New researches

Saturday, May 21, 2022

ACM Archives, Android 13 Braille Support, Glitch, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, May 21, 2022

ACM Archives, Android 13 Braille Support, Glitch, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, May 21, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

This launched in early April, and where was I? Off somewhere eating bon-bons, apparently. Anyway, from ACM: World’s Largest Computing Society Makes Thousands of Research Articles Freely Available; Opens First 50 Years Backfile. “ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, today announced that its first 50 years of publications, from 1951 through the end of 2000, are now open and freely available to view and download via the ACM Digital Library. ACM’s first 50 years backfile contains more than 117,500 articles on a wide range of computing topics. In addition to articles published between 1951 and 2000, ACM has also opened related and supplemental materials including data sets, software, slides, audio recordings, and videos.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

XDA: Android 13 Beta 3 will bring native support for braille displays. “In a blog post on Thursday, Google announced that the upcoming Android 13 beta release would bring out-of-the-box support for braille display. For the unaware, a refreshable braille display is an electro-mechanic device that surfaces information by raising round-tipped pins through holes in a flat surface. It enables blind and deafblind users (who can’t use a screen reader) to access smartphones or computers.”

The Verge: Glitch acquired by cloud service provider Fastly. “Fastly, a major provider of cloud services, announced today that it’s acquiring Glitch, the quirky and capable web coding platform. Glitch will continue to operate within Fastly, with Fastly planning to grow the team and enable Glitch apps to tap into its edge computing services.”

USEFUL STUFF

Digital Inspiration: How to Send WhatsApp Messages from Google Sheets with the WhatsApp API and Apps Script. “This tutorial describes how you can use the new WhatsApp API with Google Apps Script to send WhatsApp messages from Google Sheets. The same approach would also work for sending WhatsApp messages from Google Forms when new form submissions are received.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Lifehacker: WeWordle Is the Multiplayer Wordle That Is Currently Stressing Me Out. “If you’re the competitive type and simply texting your dad and friend group your Wordle score first thing in the morning isn’t doing it for you, you can try the newest iteration in the Wordle copycat universe: WeWordle. WeWordle lets you compete with others online—reminiscent of the olden days of Words with Friends, except with the added stressor of a super short time limit of fifteen seconds per turn.”

CNN: He started the Wikipedia page for the Buffalo shooting and many other tragic events. “After Jason Moore, from Portland, Oregon, saw headlines from national news sources on Google News about the Buffalo shooting at a local supermarket on Saturday afternoon, he did a quick search for the incident on Wikipedia. When no results appeared, he drafted a single sentence: ‘On May 14, 2022, 10 people were killed in a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.’ He hit save and published the entry on Wikipedia in less than a minute.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Techdirt: Clearview Settles Lawsuit, Agrees To Stop Doing Business In Illinois. “Not giving a damn about anything is starting to eat into Clearview’s profits. In addition to facing lawsuits in the US over state law violations, the company is getting smacked around by fines, bans, and the rolling out of ‘OFFICIALLY UNWELCOME’ mats elsewhere in the world.”

Music Business Worldwide: After Suing Google Over App Store Rules, Epic’s Bandcamp Can Continue Using Own Payment System… For Now. . “Last month, Bandcamp’s new parent company filed a motion against Google requesting a preliminary injunction to block the tech giant from removing the Bandcamp app from its app store. Today (Friday May 20), Epic and Google have filed a Joint Stipulation in a Californian court, with the latter company agreeing to not kick Bandcamp off its app store.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Thanks very much to Geoff K. for getting this on my radar: Bada Bing, Bada Boom: Microsoft Bing’s Chinese Political Censorship of Autosuggestions in North America. “We analyzed Microsoft Bing’s autosuggestion system for censorship of the names of individuals, finding that, outside of names relating to eroticism, the second largest category of names censored from appearing in autosuggestions were those of Chinese party leaders, dissidents, and other persons considered politically sensitive in China.”

Newswise: Chula UDC Creates QR Braille: a QR Code Locator for the Blind. “QR Braille for people with visual disabilities, adding braille beads into a frame around the QR Code, will make QR codes truly accessible to all. Ms. Suchitra Jirawanichkul, from the Center of Excellence in Universal Design, designed the QR Braille so that people can touch and spot a QR code’s position, then use a smartphone to scan for information, as well as listen to sounds. This helps increase and promote learning opportunities for those are visually impaired or blind.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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May 22, 2022 at 01:01AM
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History of Science, North Dakota Dementia Data, Free Online Paleontology Class, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, May 21, 2022

History of Science, North Dakota Dementia Data, Free Online Paleontology Class, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, May 21, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Jisc: Digital history of science collection ready to launch with nearly one million pages. “For the first time researchers, teachers and students can access digitally more than 90% of the British Association for the Advancement of Science – Collections on the History of Science (1830s-1970s). Free to Jisc members and affiliates, the move to digitise this collection, much of which was previously unpublished, began in 2020, when leading UK university libraries and archives were invited to put forward their archives.”

KX News: ND Health Department debuts ‘Alzheimer’s and Dementia Data’ website dashboard. “North Dakota has the fourth highest mortality rate for Alzheimer’s disease in the United States (U.S.) at 52.9 per 100,000 North Dakota residents. The rate for the U.S. is 37 per 100,000 residents. In 2016, according to the dashboard, there were 405 deaths in the state from Alzheimer’s and dementia. In 2020, that number jumped to 505.”

EVENTS

BusinessWire: Smithsonian Institution and Varsity Tutors Team Up for a Free Paleontology Class for Learners Around the World (PRESS RELEASE). “Varsity Tutors, a Nerdy Inc. (NYSE: NRDY) company, and one of the nation’s largest platforms for live online tutoring and classes, today announced a new collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution that will give people around the world free access to Smithsonian content. On Tuesday, May 24th at 7 pm ET, the Smithsonian will spotlight select content from the National Museum of Natural History in a large group online class hosted by Varsity Tutors, “Live from the Smithsonian: Living in the World of Dinosaurs”.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Google reports increased Black and Latinx representation in the US. “The company saw its ‘largest increases in representation of Black and Latinx Googlers in the US ever’ at 20 percent and 8 percent respectively year over year, according to chief diversity officer Melonie Parker. Google also reported improved leadership representation of Black, Latinx and Native American employees by 27 percent, Parker says. But some data shows there is still more work to be done.”

Engadget: TikTok has been testing minigames ahead of a ‘major’ gaming push. “After entering into a partnership with Zynga last year, TikTok has been testing a pair of mobile minigames on its platform in Vietnam, Reuters has reported. The move could soon allow users to play games directly on the app in what Reuter’s sources called a ‘major push’ into gaming.” Right when Zynga is merging with Take-Two.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times: All Those Celebrities Pushing Crypto Are Not So Vocal Now. “The Super Bowl was nicknamed the ‘Crypto Bowl’ this year because so many ads — which cost as much as $7 million for 30 seconds — featured the industry, several of them starring boldface names. But after investors watched hundreds of billions of dollars disappear in a sell-off this month, those famous boosters now face intensifying criticism that they helped drive vulnerable fans to invest in crypto without emphasizing the risks.”

MIC: These elderqueer influencers are showing me how to live my best life. “Since I am on my merry way to becoming an elderqueer myself, it seems more important to me than ever to have queer elders of my own. I am finding them in the absolute last place I thought I would — social media. Here are the elderqueer influencers that are helping find the hope and skills to survive and thrive in a world where it still doesn’t always feel safe to be out.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Politico: GOP senators’ private meeting with Google turns tense over email bias claims. “Republican senators laid into a Google executive at the Capitol Wednesday over allegations that the company’s filters target GOP emails as spam. It quickly turned confrontational.”

IP Watchdog: CAFC Gives Google Second Shot at PTAB in Challenge of Communications Patents. “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) today vacated and remanded three decisions of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that had found Google failed to prove the relevant claims of IPA Technologies, Inc.’s patents to be unpatentable.”

CNBC: Crypto industry wields its influence in Washington after pouring over $30 million into campaigns . “U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., called on New Yorkers to support the cryptocurrency market in a March op-ed in the New York Daily News titled, ‘A liberal case for cryptocurrency.’… Torres failed to mention two upcoming fundraisers industry backers were throwing for him in April.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Amsterdam: Virtual Reality as a means to improve education . “The 4D Research Lab (4DRL) is going to use Virtual Reality (VR) technology to introduce students to archaeological sites, laboratories, museum displays and historical places that have limited access. The Virtual Past Places, Reinventing the Classroom (ViPP) project has received a grant of 165,000 euros for this purpose via the SURF incentive scheme. The Lab will also make use of the advantages that VR offers in the provision of learning materials.”

WIRED: Why It’s So Hard to Count Twitter Bots. “Counting Twitter bots has become a point of contention in Elon Musk’s ongoing $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. Last Friday, the billionaire tweeted that he was putting his purchase ‘temporarily on hold’ until the company provided details to back up its claim (as stated in its latest SEC filing) that fewer than 5 percent of ‘monetizable daily active users’ on Twitter are spam or fake. Musk also outlined a plan to count bots himself that involved sampling 100 @Twitter followers to see how many were bots and said the approach suggests over 20 percent of accounts are fake. But accurately quantifying the percentage of bots on Twitter is a lot more difficult, according to experts.”

May 21, 2022 at 05:30PM
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Friday, May 20, 2022

Open Source Software Packages, Wisconsin Startups, Chicago Programs for Teenagers, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, May 20, 2022

Open Source Software Packages, Wisconsin Startups, Chicago Programs for Teenagers, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, May 20, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

BusinessWire: Algolia Partners with Openbase to Launch Ultimate Search Engine for Open-Source Packages (PRESS RELEASE). “While other searching platforms typically result in hundreds of packages (including many that are irrelevant to developers’ needs), the new search engine that Algolia implemented for Openbase enables developers to filter results based on the specific frameworks that they use, such as React, Vue, Node or Django. For power users, the search functionality offers advanced filtering by the last commit to the project, GitHub stars, TypeScript support and more.”

BizTimes (Wisconsin): NVNG launches online, statewide database of startups to increase national exposure. “Madison-based NVNG Investment Advisors has launched an online database that aims to encapsulate all of the state’s startups. Called +Venture Wisconsin, the database was created to increase exposure of Wisconsin companies to national and international venture capital communities.”

City of Chicago: Mayor Lightfoot and First Lady Amy Eshleman Launch the My Chi. My Future. Mobile App to Connect Teens With Out-of-School Activities. “Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot and First Lady Amy Eshleman today announced the launch of the My CHI. My Future. (MCMF) mobile app, a significant investment and resource designed to help teens easily find out-of-school programs, events, resources, jobs, and more. This is the first app of its kind nationwide created by a city government.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: DHS Puts Disinformation Governance Board on Pause. “The US Department of Homeland Security paused the newly minted Disinformation Governance Board less than a month after its formation. A review and assessment of the board will be conducted after it was ‘grossly and intentionally mischaracterized,’ the department said Wednesday.”

FindMyPast: Unearth workhouse records amid 200,000 new additions this week . “Discover two new indexes entirely exclusive to Findmypast. If that’s not enough, explore more than quarter of a million newspaper pages, freshly added to our archive. Here’s a rundown of everything that’s new.”

USEFUL STUFF

Hongkiat: 10 Best Web Highlighters for Desktop in 2022. “Have you used any web highlighters? It helps us improve our productivity by copying and pasting important texts you’ve found online automatically, saving good articles in your directory, and highlighting important sentences on articles so that you can remember them when looking back. In this article, I’ll introduce you to 10 useful web highlighters for the desktop.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

WIRED: Feds Warn Employers Against Discriminatory Hiring Algorithms. ” Hiring algorithms can penalize applicants for having a Black-sounding name, mentioning a women’s college, and even submitting their résumé using certain file types. They can disadvantage people who stutter or have a physical disability that limits their ability to interact with a keyboard. All of this has gone widely unchecked. But now, the US Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have offered guidance on what businesses and government agencies must do to ensure their use of AI in hiring complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

MakeUseOf: What It’s Actually Like to Be a Reddit Moderator. “When you think of Reddit, you might picture a website full of memes and funny videos. But there’s a lot more to Reddit than meets the eye. In fact, Reddit is one of the most popular websites in the world, with millions of users and billions of page views every month. And behind the scenes of every subreddit, there are moderators. These are the people who keep the subreddit running smoothly and make sure that the content is up to snuff. So what’s it actually like to be a Reddit moderator?”

The Conversation: How the metaverse could change the purpose and feel of cities. “As more of our daily activities take place online, we believe it’s time to consider how this may eventually play out; if tomorrow’s city dwellers prefer the metaverse to brick-and-mortar stores and other urban amenities, what will it mean for cities and what purposes will cities ultimately serve? As professors in the departments of urban environment and digital culture we delve into this question and examine how the metaverse could profoundly change our relationships with urban spaces.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Goldsmiths University of London: Impact of advert music on subconscious revealed. “Unlike previous studies, which only used a few tracks, the new research used an entire database of ad music tracks. This enabled the team to model and quantify the effect of different tracks on people’s subconscious. Drawing on over 600,000 consumer responses, the study found the right music can increase the emotional response to a video by up to 16.4%.” Good afternoon, Internet…

May 21, 2022 at 12:43AM
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Preventable Covid Deaths, Kansas Food Pantries, Missouri Drug Overdose Deaths, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, May 20, 2022

Preventable Covid Deaths, Kansas Food Pantries, Missouri Drug Overdose Deaths, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, May 20, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Fast Company: How many preventable COVID deaths happened in your state? This map will tell you. “As the United States passes the somber milestone of 1 million deaths from COVID-19, a new analysis and interactive dashboard visualizes how many of those deaths didn’t have to happen. The analysis, led by researchers at the Brown School of Public Health, looks at total deaths from the virus in each state and then calculates how much lower the figures would be had the pace of vaccination not slowed down from its peak.”

KSAL: Statewide Website Launched For Food Insecure Households. “According to the Kansas Food Bank, a new website… is designed to help people in need of food assistance find pantry locations in their areas. The website also features a link for help applying for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) or food stamps, along with a link for upcoming summer food sites for children.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Missouri launches data dashboard to track rising drug overdose deaths. “In addition to an online COVID-19 data dashboard showing the seriousness of the pandemic, the state of Missouri has launched another public dashboard to track the increasing number of drug overdose deaths. Drug overdose has become the leading cause of death among Missouri adults age 18 to 44, state health officials say. More than 70% of the deaths involve opioids such as heroin and fentanyl.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: YouTube’s player gains new features including Most Replayed, Video Chapters, Single Loop and more . “YouTube today is launching a new feature designed to help users identify the most popular parts of a video they’re watching, along with other changes for its video player. The company says it’s adding a graph that people can use to easily locate and watch the most replayed parts of a video — something that could be particularly helpful for longer videos or those that haven’t broken down their various sections using either timestamps or video chapters.” I’m a premium YouTube user, so I had access to this feature while it was in testing. Surprisingly useful.

Search Engine Land: Vimeo adds structured data to all public videos to improve Google Search visibility. “Vimeo, a popular video hosting platform (obviously not as popular as YouTube), has added structured data to all of its publicly available videos on its platform. Vimeo said the SEO changes they made to the videos will give ‘your videos the best opportunity to appear for relevant searches.'”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

University of Hawaii News: $350K to digitize decades of Hawaiʻi’s history at ʻUluʻulu. “The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded a $350,000 grant to ʻUluʻulu: The Henry Kuʻualoha Moving Image Archive of Hawaiʻi at the University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu in support of its project titled, ’20th Century Hawaiʻi: Moving Images from Territory to Statehood.’ The project will preserve and make accessible the stories of the Nisei and Hawaiian struggles and achievements through the digitization of audiovisual recordings of oral histories, documentaries, festivals, conferences and live performances.”

Mathrubhumi (India): Go straight, said Google Map; Driver takes family into a stream in Kottayam. “The family from Karnataka was travelling to Alappuzha from Munnar. They relied on Google Maps for directions since the beginning of the journey. When they reached Kuruppanthara Kadavu, the Map recommended going straight. The driver, without noticing the big curve of the road, went straight and ended up in the stream. The car entered the stream even as the locals screamed at the driver but it was no use. As it has been raining in the area, the stream was full of water.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: New York Attorney General to investigate social media platforms after Buffalo shooting. “New York Attorney General Letitia James is launching an investigation into the social media platforms allegedly used by the Buffalo shooting suspect. The probe, disclosed Wednesday by James’ office, focuses on the livestreaming platform Twitch, the messaging service Discord and the websites 4chan and 8chan (now known as 8kun). Other unnamed companies could also be drawn into the investigation, James said.”

The Verge: Anonymous bulletin board app Yik Yak is revealing its users’ exact locations. “Yik Yak, an app that acts as a local anonymous message board, makes it possible to find users’ precise locations and unique IDs, Motherboard reports. A researcher who analyzed Yik Yak data was able to access precise GPS coordinates of where posts and comments came from, accurate within 10 to 15 feet, and says he brought his findings to the company in April.”

Missouri Independent: Appeals court hears arguments over Greitens’ use of self-destructing text message app. “A panel of state appeals court judges heard arguments last week over whether former Gov. Eric Greitens and his staff used self-destructing text-message apps in 2017 to illegally circumvent Missouri’s transparency laws. While Greitens was still serving as governor, it was revealed he and his staff were using a text-messaging app called Confide. The app allows someone to send a text message that vanishes without a trace after it is read. It also prevents anyone from saving, forwarding, printing or taking a screenshot of the message.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Governing: Maps That Can Fight a Housing Crisis. “This is the second installment in a two-part series describing how a constantly evolving mapping technology called geographic information systems (GIS) can be used to improve the two pillars of U.S. urban land use: housing and transportation.”

Utah State University: Poll the Audience: Using Data From Citizen Science to Keep Wild Birds in Flight. “Using the eyes and ears of public volunteers can stretch the reach of science, according to a new analysis from Erica Stuber from the Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center. Stuber and a team of researchers examined the accuracy of information produced by citizen science apps for monitoring bird populations. They compared publicly-produced data with officially tracked numbers from monitoring programs and found that, with some refinement, data from citizen scientists could offer a lot of utility for researchers.” Good morning, Internet…

May 20, 2022 at 05:28PM
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Thursday, May 19, 2022

Serbian-Albanian Relations, North American Freshwater Migratory Fish, Michigan Geography, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, May 19, 2022

Serbian-Albanian Relations, North American Freshwater Migratory Fish, Michigan Geography, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, May 19, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Prishtina Insight: Website Presents Better Side of Serbian-Albanian Relations. “Despite the historically tense relations between Kosovo and Serbia, the new website, ‘Serbian-Albanian Friendship’, focuses on the good sides of this complex relationship. The website is in three languages: Serbian, Albanian and English, and the content mainly comprises material on friendships between Albanians and Serbs, in order to improve relations and cooperate with each other.”

Michigan State University: MSU-led effort spawns creation of new migratory freshwater fish database. “A Michigan State University-led team of scientists has assembled the North American Freshwater Migratory Fish Database, which brings together life history information on 1,250 species to inform conservation practices.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Michigan Tech: Keweenaw Time Traveler Expands Immersive Experience. “The acclaimed Keweenaw Time Traveler (KeTT) is getting a major upgrade. On June 1, the online interactive historical atlas will add 600,000 records across 14 million data variables, an exponential increase from its current 25,000. In addition, KeTT will significantly improve user experience. A newly designed user interface makes it easier to search for information about past people, places and stories.”

The Violin Channel: Tureck Bach Research Institute Finds New Home at Interlochen Center for the Arts. “Michigan’s Interlochen Center for the Arts will now house Rosalyn Tureck’s eight decades of work — including manuscripts of essays, books, correspondence, as well as recordings of her live performances, lectures, and masterclasses. Most notable are her research and performances of Bach’s music.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Sydney Morning Herald: Why is a major Sydney arts festival ‘working with Google’ to offer an unpaid internship?. “The successful candidate will be tasked with assisting in the uploading and cataloguing of more than 500 images and a number of videos to Google Arts & Culture. They will also ‘coordinate and create online stories’ from recorded interviews and quotes from the artists. The work will be completed part-time (eight hours a week), over a three-month period, and the intern will not be paid.”

Inquirer: An urgency to save martial law books. “With Ferdinand Marcos Jr. poised to win the presidential election, a possible purge of books on martial law may happen, a history professor at the University of the Philippines said on Wednesday.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Spain’s News: Data Protection fines Google and Vodafone Spain. “The Spanish Data Protection Agency has issued a resolution fining Google 10 million euros and Vodafone Spain 3.94 million for breaching the General Data Protection Regulations (RGPD). The RGPD is the European regulation related to the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of their personal data and the free circulation thereof.”

Ars Technica: New Bluetooth hack can unlock your Tesla—and all kinds of other devices. “When you use your phone to unlock a Tesla, the device and the car use Bluetooth signals to measure their proximity to each other…. This proximity authentication works on the assumption that the key stored on the phone can only be transmitted when the locked device is within Bluetooth range. Now, a researcher has devised a hack that allows him to unlock millions of Teslas—and countless other devices—even when the authenticating phone or key fob is hundreds of yards or miles away.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Review Geek: Google Took My Money and Canceled My Nest Service. “I should preface all of this with some crucial details. I freely admit I’m partially to blame for the start of the mess. And you should be aware that I used the 1st generation version of Nest Aware, which isn’t offered anymore. But that doesn’t absolve Google of the fact that it has taken my money for my Nest Aware subscription and refuses to provide me that service. Nor does the terrible customer service I received help the situation either.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

The Guardian: ‘We’re fed up with scary dreams’: thieves return temple treasures in India. “Last week, the group stole 16 statues from a 300-year-old temple to Lord Balaji – an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu – in Uttar Pradesh, police inspector Rajiv Singh told Agence France-Presse. On Monday night, they left 14 of them near the house of the temple’s chief priest in Chitrakoot district, he said. ‘They also left behind a confession letter which said they were returning the idols because they were having scary dreams,’ Singh said. The note begged for forgiveness.” Good afternoon, Internet…

May 20, 2022 at 12:36AM
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Heritage Solidarity Fellowship for Ukraine, Prank Call Hacktivism, A New Dima Maleev Meme Collection, More: Ukraine Update, May 19, 2022

Heritage Solidarity Fellowship for Ukraine, Prank Call Hacktivism, A New Dima Maleev Meme Collection, More: Ukraine Update, May 19, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Europa Nostra: Heritage Solidarity Fellowship for Ukraine – Call for Applications. “On International Museum Day, Europa Nostra and Global Heritage Fund, in partnership with ALIPH and with the vital collaboration of the Heritage Emergency Response Initiative (HERI), are launching the Heritage Solidarity Fellowship for Ukraine. The aim of this scheme is to provide much-needed support to heritage professionals in Ukraine who are currently facing hardships.”

WIRED: This Hacktivist Site Lets You Prank-Call Russian Officials. “Visit the site, click a button, and it will cycle through a leaked list of Russian government, military, and intelligence phone numbers to connect two random Russian officials—and allow the site’s visitor to silently listen in as those officials waste their time trying to figure out why they’re speaking to each other and who initiated the call.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ukrainian YouTuber Dima Maleev has a new compilation of Ukraine war-related memes at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWOkO0G6cv0. Memes covered in this video include Denys Shmyhal’s looks, Angelina Jolie visiting Ukraine, Russia propaganda (“Hui budesh”), Russian vocabulary (“cotton”), and May 9th.

Meduza: Deal or no deal? Yandex is looking to sell Russian assets, sources tell Meduza. The company says otherwise. . “Internet giant Yandex is looking for buyers for its Russian assets Yandex Search, Yandex.Mail, and the movie database Kinopoisk, a source close to the company’s co-founder Arkady Volozh told Meduza. This was corroborated by another source close to the company’s management.”

CTech: Yandex wants to move its headquarters to Israel but has some conditions . “Arkady Volozh, one of the founders of Yandex, wrote to the Israeli Prime Minister and three ministers telling them that he has decided to move the company’s headquarters to Tel Aviv. He is seeking special conditions for the company’s non-Israeli workers as he attempts to move the ‘Russian Google’ away from Russia and the sanctions.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CNN: Pro-Russia online operatives falsely claimed Zelensky committed suicide in an effort to sway public opinion, cybersecurity firm says. “Pro-Russia online operatives falsely claimed weeks into Moscow’s war against Ukraine that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had committed suicide, as part of an aggressive effort to dent public morale and undermine the Ukrainian government, US cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Thursday.”

Navy Recognition: United Kingdom to supply the Ukrainian Forces with cargo drones. “According to information published by Dott Fanculo on May 4, 2022, the United Kingdom will supply the Ukrainian Forces with Maloy T150 drones capable of delivering cargo, or weapons to the front line.”

Washington Post: China cut tech exports to Russia after U.S.-led sanctions hit. “Chinese technology exports to Russia plummeted in March after U.S.-led sanctions took effect, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Tuesday, calling it a sign of Beijing’s wariness about violating the trade prohibitions.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Google’s Russian Subsidiary Files for Bankruptcy -Document. “The Russian subsidiary of Alphabet Inc’s Google has filed for insolvency, according to a message posted on Russia’s official registry Fedresurs on Wednesday.”

CityAM: Google’s Russian bank account seized as Big Tech crack down continues. “Russian authorities have seized Google’s Russian bank account, making it impossible for its Russian office to function, the tech giant revealed today. It comes after Google’s Russian subsidiary declared its intention to file for bankruptcy.”

WIRED: The US Plan to Document War Crimes in Ukraine. “The newly established Conflict Observatory will use open source investigation techniques and satellite imagery to monitor the conflict in Ukraine and collect evidence of possible war crimes. Outside organizations and international investigators would be able access the resulting database, a US State Department spokesperson confirmed in an email.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Center for European Policy Analysis: Russian Propagandists Regain Footing on Ukraine. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stunned not only the world, but apparently the Kremlin’s own propaganda machine. For weeks after the invasion, state-run media outlets aimed at the outside world struggled to construct a coherent explanation of why the country had sent more than 100,000 troops to attack a smaller neighbor which had done it no visible harm. Now, however, the machine has recovered, becoming more coherent and persuasive, especially in the developing world. How can democratic forces confront these efforts, and maintain broad opposition to the Kremlin’s actions?”

May 19, 2022 at 08:18PM
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Meroë Pyramids, US Military Budgeting, EU Energy-Efficient Products, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, May 19, 2022

Meroë Pyramids, US Military Budgeting, EU Energy-Efficient Products, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, May 19, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Google Blog: Step into the Meroë pyramids with Google. “Today, you can explore these stunning pyramids, which are a UNESCO World Heritage site, on Google Arts & Culture. Over 200 pyramids were constructed in Meroë, the third and final capital of the Kushite Kingdom, an ancient African civilization that ruled the lands of Nubia for over 3000 years. Now you can take a virtual walk through the Pyramids of Meroë and explore the inscriptions using Street View’s panoramic imagery.”

Congressional Budget Office: CBO Releases an Improved Interactive Tool for Analyzing the Military’s Forces and Resources . “The enhanced tool allows users to alter the overall defense budget (annually or in total for 10 years) to see the possible effects on military forces; or to add or subtract brigades, ships, aircraft squadrons, and other units to see the effects on the defense budget; or to explore any combination of those approaches. It shows estimated effects on the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) costs and on the size of the military.”

European Commission: Commission launches EPREL database to help consumers on energy efficient products. “A new EU-wide public database enabling consumers to compare the energy efficiency class and other data about different household products has been launched by the European Commission this week. With detailed information on well over 1 million products, the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling (EPREL) breaks new ground in helping EU consumers become more energy efficient.”

EVENTS

Creative Commons: Virtual Workshop Recap: Towards Better Sharing of Cultural Heritage. “We are developing our first ever CC Open Culture Guide for Policymakers to address the copyright barriers to universal access and reuse of knowledge and culture faced by GLAMs. To initiate this process, we held an interactive virtual workshop for policy experts and open culture enthusiasts to explore key policy issues and gather insights into how to effectively engage policy makers in our work.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NPR: The military’s UFO database now has info from about 400 reported incidents. “A database of reports of UFOs now includes about 400 incidents, up from 143 assessed in a report released about a year ago, a Navy intelligence official told lawmakers at a congressional hearing on Tuesday.”

WordPress: WordPress 6.0 Release Candidate 3 (RC3) Now Available for Testing. “WordPress 6.0 is scheduled for release next week on May 24, 2022! This RC3 release is the final opportunity for you to test and help contribute to making the 6.0 release great.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Associated Press: Thai archival find may resolve fate of missing WWII US flyer. “In 2011, massive floods that hit the country inundated Thailand’s Air Force Museum in Bangkok. There was concern its archives might be damaged by mold. Retired Thai Air Chief Marshal Sakpinit Promthep, who indulged his passion for Second World War history by working part-time in the archival section, spent months afterward going through its files one by one to check their condition. That’s how he found himself looking at a faded document from a musty, dusty folder. It was a handwritten police officer’s report dated November 1944. It detailed the crash of a U.S. P-38 plane, reported to have been struck by lightning during a storm.”

Reuters: Twitter’s account of deal shows Musk signing without asking for more info. “Twitter Inc published its account on Tuesday of its deal negotiations with Elon Musk, showing he opted out of asking the questions about the social media company’s business he has now cited in declaring the $44 billion acquisition is ‘on hold.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Quint World: Anonymous Attempts To Help Sri Lankans but Instead Leaks Data of Thousands. “Accounts connected with the group have since claimed to have targeted the websites of the Sri Lanka Police, the Ceylon Electricity Board, and the Health Ministry, primarily using distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. While their campaign against the government has largely been ineffective, they have released data of thousands of ordinary Sri Lankan citizens that could leave them vulnerable to cybercrimes.”

Motherboard: Data Marketplace Selling Info About Who Uses Period Tracking Apps. “To be clear, data for sale on Narrative does not include specific information about women’s menstrual cycles. It is information on what devices downloaded a specific app. If a third party wanted to identify who used a certain family planning or period tracking app, the data for sale on Narrative would be a potential first step towards doing that.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Library of Congress: Datasets as Primary Sources, Part II. “This post was written by Peter DeCraene, a 2021-22 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the Library of Congress. This is part 2 of an ongoing occasional series about using datasets as primary sources.”

SparkToro: SparkToro & Followerwonk Joint Twitter Analysis: 19.42% of Active Accounts Are Fake or Spam. “From May 13-15, 2022, SparkToro and Followerwonk conducted a rigorous, joint analysis of five datasets including a variety of active (i.e. tweeting) and non-active accounts. The analysis we believe to be most compelling uses 44,058 public Twitter accounts active in the last 90 days. These accounts were randomly selected, by machine, from a set of 130+ million public, active profiles. Our analysis found that 19.42%, nearly four times Twitter’s Q4 2021 estimate, fit a conservative definition of fake or spam accounts (i.e. our analysis likely undercounts).” Good morning, Internet…

May 19, 2022 at 05:34PM
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