the university to this point.”

PR Newswire: Stoney Nakoda Language Resources Launched to Preserve Indigenous Language (PRESS RELEASE). “The Stoney Education Authority (SEA), with support from The Language Conservancy, is releasing historic Stoney Nakoda language learning resources this December. This release includes three picture books, a Level 1 textbook, and an alphabet colouring book. The release also includes several digital resources: a 9,000-word web and mobile dictionary, a textbook-accompanying media player app, and a vocabulary-building app.” You can learn more about the Stoney Nakoda First Nation here.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Twitter Blog: Our new search prompt to help people find credible information about HIV. “Today we launched another global expansion of our #ThereIsHelp notification service with a dedicated search prompt for HIV-related information across Asia Pacific and the Americas: Brazil, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, SP-Latam, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States. This notification prompt will provide valuable and authoritative resources around HIV and encourage people to reach out and get help when they need it.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: 12 of the Best Job Search Sites for Remote Work. “As commuting to work is minimized, employees are able to better utilize their time to be more productive or take care of their personal errands they might have otherwise needed to do during work hours. Remote work has shown itself to be a big win for everyone involved. Read on to discover some of the best sites to search for remote work.” Some of these resources are more about freelancing than full-timing, but it’s still a solid list.

MakeUseOf: 6 Font Size Calculators for Better Messages. “When the message of your next presentation is clear, the one thing that shouldn’t be holding you back from sending across your message is typography, or font size. The difference between designs that stand out on the web and the ones that don’t is simple. The ones that stand out have the right font size, font style, and line height. But, how do you know what works and what doesn’t?”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Engadget: The British Fashion Council gave an award for the best Roblox design. “The British Fashion Council (BFC) has handed out an award in a brand new category called Metaverse Design created in collaboration with Roblox. Five Roblox creators were nominated, with the in-app clothing store cSapphire coming out the winner.”

New York Times: When Did Spotify Wrapped Get So Chatty?. “After the feature’s Dec. 1 release, the hashtag #SpotifyWrapped trended for a couple of days, and the memes have been endless. In short, Spotify has collected a lot of data and is now reaping the benefits.” I listened to Spotify for over 124,000 minutes this year – I guess that’s what happens when you end up doing multiple personal isolations due to covid. Top genre: Australian Indie! Go listen to some Ball Park Music.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: Legal news service sues Virginia for access to online court records. “In virtually every federal court in the United States, members of the public can access court documents — lawsuits, indictments, judge’s orders — from their home computer, at a cost of 10 cents per page. In 37 states and the District of Columbia, according to Courthouse News Service (CNS), the public can also call up dockets and actual legal filings online, often for free. But not in Virginia or Maryland.”

Mashable: A decades-old missing persons case and an obsessed true crime reporter puts Twitter’s newest policy to the test. “Maura Murray seemingly vanished from the face of the earth after a car accident on February 9, 2004. Her disappearance, a mere days after Facebook launched, was one of the first cases to put social media sleuthing to the test as users created Facebook and MySpace pages to solve the mystery of her disappearance. She was 21 years old. Now, nearly 18 years since she was last seen, Maura Murray’s suspicious disappearance is putting social media to the test once again.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Techdirt: Twitter Is Just The Beginning Of Jack Dorsey’s Speech Revolution. “Jack Dorsey has left Twitter, which he co-founded and ran for more than a decade. Many on the American political right frequently accused Dorsey and other prominent social media CEOs of censoring conservative content. Yet Dorsey doesn’t easily fit within partisan molds. Although Twitter is often lumped together with Facebook and YouTube, its founder’s approach to free speech and interest in decentralized initiatives such as BlueSky make Dorsey one of the more interesting online speech leaders of recent years. If you want to know what the future of social media might be, keep an eye on Dorsey.” Good afternoon, Internet…

December 5, 2021 at 01:51AM
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Boston Celtics, White House Christmas Decorations, Twitter, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, December 4, 2021

Boston Celtics, White House Christmas Decorations, Twitter, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, December 4, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Boston Celtics: Celtics Launch New Team Site: BostonCelticsHistory.com. “BostonCelticsHistory.com contains hundreds of unique items sure to entice any basketball fan, including rare glimpses of game-used gear, hundreds of images and photos, official team publications and promotional items, vintage video highlights and one-of-a-kind mementos from Celtics legends. Fans can explore galleries dedicated to all-time greats, sneakers, mascots and more.”

Engadget: Tour the White House’s Christmas decorations on Google Street View. “You can now take a tour of the White House’s halls decked with Christmas trees and other decor fit for the season — virtually, that is. Google first added the official residence of the President of the United States to the places you can visit on Street View almost a decade ago. But now, you can take a virtual walk of its premises to see how the place has been decorated.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: New Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal begins restructuring as two execs step down. “Earlier this week, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down from his role. He appointed CTO Parag Agrawal as new CEO, effective immediately. Agrawal, who joined Twitter as an engineer in 2011, already announced a major reorganization of the company today, per an internal email obtained by The Washington Post. Twitter confirmed the news to TechCrunch, as well. So far, two executives have stepped down as part of this restructuring: Twitter’s Chief Design Officer Dantley Davis, who joined the company in 2019, and Head of Engineering Michael Montano, who joined in 2011.”

CNET: Twitter says it mistakenly suspended accounts after new policy spurred ‘malicious reports’. “A ban on sharing media of private individuals was misused by some far-right activists to report anti-extremism researchers and journalists, according to The Washington Post.”

USEFUL STUFF

Gizmodo: How to Decide What Happens to Your Data When You Die. “You can just write down your usernames and passwords and keep the document in a safe place until you shuffle off this mortal coil, but that’s not a particularly secure or elegant solution. The big tech companies have over the years developed settings that are more sophisticated and easier for everyone involved. Here we’ll tell you how to set up your legacy using your Google, Apple, and Facebook accounts.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Axios: Gophers sign social media and appearance deals under new NCAA rules. “Driving the news: Student athletes at the University of Minnesota’s flagship campus have capitalized on their ‘name, image and likeness’ (NIL) at least 139 times since this summer, per disclosures obtained by Axios via a public records request. Why it matters: The NCAA’s new NIL rules, which took effect July 1, let student athletes benefit financially from their college careers while they’re still playing.”

Associated Press: Inside the ‘big wave’ of misinformation targeted at Latinos. “Heading into a midterm election in which control of Congress is at stake, lawmakers, researchers and activists are preparing for another onslaught of falsehoods targeted at Spanish-speaking voters. And they say social media platforms that often host those mistruths aren’t prepared.”

Sports Illustrated: He Can Knock Out a World Champion From the Comfort of Your Local Library. “In a sport without any sort of central governing body—and that is known to traffic in half truths—Bob Yalen is here to get the boxing records straight, one yellowed newspaper clipping at a time.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: Google, Other Tech Giants Enlist Mom-and-Pop Shops in Antitrust Campaign. “Online platforms made Mimi Striplin’s dream of selling handmade jewelry possible….Earlier this year she spoke with the offices of her South Carolina senators to warn that antitrust bills introduced in Congress risked complicating the online tools she uses not just to reach customers, but also to organize her team, inventory and shipping. Her argument wasn’t just on her own behalf.”

New York Times: Who Owns a Recipe? A Plagiarism Claim Has Cookbook Authors Asking.. “U.S. copyright law seeks to protect ‘original works of authorship’ by barring unauthorized copying of all kinds of creative material: sheet music, poetry, architectural works, paintings and even computer software. But recipes are much harder to protect. This is a reason they frequently reappear, often word for word, in one book or blog after another.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Texas at Austin: First Digital Platform to Track and Prevent Drug Overdoses in Texas Launches. “The rate of opioid and other drug overdoses is on the rise in Texas, but there has been no statewide system to collect overdose data—until now. An interdisciplinary team of developers, designers, clinical partners and researchers led by Dell Medical School and the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin has created a digital reporting and surveillance system to track drug overdoses statewide.”

Auburn University: Building Science, Architecture faculty digitally preserving Alabama’s disappearing Rosenwald Schools. “In the early decades of the 1900s when racial segregation was the norm, almost 400 schools were built in rural Alabama to serve as educational facilities for African American children. These were known as the Rosenwald Schools and, between 1912-32, they made it possible for African American children to obtain a formal education in a time when doing so would otherwise be nearly an impossibility.” Good morning, Internet…

December 4, 2021 at 06:27PM
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Friday, December 3, 2021

January 6, Catholic Church Attacks, Chrome OS, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, December 3, 2021

January 6, Catholic Church Attacks, Chrome OS, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, December 3, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Democracy Docket: The Fight for Accountability After January 6. “Public Wise, an organization fighting to secure a government that reflects the will and protects the rights of all people, is launching a campaign to recognize the insurrection and hold accountable those responsible for it. Our first step is an exciting tool called the Insurrection Index, an online database of public records of individuals and organizations in positions of public trust who were involved in the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol.”

The B.C. Catholic: Catholic Civil Rights Leagues launches church attack database. “Last summer’s surge of anti-Catholic arson and vandalism may have abated, but the head of the Catholic Civil Rights League is cautioning that unless Catholics learn to stand together to denounce such hate crimes, worse is yet to come. Christian Elia, executive director of the CCRL, issued the warning while announcing the launch of the organization’s Church Attacks Database, which aims to keep a detailed, public record of all attacks on the Church in Canada.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BGR: Google’s new Chrome OS update turns Chromebooks into scanners. “Chromebooks are here to stay, and on Tuesday, Google rolled out Chrome OS 96 — a huge new update that adds several exciting new features to the laptops. We’ll dive into everything Google added below.”

PC Magazine: New Twitch Tool Aims to Catch Ban Evaders. “Twitch is cracking down on folks trying to evade channel-level bans. The live streaming service’s new Suspicious User Detection tool gives creators and mods the power to penalize ban evaders.”

USEFUL STUFF

CogDogBlog: Seeing The Web As it Looks Without Image Alt Text . “I’m no guru on web accessibility, most of my projects likely will fail to meet the standards. But I am more interested in the small things we can and ought to do to at least try better.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Sky News: Antisemitism, racism and white supremacist material in podcasts on Spotify, investigation finds . “The company said it does not allow hate content on its platform. But we found podcasts totalling several days’ worth of listening promoting extreme views such as scientific racism, Holocaust denial and far-right antisemitic conspiracy theories. And while some of the most shocking material was buried inside hours-long episodes, in some cases, explicit slurs could be found in episode titles and descriptions while album artwork displayed imagery adopted by white supremacists.”

Search Engine Journal: Google Algo Bug Puts Sites In Weird Limbo State. “In a Google Office-hours hangout, John Mueller answered a question about how long it takes for Google to re-rank a website that disappeared and returned. Part of his answer revealed an insight into a rare problem at Google that stops a website from ranking for any keywords at all, not even the name of the domain.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Russia fines Google 3 million roubles for not deleting banned content. “A Moscow court fined Alphabet Inc.’s Google 3 million roubles ($400,386) on Monday for not deleting content that it deemed illegal, part of a wider dispute between Russia and the U.S. tech giant.”

Ars Technica: Thousands of AT&T customers in the US infected by new data-stealing malware. “Thousands of networking devices belonging to AT&T Internet subscribers in the US have been infected with newly discovered malware that allows the devices to be used in denial-of-service attacks and attacks on internal networks, researchers said on Tuesday. The device model under attack is the EdgeMarc Enterprise Session Border Controller, an appliance used by small- to medium-sized enterprises to secure and manage phone calls, video conferencing, and similar real-time communications.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NIST: NIST Recommends Steps to Boost Resilience of U.S. Timekeeping. “The nation should bolster research and development of systems that distribute accurate time via fiber-optic cable and radio as part of the effort to back up GPS and enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure that depends on it, according to a new report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).” Good afternoon, Internet…

December 4, 2021 at 02:12AM
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