City University of New York: New Slavery Databases Document More Than 150,000 Enslaved People in Cuba and Brazil, Opening Paths for Research. “A decades-long project by Distinguished Professor Laird W. Bergad of the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies opens a major new archive on slavery and challenges long-held assumptions about its decline.”

National Security Archive: Cuba: The Bay of Pigs Invasion 65 Years Later. “In the wake of the failed CIA-led Bay of Pigs invasion, President John F. Kennedy considered reconfiguring and even dismantling the intelligence agency, according to documents posted by the National Security Archive on the 65th anniversary of the paramilitary assault on Cuba.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechSpot: Duolingo stops evaluating workers based on how much AI they use. “In a classic example of a CEO admitting he got too carried away on the AI hype train, Duolingo boss Luis von Ahn has confirmed the company will no longer assess employees’ performance based on how much they use AI for work tasks.”

Oklahoma Voice: Under fire for AI image, John Waldron to resign from House seat. “A state representative under scrutiny for sending an inappropriate AI-generated image to a woman will resign Oct. 1 from the state House. Rep. John Waldron, D-Tulsa, submitted a resignation letter Thursday to the Governor’s Office, which shared the document with Oklahoma Voice.”

USEFUL STUFF

Mashable: How to actually recycle electronics, beauty empties, toys, and more tricky items in 2026. “Most of us have been conditioned to recycle things like aluminum cans and cardboard boxes. But past those traditional curbside recyclables, other everyday items like batteries, beauty empties, toys, and even clothes can feel impossible to get rid of sustainably. Is throwing them away the only option?”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Sydney Morning Herald: Out of 11 million photos, one news photo taken in the heart of Sydney is nagging Harry. “In a secret climate-controlled facility in Sydney’s west, photo specialist Harry Hollinsworth is working through The Sydney Morning Herald’s archives to save photos that brought history to life. The Herald celebrates its 195th birthday on Saturday, April 18 and Hollinsworth is part of a five-year digitisation project that is creating a single online archive of Nine Entertainment’s media companies to mark the Herald’s bicentenary in 2031.”

ZDNet: ‘Like handing out the blueprint to a bank vault’: Why AI led one company to abandon open source. “Cal is moving its flagship open-source program to a proprietary model because it can’t cope with the dangers of AI hacking its open code.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Orlando Weekly: Alleged FSU shooter consulted ChatGPT on when to attack, sexual scenarios with a minor. “Other conversations detail graphic sexual descriptions of a minor and another college student, sexual conversations about family members, and repeated references to Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. He also consulted the chatbot about weapons, how Florida treats school shooters and the busiest time at the student union — where prosecutors allege he murdered two and wounded five others just before noon last April. They’re seeking the death penalty.”

TechCrunch: How the rewards app Freecash scammed its way to the top of the app stores. “The app has been marketed as a way to make money just by scrolling TikTok — and jumped to the top of the app stores in recent months, peaking at the No. 2 position in the U.S. App Store. In truth, Freecash pays users to play mobile games — all the while collecting a heaping amount of sensitive data, according to cybersecurity company Malwarebytes.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Register: Not all networks can handle AI traffic – and experts are sounding alarms. “AI is reshaping the demands on network infrastructure, and many organizations are not prepared – including some of the so-called neocloud providers offering AI services. A study by analyst biz Omdia finds that many rent-a-GPU providers have scaled up their compute infrastructure to handle AI workloads, but their networking infrastructure is becoming a critical constraint.”

New York Times: We Don’t Really Know How A.I. Works. That’s a Problem.. This link goes to a gift article. “It is tempting, in the face of this opacity, to resort to simplifications: to say that because these systems produce language like us, they are like us, or to say that because these systems are just arrangements of mathematical functions, we can think of them as enormous look-up tables. But both of these claims are too dismissive — neither can adequately explain the superhuman abilities and strangely ingenuous behavior of A.I. models.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Gothamist: Martha Cooper photographed graffiti’s origins. Decades later, she’s still at it.. “Cooper had grown up in her father’s camera shop in Baltimore and spent much of her time looking at the world through the other side of a lens. Where others saw vandalism that needed to be scrubbed away, she saw energy and beauty. She befriended a young graffiti writer named Edwin Serrano, known as He3, who brought her into the underground, thus launching a remarkable career documenting street art that’s spanned six decades — and is still going.” 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.

The Conversation: 80 million people globally claim Irish ancestry – why the release of 1926 Irish census records is so momentous. “One hundred years after it was conducted, the first full census of independent Ireland is being released for free online. These nearly 3 million records will be of great significance to Ireland’s population, and a global diaspora of some 80 million claiming Irish ancestry.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NiemanLab: Prediction markets are breaking the news and becoming their own beat. “Keeping up with prediction markets is practically a full-time job, and for a few journalists they’ve become an opportunity to stake out a new beat at the intersection of politics, culture, finance, technology, sports, and even possibly true crime.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Oaklandside: This educator is turning Instagram into a classroom about Oakland’s ecosystems. “Saumitra Kelkar is on a mission to restore native plants. He’s teaching East Bay residents about where to find rare flowers, plants, trees and wild bees — all in The Town.”

New York Groove: Why this diner (and other local businesses) are filling your feed with AI slop. “It’s more of a shock to see it spread among the tier of small businesses across the city. But it’s all of a sudden everywhere, from new businesses announcing themselves to established ones rebranding their menus. I caught at least one grungy arts-adjacent organization using it to promote a ukulele event. Bodega sign AI slop has become a whole category in itself.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Colorado Newsline: Elon Musk’s xAI sues Colorado over AI consumer protection law. “Elon Musk’s xAI, which owns the social media platform X and the generative AI chatbot Grok, sued Colorado in federal court Thursday, alleging that a state consumer-protection law passed in 2024, Senate Bill 24-205, violates the company’s constitutional rights. SB-205 is scheduled to take effect in June.”

WFMY: Greensboro Police apologize after Facebook post targeting commenter. “The Greensboro Police Department is apologizing after a social media post over the weekend sparked backlash and thousands of comments online. It all started Saturday with a post on the department’s Facebook page introducing what it called ‘Happy Attention Seeking Saturday.'”

Lifehacker: These 108 Malicious Chrome Extensions Are Stealing Google and Telegram Data. “As reported by The Hacker News, cybersecurity researchers with Socket’s Threat Research Team have identified 108 extensions available in Google Chrome that steal login credentials, user IDs, and browsing data. All 108 extensions route that information back to servers controlled by a single operator, despite these extensions being published by five different developers (GameGen, InterAlt, Rodeo Games, SideGames, and Yana Project).”

RESEARCH & OPINION

BBC: The parents using play to stop children getting ‘trapped’ by screens. “Parents have told the BBC about how they try to prioritise meaningful ways to connect with their children, as busy schedules, rising living costs and the pull of technology continue to dominate family life.”

The Register: Bad teacher bots can leave hidden marks on model students. “New research warns about the dangers of teaching LLMs on the output of other models, showing that undesirable traits can be transmitted ‘subliminally’ from teacher to student, even when they are scrubbed from training data.” 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.

NEW RESOURCES

Lawfare: Tracking Government Non-Compliance in Habeas Corpus Cases. “This page includes a continually updated, interactive tracker to document what is known—and what still remains unclear—about instances in which the Trump administration has failed to comply with federal court orders in immigration habeas corpus proceedings. The tracker is maintained by Katherine Pompilio.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Wall Street Journal: Justice Department rebuffs French on X probe, Musk interview. This article is MSN-syndicated and does not have a firewall. “The Justice Department told French law enforcement authorities it wouldn’t facilitate their efforts to investigate Elon Musk’s X, after a raid on the social-media platform’s Paris office earlier this year. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, in a two-page letter dated Friday, accused the French of inappropriately using its justice system to interfere with an American business.”

Associated Press: Russia has looted thousands of Ukrainian cultural objects in the war. Finding them is a challenge. “Ukraine is again raising its voice over the looting as Russia seeks to return to the world’s cultural stage. Next month’s Venice Biennale plans to allow Russian representatives to take part for the first time since 2022. Ukraine has said the event ‘must not become a stage for whitewashing the war crimes that Russia commits daily against the Ukrainian people and our cultural heritage.'”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Hundreds of Fake Pro-Trump Avatars Emerge on Social Media. This link goes to a gift article. “In the months leading up to the midterm elections, hundreds of accounts have emerged on social media featuring A.I.-generated pro-Trump influencers posting at a rapid pace about the ‘radical left’ and ‘America First.’ They tend to appear as ordinary — if very good-looking — men and women, gazing flirtatiously at the camera while pontificating about the war in Iran, abortion or Bad Bunny.”

NPR: Millions of people are pretending to be AI chatbots — for fun. “More than one third of U.S. adults have used ChatGPT, according to a June 2025 Pew Research study. People are not only deploying AI chatbots for everything from planning trips to doing homework assignments — they are also having fun impersonating them.”

Harvard Gazette: Why are communities pushing back against data centers?. “In this interview, which has been edited for length and clarity, Ben Green, assistant professor in the University of Michigan School of Information and Public Policy and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, discusses the impact of data centers on communities, the factors behind their rapid expansion, and the potential for regulation.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Engadget: Judge sides with creators of banned ICE trackers who allege DHS and DOJ violated their First Amendment rights. “A judge has granted the makers of the ‘ICE Sightings – Chicagoland’ Facebook group and the Eyes Up app a preliminary injunction to stop the Trump administration from coercing platforms to take these projects down.”

Euromaidan: What is inside Ukraine’s new defense AI hub that will predict Russian moves?. “Ukraine, backed by the UK government, is launching the Defense AI Center ‘A1’. According to Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, the new institution is intended to accelerate the integration of artificial intelligence into military processes.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Hill: National Science Foundation’s future in limbo as Trump eyes cuts. “The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) future is in limbo as President Trump pushes for more budget cuts and his nominee to helm the research agency awaits Senate confirmation.”

NiemanLab: Social traffic kinda stinks for news publishers now, in 3 charts. “A lot of the discussion of news publishers’ traffic in recent months has focused on a decline in search traffic. But social traffic is down, too.”

Poynter: Saving local news also means saving the archives. “Whether it’s decades of newspapers, photographs, VHS tapes, cassettes or digital coverage, most newsrooms are so focused on the present that they’re neglecting the past and how vital it is to understanding the future.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Hoptown Chronicle: Murray’s Penny Grocery Museum, a preserved 1930s Kentucky country store, to reopen for tours . “For nearly 20 years, the Penny Grocery Museum was owned and operated by the late Murray local Johnny Gingles, a passionate collector of vintage consumer goods who believed in the importance of historic preservation. After his father’s death in January, Hunter Gingles took the reins at the museum.” 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.

American Psychological Association: APA Labs launches resource to guide clinicians, health systems and the public to evidence-based digital mental health tools. “To help health care providers and users searching for digital mental health products they can trust, APA Labs has launched the Digital Badge Solutions Library, a resource of digital mental and behavioral health technologies that have been awarded an APA Labs Digital Badge.”

Tulane University: Now open for research: The David Elliott Draper collection on Mardi Gras Indians. “The archival collection contains audio reel-to-reel and cassette tapes, photographic negatives, research notes, annotated drafts, and related materials compiled by David Elliott Draper for his 1973 Tulane University Ph.D. dissertation, The Mardi Gras Indians: The Ethnomusicology of Black Associations in New Orleans. Draper’s research documents members of several Mardi Gras Indian tribes during the early 1970s, including the Black Eagles, Golden Arrows, Golden Eagles, and Wild Magnolias.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Android Authority: Google Maps taps Gemini to crack down on political vandalism and spammy reviews. “What’s a little more interesting is how Google also says that it’s using Gemini in Maps to block attempts to vandalize place names. This one we don’t hear about quite so often, but every once in a while one slips through and makes the news, like it did back in 2016 with New York City’s ‘Dump’ Tower.” For a list of Google Maps pranks, check out the RB Firehose Google Maps + pranks tag set.

Meduza: Pro-Kremlin blogger leaves psychiatric hospital after criticizing Putin, says conditions were ‘pretty rough’. “Pro-Kremlin blogger and informant Ilya Remeslo has left a psychiatric hospital, he announced on his Telegram channel. He spent 30 days at the facility.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Wall Street Journal: Next time you order a Dairy Queen Blizzard, you may be talking to AI . This WSJ article is MSN-syndicated and has no paywall. “Dairy Queen began a test with technology company Presto to bring a drive-through chatbot to a handful of its U.S. stores last year, said Kevin Baartman, the company’s executive vice president of information technology. This week the Berkshire Hathaway-owned restaurant chain is expanding the test to several dozen franchised locations out of its 3,000 U.S. and Canadian drive-throughs.”

Fast Company: Shuttered startups are selling old Slack chats and emails to AI companies. “According to a report by Forbes, defunct companies are selling their digital footprints to AI companies as training data—and making real money from it. Shanna Johnson, the CEO of now-defunct software company Cielo24, told the publication that she was able to sell every Slack message, internal email, and Jira ticket as training data for ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Kremlin acknowledges criticism after blogger warns Putin ‘squeezed’ Russians could erupt. “The Kremlin took the unusual step of publicly acknowledging sharp criticism of the authorities from a celebrity blogger on Thursday, saying work was under way to ‌address a slew of problems identified by social media influencer Viktoria Bonya.”

Dimsum Daily: Mainland Chinese influencer penalised over ‘gold‑digger’ courses. “A mainland Chinese social media personality known as ‘Yao Jinyu’ has sparked controversy after offering online courses that purportedly teach women how to manipulate men for financial gain, prompting disciplinary action from several platforms.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Gizmodo: Using Emojis at Work? You’re Not Going to Like This Study . “So, crying-laughing emoji, you’re not going to believe this—but, spiral-eyes emoji, a psychological experiment has found that incorporating emojis into your workplace communiqués might be leading your peers to perceive you as incompetent. But not always: the mercurial purple devil emoji, as always, is in the details.”

University of Michigan: What’s in your cart? New tech helps shoppers make healthier, affordable food choices. “Unlike typical apps that evaluate foods one at a time, the Food Information System looks at the entire shopping cart—recognizing that grocery decisions are a balancing act between cost, nutrition and personal preferences. The research is important because by capturing how choices interact, the tool offers more realistic, practical recommendations that reflect how people actually shop.” 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.

Ms. Magazine: A Public Syllabus on Feminist Resistance Across U.S. History: Books, Films, Archives and Tools to Rethink America’s Origins. “The multimedia syllabus curated below spans the Revolutionary era and the long afterlife of feminist resistance—from the 19th century to the present. It includes works by series authors, books and articles, podcasts, films and television, primary-source collections, a Google Map of sites across the U.S. relevant to women’s histories, and a Spotify playlist tracing the legacy of protest music.”

University of Waterloo: Canadian Peatland Data Portal debuts as a landmark tool for climate research and policy. “Peatlands cover upwards of 12 per cent of Canada’s landscape and store more carbon than all other ecosystems in the country combined… Yet until now, information on these critical ecosystems has been difficult to find. To address this gap, the Can-Peat Network at the University of Waterloo launched the Canadian Peatland Data Portal in early January, the country’s first national platform dedicated to centralizing peatland carbon metadata.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: China turns Taiwan’s own voices against it in information war. “Chinese state media outlets are increasingly amplifying Taiwanese critics of ‌the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), including influencers and politicians linked to the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), according to five Taiwanese security officials and data from Taipei-based research group IORG that was shared with Reuters.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Tubefilter: On new channel, Technoblade’s dad will sustain his son’s lasting impact. “To meet the ongoing demand for more content, Alex’s father is taking ‘Technoblade never dies’ literally. The man known as Technodad has launched a new channel called Team Technoblade, which he will use ‘as a way of keeping my boy’s memory alive.'”

Billboard: The Grateful Dead Launches Play Dead Streaming Platform: ‘We Want to Melt Your Faces’. “On Thursday (April 16), the live-music streaming platform nugs — home to archival recordings by artists including Bruce Springsteen, Phish and Pearl Jam — launches Play Dead, a new app dedicated to the high-resolution presentation of the Grateful Dead’s sprawling vault.”

Jackson Advocate: Project preserving Mississippi Delta family histories through historic records . “An official America250 Mississippi initiative, Beyond the Census is a public humanities project focused on digitizing and preserving the historical records of the Delta Burial Corporation, a century-old institution in Marks. The initial phase will focus on records spanning approximately 1920 to 1970, including ledger entries and documents that pre-date or supplement existing census data.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Associated Press: Wanna bet? Washington steps up scrutiny of prediction markets. “In a highly polarized Congress, the need to guard against the prediction markets being used for insider trading has become rare common ground. Members of both parties pressed the leader of a typically low-profile regulatory agency on the issue during a hearing on Thursday.”

Engadget: Estonia is the rare EU country opposing child social media bans. “As child social media bans spread across Europe and beyond, Estonia isn’t having it. On Friday, the country’s education minister said the bans won’t ‘actually solve problems,’ while warning that the kids will find a way regardless.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PsyPost: New research links personality traits to confidence in recognizing artificial intelligence deception. “A study published in the journal F1000Research in 2023 suggests that specific personality traits, particularly honesty and agreeableness, can predict how confident young adults feel in their ability to spot deepfake videos.”

North Carolina State University: Too Dark? Too Bright? Scientists Need Your Help to Make Reading Easier. “Scientists are launching a participatory project that allows people around the world to help answer research questions about challenges that can affect our ability to read in different settings.”

University of Michigan: A pocket-sized personal trainer: AI-written texts aim to get older adults moving. “Artificial intelligence can write text messages encouraging physical activity that most older adults consider appropriate and good quality, but their feelings about AI—and if they know AI wrote the message—impact their response, a new study in the Journals of Gerontology suggests.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Tom’s Hardware: Original Apollo 11 code open-sourced by NASA — original Command Module and Lunar Module code repos are now public domain resources. “The historic computer software code that took Apollo 11 to the moon has been open-sourced and is available for anyone to read, download, and tinker with. NASA’s Chris Garry made the code available on GitHub as public domain. The published resource is basically in two large codebases, one set of code for the Command Module (Comanche055) and another for the Lunar Module (Luminary099).” 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.

BBC: Art loan collection available to see online. “The artworks, which from part of the Isle of Man Arts Council’s Modern and Contemporary Art Loan Collection, can be viewed via a digital portal. As well as featuring pieces by Dame Tracey Emin, David Hockney, Pablo Picasso and Martin Parr, the collection showcases several renowned Manx artists like Michael Sandle and Bryan Kneale.”

Wyoming Department of Health: New Online Tool to Help People Find Naloxone Launched by the Wyoming Department of Health. “The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) is excited to announce the Community Naloxone Resource Map. This new online tool makes it easier for people to find naloxone at no cost in their local communities.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

PC Mag: Mastodon Plans End-to-End Encryption for Private Messages. “Decentralized social media platform Mastodon plans on adopting its own end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for private messages. Mastodon announced the upcoming feature in a blog post about receiving €614,000 ($724,000) from the Sovereign Tech Fund, an effort backed by the German government to support open-source software.”

Tubefilter: Khaby Lame’s $975 million stock deal isn’t looking nearly as lucrative as advertised. “Lame sold a stake in his company, Step Distinctive Limited, to a financial printing company called Rich Sparkle Holdings. The Hong Kong-based firm had big plans for its partnership with TikTok’s most-followed creator: There was talk of brand endorsements, TikTok Shop activations, and even an AI version of Lame’s likeness. The size of the $975 million, all-stock deal suggested that the creator economy had grown big enough for individual stars to accrue massive valuations.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Apple Insider: Apple Maps did not erase Lebanon towns during Israeli attacks, insists Apple. “Apple Maps is facing another controversy as social media points to alleged removal of sites in Lebanon, but Apple says it never listed them.”

Engadget: 1000xResist devs reveal their wild-looking second game about convincing an AI it’s not human. “Just like 10000xResist, the new game is a narrative adventure set in the far future. Prove You’re Human tasks players with convincing an AI product that its not alive, but there’s a rub. The protagonist is a digital clone of a person, so they aren’t human either. This will no-doubt lead to all manner of ethical conundrums.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Google should allow third-party search engines access to data, EU says. “The European Commission has proposed that Google allow third-party search engines to access its search data, including ‌that of artificial intelligence chatbots with search functionalities, to comply ‌with the Digital Markets Act, the commission said on Thursday.”

Mashable: ACLU and other organizations warn Meta against adding facial recognition to smart glasses. “Per Wired, a cavalcade of more than 70 organizations such as the ACLU and Fight for the Future have signed a letter urging Meta to ‘immediately halt and publicly disavow’ its plans to bring facial recognition tech to its growing lineup of smart glasses. In March, a separate group of organizations wrote to Congress to express the same concerns.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Daily Iowan: UI professor repairs damaged ancient manuscripts with AI. “Paul Dilley, the Erling B. ‘Jack’ Holtsmark Associate Professor in the UI’s Classics department and the departmental executive officer of the UI Department of Religious Studies, will train AI models for the next three years to suggest hidden characters in ancient texts.”

Counterview: Subaltern voices go digital: Three Indian projects rewriting history from the ground up. “A new wave of digital humanities (DH) work in India is shifting the focus away from university classrooms and English-language scholarship, instead prioritizing multilingual, community-driven archives that amplify subaltern voices.” 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.

Music Finland: A New Database Brings Contemporary Music into the Classroom. “Published on Music Finland’s Composers & Repertoire platform, the database showcases works by Finnish contemporary composers that are suitable for use in music schools. It serves instrument teachers by making it significantly easier to find contemporary pieces that match their students’ skill levels.”

EVENTS

Tubefilter: NAB Show wants to be the meeting ground for creators and legacy entertainment: “These two segments have so much to offer each other right now”. “NAB Show 2026, running April 18-22 in Las Vegas, expects to welcome creators for three full days of programming on topics like platform best practices, monetization, metrics, production equipment, and overall tips and tricks to help both newbies and pros grow their content businesses.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Digiday: ‘Everything is coming down’: ChatGPT ads are getting cheaper. “Advertising in ChatGPT is already getting cheaper. The rate advertisers pay to reach every thousand users has fallen from $60 at launch nine weeks ago to as low as $25 now — and counting. It’s early days, but marketers quoted Digiday a range of prices.”

TechCrunch: Anthropic launches Claude Design, a new product for creating quick visuals. “Anthropic announced on Friday that it’s launching Claude Design, a new experimental product that lets users create visuals like prototypes, slides, one-pagers, and more using Claude.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: You Should Be Using Reddit on Your RSS Reader. “You may know that Reddit can be a treasure trove of useful information and opinion, and that RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a clean and straightforward way to keep up with what’s happening on the web—but you might not be aware that you can combine both Reddit and RSS in numerous ways.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Tom’s Hardware: Google and Pentagon in talks to run custom AI chips inside classified environments — Google pushes for tight controls for TPUs surrounding use for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. “Google is reportedly negotiating with the U.S. Department of Defense to deploy Gemini in classified settings, with the talks covering the addition of GPU racks to Google Distributed Cloud and a first-time deployment of Google’s tensor processing unit (TPU) inside accredited classified environments, according to a report published today by The Information, citing two people with direct knowledge of the discussions.”

Mother Jones: Geek Tragedy. “Two years ago, we devoted an entire issue to the rise of the American oligarchy. Since then, our oligarchic system has become more entrenched and pervasive, revolving around a small crew of tech titans whose quest for wealth and power—in all of its forms—is destabilizing our democracy and reshaping our society. In the May + June 2026 issue, we investigate our new AI overlords and the world they are striving to create, whether we like it or not.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Guardian: US tech firms successfully lobbied EU to keep datacentre emissions secret. “Microsoft and other US tech companies successfully lobbied the EU to hide the environmental toll of their datacentres, an investigation has found, with demands to block a database of green metrics from public view written almost word for word into EU rules.”

Ars Technica: Californians sue over AI tool that records doctor visits . “Several Californians sued Sutter Health and MemorialCare this week over allegations that an AI transcription tool was used to record them without their consent, in violation of state and federal law.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

VentureBeat: OpenAI debuts GPT-Rosalind, a new limited access model for life sciences, and broader Codex plugin on Github. “Named after the pioneering chemist Rosalind Franklin, whose work was vital to the discovery of DNA’s structure (and was often overlooked for her male colleagues James Watson and Francis Crick), this new frontier reasoning model is purpose-built to act as a specialized intelligence layer for life sciences research.”

University of Exeter: Even when people’s opinions are hard to change, online comments can shape how political social media content is perceived, study shows. “The findings come from two large research projects involving more than 11,000 respondents across five European countries. Across both studies, researchers found that comments appearing underneath social media posts can influence how audiences interpret the original message.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

University of Glasgow: Tech can enable cross-species experiences, new research suggests. “Giving lemurs the chance to use technology to share control of sensory experiences with zoo visitors can help create meaningful connections between humans and animals, groundbreaking new research suggests.” 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.

New-to-me, from BK Reader: The Brooklyn Mavens Turn Everyday Life Into a Digital Archive. “For Lauren Riley and Merlyn Oliver, Brooklyn is not just the subject of their work. It is home, history and the foundation of their creative partnership. The duo are the founders of The Brooklyn Mavens, a digital platform that highlights local businesses, neighborhood culture and everyday Brooklynites across the borough. What began as a fashion-focused Instagram account has grown into a storytelling platform centered on community, change and the people who shape Brooklyn.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TorrentFreak: Anna’s Archive Loses $322 Million Spotify Piracy Case Without a Fight. “Spotify and several major record labels, including UMG, Sony, and Warner, secured a $322 million default judgment against the unknown operators of Anna’s Archive. The shadow library failed to appear in court and briefly released millions of tracks that were scraped from Spotify via BitTorrent.”

Türkiye Today: Syria’s cultural heritage enters recovery phase after years of war. “Syria’s cultural heritage, long shaped by war, looting, and political control, is now entering a fragile recovery phase marked by returning artifacts, local engagement, and renewed institutional efforts. Since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011, Syria has faced not only a political crisis but also a deep cultural loss, as archaeological sites, museums, and historical cities were damaged, looted, or repurposed during the conflict.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Scene Mag: Scotland’s only dedicated public archive celebrating LGBTQ+ literary heritage launches urgent appeal to secure its future. “The Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive, Scotland’s only dedicated public archive celebrating LGBTQ+ literary heritage, has launched an urgent funding appeal as it faces a growing financial crisis that threatens its survival.”

Mashable: Have a creator you love? Nominate them as a Mashable 101 Fan Fave. . “In 2025, we were excited to launch The Mashable 101, our essential guide to the creators who made the internet interesting that year. Well we’re doing it all again in 2026, except this time, we’re inviting you to nominate the content creators you think should be on our list.”

The Register: South Korea introduces universal basic mobile data access. “The nation’s Ministry of Science announced the plan yesterday with a statement and a rather more interesting giant infographic that both explain the scheme will provide over seven million subscribers with unlimited downloads at just 400 kbps after their data allowances expire. South Korea’s dominant carriers, SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus, have agreed to the plan.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: Police corporal created AI porn from driver’s license pics. “A corporal in the Pennsylvania state police yesterday pleaded guilty to a mind-boggling set of crimes that include going through his co-workers’ underwear, possessing a stolen gun, having child sexual abuse material on his hard drives, and using AI tools to create over 3,000 pornographic ‘deepfakes.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Colorado Newsline: Data center water use not sustainable in increasingly dry American West. “…another major threat to our precious water in the American West is emerging: hyperscale data centers. If we don’t immediately halt this buildout, we will continue the legacy of failed water management of the river: giving our water away to polluters and profit-hungry developers at the expense of our communities and our future.”

University of Southern California: USC ophthalmology resident Rahul Dhodapkar builds smartphone tool to screen for pediatric eye misalignment. “The measurement of this is traditionally done manually, using optical prisms and then covering the eyes. That requires a skilled observer to actually perform the measurement. Our system does that measurement by using a smartphone and AI eye tracking, allowing us to do that in a much more accessible way, especially in areas that are resource constrained. And one of the things that I’m really proud of is that we are making this software available and open source to anyone who wants to use it.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

CTV News: Shakespeare owned a house in London. We finally know where it was. “A newly discovered 17th-century map sheds new light on the Bard’s London life, pinpointing for the first time the exact location of the only home Shakespeare bought in the city, and where he may have worked on his final plays.” 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.

Wildenstein Plattner Institute: Announcing the Release of The Eva Gonzalès Catalogue Raisonné Project. “The Wildenstein Plattner Institute is pleased to announce the digital release of The Eva Gonzalès Catalogue Raisonné Project, comprising all known works by Eva Gonzalès, one of the few women affiliated with the Impressionist movement alongside Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, and Marie Bracquemond.”

EVENTS

9to5 Google: Google previews I/O 2026 sessions: What’s new in Android, AI, more. “With I/O 2026 a month away, Google has posted the initial sessions list. The developer conference runs from May 19-20.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNBC: Snap’s stock jumps on plans to axe 16% of its workforce citing AI efficiencies. “Snap’s shares jumped about 7% on Wednesday after the company announced plans to slash up to 16% of its global workforce, citing AI-driven efficiencies. CEO Evan Spiegel said in a letter to staff that the reduction would affect around 1,000 members of staff and that at least 300 open positions would be closed.”

Rest of World: Voice actors fight to save their livelihoods and local cultures from Hollywood’s AI push. “As studios, production companies, and streaming platforms increasingly turn to AI for voice-overs and to dub English-language content into local languages, more than 2 million full-time and part-time voice actors worldwide stand to lose their livelihood and the rights to their voice.”

Engadget: OpenAI ‘pauses’ its Stargate UK data center plan. “OpenAI is putting the brakes on Stargate UK, according to Politico and Bloomberg. That’s the company’s AI infrastructure project with NVIDIA that’s meant to help the UK build out its sovereign computing capabilities.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Associated Press: A small but growing movement wants you to put down your phone. But first read this. “Two decades after Steve Jobs premiered the iPhone, a small but passionate movement — with offshoots in several countries — is rebelling against the omnipresent screen. ‘The products have become more insidious and more extractive, exploitative,’ said Dan Fox, 38, who hosted the house gathering. Members of the nascent movement ‘want to start a revolution,’ he said.”

NOTUS: Army Shuts Down Social Media Accounts After They Praised Tammy Duckworth’s Service. “Dan Driscoll, the secretary of the Army, ordered the deletion of several U.S.-military-associated social media accounts this week after a post celebrating Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth drew negative reactions online.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: AI ruling prompts warnings from US lawyers: Your chats could be used against you. “As people increasingly turn to artificial intelligence for advice, some U.S. lawyers are telling their clients not to treat AI chatbots like trusted confidants when their freedom or legal liability is on the line.”

BBC: South Korea jails American YouTuber for public nuisance. “American livestreamer Johnny Somali, who caused outrage in South Korea by kissing a statue representing World War Two sex slaves, has been sentenced to six months in jail.” The statue-kissing is just the start of his nonsense.

This article is very disturbing and if you don’t want to read it I can’t blame you. Go on and skip it if you want. CNN: Exposing a global ‘rape academy’. “In shocking group chats, men encourage one another to drug and assault their wives – and swap tips on getting away with it.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Danville SanRamon: Guest Opinion: What we learned after producing play written by AI. “At the heart of most plays is conflict. A series of conflicts lead to a turning point, where the protagonist experiences a transformation and the story drives toward resolution. But the AI resisted. Despite repeated revisions, it shied away from allowing conflict between characters.”

Smithsonian Magazine: Can Frida Kahlo Leave Mexico? Plans to Relocate a Trove of Paintings by the Famous Artist Spark a Heated Debate. “More than 70 years after her death in 1954, Frida Kahlo remains one of Mexico’s most iconic cultural figures. Now, the art world is embroiled in controversy over plans to remove Kahlo pieces from her home country and display them overseas in Spain.” 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.

The Drive: This New Tool Will Hunt Down the Cheapest Gas Prices In Your Area. “The Gas Index allows you to add your vehicles and location to an account, so that when it serves up the cheapest gas, it’s automatically factoring in how far you’ll have to drive to get it, how thirsty your car is, and what octane it requires. According to its calculator, it’s $6.14 cheaper for me to drive 25 minutes to a Sheetz than to fill up at the station around the corner from where I live.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Google Blog: The new, AI-powered Google Finance is expanding to more than 100 countries.. “Starting today, the new, AI-powered Google Finance is going global. Over the coming weeks, we’re rolling out the experience to 100+ countries — including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico and more — with full local language support to help you track the markets in the language you speak.”

Los Angeles Times: AI boom catapults San Francisco median home price above $2 million. “The March median home price, up 18% from last year, surpassed the April 2022 peak of $2 million, according to Compass. Median condo sale prices jumped to $1.36 million, up 27% from a year earlier, and slightly below the $1.37 million peak in April 2022.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CBC: Journalist plans to create new archive of residential school survivor stories — before it’s too late. “A new project from award-winning journalist Connie Walker aims to create an archive of testimonies of abuse at residential schools before the accounts are destroyed in September 2027.”

TechSpot: 81-year-old Dodgers fan shut out by smartphone-only season tickets. “Errol Segal has been a LA Dodgers season ticket holder for over 50 years, but that run has come to an end as the team transitions to all-digital for season tickets. Segal, who runs a recycling center in south LA, is one of around 23 million adults living in the US who don’t own a smartphone.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Courthouse News Service: Wisconsin governor signs bill legalizing online sports betting run by tribes . “The new law legalizes online event and sports betting in the state, so long as the server or device used to conduct the wager is constructed on tribal land and aligned with tribal gaming compacts. It does so by adding an exception to the legal definition of ‘bet’ to allow for digital bets made within the borders of Wisconsin.”

Reuters: Italy court allows class action against Meta over Facebook data scraping. “A Milan court on Tuesday accepted a class action brought ​by a consumer group against Meta ‌Platforms (META.O), opens new tab over the theft of personal data suffered by Facebook Italy. According to the court ​order, the data scraping incident, ​which took place between January 2018 and ⁠September 2019 and was disclosed ​by Meta in 2021, affected around 533 ​million Facebook users globally.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Southern California: AI may be making us think and write more alike. “Artificial intelligence chatbots are standardizing how people speak, write and think. If this homogenization continues unchecked, it risks reducing humanity’s collective wisdom and ability to adapt, argue USC computer scientists and psychologists in an opinion paper published March 11 in the Cell Press journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.”

Carnegie Mellon University: Coordinating AI workloads and energy use for sustainable data centers. “Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are partnering with Bosch Research (Pittsburgh, PA) to explore how AI data centers can operate more efficiently by coordinating computing workloads with energy availability. Their project focuses on jointly optimizing AI job scheduling and energy use to reduce grid strain and increase renewable energy utilization.”

Defense One: Orbán’s loss won’t stop Russian influence campaigns, but it shows they’re beatable. “The electoral defeat of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán dealt a blow to Russia’s foreign-influence operations—and illustrated how the Kremlin’s approach is changing. In the victory of the opposition-party candidate, other Western nations can draw lessons for confronting Russia’s continuing efforts.” 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.