New researches

Thursday, February 10, 2022

Ohio Dance, Makerbook, ESRB Family Gaming Guide, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, February 10, 2022

Ohio Dance, Makerbook, ESRB Family Gaming Guide, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, February 10, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from WOUB: ‘Ohio: A State of Dance’ profiles pioneers of dance in the buckeye state. “Since 2016, OhioDance has been documenting and contextualizing the rich history and contemporary presence of dance throughout the state with their Virtual Dance Collection. The Virtual Dance Collection is an interactive, online museum of sorts – featuring profiles of the various prominent movers and shakers in the field of dance in Ohio.”

Spotted on Reddit: Makerbook. It’s a specialty search engine for finding woodworking, metal fabrication, or blacksmithing shops in your area that will let you rent the use of their space/tools. The advanced search is decent, allowing you to filter by tool or experience level, but I don’t see any kind of About page or changelog as more information is added to the site.

Game Developer: The ESRB debuts a “family gaming guide” to aid parent game purchases. “It’s notable that the Family Gaming Guide offers much more nuance and explanation for parents befuddled by the intricacies of modern online games. ESRB ratings don’t generally directly cover concepts like microtransactions, loot boxes, or possibly toxic online chat. This guide breaks these topics (and others) out into a number of sections that can’t be summed up in a rating.”

KCCI: 300 missing Iowans: Iowa DPS relaunches missing person website. “The Iowa Department of Public Safety says more than 300 Iowans are currently missing. Iowa DPS is launching a new website, hoping this makes identifying and locating missing people easier.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

NiemanLab: An incomplete history of Forbes.com as a platform for scams, grift, and bad journalism. “Forbes’ staff of journalists could produce great work, sure. But there were only so many of them, and they cost a lot of money. Why not open the doors to Forbes.com to a swarm of outside ‘contributors’ — barely vetted, unedited, expected to produce at quantity, and only occasionally paid? (Some contributors received a monthly flat fee — a few hundred bucks — if they wrote a minimum number of pieces per month, with money above that possible for exceeding traffic targets. Others received nothing but the glory.)”

The New Times (Rwanda): Ibuka in drive to build digital genocide archive. “The umbrella body of the survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Ibuka has embarked on a project to electronically store the archives related to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Components of the project will mainly include the content of different electronic documents, books and other devices that provide more details on how genocide was prepared and executed.”

Variety: Motown Records and Google Launch Program to Elevate Women of Color in Music Industry. “The Motown Records Creator Program Supported by Google will find and fund the next outstanding woman content creator, videographer, or creative producer/director and offer an opportunity to collaborate with Motown Records’ executives and its roster of artists, including TianaMajor9.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Daily Beast: Hipster Couple Charged in $4.5 Billion Crypto Heist Is Even Weirder Than You Think. “Bitcoin. NFTs. A PPP loan. And a rapping tech entrepreneur. A New York City couple were arrested Tuesday morning by federal agents on charges of laundering some $4.5 billion stolen in a massive 2016 cryptocurrency exchange breach. As might be expected in 2022, the latest federal law enforcement takedown features the buzziest of buzz-worthy themes—as well as some pretty awful rap lyrics.”

Motherboard: VIDEO: Ukraine Busts Alleged Russian Bot Farm Using Thousands of SIM Cards. “Ukraine’s Security Service said it has shut down a troll farm in the city of Lviv. ‘The SSU cyber specialists uncovered and dismantled two bot farms in Lviv with a total capacity of 18,000 fake accounts,’ an SSU press release said.” Know how many people are needed to control two bot farms with a total capacity of 18,000 fake accounts? Three.

RESEARCH & OPINION

Radio Iowa: U-I wins grant for health stories project. “A project-based at the University of Iowa has won a national grant to launch a digital library for demonstrating the importance of stories about health. The narratives will teach people how to gather personal stories about health — in English and Spanish. Codirector Daena Goldsmith says the project has the ability to improve patients’ lives and improve health care provider morale, especially during a pandemic.”

CNBC: TikTok shares your data more than any other social media app — and it’s unclear where it goes, study says. “Two of your social media apps could be collecting a lot of data on you — and you might not like what one of them is doing with it. That’s according to a recent study, published last month by mobile marketing company URL Genius, which found that YouTube and TikTok track users’ personal data more than any other social media apps.”

American Astronomical Society: New Tool Launches for Astronomy Software Users. “Astronomers rely on scientific software to analyze data sets and model complex astrophysical objects and phenomena. But as the collection of astronomy-related software grows, it becomes increasingly difficult for scientists to discover relevant packages for data analysis, determine which software version was used in a specific study, or provide credit to the developer of the software used for a scientific discovery. Asclepias combines different platforms to make these tasks possible.” 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!

February 10, 2022 at 06:33PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/VYzOk46

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Australian Renters, Protective Guarding Search Tool, Smithsonian Coloring Pages, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 9, 2022

Australian Renters, Protective Guarding Search Tool, Smithsonian Coloring Pages, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 9, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

7 News (Australia): Database of Australian renters launched. “Accessed via the Australian Data Archive, the information generated features descriptions of renting households from around the country. As well as revealing who the nation’s renters are, what they want and what they can afford, it details the diversity of Australia’s housing quality and conditions across the rental market.”

Modern Materials Handling: MHI industry group launches search engine for protective guarding equipment. “The Protective Guarding Search Tool addresses the myriad of protective guarding solutions that are available in the market and supports end users looking for the right products for their varying facilities. It is an environment where off-the-shelf products do not always work, and custom-engineered guarding is required in many scenarios.” This is stuff like bollards and rack protectors and safety netting.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Smithsonian Magazine: Here’s Your Chance to Color in Smithsonian Libraries and Archives Collections. “Pulling from digitized collections, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives has just released ten free, downloadable coloring pages as part of the Color Our Collections campaign. Whether you want to bring polychromatic glory to old black-and-white photos or scribble in vintage fashion plates, you’ll find a little something for everyone in this new packet.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TechCrunch: ApertureData is building a database focused on images with $3M seed. “When Vishakha Gupta and her co-founder Luis Remis were working together at Intel Labs in 2016, they were charged with figuring out how to manage growing amounts of visual data (images and video). As the two founders dug into the problem, working with academics and data scientists, they began an effort to build the proper infrastructure to deal with this growing amount of speciality data.”

WSOC (North Carolina): Google Fiber crews cause major water main break in Concord causing road closure, report says. “A major intersection in Concord was shut down while crews responded to a water main break that happened Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday morning, a Channel 9 crew could see Highway 29, which is Concord Parkway, had reopened after the incident. Pitts School Road remained closed east of Concord Parkway.”

Yahoo News: How Google is making inroads into the crypto ecosystem. “Google boss Sundar Pichai confirmed last week the company is exploring crypto and blockchain potential.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Israel Ramps up Scrutiny of Police as NSO Scandal Spreads. “Israel announced it was setting up a national inquiry on Monday after a newspaper reported illicit use by police of powerful spyware against confidants of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other public figures.”

Washington Post: Archives asks Justice Department to investigate Trump’s handling of White House records. “The National Archives and Records Administration has asked the Justice Department to examine Donald Trump’s handling of White House records, sparking discussions among federal law enforcement officials about whether they should investigate the former president for a possible crime, according to two people familiar with the matter.”

IANS: Google sues S.Korean regulator to overturn $173 mn fine. “Google has filed a lawsuit against South Korea’s antitrust regulator to overturn the regulator’s decision to penalise the global technology giant for pressing smartphone makers into only using its Android mobile operating system, sources said on Wednesday.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CNET: Sony AI defeats human racers in Gran Turismo PlayStation game. “Over the last two years, Sony AI trained a computer system to play Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo Sport, a popular and realistic car racing game, and beat some of the world’s best human competitors, Sony said on Wednesday.” Good afternoon, Internet…

February 10, 2022 at 03:28AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/ErahPmt

Fort Adams, Holocaust Survivor Lists, Noncitizen Service Members, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, February 9, 2022

Fort Adams, Holocaust Survivor Lists, Noncitizen Service Members, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, February 9, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Newport Daily News: Fort Adams takes first step toward establishing museum with new online artifact catalogue. “The new database of Fort Adams’ historical artifacts is available to the public on CatalogIt Hub. While incomplete, it currently houses four collections featuring 175 photographs depicting moments in the fort’s history as far back as 1903.”

University of Massachusetts Amherst: Holocaust Survivor Lists Digitized For The First Time. “Hundreds of pages with the names of Holocaust survivors relocated to Displaced Persons Camps in Austria and Germany have now been reprinted and digitized. The extensive lists have never been available together, and the original volumes exist in only a few libraries worldwide. Thanks to a collaboration of the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center in the UMass Amherst Libraries and Schoen Books of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, they are now available on the open web, enabling families of survivors, genealogists and researchers to have access to the vital information they contain.”

Homeland Security: DHS, VA Launch New Online Services for Noncitizen Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families. “Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in partnership with the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, launched two new resources to support our nation’s noncitizen service members, veterans, and their families. Through its Immigrant Military Members and Veterans Initiative (IMMVI), DHS will host a one-stop online center to consolidate relevant federal resources. As part of the resource center, DHS has also created a portal for veterans who need assistance in applying to return to the United States or accessing VA benefits to which they may be entitled.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Chrome’s new tool should let you revisit your old Google rabbit holes. “Google Chrome is rolling out Journeys, a feature that lets you revisit your old browsing sessions based on the subject matter you were searching for. If you type a word in the address bar that’s related to some convoluted rabbit hole you’ve been down in the past, you’ll see a ‘Resume your research’ option that links you to the related sites you’ve visited before.”

CNET: TikTok expands its policies against dangerous challenges, misogyny. “TikTok on Tuesday unveiled a slew of changes to its community guidelines that it says are meant to promote ‘safety, security, and well-being’ on the popular social video app.”

Washington Post: Twitter got a ‘downvote’ button. Here’s what happens if you click it. . “Like Reddit and YouTube before it, Twitter is getting its own ‘dislike’ button for replies or comments in response to original tweets. The feature, announced in July, started rolling out globally Thursday night, the company said. And like other Twitter updates before it, reception is mixed.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

9 Now: TikTok becomes new frontier for politicians hoping to win votes. “Forget politicians holding babies and burning snags in a local sausage sizzle, the battlefield to win election votes is now going viral. In an online world, every click and like on social media could mean votes and could give political power, with TikTok becoming the new frontier. Exploding onto devices, surging in popularity with teenagers, featuring quick videos with music and dancing — and now politicians are riding the TikTok wave.”

Irish Examiner: RTÉ plans €2.5m project to digitally archive almost 40 years of footage. “The extensive project, which is expected to take up to three years, will see 17,942 hours of GAA coverage, 9,840 hours of rugby footage, 7,560 hours of soccer, and 2,397 hours of Olympic coverage joining a digital archive.” I’m pretty sure that in this case “GAA” would be the Gaelic Athletic Association.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Motherboard: NSO Group Gave Pegasus Spyware Demo to the NYPD. “A section of the New York Police Department (NYPD) focused on intelligence gathering received a demo of NSO Group’s controversial Pegasus spyware product, according to an email obtained by Motherboard.”

BBC: Foreign Office target of ‘serious cyber incident’. “The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) was the target of a ‘serious cyber-security incident’, it has emerged. The details came via a tender document published on a government website, seemingly by mistake.”

SC Magazine: Google: Mandatory two-step verification cut compromises in half. “Google announced in May a plan to automatically enroll millions of users in two-step verification by the end of 2021. On Tuesday, it released early results from the project: auto-enrolled accounts were half as likely to be compromised as unenrolled ones.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Rock Paper Shotgun: Semantle is hard mode Wordle, powered by a Google neural network. “In many ways, Semantle is hard mode Wordle. Gone is the simplified dictionary and five-letter limit, meaning words can be any type and length, and gone is any indication of correctly guessed letters or positions. Instead, you’ve got two new helpers: the ability to make infinite guesses, and a neural network able to learn word associations telling you how close, conceptually, you are to the correct answer. I’ve yet to find the solution in fewer than 50 guesses.” Good morning, Internet…

February 9, 2022 at 07:38PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/RlmegIn

Nollywood, Colorado Newspapers, The Black Elevation Map, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 8, 2022

Nollywood, Colorado Newspapers, The Black Elevation Map, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 8, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The Cable: Chidinma Igbokweuche, Ibrahim Suleiman unveil Nollywood’s ‘first database website’. “Chidinma Igbokweuche and Ibrahim Suleiman have announced the launch of Nollydata, which they described as Nollywood’s first-ever database website.” I thought “Nollywood” was a portmanteau of “Nigeria” and “Hollywood” but apparently it’s not that clear. Anyway, it’s about the Nigerian film industry.

Vail Daily: Rebuilding the Vail Trail: With newspaper now digitized and searchable from 1965-1979, library fundraisers eyeing ’80s. “The 1980s in Vail were an exciting time, and the Vail Trail newspaper captured the entire decade in print, appearing in newspaper boxes every Friday. Currently, however, it’s much easier to re-experience the 1970s via the Vail Trail than it is the 1980s, because the 1970s has been recently digitized and is available for free.”

Triple Pundit: This Online Travel Guide Showcases Black History, Culture and Business. “The Black Elevation Map offers suggestions on how to learn more about Black culture to the next U.S. city that may be in your travel plans. Considering the timing of Black History Month, this visualization tool offers a great time suck for those interested in learning more about how Black enterprise and culture have shaped America.” Absolutely stuffed with resources. Ran a little slow for me but I’m on Linux with 40 browser tabs open, so your mileage may vary.

The Record: ‘There’s a lack of knowledge’: Wilfrid Laurier professor creates project to highlight Afro-Indigenous narratives. “During her postgraduate studies, Wilfrid Laurier professor Ciann Wilson noticed the historical impacts of the vibrant Afro-Indigenous Canadian community wasn’t recognized by most Canadians. She immediately sought to document the story of the Afro-Indigenous community in Canada through vlogs and videos. This became the Proclaiming Our Roots project, a digital archive of Afro-Indigenous people sharing their personal and familial histories.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

US Department of Education: New Updates to College Scorecard Make Tool More Useful for Students and Families With Data About College Costs, Graduation Rates, and Post-College Earnings . “Updates to the College Scorecard also include an annual refresh of the cumulative loan debt of student borrowers at both the institution-level and by field of study within each institution, as well as federal student loan repayment rates for the institution. For the first time since 2018, the Department is publishing—both in the data files and on the consumer site—institution-level earnings data, which provide an overall sense of the career outcomes for alumni of the institution.”

Associated Press: IRS to end use of facial recognition to identify taxpayers. “The IRS said Monday it will suspend the use of facial recognition technology to authenticate people who create online accounts after the practice was criticized by privacy advocates and lawmakers.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Georgetown Voice: Smithsonian museums struggle to keep national treasure above water. “Many of the museums built on the Mall have experienced major flooding events, threatening collections stored onsite below ground level and even galleries. As a warming climate is projected to cause further sea level rise and increase the incidence of extreme weather events—major floods have doubled in the past few decades—these institutions face new collection conservation and museum sustainability challenges. The scale of the threat becomes apparent when considering the size of the 19 Smithsonian institutions and their combined collections of 155 million objects.”

Rossland News: Grand Forks man building archive of neighbourhood lost to flood. This is Grand Forks, British Columbia, not North Dakota. “A Grand Forks man is compiling a digital archive of North Ruckle in a bid to preserve the flood-ravaged neighbourhood’s history. Les Johnson, an accomplished videographer and active member of the Boundary Historical Society, said he started the project in the spring of 2021, roughly six months before demolition started at neighbourhood homes in the way of the North Ruckle Dike.”

Drexel Now: What It’s Like Making Your Cat Famous on TikTok. “You watch an orange tabby cat tug on a tea bag string dangling over the side of a mug, almost pulling the drink off the counter. Then you see the cat sprawled on top of the refrigerator door, unwilling to move so it can be closed. Next thing you know, the cat is knocking a wine glass over, pushing a picture frame on the wall, and trying (and failing) to climb up a window. Sometimes that’s a day in the life for Herman the cat and Patricia Kraus, his owner.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Cambridge: Plotting a land grab. “A newly decoded map reveals that the famous American explorer William Clark planned the theft of 10.5 million acres of Indigenous land.” Good afternoon, Internet…

February 9, 2022 at 01:22AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/JP0rolM

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

1950s/1960s Radio News, Cuba Sanctions, Pompeii Frescoes, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, February 8, 2022

1950s/1960s Radio News, Cuba Sanctions, Pompeii Frescoes, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, February 8, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Maryland: The (Digital) Sound of History. “Nearly 600 tapes from the late 1950s and 1960s have been newly digitized and made available in an online archive at the University of Maryland, ranging from short interviews of newsmakers and collections of daily stories to longer reviews of and debates on events. They were produced by the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, a division of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation that launched a Washington, D.C.-based radio news bureau in 1957 and provided syndicated material to stations across the country like the Associated Press did for print newspapers.”

National Security Archive: Cuba Embargoed: U.S. Trade Sanctions Turn Sixty. “On the eve of the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s executive order imposing “an embargo on all trade with Cuba,” the National Security Archive today posts a collection of previously declassified documents that record the origins, rationale, and early evolution of punitive economic sanctions against Cuba in the aftermath of the Castro-led revolution.”

Hyperallergic: Pompeii’s Long-buried Frescoes Come Back to Life. “On that fateful day in August of 79 CE, when Pompeii was seized unawares by the sudden eruption of Mount Vesuvius, it abruptly transitioned from a living city to a still-capture of ancient life. Many explorations have been made to understand aspects of life in Pompeii, but a new online exhibition hosted by New York University (NYU) brings us a scintillating close read on the fresco art of the city’s villas. Titled Pompeii in Color, the exhibition is organized by the National Archeological Museum of Naples, and presents 35 frescoes, all originally from Roman homes.”

Poynter: These college students created a new tool to bring digital media literacy training into classrooms everywhere. “MediaWise and its Campus Correspondents have been working since 2020 to slow the spread of online misinformation. In 2022, the goal is to train at 100 diverse colleges and universities, and availability is now opening up for another 25 workshops…. To meet the program’s demand, this year’s small but mighty team of 11 Campus Correspondents took the most crucial lessons from their live workshops and produced one masterclass video.”

Exact Editions: Granta launches its digital book collection with Exact Editions. “Exact Editions is thrilled to announce, in partnership with Granta Books, that a new digital book collection is available to individual and institutions. Subscribers will have unlimited access to more than 40 titles across web, iOS and Android devices.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

ABC News (Australia): Google Maps to fix directions after years of trapped travellers around Burketown. “Residents in Queensland’s Gulf region are growing impatient with seeing ill-informed travellers becoming stranded while following directions on Google Maps. Several tourists near the community of Burketown have been rescued this wet season from flooded and impassable roads after following routes recommended by the popular website and app.”

USEFUL STUFF

Journalism.co.uk: How to use social media to find and promote your stories. “Chandni Sembhi shares her best tips for journalists publishing their work on Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BuzzFeed News: We Found The Real Names Of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Pseudonymous Founders. “BAYC makes money not just from the initial sale (approximately $2 million) of its NFT apes, but also from a 2.5% royalty on future trades. It has real-world licensing deals with the likes of Adidas and was involved in a concert event with Chris Rock and the Strokes. Now held by dozens of celebrities, the Bored Apes have become a flashpoint for both excitement and skepticism about NFTs, which boosters say will revolutionize art and commerce by creating a level playing field free of race and gender, and detractors say are a speculative bubble at best and a scam at worst.”

BBC: Tonga: How an Internet blackout left many desperate for money. “Sulieni Layt would send money to his sister-in-law in Tonga every fortnight. The Tongan director and broadcaster at Pasifika Radio and TV based in Australia was used to choosing from an array of remittance providers to digitally transmit the funds to her. But last month’s tsunami, triggered by the undersea eruption, caused widespread devastation in Tonga, leaving him unable to remit money to his family at a time when they needed it the most.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BBC: North Korea: Missile programme funded through stolen crypto, UN report says. “North Korean cyber-attacks have stolen millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency to fund the country’s missile programmes, a UN report briefed to media says. Between 2020 and mid-2021 cyber-attackers stole more than $50m (£37m) of digital assets, investigators found.”

Commodity Futures Trading Commission: Federal Agencies Launch Joint Effort to Alert Online Daters and Social Media Users of Romance Scams That Have Cost Americans Millions. “Today, five federal agencies joined forces to remind the public about the ongoing dangers of romance scams. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) have launched Dating or Defrauding?, a national awareness effort to alert the public to romance scams that target victims largely through dating apps or social media.”

CNBC: Price comparison site sues Google for $2.4 billion over alleged antitrust breach. “A Swedish price comparison website is suing Google for 2.1 billion euros ($2.4 billion) over allegations that it manipulated search results in favor of its own competing shopping service.” Good morning, Internet…

February 8, 2022 at 06:29PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/BKkiAPZ

Monday, February 7, 2022

Facebook Update, February 7, 2022

Facebook Update, February 7, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Washington Post: Facebook loses users for the first time in its history. “Facebook parent Meta’s quarterly earnings report on Wednesday revealed a startling statistic: For the first time ever, the company’s growth is stagnating around the world. Facebook lost daily users for the first time in its 18-year history — falling by about half a million users in the last three months of 2021, to 1.93 billion logging in each day. The loss was greatest in Africa, Latin America and India, suggesting that the company’s product is saturated globally — and that its long quest to add as many users as possible has peaked.”

BBC: Meta moves to tackle creepy behaviour in virtual reality. “Meta has announced a new feature to allow more personal space for people’s avatars in virtual-reality worlds. The metaverse is still at concept stage but the latest attempts to create virtual worlds are already facing an age-old problem: harassment.”

Bloomberg Quint: Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Gets Quiet Rollout in Facebook-Wary D.C.. “Mark Zuckerberg has a problem money can’t fix: convincing Capitol Hill that the metaverse — whatever that is — isn’t evil. His strategy is to start with a soft campaign to woo Washington insiders before deeply skeptical lawmakers begin to debate the controversial company’s next act. This is a change of gears for a Silicon Valley behemoth whose early motto was to ‘move fast and break things’ and that outspent all its peers to fend off legislation to curb the dominance of Big Tech.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

MarketWatch: Meta stock hits 52-week low as European leaders buck at threats to shutter Facebook and Instagram. “Meta Platforms Inc. said again last week it is considering pulling the plug on Facebook and Instagram in Europe, leading to pushback from European leaders as shares hit a new 52-week low Monday. European regulators have voiced plans to craft new legislation that will dictate how EU citizens’ user data gets transferred across the Atlantic, and Facebook parent Meta… disclosed in its annual report that it could pull services out of the continent as a result.”

The Guardian: US anti-vaccine mandate campaigners aim to mimic Canadian convoy tactic. “US organizers operating a Facebook group called Convoy to DC 2022 quickly gained more than 100,000 members and announced a convoy next month. But the Facebook group was recently removed by Meta.”

New York Times: 6 Reasons Meta Is in Trouble. “Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, suffered its biggest one-day wipeout ever on Thursday as its stock plummeted 26 percent and its market value plunged by more than $230 billion. Its crash followed a dismal earnings report on Wednesday, when Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, laid out how the company was navigating a tricky transition from social networking toward the so-called virtual world of the metaverse. On Thursday, a company spokesman reiterated statements from its earnings announcement and declined to comment further. Here are six reasons that Meta is in a difficult spot.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: Kids are flocking to Facebook’s ‘metaverse.’ Experts worry predators will follow.. “In theory, kids aren’t allowed in the game. The new virtual-reality app Horizon Worlds, the first foray into the much hyped ‘metaverse’ for Facebook parent company Meta, is limited to adults 18 and older. In practice, however, very young kids appear to be among its earliest adopters. The person I met that day, who told me they were 9 and using their parents’ Oculus VR headset, was one of many apparent children I encountered in several weeks on the app.”

The Guardian: Facebook appeal over Cambridge Analytica data rejected by Australian court as ‘divorced from reality’. “Facebook has lost a major battle with the Australian regulator over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, after a court dismissed the social media giant’s claim that it neither conducts business nor collects personal information in the country. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) is suing Facebook, now Meta, for breaching the privacy of more than 300,000 Australian Facebook users in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, exposed more than four years ago by the Guardian.”

The Register: Facebook fined peanuts after Giphy staff quit and firm didn’t tell UK competition regulators. “The latest £1.5m ($2.03m) fine was imposed after three key staffers left Giphy. The CMA had imposed a legal order on Facebook owner Meta (2021 profit: $39bn) forcing the US giant to reveal if any ‘staff in positions of executive or managerial responsibility and/or whose performance affects the viability of the business’ resigned.”

CNN: Australian mining magnate takes legal action against Facebook over scam ads. “Billionaire mining magnate Andrew Forrest is taking legal action against Facebook in Australia after he claims the company failed to remove scam advertisements that used his image.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: ‘Virtual influencers’ are here, but should Meta really be setting the ethical ground rules? . “Interest in virtual influencers has rapidly expanded over the past five years, attracting huge audiences on social media and partnerships with major brands, including Audi, Bose, Calvin Klein, Samsung, and Chinese e-commerce platform TMall. A competitive industry specialising in the production, management and promotion of virtual influencers has already sprung up, although it remains largely unregulated…. There is an urgent need for ethical guidelines, both to help producers and their brand partners navigate this new terrain, and more importantly to help users understand the content they’re engaging with.”

Journal of High Technology Law: Escaping to the…‘Metaverse’?: Facebook Looks to Overshadow Their Poor Consumer Protection With A Company Rebrand. “While Facebook may be the first tech giant to launch into the metaverse, it will not be long before others follow suit; therefore, I suggest a more universal solution to the problems that have been revealed in Facebook’s scandals. My proposed solution consists of three prongs: (1) allow users when signing up for social media platforms to select what data is shared; (2) create a comprehensive set of regulations that are specifically designed for the metaverse; and (3) regularly conducted audits by third parties on tech giants.”

February 8, 2022 at 02:13AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/JQVoUgN

Queensland Home Movies, Google Calendar, Google Business, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 7, 2022

Queensland Home Movies, Google Calendar, Google Business, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 7, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

ABC News (Australia): How home movies reveal decades of Queensland’s history. “Family members of deceased amateur filmmakers are uncovering home movies dating back to the 1930s, which document life in the Sunshine State over generations. However, due to age, heat and humidity, the films are deteriorating at a rapid rate and the State Library of Queensland (SLQ) is in a race against time to save them. SLQ staff are digitising and storing the best quality home movies they are given and sharing them online.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Wired: Google Calendar’s ‘Appointment Schedule’ Is Good, Not Great. “IF THERE’S ONE thing I hate, it’s global pandemics. If there are two things I hate, it’s global pandemics and long email exchanges in which two people try to figure out a time and day to meet. Software hasn’t solved the whole pandemic thing (clearly), but the appointment thing is largely sorted. Calendly is a market leader here. This app gives you a dedicated landing page anyone can use to schedule an appointment with you…. It’s nice. The folks at Google noticed, so they built a feature that’s pretty much an exact copy.”

USEFUL STUFF

Search Engine Journal: The Complete Guide To Google Business Profile Reviews. “Learn how to manage Google Business Profile reviews, how reviews impact local rankings, how to respond to bad reviews, and more.” The usual good work from Search Engine Journal. This article is huge.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Carscoops: Google’s AI Finds This Strosek Porsche Interior Photo Sexually Arousing. “We regularly feature some down and dirty sexy cars on this site, but we want Carscoops to be a place for fans of all ages (and backgrounds, races, religions and genders,) so usually try to come up with a reacharound, I mean workaround, when faced with the prospect of publishing potentially offensive content. Unless it’s a shockingly ugly modified Ferrari. But this week Google clearly thought we weren’t sticking to our own rules as it flagged a story we’d written about a modified Porsche, claiming it contained sexually explicit material. Google being Google, though, it didn’t tell us exactly what it was about the post that had upset its AI guardians.”

KENS5: Book of safe places for Black motorists to visit during Jim Crow era included SA locations . “Students at Texas A&M University – San Antonio are spending the spring semester diving into the rich history of African American culture locally in collaboration with the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum (SAAACAM) via a grant with the city’s Office of Historic Preservation from the Summerlee Foundation. Thirteen undergraduate students in the Methods of Historical Research course are selecting one of more than 20 San Antonio locations originally listed in the Green Book to research.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Target open sources scanner for digital credit card skimmers. “A skimmer is malicious code injected into shopping sites to steal customers’ credit card data at checkout. The code can be hidden on the online store or it can be loaded from external resources, sometimes via a local element such as a favicon. By open-sourcing Merry-Maker, Target helps online retailers fight the credit card skimming threat that’s been affecting the sector for years.”

The Verge: FBI used geofence warrant in Seattle after BLM protest attack, new documents show. “While the building sustained little damage, the attack spurred widespread national interest: Seattle police initially posted a $1,000 reward for information, and the FBI later offered up to $20,000 for any tips that would help identify the people involved. But documents unsealed on February 3rd show that, before offering the reward for information, the FBI also used a controversial search technique known as a geofence warrant to request information from Google about all Android devices that had passed through the area before and after the attack.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York University: History as it Happens: Rescuing the Historical Record in a Digital World. “Papyrus was abundant and relatively easy to produce, and its use as a writing material was widespread. But it broke down easily in cooler, wetter climates and as a result, pretty much the only surviving papyrus-based scholarship is from Egypt. Plenty more records, including all of Aristotle’s dialogues, were lost. The use of a fragile medium in ancient times means that roughly 95 percent of ancient scholarly output has since disappeared. It’s an old tragedy that’s taking on new relevance now, as archivists are discovering that cutting-edge forms of digital media can be surprisingly difficult to preserve, too.”

Cornell Chronicle: Ready, set, count: Great Backyard Bird Count turns 25. “For a quarter of a century the annual Great Backyard Bird Count has been a bright spot for nature lovers. The 25th edition of the event is coming up Feb. 18-21. Everyone is invited to join the count, so their birds can become part of a massive database used by scientists to track changes in bird populations over time. The Great Backyard Bird Count is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society and Birds Canada.”

Bloomberg: How Google is helping fight climate change, illegal logging, flooding in Africa and a lot more with a service you haven’t heard of. “Google Earth Engine offers its trove of satellite imagery and analysis tools for free, helping groups around the world monitor changes in the environment.” Good afternoon, Internet…

February 8, 2022 at 01:37AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/UH5aqDc