New researches

Sunday, March 27, 2022

Court Guidance Documents, Qatar Business Map, Reddit, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, March 27, 2022

Court Guidance Documents, Qatar Business Map, Reddit, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, March 27, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Pew: National Database of Court Orders Details Pandemic-Related Changes to Operations. “To help draw broader lessons from the many changes made to keep courts operating during the pandemic, researchers at Wesleyan University in Connecticut have created a database that compiles more than 20,000 unique state court guidance documents. Collected from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the documents were issued from February 2020 to March 2021.”

Gulf Times: MoCI launches Qatar Business Map portal. “The business map portal provides a comprehensive database for users, allowing them to view the investment advantages of Qatar’s various regions through a search service for commercial establishments per region, and for the various available commercial activities. The portal also offers statistics on several commercial licenses registered in each municipality, new and signed-off commercial licences, and the latest commercial establishments registered in Qatar.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

KnowTechie: Reddit is exploring TikTok-style reaction videos. “Reddit might soon be full of short-form video content, like TikTok-style reaction videos. As reported by TechCrunch, and confirmed by Reddit, the new feature could have TikTok-like editing tools. The videos created could be used as reactions or even as original posts.”

MakeUseOf: You Can Now Search Your Twitter DMs for Specific Keywords. “Ever lost a conversation on Twitter because you could only remember certain words? Now, you can use those words to locate your conversation. Finally, Twitter lets you search for chats in your direct messages (DMs) using specific keywords. Let’s find out more.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Associated Press: Dagny Carlsson, dubbed oldest blogger in the world, dies at 109. “Dagny Carlsson, dubbed the world’s oldest blogger, who wrote about her life in Sweden based on the attitude that you should never think you are too old to do what you want to do, has died, Swedish media and her fan page reported. She was 109. At the age of 99, Carlsson attended a computer course and a year later, she started her blog where she called herself Bojan.”

TechCrunch: The Web Foundation is taking on deceptive design. “The Web Foundation‘s Tech Policy Design Lab is working on an interesting-looking project to counter deceptive design — aka dark patterns* — with the goal of producing a portfolio of UX and UI prototypes which it hopes to persuade tech companies to adopt and policymakers to be inspired by as they fashion rules to make the online experience less exploitative of web users.”

Mashable: The secret Wikipedia prank behind the Pringles mascot’s first name. “The name ‘Julius Pringles’ — which Kellogg’s claims as officially trademarked, though a search of the United States Patent and Trademark Office site for ‘Julius Pringles’ returned no immediate results — looks not to have come from a marketing team, or some long-forgotten Pringles founder. Rather, the name stems from two Wikipedia savvy, hoax-loving college students snacking away on Sour Cream & Onion Pringles in their dorm room back in 2006.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: New Zealand moves to crack down on corporate secrecy after Pandora Papers. “A proposed law to establish a public beneficial ownership register would build on post-Panama Papers reforms to end use of the country as a tax haven.”

The Verge: Two men arrested for $1.1 million NFT ‘rug pull’ scam. “US government prosecutors have charged two men with fraud and money laundering over a cryptocurrency ‘rug pull’ scheme. Ethan Nguyen and Andre Llacuna allegedly earned around $1.1 million by selling non-fungible tokens (or NFTs) based on cartoon-like characters called “Frosties.” After selling the NFTs, they shut down the project and transferred its funds to a series of separate crypto wallets, leaving Frosties owners bereft of promised rewards.”

North Jersey: Instagram influencer ‘Jay Mazini’ pleads guilty to Bergen kidnapping charges. “Disgraced influencer Jay Mazini and an associate have pleaded guilty in a North Jersey kidnapping case that saw one of the social media star’s rivals beaten and held at knifepoint with a machete. The Edgewater star potentially faced decades behind bars for orchestrating the plot, until he cut a deal with prosecutors last week for a five-year prison sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to one count of first-degree kidnapping, authorities confirmed. ”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Wiley: Wiley and Wikipedia: Powering Discovery Together. “By partnering with the Wikipedia Library, we allow top Wikipedia editors – qualified on a basis of frequency, volume, and quality of updates to Wikipedia – free access to Wiley Online Library. Editors will use their access to cite and link directly to Wiley resources across Wikipedia articles.”

NARA Institute of Science and Technology: New approach to scanning objects of illumination. “Scientists from Nara Institute of Science and Technology created a new approach to compensate for variations in illumination while scanning cathedral stained-glass windows. This work may be applied to other objects of cultural significance to help capture their colors in the most lifelike way.” Good morning, Internet…

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March 27, 2022 at 05:41PM
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Saturday, March 26, 2022

Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia, Making and Unmaking of Black Wealth, Global Drinking Water, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2022

Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia, Making and Unmaking of Black Wealth, Global Drinking Water, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Cape Breton University: Researchers to Launch Index of Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia with ‘Language in Lyrics’ Project. “A comprehensive index of more than 6,000 Gaelic songs composed, sung, or published in Nova Scotia will be launched during a live event in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia on Saturday, March 26, 2022…. More than 30 fields of data were documented for each song, including composers, singers, song origins, song subjects, and song genres, making it possible to conduct detailed searches. More than 1,000 song lyrics will also be available from the index. Where possible, links are provided to song recordings or lyrics online.”

Indiana University: Digital timeline tracks ‘Making and Unmaking of Black Wealth’ to aid racial justice conversations. ‘Land, Wealth, Liberation: The Making and Unmaking of Black Wealth in the United States’ is an interactive timeline with photos, videos, historical information and resources for educators covering 1820 to 2020. The project explores the ways African Americans in the U.S. have produced wealth, and the factors that have affected their ability to build and maintain wealth and access economic opportunities.”

World Health Organization: New GLAAS data portal online. “The UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) data portal is now online… The portal features GLAAS data from the past three GLAAS cycles (2013/2014, 2016/2017, 2018/2019) on governance, finance, monitoring and human resources. On the portal, users can explore and download data, analyze trends, and make country and regional comparisons.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNBC: Google Fiber contractors in Kansas City are first to unionize under Alphabet Worker Union. “Google Fiber contractors in Kansas City, Missouri voted to unionize Friday, becoming the first workers with bargaining rights under the Alphabet Workers Union.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Verge: Shortwave just rescued my inbox from the drudgery of Gmail. “Shortwave is designed by a group of ex-Googlers, including Andrew Lee, who previously founded and sold Firebase, an app development platform, to Google. Shortwave — priced at $9 / month unless you’re OK with only three months of email history — makes no bones about its ambitions to step into Inbox’s shoes. It even looks and works like it with a blue-accented theme, but it’s more than just a clone. It builds upon the effective design choices that powered Inbox with some of its own, and in the two weeks I’ve spent with it, it has made me far more productive at managing my email.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: ‘They are the ones paying the consequences’: Jan. 6 rioters mimic Trump’s misinformation playbook but see different results. “Some rioters haven’t changed their online presences, occasionally discussing their charges in cryptic Instagram graphics — one defendant posted a Tupac Shakur lyric ‘Wake me when I’m free’– or alluding to politics in their Twitter, Instagram and TikTok bios with American flag emojis and tagging themselves as #J6. Others have made it their whole brand by spreading misinformation, using the opportunity to go on national television or even selling real estate or merchandise.”

SecurityWeek: North Korea Gov Hackers Caught Sharing Chrome Zero-Day. “Malware hunters at Google have spotted signs that North Korean government hackers are sharing zero-day browser exploits for use in waves of targeted attacks hitting U.S. news media, crypto-banks and IT organizations.”

CNET: Former TikTok Moderators Sue Over Work-Related Trauma. “In the federal lawsuit, filed Thursday and reported earlier by NPR, Ashley Velez and Reece Young, who both did moderation work for TikTok through third-party companies, say they spent 12-hour workdays reviewing ‘disgusting and offensive content’ that left them emotionally scarred.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Tubefilter: Study: YouTube channels with “problematic” content are 12% more likely to use alternative forms of monetization. ” New research from Cornell Tech details the moneymaking strategies used by creators of ‘problematic’ content. Compared to their rule-abiding counterparts, these videomakers are 12% more likely to utilize revenue streams outside of the YouTube Partner Program — including merch, affiliate programs, and fan-funding services like Patreon.”

Northwestern Medicine: Teaching AI to Read Fetal Ultrasound in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. “Northwestern Medicine and Google are collaborating on a project to bring fetal ultrasound to developing countries by combining AI (artificial intelligence), low-cost hand-held ultrasound devices and a smartphone. The project will develop algorithms enabling AI to read ultrasound images from these devices taken by lightly trained community health workers and even pregnant people at home, with the aim of assessing the wellness of both the birthing parent and baby.” Good afternoon, Internet…

March 27, 2022 at 01:04AM
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Cambridge University Ukrainian Society, Weather Data Access, Spanish Disinformation, More: Saturday Ukraine Update, March 26, 2022

Cambridge University Ukrainian Society, Weather Data Access, Spanish Disinformation, More: Saturday Ukraine Update, March 26, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Cambridge Independent: Cambridge group opens website to link Ukrainians and UK homeowners. “The website… has been developed by Cambridge University Ukrainian Society (CUUS) to enable those fleeing the war to get in contact with prospective sponsors in Cambridge or indeed elsewhere in the UK.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Atlantic Council: Russian War Report: Russia produces “evidence” claiming Ukraine will attack Crimea. “On March 24, the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Оперативные сводки (‘Operative news’) published photos of medals and certificates that it alleged were going to be used to reward Ukrainian troops ‘for the capture of Crimea.’ … Russian media amplified this message, claiming that the medals were evidence that Ukraine, with the help of NATO, was planning to attack Crimea. This appears to be the latest in a string of Russian false-flag allegations, due to the alleged evidence’s incorrect use of official Ukrainian terminology.”

CNET: These Companies Have Left Russia: The List Across Tech, Entertainment, Finance. “As the Russia’s war on Ukraine continues, a growing number of companies have said they are stopping sales of products and services in Russia. This will make items, including video games, iPhones and the PS5, harder to get in Russia…. Here’s a look at tech, entertainment and finance companies that have stopped sales or other services in Russia.”

BBC: Spotify stops streaming in Russia over safety concerns. “Spotify is pulling out of Russia citing a new law that threatens jail for spreading ‘fake news’ about the country’s armed forces. The music streaming company said safety concerns about staff and ‘possibly even our listeners’ had pushed it to fully suspend its free service.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

InfoSecurity Magazine: West Blocks Russia’s Access to Weather Data. “Western weather-related agencies are curbing Russia’s access to meteorological data over fears that the country may use such information to attack Ukraine with biological or chemical weapons. Data that agencies want kept secret from Russia include near-instantaneous measurements of wind speed and direction, sunlight and precipitation.”

USA Today: Ukraine’s volunteer online army: Meet the ‘cyber elves’ fighting Russian trolls on Facebook. “When Henrikas Savickis is not performing at the National Theater or strumming a guitar with his drama students, this 51-year-old actor, singer and teacher from the Lithuanian city of Kaunas has an unusual side hustle. He’s a keyboard warrior on the frontlines of the Russian offensive in Ukraine. For four to five hours a day since the invasion began, Savickis fires up his laptop to shoot down pro-Kremlin conspiracy theories and falsehoods spread by Russian operatives who camouflage their activities by posing as Lithuanian citizens.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BBC: Russia considers accepting Bitcoin for oil and gas. “Russia is considering accepting Bitcoin as payment for its oil and gas exports, according to a high-ranking lawmaker. Pavel Zavalny says ‘friendly’ countries could be allowed to pay in the crypto-currency or in their local currencies.”

Mashable: Crypto scammers are filling inboxes with fake ‘donate to Ukraine’ emails. “Scammers are continuing to weaponize Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine in order to propel their immoral money-making schemes. There have been a slew of scams ranging from fake charity websites hosted on freshly registered domain names to phishing campaigns looking to steal sensitive information from potential donors to Ukraine. Now, new research from email security firm Cyren looks into just how cryptocurrency fraudsters are utilizing email spam for their latest Ukraine-related fraud.”

Route Fifty: Ukraine War Puts US Cities, States on Cyber Alert. “Even before Biden’s warning, state and local governments were busy shoring up their cybersecurity in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the elevated threat of cyberattacks targeting the United States.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Centre for International Governance Innovation: How to Explain the Failure of Russia’s Information Operations in Ukraine?. “After the shock of the 2016 presidential election in the United States, it became commonplace to assume that Russia had developed a dominant information warfare machine as a part of its hybrid warfare strategies. These had helped it achieve lightning-fast victories in Georgia and Eastern Ukraine and supported its often-covert operations in Syria. (Insert a minor mea culpa here.) And yet, despite the devastating destruction of its invasion in Ukraine, there appears to be a genuine consensus that Russia’s much vaunted information operations capability has greatly underperformed. Why is this the case?”

Washington Post: Opinion: Big Tech needs to pull the plug on Russia’s biggest propaganda campaign. “The Z campaign started in the days after the invasion. It has now reached tens of millions of people across social media platforms. It is the rallying symbol of the Russian war machine and an effective weapon in the information war. Strikingly, the QAnon conspiracy has been barred from promotion on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter. But as of now, Z continues to grow.”

Boston Globe: Social media platforms must address Russia’s Spanish-language misinformation. “As the Russian invasion unfolded in Ukraine, Facebook and TikTok banned Russian state media in Europe, while YouTube blocked them globally as it became evident that Kremlin-controlled outlets were spreading propaganda. But according to experts, Spanish-language misinformation and conspiracy theories have a longer shelf life than their English counterparts on social media because, by and large, the platforms are not dedicating enough resources and time to fight them. It’s way overdue: Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter better catch up and take the threat of Spanish-language misinformation seriously.”

March 26, 2022 at 11:29PM
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Delta Air Lines, UK Butterflies & Moths, Mozilla Developer Network, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2022

Delta Air Lines, UK Butterflies & Moths, Mozilla Developer Network, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Georgia Libraries: Delta Air Lines Documents Available Online Through the Digital Library of Georgia. “The collection contains Delta Air Lines’ digitized timetables, flight maps, and annual reports for the past century through its expansions, moves, and mergers with other airlines to become the aviation industry leader in the United States.”

Butterfly Conservation: Database brings together all known ecological facts about UK butterflies and moths for the first time. “Butterfly Conservation and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology have worked together on the database, which has collated information that previously existed in a wide range of sources such as field guides, books and journals. Until now, most of this information wasn’t available in a single location nor in a digital format. The new database has brought this information into one usable, digital resource. This involved many months of inputting data from books into spreadsheets, categorising data, and condensing the data into a suitable format for use in data analysis software such as R.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Mozilla launches paid subscriptions to its Developer Network. “Mozilla today launched MDN Plus, a paid subscription product on top of the existing (and recently re-designed) Mozilla Developer Network (MDN), one of the web’s most popular destinations for finding documentation and code samples related to web technologies like CSS, HTML and JavaScript. The new subscription offering will introduce features like notifications, collections (think lists of articles you want to save) and MDN offline for when you want to access MDN when you’re not online.”

The Hill: Khan’s Black News Channel to shut down: report. “Black News Channel, whose majority stakeowner is Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, is shutting down as soon as Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. The people briefed on the matter told the newspaper that Khan did not want to continue investing in the news outlet. Employees were told on Thursday that their paychecks would be delayed and the company did not make payroll the following day.”

Yarns and Fibers: Open Apparel Registry promotes supply chain transparency. “The Open Apparel Registry (OAR) is a free, open data tool that maps garment facilities around the world and assigns each one a unique ID…. Its most recent move, which it claims is it’s most significant since launch, means that all users can now contribute to and search for a new collection of facility data points in the tool. These data points are: Number of workers, Parent company, Type of facility, Type of product, and Type of processing.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Conversation: TikTok is propagandists’ new tool to win elections in Southeast Asia. “Propagandists’ strategic manoeuvring of public opinion on social media remains a dangerous threat to democracy in Southeast Asia. Over the years, strategic use of cybertroopers in Southeast Asian countries has been prominent, especially during the election periods. Political actors have attempted to sway public opinion via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to push for a political narrative to garner more supporters in the region. Now, TikTok, as the most downloaded app in Southeast Asia would serve as a new strategic tool for propagandists to push for political narrative during the electoral period.”

Chicago Inno: A mix of Cameo, ‘The Voice’ and MasterClass, Protégé wants to change how talent is discovered. “Here’s how it works: Protégé lets you send a 60-second video clip to anyone in its network of famous musicians, vocal coaches and other industry experts. The expert reviews the video and sends back a video response with feedback. The user, who pays between $10 and $200 depending on the expert, gets valuable feedback and a personal connection with a prominent person in their field. But there’s the potential for an even greater opportunity⁠ — to work directly with the star or have your work featured in one of their songs.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: Google Rebukes DOJ Claim It Hid Documents by CC’ing Lawyers. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google is pushing back on U.S. Justice Department claims that it improperly used attorney-client privilege to conceal documents in the government’s monopoly lawsuit against the company.”

Bleeping Computer: Hundreds of HP printer models vulnerable to remote code execution. “HP has published security advisories for three critical-severity vulnerabilities affecting hundreds of its LaserJet Pro, Pagewide Pro, OfficeJet, Enterprise, Large Format, and DeskJet printer models.”

Reuters: US FCC adds Russia’s Kaspersky, China telecom firms to national security threat list. “The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday added Russia’s AO Kaspersky Lab, China Telecom (Americas) Corp and China Mobile International USA to its list of communications equipment and service providers deemed threats to U.S. national security.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Canadian Grocer: Why Statistics Canada is changing how it monitors food prices. “There is no doubt this change was needed as the list of products was quite dated. In fact, even if you go back 25 years, the list was quite immaterial for most of us. For example, seafood is a huge industry for Canada, and canned salmon was the only fish that Statistics Canada was monitoring the last 25 years. The produce category only had a handful of options, the only option in the juice category was orange, and the vegetable protein category was nonexistent. Today, vegetable proteins are consumed by a growing number of Canadians. However, once the new list comes out, Statistics Canada says we can’t go back beyond March 2022 to access food prices.”

Michigan Daily: Memes: The sixth love language. “There is some truth in the idea that people our age spend an exorbitant amount of time looking at screens. Studies show that Gen Zers may spend almost nine hours a day interacting with technology. But in an increasingly digitized and globally connected world, it’s almost impossible to escape spending time online, whether it’s for academic, occupational or social reasons. Need I remind you that my generation just celebrated our two-year anniversary of attending ‘Zoom University.’ As a result, young people have created spaces on the internet for interactive freedom. Digital self-expression has become the new, sixth love language of intimate connection — and memes are at the forefront of this modern form of communication.” Good morning, Internet…

March 26, 2022 at 05:33PM
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Friday, March 25, 2022

War Crimes Watch Ukraine, New York Ukraine Support, Continuing Disinformation Operations, More: Friday Ukraine Update, March 25, 2022

War Crimes Watch Ukraine, New York Ukraine Support, Continuing Disinformation Operations, More: Friday Ukraine Update, March 25, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Associated Press: War Crimes Watch: Russia’s onslaught on Ukrainian hospitals. “The War Crimes Watch Ukraine project launched by AP and Frontline includes details of apparent targeted attacks as well as indiscriminate destruction of civilian buildings and infrastructure. The AP/Frontline online database will continue to be updated as long as the conflict lasts. The goal is to provide an independent accounting of events, apart from potentially inflated claims by advocates or misinformation spread by state-backed propaganda.”

Governor of New York: Governor Hochul Launches Website with Resources for the Ukrainian People and Their Allies in New York . “Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the launch of a new website containing resources offered by New York State and its partners to help Ukrainian people and their friends and allies here in New York. This follows the Governor’s announcement warning consumers about scams and cybersecurity threats amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In an additional show of support, the Governor also announced the Ukrainian flag will be flown on the Capitol building, the Executive Mansion, and the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services headquarters.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Daily Beast: Kremlin TV Just Declared War on… Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Arnold Schwarzenegger’s video appeal to the Russian people has been remarkably effective. The famed film star and former California governor posted it not only on Twitter, but also on Telegram, which is used almost exclusively by Russians. For days, Russian state media tried to ignore it altogether—but millions of views across multiple platforms forced them to address Schwarzenegger’s powerful message.”

Washington Post: Blacklisted by the U.S., pro-Russia accounts have still been posting propaganda on Twitter and YouTube. “Tech companies have taken unprecedented steps to crack down on disinformation about the war in Ukraine, banning Russian state media in Western Europe and adding labels to identify Russian government accounts. But more than a dozen YouTube and Twitter accounts tied to individuals and entities on the sanctions list espouse many of the same talking points as state-backed websites such as Sputnik and RT, largely unfettered. Unlike other sensitive content, there are no labels that identify these accounts as being tied to entities targeted by sanctions.”

Washington Post: Russian military behind hack of satellite communication devices in Ukraine at war’s outset, U.S. officials say. “U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded that Russian military spy hackers were behind a cyberattack on a satellite broadband service that disrupted Ukraine’s military communications at the start of the war last month, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

France24: The fall of Yandex, the shining star of Russian tech. “Though some may confuse it with a certain stretchy garment, Yandex is in fact Russia’s largest tech company. It’s a search engine, marketplace, taxi hailer, food deliverer, music streaming platform and a lot more. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought its share price crashing down and forced many of its staff to flee Russia. So what next for Yandex and its tens of millions of Russian users? FRANCE 24’s tech editor Peter O’Brien has more.” This is a video and unfortunately I cannot see any captioning options.

The Guardian: Video released showing Russian hoax call with UK defence secretary. “A video of defence secretary Ben Wallace being duped into speaking by phone to an impostor posing as the Ukrainian prime minister was published on Monday – hours after Downing Street said it believed Russian state actors were responsible for the hoax.”

Independent: The young Ukranian women documenting their experiences of war on TikTok. “While the war has been the catalyst for some to chronicle their experiences on the social media platform, others have pivoted from crypto recommendations and wellness content, to the emotional turbulence of life as a refugee. The home-made footage offers a personal insight into the challenges faced by those fleeing, including hours spent waiting for transport, answering questions about their lives in Ukraine, and their transition to life in a new country.”

Daily Beast: Video Game War Forgeries Are Giving a Boost to Russia . “Until late 2021, the TikTok account mostly featured videos of motorcycles careening around English roads. Then in February, something changed: the account began uploading purported war footage of Ukraine, earning tens of millions of views. But this motorcycle enthusiast hadn’t traveled to a war zone. Instead, he was uploading video game footage to TikTok and tagging it with a Ukrainian flag. As Russia’s attack on Ukraine dominates headlines, some social media grifters are passing off video game clips as battle footage. They’re amassing huge viewerships—and playing into the Kremlin’s nefarious conspiracy theories about the war.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Racoon Stealer malware suspends operations due to war in Ukraine. “The cybercrime group behind the development of the Racoon Stealer password-stealing malware has suspended its operation after claiming that one of its developers died in the invasion of Ukraine. Racoon Stealer is an information-stealing trojan distributed under the MaaS (malware-as-a-service) model for $75/week or $200/month.”

Linn’s Stamp News: Ukraine asks UPU for philatelic sanctions on Russia. “Ukraine’s post office, Ukrposhta, has asked the Universal Postal Union and its members to impose philatelic sanctions against Russia related to joint issues, according to a March 18 press release on the Ukrposhta website. The UPU describes itself as the ‘United Nations specialized agency and the postal sector’s primary forum for international cooperation.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Media Matters for America: No, actions to restrict Russia’s social media access haven’t decreased right-wing engagement or inauthentic behavior. “Since late February, when Russia invaded Ukraine, social media companies like Facebook and Twitter have acted to reduce the presence of Russian state media on their platforms, and the Russian government has restricted its citizens’ access to the platforms. A number of users on various platforms have credited these actions for reducing presence of so-called ‘bots’ and changing trends in the performance of right-leaning content. But new data shows that these claims are overblown — in fact, there have been no significant changes to performance for conservative content on Facebook or Twitter.”

March 26, 2022 at 04:46AM
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Montana 1972 Constitutional Convention, Kentucky Legal Assistance, Planning Participatory Archiving Events, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 25, 2022

Montana 1972 Constitutional Convention, Kentucky Legal Assistance, Planning Participatory Archiving Events, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 25, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Montana State University: Montanan’s 1972 Constitutional Convention retrospective interviews now archived at MSU Library. “Montana State University Library’s Archives and Special Collection has created a searchable online repository of video interviews and transcripts of surviving delegates and staffers from the Montana Constitutional Convention of 1972.”

WEHT: KY launches new website for free legal information. “According to Kentucky Legal Aid, Kentucky’s four civil legal aid programs and the Kentucky Access to Justice Commission have come together to create a new website that gives answers to common legal questions, self-help forms, guides, and provides other tools to resolve legal issues people may come across.”

UMass Boston News: UMass Boston Launches Online Roadmap for Planning Participatory Archiving Events. “UMass Boston’s Joseph P. Healey Library has launched RoPA, the Roadmap for Participatory Archiving… Supported in part by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), RoPA is an online resource designed to guide libraries and cultural organizations through the process of collaborating with community members to plan engaging and inclusive participatory archiving events and to create digital collections.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Pew (PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!): Use our updated Global Indicators Database to explore survey findings from around the world. “Pew Research Center’s Global Indicators Database holds roughly 20 years and more than 600,000 interviews worth of data on public opinion and attitudes from more than 60 publics around the world. The database contains information ranging from views of global powers like the United States and China, the world economy, ratings of world leaders and more. Results can be filtered and explored in several ways: by topic, survey year, region or country. The database is updated each year with the latest data and additional indicators.”

CNET: Zoom’s New Avatars Let You Show Up to Meetings as an Animated Bunny. “You can now show up to your Zoom meetings as an avatar of an animated animal. Zoom introduced its new Avatars feature in a blog post Tuesday, saying the feature is a way to inject fun and lighten the mood in your meetings and webinars.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 5 Best Tools to Annotate and Highlight Web Pages for Research and Study. “All the apps in the article have a highlight marker (often with different colors) and a way to write sticky notes or comments anywhere on the page. Both features are excellent when you want to add notes for research and study, whether for your personal needs or friends. Beyond that, a few small features make each tool better for different needs.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Guardian: Google excludes several independent candidates from Australian political ad tracker. “Google has admitted it overlooked several independent candidates and failed to include their elections ads in its public data on paid political material, raising doubts about the tech giant’s ability to track advertising during the looming federal campaign.”

NiemanLab: After 25 years, Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive are still working to democratize knowledge . “In 1996, Kahle founded the Internet Archive, which stands alongside Wikipedia as one of the great not-for-profit knowledge-enhancing creations of modern digital technology. You may know it best for the Wayback Machine, its now quarter-century-old tool for deriving some sort of permanent record from the inherently transient medium of the web. (It’s collected 668 billion web pages so far.) But its ambitions extend far beyond that, creating a free-to-all library of 38 million books and documents, 14 million audio recordings, 7 million videos, and more.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: This Database Stores the DNA of 31,000 New Yorkers. Is It Illegal?. “In New York, Mayor Eric Adams has called for expanding the use of facial recognition and software to identify gun carriers, which he argues could aid in crime fighting. But civil liberties advocates and privacy groups have contended that the advancements come at the expense of communities of color, infringe on the rights of people who have not been convicted of crimes and place them at risk of wrongful conviction if errors are made.”

CNN: Okta investigating reports of possible digital breach. “Okta, an identity authentication service with more than 15,000 customers, said Tuesday that an attacker had access to a support engineer’s laptop for five days in January. But the service itself was not breached, according to the company.” This is one to keep an eye on. Good afternoon, Internet…

March 26, 2022 at 12:29AM
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City of Boston Archaeology Program, New England Church Records, Japanese Toy Designs, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, March 25, 2022

City of Boston Archaeology Program, New England Church Records, Japanese Toy Designs, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, March 25, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

City of Boston: City Of Boston Archaeology Program Goes Digital. “In the fall of 2019, the City of Boston Archaeology Program began the process of fully digitizing some of its most significant collections of artifacts. Funded by a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Program hired Project Archaeologist Lauryn Sharp and Digital Archaeologist Nadia Kline to complete the project. The goal of the project is to make the collections accessible online through a searchable artifact database.”

Congregational Library & Archives: Congregational Library & Archives launches free digital archives containing treasure trove of important New England historical records. “The Congregational Library & Archives is pleased to announce the launch of its digital archive which contains over 100,000 images across more than 4,000 extraordinary historical records that illuminate New England history. Records from over 100 New England churches in 90 communities, with most records dating between 1634 and 1850, are freely available for those interested in learning more about the history of their state, community, or family.”

New-to-Me, from Open Culture: Japanese Toy Designs from the Late 19th & Early 20th Century: Explore an Online Archive. “These masks, dolls, tops, and other fanciful works of the toymaker’s craft may not immediately appeal to a generation raised with smartphones. But their designs, rooted in Japanese mythology and regional cultures, nevertheless exude both a still-uncommon artistry and a still-fascinating ‘otherness.'”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BusinessWire: Redfin Launches Rental Search (PRESS RELEASE). “Redfin (www.redfin.com) today launched nationwide rental search, letting consumers search for both rental and for-sale home listings on Redfin for the first time.”

The Verge: Google changes how it decides which product reviews come up in Search. “Google announced Wednesday it’s making some improvements to how it decides which product reviews it shows in Search results. The idea behind these and other recent product reviews updates is to ensure that reviews you see are high quality and actually include helpful information about a product you might be considering buying.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: The 4 Best Websites for Free 3D Printing Files. “Having access to a 3D printer is a rather exciting privilege. Whether you’ve only just got your hands on one or a 3D printing veteran, free 3D printing models are always welcome. Designing a 3D model from scratch requires time and skill that you might not have. There are lots of websites and libraries where you can download free 3D models, but not every 3D model is 3D printable. Below, you will find the four best websites for downloading free 3D printer files.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Ars Technica: AARP-backed social network looks to lure older users from Facebook. “…while the platform still has more users under the age of 50 than over, Facebook remains many older Americans’ sole social network. That’s something the AARP is looking to change, though. The nonprofit funded the creation of Senior Planet Community, a social media network that encourages users to join pre-existing groups around shared interests, including gardening, travel, fitness, food, and technology. In that way, it feels more like a pared-down version of Reddit or a small collection of forums.”

Los Angeles Times: ‘It’s like SNL TikTok’: A peek inside ‘Stapleview,’ a viral live comedy show. “With minutes to go before the premiere of the second episode of ‘Stapleview,’ the set of the sketch comedy show is abuzz with the unmistakable energy of a live production barreling rapidly toward showtime. But amid all the commotion — as crew members rush to set up script monitors and hand out last-minute props — the cast has its focus turned elsewhere. The actors are on their phones, using TikTok.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

ABC News: DOJ charges Russian officials over hacking campaigns that targeted critical infrastructure. “The Justice Department unsealed two indictments Thursday charging four Russian government employees with two separate conspiracies — outlining their alleged involvement in hacking campaigns that targeted critical infrastructure networks in the U.S. and across the globe between 2012 and 2018.”

Techdirt: Creative Commons Tells Senators To Stop Using Its Name To Justify Dangerous Copyright Filters Bill . “I noted in my original post that it was pretty despicable to suggest that Creative Commons would support this bill, as they had chosen not to weigh in during the recent discussion regarding these technical measures at the Copyright Office. Well, now Creative Commons has weighed in… and they don’t seem particularly happy with [Senator Thom] Tillis for either this bill, or using the Creative Commons name in pushing propaganda about the bill.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Library of Congress: Computing Cultural Heritage in the Cloud: Expert Researchers Share Their Outcomes. “Earlier this year, LC Labs worked with three research fellows in digital history, digital art history, and software librarianship on individual computational research projects. Computational research applies computing processes like algorithms to traditional research topics, such as the study of history. For example, digital history researchers often use computational methods to uncover relationships between historic materials, visualize the contents of those materials, or even make them easier to find. Each of the researchers applied computational methods to a unique topic of their interest.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

CNET: NASA Just Opened a 50-Year-Old Time Capsule From the Moon. “In December 1972, NASA astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt drilled into the surface of the moon to collect lunar soil samples for transport back to Earth. This week, NASA finally opened one of the vacuum-sealed samples following a painstaking process.” Good morning, Internet…

March 25, 2022 at 05:29PM
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