EVENTS

BusinessWire: Fifth HBCU Symposium to Explore Activism, Literacy, and Rhetoric (PRESS RELEASE). “The fifth Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Symposium on Rhetoric & Composition will take place in-person on October 5-6, 2023, at Jackson State University (JSU). Select sessions will be streamed virtually. The symposium, which focuses on excellence in English composition and rhetoric, acts as a think tank where every two years writing instructors from historically Black colleges and universities gather to discuss strategies that support student engagement, scholarship, and success.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Seattle Times: Merriam-Webster Dictionary reveals almost 700 new words: sports terms, social media phrases and more. “The Merriam-Webster Dictionary announced the addition of 690 new words to its listings on Wednesday, including sports terms beast mode, bracketology and GOATED.”

How-To Geek: Firefox Now Works Better With Google Apps, Including Meet. “Most browsers nowadays are just using the same Chromium engine found in Google Chrome. That means most sites work the same in all Chromium-based browsers, since those sites are tested in the most in Chrome, but they might run into issues on Firefox or Safari. Google’s web apps have been far from perfect on Firefox over the past few years, but now many of them are working better than ever in Mozilla’s web browser, even Google Meet.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Reuters: Social media inspires Japanese women to dash into rickshaw pulling. “[Yuka] Akimoto is one of a handful of women who have chosen to pull rickshaws in Tokyo, attracted to the male-dominated profession through social media, which in turn has given some of these female pullers a strong local and international following.”

University of Texas at Austin: Legendary Film Producer Irwin Winkler Donates Archive to Harry Ransom Center. “Thousands of scripts, photographs, letters and diaries that form the archive of Oscar winner Irwin Winkler, producer of such films as ‘Goodfellas,’ ‘Rocky,’ ‘The Right Stuff,’ ‘The Irishman,’ ‘Creed’ and ‘Raging Bull,’ have been donated to the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Engadget: The WGA strike ends with protections against AI set in place. “The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has voted to officially end its strike, almost five months since it stopped work and demanded a better contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). … WGA’s decision comes shortly after it held a series of negotiation sessions with producers and reached a tentative agreement, with one of the key sticking points being the use of generative AI.”

VOA: Indonesia Bans Goods Transactions on Social Media Platforms. “Indonesia has banned goods transactions on social media platforms in a new regulation, its trade minister said Wednesday, as Jakarta aims to rein in direct sales by major tech firms it says are harming millions of small businesses.”

Fortune: Judge in Bankman-Fried trial to allow evidence of Chinese bribe, drug use by FTX execs . “In a 16-page order, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan agreed to let the prosecution present evidence to the jury that Bankman-Fried sought to bribe a Chinese official in hopes of getting access to $1 billion in funds the country had frozen. While the government has not charged Bankman-Fried with a crime in relation to the alleged incident in the upcoming trial, Kaplan found evidence about the bribe could support allegations about his motive for looting customer funds.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Penn State: Internet-based therapy may help depression in people with multiple sclerosis. “Major depressive disorder affects up to 50% of all individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) at some point during their lifetime and can lead to lower quality of life, greater disease progression and higher mortality. Patients enrolled in a phase 3 trial of an internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy program modified specifically for MS showed a large drop in depressive symptoms compared to a control group. The online program may offer an effective and easily accessible way to manage depression and lead to better quality of life for persons with MS, according to an international team of researchers.”

University of Florida: How valuable are online product recommendations to consumers?. “In today’s online world, third parties collect and store your browsing data at staggering rates. Third parties benefit greatly from this information, but do you get fair returns for sharing your data online? New research from the University of Florida Matherly Professor Anuj Kumar and Santa Clara University’s Xiang (Shawn) Wan (UF Ph.D. ’22) proposed a novel method to measure the value consumers get from product recommendation systems (RS), one of the most prominent online tools that use consumer data.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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