Online Veterans Memorial, Tracking Terrorism Cases, The Hockey News, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, November 6, 2023

Online Veterans Memorial, Tracking Terrorism Cases, The Hockey News, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, November 6, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Stars and Stripes: ‘My radio to heaven’: Online VA memorial adds the names and stories of millions of veterans, service members. “The names and legacies of nearly 5 million veterans and service members have been added to an online database operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, doubling the number of individuals whose military records and contributions are commemorated, the agency announced Thursday.”

International Centre for Counter-Terrorism: Now Live: The Interlinkages Database. “The newly launched Interlinkages Database serves as a unique interactive repository of cases where alleged terrorists have been and are being prosecuted cumulatively for terrorism offences and core international crimes.”

The Hockey News: Introducing The Hockey News Archive – 76 Years of History. “The Archive has 2,640 issues and counting, about 156,000 articles for individual reading, and more than 103,000 historical pages scanned manually, so there’s a treasure trove of exclusive content at your fingertips.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: YouTube is cracking down on ad blockers globally. “YouTube is no longer preventing just a small subset of its userbase from accessing its videos if they have an ad blocker. The platform has gone all out in its fight against the use of add-ons, extensions and programs that prevent it from serving ads to viewers around the world, it confirmed to Engadget.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

MSNBC: Big Tech whistleblowers worry their warnings aren’t being heard. “Anika Collier Navaroli testified to the House Jan. 6 committee about Twitter’s role in fueling the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, while Frances Haugen testified before Congress in October 2021 about Facebook’s ability to manipulate users and keep them addicted. They both just wrote op-eds for The Hill that highlight what little has been done since.”

Gothamist: Beloved NYC design store seeks new home for its extensive archive. “[KIOSK] was a place where you could find simple items from around the world, curated and arranged so that customers understood who made the objects and why they mattered. Now, the beloved emporium is looking for a new home for its archive of more than 1,500 objects – with a deadline of Thanksgiving to vacate from its current space.”

Airways: Pan Am Group to Donate Entire Film Archive to SFO Museum . “The Pan Am Historical Foundation has revealed its plans to donate its entire film archive to the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) Museum for preservation. Pan American World Airways accumulated an extensive film collection, consisting of over 700 titles and hundreds of hours of footage spanning more than 60 years from its establishment in 1927 until its dissolution in 1991.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Governing: New Jersey Becomes First State to Require K-12 Media Literacy. “Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill on Wednesday, Nov. 1, that will require public schools across the state to teach media literacy as a way to combat misinformation. The law goes into effect immediately.”

MediaPost: Amazon Flooded Search Results With Irrelevant Sponsored Ads, FTC Alleges. “Amazon founder/owner Jeff Bezos instructed executives to flood the giant ecommerce company’s search results with irrelevant ads to pump up its profits, The Federal Trade Commission charges in newly unredacted documents from its antitrust lawsuit against Amazon.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Canberra Times: Frog call database hopping towards million milestone. “Citizen scientists have been called on to help Australian researchers make the leap past a million frog croak recordings. FrogID is a one-of-a-kind portable project developed by scientist Jodi Rowley and Australian Museum director Kim McKay in 2017.”

Channel News Asia: IN FOCUS: How fake news on Israel-Hamas stokes outrage, hatred and ‘potential for violence’ on Southeast Asian TikTok. “A week-long CNA experiment, on top of reports from TikTok users and misinformation experts in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, has identified a steady stream of inaccurate content on the Israel-Hamas war spreading on the platform. While the proliferation of fake news online during geopolitical tensions is not new – an issue which also surfaced during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war – analysts said the Israel-Hamas conflict takes on a different, perhaps more pernicious dimension in Southeast Asia.”

The Atlantic: The Great Social Media–News Collapse. “It would be wrong to suggest that news—and especially commentary about the news— will vanish. But the future might very well look like slivers of the present, where individual influencers command large audiences, and social networking and text-based media take a back seat to video platforms with recommendation-forward algorithms, like TikTok’s. This seems likely to coincide with news organizations’ continued loss of cultural power and influence.” Good morning, Internet…

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November 6, 2023 at 06:31PM
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Irish Emigrants to Britain, Missing Indigenous People Colorado, Wisconsin Community Services, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 5, 2023

Irish Emigrants to Britain, Missing Indigenous People Colorado, Wisconsin Community Services, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 5, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Irish Central: WATCH: The stories of Irish in Britain told in new oral history project. “‘Look Back to Look Forward: 50 Years of the Irish in Britain’ is an oral history project telling the stories of Irish people who have emigrated to Britain over the past half-century.”

KOAA: A new online tool to track missing and murder indigenous people in Colorado. “The Colorado Department of Public Safety has created a new online tool to help share information about indigenous persons who go missing or are murdered. The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Dashboard shows when each incident happened, where it happened, what jurisdiction it falls under, the status of the case, and resources for people to contact.”

Channel 3000: DHS launches network to help families of children with disabilities find needed services. “The Wisconsin Department of Health Services on Thursday launched a new website and helpline to connect families of children with disabilities with the services they need. The Wisconsin Wayfinder: Children’s Resource Network is designed to ease access to essential services by partnering with providers and care systems across the state. Through the network, families will be helped by a children’s resource guide.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Land: Google November 2023 core update released. “Google’s November 2023 core update is now rolling out and may take up to two weeks to complete. This is the fourth broad core algorithm update of 2023. the first core update of 2023 was the March 2023 core update, which started rolling out on March 15 and was completed on March 28.”

9to5 Google: Google AdSense moving to per-impression payments in 2024. “Today, Google pays publishers when somebody clicks an ad on their site, or ‘per click.’ AdSense is soon moving to paying ‘per impression,’ which Google notes is the industry standard for display ads (banners, boxes, etc.).”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times: On TikTok, Gen Z Beatles Fans Share Thoughts on ‘Now and Then’. “The Beatles came late to digital media. The group did not sell downloads of its songs at Apple’s iTunes store until 2010, seven years after it had opened for business…. The decision to go digital allowed new generations of listeners to more easily discover a group that had won the adoration of mobs of screaming fans in the 1960s. Now, Gen Z listeners regularly post Beatles-related videos on social media platforms.”

WIRED: TikTok Streamers Are Staging ‘Israel vs. Palestine’ Live Matches to Cash In on Virtual Gifts. “TIKTOKKERS ARE USING a little-known livestreaming feature to cash in on the huge interest in the Israel-Hamas war despite having no links to the crisis. TikTok, meanwhile, is taking up to 50 percent of the earnings”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Hamilton Spectator: Senate Committee shocked by difficulties faced gathering residential school records from Catholic Church. “​Saskatchewan Treaty Commissioner Mary Musqua-Culbertson didn’t mince words when she spoke to members of the Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples Oct. 25 about the difficulty in accessing Catholic Church records for Indigenous residential schools. Not only has her office come up against barriers in trying to acquire student records for four of the former Indian residential schools in the Prince Albert diocese, but staff had to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for 21 years in order to access the diocese records they were told were housed at St. Paul University in Ottawa.”

News18: India’s Biggest Data Leak So Far? Covid-19 Test Info of 81.5Cr Citizens With ICMR Up for Sale | Exclusive. “In what is suspected to be the biggest data leak case in the country so far, details of 81.5 crore Indians with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) are on sale. Given the grave nature of the incident, India’s premier agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to probe the matter once ICMR files a complaint.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Washington: Can AI help boost accessibility? These researchers tested it for themselves. “This year, seven researchers at the University of Washington conducted a three-month autoethnographic study — drawing on their own experiences as people with and without disabilities — to test AI tools’ utility for accessibility. Though researchers found cases in which the tools were helpful, they also found significant problems with AI tools in most use cases, whether they were generating images, writing Slack messages, summarizing writing or trying to improve the accessibility of documents.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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November 6, 2023 at 01:13AM
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North East India Indigenous People’s Archive, NASA+, West Virginia, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, November 5, 2023

North East India Indigenous People’s Archive, NASA+, West Virginia, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, November 5, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

In yesterday afternoon’s ResearchBuzz I pointed to an article about the return of Z-Library. Unfortunately the source, Good E-Reader, linked to not only the wrong site but a dangerous site. The correct site is https://zlibrary-global.se/ . I have removed the article from the newsletter and from the ResearchBuzz Firehose, and have removed Good E-Reader as an acceptable ResearchBuzz source. I apologize.

NEW RESOURCES

Nagaland Page (India): Tetso College Launches Digital Language Archive At The Listener Nagaland Festival. “An initiative by Tetso College, [North East India Indigenous People’s Archive] is a comprehensive digital repository dedicated to host cultural and linguistic materials of the region and is one of the first of this kind in the region.”

Engadget: NASA is launching a free streaming service with live shows and original series. “NASA has announced a new streaming service called NASA+ that’s set to hit most major platforms next week. It’ll be completely free, with no subscription requirements, and you won’t be forced to sit through ads. NASA+ will be available starting November 8.”

Government Technology: West Virginia to Offer Free Access to Online Tutoring. “The state of West Virginia has set up a new website through Tutor.com to offer free test preparation and tutoring in 200 subjects, as well as help with job searches and applications, resumes and cover letters.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

9to5 Google: Google Bard can now ‘respond in real time’ instead of waiting . “Large language models (LLMs) aren’t instantaneous, so there’s a delay between prompt and answer. Google is now making Bard feel faster with a ‘respond in real time’ option. As such, ‘Responses will show in real time while in progress.’ There is still a wait wherein you’ll see the rotating Bard sparkle in different colors, but text comes in line-by-line after that.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Bloomberg: Google, Lendlease End Deals to Build San Francisco Bay Projects. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google and property developer Lendlease Group have ended an agreement to build four projects in the San Francisco Bay Area as the technology firm reviews its real estate footprint.”

Smithsonian: Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Launches Campaign To Gather Stories From the Public. “The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum has launched a new digital campaign on its website to gather stories from the public that will help shape the future of the museum. The campaign will ask contributors to share a story of a woman from their family, community or past who has inspired them to think differently.”

Times of Malta: Times of Malta partners with National Archives to preserve its photo collection. “Up to one million Times of Malta photos spanning much of the 20th century are to be made available to researchers and the public to view after living in dusty boxes for decades. A joint project between Times of Malta and the National Archives will see conservators digitise, catalogue and store the media house’s entire catalogue of film photos and negatives.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Associated Press: FTX founder Sam-Bankman-Fried convicted of defrauding cryptocurrency customers. “After the monthlong trial, jurors rejected Bankman-Fried’s claim during four days on the witness stand in Manhattan federal court that he never committed fraud or meant to cheat customers before FTX, once the world’s second-largest crypto exchange, collapsed into bankruptcy a year ago.”

Reuters: Elon Musk asks court to reject SEC’s bid to force him to testify in Twitter probe. “Elon Musk asked a federal judge on Thursday not to force him to testify in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s probe into his $44 billion takeover of social media site Twitter. Musk filed the objections in San Francisco federal court, where the SEC sued him on Oct. 5 to make him testify for the probe, which it launched in April 2022.”

Meduza: Russian authorities ordered removal of 4,333 pieces of content from Yandex streaming service in first nine months of 2023. “The Russian streaming platform Yandex.Music deleted 4,333 pieces of content in response to demands from government agencies in the first nine months of 2023, the outlet RBC reported on Wednesday, citing a transparency report from the company.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Pew (PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!): 81% of U.S. adults – versus 46% of teens – favor parental consent for minors to use social media. “Many social media companies do not allow those under 13 to use their sites. Still, there’s a growing movement to develop stricter age verification measures, such as requiring users to provide government-issued identification. Legislators have pushed for mandatory parental consent and time restrictions for those under 18, arguing this will help parents better monitor what their children do on social media.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

New World Notes: The Nightmarishly Infinite Library Of Babel Has Haunted People For Decades. Now Borges’ Impossible Vision Exists In VRChat.. “I just visited the Library of Babel in VRChat, and the ambition of this creation is staggering. For a comparison, I have to think back to ‘The Crooked House’ of Second Life (inspired by a Robert Heinlein story), created in 2006 by mathematician Henry Segerman. In both cases, these are literary visions that can only tangibly, interactively exist in a virtual world.” Good morning, Internet…

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November 5, 2023 at 06:31PM
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India EV Adoption, Spain Building Data, Z-Library, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 4, 2023

India EV Adoption, Spain Building Data, Z-Library, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 4, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

ET Auto: EV-Ready India Dashboard: Over 1.6 cr annual EV sales by 2030; estimated to grow at a CAGR of 45.5%. “The EV-Ready India Dashboard, launched on Monday by R K Singh, Union Minister of Power, New and Renewable Energy, is an interactive tool that allows one to track, analyse, and display key performance indicators and metrics for growth of EVs in the country. A free to access platform, it is developed by the Ola Mobility Institute (OMI) Foundation, a policy research and social think tank.”

University of Southern California: The Evolución of Cities: AI Helps Map Madrid and More. “A team of researchers… has recently published ‘HISDAC-ES: Historical Settlement Data Compilation for Spain (1900-2020),’ which presents an accessible and publicly available dataset of Spanish cities derived from cadastral building data (i.e., official legal documentation concerning the dimensions, location, type, etc. of a building).”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Good E-Reader: Z-Library is back with a new domain name. “The user-friendly interface remains intact, ensuring easy navigation, swift searches, and efficient downloads, catering to the diverse needs of students and researchers. Crucially, the platform retains its open-access philosophy, welcoming users without subscription fees or mandatory registrations.”

Variety: HBO Boss Casey Bloys Apologizes for Using Fake Twitter Accounts to Troll TV Critics: ‘Dumb Idea’. “HBO and Max CEO and chairman Casey Bloys apologized to TV critics Thursday for using fake Twitter accounts to respond to negative reviews of HBO series, following a Wednesday report that revealed Bloys’ past behavior.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Ars Technica: People are speaking with ChatGPT for hours, bringing 2013’s Her closer to reality. “In 2013, Spike Jonze’s Her imagined a world where humans form deep emotional connections with AI, challenging perceptions of love and loneliness. Ten years later, thanks to ChatGPT’s recently added voice features, people are playing out a small slice of Her in reality, having hours-long discussions with the AI assistant on the go.”

Search Engine Land: Microsoft relaunches pubCenter, its Google AdSense alternative. “Microsoft wants small and mid-sized publishers to use pubCenter to monetize their websites, using display and native ads from the Microsoft Advertising Network. Not new, or is it? Microsoft pubCenter is not new – it dates back to 2008 and has its own Wikipedia page – so I guess this is technically a relaunch? Or maybe a reboot? Perhaps a reimagining?”

SECURITY & LEGAL

North Carolina Judicial Branch: Twelve N.C. Counties to Transition to eCourts on February 5, 2024 . “For the first time beginning February 5, 2024, court records in the 12 Track 3 counties will be searchable online at no-cost to the public, and attorneys and self-represented parties can electronically file court documents. The eCourts access to justice tool Guide & File, which assists self-represented users with creating common legal filings through an automated interview process, will allow electronic submissions in Track 3 counties on that date.”

New Voice of Ukraine: Russia makes fake Der Spiegel and Fox News websites to spread disinformation. “Russia has created fake websites that mimic prominent news organizations such as Der Spiegel and Fox News to spread disinformation, reads a Nov. 1 report from Ukraine’s Strategic Communications and Information Security Center, citing independent Russian news website the Insider.” Three guesses which social media platform they’re using.

RESEARCH & OPINION

ABC News (Australia): Why Wikipedia users document the history, cultures and wildlife of Western Australia. “With 55 million articles in 309 languages, and almost 7 million alone in English, Wikipedia has become a hub of information on practically anything you can think of. That includes the history, cultures, Indigenous languages and wildlife of regional Western Australia. But while many reading these articles may take them for granted, building the online database is the work of dedicated volunteers who are passionate about the online encyclopedia because it provides free information for all.”

Stanford University: Just Like Your Brain, ChatGPT Solves Problems Better When It Slows Down. “When presented with a problem, your brain has two ways to proceed: quickly and intuitively or slowly and methodically. These two types of processing are known as System 1 and System 2, or as the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman memorably described them, ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ thinking. Large language models like ChatGPT move fast by default.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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November 5, 2023 at 12:39AM
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WP Data Dashboard, Mastodon, Twitter, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, November 2, 2023

WP Data Dashboard, Mastodon, Twitter, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, November 2, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

WP Tavern: WP Data Dashboard Tracks WordPress.org Themes Ecosystem. “Munich-based digital agency owner Hendrik Luehrsen has been tracking the usage of themes with the FSE tag (block themes) using a spreadsheet that pulls in data from the WordPress.org API. Wrangling the data in a spreadsheet became too cumbersome, so Luehrsen launched WP Data Dashboard over the weekend as a ‘centralized hub for exploring, analyzing, and visualizing data across the WordPress landscape.'”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Mastodon takes on Twitter/X by bringing ‘lists’ to mobile. “Mastodon, the open source, decentralized alternative to Twitter/X, is adding a feature to its app that will help make the transition smoother for newcomers: Lists. The company today announced the Mastodon app for Android is adding the much-in-demand feature, which allows users to create custom lists around specific topics or interests. An update for iOS is expected to follow, though the company did not commit to a time frame.”

Rolling Stone: Elon Musk, Who Bought Twitter for $44 Billion, Now Values It at $19 Billion. “On Monday, Oct. 30, as Fortune reports, Musk awarded all the X employees he didn’t fire equity in the company, saying it was valued at $19 billion, or $45 a share. That’s a 55 percent drop in value from when Musk bought Twitter last year — and it might be an overly sunny assessment. The mutual fund company Fidelity — which contributed over $300 million to Musk’s Twitter takeover — just revealed it thinks the company is worth 65 percent less than it was last year.”

USEFUL STUFF

Bellingcat: Separating Fact from Fiction on Social Media in Times of Conflict. “At Bellingcat, we pride ourselves on providing tools and resources for our audience to think critically about sources they find online. In this short guide, we give a few tips on what to consider when confronted with an abundance of footage and claims. Here’s how to separate fact from fiction with real, recent examples of misinformation.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Artnet: ‘We Cannot Fight A.I.’: How Art Schools Are Navigating the Challenge of Artificial Intelligence. “While the rapid rise of A.I. creates as many possibilities as harms in the art world, it introduces its own set of concerns for schools of art and design. Will admissions officers know whether the artworks in an applicant’s portfolio were created with a few keystrokes, for instance? How should professors appraise works created entirely with A.I.? Will a degree lose value to prospective employers as A.I. becomes more powerful?”

New York Times: As Users Abandon X, Sports Twitter Endures. “Since Elon Musk bought Twitter last year, many users have abandoned the platform, spurred by a number of unpopular changes. Others have pronounced it dead. But in the same way that many households stuck with cable for game broadcasts, sports fans and sports reporters still find X indispensable because, they say, it remains the go-to place for live updates and hot takes about coaching decisions and umpire calls.”

The Verge: This app is making podcasts more TikTokable. “Detail, a podcast recording and editing app, is catering to the growing demand for video podcasts with a new multicam recording feature. Users can record simultaneously from two iPhones to produce a vertical video of two shots stacked on top of each other. It is a format that is optimized for TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, which are becoming increasingly important in the podcast space.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Canadian Press: Google CEO defends paying Apple and others to make Google the default search engine on devices. “Testifying in the biggest U.S. antitrust case in a quarter century, Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended his company’s practice of paying Apple and other tech companies to make Google the default search engine on their devices, saying the intent was to make the user experience ‘seamless and easy.'”

Reuters: Canada Bans Chinese App WeChat, Russia’s Kaspersky On Government Phones. “Canada on Monday banned popular Chinese messaging app WeChat and Russian platform Kaspersky from government smartphones and other mobile devices, citing privacy and security risks. The suite of applications would be immediately removed from government-issued devices and users will be blocked from downloading them in the future, said a statement.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Washington: A Google Slides extension can make presentation software more accessible for blind users. “A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has created A11yBoard for Google Slides, a browser extension and phone app that allows blind users to navigate through complex slide layouts and text. Combining a desktop computer with a mobile device, A11yBoard lets users work with audio, touch, gesture, speech recognition and search to understand where different objects are located on a slide and move these objects around to create rich layouts.”

University of Wisconsin-Madison: From ********* to EZacces$! Your browser extension could grab your password and sensitive info . “When you type a password or credit card number into a website, you expect that your sensitive data will be protected by a system designed to keep it secure. That’s not always the case, according to a group of digital security researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They found that some popular websites are vulnerable to browser extensions that can extract user data like passwords, credit card information and social security numbers from HTML code. A preprint of their work has already created a buzz in tech circles.”

The Conversation: How to redesign social media algorithms to bridge divides. “Current engagement-based algorithms make predictions about which posts are most likely to generate clicks, likes, shares or views – and use these predictions to rank the most engaging content at the top of your feed. This tends to amplify the most polarising voices, because divisive perspectives are very engaging. Bridging-based ranking uses a different set of signals to determine which content gets ranked highly. One approach is to increase the rank of content that receives positive feedback from people who normally disagree.” Good morning, Internet…

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November 2, 2023 at 05:31PM
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CISA’s Logging Made Easy, World Digital Preservation Day, Preserving Photographs, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 1, 2023

CISA’s Logging Made Easy, World Digital Preservation Day, Preserving Photographs, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 1, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

CISA: CISA Announces New Release of Logging Made Easy. “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announces a new release of Logging Made Easy, a Windows-based, free and open log management solution designed to help organizations more effectively use available security data to detect and address cyber threats.”

EVENTS

Digital Library of Georgia: November 2 is World Digital Preservation Day 2023!. “We completely understand that most people don’t have the bandwidth to thoughtfully consider long-term preservation as well as access–but please remember there are people and resources that you can call upon to ensure your digital content is preserved.”

USEFUL STUFF

Southeast Missourian: Missouri State Archives produces video series on preserving photographs. “The Missouri State Archives is offering a YouTube series on preserving photographs. The seven-part series includes information on how to identify certain types of photography, the inherent preservation challenges with each type of photograph, as well as processes on properly storing, handling and displaying them.” I watched the first minute of part 1 to check the captions. They were excellent though with one odd error: “which aids in” was transcribed “which AIDS in”.

MakeUseOf: 7 Websites to Practice Data Structure & Algorithm Coding Challenges. “Software engineering interviews often involve several rounds. Data structures and algorithms are one of the critical areas that employers may test. As such, it’s a no-brainer that you need to sharpen your data structures and algorithms (DSA) skills if you want to ace technical interviews. Fortunately, there are many websites you can use to learn about DSA and practice your understanding.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

WIRED: Inside Elon Musk’s First Election Crisis—a Day After He ‘Freed’ the Bird. “The day after Elon Musk closed his deal to buy Twitter, the company’s Seattle office held a Halloween party for employees and their children. Rebecca Scott Thein dressed in bright green to play an alien to her daughter’s Buzz Lightyear. Thein, whose job at Twitter (now X) was to help the platform plan for and navigate elections, was driving to the party when an urgent call came in. On the other end of the phone was a member of Twitter’s policy team. The company had just received a ‘consent decree’—essentially, a threat of legal action—in Brazil, which was about to hold runoffs for highly polarized presidential and gubernatorial elections.”

Wales Online: Burglary victim tracked down £23k stolen car using Google Earth. “Jamie began messaging the thief on Snapchat who was demanding £2,000 to return the vehicle and ‘gained their trust by being friendly to them.’ Meanwhile tech savvy Jamie helped Jayy do a reverse image search of the building the car was parked next to and managed to triangulate the location after spotting the name of a housing estate on a wheelie bin. The pair then used Google Earth to identify the exact street where the vehicle was parked before calling police.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Diplomat: Former Myanmar Information Minister Arrested Over Social Media Posts. “Ye Htut, a former army officer, served as information minister and presidential spokesperson in the military-backed administration of President Thein Sein. In a statement yesterday, the military’s information office said the 64-year-old had been detained on Saturday evening in connection with ‘spreading wrong information on social media.'”

CBC News: Toronto Public Library dealing with cybersecurity ‘incident’ impacting some services. “The Toronto Public Library’s website, map passes and digital collections cannot be accessed, the library said in a statement that appears when users try to access the website. It said public computers and printing services at branches are also unavailable.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Daily Bruin: Opinion: Internet privacy matters more than Google’s glittering facade. “While the birth of the internet sparked fantasies of a decentralized, democratic utopia through the spread of ideas and global exchange, we might be back at square one. It’s time to re-imagine an internet where human liberty is prioritized and preserved through honoring consumer preferences and hedging back against coercive and exclusionary business models.”

Aalto University: Virtual meetings tire people because we’re doing them wrong. “New research suggests sleepiness during virtual meetings is caused by mental underload and boredom. Earlier studies suggested that fatigue from virtual meetings stems from mental overload, but new research from Aalto University shows that sleepiness during virtual meetings might actually be a result of mental underload and boredom.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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November 2, 2023 at 12:52AM
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Ireland Outdoor Activities, Pomodoro Apps, Google, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, November 1, 2023

Ireland Outdoor Activities, Pomodoro Apps, Google, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, November 1, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Leave No Trace Ireland: The launch of the National Database of Sport & Recreation Amenities is here!. “Today Sport Ireland are launching the new National Digital Database for sport & recreation amenities across Ireland. This new website… is a single online hub for all outdoor recreation, and is a huge step towards providing accessible information for anyone who wants to experience Ireland’s outdoor spaces.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: The Best Free Pomodoro Timers and Apps to Boost Productivity. “The Pomodoro Technique can be used to cut down on procrastination by scheduling work and break periods throughout the day. While any old timer will do, dedicated timer apps make it easier to get started and stick with it.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Boing Boing: Google returning AI nonsense in search highlights. “‘While there are 54 recognized countries in Africa, none of them begin with the letter “K”‘, Google search asserts. ‘The closest is Kenya, which starts with a “K” sound, but is actually spelled with a “K” sound. It’s always interesting to learn new trivia facts like this.’ This drivel was reportedly the top, prominently quoted result for the search term ‘African country that starts with K’ and represents an inhuman centipede: AI-generated SEO-optimized content rising to the top and ending up as the automated answers Google offers to questions.”

The Provincetown Independent: An Online Archive of Provincetown’s Past — and Future. “[Stefan] Anikewich’s posts appear the same way a beachcomber’s artifacts do — gems from nearly every corner and decade of the town’s history surface with a strangely pleasing refusal to submit to an orderly timeline. There’s an 1898 photo of Provincetown taken from the harbor, a 1970s photo of a woman with a soft sculpture of the Pilgrim Monument in her bike basket, 1957 footage of a stroll down Commercial Street, and a 1916 photo of students in Charles Hawthorne’s Cape Cod School of Art painting on the wharf.”

The Verge: The restaurant nearest Google. “Thai Food Near Me, Dentist Near Me, Notary Near Me, Plumber Near Me — businesses across the country picked names meant to outsmart Google Search. Does it actually work?”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Engadget: Sweeping White House AI executive order takes aim at the technology’s toughest challenges. “The Biden Administration unveiled its ambitious next steps in addressing and regulating artificial intelligence development on Monday. Its expansive new executive order seeks to establish further protections for the public as well as improve best practices for federal agencies and their contractors.”

Harvard Gazette: How facial-recognition app poses threat to privacy, civil liberties. “[Kashmir] Hill spoke of the need to come up with regulations to safeguard users’ privacy and rein in social media platforms that are profiting from users’ personal information without their consent. Some states have passed laws to protect people’s right to access personal information shared on social media sites and the right to delete it, but that is not enough, she said.”

Washington University in St. Louis: WashU Expert: Your smart speaker data is used in ways you might not expect. “We’ve all had the uncanny experience of searching for something on the internet and then suddenly ads for that very thing are popping up everywhere we look online. It’s no coincidence, said Umar Iqbal, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University College Cork: First ever study of wartime deepfakes reveals their impact on news media. “Deepfakes are artificially manipulated audio-visual material. Most deepfake videos involve the production of a fake ‘face’ constructed by Artificial Intelligence, that is merged with an authentic video, in order to create a video of an event that never really took place…. Researchers at University College Cork (UCC) examined tweets during the current Russian-Ukrainian war, in what is the first analysis of the use of deepfakes in wartime misinformation and propaganda. The study is published today in PLOS ONE.”

EurekAlert: Right-wing social media benefited from high-profile suspensions on mainstream platforms. “Following the ban of prominent political figures from Twitter, such as former US President Donald Trump, many alt-tech platforms – offering uncensored speech and popular with the far-right – have gained significant influence across the digital media ecosystem.”

NL Times: Teenagers frequently exposed to climate misinformation on TikTok, study finds. “Teenagers searching for information about climate change on TikTok frequently encounter misinformation, according to a study by Pointer and Beeld & Geluid. Out of 240 climate change-related videos analyzed, 73 had misleading content, representing 30 percent of the total. TikTok responded to the findings by taking corrective measures.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Lunduke: How to play the first text adventure game… in style.. “The very first major text adventure game, Colossal Cave Adventure, is 47 years old this year. And the 3D re-make (by the legendary Ken and Roberta Williams, founders of Sierra) has been released (allowing you to explore the cave in Virtual Reality). So, let’s take a few moments to enjoy the original classic… with a little help. Wether you are new to Colossal Cave Adventure (often simply called ‘adventure’ or ‘ADVENT’), or have simply not played it in some time, below you will find everything you need to experience the game in the most ultimate way possible.” Good morning, Internet…

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November 1, 2023 at 05:34PM
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