British National Bibliography, Maritime Cyber ​​Attack Database, Google NotebookLM, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, July 17, 2023

British National Bibliography, Maritime Cyber ​​Attack Database, Google NotebookLM, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, July 17, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

British Library Digital Scholarship Blog: Share Family: British National Bibliography (Beta) service is live. “The British National Bibliography (BNB), first published in January 1950, is a weekly listing of new books and journals published or distributed in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland…. BNB is now available to explore in Beta: https://bl.natbib-lod.org. You can search for publications, original works and people.”

Port Technology: Maritime cyber attacks database launches. “Researchers led by NHL Stenden’s Stephen McCombie have launched the Maritime Cyber ​​Attack Database (MCAD) database to map maritime cyber attacks from around the world. The database lists more than 160 incidents which demonstrate the relevance and vulnerabilities of cyber security across the board in today’s maritime industry, says NHL Stenden Maritime IT Security Lecturer, Stephen McCombie.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ars Technica: Google’s language model “NotebookLM” app hits public testing. “Google has a company-wide mandate to pump out products that use a ChatGPT-style language model, and the latest is Google NotebookLM. This is Google’s third notebook app, after Google Notebook (2008-2012) and Google Keep (2013-). This was originally announced at Google I/O as ‘Project Tailwind,’ but now it’s hitting limited public testing.”

Associated Press: OpenAI strikes deal with Associated Press to license archive of news stories for ChatGPT. “ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and The Associated Press said Thursday that they’ve made a deal for the artificial intelligence company to license AP’s archive of news stories.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Engadget: Bluesky allowed people to include the n-word in their usernames. “No social media network is free from racists, but the fact that Bluesky didn’t already filter for something so basic as the n-word is surprising when you consider Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is one of the company’s backers.”

Vancouver Sun: Langara’s Studio 58 creates impressive digital theatre database with focus on equity and diversity. “.. a new cross-disciplinary project — involving instructors and students from Studio 58, the web and mobile app design and development, and library and information technology programs — is developing a digital database of stage works that don’t adhere to the standard Western theatre canon.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Boing Boing: Ghosthunting YouTubers stumble upon murder victim while live-streaming. “Popular Indian paranormal investigators Lalhmangaihzuala (Angaiha) and Lalhminghlua (Sena), who are brothers, were livestreaming a ghosthunting expedition along a river in Aizawl, Mizoram when they stumbled upon a very freaky scene—a rather decomposed body.”

Huffpost: Gov. Greg Abbott Is Sued For His TikTok Ban on College Campuses. “A group of Texas professors filed a lawsuit Thursday against Gov. Greg Abbott (R), alleging that his ban on TikTok at Texas public universities violates the First Amendment and prevents professors from conducting their TikTok-related research.”

PR Newswire: FTX Debtors Launch Online Claims Portal for Customers (PRESS RELEASE). “FTX Trading Ltd. (d.b.a. FTX.com), and its affiliated debtors (together, the ‘FTX Debtors’), today announced the launch of the online customer claims portal for customers. The portal can be accessed at https://claims.ftx.com. The portal will allow customers to login using their FTX credentials to view historical transaction information and account balances as of the FTX Debtors’ filing date of November 11, 2022.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Video Game History Foundation: The Game Availability Study, Explained. “Today, the Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network published a major new study which shows that 87 percent of classic games released in the United States are out of print. The results are striking, and it proves that we need to rethink the commercial marketplace’s role in game preservation. It’s a big study, and to help you digest it, we wrote this guide explaining the main points: Why we did it, how we did it, what we found, and why it matters.”

The Conversation: Streaming services are removing original TV and films. What this means for your favourite show – and our cultural heritage. “Programs that were removed after being cancelled on Disney+ have included Big Shot, Diary of a Future President, Just Beyond, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, The Mysterious Benedict Society, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, Turner & Hooch and Willow. What needs to be considered with many of these is that they are ‘originals’, meaning they were created by Disney for Disney. The removal of original content from streaming services, in most instances, means they will not be accessible to viewers anywhere.”

University of Michigan: Reviewing evidence improves crowdworkers’ misinformation judgments, reduces partisan bias. “People make better and less biased judgments about misinformation after searching the internet for corroborating evidence, according to a new University of Michigan study.” Another reason not to flood the Internet with infosewage. Good morning, Internet…

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July 17, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Texas Fentanyl Overdoses, Twitter, Emojis, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 16, 2023

Texas Fentanyl Overdoses, Twitter, Emojis, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 16, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

KVUE: Texas DSHS launches fentanyl data dashboard. “The dashboard reflects an expansion of data on fentanyl and other drug poisoning deaths published online by the DSHS. Texans can now access information that includes fentanyl-related deaths from 2014 to 2023, and the dashboard lets users view that data over time, by demographics or by geography.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: Elon Musk says Twitter’s cash flow still negative as ad revenue drops 50%. “Twitter’s cash flow remains negative because of a nearly 50% drop in advertising revenue and a heavy debt load, Elon Musk said on Saturday, falling short of his expectation in March that Twitter could reach cash flow positive by June.”

Boing Boing: This year’s new emojis revealed. “Among the new emojis coming for the 2023-2024 season of internet-based communications: a broken link, a lime and a plain brown mushroom. The depictions above are mockups by Emojipedia; they’ll actually look different depending on platform or application.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Foreign Policy: Elon Musk’s Twitter Is Becoming a Sewer of Disinformation. “That Musk calls this service ‘verification’ is an ingenious piece of disinformation itself. Twitter Blue accounts have fueled the spread of disinformation, especially about the Russia–Ukraine war—a topic on which Musk has repeatedly adopted Kremlin talking points.”

Engadget: Reddit is removing years of chats and messages. “If you have fond memories of chatting with Reddit friends, you might want to check your archives. Reddit has confirmed user reports that it’s removing all chats and messages from before 2023. As the social site explained in June, it’s moving to a new chat architecture and believes pulling older messages will enable a ‘smooth and quick transition’ to the new architecture.”

CNBC: Google quietly ditched plans for an A.I.-powered chatbot app for Gen Z. “Google was working on an artificial intelligence-powered mobile chatbot app for Gen Z users that features interactive digital characters, CNBC has learned. However, the company recently ‘deprioritized’ those efforts amid an internal reorganization, according to materials seen by CNBC. Typically, when a product is deprioritized at Google, work on it ceases.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

San Francisco Chronicle: These Google contractors unionized. Weeks later they were laid off. “Last Thursday, [Casey] Padron got an email summoning her and her coworkers to a mandatory meeting that day…But instead of being in a typical meeting with her coworkers, she found herself on a one-way Zoom call with Accenture managers and human resources personnel. Padron said employees were told they were being let go, ‘Because of changes in budget allocations.'”

ABC News: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s emails hacked in Microsoft cyber breach: Source. “Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s emails were hacked as part of the Microsoft cyber breach, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Microsoft’s Outlook systems were breached by Chinese hackers, according to the company. The breach was discovered in May.”

Associated Press: Senators move to require release of US government UFO records. “The Senate in the coming days is expected to consider a bipartisan measure that would compel the U.S. government to publicly release records relating to possible UFO sightings after decades of stonewalling.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Brookings Institution: AI makes rules for the metaverse even more important. “Every use of the term ‘metaverse’ should be read as ‘AI-enabled metaverse.’ The metaverse is a creature of AI in that much of what happens in the metaverse is determined by AI algorithms. Just because the metaverse has disappeared from public consciousness does not mean it should disappear from public concern.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 17, 2023 at 12:46AM
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Music Production Plugins, Discord Settings, Google Trees, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, July 16, 2023

Music Production Plugins, Discord Settings, Google Trees, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, July 16, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Magnetic Magazine: Reddit User Built A Database Of 10k+ Music Production Plugins So You Can Snag Them When They’re Cheap.. “Discover AudioBazooka.com, a unique database tracking 10,000+ audio plugins.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

WIRED: How to Use Discord’s ‘Family Center’ Safety Settings for Your Kids. “The popular messaging platform launched new parental controls for keeping tabs on teens. Here’s what the tools do (and don’t) include.”

Associated Press: Biden administration can resume contact with social-media platforms ‘until further orders’: appeals court. “A federal appeals court Friday temporarily paused a lower court’s order limiting executive branch officials’ communications with social-media companies about controversial online posts. Biden administration lawyers had asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to stay the preliminary injunction issued on July 4 by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty. Doughty himself had rejected a request to put his order on hold pending appeal.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Gilroy Dispatch: Google’s Gilroy farm plans to sell trees to the public. “The 40-acre piece of land is owned by Google, the Silicon Valley tech giant that purchased the Gilroy property in 2019 with the goal of growing trees in an environmentally sound way for its future and current campuses. But Google, in an era of remote work and a shifting economy, has lately reevaluated its real estate portfolio, shedding office spaces in the northern end of the county. As a result, the 15,000 trees growing in Gilroy—including coast live oak, alder, willow, California maple and more—won’t all end up at a Google project as originally intended.”

New York Times: ‘Not for Machines to Harvest’: Data Revolts Break Out Against A.I.. “Fed up with A.I. companies consuming online content without consent, fan fiction writers, actors, social media companies and news organizations are among those rebelling.”

Radio Prague: Pop legend Karel Gott speaks from beyond the grave using AI. “To celebrate Czech Radio’s centenary, its creative team wanted to highlight not only its vast historical archives, but also its future. And so the idea was born for Gott Forever, a project to recreate the speaking voice of Karel Gott, who passed away in 2019, using artificial intelligence. I spoke to Czech Radio’s creative producer Lukáš Sapík to find out more about the project, and started by asking: why an AI-generated voice?”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TorrentFreak: Internet Archive Targets Book DRM Removal Tool With DMCA Takedown. “The Internet Archive has taken the rather unusual step of sending a DMCA notice to protect the copyrights of book publishers and authors. The non-profit organization asked GitHub to remove a tool that can strip DRM from books in its library. The protective move is likely motivated by the ongoing legal troubles between the Archive and book publishers.”

Washington Post: Twitter didn’t pay privacy assessor after Musk takeover, court docs show. “House Republicans seized on allegations in the complaint that the FTC attempted to influence Ernst & Young, an independent auditor Twitter hired to assess its compliance with the order. Yet the complaint — and Republican committee members — omitted key details from that deposition, which paints a stark picture of the chaos and upheaval at Twitter during Musk’s takeover.”

Vicksburg Post: Social media video leads to arrest of Warren County woman for destroying crops . “One person is in custody following a July 3 social media video showing a black Nissan sedan doing donuts in a Warren County field.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: Transportation apps can help people with disabilities navigate public transit but accessibility lags behind. “Many people with disabilities rely on public transit as many do not have a driver’s licence. Planning trips, getting to and from transit stops successfully and navigating transit systems is important. My research has shown that smartphone app technology can encourage inclusion by helping people with disabilities better navigate transport systems.”

University of York: University marks launch of new Government guide on video games. “The University of York has marked the launch of a new government framework aimed at improving understanding of the impacts of video games at an event in partnership with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).”

UC Davis: Bringing COVID-19 Data into Focus . “Using an approach based on computer vision technology, researchers can work back from COVID-19 mortality data to see how infection rates changed on the day a lockdown or similar measure was introduced. The approach could be generally useful in future epidemics and pandemics. The work is published July 14 in Science Advances.” Good morning, Internet…

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July 16, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Mapping Despair, AO3, OpenAI, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 15, 2023

Mapping Despair, AO3, OpenAI, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 15, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Brookings Institution: Despair underlies our misinformation crisis: Introducing an interactive tool. “…we have built an interactive which highlights the places and populations that are most vulnerable to despair and misinformation. The interactive presents county level information on despair, access to credible local news, cognitive skill levels for high school graduates, COVID vaccination rates, and access to higher education opportunities.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: The massive fanfic archive AO3 is back after a wave of DDoS attacks. “The popular fanfiction platform Archive of Our Own (AO3) has been restored after a wave of distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks forced the website offline for over a day.”

Axios: AP strikes news-sharing and tech deal with OpenAI. “The Associated Press on Thursday said it reached a two-year deal with OpenAI, the parent company to ChatGPT, to share access to select news content and technology.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Refinery29: Are The Spill & Threads Apps New Homes For Black Internet Discourse?. “Using Twitter was, and arguably still is, a uniquely connective experience that moved at the lightning speed of your every thought. Nothing compares to when Rihanna’s off-the-cuff clapbacks were at their most savage, people pulled up to Twitter like a family cookout, and anyone could gain new followers-turned-family using friendly hashtags. But in recent years, the conversation has taken a turn.”

New York Times: What Happens When You Ask a Chinese Chatbot About Taiwan?. “Compared with OpenAI’s newest model, known as GPT-4, Ernie 3.5 was ‘slightly inferior’ in a comprehensive test, but it performed better when both were spoken to in Chinese, Baidu said, citing a report sponsored by one of China’s top research academies. We wanted to see for ourselves and tested Ernie 3.5 against GPT-4.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Roll Call: Group pushing FCC on deepfake ads submitting new petition. “Less than three weeks after the Federal Election Commission deadlocked on a request to develop regulations governing so-called deepfake political ads generated using artificial intelligence tools, a non-partisan advocacy group pushing for the new rules is trying again.”

Ars Technica: WordPress plugin installed on 1 million+ sites logged plaintext passwords. “All-In-One Security, a WordPress security plugin installed on more than 1 million websites, has issued a security update after being caught three weeks ago logging plaintext passwords and storing them in a database accessible to website admins.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Southern California: Understanding Global Events in Every Language. “Valuable insights can be gained from vast amounts of text. Event extraction is used to predict political instability; track the path of disease outbreaks; identify social unrest; follow natural disasters; and much more. But it comes with its own set of challenges. A team of AI researchers at the Information Sciences Institute (ISI), a research institute of USC Viterbi School of Engineering, has developed a method to combat one of those challenges: how to extract event information from foreign language text.”

MIT News: A new way to look at data privacy. “MIT researchers created a new data privacy metric, Probably Approximately Correct (PAC) Privacy, and built an algorithm based on this metric that can automatically determine the minimal amount of randomness that needs to be added to a machine-learning model to protect sensitive data, like sensitive lung scan images, from an adversary.”

Cornell University: Data scientists predict stock returns with AI and online news. “For years, the financial press has helped inform investors of all stripes. Cornell researchers have discovered it can also inform the algorithm behind a new financial predicting model.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 16, 2023 at 12:39AM
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3D Shark Models, Viola the Bird, Google Bard, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, July 15, 2023

3D Shark Models, Viola the Bird, Google Bard, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, July 15, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Cosmos Magazine: 3D sharks! New interactive online display brings oceans to life. “World of Sharks already introduces infographics, podcasts, species cards and topic pages. The latest addition to the website includes interactive 3D models of white sharks and manta rays designed by the Digital Life project based at the University of Massachusetts.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

ClassicFM: Google’s new game turns you into a cello-playing AI bird – and it’s highly addictive. “Fancy your own avian aria? A new game from Google Arts & Culture lets you take centre stage and become a winged cello soloist. Viola the Bird is a game in which you bow a virtual cello, with your own tempo, expression and artistry. To make things really fun, the performance is acted out by a charmingly theatrical, winged virtuoso.”

Reuters: Google’s AI chatbot, Bard, expands to Europe, Brazil, to take on ChatGPT. “Alphabet said it is rolling out its artificial- intelligence chatbot, Bard, in Europe and Brazil on Thursday, the product’s biggest expansion since its February launch and pitting it against Microsoft-backed rival ChatGPT.”

TechCrunch: Twitter admits to having a Verified spammer problem with announcement of new DM settings . “Starting ‘as soon as’ July 14, Twitter will introduce a new messages setting aimed at reducing spam in DMs by moving messages from Verified users you don’t follow back to your ‘Message Request’ inbox instead of your main inbox. Only messages from people you follow will arrive in your primary inbox going forward.”

Ars Technica: Apple introduces offline Maps—but how does it compare with Google Maps?. “Apple Maps has seen a significant comeback story since it first debuted to near-universal panning in 2012, but anyone who has also used Google Maps can even now name a bunch of handy features that Apple Maps just can’t do yet. When iOS 17 releases this fall, though, one of those gaps will get covered. Apple will introduce downloadable maps—a vital feature for many users and one that Google has offered for years.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Verge: One of Reddit’s biggest communities is suggesting users move to Discord. “The biggest Reddit community that’s still private as part of the Reddit protest is now encouraging its users to congregate elsewhere: Discord and Substack. If you currently try to visit r/malefashionadvice, which has more than 5 million subscribers, you’ll be greeted with a page that suggests you visit the community’s Discord and Substack instead.”

BBC: Why your favourite brand may be taking a social media break. “Like many of us, big companies are struggling to keep up with the number of social media platforms vying for their time and attention. They’re faced with the important choice of which apps to choose, in a market where social media can be an important brand-building tool and enable them to target consumers where they are most active.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: F.T.C. Opens Investigation Into ChatGPT Maker Over Technology’s Potential Harms. “The Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into OpenAI, the artificial intelligence start-up that makes ChatGPT, over whether the chatbot has harmed consumers through its collection of data and its publication of false information on individuals.”

WIRED: Silk Road’s Second-in-Command Gets 20 Years in Prison. “NEARLY TEN YEARS ago, the sprawling dark-web drug market known as the Silk Road was torn offline in a law enforcement operation coordinated by the FBI, whose agents arrested the black market’s boss, Ross Ulbricht, in a San Francisco library. It would take two years for Ulbricht’s second-in-command—an elusive figure known as Variety Jones—to be tracked down and arrested in Thailand. Today, a decade after the Silk Road’s demise, Clark has been sentenced to join his former boss in federal prison.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

European Commission: New initiatives to empower research careers and to strengthen the European Research Area. “Today, the Commission unveiled a comprehensive set of measures targeted at strengthening the European Research Area (ERA) and making it more resilient, appealing, and competitive. These will contribute to a priority action of the ERA Policy Agenda 2022-2024, namely to promote attractive and sustainable research careers.”

Florida International University: Teens more likely to use alcohol and marijuana if they see their friends post about it on social media. “Peer pressure hasn’t gone away. It’s just gone digital. Through surveys of more than 260 high school freshmen and sophomores, FIU Center for Children and Families researchers found friends still hold the greatest power over teens’ substance use decisions — rather than influencers, celebrities and other people on social media.”

Cornell Chronicle: Software creates entirely new views from existing video. “Filmmakers may soon be able to stabilize shaky video, change viewpoints and create freeze-frame, zoom and slow-motion effects – without shooting any new footage – thanks to an algorithm developed by researchers at Cornell University and Google Research. The software, called DynIBar, synthesizes new views using pixel information from the original video, and even works with moving objects and unstable camerawork.” The code is available on GitHub. Good morning, Internet…

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July 15, 2023 at 05:30PM
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Orchid Pollinators, Proton Drive, Detecting Political Disinformation, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 14, 2023

Orchid Pollinators, Proton Drive, Detecting Political Disinformation, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 14, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

La Trobe University: Sex lives of orchids reads like science fiction. That’s a heck of a headline to be indexing before 6am. “An international team of scientists including researchers at La Trobe University and the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria have created a global database of pollination data for almost 3000 orchid species.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: Proton is releasing a native encrypted file-syncing app for Windows. “The key difference between Proton Drive and other cloud-based storage options is that it will offer free, encrypted file storage by default. The service will also offer all of the essentials such as multi-device syncing, offline downloads and version history.”

USEFUL STUFF

International Journalists’ Network: 13 tips for investigating political disinformation. “Almost all smartphones in Brazil have WhatsApp installed on them. While the messaging app helps ensure easy communication within and outside of Brazil, its widespread use also facilitated the proliferation of disinformation in the lead-up to the country’s 2018 presidential election. During that time, Patricia Campos Mello, a journalist with Folha de São Paulo, reported closely on the mass dissemination of disinformation on WhatsApp. Drawing on this experience during a recent ICFJ Disarming Disinformation master class, held in partnership with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, Campos Mello offered a series of tips for journalists investigating political disinformation. ”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Ars Technica: Google’s head of AR software quits, citing “unstable commitment and vision”. “Google’s head of operating system and software platforms for augmented and mixed reality devices, Mark Lucovsky, has left the company after months of turmoil for the company’s mixed reality projects and staff. He publicly announced his departure in a tweet on Monday.”

Indian Express: Express Impact | 15 antiquities from New York’s Met among 150 returning to India in 3-6 months: Govt. “Fifteen antiquities returned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York Museum are expected to arrive in India in the next 3-6 months. Union Culture Secretary Govind Mohan, briefing reporters Sunday on the third G20 Culture Working Group meeting in Hampi, said this is the first lot of antiquities that the Met has willingly agreed to return to India.”

Business Insider: Lego YouTubers are building massive followings and creating a unique genre of content that taps into viewers’ nostalgia. “[SacredBricks], who asked Insider not to include his real name or age due to privacy concerns, is one of a number of successful online creators who are tapping into their viewers’ nostalgia and going hugely viral by using the famous kids’ toys to rack up viewers.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Krebs on Security: Apple & Microsoft Patch Tuesday, July 2023 Edition. “Microsoft Corp. today released software updates to quash 130 security bugs in its Windows operating systems and related software, including at least five flaws that are already seeing active exploitation. Meanwhile, Apple customers have their own zero-day woes again this month: On Monday, Apple issued (and then quickly pulled) an emergency update to fix a zero-day vulnerability that is being exploited on MacOS and iOS devices.”

Techdirt: Congress May Not Renew Low-Income Broadband Program Birthed During COVID. “Everybody’s experiences with COVID home education and telecommuting briefly shined a bright spotlight on substandard U.S. broadband and policy issues. But with our attention on COVID waning, its impetus for reform on broadband access is as well. ACP money will run out soon, and the debate has begun as to whether Congress should renew the ACP program.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Southern California: The Internet has a Dark Side – Can We Teach Machines How to Identify it?. “‘Bad’ information has serious implications. Misinformation, propaganda, and fake news are prevalent on the web and on social media platforms and can become weaponized, which leads to cyber abuse and, in severe cases, civil unrest. The University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI), a unit of the Viterbi School of Engineering, is working on two projects aimed at solving this issue from the inside out–by developing technology that can exercise reasoning capabilities when encountering this ‘bad’ information.”

University of California Riverside: AI creates new environmental injustices, but there’s a fix. “A recent paper by University of California, Riverside, electrical and computer engineers finds that technology companies are not doing enough to equitably distribute these growing environmental impacts. The finding mirrors calls from international organizations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for efforts to address AI’s environmental inequity.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 15, 2023 at 12:06AM
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Iowa Newspapers, WordPress, TikTok, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, July 14, 2023

Iowa Newspapers, WordPress, TikTok, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, July 14, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Southeast Iowa Union: Fairfield library’s newspaper archives being uploaded to internet. “The Fairfield Public Library is undertaking a project to upload all newspapers in Jefferson County’s history so that they will be searchable online. The ambitious project involves digitizing newspapers from as long ago as 1847, and covers newspapers such as The Fairfield Ledger as well as newspapers that have not published for decades such as The Fairfield Tribune, The Lockridge Times and The Batavia News.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

WordPress: Introducing Footnotes, Details Block, and Writing Flow Improvements. “The team at WordPress is always working to enhance your writing and publishing experience, whether adding brand-new features or fixing bugs and minor inconveniences. The latest round of updates includes a feature you’ve long been asking for, a new block, and a few improvements to the general flow and convenience of publishing.”

Lifehacker: You Can Finally Auto-Mute TikTok. “Opening TikTok with the sound blaring can be a bit embarrassing, especially if you’re in an academic or professional setting. And thanks to the auto-paying feed, this just goes on and on until you either hurriedly close the app, or find the mute switch. But TikTok has now added a much-needed feature that mutes the app on every launch—the videos will still automatically play, but now without sound.”

USEFUL STUFF

Genealogy’s Star: MyHeritage gives free access to 1.3 billion French records for Bastille Day. “We’re giving free access to all 1.3 billion French historical records on MyHeritage, from July 12–16, 2023!”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New Zealand Herald: Top Auckland restaurants hit by fake Google reviews amid scam fears – Cassia, Masu, French Cafe, Sidart, Sugar Club. “People choosing to dine out are being urged to ‘read beyond reviews’ after top restaurants have been flooded by fake reviews on Google, the Restaurant Association says. A number of restaurants, including The French Cafe, Sidart, The Sugar Club and Cassia at SkyCity, have been ‘spammed’ with reviews – most believed to be fake – in the past week.”

WIRED: How AI Can Make Gaming Better for All Players. “The project was inspired by Lance Carr, a quadriplegic video game streamer who utilizes a head-tracking mouse as part of his gaming setup. After his existing hardware was lost in a fire, Google stepped in to create an open source, highly configurable, low-cost alternative to expensive replacement hardware, powered by machine learning. While AI’s broader existence is proving divisive, we set out to discover whether AI, when used for good, could be the future of gaming accessibility.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Musk’s Twitter sues four Texas entities for data scraping -report. “Twitter has filed a lawsuit against four unnamed entities in Texas for data scraping, a local TV station said on Wednesday, explaining why the Elon Musk-owned social network had recently placed daily limits on the number of tweets a user could read.”

ERR: Estonia’s strawberry database helps fight crime. “A reference database cataloging varieties of Estonian strawberries will help prevent fraud and will be able to test if fruit advertised as locally grown really did originate in Estonia. Knowing the geographical origin of strawberries is important because it helps protect the Estonian market and supports farmers and strawberry growers. Until now it has not been possible to do so thoroughly.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Johns Hopkins University: Unleashing the digital Michelangelo from your smartphone. “…what if you could take a video of an object or scene with your smartphone and turn it into an accurate, detailed model, the way a master sculptor creates masterpieces from marble or clay? Its creators claim that the aptly named Neuralangelo does just that through the power of neural networks—and with submillimeter accuracy.”

Stanford News: Satisfaction with online dating app depends on what you’re looking for. “With an estimated 75 million active users each month, Tinder is the most popular dating app in the world. But a new study by Stanford Medicine researchers and collaborators has found, surprisingly – though perhaps not to users of the app – that many users are not swiping for dates. In a survey of more than a thousand Tinder users, half said they were not interested in meeting offline, and nearly two-thirds were already married or ‘in a relationship.'”

University of Sydney: Russia’s TikTok: Micro-influencers amplifying misinformation. “Dr Olga Boichak, a sociologist and social media expert, unpacks the rise of micro-influencers on Russian TikTok and the radicalised narratives around the Russia/Ukraine war.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Hackaday: Recreating The Golden Era Of Cable TV. “[Irish Craic Party] has gone to great lengths here to recreate the feel of cable TV from decades ago. It has recreations of real channels like HBO, Nickelodeon, and FX including station-appropriate bumpers and commercials. It’s also synchronized to the clock so shows start on the half- or quarter-hour. Cartoons play on Saturday morning, and Nickelodeon switches to Nick-at-Nite in the evenings.” Wow. Good morning, Internet…

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July 14, 2023 at 05:31PM
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