Global Plastics Policy Centre, National Gallery, Scientist-Artists: Embracing Duality, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, July 23, 2022

Global Plastics Policy Centre, National Gallery, Scientist-Artists: Embracing Duality, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, July 23, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

EurekAlert: One-stop policy shop opens, with solutions to end plastic pollution. “An invaluable new resource to help tackle plastic pollution on land and in the ocean is going live today. The Global Plastics Policy Centre (GPPC) online platform is the latest development from the University of Portsmouth’s Revolution Plastics research initiative. Free to all, it is a ‘one stop shop’ of independent, evidence-based advice on plastic policy.”

Brunel University: National Gallery creates immersive experience for families on Roblox. “A magical augmented reality family trail at the National Gallery has been adapted into a free at-home experience for Roblox, the global online platform connecting millions of people through shared experiences. The Keeper Council is a family-friendly experience launching this summer where aspiring museum ‘keepers’ from all over the world learn about the Gallery’s paintings and curate their own art collections.”

EVENTS

Vanderbilt University: Attend ‘Scientist-Artists: Embracing Duality’ virtual event on July 27. “Now more than ever, people are recognizing and exploring how art and science interact and influence each other, within research fields and scientist-artists themselves. Join Kendra Oliver, assistant professor of pharmacology and director and founder of ArtLab, for our next Lab-to-Table Conversation, in which we will explore how a group of self-identified scientist-artists are embracing this particular duality.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Twitch builds toward a ‘layered’ safety approach with new moderator tools. “On Twitch, interconnected channels already informally share information on users they prefer to keep out. The company is now formalizing that ad hoc practice with a new tool that lets channels swap ban lists, inviting communities to collaborate on locking serial harassers and otherwise disruptive users out before they can cause problems.”

9to5 Google: Google Photos website starts showing the backup quality of every image. “The tweaks and small additions to Google Photos continues with the Info pane on the web getting a rather useful ‘Backed up’ section.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Engadget: Twitter welcomes more users but finds it harder to make money. “In the last three months, Monetizable Daily Active Users (mDAU) climbed from 39.6 million to 41.5 million, while global reach leapt from 189.4 million in April to 196.3 million today. Unfortunately, those increasing user figures did not see a boost in the company’s bottom line, and revenue was $1.18 billion, which is slightly down both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter.”

BBC: Snapchat owner hit as advertising slump hits sales. “Shares in the owner of social media platform Snapchat have plummeted after it missed revenue expectations and warned it faces ‘incredibly challenging’ conditions. The firm says advertisers cut spending as they face supply chain disruptions.”

CNN: Here today, gone tomorrow: China’s vanishing livestreamers. “The 30-year-old livestreamer, also known as Austin Li, was — until recently — one of China’s biggest internet celebrities, with 64 million followers on Taobao, an online shopping platform. He once sold 15,000 lipsticks within five minutes in a sales competition against Alibaba founder Jack Ma, winning himself the nickname ‘China’s lipstick king.’ But the superstar salesman has gone silent after his popular livestream show was abruptly cut off on the eve of the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre this year.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

University of California Riverside: UCR practices for cyber threats against special archives. “It began with angry social media messages before ballooning into full threats and a takeover of UC Riverside computer systems controlling fire sprinklers at Tomas Rivera Library. That was the scenario of a cultural heritage preservation and cybersecurity drill held Wednesday, July 13 that included 25 participants from campus departments and off-campus partners who reacted in real-time to a fictional threat to the campus. It was first drill of its type on campus aimed at preserving irreplaceable heritage and special collections against cybersecurity threats, said Jason Espinoza, director of UCR’s Office of Emergency Management.”

The Register: Albanian government websites go dark after cyberattack . “According to a statement from the Albanian National Agency for Information Society (AKSHI), the websites of the Prime Minister’s Office and Parliament have both been pulled as has, critically, the e-Albania portal used by residents and foreigners alike to access public services. The latter is particularly alarming since the Albanian government closed many in-person services in favor of the e-Albania portal in May 2022.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Melbourne: Bringing A Living Archive To Life . “Working with Indigenous partners and students in Australia and the US, we are engaging in creative practices, including storytelling through possum-skin cloak-making, intercultural collaborations and supporting the research through teaching and learning. These steps aim to enliven archived collections by making and doing, finding new ways to support Indigenous knowledges and stories.”

Tech Xplore: Aboriginal language could help solve complex AI problems. “An Aboriginal language could hold the key to solving some of the most challenging communication problems between humans and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. A new paper, published by Frontiers in Physics and led by UNSW Canberra’s Professor Hussein Abbass, explains how Jingulu—a language spoken by the Jingili people in the Northern Territory—has characteristics that allow it to be easily translated into AI commands.” Good morning, Internet…

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July 23, 2022 at 05:31PM
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Anthony Burrill, Microsoft Store, Slack, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 22, 2022

Anthony Burrill, Microsoft Store, Slack, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 22, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Creative Boom: Anthony Burrill launches his graphic ephemera archive to inspire the design community. “Anthony Burrill has launched an online archive this week featuring the graphic ephemera that inspires his process and work, making them available for anyone to download. Full of inspiring print, graphic design, typography and other pieces, it’s a treasure trove for any discerning designer.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: Microsoft changes its policy against the sale of open source software in the Microsoft Store . “Having previously upset software developers by implementing a ban on the sale of open source software in its app store, Microsoft has reversed its decision. The company says that it has listened to feedback — which was vocal and negative — and has updated the Microsoft Stores Policies, removing references to open source pricing. Microsoft has also clarified just why it put the ban in place.”

The Verge: Slack is increasing its prices and making big changes to its free plan. “Slack is putting its prices up in September, alongside some big changes to its free plan. It’s the first price increase since Slack launched in 2014, but will only affect users of Slack’s ‘Pro’ plan. On September 1st, monthly Pro subscriptions will increase from $8 to $8.75 per user per month, and annual Pro subscriptions will increase from $6.67 to $7.25 per user per month.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times: Fighting a Brutal Regime With the Help of a Video Game. “Opponents of the coup in Myanmar have flocked to a new online game that lets players shoot virtual soldiers while raising money for the real-life resistance.”

Houston Chronicle: ‘Send help’: Texans are venting frustrations about the scorching heat in hilarious TikTok videos. “It’s hot in Texas. It’s so hot that Texans are hilariously taking to TikTok to vent their frustrations about the scorching climate. User Texastori1990’s driveway pavement was so hot that she placed a skillet on it, added oil, a heap of salt and fried an egg. ‘Welcome to Texas,’ she said. ”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Conversation: What do TikTok, Bunnings, eBay and Netflix have in common? They’re all hyper-collectors . “Consumer data is big business. In 2019, a report from digital marketers WebFX showed that data from around 1,400 loyalty programs was routinely being traded across the globe as part of an industry worth around US$200 billion. That same year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s review of loyalty schemes revealed how many of these loyalty schemes lacked data transparency and even discriminated against vulnerable customers. But the digital environment is making data collection even easier.”

TechCrunch: Denmark bans Chromebooks and Google Workspace in schools over data transfer risks. “In a verdict published last week, Denmark’s data protection agency, Datatilsynet, revealed that data processing involving students using Google’s cloud-based Workspace software suite — which includes Gmail, Google Docs, Calendar and Google Drive — ‘does not meet the requirements’ of the European Union’s GDPR data privacy regulations.”

Hackread: APT Groups Trapping Targets with Clever Twitter Scheme. “According to researchers, state-backed [Advanced Persistent Threat] groups are trapping their targets by employing social engineering tactics including posing as Twitter employees and journalists.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Guardian: TikTok is fastest growing news source for UK adults, Ofcom finds. “TikTok is used by 7% of adults for news, according to the UK’s communications watchdog, up from 1% in 2020. The growth is primarily driven by young users, with half of its news followers aged 16 to 24.”

UWM Report: Automated hiring systems could be making the worker shortage worse. “There’s a worker shortage in the United States. As the country recovers from the pandemic, companies are trying to bring their employees back into the workplace but are finding that many of those employees are quitting – a so-called ‘Great Resignation.’ There are many factors behind this worker shortage, but Noelle Chesley thinks there might be one going overlooked: the use of automated hiring systems to fill those open positions.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 23, 2022 at 12:59AM
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Facebook Roundup, July 22, 2022

Facebook Roundup, July 22, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Wall Street Journal: Facebook Shifts Resources From News to Focus on Creator Economy. “Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook… is reallocating resources from its Facebook News tab and newsletter platform Bulletin, as the company focuses more on the creator economy, senior executive Campbell Brown told employees in a memo.” Gosh, this couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that Facebook is being increasingly forced to share ad revenue with publishers, could it?

Ghacks: Facebook has started to encrypt links to counter privacy-improving URL Stripping. “Facebook has started to use a different URL scheme for site links to combat URL stripping technologies that browsers such as Firefox or Brave use to improve privacy and prevent user tracking.” Facebook claims it’s fighting against scrapers. I don’t find that particularly credible.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Bloomberg: Facebook Internal Memo on Rivals Undercuts Antitrust Defense. “Facebook’s parent company insists that its social-networking and messaging services have dozens of outside rivals, but an internal memo reveals that Meta Platforms Inc.’s top executives were more worried about the threat posed by its own products…. It outlines ways to prevent Instagram and WhatsApp, acquired by Facebook in 2012 and 2014 respectively, from cannibalizing Facebook’s trajectory.”

WIRED: Instagram Slow to Tackle Bots Targeting Iranian Women’s Groups. “IRANIAN WOMEN’S RIGHTS groups have for months faced a deluge of bots following their Instagram accounts and disrupting their digital outreach operations. Activists say that while they have repeatedly asked Meta, Instagram’s parent company, to stymie the flood of junk followers, more keep coming, totaling in the millions across dozens of organizations operating in Iran and elsewhere around the world.”

Variety: BBC Sets Zuckerberg Doc to Mark 20 Years of Facebook – Global Bulletin. “The series, which will have access to key players, insider testimony, personal journals and rare archive material, is made by Mindhouse Productions and was commissioned by Jack Bootle, head of commissioning, science and natural history at the BBC.”

WIRED: At Facebook, It’s Always Been All About Growth. “This week on Gadget Lab, we’re joined by Shirin Ghaffary from Recode and Alex Heath from The Verge. The new season of their podcast, Land of the Giants, is all about Facebook’s transformation into Meta and what it means for the billions of people on Facebook, and in the world at large.” Audio along with a beautifully-formatted transcript on the same page.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: Facebook users’ lawsuit forces Mark Zuckerberg to give 6-hour deposition. “In 2018, when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified for a Senate hearing following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, his most frequent response to questions was some iteration of the evasive phrase ‘my team will get back to you.’ Four years later, plaintiffs in a subsequent California class action lawsuit claim that Meta’s team of designees on various topics have been just as unprepared to answer questions as Zuckerberg was before the Senate.”

CNN: Another company called Meta says Facebook rebrand ‘obliterated’ its business. “Meta Platforms, the company formerly known as Facebook, has been sued for trademark infringement by MetaX LLC, a company that says it does business publicly as Meta and had been operating in the virtual and augmented reality technology space for years before Mark Zuckerberg announced his company’s rebranding.”

WIRED: A Lawsuit Against Meta Shows the Emptiness of Social Enterprises. “EARLIER THIS YEAR, Meta and its largest content moderation partner in Africa, Sama, were accused of union busting, forced labor, and human trafficking. The lawsuit claims that ‘misleading job ads’ lured potential employees from across Africa who, once realizing the true nature of the work, often had no means to get home. And when content moderator Daniel Motaung attempted to organize his colleagues for better working conditions and pay, Sama fired him.”

Euronews: UK tribunal quashes Meta-Giphy deal block, regulator to reconsider ruling. “Britain’s competition regulator said on Monday it would carry out another review of Facebook owner Meta’s acquisition of Giphy after a tribunal quashed its original decision to block it. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last year ordered Meta to sell animated images platform Giphy, which it acquired for a reported $400 million, because of its concerns about a loss of a possible competitor in advertising, and the potential impact on social media rivals.”

Techdirt: Facebook Is So Sure Its Erroneous Blocking Of Music Is Right, There’s No Option To Say It’s Wrong. “Facebook muted 41 seconds of a video [Markus Pössel] uploaded to Facebook because Universal Music Group (UMG) claimed to own the copyright for some of the audio that was played. Since the music in question came from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, and Bach died in 1750, there’s obviously no copyright claim on the music itself, which is definitely in the public domain. Instead, it seems, the claim was for the performance of this public domain music, which UMG says was played by Keith Jarrett, a jazz and classical pianist, and noted interpreter of Bach. Except that it wasn’t…”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Miami Student: Facebook algorithm may favor the Republican party, study co-authored by Miami University professors finds . “New research from Miami University has shown that a change in the Facebook algorithm may have increased the visibility of posts from local Republican parties. Professors from Miami and Wright State University (WSU) found that, despite posting more, Democratic parties received significantly less interaction on their posts.”

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July 22, 2022 at 06:18PM
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CMU Language Classes, Celebrating 50 Years of Black Studies, Google Calendar Spam, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, July 22, 2022

CMU Language Classes, Celebrating 50 Years of Black Studies, Google Calendar Spam, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, July 22, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Carnegie Mellon University: Modern Languages Launches Online Language Courses. “The Department of Modern Languages at Carnegie Mellon University is proud to announce the launch of its new online language programs for Chinese, French and Spanish. … Learners seeking to improve their language skills on their own schedule can choose from two options depending on their preferred method of study — self-paced independent study ($10), or an instructor-led program with weekly meetings and a small group of peers ($50). Certificates will be awarded for successful course completion.” You do not have to have a CMU affiliation to take the classes..

University of Nebraska Omaha: Charting Our Path: Celebrating 50 Years of Black Studies Online Exhibit Opens. “‘Charting Our Path: Celebrating 50 Years of Black Studies (1971-2021)’ digital exhibit is now available online through the UNO Libraries’ website. The exhibit shares the history of one of the oldest Black Studies departments in the nation, highlighting the complex relationship between university administrators, students, and the Omaha Black community.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNBC: Google adds a new way to block calendar spam. Here’s how to use it. “The new Google Calendar feature, rolling out now, will only display events on your calendar if the invite comes from a sender you know, like people in your contact list, people you’ve interacted with before or colleagues. You can also choose to have all invitations appear on your alendar or just the invitations you’ve accepted. The default option is to show invitations from everyone.”

Search Engine Journal: Google Lets Businesses Set Auto Responses To Common Questions. “Google is rolling out a new feature for Business Profiles that allows you to set up automated responses to frequently asked questions from customers. Using this feature, you can suggest questions for people to ask when messaging your business via your Google Business Profile. Similar to how a customer service chatbot works on business websites.”

ZDNet: Microsoft makes sharing Excel workbooks in Teams happen in real-time with ‘Excel Live’. “Microsoft is continuing to make real-time collaboration actually work inside Teams. Its latest effort in this space is called Excel Live. This feature will be available in public preview at the end of August. Microsoft officials announced Excel Live on Day 1 of the company’s annual Inspire partner conference on July 19.”

USEFUL STUFF

The Verge: Today I learned Amazon will recycle small electronics for free. “If you have a flip phone that you haven’t used in over a decade, or maybe even a broken tablet, Amazon will pay for a shipping label that you can use to send it in to get recycled. Apparently, this recycling program has been a thing for a while now, but several of us at The Verge never even knew about it until we saw this tweet from journalist Dave Zatz, and thought it might be a good idea to spread the word.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Denver Post: This Denver shoe shiner’s videos might put you to sleep — but that’s the point. “Today, [Jason] Dornstar makes many of his videos in the back room of Homer Reed Ltd., a family-owned menswear store across from the historic Brown Palace Hotel. Tucked away behind the dressing rooms, his space isn’t glamorous by any means — he’s set up at a workshop bench in a grimy corner decorated with trinkets and stickers, a shelf lined with rows of cans filled with polish, wax and creams. A shiny silver YouTube creator award stands out against the clutter, commemorating the day he passed 100,000 subscribers. He calls his corner the ‘Shine Dungeon.'”

Variety: Penske Media Corp. and Getty Images Set Photo Distribution Partnership. “Penske Media Corp. and Getty Images have set a partnership for photographs that will include Getty representing PMC’s growing collection of exclusive images from Variety, WWD, Rolling Stone, Billboard and other brands.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Limits on personal data gathering by Google, Facebook, others advance in U.S. House. “A U.S. House of Representatives committee approved on Wednesday a bill to create the first U.S. privacy law limiting personal information collected online by companies like Alphabet’s Google and Meta’s Facebook. The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the bill by a margin of 53-2. It now goes to the House floor. A companion bill is before the Senate.”

CNET: FBI Warns Fake Cryptocurrency Apps Are Defrauding Investors. “Cybercriminals are creating fake cryptocurrency apps in an effort to defraud investors, according to a Monday warning from the FBI. The bureau’s cyber division identified 244 victims that have been swindled by fraudulent apps, accounting for an estimated loss of $42.7 million.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CSUF: Artificial Intelligence Has Fundamentally Changed Branding, Says New Study. “Decades ago, the practice of branding and marketing relied heavily on creativity. Today, that is no longer the case according to research led by Cal State Fullerton Professor of Marketing Chiranjeev Kohli. With the advent of artificial intelligence — machines that think like humans — and a growing amount of data on consumer purchase behavior, Kohli has conducted research to shed light on what he describes as a fundamental change in marketing and branding.”

The Conversation: Go glammas! How older people are turning to TikTok to dispel myths about ageing. “Many older people are turning to TikTok – best known as a playground for Gen Z – to reframe the experience of ageing and kick back against age stereotyping.” Good morning, Internet…

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July 22, 2022 at 05:31PM
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Exploring Chronicling America Newspapers, Google Drive, Vintage Computer Games, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 21, 2022

Exploring Chronicling America Newspapers, Google Drive, Vintage Computer Games, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 21, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Library of Congress: New Interactive Map and Timeline Added to Chronicling America. “The new ‘Exploring Chronicling America Newspapers’ application dynamically maps publication locations of over 3,000 digitized newspapers currently available in the Chronicling America online collection. Users can also interact with a timeline of publication dates for digitized newspapers available in Chronicling America, currently covering years between 1777-1963. ”

USEFUL STUFF

PC Magazine: 18 Google Drive Tips You Can’t Afford to Miss . “Where you may find Google Drive lacking, though, is in that 15GB, which can fill up fast because a number of other services share that space, including Google Photos and Gmail…. So those are the basics of Google Drive, but what you need are the secrets—the tips and tricks that will drive your use of Drive to another level.”

MakeUseOf: 5 Sites Where You Can Download Old PC Games for Free. “Modern gamers have an unrivaled bounty of free games. Many of the most popular online games use the free-to-play model to entice users. There are free games on Steam, in your browser, and on your smartphone. However, you don’t always want the latest AAA title or free battle royale. You want to scratch the nostalgia itch. Luckily, there are a host of websites dedicated to precisely this: the love and preservation of old games. Here are the best sites where you can download old PC games for free.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

UCLA: Asian American Studies Center to create free resource for high school teachers. “The UCLA Asian American Studies Center has received $10 million in state funding that will propel the development of a free multimedia learning experience that will equip teachers across the country with materials that can fill a curricular gap about the experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.”

Rest of World: Overrun by influencers, historic sites are banning TikTok creators in Nepal. “They come in hordes, strike funny poses, dance to loud music, trample over crops, and often stir up unmanageable crowds that cause traffic jams. TikTok creators in Nepal have earned a reputation for disrespecting religious and historic places in their quest to create viral videos, and are now facing a backlash.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Associated Press: Researchers: Chinese-made GPS tracker highly vulnerable. “A popular Chinese-made automotive GPS tracker used in 169 countries has severe software vulnerabilities, posing a potential danger to highway safety, national security and supply chains, cybersecurity researchers have found.”

Bleeping Computer: Hackers steal 50,000 credit cards from 300 U.S. restaurants. “Payment card details from customers of more than 300 restaurants have been stolen in two web-skimming campaigns targeting three online ordering platforms.”

CNN: She warned other women on TikTok about her ex-boyfriend. Then she received a cease-and-desist. “While women aren’t alone in using online forums to post about connections from dating apps, a Pew Research Center study found that young women are much more likely than their male counterparts to report having their safety threatened when online dating, whether that be receiving unwanted communications or unsolicited sexual images, or being berated.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CNET: AI Helps the Powerful but Harms the Vulnerable, Mozilla Warns. “AI is great for rich and powerful people and for tech giants trying to boost profits. Otherwise, artificial intelligence and the automation it enables can be harmful, nonprofit Mozilla concluded in a report published Monday.”

The Nation: You Can’t Buy These Books. “In reality, the publishers’ attack on the Internet Archive is a Trojan horse for a very different, and radical, idea: that e-books are fundamentally—legally—different from paper books. If accepted, their argument would remove e-books from the many statutory protections upon which library rights positively depend. That outcome would leave libraries vulnerable to the draconian licensing deals under which e-books are increasingly offered. And libraries would have to pay and pay, in the absence of digital books that can be permanently bought and owned outright.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 22, 2022 at 12:34AM
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New Hampshire Geodata Portal, Scotland Commercial Fishing Photography, Google’s Quantum Virtual Machine, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, July 21, 2022

New Hampshire Geodata Portal, Scotland Commercial Fishing Photography, Google’s Quantum Virtual Machine, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, July 21, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of New Hampshire: Maps Made Easier. “The New Hampshire Geodata Portal, hosted by New Hampshire Geographically Referenced Analysis and Information Transfer System (NH GRANIT), provides a more modernized data distribution system than its previous version. With data ranging from public lands and topographic lines, to the pavement condition of roads and location of eelgrass meadows in Great Bay, the website will be a boon for a wide cross-section of humanity; surveyors, foresters, real estate agents, engineering companies, utility companies, and state natural resource and transportation agencies will find beneficial information in an easier-to-access format.”

The Scotsman: Photographic archive captures rich heritage of Scottish fishing communities. “From snapshots of a gnarled fishing crew standing over a landed shark in Berwick upon Tweed in 1897, to a joyous portrait of fishwives living it up on holiday in post-war Paris, they form part of a vital archive charting changing social and political currents.”

Google Blog: Our new Quantum Virtual Machine will accelerate research and help people learn quantum computing. “At Google Quantum AI, we have a long history of making tools we build for our own research available to the public free of cost. Today we are adding the Quantum Virtual Machine to the list. The Quantum Virtual Machine (QVM) emulates the experience and results of programming one of the quantum computers in our lab, from circuit validation to processor infidelity.”

Daily Dot: Unfair Instagram moderation of women’s bodies highlighted in a new exhibit. “Getting your content—or worse—your profile removed from a social media platform without explanation or recourse is an alienating feeling that a growing number of people are experiencing. To reflect what it can mean for people’s community, mental health, and even livelihood, London-based creative agency RANKIN launched a project meant to re-platform hundreds of people whose content had been removed from spaces like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

VentureBeat: Twitch launches closed beta of its new Charity livestream tool. “Twitch announced it has launched the closed beta of its latest product: Twitch Charity. Through this new tool, creators can more easily run a charity fundraiser through Twitch’s platform. According to Twitch, this will simplify the process for the streamer for future charity streams.”

CNET: Google Begins Publicly Testing Its AR Glasses. “Google’s glasses are AR of a sort, relying on audio assistance that can use built-in cameras to recognize objects in an environment through AI, similar to how Google Lens can recognize objects and text with phone cameras. The glasses will not, however, be able to take photos or videos.”

Fast Company: Fad or frenzy, BeReal is having a real moment right now. “Online chatter about BeReal has been mixed, with some praising the app as a quaint throwback to the early internet and others claiming it doesn’t quite live up to its promise of authenticity. However, since it appears to be a hit with younger users, BeReal will inevitably stoke the curiosity of everyone else.” RB Firehose notes that I indexed a mention of BeReal in March, but the article isn’t accessible anymore, so let me point you at this WIRED overview from April.

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Verge: Internal documents show Facebook and Google discussing platform strategies. “New internal documents released Tuesday detail how three of Big Tech’s most prominent companies favored their own products as a means of stamping out competition. Their release comes as lawmakers push to approve stronger antitrust legislation by the end of the year.”

CNBC: Google will let Android developers use rival payments systems in Europe. “Google will let nongaming app developers use rival payments systems on its Android operating system for some European users, the company announced Tuesday. It’s a change that the company has resisted in the past and so far is not extending beyond Europe.”

TechCrunch: New documents reveal ‘huge’ scale of US government’s cell phone location data tracking. “It’s no secret that U.S. government agencies have been obtaining and using location data collected by Americans’ smartphones. In early 2020, a Wall Street Journal report revealed that both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) bought access to millions of smartphone users’ location data to track undocumented immigrants and suspected tax dodgers. However, new documents obtained by the ACLU through an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit now reveal the extent of this warrantless data collection.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CBC: Researcher hopes trove of rare residential school photos can help identify missing children. “About 1,000 black-and-white photos from the early days of Canada’s residential school system have been discovered in the archives of a Roman Catholic order in Rome…. The [National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation] is hoping to identify as many of the children in the photos as possible by digitizing the images and sharing them with Indigenous communities.”

Nature: How to shrink AI’s ballooning carbon footprint. “As machine-learning experiments get more sophisticated, their carbon footprints are ballooning. Now, researchers have calculated the carbon cost of training a range of models at cloud-computing data centres in various locations1. Their findings could help researchers to reduce the emissions created by work that relies on artificial intelligence (AI).” Good morning, Internet…

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July 21, 2022 at 05:32PM
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Rodolfo ‘Rudy’ Lozano, The Gilberd School, Google Wallet, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 20, 2022

Rodolfo ‘Rudy’ Lozano, The Gilberd School, Google Wallet, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 20, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Illinois Chicago: Rodolfo ‘Rudy’ Lozano digital exhibit available online. “In anticipation of July 29 marking Rodolfo ‘Rudy’ Lozano Day in Cook County, the University of Illinois Chicago Library is announcing that a digital exhibit celebrating the Pilsen activist, labor organizer and UIC alumnus is available to the public.”

Essex County Standard: The Gilberd School unlocks archive with material from 1950s and 60s. “PAST pupils can now access newly scanned school bulletins and photos from more than 50 years ago. Several important documents and photos detailing the Gilberd School’s history from the 1950s and 1960s are now available for the public to view for the first time.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ars Technica: Google Wallet rolls out to users, will live alongside Google Pay in the US. “Today is apparently the launch day for Google Wallet—Google’s fourth rebrand of its payment system. Users on Reddit report the app has rolled out to them, and a version has popped up on APKMirror if you want to sideload. Google also launched a ton of support pages today relating to Wallet.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 12 Resourceful OSINT Tools You Should Know. “Carrying out open-source intelligence manually is no doubt a Herculean task. There are just too many records and data to go through. Thankfully, many tools have been created to automate and speed up the OSINT process. With these tools, you can get a lot of information about a particular organization and person in seconds.” Interesting mix. Annotation is a little thin so be prepared to explore.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Mashable: ‘Heardle Decades’ lets you guess all the ’80s and ’90s bangers . “Heardle Decades takes the song-guessing Wordle variant to make individual music guessing games based on songs from the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. It’s not an official Heardle offshoot, so has nothing to do with Heardle’s new owner, Spotify, but it plugs into the streaming site.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: Dozens of Thai activists and supporters hacked by NSO Group’s Pegasus. “More than 30 Thai activists and supporters have been hacked with NSO Group’s potent Pegasus spyware, civil society groups said late Sunday, in the first countrywide campaign brought to light because Apple warned targeted iPhone users.”

Engadget: US Congress calls for the FTC to regulate how VPN companies operate. “US Democrats have urged the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) to crack down on deceptive practices in the Virtual Private Network (VPN) industry, The Verge has reported. In an open letter, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) cited research indicating that three-quarters of the most popular VPNs ‘misrepresented their products,’ leading consumers to a false sense of security.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

WIRED: AI Art Is Challenging the Boundaries of Curation. “The coming-of-age of AI art raises a number of interesting questions, some of which—such as whether AI art is really art, and if so, to what extent it is really made by AI—are not particularly original.”

New Jersey Institute of Technology: Use of Twitter Helped Taliban Regain Control in Afghanistan, Researchers Find. “Twitter was a strategic tool for Taliban operations in overthrowing the Afghanistan leadership during the country’s civil war, and some accounts associated with the oppressive group triggered the company’s algorithms to promote ads for well-known Western brands, researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology, Princeton University and University of Regina found.”

Northwestern Now: Government-funded scientific research reflects public interest, Northwestern study finds . “Around the world, governments fund scientific research with taxpayer money as a public good. But how well does science serve the public interest in practice? A new study led by Northwestern University researchers finds that public funding is well-aligned with public use, and that the public tends to value research that scientists also see as impactful within their fields.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 21, 2022 at 12:23AM
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