Hindi Cinema, The Georgia Bulletin, Detecting Ecommerce Scams, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 21, 2023

Hindi Cinema, The Georgia Bulletin, Detecting Ecommerce Scams, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 21, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Google Blog: Explore the rich legacy of Hindi cinema. “Journey through our collection of over 7,000 cinema artifacts and learn from stories curated by our partners— or, play our first-ever Hindi cinema puzzle party game. And with the help of augmented reality technology, project the poster of your favorite Hindi movie anytime and anywhere.”

The Georgia Bulletin: Sixty years of The Georgia Bulletin . “A project of the Office of Archives and Records of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, full text issues of the local Catholic newspaper from 1963 to current times are now digitized. Over several years, the Office of Archives and Records sent batches of historical print issues of The Georgia Bulletin for preservation scanning. This protects fragile papers from further damage. Researchers can now easily access local Catholic history in north Georgia.”

RTE: New tool launched to prevent online shopping scams. “‘CheckMyLink’ is a security tool built by Munster Technological University Cyber Skills in collaboration with Scam Adviser and An Garda Síochána. It checks that the website someone is about to buy from is genuine and free from malware.” I tried it briefly. Basically it runs a bunch of checks against a domain name. Sometimes it’s confusing — the legitimate Amazon domain name has really bad TrustPilot ratings — but overall it provides a lot of useful information.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Washington Post: In rare show of force, senators enlist U.S. marshals to subpoena tech CEOs. (This link is to a gift article.) “A Senate panel announced Monday it subpoenaed the CEOs of Discord, Snap and Elon Musk’s X to testify at a hearing on children’s online safety next month after ‘repeated refusals’ by the tech companies to cooperate with its investigation into the matter.”

CT Insider: Connecticut attorney general blasts X, leaves social media site. “Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, citing a litany of charges against X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, left the site last week over what he said was owner Elon Musk’s divisive posts.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Jambands: Neil Young Leaves X Following Musk’s Antisemitic Sentiments. “Two years after Neil Young took his music off Spotify following COVID-19 vaccine misinformation by Joe Rogan on the platform, the artist has once again used his absence from a digital platform as a form of protest, this time stepping off X due to Elon Musk’s antisemitic sentiments.”

404 Media: Bing Generates Disney Logos, Definitely Won’t Incur Disney’s Wrath . “Microsoft is trying to play prompt generation keyword whack-a-mole with AI-generated copyright infringement against one of the most powerful entertainment companies in the world: Disney.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

WIRED: Secretive White House Surveillance Program Gives Cops Access to Trillions of US Phone Records. “A little-known surveillance program tracks more than a trillion domestic phone records within the United States each year, according to a letter WIRED obtained that was sent by US senator Ron Wyden to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Sunday, challenging the program’s legality.”

The Verge: A secret Google deal let Spotify completely bypass Android’s app store fees. “On the stand, Google head of global partnerships Don Harrison confirmed Spotify paid a 0 percent commission when users chose to buy subscriptions through Spotify’s own system. If the users picked Google as their payment processor, Spotify handed over 4 percent — dramatically less than Google’s more common 15 percent fee.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Gothenberg: Nostalgia and memories after ten years of social media. “As possibilities have changed and technology has advanced, memories and nostalgia are now a significant part of our use of social media. This is shown in a study from the University of Gothenburg and University West.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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November 22, 2023 at 01:23AM
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The Origins of West End Theatre, New Jersey College Students, Kid-Friendly Covid Information, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, November 21, 2023

The Origins of West End Theatre, New Jersey College Students, Kid-Friendly Covid Information, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, November 21, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Northeastern University: London’s underground theater scene takes center stage in new Northeastern mapping project. “Funded by the NULab for Texts, Maps and Networks, [The Origins of West End Theatre] presents information about 45 different theaters that were active from 1660 to 1812. In doing so, it shines new light on a largely forgotten — but significant — part of London’s theater history.”

State of New Jersey: Office of the Secretary of Higher Education Launches BasicNeeds.NJ.gov Resource Hub at Convening of Campus Practitioners . “BasicNeeds.NJ.gov – designed in collaboration with the Office of Innovation – centralizes information relevant to students regarding housing, food, transportation, child care, and other similar supports, while providing an overview of eligibility and the processes for seeking State assistance.”

University of Nebraska Medical Center: Online resource offers child-friendly lesson on COVID-19. “Parents and guardians looking to find a child-friendly yet scientifically accurate way of speaking to kids about COVID-19 and other communicable diseases can turn to a new resource from UNMC, in partnership with the ‘Youth in Agriculture’ education program. A user-friendly online COVID-19 Training mini-course for kids now is available via phone, tablet or desktop computer.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

9to5 Linux: Mozilla Firefox 120 Is Now Available for Download, Here’s What’s New. “Mozilla published today the final build of the Firefox 120 web browser, slated for release on November 21st, 2023, so it’s time to take a closer look at the new features and improvements.”

The Messenger: Linda Yaccarino Faces Pressure To Resign as Major Advertisers Flee Elon Musk’s X. “As reported in Forbes on Monday, Yaccarino faces pressure from leading advertising executives to take a stand against her boss and X’s owner, Elon Musk, who has ignited fresh controversy over antisemitism on the platform by responding to posts that include anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Press & Journal: From Ringo to Robbie: Nairn photographer’s 50 years capturing music legends. “The Marnie Archives are the work of a man who has been completely uncompromising in his choice of life path, sacrificing financial security, relationships and even home life for his craft…. Marc’s vast archive was nearly lost when the basement where they were stored was flooded. Now he’s trying to preserve the prints by digitising them for posterity. He reckons 90% of them have never yet been seen.”

Mashable: Right-wing influencers pledge to bail out Elon Musk after Apple, Disney, others suspend advertising on X. “…numerous right-wing media companies and influencers have come together and pledged support for Elon Musk, promising to advertise on X in order to make up for the revenue lost from fleeing businesses… The controversial Andrew Tate, a ‘manosphere’ influencer who has previously been charged with rape and human trafficking, pledged the largest amount, saying he’d give Musk $1 million per month without even running ads for his own endeavors.”

CBC: Drivers keep going the wrong way down this Ottawa street. Google Maps is to blame. “On any given day, Emily Robinson usually sees up to a dozen cars travel down her one-way street in the wrong direction. That’s not for a lack of signage — there are no-entry and one-way signs posted at intersections along Glen Avenue in Old Ottawa South. When you look at a map on Google Maps, the arrows along Glen Avenue point one way. When drivers ask for directions, though, Robinson said they’re sometimes sent down it in the opposite direction.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Bloomberg Crypto X account snafu leads to Discord phishing attack. “The official Twitter account for Bloomberg Crypto was used earlier today to redirect users to a deceptive website that stole Discord credentials in a phishing attack. As first spotted by crypto fraud investigator ZachXBT, the profile contained a link to a Telegram channel with 14,000 members, further pushing visitors to join a fake Bloomberg Discord server with 33,968 members.”

Bloomberg: British Library Says Ransomware Attack Behind Weeks-Long Outage. “The British Library said a ransomware attack by a criminal group is the cause of a technology outage which has disabled its website and other computer systems for weeks.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Chemical & Engineering News: Exposing a most unscrupulous journal. “What [Michael] Fischer noticed was a mix of fraudulent practices that are typical in so-called predatory journals and more-subtle misbehaviors that are common among even prestigious and widely read publications. For Fischer, ET Nano stuck out because of its brazenness and disregard for good scientific practice.”

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory: Want Better AI? Get Input From a Real (Human) Expert. “Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have put forth a new way to evaluate an AI system’s recommendations. They bring human experts into the loop to view how the ML performed on a set of data. The expert learns which types of data the machine-learning system typically classifies correctly, and which data types lead to confusion and system errors. Armed with this knowledge, the experts then offer their own confidence score on future system recommendations.” Good morning, Internet…

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November 21, 2023 at 06:31PM
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Food Facts, Equine Science Books, Spooky Skeletons, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 20, 2023

Food Facts, Equine Science Books, Spooky Skeletons, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 20, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

European Food Information Council: New Food Facts community to empower media and scientists to fight food misinformation together. “In a bid to enhance the quality of food-related reporting and counter misinformation on food EUFIC is launching its online community Food Facts during the Global Media and Information Literacy Week. The initiative aims to provide a platform for the exchange of information between media and experts with insights in the realm of healthy and sustainable nutrition, including topics that frequently appear in the news such as sugar, fats, food additives (such as sweeteners), processed food, obesity or diabetes.”

International Federation for Equestrian Sports: The horse at the core of an innovative partnership between the FEI and France’s University of Caen. “La Bibliothèque Mondiale du Cheval (World Horse Library) is an innovative digital library combining the resources of public and private libraries around the world on the subject of the horse. The Library currently has an inventory of over 15,000 books with over a quarter that have been digitalised and is constantly being enriched by the addition of new works.”

University of Missouri: No Bones About It: An exhibit of spooky skeletons. “You’ll get a chance to look at works like Andreas Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica libri septim (Of the construction of the human body in seven books), where you’ll be able to see how the human body works as Vesalius takes you through the bones of the human body in great detail, and Philip-Étienne Lafosse’s Cours d’hippiatrique (Lesson in hippiatry) which displays the anatomy of horses in great detail. Our dances of the dead from the 15th century onwards show skeletons imitating living people (or should we say, living people imitating skeletons?).”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Microsoft hires former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. “Altman was fired from OpenAI on Friday, after the board said it ‘no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.’ After a weekend of negotiations to potentially bring Altman back to OpenAI, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that both Sam Altman and Greg Brockman will be joining to lead Microsoft’s new advanced AI research team.”

ProPublica: ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer Gets Email Alerts and Other Major Improvements. “We’ve added email alerts, overhauled our search, created better document pages, added charts and much more.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Hindu: Servants of Knowledge to digitally archive Motilal Banarsidass’ out-of-copyright books. “Servants of Knowledge and Public Resource… are set to take up digital archiving of some of the publications of Motilal Banarsidass, a 120-year-old Delhi-based publisher. Motilal Banarsidass recently arrived at an agreement with Public Resource and Servants of Knowledge to create a free and open archive of all its out-of-copyright books or old books that will not be republished.”

AFP: News anchors targeted by deepfake scammers on Facebook. “In a Facebook video viewed by thousands, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer appears to hawk a diabetes drug. In another, ‘CBS Mornings’ host Gayle King seems to endorse weight loss products. But the clips are doctored — the latest in a rash of deepfakes that hijack images of trusted news personalities in spurious ads, undermining confidence in the news media. Similar social media posts in recent months have targeted Fox News personality Jesse Watters, CBC host Ian Hanomansing and BBC stars Matthew Amroliwala and Sally Bundock.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: The White House May Condemn Musk, but the Government Is Addicted to Him. “The White House denounced Elon Musk on Friday for ‘abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate,’ for his endorsement of what an administration spokesman called a ‘hideous lie’ about Jews. All of which might make one think the Biden administration was going to try to pull back from doing business with the world’s richest person. Except that, in recent weeks, the U.S. government has become more dependent on him than ever…”

RESEARCH & OPINION

North Carolina State University: What Is Open Science? An Intro, Common Misconceptions and Advice . “In January, the United States government declared 2023 the Year of Open Science. At NC State University’s Center for Geospatial Analytics, our researchers have been doing open science for years. Yet, misconceptions about the term remain among the scientific community. What exactly is meant by ‘open science’? And how can a scientist be sure their (and others’) research is as ‘open’ as they think it is?”

Library of Congress: Introducing the LC Labs Artificial Intelligence Planning Framework. “LC Labs has been developing a planning framework to support the responsible exploration and potential adoption of AI at the Library. At a high level, the framework includes three planning phases: 1) Understand 2) Experiment and 3) Implement, each supports the evaluation of three elements of ML: 1) Data; 2) Models; and 3) People. We’ve developed a set of worksheets, questionnaires, and workshops to engage stakeholders and staff and identify priorities for future AI enhancements and services. The mechanisms, tools, collaborations, and artifacts together form the AI Planning Framework.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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November 21, 2023 at 01:51AM
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Disinformation Laws Worldwide, Canada Black Music Archives, YouTube, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, November 20, 2023

Disinformation Laws Worldwide, Canada Black Music Archives, YouTube, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, November 20, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

International Journalists’ Network: New tool tracks disinformation laws globally. “Amid the rise in disinformation today, journalists should look into legal measures adopted by countries around the world to combat it. Brazil’s Agência Lupa is helping reporters do just that, this month launching an interactive map showing national and supranational laws globally intended to legislate disinformation online. The tool, called LupaMundi, provides details about the legislation while helping users better understand the nature of the laws and how they could be used against journalists.”

Canada Newswire: Canada Black Music Archives (CBMA) Launches As The Definitive Digital Repository Of Black Canadian Musical Heritage (PRESS RELEASE). “The CBMA aims to fill a crucial gap in Canada’s historical narrative by providing a digital platform accessible to all, highlighting the remarkable contributions, stories, and legacies of Black musicians across various genres.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: YouTube now allows monetization on videos with breastfeeding nudity and ‘non-sexually graphic dancing’. “YouTube is updating its guidelines to allow new types of content to monetize adult content, including videos that display nudity while breastfeeding and non-sexually graphic dancing.”

Engadget: Bluesky hits 2 million users and will soon release a public web interface. “Bluesky hit 1 million users merely a couple of months ago, in September, which could mean that the platform has been sending out more invites recently. In its post announcing the milestone, the Bluesky team has also revealed that it’s launching a public web interface around the end of November. The interface will allow anybody, even those without an account, to view posts on the platform.”

How-To Geek: Old Nook eReaders Are Losing Book Store Access. “The book retailer Barnes & Noble has announced that it is ending support for the Nook Simple Touch (released in 2011), Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight (released in 2012), and the Nook GlowLight (released in 2013). The official end of support will come in April 2024, and in June 2024, the devices will lose the ability to register or sign in with a B&N account, and no new content can be purchased. However, downloaded books will continue to work, and PDF and ePub books can still be copied to the storage.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

BusinessWire: National Comedy Center to Preserve Don Rickles Archive (PRESS RELEASE). “The National Comedy Center, the United States’ official cultural institution dedicated to the art form of comedy, announced today that it will be preserving an archival collection from Don Rickles’ estate, showcasing the late comedy legend’s six-decade career. The collection spans from the 1950s to 2000s, chronicling a storied life in comedy through rare photographs, correspondence, creative papers, and wardrobe—all of which will be preserved at the National Comedy Center.”

Ars Technica: “Make It Real” AI prototype wows devs by turning drawings into working software. “On Wednesday, a collaborative whiteboard app maker called ‘tldraw’ made waves online by releasing a prototype of a feature called ‘Make it Real’ that lets users draw an image of software and bring it to life using AI. The feature uses OpenAI’s GPT-4V API to visually interpret a vector drawing into functioning Tailwind CSS and JavaScript web code that can replicate user interfaces or even create simple implementations of games like Breakout.”

Axios: What makes the X advertiser revolt different from other boycotts. “A slew of marquee advertisers suspended their advertising on X, formerly Twitter, Friday in response to a post by owner Elon Musk that endorsed an antisemitic post Wednesday. Why it matters: This is the closest X has come to a large-scale boycott since Musk purchased the platform more than a year ago.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: The Invisible War in Ukraine Being Fought Over Radio Waves. “Using electromagnetic waves to flummox and follow smarter weapons has become a critical part of the cat-and-mouse game between Ukraine and Russia. The United States, China and others have taken note.”

MoneyControl (India): MeitY to meet Meta, Google, other platforms and ‘brainstorm’ on deepfakes. “The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is set to meet social media platforms, including Meta and Google, in the next few days, and ‘brainstorm’ on how to mitigate the persistent issue of AI-generated deepfakes on such platforms. This comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the issue of this technology, and termed it as ‘problematic’.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Yale: Making Computing Sustainable, With Help from NSF Grant. “Working with Prof. Noa Zilberman from Oxford University, [Professor Robert] Soulé has received a grant jointly funded by the United Kingdom’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and United States’ National Science Foundation (NSF) for work that aims to reduce the energy consumption of computing. Specifically, it sets its sights on computer networks, which consume an estimated one-and-a-half times the energy of all data centers, according to some reports.”

Daily Maverick (South Africa): My robbery nightmare in Nyanga, Cape Town, directed by Google Maps. “On Monday, 13 November, Daily Maverick published an article entitled ‘Google Maps will no longer direct visitors through Cape Town township after attacks on motorists’. On the same day, I messaged Google urging them not to send motorists to Muizenberg through Nyanga because, unbeknown to Daily Maverick, the ‘most recent’ attack wasn’t in October, but on 10 November. I know this because it happened to me.” Good morning, Internet…

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November 20, 2023 at 06:31PM
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Kentucky Historical Records, New York City Apartments, Google Chrome, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 19, 2023

Kentucky Historical Records, New York City Apartments, Google Chrome, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 19, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

WEKU: UK, other partners put Lexington historical records online. “With a few clicks, people can now access Lexington history from the 1780s to the 1870s. University of Kentucky students have digitized nearly 80-thousand deeds and other records and posted it on the Fayette County Clerk’s website.”

AM NY: City launches revamp of website that provides details about tens of thousands of apartments. “The city on Friday officially launched a revamp of its website that provides New Yorkers with information on apartments across the Big Apple in a bid to make crucial details about their homes more accessible. The city Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development’s (HPD) relaunched website — known as HPD Online — offers a bevy of information to tenants and building owners alike about tens of thousands of apartments in the five boroughs, according to the agency.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Register: What’s really going on with Chrome’s June crackdown on extensions – and why your ad blocker may or may not work . “Web advert blockers and other Chrome extensions will stop working by June 2024 unless they’ve been revamped to keep up with Google’s changes to its ubiquitous browser. And even then, if those content-filtering extensions have been updated to meet Google’s latest specifications and requirements, the add-ons may not work as well or as comprehensively as they did previously.”

The Verge: Discord is shutting down its AI chatbot Clyde. “Discord is shutting down Clyde, its experimental AI chatbot. In a support note, Discord says the chatbot will be ‘deactivated’ at the end of the month, and that by December 1st ‘users will no longer be able to invoke Clyde in DMs, Group DMs or server chats.'”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CNN: Disney and Lionsgate halt advertising on X. “Disney said it has suspended advertising on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. The decision by one of the world’s most prominent film and television companies suggests an intensifying advertiser backlash to X after the social media platform’s owner, Elon Musk, embraced an antisemitic conspiracy theory popular among White supremacists.”

KUTV: Utah Historical Society pushes ‘The Peoples of Utah Revisited’ to celebrate growing diversity . “The book ‘The Peoples of Utah’ was published nearly 50 years ago by the Utah Historical Society. It explores stories of the lives of people from various cultures who came and settled in our state. Now, there’s a new project underway to build on the research conducted back then and inspire the next generation. It’s called ‘The Peoples of Utah Revisited.’ Each of the 14 chapters are devoted to specific ethnic communities that migrated to Utah.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Guardian: Elon Musk to file ‘thermonuclear lawsuit’ as advertisers desert X. “Elon Musk has said he will be filing a ‘thermonuclear lawsuit’ against Media Matters and others, after major US companies paused their adverts on his social media site over concerns about antisemitism.”

New Voice of Ukraine: Nearly 4,000 cyber attacks against Ukraine recorded over 20 months, says US Treasury. “Nearly 4,000 cyber attacks against Ukraine occurred between January 2022 and September 2023, according to Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Treasury Department, Graham Steele, on Nov. 17.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Mail & Guardian, South Africa: Using art and traditional storytelling as tools to combat the infection that is fake news in Africa. “Perhaps going back to the traditional way of storytelling — first about threats and opportunities of technology or the digital world — can influence mindsets, attitudes, perspectives, behaviour and understating. Especially to kill the bias that often comes with being stuck in the fixed mindset.”

New York Times: How Bad Is Antisemitism Online? It’s Increasingly Hard to Know.. “As the Israel-Hamas war flooded social media with violent content, false information and a seemingly limitless swell of opinions, lawmakers and users have accused platforms like TikTok and Facebook of promoting biased posts…. Where the truth lies, however, is hard to glean, according to academic researchers and advocacy groups.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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November 20, 2023 at 01:36AM
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International Labour Organization, NOAA Coral Reef Monitoring, Great East Japan Earthquake Archive, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, November 19, 2023

International Labour Organization, NOAA Coral Reef Monitoring, Great East Japan Earthquake Archive, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, November 19, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

International Labour Organization: New ILO Research Repository showcases ILO research and expertise. “The International Labour Organization (ILO) has launched a new Research Repository that provides better access to ILO research, as well as information on the work of ILO experts. The new repository creates a one-stop-shop for ILO research publications and other knowledge assets. It already contains around 20,000 publications, mostly published since 2000.”

NOAA: NOAA unveils new tool for exploring coral reef data. “NOAA’s National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) launched a new data visualization tool today, which will provide free and easy-to-access information on the status of U.S. coral reefs. It is the first tool focusing on shallow tropical coral reef data to be hosted on the NOAA GeoPlatform, which is NOAA’s central hub for geospatial data and tools.”

EVENTS

National Diet Library, Japan: Handing down memories of the earthquake and traditions of the community—the FY2023 Great East Japan Earthquake Archive Symposium will be held on January 8, 2024. “The National Diet Library and the International Research Institute of Disaster Science at Tohoku University (IRIDeS) will cosponsor a symposium on the Great East Japan Earthquake Archive to be held Monday, January 8, 2024, a national holiday in Japan. Interested parties will be able either to attend the event at Tohoku University in Sendai, Miyagi, or to watch a live video stream online.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Change in X’s terms indicate EU researchers will get API access. “After taking over Twitter last year, Elon Musk famously yanked API access from third-party apps and changed API pricing tiers to make it difficult for researchers to access and study the platform’s data. Now the company he’s since renamed X has backtracked in the European Union where legal obligations in the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) require larger platforms (so called VLOPs) to provide data access to external researchers doing public interest research on systemic risks.”

Gizmodo: Google’s ChatGPT Competitor Will Have to Wait. “Google is having a hard time catching up with OpenAI. Google’s competitor to ChatGPT will not be ready until early 2024, after previously telling some cloud customers it would get to use Gemini AI in November of this year, sources told The Information Thursday.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times: Jewish Celebrities and Influencers Confront TikTok Executives in Private Call. “More than a dozen Jewish TikTok creators and celebrities confronted TikTok executives and other employees in a private meeting on Wednesday night, urging them to do more to address a surge of antisemitism and harassment on the popular video service.”

404 Media: Users Can’t Speak to Viral AI Girlfriend CarynAI Because CEO Is in Jail for Arson. “People who paid to speak to an AI girlfriend modeled after real life 23-year-old influencer Caryn Marjorie are distraught because the service they paid for, Forever Companions, no longer works. It appears that the service stopped working shortly after Forever Companion CEO and founder John Meyer was arrested for trying to set his own apartment on fire.”

California State Library: More than $1.5 Million in California Civil Liberties Public Education Grants Now Available. (This link goes to a PDF.) “California community groups, artists, authors and filmmakers, can now apply for more than $1.5 million to create educational materials, documentaries, and online exhibits as part of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program. Applications for grants from the program are now available online and due back January 15, 2024. The civil liberties program pays for projects that educate the public about the history and lessons of civil rights violations and injustices, such as the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, as well as treatment of other communities and populations.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Times of India: Deepfakes: Social media companies summoned over deepfakes. “The Indian government has summoned social media giants, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (now known as X), and YouTube, to discuss the law of deepfakes. This comes in response to a recent controversy overa fake video of actress Rashmika Mandanna.”

Mashable: Elon Musk’s X: Ad watchdog files FTC complaint against it for not clearly disclosing ads. “Elon Musk’s new ad policies for X may cost the company after an online advertising watchdog officially filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Check My Ads, an independent organization that monitors adtech companies, announced on Wednesday that it submitted a formal complaint with the FTC, ‘urging’ for an investigation into X and its ad practices.”

Bleeping Computer: Google: Hackers exploited Zimbra zero-day in attacks on govt orgs. “According to Google’s threat analysts, the threat actors exploited the vulnerability on government systems in Greece, Moldova, Tunisia, Vietnam, and Pakistan to steal email data, user credentials, and authentication tokens, perform email forwarding, and lead victims to phishing pages.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Chapman University: Exposing the Holocaust Lies on the Dark Side of Wikipedia . “Our study, published in February 2023 in the peer-reviewed ‘Journal of Holocaust Research,’ exposed a persistent Holocaust disinformation campaign on English Wikipedia. In 60 heavily footnoted pages, we examined two dozen Wikipedia articles on the Holocaust in Poland and more than 300 back pages (talk pages, noticeboards and arbitration cases — spaces where editors decide what the rest of the world will accept as fact).” Good morning, Internet…

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November 19, 2023 at 06:31PM
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WhaleVis, New Mexico Land Usage, Twitter, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 18, 2023

WhaleVis, New Mexico Land Usage, Twitter, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 18, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Washington: WhaleVis turns more than a century of whaling data into an interactive map. “A dataset maintained by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) contains detailed information on commercial whale catches — more than 2.1 million records, predominantly from 1880 until the IWC banned whaling in 1986. Yet for researchers, distilling that data can prove its own challenge. A team at the University of Washington has created an online interactive map called WhaleVis, which lets whale researchers visualize the IWC’s data on global whale catches and whaling routes.”

KRQE: New Mexico farmers can now find land on new website. “What is a farmer without access to land? A new website launched by the New Mexico State University’s Cooperative Extension Service aims to make sure those looking for land can connect with local landowners. The site is called New Mexico LandLink. Sort of like a social media site, New Mexico LandLink lets people find each other and connect with the goal of putting good land to use.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Politico: X can’t shirk FTC privacy settlement, or block Elon Musk’s deposition. “In an 11-page order issued less than an hour after a hearing in San Francisco federal court on Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson ruled he has no authority over the FTC’s administrative proceedings and declined to throw out or pause the settlement. He also said he has no authority to bar the agency from deposing the company’s owner and former CEO, Elon Musk.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Politico: European Commission tells staff to ditch ads on X. “The European Commission’s communications department has asked all EU executive services to stop running adverts on X, the social media platform, over ‘widespread concerns relating to the spread of disinformation,’ according to an internal note obtained by Playbook.”

BBC: AI chief quits over ‘exploitative’ copyright row. “A senior executive at the tech firm Stability AI has resigned over the company’s view that it is acceptable to use copyrighted work without permission to train its products. Ed Newton-Rex was head of audio at the firm, which is based in the UK and US.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Hill: Campaigns are using AI. Tech companies are figuring out how to disclose what’s real.. “Meta and YouTube are crafting disclosure policies for use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in political ads as the debate over how the government should regulate the technology stretches toward the 2024 election.”

Reuters: US SEC presses judge to force Elon Musk to testify in Twitter probe. “The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday urged a federal judge to force billionaire Elon Musk to testify for its investigation into his $44 billion takeover of social media giant Twitter, now known as X. In a document filed in federal court in San Francisco on Thursday, the SEC defended its efforts to compel Musk’s testimony, saying agency officials are acting within their authority.”

Associated Press: FTC warns food industry trade groups and influencers about disclosures on paid social media posts. “The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday said it issued warnings to two food and beverage industry groups, as well as a dozen online influencers, for failing to adequately disclose paid social media posts that promoted a sweetener and sugary products.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

John Scalzi: Yup, Done With the Former Twitter. “Elon Musk, the most unfathomably insecure and pathetic billionaire the world has ever seen, has gone mask-off antisemite, and that means that while I had already reduced my participation on the former Twitter, now I’m off it entirely. I’m keeping the account so that no one can swoop in and take a screenname that’s been associated with me for the last fifteen years, but no more posting, and no more participation. Until and unless the service is sold to someone who isn’t Musk (and possibly even then, depending), I’m out, I’m through, I’m done.”

PetaPixel: Selfie-Related Deaths are ‘Public Health Risk’ in Age of Social Media. “In a paper published in September, researchers found that selfie-related injury and deaths have become a public health concern amid the near ubiquitous use of smartphones and social media apps. The paper scraped news reports of selfie-related deaths as well as a cross-sectional study by the iO Foundation that found 379 people were killed while taking selfies around the world between January 2008 and July 2021.” Good afternoon, Internet….

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November 19, 2023 at 01:20AM
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