New researches

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Waffle, Pinterest, Google Drive, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, April 10, 2022

Waffle, Pinterest, Google Drive, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, April 10, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: Waffle Is Just Like Wordle but at Least Five Times Better. “Everybody was playing Wordle because Wordle gave us 15 minutes in every day to ourselves. Sure, we wanted to beat our mates and show off our Galaxy Brains and, yeah, we wanted to avoid losing our streaks, but it was more than that. It broke up our never-ending doomscrolling with cute little emoji grids for a while there. It ruled! It’s still the best. All hail. I’ll be playing it for the next five years. At least, that’s what I thought. Until I came across Waffle.”

Search Engine Land: Pinterest prohibits climate misinformation in ads, content . “Pinterest wants to remove any traces of climate misinformation from its platform. The company announced it will now remove any ads or content from its platform that violates its new policy.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: How to Search for Google Drive Files Directly From the Chrome Address Bar. “Search engine shortcuts are a great way to optimize your browsing experience. When you’re urgently looking for a file from Google Drive, you might not have enough time or patience to open the Google Drive web app and search for your file. Luckily, there’s a quicker way to find your files stored in Google Drive. In this article, you’ll find out how to search for Google Drive files directly from your Chrome address bar.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Reuters: Musk proposes Twitter Blue subscription shake-up days after revealing stake. “Elon Musk, Twitter Inc’s biggest shareholder, on Saturday suggested a raft of changes to the social media giant’s Twitter Blue premium subscription service, including slashing its price, banning advertising and giving an option to pay in the cryptocurrency dogecoin.”

New York Times: Former New Yorkers Are Networking Through WhatsApp. “New Yorkers have been seeking one another out in other American cities for decades. How else could they complain about the lack of public transportation, the difficulty in finding a decent slice or the fact that most neighborhood bodegas are not open 24/7? The only difference is now, apps and social media have made it easier for them to find their kindred spirits instantly.”

The Next Web: Google says it classifies AI-generated content as ‘spam’. “All the publishers and editors out there thinking of replacing their journalists with AI might want to pump their brakes. Everybody’s boss, the Google algorithm, classifies AI-generated content as spam.” I’m putting this statement next to my experiences running into the scrape-and-spit copycat sites that have taken over Google News and giving myself a bit of a headache trying to reconcile them.

SECURITY & LEGAL

SiliconANGLE: Fox News database with 13M records found exposed online. “Security researcher Jeremiah Flower and the Website Planet research team discovered that the exposed database included about 58 gigabytes of data in just short of 13 million records. The records included Fox News content, storage information, internal Fox emails, usernames, employee ID numbers, affiliate station information and more. One folder is said to have contained 65,000 names of celebrities, cast and production crew members and their internal Fox identification reference numbers.”

Ars Technica: Ransomware sent North Carolina A&T University scrambling to restore services. “North Carolina A&T State University, the largest historically black college in the US, University was recently struck by a ransomware Group called ALPHV, sending university staff into a scramble to restore services last month.”

Sacramento Bee: Students ‘terrorized’ by ‘panic-inducing’ YouTube pranks at CA university, lawsuit says. “The University of Southern California has sued two YouTubers over a series of ‘panic-inducing’ pranks the pair staged during university lectures and recorded for their YouTube channel, the lawsuit says. A Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday, April 8, that bans Ernest Kanevsky and Yuguo Bai from campus and other university-owned buildings because of their involvement in the YouTube stunts, according to City News Service.” They are not students.

RESEARCH & OPINION

Agência Brasil: Amazon to have database on greenhouse gases. “A free-access platform with a wide diversity of data on greenhouse gas emissions in the Amazon is being built by the Research Center for Greenhouse Gas Innovation (RCGI), at the University of São Paulo (USP). The platform will combine variables that control the carbon cycle, in addition to providing assistance in analysis and studies into the region’s role in the global climate.”

The National Academies: Ensuring Human Control over AI-Infused Systems. “Human control over technology was a concern thousands of years ago when early humans sought to ensure safe use of fire. Later, control over horse-drawn wagons and eventually steam engines led to debates about how to make the most of their benefits while limiting dangers. Now questions of control are central in the design of AI-infused technologies, for which some advocates envision full machine autonomy while others promote human autonomy (Shneiderman 2020).”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Engadget: 3D CT scans make even ketchup caps look cool. “See that picture up there? It may look like something out of Tron or Blade Runner, but it’s actually a CT scan — of a Heinz ketchup cap. A group of ‘deeply curious engineers’ is scanning different types of items every month to give us a deeper appreciation of various engineering marvels surrounding us in every day life. The latest batch of scans includes a Heinz squeeze-bottle cap that took its inventor 185,000 hours and 45 prototypes to finalize.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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April 11, 2022 at 12:41AM
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Saturday, April 9, 2022

Sustainable Clothing, Utah Crime, Content Marketing, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 9, 2022

Sustainable Clothing, Utah Crime, Content Marketing, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 9, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

PR Newswire: Sustainable fashion search engine, Ethical Clothing, launches in the US & Canada with thousands of searchable, ethically produced clothes (PRESS RELEASE). “An uptick in the importance of brand values and consumer consciousness has resulted in not only large high street brands taking sustainable fashion seriously, but also a significant increase in new smaller brands that have sustainability baked into their DNA. Studies in the US show that more than two thirds of Americans are willing to pay more for sustainable products, but most (74%) don’t know how to identify them. The launch of Ethical Clothing’s sustainable fashion search engine in North America aims to resolve this problem.”

KSL: Utahns can now easily track crime in their area. “The Utah Department of Public Safety has a new tool that helps people track the crime happening in their counties. By choosing a county and police jurisdiction, for example, Cottonwood Heights, the Crime in Utah Dashboards will display data and allow anybody using the dashboard to search it.”

USEFUL STUFF

WIRED: How to Spot Content Marketing in Search Results. “Until recently I was employed, full-time, by a software company where I wrote articles designed to rank highly in Google results, where they’d get millions of clicks. More and more of your search results are like this. It’s called content marketing, and it’s somewhere between the editorial content you read on sites like this one and straight-up advertising. At its best, content marketing blends a certain amount of useful information with something that serves specific marketing aims. At its worst, content marketing is a way for marketers to get blatant sales pitches to rank highly in search results while also ruining your day.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Honi Soit (University of Sydney): The art of campus & the campus of art. “Artworks on campus are a rather ominous mainstay of our University; an omnipresent monolith we engage with inside every building, hallway, street and alcove. But with questions such as: ‘where does it come from?’, ‘who put it there?’ and ‘who owns it?’ mostly going unanswered, the influence art exerts over our academic and recreational environments remains uninterrogated.” Excellent deep dive into something I’d never thought much about.

ZDNet: What’s the most popular web browser in 2022?. “Historically, it’s been challenging to get hard data on which browsers really were the most popular web browsers. True, many companies claimed to have good numbers, such as NetMarketShare and StatCounter, but their numbers are massaged. The US federal government’s Digital Analytics Program (DAP), however, gives us a running count of the last 90 days of US government website visits. That doesn’t tell us much about global web browser use, but it’s the best information we have about American web browser users today.”

Rolling Stone: Parents Are Freaking Out Over Huggy Wuggy, a Janky Blue Bear With Razor-Sharp Teeth. “There’s nothing that parents of small children love more than giving kids unfettered access to phones and iPads — then freaking out over what kinds of age-inappropriate content they may be seeing on such devices. Case in point: the recent panic over Huggy Wuggy, a character from a video game franchise who is the subject of hysterical reports posted in police and mom Facebook groups.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Malicious web redirect service infects 16,500 sites to push malware. “A new traffic direction system (TDS) called Parrot is relying on servers that host 16,500 websites of universities, local governments, adult content platforms, and personal blogs. Parrot’s use is for malicious campaigns to redirect potential victims matching a specific profile (location, language, operating system, browser) to online resources such as phishing and malware-dropping sites.”

The Verge: Vevo to ‘review’ security after YouTube feeds for Lil Nas X, Justin Bieber, and others were hacked. “On Tuesday morning, YouTube channels for some of the world’s biggest stars showered fans with strange music videos. Vevo channels for artists like Lil Nas X, Eminem, Drake, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, The Weeknd, Michael Jackson, Kanye West, and many others were affected. The channels in question have subscriber counts that add up to hundreds of millions. Before the videos disappeared, viewers saw bizarre clips of Paco Sanz, a Spanish conman sentenced to two years in jail after being convicted of fraud for lying about having terminal cancer, and rapper Lil Tjay.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

TechCrunch: Is social media (re)traumatizing you? . “What happens when you’re out of content to scroll through and react to on the internet? What’s there to keep you engaged whether the content makes you angry, sad, happy or all of the above at once? What can a company like Facebook, Google or Twitter do to keep their hooks in so you keep coming back like a zombie begging for more? A new feature? An algorithm tweak? Nope. It all comes back to you. You’re the one who’s going to keep you engaged when there isn’t enough out there to rope you back in. Not only are these companies making us chase our own tails, and by design I might add, it might be doing actual damage to our psyche. That’s what has happened to mine, and it took me quite a while to realize it.”

Daily Beast: We’re a Big Step Closer to Full Color Night Vision. “In a new study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, researchers at the University of California, Irvine used machine learning to transform what you see through a night vision scope or camera into a veritable rainbow of colors. This game-changing development could benefit not just the military, but also medical technologies, healthcare, and even more niche tasks like art restoration.” Good afternoon, Internet…

April 10, 2022 at 02:02AM
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Disinformation Diplomats, Stand Up for Ukraine, Chernobyl Archives, More: Ukraine Update, April 9, 2022

Disinformation Diplomats, Stand Up for Ukraine, Chernobyl Archives, More: Ukraine Update, April 9, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Politico: Russia turns its diplomats into disinformation warriors. “After the European Union banned Kremlin-backed media outlets and social media giants demoted their posts for peddling falsehoods about the war in Ukraine, Moscow has turned to its cadre of diplomats, government spokespeople and ministers — many of whom have extensive followings on social media — to promote disinformation about the conflict in Eastern Europe, according to four EU and United States officials.”

Moscow Times: Russia Accuses Google of ‘Fake News,’ Bans Ads. “Russia’s state communications watchdog said Thursday it would ban U.S. internet giant Google from advertising its services in the country, accusing YouTube of spreading ‘fake news’ about its military campaign in Ukraine. Russia has moved to block access to non-state media and information resources and fears are mounting that Google could be next in line for a ban.”

Bloomberg: Elton John, Celine Dion Come Out For ‘Stand Up For Ukraine’ Social Media Rally. “Celebrities from Elton John to Celine Dion took part of a social media rally on April 8 to raise funds for the millions of people displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. International advocacy group Global Citizen organized the ‘Stand Up For Ukraine’ rally in advance of a pledging event for world leaders and corporations hosted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Warsaw on April 9.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Washington Post: China is Russia’s most powerful weapon for information warfare. “Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine cratered last month after Russian state news channels were blocked in Europe and restricted globally. But in recent weeks, China has emerged as a potent outlet for Kremlin disinformation, researchers say, portraying Ukraine and NATO as the aggressors and sharing false claims about neo-Nazi control of the Ukrainian government.”

WIRED: An ‘Explosion’ of Anti-Ukraine Disinformation Is Hitting Moldova. “Moldova, a small ex-Soviet nation sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, has been suffering from what researchers describe as ‘an explosion’ of disinformation since war broke out in Ukraine. In a type of smear campaign against Ukrainian refugees, researchers say, real videos that express anti-refugee messages are being artificially amplified across both Facebook and TikTok.”

Slate: Russia’s War on Google and Apple Maps. “In the weeks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, the Kremlin has received a great deal of attention for blocking Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But less attention has been paid to a years-long information war Russia has been waging on mobile map applications—like Apple Maps and Google Maps. And now that war is coming to a head.”

From Ukrayinska Pravda, and translated from Ukrainian: The occupiers destroyed the archives of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. “The long-standing archive collected by Ukrainians at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was destroyed by Russian occupation forces. This was announced on his Facebook page by the head of the Public Council at the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management (DAZV) Oleksandr Syrota.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Euronews: Finnish government websites hit by cyberattack during Zelenskyy speech. “Finland’s government says that its websites were targeted in a cyberattack during a speech to parliament by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The official pages of the Finnish foreign and defence ministries were both down briefly on Friday afternoon.”

Lieber Institute, West Point: Ukraine Symposium – The Ukraine Conflict, Smart Phones, And The LOAC Of Takings. “According to at least one report, in the course of their operations Russian forces entered residential complexes in the suburbs of Kyiv, displaced residents from their apartments, held them captive in basements, and seized many of their cell phones and laptops (personal digital devices or PDDs for short) under threat of summary execution. Although these deprivations may pale in comparison to the catalog of other atrocities the Russians are perpetrating—not the least of which are disturbing reports, like those coming out of Bucha, of the torture and murder of civilians—in an age of dependence on digital interconnectivity, they are worth exploring. This post focuses on the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) relevant to these specific takings.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Tony Blair Institute for Global Change: Communicating With the Russian People: How to Break Through Putin’s Digital Iron Curtain. “In the age of social media, the truth has become the Kremlin’s main enemy. While it is crucial for the West to have a firm and unwavering approach towards sanctions, which are targeting all segments of the population, it is also important to keep communication lines with Russian citizens open in order to expose Russian propaganda and false narratives, particularly with regards to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Western intentions.”

Voice Of America: Neutralizing Disinformation – One of Russia’s Weapons. “The Government of Russia has developed a disinformation and propaganda ecosystem that creates and spreads false narratives in support of the Kremlin’s goals. Any and every event or policy around the globe may be weaponized through lies and distortion.”

The Atlantic: RT America, You Were Very Weird and Bad . “You can still watch Russian-propaganda television if you really want to. RT, the English-language news network funded by the Kremlin and based in Moscow, was dropped from YouTube and American cable in early March, but still appears on an assortment of alternative video-hosting platforms, where reporting on the war is described as a ‘special operation chronicle.’ What you won’t find, though, on any television or social-media site, are the thousands of hours of programming that RT filmed and broadcast over the past 12 years from its production site down the street from the White House. RT America, as this bureau was called, has been all but erased from the internet.”

April 9, 2022 at 07:38PM
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Iron Age Coins, Cancer FactFinder, UK Product Recalls, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, April 9, 2022

Iron Age Coins, Cancer FactFinder, UK Product Recalls, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, April 9, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The Past: Iron Age coin database launched online. “Academic researchers and those involved in finds identification will be pleased to learn that the Celtic Coin Index (CCI) – the world’s largest dataset of Iron Age coins in Britain – is now available as an online resource via the Celtic Coin Index Digital (CCID).”

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: Cancer FactFinder website launched to provide fact-based, reliable information about causes of cancer. “A team led by the Zhu Family Center for Global Cancer Prevention at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Center for Cancer Equity and Engagement at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center has launched Cancer FactFinder (https://cancerfactfinder.org/), a new website that provides accurate and reliable information about what does and does not cause cancer.”

UK Government: New product recalls and alerts site. “The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has launched a new product safety alerts, reports and recalls site to help the British public, businesses and consumer groups identify unsafe products.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Lifehacker: This Bot Can Tell You How Good You Really Are at Wordle. “If you’ve played Wordle recently, you can visit the tool in the same browser and it’ll know how you made your guesses—but you can also upload a screenshot of a Wordle you have played in the past. I’m going to introduce you to the bot with some older screenshots, but then we’ll dive into strategy for today’s puzzle, number 293, so either stop reading or go solve it now if you don’t want to see spoilers.”

Android Police: Google Fi cuts prices and bumps data for Unlimited plans. “Just about a year ago, Google Fi introduced a new pricing tier. While this new Simply Unlimited plan looked like a straightforward way to package unlimited calls, texts, and data, we noted that it wasn’t actually much of a bargain compared to plans from other carriers. But we might want to start rethinking that, as Google has just announced reduced pricing for its Simply Unlimited and Unlimited Plus plans, along with some extra benefits for each.”

TechCrunch: Twitter launches improved alt text accessibility features globally. “For a while now, Twitter has made it easy to add alt text to image uploads, allowing tweeters to provide a description of an image to aid people who use screen readers or speech-to-text programs. But until now, you haven’t been able to see what images do or do not have alt text if you weren’t using a screen reader yourself — so, for example, if you wanted to make sure that the content that you retweet was accessible to followers who might be Blind or have limited vision, you’d just have to retweet and hope for the best. After a successful test last month, Twitter is rolling out two additions to its alt text feature.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CBS News: China discreetly paid for U.S. social media influencers to tout Beijing Winter Olympics. “The social media posts fanned across a variety of popular Instagram and TikTok accounts that have a combined following of 5 million people who follow their videos, photos and content about travel destinations, sports, fashion and women’s issues. The Chinese Consulate in New York paid $300,000 to New Jersey-based firm Vippi Media to recruit the influencers. The posts were not properly labeled as ads in the way that TikTok and Instagram requires.”

BBC: Gen Z calling for more honesty on social media, experts say. “Could social media be forced to clean up its act? Experts say young people, the drivers and target audience for sites like Instagram, are impatient to see greater authenticity online because of their growing awareness of how it can negatively affect their mental health.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: U.S. Judge in Google Case Not Convinced Company’s Conduct Will Get Sanction . “The U.S. federal judge hearing the government’s antitrust case against Alphabet’s Google said on Friday he was not convinced that he had the authority to sanction the company for overzealous use of attorney-client privilege if it occurred before the Justice Department’s lawsuit was filed.”

Miami Herald: Hackers stole 20 million credit card records from Chili’s, Chipotle and others, feds say. “A hacking group targeted businesses across all 50 states and stole more than 20 million debit and credit card records from customers, federal officials said. Denys Iarmak, 32, from Ukraine, is the third member in the group’s scheme to face prison time, the United States Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington said in an April 7 news release.”

WIRED: The Senate Bill That Has Big Tech Scared. “IF YOU WANT to know how worried an industry is about a piece of pending legislation, a decent metric is how apocalyptic its predictions are about what the bill would do. By that standard, Big Tech is deeply troubled by the American Innovation and Choice Online Act.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Verge: Google is using AI to update business hours that are out of date on Google Maps. “Google has shared how it’s using artificial intelligence, including its restaurant-calling Duplex tech, to try and keep business hours up to date on Google Maps. The company says that if it is confident enough in the AI’s prediction of what a business’s hours should be, it will update the information in Maps.” Good morning, Internet…

April 9, 2022 at 06:25PM
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Friday, April 8, 2022

Dropbox Shop, Google Lens, Twitter, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, April 8, 2022

Dropbox Shop, Google Lens, Twitter, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, April 8, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Dropbox Shop launches in open beta to allow creators to sell digital content. “Dropbox Shop, a platform that allows creators to sell digital content directly to their customers, is now available in open beta, Dropbox announced on Tuesday. The company is also introducing new updates to the platform and adding tipping capabilities. You can now also customize your storefront and URLs and embed HTML codes.”

UPI: Google Lens to roll out multi-search feature on iOS and Android. “Google Lens is rolling out a multi-search feature to search for words and images combined in the Google app on iOS and Android. On Thursday, the company launched a U.S.-only beta for the multi-search feature using artificial intelligence that it previewed last September at its Search On event.”

Engadget: Twitter test lets you ‘unmention’ yourself in tweets. “Twitter might not have an edit button just yet, but it’s still delivering at least one useful feature this week. The social network is now rolling out a previously hinted-at ‘Unmention’ feature that lets you remove yourself from a conversation.”

USEFUL STUFF

Hongkiat: Best Tools to Convert HEIC to JPG . “Currently, Android and Windows users have two options to view HEIC pictures. They may either install HEIC image reader tools or convert HEIC pictures to a common and widely used image format such as JPG. Once the HEIC images are converted to JPG format, they can easily be viewed on Android, Windows, or any other platform. Before jumping into the list of best tools to convert HEIC image format to JPG, let’s first define what HEIC image format is.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Boing Boing: Watch the beauty of Reddit’s r/place. “Through community coordination and unbridled creativity, some of Reddit’s most passionate fandoms and subcultures started to emblazon their logos and art on the canvas. Since space was limited on the canvas, communities had to battle others to control the area they chose to draw on. The end result was a beautiful tapestry of pixel art that captured the beauty of having a community online.” I have been accidentally picking up a lot of /r/place posts via my IFTTT recipes, but I don’t mind — they’re interesting and the posts I’m getting as the project winds down are mostly rather sentimental.

CNET: Antiwordle Turns Wordle Around, Rewards You for Guessing Wrong. “Antiwordle sounds mind-boggling until you actually play it. It looks a lot like classic Wordle, the daily word-guessing game that’s swept the internet. But the idea is to not guess the right word so you make as many attempts as possible while avoiding the correct answer. There are rules in place that make the goal challenging.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Motherboard: Police Records Show Women Are Being Stalked With Apple AirTags Across the Country. “Attach an AirTag to your purse, keys, wallet, or even your car, and if you lose it, the device will ping every nearby Apple product with Bluetooth turned on to triangulate its location. Those devices send its location back to you on a map, showing where the AirTag has been and its current location. Police records reviewed by Motherboard show that, as security experts immediately predicted when the product launched, this technology has been used as a tool to stalk and harass women.”

Protocol: Google bans popular Android apps that were secretly harvesting data. “Google has booted dozens of Android apps from the Google Play store after finding the apps included a line of code that was discreetly harvesting user data. According to the Wall Street Journal, some of the now-banned apps were Muslim prayer apps downloaded more than 10 million times. A popular highway speed trap detection app and a QR-code-reading app were also found to include the data-scraping code.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

AgriLife Today: New veterinary app, website to track disease symptoms. “With the touch of a smartphone button, veterinarians will be able to check online to determine if what they see in the field is unique to their area or part of a greater pattern, thanks to a new veterinary app and website created by a group of Texas A&M AgriLife faculty.” This is a project limited to a three-state area (New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas.

Washington Post: Internet ‘algospeak’ is changing our language in real time, from ‘nip nops’ to ‘le dollar bean’. “Algospeak refers to code words or turns of phrase users have adopted in an effort to create a brand-safe lexicon that will avoid getting their posts removed or down-ranked by content moderation systems. For instance, in many online videos, it’s common to say ‘unalive’ rather than ‘dead,’ ‘SA’ instead of ‘sexual assault,’ or ‘spicy eggplant’ instead of ‘vibrator.'”

WBTV: North Carolina named most social media obsessed state in the U.S.. “The study analyzed the number of Google searches for social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter in each state to see which ones had the most searches per month for every 1,000 people. It found that North Carolina was the most social media obsessed state, with over 9-million social media searches per month. When measured against the state’s population this results in an average of 867.87 social media related searches for every 1,000 people.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Vox: One Good Thing: An unsolicited dik-dik pic . “Few experiences are more jarring than opening your phone to find an image of genitalia that you didn’t request — an unsolicited dick pic. Such an occurrence is diametrically opposite, I’d argue, to getting an unsolicited dik-dik pic. Dik-diks are tiny antelopes that are no larger than an overfed house cat.” Good evening, Internet…

April 9, 2022 at 05:07AM
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Cultural Heritage, Information Warfare, Memes, More: Ukraine Update, April 8, 2022

Cultural Heritage, Information Warfare, Memes, More: Ukraine Update, April 8, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

EVENTS

MIT Sloan: In Russia-Ukraine war, social media stokes ingenuity, disinformation. “The war has taken a vast human toll, with the United Nations estimating more than 1,400 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and more than 4 million people have fled the country as of April 2. It is also taking place in a world where social media is ubiquitous, video and images can be quickly uploaded and shared worldwide, and both sides are using social media to rally support and spread information and disinformation. At the Social Media Summit @ MIT on March 31, a panel of experts discussed how the war is playing out, and even being shaped by, social media platforms.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

C4ISRNet: Intelligence agencies accelerate use of commercial space imagery to support Ukraine. “Since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, space imagery, remote sensing and communications satellites have been informing the public and helping keep Ukrainian forces and civilians connected. Because of its partnerships with commercial industry, the U.S intelligence community was positioned to quickly leverage those capabilities to increase its own support in the region, accelerating several in-the-works acquisition efforts and increasing the capacity of planned procurements.”

Ars Technica: Apple defies Russian government, restores opposition voting app. “Apple has restored an app sponsored by Alexei Navalny, a prominent leader of Russia’s political opposition, to the company’s Russian app store. Apple took down the app last September, days before Russia’s legislative elections, under pressure from the Russian government.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Washington Post: What’s so funny about a Russian invasion?. “Since the Kremlin’s attack began in February, Ukraine’s official Twitter account, @Ukraine, has been poking fun at the invader, even as it highlights the brutalities Russia is inflicting upon the country. Why? Wars are ugly and certainly no laughing matter. But Ukraine’s approach isn’t new. According to a 2017 NATO strategic communications study, Ukraine has used memes, caricatures, parodies and satirical TV shows as buffers against the Kremlin’s propaganda since the annexation of Crimea. The post-invasion tweets are a continuation of that counter-propaganda campaign.”

Washington Post: Russian influencers cut up Chanel handbags, claiming ‘Russophobia’. “Russian influencers are cutting up their Chanel handbags on social media in angry protest over restrictions imposed by the luxury French fashion label that mean they can no longer buy its products abroad.”

Boston Globe: As the war unfolds, this Boston Public Library curator is helping preserve Ukraine’s cultural treasures. “Deliberately destroying cultural heritage sites or property is much more than collateral damage: It constitutes a war crime. ‘Erasing people’s identity, you’re able to control them further, and to control the narrative,’ said Kristin Parker, Boston Public Library’s lead curator and manager of the arts. ‘In times of war, it’s a tactic.’ Parker is a lead trainer in an international volunteer network of what she calls ‘cultural heritage first responders’ organized by the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) and the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative.”

Independent: Speaking of history: Soviet-era film archive helps Ukrainians find hope and sense of identity in wartime. “There have been no film screenings in Ukraine for more than six weeks now, at least not above ground. However, at the request of president Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, Ukraine’s biggest film archive has screened a series of Soviet-films in metro stations in cities from Kyiv to Kharkiv, where residents have sought refuge while Russian bombs rain down from above. The showings are one element of the Ukrainian resistance against Vladimir Putin’s war, which has seen regular civilians stealing tanks, making Molotov cocktails, and confronting soldiers.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: U.S. Says It Secretly Removed Malware Worldwide, Pre-empting Russian Cyberattacks. “The United States said on Wednesday that it had secretly removed malware from computer networks around the world in recent weeks, a step to pre-empt Russian cyberattacks and send a message to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.”

Washington Post: Finland seizes Russian artwork worth $46 million under sanctions. “Finnish Customs has seized artwork en route to Russia as part of sanctions imposed by the European Union. The paintings, sculptures and antiquities are worth 42 million euros ($46 million), the agency said.”

CNET: Meta: Attacks ‘Intensifying Sharply’ Since Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine . “Facebook parent company Meta says attacks on internet freedom and access to information have been ‘intensifying sharply’ since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the first three months of the year, the social media giant also saw a rise in domestic threats, such as people hacking the accounts of other people in their country, running disinformation campaigns or filing false reports to silence critics.”

New York Times: Facial Recognition Goes to War. “Services that put a name to a face, including Clearview AI, are being used to identify Russian soldiers, living or dead, and to verify that travelers in Ukraine are who they claim.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Small Wars Journal: Russia’s Floundering False-Flag Narrative. “Given the resounding unified international condemnation—to say nothing of Russia’s mass protest demonstrators, numbering in the thousands–and with no major super-global power supporting Russia at the moment, it appears its false-flag narrative has floundered. This essay reflects on some of the Kremlin’s current blunders to date in setting conditions in the information environment for a successful false-flag narrative that should have preceded its false-flag operation. These blunders should caution U.S. defense planners that those who ignore the impact of a hyperconnected global information environment on modern conflict do so at great peril.”

April 8, 2022 at 06:09PM
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Thursday, April 7, 2022

CANNabinoid Drug Interaction Review, Car Dealer Markups, Maryland Mental Health Services, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 7, 2022

CANNabinoid Drug Interaction Review, Car Dealer Markups, Maryland Mental Health Services, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 7, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

PennState: New app shows how cannabinoids could interact with other medications. “CANNabinoid Drug Interaction Review (CANN-DIR) is a free web-based resource that evaluates cannabinoid products such as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), CBD or a combination of both (THC and CBD) in a single product against a database of common over-the-counter and prescription medications…. Users select the cannabinoid product a patient is taking and then choose other medications they are using. CANN-DIR then provides information about how the THC and/or CBD product could potentially affect the metabolism, or breakdown, of the other selected medications.”

Ars Technica: Dealership markups are getting crazy, so this site is tracking them. “In the US, the vast majority of car buyers are not accustomed to ordering vehicles from an OEM through a dealership, instead preferring the convenience of taking a car home ‘from the lot’ that day. But as inventory has evaporated, US dealerships have reacted by adding additional dealer markups, or ADMs, to their stock, often to the tune of many thousands of dollars. One estimate of the value of the markups came to $3.6 billion…. Now, a new site… is crowdsourcing data on ADMs around the country to better arm car buyers with the information they need to avoid being fleeced.”

WJZ: Maryland Has A New Database To Find Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services. “The Maryland Department of Health and 211 Maryland on Thursday announced the launch of a new database that improves access for residents looking for mental health or substance abuse disorder resources.”

State of Delaware: DHSS Launches Site Comparing Health Care Costs for Select Episodes of Care, Services Based on Delaware Medical Claims “The Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) has launched a new website called CostAware to help Delawareans understand how their health care dollars are spent by comparing the variation of average costs for different episodes of care and medical services based on actual medical claims in Delaware.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

State Archives of North Carolina: More Search Room County Record Microfilm Added to Discover Online Catalog (DOC). “We are excited to announce that 19 additional counties of Search Room microfilm have been added to our online searchable database, Discover Online Catalog (DOC)! The completed counties are Alexander, Alleghany, Anson, Bladen, Brunswick, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Camden, Carteret, Caswell, Cleveland, Currituck, Dare, Davie, Henderson, Hertford, Hoke, and Greene.” North Carolina has 100 counties currently as well as a number of defunct entities, so this is very much a work in progress.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

University of North Carolina: Comedian Lewis Black donates archive to UNC-Chapel Hill University Libraries. “Black, who has won Grammy Awards for his comedy albums and has written three best-selling books, recently donated his plays, television pilot scripts, and materials from his comedy career to the University Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They will be part of the Southern Historical Collection at the Wilson Special Collections Library.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Seattle Times: Did you receive a text message from yourself? You’re not alone.. “Consumers have struggled with cellphone spam for years, primarily in the form of robocalls with scammers incessantly ringing to leave fraudulent messages about late payments for student loans, audits by the Internal Revenue Service and expired car warranties. Only recently has mobile phone fraud shifted more toward texting, experts said. Spam texts from all sorts of phone numbers — and not just your own — are on the rise. In March, 11.6 billion scam messages were sent on American wireless networks, up 30% from February.”

Motherboard: The Alleged Scammers Behind the Most Notorious Murder-for-Hire Site Have Been Arrested . “Police in Romania have arrested the alleged operators of a scam dark web murder-for-hire site where an unsettling number of people on the ‘kill list’ have wound up dead.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: Farmers are finding a new following on social media – our research suggests it could help with isolation. “In the wake of a chaotic Brexit and an ongoing pandemic, farmers in the UK are experiencing high levels of isolation and loneliness. A poll in Farmers Guardian found that 94% of UK farmers felt this isolation was harming their mental health. In research funded by the British Academy, we looked at how farmers engage with social media to understand whether it can help overcome isolation. To do this, we analysed 5,000 tweets by farmers and interviewed 25 farmers who use social media.”

Cities Today: The rise of the data steward. “As data use and collaboration become more advanced, there is a need for a new profession within the public and private sectors, says Stefaan Verhulst, Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer at New York University’s The GovLab. He calls this role the ‘data steward’ and is also seeking to expand existing definitions of the term.” Good afternoon, Internet…

April 8, 2022 at 03:26AM
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