NEW RESOURCES

Aleteia: The first book ever printed in Ukraine was this illustrated Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. “A priceless piece of Ukrainian Christian history, preserved for the better part of 500 years, is one of the latest exhibits to enter the world of digital art. Titled Apostol, or Apostolos, the work contains the texts of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. It was digitized and placed online for the world to view thanks to the Bodleian Library…. According to Bodleian, this is the first book that was ever printed in L’viv, Ukraine, between 1564 and 1581.”

The Guardian: Seven centuries of Irish archives painstakingly recreated after being destroyed in civil war. “In June 1922, the opening battle of Ireland’s civil war destroyed one of Europe’s great archives in a historic calamity that reduced seven centuries of documents and manuscripts to ash and dust. Now, on the eve of the disaster’s centenary, a virtual reconstruction of the building and its archives is to be unveiled. Historians, archivists and computer scientists have spent five years piecing together much of what had been thought lost for ever.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

New York Times: The Enduring Afterlife of a Mass Shooting’s Livestream Online. “In a search spanning 24 hours this week, The New York Times identified more than 50 clips and online links with the Christchurch gunman’s 2019 footage. They were on at least nine platforms and websites, including Reddit, Twitter, Telegram, 4chan and the video site Rumble, according to The Times’s review…. The clips and links were not difficult to find, even though Facebook, Twitter and other platforms pledged in 2019 to eradicate the footage, pushed partly by public outrage over the incident and by world governments.”

NPR: These 14 states had significant miscounts in the 2020 census. “For the 2020 census, all states were not counted equally well for population numbers used to allocate political representation and federal funding over the next decade, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released Thursday. A follow-up survey the bureau conducted to measure the national tally’s accuracy found significant net undercount rates in six states: Arkansas (5.04%), Florida (3.48%), Illinois (1.97%), Mississippi (4.11%), Tennessee (4.78%) and Texas (1.92%).”

USEFUL STUFF

WIRED: How to Stay Informed Without Getting Paralyzed by Bad News. “Although technology can produce bad-news paralysis, online tools can also help you make productive contributions within your various roles. As an organization junkie who juggles four part-time jobs with college classes and a private life, here’s how I balance responsibilities.” Personally, I keep lots of tissues handy.

CNET: 10 Free Zoom Alternative Apps for Video Chats. “There are plenty of other video chatting options to use to stay in touch with friends, family and coworkers from around the globe. Below, you’ll find our ten favorite video conference and video chat apps that you can use for free right now. It should also be noted, however, that most of the apps listed here have seen security-related issues in the past, which the companies that own them (including Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Google) have since patched.”

MakeUseOf: 5 Apps and Extensions to Make Google Calendar Better and More Productive. “A free Google or Gmail account also gives you Google Calendar, making it one of the most popular calendar apps on the planet. While it is loaded with features, it’s not perfect. These free apps and extensions make Google Calendar better and more productive than ever before.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Search Engine Land: Google search results spam for ‘Bill Slawski obituary’ shows the dark side of SEO. “We reported yesterday the sad news that Bill Slawski has died. It’s less than 24 hours later and no actual obituary has been published (either by a news site or funeral home). Yet, Google’s search results are littered with spammy results.”

University of Oxford: 50-year project reveals new insights about the evolution and influence of Voltaire’s thought. “This important work by researchers from the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford has uncovered new insights about the evolution and influence of Voltaire’s thought…. The project team now plan to digitise the entire collection of Voltaire’s work to enable detailed analysis by scholars and researchers from all over the world. This new challenge aims to establish a new cutting-edge digital hub for the humanities in Oxford with a focus on digital research.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNBC: New bipartisan bill would force Google to break up its ad business. “Advertising is a huge part of parent company Alphabet’s business. In Q1, Alphabet reported $68.01 billion in revenue, $54.66 billion of which was generated by advertising — up from $44.68 billion the year prior. The bill would ban companies that process more than $20 billion annually in digital ad transactions from participating in more than one part of the digital ad process, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.”

Ars Technica: Researchers find backdoor lurking in WordPress plugin used by schools. “The premium version of School Management, a plugin schools use to operate and manage their websites, has contained the backdoor since at least version 8.9, researchers at website security service JetPack said in a blog post without ruling out that it had been present in earlier versions. This page from a third-party site shows that version 8.9 was released last August.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

USC Viterbi School of Engineering: Students improve mobile app accessibility for people with disabilities. “Although a growing number of people are dependent on their mobile devices for everyday obligations, developers seldom seek to make their apps accessible to people with disabilities. Mobile apps don’t often pay heed to accessibility guidelines and this can make it more difficult for people with motor disabilities and older individuals to use the app, or even prevent them from carrying out those everyday obligations. Enter Ali Alotaibi and Paul Chiou, two Viterbi Ph.D. students who want to make the process of redesigning apps for accessibility convenient, too.” 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!