Kansas Wildfire Risk, Luxembourg Chatbots, Cryptoeconomics Knowledge, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, October 6, 2023

Kansas Wildfire Risk, Luxembourg Chatbots, Cryptoeconomics Knowledge, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, October 6, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

KWCH: Kansas Forest Service introduces risk map to assist in fight against wildfires. “Drought conditions continue to impact a large portion of Kansas and with the dry weather comes the threat of wildfires. The Kansas Forest Service is working to increase preparation with a new tool: a wildfire risk map.”

National Library of Luxembourg: Eluxemburgensia.lu receives new chatbot. “Drawing on a technology in use at ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence-based chat agent developed by OpenAI, the BnL’s experts have indexed digitised Luxembourgish documents and prepared a high-performance database that supports semantic searches. This breakthrough marks a major milestone in the BnL’s mission to offer easier and enhanced access to its digitised Luxembourgish resources.”

UC Cincinnati: Cincinnati Edition: A new tool to protect cryptocurrency investors. “A 10-question survey, which is open source and available for any institution to use for free to measure the cryptoeconomics knowledge of their clients or population base, measures users’ knowledge about cryptoeconomics. A higher score represents a greater understanding of cryptoeconomics. The average score has been six, Jones said, with 40% of people scoring less than a five.”

USEFUL STUFF

PC World: 10 ChatGPT Alternatives & Competitors (Free and Paid). “Ever since artificial intelligence became available to the public, ChatGPT has been one of the go-to services for many user’s AI needs. By now, millions of people have visited the Chat GPT website, and many more continue to do so. However, ChatGPT isn’t the only framework for AI – nor is it necessarily the best option out there. There are other sites that offer similar or even better services than ChatGPT.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Royal Academy of Dance: The Royal Academy of Dance acquires Dancing Times photographic archive. “After Dancing Times ceased publication following 112 years in print, the archive is now housed at the RAD’s headquarters in Wandsworth. The archive comprises approximately 38,000 black and white and colour prints, spanning the period from c.1920 to 2000, making it one of the largest collections of 20th century dance in the world.”

Smithsonian Institution: National Museum of American History Acquires Objects and Archives From America’s First Microbrewery. “The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has recently acquired objects and archival materials from the now-closed Anchor Brewing Co., generally known as the nation’s original microbrewery, for its collections. The museum collected the company’s business records and a selection of items from the historic San Francisco brewery.”

TechCrunch: Generative AI removing background noise from recordings is just one of the new tools for podcasters. “Yes, there are clear concerns about AI’s potential for auto-generating disinformation. But as a tool for creatives to better create, AI is having its moment. And the AI-driven tools designed to assist creators in producing their podcast are clearly on a roll. Podcastle, a full-service podcasting platform which we covered when it raised $7 million in a round led by RTP Global and Point Nine Capital, is today joining the trend with a new tool it calls Magic Dust AI.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: US in antitrust trial accuses Google of illegal methods to push up ad prices. “A lawyer for the U.S. Justice Department pressed a Google executive on Wednesday about techniques the search and advertising giant used to push up online advertising prices in an allegedly unfair way.”

ProPublica: Southeast Asian Casinos Emerge as Major Enablers of Global Cybercrime . “A growing number of casinos in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are engaging in large-scale money laundering, facilitating cyberfraud that is costing victims in America and abroad billions of dollars, according to new research by the United Nations.”

Associated Press: Jury acquits delivery driver of main charge in shooting of YouTube prankster . “A jury on Thursday found a delivery driver not guilty in the shooting of a YouTube prankster who followed him around a mall food court earlier this year. Alan Colie, 31, was acquitted of aggravated malicious wounding in the shooting of Tanner Cook, 21, who runs the ‘Classified Goons’ YouTube channel.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Rolling Stone: Twitter Is at Death’s Door, One Year After Elon Musk’s Takeover. “Musk is not without his salesmanship, which, combined with unconditional, breathless hype from supporters, has kept alive the notion of his entrepreneurial and innovative genius. He and this audience are both expending more energy each day on flat denials of grim headlines and vague assurances that X is actually ‘thriving’ like never before. Sooner or later, that magical thinking will run ashore on reality, and until then, yes, the site will survive — but in a state of waking demise, with a user base divided between those cannibalizing what’s left and the stunned spectators.”

Stanford Medicine: Wearable device data reveals that reduced sleep and activity in pregnancy is linked to premature birth risk. “In the study, which published online Sept. 28 in npj Digital Medicine, the researchers collected data from devices worn by more than 1,000 women throughout pregnancy. With a machine learning algorithm, the scientists sifted through participants’ activity information to detect fine-grained changes in sleep and physical activity patterns.” Good morning, Internet…

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October 6, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Contemporary Art Ukraine, Google Pixel, Twitter, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 5, 2023

Contemporary Art Ukraine, Google Pixel, Twitter, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 5, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Odessa Journal: The Mystetskyi Arsenal presents the online edition Ukraine Ablaze. “The Mystetskyi Arsenal presents an online edition titled ‘Ukraine Ablaze,’ dedicated to the representation of a long-term study of contemporary Ukrainian art since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, created based on the online archive ‘Ukraine Ablaze.’ The publication includes texts that document the changes in the Ukrainian art scene and the processes taking place within it in various ways. It also features works by artists that capture the times and states experienced by Ukrainian society during the war.’

EVENTS

Digital Trends: Everything Google launched at its big fall event: Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, Pixel Watch, more. “The speculation and leaks are over, and the new devices have been officially revealed. The Made By Google event for October 2023 has left us with three amazing new devices and one incredible feat of software engineering that’s sure to be the talk of all smartphone and technology lovers for the next few months.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: US Ad Revenue at Musk’s X Declined Each Month Since Takeover -Data. “Monthly U.S. ad revenue at social media platform X has declined at least 55% year-over-year each month since billionaire Elon Musk bought the company formerly known as Twitter in October 2022, according to third-party data provided to Reuters.”

Axios: X stops showing headlines after Musk update demand. “X began removing news links and headlines from posts in a major overhaul of the platform formerly known as Twitter.” Of course, this means that news articles will be easier to overlook. It will also be able to spread mis/dis information if the featured image for an article is not carefully chosen.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Clemson University: “Tigers in the Archive” podcast to explore Clemson’s archives . “‘Tigers in the Archive’ hosted by Tara Wood, the instruction and outreach archivist for Special Collections and Archives and lecturer in the Department of History and Geography, hopes to use the podcast to showcase items in Special Collections and Archives. The podcast will highlight the stories that these collections tell by interviewing those who have used or donated items.”

Search Engine Journal: Mistral AI Launches Open-Source LLM, Mistral 7B. “Mistral AI, a burgeoning startup in the AI sector, has set out on a mission to revolutionize generative artificial intelligence (AI) with its first large language model (LLM), Mistral 7B. The company hopes the new 7-billion-parameter model will become an open-source alternative to current AI solutions.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: Museum Worker Sold Paintings and Put Forgeries in Their Place. “A worker at the Deutsches Museum in Munich stole paintings from the collection, replaced them with rough forgeries, then sold the originals at auction, according to the judgment of a court in the city this month. The thief used the proceeds to finance a luxurious lifestyle, the judge said.”

TechCrunch: What’s at stake in the Supreme Court’s landmark social media case. “The Supreme Court is poised to decide whether a pair of state laws are allowed to reshape the ability of social media companies to control what does — and doesn’t — appear on their platforms. Last week, the Supreme Court decided that it would hear the pair of cases, which revolve around Republicans crafting state-specific laws that order platforms to keep their hands off of some social media posts. Since the early days of the Trump administration, Republicans have accused social media companies of deliberately suppressing conservative viewpoints.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Cornell Chronicle: AI analyzes bird sightings to help conserve species. “For the first time, big data and artificial intelligence are being used to model hidden patterns in nature – not just for one bird species, but for entire ecological communities across continents. The models follow the full annual life cycle of each species, from breeding to fall migration to nonbreeding grounds, and back north again during spring migration.”

NiemanLab: If Google suddenly had real competition in search, how would news publishers’ world change?. “But — to be parochial for a moment — what sort of an impact would any movement in this direction have on the news business? That’ll depend on the remedy, obviously. But Google search is by far the No. 1 source of external traffic to news sites, and any meaningful competition for that title could shake the foundations of the industry. To be clear, we’re in thought-experiment territory: Google will be the dominant search engine for the near-to-medium future and any real shift is at least years away. But here are a few of the possibilities.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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October 6, 2023 at 12:51AM
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Federal Internship Finder, Queensland Australia, Trump Trials Clearinghouse, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, October 5, 2023

Federal Internship Finder, Queensland Australia, Trump Trials Clearinghouse, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, October 5, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

FEDManager: New Tool to Find Federal Internships Launched. “As the federal government continues to look for ways to encourage younger workers to choose a career in public service, the Partnership for Public Service launched a new tool to help students and recent graduates find federal internships. The goal of the Federal Internship Finder is to put listings and information about federal internships into one robust database. The new tool pulls the internship description from agencies’ websites and filters information by pay level, application deadline, and other factors.”

Queensland University of Technology: QUT shares historic images with global audience via Google Arts & Culture. “QUT is taking Queensland history to the world thanks to a new partnership with Google Arts & Culture. Global audiences can now view the first batch of 1851 historic photos from the QUT Digital Collections via the Google Arts & Culture platform. They include over 400 images of Brisbane (some of which date back more than 120 years), nature and travel photos, and a small selection of historic images of QUT predecessor institutions.”

Just Security: Trump Trials Clearinghouse. “Former President Donald Trump is a defendant in a sizable number of criminal and civil cases. To help readers parse through these complex legal developments, we have centralized information on Trump’s major cases in the most comprehensive clearinghouse of its kind. Below you will find links to relevant court proceedings, key statutes, government documents, and defense documents – as well as Just Security resources and analysis, media and other guides.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

9to5 Google: Google Calendar rolling out event sharing using links. “Google Calendar is getting the ability to share events via links to match the ubiquity of video meeting links in recent years. Once live for your account, opening a Calendar event will reveal a ‘Share’ button near the top of the screen.”

The Register: And now for something completely different: Python 3.12. “Python 3.12, the latest stable release of the Python programming language, was released on Monday, offering developers a handful of new capabilities and the removal of some cruft.”

USEFUL STUFF

CODART: Video Series Highlights 25 Essential Skills for Curators. “As part of our 25th anniversary celebrations, we have been putting the spotlight on curators. To introduce the profession to a wider audience, we are currently releasing a series of videos illustrating the ‘25 essential skills for curators’. These very short, thirty-second clips provide a quick glimpse into the many facets that make up the work of a curator.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Politico: Nonprofit group plans ad campaign using AI misinfo to fight AI misinfo. “A new initiative is planning to use AI-generated misinformation to try to prepare voters against a possible wave of similar content. AIandYou, a nonprofit founded in 2019 to help underrepresented racial and ethnic groups understand AI, is launching the public awareness campaign to educate voters on how AI could affect next year’s election, according to details first shared with POLITICO.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bar and Bench (India): X Corp/ Twitter case: Karnataka High Court asks whether government can withhold reasons for its blocking orders. “Can the government withhold its reasons for blocking internet content when the Supreme Court has indicated that such blocking orders are open to being challenged in courts, the Karnataka High Court asked the Central government on Wednesday. Justices G Narendar and Vijaykumar A Patil posed the query while hearing X Corp’s appeal against a single-judge’s June 30 judgment that had dismissed X Corp’s challenge to orders issued by the Indian government between 2021-22 to block certain posts and accounts.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NASA: OpenET Launches a New API. “On Tuesday, October 3, NASA Ames’ OpenET program launched an application programming interface (API) for its widely-used Data Explorer tool. OpenET is a program providing satellite-based information on evapotranspiration (ET) and agricultural water use, currently deployed across the 23 westernmost continental states. Data is provided at a scale of individual fields, or a quarter acre per pixel, and available at daily, monthly, and annual time scales.”

WIRED: Scientists Have an Audacious Plan to Map the Ancient World Before It Disappears. “Buried civilizations could soon become inaccessible forever. Archaeologists have to move fast, so they’re turning to the latest ground-scanning tech.”

Vox: You gotta just ignore annoying tweets. “You’re not supposed to say this next part because if the internet is a push and pull between tech founders and the regular folks who make up their platforms, you’re supposed to be on the side of the people. But I’m going to say it anyway: Making money on the internet by engaging in discourse bait is bad and embarrassing.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

New York Times: America’s Black Cemeteries and Three Women Trying to Save Them. “In Georgia, Texas and Washington, D.C., three Black women are working to preserve desecrated African American burial grounds and the stories they hold.” This is a gift article so you should be able to read it even if you’re not a subscriber. Good morning, Internet…

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October 5, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Rising Food Prices, Google, Social Media Traffic, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 4, 2023

Rising Food Prices, Google, Social Media Traffic, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 4, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

WIRED: This Website Exposes the Truth About Soaring Food Prices. “IT DIDN’T TAKE long for Mario Zechner to prove the government wrong. In May, the independent software developer was listening to a radio interview with Austria’s labor minister, Martin Kocher, who said the government would build a new database that will help people find the cheapest milk, eggs, and other supermarket products to help fight soaring food prices. However, the planned system would take months to build and cover only a handful of food types. Zechner decided to take action. Two hours after hearing the interview, Zechner had built the first prototype of a comparison system, pulling the cost of 22,000 items from the websites of Austria’s biggest two supermarket chains.”

EVENTS

The Verge: Google Pixel event: how to watch and what to expect. “Google is gearing up to launch a new lineup of Pixel products during its upcoming Made by Google event. Even though Google has already said that it will reveal the Pixel 8 alongside the updated Pixel Watch 2, it may have some other surprises in store. If you’re interested in watching the event, here’s when and where you can tune in as well as what exactly you can expect.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Axios: Social media traffic to top news sites craters. “Regulatory pressure and free speech concerns have pushed tech giants to abandon efforts to elevate quality information, leaving the public more susceptible to misinformation ahead of the 2024 election. Meanwhile, news companies are scrambling to find business solutions while simultaneously fighting to protect their work in the AI era.”

Search Engine Roundtable: Bing DALL-E 3 Went Live Over The Weekend But It Was Painfully Slow. “Microsoft launched DALL-E 3 in Bing Chat late on Friday night and went it went live, it just stalled. It took a really long time for Bing Chat to create images using DALL-E 3 after it went live.”

Bloomberg: Zoom Adds Features Like Document Editing in Bid to Compete With Microsoft. “Zoom Video Communications Inc. is adding word processing to its suite of tools and experimenting with novel features for meetings as it faces steep competition from Microsoft Corp.’s Teams.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Variety: Paris Hilton Inks Content and Commerce Deal With Elon Musk’s X/Twitter, Will Host Videos Featuring Live Shopping. “Paris Hilton is getting her X on. The influencer and entrepreneur — who has 16.6 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter — announced a deal with the social platform owned by Elon Musk for an array of content and commerce initiatives.”

Search Engine Journal: Google Sets New Rules For Bulk Email Senders. “Google has announced new requirements for bulk email senders to reduce spam and make inboxes more secure. The new policies will take effect in February 2024 and are aimed at companies and organizations that send large volumes of emails. The new requirements focus on email authentication, easy unsubscription from mailing lists, and limitations on overall spam rates.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Conversation: Remote workers are more aware of cybersecurity risks than in-office employees: new study. “Workers who telecommute tend to be more aware of cybersecurity threats than those who spend most of their time in a physical office and are more likely to take action to ward them off, according to our new peer-reviewed study. Our findings are based on Amazon Mechanical Turk survey data collected from 203 participants who recently switched to full-time remote work, as well as from 147 in-office workers, across multiple organizations within the United States. We didn’t collect data on hybrid workers.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Surrey: Study introduces new internet addiction spectrum: where are you on the scale?. “Young people (24 years and younger) spend an average of six hours a day online, primarily using their smartphones, according to research from the University of Surrey. Older people (those 24 years and older) spend 4.6 hours online.”

ScienceDirect: Why do people turn to smartphones during social interactions?. “Contrary to our hypothesis, phones failed to confer any detectable benefits. Instead, participants who had access to their phones reported worse overall subjective experience and socialized significantly less (on both self-report and objective measures) compared to those who did not have access to their phones. The findings from this registered report cast doubt on the possibility that people are making sensible—albeit myopic—choices to use their phones, suggesting that people may be acting against their own best interest when they use phones in social situations.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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October 5, 2023 at 12:28AM
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Mississippi Motherhood, Banned Books, Esri, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, October 4, 2023

Mississippi Motherhood, Banned Books, Esri, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, October 4, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

WLBT: New website launched to connect Mississippi mothers to resources. “The newly launched Mississippi Access to Maternal Assistance or MAMA site pulls the public and private resources together, allowing women to learn where to go for a wide range of needs, from during pregnancy to after the birth of their child.”

Government Technology: Library Nonprofit Counters Censorship With Banned Books List. “Ahead of Banned Books Week this week, the nonprofit EveryLibrary Institute published a spreadsheet of book titles and authors that have been targeted by parents across the U.S. trying to get them banned from schools.”

EVENTS

BusinessWire: Esri Launches Online GIS Course for Climate Action (PRESS RELEASE). “To support the individuals working toward this goal, Esri, the global leader in geographic information system (GIS) technology, today announced it will offer a new massive open online course (MOOC) exploring the application of its software to address climate change impacts. The complimentary course will be available this fall for six weeks on the Esri Academy website and includes full access to ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Network Analyst, ArcGIS Online, and other ArcGIS software that uses science-based tools and authoritative data.”

USEFUL STUFF

Hongkiat: 7 Best Video Tools for Novice Users (2023). “Whether you need to create animated videos to pitch your business or want to compile a video montage for your friend’s wedding, there’s no need to hire a professional – as long as you have the right video creation tools at your disposal. There are tools available that can transform your photos and movie clips into engaging videos. In this post, I’ve selected the best video creation tools that are feature-rich and user-friendly. Let’s take a look.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

NiemanLab: Journalists can be TikTokers too. Three journalists explain how to use the platform for news . “We’ve reached ‘peak news explainer’ on TikTok, Sophia Smith Galer said last week at the IMEDD International Journalism Forum in Athens, Greece. To break through on the platform, news outlets and journalists can’t rely exclusively on explainers and reworking existing articles. Smith Galer was one of three TikTok-focused journalists who spoke about how journalists are experimenting on the platform.”

Technical.ly: With its new archivist at the head, here’s how NARA is digitalizing America’s documents. “How do you turn a piece of onionskin paper into an online archive? Or a huge map? Or a piece of paper almost completely torn up? Or all of that combined, times a billion?
A few months into her tenure, Colleen Shogan, the current Archivist of the United States, already has plenty on her plate. But it’s a little more complicated than just placing a document on a scanner.”

Ars Technica: Dead grandma locket request tricks Bing Chat’s AI into solving security puzzle. “Bing Chat, an AI chatbot from Microsoft similar to ChatGPT, allows users to upload images for the AI model to examine or discuss. Normally, Bing Chat refuses to solve CAPTCHAs, which are visual puzzles designed to prevent automated programs (bots) from filling out forms on the web. On Saturday, X-user Denis Shiryaev devised a visual jailbreak that circumvents Bing Chat’s CAPTCHA filter by tricking it into reading the inscription on his imaginary deceased grandmother’s locket.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: Google Search Is Like ‘Cigarettes or Drugs,’ Executive Said. “A senior Google executive once likened the company’s search advertising business to selling drugs, calling it ‘one of the world’s greatest business models ever created’ since the company can ‘ignore’ users and focus on generating revenue from advertising. Michael Roszak, vice president for finance at Alphabet Inc.’s Google, wrote the notes during a July 2017 training Google offered on communications.”

Foreign Policy: Attention-Seekers and Autocrats Are a Combustible Mix. “If you have the mindset of a Rasmus Paludan, you’re willing to cause harm simply to gain fame or notoriety. And you can gain even more fame by taking your stunts to a dangerous realm, all in the safe knowledge that your home country will move mountains to rescue you if you get into trouble. China’s planned legislative amendment, in fact, creates a new and tantalizing opportunity for thrill-seekers to expose themselves to a bit of geopolitically infused harm without having to be very creative.”

New York Times: Tom Hanks Warns of Dental Ad Using A.I. Version of Him. “Mr. Hanks and the CBS anchor Gayle King both said their likenesses were used in unauthorized advertisements, as worries have grown over the unregulated use of artificial intelligence.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Columbia University: An Archive of the Stars Is Born. “Like other NASA-curated extraterrestrial materials including meteorites, Moon rocks and cosmic dust, the Bennu samples will generate huge amounts of data. But in recent years, NASA has recognized a big problem: for a long time, there was no central home for all this data, with the results of analyses scattered across the globe at labs, universities and institutes that did the testing. Much of this data has not been easily accessible, and in some cases, has been lost. So the agency decided to create such a home, at the Astromaterials Data System, based at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Boing Boing: Go full 80s bedroom coder with a site full of virtual 8-bit computers. “Virtual Consoles recreates the 80s experience of turning on a computer and instantly getting a BASIC interpreter: the perfect environment to learn coding or just poke computers into doing odd and fun things. There’s a Commodore 64, a ZX Spectrum, an Apple II, and a few others—though not, sadly, the Amstrad CPC with its exemplary Locomotive BASIC.” Good morning, Internet…

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October 4, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Radford University Art Museum, Madimak/Sivas Massacre, Dugout Canoes, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 3, 2023

Radford University Art Museum, Madimak/Sivas Massacre, Dugout Canoes, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 3, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

WVTF: Students at Radford University are digitizing more than 2,500 pieces of art. “Below ground in the basement of the Radford University Art Museum, students are at work cataloguing more than 2,500 pieces of art from the museum’s permanent collection for a new online database. This collection includes work by Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Dorothy Gillespie, as well as pieces that Radford students have created over the years.”

Bianet: Virtual Madımak Massacre Museum opens. “The Madımak Massacre Memory Center Virtual Museum opened last night (October 1). … The Sivas massacre or Madimak massacre was an act of mob arson on July 2, 1993, at the Hotel Madimak in Sivas, Turkey, which resulted in the killing of 37 people, mostly Alevi intellectuals. Two perpetrators also died during the incident. The victims, who had gathered in the hotel for the Pir Sultan Abdal festival, were killed when a mob set fire to the hotel.”

Undark: Searching for Wisconsin’s Dugout Canoes . “The dugout canoe, which was likely made from a tree that once grew in Wisconsin, is one of more than five dozen located, catalogued, and photographed by [Sissel] Schroeder and [Tamara] Thomsen as part of the Wisconsin Dugout Canoe Survey Project, an effort to identify and document the origin, style, and tree species used to make dugouts. The team is also building a library of 3D interactive digital models of the dugouts, which is available to the public online.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Land: Microsoft CEO: AI will make Google more dominant. “‘Bogus.’ That’s what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella thinks about Google’s argument that there is actual choice in the search engine market. And artificial intelligence will provide zero advantage or hope for any companies that hope to enter web search – the ‘biggest no-fly zone of all,’ Nadella said.”

Apple Insider: TikTok is considering offering an ad-free subscription to keep up with rival platforms. “Strings found in the latest release of the TikTok app, spotted by Android Authority, indicate that the testing could begin soon. TikTok has not confirmed it has interest in introducing a subscription fee at this time. During the testing phase, the ad-free TikTok experience will be available for $4.99 per month. The success of this test may determine its wider rollout, and final pricing may vary upon the public release.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Deadline: Star BBC Presenters Should Avoid “Political Campaigning” On Social Media, New Rules State. “While presenters should be allowed to enjoy freedom of expression on social media, they should not be involved in ‘party political campaigning, support for or attacks on political parties, individual politicians, governments or activist organisations,’ the report states. Furthermore, the BBC should should ‘be prescriptive’ in what is not acceptable to help presenters find the line.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: Supreme Court to Hear Challenges to State Laws on Social Media. “The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether Florida and Texas may prohibit large social media companies from removing posts based on the views they express, setting the stage for a major ruling on how the First Amendment applies to powerful tech platforms.”

TechCrunch: Elon Musk’s X Corp. faces trademark lawsuit from social media ad agency. “When Elon Musk rebranded Twitter to X this summer, there were concerns that the new company could face trademark lawsuits as there were nearly 900 active U.S. trademark registrations that cover the letter and branding ‘X’ across various industries, according to comments made by trademark attorney Josh Gerben, speaking to the press at the time. Now his firm is representing what may be the first client to sue X over its trademark — a Florida-based social media ad agency, X Social Media, that connects clients with opportunities to market themselves across social platforms like Facebook and Instagram.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

WIRED: How Google Alters Search Queries to Get at Your Wallet. “There have long been suspicions that the search giant manipulates ad prices, and now it’s clear that Google treats consumers with the same disdain. The ’10 blue links,’ or organic results, which Google has always claimed to be sacrosanct, are just another vector for Google greediness, camouflaged in the company’s kindergarten colors.”

Tokyo Institute of Technology: Dark Patterns in Japanese Mobile Apps. “Popular Japanese mobile apps have malicious design elements called dark patterns or deceptive user interface designs, researchers from Tokyo Tech have found. A new class of dark patterns, called ‘Linguistic Dead-Ends,’ of types ‘Untranslation’ and ‘Alphabet Soup,’ was also discovered. The researchers found an average of 3.9 deceitful design elements per app and uncovered how language and culture influence the presence and impact of these manipulative practices in digital design in Japan and across the globe.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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October 4, 2023 at 12:52AM
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Bay Area Rapid Transit, H-3 Freeway Controversy, Microsoft Lists, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, October 3, 2023

Bay Area Rapid Transit, H-3 Freeway Controversy, Microsoft Lists, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, October 3, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Mission Local: Hidden history of BART revealed in newly digitized newsletters. “Did you know that BART employees used to get big bonuses for coming up with ideas that saved the transit authority money Resourceful city workers whose insights were rewarded are immortalized in the pages of BARTalk, the organization’s old newsletter, alongside fun events in BART history, features on rarely acknowledged jobs, and details about the much-anticipated annual picnic. Now, thanks to an unofficial project by BART enthusiast Vincent Woo, two decades of the newsletter have been digitized and are available online for public perusal.”

University of Hawaii: Online Archival Resource Documents Political Debates Surrounding the H-3 Freeway. “The event will launch an online resource that curates archival materials from U.S. federal, Hawaiʻi state, and community levels that document the political processes and debates surrounding the construction of the H-3 freeway.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Tubefilter: Creators are making less content about Ukraine. AIR Media-Tech wants to change that–by bringing them in to visit.. “AIR Media-Tech (a Toronto-based creator services company founded in 2010 by Ukrainian co-founders Sergii Bielousov and Stepan Mikhaylov) is launching Brave Voices for Ukraine, a program encouraging content creation, fundraising, and especially for creators to visit Ukraine and create videos while they’re there. AIR Media-Tech says it’s planning to have creators visit Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, later this year and in early 2024.”

The Verge: Microsoft Lists is now available for everyone on iOS, Android, and the web. “Microsoft’s task management app, Microsoft Lists, is now available for everyone to use. Launched in 2020, Microsoft Lists was originally limited to just business and enterprise users, before a limited preview for consumers last year. Microsoft is now letting anyone with a Microsoft Account access this free version of Microsoft Lists through iOS and Android apps and on the web.”

USEFUL STUFF

Search Engine Journal: Integrating ChatGPT With Google Sheets For Enhanced Data Analysis. “ChatGPT remains one of the most talked about tools in the world of SEO. Some users are finding ways to leverage the platform for content and SEO; others use it to create ads, optimize meta titles, create structured data, and be more productive overall. And being more productive by integrating ChatGPT and Google Sheets together makes a lot of sense to me.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Business Post (Ireland): Google workers protest over ‘unequal’ treatment in lay-offs. “Close to 200 staff at the tech giant have signed their names to a petition that says the severance deals it is offering to around 20 recruiters impacted by ongoing lay-offs are worse than a previous round of job cuts earlier this year. The petition, submitted to management at the company on Friday, calls on Google to offer staff impacted by current and future layoffs ‘equal severance compensation’ to what was paid out during lay-offs in March.”

BBC: The people going ‘monk mode’ to limit social media use. “With the proliferation of social media platforms and devices vying for our attention, a growing number of people are looking for ways to help them resist the urge to continually check notifications and scroll through social media feeds. This has seen a surge in popularity this year of an approach to productivity called ‘monk mode’. This involves dedicating yourself to a single task with no tech or other distractions.”

Apple Insider: Tim Cook confirms Apple is researching ChatGPT-style AI. “Apple CEO Tim Cook has told UK press that the company is ‘of course’ working on generative AI, and that he expects to hire more Artificial intelligence staff in that country. Just hours after Apple put a spotlight on how it supports over half a million jobs in the UK, Tim Cook has been talking about increasing that by hiring more staff working in AI.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Arkansas Times: Whistleblower says governor’s office illegally altered, withheld records related to podium purchase. “An anonymous former state employee came forward Friday claiming to have evidence that the Arkansas governor’s office doctored documents and unlawfully withheld financial records that should have been made public under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.”

MENAFN: Kerala Police Issues Advisory On Using Google Maps While Driving. “The Kerala Police has emphasised the need for caution when using Google Maps in light of the deaths of two young doctors in a car accident in Ernakulam while using the app. … The Kerala police took to Facebook and wrote that most accidents involving Google Maps occur during monsoon season. In the past, travellers would look at landmarks and other signs to inquire for directions. However, people continue to depend on the map.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Guardian: As social media grows in Kenya, so does the disturbing and toxic ‘manosphere’. “It was not so much a rabbit hole I found myself down, but in a whole warren of sexist content when I began researching a story on Kenya’s ‘manosphere’ – a loosely connected network of websites and social media platforms that promote misogyny online. What I saw was disturbing: scores of tweets, posts and video content that denigrated, objectified and “slut-shamed” women, or encouraged men to exercise coercive control.”

The National Tribune (Australia): Bushfire tweets reveal role of social media in emergencies. “A study on social media activity during the Black Summer bushfires has revealed how the discussions changed through the phases of the disaster, and how critical social media is in disseminating information during natural disasters. The Charles Darwin University and University of Wollongong analysed how X, formally known as Twitter, users discussed the 2019/20 bushfires to better understand how social media could be used to ensure the severity of natural hazards are being communicated effectively.” Good morning, Internet…

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October 3, 2023 at 05:31PM
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