NEW RESOURCES

Maynooth University: Unveiling the MACMORRIS Project. “MACMORRIS is an acronym for Mapping Actors and Communities: Modelling Research in Renaissance Ireland in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century. It is a radically new digital-humanities project, which, for the very first time, maps the full range and richness of cultural activity in a time of change, conflict and, ultimately, transformation.”

Philadelphia Inquirer: The Mütter Museum launches new collections database, without images of human remains like Einstein’s brain. “The Mütter Museum has launched a new searchable online database of its collection of historical medical equipment and anatomical specimens that will be free to researchers and the public alike. The new database contains more than 20,000 records and photographs, including 5,100 high-resolution photos not previously available. Missing from the database, however, are images of the collection displaying human remains…”

University of Nebraska-Omaha: Preserving and Sharing Voices of Latinx Omahans. “Through a collaborative effort between UNO’s Office of Latino and Latin American Studies (OLLAS) and UNO Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections, 22 bilingual oral histories from the Voces of a Pandemic Collection, part of the Conversaciónes: Latino and Latina Voices of Omaha project have been recorded, preserved, and shared online.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Gizmodo AU: Google Chrome’s New Tool Lets You Copy and Paste Screenshots From Videos. “Students, teachers, and vintage TV screencappers, the Chrome browser has a new feature that makes taking screenshots of scenes easier than before. Google used a blog post about helpful classroom tools to subtly announce the ability to copy a frame from a video. It’s available in the latest release of Chrome and will roll out to everyone this week.”

University of Sydney: Google adds health tips to extreme heat warnings based on latest research. “Important health and safety tips are being made available to millions around the world, thanks to a new Google search feature developed in collaboration with the Global Heat Health Information Network and informed by University of Sydney research.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Verge: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Windows 11 to get people to ditch Google. “I thought I had malware on my main Windows 11 machine this weekend. There I was minding my own business in Chrome before tabbing back to a game and wham a pop-up appeared asking me to switch my default search engine to Microsoft Bing in Chrome. Stunningly, Microsoft now thinks it’s ok to shove a pop-up in my face above my apps and games just because I dare to use Chrome instead of Microsoft Edge.”

Ars Technica: Researcher builds anti-Russia AI disinformation machine for $400. “[Nea] Paw claims to be a cybersecurity professional who prefers anonymity because some people may believe the project to be irresponsible. The CounterCloud campaign pushing back on Russian messaging was created using OpenAI’s text generation technology, like that behind ChatGPT, and other easily accessible AI tools for generating photographs and illustrations, Paw says, for a total cost of about $400.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: Google Alleges ‘Deep-Seated Bias’ by DOJ Top Antitrust Official. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google told a federal court Thursday that it should be allowed to interview the Justice Department’s top antitrust official under oath, alleging his ‘deep-seated bias’ against the company led the federal government to sue it for antitrust violations.”

BBC: Anonymous Sudan hacks X to put pressure on Elon Musk over Starlink. “A hacking group called Anonymous Sudan took X, formerly known as Twitter, offline in more than a dozen countries on Tuesday morning in an attempt to pressurise Elon Musk into launching his Starlink service in their country. X was down for more than two hours, with thousands of users affected.”

The Street: FTX victims’ face doxxing threat after sensitive data taken by hackers. “Kroll, the firm managing customer data of FTX collapse victims, was hit by a data breach this month that resulted in customer data being stolen. The company was struck by ‘a cybersecurity incident that compromised non-sensitive customer data of certain claimants in the pending bankruptcy case,’ FTX said. However, Kroll announced that hackers also stole sensitive data in the hack.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Foreign Policy Research Institute: Russian Disinformation in Africa: No Door on this Barn. “In 2018, Yale scholar Timothy Snyder called Russian information operations in the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, ‘the most sophisticated propaganda campaign in the history of warfare.’ Likewise, recent advances of Russian disinformation in Africa have resulted in some of the swiftest successes in the history of propaganda. They lie mainly unopposed by any country, Western or otherwise.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Florida International University: Study: Revamped calculus course improves learning. ” The model, developed at FIU, focuses on mastering different ways of thinking and solving problems – skills that are important beyond the classroom. Rote memorization and large lecture halls have been replaced by active learning classrooms where students work collaboratively to solve problems. The result is greater learning outcomes and an understanding of calculus concepts, as well as better grades than their peers in traditional, lecture-based classes, according to the research.” Good morning, Internet…

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