New researches

Monday, March 28, 2022

Ukrainian Music, Stand Up for Ukraine, Radio Free Europe, More: Monday Ukraine Update, March 28, 2022

Ukrainian Music, Stand Up for Ukraine, Radio Free Europe, More: Monday Ukraine Update, March 28, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Ukrainian Institute: Ukrainian scores by Ukrainian Composers. “As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian musicians receive many requests from colleagues all around the world to perform works by Ukrainian composers. Due to the need of resisting not only the military but also the information war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, an initiative group of the Lyatoshynsky Club, the Ukrainian Live Classic, and the Ukrainian Institute created the ‘Ukrainian Scores’ project to present a digital library of Ukrainian composers’ scores to the world.”

EVENTS

CBC: Canada, Europe to co-host social media fundraiser for displaced Ukrainians. “The fundraising effort, called ‘Stand Up For Ukraine,’ will engage politicians, artists and businesses, among others, and is to culminate with an April 9 pledging event to be hosted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Washington Post: The Kremlin tries to stifle Radio Free Europe — and its audience surges. “In the first three weeks after the invasion, page views from Russia to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty sites skyrocketed to 26 million, more than 50 percent more than an earlier corresponding period. Video views from Russia to their YouTube channels more than tripled to 237 million. And this was happening despite sites being blocked within Russia.”

The Verge: Ukraine is selling a timeline of the Russian invasion as NFTs. “Ukraine’s government is raising funds by selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on a timeline of Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country. Ukraine Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov announced the collection’s launch on Twitter, boasting that ‘while Russia uses tanks to destroy Ukraine, we rely on revolutionary blockchain tech.’ All sales funds will go to the Ministry of Digital Transformation to support the ‘army and civilians’ of Ukraine.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Daily Beast: Kremlin TV Hopes Russia’s Unhinged Ukraine War Claim Will Help Re-Elect Trump. “Putin’s invasion of Ukraine pitted Russia against most of the world, leaving Kremlin propagandists yearning for any tidbits of pro-Russian sentiment in the United States. These days, state television draws on a bounty of translated quotes almost exclusively from two Western voices: Tucker Carlson of Fox News and former U.S. President Donald J. Trump. They have a plan to reward them both: Carlson with a highly coveted interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Trump with a freebie PR campaign designed to light his path back to the White House.”

South China Morning Post: Ukrainians take on ‘wall of propaganda’ on Chinese social media. “Ukrainians who can speak Mandarin are taking to Chinese social media platforms in an effort to provide information about the Russian invasion and win public support in China. They are translating the latest developments in the war into Chinese, including information on casualties and analysis, and posting it on their accounts on popular social media networks like WeChat and Weibo.”

Sky News: Ukraine war: This woman’s waging her own battle against Putin – and all she needs is her mobile phone . “Her name is Maria Avdeeva, and we began to listen to her reports in Kharkiv, the embattled Ukrainian city just 20 miles from the Russian border. She posts daily updates from bombed-out buildings in and around the city centre, often as incoming shells and rockets echo around her.”

Kotaku: Retro Computer And Game Museum In Ukraine Destroyed By Russian Bombing. “A large, privately-owned, and operated museum dedicated to retro computers and video games was destroyed earlier this week in Ukraine as a result of the ongoing and horrific invasion of the country by Russia. While a museum being destroyed doesn’t compare at all to the thousands dead and injured, it’s still a sad loss as over 500 pieces of computer history spanning decades has been destroyed.” The owner of the museum is reported to be safe.

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Times: Names and addresses of 620 FSB officers published after data breach. “Ukraine has published the names and addresses of 620 FSB officers in an apparent data breach of the Russian security agency. The Ukrainian directorate of intelligence claimed the list revealed the personal details of agents engaging in ‘criminal activities’ across Europe.”

New York Times: When Nokia Pulled Out of Russia, a Vast Surveillance System Remained. “Nokia said this month that it would stop its sales in Russia and denounced the invasion of Ukraine. But the Finnish company didn’t mention what it was leaving behind: equipment and software connecting the government’s most powerful tool for digital surveillance to the nation’s largest telecommunications network.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Washington Post: Social media wasn’t ready for this war. It needs a plan for the next one.. “The moves illustrate how Internet platforms have been scrambling to adapt content policies built around notions of political neutrality to a wartime context. And they suggest that those rule books — the ones that govern who can say what online — need a new chapter on geopolitical conflicts.”

Mashable: The robot dog painter selling its works to support Ukrainian refugees. “A Boston Dynamics ‘Spot’ robot’s abstract paintings are raising money for Ukrainians displaced by war. One of its artworks, ‘Sunrise March’, sold at auction for $40,000.” Captioned video.

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March 28, 2022 at 07:28PM
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Art of Anatomy, Delaware Historical Society, Urban Brazil, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, March 28, 2022

Art of Anatomy, Delaware Historical Society, Urban Brazil, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, March 28, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Getty Library Blog: New Getty Research Portal Virtual Collection: Anatomy and Art. “Announcing the Getty Research Portal’s newest Virtual Collection, Anatomy and Art, to accompany the Getty Research Institute exhibition Flesh and Bones: The Art of Anatomy (February 22 – July 10, 2022), organized by guest curator Monique Kornell. The Virtual Collection brings together 128 records of fully digitized art history texts from 10 Portal contributors.”

Delaware Historical Society: Delaware Historical Society Debuts Public Digital Collections. “Delaware Historical Society (DHS) announces the launch of their new digital collections platform. The nonprofit has begun digitizing collections to enhance access to DHS resources for local, regional, and national audiences. It offers access to primary source information to everyone from researchers, teachers and students, as well as to the general public.” The collections are in progress and more content will be added over time.

From the University Of São Paulo and Google-Translated from Portuguese: Platform brings together unprecedented bibliographic collection on urban transformations in Brazil. “A bibliographic database that gathers published information, under different editorial formats, about the various dimensions of the Brazilian urban area. This is the UrbanData-Brasil platform , an initiative that brings together references from more than 1,500 books, 7,900 articles, 1,000 papers, 6,000 monographs, theses and dissertations, launching on March 28, at 2 pm, and broadcasting live on CEM’s Youtube channel.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Google Blog: Sign up today for Code Jam’s 2022 competitions. “Google’s longest-running coding competition, Code Jam, is back for its 19th season. Code Jam to I/O for Women is also returning for a ninth year, bringing together women programmers from around the world. In both competitions, developers tackle algorithmic challenges designed by Google engineers — all while building their network, sharpening their coding skills and even winning some prizes.”

CNET: Twitch Launches Revamped Reporting Tool to Better Respond to ‘Hate Raids’. “Twitch is updating its reporting tool to make it easier for members to flag behavior that violates the platform’s standards. Launching next week, the feature’s ‘simpler, more intuitive design’ will allow users to cite the specific reason they are flagging content and include menus based on whether you’re reporting a VOD, clip or live content.”

PR Newswire: Lost Women of Science Launches Second Podcast Season (PRESS RELEASE). “The Lost Women of Science Podcast Series announced today the launch of its second season, A Grasshopper in Very Tall Grass. The season will focus on the life and work of Klára Dán von Neumann, who played a crucial role in the development of computer programming as we know it today. The mission of Lost Women of Science is to tell the stories of remarkable female scientists who were not recognized for their achievements during their lifetimes.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 8 Chrome Extensions to Track Your Web Time and Activity. “Without so many distractions available online, it is really challenging to avoid wasting your time on social media or entertainment sites. Though visiting these sites can be relaxing and fun, it’s worrying if it is eating up your productive time. Luckily, there are Chrome extensions that can track your web time, showing how much time you spend on these distracting websites. Below, we mention the eight best Chrome extensions to track your web time.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: How Big Tech lost the antitrust battle with Europe. “Like Proton, many companies across Europe are pinning their hopes on the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the EU’s first overhaul of the rules that govern competition on the Internet in 20 years. It is one of two major pieces of technology legislation in the works in Brussels; the other is the Digital Services Act (DSA), which will cover areas such as privacy and data use.”

JD Supra: DOJ Issues Website Accessibility Guidance – Key Questions Remain Unanswered. “Almost twelve years after it first proposed to issue website accessibility regulations, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on March 18, 2022, published ‘Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA.’ The new nonregulatory guidance offers little assistance to the business community on the two undecided questions that have fueled the ever-rising volume of litigation: whether and under what circumstances commercial websites need to be made accessible and what it means to be accessible.”

SecurityWeek: Google Issues Emergency Fix for Chrome Zero-Day. “Tracked as CVE-2022-1096 and considered high-severity, the security hole is described as a Type Confusion bug in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. The internet search giant says the bug was reported by an anonymous researcher, and the company has yet to determine the bug bounty amount for this issue.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

TheMayor: Dublin to train AI to transcribe 19-century historic records. “Today, local authorities in Dublin announced the new ‘Transcription Week’ event, which will take place between 28 March and 1 April. During the event, hundreds of volunteers will transcribe 18- and 19-century municipal documents that will later be made available to the public…. Furthermore, the work from the volunteers will be used to train an Artificial Intelligence programme, that will be used to transcribe even more documents in the future.”

Tech Xplore: ‘Off label’ use of imaging databases could lead to bias in AI algorithms, study finds. “Significant advances in artificial intelligence (AI) over the past decade have relied upon extensive training of algorithms using massive, open-source databases. But when such datasets are used ‘off label’ and applied in unintended ways, the results are subject to machine learning bias that compromises the integrity of the AI algorithm, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Texas at Austin.” Good morning, Internet…

March 28, 2022 at 05:29PM
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Sunday, March 27, 2022

Game Birds of the World, Logan Earth, Oklahoma Arts Education Dashboard, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 27, 2022

Game Birds of the World, Logan Earth, Oklahoma Arts Education Dashboard, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 27, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Nebraska-Lincoln: ‘Game Birds of the World’ collection available online. “The Game Birds of the World collection from the Nebraska State Museum is now available online. The collection is currently housed in Hardin Hall and now can be viewed on the School of Natural Resources website…. The collection contains more than 160 mounted individual game birds of 103 species from around the world.”

Cabin Radio: Yellowknife man creates alternative to Google Earth for northerners. “The North” in this case is northern Canada. “Many northerners use Google Earth to understand the land around them, but the level of detail is limited compared to other cities. Logan Rudkevitch has a solution: Logan Earth.”

Tulsa World: Column: New data tool shows disparities in arts education across Oklahoma. “Data available through the Oklahoma Arts Education Dashboard, a new tool created by Quadrant Arts Education Research, shows 45% of students in Oklahoma have no access to arts education in their school…. These figures and more are available through the dashboard, recently developed through a partnership of the Oklahoma Arts Council, Oklahoma State Department of Education, Oklahomans for the Arts, and Kirkpatrick Foundation.”

USEFUL STUFF

Hongkiat: Delete Yourself From The Internet With These Tools. “If you find something that you want removed from Google’s search engine, you can request Google to remove it from their search engine results with its URL Remover Tool. Outside of this, you will need to talk to the people who own and maintain the site to get your data removed. But if you’re only looking to reduce the visibility of your data online (because deleting yourself from the Internet completely is quite impossible) or want to delete some accounts that are no longer in your use, then these 5 tool can help you get started.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Techdirt: Game Jam Winner Spotlight: Dreaming The Cave. “David [Harris] is our one and only returning winner this year, with his third win in a streak after taking Best Analog Game for Fish Magic in 2021 and for The 24th Kandinsky in 2020. Now, with Dreaming The Cave, he has cemented his fascinating niche: games that teach the player about art. And just like the earlier entries, this isn’t some dry educational tool or an unoriginal game with facts and imagery slapped on — rather, it’s a beautifully conceived experience where the gameplay itself is suffused with the meaning and message of the game.”

Los Angeles Times: Meet the couple behind Artists Who Code, a group helping artists switch careers to tech. “Less than 10 people joined their first informal Zoom meeting in March 2020. But as word spread over the past two years, the group, now called Artists Who Code, has grown to about 280 members across the U.S. and abroad. The volunteer-run organization offers guidance and emotional support for artists interested in or currently working in technology.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

USPTO: USPTO delays the effective date for identity verification requirement for trademark filers. “USPTO strives to ensure the tools utilized to verify trademark filers are equitable, inclusive, and secure. Accordingly, as the USPTO evaluates and solicits feedback on our online digital identity verification option, we are announcing that we are postponing the April 9 effective date upon which identity verification was scheduled to become mandatory. A new effective date will be announced at the appropriate time with reasonable advance notice.”

SecurityWeek: How European Rulings Imperil Flagship Google Product. “More than half of the world’s websites use Google Analytics to help their owners understand the behavior of users. The software, which deploys cookies to track user behavior, costs nothing in cash terms — though the vast trove of data helps to fuel Google’s massive profits. However, in 2020 the framework overseeing how personal data is transferred from the EU to US was struck down by EU judges over concerns about snooping by US spy agencies.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Verge: Global science project links Android phones with satellites to improve weather forecasts. “Collecting satellite data for research is a group effort thanks to this app developed for Android users. Camaliot is a campaign funded by the European Space Agency, and its first project focuses on making smartphone owners around the world part of a project that can help improve weather forecasts by using your phone’s GPS receiver.”

The Conversation: New US rules on sharing healthcare research data are a giant leap for open science. “Starting on Jan. 25, 2023, many of the 2,500 institutions and 300,000 researchers that the U.S. National Institutes of Health supports will need to provide a formal, detailed plan for publicly sharing the data generated by their research. For many in the scientific community, this new NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy sounds like a no-brainer.” Good afternoon, Internet…

March 28, 2022 at 12:22AM
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Court Guidance Documents, Qatar Business Map, Reddit, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, March 27, 2022

Court Guidance Documents, Qatar Business Map, Reddit, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, March 27, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Pew: National Database of Court Orders Details Pandemic-Related Changes to Operations. “To help draw broader lessons from the many changes made to keep courts operating during the pandemic, researchers at Wesleyan University in Connecticut have created a database that compiles more than 20,000 unique state court guidance documents. Collected from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the documents were issued from February 2020 to March 2021.”

Gulf Times: MoCI launches Qatar Business Map portal. “The business map portal provides a comprehensive database for users, allowing them to view the investment advantages of Qatar’s various regions through a search service for commercial establishments per region, and for the various available commercial activities. The portal also offers statistics on several commercial licenses registered in each municipality, new and signed-off commercial licences, and the latest commercial establishments registered in Qatar.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

KnowTechie: Reddit is exploring TikTok-style reaction videos. “Reddit might soon be full of short-form video content, like TikTok-style reaction videos. As reported by TechCrunch, and confirmed by Reddit, the new feature could have TikTok-like editing tools. The videos created could be used as reactions or even as original posts.”

MakeUseOf: You Can Now Search Your Twitter DMs for Specific Keywords. “Ever lost a conversation on Twitter because you could only remember certain words? Now, you can use those words to locate your conversation. Finally, Twitter lets you search for chats in your direct messages (DMs) using specific keywords. Let’s find out more.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Associated Press: Dagny Carlsson, dubbed oldest blogger in the world, dies at 109. “Dagny Carlsson, dubbed the world’s oldest blogger, who wrote about her life in Sweden based on the attitude that you should never think you are too old to do what you want to do, has died, Swedish media and her fan page reported. She was 109. At the age of 99, Carlsson attended a computer course and a year later, she started her blog where she called herself Bojan.”

TechCrunch: The Web Foundation is taking on deceptive design. “The Web Foundation‘s Tech Policy Design Lab is working on an interesting-looking project to counter deceptive design — aka dark patterns* — with the goal of producing a portfolio of UX and UI prototypes which it hopes to persuade tech companies to adopt and policymakers to be inspired by as they fashion rules to make the online experience less exploitative of web users.”

Mashable: The secret Wikipedia prank behind the Pringles mascot’s first name. “The name ‘Julius Pringles’ — which Kellogg’s claims as officially trademarked, though a search of the United States Patent and Trademark Office site for ‘Julius Pringles’ returned no immediate results — looks not to have come from a marketing team, or some long-forgotten Pringles founder. Rather, the name stems from two Wikipedia savvy, hoax-loving college students snacking away on Sour Cream & Onion Pringles in their dorm room back in 2006.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: New Zealand moves to crack down on corporate secrecy after Pandora Papers. “A proposed law to establish a public beneficial ownership register would build on post-Panama Papers reforms to end use of the country as a tax haven.”

The Verge: Two men arrested for $1.1 million NFT ‘rug pull’ scam. “US government prosecutors have charged two men with fraud and money laundering over a cryptocurrency ‘rug pull’ scheme. Ethan Nguyen and Andre Llacuna allegedly earned around $1.1 million by selling non-fungible tokens (or NFTs) based on cartoon-like characters called “Frosties.” After selling the NFTs, they shut down the project and transferred its funds to a series of separate crypto wallets, leaving Frosties owners bereft of promised rewards.”

North Jersey: Instagram influencer ‘Jay Mazini’ pleads guilty to Bergen kidnapping charges. “Disgraced influencer Jay Mazini and an associate have pleaded guilty in a North Jersey kidnapping case that saw one of the social media star’s rivals beaten and held at knifepoint with a machete. The Edgewater star potentially faced decades behind bars for orchestrating the plot, until he cut a deal with prosecutors last week for a five-year prison sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to one count of first-degree kidnapping, authorities confirmed. ”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Wiley: Wiley and Wikipedia: Powering Discovery Together. “By partnering with the Wikipedia Library, we allow top Wikipedia editors – qualified on a basis of frequency, volume, and quality of updates to Wikipedia – free access to Wiley Online Library. Editors will use their access to cite and link directly to Wiley resources across Wikipedia articles.”

NARA Institute of Science and Technology: New approach to scanning objects of illumination. “Scientists from Nara Institute of Science and Technology created a new approach to compensate for variations in illumination while scanning cathedral stained-glass windows. This work may be applied to other objects of cultural significance to help capture their colors in the most lifelike way.” Good morning, Internet…

March 27, 2022 at 05:41PM
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Saturday, March 26, 2022

Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia, Making and Unmaking of Black Wealth, Global Drinking Water, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2022

Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia, Making and Unmaking of Black Wealth, Global Drinking Water, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Cape Breton University: Researchers to Launch Index of Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia with ‘Language in Lyrics’ Project. “A comprehensive index of more than 6,000 Gaelic songs composed, sung, or published in Nova Scotia will be launched during a live event in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia on Saturday, March 26, 2022…. More than 30 fields of data were documented for each song, including composers, singers, song origins, song subjects, and song genres, making it possible to conduct detailed searches. More than 1,000 song lyrics will also be available from the index. Where possible, links are provided to song recordings or lyrics online.”

Indiana University: Digital timeline tracks ‘Making and Unmaking of Black Wealth’ to aid racial justice conversations. ‘Land, Wealth, Liberation: The Making and Unmaking of Black Wealth in the United States’ is an interactive timeline with photos, videos, historical information and resources for educators covering 1820 to 2020. The project explores the ways African Americans in the U.S. have produced wealth, and the factors that have affected their ability to build and maintain wealth and access economic opportunities.”

World Health Organization: New GLAAS data portal online. “The UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) data portal is now online… The portal features GLAAS data from the past three GLAAS cycles (2013/2014, 2016/2017, 2018/2019) on governance, finance, monitoring and human resources. On the portal, users can explore and download data, analyze trends, and make country and regional comparisons.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNBC: Google Fiber contractors in Kansas City are first to unionize under Alphabet Worker Union. “Google Fiber contractors in Kansas City, Missouri voted to unionize Friday, becoming the first workers with bargaining rights under the Alphabet Workers Union.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Verge: Shortwave just rescued my inbox from the drudgery of Gmail. “Shortwave is designed by a group of ex-Googlers, including Andrew Lee, who previously founded and sold Firebase, an app development platform, to Google. Shortwave — priced at $9 / month unless you’re OK with only three months of email history — makes no bones about its ambitions to step into Inbox’s shoes. It even looks and works like it with a blue-accented theme, but it’s more than just a clone. It builds upon the effective design choices that powered Inbox with some of its own, and in the two weeks I’ve spent with it, it has made me far more productive at managing my email.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: ‘They are the ones paying the consequences’: Jan. 6 rioters mimic Trump’s misinformation playbook but see different results. “Some rioters haven’t changed their online presences, occasionally discussing their charges in cryptic Instagram graphics — one defendant posted a Tupac Shakur lyric ‘Wake me when I’m free’– or alluding to politics in their Twitter, Instagram and TikTok bios with American flag emojis and tagging themselves as #J6. Others have made it their whole brand by spreading misinformation, using the opportunity to go on national television or even selling real estate or merchandise.”

SecurityWeek: North Korea Gov Hackers Caught Sharing Chrome Zero-Day. “Malware hunters at Google have spotted signs that North Korean government hackers are sharing zero-day browser exploits for use in waves of targeted attacks hitting U.S. news media, crypto-banks and IT organizations.”

CNET: Former TikTok Moderators Sue Over Work-Related Trauma. “In the federal lawsuit, filed Thursday and reported earlier by NPR, Ashley Velez and Reece Young, who both did moderation work for TikTok through third-party companies, say they spent 12-hour workdays reviewing ‘disgusting and offensive content’ that left them emotionally scarred.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Tubefilter: Study: YouTube channels with “problematic” content are 12% more likely to use alternative forms of monetization. ” New research from Cornell Tech details the moneymaking strategies used by creators of ‘problematic’ content. Compared to their rule-abiding counterparts, these videomakers are 12% more likely to utilize revenue streams outside of the YouTube Partner Program — including merch, affiliate programs, and fan-funding services like Patreon.”

Northwestern Medicine: Teaching AI to Read Fetal Ultrasound in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. “Northwestern Medicine and Google are collaborating on a project to bring fetal ultrasound to developing countries by combining AI (artificial intelligence), low-cost hand-held ultrasound devices and a smartphone. The project will develop algorithms enabling AI to read ultrasound images from these devices taken by lightly trained community health workers and even pregnant people at home, with the aim of assessing the wellness of both the birthing parent and baby.” Good afternoon, Internet…

March 27, 2022 at 01:04AM
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Cambridge University Ukrainian Society, Weather Data Access, Spanish Disinformation, More: Saturday Ukraine Update, March 26, 2022

Cambridge University Ukrainian Society, Weather Data Access, Spanish Disinformation, More: Saturday Ukraine Update, March 26, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Cambridge Independent: Cambridge group opens website to link Ukrainians and UK homeowners. “The website… has been developed by Cambridge University Ukrainian Society (CUUS) to enable those fleeing the war to get in contact with prospective sponsors in Cambridge or indeed elsewhere in the UK.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Atlantic Council: Russian War Report: Russia produces “evidence” claiming Ukraine will attack Crimea. “On March 24, the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Оперативные сводки (‘Operative news’) published photos of medals and certificates that it alleged were going to be used to reward Ukrainian troops ‘for the capture of Crimea.’ … Russian media amplified this message, claiming that the medals were evidence that Ukraine, with the help of NATO, was planning to attack Crimea. This appears to be the latest in a string of Russian false-flag allegations, due to the alleged evidence’s incorrect use of official Ukrainian terminology.”

CNET: These Companies Have Left Russia: The List Across Tech, Entertainment, Finance. “As the Russia’s war on Ukraine continues, a growing number of companies have said they are stopping sales of products and services in Russia. This will make items, including video games, iPhones and the PS5, harder to get in Russia…. Here’s a look at tech, entertainment and finance companies that have stopped sales or other services in Russia.”

BBC: Spotify stops streaming in Russia over safety concerns. “Spotify is pulling out of Russia citing a new law that threatens jail for spreading ‘fake news’ about the country’s armed forces. The music streaming company said safety concerns about staff and ‘possibly even our listeners’ had pushed it to fully suspend its free service.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

InfoSecurity Magazine: West Blocks Russia’s Access to Weather Data. “Western weather-related agencies are curbing Russia’s access to meteorological data over fears that the country may use such information to attack Ukraine with biological or chemical weapons. Data that agencies want kept secret from Russia include near-instantaneous measurements of wind speed and direction, sunlight and precipitation.”

USA Today: Ukraine’s volunteer online army: Meet the ‘cyber elves’ fighting Russian trolls on Facebook. “When Henrikas Savickis is not performing at the National Theater or strumming a guitar with his drama students, this 51-year-old actor, singer and teacher from the Lithuanian city of Kaunas has an unusual side hustle. He’s a keyboard warrior on the frontlines of the Russian offensive in Ukraine. For four to five hours a day since the invasion began, Savickis fires up his laptop to shoot down pro-Kremlin conspiracy theories and falsehoods spread by Russian operatives who camouflage their activities by posing as Lithuanian citizens.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BBC: Russia considers accepting Bitcoin for oil and gas. “Russia is considering accepting Bitcoin as payment for its oil and gas exports, according to a high-ranking lawmaker. Pavel Zavalny says ‘friendly’ countries could be allowed to pay in the crypto-currency or in their local currencies.”

Mashable: Crypto scammers are filling inboxes with fake ‘donate to Ukraine’ emails. “Scammers are continuing to weaponize Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine in order to propel their immoral money-making schemes. There have been a slew of scams ranging from fake charity websites hosted on freshly registered domain names to phishing campaigns looking to steal sensitive information from potential donors to Ukraine. Now, new research from email security firm Cyren looks into just how cryptocurrency fraudsters are utilizing email spam for their latest Ukraine-related fraud.”

Route Fifty: Ukraine War Puts US Cities, States on Cyber Alert. “Even before Biden’s warning, state and local governments were busy shoring up their cybersecurity in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the elevated threat of cyberattacks targeting the United States.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Centre for International Governance Innovation: How to Explain the Failure of Russia’s Information Operations in Ukraine?. “After the shock of the 2016 presidential election in the United States, it became commonplace to assume that Russia had developed a dominant information warfare machine as a part of its hybrid warfare strategies. These had helped it achieve lightning-fast victories in Georgia and Eastern Ukraine and supported its often-covert operations in Syria. (Insert a minor mea culpa here.) And yet, despite the devastating destruction of its invasion in Ukraine, there appears to be a genuine consensus that Russia’s much vaunted information operations capability has greatly underperformed. Why is this the case?”

Washington Post: Opinion: Big Tech needs to pull the plug on Russia’s biggest propaganda campaign. “The Z campaign started in the days after the invasion. It has now reached tens of millions of people across social media platforms. It is the rallying symbol of the Russian war machine and an effective weapon in the information war. Strikingly, the QAnon conspiracy has been barred from promotion on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter. But as of now, Z continues to grow.”

Boston Globe: Social media platforms must address Russia’s Spanish-language misinformation. “As the Russian invasion unfolded in Ukraine, Facebook and TikTok banned Russian state media in Europe, while YouTube blocked them globally as it became evident that Kremlin-controlled outlets were spreading propaganda. But according to experts, Spanish-language misinformation and conspiracy theories have a longer shelf life than their English counterparts on social media because, by and large, the platforms are not dedicating enough resources and time to fight them. It’s way overdue: Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter better catch up and take the threat of Spanish-language misinformation seriously.”

March 26, 2022 at 11:29PM
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Delta Air Lines, UK Butterflies & Moths, Mozilla Developer Network, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2022

Delta Air Lines, UK Butterflies & Moths, Mozilla Developer Network, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, March 26, 2022
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Georgia Libraries: Delta Air Lines Documents Available Online Through the Digital Library of Georgia. “The collection contains Delta Air Lines’ digitized timetables, flight maps, and annual reports for the past century through its expansions, moves, and mergers with other airlines to become the aviation industry leader in the United States.”

Butterfly Conservation: Database brings together all known ecological facts about UK butterflies and moths for the first time. “Butterfly Conservation and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology have worked together on the database, which has collated information that previously existed in a wide range of sources such as field guides, books and journals. Until now, most of this information wasn’t available in a single location nor in a digital format. The new database has brought this information into one usable, digital resource. This involved many months of inputting data from books into spreadsheets, categorising data, and condensing the data into a suitable format for use in data analysis software such as R.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Mozilla launches paid subscriptions to its Developer Network. “Mozilla today launched MDN Plus, a paid subscription product on top of the existing (and recently re-designed) Mozilla Developer Network (MDN), one of the web’s most popular destinations for finding documentation and code samples related to web technologies like CSS, HTML and JavaScript. The new subscription offering will introduce features like notifications, collections (think lists of articles you want to save) and MDN offline for when you want to access MDN when you’re not online.”

The Hill: Khan’s Black News Channel to shut down: report. “Black News Channel, whose majority stakeowner is Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, is shutting down as soon as Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. The people briefed on the matter told the newspaper that Khan did not want to continue investing in the news outlet. Employees were told on Thursday that their paychecks would be delayed and the company did not make payroll the following day.”

Yarns and Fibers: Open Apparel Registry promotes supply chain transparency. “The Open Apparel Registry (OAR) is a free, open data tool that maps garment facilities around the world and assigns each one a unique ID…. Its most recent move, which it claims is it’s most significant since launch, means that all users can now contribute to and search for a new collection of facility data points in the tool. These data points are: Number of workers, Parent company, Type of facility, Type of product, and Type of processing.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Conversation: TikTok is propagandists’ new tool to win elections in Southeast Asia. “Propagandists’ strategic manoeuvring of public opinion on social media remains a dangerous threat to democracy in Southeast Asia. Over the years, strategic use of cybertroopers in Southeast Asian countries has been prominent, especially during the election periods. Political actors have attempted to sway public opinion via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to push for a political narrative to garner more supporters in the region. Now, TikTok, as the most downloaded app in Southeast Asia would serve as a new strategic tool for propagandists to push for political narrative during the electoral period.”

Chicago Inno: A mix of Cameo, ‘The Voice’ and MasterClass, Protégé wants to change how talent is discovered. “Here’s how it works: Protégé lets you send a 60-second video clip to anyone in its network of famous musicians, vocal coaches and other industry experts. The expert reviews the video and sends back a video response with feedback. The user, who pays between $10 and $200 depending on the expert, gets valuable feedback and a personal connection with a prominent person in their field. But there’s the potential for an even greater opportunity⁠ — to work directly with the star or have your work featured in one of their songs.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: Google Rebukes DOJ Claim It Hid Documents by CC’ing Lawyers. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google is pushing back on U.S. Justice Department claims that it improperly used attorney-client privilege to conceal documents in the government’s monopoly lawsuit against the company.”

Bleeping Computer: Hundreds of HP printer models vulnerable to remote code execution. “HP has published security advisories for three critical-severity vulnerabilities affecting hundreds of its LaserJet Pro, Pagewide Pro, OfficeJet, Enterprise, Large Format, and DeskJet printer models.”

Reuters: US FCC adds Russia’s Kaspersky, China telecom firms to national security threat list. “The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday added Russia’s AO Kaspersky Lab, China Telecom (Americas) Corp and China Mobile International USA to its list of communications equipment and service providers deemed threats to U.S. national security.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Canadian Grocer: Why Statistics Canada is changing how it monitors food prices. “There is no doubt this change was needed as the list of products was quite dated. In fact, even if you go back 25 years, the list was quite immaterial for most of us. For example, seafood is a huge industry for Canada, and canned salmon was the only fish that Statistics Canada was monitoring the last 25 years. The produce category only had a handful of options, the only option in the juice category was orange, and the vegetable protein category was nonexistent. Today, vegetable proteins are consumed by a growing number of Canadians. However, once the new list comes out, Statistics Canada says we can’t go back beyond March 2022 to access food prices.”

Michigan Daily: Memes: The sixth love language. “There is some truth in the idea that people our age spend an exorbitant amount of time looking at screens. Studies show that Gen Zers may spend almost nine hours a day interacting with technology. But in an increasingly digitized and globally connected world, it’s almost impossible to escape spending time online, whether it’s for academic, occupational or social reasons. Need I remind you that my generation just celebrated our two-year anniversary of attending ‘Zoom University.’ As a result, young people have created spaces on the internet for interactive freedom. Digital self-expression has become the new, sixth love language of intimate connection — and memes are at the forefront of this modern form of communication.” Good morning, Internet…

March 26, 2022 at 05:33PM
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