NEW RESOURCES

Helsinki Times: Revolutionizing research: Finland champions digital archive of 1.5 billion natural specimens. “In a major leap forward for scientific research and policy-making, Finland’s natural science collections are undergoing extensive digitalization, as part of a broader European effort. It’s estimated that Europe’s collections alone contain 1.5 billion specimens, and this wealth of quality nature data is set to become accessible to scientists, policy-makers, and the public alike.”

University of Galway: University of Galway unveils digitised collection of images from Conradh na Gaeilge archive. “Along with near complete runs of Oireachtas and Conradh na Gaeilge Ard Fheis programmes from 1890s to early 2000s, the material covers a range of topics from Irish language rights campaigns, including broadcasting and the status of the Irish language in Europe, through to material relating to the Northern Ireland peace process.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: Delays plague US judiciary’s financial disclosure database. “The law, which President Joe Biden signed in May 2022, requires judges to report any stock trades of more than $1,000 within 45 days, rather than just in their annual disclosure reports…. Yet an analysis by the judicial reform advocacy group Fix the Court found that hundreds of disclosure reports are still not online in the database the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts was mandated by the law to set up.”

Engadget: Google creates a brand new hub for shopping deals. “Ahead of the mad dash to find the best presents for the lowest prices, Google is attempting to undo some of that financial load with the launch of its new deals hub. Now, if you type in “shop deals” on Google, the search engine will bring you to a page filled with markdowns on categories like electronics and apparel.”

WIRED: YouTube’s Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls of Ad Blockers. “Previously unreported figures from ad blocking companies indicate that YouTube’s crackdown is working, with hundreds of thousands of people uninstalling ad blockers in October. The available data suggests that last month saw a record number of ad blockers uninstalled—and also a record for new ad blocker installs as people sought alternatives that wouldn’t trigger YouTube’s dreaded pop-up.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

UK Authority: TfL to take Google Steet View to Underground. “Transport for London (TfL) has launched a collaboration with Google to provide the Street View application to a number of Underground stations across the city. It said the project will involve the use of cameras that capture 360-degree images to develop virtual representations of around 30 of the busiest stations, including Green Park, King’s Cross St Pancras and Waterloo. They will identify key facilities such as toilets and help points.”

Mashable: Sony is removing Twitter/X integration from PlayStation consoles. “Yet another company has announced it will be removing X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, from its products. And this is a big one. Sony has announced that it is terminating PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4’s X integrations this month. The removal of this feature will mean that PS4 and PS5 gamers will no longer be able to publish video game clips and other content directly from their consoles.”

iNews: Robelinda2: Fans in mourning as ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ of retro cricket footage vanishes from the internet. “On Sunday, Rob Moody – a Melbournian known to cricket lovers throughout the world – tweeted that his Robelinda2 YouTube channel, a cricket insitution, was no more. Moody had recorded footage from pretty much every professional game played in Australia since 1982-83, and the world relied on his eclectic collection to get their cricket fix during the 2020 lockdown. His hundreds of videos generated millions of views as grounds around the world stood empty.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Techdirt: Court Rejects Extremely Broad Google Search Warrant, Citing Both Carpenter And Riley. “A burglary case that included evidence found at the scene (broken glass, a canister of pepper spray) and an apparent eyewitness has fallen apart because the government decided going right to Google meant it could ignore Supreme Court precedent and the Constitution.”

Dong-A Ilbo (South Korea): Fair Trade Commission to look into Google’s unfair advertising practices. “The Korea Fair Trade Commission will investigate the suspicion of Google’s unfair advertising practices to find out if there were any unfair business practices taken by the Internet giant, including interfering with competitors, during its process of increasing market share in the South Korean search advertising market.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Ars Technica: 100+ researchers say they stopped studying X, fearing Elon Musk might sue them . “According to a ‘survey of 167 academic and civil society researchers conducted at Reuters’ request by the Coalition for Independent Technology Research’ (CITR) in September, more than 100 studies about X have been canceled, suspended, or switched to focus on another platform since Elon Musk began limiting researchers’ access to X data last February.”

Nature: The new Twitter is changing rapidly — study it before it’s too late. “My colleague, Kate Starbird, co-founder of the Center for an Informed Public, describes the shift to the new API-less environment as the difference between seeing a landscape through a picture window and looking at it through a series of portholes — now, several views must be pieced together to see the whole. Our recent research shows one piece of the new landscape; to comprehend it in its entirety will require the creativity and focus of many. For researchers who have studied Twitter over the past decade, revisiting the platform might seem like a step backwards. But because X is still influential — and is morphing into something notably different — such work might be more important now than ever before.” Good morning, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I live at Calishat.