NEW RESOURCES

Spotted on Mastodon: FediScope. “FediScope lets you find fediverse accounts for people in a field using Wikidata. You can then compile a custom CSV and import it into Mastodon.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Tubefilter: The amount of classical music in YouTube videos is up 90% year-over-year. “Though electronica, pop, hip hop, and alternative are still the most-common genres chosen by Epidemic Sound users, one of the oldest forms of music on record made a huge comeback in 2022. Classical music downloads rose 64% year-over-year on the Epidemic Sound platform, and those tracks appeared in videos around the world. In 13 of the 15 content categories tracked by Epidemic Sound, classical was the fastest-growing soundtrack choice of 2022.”

9to5 Linux: Linux Mint 21.1 “Vera” Is Now Available for Download. “The highly anticipated Linux Mint 21.1 ‘Vera’ release has started appearing today on various of the official download mirrors of the Ubuntu-based distribution, which means that an official release announcement is upon us.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Verge: Podcasting could be in for a rocky 2023. “It feels like 2022 was the year when podcasting came back to earth. After years of go-go growth, podcast hits going mainstream, major corporate investment, and hype about the market to come ($4 billion by 2024!!), optimism about the industry hit the wall of an uncertain economy. M&A took a breather, advertising got tighter, and companies started laying off audio employees after years of frenzied hiring. What does 2023 have in store?”

11 Alive: Students work to preserve Atlanta’s Krog Street Tunnel. “— Wedged between Wylie Street and Dekalb Avenue, the Krog Street Tunnel stands. More than 100 years old, the tunnel is a permanent passage between Inman Park and Cabbagetown. But as Curt Jackson knows, what’s inside the tunnel is ever changing…. That’s why the PhD student spends every Saturday at the tunnel, camera in hand along with a team of Georgia State University students.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Los Angeles Times: Who’s protecting social media’s child stars? Inside the explosive lawsuit against one YouTuber’s empire. “The lawsuit offers an unsettling glimpse into a largely unregulated world of social media, where children spend long hours cranking out videos and branded content. Kids can make millions of dollars and become online celebrities, but because the content is made in the privacy of their own homes, child labor laws — which do apply to social media influencers — are not consistently enforced.”

Financial Times: Cyber attacks set to become ‘uninsurable’, says Zurich chief. “The chief executive of one of Europe’s biggest insurance companies has warned that cyber attacks, rather than natural catastrophes, will become ‘uninsurable’ as the disruption from hacks continues to grow.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

WIRED: AI Is Now Essential National Infrastructure. “Soon, a comprehensive digital infrastructure—which includes national computing power, a distributed cloud, and an interoperable set of applications and machine-readable legislation—will be as important to a country as roads, rail, and public water supply. In 2023, more and more countries will accelerate the building of such nationwide digital architectures, allowing them to deliver more AI-powered responsive services that cater to the individual and help the population at large.”

The Daily Star (Bangladesh): World Cup revealed our media’s vulnerability to fake news. “In the first two weeks since the World Cup kicked off in Qatar, fact-checkers in Bangladesh debunked at least 10 different fake or misleading news stories, eight of which are related to the football tournament, in top newspapers and TV channels…. Why is our media so vulnerable?”

AFP: Iraqi conservators strive to preserve ancient manuscripts. “In a country that bears the scars of decades of conflict and has seen antiquities and cultural heritage regularly plundered, the House of Manuscripts’ collection has managed to survive. It was safely stashed away in the Baghdad suburbs, while the national museum was ransacked in the turmoil following the 2003 US-led invasion…. The collection, now ensconced in the national museum in the capital Baghdad, includes books, parchments and calligraphy boards, some of them damaged by humidity, pests and centuries of use.” 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. Check out Search Gizmos when you have a minute. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you.