New researches

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Chicano Moratorium, West Virginia Newspapers, National Gallery of Art, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, February 25, 2021

Chicano Moratorium, West Virginia Newspapers, National Gallery of Art, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, February 25, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

UCLA: CSRC Launches Chicano Moratorium 50th Anniversary Project. “On August 29, fifty years after the National Chicano Moratorium took place in Los Angeles, the [Chicano Studies Research Center] publicly launched the Chicano Moratorium 50th Anniversary Project website. With images, exhibitions, an interactive map of the moratorium route, and personal narratives, the site is a free archive-based resource dedicated to the event and how it changed the course of the civil rights movement across the United States for the Chicano-Latino community.” I had never heard of the Chicano Moratorium. UC Davis has an overview.

Garrett County Republican (West Virginia): Online collection of Republican newspaper now available. “Through a collaborative effort from the Garrett County Historical Society, the Sincell family and the Ruth Enlow Library of Garrett County, a new free searchable collection of back issues of The Republican newspaper covering the years 1877 to 2016 is now available on the Internet Archive.” The archive is incomplete but more content will be added over time.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

National Gallery of Art: National Gallery of Art Announces New Original Podcast Series. “The National Gallery of Art announced today a new podcast series that explores the relationship between visual art and music: Sound Thoughts on Art. Journalist, author, and musician Celeste Headlee hosts the podcast. Each episode features Headlee in conversation with a musician who has chosen a work of art from the National Gallery’s collection and responded to it using sound. Headlee also talks with a museum expert, who describes the work and provides art historical context.”

USEFUL STUFF

CNET: 21 best podcasts to binge right now. “Say what you will about 2020 — and between the pandemic, political unrest and various environmental disasters, there’s a lot to say — but it was a strong year for podcasts. As 2021 rolls on, there’s a whole lot of good ‘casts for your ear holes that you may have missed from the last timultuous year. Plus, there are new podcats constantly turning up, like a surprise collaboration between former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Guardian: Oh what a lovely archive: British Library gets Joan Littlewood treasure trove. “It is cheering to learn that the Murray Melvin Archive, documenting the story of the Theatre Royal Stratford East from 1884 to 2017, has been donated to the British Library. Students and theatre buffs will soon have access to a treasure trove that provides a portrait not just of a building but also of the work of one of the great, unsung pioneers of postwar theatre, Joan Littlewood.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Ukraine accuses Russian networks of new massive cyber attacks. “Ukraine on Monday accused unnamed Russian internet networks of massive attacks on Ukrainian security and defence websites, but gave no details of any damage done or say who it believed was behind the assault.”

ZDNet: Ransomware: Sharp rise in attacks against universities as learning goes online. “The number of ransomware attacks targeting universities has doubled over the past year and the cost of ransomware demands is going up as information security teams struggle to fight off cyberattacks. Analysis of ransomware campaigns against higher education found that attacks against universities during 2020 were up 100 percent compared to 2019, and that the average ransom demand now stands at $447,000.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Analytics India: Machine Learning, Indian Social Media’s Biggest Challenge Yet. “Earlier this month, the Government of India reprimanded Twitter for allowing fake, unverified, anonymous and automated bot accounts to be operated on its platform. The Secretary of MeitY raised doubts about the platform’s commitment to transparency and healthy conversation on this platform. The way Twitter and Facebook handled the events leading upto the elections in the US and the aftermath, has served as a wake up call to the governments around the world…”

PLOS Blogs-ECR Community: Three reasons to use social media for scientific self-promotion. “Over a decade ago when a scientist published a new paper the only people who would read it were your colleagues in the field, undergraduates writing a literature review and the family you proudly emailed it to. Now, social media lets us share our publications and achievements to even more people. We also have the opportunity to make connections and start collaborations that might not have happened otherwise. Social media can be an incredible resource for a scientist who wants to spread their work, network and become a member of the scientific community.” Good evening, Internet…

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February 26, 2021 at 07:46AM
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South Africa Tourism, 1980s Central Park, UVA Law School, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 25, 2021

South Africa Tourism, 1980s Central Park, UVA Law School, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 25, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Independent Online: WATCH: Inside Google South Africa and SA Tourism’s new initiative to entice travel. “Google Arts & Culture and South African Tourism launched South Africa: An Explorer’s Paradise, an online exhibition that showcases the best of the famed destination. The initiative, which boasts a collection of 500 images and videos, 55 Street Views and 20 digital stories, is set to entice domestic and international travellers to plan their SA getaway.”

Gothamist: Newly Digitized Photos Take You Back To Central Park In The 1980s. “When the Central Park Conservancy formed and began transforming the park in 1980, the group also started documenting everything that was happening inside of its perimeter walls. These early years were all captured with black & white film, and more recently they’ve been digitizing the old shots, which number in the tens of thousands.”

Cavalier Daily: Law School launches new website exploring its connections to slavery. “The University’s Law school launched Slavery and the U.Va. School of Law — a new website and digital archive that explores the law school’s historical connections to slavery — on Feb 1. At the core of this project are digitized versions of law students’ notebooks from the antebellum time period, when slavery was taught as a social good.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNN: Australia passes new law requiring Facebook and Google to pay for news. “The country’s unprecedented new law had been hotly debated in recent months. Facebook (FB) and Google (GOOGL) had opposed the initial version of the legislation, which would have allowed media outlets to bargain either individually or collectively with them — and to enter binding arbitration if the parties couldn’t reach an agreement.”

Gizmodo: Microsoft’s Latest Product Goes Toe-to-Toe With Squarespace. “Microsoft is officially getting into the website-building biz. On Wednesday, the company’s digital marketing wing rolled out a shiny new suite of tools which promise to give businesses a quick and easy way to set up their own landing pages. And unlike some of the other site builders on the market—like, say, Squarespace or Wix—Microsoft’s new platform is entirely free.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: Confuse Google Ads With This Chrome Extension. “You can try to combat data-collection in all kinds of fun ways, including manually blocking or clearing the data companies have on you and preventing yourself from being tracked as much as possible with various adblockers, anti-tracking extensions, and privacy-themed browsers, but considering the number of systems out there tracking you, those methods can only be so effective. AdNauseum works on a different principle.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Times of India: Indian Newspaper Society asks Google to raise publisher share in ad revenue to 85%. “INS has asked Google to compensate the Indian newspapers ‘comprehensively’ for using contents published by them and to share its advertising revenues properly.
‘The Society insisted that Google should increase the publisher share of advertising revenue to 85 per cent, and also ensure more transparency in the revenue reports provided to publishers by Google,’ said INS in a statement.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: Google withdrawal threats could result in antitrust backlash: Vestager. “European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager warned of potential antitrust action against Google or other US technology giants if they threaten to pull out of markets. Vestager told the European Parliament’s economy committee on Tuesday that there could be scope for ‘investigating if it’s actually legal for a dominant provider to stop supplying’ services, adding that the EU ‘would have a number of tools to use.'”

Reuters: Justice Department gives judge big Google document request. “The Justice Department asked the judge hearing its antitrust fight with Alphabet’s Google for a huge list of documents from the search and advertising giant, including some about Facebook and Google’s Chrome browser, according to a court filing on Wednesday.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Engadget: What’s going on at Google AI?. “AI and ML systems have advanced in both sophistication and capability at a staggering rate in recent years. They can now model protein structures based only on the molecule’s amino-acid sequence, create poetry and text on par with human writers — even spot specific individuals in a crowd (assuming their complexion is sufficiently light). But for as impressive as these feats of computational prowess are, the field continues to struggle with a number of fundamental moral and ethical issues.” Good evening, Internet…

February 26, 2021 at 04:38AM
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Plano African American Museum, Missouri Volunteering, UNM Art Museum, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, February 25, 2021

Plano African American Museum, Missouri Volunteering, UNM Art Museum, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, February 25, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Plano Magazine: Girl Scout Gives New Life to Plano African American Museum. “Zara Jones, a senior at Plano West Senior High, has been a Girl Scout since she was a Daisy Scout in Kindergarten. She is now working toward earning her Gold Award with a project that spotlights the history and contributions of African Americans in Plano and around the United States. The Gold Award is Girl Scouts’ highest honor, earned by less than six percent of Girl Scouts. On Feb. 20 Zara launched the digital Plano African American Museum.”

Missouri Department of Economic Development: Missouri Community Service Commission launches new website to promote volunteerism statewide. “Today, the Missouri Community Service Commission (MCSC) launched its new website. In addition to a fresh design, the website features information on community service opportunities, volunteer spotlights, and background information about MCSC’s programs.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

University of New Mexico: UNM Art Museum offers new virtual exhibit. “‘Hindsight/Insight: Reflecting on the Collection’ highlights over 30 artworks acquired since the museum was founded in 1962. This is the first in an ongoing series of exhibitions and programs celebrating The University of New Mexico Art Museum’s dedication to developing a teaching collection.”

Living with Hearing Loss: Zoom Makes ASR Captioning Free for People with Hearing Loss. “Success! Zoom has heard our community’s voice! Zoom just announced it will provide its high-quality ASR captions (Live Transcript) FREE for people with hearing loss, as well as other groups who require this feature for accessibility reasons. Click here to request access. This feature will be rolled out to all free accounts by Fall 2021.”

Tubefilter: YouTube Shutters 7 Remaining ‘YouTube Spaces’ Globally, Doubling Down On Pop-ups And Virtual Programming. “YouTube announced today that it’s permanently ceasing operations at each of its remaining YouTube Spaces across the globe, bringing a formal end to an initiative it launched nine years ago to operate fixed physical hubs in key markets furnishing studio space, networking events, and video education classes.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Nursing Times: Study to dive into stories of nurses and midwives accused of witchcraft. “The team of researchers at Edinburgh Napier University has won funding from the RCN Foundation to investigate more than 100 folk healers and midwives who are listed on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft online database.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BBC: Social Media: Should people be allowed to be anonymous online?. “People are suggesting social media platforms should make their users sign in with formal identification such as driving licence or passport to make it easier for the police to identify people who commit hate crimes and also discourage people from posting abuse in the first place. However, there are fears that this would be giving social media companies too much personal data and could also pose a threat to activists, whistleblowers (who are people that reveal information about bad things people or companies have done) and persecuted minorities who need to protect their identity online. So what are the positives and negatives of being anonymous online?”

Moscow Times: Putin Tightens Fines for Protesters, ‘Biased’ Social Media Giants. “Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a handful of new laws Wednesday that impose heavy fines on protesters and ‘foreign agents,’ as well as on social media giants accused of ‘discriminating’ against Russian media. Observers have described legislators’ recent activity as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to tighten restrictions on dissent ahead of this fall’s parliamentary elections, which will take place amid simmering public anger over falling incomes.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: A.I. Here, There, Everywhere. “Researchers liken the current state of the technology to cellphones of the 1990s: useful, but crude and cumbersome. They are working on distilling the largest, most powerful machine-learning models into lightweight software that can run on ‘the edge,’ meaning small devices such as kitchen appliances or wearables. Our lives will gradually be interwoven with brilliant threads of A.I.”

Carnegie Mellon University: CMU Students Train AI to Write Book of Limericks. “Mitch Fogelson, a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering, said he and his fellow students — Xinkai Chen, who completed the Master of Information Systems Management program in December 2020; Qifei Dong, a master’s degree candidate in electrical and computer engineering; Christopher Dare, a master’s degree candidate in information and communication technology; and Tony Qin, a junior artificial intelligence major — opted to focus their AI on limericks because the form has a fixed AABBA rhyming structure. Also, they had access to a database of 90,000 limericks that they could use to train their AI.”

Phys .org: Different social media platforms foster different levels of segregation in online communities. “A team of researchers from Ca’Foscari Univerity of Venice, the Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation, the University of Brescia and the Sapienza University of Rome has found that different kinds of social media platforms foster different levels of segregation in online communities. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their study of millions of online posts on several leading social media sites and what they found.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Boing Boing: A fascinating website with the source photos for the people on the cover of Sgt. Pepper. “Here’s a guy who, for the last several years, has been trying to track down the source photos of the people who appeared on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles’ eighth studio album.” Good afternoon, Internet…

February 26, 2021 at 01:58AM
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Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Philippine Literature, National Jazz Museum, Facebook, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 23, 2021

Philippine Literature, National Jazz Museum, Facebook, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 23, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from Manila Times: DigiPhiLit: A digital project for Philippine literature. “TWO weeks ago, I wrote an article where I highlighted the importance of preserving sources, documents, books and old imprints. The existence of these should not be taken for granted, as in a nation such as the Philippines, which is prone to floods, typhoons, earthquakes and fires, these are exposed to irremediable loss. … Largely unnoticed is a praiseworthy initiative named DigiPhiLit.”

NYS Music: The National Jazz Museum In Harlem Announces Online Museum Access Through Google Arts And Culture. “Beginning on February 18, 2021, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem is available for anybody in the world to visit virtually on the Google Arts and Culture platform. The free, virtual tour allows viewers to experience videos and high-resolution pictures of jazz artifacts from the Museum’s collections as a part of the Google Arts & Culture Black History Month project.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

9 News Australia: Facebook set to end ban on Australian news. “Facebook is set to end its ban on Australian news appearing on its platform just six days after the controversial decision was implemented. Facebook has told the Federal Government it intends to restore Australian news pages ‘in the coming days’ following amendments to the News Media and Digital Bargaining Code.”

CNET: Instagram adds resources to support users suffering from eating disorders. “Facebook is adding new resources to Instagram on Monday to offer support to users suffering from negative body image or eating disorders. The social media site, which owns Instagram, also said it’s expanding its work with experts to better inform policies for more positive content.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BBC: Augmented reality art: Where your home becomes the gallery. “Ever dreamed of hanging artworks by leading artists around your home? Well now you can for free, thanks to augmented reality or AR as it is known. Images such as Olafur Eliasson’s Solar Friend and Tomas Saraceno’s Peacock Spider are among some of the works that can be displayed in your home – the only catch is they will not physically be there but can be seen virtually via an app on your smartphone.”

VentureBeat: Rows raises $16 million and launches next-gen spreadsheets with built-in data integrations . “Founded out of Berlin in 2016 as Dashdash before its rebrand just a few months back, Rows is targeting business teams with a new online spreadsheet platform that features native integrations with third-party services such as Salesforce, Slack, Stripe, Google Maps, and LinkedIn, while also making it easy to transform the spreadsheet into a fully functional web app in a single click. Moreover, Rows supports all the familiar Excel functions, such as SUMIFs, that business users are already accustomed to.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Grand Forks Herald: North Dakota House approves bill targeting social media companies for censorship. “The proposal would bar social media sites with more than 150 million active users from censoring North Dakotans’ posts based on race, religion or viewpoint. The bill would would also open up social media companies to civil lawsuits from residents who believe they’ve been blacklisted from the sites.”

Reuters: Chinese spyware code was copied from America’s NSA: researchers. “Chinese spies used code first developed by the U.S. National Security Agency to support their hacking operations, Israeli researchers said on Monday, another indication of how malicious software developed by governments can boomerang against their creators.”

Search Engine Journal: WordPress: Bugs Detected in Ninja Forms Plugin, 1M Sites Affected. “Exploits detected in the Ninja Forms plugin for WordPress, installed on over a million sites, can lead to a complete site takeover if not patched.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Scientific American: ‘March Mammal Madness’ Brings Simulated Animal Fights to Huge Audiences. “Ever idly wondered if a capybara could somehow take down an elephant in a beachfront brawl? That’s the kind of thinking behind March Mammal Madness (MMM), an annual social media event based on the March Madness NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament. Like its namesake, this educational project encourages viewers to fill out brackets predicting which teams would triumph in a hypothetical head-to-head showdown—with the ‘teams’ in this version being specific mammals.” Good afternoon, Internet…

February 24, 2021 at 12:33AM
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Tech Industry Salaries, Spotify Podcasts, AR Monuments, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, February 23, 2021

Tech Industry Salaries, Spotify Podcasts, AR Monuments, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, February 23, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

National Gallery of Art: National Gallery of Art Announces Launch of Kress Collection Digital Archive. “The National Gallery of Art today announces the launch of the Kress Collection Digital Archive, an online resource documenting the history and development of an important collection of nearly 3,500 works of art. The Kress Collection was divided and donated years ago to almost 100 institutions throughout the United States, including the National Gallery of Art.”

Council of Europe: New website / web-platform on addressing radicalisation and violent extremism in prisons, launched. “The website is open to all visitors and offers a wide array of useful information including an overview of the main tools and documents on radicalisation in prisons and disengagement from violence, produced by the action, as well as reference to relevant legal instruments, CoE publications and links to other institutions and organisations.”

USA Today: Flood-prone homeowners could see major rate hikes in FEMA flood insurance changes, new study finds. “The First Street Foundation calculated ZIP code-level averages of the financial toll of flood damage by collecting home values and structural information for every single-family and small multi-unit dwelling in the nation and applying it to its previously published flood model with damage formulas. First Street calculated its figures for about 26,000 ZIP codes in the lower 48 states and D.C. ZIP codes without data are not included.”

The Calvert Journal: Lost and found: the photo project reuniting Moldovan villagers with their younger selves. “In 2016, film school student Victor Galușca found the negatives for thousands of photographs in an abandoned home in the northern Moldovan village of Roșietici….The incredible archive was made into a photo book, showcased at exhibitions in Chișinău and Bucharest, and is now available to view online. But the publicity also meant that people who recognised themselves in [Zaharia] Cușnir’s photographs got in touch with Galușca. The young photographer decided to embark on a new project: taking pictures of Cușnir’s former subjects with the black-and-white portraits of their younger selves.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

State of Oregon Newsroom: The Oregon Blue Book is Now Updated Online . “The Oregon Blue Book is the state’s official almanac and fact book, containing listings and descriptions of government agencies and educational institutions, maps, facts about Oregon history and elections, as well as information on the arts, media, and other cultural institutions in Oregon.” It’s updated every two years.

Reuters: Alphabet in talks with Spanish publishers to bring Google News back, sources say. “Alphabet’s Google is negotiating individual licensing deals with a divided Spanish news industry that could allow the U.S. tech giant’s news service to resume in the country, three sources close to the matter told Reuters.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

GovInsider Asia: France builds tool to track changes in terms of service. “Digital services are governed by pages and pages of terms and clauses, but users don’t always know what they’re agreeing to, or what rights they have when using those services. France plans to change that with a new tool called the Open Terms Archive. It is meant to ‘provide transparency’ to help citizens, authorities and regulators understand tech’s terms of service, says French Ambassador for Digital Affairs Henri Verdier.”

NavyTimes: Navy says ‘liking’ or sharing extremists’ posts on social media can get you in trouble. “Sailors engaging with an offensive post regarding white supremacism on social media could themselves be viewed as contributing to extremism in the service, according to Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. John Nowell Jr. ‘Just by posting, retweeting, or liking an offensive post on social media — you could be participating in extremism,’ Nowell said in a new video shared on Facebook.”

Fast Company: I’m an ethical hacker. Here’s how I could use social media to scam you. “Cybercriminals exploit the personal details we share online to try and trick or impersonate us—piecing together every photo we post, location we check into, person we tag, or pet photo we upload to build an understanding of their targets… This is not meant to scare you. Actually, it’s very possible to enjoy social media without putting yourself at risk. I’m going to show you how the hackers do it and how you can recognize when you’re oversharing, to help you outsmart the bad guys.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

TechCentral: AI tool predicts energy generation at wind farms. “Researchers from CeADAR, Ireland’s national centre for Applied Data Analytics & AI, have developed a system which uses artificial intelligence to accurately predict the amount of renewable energy that will be produced at wind farms.”

Pew (PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!): How Americans Navigated the News in 2020: A Tumultuous Year in Review. “From November 2019 through December 2020, the Pathways project explored how Americans’ news habits and attitudes related to what they heard, perceived and knew about the 2020 presidential election and COVID-19…. Over the course of the year, as part of the project, the Center published more than 50 individual analyses and made data from more than 580 survey questions available to the public in an interactive data tool. We now have the opportunity to look back at the findings over the full course of the year and gather together the key takeaways that emerged.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

WJLA: Smithsonian hints at reopening of Arts and Industries Building after 15-year closure. “It seems as if new life is finally being breathed into the Smithsonian’s second-oldest building, which has been closed since 2006. On the National Mall, the Arts and Industries Building is nestled between the Smithsonian Castle and the Hirshhorn Museum. A new Twitter account was launched Monday morning.” Good morning, Internet…

February 23, 2021 at 06:34PM
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Monday, February 22, 2021

Tech Industry Salaries, Spotify Podcasts, AR Monuments, More: Monday Evening ResearchBuzz, February 22, 2021

Tech Industry Salaries, Spotify Podcasts, AR Monuments, More: Monday Evening ResearchBuzz, February 22, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New to me, from VentureBeat: Candor crowdsources a database of tech job salaries. “Candor has already compiled the largest free public tech salary database for individuals. It now has 5.3 million data points for 1,708 companies across 120 individual job roles, such as engineering and operations. And it has added tools that show a cost-of-living differential since people are accepting offers in new cities, but companies don’t always provide the most reliable information on cost of living in their locations.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NBC News: Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen launch podcast on Spotify. “Spotify on Monday announced the launch of ‘Renegades: Born in the USA,’ featuring the former president and the legendary rock star in conversation on issues ranging from politics and the state of America to fatherhood, marriage and manhood. The conversations will span eight episodes, the first two of which go live on Monday.”

USEFUL STUFF

Journalism .co .uk: How to track down case studies for your next article. “Whether it is a woman who bought a divorce horse or a parent homeschooling five children, finding a case study can sometimes feel like more of an art than a science. Yet, the human experience is at the heart of journalism and it is a vital skill to be able to track down individuals with compelling stories. There are a number of methods that can be deployed to find the right person to illustrate a story, no matter how obscure the request may seem.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Art Critique: Color of Change presents The Pedestal Project: an AR experience envisioning racial justice leaders atop plinths left empty. “In cities across the US, empty pedestals are what remain after statues memorialising the Confederate side of the American Civil War were toppled or removed in recent months. Thus, the question has come of what to do with those empty plinths, but Color of Change has created The Pedestal Project, a temporary AR fix to what they hope will become a long-term solution.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: Scam artists lurking on dating apps and social media made away with a record haul in 2020. “Scammers lurk on dating apps and social media, striking up conversation with strangers until they build up trust to eventually ask for money. The prevalence of these types of scams has been steadily rising for the past four years. In 2020, there was a 50% jump in reported dollar losses from romance scams from 2019. The pandemic has only made things easier, creating legitimate reasons for scammers to hide their real motives, claiming they cannot meet in person or need money for medical treatment.”

New York Times: China Censors the Internet. So Why Doesn’t Russia?. “For years, the Russian government has been putting in place the technological and legal infrastructure to clamp down on freedom of speech online, leading to frequent predictions that the country could be heading toward internet censorship akin to China’s great firewall. But even as Mr. Putin faced the biggest protests in years last month, his government appeared unwilling — and, to some degree, unable — to block websites or take other drastic measures to limit the spread of digital dissent.”

Tom’s Guide: Clubhouse app hacked and audio reposted for all — what you need to know. “The exclusive, invitation-only iPhone app Clubhouse is the latest big thing on the internet, but it’s not without its issues. Security researchers have already identified a serious flaw in the app’s security, one that’s since been exploited by an unknown hacker.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The University of Washington Daily: iSchool misinformation research reveals anti-vax communities growing on social media. “Kolina Koltai, a postdoctoral scholar at the iSchool’s Center for an Informed Public, conducts research with a focus on the social media anti-vaccine movement and the role online communities play in facilitating these conversations. According to Koltai, since the introduction of various COVID-19 vaccines, there has been an increase in activity in anti-vax communities, as well as the emergence of a new vaccine hesitancy in the general population.”

EOS: Amateur Radio Operators Help Fill Earthquake Donut Holes. “Ham radio networks gear up to provide real-time, on-the-ground information about earthquake shaking and damage when other communication pathways are knocked out of commission.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

CNBC: Watch the first ever video of NASA landing a rover on Mars. “NASA on Monday released first-of-its-kind video of a spacecraft landing on another planet, as multiple cameras captured its Perseverance rover touching down on the surface of Mars.” Good evening, Internet…

February 23, 2021 at 06:45AM
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Black Holes, Silver City Galleria, Buffalo Soldiers, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 22, 2021

Black Holes, Silver City Galleria, Buffalo Soldiers, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, February 22, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Syfy Wire: Hold Your Breath And Enter This Hypnotic Map Of 25,000 Supermassive Black Holes. “To aid in identifying the locations of these sinister sites, an international team of scientists led by The Netherland’s Leiden University has recently submitted for publication a comprehensive map pinpointing the locations of 25,000 supermassive black holes to the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.”

Taunton Daily Gazette: Silver City Galleria fan says thanks for the memories with online mall archive. “If you’re a fan of the soon-to-be-demolished Silver City Galleria mall, you’re far from the only one. In fact, 29-year-old Bridgewater resident James Walsh felt so nostalgic about his time spent there that he’s created an online archive for the mall for Galleria-lovers like himself to enjoy.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

National Archives News: New Photos: Buffalo Soldiers at West Point. “Photographs of Buffalo Soldiers serving at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY, during the early 20th century recently came to light at the National Archives. The images were discovered by a preservationist who was digitizing thousands of nitrate negatives transferred from the Academy to the Still Picture Branch of the National Archives at College Park, MD. Recognized for their expertise in riding, African American cavalry noncommissioned officers of the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments were stationed at West Point to serve in the Academy’s Detachment of Cavalry and teach Academy cadets military horsemanship.”

CNET: Google will reportedly lift ban on political ads this week. “Google is reportedly set to resume accepting political ads on all its platforms after temporarily blocking them following the Capitol Hill riot in January. The search giant told advertisers it will be accepting political ads starting Wednesday, according to a report on Monday from Axios.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: How to Create and Add Engaging Graphics to Facebook Live. “This guide will take you through the steps needed to set up graphics and text using Facebook’s Live Producer from your desktop. Live Producer gives you the ability to create polls, overlays, questions, live stream management, and more.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: A Flamenco Dancer for the YouTube Generation. “In a makeshift dance studio in an industrial warehouse one recent afternoon, the flamenco dancer Miguel Fernández Ribas, known as El Yiyo, was practicing his moves next to a pile of pink and orange synthetic blankets that his father sells at local street markets.”

Neowin: Microsoft, Intel, BBC and others form coalition to combat misinformation. “Misinformation and online content fraud has been rampant in the past few years with increased accessibility to technology. To combat this growing epidemic, various entities from the technology and media industry have joined forces to form the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA). Its members include Microsoft, Adobe, Arm, Intel, BBC, and Truepic.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

This is a little outside my lane, but I’m sharing it because y’all, it’s horrifying. This isn’t justice. KJZZ: Whistleblowers: Software Bug Keeping Hundreds Of Inmates In Arizona Prisons Beyond Release Dates. “According to Arizona Department of Corrections whistleblowers, hundreds of incarcerated people who should be eligible for release are being held in prison because the inmate management software cannot interpret current sentencing laws. KJZZ is not naming the whistleblowers because they fear retaliation. The employees said they have been raising the issue internally for more than a year, but prison administrators have not acted to fix the software bug. The sources said Chief Information Officer Holly Greene and Deputy Director Joe Profiri have been aware of the problem since 2019.”

Reuters: Australia says no further Facebook, Google amendments as final vote nears. “Australia will not alter legislation that would make Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google pay news outlets for content, a senior lawmaker said on Monday, as Canberra neared a final vote on whether to pass the bill into law.”

Ars Technica: New malware found on 30,000 Macs has security pros stumped. “A previously undetected piece of malware found on almost 30,000 Macs worldwide is generating intrigue in security circles, and security researchers are still trying to understand precisely what it does and what purpose its self-destruct capability serves.” Good afternoon, Internet…

February 23, 2021 at 02:05AM
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