15th Century Italian Banking, Megan Thee Stallion, Texas State Symbols, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, September 29, 2023

15th Century Italian Banking, Megan Thee Stallion, Texas State Symbols, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, September 29, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Queen Mary University of London: Historical Treasures from the 15th Century: new website offers a treasure trove of data and research tools. “Queen Mary University of London academics launch new web resource, revealing historical records of two fifteenth-century ledgers of the Bruges and London branches of the Milanese bank Filippo Borromei and partners.”

NME: Megan Thee Stallion launches mental health resources site, Seize The Awkward. “Megan Thee Stallion has launched a new mental health resources website called Seize The Awkward…. Seize The Awkward features a series of videos in which Megan Thee Stallion opens up about various topics like checking in on friends and being vulnerable. There’s also videos from other stars like Noah Cyrus, Ava Max, Tyler Posey and athletes like American football player Caleb Williams and wrestler Big E.” This is the second mental health resources site launched by Ms. Thee Stallion.

Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Texas State Library and Archives Commission Launches New State Symbols Website. “The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) has announced a new web page featuring the official legislatively-designed State Symbols of Texas. The new site, accessible at http://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/symbols, features each official state symbol with a photograph and citation of the relevant resolution from the Texas Legislature. State symbols have been designated since 1901, when the bluebonnet was chosen as the official flower of Texas by the 27th Legislature.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Rolling Stone: Twitter Fires Election Integrity Team Ahead of 2024 Elections. “Several European staffers working on a threat disruption team for the social platform, including senior manager Aaron Rodericks, have been fired this week, according to a report in the tech publication The Information that cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Site owner Elon Musk confirmed the termination of the team members on Wednesday.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

USC Annenberg Media: Turning the page on banned books: LA libraries widen access to restricted titles. “In response to increasing book challenges in California schools, a new motion from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors aims to widen access to restricted titles by giving every California resident access to LA County libraries’ e-book database.”

Irish Times: TikTok discovers ‘covert influence operation’ targeting Ireland. “Video-sharing service TikTok dismantled a ‘covert influence operation’ network dedicated to targeting users in Ireland with ‘divisive’ content to “intensify social conflict”, the company has disclosed. The influence network was made up of 72 accounts that together had a following of some 94,743 users, and was shut down earlier this year.”

CPA Practice Advisor: IRS Rolls Out New Chatbot Feature for Certain CP Notices. “Chatbots will be used to provide information to taxpayers on the following tax notices: CP2000, CP2501, and CP3219A. These notices inform taxpayers if the tax information the IRS received from third parties, such as employers or financial institutions, does not match the information they provided to the IRS themselves. This discrepancy could cause an increase or a decrease in the amount of taxes a person owes.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Talking Points Memo: EXCLUSIVE: 5th Circuit’s Craven Ruling In Biden Social Media Case Was A ‘Clerical Error’. “The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals this morning abruptly withdrew Monday’s order giving red states a chance for an even bigger win in a case that has blocked much of the Biden administration from flagging misinformation on social media sites. The 5th Circuit’s Clerk of Court told TPM that the original order was a ‘clerical error.'”

Ars Technica: FCC details plan to restore the net neutrality rules repealed by Ajit Pai. “Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel today announced plans to restore net neutrality rules similar to those that were adopted during the Obama era and then repealed by the FCC when Donald Trump was president.”

Washington Post: He live-streamed his attacks on Indian Muslims. YouTube gave him an award.. “He chased cow transporters on foot and beat them on camera. In return, his fans on YouTube and Facebook left comments full of heart emojis, praising him for doing the work of God. For a century, vigilantes in north India have worked discreetly in a legal gray zone to protect cows, an animal worshiped by Hindus. But these enforcers have become more extreme and flamboyant in the past decade, thanks to American social media companies that reward them with online followings, and officials from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who offer them political protection and champion their militant brand of Hindu nationalism.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

North Carolina State University: State COVID-19 Websites Fail to Meet Accessibility Standards. “Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. states and territories all created websites designed to share information with the public about the disease, vaccinations and related public health recommendations. However, a new study finds these sites do not meet accessibility standards – meaning that some members of the public, such as individuals who are blind or visually impaired, are not able to access all of the relevant information on the sites.”

University of Queensland: Problem drinking linked to alcohol on social media. “A University of Queensland study highlights a direct link between young people’s exposure to alcohol-related social media content and problem drinking. The study led by PhD candidate Brandon (Hsu-Chen) Cheng from UQ’s Australian National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research examined results from 30 international studies of more than 19,000 people aged 24 and younger.” Good morning, Internet…

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September 29, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, TreeGOER, Binance, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 28, 2023

Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, TreeGOER, Binance, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 28, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Daily News (Tanzania): Samia to launch Dr Salim Ahmed Salim’s digital archive. “PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu is set to preside over the inauguration of the Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim Archives in Dar es Salaam on Saturday, September 30, 2023. Dr. Salim is an eminent international diplomat, previously held the esteemed positions of the fifth Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania and the eighth Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) from 1989 to 2001.”

SCOOP New Zealand: New Database Paves Way For Trees To Thrive In Face Of Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss . “The database, Tree Globally Observed Environmental Ranges or TreeGOER, for short, documents the observed environmental ranges for the majority of known tree species. It was developed at the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), an international research and development organization on trees, forests, agroforestry and landscapes. The open-access database is available on Zenodo and described in the journal Global Change Biology. TreeGOER documents the global environmental ranges for 51 variables for observed occurrences of 48,129 tree species.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Wall Street Journal: The World’s Biggest Crypto Firm Is Melting Down. “After FTX crashed, the world of crypto seemed to belong to the largest exchange, Binance. Less than a year later, Binance is the one in distress. Under threat of enforcement actions by U.S. agencies, Binance’s empire is quaking. Over the past three months, more than a dozen senior executives have left, and the exchange has laid off at least 1,500 employees this year to cut costs and prepare for a decline in business.”

The Verge: Amazon is placing free Alexa Guard security features behind a paywall. “The free version of Alexa Guard that listens for household disturbances was included as a standard feature on Amazon Echo devices. In a recent email to customers, Amazon said that some of Guard’s features like smoke and CO alarm detection will instead be moved to its new Emergency Assist service, which is available for $5.99 per month or $59 per year.”

TechCrunch: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024 with listeners migrated to YouTube Music. “Google announced this morning it will be shutting down its Google Podcasts app later in 2024 as part of its broader transition to move its streaming listeners over to YouTube Music. The company earlier this year announced YouTube Music would begin supporting podcasts in the U.S., which will expand globally by year-end, and more recently said it was adding the ability for podcasters to upload their RSS feeds to YouTube also by year-end.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Deutsche Welle: EU says Elon Musk’s X is biggest source of disinformation. “The social media network X, formerly known as Twitter, is the biggest source of fake news, a top European official said Tuesday. European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said that X, which is not a signatory to a European Union-wide code of conduct to crack down on fake news on social media platforms and advertising companies, has the ‘largest ratio of mis/disinformation posts.'”

Engadget: Even the CIA is developing an AI chatbot. “The CIA and other US intelligence agencies will soon have an AI chatbot similar to ChatGPT. The program, revealed on Tuesday by Bloomberg, will train on publicly available data and provide sources alongside its answers so agents can confirm their validity.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: Disinformation is a weapon regularly deployed in Russia’s war in Ukraine.. “What is clear is that misdirection, disinformation and propaganda are weapons regularly deployed in Russia’s war in Ukraine to buoy spirits at home, demoralize the enemy or lead opponents into a trap. And it is often hard to know when reports are false or why they may have been disseminated. Now, Ukraine and Russia are offering dueling narratives over whether a more senior Russian naval officer, the commanding admiral of the Black Sea Fleet, is alive or dead.”

Bloomberg: Apple, Google agreed to ‘defend’ search deal from regulators. “Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) lucrative agreement to use Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Google as the default search engine for the iPhone includes a provision that the two tech giants will ‘support and defend’ the deal against government scrutiny, a top Apple executive said at an antitrust trial.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Brigham Young University: Yelp certified: BYU-led research discovering ways to keep fake online reviews offline. “From choosing a restaurant for a special dinner to selecting a new part for a car, consumers are heavily influenced by the experiences of their online peers. However, often lurking beneath the surface of online reviews is misinformation that threatens to erode this trust. A new study led by a BYU business professor offers strategic measures that businesses can take (and that consumers should be aware of) to instill a greater sense of trust in online review platforms and combat misinformation.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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September 29, 2023 at 12:59AM
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Environmental Documentaries, Online Safety, Moment Magazine, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, September 28, 2023

Environmental Documentaries, Online Safety, Moment Magazine, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, September 28, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from Smashing Magazine: WaterBear: Building A Free Platform For Impactful Documentaries (Part 1). “WaterBear is a free platform bringing together inspiration and action with award-winning high-production environmental documentaries covering various topics, from animals and climate change to people and communities.”

CISA: CISA Launches National Public Service Announcement Campaign Encouraging Americans to Take Steps to Keep Themselves and Their Families Safe Online. “The campaign includes a public service announcement (PSA) that will air on stations around the country, as well as digital content, a toolkit, and other resources. Recognizing that technology is an integral part of our modern lives, Congress tasked CISA with creating this program to provide small businesses, communities, and individuals with the guidance and tools they need to protect themselves online.”

EBSCO: EBSCO Information Services Releases Moment Magazine Archive. “Moment is a Jewish magazine founded by Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel and Jewish activist Leonard Fein, that explores the complexities of literary, political and cultural religious nuances of the Jewish world. Moment Magazine Archive’s coverage spans from May 1975 to December 2010 and provides in-depth analysis and unique perspectives, insightful articles and criticism on art, literature, world affairs and society, written by leaders and thinkers of the Jewish world and beyond.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Journal: Google Indexing Public Bard Conversations In Search Results. “Google is coming under scrutiny after people discovered transcripts of conversations with its AI chatbot are being indexed in search results.” (This is apparently an error Google is working to fix. Only chats users chose to make public are impacted.)

The Guardian: X/Twitter scraps feature letting users report misleading information. “X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has removed the ability for people to report a tweet for containing misleading information just weeks before a referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament in Australia.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Ars Technica: Can you melt eggs? Quora’s AI says “yes,” and Google is sharing the result. “When you type a question into Google Search, the site sometimes provides a quick answer called a Featured Snippet at the top of the results, pulled from websites it has indexed. On Monday, X user Tyler Glaiel noticed that Google’s answer to ‘can you melt eggs’ resulted in a ‘yes,’ pulled from Quora’s integrated ‘ChatGPT’ feature, which is based on an earlier version of OpenAI’s language model that frequently confabulates information.”

Wall Street Journal: TikTok Employees Say Executive Moves to U.S. Show China Parent’s Influence. “TikTok has spent the past three years trying to convince U.S. lawmakers it can operate independently in this country from its China-based parent company, ByteDance. After recent personnel moves, some employees aren’t so sure. Since the start of the year, a string of high-level executives have transferred from ByteDance to TikTok, taking on some of the top jobs in the popular video-sharing app’s moneymaking operations. Some moved to the U.S. from ByteDance’s Beijing headquarters.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Verge: FTC files a massive antitrust lawsuit against Amazon. “The Federal Trade Commission and more than a dozen state attorneys general have filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that the e-commerce giant has unlawfully leveraged its market dominance to stamp out would-be competitors.”

WIRED: FBI Agents Are Using Face Recognition Without Proper Training. “THE US FEDERAL Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has done tens of thousands of face recognition searches using software from outside providers in recent years. Yet only 5 percent of the 200 agents with access to the technology have taken the bureau’s three-day training course on how to use it, a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) this month reveals. The bureau has no policy for face recognition use in place to protect privacy, civil rights, or civil liberties.”

New York Times: ‘Unprecedented’ Secrecy in Google Trial as Tech Giants Push to Limit Disclosures. “Now as the case, U.S. et al. v. Google, enters its third week in court, it is shaping up to be perhaps the most secretive antitrust trial of the last few decades. Not only has Google argued for the landmark trial to be largely closed off to the public, but so have other companies that are involved, such as Apple and Microsoft. Apple even fought to quash subpoenas, describing them as ‘unduly burdensome,’ to get its executives out of giving testimony. The upshot is that last week, more than half of the testimony in the trial was given behind closed doors, according to one analysis.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Arkansas: Socially Unacceptable Brand Mentions on Social Media Cause Disengagement. “The researchers found that for highly connected consumers, socially unacceptable brand mentions on social media constituted a threat to their social identity. This threat in turn led to vicarious shame, motivating disengagement from the brand, a separation that can undermine the economic benefits of self-brand connection.”

CNN: Teens are exhausted by phone notifications but don’t know how to quit, report finds. “About one-fourth of notifications came during school hours, a finding researchers said suggests phones and apps could improve on cutting down unnecessary alerts at times when teens shouldn’t be disrupted — especially because, during school hours, most participants used their phone at least once for 43 minutes on average. But some teens used their phones for more than six hours during that time.” Good morning, Internet…

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September 28, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Intuit, Reddit, Google Slides, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 27, 2023

Intuit, Reddit, Google Slides, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 27, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

ProPublica: TurboTax Parent Company’s Latest Argument Against Free Tax Filing: It Will Harm Black Taxpayers. “Articles published around the country repeat Intuit’s assertion — sometimes almost word for word — that the upcoming IRS pilot program would hurt Black Americans. A researcher whose work is cited by Intuit says the company is misstating her findings.”

Engadget: Reddit turns top contributors’ Reddit Gold into real-world money. “Reddit announced today that it will begin paying top contributors for gold. The platform’s new Contributor Program allows redditors who meet certain requirements to receive real-world money (distributed monthly) for their awarded content. The company is also revamping how post / comment rewards work by eliminating Reddit Coins (and all associated awards) in favor of all gold all the time.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: 13 Free Google Slides Templates for Teachers . “As an educator, you may want to use a visual tool but don’t have much time beyond lesson plans, grading, and lectures. If you’d like to create a presentation for your students or fellow staff members, this list includes several free Google Slides templates for teachers to get you started.”

MakeUseOf: The 7 Best Apps to Track Your Daily Activities. “Finding ways to enhance productivity and make the most of every moment is paramount in today’s world. One of the best strategies you can apply to optimize your daily routine is activity tracking. Analyzing your time welcomes many benefits for your personal growth and time management goals. You can identify and replace unhelpful habits with more productive ones by tracking your daily activities. Make better use of your time using these everyday activity-tracking apps.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Search Engine Land: Google accused of downplaying ad price manipulation. “Advertisers are becoming increasingly frustrated with Google due to long-held suspicions around ad price manipulation and a lack of transparency. … Christine Yang, vp of media at Iris, told Ad Week that she believes the real range of fluctuation can sometimes be as much as 100%.”

Rolling Stone: How Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg Distort Reality to Sell Fantasy. “In an exclusive excerpt from Jonathan Taplin’s new book ‘End of Reality’, the author rejects the promises of our new class of oligarchs and their online libertarian fantasias meant to keep us complacent and calls for artists to to make some good trouble.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: The Man Who Trapped Us in Databases. “Hank Asher was a drug smuggler with a head for numbers — until he figured out how to turn Americans’ private information into a big business.”

Ars Technica: SEC obtains Wall Street firms’ private chats in probe of WhatsApp, Signal use . “The US Securities and Exchange Commission has ‘collected thousands of staff messages from more than a dozen major investment companies’ as it expands a probe into how employees and executives at Wall Street firms use private messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Signal, Reuters reported today, citing ‘four people with direct knowledge of the matter.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: Social media is a double-edged sword for the public image of Canadian labour unions . “Our recent research reveals that rather than revitalize the public image of unions, social media can sometimes have the opposite effect, underscoring a serious concern: the potential for unions to become invisible online.”

PsyPost: New study uncovers a “vicious cycle” between feeling less socially connected and increased smartphone use. “Using smartphones for extended periods could negatively impact mental well-being and social connectedness, according to a recent study from researchers at the University of British Columbia and a media lab in Germany. Unlike earlier research that relied on self-reported data, this study from the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships employed direct tracking of screen time, revealing a ‘vicious cycle’ in which feeling less socially connected leads to increased smartphone use.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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September 28, 2023 at 12:35AM
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Jamaica Poetry, China Independent Film, Twitter, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, September 27, 2023

Jamaica Poetry, China Independent Film, Twitter, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, September 27, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Jamaica Gleaner: Digital archive to shake up access to, understanding of Jamaican poetry. “[The digital Jamaica Poetry Archive] will serve as a vital educational resource for students studying literature, Jamaican culture, and related fields. It will provide access to audio recordings of poets reciting their works, allowing students to engage with the nuances of pronunciation, rhythm, and emotion that make poetry a living, breathing art form.” The archive is available but I think it’s still growing.

Newcastle University: Chinese Independent Film Archive launched at Newcastle University. “CIFA is believed to be the only archive of its kind in the world. It is home to more than 800 films, mostly documentaries, dating back to the beginning of the 1990s when Chinese independent cinema first emerged, their associated material culture, oral-history interviews with a wide range of stakeholders, among other collections. The archive aims not only to safeguard this significant but marginalised film culture for future generations, but also act as an alternative record of social changes, historical traumas, and the lives of ordinary people in modern and contemporary China.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

MarketWatch: Twitter and Threads users are spending less time on those services. “X had an average of 21 million daily active users in the U.S. in the first half of September, down from around 22 million in July but a slight uptick from 20 million in the last week of August, according to market researcher GWS Magnify, which collected data from U.S. mobile users. Meanwhile, Threads’ daily active users have evaporated by two-thirds since the social-media platform’s July debut, down to 1.1 million in mid-September from 3.4 million.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Washington Post: Amazon unveils a ‘smarter’ Alexa. Its AI has a lot of work to do.. “Rebooting Alexa is Amazon’s effort to compete in Big Tech’s arms race to put the latest AI tech into consumer products. But in conversations with Amazon executives after the launch event, two concerns lingered: Alexa 2.0 appears to be very much a work in progress. I watched it repeatedly get questions wrong. And can we trust it in the places we use smart speakers at home, like children’s bedrooms?”

Gizmodo: X/Twitter CEO Shares Video Ad That Features Tweets Dunking on Elon Musk. “One of X’s latest ads included some critical tweets, but CEO Linda Yaccarino reposted the ad without them claiming they made a new ‘high-res version.’”

NiemanLab: “Flexicles,” story alert systems, and other ways AI will serve publishers, reporters, and readers . “Understanding artificial intelligence has become an essential skill for a media leader. That isn’t simply because you need to determine whether to allow scraping of your website, whether to sue for copyright, or if you should do a deal with a company like OpenAI. It’s also because you need to figure out which aspects of AI you’ll use in the service of impactful journalism and audience engagement. AI will reshape the media landscape, and the organizations that use it creatively will thrive.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Verge: Here are the documents the Google antitrust trial judge didn’t want you to see. “So far, what we have heard paints a picture of a Google that’s both dominant in search and highly cautious about admitting it, to the point of admonishing executives for using terms like ‘market share’ and quietly raising search ad prices to ‘shake the cushions’ and meet revenue targets. The online exhibits drove that point home, including email chains and presentations in which Google executives admit that its vast scale improves the service dramatically and that default deals — which the Department of Justice alleges it struck anticompetitively with both Apple and phone companies — are a powerful tool.”

New York Times: C.E.O. of Google Rival Describes Obstacles to Efforts to Compete. “The chief executive of DuckDuckGo on Thursday described Google as a monopoly that has hurt competition and consumers through its scale and command over the tech industry, in the first testimony of a rival in the federal trial of the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against the search giant.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Northeastern Global News: Muting yourself might not be as safe as you think. This researcher found a way to get audio from still images and silent videos. “Kevin Fu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science at Northeastern University, has figured out a way to get audio from pictures and even muted videos. Using Side Eye, a machine learning assisted tool that Fu and his research team created, Fu can determine the gender of someone speaking in the room where a photo was taken –– and even the exact words they spoke.”

University of South Australia: Social media and low self-compassion behind rise in cosmetic surgery. “But why is social media so persuasive and what is driving young women’s attitudes to cosmetic surgery? In a new University of South Australia study, researchers have explored just this, finding that young women who regularly engage with social media were excessively self-judgemental and more likely to consider cosmetic surgery.”

British Library UK Web Archive Blog: How YouTube is helping to drive UK Web Archive nominations. “There currently exists a plethora of digital platforms for all manner of online published works; YouTube itself has become more than just a platform for sharing videos, it has evolved into a platform for individuals and organisations to reach a global audience and convey powerful messages. Recently, a popular content creator on YouTube, Tom Scott, produced a short video helping to outline the purpose of Legal Deposit and by extension, the work being carried out by UKWA.”

Yale Insights: A Better Algorithm Can Bring Volunteers to More Organizations . “An online platform was connecting millions of volunteers with opportunities—but many organizations were not finding any volunteers at all. Yale SOM’s Vahideh Manshadi and her collaborators found that the platform was steering volunteers toward a small group of opportunities. By building equity into the algorithm, they were able to help more organizations find the volunteers they need.” Good morning, Internet…

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September 27, 2023 at 05:30PM
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Routes to Return, the V&A Museum, Getty Images, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 26, 2023

Routes to Return, the V&A Museum, Getty Images, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 26, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Council for Museum Anthropology: Routes to Return. “Routes to Return is a new web resource providing information to aid those interested in understanding pathways for international repatriations from European museums.”

Design Week: V&A launches interactive website in a bid to engage Generation Alpha. “The V&A has launched Mused, a new interactive website, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Digital Accelerator for Arts and Culture, in a bid to engage young people in art, design, performance and creativity.” The site was designed with 10-14 year-olds in mind.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

PetaPixel: Getty Images Makes U-Turn as it Launches its Own AI Image Generator. “After months of rejecting AI imagery, Getty Images has today launched its own AI image generator that is exclusively trained on its extensive photo library. Getty is the last of the major photo stock libraries to launch its own AI image generator after it had previously taken a stance against artificial intelligence (AI) — filing a lawsuit against Stable Diffusion and banning AI images from its platform.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: You Can Now Get Your Free Credit Report Every Week, Forever. “Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, each credit bureau offered one free credit report per year, meaning consumers generally could obtain three reports annually before having to pay as much as $14 per request. Those same reports were made available weekly at no additional charge in early 2020, a program that was extended several times, ultimately through December 2023. Now, free access to weekly credit reports has been made permanent so it’s easier to monitor your report regularly.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

NME: Kevin James meme explained: why are people sharing ‘King Of Queens’ photo?. “Social media users might have noticed an old photo of Kevin James doing the rounds on social media this week in the form of various memes. The photo shows the US actor pulling a sheepish smirk while shrugging his shoulders, which has been memed with various captions such as ‘when u accidentally like a selfie from 34 weeks ago’ and ‘Hey aren’t you that guy from that meme’.”

Florida State University: FSU philosopher awarded NEH grant to archive, translate the works of a trailblazing German philosopher. “A researcher from Florida State University’s Department of Philosophy, part of the College of Arts and Sciences, has received a $300,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to explore and archive the works of the renowned 18th-century German philosopher Johannes Nikolaus Tetens.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: FCC plays whack-a-mole with telcos accused of profiting from robocalls. “A suspicious phone company is on the verge of having all its calls blocked by US-based telcos after being accused of ignoring orders to investigate and block robocalls. One Owl Telecom is a US-based gateway provider that routes phone calls from outside the US to consumer phone companies such as Verizon.”

New York Times: Will Hurd Releases A.I. Plan, a First in the Republican Presidential Field. “The policy plan on artificial intelligence released by former Representative Will Hurd of Texas on Wednesday makes him the first candidate in the Republican presidential field to formally propose a way to navigate the uses and dangers of a technology so thorny he likened it to nuclear fission.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

North Carolina State University: New Method Helps AI Navigate 3D Space Using 2D Images. “Photos are two-dimensional (2D), but autonomous vehicles and other technologies have to navigate the three-dimensional (3D) world. Researchers have developed a new method to help artificial intelligence (AI) extract 3D information from 2D images, making cameras more useful tools for these emerging technologies.”

Harvard Gazette: How federal missteps opened door to COVID misinformation. “Federal agencies helped set the stage for a wave of COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories about its origins through early missteps in messaging about the virus and control measures, stumbles that fueled public distrust and hampered government efforts, according to New York Times health and science reporter Apoorva Mandavilli. For instance, public health agencies failed to speak clearly and in a timely fashion about how the virus could spread indoors, Mandavilli said in a talk sponsored by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Health Communication on Wednesday afternoon.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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September 27, 2023 at 12:33AM
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Amplify Colorado, Offshore Drilling Politics, Donor Advised Funds, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, September 26, 2023

Amplify Colorado, Offshore Drilling Politics, Donor Advised Funds, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, September 26, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Spotted via Google Alerts: Amplify Colorado. “Amplify Colorado is a publicly accessible directory of experts from communities of color and other diverse communities that newsrooms need to better serve, including, but not limited to, women, youth, elders, LGTBQ+, Coloradans with disabilities, rural residents, veterans, immigrants and refugees. Amplify also includes reporters’ and editors’ contact information so community members can more easily find them.

CleanTechnica: Where Does Your Member Of Congress Stand On Offshore Drilling?. “NRDC’s new tool let’s you check out where your state’s delegation stands on new offshore oil and gas drilling. Some regions—like New England—have rejected drilling top to bottom. Other delegations—like those in Florida —have had a more mixed response. Some elected officials are calling on President Biden to end new offshore drilling across the board. Others object only to drilling along their state’s borders. Still others push for more of our ocean to be sold to Big Oil.”

Financial Advisor: New Website Offers Help In Finding Donor-Advised Funds. “Selecting a donor advised fund from the about 1,000 that are available can be a daunting task for advisors and potential philanthropists. But now there is a website that sorts the details and ranks the best donor advised funds. DonorAdvisedFunds.com ranks funds by criteria such as ease of use, investment options and minimum account size, said Brad Saft, founder and CEO of DonorAdvisedFunds.com.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Register: Google killing Basic HTML version of Gmail In January 2024 . “Google will discontinue the Basic HTML version of its Gmail service in January 2024. It’s unclear when Google made the decision to end Basic HTML support – news of which can be found in this support page titled ‘Use the latest version of Gmail in your browser.’ Archive.org’s last capture of the page comes from late 2022, and Google’s own cache has not coughed up info that would identify the date of the change.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Guardian: AEC struggles to get Twitter to remove posts that ‘incite violence’ and spread ‘disinformation’ ahead of voice. “The Australian Electoral Commission has struggled to get Twitter to remove posts that it says are inciting violence against staff and promoting disinformation about the electoral process ahead of the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum, documents reveal.”

Michigan Daily: A closer look at toxic family vlogging channels. “Over the past several years, the curtain has begun to be lifted over many of these ‘wholesome’ family vloggers, and the picture-perfect image that was plastered all over the internet for years on end has been torn to shreds. Issues such as child exploitation, privacy violations and religious prejudice have been brought into the limelight as fans have begun to see the truth behind the light-hearted vlogs they used to enjoy. There is no family, however, who has fallen apart quite so tragically as the ‘8 Passengers.'”

TechCrunch: Google expands its subsea cable infrastructure with Nuvem, connecting the US, Bermuda and Portugal. “Google has announced another subsea cable system, as the internet giant strives to bolster its internet infrastructure and get more people using its array of cloud-based services. Dubbed ‘Nuvem,’ the new cable represents one of more than a dozen cables that Google has invested in through the years, starting with Unity, which went into operation in 2010, stretching more than 6,000 miles across the Pacific from Japan to California.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

404 Media: Congress Introduces Bill That Would Let Farmers Repair John Deere Tractors Without Hacking Them. “A group of lawmakers introduced federal legislation that would make it easier for farmers to repair their tractors and would prevent them from having to literally hack into their John Deere tractors to do some basic repairs.”

TechCrunch: Darrow raises $35M for an AI that parses public documents for class action lawsuit potential . “The [US] may not have the highest per capita amount of lawsuits (that’s Germany), but it has the most of any country overall amid a very active legal industry whose caseload is growing in a market that is worth many tens of billions of dollars. Now, an AI-based startup that’s tapping into those facts for its own business is announcing a round of funding. Darrow — which has developed an AI-based data engine that ingests large amounts of publicly available documents to search for class action litigation potential across areas like data privacy violations and environmental contamination — has raised $35 million.”

WIRED: Meet the Law Geeks Exposing Google’s Secretive Antitrust Trial. “MONTHS OUT OF law school, Yosef Weitzman already has a huge courtroom role in the biggest antitrust trial of the century. In a US federal trial that started last week, Google is accused of unlawfully monopolizing online search and search ads. The company’s self-defined mission is to make the world’s information universally accessible, yet Google successfully opposed live streaming the trial and keeping the proceedings wholly open to the public. Enter Weitzman.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

VentureBeat: Google Bard fails to deliver on its promise — even after latest updates. “Unfortunately, in practice, I find Bard to be a disappointment on many levels. It fails to deliver on its core promise of integrating well with Google apps, and often produces inaccurate or nonsensical responses. It also lacks the creativity and versatility of OpenAI’s GPT-4 (It also has no personality or sense of humor, although some users might not take issue with that). Bard badly falls short of expectations.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Ars Technica: Don’t throw out those used coffee grounds—use them for 3D printing instead. “Most coffee lovers typically dump the used grounds from their morning cuppa straight into the trash; those more environmentally inclined might use them for composting. But if you’re looking for a truly novel application for coffee grounds, consider using them as a sustainable material for 3D printing, as suggested by a recent paper published in DIS ’23: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference.” Good morning, Internet…

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September 26, 2023 at 05:31PM
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