New researches

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Brookings Sanctions Tracker, Zelenskyy Deepfake, Virtual Violin Concert, More: Ukraine Update, March 17, 2022

Brookings Sanctions Tracker, Zelenskyy Deepfake, Virtual Violin Concert, More: Ukraine Update, March 17, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Brookings Institution: Mapping financial countermeasures against Russian aggression: Introducing the Brookings Sanctions Tracker. “Tracking and aggregating these rapidly evolving and wide-ranging sanctions is a substantial undertaking. To help fill this gap, the Leveraging Transparency to Reduce Corruption Initiative at Brookings (a joint initiative with Results for Development) has launched a new tracker, working with Human Rights First and REDRESS, that consolidates sanctions against Russian individuals and entities into one central repository. ”

EVENTS

My Modern Met: Violinists From 29 Countries Around the World Play Moving Virtual Concert in Support of Ukraine . “In a moving video, almost 100 violinists join together in one voice to express their support for Ukraine during this time of war—all without speaking a single word. The virtual concert features professional and famous violinists from 29 different countries as they join in unison to accompany several dedicated musicians in Ukraine who play their instruments from basement bomb shelters.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: Facebook Parent Meta Removes Deepfake Video of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy . “Facebook’s parent company Meta said Wednesday it removed a deepfake video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for violating the social network’s rules against manipulated media.”

Engadget: Twitter actioned over 50,000 pieces of misleading Ukraine content. “Twitter said it has ‘labeled or removed’ more than 50,000 pieces of content that broke its policy on manipulated media in the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the company shared in a blog post today. Additionally, the platform removed roughly 75,000 accounts for ‘inauthentic behavior’ and spam.”

AFP/Moscow Times: Russia Blocks Access to BBC, Vows More Media Retaliation. “Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor on Wednesday blocked access to the BBC’s main news website, with Moscow’s Foreign Ministry warning of more retaliatory measures against the media. ‘I think this is only the beginning of retaliatory measures to the information war unleashed by the West against Russia,’ Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TechCrunch: Russia’s war hits Yandex, the ‘Google of Russia’. “Putin’s regime continues to tighten its grip on how information on the war in Ukraine is shared in Russia, and in the wake of that, tech giants in the country — which, like Facebook, Google and Twitter, are also major players in the media sphere — are starting to restructure their media assets.”

Lawfare Podcast: How Open-Source Investigators are Documenting the War in Ukraine. “An enormous number of researchers have devoted their time to sifting through social media posts, satellite images, and even Google Maps to track what’s happening in Ukraine and debunk false claims about the conflict. This week on Arbiters of Truth, our series on the online information ecosystem, we devoted the show to understanding how open-source investigations work and why they’re important.”

Wall Street Journal: Russian Artists Feel a New Cultural Chill in the West. “Vladimir Putin’s siege of Ukraine is forcing all types of cultural institutions to wrestle with their role as platforms for artists representing Russia, from current filmmakers and classical-music stars to timeless greats like Tchaikovsky. As governments enforce sanctions on the Russian government and corporations break with Russian businesses, arts groups are facing a similar question: Should they cut ties or not?”

UChicago News: UChicago launches scholarships and comprehensive support for students and scholars impacted by war in Ukraine. “As part of a comprehensive effort to support students and scholars impacted by the war in Ukraine, the University of Chicago announced today that it will provide full-tuition scholarships for undergraduate students affected by the invasion.” This is one of several Ukraine-related initiatives.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Mashable: Ukraine is legalising the cryptocurrency market . “Ukraine will soon legally recognise cryptocurrency, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a virtual assets bill into law on Wednesday. Under the new legislation, Ukraine will be able to establish a legal, regulated crypto market.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Nevada Las Vegas: Propaganda Pollution: UNLV Expert on Russia’s Information Warfare. “Ukraine native, chemist, and policy researcher Mary Blankenship explains how one aspect of the Russia-Ukraine war is being fought online, on TV, and on social media platforms.”

The Verge: “We Don’t Live In A Research Bubble”: The Hopes And Fears Driving An Online Movement To Help Ukrainian Researchers . “Members of the international scientific community have also found it hard to look away from the conflict or ignore the plight of their colleagues like [Vitalii] Palchykov. In recent weeks, this desire to help has resulted in an earnest and extensive online movement made up of individuals, groups of volunteers, and institutions, which are using the internet and social media to offer Ukrainian scientists and students affected by war all the support they can: jobs, a place to continue their studies, a new home.”

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March 17, 2022 at 06:46PM
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Lenczner Slaght Supreme Court of Canada Database, New York Wage/Employment Transparency, Keeping It Civil, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, March 17, 2022

Lenczner Slaght Supreme Court of Canada Database, New York Wage/Employment Transparency, Keeping It Civil, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, March 17, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Spotted in my Google Alerts and then chased all over Google for a while: The Lenczner Slaght Supreme Court of Canada Database. From the “About” article on the front page: “This database includes information about each reported decision of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1954 onward. … The authors of this database hope that it will provide a useful resource for academics and practicing lawyers alike who are interested in the decisions and judges of the Supreme Court of Canada.”

State of New York: Governor Hochul Announces Launch of New Online Wage and Employment Tools as Part of Continued Commitment to Transparency. “Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the launch of two new interactive online resources designed to improve transparency and enhance access to employment statistics and occupational wage information. The Current Employment Statistics dashboard provides monthly estimates of non-farm employment, hours, and earnings by industry for New York State, metropolitan areas, and counties outside of metropolitan areas. The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics dashboard provides estimates of employment and wages for nearly 800 job titles across New York State.”

Arizona State University: ‘Keeping It Civil’ podcast dedicated to improving civil discourse. “From a young age, Americans are often told to avoid controversial topics such as politics and race. But avoiding them altogether may have contributed to today’s political polarization. Instead, Americans should engage in civil discourse. That is the rationale behind the relaunch of the podcast ‘Keeping It Civil,’ a partnership between Arizona State University’s School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership (SCETL) and Arizona PBS. ‘Keeping It Civil’ is dedicated to creating space for disagreement on relevant topics and bridging political polarization through civil discourse.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

USDA: USDA NASS to livestream agricultural data briefings, enhances public access to valuable information. “On March 30, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will livestream the Secretary of Agriculture’s data report briefing for the first time. This and future Secretary data briefings will stream on NASS’s YouTube channel five minutes after NASS reports are released to the public.”

The Verge: Google Stadia is subtly reinventing itself to attract new games and gamers. “Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service didn’t stick the landing, and it’s been a rough ride since. But today, at the Google for Games Developer Summit, it feels like Stadia might be moving in a promising direction — one that gives both gamers and game developers a reason to pay attention. And the magic word is ‘free.'”

CNET: Snap Opens Up Ways to Add AR Layers to the Real World. “Snap’s AR Landmarkers, which can layer AR on top of real-world 3D-scanned places, are opening up for developers to start building on their own. Snap sees this AR layer as a key piece of its own road to AR glasses.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Los Angeles Times: Why this L.A. TikTok star dreamed of boxing glory. “In the last decade, the number of people who make money as a ‘creator’ — a person who creates video, photo or digital content primarily on social media — has grown to more than 50 million people worldwide, including 2 million who do it as a full-time job, according to data released in 2020 by San Francisco venture capital firm SignalFire. But gaining new fans for creators or influencers has become increasingly challenging, as the once-nascent social media platforms have now grown to massive, global video libraries where it’s difficult to stand out from the crowd. That’s where boxing comes in.”

Springfield News-Leader: Federal grant expands library’s online photo collection of Ozarks’ life and history. “A $10,000 federal grant is expanding the Springfield-Greene County Library’s online digital collection of photographs ‘vividly documenting a period of rapid change in Springfield and the Ozarks.’ Part of the digital collection ‘From the Darkroom,’ library staff will add 5,000 more digital images to the nearly 29,000 images already acquired. Those images originate from the Springfield News-Leader’s estimated 2.7 million photographs and negatives from 1945 to 2011.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Government Executive: DOJ’s New FOIA Guidance Promotes Openness. “In July 2016, President Obama signed a law that codified the ‘presumption of openness’ that he championed during his first year in office and later received mixed reviews on, as Government Executive reported in 2015. The new guidance from Garland follows Obama’s goals of a ‘presumption of openness’ and directs agencies ‘make it clear that the Justice Department will not defend nondisclosure decisions that fail to do so,’ said the Justice Department.”

Bleeping Computer: Hundreds of GoDaddy-hosted sites backdoored in a single day. “Internet security analysts have spotted a spike in backdoor infections on WordPress websites hosted on GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress service, all featuring an identical backdoor payload. The case affects internet service resellers such as MediaTemple, tsoHost, 123Reg, Domain Factory, Heart Internet, and Host Europe Managed WordPress.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PsyPost: Longitudinal study reveals how using the internet as a form of escape can end in increased depressive symptoms . “New research suggests that using the internet as an escape from worry may be harmless in the short term, but can lead to emotional issues down the line. The study found that people with a greater tendency to use the internet as a distraction had higher average levels of problematic internet use and depression. The findings were published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.”

The Register: Even complex AI models are failing 5th grade science . “Researchers from the University of Arizona, Microsoft, and the Allen Institute for AI tested several different state-of-the-art agents and found them readily able to answer the ‘what’ of a situation, but incapable of determining the ‘how’ of them.” Good morning, Internet…

March 17, 2022 at 05:35PM
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Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Ernest Hemingway, Fossil Leaves, Indigenous Knowledge, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 16, 2022

Ernest Hemingway, Fossil Leaves, Indigenous Knowledge, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 16, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of St. Thomas: 13-Year Research Collaboration Explores Untapped Hemingway. “In the fall of 2009, four University of St. Thomas English students, their professor, and a librarian met in a far corner of O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library to begin what would become a 13-year collaboration creating an annotated bibliography on the life and art of the most celebrated American author of the 20th century: Ernest Hemingway…. Hundreds of articles, books, blogs and reviews appear annually on Hemingway, and now, they’re searchable across the globe via St. Thomas’ recently launched annotated bibliography on the author.”

PennState: From museum to laptop: Visual leaf library a new tool for identifying plants. “Fossil plants reveal the evolution of green life on Earth, but the most abundant samples that are found — fossil leaves — are also the most challenging to identify. A large, open-access visual leaf library developed by a Penn State-led team provides a new resource to help scientists recognize and classify these leaves.”

CBC: Innovative atlas puts Indigenous knowledge on the map — literally — to help tackle climate crisis. “Hetxw’ms Gyetxw is Gitxsan, a matrilineal society which doesn’t use last names. He goes by his full traditional name…. The Indigenous Knowledges component of the Climate Atlas of Canada, launched today, is the culmination of years of work by Hetxw’ms Gyetxw and the team at the University of Winnipeg’s Prairie Climate Centre, in collaboration with Indigenous communities across the country. ”

EVENTS

University at Buffalo: AI and data science institute launches speaker series. “Last year, the University at Buffalo merged two institutes on data science and artificial intelligence to form a new Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science…. Now, the institute has launched a speaker series designed to bring the fields’ most thought-provoking leaders to UB.” The events are anticipated to take place monthly. The public can attend either virtually or in person.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Outside Business Journal: Outside Inc. acquires sports database Fastest Known Time. “Outside Inc., Outside Business Journal’s Boulder, Colo.-based parent company, has announced its acquisition of Fastest Known Time (FKT), an online database of speed records in running, hiking, and endurance sports.”

The Verge: iOS 15.4 now live as Universal Control comes to iPads and Macs. “iOS 15.4, the latest version of Apple’s iPhone operating system, has been released and should soon be available to download ahead of the Friday release of Apple’s new third-generation iPhone SE and green iPhone 13. The update includes big new features like the ability to use Face ID while wearing a mask, alongside smaller additions like a handful of new emoji.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Little League Baseball: Little League® International To Launch Content Series to Celebrate 75 Years of the Little League Baseball® World Series. “As the countdown to the 75th Anniversary of the Little League Baseball® World Series (LLBWS) this August gears up, Little League® International is set to launch a 75-part content series that highlights some of the key moments, memories, and people that have made the LLBWS one of the most iconic sporting events in the world.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TechRadar Pro: Thousands of mobile app cloud databases have been left exposed online. “Businesses continue to leave their cloud databases unsecured online despite the risk of company data and even user data being exposed. Following a three month study, Check Point Research (CPR) found 2,113 mobile applications whose databases were unprotected in the cloud and could be accessed by anyone with a browser.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Arizona State University: Professor: How TikTok can affect marginalized communities. “If you jumped on TikTok Monday morning, you might have seen a video of a toddler talking to herself in front of a mirror, a rooster wearing blue pants or a three-minute makeup tutorial: Fun, harmless stuff from the social media site that boasts more than 800 million active users, including 60 million in the United States alone. But in a panel series held the last two weekends, the focus was not on silly, 30-second videos, but on the experience on TikTok for marginalized creators.”

New York Times: ‘No-Code’ Brings the Power of A.I. to the Masses. “A growing number of new products allow anyone to apply artificial intelligence without having to write a line of computer code. Proponents believe the ‘no-code’ movement will change the world.” Good afternoon, Internet…

March 17, 2022 at 12:42AM
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Learning Ukrainian, Building a Sanctions Tracker, Biolab Conspiracy Theories, More: Ukraine Update, March 16, 2022

Learning Ukrainian, Building a Sanctions Tracker, Biolab Conspiracy Theories, More: Ukraine Update, March 16, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

MakeUseOf: Why Mozilla Has Removed Russian Search Engines From Firefox. “Mozilla has decided to remove all Russian search engine providers from its Firefox browser. The move comes after multiple claims that Yandex and Mail.ru have been favoring Russian state-sponsored content in the results. Here, we’ll take a look at when Mozilla is removing these search engines, and why the company is removing them.”

Axios: Slack has started disconnecting customers in Russia. “Slack has begun cutting off access to some customers in Russia as it looks to comply with both international sanctions and the policies of parent company Salesforce. Why it matters: Slack is the lifeblood for internal communications at many businesses and organizations and often contains data and messages not stored in any other format.”

Mashable: Duolingo reports a 485% increase of people studying Ukrainian. “Use of the language learning app Duolingo has surged since the start of the war in Ukraine. According to a statement on Monday from CEO and co-founder Luis von Ahn, Duolingo has seen a 485 percent increase in the number of users learning Ukrainian. The increase, which was reported in Morning Brew on Wednesday, is global, but is mostly coming from the U.S., the location of the majority of its users.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Online Journalism Blog: How CORRECTIV launched a live sanctions tracker in under a week. “German investigative non-profit CORRECTIV launched its sanctions tracker less than a week after the invasion of Ukraine. In an interview with OJB, Olaya Argüeso Perez talks about the background to the project, how it’s been used — and what they’ve learned since.”

TechTarget: AI and disinformation in the Russia-Ukraine war. “Opening her Facebook account on March 10, one of the first things Aleksandra Przegalinska saw on her newsfeed was a post from a Russian troll spreading disinformation and praising Russian President Vladimir Putin. The post claimed Putin was doing a good job in the Russia-Ukraine war. As someone following the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the AI expert and Polish university administrator was taken back by what she believed to be an inaccurate post.”

Washington Post: Apple and Google app stores remain available in Russia. That may be a good thing.. “Ukraine’s digital officials and some tech-savvy expatriates in the United States have been calling for Apple and Google to cut Russia off from their app stores and for security company Cloudflare to stop protecting Pravda and Russian war propaganda sites from state-backed and activist hackers. But civil liberties groups and American officials are pushing the other way, arguing that the three California companies provide ordinary Russians with the means to find independent news sources and to connect to activists and nonprofit organizations opposed to the war in Ukraine.”

Media Matters: Facebook and Instagram have allowed and profited from advertising pushing the false Ukraine-US biolabs conspiracy theory . “Meta has repeatedly allowed — and profited from — ads pushing a false conspiracy theory about biolabs in Ukraine which has been linked to both Russian propaganda and supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory. The ads, which have run on Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta, violate the platforms’ misinformation rules.”

CNN: Why Ukraine war misinformation is so hard to police. “In some ways, it’s the latest in a long list of recent crises — from the pandemic to the Capitol riot — that have spurred the spread of potentially harmful misinformation. But misinformation experts say there are key differences between the war in Ukraine and other misinformation events that make false claims about the conflict especially insidious and difficult to counter.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Think tank calls for EU database to help trace oligarchs’ assets. “The European Union should create an asset database to help to track down the owners of assets held by shell companies and make EU sanctions against Russian oligarchs more effective, a think tank said on Wednesday. The 27-nation EU has imposed restrictions on 877 individuals, including wealthy Russian oligarchs and other prominent business people, over Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: Ukraine: how social media images from the ground could be affecting our response to the war. “At present, we are witnessing an unprecedented pan-European humanitarian effort spearheaded by citizens who are generously offering shelter and aid to Ukrainians. Back in 2015, there were heated debates among EU governments concerning the level of support that they could offer, and European politicians often struggled to gain approval from their citizens to welcome Syrians. There are of course substantial historical and geopolitical factors that probably contribute to these differing responses. But one other likely influence relates to the way in which this war is being visually communicated in western media – from newspapers and television broadcasts to Twitter, Instagram and TikTok – and the emotional responses these images elicit.”

Wall Street Journal: TikTok’s Pullback in Russia Leaves More Space for Pro-Kremlin Propaganda. “TikTok is censoring its content in Russia more heavily than it said it would, blocking access to most overseas accounts and leaving a content vacuum that is being partially filled by state media propaganda, researchers and users in the country say.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

CBS 4 Miami: Shortwave Radio Signal From Florida Cow Pasture Reaches Russia Carrying Latest News. “A massive shortwave radio antenna sits in a cow pasture north of Lake Okeechobee in Central Florida…. WRMI stands for Radio Miami International and worldwide coverage means it can easily send signals into Ukraine and Russia. Shortwave is old school technology, think of World War II or the Cold War, as American-produced news beamed behind the iron curtain. Now, during the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has shut down journalism as we know it.”

March 16, 2022 at 11:58PM
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United States Air Pollution, Ireland “Wanted Posters”, Sesame Street Word of the Day, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, March 16, 2022

United States Air Pollution, Ireland “Wanted Posters”, Sesame Street Word of the Day, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, March 16, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

ProPublica: We’re Releasing the Data Behind Our Toxic Air Analysis. “Today ProPublica is releasing the data behind our investigative series ‘Sacrifice Zones,’ which revealed more than 1,000 hot spots of cancer-causing industrial air pollution around the country. Researchers can now download the principal data files behind our investigation from our Data Store.”

Law Reform Commission of Ireland: The Law Reform Commission Launches Public Consultation On Statute Law Revision Programme (This is a PDF.) “The Law Reform Commission, through the Statute Law Revision Programme (SLRP), has today launched its public consultation on statutory and prerogative instruments made between 1821 and 1860. The SLRP is the national programme to identify and remove obsolete and spent primary and secondary legislation from Ireland’s legislative stock… Of particular interest to local and family historians will be the 2,503 proclamations offering rewards for apprehending suspected criminals around the island of Ireland.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mashable: Amanda Gorman kicks off new ‘Word of the Day’ series with ‘Sesame Street’ muppets. “On Monday, poet Amanda Gorman taught Sesame Street’s Grover about a new word, ‘upstander.’ Gorman is the first guest in a new “Word of the Day” video series from Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street. Produced in partnership with media company WarnerMedia Kids and Family, the series ‘harnesses the power of language to nurture children’s positive and healthy senses of self,’ according the announcement.”

Search Engine Land: Google refine this search and broaden this search now live in search results. “Google Search has rolled out the ‘refine this search’ and ‘broaden this search’ in the US based English search results, a Google spokesperson confirmed with Search Engine Land today. These features were previewed last year at the Search On event last September.”

The Verge: Google Domains is finally out of beta after more than seven years. “Google Domains, the company’s domain registration service, is losing the beta tag after first launching more than seven years ago, Google announced Tuesday. The service is now generally available in 26 countries, and the company says it already has ‘millions of active registrations.'”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: One More Census Takeaway: The End of an Era of Counting the Nation?. “The next census will be taken in a nation where Amazon may have a better handle on where many people live than the Census Bureau itself. For some advocates of a more accurate count, the era in which census-takers knock on millions of doors to persuade people to fill out forms should give way in 2030 to a sleeker approach: data mining, surveys, sophisticated statistical projections and, if politics allows, even help from the nation’s tech giants and their endless petabytes of personal information.”

Los Angeles Times: A worker objected to Google’s Israel military contract. Google told her to move to Brazil. “More than 500 Google workers have rallied behind a colleague who alleges she is being pushed out of her job because of her activism within the company, the latest flare-up between the tech giant and employees who speak out against its business practices and workplace conditions. The workers have signed a petition accusing Google leadership of “unjustly retaliating” against Ariel Koren, a product marketing manager at Google for Education, for voicing criticism of Project Nimbus, a $1.2-billion contract Google and Amazon Web Services entered into with the Israeli military and government.”

Tell MAMA: Google apologises, removes racist search about Sheffield. “Search engine giant Google has apologised after the racist P-word appeared in results about the population of Sheffield, Tell MAMA can exclusively reveal.” The “P-word” in this case is a slur used against people from Pakistan.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Electronic Frontier Foundation: The Foilies 2022. “Each year during Sunshine Week (March 13-19), The Foilies serve up tongue-in-cheek ‘awards’ for government agencies and assorted institutions that stand in the way of access to information. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock combine forces to collect horror stories about Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and state-level public records requests from journalists and transparency advocates across the United States and beyond. Our goal is to identify the most surreal document redactions, the most aggravating copy fees, the most outrageous retaliation attempts, and all the other ridicule-worthy attacks on the public’s right to know.”

News 12 New Jersey: Too young for social media? Bill would require parental consent until 16. “Some Connecticut state lawmakers want to make it harder for children to create social media accounts. The legislature’s Children’s Committee advanced a bill Tuesday afternoon requiring parental consent for kids under 16. Parents who object could ask a social media platform to remove their kids’ page. The app would have 10 days to comply. Currently, federal law sets the sign-up age at 13 years old.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Arizona State University News: Using AI to battle Alzheimer’s . “ASU researchers and Banner Health medical imaging expert team up to take steps toward more effective treatments for debilitating disease.”

Smithsonian Magazine: Using Data Science to Uncover the Work of Women in Science. “Margaret W. Moodey was one of the first women to work at the Smithsonian in science. Beginning around 1900, Moodey worked as a scientific aide in the Smithsonian’s Department of Geology. Her work included identifying, classifying, and cataloging samples, including gems and fossils…. Moodey was an important resource for anyone seeking answers about the collection. In total, she worked for more than 40 years at the Smithsonian…. The papers of her male colleagues are often preserved in the Smithsonian’s archives. Moodey’s were not.” Good morning, Internet…

March 16, 2022 at 05:31PM
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Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Ukraine Archives Rescue Team, Wartime Fact-Checking, Mykhailo Fedorov, More: Ukraine Update, March 15, 2022

Ukraine Archives Rescue Team, Wartime Fact-Checking, Mykhailo Fedorov, More: Ukraine Update, March 15, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

CBC: University of Alberta initiative aims to protect Ukrainian archives, research. “The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) recently helped launch an initiative offering free, secure cloud storage to archivists, librarians, scientists and other institutions in Ukraine. Director Natalia Khanenko-Friesen said the Ukraine Archives Rescue Team came as a result of brainstorming on how to assist colleagues in areas afflicted by the devastation of the Russian invasion.”

TimeOut: This handy website helps you fact-check news about the Russia-Ukraine war. “Luckily, a new website is trying to cut through the sludge of mistruths. It’s … a collaborative project from the International Fact-Checking Network Signatories. The initiative brings together the work of 120 fact-checking organisations in dozens of countries around the world, all of which cover stories and images not just circulating through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok but also on news sites.”

NoCamels: Windward Offers Predictive Data To Minimize Maritime Risk From Sanctions In Russia. “Windward, the Israeli company providing predictive intelligence and data insights for the maritime ecosystem announced the launch of a solution on Monday designed to aid Windward customers in minimizing risk exposure in maritime trade related to ongoing sanctions against Russia.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Land: Bing’s ‘Russian invasion of Ukraine’ results show Opinions section and timelines. “Microsoft Bing’s search results for queries related to the conflict in Ukraine show an Opinions section and two timelines (one in the main column and another in the knowledge panel).”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TIME: ‘It’s Our Home Turf.’ The Man On Ukraine’s Digital Frontline. “Less than 48 hours after appealing to Elon Musk on Twitter, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, posted a photo of a truckload of satellite dishes. The SpaceX founder had come through with help for Ukrainians trying to connect to the Internet amid Russia’s invasion, Fedorov said in the Feb. 28 tweet: ‘Starlink—here. Thanks, @elonmusk.’ Many marveled at the seemingly miraculous speed with which the 31-year old former IT entrepreneur, who is now serving as Ukraine’s youngest cabinet minister, had been able to enlist the help of the world’s richest man. But Fedorov wasn’t surprised.”

New Yorker: Vlogging the War. “With the help of a database launched by Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, a YouTuber from Kyiv is calling strangers in Russia and telling them just what their boys in uniform are doing across the border.”

CNET: How the Ukrainian War Forced Some to Survive on Crypto. “[Artyom] Fedosov is one of approximately 5.5 million Ukrainians who own cryptocurrency. His ability to live off bitcoin and ether is music to the ears of cryptocurrency proponents. They point out that situations like Fedosov’s, when the financial system stutters or fails, are the precise reason bitcoin was created. Using a cryptocurrency wallet — as opposed to going through an intermediary exchange like Binance — holders can access their cryptocurrency with nothing more than an internet connection and a 12-word seed phrase.”

Washington Post: When war comes to work: Tensions rise for Ukrainian workers at freelance marketplace. “A real-time information war is playing out among Ukrainian and Russian freelancers on internal communication channels operated by Toptal. The heated debates about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and misinformation is forcing Toptal to moderate sensitive geopolitical conversations. It’s also receiving backlash from pro-Ukraine freelancers, who want the company to take a stronger stance on the war. It’s a microcosm of the war playing out in the workplace and highlights the difficulties global companies must navigate when dealing with employees in a war zone.”

Washington Post: Boston doctors wanted to help Ukrainians. They made YouTube tutorials on how to control bleeding wounds.. “As heavy metal music plays in the background, a doctor grabs a piece of cloth and places it atop an open wound on a medical dummy. Pressing on the cloth with both hands, he applies pressure. Later, he secures a tourniquet to the dummy’s leg. The video is less than 40 seconds long — but its creators say it could help save lives in Ukraine.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Guardian: ‘It’s the right thing to do’: the 300,000 volunteer hackers coming together to fight Russia. “Kali – and many others who contributed to this article – declined to share his real name because some of the action he is taking is illegal and because he fears Russian retaliation. He is one of about 300,000 people who have signed up to a group on the chat app Telegram called ‘IT Army of Ukraine’, through which participants are assigned tasks designed to take the fight to Vladimir Putin. In so doing, they are trying to level the playing field between one of the world’s superpowers and Ukraine as it faces bombardment and invasion.”

The Register: Ukraine using Clearview AI facial recognition technology. “The Ukrainian government is using facial recognition technology from startup Clearview AI to help them identify the dead, reveal Russian assailants, and combat misinformation from the Russian government and its allies. Reuters reported yesterday that the country’s Ministry of Defense began using Clearview’s search engine for faces over the weekend.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: Russian government accounts are using a Twitter loophole to spread disinformation. “We tracked the Twitter activity of 75 official Russian government accounts and found they are a major source and amplifier of disinformation. At time of writing these accounts together have a total of 7,366,622 followers. They have been retweeted 35.9 million times, received 29.8 million likes, and 4 million replies. Between 25 February and 3 March 2022, about these accounts made 1,157 tweets – and around three quarters were about Ukraine. The accounts have tried to spread false narratives to justify the invasion.”

March 16, 2022 at 03:45AM
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Mary Whitney Phelps, Verizon Fios, Twitter, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 15, 2022

Mary Whitney Phelps, Verizon Fios, Twitter, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 15, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

KSMU: Antique letters and memoir, clinched at auction, reveal heroine’s determination after the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. “Mary Whitney Phelps, who was born in 1812 and who died in 1878, is one of Missouri’s Union female heroes of the Civil War, according to the Springfield-Greene County Library District. Rather than flee with other prominent Unionists after the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, she stayed behind in Springfield to oversee General Nathaniel Lyon’s burial and to care for the wounded soldiers left behind during the retreat. Phelps’s letters and memoir are available for public viewing through the library district’s digital collection.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Verizon makes Fios free for low-income customers through federal program. “Verizon is introducing a new discount to its Fios Forward plans, which should let low-income customers get fiber internet for free when combined with discounts through the federal Affordable Connectivity Program. The free tier, which is normally $40 a month, includes 300Mbps speeds as well as a $10 discount on a Verizon Unlimited Wireless plan.”

9to5 Mac: Twitter no longer lets users access the chronological timeline by default [U: Rolled Back]. “Following multiple complaints, Twitter has decided to roll back the update. According to the company, the ‘Latest Tweets’ tab has been removed from the iPhone app and users will get the old Home tab back with the option to show the latest tweets at the top in chronological order.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Washington Post: Twitter is looking for younger users. It’s turning to the tech world’s teen savant to help find them.. “Teenagers have flocked to TikTok in recent years, abandoning apps like Facebook and Instagram. Twitter is stuck somewhere in the middle. Despite its large cultural relevance, Twitter has repeatedly failed to gain mass adoption, and its forays into new formats like short-form video and live-streaming have flopped. But cultivating a young, hyper-engaged user base could be a key step toward becoming a platform as influential as its power users believe it to be. To lead these efforts, Twitter has tapped Michael Sayman.”

National Library of New Zealand: Living history while documenting it . “…after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake the teams within the Library, being mostly based in Wellington, were able to come together quickly to start documenting the impact of this earthquake on the city of Christchurch, and its communities. More recently, we have found ourselves documenting events while also personally experiencing them, the COVID-19 pandemic being one such example. Another example is the recent 2022 Wellington protests, where we found our building to be within the cordoned-off protest area and witnessed standoffs between police and protestors on our front steps.”

UrduPoint: Digital Archive Being Created To Protect Old Data Of Radio Pakistan: Fawad. “Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Monday informed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting that a digital archive would be created in Radio Pakistan to protect and maintain its old data. Old data of Radio Pakistan got wasted due to unavailability of the storage space, he told meeting of the committee chaired by Mian Javed Latif.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Irish Council for Civil Liberties: ICCL sues DPC over failure to act on massive Google data breach. “The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) is suing the DPC [Ireland’s Data Protection Commission] for its failure to protect people against the biggest data breach ever recorded: Google’s ‘Real-Time Bidding’ online advertising system. The DPC must be compelled to act now.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

World Health Organization: WHO Global Health Facilities Database: Ensuring access to primary healthcare and UHC. “The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed urgent gaps in countries’ current ability to locate health facilities, impeding progress to provide equitable access to therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccinations through the ACT-Accelerator and other initiatives. As a standardized and open access repository of health facility information, the database will provide critical insights to deliver primary health care, especially during emergencies. It will also leverage the power of geospatial data to map health facilities in relation to communities and help bridge long-standing inequalities in access and use.”

Tubefilter: New data shows TikTok adoption gaining on YouTube, especially among Gen Z. “YouTube has been the undisputed top dog in the online video industry for a decade and a half, but TikTok is cultivating an astonishing user base of its own. According to new data from eMarketer, TikTok’s market share is advancing at a faster rate than YouTube among Gen Z consumers.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Christian Science Monitor: From lawsuits to giveaway drives, a push against book bans. “As school boards across the United States increasingly vote to remove books from library shelves and classroom curricula, community members are countering by amplifying awareness of those very books. These grassroots efforts – from free book drives to book clubs to lawsuits – differ in method but share a common mission to keep the world of books open for exploration.” Good afternoon, Internet…

March 16, 2022 at 03:21AM
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