New researches

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

McKinsey Opioid Consulting, Forensic Research Library, Smartphone AI, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, July 5, 2022

McKinsey Opioid Consulting, Forensic Research Library, Smartphone AI, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, July 5, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Johns Hopkins University: New documents show McKinsey’s role in fueling opioid epidemic. “The Opioid Industry Documents Archive, a project of Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, San Francisco, today released more than 114,000 documents related to McKinsey & Company’s work as a management consulting firm for the opioid industry over a 15-year period. The documents show how McKinsey advised opioid makers Purdue Pharma, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, and Mallinckrodt to help them increase sales, despite the growing public outcry over the opioid epidemic.”

Big thanks to Jeffrey T for bringing this to my attention. Florida International University: FIU launches open-access Forensic Research Library. “Florida International University (FIU) has launched a first-of-its-kind resource for forensic science practitioners, students, researchers, and the general public. The Research Forensic Library provides access to thousands of articles and reports in the scientific literature, a critical step in the forward momentum required of forensic science and its varied applications.”

USEFUL STUFF

New York Times: Use That Everyday A.I. in Your Pocket. “Virtual assistants usually hog the spotlight when it comes to talk of artificial intelligence software on smartphones and tablets. But Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Samsung’s Bixby and company aren’t the only tools using machine learning to make life easier — other common programs use the technology, too. Here’s a quick tour through some common A.I.-driven apps and how you can manage them.”

MakeUseOf: 6 Truly Free Online Image Editors for Photoshop Effects (No Limitations). “Plenty of free image editors online do wondrous things like remove backgrounds from photos or upscale picture sizes. But usually, these have some restrictions. You’ll find limitations like only editing five images in the free account or exporting images at a really low resolution. So we set out to find free online image editors with no restrictions or limitations that don’t affect a normal user.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Washington Post: One woman dominated a local fair’s food contest. The internet went looking for her. “The competition at the Virginia-Kentucky District Fair began innocently enough when a woman named Linda Skeens entered her many baked treats, canned goods and other items for the judged contest. Then she won — and she won huge. The fair posted a list of winners on Facebook showing that Skeens dominated the June 13 competition, winning more than 25 of 80 contest categories. That’s when things took on a life of their own. Her online fans wanted to find her.”

Houston Chronicle: Chinese posed as Texans on social media to attack rival companies. “An English-language social media propaganda effort that previously criticized Hong Kong protesters and other foes of the Chinese government and has been linked to China has taken the rare step of going after private companies in a strategic industry, researchers said Tuesday.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Google targeted in fresh EU consumer groups’ privacy complaints. “Alphabet unit Google has been targeted by a French consumer group and its peers in complaints to privacy watchdogs over its vast trove of users’ personal data harvested via their Google accounts, European consumer organisation BEUC said on Thursday. In addition to the French consumer group, others in Greece, the Czech Republic, Norway and Slovenia have taken their gripes to their data protection authorities, BEUC said.”

Springfield News-Leader: Missouri court documents will be available online to anyone starting next summer. “Rule changes announced by the Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday will allow anyone to access public court records through the state judiciary’s online database, Case.net, starting on July 1, 2023. Currently, only summaries of cases are available online; to access documents and other filings, you need to find a public access terminal at your nearest courthouse.”

KPVI: Open records bill would mean major changes for Pennsylvania ‘state related’ universities. “Senate Bill 488 would require state-related universities (University of Pittsburgh and Temple, Penn State, and Lincoln universities) to disclose salary, budget, and contract information in a user-friendly online database. Donor privacy would be unaffected and remain confidential. The bill passed first consideration in the Senate State Government Committee on Tuesday. If it’s signed into law, it would align Pennsylvania’s transparency rules with the majority of other states.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CNET: Twitter Could Take These Steps to Slow Viral Misinformation, Researchers Say. “Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are rife with misinformation that can easily go viral. One study looked at millions of tweets and found that a handful of steps could be taken to slow the spread of false information on Twitter.”

NASA: NASA Selects 5 Proposals to Provide New Insights from Openly Available Data in the Physical Sciences Informatics System. “Researchers will investigate important problems with existing data from NASA’s Physical Sciences Informatics (PSI) system. The online database contains data from completed physical science reduced-gravity flight experiments conducted on the International Space Station, Space Shuttle flights, free flying spacecraft, commercial cargo flights to and from the space station, or from related ground-based studies.”

TechXplore: Study finds toxicity in the open-source community varies from other internet forums. “A team of researchers from the Institute for Software Research (ISR) in Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science recently collaborated with colleagues at Wesleyan University to take a first pass at understanding toxicity on open-source platforms like GitHub.” Good morning, Internet…

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July 5, 2022 at 05:33PM
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Monday, July 4, 2022

Oregon Mental Health, Working Lands for Wildlife, Seabed 2030, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 4, 2022

Oregon Mental Health, Working Lands for Wildlife, Seabed 2030, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 4, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

KGW8: Oregon Department of Education launches website addressing mental health. “School may be out but students’ mental health needs are still front and center for a lot of educators and parents after such a tough couple years. Now there’s a new resource to help identify ways to help young people who are struggling. The Oregon Department of Education launched a new website called Oregon Classroom WISE this week to help people better address mental health issues in kids, teens and school staff.”

USDA: Working Lands for Wildlife Launches Literature Gateway. “USDA just launched a new research and visualization tool that summarizes published scientific research on bird species-vegetation relationships in the Eastern and Boreal Forests of North America. The tool, Literature Gateway: A Systematic Map of Bird-Vegetation Relationships in Eastern and Boreal Forests, can be used to identify science-need gaps and guide habitat restoration and forest management practices on the ground.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: Almost a quarter of the ocean floor is now mapped. “Roughly 25 percent (23.4 percent to be exact) of the Earth’s sea floor has been mapped, thanks to an international initiative known as Seabed 2030. Relying largely on voluntary contributions of bathymetric data (or ocean topography) by governments, companies and research institutions, the project is part of a larger UN-led initiative called The Ocean Decade.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times Magazine: The Accidental Media Critics of YouTube. “Even in a world with no gatekeepers and limited moderation, a certain savvy will assert itself. YouTube even has its equivalents of tabloids and trade publications, covering salacious online drama or niche interests. But it’s the commentary YouTubers in particular who have become, in some cases, as popular as the stars they react to, leading to strange conflicts between fame and critical integrity — plus literal run-ins in the influencer-infested studios of Los Angeles.”

New Indian Express: ASI faces uphill task of cataloguing and preserving piles of its archival treasure . “The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has started an uphill task to catalogue and preserve piles of archival records lying in disarray in its offices across states. Historical documents are being searched through and evaluated to fast-track the setting up of the Archive Division at ASI headquarters in Delhi.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Free smartphone stalkerware detection tool gets dedicated hub. “Kaspersky has launched a new information hub to help with their open-source stalkerware detection tool named TinyCheck, created in 2019 to help people detect if their devices are being monitored. Stalkerware is software explicitly created to spy on people via their smartphones by monitoring their whereabouts, communications, photos, browsing history, and more.”

Washington Post: You scheduled an abortion. Planned Parenthood’s website could tell Facebook.. “The Supreme Court’s decision last week overturning the nationwide right to an abortion in the United States may have sent worried people flooding to Planned Parenthood’s website to learn about nearby clinics or schedule services. But if they used the organization’s online scheduling tool, it appears Planned Parenthood could share people’s location — and, in some cases, even the method of abortion they selected — with big tech companies.”

The Verge: New York denies air permit to Bitcoin mining power plant. “Bitcoin miners in New York state faced a regulatory blow today as the state denied air permits for a gas-fired power plant used to mine Bitcoin. It’s the latest step that New York has taken to crack down on crypto mining as it tries to meet its goals on climate change.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Pew (PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!): The Metaverse in 2040 . “Hype? Hope? Hell? Maybe all three. Experts are split about the likely evolution of a truly immersive ‘metaverse.’ They expect that augmented- and mixed-reality enhancements will become more useful in people’s daily lives. Many worry that current online problems may be magnified if Web3 development is led by those who built today’s dominant web platforms.”

Ars Technica: Smart contact lens prototype puts a Micro LED display on top of the eye. “Since 2015, a California-based company called Mojo Vision has been developing smart contact lenses. Like smart glasses, the idea is to put helpful AR graphics in front of your eyes to help accomplish daily tasks. Now, a functioning prototype brings us closer to seeing a final product.” Good afternoon, Internet…

July 5, 2022 at 12:18AM
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Moral Majority Collection, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Historical North Carolina, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, July 4, 2022

Moral Majority Collection, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Historical North Carolina, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, July 4, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

JSTOR: The Moral Majority: Collection of Primary Sources. “The Moral Majority collection, curated by Liberty University, contains materials generated during the ten years the organization was in existence. These include fundraising appeals, radio broadcast transcripts, issues of Moral Majority Report and the Liberty Report newsletter, theological statements by Elmer L. Towns (then Dean of Liberty Baptist Seminary), and diverse policy documents.”

National Museum of Industrial History: Museum Receives Grant To Digitize Bethlehem Steel Photo Collection. “Dozens of industrial photographers were employed by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation to capture iron and steelmaking activities in the plants, in the mines, on construction projects, in maritime and rail industries, and inside the largest steelmaking research and development facility in the world, at one time. This digitized collection is the result of a two year long process of identifying and selecting negatives, in an aim to represent the full extent of corporate operations during the first three quarters of the 20th century.”

State Archives of North Carolina: New Digital Collection: Revolutionary War Era. “The Digital Access Branch of the State Archives of North Carolina is pleased to announce the newest collection in the North Carolina Digital Collections, the Revolutionary War Era…. The Revolutionary War Era digital collection consists primarily of court records, legal documents, correspondence, reports, and journals from selected government and private collections.”

San Francisco Chronicle: Lost landmarks of the Bay Area. “In a city that has gone to war against sugary sodas, residents still took the 2020 loss of a Coca-Cola billboard hard, like someone was tearing down one of the Painted Ladies. When the Cliff House sign was removed — the art deco sign, not the actual Cliff House — hundreds arrived to mourn. So we’re building a virtual museum, tracking the most prominent lost landmarks of the last 50 years (including, sadly, more than a few that came down during the pandemic).”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

UNESCO: UNESCO welcomes the signing of a historic agreement between Germany and Nigeria for the return of 1,130 Benin bronzes . “The declaration goes beyond a mere restitution and provides for ambitious cultural cooperation. Under the terms of the declaration, Germany is expected to participate in archaeological exploration work, provide training for Nigerian museum staff, help build a new museum in Benin and return looted Benin Bronzes from German museum collections, while promoting international travelling and joint exhibitions.”

Bing Blogs: New Bing Map Experiences: Distance Calculator, Gas Prices and Parking Finder. “Let’s take a little trip. It is raining in Seattle today (surprise, surprise), so we have decided to head to San Diego for the weekend as the weather should be better there. The first thing we want to do is figure out how far it is from Seattle to San Diego, as well as find nearby gas stations with an easy map experience. We’ve heard the drive is beautiful, especially along the Oregon coast, so let’s calculate the driving distance using the Bing Maps Distance Calculator.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: How to Take Incredible Fireworks Photos Using a Smartphone: 10 Tips. “Smartphone photography is a convenient way to get great photos without being weighed down with a heavy and bulky DSLR. You might think you need a professional camera setup to get amazing fireworks shots, but the camera in the palm of your hand is good enough. By using these smartphone photography tips, you can enjoy any fireworks display and get great photos without dragging a large camera bag along with you. Let’s jump right in.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times: A News Revolution for Young People Takes Root in France. “With 1.6 million subscribers on his main channel on YouTube, 2 million followers on Instagram and 2.4 million on TikTok, HugoDécrypte has become a leading news source for young French people. Mr. Travers has interviewed Bill Gates, President Emmanuel Macron of France and 10 of the 12 candidates in the country’s presidential election this year. His success, which has spawned several imitators, comes as interest in the news among young French people has fallen to the lowest level in 20 years, according to one poll.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Read Max: What’s the deal with all those weird wrong-number texts?. “Over the next several months, alongside the spam calls and texts, I kept getting mysterious wrong-number texts, all of them clearly from scammers, but without an obvious angle. Nevertheless, they shared with the original charity-gala text a literary sense of narrative tension.”

NBC New York: NY Says Google Maps Search Is Sending Abortion Seekers to Anti-Abortion Clinics Instead. “New York Attorney General Letitia James is calling on Google to correct search results she says are directing abortion seekers to dangerous and misleading anti-abortion clinics in the state, her latest action to shore up abortion rights in the Empire State.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: I watched hundreds of flat-Earth videos to learn how conspiracy theories spread. “By studying how flat Earthers talk about their beliefs, we can learn how they make their arguments engaging to their audience, and in turn, learn what makes disinformation spread online. In a recent study, my colleague Tomas Nilsson at Linnaeus University and I analysed hundreds of YouTube videos in which people argue that the Earth is flat. We paid attention to their debating techniques to understand the structure of their arguments and how they make them appear rational.”

The Hindu: India adds 540 species to its faunal database, 315 taxa to its flora in 2021. “India added 540 species to its faunal database in 2021 taking the total number of animal species to 1,03,258. The country also added 315 taxa to the Indian flora during 2021, taking the number of floral taxa in the country to 55,048. Of the 540 faunal species, 406 are new discoveries and 134 new records to India. Thirteen new genera were also discovered in 2021. Among the new species discovered is one species from mammal, 35 reptiles and 19 species of pisces.” Good morning, Internet…

July 4, 2022 at 05:29PM
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Sunday, July 3, 2022

Armenians of Whitinsville, Raspberry Pi Pico, YouTube, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 3, 2022

Armenians of Whitinsville, Raspberry Pi Pico, YouTube, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 3, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Armenian Mirror-Spectator: Armenians of Whitinsville Website Unveiled at Project SAVE Webinar. “On June 16, Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archive delved into the world of Whitinsville, a small town in central Massachusetts with one of the oldest Armenian communities in the state. This presentation was cosponsored by the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research and the Armenian Cultural Center.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

ReviewGeek: New Raspberry Pi Pico W Adds Wi-Fi and Costs $6. “Now available for just $6, the Raspberry Pi Pico W uses an Infineon CYW43439 wireless chip for Wi-Fi support. This enables wireless internet support, which is particularly useful for IoT projects. Notably, the CYW43439 chip also supports Bluetooth 5.2 and Bluetooth LE, though these features aren’t enabled at launch.”

Engadget: YouTube introduces new tools to battle comment spam and account imitators. “YouTube is enacting more measures in its battle to cut down on comment spam and channel impersonation. Creators now have access to a new setting for comments in YouTube Studio. They’ll be able to select an ‘increase strictness’ option. YouTube says this builds on the ‘hold potentially inappropriate comments for review’ setting and will reduce the number of spam and identity abuse comments.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

African News Agency: Seychelles’ National Archives To Be Housed In A New Building Soon, SINCHA Says. “The Seychelles National Institute for Culture, Heritage and the Arts (SINCHA) is looking for an alternative place to house the country’s National Archives following the announcement recently that it will no longer be in the same building as the National Library.”

Texas Exes: Digital Archive at the Ransom Center Shows How the Theatre Industry Made It Through the Pandemic. “March 12, 2020, was the night the lights went out on Broadway. The curtain came down on London’s West End a few days later. By the end of the month, theatres large and small all over the world had shuttered due to COVID-19. No one knew how long the virus would keep seats empty. But Eric Colleary was busy. His phone was ringing off the hook with calls from theatre artists across the county. They wanted to know: How had previous generations of thespians dealt with such situations? Could the past help them understand how to respond to this present crisis?”

SECURITY & LEGAL

MakeUseOf: What Is Leakware? Here’s What You Need to Know. “Leakware attackers will threaten to release the confidential information they’ve stolen from the victim(s) if their demands are not met. These demands are usually financial and come in the form of a typical ransom (which is why leakware is a kind of ransomware). Leakware attackers will often ensure that the data they steal is highly sensitive to put as much pressure on the victim as possible.”

CNN: Descendant of enslaved people can sue Harvard University over photos of half-naked ancestors, state supreme court rules. “Massachusetts’ highest court has ruled that a woman claiming to be the descendant of enslaved people can proceed with some of the claims in her lawsuit against Harvard University. The June 23 ruling from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court allows Tamara Lanier to seek damages from Harvard for mistreating her when using photographs of her ancestors — images known as daguerreotypes.”

Reuters: Crypto crash threatens North Korea’s stolen funds as it ramps up weapons tests. “The nosedive in cryptocurrency markets has wiped out millions of dollars in funds stolen by North Korean hackers, four digital investigators say, threatening a key source of funding for the sanctions-stricken country and its weapons programmes. North Korea has poured resources into stealing cryptocurrencies in recent years, making it a potent hacking threat and leading to one of the largest cryptocurrency heists on record in March, in which almost $615 million was stolen, according to the U.S. Treasury.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

BBC: National Sample Survey: How India taught the world the art of collecting data. “Indian data is staring at a credibility crisis with official numbers on a range of subjects – from Covid deaths to jobs – being questioned by independent experts. But not too long ago, the country was seen as a world leader in data collection, writes author and historian Nikhil Menon.”

CNET: The World’s Biggest NFT Festival vs. the Crypto Crash of 2022. “This year’s convention, the fourth ever, took place from June 21 to 23, amid the biggest crypto market crash in years. It’s a crucial time for the burgeoning industry, and not just because of crypto’s collapse. We’re in the gestation period of NFTs evolving from blockchain oddities to real-life entertainment brands. Events like NFT.NYC give ‘Web3’ teams a chance to prove that NFT culture can produce more than scams and that legitimate companies creating real products can be built in this space.” Or not. Good afternoon, Internet…

July 4, 2022 at 12:49AM
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British Columbia Geoscience, Virginia Firearm Injuries, Eugene Oregon, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, July 3, 2022

British Columbia Geoscience, Virginia Firearm Injuries, Eugene Oregon, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, July 3, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Geoscience BC: Mining Geoscience Data to Put It on the Map. “Data for hundreds more mineral exploration and development reports in British Columbia can now be searched by location for the first time, thanks to a new Geoscience BC minerals project.”

Virginia Department of Health: Virginia Department of Health Launches Firearm Injuries in Virginia: Emergency Department Visits Dashboard. “Today, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) launched a new data dashboard on firearm injuries in Virginia showing the number and rate of emergency department (ED) visits from 2016 to 2022. The dashboard shows firearm injury data by year, health district, age group, sex, and race/ethnicity across Virginia.”

KGW: Historians document Oregon’s unique ‘lesbian mecca’. “A new living history archive is now online to show a unique slice of Oregon life. The ‘Outliers and Outlaws’ project showcases communities of lesbians who made Eugene and southern Oregon home in the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

James Webb Space Telescope: How To See Webb’s First Images! . “The public release of Webb’s first images and spectra is July 12 – now less than two weeks away! The Webb team has confirmed that that 15 out of 17 instrument modes are ready for science, with just two more still to go. As we near the end of commissioning, we wanted to let you know where you can see the first Webb science data and how to participate in the celebration of Webb science!”

VentureBeat: Google announces big update to Password Manager . “Today, Google released a blog post announcing some key changes to Password Manager. The new changes will enable users who have multiple passwords for the same sites or apps, to automatically group them on Chrome and Android devices.”

USEFUL STUFF

Search Engine Land: 11 Google Sheets formulas SEOs should know. “While it’s not great at plotting ranking data (inverting the y-axis is always ugly), there are numerous ways to use Google Sheets for SEO. Here are 11 of the formulas and tips I find myself using for SEO on an almost daily basis – for keyword management, internationalization, content/URL management and dashboards.” Just ignore the SEO part. This is an excellent roundup of Google Sheets functions with quick, digestible examples.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Motor1: Ford Ends Print, Digital New Vehicle Brochures Starting July 1. “New vehicle brochures have been a staple in the auto industry for decades, but that long tradition could be coming to an end at Ford starting July 1. The automaker is reportedly ending the creation of brochures in both print and digital format, leaving Ford’s official website as the only source for current vehicle information.”

Rest of World: Diaspora communities reframe history, one Instagram post at a time. “Marwan Kaabour has always been a collector. The London-based designer traces the hobby back to his childhood in Beirut, Lebanon. ‘Perhaps the most serious collection was an insanely well-organized collection of Spice Girls merchandise,’ he remembers with a laugh. Today, Kaabour is collecting photographs, video clips, and other rare visual media on the Instagram account Takweer, a digital archive with 16,000 followers that maps the intersections of queerness and Arab history.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: Billing fraud apps can disable Android Wi-Fi and intercept text messages. “Android malware developers are stepping up their billing fraud game with apps that disable Wi-Fi connections, surreptitiously subscribe users to pricey wireless services, and intercept text messages, all in a bid to collect hefty fees from unsuspecting users, Microsoft said on Friday.”

WIRED: Young Thug and What Happens When Prosecutors Use Social Media. “YOUNG THUG AND Gunna are two of music’s most prolific, playful talents. Despite their mainstream rap stardom, they remain unafraid to shape-shift. For years now, by force of will and pure joy, they have kept the radio interesting. On May 11 they were arrested and charged in Georgia’s Fulton County Superior Court with conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.”

TechCrunch: Amazon agrees to drop Prime cancellation ‘dark patterns’ in Europe. “Amazon has agreed to simplify the process required for cancelling its Prime membership subscription service across its sites in the European Union, both on desktop and mobile interfaces, following a series of complaints from regional consumer protection groups. The coordinated complaints about Amazon’s confusing and convoluted cancellation process for Prime were announced back in April 2021 — so it’s taken just over a year for the e-commerce giant to agree to change its ways.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Washington Post: Okay, Google: To protect women, collect less data about everyone. “A search for ‘Plan B,’ a ping to Google Maps at an abortion clinic or even a message you send about taking a pregnancy test could all become criminal evidence. There is something Google could do about this: stop collecting — and start deleting — data that could be used to prosecute abortions. Yet so far, Google and other Big Tech companies have committed to few product changes that might endanger their ability to profit off our personal lives. Nor have they publicly committed to how they might fight legal demands related to prosecuting abortions.” Google has announced that it will be deleting some location data. Good morning, Internet…

July 3, 2022 at 05:27PM
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Saturday, July 2, 2022

Wolfram Language / Mathematica, Twitch, Reverse Phone Number Lookup, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 2, 2022

Wolfram Language / Mathematica, Twitch, Reverse Phone Number Lookup, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 2, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Stephen Wolfram Blog: Launching Version 13.1 of Wolfram Language & Mathematica . “In recent years we’ve established something of a rhythm, delivering the fruits of our development efforts roughly twice a year. We released Version 13.0 on December 13, 2021. And now, roughly six months later, we’re releasing Version 13.1. As usual, even though it’s a ‘.1’ release, it’s got a lot of new (and updated) functionality, some of which we’ve worked on for many years but finally now brought to fruition.”

TechCrunch: Twitch’s new Guest Star mode will let anyone turn their stream into a talk show . “Twitch wants to make it easier for creators to pull guests into their livestreams, talk show-style — and everybody gets to be a creator. The company is announcing Guest Star, a new feature that will tie into existing streaming software, allowing stream hosts to bring up to five guests into a stream and swap them in and out fluidly.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 7 Sites to Identify the Owner of a Phone Number. “Phone numbers are a little like fingerprints; they can reveal a lot about a person, for example, their name or where they live. If you received a call from a number you don’t recognize, the following resources can help you identify the caller before you ring them back. One option even calls the number for you.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Boing Boing: YouTube removes criticism of dangerous fractal wood burning instructions, but leaves up the lethal tips. “It is extraordinarily dangerous, and dozens of people have been killed following instructions contained in viral videos. Ann Reardon recently posted a thorough debunking of the method, which quickly became popular in its own right… But YouTube has removed Reardon’s video, claiming it is harmful and dangerous—while leaving up fractal wood burning videos demonstrating methods that have killed, at latest count, 34 people in America.”

Digital Library of Georgia: Digital Library of Georgia Awards Digitization Subgrants to 6 Georgia Cultural Heritage Institutions Across the State. “The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) announced today the 6 recipients of its 10th set of digitization service awards. Among the awardees are four new partners. Awardee projects include documentation of the Augusta Jewish community and Evans County African American genealogical materials.”

9to5 Google: ‘Google Public Sector’ is a new subsidiary focused on US government, education. “Google today is home to two divisions that have their own CEOs: Cloud and YouTube. ‘Google Public Sector’ was announced today as a ‘new Google division that will focus on helping U.S. public sector institutions.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: Deadly Abortion Misinformation Rings Alarm Bells for Doctors, TikTok. “TikTok and other social media platforms are attempting to clamp down on posts highlighting certain toxic herbs that some say might stop a pregnancy, as doctors sound the alarm over their potentially fatal effects for the person taking them.”

Protocol: How lax social media policies help fuel a prescription drug boom. “The U.S. is almost alone in embracing direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisements. Nations as disparate as Saudi Arabia, France and China all find common ground in banning such ads. In fact, of all developed nations, only New Zealand joins the U.S. in giving pharmaceutical companies a direct line to consumers. As it so happens, Americans are also highly medicated.”

The New Times (Rwanda): Activists renew call to return UN court archives to Rwanda. “Following the appointment of the new president of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), activists have renewed call to bring to Rwanda physical archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).”

RESEARCH & OPINION

WIRED: DALL-E Mini Is the Internet’s Favorite AI Meme Machine. “The outwardly simple app, which generates nine images in response to any typed text prompt, was launched nearly a year ago by an independent developer. But after some recent improvements and a few viral tweets, its ability to crudely sketch all manner of surreal, hilarious, and even nightmarish visions suddenly became meme magic.” Good afternoon, Internet…

July 3, 2022 at 01:06AM
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A Queer Eye on Art History, Oregon Wildfire Risk, Mapping U.S. Broadband, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, July 2, 2022

A Queer Eye on Art History, Oregon Wildfire Risk, Mapping U.S. Broadband, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, July 2, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Google Blog: A Queer Eye on Art History with Google Arts & Culture. “In honor of Pride Month and beyond, and in collaboration with over 60 cultural institutions, Google Arts & Culture presents the “A Queer Eye on Art History” hub. It’s a place where you can explore archives and collections to celebrate LGBTQIA+ lives and art and dive into more than 20 newly curated stories, new collections from partners, and much more.”

KVAL: New map details Oregon wildfire risk. “Oregonians have a new tool to help track wildfire risk across the state, in the form of a new online map. The map, announced Thursday by the Oregon Department of Forestry, illustrates the risk of wildfire with color-coded risk levels that range from low (green) to high (red).”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

FCC: Status Update: Mapping Where Broadband Is—and Is Not—Available in the U.S.. “For as long as people have been talking about the digital divide, there have been complaints that we lack detailed maps to tell us exactly where broadband is—and is not—available…. Congress took up this challenge in March 2020 when it passed the Broadband DATA Act instructing the FCC to create a publicly accessible, data-based nationwide map of where fixed and mobile broadband is truly available throughout the United States…. Over the past 18 months, we’ve been doing that work and making a lot of progress. I wanted to give people a brief of the latest key developments.”

Tom’s Guide: Google Docs just got a big upgrade to help you ditch Office. “Google Docs is getting the ability to edit Microsoft Office documents while offline, essentially paving the way for you to fully ditch any reliance on Microsoft’s productivity software.”

USEFUL STUFF

MIT Technology Review: How to track your period safely post-Roe. “The fear is that in the hands of law enforcement, this data could be used to bolster a criminal case against a person who attempts to get an abortion in a state where it is restricted or banned. Understandably, a lot of people are scared and confused. So here’s our guide to what you need to know about period-tracking apps, what the apps’ makers say about their often murky privacy policies, and what alternative methods you can use to track your menstrual cycle that don’t involve handing your data over.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Slate: Being a Therapist on Social Media Can Be a Little Traumatic. “Since the dawn of the pandemic, mental health content creators have flourished across social media, especially TikTok and Instagram. But they aren’t all equal. Creators with questionable qualifications and intentions have proliferated too, sharing dubious information, outlining symptoms, suggesting that various behaviors indicate all manner of DSM diagnoses, and at times even proffering treatments.”

Mashable: TikTokkers are hiding their deepest insecurities in product requests. “The whiplash between the question and the following vulnerability doesn’t only create a safe space for users to share their thoughts, but it also mimics the way we hold these fears with us at all times. These anxieties can pop up at any moment whether we are browsing for a new sunscreen or scrolling on TikTok. Sharing these kinds of fears online isn’t new. People are always using the internet to find people they relate to and to feel less alone, but the trend allows for a different approach.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Canada .com: Google to pay $90 mln to settle legal fight with app developers. “Alphabet Inc’s Google has agreed to pay $90 million to settle a legal fight with app developers over the money they earned creating apps for Android smartphones and for enticing users to make in-app purchases, according to a court filing.”

Ars Technica: FCC says it closed a loophole that many robocallers used to evade blocking. “Large voice providers were required to implement STIR/SHAKEN a year ago. But there was an exemption for carriers with 100,000 or fewer customers that would have given those smaller companies until June 30, 2023, to comply. The FCC voted in December to move that deadline up to June 30, 2022, because small phone companies were apparently carrying a disproportionately high number of illegal robocalls.”

Engadget: Cyberattack impacts unemployment benefits in several states. “A cyberattack on a third-party vendor has impacted employment services, including unemployment benefits, in several states, according to the Associated Press. Some state employment websites have been offline since Sunday, including the ones in Tennessee and Nebraska.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Griffith University: Rock art detection via machine learning model a breakthrough. “Co-led by Dr Andrea Jalandoni, a digital archaeologist from Griffith University’s Centre for Social and Cultural Research, the study used hundreds of images of rock art found within Kakadu National Park to train a ML model to detect whether painted rock art was present within the image. The model achieved an 89% success rate, meaning it determined which images contained rock art the vast majority of times.”

NewsWise: Study Shows Link Between Cyberbullying and Suicidality in Early Adolescence. “Young adolescents who are targets of cyberbullying are more likely to report suicidal thoughts and attempts, an association that goes above and beyond the link between suicidality and traditional offline bullying, according to new research from the Lifespan Brain Institute (LiBI) of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania.” Good morning, Internet…

July 2, 2022 at 05:27PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/Tf4VQHw