NEW RESOURCES

Bellingcat: Follow the Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map. “The Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map is a crowdsourced effort by Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) and the wider open source community to map, document and verify significant incidents during the conflict in Ukraine. Its aim is to provide reliable information for policymakers, journalists as well as justice and accountability bodies about the evolving situations both on-the-ground and online. Bellingcat, Mnemonic and the Conflict Intelligence Team have also begun to contribute to the map in recent days.”

Google Blog: Exploring Afrofuturism on Google Arts & Culture. “This February and March 2022, Carnegie Hall invites New Yorkers and the world to participate in a journey of discovery through one of its signature citywide festivals — Afrofuturism — a movement where music, visual arts, science fiction and technology intersect to imagine alternate realities and a liberated future viewed through the lens of Black cultures. Together with Google Arts & Culture, and coinciding with Black History Month, we are pleased to invite audiences around the world to learn more about this exciting movement as part of a new online hub: The Afrofuture is Now.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: LinkedIn wants to normalize career breaks with new feature. “Business-oriented social network LinkedIn says it’s trying to end the stigma surrounding career breaks by encouraging users to highlight what they learned from these experiences. The Microsoft-owned company is releasing a feature on Tuesday that will allow people to add a career break to their LinkedIn profiles through the desktop site or mobile app, giving them a way to explain the gaps in their resume.”

KnowTechie: TikTok is rolling out 10-minute videos so you can waste even more time on the app. “TikTok continues to explode in popularity as a short-form video platform. But now, it’s looking to expand upon that. TikTok has recently added the ability for users to upload videos up to 10 minutes long, a big increase over the previous three-minute limit.”

The Verge: Google is ditching Chrome’s data saver mode on Android. “Google has announced it will soon remove a feature of Chrome for Android that for years helped people cut down on their mobile data usage. Per 9to5Google, Chrome’s ‘Lite mode’ will go away with the release of Chrome version M100 in late March. Lite mode was originally known as Data Saver when Google first introduced it on Android back in 2014.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: How to Screen Record on Your Chromebook. “Whether it’s for school or work, recording your Chromebook screen can have many different use cases. Thankfully, Chromebooks make it incredibly easy with a built-in tool that ensures that you don’t need any extra software. Released with ChromeOS 89 in March 2021, the revamped screen capture menu added the native screen recorder on top of the ability to screenshot your display. Let’s take a look at how to start and stop a screen recording on a Chromebook.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Guardian: Australian online anti-vaccine groups switch to Putin praise and Ukraine conspiracies. “Australian anti-vaxxer groups are awash with conspiracy theories praising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an attack on the ‘deep state’, with some followers of the Covid-sceptic movement expressing admiration for Vladimir Putin.”

BuzzFeed News: Google Maps Is Blocking Edits In Ukraine After Claims That User-Generated Tags May Have Been Used To Coordinate Russian Air Strikes. “Responding to claims that its Maps were being used to coordinate Russian military activity in Ukraine, Google on Tuesday began removing user-added tags within the borders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. The company is removing new content such as location pins ‘out of an abundance of caution,’ a Google spokesperson told BuzzFeed News.”

The National Herald: The Cyprus Institute and the V.I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine Establish Research and Educational Ties. “The Cyprus Institute (CyI) and the V.I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine (VNLU) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on joint Ukrainian-Cyprus research and educational activities that highlight the historical and cultural relations between the two countries.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Government Technology: Maryland Proposes New K-12 Student Data Privacy Law. “Responding to lessons learned from the implementation of a 2015 student privacy law, Maryland lawmakers want new measures to redefine protected information and require oversight of technology used by students.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: From ‘Vladdy daddy’ to fake TikToks: how to guide your child through Ukraine news online . “Much of what tweens and teenagers know about the Russia-Ukraine conflict comes from TikTok, Snapchat or Instagram. Their social media feeds contain images of tanks, bombs and propaganda. Our kids could stumble across extreme footage and we’ll likely never know…. Here’s how to help your child navigate social media ‘news’ content about war, while minimising any distress.”

Cornell Tech: This New Tool Prevents Bots From Taking Over NFT Drops. “In September 2021, Time Magazine launched thousands of NFTs, but their launch was taken over by scalper bots, despite precautions put in place to limit the number of NFT purchases per person. This drop also resulted in inflated transaction fees on the blockchain network. A new tool developed by researchers at Cornell Tech, led by PhD student Yan Ji and research engineer Tyler Kell, aims to enforce a one-NFT-per-person drop policy. A successful demo took place at ETH Denver this week, where attendees established unique identities to participate in a free NFT drop with prominent digital artist Zach Lieberman.” Good morning, Internet…

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