New researches

Monday, February 7, 2022

Stewkley Video Memories, Texas Film Commission, California Genealogy, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, February 7, 2022

Stewkley Video Memories, Texas Film Commission, California Genealogy, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, February 7, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Leighton Buzzard Observer: Relive some wonderful Stewkley memories as fascinating film archive goes online . “The YouTube portal is divided into sections. One of them, May Day 1959-96, includes sound films of 18 years of the annual event held at the village school, the first film being that of 1967. Other sections include: Ten Years Ago, Saving Stewkley (Airport Campaign), Fun & Games, Special Events, Village Hall, Church & Chapel, TV Programmes and Presentations and the Best of the Rest. A Featured Footage section changes regularly.” Stewkley is in Buckinghamshire, in southeast England.

State of Texas: Texas Film Commission Announces New Online Exhibit. “The Texas Film Commission (TFC) and the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) today announced the launch of a new online exhibit examining the history of industrial filmmaking in Dallas. Titled ‘Mavericks and (M)ad Men: The Industrial Film Legacy of Dallas’ and hosted on Google Arts & Culture, the exhibit features 13 videos submitted to the Texas Film Round-Up by Dallas media producers and Texas organizations to tell the story of the independent filmmakers who helped turn the Texas metroplex into an epicenter for commercial film production.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

California Genealogical Society: California Research Series lectures are online!. “Have you missed one or more of our ‘California Research’ presentations? The first four lectures are now available for viewing online at our YouTube channel. Check out these talks, which give an overview of various California archives, invaluable for researchers! The associated handouts are also provided. A great preparation for NGS 2022, or for any California research trip.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: Safari: A Beginner’s Guide for iPhone or iPad Users . “On Apple devices, the default web browser is called Safari. It shares a lot of similar features to other common browsers, like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. But if you’re new to using Safari, you may feel a little lost because the interface is slightly different to the others. So, here’s a beginner’s guide on how to use the Safari app to browse the web on your iPhone or iPad.”

Washington Post: Worried Wordle may go behind a paywall? Here are 8 alternatives.. I recognize the irony of a Washington Post article about paywalls. However this article is overtly non-paywalled, probably because the Washington Post had the same recognition. “I’ve scoured the Internet and crowdsourced friends for free Wordle-inspired adaptations. They range from NSFW options like Lewdle (like, seriously NSFW), to music-inspired alternatives like this Phish-themed version, to just plain silly, like Letterle.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Press-Enterprise: Project aims to preserve Black history in Inland Empire . “Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer once said, ‘Never to forget where we came from and always praise the bridges that carried us over.’ In 2007, Wilmer Amina Carter and her late husband, William Henry ‘Ratibu’ Jacocks, brought this quote to life through the Bridges that Carried Us Over project. At the core, is a commitment to honoring the history of African American people in the Inland Empire and their personal stories of struggle and triumph through video recorded interviews.” Inland Empire is an area of southern California that includes Riverside and San Bernardino. You can learn more about it at https://mapcarta.com/Inland_Empire .

NARA: Archivist Explores History of 1950 Census Indian Reservation Schedule. “Cody White, archivist and subject matter expert for Native American–related records at the National Archives and Records Administration, set out to explore the history and context of the Form P8, Indian Reservation Schedule, in the 1950 Census to better understand why the Census Bureau created an entirely separate form to be used in some communities.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Guardian: NSO offered US mobile security firm ‘bags of cash’, whistleblower claims. “A whistleblower has alleged that an executive at NSO Group offered a US-based mobile security company ‘bags of cash’ in exchange for access to a global signalling network used to track individuals through their mobile phone, according to a complaint that was made to the US Department of Justice.”

Engadget: RIAA goes after NFT music website HitPiece. “HitPiece may have already shut down its website after several artists spoke up about their work being used without their permission, but the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) isn’t letting it off the hook. The organization has sent the attorney representing HitPiece a letter demanding the website and its founders to stop infringing on music IPs, to provide a complete list of site activities and to account for all NFTs that had been auctioned off.”

CTech: No one was immune: Israel Police Pegasus surveillance list revealed. “Calcalist can reveal for the first time a list of dozens of citizens who were targeted by Israel Police, having their phones hacked by NSO spyware and their personal information swiped and filed away. The surveillance was conducted to phish for intelligence even before any investigation had been opened against the targets, and without judicial warrants. Israel Police said in response that its people are ‘cooperating with the Attorney General of Israel’s examination team.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Michigan Daily: ‘Minecraft’ gave us the soundtrack to a generation. “I had never cared much for the soundtrack of ‘Minecraft,’ but when I first heard the mellow piano arpeggio of C418 [Daniel Rosenfeld]’s ‘Wet Hands’ fade in on my most recent playthrough, I was immediately transported from soulless, resource-gathering gameplay to another realm, one far beyond the menial tasks (both in the game and in real life) that kept me tethered down to this temporal dimension. I was instantly lost in ancient memories of the game, memories I didn’t even know I had. Within my mind, I casually meandered between entire years of my life: I had become unstuck in time.”

The Sunday Times: Students use AI rewrite tool to beat plagiarism checks. “The 18th-century magnum opus by the economist Adam Smith is commonly known as The Wealth of Nations. It was when a student referred in an essay to The Abundance of Countries that his professor smelled a rat. Academics have warned that students are cheating in their essays by using artificially intelligent programs that paraphrase the work of others in a way that cannot be picked up by web tools that check for plagiarism.” Good morning, Internet…

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February 7, 2022 at 08:17PM
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Sunday, February 6, 2022

Environmental Racism, Bing, Timnit Gebru, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, February 6, 2022

Environmental Racism, Bing, Timnit Gebru, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, February 6, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Harvard School of Public Health: Interactive web series explores environmental racism. “When it comes to exposures to environmental hazards, people of color and low-income groups tend to get the short end of the stick. They are more likely than other groups to live close to highways or power plants; to live in housing with lead, pest, or other problems; and to be exposed to hazardous chemicals in personal care products. A new series of web resources titled Environmental Racism in Greater Boston, produced by experts at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, tells a multifaceted and accessible story, including interactive data visualizations, about disparities in environmental exposures from the regional level to the individual level.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Journal: Microsoft Bing adds automobile and car search features. “Microsoft Bing now has new car and automobile search features to let you find your next car, the company announced on its blog. You can search for used cars on Bing and then Bing will provide a search box that you can filter to find the car you are looking for.”

The Verge: Two members of Google’s Ethical AI group leave to join Timnit Gebru’s nonprofit. “Two members of Google’s Ethical AI group have announced their departures from the company, according to a report from Bloomberg. Senior researcher Alex Hanna, and software engineer Dylan Baker, will join Timnit Gebru’s nonprofit research institute, Distributed AI Research (DAIR).”

Ars Technica: Mozilla apparently makes and is discontinuing a VR version of Firefox. “If you didn’t know that Mozilla made a VR-specific version of Firefox called Firefox Reality, then it’s OK for you to continue not knowing, because Mozilla announced today that it would be discontinuing support for the browser a little over three years after introducing it.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: The 5 Best Apps for a Temporary Burner Phone Number. “We’ve all seen criminal types using burner phones on shows like The Wire and Breaking Bad. And most of us have secretly wanted to throw a phone away or break it in half at the end of a conversation. Unless you have reason to believe the NSA or FBI is interested in you, it’s probably not something you need. However, there are all sorts of non-criminal reasons to have a second phone number. While you may want to get a physical burner phone for emergencies, you could also just get a burner app on your existing phone.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Atlantic: How The Snowflakes Won. “Tumblr, launched 15 years ago this month, once had a reputation that was as big and confusing as that of Texas or Taylor Swift: It wasn’t just a blogging platform, but a staging ground for an array of political movements, the birthplace of all manner of digital aesthetics, and the site of freaky in-groups, niche conspiracy theories, community meltdowns, and one very famous grave-robbing scandal. At various points during the platform’s reign of online influence—from roughly 2010 to 2015—the phrase Tumblr user served as a proud identity marker, or something like a slur. Today, it’s an archaism.”

University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Digital project focuses on Nebraska’s Holocaust stories. “Beth Dotan has worked in the Holocaust education field for many years, including at the Ghetto Fighters House Museum in Israel and as the founding director of the Institute for Holocaust Education in Omaha. In pursuing her doctorate at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, she saw an opportunity to continue that work and focus specifically on Nebraska’s survivors and liberators.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: Google Vanquished a Rival in Prague. Payback Could Hurt.. “As Google extended its dominance as a search engine over the past two decades, the Czech Republic stood out as a surprising holdout. People in the European nation preferred Seznam, a search engine started in Prague in 1996, two years before Google. For about 15 years, the company’s focus on its local market provided a feel-good story about a hometown underdog prevailing against a rising global titan. But when smartphones became commonplace, most of them with Google installed as the default search, Seznam’s luck ran out.

BBC: Parrots for sale: The internet’s role in illicit trade. “On the surface, the illicit wildlife trade is as it always has been – secret shipment routes, forged customs documents, and covert warehouses. But how we’ve arrived at Faiz [Ahmed]’s establishment is a sign of how drastically the illicit trade in endangered plants and animals has transformed. He has been openly advertising the sale of endangered birds and animals across social media.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

UMass Chan Medical School: Elinor Karlsson explains global effort to map genomes of all plants, animals, fungi and more. “Elinor Karlsson, PhD, offers insights into various applications of modern comparative genomics in a perspective piece published by the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science. The paper is part of a special feature in PNAS on the Earth BioGenome Project, a global effort to map the genomes of all plants, animals, fungi and other microbial life on Earth. The collection of 10 papers marks a new phase for the Earth BioGenome Project as it moves from pilot projects to full scale production sequencing.”

Brookings Institution: How governments should make use of real-time data from online job portals. “Governments need to support workers to remain competitive and shift toward proactive policies that enhance employment possibilities for unemployed and vulnerable workers. In support of this vision, many public employment agencies are faced with the challenge of developing new approaches, including designing the content and delivery of effective reskilling programs. Here are three reasons why governments should make use of real-time information from online job vacancy portals to support this task.”

MIT Press: The MIT Press and Brown University Library launch On Seeing, a book series committed to centering underrepresented perspectives in visual culture. “In today’s world, there is greater access and exposure to visual culture than ever before—outpacing society’s ability to reflect upon its impact. The diverse authors of On Seeing will investigate the ways that power relations are often inscribed in the visual and they will develop knowledge about how visuality is related to equity and justice…. Resources might include an online hub for knowledge-sharing, a downloadable community conversation toolkit, an author interview or podcast, or free-to-the-public events such as book readings and structured conversations in libraries, bookstores, or public arts institutions. With inclusivity and access as driving motivations, On Seeing will be published in print editions and in interactive, open access digital editions.” Good morning, Internet…

February 6, 2022 at 06:58PM
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Saturday, February 5, 2022

Srebrenica Genocide, LGBTQ Northern Ireland, Google Lens, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, February 5, 2022

Srebrenica Genocide, LGBTQ Northern Ireland, Google Lens, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, February 5, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Foreign Policy: What Germany Can Teach Serbia About Confronting Genocide. “Many surveys of Serbians confirm sentiments of conscious denial of the Srebrenica genocide, pretending nothing happened, blaming all sides, or general apathy. The Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) recently presented ‘Zone of (Non)Responsibility,’ a collection containing more than a hundred excerpts from print and other media that talk about Srebrenica. This digital archive shows several phases of the official policy of denialism regarding the Srebrenica genocide since 1995.”

Belfast Telegraph: Queer today, but what about yesterday?. “This LGBT+ History Month, Damian Kerlin chats with those leading LGBT+ organisations and their volunteers behind their History Project NI which maps out key pivotal moments in Northern Ireland’s queer history, the key movers and shakers who pioneered for change, the strides made and how monumental shifts in history has opened the door for further equality today.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

9to5 Google: Google tests adding Lens to desktop Search on the web. “According to one user browsing with Incognito Mode, Lens on google.com appears in the search field next to the voice microphone. The visual search tool is using the latest, whole-bodied camera icon that the Google app also uses. (Lens still uses the rounded square logo in the Pixel Launcher, Google Photos, and Android app icon.)”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

USA Today: TikTok and Instagram pull ads by mental health company that linked ADHD to obesity. “Meta and TikTok removed advertisements from a mental health care startup after the ads promoted harmful and misleading health information, NBC News reported. Cerebral, a mental health company that hired Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles as its chief impact officer, published an ad where a woman was surrounded by junk food such as chips and cake. The ad then read ‘Those who live by impulse, eat by impulse’ and claimed obesity is ‘five times more prevalent’ among adults with ADHD.”

Muswellbrook Chronicle: An error in Google Maps showed ‘Muswellbrook’ more than 10km southeast of its actual position. “Drivers of Google Maps may have been left confused recently after a mapping error meant directions to ‘Muswellbrook’ led drivers to an intersection more than 10km south of the actual town…. A spokesperson for Google said the issue had now been fixed but was unable to explain the cause behind the misplacement of Muswellbrook.”

TAP Into Somerville: Volunteer Cell Phones Help Preserve 19th-Century Somerville Newspapers. “The borough’s Newspaper Photography Project continues to make progress, with more volunteers joining the effort to create a digital record of people, events, and places recorded in Somerville’s now defunct weekly newspapers, some dating back to the 1850s. Volunteers work at home using their cellphones and post their work in a shared digital archive created by the Borough’s Historic Advisory Committee.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Techdirt: Court Gets An Easy One Right: Section 230 Says Omegle Isn’t To Blame For Bad People On Omegle . “For reasons I don’t quite understand, some people blame Section 230 for the bad people on Omegle, and there have been a few recent lawsuits that try to get around Section 230 and still hold Omegle liable for the fact that bad people use the site. As others have explained in great detail, if these lawsuits succeed, they would do tremendous harm to online speech. We’ve discussed all the reasons why in the past — but pinning liability on an intermediary for speech of its users is the best way to stifle all sorts of important speech online.”

Government Technology: What Prescott, Ariz., Learned ‘Dodging a [Ransomware] Bullet’. “Hackers broke in through a city network engineer’s account in 2020. The near disaster revealed the need for stronger passwords, multifactor authentication and automated threat detection and response.”

News.com.au: Google loses Fortnite stay case against Epic Games. “The developers of hit game Fortnite have had a win against Google in court after the tech giant lost its bid to have a case against it thrown out. Epic Games launched Federal Court action against Google in March, claiming it had abused its control over the Android operating system, and restricted competition in payment processing and app distribution on Google Play Store by forcing developers to use its in-app payment services, which take a 30 per cent commission.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Analytics India: 3D animation using AI: Behind Plask. “If you’re an aspiring animator searching for a programme, you can look into Plask. Plask is a web-based 3D animation editor and motion capture tool driven by AI. It includes the required animation tools, allowing you to record, edit, and animate your projects without ever leaving your browser. However, Plask’s most significant feature is its AI-assisted ability to animate your characters using any video as a mocap.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

If you have asked yourself, “What are NFTs? What’s the big deal? are they nearly as scammy as they seem?” then I encourage you to watch this video from CRACKED. It’s funny, informative, and will take less than six minutes of your life. Good afternoon, Internet…

February 6, 2022 at 04:29AM
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Friday, February 4, 2022

Utah Courts Xchange, Patent Trial and Appeal Board, Twitter, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 4, 2022

Utah Courts Xchange, Patent Trial and Appeal Board, Twitter, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 4, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Standard Examiner: Does your date have a criminal record? Find out for $5. “Earlier this week, the online database, called Utah Courts Xchange, became available to the general public. Logging in as a guest, a user can pay $5 to get up to 24 hours of access to search for district and justice court records of individuals, businesses and other entities…. After a guest user logs into Xchange, they can run keyword searches by name. Results may show everything from infractions to felonies, with basic details about charges and convictions.” The headline does the database a bit of a disservice; this looks like court records search for Utah for a $5 day pass.

USPTO: New PTAB resources for inventors. “Over the past year, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has gathered feedback from across the intellectual property (IP) community through our many outreach events. One thing we heard repeatedly is that inventors want to learn more about the Board and what it does. So, to address this feedback, we acted by creating a number of new programs and resources dedicated to inventors, or anyone who is new to practice before the PTAB.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BeeBom: New ‘Twitter Articles’ Feature Being Tested to Let Users Post Longer Tweets. “From TikTok-like video tweets to emoji reactions, the micro-blogging platform Twitter is often seen experimenting with new features it might launch soon. As the latest addition to this list, it is now said to be working on a ‘Twitter Articles’ feature, which will let you create long-form tweets. Here are the details.”

CNET: Google Chrome logo gets simpler and brighter, the first change in 8 years. “For the first time in eight years, Google is changing its Chrome browser logo, adopting a simpler look intended to better match Google’s current brand, a company designer said Friday. But you might not even notice.”

The Verge: Google Stadia has reportedly been demoted, but it might show up in your Peloton. “One year after Google revealed it now saw Google Stadia cloud gaming idea as a mere ‘technology platform for industry partners’ rather than a true rival to Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, Business Insider is reporting that some Stadia gamers’ fears have come true: the entire Stadia project has been demoted within Google, and its new priority is to power experiences from companies including Peloton, Bungie, and Capcom rather than attracting more games to Stadia itself.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BBC: Koo: India’s Twitter alternative with global ambitions. “Can Indian microblogging app Koo beat Twitter? That’s certainly the goal, according to co-founder Mayank Bidawatka, who says Koo expects to surpass Twitter’s 25 million-strong user base in India this year.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Philippines passes law to tackle anonymous social media abuse. “Philippines lawmakers have approved legislation requiring social media users to register their legal identities and phone numbers when creating new accounts, a senator said on Thursday, in an ambitious move to thwart online abuse and misinformation.”

CNN: Suspected Chinese hackers hit News Corp with ‘persistent cyberattack’. “News Corp suffered a ‘persistent cyberattack,’ the company said Friday, and investigators believe Chinese spies may be responsible. Dozens of journalists at the News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal were targeted in the hack, which appeared to focus on reporters and editors covering China-related issues, two people familiar with the matter told CNN.”

Gizmodo: Gettr Fired Its Entire Cybersecurity Team and Never Replaced Them, Former Employees Say. “Gettr, the MAGA-minded social media platform that recently saw a big spike in users, seems to be on a mission to get hacked. Or at least, that’s what you’d be led to believe by the company’s reported decision to fire pretty much everybody in charge of making sure the company doesn’t get hacked.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: Air Force taps Clearview AI to research face-identifying augmented reality glasses.. “The U.S. Air Force is looking into keeping its airfields safer with help from the facial recognition start-up Clearview AI. The Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Clearview $49,847 to research augmented reality glasses that could scan faces to help with security on bases.” Good afternoon, Internet…

February 5, 2022 at 04:22AM
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Nuclear Freeze Movement, Coastal Climate Change, Warsaw Uprising Photography, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, February 4, 2022

Nuclear Freeze Movement, Coastal Climate Change, Warsaw Uprising Photography, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, February 4, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Cornell Chronicle: Nuclear Freeze documents digitized. ““We will not quietly stand by and watch our world go up in flames and radiation,” the late scholar-activist Randall Forsberg once roused a crowd of more than 700,000 protestors in New York’s Central Park, calling for an end to the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Recently, Cornell University Library has launched an online selection of recorded and written speeches, testimonies, and correspondence by Forsberg, who was a leader of the international Nuclear Freeze movement and the founder and director of the Boston-based Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies (IDDS).”

Southern Environmental Law Center: New web tool digs into development decisions and flooding. “The Changing Coast web site conveniently concentrates an array of climate data into a single interface. The project’s goal is to show citizens and decision-makers how the coast is changing, and how proposed infrastructure projects like highways, neighborhoods, and government or industrial facilities will fare as the water keeps rising and floods get worse.”

The First News: Powerful new photo album reveals Warsaw after the war. “The National Digital Archive has published an album of photographs by Uprising photographer Stefan Rassalski depicting Warsaw destroyed after the Uprising as well as its reconstruction. The album of around 200 photographs called The Capital of Rassalski has been released in print in Polish and English and will soon be available online.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Register: Breath of fresh air: v7.3 of LibreOffice boasts improved file importing and rendering. “Six months after LibreOffice 7.2, version 7.3 is out with faster and more accurate file importing and rendering for improved compatibility with Microsoft Office.”

The Verge: Crisis Text Line stops sharing conversation data with AI company. “Crisis Text Line has decided to stop sharing conversation data with spun-off AI company Loris.ai after facing scrutiny from data privacy experts. “During these past days, we have listened closely to our community’s concerns,” the 24/7 hotline service writes in a statement on its website.”

USEFUL STUFF

Mashable: 9 of the best ‘Wordle’ clones, because one word a day isn’t enough. “Our obsession has been endlessly analyzed and dissected. We’ve shared strategies and tips. It has been meme-ed and shared all over Twitter. It was even bought by the New York Times. And of course our insatiable appetite for the simple puzzle game has been the catalyst for multiple Wordle clones. Here’s a roundup of our favorites.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CNET: Google launches Chromebook repair program for US schools. “Google launched a Chromebook repair program Thursday to help schools in the US find information about repairable devices in an effort to make them last longer, reducing e-waste. The program collects information on what devices schools can easily repair and what tools are required. It will also show manufacturer guidelines on how to repair those devices.”

Washington Post: ‘A community deserves options’: Why these Black journalists launched their own publication . “In June 2020, as protests erupted nationwide following the murder of George Floyd, Lauren Williams and Akoto Ofori-Atta accelerated a conversation they had been having for nearly a decade. They were hearing from fellow Black journalists grappling with their experiences of working in a predominantly White industry, sharing stories of pay disparities, racism and managers who misunderstand or dismissed their ideas. ‘I just became so consumed with what do Black people need from journalism in this moment,’ recalled Ofori-Atta, who was then the managing editor of the Trace, a nonprofit news site, ‘and what is the best way for me to use my talents and experiences to deliver that.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

PC Magazine: ‘Silent AirTags’ With Speakers Removed Pop Up on Etsy, eBay. “As a safety precaution, Apple AirTags will beep if they’re separated from their owners for a set period of time—if they’re slipped into someone’s pocket, bag, or car to stalk them, for example. But a merchant on Etsy tried to undermine this safeguard by selling modified AirTags that had their internal speakers removed.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NiemanLab: Kids are falling victim to disinformation and conspiracy theories. What’s the best way to fix that? . “Children, it turns out, are ripe targets for fake news. Age 14 is when kids often start believing in unproven conspiratorial ideas, according to a 2021 study in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology. Many teens also have trouble assessing the credibility of online information. In a 2016 study involving nearly 8,000 U.S. students, Stanford University researchers found that less than 20 percent of high schoolers seriously questioned spurious claims in social media, such as a Facebook post that said images of strange-looking flowers, supposedly near the site of a nuclear power plant accident in Japan, proved that dangerous radiation levels persisted in the area.”

United Arab Emirates: EAD undertakes hydrogeological mapping project to prepare digital maps, utilising geographical information systems. “The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD), in cooperation with the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, is conducting a hydrogeological mapping project for the UAE, a unique project at the level of the Arabian Gulf region. The project aims to collect, classify, and analyse all available data on ground and surface water, which has been collected from well drilling, research, and reports. This information will be converted into digital data that can be utilised in preparing high-quality, accurate digital maps using Geographical Information Systems (GIS).”

University of South Florida: Researchers find new way to amplify trustworthy news content on social media without shielding bias. “Social media sites continue to amplify misinformation and conspiracy theories. To address this concern, an interdisciplinary team of computer scientists, physicists and social scientists led by the University of South Florida (USF) has found a solution to ensure social media users are exposed to more reliable news sources. In their study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, the researchers focused on the recommendation algorithm that is used by social media platforms to prioritize content displayed to users.” Good morning, Internet…

February 4, 2022 at 09:12PM
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Thursday, February 3, 2022

Radiocarbon Dating, Gaelic Film, Pokemon Music, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 3, 2022

Radiocarbon Dating, Gaelic Film, Pokemon Music, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 3, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Scientific Data: p3k14c, a synthetic global database of archaeological radiocarbon dates . “We present a synthetic, global-scale archaeological radiocarbon database composed of 180,070 radiocarbon dates that have been cleaned according to a standardized sample selection criteria. This database increases the reusability of archaeological radiocarbon data and streamlines quality control assessments for various types of paleo-demographic research. As part of an assessment of data quality, we conduct two analyses of sampling bias in the global database at multiple scales. This database is ideal for paleo-demographic research focused on dates-as-data, bayesian modeling, or summed probability distribution methodologies.” This article is open access.

Into Film Scotland: Celebrating Languages Week Scotland. “To mark Languages Week Scotland, we’ve launched a brand new Gaelic page, which recognises the importance of including Gaelic Medium educators and their learners in the work Into Film does, and helping them access the incredible power of film in their own indigenous language. Our new page houses all of our Gaelic-language content, including films in the Gaelic language, and resources that are either specifically about or have been translated into Gaelic.”

ShackNews: Pokemon DP Sound Library launches free online collection of songs. “The Pokemon Company launched the Pokemon DP Sound Library worldwide on February 2, 2022. It’s been available in Japan for a while already, but is now available to listeners around the world, including the entire soundtrack from Pokemon Diamond and Pearl to stream. According to the official post, this music is also freely downloadable and can be used for ‘personal video and music creation.'”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: EXCLUSIVE iPhone flaw exploited by second Israeli spy firm-sources. “A flaw in Apple’s software exploited by Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group to break into iPhones in 2021 was simultaneously abused by a competing company, according to five people familiar with the matter. QuaDream, the sources said, is a smaller and lower profile Israeli firm that also develops smartphone hacking tools intended for government clients.”

USEFUL STUFF

Digital Inspiration: How to Create Dynamic Open Graph Images with Google Sheets. “Generate dynamic Open Graph images for your website with Google Sheets without requiring Puppeteer. All pages on your website can have their own unique Open Graph images created from a Google Slides template.”

MakeUseOf: 9 Firefox Add-Ons for Reverse Image Search. “Whether you need to track down the original source of an image, find a better quality image, or want to shop for similar products, reverse searching the image can come in handy. But without an add-on, you can’t search by image on Firefox. Therefore, here we’ll take a look at nine of the best Firefox reverse image search add-ons.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Route Fifty: How To Rename a Place. “Louisiana’s Dead Negro Branch was renamed Alexander Branch, after a late local civil-rights leader. Mulatto Mountain, North Carolina, became Simone Mountain, honoring the great Black pianist and singer (and Old North State native) Nina Simone. The new names are the work of the Board on Geographic Names, a little-known federal body with the remarkable power to literally remake the map.”

Bloomberg: Google, Meta can’t just eat up competitors, California AG says. “California Attorney General Rob Bonta has a message for big tech companies, including those in the state: he’s going to take action when they violate laws. ‘This is priority space for me: To hold big corporations, Big Tech specifically, accountable,’ Bonta, 50, said in an interview Thursday. ‘You should expect to see more.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NiemanLab: How UC Berkeley computer science students helped build a database of police misconduct in California. “The Data Science Discovery Program was founded in 2015 and is part of Berkeley’s Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society. Every semester, the program pairs around 200 students with companies and organizations that have data science–related projects they need help completing. Students spend six to 12 hours a week working on their assignments, for which they receive course credit.”

Nature: Social-media platforms failing to tackle abuse of scientists. “Social-media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are not doing enough to tackle online abuse and disinformation targeted at scientists, suggests a study by international campaign group Avaaz. The analysis, published on 19 January, looked at disinformation posted about three high-profile scientists. It found that although all of the posts had been debunked by fact-checkers, online platforms had taken no action to address half of them.” Good afternoon, Internet…

February 4, 2022 at 01:39AM
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Economic Inequality, Jivin’ with Jax, USPTO, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, February 3, 2022

Economic Inequality, Jivin’ with Jax, USPTO, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, February 3, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Berkeley News: Tracking inequality in real time — a powerful new tool from Berkeley economists. “UC Berkeley economists have launched a powerful new web tool that allows users to track, almost in real time, how economic growth and public policy affect the distribution of income and wealth among classes in the United States. The website, Realtime Inequality, is an extension of the pioneering work done by Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman that explores how law and policy in the U.S. and worldwide result in profound inequality in the distribution of economic resources.”

Gambit: Tune into recordings of Vernon ‘Dr. Daddy-O’ Winslow, New Orleans’ first Black radio DJ. “One night in 1949, Vernon Winslow, a Black man, took to the New Orleans radio airwaves — and was fired…. Still, one night he hosted a show and became the city’s first Black radio disc jockey. And he was noticed: Within just a few months, rival radio station WWEZ AM hired Winslow to host ‘Jivin’ with Jax,’ a full-length radio program sponsored by Jackson Brewery and the city’s first program to feature a Black DJ.”

US Patent and Trademark Office: USPTO launches new Patent Public Search tool and webpage. “Based on the advanced Patents End-to-End (PE2E) search tool USPTO examiners use to identify prior art, this free, cloud-based platform combines the capabilities of four existing search tools scheduled to be retired in September 2022: Public-Examiner’s Automated Search Tool (PubEAST), Public-Web-based Examiner’s Search Tool (PubWEST), Patent Full-Text and Image Database (PatFT), and Patent Application Full-Text and Image Database (AppFT).”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Sun Gazette (California): State extends access to digital reading for all students. “On Jan. 25, state superintendent of public instruction Tony Thurmond announced access to myON digital books and daily news articles for students in California has been extended until Feb. 28. A partnership with Renaissance Learning, Inc. was originally announced in December to give students from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade the gift of literacy and provide them an opportunity to engage in reading at home, at school, and in the community.”

CNET: Pinterest’s new AR feature will let you ‘try on’ furniture, home decor. “Retailers and tech companies are boosting their use of augmented reality to help customers decide what products to buy. AR lets people superimpose a virtual image onto a view of the real world through their phone’s camera, making it easier to visualize what an item will look like in a particular space. On Monday, digital pinboard company Pinterest said it’s releasing a new feature called Try On for Home Decor.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TechCrunch: Dashworks is a search engine for your company’s sprawling internal knowledge. “Dashworks is built to be your work laptop’s home page. It’s got support for broadcasting companywide announcements, building out FAQs and sharing bookmarks for the things you often need and can never find — your handbooks, your OKRs, your org charts, etc. More impressive, though, is its cross-tool search.”

The Verge: Google Maps review moderation detailed as Yelp reports thousands of violations. “Google explains how it keeps user-created reviews on Google Maps free of fraud and abuse in a new blog post and accompanying video. Like many platforms dealing with moderation at scale, Google says it uses a mix of automated machine learning systems as well as human operators. The details come amidst growing scrutiny of user reviews on sites like Google Maps and Yelp, where businesses have been hit with bad reviews for implementing COVID-related health and safety measures (including mask and vaccine requirements) often beyond their control.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Times-Union: State Archives find Sojourner Truth’s historic court case. “Buried in 5,000 cubic feet of court records, the New York State Archives has uncovered the 1828 documents thought lost to history detailing how Sojourner Truth became the first Black woman to successfully sue white men to get her son released from slavery.”

The Register: Website fined by German court for leaking visitor’s IP address via Google Fonts . “Earlier this month, a German court fined an unidentified website €100 ($110, £84) for violating EU privacy law by importing a Google-hosted web font. The decision, by Landgericht München’s third civil chamber in Munich, found that the website, by including Google-Fonts-hosted font on its pages, passed the unidentified plaintiff’s IP address to Google without authorization and without a legitimate reason for doing so. And that violates Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).”

Engadget: Purdue University sues Google over mobile power management tech. “Google is once again facing claims it copied others’ code in Android. Purdue University has sued Google over allegations the company is knowingly violating a patent for detecting power management bugs in code. The internet giant purportedly saw an article about Professor Y. Charlie Hu’s research on the subject in 2012 and incorporated related infringing code into Android Lint, an error-catching tool in what would become the Android Studio development kit.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

BBC: DeepMind AI rivals average human competitive coder. “Google-owned artificial-intelligence company DeepMind has announced a big achievement in competitive computer programming. After simulating 10 contests, with more than 5,000 participants, AI system AlphaCode has ranked in the top 54% of competitors.”

The Conversation: How social media forces stand-up comedians like Trevor Noah and Basket Mouth to self-censor. “As an art form based on abuse and amusement, comedy uses potentially offensive material. One would expect the audience to be either delighted or infuriated. But stand-up comedy creates a space where a kind of agreement is reached, which renders most offensive gags inoffensive. This happens through elements like audiences choosing to attend, the venue and shared socio-cultural knowledge. Stand-up comedy has its own norms about how jokes are made and received. The synergy between comedians and live audiences allows for a momentary suspension of offence. But when these jokes start to circulate in a separate space – like social media – they are subjected to other sets of appraisal and questioning.” Good morning, Internet…

February 3, 2022 at 07:07PM
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