War of 1812, Africa Fact-Checking, Google, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, December 7, 2024
NEW RESOURCES
DigitalNC: A Legacy of Historic is Preserved in New War of 1812 Records. “Interested in learning more about the War of 1812? Thanks to our new partners at the North Carolina Society Daughters of 1812, now you can! For the first time ever, six scrapbooks chronicling historic preservation, research, and reenactment are now available. Each scrapbook records written histories, historic banquets, and a variety of materials gathered by daughters of War of 1812 veterans in or around North Carolina.”
EVENTS
Poynter: Africa’s fact-checking community shows its growing strength in collaboration, investigations. “The violent dispute in northern Ghana was intensely local. As the report described it, it was a ‘sporadic ethnic conflict between the Kusasis and Mamprusis over rights to the Bawku chieftaincy skin (throne).’ What concerned fact-checking journalists from across Africa was that the violence was being spurred and coordinated via social media.”
TWEAKS AND UPDATES
Search Engine Land: Google Search makes it easier to search without personalization. “Google is now making it easier to turn off personalization within Google Search results by adding links to the footer to turn off personalized results. Google added a link to ‘try without personalization’ when the results are personalized for you in Google Search.”
DigitalTrends: Microsoft’s Copilot Vision arrives to surf the web with select users. “Microsoft’s new Copilot Vision feature that can ‘see what you see, and hear what you hear’ while you navigate the internet is finally being made available, though only to a limited number of Copilot Pro subscribers in the U.S.”
AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD
Scottish Government: Increased funding for arts and culture. “The draft Scottish Budget 2025-26 was published on 4 December 2024. It commits an additional £34 million resource funding to arts and culture in Scotland…. In addition, £270,000 has been allocated to enable the creation of a single digital library interface which directs people to Scotland’s public libraries, allowing the public to access information, online content and a national e-resources lending area to ensure equitable access to information and reading material across Scotland.”
SECURITY & LEGAL
Bleeping Computer: Novel phishing campaign uses corrupted Word documents to evade security. “A novel phishing attack abuses Microsoft’s Word file recovery feature by sending corrupted Word documents as email attachments, allowing them to bypass security software due to their damaged state but still be recoverable by the application.”
Reuters: FCC chair proposes cybersecurity rules in response to China’s Salt Typhoon telecom hack. “U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is proposing that communications service providers be required to submit an annual certification attesting that they have a plan in place to protect against cyberattacks, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.The proposal is in part in response to efforts by an allegedly Beijing-sponsored group of hackers, dubbed ‘Salt Typhoon,’ to burrow deep into American telecommunications companies to steal data about U.S. calls.”
RESEARCH & OPINION
The Conversation: Survey on AI finds most people want it regulated, but trust in government remains low . “In Canada, like in many places around the world, the federal government has repeatedly fallen short on consulting the public around the regulation of new technologies, leaving the door open for well-funded industry groups to shape the narrative and the possibilities for action on AI. It doesn’t help that Canadian news media keeps citing the same tech entrepeneurs. It is as if no one else has nothing to say about this topic. We wanted to find out what the rest of society has to say.”
Engadget: Google DeepMind’s Genie 2 can generate interactive 3D worlds. “World models - AI algorithms capable of generating a simulated environment in real-time - represent one of the more impressive applications of machine learning. In the last year, there’s been a lot of movement in the field, and to that end, Google DeepMind announced Genie 2 on Wednesday. Where its predecessor was limited to generating 2D worlds, the new model can create 3D ones and sustain them for significantly longer.”
OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL
Game Developer: EA makes photosensitivity and speech recognition tech patents open-source. “In 2021, EA made a pledge to let the wider game industry use its accessibility-related patents at no cost, and now the publisher has added 23 new patents to its lineup. As of today, third parties can freely use patented technology such as improved speech recognition, simplified speech tech in games, and the ability to create more personalized speech.” Good afternoon, Internet…
This newsletter is free but most of the things that go into making it aren’t! Help me afford new socks and fancier bean stew by supporting ResearchBuzz on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Mastodon Gizmos, WikiTwister, and MegaGladys.
https://researchbuzz.me/2024/12/07/war-of-1812-africa-fact-checking-google-more-saturday-afternoon-researchbuzz-december-7-2024/
https://researchbuzz.me/?p=64811