NEW RESOURCES

TVNewsCheck: WUSF Tampa Launches 24-hour Live Jazz Streaming Service. “Vastly expanding its online jazz offerings, WUSF Public Media is unveiling an on-demand jazz music streaming service at Arts Axis Florida with a wide range of recordings, podcasts and concert videos of jazz musicians from Tampa Bay and beyond — available on mobile, desktop, tablet and more, for free, anytime, anywhere.”

EIN News: Computer History Museum Makes Adobe PostScript’s Source Code Available to the Public as a Part of Its Art of Code Series (PRESS RELEASE). “The Computer History Museum (CHM), the leading museum exploring the history of computing and its impact on the human experience, today announced the public release and long-term preservation of Adobe’s PostScript source code as part of its Art of Code series.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Axios: Ye is no longer buying Parler. “The announcement from Parler, which has become a haven for conservatives, came hours after Ye spewed a torrent of antisemitic remarks during an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.”

TechCrunch: Google’s Reading Mode app helps visually impaired people read long-form content. “Along with its Android update for December, Google has launched a new app called Reading Mode today. It helps people with visual imparities and dyslexia read the content on the screen — especially articles.”

USEFUL STUFF

Electronic Frontier Foundation: How to Make a Mastodon Account and Join the Fediverse. “This post is part of a series on Mastodon and the fediverse. We also have a post on understanding the fediverse, privacy and security on Mastodon, and why the fediverse will be great—if we don’t screw it up, and more are on the way.” A deep, thoroughly-screenshotted dive on how to join Mastodon, with an emphasis on personal privacy and security.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Bloomberg: Google Urged by US Lawmakers to Fix Misleading Abortion Ads. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google introduced a policy in 2019 that requires those advertising alongside search queries related to abortion to be certified based on whether they provide the procedure. In a letter addressed to Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai, Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, and Representative Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, expressed concern that the search giant does not consistently apply those rules, which can lead users to crisis pregnancy centers — non-medical organizations that encourage visitors to keep their pregnancies.”

Mercer University: COPA receives Georgia Humanities grant for work to document African American history in Coastal Georgia. “Mercer University’s College of Professional Advancement recently received a $2,500 grant from Georgia Humanities for its latest work in a nearly decade-long research-based, service-learning project to document African American history in Coastal Georgia.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNET: The Robocall Punishment Just Got a Lot Harsher. “Robocalls continue to be a massive problem for anyone with a cellphone, but the FCC has been more aggressive about combatting the issue over the last few years. This marks the first time a service provider has felt the penalty after the agency mandated that all carriers implement a robocall-fighting system called Stir/Shaken that authenticates callers.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Rolling Stone: Musk’s Beloved Twitter Polls Are Bot-Driven Bullsh!t, Ex-Employees Say. “Musk’s claims of recent user growth may be flawed for the same bot-plagued reasons, former staffers say. Under his leadership, Twitter recently told advertisers that monetizable daily active users have grown 20 percent and Musk himself tweeted that ‘Twitter usage is at an all-time high.’ But it’s not clear how much of that claimed growth is authentic. ”

Psychology Today: Is Social Media a New Religion?. “Is social media itself a new religion? Or is it simply a set of circumstances through which users find and follow factions that are ostensibly secular but operate like cults, denominations, or sects? Before we ponder the specifics, behold our devotion.” 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.