afternoonbuzz

Theme Park Attractions, Facebook, Instagram, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 8, 2020

NEW RESOURCES

Attractions Magazine: Discover the stories behind the rides with ‘Park Lore’. “Launched this month by entertainment writer Brian Krosnick, Park Lore is a new, comprehensive online library of the artwork, concepts, memories, and stories behind classic theme park attractions. Park Lore offers readers in-depth features that chronicle the making-of and ‘ride-throughs’ of not just the popular rides we know today, but also plenty of closed, classic ‘Lost Legends,’ never-built ‘Possibilitylands,’ and the true stories of (and lessons learned from) ‘Declassified Disasters.'”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BBC: Facebook civil-rights record hammered in own review. “Facebook’s civil-rights policy is ‘too reactive and piecemeal’, leaving activists ‘frustrated and angry’, an audit commissioned by the company says. Details from a draft copy of the review, due to be published later, have been revealed by the New York Times. Facebook has already said it will not make ‘every change’ called for in the 100-page report.” And it’s Facebook’s own audit.

Mashable: Instagram’s ‘Pinned Comments’ feature is now available to everyone. “If you’re trying to inject some positivity into your Instagram posts, the new Pinned Comments feature could help. The feature, which Instagram started testing back in May, is officially now available everywhere. Instagram’s VP of Product, Vishal Shah, took to Twitter to announce that you can now pin a few (of what will likely be your favorite) comments to the top of the comments thread on your posts.”

USEFUL STUFF

9to5 Google: How to clean up Google Chrome when it’s slow: Notifications, search engine, more. “These days, you can’t get hardly anything done without a good, working web browser, but what do you do when Google Chrome starts acting up? Here’s a guide for how to clean up some of Google Chrome’s most common issues including slow loading, excess notifications, using the wrong search engine, and more.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: An Unlikely Source of Catharsis for a Black M.L.B. Player: Social Media. “Social media can be a challenging venue for tackling sensitive subjects with nuance. But for [Tony] Kemp, one of the few African-American players in Major League Baseball, sending that tweet felt like placing a bar stool at his kitchen island and inviting anyone to join him for a conversation about the issues roiling the country.”

OneZero: What a Better Social Network Would Look Like . “Tuesday evening, New York Times writer Charlie Warzel casually tweeted a version of this question to his followers, not expecting much of a response. ‘Odd question but: what are your most far-fetched utopian ideas for fixing social media platforms?’ he asked. ‘The stuff that’s likely never ever gonna happen.’ More than 1,000 replies later, the thread was packed with provocative proposals, which together show that there is not only a tremendous appetite for change but a constellation of bright ideas for what that change could be.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNET: US reportedly investigating TikTok again over children’s privacy. “The US Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department are probing allegations that TikTok has failed to meet its obligation to protect children’s privacy under a 2019 agreement, Reuters reported Tuesday. Two sources told the news agency they participated in separate conference calls with the agencies regarding the accusations.”

ZDNet: Yahoo engineer gets no jail time after hacking 6,000 accounts to look for porn. “A former Yahoo engineer was sentenced to five years of probation and home confinement for hacking into the personal accounts of more than 6,000 Yahoo Mail users to search for sexually explicit images and videos. Reyes Daniel Ruiz, 34, of Tracy, California, will only be allowed to leave his home for work, religious activities, medical appointments, or court-related obligations.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Wake Forest University: Do virtual meetings level the playing field for diverse voices?. “Decades of research have shown that diverse organizations are more engaged and able to develop creative solutions to problems. The more diverse voices in the room, the more likely meaningful innovation will happen. But diversity is not the same as inclusion. Not everyone attending a meeting feels empowered to share their best ideas or offer opinions they feel the group may not want to hear. Can virtual meetings level the playing field? Not usually.”

Phys .org: New evidence helps form digital reconstruction of most important medieval shrine. “The shrine of Saint Thomas Becket, the most important pilgrimage destination in medieval England—visited for hundreds of years by pilgrims seeking miraculous healing—has been digitally reconstructed for the public, according to how experts believe it appeared before its destruction.” 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!

Categories: afternoonbuzz

1 reply »

Leave a Reply