New researches

Thursday, April 13, 2023

Identifying Stolen Art, Google Maps, PBS, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 13, 2023

Identifying Stolen Art, Google Maps, PBS, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 13, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

CNN: FBI launches app to help identify stolen art. “On Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released an app-based version of the US National Stolen Art File (NSAF), its database of stolen artworks and culturally significant objects. The NSAF app was initially designed for law enforcement and art industry workers, but anyone in the world can use it to verify cultural property’s legal status with a few taps and swipes.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Google Maps is adding new features to make it easier to explore national parks. “Google is introducing new Maps features to make it easier for users to navigate national parks using the app. The tech giant says the new updates are designed to help users find the information they need when visiting a national park, such as discovering things to do and finding your way around the park.”

Axios: PBS stops tweeting after Musk adds “government-funded” label. “PBS has not tweeted from its main Twitter handle since April 8, following Elon Musk’s decision to label the outlet ‘government-funded news.’ Why it matters: PBS joins NPR, another major editorially independent outlet that receives some government funding, in halting its Twitter activity in light of the new label.”

The Verge: Android 14’s first beta introduces a back arrow that matches your background. “New gesture navigation and sharing features are rolling out in the first Android 14 beta build available to early public adopters.”

USEFUL STUFF

Boing Boing: Service for finding new music that sounds like your faves. “On Songs Like X, you can find new music that sounds similar to your favorite songs. Simply type in a name of a song you like in the search bar, and you’ll be presented with a list of songs that the site deems as similar.” I tried this using a New Orleans DJ named Big Choo. This site gave me better recommendations than Tidal.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Mother Jones: How MAGA Conspiracies Infected Autism Groups. “This world of dubious autism treatments used to be mostly limited to private social media groups and conferences. Indeed, beginning about a decade ago, the very notion of autism as a disorder began to lose currency among many autistic people and scientists who study autism: They started to view the condition not as an affliction, but rather as an innate brain difference. Autistic people experience the world differently, and that difference, they say, is something to be honored rather than treated.” I have strong feelings about this for obvious reasons, but I’ll not melt your monitor with my comments.

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: New Leaked Documents Show Broad Infighting Among Russian Officials. “The new batch, which contains 27 pages, reinforces how deeply American spy agencies have penetrated nearly every aspect of the Russian intelligence apparatus and military command structure. It also shows that the breach of American intelligence agencies could contain far more material than previously understood.”

Reuters: Google to ask judge to toss U.S. antitrust lawsuit over search dominance. “Google will likely argue Thursday that the U.S. Justice Department’s allegations that it broke antitrust law to build and maintain its dominance of search are flawed and that its lawsuit should be thrown out, according to court filings.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Ars Technica: Surprising things happen when you put 25 AI agents together in an RPG town. “A group of researchers at Stanford University and Google have created a miniature RPG-style virtual world similar to The Sims, where 25 characters, controlled by ChatGPT and custom code, live out their lives independently with a high degree of realistic behavior. They wrote about their experiment in a preprint academic paper released on Friday.”

Wall Street Journal: Is Big Tech’s R&D Spending Actually Hurting Innovation in the U.S.?. “The findings, published this past week in a paper from researchers at the University of Chicago and the U.S. Census Bureau, show that when inventors join large firms, they get a pay bump, but they also produce fewer new innovations, relative to inventors hired by young firms. The research is based on a gigantic data set, including 760,000 U.S. inventors and their patent-filing histories.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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April 14, 2023 at 12:48AM
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Maryland Traffic Accidents, Opera Browser, Twitter, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, April 13, 2023

Maryland Traffic Accidents, Opera Browser, Twitter, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, April 13, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

SEARCH GIZMO OF THE DAY: Category Cheat Sheet
CCC takes a Wikipedia category, reviews the first 500 pages in it, and gets their page view counts for the past month. Then the top 20 most-viewed pages in the category are listed with brief summaries and a link back to the full Wikipedia page.

NEW RESOURCES

CBS Baltimore: Maryland DOT unveils new data dashboard to help prevent deadly highway crashes. “The Maryland Department of Transportation showcased a new tool to help prevent deadly crashes on the state’s highways. Before unveiling it, MDOT revealed 563 people died in these crashes in 2022. It’s the same number as 2021.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Opera brings its free VPN to iOS to rival Apple and Google’s paid alternatives. “Opera, the makers of an ad-blocking web browser, whose most recent claim to fame is having TikTok built-in, announced today it’s rolling out an updated version of its iOS app that now includes its free VPN.”

Politico: Twitter releases more political ad data after POLITICO report. “Twitter’s latest data shows revenue from political advertising since early March was more than 50 times higher than the company had previously reported. Twitter did not explain why it released more data, or why at least two promoted tweets identified by POLITICO were still not included. The company’s press email still replies with a poop emoji.”

USEFUL STUFF

ZDNet: How to clean up your Google Contacts (and why you should). “The only thing you’ll need is the Google Contacts app installed on your mobile device. I’ll demonstrate on a Pixel 6 Pro, so if you’re using a different device, the instructions may slightly differ.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Ars Technica: Elon Musk reportedly purchases thousands of GPUs for generative AI project at Twitter. “Despite recently calling for a six-month pause in the development of powerful AI models, Twitter CEO Elon Musk recently purchased roughly 10,000 GPUs for a generative AI project within Twitter, reports Business Insider, citing people familiar with the company. The exact nature of the project, however, is still a mystery.”

Motherboard: ‘Overemployed’ Hustlers Exploit ChatGPT To Take On Even More Full-Time Jobs. “Over the last few months, the exploding popularity of ChatGPT and similar products has led to growing concerns about AI’s potential effects on the international job market—specifically, the percentage of jobs that could be automated away, replaced by a well-oiled army of chatbots. But for a small cohort of fast-thinking and occasionally devious go-getters, AI technology has turned into an opportunity not to be feared but exploited, with their employers apparently none the wiser.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: Leaker of U.S. secret documents worked on military base, friend says. “The man behind a massive leak of U.S. government secrets that has exposed spying on allies, revealed the grim prospects for Ukraine’s war with Russia and ignited diplomatic fires for the White House is a young, charismatic gun enthusiast who shared highly classified documents with a group of far-flung acquaintances searching for companionship amid the isolation of the pandemic.”

Reuters: S.Korea’s top court tells Google to disclose user information sharing -report . “South Korea’s top court on Thursday said Alphabet Inc’s Google should disclose whether the technology giant had shared local user information with third parties, news agency Yonhap reported, sending the case back to a lower court.”

Government Technology: States Push to Curtail Children’s Access to Social Media. “Several states are pushing legislation that would limit online access and social media use by kids, setting up yet another potential confrontation between states and Congress on technology policy.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Hawaii: Insta-worthy catch? Social media helps UH Hilo researchers track changes in fisheries. “While studying new fishing habits that arose during the pandemic and how those changes were impacting local fisheries, the researchers also confirmed something interesting about data collection in the age of social media. Catch photos posted to Instagram told a story about changes in fishing behavior much more quickly than conventional approaches to data collection.”

The Tablet: New Discovery Finds Hidden Text Between the Lines of Biblical Passages. “The findings stem from the research of Grigory Kessel, a medievalist from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who believes the hidden texts may date back 1,750 years…. Kessel was able to rediscover the hidden text, which could be found in Matthew chapters 11 and 12, with ultraviolet photography. The hidden words were found under three layers of text in a manuscript.”

Stanford News: The promise – and pitfalls – of medical AI headed our way. “Doctors across all disciplines, with assistance from artificial intelligence, may soon have the ability to quickly consult a patient’s entire medical file against the backdrop of all medical health care data and every published piece of medical literature online. This potential versatility in the doctor’s office is only now possible due to the latest generation of AI models.” Good morning, Internet…

April 13, 2023 at 05:28PM
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Wednesday, April 12, 2023

National Recording Registry, NPR, Substack, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 12, 2023

National Recording Registry, NPR, Substack, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 12, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Library of Congress: National Recording Registry Inducts Music from Madonna, Mariah Carey, Queen Latifah, Daddy Yankee. “Madonna’s cultural ascent with ‘Like a Virgin,’ Mariah Carey’s perennial No. 1 Christmas hit, Queen Latifah’s groundbreaking ‘All Hail the Queen’ and Daddy Yankee’s reggaeton explosion with ‘Gasolina’ are some of the defining sounds of the nation’s history and culture that will now join the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. The 2023 class also includes the first sounds of a video game to join the registry with the Super Mario Bros. theme, powerful voices of women, important inductions of Latin music, and classic sounds of rock and pop from the 1960s to the ‘80s.”

NPR: NPR quits Twitter after being falsely labeled as ‘state-affiliated media’. “NPR will no longer post fresh content to its 52 official Twitter feeds, becoming the first major news organization to go silent on the social media platform. In explaining its decision, NPR cited Twitter’s decision to first label the network ‘state-affiliated media,’ the same term it uses for propaganda outlets in Russia, China and other autocratic countries.”

Ars Technica: Substack debuts feature that spooked Musk into suppressing Substack tweets. “Today, Substack officially rolled out Notes, the product that creates a feed that allows Substack creators and subscribers to interact. It functions so much like Twitter that it controversially caused Twitter to restrict links to Substack. But Substack doesn’t see Notes as a Twitter rival, telling Ars that Substack has no plans to become the next Twitter.” The way they describe it, it sounds more like RSS.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Salem News: Guanci drops out of mayor’s race after Twitter revelations. “Mayoral candidate Paul Guanci said Tuesday that he is dropping out of the race after revelations surfaced that he liked derogatory Twitter comments regarding race, gender, immigration and election denial. Guanci deleted his Twitter account before he announced his candidacy last week, but screenshots of the account were provided to The Salem News.” They’re also in the Wayback Machine. Yuck.

Ars Technica: The mounting human and environmental costs of generative AI. “Over the past few months, the field of artificial intelligence has seen rapid growth, with wave after wave of new models like Dall-E and GPT-4 emerging one after another. Every week brings the promise of new and exciting models, products, and tools. It’s easy to get swept up in the waves of hype, but these shiny capabilities come at a real cost to society and the planet. Downsides include the environmental toll of mining rare minerals, the human costs of the labor-intensive process of data annotation, and the escalating financial investment required to train AI models as they incorporate more parameters.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Kodi discloses data breach after forum database for sale online. “The Kodi Foundation has disclosed a data breach after hackers stole the organization’s MyBB forum database containing user data and private messages and attempted to sell it online. Kodi is a cross-platform open-source media player, organizer, and streaming suite, that supports a vast array of third-party add-ons enabling the users to access content from various sources or customize their experience.”

The Guardian: Twitter forced to remove harmful content aimed at Brittany Higgins and partner. “Australia’s eSafety commissioner deployed tough new cyber abuse powers for the first time to force Twitter to remove severely harmful content targeting Brittany Higgins and her partner, David Sharaz, last year.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Hackaday: Wolverine Gives Your Python Scripts The Ability To Self-Heal. “[BioBootloader] combined Python and a hefty dose of of AI for a fascinating proof of concept: self-healing Python scripts.”

Reuters Institute: Will AI-generated images create a new crisis for fact-checkers? Experts are not so sure. “I spoke to several journalists, experts, and fact-checkers to assess the dangers posed by visual generative AI. When seeing is no longer believing, what are the implications this technology has on misinformation? How will this impact journalists and fact-checkers who debunk hoaxes? Will our information channels be flooded with ‘propaganda and untruth’?”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Washington Post: The Washington Post’s 2023 Peeps diorama contest winners. “After 364 days of antici-Peep-tion, The Washington Post’s annual Peeps diorama contest has returned with a sweet, sugary bang. This year’s participants drove the challenge to previously unimaginable levels, harnessing unmatched creativity and referencing the year’s most iconic moments (Swifties, are you Ready For It?) in the process.” Good afternoon, Internet…

April 13, 2023 at 12:41AM
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Independent Russian Media, Google Bard, Google TV, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, April 12, 2023

Independent Russian Media, Google Bard, Google TV, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, April 12, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

SEARCH GIZMO OF THE DAY: Backyard Scholarship
Enter a name and a birthplace in America, and Backyard converts the city state to a zip code and finds all higher education institutions within a 30-mile radius. It then assembles the domain names of those institutions into a Google query. You will need a Data.gov API key to use this Gizmo. They’re free.

NEW RESOURCES

Bard College: The Gagarin Center at Bard College and PEN America Establish Russian Independent Media Archive. “The Gagarin Center at Bard College is partnering with PEN America to launch the Russian Independent Media Archive (RIMA), a project that aims to preserve the last two decades of independent Russian journalism, an irreplaceable historical record at risk of erasure as Russian media outlets not aligned with the regime of President Vladimir Putin are shuttered and their reporters and editors are cast into exile.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: Google Bard’s new ‘experiment updates’ page lets you know what’s new. “In an attempt to be more open about Bard’s development, Google has created a new ‘experiment updates’ page where anyone can find information on recent updates to Bard, including new features and bug fixes.”

Google Blog: Discover more than 800 free TV channels with Google TV. “Today, we’re introducing a new live TV experience that lets you browse more than 800 free TV channels across multiple providers, organized in one easy-to-use guide right in the Live tab.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

ComicBook .com: Lofi Girl Scrambles Social Media as New Anime Boy Joins the Mix. “There have been a few staples of Youtube that have helped to elevate the platform to new heights over the years. One of the more somber and relaxing just so happens to be the channel known as ‘Lofi Girl’. Seeing an animated girl hovering over a desk, her cat and background prominently feature, the channel would let viewers hear some relaxing tunes with the animation that would rarely change. Now, the Lofi Girl threw a major curveball at fans by introducing ‘Lofi Boy’, or Synth-Wave Boy as some call him, and fans are beside themselves at this big addition.”

National Széchényi Library (NSZL): Cooperation agreement between the National Library of Mongolia and the NSZL. “Dr. Borbála Obrusánszky, Ambassador of Hungary to Ulaanbaatar, on behalf of the National Széchényi Library (NSZL) and with her authorization, signed a cooperation agreement with the National Library of Mongolia (MNM) at the launch of the volume of Sándor Petőfi’s poems in Ulaanbaatar.” The NSZL is one of two national libraries in Hungary.

MEAT+POULTRY: Frozen food startup inspired by social media influencers. “Counter was founded by former Walmart merchants Jeff Ferrell and Benn Manning. The brand partners with health and wellness content creators to develop high-protein, low-calorie meals inspired by popular recipes on Instagram and TikTok. Products include protein waffles, burritos, bowls and chicken bites.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

SiliconANGLE: Google debuts new API for detecting open-source security vulnerabilities. “Google LLC is releasing an application programming interface that will enable developers to scan the open-source code they use for vulnerabilities and other issues. The deps.dev API, as it’s called, debuted today. It extends an open-source cybersecurity project called deps.dev that Google launched in 2021.”

Texas Standard: Fentanyl’s rise, distribution tied to growth of social media. “According to an expert who studies drug trafficking, fentanyl is the new ‘social media drug’ and Mexican criminal groups are exploiting the technology to dominate the market – recruiting dealers in Texas to peddle the opioid.”

CBC (Canada): Federal department asked social media giants to drop newspaper article, documents show. “Newly released documents show that a federal government department asked Facebook and Twitter to delete a newspaper article that it felt contained errors — but both social media giants denied the request.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Stanford Medicine: For better video meetings, try taking turns talking. “Early in the pandemic, video conferencing became the only way many of us could work, socialize, see a doctor or take a yoga class, among many other activities. By now, it’s become a fixture of the work-from-home lifestyle. Two new studies led by Stanford Medicine researchers examined whether we work, behave and feel differently in these virtual versus in-person interactions and what’s going on in our brains.”

History Today: Lost Movies. “Almost three quarters of the golden age of Hollywood has been lost. Preservation only began when film came to be seen as art.”

New York Times: In A.I. Race, Microsoft and Google Choose Speed Over Caution. “Technology companies were once leery of what some artificial intelligence could do. Now the priority is winning control of the industry’s next big thing.” Good morning, Internet…

April 12, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Internet Archive, Raspberry Pi, Microsoft Teams, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 11, 2023

Internet Archive, Raspberry Pi, Microsoft Teams, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 11, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

EVENTS

Internet Archive: Supporters Rally For Library Digital Rights on the Steps of the Internet Archive. “More than one hundred supporters gathered on the steps of the Internet Archive last Saturday to rally support for our library in the face of a judgment that threatens the digital future of all libraries.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Review Geek: Raspberry Pi Debuts a Code Editor for Young People. “Python is the preferred coding language for beginners (particularly young people), as it’s the most intuitive language utilized by professionals. For this reason, Raspberry Pi’s Code Editor uses Python (specifically the standard library and P5). Support for web development languages, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript will arrive at a later date.”

TechCrunch: You can now access Snapchat Lenses during Microsoft Teams meetings. “Tired of using virtual backgrounds to spice up your Microsoft Teams calls? Well, you now have a new way to express yourself during meetings. Microsoft and Snap have today announced the integration of Snapchat Lenses for Teams to bring a bit of fun to virtual meetings.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: OpenAI’s ‘Pay As You Go’ Is the Best Way to Use ChatGPT. “If you’ve tried talking to ChatGPT, you may have noticed that its free website is often slow, needs frequent reloading, and relies on Cloudflare to confirm you’re indeed a human. But contrary to what OpenAI advertises, you don’t need to pay $20 per month for the paid version (ChatGPT Plus) to solve these issues. Instead, opt for OpenAI’s pay-as-you-go plan that charges you based on usage rather than a monthly fee.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Verge: Elon Musk tweets then deletes DMs from Matt Taibbi over his Substack snit. “Elon Musk and one of his ‘Twitter Files’ writers, Matt Taibbi, don’t seem to be on great terms right now, and that situation probably isn’t getting any better after Musk posted then deleted a DM conversation between the two of them.”

Washingtonian: Love City Paper and the Blade? You Can Help Preserve Old Issues.. “At a series of sessions dubbed Describe-a-Thons, lovers of local history have been reading through old issues and entering descriptions and keywords into an online database. Recently, I decided to join one such effort, hoping to help preserve the city’s history and also to enjoy a bit of alt-media-fan camaraderie. (I used to work at City Paper myself.)”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNBC: FBI warns against using public phone charging stations. “The FBI recently warned consumers against using free public charging stations, saying crooks have managed to hijack public chargers that can infect devices with malware, or software that can give hackers access to your phone, tablet or computer.”

Engadget: FTC fines supplement maker $600,000 for ‘review hijacking’ Amazon listings. “For the first time, the US Federal Trade Commission has fined an organization for ‘review hijacking.’ In February, the agency accused The Bountiful Company, maker of the Nature’s Bounty brand of vitamins, of deceiving consumers. Between 2020 and 2021, Bountiful abused a feature of Amazon to make it seem like some of its newer supplements had higher product reviews and ratings than they did in reality.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: The Real-World Costs of the Digital Race for Bitcoin. “Bitcoin mines cash in on electricity — by devouring it, selling it, even turning it off — and they cause immense pollution. In many cases, the public pays a price.” Good afternoon, Internet…

April 12, 2023 at 12:41AM
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Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Tennessee Cemeteries, Twitter, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, April 11, 2023

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Tennessee Cemeteries, Twitter, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, April 11, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

SEARCH GIZMO OF THE DAY: Shuffle Search
Google’s search results look different depending on the order of your query words! Shuffle Search takes a 2-, 3-, or 4-word query and creates a Google search list of all possible orders for those query words.

NEW RESOURCES

Lion’s Roar: Chögyam Trungpa Digital Library at Naropa University launches with catalog of over 170 recorded teachings. “The new Chogyam Trungpa Digital Library at Naropa University is offering an online archive of recorded teachings by the late Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in both audio, video, and transcript formats. On April 4, the library released a new batch of content to mark the 36th anniversary of the passing of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, including a seminar, a community talk, and a radio interview.”

Greeneville Sun: TN Historical Commission Unveils Online Database Of Cemeteries. “The Statewide Cemetery Map and the Tennessee Historic Cemetery Register are now available online in ArcGIS format for public use on the THC’s website. The map has been populated by data from the commission’s cemetery database, which currently contains more than 32,500 cemeteries statewide, a news release notes.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Slate: Twitter Isn’t a Company Anymore. “Twitter, as a defendant, must continue to submit corporate disclosure statements to the court. And so, in its most recent filing, the company provided notice that ‘Twitter, Inc. has been merged into X Corp. and no longer exists.’ As the ‘successor in interest’ to Twitter Inc.—that is, the survivor of the merger—X Corp. is now the defendant in Loomer’s suit. Its parent corporation is identified as X Holdings Corp.” I don’t have enough legal/financial/corporate expertise to assess whether this is sinister or not. It could simply be an attempt to dodge the mountain of bills Twitter hasn’t paid.

Android Police: Google Play will now auto-archive your least-used apps. “If you’re big into downloading media, or playing weighty games, finding all the space you need can be a challenge. Last year, Google introduced the idea of app archiving to help people manage their precious storage, and now it’s tweaking the program to work automatically.”

Ars Technica: Apple releases last week’s security patches for older iPhones, iPads, and Macs . “Last week, Apple released iOS and iPadOS 16.4.1 and macOS Ventura 13.3.1 to patch two actively exploited security vulnerabilities and fix other small bugs. Today it’s following those up with iOS and iPadOS 15.7.5, macOS Monterey 12.6.5, and macOS Big Sur 11.7.6 to patch those same vulnerabilities in older devices that are still receiving software updates but aren’t capable of running the newest OSes.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BuzzFeed News: Twitter Circles Is Broken, Revealing Nudes Not Meant For The General Public. “Eight months and one ownership change later, Circles’ secure functionality appears to have broken. A number of users are publicly warning those who use the feature that their supposedly secure posts — oftentimes nudes — are leaching into the main For You feed, the algorithmically driven homepage of Twitter.”

New Zealand Herald: Privacy fears over New Zealand government departments’ use of Google Analytics. “Privacy experts and analysts warn government departments’ use of Google Analytics may be allowing the world’s biggest marketing company to harvest New Zealanders’ private data for its own purposes.”

Bloomberg: South Korea Fines Google $32 Million for Squeezing Local Rival. “South Korea fined Alphabet Inc.’s Google 42.1 billion won ($32 million) for using its clout in the mobile app market to squeeze out a local rival, the latest sign of intensifying scrutiny on the US tech firm as it seeks to expand overseas.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

MIT Technology Review: How AI is helping historians better understand our past. “Historians say the application of modern computer science to the distant past helps draw connections across a broader swath of the historical record than would otherwise be possible, correcting distortions that come from analyzing history one document at a time. But it introduces distortions of its own, including the risk that machine learning will slip bias or outright falsifications into the historical record.”

EurekAlert: Hooper creating public database of slaving voyages across the Indian Ocean and Asia. “The primary investigators will create an Indian Ocean and Asia (IOA) database of voyages that transported enslaved African, Malagasy, Middle Eastern, Indian, Southeast Asian, and East Asian men, women, and children within and beyond the Indian Ocean world between 1500 and 1940 as an integral part of the SlaveVoyages website.”

The Conversation: TikTok’s poor content moderation fuels the spread of hate speech and misinformation ahead of Indonesia 2024 elections. “Researchers and civil society organisations must start to study TikTok’s potential impact on Indonesia as the country will hold its general and presidential elections in February 2024.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Taiwan News: National Taiwan Library repairs 500-year-old Quran. “The ancient text was given to Tzu Chi Buddhist Humanitarian Foundation Master Cheng Yen (證嚴) by a Tzu Chi Turkish volunteer, Faisal Hu (胡光中), over two years ago, per CNA. Hsu Mei-wen (徐美文), a book restorer at Taiwan Book Hospital of National Taiwan Library, was entrusted with the job. With 15 years of experience, Hsu quickly devoted herself to absorbing the book’s lessons and teachings.” Good morning, Internet…

April 11, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Monday, April 10, 2023

Twitter, TikTok, Biden Administration, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 10, 2023

Twitter, TikTok, Biden Administration, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 10, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Euronews: Russia mulls lifting Twitter ban after Musk reinstates Kremlin account. “Russia is considering lifting its ban on Twitter after the social media network reinstated access to accounts of Russian state agencies. The ban was imposed before Elon Musk took over running Twitter last October. But since Friday, users can once again search the accounts of the Kremlin and Russia’s Foreign Affairs and Defence ministries, among others.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times: On TikTok, ‘The Hunger Games’ is a metaphor for our modern dystopia. “A lot has changed since The Hunger Games peaked in popularity, making it ripe for re-examination. Many of those partaking in the resurgence are revisiting the series for the first time as adults grappling with the climate crisis, social upheaval, and a global pandemic. How do our 2023 adult sensibilities transform our understanding of a beloved childhood franchise?”

Axios: Biden’s digital strategy: an army of influencers. “President Biden’s not-yet-official bid for re-election will lean on hundreds of social media ‘influencers’ who will tout Biden’s record — and soon may have their own briefing room at the White House, Axios has learned.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Gizmodo: ‘Such Is Life:’ FTX Says SBF and Execs Joked About Misplacing Millions of Dollars. “The company said approximately 80,000 transactions made by the company were left as unprocessed entries in some QuickBooks accounts called ‘Ask My Accountant.’ FTX’s hedge fund arm Alameda Research’s record keeping was ‘so poor’ that one document described how employees should ‘come up with some number, idk’ for some crypto token valuations.”

Politico: Twitter fails to report some political ads after promising transparency. “Twitter has failed to disclose some political ads running on its site since early March, according to a review of its activity by POLITICO. At least three promoted fundraising tweets were not included in Twitter’s own data, seemingly contradicting the company’s policies and raising doubts about the integrity of the platform’s data and how many other political ads could go unreported.”

New York Times: Justice Dept. Recently Looked Into Twitter, Lawsuit Says. “A lawsuit filed on Monday by several former Twitter executives said they had personally spent more than $1 million on legal expenses related to shareholder lawsuits and several government investigations, including an inquiry by the Justice Department. The nature of the Justice Department inquiry and whether it was ongoing, was unclear. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Chancery Court, did not offer other details.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: How A.I. and DNA Are Unlocking the Mysteries of Global Supply Chains. “Amid growing concern about opacity and abuses in global supply chains, companies and government officials are increasingly turning to technologies like DNA tracking, artificial intelligence and blockchains to try to trace raw materials from the source to the store.”

Colgate Maroon-News: LinkedIn is the New Facebook. “It might just be a symptom of summer internship season, but it appears as though the platform is emerging as the new Facebook, which has faded into the background of updates on your parent’s long-lost classmates’ family and your grandmother’s cat. Already saturated with older working professionals, LinkedIn has a promising future in the social media networking world as it appeals more and more to young people.”

Northwestern University: People online might not be as outraged as you think. “The prevalence of moral outrage online can be explained in part by our psychology, according to William Brady, an assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Brady recently led a new study, published April 10, 2023 in Nature Human Behavior, that explores why people tend to misperceive others as angrier than they really are online. In turn, he says, users tend to engage with triggering content, thereby amplifying it and giving it an algorithmic boost.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Engadget: Museum creates giant ‘Donkey Kong’ cabinet with a little help from Nintendo. “The Strong National Museum of Play in New York unveiled an absolutely massive Donkey Kong arcade cabinet that’s nearly 20 feet tall. Donkey Kong is co-starring in the biggest movie in the world right now, so it is only fitting that he also gets an equally gargantuan arcade cabinet.” Good afternoon, Internet…

April 11, 2023 at 12:17AM
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