TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NPR: How ‘goblin mode’ became Oxford’s word of the year. “It’s mindlessly binge-watching television without worrying about the time. It’s eating snacks in bed without a care about leftover crumbs. And it’s wearing the same pair of pajamas all week while working from home. Welcome to ‘goblin mode.'”

Search Engine Land: Google brings continuous scroll to desktop search results. “Google is now rolling out continuous scroll on the desktop search results. Google initially brought continuous scroll to mobile search in October 2021 and now it is here for the desktop search results. Continous scroll is like infinite scroll but it does not go on infinitely, it stops after a few pages or so – which is why Google does not call it infinite scroll but rather continuous scroll.” Probably showing my age here, but bleah.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Wall Street Journal: Clashes Over FTX Bankruptcy Go Global. “Proponents say the cross-border nature of crypto makes sending money to someone on the other side of the world as easy as sending an email, and many crypto firms have offered their services to customers all over the world and have established headquarters in offshore jurisdictions. But laws meant to protect customers when things go wrong—and the bankruptcy regime in particular—are deeply tied up with national boundaries, and cross-border cooperation is never a guarantee.”

Vogue: What Is Social Media Doing to Our Concept of Pregnancy?. “There is a body of research showing that engagement with Instagram momfluencers is associated with an increase anxiety in a subset of women who already tend towards social comparison and those who have low self-esteem. There’s nothing magical about social media, per se — researchers have long found that comparing ourselves to unattainable ideals makes us feel bad. But the ubiquity of imagery is new; we are now bombarded with media in a way that has no precedent.”

WNEP: Social media trend contributing to diabetes medication shortage. “…if you search #Ozempic on TikTok, you’d have no idea it’s a medicine to treat Type 2 diabetes. The drug can also curb your appetite and has often been prescribed for people who are obese or struggling with a weight-related condition. But it doesn’t take much scrolling on social media to discover plenty of people, including celebrities who are not obese and not diabetic, are taking Ozempic or something similar to lose weight.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

ZDNet: Time to update: Google Chrome browser patches high-severity security flaw. “Google has released a security update for for Chrome that protects users against a newly discovered, high-severity vulnerability in the browser that it’s warned is already actively being exploited by cyber attackers.”

WIRED: I Lost $17,000 in Crypto. Here’s How to Avoid My Mistake. “Although most people don’t have thousands in forgotten cryptocurrency, everyone relies on passwords to manage their digital lives. And as more and more people buy crypto, how can they protect their assets? We talked to a host of experts to figure out how to create the best passwords for your digital accounts, and, if you have crypto, what your basic storage tradeoffs are. Let’s dive in.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

USC Viterbi School of Engineering: Rescuing Local Journalism, One AI Tool At A Time. “A USC Information Sciences Institute Ph.D. student uses artificial intelligence to develop models that streamline the process of building news stories from start to finish.”

Scientific American: NASA’s Plan to Make JWST Data Immediately Available Will Hurt Astronomy. “NASA, as a federal agency that funds and conducts research, is onboard with the idea of freely accessible data. But it has a plan that goes much further than the White House’s and that is highly problematic. The agency currently gives a proprietary period to some scientists who use particular facilities, such as a 12-month period for the powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), so that those scientists can gather and analyze data carefully without fear of their work being poached. NASA is looking to end this policy in its effort to make science more open-access. Losing this exclusivity would be really bad for astronomy and planetary science.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

ITV: ITVX launches world-first British Sign Language channel. “When ITVX officially launches on 8 December, Deaf viewers will have access to what is a worldwide streaming first – a British Sign Language channel, solely featuring signed programming, which will include a range of shows like the Emmerdale and Coronation Street omnibus episodes, Cilla, Alan Carr’s Epic Gameshow, Vera, Lewis, and The Saint. The channel will be regularly updated and will evolve to include both recent and archive programming from a wide variety of genres.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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