New researches

Friday, February 25, 2022

Facebook Roundup, February 25, 2022

Facebook Roundup, February 25, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Meta launches Reels in Facebook globally, with more ads and editing features. “Meta is launching its TikTok-clone Reels worldwide on Facebook, making the feature available through the service’s iOS and Android apps in more than 150 countries. In addition to expanding access to Reels, the social media conglomerate is adding new editing features to the Facebook version of the platform and expanding advertising options.”

The Next Web: Meta’s new slogans aren’t impressing branding experts — or metaverse veterans. “If you thought the Meta rebrand was merely trying to salvage a tarnished reputation, Mark Zuckerberg has conclusive evidence that you’re wrong. The Facebook founder has unveiled a new set of ‘values’ to reflect the profound transformation of his beleaguered baby. But can the new slogans transform the company’s fortunes? We asked branding experts and metaverse veterans.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BBC: Metaverse app allows kids into virtual strip clubs. “Mark Zuckerberg thinks it could be the future of the internet – so much so, he recently rebranded Facebook as Meta, with the company investing billions developing its Oculus Quest headset. That headset – now rebranded the Meta Quest – is thought to have as much as 75% of the market share. It was one of these headsets which the BBC News researcher used to explore an app, and part of the metaverse. The app, called VRChat, is an online virtual platform which users can explore with 3D avatars.”

Input Magazine: Scammy Instagram ‘war pages’ are capitalizing on Ukraine conflict. “The accounts are what have become known as ‘war pages’ on Instagram. They gather shocking battleground footage and videos depicting violence and repost them on Instagram with little to no context, often in an effort to leverage tragedy and conflict to gain followers. (War accounts such as @waraholics, @military_footage, and @war_strikes have all gained followers since the crisis in Ukraine heated up.) Some then monetize these followers by posting advertisements, often for OnlyFans creators.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Ireland nears Facebook decision key to EU-U.S. data transfers. “Ireland’s data watchdog expects to consult fellow EU regulators in April on its investigation into Facebook’s data transfers, moving closer to a decision that could hammer transatlantic business if it bans data flows from the EU to the United States. Europe’s highest court ruled in 2020 that an EU-U.S. data transfer agreement was invalid, citing surveillance concerns.”

Mashable: Facebook crypto scammers pose as Tesla, Amazon, and even Facebook. “Earlier this month, some users scrolling through Facebook may have seen an unexpected message, apparently from CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself. Facebook recently rebranded itself as Meta, and the advertisement, which included a photo of Zuckerberg in front of a background of purple polygons, claimed to offer a chance for users to invest in a new Meta cryptocurrency….But Meta doesn’t offer any such cryptocurrency. The ads, until recently available for view in Facebook’s public ad library, were frauds that slipped through Facebook’s content moderation process, despite the use of Zuckerberg’s image and the company’s new logo.”

The Guardian: Andrew Forrest hits back at Facebook claim he signed away his rights. “Social media giant argued it was protected from liability for scam ads because mining billionaire had signed up to account terms and conditions.”

Independent: Meta launches ‘special operations centre’ in response to Russia’s ‘devastating’ invasion of Ukraine. “The company, which owns Facebook and Twitter, also rolled out extra security to Ukrainian users letting them protect their accounts. Misinformation is already spreading across social media, such as a clip taken from a video game which amass millions of views as users falsely claimed it depicted real attacks.”

New York Times: Russia says it will limit access to Facebook, a major platform for dissent.. “The Russian government said it was partially limiting access to Facebook for restricting some pro-Kremlin news media accounts, a move that could make it harder for Russians to share their anger over their country’s invasion of Ukraine.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Garbage Day: What Does A Platform Look Like When It’s Dying?. “MySpace and 4chan launched in 2003 (within three months of each other, interestingly enough), then Digg launched in 2004, Reddit and YouTube in 2005, and Facebook in 2006. The first half of the 00s was, looking back at it, actually a nonstop flurry of online activity. But, things got a lot more interesting towards the end of the decade when MySpace was starting to die. And while putting a date on the actual death of a social network is difficult, for MySpace we do have a decent time range to approximate its demise. And I think comparing the site’s final years to where we are with Meta (Facebook) now is actually really fascinating.”

The Guardian: I’ve been waiting 15 years for Facebook to die. I’m more hopeful than ever. “Facebook now has to somehow retain users who are fed up to the eyeballs with its never-ending failures and scandals, while funding a pivot to VR, while fending off overlapping salvoes of global regulatory challenges to its business model, while paying a massive wage premium to attract and retain the workers that it needs to make any of this happen. All that, amid an exodus of its most valuable users and a frontal regulatory assault on its ability to extract revenues from those users’ online activities.”

Reuters: Facebook’s Meta unveils AI projects aimed at building the metaverse. “Facebook-owner Meta is working on artificial intelligence research to generate worlds through speech, improve how people chat to voice assistants and translate between languages, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday, as he sketched out key steps to building the metaverse. Zuckerberg is betting that the metaverse, a futuristic idea of virtual environments where users can work, socialize and play, will be the successor to the mobile internet.”

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February 26, 2022 at 03:23AM
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Tufts University, Archives Unbound, Chrome Alternatives, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, February 25, 2022

Tufts University, Archives Unbound, Chrome Alternatives, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, February 25, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Tuft’s Daily: Tufts Digital Collections and Archives unveils 124 years of student media at Tufts through new collection. “Tufts Digital Collections and Archives launched Newspapers @ Tufts, a digital collection of thousands of issues of the Tufts Weekly, the Tufts Observer and the Tufts Daily, in January 2022. The collection documents 124 years of university history through the lens of student media.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

JSTOR Daily: Introducing “Archives Unbound” . “In her new column, Dorothy Berry offers an inside look at the work of the digital archivist, while highlighting forgotten figures in Black print culture and public life.”

WIRED: Australia’s Standoff Against Google and Facebook Worked—Sort Of. “Australia might have created the blueprint for forcing Big Tech to pay for news, but it hasn’t actually applied it. Only tech companies that are named, or ‘designated,’ under the code by Australia’s treasurer can be forced into the arbitration process with news organizations. But no tech site has ever been designated. Instead, Google and Facebook have been rushing to strike deals with news organizations in private, to avoid the arbitration process, which could end up being more costly.”

USEFUL STUFF

Gizmodo: Try These Google Chrome Alternatives if You Feel the Need for Speed. “There are plenty of great Google Chrome alternatives out there which you might want to consider, given that the Google-owned browser is a total system resources hog and is slow compared to the competition. Here are some Google Chrome alternatives that you should try out. It costs you nothing to try these and you might even prefer the features that some of these browsers offer.” Waterfox looks intriguing…

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Verge: Twitter and Google blocked ads from a medical journal about health and racism. “The medical journal Health Affairs spent years planning its special issue on health and racism, which it published at the beginning of February. The journal wanted to reach new readers by promoting the issue through targeted advertisements on Twitter and YouTube. That’s why it was so frustrating when Twitter and Google blocked its ads before they could go up, says Patti Sweet, the director of digital strategy at Health Affairs.”

Screen Rant: What Is Spam App? How To Use The New Social Media App. “At its core, Spam App is a social networking app for users to share photos with each other. Unlike other social media apps, though, Spam App has made a conscious effort to keep the experience as laidback as possible.”

New York Times: How the Internet Has Left Its Mark on Terroir. “Growers and producers who might once have been isolated can now be a part of community efforts, perhaps adding to our understanding of terroir and a sense of place. These communities can share thoughts and ideas, ask questions and discuss solutions regardless of how far apart they might be physically.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Politico: Social media platforms on the defensive as Russian-based disinformation about Ukraine spreads. “Russia-backed media reports falsely claiming that the Ukrainian government is conducting genocide of civilians ran unchecked and unchallenged on Twitter and on Facebook. Videos from the Russian government — including speeches from Vladimir Putin — on YouTube received dollars from Western advertisers. Unverified TikTok videos of alleged real-time battles were instead historical footage, including doctored conflict-zone images and sounds.”

BNN Bloomberg: Google faces sanctions dilemma with pro-Russia YouTube channels. “With sanctions on Russia ramping up following its invasion of Ukraine, Google’s YouTube is under pressure to remove or cut commercial ties with some of its most prolific pro-Russian channels.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Inside Higher Ed: Shining a Light on Rural Colleges. “Two new mapping projects aim to expand understanding of rural colleges and the challenges they face. One focuses on where rural college are located, the other on colleges serving rural populations.”

Ars Technica: Study finds 90 percent of medieval chivalric and heroic manuscripts have been lost. “Teasing out how much of a cultural domain may have been lost is a considerable challenge. The field of ecology might be able to help. According to a new paper published in the journal Science, an international team of researchers has adapted an ecological ‘unseen species’ model to estimate how many medieval European stories in the chivalric romance or heroic tradition survived and how much has been lost.” Good morning, Internet…

February 25, 2022 at 08:17PM
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Thursday, February 24, 2022

Chabad-Lubavitch Library Manuscripts, Boston Rental Market Metrics, Ukraine Disinformation, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, February 24, 2022

Chabad-Lubavitch Library Manuscripts, Boston Rental Market Metrics, Ukraine Disinformation, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, February 24, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Chabad-Lubavitch Library: Trove of Newly Digitized Jewish Texts Reveal Untold Historical Treasures. “In a move that is making waves in academic and lay circles, the Chabad-Lubavitch Library has created a new site with high-quality, full-color scans of a vast collection of thousands of precious manuscripts that have never been seen by the public—until now…. ‘This collection contains almost 3,000 volumes of manuscripts,’ says Rabbi Shalom Dovber Levine, the library’s director.”

EIN: Boston Pads Now Providing Free Real-Time Apartment Data to Public (PRESS RELEASE). “Boston Pads has recently launched 32 free public-facing apartment data pages on their website. These reports provide both current and historical insights into important rental market metrics like vacancy rates, availability rates, and average rent prices for all of Boston’s core neighborhoods.”

Bellingcat: Documenting and Debunking Dubious Footage from Ukraine’s Frontlines. “With every alleged provocation a potential pretext for conflict, Bellingcat has decided to track and detail such claims as well as the circumstances surrounding them. We will share what we find via this public spreadsheet that will continue to be updated in the days ahead. While the volume of videos and claims over recent days has been significant, Bellingcat will look to add entries when incidents have been verified, debunked or if claims contained within videos or images are inconsistent with other open source evidence or contextual data.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Nextdoor: Nextdoor publishes first annual 2021 transparency report. “This inaugural report provides insight into Nextdoor’s unique community moderation model, data on the speed that these community moderators removed reported content, and the Government requests received.”

The Verge: Reddit’s new Discover tab pushes the app into the modern social media era. “Reddit today introduced a new Discover tab feature for the official Reddit iOS and Android apps. The new feature curates pictures, GIFs, and videos in a scrollable grid to help Reddit users find new content and communities that they may be interested in, in a way that’s reminiscent of Instagram’s explore page or Pinterest.”

CNET: ‘The Batman’ Swings Into Google Search, Thanks to Easter Egg. “A new Batman movie flies into theaters next week, and Google is getting into the spirit with a Caped Crusader-inspired Easter Egg.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Fed Up With Google, Conspiracy Theorists Turn to DuckDuckGo. “For a glimpse at what conspiracy theorists encounter when they search online, The New York Times reviewed the top 20 search results on Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo for more than 30 conspiracy theories and right-wing topics. Search results can change over time and vary among users, but the comparisons provide a snapshot of what a single user might have seen on a typical day in mid-February. For many terms, Bing and DuckDuckGo surfaced more untrustworthy websites than Google did, when results were compared with website ratings from the Global Disinformation Index, NewsGuard and research published in the journal Science.”

Techdirt: Video Game History Foundation: Nintendo Actions ‘Actively Destructive To Video Game History’. “We just discussed Nintendo’s forthcoming shutdown of the 3DS and Wii U stores, and what that meant for digital games that Nintendo indicates it is not planning on selling anywhere else. Well, the Video Game History Foundation released a statement on that action and, well, hoo-boy…”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Search Engine Journal: Nine WordPress Plugins Expose Over 1.3 Million Sites To Exploits. “Nine WordPress plugins, including popular ad management, malware firewall and database managers were found to have vulnerabilities affecting over 1.3 million websites.”

EFF: The Worst Timeline: A Printer Company Is Putting DRM in Paper Now. “Dymo’s latest generation of desktop label printers use RFID chips to authenticate the labels that Dymo’s customers put in their printers. This lets Dymo’s products distinguish between Dymo’s official labels and third-party consumables. That way, the printers can force their owners to conduct themselves in the ways that serve the interests of Dymo’s corporate owners – even when that is to the owners’ own detriment.”

The Daily Swig: Google Groups unsubscribe feature abused to remove members without consent. “A flaw in Google Groups has netted a security researcher $3,133 after he discovered that the unsubscribe feature could be abused to remove members without their consent.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

SingularityHub: People Trust Deepfake Faces Generated by AI More Than Real Ones, Study Finds. “The proliferation of deepfake technology is raising concerns that AI could start to warp our sense of shared reality. New research suggests AI-synthesized faces don’t simply dupe us into thinking they’re real people, we actually trust them more than our fellow humans.”

UConn Today: App Supporting Archival Research Continues Development with Community Partnerships. “The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded $805,000 to the UConn team behind Sourcery, a software designed to simplify archival document requests. This new funding will allow the team to develop Sourcery with input from partners at diverse collecting institutions. The team will work with the Hartford Public Library, Northeastern University, UConn Archives and Special Collections, and the Folger Shakespeare Library.” Good afternoon, Internet…

February 25, 2022 at 03:29AM
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Wednesday, February 23, 2022

North Carolina Ecology, Isle of Man Recordings, Astrophysics, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, February 23, 2022

North Carolina Ecology, Isle of Man Recordings, Astrophysics, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, February 23, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Coastal Review (North Carolina): Interactive maps show benefits of natural, working lands. “Duke Univerity’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions launched last month the North Carolina Natural and Working Lands Dashboards for communities, land managers, nongovernmental organizations and the public to have access to information on these lands that ‘can store carbon, enhance community and ecosystem resilience, and provide many other social, economic and environmental benefits,’ according to the website.”

BBC: First at-risk Isle of Man sound recordings available online . “The first 100 archive recordings from the Manx Museum archives have been made available online for the first time. It is part of the British Library’s £9.3m Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project to digitise historic and culturally significant sound files. Some of the recordings date back as far as the early 1900s.” An additional 500 recordings will come online over the next year.

Clemson News: Astrophysicists explain the cosmos and physics via YouTube. “Physics and astronomy can be challenging to understand, but five female astrophysicists affiliated with Clemson University are trying to change that — they have designed a YouTube channel to break down the subject in a way that anyone can comprehend.”

Smithsonian: Smithsonian Science Education Center Launches New Biodiversity Guide for Youth. “The Smithsonian Science Education Center, in collaboration with the InterAcademy Partnership, announces the launch of Biodiversity! How can we balance the needs of people with the needs of other living things? This community research guide for youth ages 11–17 is the newest guide in the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals series. Based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, it aims to help young people understand the relationship between people and other living things in their community to ensure a more sustainable world.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Oregon Public Broadcasting: Hundreds of new native bees species added to Oregon database. “The Oregon Bee Atlas just got bigger. In an update announced this month, the largest bee and plant database in the state added hundreds of new native bee species that were discovered all over the state.”

Bing Blogs: Get informed and inspired for your next trip with fewer clicks. “Spring is almost here, and with it comes new opportunities for adventures near and far. Wherever and however you want to explore, Microsoft Bing has new rich and immersive experiences that help you find ideas without having to spend hours on the web seeking them. These new features span Microsoft Bing, so wherever you roam, quick inspiration and information remain only a few clicks away.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: Truth Social already censoring content, bans user who made fun of Trump Media CEO. “Web developer Matt Ortega signed up for the Truth Social service and soon discovered an email from Truth Social telling him that his account had been banned. Ortega confirmed the authenticity of the email and ban in a private message to Mashable. Furthermore, Ortega had never posted a single thing to Truth Social as his account was one of the many still on the waitlist to join. Ortega was banned simply because of the username he used to sign up for the platform: @DevinNunesCow.”

Norwood News: Housing Affordability, Racial Equity, Displacement Data to be Tracked via City’s New Interactive Tool. “City officials said the new tool will allow the public to more easily see and explore data about housing, demographics, public health, and more, while also comparing that data across neighborhoods and racial and ethnic groups as we plan for a fairer city. Interactive mock-ups of what the tool is expected to look like, and a more in-depth description of the tool are available to view here: Equitable Development Data Tool.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Krebs on Security: Report: Missouri Governor’s Office Responsible for Teacher Data Leak. “Missouri Governor Mike Parson made headlines last year when he vowed to criminally prosecute a journalist for reporting a security flaw in a state website that exposed personal information of more than 100,000 teachers. But Missouri prosecutors now say they will not pursue charges following revelations that the data had been exposed since 2011 — two years after responsibility for securing the state’s IT systems was centralized within Parson’s own Office of Administration.”

CSO: GitHub makes Advisory Database public to improve software supply chain security. “Software development platform GitHub has made its Advisory Database open to community contributions allowing anyone to contribute insight and intelligence on security vulnerabilities to help improve software supply chain security. The full contents of the database will also now be published to a new, freely accessible public repository under Creative Commons license. Experts say data sharing of this kind is key to improving the security of software supply chains and addressing software-related risks.”

Congresswoman Alma Adams: Adams, McEachin, Fitzpatrick introduce African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act . “The African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act, would establish a program at the National Park Service to provide grant opportunities and technical assistance to local partners to research, identify, survey and preserve these historic sites.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: Altruism in birds? Magpies have outwitted scientists by helping each other remove tracking devices. “When we attached tiny, backpack-like tracking devices to five Australian magpies for a pilot study, we didn’t expect to discover an entirely new social behaviour rarely seen in birds. Our goal was to learn more about the movement and social dynamics of these highly intelligent birds, and to test these new, durable and reusable devices. Instead, the birds outsmarted us.” Good morning, Internet…

February 23, 2022 at 06:31PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/tWNzjTw

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Chrome, Snapchat, Internet Shutdowns, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 22, 2022

Chrome, Snapchat, Internet Shutdowns, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 22, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Chrome Unboxed: Google will bring Reader-esque feature to Chrome Browser. “The internet collectively mourned the death of Google Reader back in 2013, and ever since then, we have been trying to come up with ways to bring some form of it back into our lives via Twitter feeds, Reddit, or using other RSS readers. However, it’s looking like 9 years later Google is experimenting with a very similar feature right within Chrome.”

CNN: Snapchat launches a real-time location sharing feature. “Snapchat on Friday announced a buddy system-like feature that allows its users to share their real-time location with friends for a period of time.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Kazakhstan’s Internet Shutdown Offers Lessons for Russia-Ukraine Crisis. “Control of the internet is increasingly part of any modern conflict. Recognizing that the web is vital for communications, economics and propaganda, authorities have used shutdowns more and more to stifle dissent and maintain power, in what is akin to holding energy sources, water or supply lines hostage. In 2020, there were at least 155 internet shutdowns across 29 countries, according to the latest annual report from Access Now, an international nonprofit group that monitors these events. From January to May 2021, at least 50 shutdowns were documented in 21 countries.”

The Guardian: Mauritius asks Google to label Chagos Islands as part of its territory. “The UK maintains that it still holds sovereignty over what it terms British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) – one of the smallest of red dots on the traditional cartographic globe. But Mauritius, which has been recognised as legitimate owner of the archipelago in a series of international court judgments and United Nations votes since 2019, has formally asked Google to re-describe the islands as part of its territory.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Techdirt: Nonprofit Forced To Delete Thousands Of Court Documents Obtained With A Fee Waiver Because PACER Is Greedy And Stupid. “In this case, a researcher obtained a waiver and accessed thousands of court records. Great news for the beneficiaries of the Free Law Project’s CourtListener site… or so you would think. But that’s not how this works, as the Free Law Project recently tweeted…. It had to delete thousands of court records this researcher legally obtained with a fee waiver because the federal court system says users with waivers can’t do what they want with the data and documents they’ve obtained.”

Ubergizmo: Dad Takes Down Entire Town’s Internet Trying To Stop His Kids From Going Online. “Back in the day, some forms of entertainment that parents could take away from their kids would be stopping them from going out with their friends or stopping them from watching TV. These days, it’s become a bit more complicated with smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and the thing that connects them all, the internet. However, over in France, a dad thought that he might have an ingenious idea on how to stop his kids from going online, and that is by using a signal jammer to try and knock the internet out in his home. Unfortunately, it turns out that the jammer might have been a bit too effective because it ended up knocking out an entire town’s internet.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PsyPost: Deceptive self-presentation on social media differs between men and women – and is related to gender equality. “Deceptive self-presentation refers to impression-management behaviors that aim to enhance one’s image to others through intentional, incorrect disclosures that can occur through any form – such as, text, images, videos, or location tags. In this work, Dasha Kolesnyk and colleagues explore 1) the extent to which men and women differ in deceptive self-presentation on social media in the domains of physical attractiveness and personal achievement, and 2) how gender equality in a given society influences such practices, and whether gender differences in deceptive self-presentation depend on gender equality.”

The Conversation: Soda geyser trend becomes sinister as people target animals for YouTube content. “Geyser videos have always been very popular on YouTube. They involve documenting what happens when mint candy (often Mentos) is mixed with a carbonated beverage, resulting in a rapid eruption of the soda out of the bottle that can shoot up to several meters. In mid-2019, some creators took advantage of the trend and went one step further by involving animals.”

University at Buffalo: Innovative chatbot provides safe space for young people to learn about sexual and reproductive health. “An innovative chatbot designed for sharing critical information about sexual and reproductive health (SRH) with young people in India is demonstrating how artificial intelligence (AI) applications can engage vulnerable and hard-to-reach population segments.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Another savage, enraging-but-funny video from Cracked: If Internet Service Providers Were Honest | Honest Ads (CenturyLink, Comcast, Cox Parody). “What if Internet Service Providers like Centurylink, Comcast, and Cox were actually honest about how horrifically terrible they are? Roger Horton investigates.” All sources cited in the video are included in the description. Good afternoon, Internet…

February 23, 2022 at 01:40AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/t149Czq

Business Cybersecurity, California Water Management, Biodiversity Information, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, February 22, 2022

Business Cybersecurity, California Water Management, Biodiversity Information, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, February 22, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The Register: CISA publishes list of free security tools for business protection. “The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) has published a web catalog of free cybersecurity resources in the hope that those overseeing critical infrastructure can use the tools to better secure their systems.”

California Department of Water Resources: DWR Launches New Website to Improve Tracking of Local and Statewide Water Conditions Amid Extreme Dry Conditions. “The website brings together data from DWR and other sources to provide dynamic real-time information on precipitation, temperature, reservoirs, snowpack, groundwater, streamflow, soil moisture, and vegetation conditions. Users can enter an address to see local conditions, including daily precipitation and temperature statistics, for their area and links to water supplier information. The website also allows users to compare data on local conditions by year and by region.”

National Academies: Biodiversity at Risk — New Booklet. “The booklet, written by an international committee of experts and intended for policymakers and the public, examines the causes of biodiversity loss and presents actions that can be taken at all levels to stop this decline. Halting and reversing the biodiversity crisis will require systemic changes to the ways we build, farm, and live, the booklet says. Individual actions also have an important role to play, and the booklet outlines how individuals can change their habits to benefit biodiversity.” The booklet is free to download or read online.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Journal: YouTube Rolls Out New Metadata For Educational Videos. “This update was announced during YouTube’s weekly news roundup that includes a number of smaller changes for creators that are worth knowing about. Here’s a recap of the latest news for YouTube creators, starting with the metadata update.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 4 Free Ways to Add a Watermark to PDFs Online. “The Portable Document Format (PDF) was released in 1993 by Adobe Inc and has grown to become one of the most popular document formats available. PDF files are generally considered to be safer, but did you know that you can further secure your PDF file by adding a watermark? In this article, you’ll learn how to add a watermark to a PDF file for free.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: Remembering Tumblr’s strangest, most formative communities. “In the rearview, a singular Tumblr era has taken hold of the cultural consciousness. Known as the 2014 Tumblr Girl aesthetic, the overall vibe involves a devotion to American Apparel, subversive teen series Skins, the black-and-white filter, Lorde, and Matty Healy of The 1975. But there’s so much more to Tumblr, the blogging platform that raised an entire generation of fangirls and artists, than one aesthetic. What about the often forgotten communities on Tumblr that made it such a meaningful platform to so many different people? They might have been written out of public consciousness, but they’ll always be a formative part of our adolescence.”

Poynter: How news organizations are using timestamp disclaimers to reduce misinformation. “These warnings have become more popular in the past few years, and news organizations are applying them to both social media posts and articles themselves. Some simply tell the reader how old the article is. Others are more prominent, using colored banners and additional language warning readers that information contained in the story may no longer be current.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Pew/Stateline: Think Twice Before Scanning That QR Code. “Scanning a Quick Response, or QR code, is convenient and easy. And it is contactless, which can make people feel safer in public places such as restaurants, many of which substituted the codes for paper menus. But cybersecurity experts say QR codes also created new opportunities for fraudsters, who can tamper with them and direct victims to malicious websites to steal their personal and financial information.”

Search Engine Land: Google vs. Edible Arrangements: Court rejects ‘theft’ claim. “Edible IP, which owns the trademarks and intellectual property of Edible Arrangements, claimed that Google selling the keyword ‘Edible Arrangements’ to competitors violates Georgia law. Edible said Google began auctioning the ‘Edible Arrangements’ keyword to advertisers in ‘approximately 2011.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Global Network on Extremism & Technology: Offline Versus Online Radicalisation: Which is the Bigger Threat?. “Governments, social media companies and the general public are becoming increasingly concerned about the threat of those who are radicalised online and turn to violent extremism. However, the evidence base for this concern is not fully formed. For instance, it is not yet clear if those who are being radicalised offline are still the greater threat. It is particularly important to explore this issue empirically, as large amounts of material resources from both the public and the private sectors may be redirected from offline to online initiatives. This report seeks to explore the differences in outcomes for those who have been primarily radicalised offline versus those radicalised online.”

New York Times: Who Is Behind QAnon? Linguistic Detectives Find Fingerprints. “Sleuths hunting for the writer behind Q have increasingly overlooked Mr. [Paul] Furber and focused their speculation on another QAnon booster: Ron Watkins, who operated a website where the Q messages began appearing in 2018 and is now running for Congress in Arizona. And the scientists say they found evidence to back up those suspicions as well. Mr. Watkins appears to have taken over from Mr. Furber at the beginning of 2018. Both deny writing as Q.”

PsyPost: Study explores the psychological predictors of cyberchondria, a pattern of excessive searching for health information online. “A new study has identified psychological constructs that best predict the tendency to excessively search for health-related information online while experiencing spiraling anxiety. The findings, published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, revealed that health anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms are among the top predictors of this behavior.” Good morning, Internet…

February 22, 2022 at 06:32PM
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Monday, February 21, 2022

Arizona State University Bird Collection, Black Cemetery Network, Kmart Stores, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 21, 2022

Arizona State University Bird Collection, Black Cemetery Network, Kmart Stores, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 21, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Arizona State University: ASU bird collection gets its ducks in a row. “Currently, it contains over 1,400 skins from around 450 species belonging to 75 families. While birds from Arizona are particularly well-represented in the collection, there are also specimens from 26 U.S. states, as well as from Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Samoa, Kiribati and Kazakhstan…. When a collection is digitized, the information it contains is put into an online database. Information about the birds in the Ornithology Collection can be searched for and openly accessed through the Consortium of Small Vertebrate Collections.”

WUSF: As Hillsborough County explores forgotten cemeteries, a national archive tracks lost Black graves. “Meanwhile, The Black Cemetery Network, started a year ago by another USF anthropologist, Antoinette Jackson, is tracking Black cemeteries that have been neglected, partially relocated, found beneath developed property, or lost entirely…. As of Sunday, the site lists 12 cemeteries in Florida and 41 nationally. It lists founding information, relevant history, maps, and links to news articles.”

Philadelphia Inquirer: Only four Kmarts are left in the U.S. and two are in New Jersey. “Ben Schultz, 23, was too young to have experienced Kmart’s powerful hold on American retailing. Plus, he said, ‘my family was more of a Target family.’ In his teen years, Schultz worked at a McDonald’s in a parking lot in front of a Kmart. ‘On my lunch break I would wander around there [the Kmart],’ he said. ‘There weren’t many people in there.’ Now a graduate student in public history at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Schultz has become an expert on Kmarts and the company, putting together a spreadsheet and a map of every Kmart — when it opened and when it closed, with the address and other information.”

University of Notre Dame: Literatures of Annihilation, Exile, and Resistance Launches New Website. “The new website includes an archive of recorded events featuring transnational writers and scholars from Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Colombia, Chile and the United States whose work bears witness to truth and history and to the global struggle for freedom.”

USEFUL STUFF

Mashable: The underrated apps every video content creator needs to try. “If you’re like me, you’re always on the hunt for new apps for content creation. But if app-hunting isn’t your pastime, no need to worry because I’ll share some of my discoveries right here with you. As a video creator myself, I’m often playing around with interesting apps I come across. I usually deal with longform content, so you won’t find any mobile apps on this particular list. All the recommended software and web apps here are for desktop computers.”

MakeUseOf: A Beginner’s Guide to Responsive Images in HTML. “A responsive image is an image that adapts to different device characteristics. When done right, responsive images can improve the performance and user experience of a site. This article explores how you can create responsive images in HTML using srcset and the picture element.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BloombergQuint: Google Reaches Undisclosed Settlement in Discrimination Suit. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google has reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount with Chelsey Glasson, who said she faced discrimination by the search giant after she became pregnant. Glasson sued Google in 2020 after repeated efforts to report pregnancy discrimination were ignored, she said in October. She estimated her legal fight would cost more than $100,000 and take a heavy toll on her mental health. Glasson said her experience at Google left her with insomnia, panic attacks and heart palpitations.”

The Register: Users complain of missing data in UK wills search service . “Users have complained of missing data and trouble logging in after the UK government updated its old probate search service. Run by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), the probate and will search service is a handy tool for hunting down probate records for documents and wills in England and Wales. It can be useful for working out who has the legal right to deal with a deceased person’s property as well as a being a boon for researchers tracing family history.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

I don’t watch much “regular” TV, but most nights you can find me chilling in front of the video box for a couple of hours watching whatever I find interesting on YouTube. Last night, for example, I learned about a recent fusion energy breakthrough, explored the history of Portugal, and got my mind blown once again by Corridor Crew. You may remember me linking to them last November after they scanned a ghost town with a phone. Now? They’re livestreaming deepfakes. You thought deepfakes were crazy just as pictures or edited snippets? Take 18 minutes and 32 seconds out of your life and check out this video.

CNET: How Minecraft Is Teaching Kids to Face the Threat of Climate Change. “How do you teach a child about bushfires that could engulf their home? How do you teach a child about how floods and rising sea levels loom over parts of their country? In a place like Australia, where climate catastrophes are not only common, but becoming increasingly ever present, it’s all the more important to prepare children for the future. What better tool than the game they already spend all their free time playing? Minecraft is the answer. If you build it, they will learn.” Good afternoon, Internet…

February 22, 2022 at 01:51AM
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