NEW RESOURCES

EurekAlert: Pancreatic image bank expected to help advance diabetes research worldwide. “The University of Exeter and Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) teamed up to make high-resolution images of pancreatic tissue available in Pancreatlas, the world’s first on-line imaging database of human pancreatic tissue created and housed at VUMC.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Techdirt: Publisher Wiley Lets Libraries Offer eTextbooks Again… But Only For Nine Months. “Last week, we wrote about how publisher Wiley had removed 1,379 textbook titles from the list of books that academic libraries could lend out, thereby forcing students to have to buy the textbooks, rather than take them out of the library. As we noted, this was an example of how damaging copyright has been on the free flow of information…. Of course, after lots of people got mad about this removal, Wiley relented… but only for a little while. The statement is… kinda weak.”

Review Geek: Firefox Relay Now Offers Burner Phone Numbers to Curb Spam. “The Firefox Relay service, which allows you to mask your email address and curb spam, now offers virtual phone numbers. It’s a simple but effective idea; calls and texts made to your ‘fake’ phone number are screened for spam (using custom or automatic filters) before being forwarded to your phone.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Rolling Stone: ‘Fat Bear Week’ Hit By Voter-Fraud Attempt. “As far as the internet goes, Fat Bear Week is one of the most wholesome, innocent traditions on offer. It should be a trusted and transparent process, without nefarious manipulation. Which is why it came as such a blow to learn that during Sunday’s semifinal round between roly-poly bear 435 (nicknamed Holly) and airplane-sized bear 747, someone had attempted to game the results. Katmai National Park announced the attempted election fraud on Twitter.”

Translating Cuba: A Digital Archive in the Diaspora Will Preserve Cuban Cinema. “14ymedio, Havana, 11 October 2022 — Classics of Cuban exile cinema such as Conducta impropio [Improper Conduct] (1983), La ciudad perdida [The Lost City] (2005) and Plantados [Planted] (2021) will be collected on October 20 in the Archive of Cuban Diáspora Cinema, a project co-directed by academic Santiago Juan-Navarro and filmmaker Eliécer Jiménez-Almeida.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Toronto Star: Ottawa slams Google-backed survey criticizing Canada’s online news bill as an attempt to ‘avoid accountability’. “A national survey commissioned by Google painting Ottawa’s online news bill as flawed and a potential vehicle for misinformation has been slammed by the federal government as an attempt to ‘avoid accountability.'”

CBS News: Digital license plates are now legal in California. “The plates, which resemble tablets. connect to an app that offers registration renewal, vehicle location services and security features — such as reporting a vehicle stolen. They are the same shape and size as traditional license plates, and give users the option to change the plate’s background color by toggling between a light or dark mode. Motorists can also personalize a banner message on the plate.”

TechRadar: Google Translate is being hijacked by phishers to steal your data. “A new phishing campaign has been discovered impersonating Google Translate in order to trick victims. The campaign was spotted by cybersecurity researchers from Avanan, which found numerous phishing emails, some of which were written in Spanish.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Futurism: New AI Tool Turns Your Ugly Photos Into A Beautiful Selfie. “A new, AI-powered selfie generating tool… is making the rounds on social media, allowing users to create incredibly stylized, beautiful and handsome versions of their own faces by simply feeding the algorithm around five to ten previously taken selfies.”

Homeland Security Today: IARPA and U.S. Army Launch Research to Engineer Next Generation of Computers. “The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) — the research and development arm of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — and the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory announced the launch of a program to engineer innovative, new computer architecture designs that will help the Intelligence Community (IC) execute its increasingly critical data analysis missions.”

Newswise: New Algorithm Can Identify Images of Alcohol in Electronic Media; Potential Tool to Limit Online Exposure to Alcohol Marketing. “A new algorithm has been found to identify images of alcohol in electronic media with a high degree of accuracy. Possible applications for this algorithm include public health research to quantify exposure to images of alcohol and mobile or web applications to allow individuals to filter unwanted exposure to online alcohol advertising or alcohol-related content.” Good morning, Internet…

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