TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Military .com: Space Force Has Its First Launch: An Official Website. “The U.S. Space Force has launched its official website, giving prospective service members a glimpse into the military’s newest branch and how they can join the space mission.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: How to Build Instant Charts with Google Sheets’ Explore Feature. “The Explore feature in Google Sheets helps you gain insight from the data in your spreadsheets with the power of machine learning. Explore automatically analyzes everything in Sheets to make visualizing data easier.”

WebFX: Is My WordPress Site ADA Compliant? 3+ Plugins for Finding Out!. “Keep reading to discover four tools and plugins you can use to test your website’s accessibility. Plus, learn what to watch for when using WordPress ADA compliance plugins, as well as how to make your WordPress site ADA compliant.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Web Informant: How theme park technologies have helped museums: a case study of the new St. Louis Aquarium. “I am a big patron of museums. I go to many of them and try to fit in a visit whenever I am out of town. But what I have seen lately is how they have begun to use the same technologies that entertainment companies have been perfecting for movies and theme park rides, all in the interest of capturing more visitors and increasing visitor engagement. I think this a positive development, and this blog explains its evolution and why it is welcomed.”

Wired: The 8 Most Important Memes of 2019. “The year 2019 has been a difficult and uneven one. Online, political memes flew back and forth like spitballs, and even some of the most innocent ones (like that fish tube) took on a sense of ecstatic nihilism. People also had fun this year, finding joy in the mundanely bizarre—like watching hundreds of gummy bears appear to be singing along with Adele. Here are some of the year’s most important memes, great and gross alike.”

Mashable: 2019 was the year tech workers organized . “Toxic workplace culture, terrible pay, union busting, weapons contracts, anti-immigrant work, and political misinformation. Tech workers finally had enough. In 2019, white- and blue-collar workers at big tech firms stood up for what they believed in. Here’s a quick recap.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

OneZero: Inside Discord’s Thriving Black Market for Stolen Credit Cards and Gift Cards. “Discord was founded in 2015 as a platform for gamers to communicate through voice chat and text chat. Similar to Slack, anyone can start a server, and issue an invitation for anyone else to join. Over the years, Discord has grown into a more generalized social media platform — with servers dedicated to everything from basketball to political debate, and a user base of over 250 million around the globe. Discord has no mandatory identification verification, and the promise of anonymity occasionally attracts dangerous activity. Earlier this year, OneZero reported on the platform’s unregulated teen dating channels. Now, there’s evidence that Discord is being used by some users to facilitate a wide variety of possible financial crimes.”

The Middletown Press: Montana extends deadline for missing persons database. “Montana’s Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force has extended the deadline for tribal colleges to apply for a grant to start and administer a database of missing American Indians. Officials say none of the state’s seven tribal colleges applied for the $25,000 grant by the Dec. 13 deadline. The task force voted last Thursday to extend the deadline to Jan. 25 with the goal of awarding the grant by mid-February.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

StreamElements: State of the Stream 2019: Platform Wars, the New King of Streaming, Most Watched Game and More!. “StreamElements State of the Stream report covers all of the big streaming trends of 2019, such as which live streaming service is winning the platform wars (spoiler: they all are), did talent acquisitions make a difference (not yet), who is the top streamer, which games dominated the charts, the rising popularity of Dungeons & Dragons (no, you haven’t been transported back to the 80’s), and so much more.”

EurekAlert: Apps help with breastfeeding — at a cost. “The objective approach of most infant feeding (IF) apps gives mothers a perception of greater control, confidence and efficiency at a time of transition and stress in the early stages of parenting an infant, the study found. However, with more than 100 such apps available, the mobile content can also present new mums with another set of potential worries, including feeling overwhelmed by the information, concerns about over-reliance on the app, and even questioning the app’s advice.” 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 love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!