New researches

Friday, August 19, 2022

Crime Databases, Cameo, Linux, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 19, 2022

Crime Databases, Cameo, Linux, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 19, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

News@Northeastern: Northeastern Professor’s Mass Killings Database Goes Public. “It references every mass killing, by all weapons and means, in which four or more people (excluding the offender) were killed within a window of 24 hours. [Professor James Alan] Fox’s database provides a different perspective than other firearm-related sites, including the Gun Violence Archive, which includes shootings with four or more victims, most of whom survive their injuries. Less than 5% of mass shootings in the Gun Violence Archive are mass killings.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Gizmodo: Cameo Now Lets You Have 10-Minute Calls With Celebs. “Cameo, the app that already lets you pay celebrities (often D-list), corrupt politicians, athletes, and others(?) to record personalized video messages, is expanding to 10-minute, live video calls. Users won’t just get a pre-recorded message. Instead, they’ll be able to interact with their chosen victim in real-time.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: 12 of the Best Linux Distros in 2022. “If you’re new to Linux or are looking for a change, these distributions are easily among the best options in 2022. This list was designed to cover different experience levels and use cases. Whether you’re a system admin, developer, or desktop user, you’ll find something to interest you.”

MakeUseOf: How to Manage Your Side Search Panel in Google Chrome. “Google Chrome is constantly finding ways to improve its user experience. When you’re on a web page, and you want to perform a quick Google search, you can do that without opening a new tab. Enabling your Side Search panel allows you to easily browse through Google search results. In this article, you’ll learn how to manage your Side Search panel in Google Chrome.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Search Engine Roundtable: Google Can & Does Drop URLs From Its Index Over Time. “Most SEOs that have been doing the search engine optimization thing for any amount of time know that Google can and likely will drop out URLs from the Google index. John Mueller from Google confirmed that this happens with Google Search on Twitter the other day.”

Artsy: This Millennial Built a Serious Art Collection through Social Media. “The Abruscatos have also made the most of their millennial internet fluency. As they prepared to make their first acquisitions, the pair embraced online buying and social media. Dylan was a fan of painter Jordan Kerwick’s fine brushwork and depictions of quiet domestic scenes, and in 2017 he decided to cold message the artist, requesting a work. ‘Buying a piece from him was as easy as texting a friend,’ Dylan said. Through such intimate channels, the couple pierced through what had previously seemed an impregnable space of art collecting.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: Musk wins one, loses 21 others as judge denies access to many Twitter records. “The judge overseeing the Twitter/Elon Musk case is giving Musk access to evidence from one former Twitter executive but rejected his request for documents from 21 other potential witnesses. As previously reported, Musk was seeking evidence from employees responsible for calculating spam-account estimates and reportedly claimed Twitter was hiding key witnesses.”

Motherboard: How a Third-Party SMS Service Was Used to Take Over Signal Accounts. “Last week, hackers broke into the systems of Twilio, a cloud communications company that provides infrastructure to other companies to automate sending text messages to their users. By breaking into Twilio systems, hackers could have sent text messages to victims, and read their text messages as well. This potentially gave the hackers a chance to take over any victim’s accounts that were tied to their phone number on services that use Twilio. Crucially, Twilio provides text verification services for the encrypted messaging app Signal.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Variety: U.S. Streaming Tops Cable TV Viewing for First Time, Nielsen Says. “For the month of July, streaming among American TV households represented a record 34.8% share of total consumption, while cable and broadcast came in at 34.4% and 21.6%, respectively. Streaming usage has surpassed that of broadcast before, but this is the first time it has also exceeded cable viewing.”

WIRED: How to Stop Robots From Becoming Racist. “The doll test was invented to better understand the evil consequences of separate and unequal treatment on the self-esteem of Black children in the United States. Lawyers from the NAACP used the results to successfully argue in favor of the desegregation of US schools. Now AI researchers say robots may need to undergo similar tests to ensure they treat all people fairly.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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August 20, 2022 at 12:54AM
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Exploring Congressional Social Media Space Via Google (With Optional Time Machine Attachment)

Exploring Congressional Social Media Space Via Google (With Optional Time Machine Attachment)
By researchbuzz2

I’ve been having a fine time exploring the ProPublica Congress API. I started by making something that would build queries for Congressional TwitterSpace, and that was fun. Then I made something that would be ridiculous and search Congressional TwitterSpace by things like Zodiac sign and % of votes missed. That was even more fun.

But it was also frustrating in a couple of ways: first, these tools only searched Twitter. Second, they only searched the members of the current session of Congress. I wanted to make something that would search more Congressional social media space and search for more representatives across different sessions of Congress.

So I did, and it was the most fun yet. The Congressional Social Media Explorer is available at https://researchbuzz.github.io/Congressional-Social-Media-Explorer/ . You’ll need a ProPublica API key to use it; they’re free at https://www.propublica.org/datastore/api/propublica-congress-api .

The Congressional Social Media Explorer takes your search query, the state for which you want to get member information, the Congress session number (it goes back to 112, which covers 2011-2012), and the branch of Congress. With that data, it builds queries for each representative in that state during that Congress.

(Sometimes it takes a few seconds to show anything since it goes through a pretty big list; don’t expect to hit the button and instantly get the queries. If you’re the impatient type, try searching for Senate members first. Smaller group.)

From these lists of queries you can view a number of things, including Google’s Knowledge Panel for that representative:

You can see what statements matching your query terms have been made on Facebook (and every Facebook search result I’ve seen has been cached by Google, so you don’t need to have a Facebook account to see the entire page. Just look at the cache.)

(Additional queries find posted Facebook photos and Facebook videos.)

Another query takes you to the representative’s Twitter posts:

And finally, you can take a look at the representative’s most recent YouTube videos (these are not searched by keyword, I’m still trying to figure that one out.)

Making this indulged my interest in creating contextual Web searches across discrete slices of time not delineated by the search data (in this case, Congressional sessions.) That kind of search methodology is not easy to casually set up and implement; I suspect I’ll be looking for other ways to experiment with it.

Thanks for reading.

August 19, 2022 at 05:46PM
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CineD Databases, Dublin Port Digital Archives, 9/11 Tribute Museum, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, August 19, 2022

CineD Databases, Dublin Port Digital Archives, 9/11 Tribute Museum, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, August 19, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

CineD: Launching CineD Databases – Camera & Lens Databases and Lens Coverage Tool. “Are you tired of having to browse the Internet every time you want to know details about a camera or lens? With the new CineD Databases, you can even find curated technical details for your camera and lens selection, all in one place.”

Dublin Port Company: The Dublin Port Digital Archive Is Now Live. “The Dublin Port Archive covers the history of the Port from 1707, offering a unique insight into how Dublin Port shaped Dublin City. The Archive is comprised of 75,000 photographs, 30,000 engineering drawings, 600 historical registers, yearbooks dating back to 1926 along with a ‘Name Book’ for employees from 1906 to 1925.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NBC New York: 9/11 Tribute Museum Closing NYC Location After More Than 15 Years, Going Fully Online. “The group said they had wanted a place to tell the stories of those they lost in the Sept. 11 attacks. Now, the museum’s online presence will allow the group to keep providing educational resources and support for the 9/11 community. They will still be able to offer interactive engagement, including video stories of those impacted.”

Getty Library Blog: Getty Library Research Grant applications now online for 2023. “Applications for 2023 Getty Library Research Grants are now online. Getty Library Research Grants support a wide range of research pursuits through an open call for applications as well some specialized opportunities.”

USEFUL STUFF

New York Times: Tech Hacks to Make Traveling Right Now Less of a Headache. “Here are some of the most useful tech tools that travel experts and I are using at this ‘new normal’ stage of the pandemic to make our excursions more pleasant, including apps to monitor flight changes and find the best seats.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Reuters: TikTok to clamp down on paid political posts by influencers ahead of US midterms . “TikTok will work to prevent content creators from posting paid political messages on the short-form video app, as part of its preparation for the US midterm election in November, the company said on Wednesday.”

The Mainichi: Smartphone classes taught by teens attract flood of elderly applicants in central Japan . “The municipal government here has received a flood of applications from older people to join classes in which local high school students will teach them the basics of smartphones. The free classes intended for those aged 70 or older will be taught by their grandchildren’s generation at a lifelong learning center in the Mie Prefecture city of Ise on Aug. 25.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Rolling Stone: Trump’s Site Is Being Weaponized Against the FBI — and Their Families. “A review of Truth Social postings by Rolling Stone shows Trump supporters have spent the past week doxxing both Judge Bruce Reinhart, the magistrate judge who approved the Mar-a-Lago warrant, and an FBI agent involved in preparing the request, as well as their families. The information includes their purported home addresses, phone numbers, places of worship, private offices, and similar information about the men’s families and junior employees.”

Ars Technica: Deadly swatting increasing on Twitch; alarmed streamers press for change. “These swatting attacks are conducted by anonymous persons making prank calls to police, falsely reporting emergency circumstances (like an armed potential mass shooter or a hostage situation that doesn’t exist) in order to get SWAT teams to descend, guns out, on a Twitch streamer’s location. The Washington Post reported this week that these swattings appear to be intensifying and can be traumatizing for targeted Twitch streamers. One trans Twitch streamer told the Post that police in London aimed an assault rifle at her face.”

WIRED: The Family That Mined the Pentagon’s Data for Profit. “The Freedom of Information Act helps Americans learn what the government is up to. The Poseys exploited it—and became unlikely defenders of transparency.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Rutgers University: VA Taps Rutgers Professor to Build Database Linking Veteran Ailments to Exposure From Burn Pits. “Scott Parrott, a Rutgers professor with more than 30 years of experience in methodology and statistics, will work with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) to create a database of evidence linking toxic exposure to burn pits to diseases such as cancer.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

CNN: Biden administration cancels another $3.9 billion in student loan debt for former for-profit college students. “The Department of Education said Tuesday that it will cancel $3.9 billion in student loan debt for 208,000 students who attended the now-defunct for-profit ITT Technical Institute — bringing the total amount of loan discharges approved under President Joe Biden to nearly $32 billion.” Good morning, Internet…

August 19, 2022 at 05:30PM
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Thursday, August 18, 2022

University of Georgia Speakers, Microsoft PowerToys, TikTok, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 18, 2022

University of Georgia Speakers, Microsoft PowerToys, TikTok, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 18, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Digital Library of Georgia: Fifty Years of Speakers Honored at the University of Georgia School of Law Now Available Online. “The collection features photographs of U.S. and Georgia political and legal figures during the latter part of the 20th century. Former President Jimmy Carter; U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas; and U.S. Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Dean Rusk are among the prominent national figures. Important legal leaders include Lawrence Lessig, Brooksley Born, and Sarah Weddington. Georgia politicians include former Governors Carl Sanders, Roy Barnes, and Zell Miller; U.S. Senators Max Cleland and Sam Nunn; among others.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Windows Central: Microsoft PowerToys adding tool for extracting text from images. “A new tool for Microsoft PowerToys will allow the app to extract text from images. The feature, referred to as PowerOCR on GitHub, is in its early stages.”

TechCrunch: A new TikTok feature lets creators share TikTok Stories to Facebook and Instagram. “TikTok confirmed to TechCrunch it’s launching a new sharing feature that will allow users to publish their TikTok Stories — a feature it has been piloting since last year — to rival social networks, including both Facebook and Instagram.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: How to Spot a Bot on Twitter . “Unfortunately, amid the thousands of Tweets that come up on your Twitter timeline, a sizable portion of them could be artificial opinions, created to mislead the Twitter community. These engineered opinions—typically spread by bots—can cause a lot of damage. So, how can you identify these bots in order to protect yourself from being misled?”

TechRepublic: How to use Google Data Studio: A beginner’s guide with examples. “Try this free, browser-based data visualization tool that connects to hundreds of data sources and lets you create, collaborate and share interactive charts and reports.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Washington Post: Gen Z TikTok creators are turning against Amazon. “A coalition of top TikTok stars is pledging to cease all work with Amazon — including shutting down storefronts and halting new partnerships with the e-commerce platform — until the company meets the demands of the Amazon Labor Union.”

BBC: Ewen Bain’s Angus Og cartoons to be digitised and conserved. “A collection of Angus Og cartoons that appeared in newspapers from the 1960s to 1989 are to be digitised and conserved. The Angus Og character was created by cartoonist Ewen Bain and his adventures were based on the fabled Isle of Drambeg in the Utter Hebrides.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Malicious browser extensions targeted almost 7 million people. “Almost 7 million users have attempted to install malicious browser extensions since 2020, with 70% of those extensions used as adware to target users with advertisements. The most common payloads carried by malicious web browser extensions during the first half of 2022 belonged to adware families, snooping on browsing activity and promoting affiliate links.”

CNN: Arizona Republican secretary of state nominee kept ‘Treason Watch List’ and posted about stockpiling ammunition on Pinterest. “The Republican nominee for secretary of state in Arizona is a self-proclaimed member of the far-right extremist group the Oath Keepers who repeatedly shared anti-government conspiracies and posts about stockpiling ammunition on social media.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Newswise: Baylor Study Combines Lithophane, 3D Printing to Enable Blind Individuals to “See” Data. “In an article published today in Science Advances, the researchers detail how they used lithophane – an old-fashioned art form – and 3D printing to turn scientific data into tactile graphics that glow with video-like resolution, enabling universal visualization of the same piece of data by both blind and sighted individuals.” Good afternoon, Internet…

August 19, 2022 at 12:50AM
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UK Movie Accessibility, TikTok Elections Center, Texas Economic Development, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, August 18, 2022

UK Movie Accessibility, TikTok Elections Center, Texas Economic Development, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, August 18, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Film Stories: New website to support accessible film screenings for deaf and blind audiences launches in the UK. “A new website for the UK, which is the first of its kind, aims to make cinema accessible to all. Sidecard is a searchable database, which records details relating to film access materials, such as subtitle and audio description files.”

TechCrunch: TikTok launches an in-app US midterms Elections Center, shares plan to fight misinformation. “The new feature will allow users to access state-by-state election information, including details on how to register to vote, how to vote by mail, how to find your polling place and more, provided by TikTok partner NASS (the National Association of Secretaries of State).”

Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts: Texas Comptroller’s Office Announces Local Economic Agreement Database is Now Online. “Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar today announced his agency has created an online database for local governments to report their economic development agreements authorized by either Chapter 380 or Chapter 381 of the Local Government Code. The searchable database allows the public to search for agreements by local government, business entity and agreement type.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Reddit launches a new developer portal to give third-party apps and bots a boost. “Reddit is announcing today that it will open up a waitlist for developers who want to build software for the platform using a new toolkit from the company. The company plans to pair the new toolkit with a directory of third-party software extensions that moderators and Redditors alike can browse from to craft a custom Reddit experience. The new portal will offer tools and other resources to empower devs to build software extensions to enhance the social network’s existing experience.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

IANS: Cabinet approves widening access to traditional knowledge digital library database. “The Union Cabinet in its meeting held on Wednesday, approved a proposal to widen the database of traditional knowledge digital library (TKDL) for users. Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said at a press conference that opening up of the TKDL database for users would help in providing greater access to Indian traditional knowledge.”

New York Daily News: Boston Children’s Hospital condemns right-wing lies about treatments for transgender minors. “Boston Children’s Hospital has been forced to publicly deny that its doctors are performing hysterectomies for minors after far-right anti-LGBTQ groups spread false reports online.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: Update Chrome now to patch actively exploited zero-day . “The exploit was reported by Ashley Shen and Christian Resell of the Google Threat Analysis Group, and that’s all the information we have for now. Details of the exploit are currently tucked behind a wall in the Chromium bugs group and are restricted to those actively working on related components and registered with Chromium. After a certain percentage of users have applied the relevant updates, those details may be revealed.”

Department of Defense: DOD Releases First Departmentwide Social Media Policy. “The Defense Department today released a policy that for the first time spells out, from the highest levels of the defense community, how DOD military and civilian personnel should use official social media accounts to best advance the mission of the U.S. military and further instill trust in the credibility of the DOD.”

Washington Post: Swizz Beatz, Timbaland sue Triller for $28 million in missing payments. “Music artists Swizz Beatz and Timbaland sued Triller Tuesday, alleging the social media platform owes them more than $28 million after acquiring their live-streaming music series Verzuz.” Some October 2020 background on Triller from the NYT.

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Florida: My Tutor is an AI: The Effects of Involvement and Tutor Type on Perceived Quality, Perceived Credibility, and Use Intention. “Artificial Intelligence is now being used to help tutor students at all educational levels. AI tutors can enhance learning outcomes such as facilitating various teaching-learning practices within and outside the classroom, supporting students 24/7, and providing students from economically disadvantaged areas access to all kinds of learning materials without being in the same geographical location. Yet, despite the now somewhat ubiquitous nature of AI tutoring, many students, teachers, and parents are skeptical of their efficacy.”

PR Newswire: CyberRatings.org Announces New Web Browser Test Results for 2022 (PRESS RELEASE). “CyberRatings.org, the non-profit entity dedicated to providing transparency on cybersecurity product efficacy, has published the results of its 2022 Web Browser Security Test. Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox were tested for Phishing Protection and Malware Protection running on Windows 10 and 11.”

Virginia Tech: Historical costume descriptors bridge gap between past and present. “The objective is to compare language from the past with new language that we use today to describe costume artifacts across different time periods. The Oris Glisson Historic Costume and Textile Collection will be digitized and made available to the public, increasing accessibility and access.” Good morning, Internet…

August 18, 2022 at 05:31PM
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Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, TikTok, Google Sheets, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 17, 2022

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, TikTok, Google Sheets, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 17, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from Boing Boing: New BB series! “Updating the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction”. “The HDSF — based on the OED Science Fiction Citations Project, a 2001 effort to crowdsource quotations for the Oxford English Dictionary — is a full-fledged dictionary of SF on historical principles, meaning that every entry is illustrated with contextual quotations showing exactly how a term has been used over time.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ars Technica: Chrome “Feed” is tantalizing, but it’s not the return of Google Reader. “Does Google enjoy teasing and sometimes outright torturing some of its products’ most devoted fans? It can seem that way. Tucked away inside a recent bleeding-edge Chrome build is a ‘Following feed’ that has some bloggers dreaming of the return of Google Reader. It’s unlikely, but never say never when it comes to Google product decisions.” NewsBlur and Feedly are both excellent RSS readers.

Engadget: TikTok adds an AI image generator, but it’s no DALL-E. “The Verge notes TikTok has introduced a rudimentary ‘AI greenscreen’ effect in its Android and iOS apps that turns your text descriptions into artwork. It’s much simpler than OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, producing abstract blobs rather than photorealistic depictions, but it might do the trick if you want an original background for your latest video.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: 6 Effective Ways to Use Explore in Google Sheets. “The Explore feature works differently in Google Sheets than in Google Docs. You can use it to get useful details about your data to help you analyze it. You can also use pieces that the tool provides in your spreadsheet. If you’re looking for a handy way to learn more about the data in your Google Sheet, here are various ways to use the Explore feature.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

WPXI: University of Pittsburgh Library System receives $1M grant from the Hillman Foundation. “The $1 million grant, a gift of the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, will support the final preparations in the library’s efforts to open the August Wilson archives to the public. The library system acquired the archive in 2020 and has been working to process and share the archive with the public over the past two years. The archive will open in Jan. 2023, and a week-long celebration of the legacy of Pittsburgh-born playwright August Wilson, in collaboration with local cultural organizations, is slated for March 2023.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: How Frustration Over TikTok Has Mounted in Washington. “National security concerns over the Chinese-owned viral video app remain unresolved. Lawmakers and regulators are increasingly pushing for action.”

Australian Associated Press: High Court rules Google not a publisher. “Australia’s highest court has ruled Google is not legally responsible for defamatory news articles as it is not the publisher of such content. A majority of High Court justices on Wednesday found Google was not the publisher of a defamatory article by The Age about a Victorian lawyer, as it was a search engine that only provided hyperlinks to news stories.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Berkeley News: Machine translation could make English-only science accessible to all. “Machine learning using artificial intelligence has improved computer translation over the past decade, but scientific articles employing specialized jargon are still a challenge for machine translation. Nevertheless, scientists should prioritize translating articles into multiple languages to provide an equitable landscape for budding scientists worldwide, UC Berkeley researchers argue.”

The Guardian: Online cultural events can benefit lonely older people, study shows. “We remember it all too well from the first lockdown. The obligatory weekly Zoom quizzes and the stream of cultural events held online. While most of us can head down to the local pub again and delight in the return of good old Sunday quizzes, some people are still stuck at home. And research suggests online cultural activities such as museum tours can significantly improve the mental and physical health of elderly people who are homebound.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Hackaday: Sputtering Daguerreotypes, Batman!. “The earliest Daguerreotype plates were made physically, by rolling a copper-silver plate thinner and thinner until the silver layer was just right. Good luck finding a source of Daguerreotype plates made this way in 2022…. On the other hand, magnetron sputtering is a process of depositing pure metal in thin layers using plasma, high voltages, and serious magnets, and [Koji Tokura] is making his own sputtered Daguerreotype plates this way, giving him the best of both worlds: the surreal almost-holographic quality of the Daguerreotype with the most difficult film preparation procedure imaginable.” Good afternoon, Internet…

August 18, 2022 at 12:47AM
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Supporting Ukrainian Grandparents, Yandex, Saving Cultural Heritage, More: Ukraine Update, August 17, 2022

Supporting Ukrainian Grandparents, Yandex, Saving Cultural Heritage, More: Ukraine Update, August 17, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

GlobalNews: Adopt a Ukrainian grandparent: online portal launches to help Kharkiv’s most vulnerable. “As well as organizing evacuations from the Luhansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, Rescue Now has created an online database of elderly and vulnerable locals that features a brief bio, photo and fundraising goals for each of them for each month, depending on their needs. It’s almost like hundreds of GoFundMe pages accumulated in one place.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bloomberg: Putin Aide Leads Talks on Fate of Russia’s Top Internet Company Yandex. “One of President Vladimir Putin’s top Kremlin aides is leading negotiations to decide the fate of Russia’s most popular search engine, whose founder was sanctioned over Yandex NV’s portrayal of the war in Ukraine, according to three people familiar with the talks.”

New York Times: Rescuing Art in Ukraine with Foam, Crates and Cries for Help. “Many cultural institutions were not prepared to protect their collections and buildings before the Russian invasion, so ad hoc groups of arts workers and leaders stepped in to fill the breach.”

The Scotsman: How Ukraine’s librarians mobilised to fight the Russian culture war. “When war broke out in Ukraine, it was not only the troops who mobilised – but the librarians too. Within days, libraries across the country had set up initiatives to supply books to citizens sheltering in underground Metro stations, had created centres for refugees displaced within Ukraine in library buildings and diversified to set up to act as hubs to supply military equipment and essentials to the hastily-formed army.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CNN: He was abducted and tortured by Russian soldiers. Then they started using his Instagram to push pro-Kremlin propaganda. “[Igor] Kurayan, who was freed in a prisoner exchange in late April after nearly a month of detention, is one of several Ukrainians to be abducted from occupied areas of the country’s southeast in recent months and then sucked into the Kremlin’s propaganda machine. Some of their social media pages have been used to promote pro-Kremlin talking points, while others have appeared in staged TV interviews in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war.”

Daily Beast: How NASA Is Accidentally Helping People Spy on Putin’s War. “For people trying to track the conflict only from public sources, FIRMS can be a lifesaver. Social media coverage of the war in Ukraine is a deluge of claims, counterclaims, unattributed or misattributed footage of fighting, as well as actors pushing their own agendas.”

AFP: The curators saving Ukraine’s heritage at all costs. “When she understood Russian troops were advancing in the region of Zaporizhzhia, Natalya Chergik helped to fill a truck with a ton of paintings, antique firearms and 17th-century ceramics.”

Poynter: How ‘War on Fakes’ uses fact-checking to spread pro-Russia propaganda. “War on Fakes claims to be a fact-checking service…. But a review by PolitiFact shows that its ‘fact-checks’ are actually pieces of disinformation that use well-known techniques of Russian propaganda — incoherence, a high volume of claims, repetition and the statement of obvious falsehoods— to confuse readers trying to understand what is happening in Ukraine.”

New York Times: How Russian Propaganda Is Reaching Beyond English Speakers. “Social media companies have taken steps to restrict Russian state media accounts. But posts from those accounts still spread in Spanish, Arabic and other languages and in places outside the West.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: From the Workshop to the War: Creative Use of Drones Lifts Ukraine . “Ukraine still uses advanced military drones supplied by its allies for observation and attack, but along the frontline the bulk of its drone fleet are off-the-shelf products or hand-built in workshops around Ukraine — a myriad of inexpensive, plastic craft adapted to drop grenades or anti-tank munitions.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Defense Post: How Zelensky Seized Control Over the Narrative in Ukraine. “This conflict is about information as much as kinetic warfare. Zelensky understands that and is playing the role of president to the hilt. Battles are won in the heart, but warfare is fought by balancing values, historical experience, ideals, and practical reality. Zelensky has balanced these adroitly. He intuitively grasps the nature of information warfare: the use of information and electronic communication technology to conduct warfare, and how to use it.”

The Conversation: Social media provides flood of images of death and carnage from Ukraine war – and contributes to weaker journalism standards. “Photos of civilians killed or injured in the Russia-Ukraine war are widespread, particularly online, both on social media and in professional news media. Editors have always published images of dead or suffering people during times of crisis, like wars and natural disasters. But the current crisis has delivered many more of these images, more widely published online, than ever before.”

August 17, 2022 at 07:14PM
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