NEW RESOURCES

Radio World: FCC Publishes Pirate Enforcement Database. “The PIRATE Act became law three years ago. But thanks to the pandemic and delays in funding, the Federal Communications Commission has been slow in carrying out several of the law’s requirements. Now the FCC has published a database listing the people against whom it has taken pirate radio enforcement actions. It has posted field agent openings, begun sweeps of major markets and planned the purchase of a half-dozen specialized vehicles.”

Solitary Watch: New Report And Public Database Track Legislation To Limit Or End Solitary Confinement . “The first-of-its-kind report utilizes new data made available through the Unlock The Box Legislation Tracker, an interactive database of solitary confinement bills from 2009 to present day. Justice advocates, government officials and policy makers, and public citizens can freely access the Legislation Tracker to review state by state proposals and actions, as well as trend-based data visualizations.”

New-to-me, from The State Press: Asu’s BJ Bud Archives Works To Preserve LGBTQ+ History. “Phoenix Pride and Marshall Shore, Hip Historian, responded to the reality of vanishing queer history by launching a project called the Arizona LGBTQ+ History Project with the intent to preserve the under-documented history of the state’s LGBTQ community. They found a natural partner with ASU’s Bj Bud Archives, the largest LGBTQ+ collection in Arizona.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Hill: Nick Fuentes Twitter account suspended less than 24 hours after reinstatement. “Twitter has suspended the account of white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes less than 24 hours after his reinstatement on the platform.”

TechCrunch: Google to make changes to Android business terms in India after antitrust blow. “Google is revising its business agreements with phonemakers and other partners in India and making a series of other changes in the South Asian market to comply with the local antitrust watchdog’s directions in a major shift that could invite regulators in other regions to make similar suggestions.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

PA Media: Trump baby blimp inflated again to establish ‘how best to preserve it’. “The return of the Donald Trump baby blimp, the huge inflatable depicting the former US president in a nappy and clutching a mobile phone, has begun with a test inflation by the Museum of London. A conservation analysis of the blimp has led staff at the museum, its ‘final resting place’ after it took to the skies above Parliament Square during protests over Mr Trump’s state visit to the UK in June 2019, to blow the balloon up once again.”

San Diego Union-Tribune: Bram Dijkstra’s $2.3 million collection of rare albums, once bound for SDSU, is headed to Stanford University . “Stanford University has acquired the $2.3 million vinyl record collection of San Diegan Bram Dijkstra, just 11 months after a signed 2020 agreement for the one-of-a-kind collection to go to SDSU’s Love Library imploded. Numbering more than 8,000 jazz, blues, gospel, soul and reggae discs that span nearly a century, The Dijkstra Black Music Collection will be housed at Stanford’s Archive of Recorded Sound.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

ProPublica: What to Know About TurboTax Before You File Your Taxes This Year. “Under the Free File agreement, Americans who make less than $73,000 per year should be able to file their taxes for free with one of the tax preparation companies that partners with the IRS. But this program has been historically underutilized, with just 4% of eligible Americans filing for free in 2021. The story of the Free File program is long and twisting, and it can seem more like a fight against free tax filing than a fight for it. One of the biggest players is Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, one of the largest tax preparation software companies in the country.”

Ars Technica: Ransomware victims are refusing to pay, tanking attackers’ profits. “Two new studies suggest that ransomware isn’t the lucrative, enterprise-scale gotcha it used to be. Profits to attackers’ wallets, and the percentage of victims paying, fell dramatically in 2022, according to two separate reports.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Undark: Wanted (by Scientists): Dead Birds and Bats, Felled by Renewables. “[Todd] Katzner, [Mark] Davis, and other biologists are working with the renewable energy industry to create a nationwide repository of dead birds and bats killed at wind and solar facilities. The bodies hold clues about how the animals lived and died, and could help scientists and project operators understand how to reduce the environmental impact of clean energy installations, Davis said.”

The Verge: Elon Musk thinks Twitter is real life. “Apparently the steady growth of his own Twitter presence is all the evidence he needs that his tweets are right and good and his online antics are beyond reproach. No mention of the white supremacists he’s let back on the platform (and then kicked off again after they have reverted to type and said Nazi things) or the worrying rise in hate speech and harassment. No mention of his own declining reputation or the growing calls to ditch his post at Twitter and refocus on the company that actually matters, Tesla. Just look at that scoreboard.”

Washington State University: COVID-19 conspiracy theories that spread fastest focused on evil, secrecy. “In the early pandemic, conspiracy theories that were shared the most on Twitter highlighted malicious purposes and secretive actions of supposed bad actors behind the crisis, according to an analysis of nearly 400,000 posts.” Good morning, Internet…

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