New researches

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

UK Photojournalism, Human Rights Reporting Gateway, North Carolina Voters, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, October 12, 2022

UK Photojournalism, Human Rights Reporting Gateway, North Carolina Voters, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, October 12, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

National Science and Media Museum: National Science And Media Museum Collaborates With Google Arts & Culture To Unveil Newly Digitised Archive Images In Ai-powered Experiment . “The National Science and Media Museum has collaborated with Google Arts & Culture to digitise nearly 100,000 new images from the Daily Herald Archive, part of the Science Museum Group Collection.”

Human Rights Watch: US Launches Promising Human Rights Reporting Tool. “On September 30, the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor launched a new reporting tool, the Human Rights Reporting Gateway, that gives the public a way to alert the US government of gross violations of human rights. The State Department hopes the information uploaded will help its staffers determine which foreign security forces should not receive US assistance.”

Meredith College: New Website Aims to Make Voting Easier in North Carolina. “As Election Day 2022 fast approaches, a new tool has been launched to make the process easier for North Carolina voters. The site… was created by Meredith College Associate Professor of Political Science Whitney Ross Manzo and UNC-Chapel Hill Associate Professor of Public Policy Rebecca Kreitzer. According to Manzo and Kreitzer, between 35-60% of eligible American voters don’t vote in an average election. One of the reasons is that the process of voting is complicated and time-consuming. The new website is meant to take some of the confusion out of the process.”

Patch: RI Launches Website To Help Residents Pay Energy Bills. “The Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources (OER) and Department of Human Services (DHS) launched a website together Tuesday to provide a one-stop resource for helping state residents pay their energy bills, Gov. Dan McKee said.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NME: Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks shortly after killing Stadia. “The laptops in question, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE, Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook and Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip, are ‘built for cloud gaming’ – a brag that Google Stadia can no longer make.”

New York Times: Misinformation Swirls in Non-English Languages Ahead of Midterms. “More multilingual fact-checking groups are pushing back against misleading translations, manipulated images and outright lies that jump platforms and cross borders.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

BBC: TikTok profits from livestreams of families begging. “Displaced families in Syrian camps are begging for donations on TikTok while the company takes up to 70% of the proceeds, a BBC investigation found. Children are livestreaming on the social media app for hours, pleading for digital gifts with a cash value. The BBC saw streams earning up to $1,000 (£900) an hour, but found the people in the camps received only a tiny fraction of that.”

WIRED: 5 Future Scenarios for Google Lens. “Wanting to better understand what’s in store for Google Lens, I visited the company’s San Francisco office and sat down with Lou Wang. He is a director of product management at Google who’s worked for years on Lens.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Mainichi: Japan YouTuber Diet member’s prolonged overseas absence opens can of legal worms . “Japanese YouTuber ‘GaaSyy,’ who was elected to Japan’s House of Councillors on the ticket of the NHK Party, remains overseas and has not attended Diet sessions, with reports earlier this year that he was residing in Dubai. The head of the chamber’s Committee on Rules and Administration has requested that he quickly return to Japan and appear in the Diet.”

The Guardian: Uffizi Galleries sue Jean Paul Gaultier over use of Botticelli images. “The matter came to light earlier this year after the Uffizi in Florence was notified of the garments being advertised by Jean Paul Gaultier on its website and social media. The painting by Sandro Botticelli is the centrepiece of the Botticelli Rooms at the world-famous galleries and, according to Italian law, any use of the country’s publicly owned art to sell merchandise requires permission and payment of a fee.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Newswise: Score a discount on Amazon? You might’ve unwittingly paid more. “More than a quarter of vacuum cleaners sold on Amazon have at some point pretended to offer a discount when they had actually just increased the price, according to new research. By pairing a price increase with the introduction of a previously unadvertised ‘list price’ for a product, Amazon signals to shoppers that they are receiving a discount when they actually pay 23% more, on average, for their new vacuum than they would have just a day earlier. Days after the price hike, the price drops and both the list price and misleading discount claim disappear.”

New-to-me, from Georgetown College: Academic Journal Founded by College Professor Provides Focal Point for Disability Studies. “The Journal of Philosophy of Disability, launched last year by Joel Michael Reynolds, is celebrating the publication of its second issue this November. Founded to examine questions of ‘disability, broadly construed,’ it is the official journal of the Society for Philosophy and Disability and the first of its kind in a field defined by its intrinsic interdisciplinarity.” Good morning, Internet…

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October 12, 2022 at 05:31PM
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Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Creating Online Memorials, Meme Stocks, Reusing old Webcams, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 11, 2022

Creating Online Memorials, Meme Stocks, Reusing old Webcams, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 11, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 7 Websites to Create Obituaries and Memorials Online. “Obituaries and memorials are a great way to highlight your loved ones’ experiences through the lives that they lived, But when you are mourning, it can be difficult to think about how to structure an obituary and what to include in it. Fortunately, there are tools available online to guide you during that process. In this article, you’ll find seven websites to help you create obituaries and memorials for your loved ones.”

The Conversation: From GameStop to crypto: how to protect yourself from meme stock mania. “Recent rallies in stocks popularised on social media have attracted increasing numbers of investors looking to these so-called ‘meme stocks’ for quick returns. But while it might look like a fun game, there are real risks to investing in stocks and other financial products popularised on social media. And with recessions looming around the world, the danger is becoming even more acute.”

SlashGear: 8 Best Uses For Old Webcams. “These newer cameras offer more than just photo and video capability, as they are also packed with AI technology, automatic setting adjustment, and better and wider fields of view. There is no denying that modern webcams have made great strides since their introduction a couple of decades ago. If that’s the case, you’re probably thinking that there’s no need to keep an old webcam around. After all, what could you use it for? Well, it actually has a wide range of creative and practical applications, from keeping your home safe to making awesome art videos.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

WIRED: Streamers Use Playlists to Control the Music Industry. “Immediately before the streaming era began, we experienced one of the rare moments in the history of recorded music when power flowed in the direction of artists. Although it was an economically disastrous time for many of them, the democratization brought by digital technologies and the internet also finally forced record labels to reform abuses they’d carried off for decades. Now, however, the recorded music market is again taking on its former hourglass shape, this time with the streaming platforms at the center.”

Bloomberg: Google Contractors Allege They Were Fired for Union Ties. “Contract workers at Google’s data centers allege that they were fired for supporting a union and faced retaliation after pushing for better benefits, according to a pair of complaints filed this week with the US National Labor Relations Board.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

NBC News: Cyberattack on Colorado state website follows Russian hacktivist threat. “Colorado state officials said the government’s website was taken offline Wednesday, the result of an apparent cyberattack that came shortly after a known Russia-based hacker group posted on Telegram that it would be targeting U.S. state websites.”

New York Times: Biden Administration Clamps Down on China’s Access to Chip Technology. “The Biden administration on Friday announced sweeping new limits on the sale of semiconductor technology to China, a step aimed at crippling Beijing’s access to critical technologies that are needed for everything from supercomputing to guiding weapons.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Tech Xplore: Algorithms predict sports teams’ moves with 80% accuracy. “Algorithms developed in Cornell’s Laboratory for Intelligent Systems and Controls can predict the in-game actions of volleyball players with more than 80% accuracy, and now the lab is collaborating with the Big Red hockey team to expand the research project’s applications.”

CNet: The Normalizing of Extreme Politics Is Playing Out on Twitter. “Lawmakers used to see social media as a place to post statements and campaign photos. Now, those on the extreme right use it to fight the culture wars.”

Daring Fireball: Everything . “What we need isn’t an everything app. It’s an everything device, with small focused apps for features. You want to do more? Download — or better yet, create — a new app. And you’ve already got one in your pocket — or in your hand, as you read this very sentence on it — right now.” Good afternoon, Internet…

October 12, 2022 at 12:37AM
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Asheville Art Museum, Character.ai, RootsTec 2023, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, October 11, 2022

Asheville Art Museum, Character.ai, RootsTec 2023, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, October 11, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

WLOS: You can now view the works inside Asheville Art Museum from anywhere online. “Asheville Art Museum announced during the first week of October that it is well into the process of getting the museum’s collection onto a digital platform, so that anyone in the world from anywhere in the world can view the museum’s art online. To date, the curatorial team has digitized about 20% of the museum’s collection and uploaded it to the online database, which includes a diverse array of 20th and 21st-century American art.”

Washington Post: ‘Chat’ with Musk, Trump or Xi: Ex-Googlers want to give the public AI. “A new chatbot start-up from two top artificial intelligence talents lets anyone strike up a conversation with impersonations of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Albert Einstein and Sherlock Holmes. Registered users type in messages and get responses. They can also create a chatbot of their own on Character.ai, which has logged hundreds of thousands of user interactions in its first three weeks of beta-testing.”

EVENTS

Latter-Day Saints: Registration Now Open for RootsTech 2023. “RootsTech is scheduled for March 2–4, 2023, including an in-person event in Salt Lake City, Utah, to complement its extensive online conference. Millions of virtual and in-person attendees are expected to gather for inspiring learning opportunities that will help them connect to their family — past, present and future.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bing Blogs: Follow the Soccer Madness Anywhere with Bing Maps. “As the world gets ready to celebrate the most popular sport in the world, Bing has you covered. We’re providing you with a unique view into the world of ‘futbol’ right in Bing and Bing Maps.”

Google Blog: Made by Google, a new podcast about designing hardware. “Have you ever wondered what goes into the design of your phone camera? How to keep your personal information secure on your mobile device? Or what it means to build a sustainable tech device? Our new Made by Google podcast starts with questions like these to explore the latest thinking and design ideas behind Google devices.”

USEFUL STUFF

Greycoder: A List Of Text-Only News Sites (Updated 2022) . “Text-only websites are quite useful, especially today. Web pages are increasingly filled with ads, videos, and bandwidth-heavy content. Here is a list of text-only, clutter-free news sites.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Diverse: N.C. A&T Psychology Professor Receives Grant to Study Effects of Social Media on Black Women’s Health. “Dr. Kalynda C. Smith, a North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T) psychology professor, has received a $545,686 grant to study how social media affects Black women’s health.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Complete Music Update: US appeal court upholds Wolfgang’s Vault copyright ruling, including the disappointing damages. “The Second Circuit Appeals Court in the US has upheld a copyright infringement ruling against concert streaming service Wolfgang’s Vault. Which you might think would please the music publishers that sued the digital outfit, but no. Because the appeals court also upheld the unusually low damages pay out that the music rights owners were awarded.”

Brussels Times: Justice: Federal judgements and rulings to be published in online Central Register . “The text passed through parliament in unanimity, minus abstentions from Les Engagés and DéFI. The bill was sponsored by the Federal Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne, providing for the establishment of a register which will be implemented in two stages. Initially, it will only contain final judgments in their entirety, which all lawyers, defendants, civil parties and experts will be able to consult digitally.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

WIRED: Hurricane Ian Destroyed Their Homes. Algorithms Sent Them Money. “WHEN Hurricane Ian churned over Florida in late September, it left a trail of destruction from high winds and flooding. But a week after the storm passed, some people in three of the worst-hit counties saw an unexpected beacon of hope. Nearly 3,500 residents of Collier, Charlotte, and Lee Counties received a push notification on their smartphones offering $700 cash assistance, no questions asked. A Google algorithm deployed in partnership with nonprofit GiveDirectly had estimated from satellite images that those people lived in badly damaged neighborhoods and needed some help.”

Duke Global Health Institute: Decolonizing Research Data: A Necessary New Normal. “In 15 years of working alongside health researchers in Kenya, Wendy Prudhomme O’Meara has seen an all-too-familiar pattern: An outside organization comes in to collect health-related data in the country and then retains sole ownership of the data despite the collaboration of others involved, including the people who provided the data in the first place. When this occurs in the context of a historical power imbalance, the practice has become known as ‘data colonialism,’ and a growing contingent of global health researchers are speaking out against it.”

PsyPost: Cryptocurrency users with gambling affinity are more involved mentally and financially than non-gambling users. “Cryptocurrency users who also gamble tend to be more mentally involved compared to their non-gambling counterparts, according to new research published in Computers in Human Behavior. The new study provides insight into some of the psychological patterns that characterize heavy cryptocurrency users.” Good morning, Internet…

October 11, 2022 at 05:32PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/uJqTGPO

Monday, October 10, 2022

Breathing Exercises, Open-Access Book Data, Rugby World, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 10, 2022

Breathing Exercises, Open-Access Book Data, Rugby World, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 10, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Google Blog: Take a wellbeing break, and dive into the Rhythm Of Nature. “In Rhythm Of Nature is a digital wellbeing experience inspired by the Carl Linnaeus Flower Clock. Linneaus was a renowned 18th century botanist and taxonomist who developed a modern system to identify, name, and classify living things. His unique garden designs captured the natural circadian rhythms of different plants that would open and close their blooms in relation to the time of the day. In Rhythm With Nature aims to establish an intimate connection between humans and nature through a series of beautifully crafted breathing exercises timed by the flowers opening and closing. Essentially you are breathing with flowers that open according to your time of the day.”

Public Books: Where Is All The Book Data?. “Culture industries increasingly use our data to sell us their products. It’s time to use their data to study them. To that end, we created the Post45 Data Collective, an open access site that peer reviews and publishes literary and cultural data.”

Rugby World: Rugby World Archive Launched. “Now, for the first time, readers can revisit past issues of the magazine online through the newly launched Rugby World Archive. Want to know who was on the cover of the first-ever issue in October 1960? Or find out what the big talking points were in the 1980s? Or see what novel photo shoots were created in the 1990s? Well, now you can.”

USEFUL STUFF

SlashGear: Discord Features That You’re Missing Out On. “Today, Discord has tens of millions of active users, many of whom are members of multiple servers (via Cloudwards). If you’re one of those users, you may have missed out on some of the lesser-known features, tips, and tricks that could help you streamline your Discord experience. Or, at least make it a little more fun.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Internet Archive Blog: Internet Archive Seeks Donations of Materials to Build a Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications. “Internet Archive has begun gathering content for the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC), which will be a massive online library of materials and collections related to amateur radio and early digital communications. The DLARC is funded by a significant grant from the Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), a private foundation, to create a digital library that documents, preserves, and provides open access to the history of this community.”

NBC News: TwitchCon had a foam pit exhibit. Two attendees say they got injured when they jumped in.. “At least two TwitchCon attendees said they were severely injured after they participated in an interactive exhibit that featured a shallow pit of foam cubes scattered over bare concrete. The exhibit was part of the weekend-long event for the livestreaming video platform, which this year was held at the San Diego Convention Center.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Decrypt: New Tool Shows Just How Much Users Lost in Celsius Bankruptcy. “A new tool now lets anyone see just how much money some users have lost after the troubled crypto lender filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July. It’s easy to check whether someone has made it onto the questionable ‘leaderboard’ of biggest losers from the Celsius debacle, by simply typing their name into the convenient search bar.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Houston: Going ‘Rogue’: UH Researchers Examine Viral Trend in Global Marketing. “Chris Taylor, director of the beverage management program in the University of Houston Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership, watched in awe as sales of White Claw skyrocketed seemingly overnight in the summer of 2019. As a new entry in the relatively unknown hard seltzer category, it was completely unexpected and had virtually nothing to do with the company’s own marketing strategy. White Claw’s rapid success was due, almost entirely, to a social media influencer.”

TechCrunch: AI music generators could be a boon for artists — but also problematic. “Harmonai is an organization with financial backing from Stability AI, the London-based startup behind Stable Diffusion. In late September, Harmonai released Dance Diffusion, an algorithm and set of tools that can generate clips of music by training on hundreds of hours of existing songs.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

UVA Today: Finally, The Real Answer Why Your Best Ideas Come While Showering. “Zac Irving, a University of Virginia assistant professor of philosophy, explains in new co-written research why a wandering mind sometimes comes up with creative solutions to a problem when a person is engaged in a ‘mindless’ task. The secret appears to be that the task at hand isn’t truly mindless. A moderate level of engagement is required.” Good afternoon, Internet…

October 11, 2022 at 12:22AM
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Illinois Law Enforcement, British Library Collections, The Lantern Project, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, October 10, 2022

Illinois Law Enforcement, British Library Collections, The Lantern Project, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, October 10, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Illinois News Bureau: New database catalogs police shootings in Illinois to improve accountability. “The Systematic Policing Oversight Through Lethal-Force Incident Tracking Environment project, called ‘SPOTLITE,’ identified more than twice as many police-involved shooting incidents than previously reported by the Illinois State Police, for a total of 694 lethal force incidents involving 734 civilians from 2014-21. Nearly two-thirds of those incidents occurred in Cook County. SPOTLITE includes any incident when police use firearms – including those with nonfatal outcomes – as well as any other use of force that results in a death.”

British Library: New online – September 2022. “We have another four projects that recently went online to highlight this month. Two projects from India, and one each from Cuba and Columbia.”

New-to-me, from Clarion Ledger: Enslaved family history records brought to public light by Mississippi project. “The problem with genealogical research for many African Americans is that before 1870, there were very few records because they were not documented as human beings but as property. However, an ongoing multi-state project enlisting help from three universities and libraries hopes to build a bridge for African American families wanting to trace their roots. The Lantern Project is an effort to scan and make available to the public legal records documenting enslaved persons. Probate records and various other legal records from the early 1800s have been or are being scanned and will be available to people doing family history research or anyone interested.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mashable: Dictionary.com adds ‘antiwork’ because it, too, does not dream of labor. “For those who dream of a four-day workweek, Dictionary.com feels your pain. And to give you the language to express your woes, it’s added a slew of work related terms — plus a few internet faves, climate terms, and accurate Ukrainian endonyms.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: How to Automate Your iPhone Based on Time, Activity, or Location. “Your iPhone can become more efficient with a few simple automations that show relevant information and hide distractions, depending on what you’re doing. Automating your iPhone can help you be more productive at work, get a better night’s sleep, or surface useful reminders at the best possible time.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Washington Post: How social media ‘censorship’ became a front line in the culture war. “What people can and can’t say online — and the role of Big Tech in making those calls — has emerged as a critical fault line in American politics. The left cries for content moderation to tamp down disinformation, racism and misogyny. The right decries that as censorship and demands the right to free speech. In recent months, several flash points have brought this battle to the fore.”

The Guardian: ‘The cultural memory of the UK’: unearthing the hidden treasures of the BBC archive. “For years the corporation has been digitising its vast reserve of content, turning up lost footage of everyone from General Eisenhower to Victoria Wood. Meet the team bringing a century of footage back to life.”

The National: ‘Ramy’, ‘Mo’ and the rise of the Arab social media comedy star . “With the new season of Ramy receiving rave reviews, and the recent success of Mo, which stars Mo Amer as the first Palestinian lead character on American television, Arab comedy is enjoying a renaissance. The effect can be seen across the comedy landscape and particularly among an emerging group of Arab comedians who have been carving out large audiences through social media platforms.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Engadget: Twitter and Instagram lock Kanye West’s accounts after a weekend of antisemitic posts. “Kanye West’s return to Twitter has been short-lived. Less than a day after Elon Musk welcomed him back to the platform, the rapper saw his account suspended for posting an antisemitic message.”

FStoppers: What I Did When My Photos and Articles Were Stolen. “Occasionally, it’s worth Googling your name to see what turns up. When I did it, it showed that a website was plagiarizing Fstoppers articles and stealing my photos too. This is what I did about it.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Hawaii: New Polynesian archaeology journal launched by UH faculty. “In the wake of Hawaiʻi Archaeology Week (September 26–October 2), the University of Hawaiʻi Press joins two non-profit organizations to launch the Journal of Polynesian Archaeology and Research, an open-access title that will soon accept submissions for its inaugural issue.”

Newswise: Online fandom communities can facilitate state censorship, according to new Concordia research. “Authoritarian regimes worldwide have embraced the digital age. And they have been generally effective at limiting the online presence of perceived adversaries within their borders — from intellectual dissidents to transnational activists. However, as a new study published in the journal New Media & Society shows, censorship is not strictly a state-run affair.” Good morning, Internet…

October 10, 2022 at 05:25PM
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Saturday, October 8, 2022

Let The Body Speak, Creative Commons, Twitter, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 8, 2022

Let The Body Speak, Creative Commons, Twitter, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 8, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The Place: ‘Let The Body Speak’ A Digital Hub Supporting Ukrainian Dancers. “The Contemporary Dance Platform, as part of the British Council’s UK/Ukraine Season of Culture, has created a digital hub to collect dance videos from Ukrainian dancers and choreographers called Let The Body Speak. Let The Body Speak aims to create a digital archive of works, movement practices and discussions that Ukrainian dance artists are having in these unprecedented times.”

EVENTS

Creative Commons: Join Us to Celebrate 20 Years of Creative Commons. “In November 2022, CC will bring the 20th anniversary celebration to an official close with both online and in-person activities. The CC Global Network and our broader community are at the heart of CC’s work to support better sharing for an open commons, so we are inviting you to be a part of marking this milestone. There are several ways you can join the celebration — pick one or all!”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

PopCulture: Social Media Network to Livestream Look-Ins for MLB Postseason Games. “Twitter recently announced that it will livestream look-ins for MLB postseason games, making it the only social media platform to officially stream live look-ins during the playoffs. Official Twitter accounts from MLB, Blecher Report, ESPN and MLB on Fox will stream live look-ins, and MLB Network will provide shoulder programming.”

Search Engine Roundtable: Google Still Working On Getting Timestamps Accurate In Search Results. “Google is still working on getting the timestamps accurate in the search results and news search results. Several publishers, including the Director of SEO at USA Today and the SEO Editor for Wall Street Journal, complained about the inaccurate timestamps in Google Search the other day.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Techdirt: Arizona GOP Secretary Of State Candidate Insists ‘Deep State’ Google Is Blocking His Website; Turns Out He Requested It Not Be Indexed. “… it is true that if you search for his campaign website on Google, you come up empty (though you do find lots of other stuff about him, including his lies about the 2020 election). However as Grid News figured out, the reality is not just different, but (for yet another reason) raises serious questions about [Mark] Finchem’s competence. It turns out that Finchem’s campaign inserted a ‘noindex’ meta tag… telling Google not to index it or show it in search.”

TechCrunch: Google will open its first data center in Japan in 2023. “Google said today that it will open its first data center in Japan by 2023. The company noted that this data center will be located in Inzai City, Chiba and is a part of its $730 million infrastructure fund that will continue through 2024. This is the company’s third data center in Asia after Taiwan and Singapore.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

KTOO: Alaska Legislature’s new social media policy nixes banning and blocking. “If Alaska’s state legislators remove constituents’ comments or block them on social media, they may forfeit state-paid legal protection, according to a new social media policy adopted Friday. A House-Senate panel voted 8-3 in favor of adopting the new policy on behalf of the entire Legislature.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Vox: The Instagram capital of the world is a terrible place to be. “The problem of travel at this particular moment is not too many people traveling in general, it is too many people wanting to experience the exact same thing because they all went to the same websites and read the same reviews. It’s created the idea that if you do not go to this specific bar or stay in this exact neighborhood, all the money and time you spent on being here has been wasted, and you have settled for something that is not as perfect as it could have been.”

The Conversation: Why so many medieval manuscripts feature doodles – and what they reveal. “Although you wouldn’t dare doodle on a medieval manuscript today, squiggly lines (sometimes resembling fish or even elongated people), mini-drawings (a knight fighting a snail, for instance), and random objects appear quite often in medieval books. Usually found in the flyleaves or margins, doodles can often give medievalists (specialists in medieval history and culture) important insights into how people in earlier centuries understood and reacted to the narrative on the page.”

Michigan Daily: The Queen is dead, long live the memes. “Social media is engineered to get you to feel strong emotions and see controversial opinions so that you continue to engage with their app, and yeah, the Queen’s passing seems to have elicited a few strong emotions, to say the least. While there may be some serious discussion potential on the privilege of the royal family and the unfixed damage of the British empire, most likely the closest we’ll get is quite a few ver hearty ‘RIP bozo’s.” Good afternoon, Internet…

October 8, 2022 at 11:54PM
via ResearchBuzz https://ift.tt/QokyKp8

RumorGuard, Signal, Google Easter Eggs, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, October 8, 2022

RumorGuard, Signal, Google Easter Eggs, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, October 8, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Mashable: New debunking site might be the winning tool in those frustrating Facebook fights. “In a timely (and necessary) step towards broader news literacy, a new fact-checking site has launched to teach people how to better pinpoint misinformation. Called RumorGuard, it offers a one-stop shop for misinformation debunking and a glimpse into the fact-checking process, on top of a library of authoritative tools to help individuals spot, verify, and fight against rapidly spreading misinformation themselves.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: Even Signal is hopping on the Stories bandwagon. “Like Instagram, Facebook and so many others, Signal is hopping aboard the Stories bandwagon. The privacy-focused messaging app started beta testing an ephemeral Stories feature this week. Users can share videos, images and text-based messages with their friends. Stories will vanish after 24 hours.”

CNET: Google’s Splatoon Easter Egg Lets You Paint Search Results. “Google is celebrating the launch of Splatoon 3 on Nintendo Switch with a colorful Easter egg that gives you the chance to cover your search results with paint, as previously reported by Nintendo Life.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: How to Use Google Earth Web as a Presentation Tool. “Google Earth isn’t just a cool navigation tool. You can also use it for presentations that involve real-life locations. The app already has a built-in feature just for that purpose. Let’s say you’re a travel journalist and you want to be able to demonstrate where you’ve been around the world when pitching to new clients. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create such presentations on Google Earth.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Poynter: How fact-checkers are banding together to serve Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. “With more than 200 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa by a wide margin. But given the relatively few fact-checking organizations in the country, the ratio of fact-checkers to the overall population is comparably tiny. Setting out to reverse this trend, a group of African fact-checking organizations is banding together in a coalition to maximize its impact in the country ahead of the 2023 election season.”

Tubefilter: Snapchat’s 523 program is back with $10,000 monthly grants for “small content companies from underrepresented groups”. “Snap is now accepting applications for its 523 accelerator. Through $10,000 monthly grants and other benefits, the parent company of Snapchat will empower content businesses that are at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by individuals from underrepresented backgrounds.”

Washington Post: Europe’s largest airline is a troll on social media — and it’s working for them . “Last month, when a Ryanair passenger tweeted a complaint about the lack of a window by her exit row seat, she might have expected Europe’s largest airline to offer an apology using language straight out of a customer service manual. But this wasn’t British Airways or Lufthansa. It was a no-frills carrier that might best be described to Americans as the Spirit Airlines of Europe — if Spirit had the most savage Twitter presence of any brand in the sky.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CISA, and a PDF, unfortunately: Malicious Cyber Activity Against Election Infrastructure Unlikely to Disrupt or Prevent Voting . “The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) assess that any attempts by cyber actors to compromise election infrastructure are unlikely to result in largescale disruptions or prevent voting. As of the date of this report, the FBI and CISA have no reporting to suggest cyber activity has ever prevented a registered voter from casting a ballot, compromised the integrity of any ballots cast, or affected the accuracy of voter registration information.”

Ars Technica: Elon Musk can’t be trusted to complete merger, Twitter tells judge. “Elon Musk’s latest promise to buy Twitter can’t be trusted, the company told a Delaware Court of Chancery judge yesterday.”

The Verge: Can an artist sue over a virtual tattoo? It’s complicated. “Over the past several years, the creators of two major sports titles have fought protracted lawsuits over their right to use tattoos on avatars of players without paying a fee to the person behind the tattoo. Late last week, one of those suits went to a jury, ending with a payout to the artist. It’s not a clean win for either side, but it does offer a fascinating case of how complicated tattoos and copyright really are.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

FedTech: DNA and Glass May Provide Alternative Storage Methods as Data Backlog Grows. “The size of the datasphere has exploded. In 2020, the world created or replicated more than 64 zettabytes of data. That number that is expected to increase to 175ZB by 2025, driving the need for improved storage options.”

The Conversation: With seemingly endless data storage at our fingertips, ‘digital hoarding’ could be an increasing problem. “The way we interact with digital content through easily available smartphones, social media and messaging apps only exacerbates the behaviour. Social media platforms especially encourage us to hoard, as our emotions get entangled with the digital contents we share with others, such as photos with lots of shares or likes. If it can take up to 25 or more selfies before seeing a ‘winner’, the sheer volume of content creation raises an important question: how do we plan to manage this morass of data?” Good morning, Internet…

October 8, 2022 at 05:28PM
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