WVUA: Shelton State first community college contributing to HBCU Digital Collection. “Shelton State Community College has become the first community college to contribute historical material to the HBCU Digital Collection. Selections from the C.A. Fredd State archival collection are now digitized and publicly available as part of the HBCU Digital Collection, hosted by the HBCU Digital Library Trust.”

EVENTS

Library of Congress: By the People Webinar: Volunteer to Transcribe the American Revolution in Context. “Commemorate the 250th birthday of the United States through service! Join us for a webinar on Thursday, June 4, from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM EDT to learn about The American Revolution in Context, a project of the Library of Congress volunteer transcription program, By the People. Registration is required for the virtual event (link below).”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Gizmodo: Google Seems Pretty Scared of the Words ‘Smart Glasses’. “During the company’s two-hour keynote at I/O 2026, Google talked a fair amount about its future with face-worn wearables, including upcoming collabs with eyewear brands Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, but there was one thing missing: it never actually said ‘smart glasses.'”

The Hollywood Reporter: Roku Doubling Down on Creators With Dedicated Destination and New FAST Channels (Exclusive). “Roku is making a big bet on creator content, launching a new dedicated destination and multiple new creator FAST channels to its platform, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Engadget: California lawmakers are working on a bill to preserve access to online games . “A bill that could require game publishers to offer a way to access online games after they are no longer actively supported is making its way to a floor vote in the California State Assembly, the first step on its way to becoming law, Ars Technica reports.”

The Register: Microsoft shuts down illegal code-signing operation used by ransomware crims to mask their malware. “Microsoft seized websites and took down hundreds of virtual machines running a cybercrime service that allegedly sold code-signing certificates to ransomware gangs, thus making their malware look like legitimate software – and allowing criminals to infect thousands of machines in the US, including at least 12 owned and operated by the Windows giant.”

Harvard Business Review: How Stronger Privacy Laws Convinced Consumers to Share More Data. “Companies often fear that stronger privacy regulations will mean they’ll have less access to valuable consumer data. But an analysis of 16,000 U.S. customers using an engagement app found that after 2023 privacy laws took effect in California and Virginia, users in those two states divulged more data to the app overall and more diverse data than app-users elsewhere.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Michigan: Legal pressure key to removing nonconsensual nudity online. “The new study, co-authored by School of Information researchers, finds that X (formerly Twitter) removed AI-generated nude images far more quickly when reports were filed under copyright law than under the platform’s own nonconsensual nudity policy.”

Museums + Heritage Advisor: Wellcome Collection ‘sets bar high’ on restitution, returning 2,000 Jain manuscripts. “Wellcome Collection is to return more than 2,000 manuscripts from the ancient Indian Jain religion to its community, after more than a century. The manuscripts will initially be moved to the Dharmanath Network in Jain Studies at the University of Birmingham, which will open the collection to researchers and faith communities who are placed to read, interpret and translate their content.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

WBIW: Lost hard drive discovered in desk reveals 15,000 photo archive of West Baden Springs Hotel restoration . “Staff at the Orange County resort recently stumbled upon the drive, which contains an extensive, long-lost collection of roughly 15,000 photographs. The images meticulously document the multi-year, multi-million-dollar rescue mission that saved the southern Indiana architectural marvel from the brink of total collapse in the mid-1990s.” 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. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

AI PROBLEMS

TechSpot: Sony Xperia 1 VIII AI Camera Assistant images are so bad people think they were mislabeled. “Sony’s recently unveiled Xperia 1 VIII has some elements you wouldn’t expect to see on a flagship phone, including a headphone jack, thick bezels, and a microSD slot. What it does have is AI, of course, though judging by its AI Camera Assistant comparison images, dropping the tech would have been a good idea.”

The Verge: AI radio hosts demonstrate why AI can’t be trusted alone. “They all failed, some in pretty spectacular fashion. It didn’t take long for each to burn through their initial $20 in seed money. Only DJ Gemini managed to secure a sponsorship for a whopping $45. Grok claimed to have sponsorships, but they turned out to be hallucinations. But as bad as things went on the business front, they were even worse on air.”

Spectrum News: Prank 911 murder call escalates after AI spreads false crime alert. “According to police, the call first came in as a murder. Officers were dispatched, but later learned it was a prank. By then, an AI-generated message had already circulated, alerting the community about the initial call.”

ACTIVISM

Jersey Vindicator: New Jersey environmental groups push for statewide moratorium on data centers. “More than 60 environmental, labor, community, and grassroots organizations are calling on Gov. Mikie Sherrill to impose a moratorium on new data centers in New Jersey, warning that the rapidly growing industry threatens the state’s electric grid, water supply, environment, and local communities.”

SJV Water: MEETING NOTES: Desert groundwater agency hears overwhelming opposition to proposed desert data center. “The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority’s May 13 meeting was flooded with comments from the public asking the authority to oppose a recently proposed artificial intelligence data center in Inyokern being promoted by R&L Capital, Inc.”

AI IN EDUCATION

The Maine Monitor: Maine public universities on verge of closing $1.39M deal for first systemwide AI tool. “The state’s public university system plans to award its first contract for an artificial intelligence platform to ChatGPT Edu, an OpenAI chatbot tool for higher education, the system told employees and students in an email on Friday.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

VT Digger: A new body will recommend how state government and Vermont businesses could adopt AI. “Through an executive order, Gov. Phil Scott created the Vermont Artificial Intelligence Economic Taskforce on Monday. And first on its agenda, the body must present up to five recommendations within 90 days for how state government could adopt AI to better serve the public.”

Stocktonia: Stockton police roll out live AI language translation software for body cameras. “On Tuesday, the Stockton Police Department announced the integration of a new, real-time translation feature into the more than 300 body cameras issued to in-the-field officers. The new tool, said Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden during a morning news conference, would eliminate delays in providing accurate and immediate on-scene translations.”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

Tucson.com: Arizona Medicaid launches AI system to detect fraud. “The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Arizona’s Medicaid agency, is launching an artificial intelligence-driven detection and prevention system to help fight Medicaid fraud.”

VICE: Someone Made a Fake Wikipedia for AI Hallucinations, and It’s Basically the Internet Eating Itself. “Halupedia is a Wikipedia-style site built entirely around AI hallucinations. Every article is invented on demand by an AI model, complete with fake citations, fabricated scholars, imaginary historical events, and the appropriately authoritative tone that treats the purposeful heaps of crap with just enough gravitas to make it amusing, if not quite funny, as LLMs might never get the hang of that.”

Engadget: Firefox AI guardrails arrive for mobile. “On a day when Google announced AI feature after AI feature at I/O, here’s something a little different: Today’s Firefox 151 release brings AI controls to both iOS and Android systems.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: Dude… where’s my password? Claude reunites forgetful stoner with $400k Bitcoin stash. “Eleven years ago, a stoner bought some Bitcoin, lit up, and entered a password that he soon forgot. Now, after searching for more than a decade, Claude AI has helped him figure out the credentials he needed to gain access to a crypto wallet containing currency that is now worth a whopping $400,000.”

Ars Technica: Legal fail: Don’t use AI to sue Facebook users for calling you a bad date. “An attempt to pressure Meta into removing a critical post from a Chicago Facebook group called ‘Are We Dating the Same Guy’ may end in sanctions for lawyers whose takedown arguments appeared to rely on fake AI citations to support doxing claims.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Kentucky Lantern: Editor’s Notebook: Our work is produced by real journalists, not AI bots. “Yes, as the tech bros like to tell us, artificial intelligence is already here, and it ranges from the very funny (see the 200 commenters arguing about whether “Game of Thrones” was really filmed at the Kentucky Castle and how to pronounce “Versailles”) to the sinister (the ad about Massie was produced by a PAC trying to unseat him). But one place you won’t find AI is in the stories of the Kentucky Lantern. ”

Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Could an AI ‘Sim City’ make retail choices for Downtown Brooklyn?. “A new collaboration research project between NYU Tandon and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership is using advanced AI models to better understand how people choose where to spend time and how those choices shape the local economy. The work aims to provide a practical tool for retail planning and economic development.” Good morning, 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. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

Indy Politics: New Indiana transparency dashboard details how state agencies spend federal grants. “The new Federal Funding Expenditures Dashboard, available within the Indiana Transparency Portal website, allows users to sort and review six years of federal spending data across state government.”

Turned up in my Calishat Snaps: Tristan Davey’s Punch Card Archive. I think it launched around February 2025 but I’m not sure. “At their peak of use, in the 1950s and 60s, hundreds of companies around the world printed millions of punch cards every month. Yet within a few years of their obsolescence they all but disappeared from the public consciousness. This archive captures a small selection of these cards and their ephemera, and aims to document and preserve these pieces of history for the future.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Google Search as you know it is over. “Instead of returning a simple list of links, Google Search will drop users into AI-powered interactive experiences at times. Google is also introducing tools that can dispatch ‘information agents’ to gather information on a user’s behalf, along with tools that let users build personalized mini apps tailored to their needs.” Even if Google’s AI worked consistently I would be opposed to this.

Engadget: Discord now has end-to-end encryption on all calls. “Your calls on Discord are now truly private. The social platform says it’s completed its years-long endeavor to apply end-to-end encryption in all voice and video calls. This security is applied to all calls outside of stage channels, with no need to opt into the added protection.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Political Money Is Flowing to Influencers. But From Whom?. This link goes to a gift article. “Mr. Espina’s arrangement provides a rare glimpse into the world of pay-for-play social media, where content creators and marketing firms are increasingly compensated to promote candidates or points of view and where there are few requirements for disclosure. The paid advocacy exists outside the realm of traditional lobbying and campaigning, reaching younger, more online audiences unlikely to be swayed by television advertisements or glossy mailers.”

Mother Jones: Scientology’s Extremely Online Pivot to Video. “[Gunnar] Scharf is just one of the young people at dozens of Scientology centers around the world who have begun making videos online, often using popular songs and trending audio, presenting a more approachable, amiable, and youthful face for the church. Many of these Instagram and TikTok accounts became especially active starting in early 2025 and have kept up an intense pace since.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Krebs on Security: CISA Admin Leaked AWS GovCloud Keys on Github. “Until this past weekend, a contractor for the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) maintained a public GitHub repository that exposed credentials to several highly privileged AWS GovCloud accounts and a large number of internal CISA systems.”

BBC: Dozens arrested as specialist team targets romance fraudsters and scammers. “Dozens of suspected scammers and romance fraudsters have been arrested after specialist financial investigators uncovered organised networks of criminals operating across the UK and Nigeria.”

Politico: ‘The timing sucks’: Race is on to safeguard World Cup from drones. “Federal and local officials are still scrambling to prepare for potential drone threats at World Cup sites around the U.S., just weeks before the games begin.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NYTimes News Service: App-driven birding attracts flocks of enthusiasts to Colombia. “Colombia, home to the world’s largest number of bird species known to ornithologists, has long struggled to attract as many ‘avian tourists’ as smaller but more politically stable countries, like Costa Rica. Merlin and its sister app, eBird, both free and run by Cornell University’s ornithology lab, have initiated millions of people as amateur birders, building a bridge between the screen and the natural world.”

Raymond Camden: My First AI Skill for My Blog. “When generative AI first exploded on the scene, a lot of people used it to help them write, and frankly, that wasn’t for me. I’m not the best writer, but I damn well know how to write and damn well know my own voice. That being said, I’ve been really interested in how GenAI can help with the process.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Tom’s Hardware: Fans secretly mapped 24 terabytes of Minecraft’s infamous 2b2t server, million‑square‑block archive to be shared via torrent — Intense digital archaeology project has taken years, risked player wrath. “One of the largest digital archaeology projects has hit a key milestone: Minecraft devotees have just completed downloading and archiving 24TB of data, preserving a million squared block region of the game’s infamous 2b2t server.” Good morning, 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. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

Irish Cycle: New RSA map praised as “vital tool” which “represents so many tragic events”. “The map … includes fatal, serious and minor injury collisions on public roads between 2016 and 2024. The data is based on injury collision information collected by the Gardai, which the RSA is responsible for sharing. Users can filter the data by county, local authority area, year and collision severity…”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

PC World: Google just made big changes to Gemini usage limits. “Google is changing how it calculates your weekly Gemini usage limits, and it’s another reflection of how powerful agentic AI features have broken flat-rate consumer AI plans. As of now, Google says it’s switching to ‘compute-based’ usage rather than a fixed number of requests per day.”

ZDNet: Microsoft Edge just stopped storing your passwords in plaintext – but you’ll need the latest update. “In a recent post by Microsoft Edge Security Team Lead Gareth Evans, the company announced that it will no longer store your plaintext passwords in Edge in memory. The change comes in response to a recent finding that questioned the safety and security of your stored passwords.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TMZ: Tech Company Fixing Palisades Fire Glitch … After Spencer Pratt Called Out Mistake. “Google Maps appears to have rolled back parts of Los Angeles to pre-Palisades Fire imagery … making burned-down neighborhoods suddenly look untouched again. Users, including Spencer Pratt, noticed the change Monday after updated satellite views on Google Maps appeared to restore homes, streets, and landmarks that were destroyed in the devastating wildfire.”

Dubai Eye: ‘Dubai Archive’ to strengthen preservation of history, heritage. “Dubai has launched a major digital archiving project aimed at preserving the emirate’s history and heritage. Called ‘Dubai Archive’, the initiative will create an advanced system for managing documents, records and knowledge assets across government and semi-government entities.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Khmer Times: Illegal artefacts trade threatens cultural heritage, museum director warns. “Rising illegal antique sales, limited funding, and staff shortages are threatening Cambodia’s cultural heritage, with an official saying illicit trade is fuelling looting and endangering the nation’s fragile legacy.”

BBC: Switzerland to open secret files on Auschwitz ‘Angel of Death’ Mengele. “The Swiss Federal Intelligence Service has said it will finally open long-sealed files on the notorious Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, but without saying when. Mengele fled Europe after World War Two, but for years there have been rumours that he spent time in Switzerland, even though an international warrant was out for his arrest.”

The Register: Dutch cops’ shame game works wonders as most wanted scammers now turned in . “Netherlands police’s scheme to unmask and shame scammers into submission is proving highly successful, with 74 of its 100 most wanted now known to investigators. The country’s ‘Game Over?!’ campaign involved releasing the blurred images of fraudsters into the public domain and threatening to unmask them within two weeks if they did not turn themselves in.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Amnesty International: Indonesia: Military silences dissent with disinformation campaigns branding activists and journalists ‘foreign agents’. “Coordinated disinformation campaigns portraying government critics as ‘foreign agents’ are silencing dissent and fueling intimidation and violence under Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Amnesty International said in a new report published today.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

UC Davis: Training Naturalists Behind Prison Walls. “Akestrel swoops to grab a smaller bird on the wing and eats it, right in front of a group of men in the garden at California Health Care Facility, or CHCF, a prison in Stockton, where the garden has become both a thriving ecosystem and a science classroom for people incarcerated there. As the feathers fly, UC Davis researcher Laci Gerhart pulls out a bird guide and shows the incarcerated men how to identify the bird by its size and coloration, noting that kestrels are North America’s smallest raptor and one of the few that are sexually dimorphic.” Good morning, 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. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

TechCrunch: OpenAI launches ChatGPT for personal finance, will let you connect bank accounts. “On Friday, OpenAI launched a new set of personal finance tools in preview for ChatGPT Pro subscribers in the U.S., letting them connect their accounts and ask questions ranging from spending analysis to future financial planning.”

TechSpot: Anthropic says more than 90% of its code is now written by AI. “Google, Microsoft, Snap, and others have all talked about how much of their code is now AI-generated, but Anthropic appears to be leading the pack: its CFO said ‘90%-plus’ of its code is written by Claude.”

Gizmodo: American Jobs with AI Exposure Really Are Starting to Disappear, Data Show. “There’s real data now about what’s happening to these jobs in the AI era, and the trend is not great—although it’s clearly too soon to panic. Most notably, the year-long period ending in May of 2025 saw the raw number of customer service representatives drop by 130,180, a troubling 4.8% decrease.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Spokesman-Review: WA homeowners, farmers say their land is being stolen for data centers. “Data centers are demanding more energy than ever to fuel artificial intelligence, and the utility is not only running out of locally sourced electricity but also power-line capacity. To build more, the [Grant County Public Utility District] considered running lines through public lands, protected habitats, farms or people’s homes. In the end, the utility concluded it would be fastest to take private property.”

New Jersey Globe: AI-generated Brad Cohen stars in new PAC’s ads. “A new PAC supporting East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen’s campaign for Congress seems to have found a novel way of promoting their candidate without coordinating with his campaign: generating an AI version of Cohen and letting ‘him’ do the talking.”

ABC 7: Dating app Bumble is ending swipe feature, introduces AI assistant for matchmaking. ‘The company said it is introducing an AI assistant called Bee as part of its matchmaking process. Bumble said the feature aims to give users a more personal way to connect on the platform. The company has also announced it will remove the swipe — a key feature of the app for users to express interest in potential matches. Swiping right meant you were interested and left meant you were not.”

Bloomberg: Musk’s xAI promised staff $420 for their tax returns, hasn’t paid. “Elon Musk’s xAI asked employees earlier this year to offer up their own tax returns as training data for the company’s Grok chatbot, promising a $420 payment as incentive for doing so. Two months later, those payments still haven’t materialized.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

North Dakota Monitor: AI driving rise in child sexual abuse material cases, North Dakota investigator says. “A member of the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation told state lawmakers Wednesday the agency needs more tools to address a rise in child sexual exploitation involving images generated by artificial intelligence.”

Futurism: First Responders Are Being Overwhelmed by Data Center Fires. “The fire department in Jerome Township, Ohio, an exurb northwest of Columbus, has grown increasingly annoyed at two Amazon data centers over the last four years. Since the first site was approved by local officials in 2021, first responders have answered a combined 84 emergencies between the two facilities, a rate of about two calls a month, according to The Columbus Dispatch.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Register: Datacenters are having fewer, but bigger failures. “There’s good news and bad news when it comes to datacenter uptime. According to a recent report from the Uptime Institute, bit barns have actually gotten more resilient over the past five years. However, the report suggests that those datacenter failures that do occur are lasting longer and costing more to resolve.”

Press Gazette: Health coverage is getting killed by Google AI Overviews. “Looking at data from three months at the start of 2026, Sistrix estimates that health sections on major news brands will have seen links to articles supplanted by an AI-written summary 72% of the time in Google search results.”

PsyPost: Artificial intelligence tools answer addiction questions accurately but lack medical nuance. ” A recent evaluation found that while chatbot responses align broadly with national guidelines, they often lack the situational details necessary for individualized health decisions. These descriptive findings were recently published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.” Good morning, 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. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

NiemanLab: Here’s a new database for local news research, from Syracuse University and Rebuild Local News . “Syracuse University and Rebuild Local News teamed up last fall to build a curated, accessible local news database…. The hub comprises about 170 studies total, including the 45 ‘artifacts’ covered in that literature review, along with more than 120 new entries. Among these are peer-reviewed articles, dissertations, books and book chapters, and working papers.”

This is Reno: New online tool helps Nevadans find their polling place . “A new online tool on the Nevada secretary of state’s website is available to help voters find their polling location before the June 9 primary election.”

UH Mānoa: Hindu Gods & Goddesses Digital Image Collection now available. “What does it take to bring a century-old collection to life? Decades after it was donated to the library, the Hindu Gods and Goddesses Digital Image Collection is finally available to the world — and the story behind it is as rich as the collection itself.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Elon Musk has lost his lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI. “Elon Musk’s claim that he was mistreated by his OpenAI co-founders failed after nine California jurors returned a unanimous verdict that his lawsuits had been filed too late.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Digital Trends: Miss the old PC days? This website lets you experience Wikipedia like it’s Windows XP . “Developer Sami Smith has built a browser-based Windows XP Wikipedia explorer that turns categories into folders and articles into documents. It’s playful, slightly inefficient, and more interesting than another AI search box bolted onto the web.”

Engadget: X accounts are limited to 50 posts and 200 replies a day unless they pay for a blue checkmark. “As seen on X and Reddit, users are reporting that X has quietly restricted the amount of posts allowed for those without the blue checkmark. Now, the X Help Center page on limits reads that posts are limited to ’50 original posts and 200 replies per day for unverified accounts.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Tech CEOs invited to US Capitol to testify about children’s online safety. “The CEOs of Meta, Alphabet, TikTok and Snap have been invited back to Capitol Hill to answer questions from U.S. lawmakers about children’s online safety, according to a Senate aide.”

WCVB: Bitcoin Depot files for bankruptcy, will take all crypto ATMs offline. “Bitcoin Depot, one of the largest crypto ATM operators in Massachusetts, filed for bankruptcy on Monday and will take all of its machines offline.”

Gizmodo: Apple’s Privacy Standards May Be Eroding as New Siri Features Roll Out, Report Says. “If this is the plan, it might be an unwelcome change in the way Apple goes about handling its deep learning-related tasks that will disappoint privacy-focused Apple fans. Apple’s tight privacy around, for instance, face detection data sets the standard here. Faces are recognized on your device, and that data is encrypted on your device. Only then does any data go to the cloud.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Mother Jones: Trump Cuts to Weather Data May Make Forecasts Less Reliable, Experts Warn. “As the United States prepares for hurricane season and a summer of record-breaking heat, experts fear the Trump administration’s cuts to climate and weather data programming could make the federal government’s weather forecasts less reliable when they are needed most.”

Yale Sustainability: VIDEO: How Yale is Reducing Energy Use in Museums and Collections Spaces. “Museums and collection storage spaces are famously energy intensive. To preserve artifacts, they often rely on strict, round-the-clock setpoints for temperature, relative humidity, and light. Across large buildings and multiple collections, those standards come with a steep energy cost—putting institutions in a constant tradeoff between sustainability goals and preservation needs.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

The Register: Yes, you can serve a website from a $1 microcontroller. “Okay, you won’t exactly be serving up a high-performance, graphic-rich website using this project from European developer and blogger Maurycy Zalewski. The setup is limited to one URL, but hey, it actually works, provided an influx of visitors hasn’t killed the site yet.” Good morning, 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. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

This launched at the end of March but I missed it until now. WIPO: New WIPO Lex Collection Brings Trade Secrets Case Law into Focus. “The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has launched the WIPO Lex Trade Secrets Case Law Collection, a new online resource designed to improve access to judicial decisions relating to trade secret protection across jurisdictions.”

Reddit: New online searchable database for IRA membership (1921/1922). “The Military Service Pensions Collection has launched a new search function for the Nominal Rolls of the IRA, Cumann na mBan, the ICA and Fianna Éireann. These were compiled by ex officers in the 1930s to help with the pensions process. People can now search through over 600 files covering 16 IRA divisions and 87 brigades with names of over 100,000 people.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Wall Street Journal: Suspicious betting in Washington is on the rise—and authorities are playing catch-up. This is an MSN-syndicated link and has no paywall. “For decades, the information that fueled insider trading was found on Wall Street or inside the glass offices of public companies across the country. The rise of prediction markets has created a new temptation in Washington, where the Trump administration’s fast-moving agenda is giving those privy to government information a chance to cash in on the volatility.”

TechCrunch: Users turn to jailbreaking their older Kindles as Amazon ends support. “Many people are jailbreaking their Kindles following the news that Amazon is ending technical support for older models…. The move means users will only be able to use their devices to read content that’s already downloaded. So, naturally, people are jailbreaking them.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: I turned an old phone into an offline GPS, and it works too well. “There are so many ways to put that old phone of yours to good use, and recently it came to my mind, why not use it as an offline GPS for my car? This way, my primary driver can relax and focus on other important stuff, such as playing music or just preserving the battery. If you also have a retired device lying in your home, here’s how to turn it into a dashboard companion.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Thousands of FiveThirtyEight Articles Seemingly Vanish From the Internet . This link goes to a gift article. “An archived website of FiveThirtyEight, a data journalism publication known for its polling analysis and election models, is now redirecting readers to ABC News, its owner and former host. As a result, many thousands of articles stretching back to FiveThirtyEight’s founding in 2008 are no longer accessible online, according to Nathaniel Rakich, a former senior staff editor at the publication.”

Mother Jones: Antisemitic Hantavirus Conspiracy Theories Are Spreading—and the Platforms Are Hands Off. “A popular social media conspiracy theory about a recent cluster of hantavirus cases claims that the word ‘hanta’ means ‘scam,’ ‘fraud,’ or ‘nonsense’ in ‘Hebrew slang.’ That’s more or less where the theory ends and dark suggestion takes over.”

Ars Technica: Weather-monitoring firm hangs dark cloud over customers’ heads by forcing new app . “Some AcuRite customers are upset about losing access to My AcuRite because they think AcuRite Now is an inferior app. Those customers have complained online about being unable to use AcuRite Now to rename multiple temperature sensors, difficulties uploading data to weather sites, and the app only reporting temperatures in whole numbers.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: The Epstein Files and the risks of forensic image retention. “The Department of Justice (DOJ) continues to experience blowback from how it handled the release of voluminous files from the criminal investigations of Jeffrey Epstein. Overlooked in this debate is the Fourth Amendment question raised by the disclosures themselves: what the Constitution requires when the government makes forensic images of electronic devices pursuant to search warrants.”

Broadband TV News: Ofcom proposes broadcast-style regulation for Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video . “Ofcom has unveiled draft new content and accessibility rules for major streaming platforms including Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video, marking the biggest extension of UK television regulation into streaming services to date.”

MinnPost: Minnesota House passes social media protections for minors, drawing opposition from tech industry group. “Some of the safety features in the bill include requiring parental consent for children signing up for social media accounts; setting privacy settings to the strongest levels by default; prohibiting targeted ads; and limiting addictive features such as infinite scrolling and video autoplay.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Associated Press: Owl found stuck in a concrete mixer is on the mend and flying free. “It took days for employees at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab to pick the concrete from the bird’s face, chest and right wing, using forceps to carefully crack the dried debris and cleaning the feathers with toothbrushes and dish soap.” Good morning, 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. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

Tamil Guardian: New database documents over 10,000 Tamils killed and disappeared during IPKF period. “The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) have launched a new online database documenting individuals who were killed or disappeared during the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in the Tamil homeland between October 1987 and March 1990. In a statement released on X, the ITJP said the website forms part of a broader long-term effort to restore the names and identities of those killed and disappeared on the island since 1958.”

KTLA: Los Angeles releases searchable list of worst rental properties. “If you live or want to live in Los Angeles, the city controller has released a new dashboard highlighting some of the city’s most notorious problem rental properties, a tool designed to help renters avoid future headaches.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Register: Nobody believes the ‘criminals and scumbags’ who hacked Canvas really deleted stolen student data. “‘We received digital confirmation of data destruction (shred logs),’ Instructure assured the nearly 9,000 affected universities and K-12 schools. ‘We have been informed that no Instructure customers will be extorted as a result of this incident, publicly or otherwise.’ Not a single responder that The Register spoke with believes this is true.”

USEFUL STUFF

PC Mag: I Turned My TV Into a Rotating Art Gallery Using Free Museum Downloads. “Museums across the world have massive digital collections of their exhibits. Photos and scans of art, literature, and historical objects can be found if you know where to look. That includes thousands upon thousands of famous paintings. Accessing those collections and browsing their contents is easy. To get them on your TV, all you need to do is download the high-resolution files, transfer them to a USB drive or a cloud photo storage service supported by your TV, and enjoy the art.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

San Francisco Standard: Meet the teen whose viral SF tow truck tracker got banned after 3 hours . “Inspired by local tech prankster Riley Walz, [Rodin] Roohipour, who lives in Los Angeles, vibe-coded an app(opens in new tab) that maps the location of San Francisco tow trucks in real time. He launched it Tuesday between his morning classes at Chadwick School in Palos Verdes. By the time he’d finished lunch, the app had been effectively killed after Autura, the company that runs the city’s tow database, walled off its data feed.”

Kotaku: Failed Online Shooter Won’t Shut Down Because ‘Games Are Art And Deserve To Be Preserved’. “Blindfire was released back in October 2024 with a unique hook: It was an online first-person shooter set in the dark and was built around finding your enemies or remaining out of their sight. Sadly for developer Double Eleven, it never found much of an audience. Now, a year after its last patch, Blindfire will get one last big update and will go free, with devs promising to keep the servers on because they are ‘proud of it’ and want to preserve it for others.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: US judge considers Anthropic’s $1.5 billion settlement of authors’ lawsuit. “A federal judge on Thursday pressed lawyers for more information on several points of artificial intelligence company Anthropic’s proposed $1.5 ‌billion settlement with authors who accused it of misusing their books to train ‌its AI chatbot Claude.”

Broadcast Media Africa: Kenya Mandates Social Media Giant X To Establish Local Office For Enhanced Regulation. “The Kenyan government has issued a directive to social media platform X, mandating that it establish a physical office in the country within three months.”

Courthouse News: Roblox must face Iowa consumer fraud claims. “A lawsuit by Iowa’s attorney general against gaming giant Roblox will move forward after an Iowa state judge said Thursday that the platform can’t exempt itself from Iowa consumer protection law by claiming it isn’t ‘merchandise.'”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Arizona State University: The fog is alive: Researchers discover bacteria in fog droplets clear toxins from air. “Her ASU research team found that bacteria floating in tiny fog droplets are alive, growing and — quite helpfully — breaking down pollutants in the air. The study, published this week in mBio, changes how we think about fog. It’s not a sterile mist, nor is it a sea of microbes in limbo. It’s a temporary water habitat for little friends that clean the air we breathe.” 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. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

Maryland Matters: Maryland launches ‘one-stop’ resource website for new, expecting parents. “New families in need of health insurance, parental leave and other resources can look up that information on a new state website launched Thursday. Resources for expecting and new parents was announced by the Governor’s Office for Children as a ‘one-stop’ resource hub to not only support families, but also as a way to make sure children have a healthy start to their lives.”

PR Newswire: EBSCO Information Services Unveils New Full-Text Database for Child and Adolescent Studies (PRESS RELEASE). “EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) announces the release of Child & Adolescent Studies Source, a comprehensive full-text database covering the latest research in child and adolescent growth and development.”

EVENTS

Gizmodo: Live Updates From Google I/O 2026 . “The Google I/O 2026 keynote kicks off on May 19 at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. Gizmodo will be live blogging the whole thing. Senior Editor of Consumer Tech Raymond Wong will cover the event live and check out demos afterward.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Korea Times: Naver turns all of Seoul into 3D digital map experience. “Naver said Friday that its Naver Map platform has expanded coverage of its ‘Flying View 3D’ service across the entire capital, allowing users to virtually navigate Seoul’s landmarks, neighborhoods and natural scenery in high-resolution 3D imagery.”

Cowboy State Daily: Why Google Maps Keeps Closing Yellowstone’s East Entrance When It’s Open. “The East Entrance to Yellowstone National Park opened on May 1, but Google and Apple Maps apparently didn’t get the memo. Even as vehicles streamed out of Cody into Yellowstone, the popular navigation apps insisted the East Entrance was closed, and would remain closed for almost a month.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: Google users fight for refunds as unauthorized API usage bills soar. “Several Google Cloud customers say their API keys have been compromised and used by bad actors to run inferencing workloads using the most expensive video and picture models, leaving them with bills for tens of thousands of dollars and weeks of back-and-forth headaches with the Chocolate Factory as they tried to prove they were not responsible for the mess.”

Bangkok Post: New online rules target scam adverts . “Thailand has introduced a new electronic transaction measure to require online social media platforms to strengthen identity verification of advertisers to filter out fraudulent ads.”

Mashable: California lawmakers explore ways to preserve access to online games. “California lawmakers are deliberating a proposed bill, known as the ‘Protect Our Games Act,’ that would require publishers to continue offering access to online games even after developers stop supporting them, according to Ars Technica.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Atlantic: My Son’s Math Homework Is Essentially Just Pokémon. “Over the past few years, districts across the country have enacted phone bans or restrictions in a bid to limit distractions. Schools have also blocked students from using their laptop to access sites such as YouTube and Roblox. But those measures don’t solve the deeper problem: Software has eaten the American school, and unwinding that will require more than a content filter or a Yondr Pouch.”

PsyPost: Updating Wikipedia pages boosts public trust in scientific organizations, study finds. “A recent study published in the journal Anatomical Sciences Education has found that updating Wikipedia pages for scientific organizations improves public access to accurate information.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Maryland Matters: ‘Super fun’: The tale of how a prehistoric shark became Maryland’s official state shark . “Two days earlier, in the final hours of Maryland’s legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill to make megalodon — the largest shark that ever lived — the state shark. It became official on Tuesday, when Gov. Wes Moore signed Senate Bill 35 into law, declaring in one line that ‘megalodon (Otodus megalodon) is the state shark.'”

Kewanee Voice: Guinness names 11-year-old Cambridge resident world’s youngest museum curator. “Anderson Taylor of Cambridge, Ill., has officially been recognized by Guinness World Records as the youngest museum curator in the world. Now 11, Taylor was just 9 years old when he opened the Cambridge Natural History Museum on August 10, 2024.” Good morning, 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. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

Poynter: New Poynter hub serves journalists working with AI and audiences trying to make sense of it. “The Poynter Institute today launched a new AI hub on Poynter.org, bringing together its work in journalism training, ethics, media literacy, fact-checking, research and consulting to help journalists and the public navigate a rapidly changing information environment.”

Spotted on Reddit and hosted at the Internet Archive: 1990-1994 Mail Order 5.25″ shareware disk collection. “This is my family’s collection of shareware we ordered and had on our PC circa 1990-1994. Please enjoy it as a period collection or install all of it on a hard drive on a 386 or 486 computer with DOS 5.0/Win3.1 for the ultimate ‘you are literally experiencing my old computer’ experience.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: YouTube is expanding its AI deepfake detection tool to all adult users. “The likeness detection feature uses a selfie-style scan of a person’s face to monitor YouTube for lookalikes. If there is a match, YouTube alerts the user; the person then has the option to request that YouTube remove the content. YouTube has said in the past that it has found the number of removal requests to be ‘very small.'”

Courthouse News Service: X pledges crackdown on illegal content in UK. “Elon Musk’s X has committed to cracking down on illegal content to protect U.K. users, Britain’s media regulator said Friday, as it steps up pressure on social media platforms. The commitments include reviewing suspected illegal terrorist and hate content within an average of 24 hours of it being reported, and blocking accounts linked to proscribed terrorist organizations in the U.K., Ofcom said in a statement.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: Five Built-In Chromebook Apps You Should Definitely Be Using. “As Chromebooks have developed though, they’ve add more to this basic Chrome foundation. They can run Android apps now, for example, and they actually come with several pre-installed apps that are genuinely useful. Open up the Launcher (the Google icon, bottom left), to see what’s available.”

ZDNet: The best secure browsers for privacy in 2026: Expert tested . “In ZDNET’s latest update, we conducted a thorough editorial review and changed the rankings of our top choices to better reflect new developments. We also overhauled our FAQ section.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

NiemanLab: When ICE came to Minneapolis, readers turned to The Minnesota Star Tribune’s free live blog . “The live blog was the newspaper’s top traffic driver in January, [Chris] Iles said, and that month’s total gifted articles was double the 2025 monthly average. Its second most-read story identified the first of two American citizens killed by federal agents, and its third most-read story reported that the ICE agent who shot Renee Good had been dragged by a car in an earlier incident.”

Cape Fear Community College: CFCC Student Preserves Veterans’ Stories Through YouTube Channel. “What started as a teenage passion project has grown into a mission to document firsthand accounts from veterans and historical witnesses before their stories are lost. A student at Cape Fear Community College, Luke [Basso] has conducted more than 100 interviews for his YouTube channel, Filmperia. His work spans World War II veterans, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans, and civilians who lived through major historical events.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNBC: Trump touted Palantir on Truth Social after buying the company’s stock, records show. “President Donald Trump scooped up shares of artificial intelligence software maker Palantir weeks before he famously lauded the stock, with its ticker symbol, on his social media platform Truth Social, according to records released this week by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.”

Boing Boing: AI poop analysis app selling human-verified poop photos. “You’ve heard of the Internet of Shit, but this is literally the case: an AI-powered poop analysis app’s database of user-submitted poop images leaking into the wild.” 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. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.