NEW RESOURCES

PR Newswire: Autism Science Foundation Launches Novel ‘Participate in Research’ Website Directory (PRESS RELEASE). “ASF’s new ‘Participate in Research’ directory on its website makes it easier for families to find and enroll in studies. Families who use this new directory can search by age, topic of interest, or geographical location. Autism researchers can list their research studies in this new directory. This is the only available searchable directory open to all individuals and their family members, and is free of charge.”

WHTM: Pennsylvania launches new website for state jobs. “While announcing and signing an executive order removing the requirement of having a four-year college degree for thousands of state jobs in Pennsylvania, [Governor] Josh Shapiro announced the launch of a new Pennsylvania employment website.”

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality: DEQ makes grant opportunities easier to navigate. “The new Grants page is a one-stop shop for everyone, including local governments, businesses, community and nonprofit organizations and others, looking for grant and loan funding information for a variety of environmental projects. The page includes recurring and one-time funding sources across DEQ divisions, with links to additional information including eligibility, how to apply, and program contacts.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

9to5 Linux: Mozilla Firefox 109 Is Available for Download with New Unified Extensions Button. “Mozilla promoted today the Firefox 109 release to the stable channel as the browser’s first release in 2023, bringing a handful of new features and lots of improvements.”

The Verge: TikTok is expanding its state-controlled media label to more countries. “The company first announced the labels in response to the war in Ukraine, saying it was ‘expediting’ the rollout of the program with the pilot in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Several government-controlled Russian outlets like RT, RIA Novosti, and TASS have been labeled under the policy so far. Now, TikTok will expand the labels to 40 markets beginning immediately, with more to come in the future.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

University of Arizona: With Shared Churches Project, UArizona Scholars Explore Religious Coexistence. “With her research partners, [Beth] Plummer is creating a database of shared churches in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1800, a project supported by a $248,474 collaborative research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. A melding of historical and technical expertise, this public history project will ultimately result in a website that includes interactive maps and visual storytelling.”

Get Bengal: In the era of ‘everything digitized’, will Kolkata typists eventually vanish?. “The narrow lanes of Kiron Shankar Roy Road and Old Post Office Street are otherwise a mesh of old shacks serving a hot cuppa or bread omelets to hundreds of litigants, clerks, and lawyers who tread the footpaths every other day. These footpaths are also home to an odd dozen typists whose Remington machines still at times raise the staccato stuck sound. But the sounds are fading fast and so are the typists of the Calcutta High Court arena.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

AFP: Robert F. Kennedy Jr sues media outlets over misinformation initiative. “Robert F. Kennedy Jr, son of the slain US presidential candidate, and other anti-vaccine activists have filed a lawsuit against several news organizations that have banded together to fight misinformation. The nearly 100-page complaint…accuses the media outlets and social media companies of colluding to censor other online publishers with alternative Covid narratives.”

The Register: As if Elon didn’t have enough problems – Twitter sued over leaky servers. “In a class-action lawsuit [PDF] filed January 13 in a US district court in San Francisco, Stephen Gerber claims Twitter exposed his and ‘tens of millions’ of other users’ personal information – specifically email addresses and phone numbers linked to accounts – between June 2021 and January 2022 because of an API flaw. Twitter said it fixed the defect last summer.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Augusta University: New study shows link between social media posts and civil disobedience, violence. “Lance Hunter, PhD, associate professor in Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and the Master of Arts in Intelligence and Security Studies program at Augusta University, recently contributed to two studies that show evidence linking social media to political violence, including domestic terrorism and civil conflict. The studies included more than 150 countries and covered the time frame 2000 to 2019.”

MIT News: Can you trust your quantum simulator?. “At the scale of individual atoms, physics gets weird. Researchers are working to reveal, harness, and control these strange quantum effects using quantum analog simulators — laboratory experiments that involve super-cooling tens to hundreds of atoms and probing them with finely tuned lasers and magnets. Scientists hope that any new understanding gained from quantum simulators will provide blueprints for designing new exotic materials, smarter and more efficient electronics, and practical quantum computers. But in order to reap the insights from quantum simulators, scientists first have to trust them.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Independent (Ireland): Restoration of iconic Clerys clock unveiled to Dubliners’ delight. “Dubliners looked on as the emerald green clock face with gold roman numerals was unveiled by Dublin’s Lord Mayor Caroline Conroy and clockmaker Philip Stokes. To mark the restoration, a new archive of documents, artefacts, objects and images opens to the public tomorrow and will tell the story of the store, with rescued artefacts dating back to 1847.” Good morning, Internet…

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