NEW RESOURCES

Bard College: Maria Simpson Launches Free Online Ballet Resource for Educators. “Maria Simpson, professor of dance at Bard College, has launched Three Ballet Teachers… (3BT) in collaboration with Zvi Gotheiner and Hannah Wiley. 3BT is an online resource featuring video documentation of original ballet class choreography by the three contemporary ballet teachers.”

NPR: New mapping tool gives county-by-county breakdown of air pollution. “It’s not easy to picture what’s in the air we breathe in Louisiana and Mississippi. But earlier this month, a researcher debuted a new tool that could help. It maps pollution in the region, and some environmental groups are already using it.”

PR Newswire: Innovative digital tool equips policymakers with strategies and innovations from all 50 states to advance and strengthen early education and care (PRESS RELEASE). “The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education today launched the Zaentz Navigator, an innovative, user-friendly, and interactive digital tool to help policymakers and leaders learn how cities and states across the country are working to structure, finance, expand, and advance early education and care.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bloomberg: Google, Twitter, Facebook Under EU Scrutiny as New Rules Kick In. “Meta Platforms Inc., Google and X, formerly known as Twitter, will need to adhere to strict new content moderation rules in the European Union when a new law governing social media platforms becomes legally enforceable from Friday.”

Mashable: YouTube is testing a new search feature powered by humming. “If you have a song stuck in your head and just can’t remember the words, YouTube is testing a new feature for you. In a blog post, the platform announced this week it will be testing a new app feature on Android phones that allows users to search for a song by humming or recording it for more than three seconds.”

TechCrunch: X tries to lure back advertisers with new $250 ad credit. “X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has a new initiative aimed at luring smaller businesses to advertise on its platform. The company announced on Wednesday it would offer a one-time ad credit of $250 to select businesses when they spend $1,000 or more on new ad campaigns over the next 30 days.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Business Insider: Google’s Achilles’ heel: The tech giant’s struggles in augmented reality highlight a much bigger weakness. “From Iris to Alius to Betty, Google’s code-named AR projects rival a millennial parent’s baby-name list. But the projects have been just that: projects. Google has failed to turn any into a viable business yet, thanks largely to constant pivots and strategy tweaks, which eventually led to a talent exodus, Hugh reports. To make matters worse, the chaos in Google’s AR division comes as one of its biggest rivals — Apple — has generated buzz for its mixed-reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro.”

WIRED: The Internet Is Turning Into a Data Black Box. An ‘Inspectability API’ Could Crack It Open. “In addition to exposing surveillance, browser inspection tools provide a powerful way to crowdsource data to study discrimination, the spread of misinformation, and other types of harms tech companies cause or facilitate. But in spite of these tools’ powerful capabilities, their reach is limited. In 2023, Kepios reported that 92 percent of global users accessed the internet through their smartphones, whereas only 65 percent of global users did so using a desktop or laptop computer.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: X took two days to suspend account of suspect in Pride flag killing. “X has suspended an account that posted numerous anti-gay and antisemitic posts and was used by the man accused of killing store owner Lauri Carleton over her display of a Pride Flag. But the account had remained live two days after law enforcement publicly confirmed its existence on the platform formerly known as Twitter. The social media company finally suspended the account Wednesday evening.”

Tech Xplore: Research hack reveals call security risk in smartphones. “Advanced smartphone features attract users who want more from their devices, especially in health and entertainment areas, but do these features create a security risk when making or receiving actual calls?…The researchers’ malware, called EarSpy, used machine learning algorithms to filter a surprising amount of caller information from ear speaker vibration data recorded by an Android smartphone’s own motion sensors—and did so without overcoming any safeguards or needing user permissions.

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Register: IBM says GenAI can convert that old COBOL code to Java for you . “IBM is giving its mainframe customers a tool infused with generative AI to translate COBOL code to Java as part of application modernization efforts. The watsonx Code Assistant for Z is set to be available sometime in Q4 2023. Big Blue says it can speed translation of COBOL to Java on its Z mainframes.”

The Feminist Institute: Preserving the International Museum of Women. “Our previous blog post highlighted the history of IMOW and its multiple digital exhibition initiatives. In this project feature, we’ll discuss our approach to capturing this born-digital resource and considerations to take when preserving digital projects that have reached obsolescence.” Good morning, Internet…

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