New researches

Monday, November 28, 2022

Ooh! Directory, China Investments in Kazakhstan, Chicago Community Design Projects, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, November 28, 2022

Ooh! Directory, China Investments in Kazakhstan, Chicago Community Design Projects, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, November 28, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Spotted on Mastodon! The Ooh! Directory, at https://ooh.directory/. It’s a searchable subject index of blogs. From the About page: “ooh.directory is a place to find blogs that interest you. Explore the categories, search blog details, flip through random blogs, or keep visiting the most recently-updated blogs to see who’s talking about what right now.” Subject directories might be old fashioned but this one includes the blog’s most recent post (all included blogs must have an RSS feed) and each entry notes when the blog was last updated. There are 898 blogs at this writing. Great work.

Eurasianet: New website tracks Chinese investments in Kazakhstan. “Back in 2015, Kazakhstan and China signed 52 investment deals valued at more than $21 billion…. Seven years on, fewer than half of the projects have been completed and 17 are still under consideration, according to the latest information published by state firm Kazakh Invest. Now, a new website called Eco China Info aims to track these projects with a focus on their ‘social and environmental consequences.'”

Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago design studio has MAPPED out local community-based resources. “MAPPED, a project of Design Trust Chicago, was started because the three founders of the trust realized there was a lack of accessible information about community design programs…. The public site, launched last spring, documents a range of design projects around Chicago. The database allows different designers to submit businesses, organizations, initiatives and spaces to the project, so other designers can view other projects’ cost, funders and partners, [Clio] Lyons said.”

New-to-me, from The Digital Orientalist: The Toyo Bunko Archive: a source of joy and torment. “I hope that sharing my experience with the website will make your life using it a bit easier. But let me preface this post by saying that Toyo Bunko is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Buddhist art and archeology, as well as Central and South Asian Studies, and is worth using extensively. I highly recommend it, despite the navigation issues.”

University of Manitoba: New website a valuable resource on livestock production research. “The new site offers researchers, students, industry, governments and consumers access to an extensive library of research projects and resources examining the role of Canadian livestock production systems as an integral component of an adaptive and enduring food system in Canada.”

National Archives: New National Archives Catalog Debuts. ” A new, modernized National Archives Catalog launched online today. The new Catalog’s focus on scalability will allow the agency to reach its goal to get 500 million digitized pages in the Catalog by September 2026. The fully redesigned online public access Catalog makes accessing the agency’s holdings more intuitive for the user and improves the search experience by generating faster results.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Stuff New Zealand: Archives New Zealand services worst in decades, say experts. “Last week the Government’s record-keeping authority removed public access to its widely used online collections search tool – which had only been live since February – due to a potential privacy and security breach, after restricted files became visible. Late on Tuesday Archives reinstated access to the search tool, with chief archivist Anahera Morehu saying she was satisfied there was no breach.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

WIRED: The Spooky Quest to Build a Google Maps for Graveyards. “[Atlantic Geomatics] has now taken on the task of mapping every churchyard and municipal burial ground in England—a total of more than 18,000—to create a Google Street View of graveyards in which descendants, genealogists, and conservationists can click on a map and see who was buried there and when.”

Hong Kong Free Press: Hong Kong asks search engine to place correct national anthem info in top results following rugby row. “It came after ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ – a tune popular among the city’s pro-democracy protesters in 2019 – was heard at South Korea’s Rugby Sevens instead of the Chinese national anthem ‘March of the Volunteers.’… The organiser had reportedly downloaded the top song listed when when searching online for the ‘Hong Kong national anthem.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Brussels Times: Influencer advertising on social media to include ‘trust label’ in Belgium. “On Friday, the Belgian e-commerce federation BeCommerce launched a trust label for online safety certifications that are specific to online advertising undertaken by influencers. Influencers will have to comply with European directives and those of the FPS Economy to obtain it.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New Yorker: Why I Quit Elon Musk’s Twitter. “It seems likely that this experiment will conclude with bankruptcy and Twitter falling into the hands of creditors who will have their own ideas of what it should be and whom it should serve. But at least in the interim it’s worth keeping in mind that some battles are simply not worth fighting, some battles must be fought, but none are worth fighting on terms set by those who win by having the conflict drag on endlessly.”

Delft University of Technology: A navigation system with 10 centimeter accuracy. “Researchers of Delft University of Technology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and VSL have developed an alternative positioning system that is more robust and accurate than GPS, especially in urban settings. The working prototype that demonstrated this new mobile network infrastructure achieved an accuracy of 10 centimeter.” Tip o’ the nib to Map Room Blog for the pointer. Good morning, Internet…

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November 28, 2022 at 06:29PM
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Sunday, November 27, 2022

Palm Pilot Software, Stable Diffusion, Google Workspace, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, November 27, 2022

Palm Pilot Software, Stable Diffusion, Google Workspace, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, November 27, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The Verge: The Internet Archive just put 565 Palm Pilot apps in your web browser. “Yes, I am playing Dope Wars on a Palm Pilot inside my iPhone. It’s thanks to The Internet Archive, which is once again launching a giant collection of software you can instantly play on any web browser, up to and including your touchscreen-equipped phone. There are currently 565 classic Palm apps in all, including games, widgets, and even free trials from both the greyscale and color eras.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: AI Art Is About to Get Sharper, Better Looking, Less Porny. “Stability AI, the developers behind popular AI-generated art program Stable Diffusion, released a major update to the software on Thursday, European time (Wednesday night in the US).”

Engadget: Google Workspace’s latest updates include improved Gmail search. “Google has revealed some minor, albeit handy, updates for Workspace. Soon, when you join a Google Meet call or start presenting on one from a Docs, Sheets or Slides file, you’ll have an easier way to share that file with other attendees through the meeting’s chat panel.”

Bloomberg: FTX Chaos Prompts Reckoning on Dubai’s Embrace of Crypto Giants. “FTX was one of the first firms granted a license by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority as part of the push to lure business, and the exchange set up its regional headquarters in the city…. With FTX and Bankman-Fried now facing investigations from the US to the Bahamas, officials have distanced themselves from that decision, even scrubbing its license details from the regulator’s website.”

USEFUL STUFF

Screen Rant: How To Follow Hashtags On Mastodon (And Why It Isn’t Working). “Following hashtags can create a personalized feed of content for users to enjoy, but what is the best way to follow hashtags on the Mastodon app? Without hashtags, users potentially lose out on content that could be relevant to their interests. While it is easy to search for hashtags, users just want an easy way to see relevant content without searching for it.”

Hongkiat: 10+ Tools to Crop and Resize Images Online (Without Photoshop). “Sometimes, using image editing tools like Photoshop or GIMP just for simple image editing tasks (cropping, resizing, etc) seems a little overkill. For that matter, we bring you a list of sites that care of these simple tasks. And best of all, they are free!”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

University of Calgary: Project digitally preserves former Indian residential schools in Alberta. “Of all the ghosts that weighed heavily on the shoulders of Brendon Many Bears as he worked his way with a 3D laser scanner across every inch of Old Sun Community College, it was those he encountered in the former coal closet that sat the most horrifically in the pit of his stomach. The tiny room in the former Old Sun Indian Residential School, on Siksika Nation in southwest Alberta, was easy to miss, hidden away behind a metal door in the building’s boiler room.”

University of New Mexico: Navajo Code Talker Collections Donated to CSWR. “The Carl N. Gorman and William Dean Wilson Collection, both document the lives and service of the aforementioned men who were among the first twenty-nine Navajo Code Talkers of World War II. The collections were donated by Zonnie Gorman —a recognized historian on the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II, prior CSWR Graduate Fellow and daughter of Carl Gorman.”

How-To Geek: Tumblr and Flickr Might Join Mastodon’s “Fediverse” Network. “It’s not clear to what degree Tumblr would support ActivityPub. Presumably, it will allow people on Mastodon to follow blogs on Tumblr, and vice-versa. It’s possible Tumblr could go even further, adding support for polls and other features beyond regular posts.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

RTE: Senior Irish Twitter executive secures temporary High Court injunction against termination of employment. “An Irish-based senior executive with Twitter has secured a temporary High Court injunction preventing the social networking giant from terminating her employment. The order was secured by Sinead McSweeney, who is Twitter’s Global Vice President for Public Policy.”

University of Michigan: Cyber vulnerability in networks used by spacecraft, aircraft and energy generation systems. “A new attack discovered by the University of Michigan and NASA exploits a trusted network technology to create unexpected and potentially catastrophic behavior.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Harvard Business Review: Does Influencer Marketing Really Pay Off?. “In 2022, the influencer industry reached $16.4 billion. More than 75% of brands have a dedicated budget for influencer marketing, from Coca Cola’s #ThisOnesFor campaign in collaboration with fashion and travel influencers, to Dior’s award-winning 67 Shades campaign in which the brand partnered with diverse influencers to promote its Forever Foundation product line. But does investing in influencers really pay off?” Good morning, Internet…

November 27, 2022 at 06:28PM
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Saturday, November 26, 2022

Ukraine Cultural Heritage, EU Internet Standards, Maryland RSV, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, November 26, 2022

Ukraine Cultural Heritage, EU Internet Standards, Maryland RSV, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, November 26, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Ukrinform: Special section about Ukraine appeared on Google Arts & Culture. “On November 24, Google together with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, with the support of Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, presented the online-space of Ukrainian culture on the Google Arts & Culture platform – ‘Ukraine is Here’.”

European Commission Science Hub: New website to monitor the uptake of key internet standards across the EU. “The Commission launches a new website to monitor the deployment of five categories of key internet communication standards in the EU, considered essential to achieve the EU vision of a free, open, accessible and secure global internet.”

State of Maryland: Maryland Department of Health releases RSV hospitalization data dashboard, urges Marylanders to wash hands, take precautions. “The Maryland Department of Health (MDH) today released a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) data dashboard containing RSV hospitalization numbers in the state. The RSV data dashboard will be updated on Thursdays and display RSV hospitalizations by respiratory season. It is currently up-to-date. With holidays right around the corner, MDH is urging all Marylanders to take precautions against RSV and other respiratory illnesses that are spreading nationwide.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Register: Elon Musk to abused Twitter users: Your tormentors are coming back. “Twitter CEO Elon Musk has decided to allow suspended accounts back onto the micro-blogging service. Musk used the same process for this decision as he did when restoring access to a Florida Man who once held high elected office in the US – an utterly unscientific and easy to manipulate poll of Twitter users.”

CBS News: Twitter and other social media sites slipped on removing hate speech in 2022, EU review says. Please note this study is from the spring, before Elon Musk. “The EU report, carried out over six weeks in the spring, found Twitter assessed just over half of the notifications it received about illegal hate speech within 24 hours, down from 82% in 2021. In comparison, the amount of flagged material Facebook reviewed within 24 hours fell to 64%, Instagram slipped to 56.9% and YouTube dipped to 83.3%. TikTok came in at 92%, the only company to improve.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New Yorker: Turning YouTube Comments Into Art. “…a ‘web experience’ [Chiara] Amisola created this past Valentine’s Day… explores ‘the rawness of human intimacy and confession in the YouTube comments left under love songs.’ The page is minimal: each comment appears in large black text above the video in question, which plays inside a small circle that rotates like an LP.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Google pushes emergency Chrome update to fix 8th zero-day in 2022. “Google has released an emergency security update for the desktop version of the Chrome web browser, addressing the eighth zero-day vulnerability exploited in attacks this year.”

Engadget: Google says Google and other Android manufacturers haven’t patched security flaws. “Google has disclosed several security flaws for phones that have Mali GPUs, such as those with Exynos SoCs. The company’s Project Zero team says it flagged the problems to ARM (which designs the GPUs) back in the summer. ARM resolved the issues on its end in July and August. However, smartphone manufacturers including Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo and Google itself hadn’t deployed patches to fix the vulnerabilities as of earlier this week, Project Zero said.”

Reuters: Russian court upholds $33 million fine against Google. “An arbitration court in Moscow has upheld a 2-billion rouble ($33 million) fine against Google issued by Russia’s federal anti-monopoly service over the company’s decision to block some YouTube channels, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing a court decision.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The National: How virtual reality is being used to recreate Iraq’s destroyed heritage. “The new Mosul Heritage Museum in Iraq is inviting people to experience its greatest historical sites — in virtual reality…. Through painstaking documentation, computer technology and virtual-reality artistry, Qaf Lab, an innovation hub in Mosul that supports Iraqi entrepreneurs, has reconstructed five heritage sites destroyed or damaged by ISIS during their three-year occupation of Mosul from 2014.”

IFLScience: Social Media Trends Are Encouraging Animal Abuse In Viral Videos, Review Finds. “Social media is encouraging cases of animal cruelty, with trends driven by viral videos motivating some content creators to bring wild animals into their channels. That’s the message from the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC) following research conducted as part of a coalition with 13 animal protection organizations.” Good morning, Internet…

November 26, 2022 at 06:29PM
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Friday, November 25, 2022

Glasgow’s Tech Ecosystem, Italy Fascist Landmarks, Luxembourgish, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, November 25, 2022

Glasgow’s Tech Ecosystem, Italy Fascist Landmarks, Luxembourgish, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, November 25, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Glasgow City Council: Glasgow launches open-access database to showcase £2.6billion regional tech ecosystem. “The Glasgow Tech Ecosystem Platform is an open-access database offering to better connect start-ups with investors and corporates, providing real-time insights on the health of the regional innovation economy and showcasing Glasgow City Region’s wider tech ecosystem to the world…. The data covers 740+ technology-based start-ups as well as investors and accelerators, universities, co-working spaces, tech meetups and much more.”

Wanted in Rome: Italy’s fascist landmarks mapped in new website. “An online map charting the existing monuments, buildings and memorials honouring fascism in Italy was launched on Tuesday by the Istituto Ferruccio Parri, an historical research institute in Milan. The luoghi del fascismo website is hailed as Italy’s first nationwide project to document the surviving traces of Benito Mussolini’s regime and assess how the memory of fascism has been preserved and even revived in recent decades.”

Government of Luxembourg: LOD.Lu – the “Lëtzebuerger Online dictionnaire” now also available as an app. “You’re on the bus and can’t remember a word? You’re out and about and don’t know how to say Clemency in Luxembourgish? You’re in a restaurant and wonder what a Ziwwi is? Just ask the LOD app! The brand new website of the Lëtzebuerger Online Dictionnaire was introduced five months ago, with a new look and enhanced features…. To make the dictionary’s content even more accessible, the LOD is now also available as a free app (LOD.lu), which can be downloaded from Google’s Play Store or Apple’s App Store.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Financial Times: Twitter disbands Brussels office, prompting fears about online safety. “The executives had led the company’s effort to comply with the EU’s disinformation code and the bloc’s landmark Digital Services Act, which came into force last week and sets new rules on how Big Tech should keep users safe online. Other Twitter executives in the small but vital Brussels office, seen as a crucial conduit to European policymakers, had left at the start of the month during company-wide cuts that removed around half of its 7,500-strong workforce.”

Daily Dot: WikiLeaks website is struggling to stay online—as millions of documents disappear. “WikiLeaks’ website appears to be coming apart at the seams, with more and more of the organization’s content unavailable without explanation. WikiLeaks technical issues, which have been ongoing for months, have gotten worse in recent weeks as increasingly larger portions of its website no longer function.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

WAMC: Ft. Ticonderoga acquires major collection as it prepares for 250th anniversary of American Revolution . “Fort Ticonderoga has acquired a private collection of more than 3,000 objects, including over 200 rare firearms, as the historical site prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American War for Independence.”

New York Times: Inside Sam Bankman-Fried’s Quest to Win Friends and Influence People. “A network of political action committees, nonprofits and consulting firms funded by FTX or its executives worked to court politicians, regulators and others in the policy orbit, with the goal of making Mr. Bankman-Fried the authoritative voice of crypto, while also shaping regulation for the industry and other causes, according to interviews, email exchanges and an encrypted group chat viewed by The New York Times.”

ERR (Estonia): National Archive finds streets named after Red Army soldiers inappropriate. “A report compiled by the National Archives of Estonia has found that commemorating fallen Red Army soldiers in public space by naming streets after them, is inappropriate and incompatible with contemporary understandings of Estonian history and culture.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Europol: Action against criminal website that offered ‘spoofing’ services to fraudsters: 142 arrests. “Judicial and law enforcement authorities in Europe, Australia, the United States, Ukraine, and Canada have taken down a website that allowed fraudsters to impersonate trusted corporations or contacts to access sensitive information from victims, a type of cybercrime known as ‘spoofing’. The website is believed to have caused an estimated worldwide loss in excess of GBP 100 million (EUR 115 million).”

New York Times: Lawsuit Takes Aim at the Way A.I. Is Built. “Like many cutting-edge A.I. technologies, Copilot developed its skills by analyzing vast amounts of data. In this case, it relied on billions of lines of computer code posted to the internet. [Matthew] Butterick, 52, equates this process to piracy, because the system does not acknowledge its debt to existing work. His lawsuit claims that Microsoft and its collaborators violated the legal rights of millions of programmers who spent years writing the original code.”

CNN: House Republicans say TikTok made misleading claims in briefings on data handling. “House Republicans say TikTok may have misled congressional staff in private briefings about the company’s handling of US user data, in a new letter to the short-form video app this week.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

CBS News: Minnesotans’ massive antique pump organ collection spans neighboring homes. “Ron Manzow has spent most of his life in Plainview. He taught third grade for decades before retiring. But you could say his home is still full of history lessons. Manzow has collected 75 pipe organs. His collection has gotten so big, in fact, that he bought the house next door to him for storage.” Good morning, Internet…

November 25, 2022 at 06:31PM
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Thursday, November 24, 2022

Twitch, Google, Twitter, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 24, 2022

Twitch, Google, Twitter, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 24, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: Twitch Expands Measures to Thwart Child Predators. “Twitch said Tuesday that it’s implementing a series of new safeguards to address child grooming on its streaming platform.”

Global Village Space: Google to soon begin operations in Pakistan. “According to the details, the Senator said that a delegation of Google will visit Pakistan on December 11 to start operations. The platform will also provide 15,000 scholarships to Pakistani citizens after starting operations in Pakistan.”

New York Times: As Elon Musk Cuts Costs at Twitter, Some Bills Are Going Unpaid. “Mr. Musk and his advisers are examining all types of expenses at Twitter. Some of the social media company’s vendors have gotten stiffed.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Analytics India: Meet the Woman Behind India’s Major Political Narratives on Social Media. “Political campaigns in India are evolving quickly; political parties are utilising new technology, data analytics, and artificial intelligence in a variety of ways. However, one aspect of political campaigns that has not changed is the use of social media for narrative building. To understand the inner workings of such undertakings in depth, Analytics India Magazine got in touch with political campaign manager Sukriti Sharma.”

ChicagoInno: Winklevoss twins back search engine startup with Chicago roots. “Based in Boston, the new search engine uses artificial intelligence to instantly extract, aggregate and distill findings directly from scientific research. The site also prides itself on being 100% ad-free.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Engadget: New York’s crypto mining restrictions are the first in the nation. “The environment-focused law establishes a two-year freeze on new and renewed air permits for fossil fuel power plants used for mining that uses demanding ‘proof-of-work’ authentication. The Department of Environmental Conservation will also have to study if and how crypto mining hurts the government’s climate change mitigation efforts.”

Ars Technica: European Parliament declares Russia a terrorism sponsor, then its site goes down. “The European Parliament website was knocked offline for several hours on Wednesday by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that started shortly after the governing body voted to declare the Russian government a state sponsor of terrorism.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CogDogBlog: Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back into the Google Image CC Search Waters Again… . “I am not looking for any kind of fix here. And I don’t want to keep documenting this stuff. But it is obvious to me that we should not sent people to use Google Image search for Creative Licensed photos without making them aware that the results are not to be trusted.”

Florida Tech: University Study Examines Viral Probability of Social Media Posts. “[Xi] Zhang’s work provides a straightforward way of computing the average number of future reshares based on how the content has fared so far in terms of popularity. More plainly, Zhang’s work allows to predict how the resharing of online content will evolve over time.”

Media Matters: In less than a month, Elon Musk has driven away half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers. “In recent weeks, 50 of the top 100 advertisers have either announced or seemingly stopped advertising on Twitter. These advertisers have accounted for nearly $2 billion in spending on the platform since 2020, and over $750 million in advertising in 2022 alone.” Good afternoon, Internet…

November 25, 2022 at 01:33AM
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Airborne Microbes, Coronavirus Test Results, Florida Hurricane Ian Relief, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, November 24, 2022

Airborne Microbes, Coronavirus Test Results, Florida Hurricane Ian Relief, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, November 24, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Hong Kong Polytechnic University: PolyU researchers compile world’s first “atlas” of airborne microbes that provides an important new perspective for public health research. “Bacteria are truly abundant across the Earth’s surface, from the soil to the oceans. The microbial population of the air that surrounds us is comparatively unknown, but a research expedition led by PolyU scientists is about to change that. After nearly a decade of effort, they have compiled a comprehensive map of the world’s airborne microbes, providing fresh insights into how these species interact with the surface environment – as well as their likely future changes.”

News-Medical: NIH’s new website allows users to anonymously report COVID-19 test results. “[The site] developed through NIH’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx®) Tech program, allows users to anonymously report the results of any brand of at-home COVID-19 test.”

ABC7: Florida creates website for Hurricane Ian relief. “Florida’s first-ever state-led sheltering and housing program is available through the Unite Florida Recovery Portal… and provides temporary sheltering options — such as travel trailers and recreational vehicles — and temporary or permanent repairs for households whose needs are not met through insurance or FEMA’s Individual Assistance program. Residents impacted by Hurricane Ian can also use the site to report unmet needs such as transportation, household items and social services.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Elon Musk proposes letting nearly everyone Twitter banned back on the site. “Now that Elon Musk has let us know that he’s totally done with his moderation council myth, he’s put up a new poll asking users if he should let most suspended accounts back onto the site.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Vox: Crypto probably isn’t dead, but should it be?. “For those who have been paying attention to the sector, this sort of feels like waking up from a worldwide hypnosis. The metaverse thing, which is basically Zoom meetings with legless cartoons, never made sense. Neither did this idea that images of pixelated punks and weird-looking monkeys were worth millions of dollars as NFTs. Thousands of crypto tokens and coins spun up out of thin air have been revealed to be nothing more than magic beans.” If you HAVEN’T been paying attention to the sector, this is a good overview of its problems with lots of links to backstory.

NARA: NARA to Award $1.9 Million for Historical Records Projects . “Acting Archivist of the United States Debra Steidel Wall approved 31 proposals totaling $1,904,539 in National Archives awards for projects in 25 states and the District of Columbia, pending appropriations of a final budget for FY 2023.”

Ars Technica: Crypto and NFTs aren’t welcome in Grand Theft Auto Online. “Cryptocurrencies and NFTs have been formally disallowed from Grand Theft Auto Online’s popular role-playing (RP) servers. That’s according to a new set of guidelines posted on Rockstar’s support site last Friday.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Crypto exchanges enabled online child sex-abuse profiteer. “The sums involved in buying and selling images of sexual abuse remain small compared to other criminal activities, such as the drugs trade. But the figures are increasing. While in the past offenders typically traded child abuse imagery among themselves in small communities, the darknet has become a breeding ground for sites like Dark Scandals that charge in crypto. And the damage is far-reaching.” This story is important but it’s also horrifying and has all kinds of disturbing content. PLEASE read with caution.

CoinDesk: Senator Warren Demands Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX Execs Be Held Accountable to ‘Fullest Extent of the Law’. “In the letter, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) reminded Garland and Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite of the DOJ’s recently renewed commitment to prosecuting white-collar criminals, and asked that they honor that commitment when investigating the behavior of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and other executives ‘with the utmost scrutiny.'”

New York Times: Crypto Firm FTX’s Ownership of a U.S. Bank Raises Questions. “Through a subsidiary, FTX invested $11.5 million in the parent company of Farmington State Bank, which has a single branch and, until this year, just three employees.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Caltech: Machine Learning Tools Automatically Classify 1,000 Supernovae. “Astronomers at Caltech have used a machine learning algorithm to classify 1,000 supernovae completely autonomously. The algorithm was applied to data captured by the Zwicky Transient Facility, or ZTF, a sky survey instrument based at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory.”

Stony Brook University: Researchers’ App to Increase Quality of Life for ALS Patients. “Patients suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, more commonly known as ALS, experience limited mobility and communication, leading to less personal freedom and a lower quality of life. However, two Stony Brook University professors are working to advance a multifunctional eye-gaze-based app that can help ALS patients gain back some of their lost independence.” The app is currently available (it’s free) but I think it’s still in development. Good morning, Internet…

November 24, 2022 at 06:29PM
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Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Twitter, FTX, DWAC, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 23, 2022

Twitter, FTX, DWAC, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 23, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

I’m sorry these last issues have been so Twitter / FTX heavy. I feel both of these stories are very important right now. Since this is a holiday week in America many of you are ignoring this newsletter anyway, hopefully. By Monday I’ll try to steer us back to more interesting horizons.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: ‘Toxic Twitter’ activists ramp up pressure on brands after Trump account reinstated. “A coalition of civil rights activists on Monday were urging Twitter’s advertisers to issue statements about pulling their ads off the social media platform after its owner Elon Musk lifted the ban on tweets by former U.S. President Donald Trump.”

Wall Street Journal: FTX Crypto Customers Worry They Will Never See Their Money Again. “Customers of beleaguered crypto exchange FTX are losing hope they will ever see their money again. The company’s massive financial problems began spilling into the open early this month, and FTX was quick to halt withdrawals from its international unit. American customers had hoped they might be luckier, but many of them haven’t been able to get their money out either.”

Investor’s Business Daily: DWAC Stock Spikes After Trump Merger Vote, Musk Reinstates Trump On Twitter. “Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) stock spiked after early losses Tuesday, as shareholders of the special acquisition company approved a one-year deadline extension to take former President Donald Trump’s social media platform public.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Verge: Twitter won’t restart paid verification until ‘significant impersonations’ stop, Elon Musk says. “Elon Musk told Twitter employees on Monday that the company won’t relaunch its paid verification subscription, Twitter Blue, until ‘we’re confident about significant impersonations not happening,’ according to a recording of his remarks obtained by The Verge.”

Search Engine Land: Is Google Search getting worse?. “Marissa Mayer, the former CEO of Yahoo, was Google’s 20th employee and the one-time leader of its search team, said Google is concerned about the declining quality of the web. The comments were made on a recent Freakonomics podcast episode that looked at whether the quality of Google search has declined over the years.”

New York Times: As Elon Musk Cuts Costs at Twitter, Some Bills Are Going Unpaid. “Before Elon Musk bought Twitter last month, the company’s executives had racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel invoices that the social media service planned to pay. But once Mr. Musk took over the company, he refused to reimburse travel vendors for those bills, current and former Twitter employees said. Mr. Musk’s staff said the services were authorized by the company’s former management and not by him. His staff have since avoided the calls of the travel vendors, the people said.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: France says non to Office 365 and Google Workspace in school. “The French minister of national education and youth has said that free versions of Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workplace should not be used in schools – a position that reflects ongoing European concerns about cloud data sovereignty, competition, and privacy rules.”

CNBC: UK to investigate Apple and Google’s ‘stranglehold’ over web browsing. “The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority launched an investigation Tuesday into Apple and Google’s control of the mobile browser market. The authority will explore the companies’ ‘stranglehold’ over browsing, as well as Apple’s control over cloud gaming through the App Store, it said in a release. The agency said Google and Apple powered 97% of all web browsing that took place in the U.K. in 2021.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Financial Times: Let crypto burn. “In the aftermath of the collapse of FTX, authorities should resist the urge to create a parallel legal and regulatory framework for the crypto industry. It is far better to do nothing, and just let crypto burn. Actively intervening would convey undeserved legitimacy upon a system that does little to support real economic activity. It also would provide an official seal of approval to a system that currently poses no threat to financial stability and would lead to calls for public bailouts when crypto inevitably erupts again.”

WIRED: Here’s Proof Hate Speech Is More Viral on Elon Musk’s Twitter. “For the months prior to Musk’s takeover, the researchers deemed just one tweet out of the three top 20 lists to be actually hateful, in this case against Jewish people. The others were either quoting another person’s hateful remarks or using the relevant key words in a non-hateful way. In the weeks after Musk took over Twitter, the same analysis found that hateful tweets became much more prominent among the most popular tweets with potentially toxic language.” Good afternoon, Internet…

November 24, 2022 at 01:43AM
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