Thursday, March 24, 2022

Officer-Involved Homicides, Virgin Islands History, Philippines Documentaries, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, March 24, 2022

Officer-Involved Homicides, Virgin Islands History, Philippines Documentaries, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, March 24, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Southern California: New public database offers fresh insight on officer-involved homicides, nationally and locally. “The new National Officer-Involved Homicide Database (NOIHD), developed by the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) and available to researchers and the public, is providing fresh insight regarding fatal encounters with police…. NOIHD data also includes whether the deceased was armed or not, the department that autopsied the deceased, municipal debt, and officers killed on duty. Sources of the data include police departments, the FBI, U.S. census data and state governments.”

St. Thomas Source: Caribbean Genealogy Library Brings V.I. History Alive with Website for Classrooms. “Documents make up the largest type of primary source used on the website, and included are activities using the Emancipation Proclamation, a manumission by will, letters about the St. John slave revolt in 1733, church records, E. Benjamin Oliver’s Identification card, The Herald Newspaper, census records, and the Judgment of Edith Williams, Anna M. Vessup and Eulalie Stevens in their fight against the electoral boards of St. Thomas for the right to vote, according to the release.”

Rappler: ‘Daang Dokyu’ launches online database for Filipino documentaries. “Daang Dokyu by FilDocs and Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), an online portal for Philippine documentaries dating back from 1913 up to the present, is now available for public access… The database is free for interested individuals who want to watch and listen to discussions, lectures, and masterclasses from filmmakers, artists, academics, and other industry stakeholders.” I explored for a few moments. Lots of content, easy to navigate.

Zawya: Ibtikar enables open access to digital library during UAE Month of Reading (PRESS RELEASE). “Ibtikar, a UAE-based Educational Technology company, in cooperation with United Educational Publishing (UEP), a UAE-based Educational Press, has announced that 1,000+ Arabic stories on their reading platform, Al Diwan powered by Akadimi, is now available for access without log-in during the UAE Month of Reading this month.” I’m sorry this is so late in the month but the announcement is dated March 23. You don’t have to register to use the library, just click on a book and start reading.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mystic Seaport Museum: Website Connects People With Their Whaling Ancestors. “The foundational fabric of Whaling History features three databases that have been stitched together – the American Offshore Whaling Voyage (AOWV) database, the American Offshore Whaling Log database, and an extensive whaling crew list database…. The site has been expanded recently with the addition of 370 new whaling voyages to the AOWV database, most from the 18th century, and the integration of the Dennis Wood Abstracts of Whaling Voyages. The latter are brief handwritten summaries of whaling voyages compiled over more than forty years (1830–1874) by Dennis Wood, a merchant and whaling agent in New Bedford.”

The Verge: Zoom is making it easy to plug your meeting directly into Twitch. “Zoom announced on Wednesday that it’s making it easier to livestream your meeting or webinar to Twitch by adding native integration with the streaming service to its app. After you connect your Zoom and Twitch accounts, you can start broadcasting your meeting with just a few clicks.”

USEFUL STUFF

Search ReSearch: Answer: What are some good (almost) real-time satellite image sources?. “The Challenge for last week was to find good aerial or satellite images that are more-or-less in realtime. As you can appreciate, the big problem is getting your hands on current images–or at least accurately time-stamped images from the not-too-distant past. Getting near-real-time imagery would be great, but often that’s outside the budget of many non-professional searchers.” Nice deep dive with some search philosophy mixed in.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Library of Congress: Photography Trailblazer’s Collection Donated to Library of Congress. “The Library of Congress has acquired the collection of a trailblazer in American photography, Robert Cornelius, including his camera lenses, daguerreotypes, cased portraits of his children and patent applications as a gift from his great-great granddaughter, Sarah Bodine. The collection expands the Library’s holdings that complement Cornelius’ famous 1839 self-portrait, which is the world’s oldest surviving portrait photograph.”

Washington Post: Time capsules are more popular than ever, as Americans take history into their own hands. “Adrienne Waterman, chair of the International Time Capsule Society (which maintains a public database for time capsules around the world), says that her organization has seen more capsules registered in the past two years than at any time since a precursor group was founded in 1937. Much of this, she says, is at the ‘hyperlocal level,’ and probably driven by the anxieties caused by the pandemic as well as concern about the preservation of digital information, now largely held by a handful of social media and communication companies.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

WIRED: The TikTok-Oracle Deal Would Set 2 Dangerous Precedents. “The main concern US politicians have raised about TikTok is that because it’s owned by the China’s ByteDance, the Chinese government could conceivably access any American data held by the company. The other big concern has been security risk. This deal would address both. Under the agreement, Oracle would store TikTok data for US users, ensure that data is not transferred to ByteDance, and be responsible for protecting user data from cybersecurity threats.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

EurekAlert: Restricted internet access could be key to academic gains, says study. “The internet is typically not associated with serious self-directed learning where teenagers are involved. But a new study of high school students in Malawi shows that, under the right controls, giving students the chance to explore high quality, engaging online sources can boost them academically. The internet can even be an effective substitute for textbooks when resources are thin.”

NiemanLab: If someone shares your politics, you’re less likely to block them when they post misinformation . “In the study of just under 1,000 volunteers, researchers Johannes Kaiser, Cristian Vaccari, Andrew Chadwick found that users were more likely to block those who shared misinformation when their political ideology differed from their own.” Good morning, Internet…

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March 24, 2022 at 05:33PM
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Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Critical Vehicle Safety Recalls, Idaho Public Meeting Information, Center for Black Literature & Culture, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 23, 2022

Critical Vehicle Safety Recalls, Idaho Public Meeting Information, Center for Black Literature & Culture, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 23, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: Consumer Alert: NHTSA Launches New Website Feature for Critical Safety Recalls. “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is providing a new tool to vehicle owners to help them quickly identify if their vehicle has an urgent safety recall where the vehicle should not be driven or parked inside until fixed.”

Big Country News: Idaho Unveils new Website Aimed at Centralizing Public Meeting Information for State Agencies. “On Tuesday, Idaho Governor Brad Little and State Controller Brandon Woolf unveiled the new… online one-stop-shop for all public meeting information for state executive branch agencies.”

WRTV: Center for Black Literature & Culture debuts new website, interactive kiosks. “The Central Library in Downtown Indianapolis is home to the Center for Black Literature & Culture (CBLC), but you don’t have to even be in the State of Indiana to access one of its newest community resources….The CBLC also has a new website, bringing users artifacts, videos, photo galleries and more.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Genealogy’s Star: FamilySearch.org Update: Looking at the Latest Changes. “If you use the FamilySearch.org website frequently, you are probably aware that many parts of the website have been changing over the past year or so. On the other hand, if you only visit the website infrequently, you may be overwhelmed with the changes. However, in my opinion, the changes are mostly cosmetic and don’t change the fundamental use of the website.”

USEFUL STUFF

Mashable: The 9 best Wordle clones for fans and gamers . “It’s been four months since we first heard the name ‘Wordle’ and, believe it or not, that little game-that-could is still chugging along, picking up new players every day. And when you love something you learn to let it go, or you make a clone of it to satisfy your own niche interests. Check out the most fannish copies of Wordle made to delight Potterheads, Swifties, ARMY, gamers, and more below.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Verge: How The EU Is Fighting Tech Giants With Margrethe Vestager. “Margrethe Vestager is one of the driving forces behind tech regulation worldwide. Appointed as the European Commission’s commissioner of competition in 2014 and an executive vice president in 2019, she’s pursued antitrust cases against Apple, Google, Meta (formerly Facebook), and Amazon among others. Now, with the EU on the verge of implementing a new antitrust law called the Digital Markets Act, Vestager is planning her next moves.”

Tapei Times: Control Yuan to investigate mass data loss at PTS . “Two Control Yuan members are to investigate the deletion of about 424,000 news clips at Public Television Service (PTS), in an incident that exposed cybersecurity issues at government agencies. PTS on Tuesday said that a contractor on Feb. 8 mistakenly deleted news clips produced between 2017 and January from its digital archive. Although more than 320,000 clips were recovered by Friday last week, nearly 80,000 were lost, the network said.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Triangle Business Journal: New UNC center will examine social media’s impact on teenage mental health. “On Tuesday, the university unveiled the Winston National Center on Technology Use, Brain and Psychological Development, led by researchers and professors Mitch Prinstein and Eva Telzer. The center builds on research from an initiative established three years ago with the Winston Family Foundation, whose gift is supporting this new center. The center will allow researchers to further study the link between technology use and teen mental health and support ways to disseminate the information and educate parents, teachers and teenagers.”

EFF: Ban Online Behavioral Advertising. “Tech companies earn staggering profits by targeting ads to us based on our online behavior. This incentivizes all online actors to collect as much of our behavioral information as possible, and then sell it to ad tech companies and the data brokers that service them. This pervasive online behavioral surveillance apparatus turns our lives into open books—every mouse click and screen swipe can be tracked and then disseminated throughout the vast ad tech ecosystem. Sometimes this system is called ‘online behavioral advertising.’ The time has come for Congress and the states to ban the targeting of ads to us based on our online behavior. This post explains why and how.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

The Gamer: New Website Shows You Twitch Streams With Zero Viewers. “It’s incredibly hard to make it big on Twitch. All the success stories we hear about are the very top one percent of people on the platform. But what about the other 99 percent, or the one percent at the other end of the spectrum, those with no viewers at all? A website made by Jack Kingsman connects viewers with the viewerless, and it’s actually quite sweet.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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March 24, 2022 at 12:55AM
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MEMRI Resources, Displaced Ukrainians, NSO Spyware, More: Ukraine Update, March 23, 2022

MEMRI Resources, Displaced Ukrainians, NSO Spyware, More: Ukraine Update, March 23, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

MEMRI: MEMRI Launches New Website Dedicated To The Russia-Ukraine War . “The Middle East Media Research Institute’s new Research On The Russia-Ukraine War page, and its Trending page, both highlight the most recent MEMRI research on the conflict: reports and clips from the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project (RMSP), as well as content from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM), Domestic Terrorism Threat Monitor (DTTM), South Asia Studies Project (SASP), and Chinese Media Studies Project (CMSP) on global reactions to the crisis.”

WLAX: New website helps displaced Ukrainians find each other. “As the war between Russia and Ukraine carries on, more people are losing contact with loved ones. A new website helps make it easier for people to check in.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Washington Post: The rise of the Twitter spies. “Armed with day jobs or coursework, the self-proclaimed open source intelligence — or ‘OSINT’ — community tracks every movement of the Russian and Ukrainian militaries online. Five weeks into the war, their findings are impacting strategy on the ground. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, said in an interview with The Washington Post that the community’s work is crucial for his country — so much so that a Ukrainian government app, called Diia, now allows citizens to field geotagged pictures and videos of Russian troop movements.”

Byline Times: How Russia’s Disinformation Apparatus Ran Aground in Ukraine. “Unlike in Syria, Russian disinformation in Ukraine has so far failed to gain traction. Some of the reasons are specific to Ukraine: Russia’s aggression is too blatant to be covered up by propaganda; Ukraine’s long exposure to Russian disinformation has left it in a heightened state of preparedness; and, most significantly, the effectiveness of Ukrainian messaging and the character of the messenger.”

Romea: Russia distorting photos for propaganda purposes, Roma nonprofits alert Ukrainian authorities. “Photographs from Lviv, Ukraine in which several Romani people are shown as bound with their backs against pillars and with green paint on their faces are being disseminated through social media along with the untrue claim that the individuals in the photographs are internally displaced people from Kyiv who were unjustifiably attacked by local Ukrainians immediately upon arrival in Lviv. However, as the Romea.cz news server has discovered, the actual context of the photos is something else.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: Israel, Fearing Russian Reaction, Blocked Spyware for Ukraine and Estonia. “The Eastern European countries had sought to buy Pegasus, spyware made by the Israeli firm NSO, to carry out intelligence operations against Russia.”

Bloomberg: Russian Hackers Targeting Humanitarian Efforts, Ukraine Says. “A top Ukrainian cybersecurity official said Wednesday that Russian hackers are attacking logistical lines in the war-torn country, including those delivering food and humanitarian support. Victor Zhora, deputy chief of Ukraine’s information protection service, said the cyberattacks are mostly linked to Russia’s ground and air campaign. He declined to provide specifics on the attacks, citing security concerns.”

WTRF: West Virginia Senator wants Russia to be banned from Facebook. “West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin recently sent a letter to the CEO of Facebook/ Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, to urge the social media giant to disarm Russian President Vladimir Putin’s campaign of dangerous disinformation by banning Russian state-controlled media outlets on Meta platforms.”

Military Times: Posting POW footage on social media may constitute human rights violation. “The types of being shared media seem to confirm what much of the world believes about the conflict as the international community largely condemns Russia and rallies around Ukraine. But there is no way to independently verify that the Russian troops filmed are not under duress or saying what they feel they need to in order to survive. Showing videos of POWs, regardless of the content or under what conditions it is obtained, is a violation of international law, experts say.”

Politico: The world holds its breath for Putin’s cyberwar. “Before Vladimir Putin launched his invasion a month ago, security experts warned that the coming conflict could redefine cyber warfare — both for Ukraine and for the United States. But so far, cyberattacks have been of limited importance in a war that Russia has waged using tanks, rockets, missiles and bombardments of civilians.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Pennsylvania Almanac: Cyberattacks, Russia, and the Changing Face of War in the 21st Century. “To learn more about how cyberattacks have shaped modern warfare and how countries are adapting their strategies, Penn Today spoke with Heli Tiirmaa-Klaar, a Perry World House visiting fellow and director of the Digital Society Institute at the European School of Management and Technology. During the past 15 years, Ms. Tiirmaa-Klaar has led efforts to coordinate, prepare, and implement cybersecurity strategies across the European Union and also helped prepare the NATO Cyber Defense Policy.”

The Japan News: Cybersecurity scholar: Russian invasion of Ukraine stirs up ‘cyberchaos’ of information warfare . “The ongoing information warfare amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is in a state of ‘cyberchaos,’ according to Keio University Prof. Motohiro Tsuchiya, who specializes in international relations and cybersecurity. He stressed in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun that the Japanese government should not only toughen cybersecurity, but also thoroughly examine the ongoing cyber warfare and extract lessons from it, so as to better cope with similar contingencies in the future.”

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!



March 23, 2022 at 11:09PM
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England Aerial Photography, Baseball: America’s Home Run, EPA Notifications, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, March 23, 2022

England Aerial Photography, Baseball: America’s Home Run, EPA Notifications, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, March 23, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

BBC: In pictures: Thousands of aerial images of England online for first time. “Historic England has published more than 400,000 aerial photographs online for the first time, including hundreds of locations in the East. The pictures include historic landmarks and cropmarks showing hidden archaeology beneath the surface. Historic England hopes to add more than six million aerial images to its explorer tool in the coming years.”

GlobeNewswire: Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum To Open Baseball Exhibition (PRESS RELEASE). “A special website makes available the stories, themes and historical artifacts presented in the exhibition, and it provides multi-media storytelling by some of the most significant organizations and people associated with the game of baseball. Schedules and information regarding public programing and events associated with the exhibition are outlined as well, providing experiences for both on-site and online visitors.”

EPA: New EPA Tool Provides the Public with Customized Updates on Local Enforcement and Compliance Activities. “Through ECHO Notify, users can signup to receive weekly emails when new information is available within the selected geographic area, such as when a violation or enforcement action has taken place at a nearby facility.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Google Blog: Get organized with a little Google Photos spring cleaning. “Flowers are blooming, the weather’s getting warmer, the days are a little longer — which means it’s also time for spring cleaning. Over the coming weeks, we’re starting to roll out some updates to Google Photos to make it even easier to sort through your albums, import photos and videos you have saved somewhere else, see your shared content and find screenshots. Let the decluttering begin!”

The Verge: Snap bans anonymous messaging features from third-party app integrations. “Snap is banning anonymous messaging features from third-party apps that integrate with its platform over concerns that they could be used for bullying and harassment. The change comes after a lawsuit last year sought to hold Snap liable for misuse of its platform linked to the death of a teenager who was being bullied on two Snapchat-connected apps.”

KnowTechie: TweetDeck might turn into a Twitter Blue perk. “Fans of TweetDeck, Twitter’s alternative social management tool, might have to pony up for the privilege of using it in the future. That’s according to code found by Jane Manchun Wong, famed app-diver and finder of hidden features.”

USEFUL STUFF

PetaPixel: Chrome Extension Can Detect Fake Profile Pictures with 99.29% Accuracy. “V7 Labs has created a new artificial intelligence-based (AI) software that works as a Google Chrome extension that is capable of detecting artificially generated profile pictures — like the ones above — with a claimed 99.28% accuracy.” Note this is for detecting GAN-generated images, not deepfakes.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CNN: The dark side of Discord for teens . “When a mother in Washington state learned her teenage daughter was on Discord, a popular social media platform, she felt reasonably comfortable with the idea of her using it to communicate with members of her high school marching band. But in September, the mother discovered the 16-year-old was also using the audio and chat service to message with someone who appeared from his profile picture to be an older man.”

The Justice: English professor develops virtual Open Corpus Project. “Prof. Dorothy Kim (ENG) is currently working to develop a virtual corpus, or collection of written texts, of Early Middle English language. This would give researchers the opportunity to search across multiple archives and databases of manuscripts. The current status of the Open Corpus Project, as the site is titled, was unveiled at a Faculty Lunch Symposium on Thursday, March 17.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Engadget: US Justice Department says Google misuses attorney-client privilege to hide documents. “The US Department of Justice has accused Google of training its employees on how to shield business communications from discovery in cases of legal disputes “by using false requests for legal advice.” As Axios reports, the DOJ has told the judge overseeing its antitrust case against the tech giant that Google instructs employees to add in-house lawyers to written communication, apply attorney-client privilege labels to them and make a request for legal advice even when it’s not needed.”

CNET: Internet Crime Cost People More Than $6.9B in 2021, FBI Says. “People lost more than $6.9 billion to internet crimes in 2021, a jump of more than $2 billion from 2020, according to the FBI’s annual Internet Crime Report. The report, released Tuesday, contains ‘information about the most prevalent internet scams’ reported to the federal law enforcement agency’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: How Native Americans Are Trying to Debug A.I.’s Biases. “Ms. [Chamisa] Edmo explained that tagging results are often ‘outlandish’ and ‘offensive,’ recalling how one app identified a Native American person wearing regalia as a bird. And yet similar image recognition apps have identified with ease a St. Patrick’s Day celebration, Ms. [Davar] Ardalan noted as an example, because of the abundance of data on the topic. As Mr. [Tracy] Monteith put it, A.I. is only as good as the data it is fed. And data on cultures that have long been marginalized, like Native ones, are simply not at the levels they need to be.” Good morning, Internet…

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March 23, 2022 at 06:14PM
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Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Information Warfare in the Russian-Ukraine Conflict, Fortnite Fundraising, Unencrypted Communications, More: Ukraine Update, March 22, 2022

Information Warfare in the Russian-Ukraine Conflict, Fortnite Fundraising, Unencrypted Communications, More: Ukraine Update, March 22, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

EVENTS

UNC: Information Warfare in the Russian-Ukraine Conflict. “This moderated panel will explore the information war underway in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In addition to discussing the many challenges facing journalists covering the conflict, the panelists will explore how social media has changed information warfare and impacted intelligence gathering and analysis, evaluate how social media platforms and journalists handle mis- and disinformation, and offer media literacy tips to our audience.” This virtual event takes place March 24 at 4pm EST. As far as I can tell it’s free.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Tubefilter: ‘Fortnite’ offered to donate proceeds to Ukraine humanitarian efforts. A day later, it’s raised $36 million.. “In slightly over 24 hours, Fortnite developer Epic Games raised a whopping $36 million for humanitarian relief in Ukraine. Epic announced yesterday that from March 20-April 3—the first two weeks of Fortnite‘s new in-game season—it would donate all proceeds from Fortnite purchases to relief efforts.”

CNET: Russia Reportedly Bans All Meta Platforms, Except WhatsApp. “A Russian court in Moscow on Monday found Meta Platforms guilty of ‘extremist activity,’ according to a report by Reuters. Russia had already blocked Facebook and Instagram, but the court reportedly says the decision will not affect WhatsApp.”

USEFUL STUFF

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: 10 must-read Twitter threads on the war in Ukraine. “If you follow any of the Bulletin’s editors on Twitter, you know that we regularly retweet threads we find particularly interesting. We don’t have room to share them all here, but what follows is a sampling of some thoughtful threads on Ukraine.”

The Quint: Russia’s Claims of Bioweapons in Ukraine Expose the Dangers of Disinformation. “Here are four articles from our archive to help you understand how Russia used disinformation to justify the invasion, how disinformation fits into Russia’s use of technology in warfare, what makes disinformation so challenging, and how targets of Russia’s disinformation have learned to respond.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

NiemanLab: How maps show — and hide — key information about the Ukraine war. “Geographers often speak in terms of what they call the ‘silences’ of maps — what’s missing and unseen, hidden in the margins. Those silences are just as meaningful as what’s on the page. It’s important to ask what has been left out. That’s certainly true when looking at maps depicting aspects of Russia’s war on Ukraine. News organizations around the world have published many maps of the crisis, but their standard views are not the only way maps can help people understand what is happening in Ukraine.”

Mashable: Russians are downloading Wikipedia en masse as possible ban looms . “Reporting for Slate, writer Annie Rauwerda dove into Kiwix’s public stats and found that the number of downloads of the Russian-language Wikipedia have spiked in recent weeks. It’s already been downloaded 148,457 times this month so far. As Rauwerda points out, that’s more than a 4,000 percent uptick in downloads in March when compared to January of this year. Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (abbreviated as Roskomnadzor), aka its censorship agency, threatened to block Wikipedia in the country earlier this month.”

New York Times: As Big Shows of Russian Art End in Europe, Some Wonder What’s Next. “A blockbuster show at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, on the outskirts of Paris, has been seen by over a million people since it opened in November. Known as the Morozov collection, it includes paintings by Picasso, Gauguin, Renoir and Van Gogh, as well as some of Russian’s most renowned painters….In more normal times, the works would be packed into boxes and returned to Russian museums after the exhibition closes on April 3. Now, because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is unclear when those works will get home.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Foreign Policy: ‘The Ukrainians Are Listening’: Russia’s Military Radios Are Getting Owned. “One European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak about recent military intelligence, said the failure of Russia’s encrypted systems has also helped Ukrainian forces drive up the body count among opposing generals. In one striking example, internet sleuths at the investigative outlet Bellingcat discovered Russian reconnaissance officers in the field using unencrypted communications systems to send word of the death of Maj. Gen. Vitaly Gerasimov back home. Gerasimov, believed to be the nephew of Russia’s top military officer, was killed during fighting with Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv in early March.”

New York Times: Biden warns the private sector that Russia is exploring options for cyberattacks. “President Biden warned on Monday that Russia is exploring the possibility of waging potential cyberattacks against the United States in retaliation for economic penalties imposed on Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine.”

The Verge: After ‘protestware’ attacks, a Russian bank has advised clients to stop updating software. “In a recent announcement, the Russian bank Sber advised its customers to temporarily stop installing software updates to any applications out of concern that they could contain malicious code specifically targeted at Russian users, labeled by some as ‘protestware.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Verge: Russian government bars its scientists from international conferences. “Russian scientists will not participate in international conferences this year, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation said via its Telegram channel. The decision comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has strained the relationships between Russian scientists and the international research community.”

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!



March 23, 2022 at 03:26AM
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Ohio Fishing Tournaments, YouTube, TikTok, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 22, 2022

Ohio Fishing Tournaments, YouTube, TikTok, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 22, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Sandusky Register: State agency lists fishing tournaments on website. “Anglers have a new way to find out about fishing tournaments taking place in Ohio. And with fishing an important part of the Sandusky area’s tourist scene, local hosts for fishing tournaments have a new way to publicize their events. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has announced a new website to publicize and schedule fishing tournaments.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Journal: YouTube Launching 5 New Features For Livestreams. “YouTube announces five new features for livestreams, some of which are currently in testing and others that will roll out later this year.”

Tubefilter: That TikTok food video making you hungry? Order the ingredients on Instacart.. “Whether you prefer the high-energy cooking of Nick DiGiovanni or the adorable cat chef That Little Puff, there’s plenty of delectable food videos to discover on TikTok. Now, thanks to Instacart, those videos can go straight from your For You feed to your shopping list.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: Adventure Somewhere New With These 4 Exploration Apps. “Want a change of pace from your usual walking path or loop around the block? There’s a whole selection of apps designed to take your walk or run to the next level. With these inventive apps, you can get your steps in while discovering your neighborhood and exploring entirely new places.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

AGDAILY: The history of New Farmers of America to be digitized. “When it comes to remembering our history, one of the most important steps is to have the recorded documents easily assessable to the public. North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has been awarded a new grant to digitize its unique collection of materials belonging to a former national youth organization that helped train generations of Black farmers and leaders. The project will digitize an estimated 150,000 pieces of memorabilia from New Farmers of America.”

Hongkiat: What is Virtual Land in Metaverse – Explain Like I’m Five. “So, what are virtual lands? What is their purpose? And why do investors pay millions of dollars just to own one? Let us dive deep into this matter and understand the underlying reason to see what the hype is all about!” The article itself is a bit on the hype-y side, but has lots of information and links.

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Verge: Inside The Fight To Save Video Game History. “As games age and as companies continue to remove the means to properly purchase and download them, people are looking at other, less than legitimate options to continue to play the games they enjoy. It’s created tension between players and companies. While it’s unrealistic to expect publishers to maintain their prolific libraries in perpetuity, it’s also not ideal that large swathes of games can, at any time, just disappear on the whims of the store operator. So how can we ensure that older games can be enjoyed by future generations without the expense of maintaining aging digital infrastructure or violating existing copyright laws? Video game preservationists are doing the work at the intersection between these two points.”

Ubergizmo: Scammers Have Found New Ways Of Installing Malicious Apps On iOS Devices. “There are still some people who believe that due to Apple’s walled garden approach that its devices, like the iPhone and iPad, are ‘immune’ to malware, but over the years, this has been proven wrong again and again. In fact, more recently a blog post by security research firm Sophos has uncovered a couple of new ways that scammers are taking advantage of.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Atlantic: Trolls Aren’t Like the Rest of Us. “Many people who engage in online harassment are not what most of us would consider to be well-adjusted. In 2019, scholars writing in the journal Personality and Individual Differences surveyed 26 studies of internet ‘trolling,’ cyberbullying, and related antisocial online behaviors. They found significant associations with psychopathy, Machiavellianism, sadism, and narcissism, in that order. In other words, just as you would conclude that a stranger attacking you in person is badly damaged, you can conclude the same about a stranger attacking you on social media.”

Search Engine Journal: Nearly 50% Of Twitter Users Tweet Less Than 5 Times A Month. It most definitely not me. “A new study from Pew Research Center finds 49% of US adults on Twitter qualify as ‘lurkers.’ Pew Research Center defines lurkers as infrequent tweeters who have posted less than five tweets per month since they first opened their account. Moreover, when lurkers do tweet, they’re more likely to reply to someone else’s tweets rather than post their own.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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March 23, 2022 at 12:42AM
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Local Government Leadership, J.R.R. Tolkien, Color Calibration, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, March 22, 2022

Local Government Leadership, J.R.R. Tolkien, Color Calibration, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, March 22, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Route Fifty: New Data Show a Major Gender Gap in Local Government Leadership. “Fewer than one in three top appointed local officials are women, according to the analysis. Curious how your state stacks up? Tools released with the research allow users to look at trends and comparisons across the country.”

Smithsonian Magazine: Rarely Seen Paintings by J.R.R. Tolkien Portray a Lush ‘Lord of the Rings’ Landscape. “The Lord of the Rings author was also a skilled artist who sketched, painted and mapped the worlds that he was imagining as he wrote about them. Many of the original illustrations in the Hobbit were created by Tolkien himself. Audiences can now view a selection of Tolkien’s rarely seen Lord of the Rings artworks for free via the Tolkien Estate’s newly updated website, reports Sarah Cascone for Artnet. The portal, which debuted last month, also allows viewers to explore documents, images and audio clips related to Tolkien’s personal life and his lesser-known pursuits as a mapmaker, calligrapher and artist.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mozilla Blog: Firefox Extension Helps Bring Movie Magic To Theaters Near You. “Color calibration — the process of adjusting colors in order to display images consistently in color and brightness across monitors — is a critical component of visual effects. As visual effects studios and their vendors transitioned to remote work due to the coronavirus pandemic, this process that was easy to manage in-office suddenly became difficult to achieve. Over the past year, Firefox worked with Industrial Light & Magic to build a game-changing solution and developed the Extended Color Management Add-On.”

The Register: MATLAB expands to reach self-driving, wireless biz. “MathWorks, maker of the long-standing MATLAB suite, is focusing its latest software updates on reaching beyond its traditional scientific base – and eyeing up autonomous vehicle developers, makers of devices with wireless communications, and others.”

USEFUL STUFF

From Wonder Tools, with a thanks to Paul P. for pointing it out: New ways to record 🗣 conversations. “Recording conversations is easy. Doing it well is harder. Welcome to this week’s Wonder Tools post, focusing on helping you record interviews more effectively.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Globe and Mail: TikTok and Instagram have made personal finance cool: The trick is finding the good stuff. “Bloggers and YouTubers have been creating down-to-earth and friendly financial content since well before the pandemic. But financial advice on platforms like TikTok and Instagram exploded when COVID-19 restrictions and a 21-month stock market rally drew scores of home-bound millennial and Gen Z novices to financial markets and to seek out online money-management information. Of course, plenty of financial advice on social media is factually wrong or outright fraudulent. But some successful financial influencers, or finfluencers, see themselves as educators who can speak to individuals and life challenges often neglected by traditional sources.”

Mashable: TikTok meets meditation: The singing bowl is a hit. “[Elizabeth] Jasmine, whose videos have garnered 32,000 followers and half a million likes, is part of a fast-growing ‘singing bowl’ or ‘sound bowl’ community on the app. The hashtag #singingbowl has 106 million views on TikTok, while #singingbowlmeditation has 5.3 million. Videos are often saturated in colors such as violet or midnight blue, which creators hope will evoke the calming sensation their sound is known for.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Techdirt: (Corporate) Information Wants To Be Free. “…the average American citizen cannot approach private companies and demand access to communications, contracts, or regulatory compliance activities. Instead, they have to approach it obliquely, asking government agencies for permission to view (some) of this (secondhand) information. This is rarely successful. Corporations love tax dollars but they have almost zero interest in being honest with taxpayers. Private companies have inserted themselves into court proceedings to prevent people accused of crimes from examining the (private company-supplied) evidence used against them. And when FOIA requesters come knocking on federal or local government doors, corporations swear on all that is profitably unholy that any information leak might destroy their competitive advantage.”

The Daily Swig: Downdetector: How the popular site outage tracker is helping to improve web security. “…losing access to the internet or an online service is frustrating, and not all organizations are transparent about outages. By looking at Downdetector or other crowdsourced data, users can at least start to determine if the problem is their local connection, at the service provider, or somewhere in between. Over the years, though, Downdetector has also been adopted by online businesses themselves, feeding the data into their network operations centres.”

Reuters: Google Settles Over Firing of Workers Protesting Immigration Cloud Deal . “Alphabet Inc’s Google has settled with six current and former employees who had alleged the company unfairly stifled worker organizing, an abrupt ending to a trial that had been paused for several months, legal filings show.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

VentureBeat: Language models that can search the web hold promise — but also raise concerns. “In a paper published early this month, researchers at DeepMind, the AI lab backed by Google parent company Alphabet, describe a language model that answers questions by using Google Search to find a top list of relevant, recent webpages. After condensing down the first 20 webpages into six-sentence paragraphs, the model selects the 50 paragraphs most likely to contain high-quality information; generates four ‘candidate’ answers for each of the 50 paragraphs (for a total of 200 answers); and determines the ‘best’ answer using an algorithm.”

University at Buffalo: What’s the prevailing opinion on social media? Look at the flocks, says UB researcher. “…collective views on a topic or issue expressed on social media, distinct from the conclusions determined through survey-based public opinion polling, have never been easy to determine. But the ‘murmuration’ framework developed and tested by Yini Zhang, PhD, an assistant professor of communication in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, and her collaborators addresses challenges like identifying online demographics and factoring for opinion manipulation that are characteristic on these digital battlegrounds of public discourse.” Good morning, Internet…

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March 22, 2022 at 05:34PM
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