New researches

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Indigenous Tuberculosis History, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Google One Premium, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 14, 2022

Indigenous Tuberculosis History, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Google One Premium, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 14, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Local Journalism Initiative: Online project explores Indigenous tuberculosis history. “The website, which launched on June 21 — National Indigenous Peoples Day — features the histories of tuberculosis sanatoriums and Indian hospitals in Manitoba, a searchable database of photos of Indigenous patients and staff and digitized and searchable historical publications from the Sanatorium Board of Manitoba.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

USGS: Hawaiian Volcano Observatory archived Special Reports made available in digital format. “Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Special Reports published in 1912, 1917, 1938, 1949, and 1950 have been added to the USGS Publications Warehouse and made available in digital format.”

How-To Geek: Google’s All-in-One Subscription Can Now Replace Zoom, Too. “Google revealed this week that subscribers for Google One Premium, which costs $9.99 per month (or $99.99 per year), can now use a few account features that used to only be accessible to paid Google Workspace accounts.”

TechCrunch: A Twitter test will remind you to add alt text to images. “In the midst of absolutely no internal chaos whatsoever, Twitter’s accessibility team launched a much-requested feature test. Ten percent of users, who make up the test group, will be served reminders to add image descriptions to their photo uploads.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times: For Blind Internet Users, the Fix Can Be Worse Than the Flaws. “[Patrick] Perdue is one of hundreds of people with disabilities who have complained about issues with automated accessibility web services, whose popularity has risen sharply in recent years because of advances in A.I. and new legal pressures on companies to make their websites accessible.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Krebs on Security: Microsoft Patch Tuesday, July 2022 Edition. “Microsoft today released updates to fix at least 86 security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and other software, including a weakness in all supported versions of Windows that Microsoft warns is actively being exploited.”

CNN: Here’s how North Korean operatives are trying to infiltrate US crypto firms. “North Korean government-backed hackers have stolen the equivalent of billions of dollars in recent years by raiding cryptocurrency exchanges, according to the United Nations…. Now, US federal investigators are publicly warning about a key pillar of the North Korean strategy, in which the regime places operatives in tech jobs throughout the information technology industry.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Vienna: Online art viewing can improve well-being. “Viewing art while visiting galleries and museums can have powerful effects on an individual’s mood, stress and well-being. But does the same hold true for viewing art in digital space? A new study by psychologists led by MacKenzie Trupp, and Matthew Pelowski investigated whether engaging with art online also has this effect. Their conclusion: a short three-minute visit to an online art or cultural exhibition also shows significant positive effects on subjective well-being.”

Europe PMC: Keeping it under lock and keywords: exploring new ways to open up the web archives with notebooks.. “…the scale of the [UK Government Web Archive] exposes the limits of the current search interface, and there is no facility to understand the archive in aggregate. This article seeks to go beyond the simple keyword search by exploring the data sources available, from APIs to web crawling, for computational analysis of the UKGWA. The article is accompanied by two Python Notebooks which present examples of analysis using each data source. Notebooks lower the technical barriers for the reader to explore and interpret the UKGWA as data, while surfacing the challenges around making web material computationally accessible.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Abduzeedo: Introducing Hearing Birdsong, beautifully transforming hearing health. “We were all ears when we heard about Hearing Birdsong, a beautiful and immersive new design initiative digitalizing the approach to hearing screening with an end goal of de-stigmatizing hearing loss.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 15, 2022 at 12:33AM
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Texas Overdoses, An Garda Síochána Photography, Alien Forest Pest Explorer, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, July 14, 2022

Texas Overdoses, An Garda Síochána Photography, Alien Forest Pest Explorer, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, July 14, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Texas Tribune: With national data on drug overdoses lacking, University of Texas project looks to help provide a solution. “The University of Texas project, known as TxCOPE, is one attempt to solve a problem exasperating officials nationwide who are trying to lower the record number of drug deaths: getting an instant, accurate picture of both nonfatal and fatal drug overdoses.”

Derry Now: Fascinating Garda Photographic Archive captures some of the major events from past 100 years. “Hundreds of historical photos captured by An Garda Síochána from some of the most significant historic Irish events during the last 100 years will be made available to the public for the first time. An Garda Síochána has launched its Garda Centenary Online Photographic Archive 1922 – 2022 as part of its current centenary celebrations.” An Garda Síochána is the national police force of Ireland.

Phys .org: Research partnership launches new, improved Alien Forest Pest Explorer. “Purdue University and the U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday (July 12) announced the new and improved Alien Forest Pest Explorer interactive web tool. The user-friendly dashboard combines information from multiple sources to show the impact of different forest insects and diseases, and the potential for further damage. The interactive and customizable dashboards are the first to overlay this pest data with related data about the status and health of the host tree species in the forest…”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: TikTok to roll out content filters and maturity ratings in pledge to make app safer. “Earlier this year, TikTok said it was developing a new system that would restrict certain types of mature content from being viewed by teen users. Today, the company is introducing the first version of this system, called ‘Content Levels,’ due to launch in a matter of weeks. It’s also preparing the rollout of a new tool that will allow users to filter videos with certain words or hashtags from showing up in their feeds.”

The Verge: New emoji for iOS and Android include a high five and shaking face. “The Unicode Consortium only has 31 draft emoji this year that will likely be rolled out in 2022 and 2023. While the draft emoji can change between now and finalization in September, most (if not all) will make it through. Contenders include a shaking face and much-needed high five and wireless emojis.”

USEFUL STUFF

Hackaday: Automate Internet Life With Python. “FreeCodeCamp has a 3-hour course from [Frank Andrade] that dives into the gory details of automating web tasks using Python and a variety of libraries like Path, Xpath, and Selenium. You can watch the course, below.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

TIME: Inside the War on Fake Consumer Reviews. “As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to supercharge global e-commerce, this kind of fraud has emerged as one of the most significant factors contributing to an erosion of consumer confidence in the online marketplace. Fake reviews influenced around $152 billion in global spending on lackluster products and services last year, according to a report from the World Economic Forum.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNET: Google Reportedly Offers to Split Ad Tech Business to Fend Off US Antitrust Suit. “Google has reportedly offered to make concessions to thwart a possible antitrust lawsuit by the Department of Justice that takes aim at the search giant’s ad technology business.”

Associated Press: LGBTQ harassment, slurs abound on social media, report says. “Social media platforms including Facebook and TikTok are failing to stop hate and threats against LGBTQ users, a report issued Wednesday from advocacy group GLAAD found.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Maryland: Who Owns the Sounds and Images of Native People’s Pasts?. “The last known fluent speaker of the tribe’s native Western dialect died in 2010, and the remaining tribal citizens–who traditionally don’t count their members but are estimated to number about 350 speak an amalgam of Ahtna’s Western and Central dialects. Audio recordings of Western Ahtna exist, but many are kept in mainstream archives that don’t belong to the Chickaloon tribe. Now, two University of Maryland faculty members are part of a new effort to bring those recordings, and other pieces of history, back to the Native people who lived the stories within them.”

Boing Boing: SALT is an AI-generated, community-narrated adventure game taking place on Twitter . “SALT is a cooperative choose-your-own-adventure game that uses AI-generated images (from MidJourney) and Twitter polls to create a 1970s-style cinematic adventure. It’s a cool idea and the results so far are fantastic. There’s still time to get in on the action!”

Campaign for Accountability: TTP Investigation: Google Allowing Student Loan Relief Scam Ads. “Today, Campaign for Accountability (CfA) a nonprofit watchdog group that runs the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), released a report revealing that more than one in 10 ads served to Google users searching for information about student loan relief direct the user to websites that violate Google’s policies or have characteristics of a financial scam.” Good morning, Internet…

July 14, 2022 at 05:31PM
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Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Fish Biodiversity, Oregon Water Quality, Gmail, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 13, 2022

Fish Biodiversity, Oregon Water Quality, Gmail, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 13, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Tohoku University: A New Database Visualizing Fish Biodiversity Opens to the Public. “Tohoku University professor Michio Kondoh has spearheaded the launch of ANEMONE DB – a new public database of fish biodiversity based on environmental DNA (eDNA)…. Unlike traditional biological surveys, where fish must be collected to be observed, eDNA surveys are straightforward, inexpensive and can detect rare or nearly extinct species. A simple sample of water taken from rivers, seas or oceans picks up DNA left behind by organisms and reveals crucial information, like population sizes and distribution.”

State of Oregon: DEQ launches tool to improve public access to water quality data . “The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has released a new online tool that will give the public greater access to water quality monitoring data. The Pesticide Stewardship Partnerships Data Viewer is an interactive tool that displays monitoring data collected by Oregon’s Pesticide Stewardship Partnerships, a voluntary program co-managed by DEQ and the Oregon Department of Agriculture.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ars Technica: Gmail users “hard pass” on plan to let political emails bypass spam filters . “Earlier this month, Google sent a request to the Federal Election Commission seeking an advisory opinion on the potential launch of a pilot program that would allow political committees to bypass spam filters and instead deliver political emails to the primary inboxes of Gmail users. During a public commenting period that’s still ongoing, most people commenting have expressed staunch opposition for various reasons that they’re hoping the FEC will consider.”

KnowTechie: TikTok now shows you which topics it thinks you care about. “TikTok has added a section to its settings and privacy features that shows users exactly what the app thinks they are interested in for the purpose of targeted advertising. Additionally, users now have the ability to opt-out of targeted ads based on the different categories.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Verge: Read the memo Google’s CEO sent employees about a hiring slowdown. “Google has told employees that it’ll be ‘slowing down the pace of hiring for the rest of the year,’ according to an internal memo Tuesday by CEO Sundar Pichai obtained by The Verge. Pichai says the company will have to ‘be more entrepreneurial’ and work with ‘greater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than we’ve shown on sunnier days.’ You can read the full memo below.”

Local Journalism Initiative: Virden hopes to create dynamic oil museum in near future. “The Manitoba Oil Museum has been a corporation since 1992, and has evolved a lot since then, from a brick-and-mortar museum to a presence at trade shows. A provincial Petroleum Branch worker reached out to [Liza] Park recently, telling her they’d hired a researcher to look through the archives of the museum and compile information for an online website.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Conversation: Email scams are getting more personal – they even fool cybersecurity experts. “The infamous ‘prince of Nigeria’ emails are falling out of fashion. Instead, scammers are scouring social media, especially business-related ones like LinkedIn, to target people with tailored messages. The strength of a relationship between two people can be measured by inspecting their posts and comments to each other.”

Denver Post: “Digital dragnet” or necessary tool? Denver police’s use of controversial Google search technique in deadly arson draws legal fight. “More than three months had passed since five family members died in an arson fire and investigators still had no leads on who set the house ablaze on the quiet street in northeast Denver. They’d authored nearly two dozen search warrants since the Aug. 5, 2020, fire with no luck. But on Nov. 19, 2020, Denver police served a warrant asking Google to turn over information about anyone who had searched the address of the burned house in the Green Valley Ranch neighborhood during the 15 days prior to the fire.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York University: Gender Bias in Search Algorithms Has Effect on Users, New Study Finds. “Gender-neutral internet searches yield results that nonetheless produce male-dominated output–results have an effect on users by promoting gender bias and potentially influencing hiring decisions.”

Johns Hopkins University: New Project Will Lay Groundwork For Open Access To Massive Windfarm Simulations. “Dennice Gayme, an associate professor in the Whiting School of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and Charles Meneveau, the Louis M. Sardella Professor in Mechanical Engineering at WSE, have started a new project to create a public database of windfarm simulations, which will allow anyone with an internet connection to easily access and analyze the data in order to conduct research, generate knowledge, and evaluate models or wind field data to be used in wind farm planning or development projects.” Good afternoon, Internet…

July 14, 2022 at 12:27AM
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BLOOM AI, Black History & Culture Collection, Kentucky Community Resources, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, July 13, 2022

BLOOM AI, Black History & Culture Collection, Kentucky Community Resources, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, July 13, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

MIT Technology Review: Inside a radical new project to democratize AI. “Unlike other, more famous large language models such as OpenAI’s GPT-3 and Google’s LaMDA, BLOOM (which stands for BigScience Large Open-science Open-access Multilingual Language Model) is designed to be as transparent as possible, with researchers sharing details about the data it was trained on, the challenges in its development, and the way they evaluated its performance. OpenAI and Google have not shared their code or made their models available to the public, and external researchers have very little understanding of how these models are trained.”

Globe Newswire: Getty Images Launches Initiative to Elevate Black History and Empower Storytellers. “Getty Images, a preeminent global visual content creator and marketplace, today launched the Black History & Culture Collection (BHCC), an initiative created to provide free non-commercial access to historical and cultural images of the African/Black Diaspora in the US and UK from the 19th century to present day.”

WLKY: Louisville nonprofit launching new app to bring free resources to those in need across Kentucky. “The website pulls together resources across Kentucky for everyday needs like housing, health and education. Users have the ability to narrow down what they are looking for and see options located in their area.”

Houston Chronicle: The Houston Chronicle’s executive editor wants you to read these stories while the paywall is down. “Our stories that were tucked behind a paywall will be available to you from now until July 14. That means all of the Houston Chronicle’s impactful, useful, inspiring journalism is yours to read for the next three days— for free.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNN: Twitter sues Elon Musk to force him to complete acquisition. “Twitter has sued billionaire Elon Musk in an effort to force him to follow through with his deal to buy the social media company. The lawsuit, filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery on Tuesday, comes after Musk said in a letter to Twitter’s top lawyer late Friday that he wants to terminate the blockbuster $44 billion acquisition agreement.”

Washington Post: Twitter went easy on Trump because it ‘relished’ the power, ex-employee says. “A former Twitter employee told the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that the company gave former president Donald Trump more lenient treatment because it enjoyed the ‘power’ his stature lent to the social network.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times: Musk’s Damaged Goods. “Twitter has operated at a loss for seven of the nine years it has been a public company. It received no rival offers while Musk was trying to buy it. Its board determined that Musk’s offer of $54.20 a share was the best it could obtain, suggesting it saw no way to reach that price on its own. And since Twitter accepted Musk’s offer, its stock has lost over a third of its value.”

Vox: TikTok is full of shady secret advertisements. “Influencer Marketing Factory bills itself as ‘the influencer marketing expert’ and did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The company says it has done TikTok campaigns for everything from fitness apps to mushroom coffee. Some influencers labeled those posts as ads or partnerships. Many didn’t. All of them should have, according to truth in advertising rules that are supposed to be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Guardian: Tech platforms face UK ban on blocking news providers before appeal. “A change to the online safety bill means that articles in breach of a service’s terms and conditions cannot be removed or hidden until the publisher has been notified and has received the verdict of any appeal to the platform. The amendment to the legislation is intended to avoid a repeat of an incident last year when YouTube suddenly banned the digital station TalkRadio from its platform for violating its content guidelines. It was reinstated 12 hours later.”

Daily Beast: Feds Nab Louisiana Woman Who Tried to Rent a Hitman on RentAHitman.Com. “A Louisiana woman found herself on the wrong end of an FBI sting operation after attempting to hire a contract killer via a parody website ‘linked directly’ to the bureau’s internet crime squad, according to a federal complaint first obtained by The Daily Beast.”

Neos Kosmos: Archbishop Makarios sues blogger for defamation. “Archbishop Makarios Grinezakis claims a blogger has falsely accused him of misappropriating millions of church dollars to fund a palatial apartment on Sydney Harbour and luxurious lifestyle while covering up abuse and dealing in bribes. The head of the Orthodox Church in Australia has appeared often on Greek Flash News blog penned by Alkis Morelas.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Higher Ed Dive: College Board no longer disclosing AP test results by ethnicity, state. “The College Board in an emailed statement did not address why it removed demographic data. It said that it provides that information to schools, districts and state departments of education and that it has already sent it to the former two groups. Researchers can also request AP data online, the College Board said.” Good morning, Internet…

July 13, 2022 at 05:31PM
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Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Court System Access, ByteDance, Amazon Photos, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 12, 2022

Court System Access, ByteDance, Amazon Photos, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 12, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Wesleyan University: New Database Shows Court Change that Impact Access to Justice. “A new database created by Alyx Mark, assistant professor of government, documents the often mundane, yet vitally important changes courts made to their policies and procedures over the course of the global pandemic, changes that directly impact ordinary people’s access to justice.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

South China Morning Post: TikTok owner ByteDance to launch new social media app for young users that will rival Instagram-like service Xiaohongshu. “ByteDance, owner of global hit short video app TikTok and its Chinese version Douyin, is gearing up to launch a new social media platform designed for young users to share their lifestyle and hobbies, according to the tech unicorn’s latest corporate registration.”

USEFUL STUFF

PC Magazine: Amazon Photos Still Has Free, Unlimited Storage: How to Manage, Share Your Pics. “Looking for a reliable online service where you can back up, store, and share your photos? Amazon Photos is one option worth considering, especially if you’re an Amazon Prime(Opens in a new window) subscriber, or you’re looking for a good Google Photos alternative.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CTV News: Google Maps incorrectly suggests weeks-long closure on major B.C. highway. “The provincial agency said in a notice last week that Google Maps inaccurately listed a weeks-long closure on the Coquihalla Highway between Hope and Merritt…. The Transportation Ministry has posted similar warnings about errors in recent weeks, with at least four issues noted in a month-long period.”

The Guardian: ‘They couldn’t even scream any more. They were just sobbing’: the amateur investors ruined by the crypto crash. “Last month, major coins including bitcoin and ethereum dropped by more than one-third in just a week. While bitcoin has tumbled significantly on several occasions, this bear run – meaning a period of declining prices – feels different. The industry is larger and more interconnected than ever, with retail and institutional investors jostling for space in what was, until last year, a $3tn market. (The crash has wiped $2tn off the market’s value.)” I feel that cryptocurrency is not just a discrete phenomenon but an expression of Internet culture as it is now. I believe something like it (as seismic and potentially destructive) will happen again. I’m indexing these articles in the hope that we learn what it looks like ahead of time.

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: Apple plans new feature to protect journalists and human rights workers from spyware. “Apple on Wednesday said it will release a new feature this fall for iPhone, Mac and iPad operating software that is designed to protect high-risk users such as journalists and human rights workers from sophisticated spyware that has been linked to human rights abuses.”

PublishersWeekly: Publishers, Internet Archive File Dueling Summary Judgment Motions in Scan Suit. “The battle lines have now been drawn in a potentially landmark lawsuit over the scanning and lending of books.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Southern California: Largest ever study of tobacco content on social media links exposure to tobacco use . “People who have viewed tobacco content on social media are more than twice as likely than non-viewers to report using tobacco and, among those who have never used tobacco, more likely to be susceptible to use in the future. Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC analyzed data from 139,624 participants in a meta-analysis of 29 studies.”

UK Government: New poll finds 7 in 10 adults want social media firms to do more to tackle harmful content . “Four in five adults (78 per cent) want social media companies to be clear about what sort of content is and isn’t allowed on their platform. In a stark warning to social media companies, 45 per cent of respondents also said they will leave or reduce the amount of time they spend on their platforms if they see no action.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

NewsWise: Operating a ‘smart home’ by breath control. “Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have created a simple prototype device that enables users to control ‘smart home’ technology by changing their breathing patterns. The self-powered unit fits into the nostrils and has the potential to enhance the quality of life for people with limited mobility or inability to speak clearly. It also can be programmed provide automatic alerts to medical personnel if an individual has trouble breathing.” Good afternoon, Internet…

July 13, 2022 at 12:28AM
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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…

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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