NEW RESOURCES

InPublishing: Mslexia Completes Digital Archive Back To 1999. “Published four times a year, Mslexia includes what’s new in creativity and publishing, advice and inspirations, debate, opinions, and poetry and prose, as well as a directory of competitions, editors and publishers on the lookout for fresh talent. Its mission is to help women express themselves and get their writing noticed: in print, online and in performance.”

Johns Hopkins University: Archive Shows How Fentanyl Promotion Helped Drive Opioid Epidemic. “The Opioid Archive records released today—about 760,000 documents, mostly emails—show that Insys improperly sold vast amounts of its addictive product for off-label uses like non-cancer neck and back pain. The documents also bring to light how the company pressured doctors and deployed deceptive marketing to increase sales and earn millions of dollars in profits.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bloomberg: The Hype Around Esports Is Fading as Investors and Sponsors Dry Up. “Sports-business billionaires and gaming executives had hopes that esports could one day could scale into an organization like the National Basketball Association. But after a boom five years ago, several prominent esports teams and organizations, particularly in the US, are contracting, the result of a broad economic downturn, a venture capital industry that’s no longer willing to accept growth without profits and a crypto meltdown that has undercut a significant source of backing.”

TechCrunch: Amid growing concerns from third-party developers, Twitter shuts down Toolbox and other projects . “Historically, Twitter has had a tumultuous relationship with the third-party developer community. But in the last few years, the company has tried to appease the developer community with projects like a new API release and the ‘Twitter Toolbox’ collection to highlight some of the projects. However, under Elon Musk’s management, some of these programs are closing down — starting with Twitter Toolbox.”

USEFUL STUFF

CNET: 7 stargazing apps for spotting constellations and more. “My husband and I are far enough out in the country to see stars, but we haven’t completely escaped the city’s light pollution. Every so often before we turn in for the night, we’ll step out onto the back porch if the sky is clear, and look up. We’ve seen a shockingly bright Venus, the ISS streak by and a few shooting stars — thanks in part to the help of some apps.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

WIRED: How Chinese Netizens Swamped China’s Internet Controls. “The country’s government has tried to strike a balance between embracing technology and limiting citizens’ power to use it to protest or organize, building up wide-ranging powers of censorship and surveillance. But last weekend, the momentum of China’s digital savvy population and their frustration, bravery, and anger seemed to break free of the government’s control.”

Rolling Stone: We Couldn’t Have Made It Through This Year Without the Saluting Emoji. “…in the end, no emoji was better suited for the ups and downs 2022 than the saluting face. Everyone from an ex-pro Call of Duty gamer to a Berkeley City Council member to musician Zephani Jong found themselves obsessed with the stalwart little expression. More than one fan has claimed that the emoji changed their lives, helping them persevere through trial and tribulation.” Note to historians coming across this crusty old blog hundreds of years from now: that last sentence may not make sense to you, but it absolutely does to me, and if you manage to reassemble my personality from all the italicized comments I’ve left in ResearchBuzz over the last 25 years, I’ll be happy to explain.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Government Accountability Office: As Cyberattacks Increase on K-12 Schools, Here Is What’s Being Done. “In recent years, cyberattacks on K-12 schools have increased. Not only do these attacks disrupt educational instruction and school operations, they also impact students, their families, and teachers. The scale and number of attacks increased during COVID-19 as more schools moved to remote learning and increased their reliance on IT services. Today’s WatchBlog post looks at the growing risks and impacts of cyberattacks on schools, and our work on federal efforts to assist K-12 schools.”

How-To Geek: Google Sheets Is Adding Colorful “Chips”. “Google has announced that Sheets is gaining support for dropdown chips. You can add dropdown chips to cells within your spreadsheet and assign different colors, serving as an additional visual indicator and letting you know the status of something at a glance.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

KTOO: Mislabeled photos, newly discovered at UAF, bolster 1910 Denali summit claim . “There’s new proof of the success of a pioneering ascent of Denali. Historic photographs from the 1910 Sourdough Expedition were found this fall at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The black and white images provide hard copy evidence that Alaskans Pete Anderson, Billy Taylor, Charlie McGonagall and Tom Lloyd — known as the Sourdough Expedition — got members to the top of Denali’s 19,400-foot North Peak in April 1910 — a feat that’s long been subject to skepticism.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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