Pennsylvania Social Services, Wyoming Jobs, Political Blogging, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 25, 2024

Pennsylvania Social Services, Wyoming Jobs, Political Blogging, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 25, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

StateScoop: Pennsylvania launches new website to find food, housing, childcare services. “On Tuesday, Pennsylvania launched PA Navigate, a new website that connects residents to community organizations, government agencies and health care providers for access to resources for basic needs, such as food, housing and childcare.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

County 17: Wyoming’s revamped online job board launches Thursday. ” The Department of Workforce Services announced Wednesday that its new online job board… is set to go live Thursday. The upgraded site aims to improve user experience and site performance with new features for job seekers and employers, as well as present a more straightforward and intuitive design.”

Associated Press: Liberal blogger granted press credentials in Iowa House days after filing lawsuit. “A liberal journalist who blogs about Iowa politics was granted press credentials for the Iowa House of Representatives Wednesday, days after she filed a lawsuit alleging the Republican-controlled House was denying her her First Amendment rights.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Sky News: DPD customer service chatbot swears and calls company ‘worst delivery firm’. “DPD has disabled its artificial intelligence (AI) online chatbot after a customer was able to make the bot swear and write a poem criticising the parcel delivery company.”

Fast Company: How Twitch lost its way. “In trying to figure out where things went wrong, I spoke to Twitch employees, past and present, to find out. They painted a picture of a company that has never quite understood what its users wanted, caught in a constant cycle of trying to break into the mainstream, failing, and circling back to a core gamer demographic. A company that fumbled its biggest opportunities, alienated its top creators, and allowed itself to be outpaced by its competitors.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CBS News: NYC issues public health advisory about social media, designates it an “environmental health toxin” due to its impact on kids. “New York City is issuing an health advisory about social media due to its impact on children. The city is designating social media an ‘environmental health toxin.'”

Kotaku: Ubisoft Wants You To Be Comfortable Not Owning Your Games. “With the pre-release of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown started, Ubisoft has chosen this week to rebrand its Ubisoft+ subscription services, and introduce a PC version of the ‘Classics’ tier at a lower price. And a big part of this, says the publisher’s director of subscriptions, Philippe Tremblay, is getting players ‘comfortable’ with not owning their games.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Search Engine Land: 75% of top brands fall victim to fraud in Google Search Ads. “Three-quarters of leading brands in the US and UK reportedly fall victim to identity theft in Google Search Ads. Consequences range from financial losses for the targeted business to customers becoming victims of fraud, according to a new report by search marketing security firm, Marcode.”

Centre for Economic Policy Research: Paying for news: What Google and Meta owe publishers. “What would Meta and Google owe US publishers under a fair payment for the use of their content? The authors of this blog estimate that the tech platforms should be paying a total of between $11.9 and $13.9 billion annually.”

Nature: Dana-Farber retractions: meet the blogger who spotted problems in dozens of cancer papers. “The prestigious Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in Boston, Massachusetts, acknowledged yesterday that it would seek retractions for six papers and corrections for an additional 31 — some co-authored by DFCI chief executive Laurie Glimcher, chief operating officer William Hahn and several other prominent cancer researchers. The news came after scientific-image sleuth Sholto David posted his concerns about more than 50 manuscripts to a blog on 2 January.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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January 26, 2024 at 01:42AM
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Apple Macintosh Photography, Agricultural Weeds, Fact-Checking, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, January 25, 2024

Apple Macintosh Photography, Agricultural Weeds, Fact-Checking, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, January 25, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Cult of Mac: New website showcases high-quality photos of every Mac released. “To celebrate the Macintosh’s 40th birthday, the author of a celebrated book about Macs created a website featuring photos of every Mac ever released. Jonathan Zufi, author of Iconic: A Photographic Tribute To Apple Innovation, just launched… a new website with more than 1,000 photos of every Mac, ever.”

University of Sheffield: World’s largest database of weeds lets scientists peer into the past, and future, of global agriculture. “The database is the culmination of 30 years of collaborative research from archaeologists and ecologists working at the Universities of Sheffield and Oxford. It catalogues nearly 1000 species of weeds growing in traditional agricultural regimes in Europe, Western Asia and North Africa.” The database is open access.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Poynter: How fact-checking is evolving — and having a real impact on the world. “‘Fake news’ loves a crisis. It’s clear now that false information has played a role in recent events around the world from divisive elections to the COVID-19 pandemic to the conflict roiling Israel and Gaza. It is important to counter false claims and false narratives. And research now shows a lot more clarity about how to do this.”

Business Insider: Google’s efforts to shrink its workforce in Korea have hit a snag as some employees are refusing to go. “About 10 Google employees from its office in Seoul had accepted the company’s suggestion to resign, the outlet reported. But according to the Korean labor-law firm KangNam, the law doesn’t allow employers with five or more workers to dismiss them without just cause.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Verge: Google Pixel users are again suffering from a storage bug. “Multiple Google Pixel owners are reporting issues with their devices after installing the new January 2024 Google Play system update, resulting in access issues to data kept on internal storage. Symptoms include crashing apps, an inability to play music or videos, and being unable to access the phone camera.”

Fast Company: Groove, an app that lets people find coworking partners, emerges from beta “Many office workers have rejoiced in the ability to work from home in the post-pandemic years, but for those who miss the camaraderie of an office or coworking space, a startup called Groove lets people find coworking partners by the hour.”

New York Times: Why Making Face Computers Cool Isn’t Easy. “Broadly speaking, the problem with headsets has less to do with technology and more to do with behavior: People quickly get tired of wearing a computer on their face, the devices end up in closets, and software developers lose interest in making apps. Sales of mixed reality and virtual reality headsets fell 8.3 percent last year, according to the research firm IDC, though they may rebound this year with Apple entering the market.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

404 Media: Inside a Global Phone Spy Tool Monitoring Billions. “Hundreds of thousands of ordinary apps, including popular ones such as 9gag, Kik, and a series of caller ID apps, are part of a global surveillance capability that starts with ads inside each app, and ends with the apps’ users being swept up into a powerful mass monitoring tool advertised to national security agencies that can track the physical location, hobbies, and family members of people to build billions of profiles, according to a 404 Media investigation.”

The Root: Oh.My.God:Police Say Clout Chasing Youtuber Tortured Animals in Videos . “A woman from Upper Darby, Pa. has been slammed with multiple charges stemming from a series of complaints made about her YouTube channel. She wasn’t spreading lies about celebs or pretending to be an AI robot – the police say she was torturing animals.” This article is extremely disturbing and if you want to skip it I don’t blame you.

RESEARCH & OPINION

WIRED: Most Top News Sites Block AI Bots. Right-Wing Media Welcomes Them. “New data shows that over 88 percent of top-ranked news outlets in the US now block web crawlers used by artificial intelligence companies to collect training data for chatbots and other AI projects. One sector of the news business is a glaring outlier, though: Right-wing media lags far behind their liberal counterparts when it comes to bot-blocking.”

University of Missouri: The more the merrier: Research shows online interventions with social support help middle-aged adults with obesity lose weight. “As many make — and often fail to keep — New Year’s resolutions about exercise and weight loss goals, University of Missouri researcher Mansoo Yu has completed a long-term study that highlights which specific features of online weight loss interventions are most likely to lead to long-term weight loss and maintenance. Yu found that counseling with professional health coaches and social support from other users are the two most beneficial features of online weight-loss programs for middle-aged adults (ages 35-55) with obesity or overweight.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

George Mason University: New video camera system captures the colored world that animals see. “A George Mason University scientist and team of researchers developed a new camera system that allows ecologists and filmmakers to produce videos that accurately replicate the colors that different animals see in natural settings, according to a report in the open access journal PLOS Biology.” Good morning, Internet…

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January 25, 2024 at 06:31PM
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Utah Entrepreneurs, Social Media Legislation, Google Chrome, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 24, 2024

Utah Entrepreneurs, Social Media Legislation, Google Chrome, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 24, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Utah: New Resource Launched For Utah Entrepreneurs. “The Utah Founders website is now live, and it lists resources to help founders launch a company anywhere in Utah. Resources include incubators, coworking spaces, funding opportunities, government agencies, university programs and more.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

KSL News Radio: Utah’s social media child protection law put on hold. “Utah’s new social media law has been put on hold. The Utah Social Media Regulation Act, designed to focus on child protection on online platforms, won’t take effect until October 1st. It was originally scheduled to take effect on March 1, 2024.”

TechCrunch: Google Chrome gains AI features, including a writing helper, theme creator, and tab organizer. “Google’s Chrome web browser is getting an infusion of AI technology in the latest release. The company announced today it’s soon adding a trio of new AI-powered features to Chrome for Mac and Windows, including a way to smartly organize your tabs, customize your theme, and get help when writing things on the web — like forum posts, online reviews, and more.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Korea JoongAng Daily: Korea begs citizens to stop eating fried toothpicks for viral trend. “The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety warned citizens against eating toothpicks made of starch as they are ‘not food’ and not safe for consumption, after videos of people eating fried toothpicks went viral online.”

Pune Pulse: Kayani Bakery Cyber Scam: Several duped due to fake website & Google listing. “In order to pull off a significant con, cybercriminals are said to have imitated the famous Kayani Bakery in Pune’s website and made a phony Google listing under the bakery’s name. Individuals who have been using the phony website and the mobile phone numbers listed on Google listings to place online orders for different Kayani Bakery products have been losing thousands of rupees.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Google settles AI-related chip patent lawsuit that sought $1.67 billion. “Google on Wednesday reached a settlement in a patent infringement lawsuit over chips that power the company’s artificial-intelligence technology, according to a filing in Massachusetts federal court.”

CNN: Republican AGs back Texas and Florida social media regulations at US Supreme Court. “Social media companies should be treated as utilities such as telephone or telegraph companies, a group of states led by Republican attorneys general told the US Supreme Court on Monday. In a friend-of-the-court brief, 19 states and the state legislature of Arizona wrote that the Supreme Court should uphold laws passed by Texas and Florida that restrict companies including Meta, YouTube, X and others from moderating the content that their users post online.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

London School of Economics and Political Science: How refugee sector organizations represent refugees on Instagram, and why this matters for humanitarian communication. “Sites and platforms like Instagram play key roles in shaping public understandings of issues and events, while also providing ways for a host of messengers—be they laypeople, influencers, or professional voices—to quickly reach and curate their target audiences at scale. Yet this raises political questions about how messengers represent marginalized groups, and what they aim to achieve by doing so.”

Bloomberg: Google DeepMind Scientists in Talks to Leave and Form AI Startup. “A pair of scientists at Google DeepMind, the Alphabet Inc. artificial intelligence division, have been talking with investors about forming an AI startup in Paris, according to people familiar with the conversations.”

Northern Arizona University: How well does American AI understand Korean slang?. “Can an AI tool developed by an American engineer accurately assess meanings and nuances in other, unrelated languages? That’s at the heart of research that Scott Jarvis, applied linguistics professor at NAU, is tackling with funding from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Minerva Initiative.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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January 25, 2024 at 01:13AM
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Maps.com, iOS, AI Hiring Laws, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, January 24, 2024

Maps.com, iOS, AI Hiring Laws, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, January 24, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

BusinessWire: Esri Launches Maps.com, a Content Platform for Creators Demonstrating the Power of Maps (PRESS RELEASE). “Created by Esri, the global leader in mapping and location intelligence software, the new website is a platform for sharing and discussing visually engaging maps that inspire, challenge, educate, reward, and provoke across a range of topics and formats. The site will serve as a celebration of science and art, presenting maps that captivate not only with their insights but also with their aesthetics.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: iOS 17.3 is out, adding Stolen Device Protection for your iPhone. “iOS 17.3 is out, and it comes with a new security feature that’s supposed to prevent thieves from taking your iPhone and quickly taking over access to anything stored in iCloud as well as other important accounts like your bank or email.”

Wall Street Journal: New York City Passed an AI Hiring Law. So Far, Few Companies Are Following It.. “It has been six months since New York City began enforcing the nation’s first law requiring companies to disclose how algorithms influence their hiring decisions. So far, disclosures are rare. The law requires employers that use software to assist with hiring and promotion decisions—including chatbot interviewing tools and résumé scanners that look for keyword matches—to audit those tools annually for potential race and gender bias, and then publish the results on their websites.”

CNBC: New details emerge about SEC’s X account hack, including SIM swap. “The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday that a SIM swap attack was to blame for the breach of its official account on X, formerly known as Twitter, earlier this month.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: The Best Ways to Make Your Own GIFs. “Perhaps you’ve found the perfect snippet of video to express your thoughts in a second or two, and you need it in the GIF format. In that case, you can make your own GIF, often in just a few minutes. The best way of making a GIF depends on what you’re creating it out of, whether that’s a YouTube video or a series of your own photos. I’ll run down the most important options, and how to work through them.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Moscow Times: Tech Giant Yandex Gets New Russian Owner Ahead of Restructuring. “A Russia-based company has become the legal owner of tech giant Yandex as it prepares to separate from its Dutch parent company, the state-run Interfax news agency reported Tuesday.”

University of Wisconsin-Madison: UWM researchers win grant to digitally map racially restrictive housing covenants. “Two UWM researchers have won a federal grant of nearly $150,000 to continue their research into restrictive racial covenants in Milwaukee County. The grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities will help Anne Bonds, professor of geography, and Derek Handley, assistant professor of English, to develop a digital platform to map and visualize racial covenants in early 20th-century Milwaukee.”

ABC News (Australia): Inside the world of Indonesia’s social media ‘buzzers’ cashing in from pushing 2024 election propaganda. “Buzzing is a fast-growing industry in Indonesia and across South-East Asia, which involves individuals and groups being paid to create and share political propaganda online. Over the past decade, armies of buzzers have been promoting candidates and party issues, or creating hoaxes and disinformation. But Robert, who has been moonlighting as a buzzer since Indonesia’s 2014 elections, says this year the industry has become much slicker and professional.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Guardian: Grieving Louisiana father faces $18,000 bill to access state records of son’s case . “A Louisiana state prosecutor who declined to file a murder charge in connection with a man’s drugging and robbery death in 2017 has demanded more than $18,000 for the victim’s grieving father to obtain public records related to the case.”

Daily Beast: Is This Russia’s Dumbest Propaganda Fail?. “The photos showed [Volodymyr] Zelensky’s hand circled in red ink as it was first shown on U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s shoulder, followed by a close-up of the tattoos, and then a third photo … showing Zelensky clear across the room from that tattooed hand supposedly belonging to him.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Stony Brook University: SoCJ’s Li to Study Impact of AI-Generated Science and Health Misinformation on Racial Minorities. “…racial groups whose health is already vulnerable, including Black and Hispanic populations, are most likely to be harmed as AI-generated misinformation is created particularly to engage — and mislead — them. All of this seems clear from a growing body of research. What is less clear is what can be done about it.”

Tim Bray: Mourning Google. “It’s not just Google · The last two decades of my career featured the arcing then crashing of popular regard for Big Tech. It’s hard to believe now, the years when those lovably nerdy Bay Area kids were leading humanity to a brighter, better-lit future; our leaders were lionized and when people found out you actually worked for Google, their eyes widened and you could feel the focus. These days, Big Tech features in hostile congressional hearings, mass layoffs, and messy antitrust litigation. It offers few experiences that can be uncritically enjoyed.” Good morning, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at WikiTwister, SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Mastodon Gizmos, and MegaGladys.

January 24, 2024 at 06:31PM
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Civil War Records, Texas Respiratory Diseases, Twitter, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 23, 2024

Civil War Records, Texas Respiratory Diseases, Twitter, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 23, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Fold3: New Civil War Records: National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. “We are pleased to announce the addition of records for soldiers who resided in National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938. This free collection contains records for twelve National Homes where disabled soldiers and sailors could live following the Civil War.”

Texas Department of State Health Services: Tools Provide the Public with a View of Diseases Affecting the State. “The Texas Department of State Health Services has launched new data tools to let people keep tabs on respiratory viruses in Texas. A respiratory virus dashboard accessible through DSHS’s Texas Health Data site shows trends in illnesses from influenza, COVID-19 and RSV, the ‘big three’ respiratory viruses most likely to cause serious disease at this time of year. Data includes emergency room visits, hospitalizations and deaths.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mashable: MrBeast earns more than $250,000 on video uploaded to Elon Musk’s X. “MrBeast said the video upload was a test to compare his X earnings with his YouTube payouts and that he’d publicly share how much he made. Well, he has just delivered. According to MrBeast, X’s analytics show that he will make $263,655 off his video. The creator shared the information in a tweet on Monday and included a screenshot of his account’s analytics as proof.” I used to work as an ad buyer for a retail business, which meant I spent a lot of time calculating cost per thousand (CPM), cost per click (CPC), etc. If I calculated it correctly (it’s been several years), then Mr. Beast got a payment of about 16 cents CPM (16 cents per thousand impressions.) If Twitter paid out all creators like that I imagine it would be broke.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Reuters: Olympics-Google Maps and other apps asked to restrict route options during Paris Games. “Navigation applications, such as Google Maps, have been asked by Paris’s public transport authority to restrict suggested routes to the ones prepared for travellers during the 2024 Olympic Games, the body’s chief executive said.”

University College Cork: Bonar Law Collection acquired by National Library of Ireland. “An Tánaiste, Micheál Martin TD, and Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin TD, have today announced the acquisition by the State of the Bonar Law Collection, the most complete visual record of Ireland, in map and print form, ever assembled by an expert private collector. In extent, the Bonar Law Collection comprises close to 10,000 maps and approximately 9,000 prints, which include caricature prints and ballad sheets, many of which are unique to this collection.”

University of Central Florida: PRINT Project Receives Funding to Revolutionize Migration Research. “PRINT is a collaborative project dedicated to mapping the communication networks of early modern European religious minorities and tracing their influence on the dynamic patterns of migration in the Atlantic world. Originally evolving to address issues of religious intolerance, the connections took on a life of their own as people with different interests used them to funnel information about the logistics of movement and mobility. PRINT explores history through the lens of interconnectedness and resilience.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Crikey: How one man’s pay-to-use toilet gag revealed Google Maps can be used to track people. “When Will added his share house as a pay-to-use toilet on Google Maps, he didn’t expect that it would accidentally reveal how the service could be used to track someone’s movements without their knowledge.”

CBS News: Swatting calls target more than a dozen public officials since Christmas. One says, “This is an assassination attempt.”. “More than a dozen public officials have been targeted by attempted ‘swatting attacks’ in the weeks since Christmas, according to a review by CBS News. The calls have targeted judges overseeing cases against former President Donald Trump, politicians of both parties, a prosecutor, and even the White House — part of a growing and alarming number of swatting incidents nationwide.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: Our Rodent Selfies, Ourselves . This link is to a gift article. “A photographer trained two rats to take photographs of themselves. They didn’t want to stop.” The pictures are adorable.

University of Southampton: Citizen scientists needed to discover elusive black holes . “Could you help our scientists uncover the mysterious world of invisible black holes? Become a Black Hole Hunter and you’ll be taking part in scientific research that has the potential to reveal more about one of space’s most intriguing aspects.” Good afternoon, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at WikiTwister, SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Mastodon Gizmos, and MegaGladys.

January 24, 2024 at 01:02AM
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VMA Veterinary Career Center, Local Google Search, Microsoft Copilot, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, January 23, 2024

VMA Veterinary Career Center, Local Google Search, Microsoft Copilot, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, January 23, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

American Veterinary Medical Association: Find a veterinary job that fits you with AVMA’s new data tool. “AVMA JobFIT, a resource in the AVMA Veterinary Career Center (VCC), pulls together information about U.S. communities to help job seekers learn about specific areas and find jobs there. The AVMA JobFIT tool is powered by data and integrated with the VCC job board—our profession’s largest and most active job board—so you can explore the job market in a new way. See available veterinary jobs side by side with local data like housing costs, cost of living, and more.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Roundtable: Google Search Local “Nearby Events And Deals”. “For the past few weeks Google has been testing out a new local search box titled ‘Nearby events and deals.’ This box contains links to local stores and places that have events and/or deals in the area.” Remember when you could search Google News by state?

CNBC: Microsoft brings Copilot AI assistant to small businesses and launches a premium tier for individuals. “Microsoft said on Tuesday that small businesses can now subscribe to its Copilot virtual assistant in the company’s productivity apps. Consumers who pay for the Microsoft 365 software can sign up for a new paid version of Copilot.”

Bloomberg: Alphabet’s Moonshot X Lab Cuts Staff, Turns to Outside Investors. “Alphabet Inc.’s lab for pioneering technology is laying off dozens of employees as it turns to outside investors to help fund its ventures. The division, known as X, has in recent months ramped up discussions on funding with venture capitalists and other investors, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named as it is private.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

NBC News: Fake Joe Biden robocall tells New Hampshire Democrats not to vote on Tuesday . “A prominent New Hampshire Democrat plans to file a complaint with the state attorney general over an apparent robocall that appears to encourage supporters of President Joe Biden not to vote in Tuesday’s presidential primary. The voice in the message is familiar — even presidential — as it’s an apparent imitation or digital manipulation of Biden’s voice.”

Search Engine Land: Google to cut thousands of search quality rater jobs after dropping contract with Appen. “Appen, an Australian data services company that Google contracted with for a large number of its third-party search quality raters, was notified by Google that its contract is ending on March 19, 2024. Appen said it had no prior notice and the cancellation would result in a loss of $82.8m of revenue at a gross margin of 26% for the company.”

NPR: How social media algorithms ‘flatten’ our culture by making decisions for us. “In his new book, Filterworld, [Kyle] Chayka examines the algorithmic recommendations that dictate everything from the music, news and movies we consume, to the foods we eat and the places we go. He argues that all this machine-guided curation has made us docile consumers and flattened our likes and tastes.” That excerpt makes it sound like you don’t have a choice. Reminder that you do.

SECURITY & LEGAL

BBC: Cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs files for bankruptcy in US. “The cryptocurrency company behind the crashed TerraUSD and Luna tokens has filed for bankruptcy in the US. Terraform Labs’ tokens collapsed in May, losing $40bn of their value and contributing to the so-called ‘cryptocrash’ of 2022. Co-founder Do Kwon is currently in jail in Montenegro after having been found guilty of forging documents.”

Reuters: Global watchdog to report in October on how social media fuels bank runs. “Global financial regulators will present the G20 in October their findings from a ‘deep dive’ on how social media can speed up bank deposit outflows and whether changes to liquidity rules are needed, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) said on Monday.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Stanford Medicine: ‘Smart speaker’ shows potential for better self-management of Type 2 diabetes. “…researchers from Stanford Medicine have created a voice-based artificial intelligence application that runs on a device already familiar to tens of millions of Americans: a ‘smart speaker,’ commonly used to play music and check the weather. The app tells patients the correct insulin dose without requiring them to contact their doctor’s office or wait for an appointment.”

Ars Technica: Top Harvard Cancer researchers accused of scientific fraud; 37 studies affected. “The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is seeking to retract six scientific studies and correct 31 others that were published by the institute’s top researchers, including its CEO. The researchers are accused of manipulating data images with simple methods, primarily with copy-and-paste in image editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Core77: The HoloTile Floor: Disney Imagineer Invents Omnidirectional Treadmill Surface. “Inventor Lanny Smoot, a Disney Research Fellow and Imagineer, has invented something incredible: The HoloTile floor, an omnidirectional walking surface that could be one of the breakthroughs for truly immersive VR experiences.” Good morning, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at WikiTwister, SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Mastodon Gizmos, and MegaGladys.

January 23, 2024 at 06:31PM
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Parasitology Specimens, MIT Press, National Library of Wales, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 22, 2024

Parasitology Specimens, MIT Press, National Library of Wales, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 22, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Nebraska Today: Gardner digitizing parasite samples for scientists everywhere. “Scott L. Gardner, curator of parasitology for the University of Nebraska State Museum, has hundreds of thousands of parasite samples at his fingertips — mites, ticks, lice, fleas, tapeworms, trematodes and more. They’re on slides in cabinets, in vials of ethanol, in tubes in ultra-low temperature freezers — and now some are available via online database.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

MIT Press: MIT Press’s Direct to Open reaches annual funding goal, opens access to full list of 2024 monographs . “Now in its third year of operation, Direct to Open (D2O) is proud to announce that it has reached its full funding goal in 2024 and will open access to 79 new monographs and edited book collections this year. What makes this year noteworthy is that this is the first year in which D2O has been fully funded by its November 30 deadline and will not require an extension through the end of the fiscal year.”

Cambrian News: Extension granted on National Library archives plan over lack of funding. “The National Library of Wales has been granted an extension to begin work on multi-million pound plans to house the BBC Wales archives at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth that were paused due to a lack of funding. The National Library applied to Ceredigion County Council for a time extension to previously-granted plans for the scheme to house BBC Wales archives in a special extension, as funding was lost as a result of the Covid pandemic.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: Are Premium AI Prompts Worth the Money? . “The rise of generative AI tools has taught us one thing: the results you get from AI tools are only as good as the prompt you provide. However, crafting AI prompts that produce awesome results requires creativity, time, and technical know-how. That’s why AI prompt marketplaces have sprung up, offering unique AI prompts crafted by experts, selling you their AI wisdom. So, is it worth buying an AI prompt?” It’s interesting to me that no matter how oriented to replacing humanity a technology is, it will develop a human economy layer almost instantly.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Asharq Al-Awsat: Saudi Private Sector Abroad: New Database in the Works. “The Saudi Ministry of Investment is currently compiling information on foreign investments by private companies and creating a database for investment data in the Kingdom. This initiative aims to be a central platform for relevant information.”

Balkan Insight: AI-Generated Video Targets Istanbul Mayor Ahead of Elections. “A manipulated video of Istanbul’s popular opposition mayor praising President Erdogan’s party, spread ahead of critical local elections, shows how disinformation is increasingly drawing on the latest technology, such as AI-generated videos.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: Why Jan. 6 insurrections sent a letter to the Folger Shakespeare Library. “While insurrectionists were plotting to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, they took time to write and send a letter to an institution two blocks from their target: the Folger Shakespeare Library, the world’s largest collection of material related to the English playwright. ‘We will be blocking access to your building … to prevent our persons of grievance from using you as a loophole,’ read the insurrectionists’ letter, which circulated on a pro-Trump message board called TheDonald before the insurrection and was published this month in the Folger’s online archive.”

Vice: Leaving The Real World: How I Escaped Andrew Tate’s Get Rich Quick ‘Cult’. “While much has been made of the toxic influence of Tate’s misogynistic attitudes on a generation of impressionable young men, former Tate supporters and critics have spoken out to VICE News to warn of another dimension of the threat he poses: that his latest business endeavour, in their view, is scamming his own fans. The Real World, they say, is a cynical and ingenious grift – with the hallmarks of a pyramid scheme – that targets teenagers to financially exploit them, while using them as drones to power Tate’s formidable social media PR machine.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Washington University in St. Louis: New research creates framework for large-scale geospatial exploration. “When combatting complex problems like illegal poaching and human trafficking, efficient yet broad geospatial search tools can provide critical assistance in finding and stopping the activity. A visual active search (VAS) framework for geospatial exploration developed by researchers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis uses a novel visual reasoning model and aerial imagery to learn how to search for objects more effectively.”

Stat News: The FDA and FTC need to crack down on TikTok and Instagram influencers pitching prescription drugs. “Following past instances of successful collaboration on matters such as biosimilar misinformation, the FDA and FTC should formalize their partnership and jointly address the escalating impact of social media advertisements and influencer-driven promotions of prescription medications. Regulatory agencies should collaborate with independent patient organizations to provide guidance on appropriate disclosures and ethical practices for influencer-sponsored prescription advertisements.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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January 23, 2024 at 01:13AM
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