New researches

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map, Afrofuturism, LinkedIn, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, March 2, 2022

Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map, Afrofuturism, LinkedIn, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, March 2, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Bellingcat: Follow the Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map. “The Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map is a crowdsourced effort by Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) and the wider open source community to map, document and verify significant incidents during the conflict in Ukraine. Its aim is to provide reliable information for policymakers, journalists as well as justice and accountability bodies about the evolving situations both on-the-ground and online. Bellingcat, Mnemonic and the Conflict Intelligence Team have also begun to contribute to the map in recent days.”

Google Blog: Exploring Afrofuturism on Google Arts & Culture. “This February and March 2022, Carnegie Hall invites New Yorkers and the world to participate in a journey of discovery through one of its signature citywide festivals — Afrofuturism — a movement where music, visual arts, science fiction and technology intersect to imagine alternate realities and a liberated future viewed through the lens of Black cultures. Together with Google Arts & Culture, and coinciding with Black History Month, we are pleased to invite audiences around the world to learn more about this exciting movement as part of a new online hub: The Afrofuture is Now.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: LinkedIn wants to normalize career breaks with new feature. “Business-oriented social network LinkedIn says it’s trying to end the stigma surrounding career breaks by encouraging users to highlight what they learned from these experiences. The Microsoft-owned company is releasing a feature on Tuesday that will allow people to add a career break to their LinkedIn profiles through the desktop site or mobile app, giving them a way to explain the gaps in their resume.”

KnowTechie: TikTok is rolling out 10-minute videos so you can waste even more time on the app. “TikTok continues to explode in popularity as a short-form video platform. But now, it’s looking to expand upon that. TikTok has recently added the ability for users to upload videos up to 10 minutes long, a big increase over the previous three-minute limit.”

The Verge: Google is ditching Chrome’s data saver mode on Android. “Google has announced it will soon remove a feature of Chrome for Android that for years helped people cut down on their mobile data usage. Per 9to5Google, Chrome’s ‘Lite mode’ will go away with the release of Chrome version M100 in late March. Lite mode was originally known as Data Saver when Google first introduced it on Android back in 2014.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: How to Screen Record on Your Chromebook. “Whether it’s for school or work, recording your Chromebook screen can have many different use cases. Thankfully, Chromebooks make it incredibly easy with a built-in tool that ensures that you don’t need any extra software. Released with ChromeOS 89 in March 2021, the revamped screen capture menu added the native screen recorder on top of the ability to screenshot your display. Let’s take a look at how to start and stop a screen recording on a Chromebook.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Guardian: Australian online anti-vaccine groups switch to Putin praise and Ukraine conspiracies. “Australian anti-vaxxer groups are awash with conspiracy theories praising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an attack on the ‘deep state’, with some followers of the Covid-sceptic movement expressing admiration for Vladimir Putin.”

BuzzFeed News: Google Maps Is Blocking Edits In Ukraine After Claims That User-Generated Tags May Have Been Used To Coordinate Russian Air Strikes. “Responding to claims that its Maps were being used to coordinate Russian military activity in Ukraine, Google on Tuesday began removing user-added tags within the borders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. The company is removing new content such as location pins ‘out of an abundance of caution,’ a Google spokesperson told BuzzFeed News.”

The National Herald: The Cyprus Institute and the V.I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine Establish Research and Educational Ties. “The Cyprus Institute (CyI) and the V.I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine (VNLU) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on joint Ukrainian-Cyprus research and educational activities that highlight the historical and cultural relations between the two countries.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Government Technology: Maryland Proposes New K-12 Student Data Privacy Law. “Responding to lessons learned from the implementation of a 2015 student privacy law, Maryland lawmakers want new measures to redefine protected information and require oversight of technology used by students.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: From ‘Vladdy daddy’ to fake TikToks: how to guide your child through Ukraine news online . “Much of what tweens and teenagers know about the Russia-Ukraine conflict comes from TikTok, Snapchat or Instagram. Their social media feeds contain images of tanks, bombs and propaganda. Our kids could stumble across extreme footage and we’ll likely never know…. Here’s how to help your child navigate social media ‘news’ content about war, while minimising any distress.”

Cornell Tech: This New Tool Prevents Bots From Taking Over NFT Drops. “In September 2021, Time Magazine launched thousands of NFTs, but their launch was taken over by scalper bots, despite precautions put in place to limit the number of NFT purchases per person. This drop also resulted in inflated transaction fees on the blockchain network. A new tool developed by researchers at Cornell Tech, led by PhD student Yan Ji and research engineer Tyler Kell, aims to enforce a one-NFT-per-person drop policy. A successful demo took place at ETH Denver this week, where attendees established unique identities to participate in a free NFT drop with prominent digital artist Zach Lieberman.” Good morning, Internet…

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March 2, 2022 at 07:18PM
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Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Higher Education ROI, Russian Oligarch Jets, Twitter, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 1, 2022

Higher Education ROI, Russian Oligarch Jets, Twitter, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 1, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Yahoo Finance: New database ranks 4,500 US colleges and universities by return on investment. “A new database released by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) ranks 4,500 colleges and universities based on their return on investment (ROI)…. The ranking assessed schools on a variety of factors, including tuition and costs, average student debt, graduation rates, and net earnings after enrollment.”

NBC News: Where are the Russian oligarchs? This Twitter feeds follows their private jets. “The comings and goings of powerful Russian elites have come under intense scrutiny since Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine last week, an attack that has drawn international condemnation. And that’s why Jack Sweeney, 19, a University of Central Florida student, started tracking them on the Twitter feed Russian Oligarch Jets, which he launched over the weekend and which already had more than 52,000 followers Monday afternoon.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: Twitter will label, reduce visibility of tweets linking to Russian state media. “Twitter (TWTR.N) is adding labels and reducing the visibility for tweets containing content from Russian state-affiliated media websites like RT and Sputnik, the social media company said on Monday.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Verge: The Internet Is A Force Multiplier For Ukraine. “After being widely credited for Trump’s election in 2016, and preparing to initiate the biggest war of the social network era, Russia might have been expected to excel at information warfare. Instead, like the rest of the war, it has gone quite badly for them. It is Ukraine that has been masterful in its use of social media — and while that may not prove decisive in whether or not it overcomes Russia’s superior military, at the very least it complicates our understanding of big tech and democracy. Today, let’s talk about how.”

Rolling Stone: Exclusive: Ukraine Pushes to Unplug Russia From the Internet. “Ukrainian officials are asking a key organization responsible for the operation of the internet to disconnect all Russian sites from the global computer network of networks, Rolling Stone has learned. It’s the latest attempt to turn Russia into a pariah state in retaliation for the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Experts call it a massive — and ill-advised — step.”

BBC: The chefs using TikTok to reinvent their careers. “The Covid crisis saw thousands of restaurants temporarily or permanently close their doors, prompting some chefs to turn to TikTok to reinvent themselves.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Hundreds of eBike phishing sites abuse Google Ads to push scams. “A large-scale campaign involving over 200 phishing and scam sites has tricked users into giving their personal data to fake investments schemes impersonating genuine brands. The fraudulent operation relies upon the abuse of Google Ads and SEO to draw victims to hundreds of fake websites targeting the Indian audience.”

ZDNet: How to avoid being unwillingly drafted as a cyber combatant in the Russia-Ukraine war. “Got a security roll-out plan for the next few years? Escalate it. Thinking about recruiting more security engineers? Start hiring. Looking for the right time to patch vulnerabilities and refresh passwords? Now’s the time. The Ukraine conflict may feel far away to some of you, but the risk of your network being caught in the crossfire is increasing.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Toronto Star: Legislation to level playing field between Big Tech and news organizations is needed now. “Since 2013, we have lost 300 trusted news titles in Canada. The time for Canadian parliamentarians to act is now. A made-in-Canada approach, along the broad strokes of what the Australians have done, is what we need. This is not a one-and-done silver bullet, but receiving fair market value for content Canadian journalists produce is an important step to putting the news business on a more stable commercial footing.”

MIT Sloan School of Management: As content booms, how can platforms protect kids from hate speech?. “From July to September of 2019, YouTube purged roughly half a billion comments in violation of the company’s hate speech policy — a twofold increase over the previous quarter. The same year YouTube introduced a setting to automatically hide toxic comments until channel owners could review them. ‘We often talk about the idea of viral videos or virality in social media,’ said Catherine Tucker, a marketing professor at MIT Sloan. ‘We were interested in the dark side of that: How viral is hate? How viral is the use of abusive language towards children?'” Good afternoon, Internet…

March 2, 2022 at 01:29AM
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Learning AI, LGBTQ History, Color Our Collections 2022, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, March 1, 2022

Learning AI, LGBTQ History, Color Our Collections 2022, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, March 1, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Google Blog: An intro to AI, made for students. “To celebrate Digital Learning Day, we’re releasing a new lesson from Applied Digital Skills, Google’s free, online, video-based curriculum (and part of the larger Grow with Google initiative). ‘Discover AI in Daily Life’ was designed with middle and high school students in mind, and dives into how AI is built, and how it helps people every day.”

Harry Ransom Center: More Than 60,000 Digitized Items From LGBTQ Pioneers Launch Online. “The Ransom Center houses the papers of British author Radclyffe Hall, author of the 1928 lesbian landmark novel, ‘The Well of Loneliness,’ and partner, artist Una Vincenzo, Lady Troubridge. The archive includes notebooks, draft typescripts, correspondence, photographs and scrapbooks that document Hall’s career as a writer, Troubridge’s work as a sculptor and translator, and their personal and creative partnership.”

Open Culture: Free Coloring Books from 101 World-Class Libraries & Museums: Download and Color Hundreds of Free Images. “The free, downloadable adult coloring books that the New York Academy of Medicine solicits from museums and university and state libraries for its #ColorOurCollections celebration each February enliven our month far more than any Valentine or Presidents Day sale. They’re not just a great way to while away winter’s last gasp. They’re also a wonderful portal for discovering cultural institutions that have thus far flown beneath our radar, owing to size, geography, and/or field of study.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: YouTube blocks Russian news channels RT and Sputnik. “YouTube has blocked Russian news channels RT and Sputnik across Europe in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Alphabet-owned company confirmed the news on Twitter, saying it would ‘take time for our systems to fully ramp up’ and that it would continue to ‘monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action.'”

City AM: Following Google’s lead: Microsoft axes Russia Today and bans state-owned media ads. “Microsoft have stated in a blog post that it will be removing Russian state-owned media outlet RT’s mobile apps from the Windows App store, as well as cutting ads on Russian state-sponsored media…. Microsoft said it would not display any state-sponsored RT and Sputnik content, de-rank search results on Bing and not place any ads from its ad network on those sites.”

USEFUL STUFF

Mashable: A guide to writing accessible image captions. “Making your social media profiles accessible to the majority of people stumbling across your posts is an intentional practice. From Instagram and Twitter photo descriptions to captioning audio on your TikTok videos, you have to consciously add these accessibility considerations. It’s something you should absolutely do to ensure your accounts are navigable by people with various disabilities. Don’t fret: You have most of the tools at your disposal.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New Yorker: The Oddly Addictive Quality of Google Alerts. “If you set a Google Alert for “hot-dog cannon,” then chances are it works exactly as intended: infrequently delighting you with news about launchers designed to hurl hot dogs great distances. Broader terms, however, present a problem, especially when Boolean search isn’t an option: if ANDs, ORs, or NOTs might exclude the exact results you’re looking for, you end up suffering through the semi-relevant and not-at-all relevant in the hopes that, someday, the alert will turn up something actually relevant.” Oh dear. On the one hand, I’d love to talk to her about this. On the other hand, she’d have to listen to me rant for an hour and who wants that?

Associated Press: Tech tool tribe uses to save language. “By itself, being able to read smartphone home screens in Cherokee won’t be enough to safeguard the indigenous language, endangered after a long history of erasure. But it might be a step toward immersing younger tribal citizens in the language spoken by a dwindling number of their elders. That’s the hope of Principal Chief Richard Sneed of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who is counting on more inclusive consumer technology — and the involvement of a major tech company — to help out.”

CNN: How CNN geolocates and verifies social media footage from Ukraine. “CNN’s investigative team has been monitoring the constant stream of information from social media by using several tools to filter through the noise and select relevant videos for our coverage to geolocate and verify.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

USA Today: Rape survivors, child victims, consensual sex partners: San Francisco police have used DNA from all of them for 7 years. “It’s not only sexual assault survivors whose DNA has been stored by the San Francisco Police Department’s crime lab – and routinely searched for matches to suspects in criminal cases. For the last seven years, the department’s crime lab has also been keeping all processed DNA – including, for example, from victims of violent crimes, child victims, or individuals entirely uninvolved in the crime like roommates and consensual partners – according to the police chief and a copy of the lab’s standard operating procedures obtained by USA TODAY.”

Independent: Russian ransomware hackers pledge support to Putin and immediately have secret chats exposed by Ukrainian leaker. “The leak, shared with malware research group VX-Underground, contained 400 files of tens of thousands of chat logs in Russian dating back to January 2021; the group only formed in mid-2020. The gang provides ransomware-as-a-service, letting customers buy access to its attack facilities. Estimates suggest the group was received over $30 million in ransomware payments to date. Reportedly, the chat logs contain Bitcoin addresses and payments made to the gang.”

New York Times: Russia Intensifies Censorship Campaign, Pressuring Tech Giants. “Last week, Russian authorities warned Google, Meta, Apple, Twitter, TikTok and others that they had until the end of this month to comply with a new law that requires them to set up legal entities in the country. The so-called landing law makes the companies and their employees more vulnerable to Russia’s legal system and the demands of government censors, legal experts and civil society groups said.” Good morning, Internet…

March 1, 2022 at 06:28PM
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Tampa Bay Black History, Google Maps, Siri, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 28, 2022

Tampa Bay Black History, Google Maps, Siri, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 28, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of South Florida: New web portal documents and catalogues the Black experience in Tampa Bay. “The USF Institute on Black Life (IBL) has created a new web portal to better document Tampa Bay’s historic and contemporary African American communities. The African American Neighborhood Project portal offers a multitude of resources accessible to the community, including oral histories, heritage sites, archival photographs and research addressing anti-Black racism.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: Google temporarily disables Google Maps live traffic data in Ukraine. “Alphabet Inc’s Google confirmed on Sunday it has temporarily disabled for Ukraine some Google Maps tools which provide live information about traffic conditions and how busy different places are. The company said it had taken the action of globally disabling the Google Maps traffic layer and live information on how busy places like stores and restaurants are in Ukraine for the safety of local communities in the country, after consulting with sources including regional authorities.”

The Verge: Siri gets a new voice in iOS 15.4 beta. “The latest beta of iOS 15.4 adds a fifth American voice for its Siri voice assistant. Apple’s user-facing interface simply calls it ‘Voice 5,’ but iOS developer Steve Moser reports that its filename refers to the new voice as ‘Quinn.’ The voice has arrived a little under a year after Apple added its last two American Siri voices, and stopped defaulting to using a female-sounding voice.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

NBC News: Facebook, Twitter remove disinformation accounts targeting Ukrainians. “Facebook and Twitter removed two anti-Ukrainian ‘covert influence operations’ over the weekend, one tied to Russia and another with connections to Belarus, the companies said. One of the operations, a propaganda campaign featuring a website pushing anti-Ukraine talking points, was an offshoot of a known Russian disinformation operation.”

Mashable: A bot named Ashley is ruining playlists on Spotify. “The latest internet villain just reared its head and it isn’t a corporate mega-billionaire, wayward politician, or Twitter troll, but rather an unassuming Spotify bot named Ashley. Multiple users have complained that their public, collaborative playlists — designed to allow Spotify users and their friends to curate songs in real time together — have been commandeered by bots masquerading as normal users, primarily one account simply named ‘Ashley.'”

Reuters: Google, Facebook, Twitter must combat Ukraine fake news – Polish, Baltic leaders. “Alphabet unit Google and its subsidiary YouTube, Facebook and Twitter must do more to tackle disinformation related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the premiers of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ukrainian Truth: Russian invaders burn down Ivankiv Museum. Maria Prymachenko’s artwork destroyed. “The Ivankiv Museum of Local History in Kyiv region was burned down. The museum housed valuable artwork by the Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko.”

The Guardian: Hundreds of US geographic sites to be renamed to eliminate offensive words. “US officials have come up with a list of potential replacement names for hundreds of geographic sites in three dozen states that currently include an offensive word, kicking off a public comment period that will run through late April.”

TorrentFreak: Google Punishes Pre-Release Piracy Sites Harder in Search Results. “Google’s voluntary anti-piracy measures have gradually expanded over the years, resulting in some unique responses. When Google removes an allegedly copyright-infringing URL from its search engine, it will disable ads on this URL as well. In addition, the search engine has added a ‘still-in-theaters/prerelease’ tag for DMCA notices, so reported sites can be punished more severely.” Good afternoon, Internet…

March 1, 2022 at 04:54PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/YGdoSyV

Monday, February 28, 2022

United Nations Members, Western US Land Management, Ukraine, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, February 28, 2022

United Nations Members, Western US Land Management, Ukraine, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, February 28, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Qatar Foundation: QF research institute partners with UN to launch search engine for diplomats. “The social computing group at Qatar Computing Research Institute has developed a web tool called Diplomatic Pulse which allows users to quickly search for official statements and press releases from all member states of the United Nations (UN).”

UCLA: Web tool co-created by UCLA a veritable ‘Swiss Army knife’ for land management. This site was created to provide information about the western US. “The site, which launched Feb. 15, provides a comprehensive picture of vegetation and ground cover and can display where land is covered by sagebrush, shrubs, perennial grasses or dead plant material, as well as where it has no cover. Using machine learning, the tool can also show changes in vegetation over time and perform statistical analyses on the data to help interpret the results.”

NiemanLab: Some resources for following the invasion of Ukraine . “We’ve pulled together a few resources to help you receive reliable information on what is happening. This list is being updated.”

Mashable: GoFundMe launches a donation hub for Ukraine relief efforts. “The hub currently hosts fundraisers that range from supporting large aid organizations like Save the Children to raising funds for specific families in Ukraine. All fundraisers hosted on the official hub have been verified by GoFundMe’s global Trust & Safety team, which monitors the larger GoFundMe site in order to identify and validate fundraisers made in response to crises.”

USEFUL STUFF

New York Times: Free Options for Filing Your Taxes. “The average federal refund is about $2,800, according to the Internal Revenue Service. And more than half of filers earning less than $30,000 a year seek professional tax preparation help. Fortunately, there are free options to help people prepare and file their tax returns. Many have age or income limits, but some are available to anyone.”

MakeUseOf: 5 Wikipedia Apps to Discover Interesting Articles and Browse Wikipedia Better. “Wikipedia is one of the greatest free resources on the internet, with almost 6.5 million articles in the English version alone. But too often, we only use the website to search for something, rather than simply browsing it to learn about new things. These apps try to give you ways to browse Wikipedia and discover articles in new ways.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

NBC News: Howard University to digitize its archive of thousands of Black newspapers. “…with the help of a $2 million grant announced Monday, Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center will make available countless articles that captured in real-time the impact of historical events on Black people that have long been difficult, if not impossible, to access. By digitizing its extensive Black Press Archives, anyone will be able to access Howard’s collection of more than 2,000 newspapers from the United States, Africa and the African diaspora online.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

PR Newswire: LexisNexis® Introduces LexisNexis PatentAdvisor® Extension, Free Web Tool to Display Patent Examiner Stats on USPTO Websites (PRESS RELEASE). “LexisNexis® Legal & Professional today announced the launch of PatentAdvisor Extension, a free web browser extension that makes available data insights about individual patent examiners and art units directly on the United States Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO) websites.”

Washington Post: To expunge his daughter’s murder from the Internet, a father created an NFT of the grisly video. “Families of shooting victims have frequently relied on copyright law to get results. Lenny Pozner, whose son Noah Pozner was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, has filed hundreds of copyright claims to get pictures of his son taken down from websites spreading conspiracy theories about the deadly Sandy Hook shooting. Copyright, Pozner has said, is a more effective tool than relying on the platform’s policies against hoaxes, for instance, which can often be opaque and unevenly enforced.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Register: Techniques to fool AI with hidden triggers are outpacing defenses – study. “The increasingly wide use of deep neural networks (DNNs) for such computer vision tasks as facial recognition, medical imaging, object detection, and autonomous driving is going to, if not already, catch the attention of cybercriminals. DNNs have become foundational to deep learning and to the larger field of artificial intelligence (AI). They’re a multi-layered class of machine learning algorithms that essentially try to mimic how a human brain works and are becoming more popular in developing modern applications.”

The Guardian: Five ways AI is saving wildlife – from counting chimps to locating whales. “AI is helping to protect species as diverse as humpback whales, koalas and snow leopards, supporting the work of scientists, researchers and rangers in vital tasks, from anti-poaching patrols to monitoring species. With machine learning (ML) computer systems that use algorithms and models to learn, understand and adapt, AI is often able to do the job of hundreds of people, getting faster, cheaper and more effective results. Here are five AI projects contributing to our understanding of biodiversity and species.”

University of Oxford: University of Oxford researchers create largest ever human family tree. “Researchers from the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute have taken a major step towards mapping the entirety of genetic relationships among humans: a single genealogy that traces the ancestry of all of us.” Good morning, Internet…

February 28, 2022 at 06:25PM
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Sunday, February 27, 2022

Centro Unión Israelita Museum, Utah Theater, Google Maps, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, February 27, 2022

Centro Unión Israelita Museum, Utah Theater, Google Maps, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, February 27, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Argentina launches new virtual Jewish museum. “Launched last month by the Centro Unión Israelita — which consists of the synagogue and a separate cultural organization — the virtual ‘museum’ includes a timeline of Córdoba’s Jewish history; a 360-degree panoramic tour of the synagogue; explainers on Jewish rituals and holidays; a global map about the places where Córdoba’s Jewish immigrants came from; testimony from a local Holocaust survivor; and an interactive map of the Jewish sites in Córdoba city (Córdoba is the name of both a province of over a million people and its largest city), which include an outdoor Israel Square and a monument to Anne Frank…”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Salt Lake Tribune: In plot twist, preservationists sue Salt Lake City to save the Utah Theater. “Historic preservationists, film buffs and other residents allege city officials failed to comply with Utah law requiring a more thorough study and reports to state officials before they sold the disused property at 144 S. Main to developer Hines last year.”

9to5 Google: Google Maps usage in Ukraine triples as Docs use declines over the past two days. “Since 2010, Google has published Transparency Reports to demonstrate ‘how the policies and actions of governments and corporations affect privacy, security, and access to information online.’ One such report shows the impact the war in Ukraine is having on how people use Google products, including Maps.”

USEFUL STUFF

Bleeping Computer: Free Android app lets users detect Apple AirTag tracking. “A small team of researchers at the Darmstadt University in Germany have published a report illustrating how their AirGuard app for Android provides better protection from stealthy AirTag stalking than other apps.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

France24: Russia’s anti-war lobby goes online. “Several thousand Russians demonstrated against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the police reaction was the usual one when it comes to Kremlin critics: hundreds of arrests. So the anti-war movement has moved online, where it is beginning to make itself heard and to garner support, some of it high-profile. Ukrainian flags adorn profile pictures and teary-eyed emojis are scattered liberally among the online statements. The hashtag #NoToTheWar was trending on Twitter on Saturday.”

CNET: How Misleading Videos About Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Spread on Twitter. “During times of crisis, the viral potential of misleading videos, like the one posted by @AndreyZhukovv, underscores the challenge Twitter and other social media platforms face in tamping down on unintentional misinformation and deliberate disinformation. Posts spread quickly before platforms can go through the process of reviewing them for removal.”

Daily Beast: Deleted Tweets Reveal a Progressive Group’s Ukraine Meltdown. “A self-styled ‘institution of progressive popular education’ founded by a former U.S. senator and backed by top left-of-center intellectuals and leaders spent the days and weeks ahead of the bloody Russian assault on Ukraine pumping out misinformation, experts say. Now it is desperately attempting to backtrack, in part by deleting tweets.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Arab News: Iran arrests prominent blogger over critical tweets. “Iranian authorities arrested prominent blogger Seyed Hossein Ronaghi Maleki on Wednesday at his home after he posted several tweets critical of a controversial bill passed and ratified by the regime.”

The Verge: The US Copyright Office says an AI can’t copyright its art. “The US Copyright Office has rejected a request to let an AI copyright a work of art. Last week, a three-person board reviewed a 2019 ruling against Steven Thaler, who tried to copyright a picture on behalf of an algorithm he dubbed Creativity Machine. The board found that Thaler’s AI-created image didn’t include an element of ‘human authorship’ — a necessary standard, it said, for protection.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

WIRED: How to Get Mental Health Support—on Social Media. “Some groups, like the one I first joined, cater to individuals who need space to vent, fret, even panic. That kind of support is important when validation is missing in real life. But for someone seeking to recover, with or without professional help, inundation with those types of posts can trigger incremental worries. I’ve become more selective with the groups I frequent. Currently, I’m part of a new private Facebook group created by Anna Christie, owner of an emetophobia website and a licensed therapist specializing in the disorder. Her group is for people focused on recovery.”

Duke University Libraries: Code Repository vs Archival Repository. You need both.. “…there are many types of repositories, both digital and analog: repositories of bones, insects, plants, books, digital data, etc. Even among the subset of digital repositories there are many types. Some digital repositories keep your data safe for posterity and replication. Some help you manage the distribution of analysis and code. Knowing about these differences will affect not only the ease of your computational workflow, but also the legacy of your published works.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Korea Times: Cultural artifact-inspired merchandise gets makeover . “Traditional souvenirs filling the shelves of Korean museum shops have long been stereotyped as items that lack practicality and that often fail to go well with interior decor, due to their faithful yet outdated designs. Once purchased or gifted, it isn’t unusual for these products to be tucked away in a corner of a room, slowly forgotten as they gather dust. However, a recent string of makeovers of state-run museums’ relic-inspired merchandise have added a feeling of freshness to the shop’s vitrines.” Good afternoon, Internet…

February 27, 2022 at 11:55PM
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Saturday, February 26, 2022

Hall for Cornwall, Twitter, Tumblr, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, February 26, 2022

Hall for Cornwall, Twitter, Tumblr, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, February 26, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Cornish Times: History of Hall for Cornwall comes alive with launch of new digital archive. “People can now delve into an online collection of more than 800 artefacts, which document the history of Hall for Cornwall in Truro…. Posters, handbills, rare photographs, drawings, oral histories, films, animations, plus historical objects, including a set of leg irons and a mid-20th century mayoral ruff, are all included in the online archive.” This is where I’m supposed to give a little information on the Hall for Cornwall and what it is, but it’s about 175 years old and has been used for all kinds of things.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Twitter now lets you place content warnings on individual tweets. “Twitter is giving all users access to the content warning feature it tested last year. The feature lets you obscure individual photos and videos behind warnings for nudity, violence, and ‘sensitive’ content, rather than adding a blanket warning to all multimedia tweets. It’s available on Twitter’s Android and iOS apps as well as its web client.”

KnowTechie: Tumblr now offers a paid option to remove ads, still no porn though. “We keep speaking of Tumblr as if it’s dead, a relic of the past, when that just isn’t true. According to SimilarWeb, Tumblr ranks in the top 75 in the United States on the list of most popular websites. It’s the 103rd most visited site in the world. As of July 2021, Tumblr still hosted more than 529 million blogs. While Automattic has kept the adult content ban in place for some dumb reason, Tumblr bloggers are still a vibrant, active community.”

Vice: Russia Is Now Blocking Twitter. “The Kremlin has begun blocking access to Twitter, hours after the social media company stopped Russians from advertising on the platform. The decision to block access to Twitter followed Russia’s move hours earlier to restrict access to Facebook in the country as the government seeks to control the narrative around its invasion of Ukraine.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: Ukrainians turned to encrypted messaging app Signal as Russians invaded. “Facing uncertainty, Ukrainians looked for digital security in the form of the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal. That’s according to Matthew Prince, the cofounder and CEO of Cloudflare, whose internet infrastructure company gives him unique insight into what goes on behind the internet’s scenes. In a Thursday tweet, Prince wrote that he observed Signal usage in Ukraine shooting up starting just after midnight on Feb. 24.”

Motherboard: Ukrainian Websites Are Going Dark. Archivists Are Trying to Save Them.. “Russia has launched an unprecedented number of cyberattacks on Ukraine since 2014, and now that the invasion is underway, some fear a digital doomsday is imminent. With Vladimir Putin vowing to enact regime change in Ukraine, there’s fear that if he is successful, Ukrainian government and cultural websites could be lost forever. In response, archivists around the world have begun attempting to preserve Ukraine’s internet, dedicating bandwidth and disk space to archive the country’s digital history.”

CNN: How Black archives are highlighting overlooked parts of history and culture. “[Jiya] Pinder is part of a larger movement of archivists, curators and memory workers who seek to elevate overlooked parts of Black history and culture. Though their mediums range from social media accounts to digital libraries to museum collections, their missions are the same: To tell a more complete story about Black existence.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNET: UK Tells Tech Giants to Provide Better Protection Against Anonymous Trolls. “Tech companies will be asked to give UK social media users more control over who can interact with them online. This includes blocking interactions from other users who haven’t had their identities verified by the platforms.”

ABC News (Australia): Hacker collective Anonymous declares ‘cyber war’ against Russia, disables state news website . “Hackers identifying with the Anonymous collective announced they had launched cyber operations that briefly took down RT.com, as well as the websites of the Kremlin, the Russian government and the Russian defence ministry websites.”

NBC News: Embassies, Boris Johnson turn to Chinese social media to mediate Russia-Ukraine conflict. “In the leadup to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the international war of words found an unusual battlefield: Chinese social media. Earlier this week, the Ukrainian Embassy in China took to Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, to criticize Russia for recognizing the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

WIRED: News From Ukraine Is Unfolding in Fragments Over Social Media . “The truth of what’s happening in Ukraine right now is going to continue to unfold for a long time. Everyone should be consulting as many sources as possible. (They should also be verifying what they see before sharing it in a moment of haste.) They say journalism is the first rough draft of history. They say history is written by the victors. But perhaps that’s only part of the story. Perhaps history is written in the ether—it’s up to us to make sure we’re paying attention.”

CBC: Can better tech really fix darker-skin bias in smartphone cameras? Google thinks so. “The tech giant Google used the biggest platform it could find to make a statement during Black History Month. In a one-minute ad that cost millions, Google told Super Bowl fans about something Black people have known for a long time: most cameras aren’t great at capturing darker skin.” Good afternoon, Internet…

February 27, 2022 at 03:04AM
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