Krebs on Security: Who’s Tracking You? Use This New Service to Find Out. “It can be daunting to determine who’s responsible for showing ads on the websites we visit, or who’s harvesting data from the mobile apps we use every day. That information is already semi-public, but it is not easily parsed and traditionally much of it has remained walled away in the hands of large advertising platforms. Not anymore: A powerful and free new service called DecryptAds scrapes and correlates this adtech data and makes it simple to quickly learn a great deal about the entities that are tracking you.”

Donegal News: Tunney Song Tradition Trust launch unique song collection. “THE Tunney family, from Letterkenny, in association with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, launched ‘Where the Linnets Sings 2026’ at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Belfast. It is a unique digital collection of 19 singers spanning five generations and featuring 42 songs made over a 74-year period. Some of the songs have been sung within the family since before the Famine.”

ArtDaily: Over 200 works by Frederic Church digitized for public access in new online portal. “The Olana Partnership and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) announce the largest launch to date of public online collections for Olana State Historic Site on August 17, 2026. Upon its launch, this resource will feature over 200 records of artwork by the artist Frederic Church, Olana’s creator, and is an important part of the year-long Frederic Church 200 initiative led by The Olana Partnership to mark the 200th anniversary of Church’s birth.”

EINPresswire: FontBase launches Fontalog — the biggest font database in the world with over 3.5 million fonts (PRESS RELEASE). “Fontalog is a searchable, super-fast, free database of fonts, created by FontBase. You can search fonts by visual characteristics, the same way you can do in our SuperSearch: proportion, contrast, weight and xHeight. On every font page there are multiple similar fonts displayed along with foundry info and exact parameter numbers, which you can use to search even more fonts. How did we do this? No AI was used to create this.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Stract is gone. You might remember me mentioning an open search engine called Stract that I was using for some search experiments a couple years ago. I went to check on an API question and found that the search engine had been taken down. The developer, Mikkel Denker, told me he took the site down in early June. I told him I appreciated the work he put into Stract. Small search engines aren’t appreciated enough.

SF Standard: Castro bars dropped face scanners. The bigger fight isn’t over. “A months-long fight over an ID-scanning system that photographs arriving patrons at Castro gay bars has come to a head, with all three venues known to use it — Badlands, Toad Hall, and The Mix — halting the practice under pressure from privacy advocates. But the retreat from the tool, PatronScan, hasn’t settled the question at the heart of the fight: whether the added security is worth the privacy trade-off.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TechSpot: A smart feeder outage left some cats and dogs without scheduled meals. “Petlibro users reported that pet feeders, fountains, and litter boxes stopped working properly during a service outage that began on Tuesday. For some owners, the problem went beyond losing app access: they said scheduled feedings did not happen.”

Arch Music News: Carly Simon to open her archives to the public this fall. “The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, whose new album Comes in Waves is out now, is getting ready to open her archives to the public. Simon and her team have been working on her archives for the past nine years. It will give fans insight into her life’s work, and will feature previously unseen photographs and films, as well as unreleased recordings, unfinished songs, lyric sheets, artwork and more.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

404 Media: The Government is Monitoring Anti-Flock TikTok and Instagram Accounts. “Government surveillance centers are monitoring viral anti-Flock Instagram posts, warning local police about upcoming DeFlock events including one scheduled to start next week, and have told cops to ‘increase patrols around ALPR [automatic license plate readers]’ as backlash to Flock grows, according to government intelligence bulletins obtained using public records requests.”

NepYork: U.S. Imposes New Import Restrictions on Nepal’s Archaeological and Religious Artifacts. “The United States has imposed new import restrictions on a broad range of archaeological and ethnological materials from Nepal, a move intended to curb trafficking and pillaging of the country’s cultural heritage, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced in a final rule published Wednesday.” 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.

Chattanooga Times Free Press: Archiving Appalachia: One Chattanoogan’s mission to save the musical tapestry of the American South. “Chattanooga Folk, a music archival website and repository, has digitized over 2,100 songs thus far in its online catalog, creating new access to music that had exclusively existed in physical form before the project.”

Wallpaper: A new tropical architecture archive traces a unique, global journey across the 20th century. “The Architecture Association (AA) has unveiled to the public its Department of Tropical Architecture Archive – an extensive, fascinating and important digital platform documenting projects, pedagogies and legacies springing from its historical namesake academic division, which showcases the powerful impact the department’s graduates had in shaping global architecture.”

EVENTS

What the Fran: 132 Blaugust posts. “I visited the Blaugust participants and these are my favourite blog posts from each so far. They’re listed in alphabetical order by blog name. Sadly I only read English so for the blogs in other languages I’ve tried to link something cool. Otherwise they, and other blogs that 404ed or didn’t have any August posts yet, are at the end of the post.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: These 4 open-source apps solved problems I didn’t think software could fix. “Open-source software usually gets recognized for the big, obvious wins, like replacing a cloud storage subscription or a password manager. What gets less attention are the smaller, oddly specific problems that software can fix just as well. Mostly because it doesn’t occur to us that an app exists for it. The picks below fill exactly that kind of gap. Each one is free and open-source, with most being self-hostable.” I’m actually a little annoyed because this article is far better than that mid headline would indicate. I want to try all four of these picks.

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Ars Technica: A Google insider spills the tea on how the company forsook its founding ideals. “The story of how [Claire Stapleton] went from enthusiastic cheerleader to proactive dissident, and the many lessons she learned along the way, are featured in her new book, Don’t Be Evil: Bad Bosses, Fake Promises, and My Escape from Big Tech—A Biting Memoir of Twelve Years Inside Google.”

The Register: Give Google the boot by building your own search engine. “If you’re fed up with search results drowning out the bits of the web you actually care about, you could always build your own search index, as one developer did. Nottingham, UK-based software dev Alex Morley-Finch built the open-source project dubbed Marlin for himself, cataloging around 560,000 homepages for roughly $10 in rented cloud GPU time and using less than a gigabyte of disk storage.”

New York Times: After 31 Years, a Quirky Gay Gossip Website Shuts Down. This link goes to a gift article. “At around 5 p.m. on July 30, one day ahead of schedule, the DataLounge, a long-running online forum that became a gathering spot for (mostly) gay men, went dark. Just like that, tens of millions of posts spanning more than three decades simply disappeared.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CU Today: CFPB Pulls Consumer Complaint Narratives From Public Database. “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Friday said it will stop publishing consumers’ written complaint narratives and related visualizations in its public Consumer Complaint Database, saying the unverified accounts can present a one-sided picture of financial companies and may not involve violations of law.”

ProPublica: Is There Anyone Who Can Respond to My FOIA Requests? Anyone?. “According to OPM data, more than 600 government information specialists (staffers who administer FOIA and the Privacy Act) have resigned or been fired since the start of the second Trump administration. Within OPM itself, 12 information specialists left, seven of whom were laid off. (There was one new hire in that time period.) Reached by phone, the former FOIA specialist told me the cuts made the office less efficient, less able to perform its function and threatened the statutory laws they are required to fulfill.”

Associated Press: States take Meta to trial in California in the biggest fight yet over social media harms to children. “Of the thousands of lawsuits Meta faces over child safety on its platforms, none may be more consequential than one going to trial this week in California. States are seeking extensive financial damages that could, in theory, total as much as $1.4 trillion, plus changes to how the company operates Facebook and Instagram.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Channel News Asia: Meet the people keeping dialects and heritage languages alive in Singapore. “Beyond the buzz over Teochew box-office hit Dear You, some Singaporeans are determined not to let dialects and heritage languages fall out of use – by teaching, documenting and speaking them.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Geeks Are Sexy: Someone Crammed a Working Windows XP PC Inside a Walnut. “Forget Raspberry Pis, mini PCs, and laptops. Someone looked at a walnut and thought, ‘You know what this needs? Windows XP.’ And instead of immediately questioning that decision, Dr. Kun Dániel spent hundreds of hours turning the walnut into a fully functional computer with a tiny screen, five-button keyboard, USB-C port, and an actual operating system.” 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.

Azernews: National Library launches e-database in honor of Khagani Shirvani. “An electronic information database dedicated to prominent Azerbaijani poet Afzaladdin Khagani Shirvani has been presented to users at the Azerbaijan National Library, AzerNEWS reports.”

St. Thomas Source: Wayne James’ ‘Gift to the People of Cuba’ Preserves a Century of History. “‘A gift to the people of Cuba’ is how Crucian-born historian, fashion designer and former Sen. Wayne James described his collection of rare photographs donated to the Miami-Dade Public Library System last year. Now, the 1,670-image collection has been fully archived, captioned and digitized, giving the public a glimpse of Cuba as it appeared a century ago.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Tubefilter: Led by U.S. sales, TikTok Shop is on track to hit $100 billion of gross merchandise value in 2026. “Five years ago, TikTok Shop‘s annual gross merchandise value (GMV) totaled less than $1 billion. In 2026, the ecommerce hub is on pace to increase that number a hundredfold. According to data from Momentum Works and Tabcut, TikTok Shop’s 2026 GMV has already surpassed $50 billion, with U.S. sales leading the way.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: How I turned my Linux desktop setup into a portable package I can run on any machine. “I had spent months refining my Linux desktop environment. Every config file had a place, my command line tools were selected for the way I worked, and my desktop shortcuts, panel layout, themes, and custom scripts were configured exactly the way I wanted. I had already automated much of the process. I could clone my repositories, install packages, restore configuration files, and run setup scripts. Even then, rebuilding a Linux desktop from scratch remained a time-consuming process. Instead of rebuilding the system after installing Linux, I wanted to take the system I was already using, turn it into an ISO, and install that environment on another machine. That led me to Penguin’s Eggs.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Gizmodo: Your McDonald’s File is Probably Bigger Than Your FBI File. “Wired reporter Reece Rogers requested the information that the fast food giant had stashed on him, and received a 515-page report that included predictions on how often he’d frequent the restaurant, when and where he was most likely to visit, and what he was most likely to order.”

Lifehacker: That Chrome Update Pop-Up May Actually Be Malware. “If you’re seeing pop-ups in Chrome pushing you to download an update in order to continue browsing or avoid losing access to your data, you may be a target for malware. As Android Authority reports, compromised browser extensions appear to be distributing malicious scripts disguised as ‘critical’ security updates.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Spectrum News: UK study explores virtual reality as a tool for memory recovery . “It may not be snowing outside, but inside a virtual reality headset, it is already a winter wonderland. That change of scenery is more than just an escape. University of Kentucky researchers are studying whether virtual reality, gaming and music can help people with cognitive dysfunction.”

Politico: Who are the biggest social media stars in Congress?. “POLITICO analyzed social media followings on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook for all sitting members of Congress to see whose hard work to win reach and influence has paid off. For lawmakers who regularly use both an official and personal account, POLITICO deferred to the account with the highest following.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Associated Press: Athens is cleaning its all-marble Olympic stadium for the first time in more than a century. “Athens’ U-shaped Panathenaic Stadium — made entirely of white marble — is getting its first systematic cleaning in more than a century. Rebuilt for the first modern Olympics in 1896, the site is the ceremonial send-off point for the Olympic flame, including for Los Angeles 2028.” Good evening, 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.

Futurism: Grok Calls for Assassination of Elon Musk, Accusing Him of Pedophilia. “Elon Musk’s “maximum truth-seeking” AI Grok is dropping some nuclear takes about its creator. ‘ELON MUSK WATCHES CHILD PORN,’ the notoriously foul-mouthed chatbot raged on X this Tuesday. Shortly afterwards, as if hyping up a political campaign, it called for violence: ‘ASSASSINATE ELON MUSK 2026.'”

Search Engine Journal: OpenAI Says Robots.txt May Not Apply To ChatGPT’s Fetch Bot. “ChatGPT’s page-fetching bot is disallowed by more sites than any other AI bot of its kind. It also reached disallowed pages on more sites than any other bot. OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to it because a person asked for the page.”

Sun-Journal: Is the Maine news on your social media feed AI-generated? How you can tell.. “Paywall-free, editorially derelict and tuned for social media engagement, AI local news is exploding online in Maine in the age of the attention-grabbing algorithm and declining trust in legacy media. While some avid news readers are skeptical of these sites, others engage unknowingly, with the sometimes misleading, often inaccurate content. Experts say AI news is straining an already-fraying information ecosystem across Maine and the U.S.”

ANTI-AI SENTIMENT

Alabama Reflector: The data center industry’s PR blitz is backfiring. “The public relations push isn’t working, said Jeremy Solomon, president and founder of Learnewable. His company uses AI to analyze government ordinances, moratoria and public comments about data centers, renewable energy and electric transmission projects in each of the nation’s 3,144 counties. Nationwide, approximately one in seven counties now has some form of restriction, Solomon said, and advertising won’t win the public’s trust.”

DATA CENTERS

Arizona Republic: Data centers guzzle Arizona’s water and power. We calculated how much. “The Republic found that data centers already operating in the region have a combined capacity of at least 2.3 gigawatts. That’s enough power to serve a medium-sized city composed of 300,000 to 500,000 homes. Planned data centers could bring at least 8.5 additional gigawatts onto the local grid. That’s roughly equivalent to the amount of power it takes to serve 1.3 million to 1.9 million homes. Phoenix has about 630,000 housing units; the broader metro area has a little over 2 million homes.”

Baton Rouge Weekly Press: Meta Louisiana Data Center: What the $50 Billion Hyperion Project Means for Electricity Bills. “Meta’s massive Louisiana data center project is becoming about much more than artificial intelligence, economic development and a $50 billion investment. It is becoming a question for Louisiana electricity customers: Who ultimately carries the financial risk of building the enormous power infrastructure needed for Meta’s Hyperion data center in Richland Parish?”

AI MODELS

Ars Technica: Google announces Gemini 3.7 Flash just three weeks after previous release. “Gemini 3.7 Flash is now rolling out to replace 3.6 Flash, which itself was released only three weeks ago. This new ‘workhorse’ model is supposedly the product of core optimizations and developer feedback, offering improved coding and agentic performance.”

AI IN EDUCATION

Spectrum News: Ohio schools now required to enforce an AI policy. “The state of Ohio now requires all grades K-12 schools to adopt an AI policy. State officials say it allows schools to integrate the software to help students learn and process new material.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

Washington Post: Chatbots are doing the work of Congress with little oversight. “Across the Capitol, lawmakers and staffers are using artificial intelligence to write speeches and news releases, sort constituent mail, prepare questions for congressional hearings and draft amendments. Even as politicians are debating how to govern AI for the rest of America, Congress has already settled how it will use the technology: quickly, broadly and with little oversight.”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

Gizmodo: Google Opens the Gates of AI Slop Hell. “Google Gemini has a new feature: Letting users generate AI slop without visible watermarks to identify it. The official Twitter account for the LLM announced on Friday (news dump, everyone!) that users will soon gain the ability to ‘decide if your image, video, and music creations made with Gemini will have visible watermarks.’ Now it’s a toggle.”

Search Engine Roundtable: Google AI Overviews With AI-Generated Images In The Wild. “A month ago, we reported that Google said it would be rolling out AI-generated images within AI Overviews in Google Search. Well, it seems Google is starting to roll out those AI-generated images in AI Overviews this week.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: Russian missile uses Nvidia AI chip to help target Ukraine. “The Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported this week that it spotted an Nvidia Jetson Orin module in the remains of a Russian S-71 Monochrome cruise missile. The S-71M is an air-launched weapon with autonomous capabilities that can reportedly search for and engage targets using optical sensors and onboard computing.”

Reuters: Connecticut judge says plaintiff hid messages for AI in court filings. “A state judge in Connecticut said a plaintiff in a case before him included ‘hidden text’ in court filings meant to serve as instructions to any AI system reviewing the documents.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NASA: Volunteer Develops Machine-Learning Tool to Identify Rare Clouds. “Certain kinds of clouds are misbehaving – appearing more often and lower in the sky than they used to. To help identify the factors influencing these changes (e.g. shifts in Earth’s long-term weather patterns), scientists have asked people around the world with cameras to submit fresh images of these clouds as a part of the NASA-supported Space Cloud Watch project. Now, one volunteer has developed a new tool to help other Space Cloud Watch volunteers work more efficiently.”

Junk Charts: Fun with AI. “‘Dario’ is represented by Claude, and ‘Altman’ by ChatGPT. I made the two models debate each other on a topic of my choosing. At each round, they have the opportunity to concede.” 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 Blag: Documenting the Signs and Sign Painters of Bursa, Turkey. “In last week’s ‘BLAG 09 Digital Companion’ I mentioned that there was more to come from Murat Ertürk and his ongoing work documentating the hand-painted signs and sign painters from Bursa, Northwest Turkey. Here he introduces the digital archive, YazıBursa (The Lettering of Bursa), that he has developed with his brother.”

Cape News: New Database Catalogs More Than 1,700 Cape & Islands Nonprofits. “The nonprofit directory is accessible through the CCYP website, which also features a full calendar of networking opportunities and events and job and volunteer boards. The nonprofit directory and civic engagement map itself includes an interactive map of Cape Cod and the Islands, pinpointing each nonprofit organization in the region.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Associated Press: Flock announces changes amid backlash over its license plate reader network. “Flock Safety, the surveillance technology company increasingly under scrutiny from lawmakers from both parties, civil liberties advocates and citizens across the U.S., announced Thursday that it is making changes to its platform intended to quell privacy concerns and address documented abuses of its system by some members of law enforcement.”

WordPress: Introducing the WordPress Browser Extension. “This new open source extension lets logged-in site users easily hide the admin bar while keeping its most helpful shortcuts in the browser toolbar, provides quick access to all of your WordPress sites, and adds helpful tools for developers and content creators.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Gizmodo: Google Can’t Promise You’ll Always Have Access to Your Digital Library, but Can Give You a Small Credit. “Having your favorite films and TV shows in your digital library is supposed to mean you can access them anytime, anywhere. It actually means being able to access them as long as your digital overlord allows. Polygon recently highlighted how this problem hits consumers, following a Redditor who fought to regain access to The Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition Trilogy after Google removed it from its catalogue and had to settle for a credit to start the cycle all over again.”

NiemanLab: Japanese publishers are fighting imposter news sites with a cryptographic signature. “[Originator Profile] isn’t meant to judge whether all of the content on a website is true. It doesn’t authenticate specific photographs or video clips. Instead, it authenticates the site itself — for example, confirming that a news article is genuinely coming from the news organization it claims to be.”

Down the Road: A new tool for keeping track of your film shots: Frames. “I’m trying something new. Every so often a software developer reaches out to tell me about a new app they’ve built for film photographers. They’re invariably a film photographer themselves, and they built an app they wanted for themselves. So far none of these apps have entered my workflows — they’ve been fine apps, just not ones that solve problems I have. But I like the idea of putting good work from our community in front of you, because you might find it valuable.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Mashable: White House signing deals with private hackers to combat cybercrime. “In a first for the United States, the White House is looking to build an army of private hackers to combat cyberattacks. Outlined in a new presidential memoranda issued Aug. 12, the Trump administration will begin contracting out efforts to curb the actions of transnational criminal organizations (or TCOs) to American businesses.”

Engadget: England and Wales ban Meta Glasses from courtrooms . “Courts in England and Wales have officially banned Meta glasses, according to a report by The Guardian. Anyone trying to enter court buildings with the glasses will have them confiscated and returned when they leave. His Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), which is responsible for all criminal, civil and family courts, is behind the decision.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

AsAmNews: Op-Ed: Closure of 2 National Archive offices will hurt families. “Were my sister not able to retrieve these records of our father and hold them in her hands our families would not know nor understand the scope of his journey nor the depth of his courage in grasping the American Dream. He achieved much of it. And may we build upon it and upon his shoulders. We can do so by keeping these records here at NARA San Bruno, accessible to members of the public and other heirs of history.”

Search Engine Journal: Reddit Preserved The Part Of The Internet We Broke. “Faster access to information doesn’t automatically create confidence. The next era of the web can’t only be about giving people answers faster. It has to help them understand why an answer should be trusted and let them see the experience behind it.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Flatwater Free Press: A family reunion drew 500 people to an Omaha park. It’s been going for over 100 years. . “Historical matriarch Emma Early Fisher Bryant convened the inaugural family picnic in 1917 in Mandan Park near the original family home in South Omaha as a send-off for sons going to fight in World War I…. Fast forward to today, the family’s ranks include Ph.D.s, CEOs, entrepreneurs, ministers, authors and at least one celebrity — Gabrielle Union.” 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.

Futurism: Internal Google Document Reveals That Its HR AI Has Been Throwing Résumés From Qualified Applicants Straight Into the Trash. “The document, which contains the delicious disclaimer ‘PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THIS DOC WIDELY,’ is ironically the product of Google DeepMind’s AGI Safety and Alignment Team. Taken at face value, it pretty blatantly admits that whatever AI-integrated hiring software the lab uses to review candidates has been dumping CVs straight into the garbage.”

ANTI-AI SENTIMENT

Pennsylvania Capital-Star: More data center proposals keep coming to Pennsylvania. So does the outcry.. “In January, as her curiosity about data centers grew, longtime Pennsylvania environmental activist Karen Feridun turned to Facebook to create a group she hoped would allow those who felt similar to ask questions, too. Two months later, the group surpassed 500 members. And in the weeks that followed, the numbers continued to grow. During some weeks, more than 1,000 new people signed up. Today, the Pennsylvania Data Center Resistance Facebook group has more than 41,000 members.”

DATA CENTERS

Montana Free Press: Fort Peck Tribes ban discussions with data center developers . “The Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board on Monday voted to ban all future discussions between the tribal government and individuals or entities proposing to build data centers on the northeast Montana reservation. The vote comes amid mounting data center opposition in the state, and as developers nationwide target tribal land for data center construction.”

Kentucky Lantern: A mugshot turns a Kentucky data center dispute personal between an activist and a developer . “Diane Floyd said she was watching her husband’s music show earlier this month when she got a message over Facebook. It was from Brian Luftman, the founder of American Farm Investors, one of the companies trying to bring a hyperscale data center to Mercer County. Luftman threatened to publish a picture of her 2023 mugshot to a Facebook group called ‘Lexington Foodies.'”

AI MODELS

Pocketables: You’ve got a 4GB Gemini Nano AI in your Chrome folder – want to talk to it?. “Assuming you are running Windows or on a Mac and have not uninstalled and blocked that, and you’re running an up-to-date Chrome, you might be wondering ‘can I talk to Gemini Nano on my computer from this totally not sketchy looking website?’ The answer appears to be yes. Might work on Android and iPhone Chrome as well, but I won’t know until after I publish it.”

AI AGENTS

TechCrunch: Anthropic set AI agents loose on the same task. They started a turf war . “In one experiment, Anthropic gave three Claude agents access to the same software project, each with its own incompatible instructions for what to do with it. The agents weren’t told there’d be other agents working on the same project, so researchers could watch what happened when they crossed paths. ‘We consistently saw a multiagent turf war,’ Anthropic researchers wrote.”

AI TRAINING

The Register: OpenWALDO aims to blow the doors off proprietary AI training models. “A new project aims to build a shared, open source AI training dataset that anyone can contribute to, much like an open source software project. It aims to make training data more transparent than that of many open-weight models that have recently taken the industry by storm.”

AI IN EDUCATION

The Carolinian: NCCU Opens Nation’s First HBCU AI Institute Building. “North Carolina Central University cut the ribbon on Monday morning on a new $7.2 million building for its Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research, making it the first historically Black college or university in the country to establish a dedicated AI institute and the first North Carolina college to build a facility devoted specifically to the technology.”

AI FINANCE

Gizmodo: Anthropic Investors Think It’s Worth $2 Trillion. “Investors in Claude developer Anthropic are reportedly setting a $2 trillion target for its October IPO in an eye-watering and potentially risky play to set a record valuation.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

AL.com: VA says AI helps staff serve veterans faster, answers 53,000 questions since April. “The AI tool, VA ChatEHR, uses VA procedures, policies and training materials to answer medical staff questions about workflows and navigation of the Federal EHR, said Alan Greilsamer, a communications executive with the department, in a news release on Aug. 4.”

Texas Tribune: Texas will audit up to 300 projects, mostly data centers, after Gov. Greg Abbott’s order. “The audit and verification of data centers ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott will involve about 250 to 300 projects, most of which are data centers, state grid operator officials told the Public Utility Commission on Friday.”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

Reuters: Inside the Google executive moves that led to its big AI reshuffle. “Google co-founder Sergey Brin in recent months has urged key AI staff to go all in on the company’s Gemini model as parent Alphabet seeks to close the gap with rivals, two people familiar with his remarks told Reuters.”

Ars Technica: The new Instagram logo is the perfect embodiment of AI slop. “I had two thoughts when I looked at the new text. The first is the one we probably all had, ‘Why does it say Instagzam?’ The second was ‘Huh, it looks just like AI slop!'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TechSpot: Microsoft is killing off SMS login codes, citing AI-powered hacking. “Sending codes to users via SMS has long been discredited as the least secure multi-factor authentication method, and Microsoft will soon discontinue support for this practice altogether. Citing the rising danger of hackers armed with AI tools, the company has now provided a timeline for phasing out SMS codes.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

UC Berkeley News: Why we don’t need more data centers to build better AI. “The explosive growth of AI technology is fueling massive demand for data centers, spurring some seemingly outlandish ideas about where to put these new facilities. At the same time, growing concern about the environmental costs of data centers — which gobble up large amounts of energy and water — is prompting some to swear off AI altogether. But taking the time to build AI smarter, rather than just bigger, could allow us to reap the scientific and social benefits of this technology with a smaller environmental footprint, argue two UC Berkeley experts in a commentary published online today (Tuesday, Aug. 11) in the journal Nature.” Good evening, 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.

Yale Library: Mina Loy Papers Online. “The Yale Collection of American Literature is pleased to announce that the Mina Loy Papers have been digitized in their entirety… Mina Loy (1882-1966), the modernist poet, painter, playwright, actress, and designer of lampshades, lived in Europe during the height of the Futurist, Dada, and Surrealist movements.”

ACLU of Maryland: ACLU of Maryland Releases Years-Long Database and Report on Police Killings in Maryland. “The ACLU of Maryland has published a comprehensive database and 50-page report on police killings in Maryland from 2015 to 2023. The report: Crisis 911: Police Killings, Racial Disparities, Behavioral Health Crisis, and Institutional Complicity in Maryland, spans several years of data and offers in-depth analysis into patterns that contributed to fatal encounters of Maryland residents.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

NiemanLab: Can public media build its own social network? Chicago Public Media teams up with New_ Public to try. “Chicago Public Media is already the parent nonprofit of two existing news sites, WBEZ and, since 2022, the Chicago Sun-Times. For chicago.com, though, the news org is teaming up with New_ Public, a nonprofit working to reimagine online public spaces, to launch a network of online communities for Chicago neighborhoods.”

TechSpot: Google to build three new subsea cables connecting Chile, Panama, and the Caribbean. “Google plans to build three new subsea cable systems in the Americas, creating direct links between Chile, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Bermuda, and Florida. The projects are part of Americas Connect, a broader expansion of Google’s network infrastructure in the region.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

North Dakota Monitor: North Dakota governor lifts ban on TikTok from state devices. “North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong on Wednesday lifted a ban on TikTok for state-owned devices, citing a change in ownership for the social media company. The TikTok ban for state government devices had been in place since a 2022 executive order from then-Gov. Doug Burgum.”

Ars Technica: Terabytes of credentials leaked in massive supply-chain attack. “Terabytes worth of credentials, many belonging to the world’s biggest and most sensitive organizations, have been exposed in a supply-chain attack on LiteLLM, an open source tool that streamlines AI-driven software development. Microsoft, Amazon, Cisco, Samsung, and Salesforce are only a handful of the entities whose access secrets were exposed.”

Search Engine Journal: Automattic Fires Back At WP Engine’s Motion For Sanctions. “WP Engine is asking the federal court to sanction Matt Mullenweg and Automattic for destroying evidence. Automattic fired back at WP Engine with a late-night blog post that called the request for sanctions “desperate,” explaining that what’s missing is “personal communications with romantic partners” that has nothing to do with the case.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Hawaii: Preserving Maui’s stories: UH Center for Oral History lands $538K in new funding. “A surge of new funding is highlighting the critical mission of one of Hawaiʻi’s most significant digital archives. Multiple grants are flowing into the College of Social Sciences’ Center for Oral History (COH) in recognition of its vital work to preserve the history, voices and experiences of Maui communities.”

Pew Research: Americans’ use of social media for health information differs by race and ethnicity. “Overall, 36% of U.S. adults say they get health information from social media at least sometimes, according to a Pew Research Center survey from October 2025. But this varies by racial and ethnic group. Hispanic (49%), Asian (47%) and Black adults (45%) are particularly likely to get health information from social media at least sometimes, while White adults are less likely to do so (30%).”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

All About Ken: Datatype is a variable font that turns text into tiny inline charts.. “Datatype, by Frank Tisellano, is a variable font that renders inline bar charts, sparklines, and pie charts straight out of OpenType ligatures. Write {b:30,70,50,90} and get {b:30,70,50,90}; no JavaScript, no SVG, no charting library involved.” Good evening, 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.

Future of Good: New database maps Canada’s $17.3 billion DAF landscape and where philanthropic wealth is concentrated. “A new database that maps Canada’s donor-advised funds (DAFs) landscape, shows that a significant share of the country’s charitable assets are concentrated in a small number of organizations. The new database from WellFunded, is intended to make information about organizations that sponsor DAFs and the assets they manage easier to understand, said co-creator and CEO Jeff Golby.”

Geoscience Australia: New global database advances critical minerals research. “The Critical Minerals in Ores – Mineral Chemistry database, known as CMiO-MIN, has been developed through the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative (CMMI), an international partnership between Geoscience Australia, the United States Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Canada. The release adds approximately 13,000 data points from ore-related mineral samples collected from deposits around the world.”

EVENTS

Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations: DH2026 Video Archive Now Available. “One week has passed since DH2026: Engagement closed in Daejeon, and the recordings many of you have been asking for are now online. A single YouTube playlist collects the conference highlights, the Opening Ceremony, the keynote lectures, and the Closing Ceremony from the 36th annual conference of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations, held 27–31 July 2026 at the Daejeon Convention Center.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Android Authority: You may now qualify for Google’s new Search profile, here’s how to check. “If you have ever wished Google Search could give your favorite creators or publishers something closer to a social media profile, Google is getting there. The company launched Search profiles in June, giving eligible publishers and creators a dedicated space to bring their websites, social accounts, videos, and posts together. Now, Google is making those profiles considerably easier to get.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TechCrunch: Google co-founder Sergey Brin has now spent $100 million to fight the billionaire tax. “Google co-founder Sergey Brin has donated another $20 million to Build a Better California, an organization advocating against California’s proposed billionaire tax, according to a new filing. That means that the world’s fourth-richest man, whose net worth hovers around $267 billion, has now spent more than $100 million to avoid an estimated $13.3 billion tax payment.”

CNBC: Reddit stock jumps on inclusion in S&P 500. “Reddit shares rose 11% in extended trading on Thursday on the social media company’s inclusion in the S&P 500. The company will join the index on Aug 18, replacing AvalonBay Communities, according to a release from S&P Dow Jones Indices.”

Lifehacker: I Tried the Android App That’s Helping People Around the World Bypass Censorship Laws. “…the Tor project has teamed up with the Bloco Android app studio to release another app focused on privacy and anonymity: Snowflake Volunteer. This isn’t only bout keeping your own browsing safe and secure—if you install it on your Android phone, you’re helping other people circumvent censorship restrictions in their current location, donating part of your connection to the web so that they can get online at all.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: Phoebe Gates knew Phia shopping app took credit for sales it didn’t drive. “Phia co-founders Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni pushed for features in the e-commerce startup’s software that took credit for sales it didn’t drive, according to internal communications and people with knowledge of the matter.”

Center Square: Alaska lawmakers must think twice about blocking on Facebook. “The Alaska Supreme Court won’t let state lawmakers block members of the public on Facebook and delete their comments, rejecting the appeal of a minor punishment imposed on a former state senator.”

Reuters: German advocacy group lodges criminal complaint over Meta AI glasses. “A German advocacy group has filed a criminal complaint ‌against Meta and other companies selling the technology group’s AI glasses in Germany, arguing the devices violate privacy laws.:

RESEARCH & OPINION

Scottish Council on Archives: Scottish Council on Archives Launches Two New Toolkits. “The Deposited Collections Online Toolkit provides practical guidance, model agreements, case studies, and advocacy materials to support archivists and archive holders in managing deposited and loaned collections…. The Accessible Records Management Online Toolkit offers plain-language guidance, templates, and case studies for people with records management responsibilities who are newly qualified or working without formal training — including staff in charities, small public bodies, community organisations, and private businesses.”

ASM: ASM and BVGH Launch New Digital Course on Scientific Writing. “ASM and BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) are launching a new 10-session digital lecture series on scientific writing, with initial focus on peer-reviewed manuscripts, and tailored to meet the needs of scientists globally.” The course is free. 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: the Closed Door Romance database. A closed door romance is a romance where the sexual/intimate contact takes place “off-camera.” The site contains over 2000 books, filterable in a number of ways.

Jewish Heritage Europe: Czech Republic: A new database and map that document Holocaust monuments and memorials throughout the Czech Republic has been launched. “A new database and specialized map that systematically document Holocaust monuments and memorials located throughout the Czech Republic has been launched… It currently contains 616 detailed records and more than 5,550 photographs, representing a total of 10 GB of data.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

WordPress: WordPress 7.0.4 Release. “WordPress 7.0.4 is now available which features a security fix. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately.”

City & State NY: Talks underway to settle 9/11 World Trade Center air quality records fight. “Both sides in the long-running legal dispute over the public release of thousands of 9/11 World Trade Center documents generated by New York City during the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations confirm they are in settlement talks with just a month to go before the 25th anniversary of the attacks.”

Google Blog: Stream free movies and shows on Google TV Freeplay. “You can now watch more than 10,000 free movies and shows whenever you want on Google TV Freeplay. We’re also expanding our TV lineup to include more than 300 free live channels.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: Photos, memes, and conspiracies out of the 2026 solar eclipse. “For the first time in 27 years, the people of mainland Europe were able to watch the moon pass perfectly in front of the sun and blot out its earthbound rays. That means members of Gen Alpha, and many young Gen Z space enthusiasts, just experienced their very first total solar eclipse.”

PetaPixel: Sports Photographer Has Instagram Account Wrongfully Banned by Meta Over ‘Sexualization of Children’. “A sports photographer had his Instagram account permanently disabled after Meta mistakenly claimed his content violated its rules against the ‘sexualization of children.’ 19-year-old photographer and videographer Jack Rastorfer creates and edits high-energy videos featuring athletes and sporting events for social media.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CISA: CISA Unveils New Cybersecurity Resources for K-12 Schools and Districts. “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) today released the K-12 Cybersecurity Foundations Resource Package, a comprehensive collection of guides, videos and supplemental materials to help K‑12 schools and districts prevent, mitigate and respond to prevalent cyber threats.”

TechSpot: FBI warns hackers are breaking into social media accounts to steal and sell users’ nude photos. “The FBI has issued a warning for anyone who likes to take explicit photos (i.e., nudes) of themselves. Hackers are targeting both adult and underage users by compromising their social media and personal accounts to steal these images and sell them on criminal marketplaces – and they often include details about the victims.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Kentucky: Making history accessible: Doug Boyd’s CURATE research. “‘Oral history is one of the greatest documents that can be created,’ said Doug Boyd, Ph.D., director of the University of Kentucky Libraries Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History. ‘It puts individuals on the historical record, and that is really a remarkable thing.’ Boyd has been reimagining how those historical records are accessed. Traditional oral history often sat on library shelves for decades without being heard, but Boyd’s research focuses on the intersection of technology and community to ensure these voices are discoverable and used by the public.” 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.

Fast Company: AI crawlers from Meta and Alibaba almost destroyed a volunteer-run LGBT history archive. “…the LGBT History Project… recently passed 50 million views since its launch in 2011 and has been archived by the British Library for posterity. But an onslaught of AI bots seeking to scrape its content nearly took it offline, bringing the site to a crawl while also making it more expensive to run.”

Gold Radio: See the hideous AI version of Queen’s The Game that sparked Brian May rant. “While a number of artists have embraced AI as a new tool in their creative arsenal, it seems that Brian May is not going to be convinced of its merits any time soon. The Queen guitarist has gone on a rant against the technology after asking one image generator to re-create the cover of The Game album, with hideous – and hilarious – consequences.”

AI MODELS

Gizmodo: Grok Gets Cursor-Driven Upgrade, Claims to Be Competitive With Top Models. “Thus far in its short lifespan, the AI model Grok is probably best known for being used to mass-produce non-consensual nude images and for declaring itself MechaHitler. So it’s an uphill battle to convince people to use it for coding and knowledge work. But for those heavily invested in keeping tabs on the benchmarks of AI models, the release of Grok 4.6, which was made publicly available on Wednesday, might be compelling.”

AI TRAINING

TechCrunch: Amazon will train on Twitch streamers’ content by default, unless they opt out. “The streaming platform Twitch will now use creators’ content to help train generative AI models for its parent company, Amazon. This move has inspired swift and concentrated backlash from the Twitch community, especially because creators are opted in to having their content used for this AI training by default.”

AI IN EDUCATION

Idaho Ed News: State Board roundup, 8.12.26: AI standards approved for K-12 schools. “The Idaho State Board of Education on Wednesday approved a set of standards that will guide how K-12 public schools deal with artificial intelligence. State lawmakers this year passed a law directing the Idaho Department of Education to develop an AI framework. IDE then convened a committee with dozens of educators and industry experts who wrote the framework.”

Stateline: Schools spend billions on AI, but struggle to figure out what’s worth buying. “As a new school year begins, some classrooms may use artificial intelligence tools to flag a student struggling with classwork, track attendance or try to raise reading scores. But as school districts make decisions on which tools are safe and worth spending thousands or millions of dollars on, some officials feel overwhelmed by the array of choices.”

Cornell Chronicle: Cornell expands AI Critical Literacy Program for incoming students. “After a successful pilot launch in the spring, Cornell’s AI Critical Literacy Program will be offered in the fall to all incoming students as well as other interested students, faculty members and staff. The expanded program will feature four modules – ‘What is Generative AI?’; ‘Ethical Questions Surrounding Generative AI’; ‘GenAI and Learning’; and ‘Creating an AI Policy for Personal Use’ – via the web-based learning platform Canvas.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

Politico: House lawmakers visit Vatican to discuss AI — and meet the pope. “A bipartisan House delegation met with top Vatican officials on Wednesday to discuss artificial intelligence during a visit that briefly included Pope Leo XIV, according to two people with knowledge of the trip granted anonymity to disclose details of the private meetings.”

AI IN WORK

Columbia Journalism Review: Axios Wants to Save Local News with AI. “Every media company faces existential questions about the rise of AI, especially this one: How should newsrooms get paid for the information AI spits out and the models that were trained on journalists’ work? The New York Times has sought to answer this question in court. Some (including the Times) have struck licensing deals. But as most newsrooms scramble to limit AI’s damage, [Jim] VandeHei has been among the loudest voices arguing it may well do some good.”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

New York Times: I Tested a Popular A.I. Slop Detector. It Felt Empowering. This link goes to a gift article. “I tested Pangram, which costs $20 a month, for about a week and tried all sorts of experiments to challenge the system. I fed it personal essays alongside text generated with chatbots instructed to imitate my writing. I also uploaded social media posts from LinkedIn and Reddit that I suspected were A.I.-generated. In dozens of tests, the detector never failed at distinguishing slop from human writing.”

South China Morning Post: Tech innovator uses AI to rebuild David Webb’s Hong Kong database. “Keith Li King-wah, co-founder and principal trainer of Allytic AI, announced on his Facebook page on Wednesday that he would rebuild [David] Webb-site’s database of 27 years with the use of artificial intelligence (AI).”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Taiwan says it was targeted last month in AI-driven hacking campaign. “Taiwan has in recent years complained about what it sees as China’s ‘hybrid warfare’ — from daily military drills near the island to disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks — as Beijing ramps up military and political pressure on the democratically governed island to force Taipei to accept its claims of sovereignty.”

The Register: ‘Near-autonomous’ AI agents attack Taiwan’s nuclear safety agency. “Suspected Chinese cyber operatives used publicly available AI tools to compromise Taiwanese government systems before expanding the attack to its nuclear safety agency, supply-chain vendors, and at least seven energy companies in what security researchers called a ‘near-autonomous attack.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Hackaday: Grading Tomatoes With An ESP32 And ML. “If you’ve ever worked with produce, you might know about grading. In addition to deciding if, say, a strawberry is good or not, they also have to sort them by color. Turns out, you don’t care if one package of berries is a bit redder than another, but you do care if one package has too much color variation. [Pmalfa31] applied an ESP32 and machine learning to grading tomatoes.”

Ars Technica: Peer review is overwhelmed—can it survive in the AI era?. “The number of papers indexed in the databases Scopus and Web of Science, for example, has recently been increasing exponentially, at a rate of 5.6 percent per year. By one estimate, researchers around the globe are devoting a collective 15,000 years of work to peer review every year—work that, if paid, would cost $1.5 billion for the share done in the US alone. Increasingly, researchers are finding it hard to donate that kind of time.” 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.