Super Street Magazine, Whole Earth Catalog, Ransomlooker, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, October 16, 2023

Super Street Magazine, Whole Earth Catalog, Ransomlooker, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, October 16, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

MotorTrend: Super Street Magazine Digital Archive Now Available—for Free!. “The Super Street Network continues delivering current feature cars and in-depth event coverage digitally, but don’t think that all those print issues that once landed in your mailbox and cluttered your desk space are long gone. They’re back! Over 170 past issues dating back to 2002 have been digitized and made available for you to view online for free with your registration on MotorTrend+ (U.S. and Canada).” In other words, registration is free but you do have to register.

Gizmodo: You Can Now Read the Whole Earth Catalog Online. “Remember the Whole Earth Catalog? If you’re a fan of the anarcho-libertarian magazine that helped usher in a popular interest in all things tech and internet culture, there’s good news: a nearly complete collection of the publication’s archive has been digitized and uploaded to the web for easy browsing.”

SecurityAffairs: Ransomlooker, A New Tool To Track And Analyze Ransomware Groups’ Activities . “Cybernews presented Ransomlooker, a tool to monitor ransomware groups’ extortion sites and delivers consolidated feeds of their claims worldwide. The researchers have created the tool to help cybersecurity experts in their daily jobs by providing real-time updates and actionable insights. It offers various statistical insights into data, the ability to determine attack perpetrators, and incorporates filtering by country, industries, time span, and other parameters for journalistic investigations.”

EVENTS

International Centre for Investigative Reporting: ICFJ seeks entries to investigate election disinformation. “THE International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is calling for applications for its Disarming Disinformation programme, sponsored by the Scripps Howard Fund…. Journalists worldwide interested in combating electoral disinformation can apply for the programme, which will take place on November 7, 8, and 9.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

WordPress: WordPress 6.3.2 – Maintenance and Security release. “This security and maintenance release features 19 bug fixes on Core, 22 bug fixes for the Block Editor, and 8 security fixes. WordPress 6.3.2 is a short-cycle release.”

Ars Technica: Google.com tests a news-filled homepage, just like Bing and Yahoo. “Google is still wondering if it should make major changes to its homepage. The last experiment we saw filled the usually stark white page with info cards showing things like the weather and stocks, but this new experiment, spotted by the site MSPoweruser, has a much bigger focus on news.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times: If Every Brand Is Funny Online, Is Anything Funny?. “For a decade, marketers have found success on social media by roasting customers, and even flirting with them. But with Gen Z, and platforms like TikTok on the rise, the jokes may be wearing thin.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg Law: New Disclosure Site Slow to Post Judicial Stock Trading Reports. “Delays in posting stock transactions and other financial disclosures by US judges to a new database are limiting the utility of a tool designed to improve public transparency of the court system, watchdogs said.”

The Messenger: Supreme Court Extends Block on Biden and Social Media Company Communication. “The Supreme Court on Friday extended a preliminary injunction blocking the Biden administration from contacting social media companies to question posts on their platforms.”

CNBC: Elon Musk’s X illegally fired employee who publicly challenged return-to-work plans, NLRB alleges. “Elon Musk’s X broke the law in firing an employee who criticized management’s return-to-work policy, the National Labor Relations Board alleged, in its first formal complaint against the company formally known as Twitter.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Illinois State University: Virtual reality technology and individuals with communication disorders. “For the past three years, Dr. Jennine Harvey, Dr. Isaac Chang, Dr. Megan Cuellar, and Dr. Gabriela Fonseca Pereira have investigated the efficacy of virtual reality environments for speech-language pathology intervention. This interdisciplinary team has developed a real-world virtual environment to examine the potential of VR technology and innovative applications in evidence-based practice in SLP intervention, clinical training, and pedagogy.”

Northeastern Global News: How can cities use AI? These professors are creating guidelines for how artificial intelligence could be used for public interest.. “The Public Interest Technology University Network recently awarded a Network Challenge Grant to Northeastern University and its Boston Area Research Initiative, run by Dan O’Brien and Kim Lucas, both of whom teach public policy in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. The grant funds projects dedicated to growing public interest technology. O’Brien and Lucas will use the grant to research how AI can be used by the city of Boston and to educate residents on its usage.” Good morning, Internet…

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October 16, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Mindanao Biodiversity, Rhode Island Geospatial Data, Google, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 15, 2023

Mindanao Biodiversity, Rhode Island Geospatial Data, Google, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 15, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Biodiversity Data Journal: The MOBIOS+: A FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) database for Mindanao’s terrestrial biodiversity . “This initiative seeks to enhance our comprehension of biodiversity trends in Mindanao over temporal and spatial dimensions, while also creating an openly-accessible database. The database we present here is the first of its kind and currently the most comprehensive attempt to establish the largest consolidated database for Mindanao biodiversity, based on publicly available literature.”

Brown University Library News: The Ocean State Spatial Database . “Frank Donnelly (Head of Library GIS and Data Services) and his team of student workers at GeoData@SciLi recently released the Ocean State Spatial Database (OSSDB), a geodatabase for conducting basic geographic analysis and thematic mapping within the State of Rhode Island. This open source database is intended to serve as a foundation for contemporary mapping projects, and as an educational tool for supporting GIS coursework and introducing spatial databases and SQL.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Land: Google Search officially stops indented results. “Google has stopped showing indented results in the Google search listings. Google has historically showed an indented search result under the main result when it was from the same domain but over the past few weeks, Google stopped indenting those results.”

Irish Times: Social media firms deploying ‘crisis teams’ to combat Gaza ‘misinformation’. “Ireland’s Digital Services Commissioner, John Evans, has said there has been a ‘heightened sense of activity” among social media platforms in response to misinformation about the conflict in Israel and Gaza. He said some of the platforms had deployed crisis response teams and experts with specific language skills to respond to posts about the conflict in Gaza.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: How to Make Your TikTok Videos More Accessible: 5 Essentials. “TikTok is one of the most popular platforms for short-form video. But how can you ensure that your videos can be enjoyed by everyone? Here are some tips on how to make your TikTok videos more accessible so that people with disabilities and certain medical conditions can watch them comfortably too.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Boing Boing: Firefox to have built-in “fake review detector”. “The web browser Firefox will warn users when they’re looking at fake reviews online. The feature follows the foundation’s acquisition of Fakespot, a web service that specializes in doing just that.”

CNBC: Google is opening a cafe, store and event space to the general public near its headquarters. “Google is opening a sliver of its main campus to the general public starting this week. The company opened its doors to what it’s calling its ‘Visitor Experience’ center the public Thursday, following a ceremony where Google executives and local leaders gathered hear its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: Apple AirTags stalking led to ruin and murders, lawsuit says . “Since the lawsuit was initially filed in 2022, plaintiffs have alleged that there has been an ‘explosion of reporting’ showing that AirTags are frequently being used for stalking, including a spike in international AirTags stalking cases and more than 150 police reports in the US as of April 2022. More recently, there were 19 AirTags stalking cases in one US metropolitan area—Tulsa, Oklahoma—alone, the complaint said.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Stuff (New Zealand): Stuff Group withdraws from X (formerly Twitter). “Stuff, New Zealand’s biggest independently owned news business, will stop sharing content to X (formerly Twitter), effective immediately. The company, which owns this website, has flagged it is increasingly concerned about the volume of mis- and disinformation being shared, and the damaging behaviour being exhibited on and enabled by the platform.”

Nature: AI reads text from ancient Herculaneum scroll for the first time. “A 21-year-old computer-science student has won a global contest to read the first text inside a carbonized scroll from the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, which had been unreadable since a volcanic eruption in AD 79 — the same one that buried nearby Pompeii. The breakthrough could open up hundreds of texts from the only intact library to survive from Greco-Roman antiquity.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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October 16, 2023 at 12:10AM
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Mathematical Puzzles, Social Media, Chrome, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, October 15, 2023

Mathematical Puzzles, Social Media, Chrome, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, October 15, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Dartmouth College: Math Puzzles for the Public. “The revised edition of the critically acclaimed 2000 book, Mathematical Puzzles—heralded as ‘the best collection of mind-stretching teasers ever assembled’ by celebrated computer scientist Donald Knuth—is now available free online on the mathematics department’s website. The classic collection, which features puzzles from every continent, is designed for amateur mathematicians of any age, no calculus skills required.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: SPAC to return remaining $533 million raise for Trump social media deal. “Digital World Acquisition Corp, the SPAC that plans to merge with former U.S. President Donald Trump’s media and technology company, said this week it would return to investors $533 million raised for the deal, after some have already backtracked on $467 million of commitments.”

Mashable: Google Chrome now lets you wipe the last 15 minutes of your cringey activities — here’s how. “Google has added some new, super-useful functionality for folks who want to quickly wipe 15 minutes worth of their Chrome history. The new tool, however, is only for Android users. All you need to do is click the three dots in the upper-right corner of Chrome before selecting ‘Clear Browsing Data.’ By default, this will delete the last 15 minutes of your browsing activity.”

Gizmodo: These Brands Are Still Going Down With NFT’s Sinking Ship. “Despite this downturn, there are still major companies that jumped on the NFT hype train last year and have yet to jump off. It’s a trolley problem for major brands. Either the company keeps on making NFTs in the vain hope it hasn’t wasted any money on a speculative tech bubble, or it bows its head and calls it quits.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

WIRED: A New Tool Helps Artists Thwart AI—With a Middle Finger. “Over the past year, as image-generating AI tools have grown in popularity, illustrators, photographers, and other visual artists have struggled to determine what they can do to have a say in how their work is used. Some are attempting lawsuits, others are asking regulators to step in. There’s nothing they can do to change how generators have been trained in the past. Starting today, though, the startup Spawning is launching a new tool to help artists who want to block new attempts to train AI on their work.”

Washington Post: Why we can’t stop watching terrible TikTok cooking videos. “With each second I spend watching these videos, the questions pile up in my head — mostly ‘Why?’ Why is he making French onion soup in a bathroom sink? Why did she stick a chicken drumstick in a jar of peanut butter? Why is this person putting dried pasta in a blender only to make ‘fresh’ pasta? Will they actually eat that? Is this a joke? Why are they making these kinds of videos? And why are they so popular?”

Semafor: OpenAI has quietly changed its ‘core values’. “ChatGPT creator OpenAI quietly revised all of the ‘Core values’ listed on its website in recent weeks, putting a greater emphasis on the development of AGI — artificial general intelligence. CEO Sam Altman has described AGI as ‘the equivalent of a median human that you could hire as a co-worker.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

AFP: EU to investigate Musk’s X for potential Hamas-Israel conflict disinfo. “The European Commission said Thursday it is opening an investigation into Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to determine if it has allowed the spread of disinformation about the conflict in the Middle East.”

Ars Technica: Thousands of WordPress sites have been hacked through tagDiv plugin vulnerability. “Thousands of sites running the WordPress content management system have been hacked by a prolific threat actor that exploited a recently patched vulnerability in a widely used plugin. The vulnerable plugin, known as tagDiv Composer, is a mandatory requirement for using two WordPress themes: Newspaper and Newsmag. The themes are available through the Theme Forest and Envato marketplaces and have more than 155,000 downloads.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Northwestern Now: AI just got 100-fold more energy efficient. “Northwestern University engineers have developed a new nanoelectronic device that can perform accurate machine-learning classification tasks in the most energy-efficient manner yet. Using 100-fold less energy than current technologies, the device can crunch large amounts of data and perform artificial intelligence (AI) tasks in real time without beaming data to the cloud for analysis.”

University of Central Florida: UCF Collaborates with the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum to Annotate Seminole Tribe Archives. “The community-based research project challenges colonial stereotypes in mid-20th century Florida newspapers to provide historical accuracy and context for anyone engaging with the museum’s database.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Engadget: Coin flips don’t appear to have 50/50 odds after all. “Conventional wisdom about coin flips may have been turned on its head. A global team of researchers investigating the statistical and physical nuances of coin tosses worldwide concluded (via Phys.org) that a coin is 50.8% likely to land on the same side it started on, altering one of society’s most traditional assumptions about random decision-making that dates back at least to the Roman Empire.” Good morning, Internet…

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October 15, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Aurel Manea Landscape Photography, Nigeria Newspapers, Ammirati Puris Advertising, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 14, 2023

Aurel Manea Landscape Photography, Nigeria Newspapers, Ammirati Puris Advertising, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 14, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

PetaPixel: Photographer Makes All of His Stunning Photos Available for Free. “A photographer who has traveled the world taking beautiful photographs for the last 20 years has taken the unusual step of making all of his photos freely available to download. Aurel Manea has released copyright on 4,700 high-resolution photos of mostly landscapes. The highlights include dazzling photos of the Northern Lights, the Tuscan hills of Italy, and Monument Valley in Arizona.”

Benjamindada: Archivi.ng is digitising Nigerian history, with one old newspaper at a time. “In a world where information is at our fingertips, the story of Nigeria’s history has been locked away, hidden within the yellowed pages of newspapers, slowly fading into obscurity. However, a non-profit is on a mission to change that narrative. They are the driving force behind Archivi.ng, a groundbreaking project aiming to digitise every edition of every Nigerian newspaper from January 1, 1960, to December 31, 2010 – a monumental task that promises to reshape the way Nigerians, and the world, access their history.”

St. John’s University: St. John’s University to Celebrate the Work of Advertising Icons Ralph Ammirati and Martin Puris . “St. John’s University announced today the launch of the Ammirati Puris exhibit, an online digital collection of the advertising agency’s most groundbreaking campaigns, including those for BMW, Club Med, United Parcel Service (UPS), and more. The online exhibit will be available permanently to all.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: Five things to know about the Google antitrust trial as it hits halfway mark. “In the trial that started on Sept. 12 and is scheduled to go to about mid-November, the Justice Department accused Google of manipulating online auctions – a multibillion dollar industry dominated by Google – with these formulas to favor its own bottom line. Here are five important points raised so far during the trial.”

The Verge: Google’s AI-powered search experience can now generate images. “Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) will let you create images right from a text prompt starting Thursday, the company announced. Microsoft has offered the ability to make images from Bing Chat using OpenAI’s DALL-E model since March, so it’s not too surprising to see Google follow suit.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

USC Annenberg Media: ‘There are crazy people out there’: Mommy vloggers balance privacy and publicity. “Twin baby girls sit in matching Gap hoodies and suck on pacifiers as their mother tackles their wispy golden hair, tying up a tiny bun on each of their heads. At one and a half, their locks just barely brush their shoulders. The pair, Scout and Violet, stare directly into my eyes, or more accurately, right at the camera lens. I’m seeing this 60-second glimpse into their life through a video posted to TikTok by their mother, Maia Knight.”

Virginia Tech: Reco(r)ding CripTech project elevates disabled artists and informs arts education. “Reco(r)ding CripTech documents the processes of five disabled artists in residence with the Leonardo CripTech Incubator, art-and-technology residencies supported by the not-for-profit think tank that focus on disability innovation and aesthetic access. The open access archive will include artifacts of the artists’ processes such as digitized notes, journals, and sketches as well as recorded reflections, social media posts, correspondence, meeting minutes, and grant applications.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: False Claims Around Israel Attacks Include Recycled Videos and a Game Clip. “In the days since Hamas attacked Israel, killing more than 1,200 people in sweeping assaults on kibbutzim, a music festival, towns and other places, violent images and graphic videos have flooded social media. So too have false and misleading information, old and unrelated videos and photos with inaccurate claims, and fabricated assertions about the involvement of countries like the United States and Ukraine — adding confusion and deception to an already chaotic moment.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

WCAI: New guidelines help protect historic buildings from rising waters. “Town officials, homeowners, renovators, and others now have a new tool to help them prepare historic buildings for sea level rise and storm surge. The Cape Cod Commission has published new design guidelines for flood risk areas. The work was supported by funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Leader-Telegram: Historians study dugout canoe at Phillips hardware store . “Sissel Schroeder, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Tamara Thomsen, a maritime archaeologist for the Wisconsin Historical Society, came to see the canoe as part of their long-term study of dugout canoes around the state…. Schroeder said the study began with canoes at museums, historical societies and libraries around Wisconsin. The two historians are now focusing on more than 80 dugout canoes known to be in private hands around the state.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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October 15, 2023 at 12:26AM
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Florida History, Pennsylvania Judges, Google, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, October 14, 2023

Florida History, Pennsylvania Judges, Google, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, October 14, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

That’s So Tampa: Bootleggers, tourism booms and bathing suits: Decade of Change explores Florida in the 1920s. “A new digital collection, Florida Front and Center, also launches this October. Florida Front and Center is putting our state’s story front and center in the grand tapestry of U.S. history. This showcase shines a spotlight on Florida’s colonial roots, tracing back even before the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock. And don’t blink, because it also dives into Florida’s colossal post-World War II expansion and political clout.”

Spotlight PA: Pa. election 2023: New interactive tool illustrates why judges matter and how they shape policy. “Elections for seats on Pennsylvania’s highest courts tend to lack the urgency of other races, as those courts seem to operate far from our everyday lives, especially when compared to the work of local and state officials. But judges in these positions hold an immense amount of power… That’s why Spotlight PA is launching a new voter tool ahead of this November’s judicial contests to illustrate how the courts in recent years have affected the policies you care about most.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bloomberg: Google Warns the EU That It Will Fight Attempts to Break Up Ad Business. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google has vowed to fight the European Union’s threat to break up its ad business, setting the scene for an antitrust battle that could eventually rival its ongoing clash with the US Justice Department and state attorneys general.”

Reuters: Google to pay German publishers 3.2 million eur per year on interim basis. “Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has agreed to pay German publishers 3.2 million euros ($3.38 million) a year for its publication of news content pending a decision from the German patent office (DPMA) on the issue, the sides said in separate statements on Thursday. The U.S. search engine operator reached the agreement with Corint Media, an umbrella organisation that represents the interests of German and international publishers including Sat.1, ProSieben, RTL, Axel Springer and CNBC.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

ZDNet: This new AI dubbing tool can translate audio while preserving the speaker’s voice. “On Tuesday, ElevenLabs unveiled AI Dubbing, a new feature that can convert spoken content to another language while keeping the voice, speech patterns, emotions, and intonations of the original speaker.”

Capitol Beat: Okefenokee Swamp Park launching historic preservation project. “The Okefenokee Swamp Park has landed $497,000 in federal funding for a research project aimed at telling the story of a group of young Black Americans who worked to develop the park during the Great Depression. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a nationwide New Deal program formed to provide employment and vocational training to young Americans ages 18 through 25. CCC Company 1433, a group of nearly 200 Black Americans from Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, worked on conservation projects in the Okefenokee, building bridges and roads, planting trees and developing recreational facilities.”

New York Times: ‘A.I. Obama’ and Fake Newscasters: How A.I. Audio Is Swarming TikTok. “Disinformation watchdogs have noticed the number of videos containing A.I. voices has increased as content producers and misinformation peddlers adopt the novel tools. Social platforms like TikTok are scrambling to flag and label such content.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Arkansas Times: State employee’s email says governor’s assistant was told to modify invoice. “Someone in Gov. Sarah Sanders‘ office instructed state employees to write ‘to be reimbursed’ on a months-old invoice for a $19,000 lectern and specifically told them not to date the notation. That’s according to a newly unearthed email published on social media today by Jay Orsi, a citizen journalist who obtained it through a Freedom of Information Act request.”

Business World (Philippines): Malaysia says TikTok fails to fully comply with local laws. “TikTok has not done enough to curb defamatory or misleading content in Malaysia, the communications minister said on Thursday, adding that the short video application had also failed to comply with several, unspecified local laws. In a social media message posted after meeting TikTok representatives, Minister Fahmi Fadzil said TikTok also had to address issues related to content distribution and advertising purchases following complaints.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Illinois State University: Technology project aims to alleviate cybersickness in VR-based driving simulation. “Thanks to the help of a BirdFEEDER Grant, Dr. Isaac Chang, associate professor in the Department of Technology, with the assistance of his then-graduate assistant, Savanah Kinney ’21, M.S. ’23, have designed a desktop Stewart platform to alleviate the cybersickness problem in VR-based driving simulation.”

Business Insider: Elon Musk’s worst nightmare. “With companies like Cruise and Waymo unleashing fully roboticized taxis on the streets of San Francisco and other cities, the rise of the machines has begun — and [Missy] Cummings is on the front lines of the resistance. In a controversial new paper, she concludes that the new robot taxis are four to eight times as likely as a human-driven car to get into a crash. And that doesn’t count the way self-driving vehicles are causing weird traffic jams, blocking emergency vehicles, and even stopping on top of a person who had already been hit by a human-driven car.”

WIRED: The Chatbots Are Now Talking to Each Other. “The three bots are among scores of AI characters that have been developed by Fantasy, a New York company that helps businesses such as LG, Ford, Spotify, and Google dream up and test new product ideas. Fantasy calls its bots synthetic humans and says they can help clients learn about audiences, think through product concepts, and even generate new ideas, like the soccer app.” Good morning, Internet…

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October 14, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Emerging Research in Online Governance, WordPress, Dark Patterns, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 13, 2023

Emerging Research in Online Governance, WordPress, Dark Patterns, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 13, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Yale Law School: To Build a Better Online Community, Initiative Looks Beyond Moderation. “…ways to create a healthier online community are detailed in ‘Beyond Moderation: Emerging Research in Online Governance,’ a new collection of essays from Justice Collaboratory’s Social Media Governance Initiative (SMGI).” The essays are freely-available.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

WordPress: New to WordPress.com: Earn More By Adding a Paywall . “While there are many ways to monetize your website, there’s one strategy that stands out for its potential and simplicity: the paywall. We’re excited to tell you that this feature is now available on all WordPress.com sites.”

USEFUL STUFF

The Conversation: Dark patterns: how online companies strive to keep your money and data when you try to leave. “Have you signed up to an online service for a free trial, decided it isn’t for you, but still ended up paying for it months – or even years – later? Or tried cancelling a subscription, and found yourself giving up during the painstaking process? If so, there’s a good chance you have encountered a ‘dark pattern’.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Baptist News: Black Gospel Music Preservation Program: Securing the legacy of Black Gospel music. “Already the largest resource of its type in the world, the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University will continue to build its collection of rare recordings while seeking new ways to share the archive with the public, said Stephen Newby, the program’s new leader.”

Robb Report: Fine Dining Has Officially Entered Its TikTok Era. “Over the summer, a new restaurant opened in Los Angeles. On its own, that isn’t newsworthy—L.A. has one of the biggest dining scenes in the country, and restaurant openings there are a dime a dozen. But this particular restaurant, an upscale Vietnamese spot in West Hollywood, had a rather interesting pedigree: Its head chef and co-owner, Tue Nguyen, had gotten the opportunity to open her own space in part because she was big on TikTok.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

ABC News: ‘Addictive’ social media feeds that keep children online targeted by New York lawmakers. “New York would restrict the way online platforms like Instagram and YouTube can collect and share children’s personal information and let parents keep their kids from being bombarded by ‘addictive’ feeds from accounts they don’t follow, under legislation proposed Wednesday.”

Amnesty International: Global: ‘Predator Files’ spyware scandal reveals brazen targeting of civil society, politicians and officials  . “Shocking spyware attacks have been attempted against civil society, journalists, politicians and academics in the European Union (EU), USA and Asia, according to a major new investigation by Amnesty International. Among the targets of Predator spyware are United Nations (UN) officials, a Senator and Congressman in the USA and even the Presidents of the European Parliament and Taiwan.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Harvard Medical School: An AI Tool That Can Help Forecast Viral Outbreaks. “The COVID-19 pandemic seemed like a never-ending parade of SARS-CoV-2 variants, each equipped with new ways to evade the immune system, leaving the world bracing for what would come next. But what if there were a way to make predictions about new viral variants before they actually emerge? A new artificial intelligence tool named EVEscape, developed by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Oxford, can do just that.”

Slate: X Is a Fog-of-War Machine. “As Musk and Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino have rolled back the platform’s rules of engagement and rid their ranks of the content-moderation teams and tools that actually keep X trustworthy, they’ve also put in place a system that fundamentally incentivizes the spread of misinformation during times of mass panic and confusion, in part because X is now a platform that pays for viral content. The end result is that Twitter, more so than any other platform right now, is fertile ground for a new kind of war profiteering.”

NBC News: A group of 67 X accounts spread coordinated disinformation about Israel-Hamas war, says research group. “Researchers have uncovered a propaganda network of 67 accounts on the X social platform that are coordinating a campaign of posting false, inflammatory content related to the Israel-Hamas war.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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October 14, 2023 at 12:16AM
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Banned Books Florida, Twitter, Mastodon, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, October 13, 2023

Banned Books Florida, Twitter, Mastodon, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, October 13, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

WGBH: Boston philanthropists launch new effort to ship Floridians ‘banned books’. “Any Florida resident who wants a book can go on the website, choose one title to order and pay $3.99 to have it shipped. Florida residents, libraries and educational institutions can order a book — or someone out of state can send a book to someone they know, with the receiver having to approve the shipment. A Florida delivery address is required for the sale to process.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NiemanReports: Six Months Ago NPR Left Twitter. The Effects Have Been Negligible . “A memo circulated to NPR staff says traffic has dropped by only a single percentage point as a result of leaving Twitter, now officially renamed X, though traffic from the platform was small already and accounted for just under two percent of traffic before the posting stopped. (NPR declined an interview request but shared the memo and other information).”

Reuters: X removes hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts since attack, CEO says. “The X social media platform has removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts and taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content since the militant group’s attack on Israel, its chief executive Linda officer Yaccarino said on Thursday.”

USEFUL STUFF

Cassidy James: How and Why to Get Verified on Mastodon . “…my call to anyone and everyone on Mastodon—but especially journalists and well-known personalities—is: get verified! It greatly helps people like me and mods of larger servers know you’re you, and makes it more likely that people will find you in search, follow you, and see you on trending page in their Mastodon app or server.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Independent: An app shows how ancient Greek sites looked thousands of years ago. It’s a glimpse of future tech. “Tourists at the Acropolis this holiday season can witness the resolution of one of the world’s most heated debates on cultural heritage. All they need is a smartphone. Visitors can now pinch and zoom their way around the ancient Greek site, with a digital overlay showing how it once looked.”

Defense News: Army at work on a digital ‘blue book’ app, top enlisted soldier says. “According to [Sergeant Major of the Army Michael] Weimer, the blue book app will be a one-stop shop for Army enlisted leaders who want to know “what right looks like.” It will include Army and unit history information, philosophical references like values and creeds, up-to-date information on standards and discipline, clearly defined leader responsibilities, and a digital library containing the service’s most commonly referenced regulations and other publications.”

The Verge: Discogs’ vibrant vinyl community is shattering. “The site has become a central part of the music internet, surviving through physical music media’s replacement by MP3s and then streaming — and rebounding as interest in vinyl, CDs, and tapes did throughout the 2010s. But sellers who use the platform say the site’s old tech has started to wear on them, and new fees and restrictions have made it harder to do business. Changes within the company are threatening to turn a bastion for vinyl fans, record stores, and anyone who cares about music into just another dysfunctional website — and dismantle a singular record of music history, even if just by pushing the sellers and users who have created that record away.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

ProPublica: A Racist Harvard Scientist Commissioned Photos of Enslaved People. One Possible Descendant Wants to Reclaim Their Story.. “The images are among the oldest known photographs of enslaved people in America. Tamara Lanier’s fight to gain control of them shows there is no clear system in place to repatriate remains of captive Africans or objects associated with them.”

Evening Standard: Publishing industry faces billions in costs as students illegally download texts. “Tens of thousands of university students are using illegal sites to download sections of text from books, costing the publishing industry billions of pounds, according to new research. As students returned to university in the UK, there were 300,000 searches made to piracy sites that allow you to download text from books in September alone, academic publisher Perlego has said.”

Task & Purpose: Former soldier searched Google, Reddit for spying tips, prosecutors say. “The federal indictment paints [Joseph Daniel] Schmidt as an admirer of Chinese culture and society but also an unsophisticated spy who turned to Google to research his legal jeopardy and options for a life after trading state secrets. Schmidt allegedly created a 22-page document titled, ‘Important Information to Share with Chinese Government’ with details on US intelligence sources including source types, assessments, sites for meetings, and communication planning, according to FBI declaration documents.” Unsophisticated indeed.

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: Autonomous Vehicles Are Driving Blind. “To earn the right to drive a car, most of us at some point have to pass a vision test, a written test and a driving test. The A.I. undergoes no such government scrutiny before commanding the wheel. In California, companies can get a permit to operate driverless cars by declaring that their vehicles have been tested and the ‘manufacturer has reasonably determined that is safe to operate the vehicle.'”

Tech Policy Press: How Third-Party Social Media Middleware Can Protect Contextual Privacy. “Social media data and metadata is best managed through an architecture that is highly protective of contextual privacy, says Richard Reisman.” Good morning, Internet…

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October 13, 2023 at 05:31PM
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