New researches

Friday, August 5, 2022

Glaciology Notebooks, British Library Endangered Archives, GitLab, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 5, 2022

Glaciology Notebooks, British Library Endangered Archives, GitLab, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 5, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Colorado Boulder: Rare glacier research notebooks now available digitally. “Over 140 documents from notebooks and reports that feature first-person accounts of glacial landscapes from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are now available to the public through the CU Digital Library. These expedition notebooks and reports come from the Roger G. Barry glaciology collection, which was donated to the CU Boulder Libraries’ Archives from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in 2017. The contents include glacier and ice discoveries from early expeditions to Alaska and U.S. National Parks, daily logs documenting observations such as weather and occasional interactions with indigenous communities.”

British Library Endangered Archives Blog: New online – July 2022. “This month we are highlighting four pilot projects that have recently been made available online, from Indonesia, Kenya, Russia, and Tunisia.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Register: GitLab U-turns on deleting dormant projects after backlash. “GitLab has reversed its decision to automatically delete projects that are inactive for more than a year and belong to its free-tier users. As revealed exclusively yesterday by The Register, GitLab planned to introduce the policy in late September. The biz hoped the move would save it up to $1 million a year and help make its SaaS business sustainable. This news did not go down well.”

Ars Technica: Winamp, the best MP3 player of the 1990s, just got a major update. “… last week, for the first time in four years, Radionomy released a new version of Winamp. The release notes for Winamp 5.9 RC1 Build 1999 say that the update represents four years of work across two separate development teams, delayed in between by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

USEFUL STUFF

Social Media Examiner: Twitter Spaces: A Live Audio Guide for Marketers. “Plan to launch your own Twitter space? Wondering how it all works? In this article, you’ll get a complete primer for Twitter Spaces so you can master everything from hosting and joining to promoting and analyzing audio events.” If you want to market with it, fine, but putting that aside this is a thorough overview of how Twitter Spaces works.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

AFP: ‘Golden age’: Marcos myths on Philippine social media. “Ferdinand Marcos Junior appears on the cusp of victory in next week’s presidential polls, with his seemingly unassailable lead fuelled by a decades-long misinformation campaign to revamp the family brand. The clan’s comeback from pariahs in exile to the peak of political power has been built on a relentless barrage of fake and misleading posts on social media.”

Chicago Daily Herald: Hoffman Estates allows Obama Library archives to stay for four more years. “While no firm date has been announced for the completion and opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Library near the University of Chicago, its future contents will stay in Hoffman Estates for four more years.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Independent: Parliament shuts TikTok account after MPs’ fears over firm’s links to China. “Parliament has shut its TikTok account after MPs raised concerns about the social media firm’s Chinese links. A number of MPs hit by Chinese sanctions for speaking out against ‘gross human rights violations’ had protested against the recent creation of the social media account.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Rensselaer: Consumers Are Likely To Be Susceptible to Slick Graphic Design of Trading Platforms. “Research conducted by Gaurav Jain, a behavioral economist and assistant professor at Rensselaer, and John Chen, an undergraduate student studying biology in Rensselaer’s accelerated B.S./M.D. program, explored how certain graphic designs on decentralized finance (defi) apps can target an investor’s inexperience to elicit decisions that are quick and uninformed, using an investor’s intuition rather than information.”

BBC: Conjoined twins separated with the help of virtual reality. “Three-year-olds Bernardo and Arthur Lima underwent surgeries in Rio de Janeiro, with direction from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. The teams spent months trialling techniques using virtual reality projections of the twins, based on CT and MRI scans.” Good afternoon, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!

August 6, 2022 at 12:25AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/hFPHIl5

Supp Ukraina, World Media, Ukraine Game Jam, More: Ukraine Update, August 5, 2022

Supp Ukraina, World Media, Ukraine Game Jam, More: Ukraine Update, August 5, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

It’s Nice That: A new identity makes language learning a safe, friendly experience for Ukrainian children. “Language Supp Ukraina is an initiative of free online language platforms; it supports children from refugee families who have fled Ukraine in learning a new language and, in this instance, with Polish lessons, to help aid in the transition to a new country.”

The Odessa Journal: The online library of world media columns about the Russian-Ukrainian war has been launched. “A selection of covers can be found by the link. They can be searched by time, country, or edition. Columns are available on the website in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and other languages.”

EVENTS

US Department of State: Gamers Around the World Celebrate Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage at the United With Ukraine Game Jam. “This videogame development competition was organized by GovTech Poland, in cooperation with the Cultural Heritage Center from the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Over two days, the jammers, representing 22 countries, came together virtually, and in person, to create working prototypes for new video games that celebrate and support Ukraine’s cultural heritage.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNN: UK sanctions British blogger over videos from Ukraine. “Blogger Graham Phillips was added to the UK sanctions list on Monday, according to the Foreign Office. He is the only British national sanctioned in relation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to public records.”

Reuters: Russia’s Yandex says investments could pick up as revenues rise. “Russian internet giant Yandex reported on Tuesday a jump in second-quarter revenue and profit, saying efforts to save cash had helped it weather external challenges and that investments may accelerate in the coming quarters.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CNBC: Meta takes down Russian troll farm. “Meta says that it’s continuing to crack down on bad actors across its social media sites. The company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, reported Thursday that it had taken down a Russia-based troll farm from Instagram earlier this year that had been churning out phony posts about the war in Ukraine.”

BBC: Ukraine war: How Russia uses social media to steal sunflower seeds. “The BBC has seen significant evidence that Russian forces in occupied areas of Ukraine have been systematically seizing not only Ukrainian grain, but also sunflower seeds from local farmers. We have spoken to farmers who have lost their crops, and tracked messages in private and public social media groups showing how the seeds are transported from southern and eastern occupied parts of Ukraine to Russia.”

NPR: The Ukrainian women who make art in the face of war. “Stories of war are being told now by some of Ukraine’s leading female artists at New York’s Fridman Gallery, as well as a gallery in Kyiv. The women are activists as well as artists, and are responding in paint, photographs and videos to the Russian invasion, and earlier conflicts over the annexation of Crimea. The powerful, haunting works prove that art is not just about pretty pictures.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: Did Russia mess up its cyberwar with Ukraine before it even invaded?. “Jan. 14 was a rough day for the Ukrainian government: Destructive malware wiped out computers at two agencies, and hackers temporarily took down dozens of agency websites and left a message on the Foreign Ministry site to ‘Be afraid and expect the worst.’ Now, though, Ukrainian officials say that the assault was a huge miscalculation on the Russians’ part.”

Moscow Times: Ex-Yandex Head Takes EU to Court Over Sanctions. “The former head of Russia’s top tech firm Yandex Tigran Khudaverdyan has challenged sanctions against him over the Ukraine war in a European Union court. Khudaverdyan filed a lawsuit on June 7 demanding the European Council lift its ‘discriminatory and disproportionate’ sanctions against him. The lawsuit was first reported by TV channel RTVI on Monday evening.”

Bleeping Computer: Movie torrents hijacked to send tips on bypassing Russian censorship. ” A team of Ukrainian cyber-activists has thought of a simple yet potentially effective way to spread uncensored information in Russia: bundling torrents with text and video files pretending to include installation instructions.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Dispatch: It’s Not Just Ukraine. “Through increased meddling in Moldova, Georgia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Putin has made it clear that he can pull the trigger and defrost frozen conflicts whenever he pleases. The U.S. and Europe must send information warfare teams to counter Moscow’s weaponization of secessionist movements.”

August 5, 2022 at 09:01PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/QyCqGIs

Cash for Clunkers, UCLA Law, Google, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, August 5, 2022

Cash for Clunkers, UCLA Law, Google, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, August 5, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The Drive: We Found the Full List of All 677,081 Cars Killed in Cash for Clunkers. “The federal scrappage scheme that destroyed almost 700,000 supposedly gas-guzzling vehicles had basic criteria: no cars could be 25 years old or older, the cars must manage 18 mpg combined or worse, driveable, and its rebate and scrap value must be applied to a car that would be registered and insured for one continuous year after purchase. What was taken off the roads has hopefully been recycled several times over, but the truth isn’t lost, as we’ve dug up a little-known, long-lost complete report on every car CFC destroyed.”

UCLA Newsroom: UCLA Law launches project to track attacks on critical race theory. “UCLA School of Law’s Critical Race Studies Program has created an innovative project to track and analyze legislative, regulatory and administrative efforts to block or undermine the teaching of a more complete history of the United States in schools across the country. Critical race theory, or CRT, is the study of systemic racism in law, policy and society.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Google Blog: How we’re improving search results when you use quotes. “The snippets we display for search results (meaning the text you see describing web content) will be formed around where a quoted word or phrase occurs in a web document. That means you can more easily identify where to find them after you click the link and visit the content. On desktop, we’ll also bold the quoted material.” An excellent update.

Associated Press: Musk response to Twitter lawsuit to be made public by Friday. “Elon Musk’s answer to Twitter’s lawsuit over his attempt to back out of a $44 billion deal to buy the social media company will be made public by Friday evening at the latest, a judge ruled Wednesday.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Gizmodo: The Notorious Hacker Who’s Trying to Fix Social Media. “Over the past two decades, social media has taken over the world and become a menace to democracy. Can a pseudonymous hacktivist get it back on the right track?” I’m on CounterSocial and I like it a lot. Became a Pro user in May and I’m pleased to report that my credit card has suffered no injury. It’s not a place to be if you just want to splash around in outrage, but if you like to hang out and share news and have conversations and post music and pet pictures, it’s great.

NBC News: Dozens of fake news websites and social media accounts pushed pro-China talking points. “A Chinese marketing firm hosted a ring of at least 72 fake news sites in 11 languages with corresponding fake social media personas that pushed Chinese government talking points, according to research published Thursday.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: Russian accused of money laundering and running $4B bitcoin exchange extradited to US. “A Russian national accused of running a multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange that allegedly profited from various hacking and extortion schemes has been extradited from Greece and is on his way to the US, according to the suspect’s lawyer.”

Reuters: EU antitrust regulators quiz developers on Google app payments – sources . “EU antitrust regulators have asked app developers whether Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) unit Google’s threat to remove apps from its Play Store if they use other payment options instead of its own billing system has hurt their business, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.”

NBC News: Class-action suit filed against Equifax after millions of scores were affected by glitch. “A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Equifax following a report that millions of credit scores were affected by a technical glitch in the credit bureau’s reporting system.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Michigan: How Social Media Usage & Online Navigation Changes During A Crisis. “As part of the Social Responsibility Series, Paul Resnick, PhD, joins Michigan Minds to share insight on the use of social media during times of national crisis, the impact of digital search filters, and how users can stay informed about misinformation.” Podcast with accompanying article.

University of Melbourne: How Data Expertise Is Fostering Endangered Languages. “The PARADISEC digital archive model revitalising endangered languages around the Pacific has now been taken up in North America by the Cherokee Nation.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Texas A&M Today: Texas A&M Team Translates Thousands Of Pages Of Math Into Braille. “When Texas A&M University Mathematics Lecturer Vanessa Coffelt wanted to further accommodate coursework for students who are blind or visually impaired, the staff at Texas A&M’s Department of Disability Resources accepted the challenge. They worked closely with the Department of Mathematics to create a Braille translation — more than 2,300 pages worth.” Good morning, Internet…

August 5, 2022 at 05:28PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/3ief7JR

Thursday, August 4, 2022

Dishware Collectibles, Toronto Vital Records, Breastfeeding Research, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, August 4, 2022

Dishware Collectibles, Toronto Vital Records, Breastfeeding Research, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, August 4, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

The queue is a little overflowing, so have an evening issue.

NEW RESOURCES

Fort Myers Florida Weekly: Here’s the dish on a handy new online search tool. “All of those websites are great reference tools for looking up prices when you know what you’re looking for. But what if you have your grandmother’s dishes or silver or crystal and want to find more pieces, or at least know a pattern name? Replacements Ltd., the North Carolina matching service for china, crystal, silver and other discontinued items, recently launched a new search tool, which makes pattern identification much easier.”

Archdiocese of Toronto: New Digital Archive Highlights Parish Histories. “ARCAT Online is a digital collection portal that provides access to our pre-1910 historical parish registers. It will also showcase some of the unique artifacts and other materials in ARCAT’s collections. The registers you will find here include records from parishes within the boundaries of the Archdiocese of Toronto: the City of Toronto; the regional municipalities of Peel, York and Durham; and Simcoe County. The burial registers for St. Paul’s Basilica, as well as St. Michael’s cemetery up to 1910, can also be found on the site.”

International Atomic Energy Agency: IAEA Launches Database on Breast Milk Intake. “The IAEA’s Database on Human Milk Intake is a growing global collection of studies, currently representing research from 28 countries across all regions, using the nuclear technique, deuterium oxide dose-to-mother (DTM), to determine how much breast milk breastfed infants consume.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

BuzzFeed News: Creators Told Us Their Favorite Internet Rabbit Holes . “I recently attended VidCon, and I asked dozens of creators there — some of the most online people you can imagine, as they earn their livelihoods through posting — what internet rabbit holes they’ve gone down lately.”

New York Times: A Stranger Filmed Her on the Train. TikTok Users Decided She Had Monkeypox.. “Lilly Simon, a 33-year-old in Brooklyn, does not have monkeypox. She does have neurofibromatosis type 1, a genetic condition that causes tumors to grow at her nerve endings. Those tumors were filmed surreptitiously by a TikTok user while Ms. Simon was riding the subway on a Thursday in late July during her commute.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Huge network of 11,000 fake investment sites targets Europe. “Researchers have uncovered a gigantic network of more than 11,000 domains used to promote numerous fake investment schemes to users in Europe. The platforms show fabricated evidence of enrichment and falsified celebrity endorsements to create an image of legitimacy and lure in a larger number of victims.”

CNN: TikTok’s ties to China are once again under fire in Washington. Here’s why. “Two years after then-President Donald Trump said he would ban TikTok in the United States through an executive order, the short-form video platform is once again under scrutiny in Washington. And the underlying issue remains largely the same: TikTok’s ties to China through its parent company, Bytedance.”

AFP: Tuneless Bangladeshi social media star grilled by police. “An out-of-tune Bangladeshi singer with a huge internet following was hauled in by police at dawn and told to cease his painful renditions of classical songs, sparking a furore on social media.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

US Government Accountability Office: Federal Spending Data Quality—Is This As Good As It Gets? Auditors Say It Can Be Better. “The DATA Act—which Congress passed in 2014—requires agencies to publicly report high-quality spending data on USAspending.gov to create transparency in government spending. But 8 years later, audits by offices of inspector general (OIG) are still saying that agencies could do better. Today’s WatchBlog post explores the results from our review of the 57 OIG reports to help Congress, journalists, and the general public identify which spending data they can rely on.”

Duke Fuqua School of Business: How should music streaming services pay artists?. “Going into the investigation, [Saša] Pekeč and his co-authors—Saeed Alaei, a scientist at Google Research, Ali Makhdoumi, also a professor of decision sciences at Fuqua, and Azarakhsh Malekian, a professor of operations management and statistics at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management—initially thought they were going to mathematically prove that the pro-rata rule was indeed unfair and bad for small artists. They were in for a surprise.” Good evening, Internet…

August 5, 2022 at 05:49AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/G71rLFs

New Mexico Social Services, Graphic Design Archives, Washington Environmental Health, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 4, 2022

New Mexico Social Services, Graphic Design Archives, Washington Environmental Health, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 4, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Human Services Department of New Mexico: Human Services Department launches first phase of the one-stop shop for New Mexicans to access the state’s health and human services programs. “New Mexicans will have access to a simplified, accessible, and inclusive website to apply for or renew services such as Medicaid, behavioral health, child support, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Customers will be able to access their benefit enrollment information, application assistance, and tailored referrals across New Mexico’s health and human services agencies without having to navigate multiple systems.”

Several resources mentioned here, all but one new-to-me. It’s Nice That: Five fascinating archives for learning about design history. “Whether it’s stamps, logos or rave membership cards, here are the best design archives to bookmark for research or late night scrolling session.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

University of Washington: Popular map for exploring environmental health disparities, vulnerabilities in Washington gets an update. “Map users can create data visualizations to see environmental health risks and compare census tracts based on dozens of factors, such as existing levels of pollution that include ozone concentration, PM2.5, diesel emissions, lead risks in homes, proximity to heavilytrafficked roads, industrial or waste treatment facilities and Superfund sites. Included also are socioeconomic factors such as English proficiency, education levels, housing affordability and employment statistics, birthweights and prevalence of cardiovascular disease.”

TechCrunch: Google now lets merchants add an ‘Asian-owned’ label to their profiles on Maps and Search. “Google announced today that it’s adding a new label on Maps and Search that will allow people to identify their business as being Asian-owned. The new label is now available to merchants in the United States with a verified business profile on Google.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Oddity Central: Man Tries to Perform Nose Job on Himself, Unsurprisingly Ends Up in the Hospital . “You can find all sorts of DIY tutorials on YouTube these days, and that apparently includes nose surgery as well. However, just because someone says you don’t have to be a doctor to perform an operation, especially if it’s on yourself doesn’t make it a good idea. Unfortunately, one Sao Paolo man actually tried to do his own rhinoplasty using a YouTube video as a guide and ended up at the Campo Limpo Emergency Care Unit with an infected wound.”

Washington Post: A TikTok rival promised millions to Black creators. Now some are deep in debt.. “[David] Warren had the promise of stability in the form of a lucrative, year-long deal with Triller, a short-form video app that looks and functions similarly to TikTok. He was part of a group of what Triller touted as 300 Black content creators offered contracts totaling $14 million — ‘the largest ever one-time commitment of capital to Black creators,’ the company bragged in a November news release. But nearly a year after Triller began recruiting Black talent, its payments to many creators have been erratic — and, in some cases, nonexistent…”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: Google Defeats Lawsuit Decrying Animal Abuse Videos on YouTube. “An animal rights group failed in a legal attempt to force Google to do more to keep videos of animal abuse off its YouTube streaming platform. Alphabet Inc.’s Google is protected by a federal law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, that shields internet platforms from lawsuits based on content posted by their users, Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Sunil R. Kulkarni said in a tentative ruling Wednesday.”

Bleeping Computer: German Chambers of Industry and Commerce hit by ‘massive’ cyberattack. “The Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) was forced to shut down all of its IT systems and switch off digital services, telephones, and email servers, in response to a cyberattack. DIHK is a coalition of 79 chambers representing companies within the German state, with over three million members comprising businesses ranging from small shops to large enterprises in the country.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: Can We Resist the Age of the Algorithm?. “People can choose to be ruled by algorithmic thinking without running a literal program to figure out what’s popular. And the fact that we have a specific form of technology that makes it easier to squash risk and creativity is hard to separate from wider trends toward sclerosis, repetition, what I spent an entire book calling decadence.”

Mainichi: Rare records of A-bomb survey at Hiroshima junior high school in 1947 donated to museum . “Hiroshima Daiichi Junior High School was located approximately 850 meters from the hypocenter, and many students were working at munitions factories in and around the city when the atomic bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945. According to the documents, a total of 1,334 students and staff were registered at the time, and more than half, or 727 were exposed to the A-bomb.” Good afternoon, Internet…

August 5, 2022 at 12:20AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/2EnA7XW

Wednesday, August 3, 2022

York Genealogy, Google Search Results, iOS Live Captions, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 3, 2022

York Genealogy, Google Search Results, iOS Live Captions, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 3, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of York: Two million historic York records go online. “More than two million records detailing baptisms, marriages and burials in York over five centuries have been released online thanks to a new partnership between the University of York and Ancestry.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Roundtable: Google Perspectives Search Results. “Google seems to be testing a new search box and feature titled ‘perspectives.’ Perspectives seem to give searchers answers to a more broad and maybe philosophical type of query.”

USEFUL STUFF

Mashable: How to use the new Live Captions in iOS 16 . “Apple is launching a new suite of accessibility features in the soon-to-be-unveiled iOS 16, and (finally) adding a Live Captions feature for all audio content across devices. The new option lets users easily turn on automatic captioning in their Settings menu, which will apply to any audio played within the device, from phone calls, to FaceTime sessions, to videos.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

TechCrunch: Protestware on the rise: Why developers are sabotaging their own code. “A developer can, on a whim, change their mind and do whatever they want with their open source code that, most of the time anyway, comes “as is” without any warranty. Or, as seen by a growing trend this year, developers deliberately sabotaging their own software libraries as a means of protest — turning software into ‘protestware.'”

BBC: Kenya election: The influencers paid to push hashtags. “Social media influencing is a growing and potentially lucrative business for young people in Kenya and increasingly, politicians come calling…. With the fiercely contested presidential election on 9 August, many fear the system of paid-for influence can lead to manipulation and the spread of harmful narratives.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

SC Media: HHS alerts to ongoing healthcare web app attacks, urges review of tactics. “Healthcare entities are being urged to review tactics and potential remediation strategies for ongoing web application attack campaigns targeting the sector. The Department of Health and Human Services Cybersecurity Coordination Center shared insights into health sector impacts.”

WIRED: How Tor Is Fighting—and Beating—Russian Censorship. “Tor encrypts your web traffic and sends it through a chain of computers, making it very hard for people to track you online. Authoritarian governments see it as a particular threat to their longevity, and in recent months, Russia has stepped up its long-term ambition to block Tor—although not without a fight.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Map Room: GPS Negatively Impacts Spatial Memory. “Rebecca Solnit points to a 2020 study that attempts to measure the impact of using GPS navigation devices on our spatial memory. After assessing 50 drivers, researchers found that drivers with more GPS experience had worse spatial memory when navigating without GPS.”

The Verge: TikTok to provide researchers with more transparency as damaging reports mount. “TikTok is making it easier for researchers to delve into the data and protocols that make up the platform. In a blog post, TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas announced the company will soon grant researchers access to the framework behind the platform and its moderation system.”

BusinessWire: Leafly Launches Unique Data-Sharing Program to Advance Cannabis Research (PRESS RELEASE). “Leafly is the informed way to shop for weed and its cannabis data library includes tens of thousands of cannabinoid and terpene strain profiles from the Leafly-Certified Labs Program, subjective strain effects from consumer reviews, and cannabis popularity metrics.” Good afternoon, Internet…

August 4, 2022 at 12:06AM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/8h6x05L

African Letters Project, Bing, Amazon Drive, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, August 3, 2022

African Letters Project, Bing, Amazon Drive, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, August 3, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New-to-Me, from Tulane News: Tulane database brings historic activism to the forefront. “The African Letters Project is a free database that consists of over 5,600 letters written between 1945 to 1994, during the decolonization era in many African countries. [Professor Elisabeth] McMahon’s initial idea for the database was to highlight more African American activists who supported independence movements throughout Africa during that period of history.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Roundtable: Microsoft Bing Search Tests & New Features. “There is just so much going on with Microsoft Bing Search between new features and tests, I figured I’d put together a quick list of them in one place. I am not 100% sure if these are all new because I am not as on top of Bing as I am with Google but here it goes.”

How-To Geek: Amazon Is Axing Amazon Drive, But It Still Wants Your Photos. “Amazon has a cloud service for backing up photos and videos, fittingly called Amazon Photos, but the company also offered regular cloud storage that worked like Dropbox or OneDrive. Now, that option is going away.”

TechCrunch: Google announces new Play Store policies around intrusive ads, impersonation and more. “Google announced new Play Store policies for developers on Wednesday that aim to address issues with intrusive ads, alarms, VPNs and impersonation of brands and other apps. The company said these policies will go into effect during different timeframes so developers have ample time to make changes to their apps.”

USEFUL STUFF

Popular Science: How to use built-in parental controls on Instagram, TikTok, and more. “Both Android phones and iPhones have built-in system-wide safety measures that allow you to limit the sites your kids can see, the apps they’re allowed to run, or the time they spend on their device each day. But some apps also have parental controls included—social media is no exception. These bespoke settings let you tailor an app to be suitable for your kids, keeping them away from inappropriate content and making sure they’re using social platforms responsibly.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Associated Press: Washington Post headline calling to ‘cancel midterms’ is altered. “Social media users are sharing a fabricated image of a Washington Post headline to claim that a columnist for the news outlet suggested President Joe Biden should cancel November’s midterm elections to ‘save democracy.'”

WCNC: Tweets falsely claim The Atlantic published story about ‘Biden’s negative growth economy’. “Several days after the U.S. Commerce Department reported that the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) had declined for the second quarter in a row, people on Twitter began sharing an image of a headline about the economy under President Joe Biden.”

Museums + Heritage Advisor: Trent Park Mansion secures funding to create digital museum ahead of opening mansion house. “Funding for a new ‘digital museum’ has been secured by the Trust currently developing Trent Park House in North London. The Digital Museum project, backed by £225,000 from theNational Lottery Heritage Fund, is hoped to generate awareness and provide access to the House’s hidden histories. Specifically, the stories of the ‘Secret Listeners’, a group of German and Austrian refugees who were recruited by British intelligence to spy on prisoners based at the Mansion.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Italy’s communication authority fines Google over gambling advertising. “Italy’s communication authority said on Tuesday it had fined tech giant Google, owned by parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), 750,000 euros ($766,350) for allegedly breaching a ban on gambling advertising on its YouTube video platform.”

Washington Post: Twitter is probing Elon Musk’s social circle in broad legal requests. “Twitter is probing associates of Elon Musk and seeking other information in far-reaching legal requests about his $44 billion deal to acquire the social media company, according to legal documents obtained by The Washington Post.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Washington Post: Social Media Can No Longer Hide Its Problems in a Black Box. “There’s a perfectly good reason to break open the secrets of social-media giants. Over the past decade, governments have watched helplessly as their democratic processes were disrupted by misinformation and hate speech on sites like Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook, Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Twitter Inc. Now some governments are gearing up for a comeuppance.”

PolitiFact: How will social media platforms respond to election misinformation? It isn’t clear. “As we reviewed the rules for false claims about elections and voting on social media, we found that determining what gets removed, what gets labeled and what gets downgraded isn’t straightforward. Every platform is different, and their policies aren’t always clearly outlined. Even when policies are clear, platforms may still shift them quickly without making the changes obvious to users.” Good morning, Internet…

August 3, 2022 at 05:27PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/NBlHatq