New researches

Monday, July 11, 2022

Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation, James Webb Space Telescope, Google Image Search, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 11, 2022

Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation, James Webb Space Telescope, Google Image Search, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 11, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation: IPLC launches new resource sharing software. “Beginning in the summer of 2022, the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation (IPLC), a partnership of 13 academic research libraries, will launch ReShare Returnables, a new resource sharing software offering enhanced inter-library open sharing capabilities.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NBC News: Biden to unveil first photo from James Webb Space Telescope. “President Joe Biden will unveil the much-anticipated first full-color image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope on Monday, agency officials confirmed. The image, known as ‘Webb’s First Deep Field,’ will be the deepest and highest-resolution view of the universe ever captured, showing myriad galaxies as they appeared up to 13 billion years in the past, according to NASA.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Futurism / The Byte: Googling “Desk Ornament” Returns Images Of Nazi Paraphernalia. “The saga stared yesterday, when former Cracked editor and scifi author Jason Pargin asked followers if they, too, were getting tons of images of Nazi memorabilia when Googling the phrase ‘desk ornament.’ Turns out a bunch of them were — including Futurism, where we were still experiencing the bizarre results at press time — and the problem is so big it elicited an official response from the company.” This article is over a week old, so I did the search myself to see if I got Nazi imagery in my results. I did. I also got screenshots of articles like this one.

Engadget: Hitting the Books: Modern social media has made misinformation so, so much worse. “In his new book Tyrants on Twitter: Protecting Democracies from Information Warfare, David Sloss, Professor of Law at Santa Clara University, explores how social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have become platforms for political operations that have very real, and very dire, consequences for democracy while arguing for governments to unite in creating a global framework to regulate and protect these networks from information warfare.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: Defense Firm Said U.S. Spies Backed Its Bid for Pegasus Spyware Maker. “Spokesmen for L3Harris and NSO declined to comment about the negotiations between the companies. A spokeswoman for Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, declined to comment on whether any American intelligence officials quietly blessed the discussions. A spokesman for the Commerce Department declined to give specifics about any discussions with L3 Harris about purchasing NSO.”

Eater San Francisco: Scammers Are Trying to Extort Bay Area Restaurant Owners With Torrents of One-Star Reviews. “For the last week or so, high-profile restaurants throughout the Bay Area including Nightbird, Acquerello, 3rd Cousin, Sons and Daughters, Californios, and Lucho’s have received a torrent of one-star reviews on Google, accompanied by pleas to send $75 to would-be scammers.” This is happening elsewhere, including in Texas.

Reuters: Brazil police raids gang allegedly using crypto to launder illegal gold mining. “Brazil’s federal police on Thursday carried out an operation against an alleged criminal gang that it said used crypto tokens to launder money made from illegal gold mining. Police arrested five people and served 60 search and seizure warrants in the operation.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Brookings Institution: How China uses search engines to spread propaganda. “Users come to search engines seeking honest answers to their queries. On a wide range of issues—from personal health, to finance, to news—search engines are often the first stop for those looking to get information online. But as authoritarian states like China increasingly use online platforms to disseminate narratives aimed at weakening their democratic competitors, these search engines represent a crucial battleground in their information war with rivals.”

Creative Commons: CC Supports Internet Archive’s Efforts to Ensure Public Access to Books. “At CC, we believe libraries — and cultural heritage institutions in general — should be empowered to serve as a meaningful access point for publicly funded collections. Free and open access to knowledge stimulates creativity, is essential for research and learning, and constitutes a bedrock principle of free and democratic societies.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

The Guardian: ‘Portals will be as important as the car’: the architects exploring gateways to new dimensions . “Following a period of intensive research during the pandemic, experimental architectural duo Space Popular have unveiled the Portal Galleries, a beguiling immersive exhibition that explores the history and future of portals… Using a combination of virtual reality films and physical exhibits, alongside drawings from the collection, the show charts the role of magical thresholds in fiction, film, television and gaming, and speculates on the fundamental role they will play in the coming virtual world.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 12, 2022 at 12:13AM
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Astronomical Photograph Plates, Bern Will Brown Photography, Historical Maps, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, July 11, 2022

Astronomical Photograph Plates, Bern Will Brown Photography, Historical Maps, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, July 11, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Erlangen–Nuremberg: Web archive with astronomical photographic plates goes online. “A major share of the total of 94,090 plates is accounted for by the 40,000 photographic plates from the Dr. Karl Remeis Observatory Bamberg, Astronomical Institute of FAU. These include photographs taken by Franconian researchers between 1963 and 1976 at observatories in the southern hemisphere. These unique images show the southern sky, and are the only ones of their kind available anywhere in the world, as no other astronomical projects documented this part of the sky during this period.”

Government of Northwest Territories, Canada: NWT Archives launches 13,000 photographs by Bern Will Brown. “The Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) is pleased to announce the public launch of more than 13,000 photographs by Bern Will Brown. The Northwest Territories (NWT) Archives collection consists of pictures showing northern life through Brown’s lens over decades of living in and travelling the territory.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ars Technica: Google tests battery-conserving feature perfect for hoarding tabs. “Google is testing a method to boost the battery life of Chromebooks by changing how they work with the Chrome web browser. It’s shaping up to be a potentially attractive update for users who leave a lot of tabs open on their Chromebooks.”

USEFUL STUFF

WIRED: Travel Back in Time With Street View and Map Archives. “As more data is collected and digitized, another opportunity opens up: being able to take a step back in time—whether one year or a hundred years—to see how a place looked in the past. Whether you’re investigating the spread of urban sprawl, or you just want to know what your street looked like before the turn of the millennium, these are three key resources you should be using.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Slate: Crypto Town. “… Miami isn’t alone in trying to bring some laser-eyed panache to the typically vanilla work of local governance. A wave of smaller cities has begun to accept cryptocurrencies for payments, create their own NFT projects, and even install crypto mining operations. Their efforts, if anything, display an openness to technological innovation in cities of various locales and political contexts. What they don’t show is whether this particular innovation is able to accomplish much of anything at all.”

Council for British Research in the Levant: Launch of the Islamic Jerusalem Archive Project 2022/2023. “At an event held on 23 June 2022 to mark the re-opening of the Kenyon Institute following renovations, we were delighted to announce the launch of one of the cornerstone projects of CBRL’s new digital archive plans: the Islamic Jerusalem Archive Project (IJAP).”

Boing Boing: “Primitive building” videos deemed fraudulent. “Ever watched the many ‘primitive building’ videos emulating John Plant’s Primitive Technology in a peculiar muddy way? Each shows a couple of guys quietly, quickly making a tiny house, pool or other charming environment from clay with simple tools. Alas, they are not what they seem.” I should note that the authenticity of John Plant’s channel is not challenged by anyone.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: US govt warns of Maui ransomware attacks against healthcare orgs. “The FBI, CISA, and the U.S. Treasury Department issued today a joint advisory warning of North-Korean-backed threat actors using Maui ransomware in attacks against Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) organizations. Starting in May 2021, the FBI has responded to and detected multiple Maui ransomware attacks impacting HPH Sector orgs across the U.S.”

The Mainichi: Alarm raised over online disinformation about ex-PM Abe’s assassin . “A hate speech legal expert and others have warned against believing disinformation circulating on social media claiming that ‘Zainichi’ Korean residents of Japan were behind the July 8 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: The Robot Guerrilla Campaign to Recreate the Elgin Marbles. “Few cultural disputes inflame British passions more than the disposition of the Parthenon Marbles. Public debate about the statuary has raged since the early 1800s, when the sculptures and bas-reliefs, which date from 447 B.C. to 432 B.C., were stripped from the Parthenon and other Classical Greek temples on the Acropolis of Athens by agents of Thomas Bruce, a Scottish statesman and seventh earl of Elgin…. Roger Michel, executive director of the Institute of Digital Archaeology, believes the long-running dust-up can be resolved with the help of 3-D machining.”

Tuskegee University: Tuskegee University and UC Berkeley data science partnership announced. “Tuskegee University and UC Berkeley recently announced the Berkeley-Tuskegee Data Science Initiative, a multi-year partnership to develop curriculum and collaborative research opportunities for students and faculty at both institutions.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Syracuse University: The Art of Science: Students Participate in University’s First-Ever Bio-Art Class. “Bio-art first came to the University in 2018, when Rossa and Hehnly established the Bio-Art Mixer in collaboration with the Canary Lab in VPA’s Department of Film and Media Arts. The open forum includes faculty, graduate students and members of the general public from different scientific and artistic backgrounds who share innovative research, foster ideas for new art and research projects, and view new science-inspired artworks from leading bio-artists from around the world.” Good morning, Internet…

July 11, 2022 at 05:30PM
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Sunday, July 10, 2022

BTS Army, Google Doodles, Twitter, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 10, 2022

BTS Army, Google Doodles, Twitter, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 10, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The Verge: Google celebrates Army’s anniversary with BTS street view tour. “July 9th marks the ninth birthday of the BTS Army (specifically, the official announcement of its name). As Twitter celebrates the anniversary, Google has released a new street view experiment through its Arts & Culture platform in collaboration with the band. The BTS x Street Galleries exhibition brings viewers on a virtual tour of the group’s favorite artworks.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: Google Announces State Winners of Its Doodle for Google Contest. “Google on Thursday announced the state and territory winners of its annual Doodle for Google contest, which invites schoolkids from kindergarten through the 12th grade to design their own variation of the company’s famous logo.”

New York Times: The Elon Musk-Twitter Saga Now Moves to the Courts. “Now that Elon Musk has signaled his intent to walk away from his $44 billion offer to buy Twitter, the fate of the influential social media network will be determined by what may be an epic court battle, involving months of expensive litigation and high-stakes negotiations by elite lawyers on both sides.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: Try Python in Your Browser With These Free Online Interactive Shells. “To start coding in Python as quickly as possible, you can use an online interactive shell. This is a website that lets you write and run Python code in your browser, with instant results. There’s no need to install anything. Whether you’re exploring Python functions or reviewing the basics of arrays and lists, you can do so right in your browser. You’ll find these online Python interpreters highly valuable.”

Mashable: How to watch NASA reveal the first stunning James Webb telescope images. “The James Webb Space Telescope, a powerful $10 billion observatory run by NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, has chilled down to its optimal temperature. Engineers have finished calibrating its scientific instruments. Now the telescope with a 21-foot-diameter mirror is open for business. Get ready for stunning astronomical photos and data, scientists say.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CNN Style: A photographer cataloged all 12,795 items in her house. This is what she found. “After going through a divorce and moving home for the 11th time, Barbara Iweins decided to take stock of her life — and everything in it. Going from room to room, she spent almost five years documenting every single object she owns, from loose Lego bricks and old keychains to remote controls, kitchen utensils and miscellaneous knick-knacks.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: Man set up fake ISP to scam low-income people seeking gov’t discounts, FCC says. “An Ohio man created a fake broadband provider in order to scam low-income consumers who thought they were getting government-funded discounts on Internet service and devices, according to the Federal Communications Commission. In a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture released Friday, the FCC proposed a fine of $220,210 against alleged scammer Kyle Traxler.”

ZDNet: Singapore still working on rules to tighten social media enforcement. “Singapore still is mulling over new rules that will, amongst others, instruct social media platforms to disable access to content it deems harmful. It will not, however, bar the use of hyperlinks in SMS or other messaging apps as doing so will not eliminate the risk of someone falling prey to phishing attacks.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Next Web: Social media companies should be converted into nonprofits. “Social media companies like Twitter have morphed — whether their founders intended them to or not — into important social institutions with grave consequences for both the future of democracy and the human condition. Yet these platforms still remain constrained by their structures as for-profit companies with a duty to their shareholders.”

Tech Xplore: Tracking crypto pump-and-dump operations on social media. “Cryptocurrency scammers have found a way to make a quick profit through social media platforms like Twitter and Telegram, using the pump and dump method. In short: they buy coins when the price is low, team up to create the buzz and get the price of this coin to rise, then sell theirs for a profit. Researchers at USC’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI) have conducted a study to track and shut down this phenomenon.” Good afternoon, Internet…

July 11, 2022 at 12:13AM
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Australia Shark Attacks, Smithsonian Science Education Center, Twitter, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, July 10, 2022

Australia Shark Attacks, Smithsonian Science Education Center, Twitter, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, July 10, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Flinders University: Historical dataset could help scientists better understand sharks. “For the first time, the longest-running historical record of human-shark interactions in Australia is now accessible online. This follows a growing trend to make scientific datasets accessible, maximising the use and impact of the data. Taronga’s Australian Shark-Incident Database (ASID) describes more than 1000 shark-human interactions that have occurred in Australia over the past 230 years.”

EVENTS

Smithsonian: SSEC Convenes Experts, Researchers and Educators Around the World for the Smithsonian K–12 Science Education Action Planning Institute. “The Smithsonian Science Education Center will host its third annual K–12 Science Education Action Planning Institute to bring together educators around the world to explore how innovation, inclusion and sustainability are shaping STEM education in 2022 and beyond. This year’s free virtual institute will be held July 25–27 and brings together subject-matter experts, formal and non-formal educators, school administrators and educational researchers to explore timely issues within K–12 STEM education.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: Twitter Is Testing Out Custom Timelines From Third-Party Developers. “Twitter is testing custom timelines that may be curated by the social-media company or third-party developers and are centered on common interests and events.”

New York Times: Even in Death, Internet Explorer Lives On in South Korea. “On Google Chrome, you can’t make business payments online as a corporate customer of one of the country’s largest foreign-owned banks. If you’re using Apple’s Safari, you’re unable to apply for artist funding through the National Culture and Arts website. And if you’re a proprietor of a child care facility, registering your organization with the Health and Welfare Ministry’s website is not possible on Mozilla’s Firefox. In all these cases, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, or a similar alternative, is the required browser.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: 7 Android Accessibility Tweaks to Set Up a Phone for Seniors. “It’s getting increasingly complicated to use Android devices, thanks to newer models that come with a bunch of advanced features. This is especially frustrating for senior citizens. However, you can help them out by making their phones easier to use. All it requires is a few Android accessibility tweaks like the ones we discuss below.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Penn State: Project receives grant to inventory School of Theatre’s Fashion Archive. “Carolyn Lucarelli, manager of the Center for Virtual/Material Studies (CVMS) in the College of Arts and Architecture, has received the 2022 Visual Resources Association (VRA) Project Grant. She will use the $3,000 grant to create a digital inventory of the Fashion Archive in collaboration with co-principal investigator Charlene Gross, assistant professor of costume design in the Penn State School of Theatre.”

Slashgear: Your Lock Screen Is No Longer Safe. “Lock screen ads aren’t a brand new concept, to be sure, but they’re not a popular one either — at least not with the people who have to see them. Once upon a time, this was tied to app permissions and could be turned off (provided you were okay with disabling lock screen notifications from specific apps), but what Glance is offering with its ‘reimagined’ lock screen is something a bit different.”

BBC: Australia floods: Unfounded cloud seeding claims spread online. “For the third time this year, Sydney has been hit by major floods. Scientists blame intense rainfall on a combination of factors – but, on social media, unfounded allegations of ‘weather manipulation’ have spread widely.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: Marriott Hotels admits to third data breach in 4 years. “Crooks have reportedly made off with 20GB of data from Marriott Hotels, which apparently included credit card info and internal company documents. The unnamed crew behind the theft told DataBreaches it broke into a server at the Marriott hotel at Baltimore-Washington International Airport in Maryland late last month.”

The Verge: Japan to start jailing people for online insults. “Posting ‘online insults’ will be punishable by up to a year in prison time in Japan starting Thursday, when a new law passed earlier this summer will go into effect. People convicted of online insults can also be fined up to 300,000 yen (just over $2,200). Previously, the punishment was fewer than 30 days in prison and up to 10,000 yen ($75).”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Ars Technica: Internet shutdowns cost global economy $10B so far in 2022, VPN report says. “According to a report from Top10VPN, the cost of government-ordered Internet shutdowns in 2022 has cost the global economy more than $10 billion. That figure nearly doubles 2021 costs, and it’s only halfway through the year.”

EurekAlert: Citizen scientist leads discovery of 34 ultracool dwarf binaries using archive at NSF’s NOIRLab. “A citizen scientist has searched NSF’s NOIRLab’s catalog of 4 billion celestial objects, known as NOIRLab Source Catalog DR2, to reveal brown dwarfs with companions. His intensive investigation led to the discovery of 34 ultracool dwarf binary systems, nearly doubling previously known samples.” Good morning, Internet…

July 10, 2022 at 05:32PM
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Saturday, July 9, 2022

Portuguese Inquisition, Office Macros, Searching YouTube, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 9, 2022

Portuguese Inquisition, Office Macros, Searching YouTube, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 9, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Times of Israel: National Library finds rare 18th-century text detailing Portuguese Inquisition. “An 18th-century document detailing the activities of the Portuguese Inquisition, which punished people for upholding Jewish traditions and committing other transgressions, has been found by the National Library of Israel and made available online, the library announced.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bleeping Computer: Microsoft rolls back decision to block Office macros by default. “While Microsoft announced earlier this year that it would block VBA macros on downloaded documents by default, Redmond said on Thursday that it will roll back this change based on ‘feedback’ until further notice. The company has also failed to explain the reason behind this decision and is yet to publicly inform customers that VBA macros embedded in malicious Office documents will no longer be blocked automatically in Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, and Word.”

USEFUL STUFF

The Next Web: This badass tool makes advanced YouTube searches a breeze. “YouTube has succeeded in making life difficult for its users. It ruins your groove with annoying in-video ads. It constantly bugs you to go premium. And it makes searching for anything specific, well, a challenge. Yes, you can apply filters to your search, but these are often fiddly and irritating to use. Luckily for all exasperated YouTube users, there’s a badass tool that can give you the advanced search options you’re craving without all the hassle.” Stephen Arnold had a wry take on this site’s name that I really appreciated.

Make Tech Easier: 11 of the Best LMS Alternatives to Google Classroom. “While Google Classroom works well enough, it’s not always the best learning management system (LMS) for everyone. Luckily, there are a variety of LMS alternatives to Google Classroom. From completely free systems that integrate with other free and premium tools to premium systems with more features, you’ll likely find the perfect alternative right here.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times: Cooking Online, Arab Women Find Income and Community. “The kitchen, historically the symbolic heart of domesticity in the Arab world, has often kept women tethered to household responsibility, and out of the work force. Only about 25 percent of women in the Middle East participate in the labor force — the lowest such figure in the world, even as female university graduates in the region often outnumber their male counterparts. But the rise of social media platforms, YouTube in particular, is changing the power dynamic for Arab women, allowing them to turn the kitchen into a source of income and influence.”

Bandcamp Daily: Field Recordings are Music, Material, and Method. “That a field recording is a document, preserving sound from a place in both geography and time, is fundamental. However, the field recording concept is not only a genre of its own but also a method that can be incorporated into all existing and conceivable genres; a bird call can remain a bird call, or it can be made into material that becomes a part of a large audio creation, of any kind and in any style.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Push Square: Sony Removing Some Purchased Films, Movies from Users’ Accounts. “Sony stopped flogging films and television shows through the PS Store a little while back, but it promised to honour existing purchases. However, as of 31st August in Germany and Austria, it will begin the process of removing content from French film production and distribution company Studio Canal, meaning even if you paid for them you’ll no longer be able to access them.”

The Block: How a fake job offer took down the world’s most popular crypto game. “Ronin, the Ethereum-linked sidechain that underpins play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, lost $540 million in crypto to an exploit in March. While the US government later tied the incident to North Korean hacking group Lazarus, full details of how the exploit was carried out have not been disclosed.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Next Web: Why ‘facial expression recognition’ AI is a total scam. “A team of researchers at Jilin Engineering Normal University in China recently published a paper indicating they’d built an AI model capable of recognizing human facial expressions. I’m going to save you some time here: they most certainly did not. Such a thing isn’t currently possible.”

The Scientist: EU Cancels Funding for UK Researchers in Ongoing Brexit Fallout. “More than 100 grants previously approved for applicants in Britain have been scrapped amid a continuing dispute over the UK’s refusal to fully implement trade arrangements made when the country left the European Union.” Good afternoon, Internet…

July 10, 2022 at 12:40AM
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Fundraising Events, Ukraine Recovery Conference, Yandex, More: Ukraine Update, July 9, 2022

Fundraising Events, Ukraine Recovery Conference, Yandex, More: Ukraine Update, July 9, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

EVENTS

Broadway World: Museum Of Jewish Heritage & The Braid Announce Fundraiser for Ukraine, Featuring 10 Works By Ukrainian Playwrights. “On Wednesday, July 20, 2022 at 7:30 PM ET, the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust and The Braid will present ‘I Want to Go Home: Stories from Writers in a Country at War,’ a performance spotlighting ten new works by Ukrainian playwrights. Proceeds from the event will benefit HIAS’s Ukraine crisis response efforts.”

NHK World-Japan: Intl. conference to discuss how to help Ukraine recover from Russia’s invasion. “The Ukraine Recovery Conference, the first gathering of its kind, will open at Lugano in southern Switzerland on Monday. It will be jointly organized by the governments of Ukraine and Switzerland. The Swiss government says the two-day conference will bring together government delegations from about 40 countries, including Japan, the United States, and European nations. EU-related delegates, World Bank officials, and other international organization representatives will also take part.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

New York Times: How War in Ukraine Roiled Russia’s ‘Coolest Company’. “Often called ‘the coolest company in Russia,’ Yandex employed more than 18,000 people; its founders were billionaires; and at its peak last November, it was worth more than $31 billion. Then President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia invaded Ukraine. Almost overnight, as Western investors bolted from Russia and Western governments imposed harsh economic sanctions, its value dropped to less than $7 billion. The Nasdaq stock exchange suspended trading in its shares.”

AFP: US funds software for Russians to slip past censors. “Russia has intensified its restrictions on independent media since attacking its neighbor in February, with journalists under threat of prosecution for criticizing the invasion or for even referring to it as a war. The US government-backed Open Technology Fund is paying out money to a handful of American firms providing virtual private networks (VPNs) free of charge to millions of Russians, who can then use them to visit websites blocked by censors.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BBC: Ukraine-Russia: Hidden tech war as Slovyansk battle looms. “‘Right now, we have two big battles,’ says Dmytro Podvorchanskyi, a soldier with Ukraine’s Dnipro 1 Battalion. ‘The first is an artillery battle,’ he says, ‘the second is a battle of technologies’. Dmytro is fighting that second, largely unseen war. He leads a unit of just 10 soldiers who form Dnipro 1’s drone intelligence unit.”

Independent (Ireland): Rouble trouble as US-made ATMs can’t dispense new banknote. “Russia’s new 100 rouble banknote is impossible to withdraw from ATMs because the Western companies that programmed the cash machines have quit the country. The Association of Russian Banks has asked for a six-month delay to the introduction of the banknote, which carries a drawing of a Second World War memorial to Soviet soldiers, because bank machines require re-programming to dispense them.”

BBC: Borsch soup in Ukraine added to Unesco endangered heritage list. “The UN’s cultural agency has added the cooking of borsch – a soup usually made with beetroot and potatoes – in Ukraine to its list of endangered intangible cultural heritage. Unesco said the war in Ukraine had ‘threatened’ the cooking of borsch.”

The First News: Auschwitz museum accuses Russia of ‘gross’ propaganda over fake social media posts . “The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum has accused Russia of targeting it with ‘primitive and gross’ propaganda. The museum said that social media posts claiming to show anti-Russian stickers placed around the site of the former WWII German death camp were fake and a ‘manipulation.’”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TechCrunch: UK to combat Russia’s ‘hostile online warfare’ by forcing internet firms to remove disinformation . “The U.K. government is pushing to make ‘foreign interference’ such as disinformation a priority offence under its proposed Online Safety Bill, forcing technology firms to remove contravening content shared by foreign state actors.”

ProPublica: Google Allowed a Sanctioned Russian Ad Company to Harvest User Data for Months. “The day after Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner sent a letter to Google warning it to be on alert for ‘exploitation of your platform by Russia and Russian-linked entities,’ and calling on the company to audit its advertising business’s compliance with economic sanctions. But as recently as June 23, Google was sharing potentially sensitive user data with a sanctioned Russian ad tech company owned by Russia’s largest state bank, according to a new report provided to ProPublica.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Sky News: NASA criticises Russia for using space station to stage propaganda photographs. “NASA has criticised the Russian space agency for using the International Space Station (ISS) to stage propaganda photographs connected to its invasion of Ukraine. The photos feature three Russian cosmonauts holding aloft the flags of two regions of eastern Ukraine which had been captured by Russian military forces – prompting the US space agency to issue a ‘strong rebuke’.”

CyberScoop: Russian information operations focus on dividing Western coalition supporting Ukraine. “Russian intelligence has been using state-controlled media and other disinformation channels to disseminate propaganda designed to divide the Western coalition supporting Ukraine, according to a report the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future released Thursday.”

July 9, 2022 at 06:51PM
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Northeast Slavery Records Index, San Antonio Music, Twitter, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, July 9, 2022

Northeast Slavery Records Index, San Antonio Music, Twitter, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, July 9, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me: the Northeast Slavery Records Index. From the front page: “The Northeast Slavery Records Index (NESRI) is an online searchable compilation of records that identify individual enslaved persons and enslavers in the states of New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey. NESRI indexes census records, slave trade transactions, cemetery records, birth certifications, manumissions, ship inventories, newspaper accounts, private narratives, legal documents and many other sources.”

San Antonio Express-News: San Antonio music has a new home at KPSA, an online radio station and app. “KPSA, a new app and website devoted to San Antonio music, is a one-stop shop for acts such as Doug Sahm, Buttercup and Girl in a Coma.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: Elon Musk’s $44 Billion Twitter Deal Is Reportedly in Jeopardy. “The Washington Post, citing three anonymous people familiar with the matter, reported on Thursday that the deal is ‘in serious jeopardy.’ Musk’s team thinks it won’t be able to confirm data about the number of fake and spam accounts on Twitter and has stopped certain talks around funding the acquisition, the report said.”

FIPP: Pugpig acquires Bondi digital archive platform. “Digital publishing platform Pugpig has acquired Bondi, a digital magazine archive platform that provides fully searchable historical content for researchers, students, journalists, and magazine lovers in general. The Bondi support team will join Pugpig in its New York office, as the company looks to expand its footprint across the US.”

USEFUL STUFF

Nature: How to find, read and organize papers. “I was in the first year of my PhD programme, having just joined my thesis laboratory. It was an important period of transition: I was working out what project I would focus on for the next five years, and knew that success would require a strong intellectual foundation. I spent long hours poring over papers, determined to master the literature in my research area. Yet despite good intentions, my efforts fell flat, due in large part to inefficiency.”

Android Police: The best open source alternatives to Google Calendar. “Google Calendar is preinstalled on most Android phones and is a comprehensive solution that offers smooth integration with other Google services. However, if you don’t want to share your details with Google, and wish to keep your schedule private, there are several open source alternatives available for Android.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times: Disinformation Has Become Another Untouchable Problem in Washington. “There is wide agreement across the federal government that coordinated disinformation campaigns threaten to exacerbate public health emergencies, stoke ethnic and racial divisions and even undermine democracy itself. The board’s fate, however, has underscored how deeply partisan the issue has become in Washington, making it nearly impossible to consider addressing the threat.”

NBC News: Google and Yelp disable reviews on some crisis pregnancy center pages amid activist ‘spam’ campaign. “Google and Yelp appear to have disabled the ability to post reviews for some crisis pregnancy centers listed on the platforms, which some activists say could prevent them from providing accurate information about the centers, which are known for trying to persuade women seeking abortions not to get them. Google appears to have also disabled the ability to post reviews of some abortion providers, like Planned Parenthood.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: Parents sue TikTok after 7 kids die from profitable Blackout Challenge videos. “After the first child died from self-strangulation while attempting a recommended ‘Blackout Challenge,’ there were many steps that TikTok could’ve taken to shield other kids from the same fate immediately. Instead, a new lawsuit filed in California says TikTok chose to continue profiting from promoting what’s now being described as its deadliest challenge, directly causing the deaths of six more children in 2021.”

Inside the Magic: Disney Investigating “Reprehensible” Hack on Company Social Media. “Earlier this morning, the Instagram and Facebook accounts for the Disneyland Resort were hacked, with a singular individual or several people spreading the incredibly offensive and hateful messages across both platforms to millions of people. At the time of our original publication, there were a total of four posts and two Instagram stories. These have now been deleted and the account has been reclaimed by Disney.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

KnowTechie: FIFA is going to use AI for offside calls at the 2022 World Cup. “The system won’t be making refereeing decisions. Instead, the semi-automated system generates alerts, which go to a control room. The officials in that room can then confer and tell the referees on the field if they need to make a call.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Core 77: Incredible Wearable Device Can Read to the Visually Imparied, Recognize Faces and Objects. “Orcam is an Israeli tech company with an incredible product: The MyEye, a diminutive AI-driven device that magnetically attaches to eyeglasses and can read to the visually impaired.” Good morning, Internet…

July 9, 2022 at 05:32PM
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