NEW RESOURCES

International Energy Agency: A new tool to track transitions: the IEA clean energy equipment price index. “To monitor these influences on clean energy equipment prices – a critical determinant of investment in clean energy technology and infrastructure – the IEA developed the Clean Energy Equipment Price Index (CEEPI). The index tracks price movements in a global basket of solar PV modules, wind turbines and lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage, weighted by shares of investment.”

World Bank: Putting Poverty Back on the Map: Introducing the World Bank’s New Geospatial Poverty Portal. “The portal features an interactive map based on data from the newly released Subnational Poverty and Inequality Database (SPID), spanning over 1,600 subnational areas from 141 economies. Statistics in the SPID are direct calculations from available survey data at their levels of representativeness, meaning data frequency varies by country. Some countries have subnational time series as long as 10 years, allowing users to compare changes temporally and spatially over a long period.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Retraction Watch: The Retraction Watch Database becomes completely open – and RW becomes far more sustainable. “We’re thrilled to announce that Crossref has acquired The Retraction Watch Database and will make it completely open and freely available.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Media Matters: X is placing ads for brands like the NFL and MLB next to unhinged conspiracy theories about Jewish people and 9/11 . “X (formerly known as Twitter) has been placing ads for major brands like the NFL, MLB, T-Mobile, and eBay alongside content pushing unhinged conspiracy theories about Jewish people orchestrating the 9/11 attacks.”

What’s on Weibo: Eyebrow Pencil Gate: “Lipstick King” Li Jiaqi Loses 630,000 Fans In One Night. “Li Jiaqi is facing controversy for remarks he made during his recent e-commerce livestream. When viewers made comments about an eyebrow pencil being expensive, he lashed out and asked them if they worked hard enough. Due to his cold attitude and arrogant comments, the ‘lipstick king’ seems to have lost his crown.”

The Daily Beast: How Barstool Built an Empire by Swiping Sports Highlights. “Four years ago, Barstool Sports was raked over the coals for taking a comedian’s video. The sprawling and bro-tastic media company already had a reputation for stealing jokes, but that act of theft inadvertently revealed another way the site was profiting from content it didn’t own: an anonymous, seemingly random Twitter account which was in fact run by Barstool.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta Probed by Lawmakers on Use of AI ‘Ghost’ Staff. “Democratic lawmakers are pressing the top tech firms to open up about the conditions of their ‘ghost work’ — unseen laborers like those labeling data and rating responses who have become pivotal to the artificial intelligence boom.”

Engadget: Hackers claim it only took a 10-minute phone call to shut down MGM Resorts. “The ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group claimed responsibility for the MGM Resorts cyber outage on Tuesday, according to a post by malware archive vx-underground. The group claims to have used common social engineering tactics, or gaining trust from employees to get inside information, to try and get a ransom out of MGM Resorts, but the company reportedly refuses to pay. The conversation that granted initial access took just 10 minutes, according to the group.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Axios: Watchdog accuses X again of not moderating hate speech. “Each of the 300 posts examined by the nonprofit represented a ‘clear violation of X’s policies on hate speech,’ the report stated. 86% of the reported posts were still present on the platform a week after they were reported to moderators, the report stated. Among the flagged posts were those promoting racist caricatures and denying the holocaust, as well as hateful imagery like the Nazi swastika.”

American Alliance of Museums: Evidence of Things Not Seen. “The current edition of TrendsWatch includes a ‘Short Take’ on how our country and our sector are beginning to grapple with how to compensate descendant communities for historic harms. Reparative practice may take the form of actions that acknowledge and address this damage, as well as actions or policies that redress systemic economic, educational, or social disadvantages. In today’s post, Jessica O’Connor, Public History Director of the Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium, talks about preserving oral histories as a form of reparative practice.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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