NEW RESOURCES

WPSD: Gov. Beshear launches new tornado relief resources website. “On Wednesday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear officially launched a new website to better assist those impacted by the deadly Dec. 10 tornadoes. The website will provide Kentuckians with information from several state assistance programs, including how to apply for unemployment, health care coverage, food assistance, driver’s license replacement and long-term housing.”

Jerusalem Post: Post six-day war footage of Egyptian Monastery made public by Israel’s national library . “Some 1,600 Christian manuscripts and numerous photographs and film footage from after the Six Day War are now available for free public viewing, the National Library of Israel (NLI) has announced. The documents were originally archived at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Founded by Justinian I over 1,500 years ago, the monastery is home to the oldest functional library in the world.”

CNN: A Texas teen couldn’t speak with his sister, so he created an app to give her a voice. “Archer Calder spent his childhood unable to talk with his younger sister, Della, his only sibling. Della has Bainbridge-Ropers syndrome, a rare genetic condition which affects her ability to eat, move and speak…. Archer began using his coding abilities to develop a web-based application called Freespeech. The site can be accessed from any device — phones, tablets and computers — with internet access. The simple website lets users program buttons with images of their choice to represent words. When clicked, the word is sounded out loud.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

RFI: France opens secret archives from Algeria’s war of independence. “France has opened its judicial and police archives relating to court cases and investigations into Algeria’s war against French colonisation – 15 years earlier than planned. Thursday’s announcement from the Ministry of Culture involves opening all ‘public archives produced in the context of cases relating to acts committed in connection with the Algerian war between 1 November 1954 and 31 December 1966’.”

CNET: Google now gives free COVID test and vaccine details at a glance. Here’s what to do. “Google added new COVID-19 features to its search tool on Wednesday for mobile users. The features can help you quickly find free testing locations and places to get vaccines for kids (and adults). You can also select specific vaccine brands: Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson.”

Engadget: How a ‘robot lawyer’ could help you get unbanned from social media. “The new service, which is included with DoNotPay’s $36 monthly subscription, offers users an alternative to emailing companies’ help center bots or wiring appeals that may never get answered. Instead, DoNotPay asks users for information about what happened to them, and sends a letter to the relevant company’s legal department on their behalf.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Times of Israel: Greek Jewish archives stolen by Nazis returned after nearly 80 years. “The Greek Jewish community is celebrating the return of a trove of manuscripts and community documents that the Nazis stole nearly 80 years ago. The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) announced in a statement earlier this month that Russia, which was in possession of the archives, had agreed to return them to their Mediterranean origin, after a diplomatic process supported by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.”

WWBT: Books, cloth envelope & coin found in Robert E. Lee monument time capsule. “134 years of history is uncovered as members of the Department of Historic Resources open a box believed to be the time capsule placed inside the Robert E. Lee monument in 1887. The team started their work to open the lid of the lead box on Wednesday morning. The box took nearly four hours to remove from the 1,500-pound granite block it was found in within the tower of the pedestal where Robert E. Lee’s statue once stood.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: Unhappy about privacy laws? One teen showed how to force change.. “Social media platforms’ power to collect, manipulate and exploit personal information alarms many who think they should own the rights to their images and data about their personal lives and preferences. But, as they often do, laws and court decisions are lagging behind these privacy concerns. Yet a teenager’s lawsuit more than a century ago demonstrates how one determined person can enlist government aid in privacy protection and provides a blueprint for these seeking changes today.”

Security Week: Research: Simulated Phishing Tests Make Organizations Less Secure. “A large-scale, long-term phishing experiment conducted in a 56,000-employee organization has come to a startling conclusion: Those simulated phishing tests commonly seen in corporate user-education campaigns are actually making things much worse.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Analytics India: Interesting Algorithms Released By Google AI In 2021. “Google AI aims to apply AI to products and domains that will make AI accessible to all. To fulfil this mission, the tech giant conducts cutting-edge research to bring out innovations helpful to society. This year, too, we saw many such models and algorithms from Google. Though not possible to focus on all, let us take a look at some of the interesting innovations that came from Google AI this year.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Tom’s Hardware: Nostalgic Raspberry Pi Radio Tunes to Music From Past Decades. “The Raspberry Pi makes an excellent gift on its own, but getting one in a custom Time Machine Radio is remarkably fulfilling. This holiday, a maker known as Byte-rider created a custom Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W-powered radio for his father. This custom radio has a professional design and clean finish that we think looks fantastic. There is a dial on one side that can tune into different decades. The Pi reads this input to play only music from the selected decade.” 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 love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!