New India Abroad: ‘250 @ 250’ Indiaspora highlights Indian American community milestones. “Indiaspora on July 2 unveiled a digital collection of 250 milestones celebrating the Indian American community’s contributions as the United States marks its 250th anniversary. The curated collection is titled “250 @ 250: The Indian American Story,” which chronicles milestones spanning more than 15 categories, including entrepreneurship, national service, science and technology, academia, politics, culture, medicine, and the arts.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

WordPress: WordPress.com Changelog: Shape Your Newsletter Signup and Get Domain Help in Chat. “Welcome back to the WordPress.com changelog! During the last two weeks, we focused on giving you more control: a subscription signup you can tailor to your readers, a support assistant that can now sort out your domain settings right in the chat, and more.”

Digital Trends: X wants you to go live with its new streaming hub, and is offering $1 million to make it worth your while. “X is making a serious push to become a destination for live video, launching a new tool called Live Studio and pledging $1 million in creator payouts to attract streamers to the platform. Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, announced the tool on X with a demo showcasing how it works.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TechSpot: iFixit is creating a repairability scoring standard for US electronics. “iFixit is working with NSF to create a voluntary repairability scoring standard for electronics in the US. The aim is to give retailers, lawmakers, manufacturers, and consumers a clearer way to judge how easy a product is to repair before it is bought.”

DuPage Policy Journal: Woodridge releases digital archive of 1976 time capsule contents. “The time capsule, originally buried in 1976, was unearthed after 50 years. Water exposure over the decades caused significant damage to many of the items inside, but efforts were made to recover and preserve as much as possible. The digital archive now features letters and keepsakes from residents, providing insight into the community’s past.”

The Register: Failed blockchain project ends with big fine for fibs about it being on track. “The attempt by Australia’s Securities Exchange (ASX) to replace its core trading platform with a blockchain-based system has ended with an A$20.5 million fine ($14.2 million/£10.6 million), further humiliation after the project flopped.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Troy Hunt: Swimming Pools, Pee, and Trying to Delete Your Data From the Internet. “…once data spreads on the internet, you can never put a lid on it. This is important in the context of data breaches because it speaks to the immutability of our exposed personal information. It also speaks to the limited practicality of services that promise to erase your data from the internet, and it’s the constant outreach from these organisations looking for marketing opportunities on Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) that’s prompted me to write this.”

Associated Press: Another New York resident says he was warned by officers after criticizing ICE. “An attorney representing David Streever, of Rochester, said Streever was on a trip to Finland when two officers showed up to his home last week and presented his wife with a warning notice informing him that an email he sent months earlier was a threat.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: If we force online platforms to control harmful content, where does that leave sex ed?. “Current online safety rules are focused on removing harmful content, not on supporting health promotion. Unfortunately, sexual health content is often flagged as ‘against community standards’ and suppressed by platforms – a practice known as shadowbanning. But Australia’s promised new ‘digital duty of care’ provides an opportunity to remedy that, creating a safe and healthy online environment for all.”

The Guardian: Elon Musk posted twice as often on UK race and immigration as about SpaceX in IPO run-up. “Elon Musk posted about race and immigration in the UK on his social media network X twice as often as he did about SpaceX, which he also owns, in the run-up to the aerospace and AI company’s initial public offering.”

Scientific American: History depends on records that weren’t built to last. “Chat apps, email, and cloud files have become the primary record of how power is exercised. Archivists are trying to preserve them before formats go dark or messages disappear without a trace.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

University of Washington: Rubin Observatory begins landmark 10-year timelapse of night sky. “From a mountaintop in Chile, under clear dark skies, the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory has officially begun the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The 10-year survey will create the most comprehensive, cinematic record of the universe in history. Over the next decade, Rubin will observe the entire southern sky every few nights to create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of our universe.” 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.

Rubryka: Digital library with Ukrainian literature and historical materials opens in Britain. “The Digital Library of the Nottingham branch of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain has launched in the United Kingdom, providing online access to Ukrainian literary, historical, and cultural heritage.”

University of British Columbia: New tool maps public land with potential for hundreds of thousands of affordable homes in B.C.. “The B.C. Public Lands Map is the first tool of its kind in Canada, combining federal, provincial, and municipal data to identify prime parcels of public land — from empty plots to vacant government buildings to surface parking lots — suitable for affordable housing development.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNBC: Google loses fight over record $4.7 billion EU antitrust fine. “Europe’s top court on Thursday upheld Google’s fine of around 4.1 billion euros ($4.67 billion) over alleged anti-competitive practices. In 2018, the European Commission slapped Google with the record-breaking penalty on the grounds that it abused Android’s mobile dominance to give unfair advantage to its own apps via pre-installation deals with smartphone makers.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: Spotify deletes 500K streams of popular song for suspected Kalshi, Polymarket user manipulation. “Last week, Kalshi gave Todd a 2.5 percent chance of having the number one charting Spotify song by the end of June. Earlier this week, in the final days of the month, artificial streaming manipulation caused Todd’s song to skyrocket 70 percent to the top of the charts within a 24-hour period. Spotify has since confirmed the manipulation after its investigation. The company also requested that Polymarket and Kalshi remove Spotify logos from their websites to prevent users from believing there is a partnership between the entities, according to Bloomberg.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Atlantic: Hegseth, Rubio, and Caine Had an Auto-Deleting Signal Chat. This link goes to a gift article. “The new release, which we reviewed, includes 13 Signal chats from the first six months of 2025 that have not been previously reported. The new records are screenshots of Signal groups that mostly lack context about when they were formed and what was discussed. The identities of nearly all of the group members are visible, revealing even broader use of Signal by top Trump-administration officials than was previously known.”

BBC: Instagram running ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India, BBC finds. “Instagram has been running paid adverts promoting child sexual abuse material in India, a BBC Eye investigation has found. The ads, seen by the BBC World Service, use terms including ‘rape video’ and ‘child video’ and link users to channels on the messaging app Telegram, where they can buy the material for as little as 99 rupees (about 80p).”

CBS News: Shark attack alerts for cellphones authorized by new federal law. “[Lulu] Gribbin’s story has inspired new federal legislation to authorize emergency alerts to mobile phones to warn beachgoers when a shark has bitten someone in the area.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Tech Policy Press: Countering Authoritarian Disinformation Requires More than Platform Governance. “Disinformation is more difficult to identify than other tactics to control and manipulate information, such as internet shutdowns or media censorship. Disinformation campaigns involve politicians or state actors but often rely on networks of private, anonymous, or foreign actors, including PR firms, that are difficult to identify. Independent journalism often plays a key role in uncovering these campaigns.”

PsyPost: Social media users tend to face more political hostility in less democratic and more unequal countries. “Social media is often blamed for turning political debates into toxic battlegrounds, but a new study provides evidence that offline societal inequalities actually play a role in shaping this digital aggression. The findings suggest that users in less democratic and less economically equal countries experience significantly more political hostility online than those in more egalitarian nations.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Associated Press: Robotic elephants draw crowds and controversy in some of India’s Hindu temples. “The animatrons, crafted from fiberglass, iron and rubber, are intended to take the place of live elephants in Hindu temples. The change pleases animal welfare activists but upsets those who passionately believe real elephants are inextricable from the temple rituals and festivals where they are bestowed superstar status.” 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.

TechSpot: Big Tech’s $8 trillion AI bet is making consoles, cars, and electricity more expensive for everyone else. “The rapid build-out of artificial-intelligence infrastructure is no longer just a software story; it is increasingly a supply-chain story, and it is beginning to show up in higher costs. As tech giants pour hundreds of billions into AI infrastructure, higher hardware, power, and construction costs are starting to show up in the inflation data.”

The Register: Claude Code users complain their chat records are being mysteriously wiped out . “Claude Code users are reporting that the app is silently deleting conversation transcripts – yours may even already be gone if you don’t know to change a default setting that the platform never bothers to tell users about.”

ANTI-AI ACTIVISM

Kansas Reflector: An unexpected coalition has emerged to fight data centers in rural America. Politicians, take heed.. “In the hour before the planning commission met June 23, about 100 activists gathered outside White Auditorium to wave signs, chant, and urge motorists passing on Sixth Street to honk if they opposed the data center. Signatures were gathered for a petition to force the city to adopt an ordinance banning high-impact data centers or to put the measure to a public vote.”

DATA CENTERS

Texas Tribune: Gov. Greg Abbott calls for ban on data center development in rural Texas neighborhoods. “Gov. Greg Abbott called for blocking new data center development in rural parts of the state during a campaign stop in East Texas on Tuesday.”

Maryland Matters: PJM gets green light to push data centers onto back-up power during heat wave. “The nation’s largest electricity grid — which includes Maryland, Washington D.C, and a dozen other states — received a green light from the Trump administration on Tuesday to require data centers and other large customers to turn on back-up generators during this week’s heatwave.”

Source New Mexico: New Mexico residents say their names used without permission to support Project Jupiter data center. “Residents from three New Mexico cities say their names falsely appeared on letters urging state environment officials to approve air quality permits for the controversial Project Jupiter data center after they were approached by canvassers for the project.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

New York Times: How A.I. Is Changing the Way Politicians Run for Office. This link goes to a gift article. “After their chat ended, one of the canvassers, who was volunteering with Swing Left, a Democratic political group, recapped what Mr. Bond said into a phone app. That memo was then analyzed by an A.I. tool alongside hundreds of other memos from similar door-knocks happening around the district. The A.I. tool synthesized what voters like Mr. Bond were saying, feeding reports that the campaign could use to tailor its messages and turn persuadable voters like him into supporters.”

Gizmodo: Are Those Fake Books on the New Air Force One AI-Generated?. “There are plenty of reasons to remain skeptical when it comes to images released by the Trump administration, however. Trump himself posted an image to Truth Social on June 29 that appeared to show a large golden eagle strapped to the White House.”

AI IN WORK

Reuters: Argentina’s plan for AI-run companies can’t avoid humans. “Argentine President Javier Milei generated both excitement and fear last month when he announced a congressional bill to create ‘non-human corporations’ run by AI, but the companies would actually require ​human involvement.”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

Music Business Worldwide: TIDAL to automatically tag AI-generated music… and block it from earning royalties. “TIDAL is introducing an AI policy that will automatically tag wholly AI-generated music in its app and block it from earning royalties. The Block-owned streaming service will also remove AI-generated music that impersonates artists or is linked to fraud.”

Gizmodo: Grindr Is the Latest Dating App to Hook Up With AI. “George Arison, who took over the role of chief executive at Grindr in 2022, is apparently all-in on AI—even when it goes against his employees’ wishes and likely his users’ best interests.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: New attack provides one more reason why AI browsers are a bad idea. “New research puts this predicament on sharp display. It demonstrates how a website can lull AI browsers into a false reality where the rules governing its behavior no longer apply. After that, an attacker has free rein to invoke all kinds of destructive actions, such as extracting code from a private repository or extracting credentials from the built-in password manager.”

Boing Boing: Scammers are selling seeds for AI-generated fake flowers. “One Etsy seller’s seed listings include a hosta that looks like a bunch of screaming demon shrimps, a plant shaped like a butterfly, and a red-white-blue patriotic shrub. The images are obviously AI-generated — and seeds for fake, AI-illustrated roses sold 37,271 times on eBay before the seller was finally banned.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PsyPost: Slapping an “AI-generated” label on political messages doesn’t stop people from believing them. “A survey experiment involving over 1,500 Americans showed that labeling messages about public policies (e.g., about allowing colleges to pay student athletes) as being AI-generated or written by a human expert had no effect on their persuasiveness, even though most participants believed the labels.”

Search Engine Journal: AI Agents Struggle To Read B2B Pricing, Report Finds. “A Siteline report tested a Claude agent on 100 top B2B software products. It found access errors and hidden pricing caused the agent to visit third-party sites for info it couldn’t find on official pages. The report, by Siteline founder David Kaufman, involved running a simulated Claude agent through 534 attempts to discover monthly prices of all plans and highlight main features.” 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.

Nature Food: Global dietary estimates for conducting health, environmental and economic impact assessments. “Dietary intake has important implications for health, the environment and the economy. However, current global estimates of food intake are uncertain and incomplete. Here we develop a Global Dietary Database for Impact Assessments (GDD-IA) that combines data sources on regional food availability and food waste estimates, socio-demographic variation in intake from dietary surveys and energy intake estimates based on measurements of body weight, height and physical activity.”

WYSO: Thousands of Revolutionary War veterans are buried in Ohio. This new database shows where they are. “An estimated 7,000 Revolutionary War veterans were buried in Ohio, but there’s been no centralized database of their graves – until now. A first-of-its-kind crowdsourced map will be unveiled this weekend as part of Ohio’s celebration of America’s 250th anniversary.”

The Connexion: Web app lets French homeowners check effect of coastal erosion where they live. “The government has launched a new online tool allowing people with homes in coastal areas of France to see how coastal erosion is affecting their commune. Behind the initiative is the fact that around 20% of France’s coastline is already affected by coastal erosion, and that by 2050 approximately 5,200 homes could be impacted by the effects of rising sea levels due to climate change.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

National Institutes of Health: NIH’s All of Us Research Program is now the largest integrated genomics and health database in the world . “The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued the most expansive data release in the history of its All of Us Research Program, making available data from more than 747,000 participants and establishing All of Us as the world’s largest integrated genomic and electronic health record (EHR) database. The latest data release includes more than 535,000 whole genome sequences linked to nearly 482,000 electronic health records, a combination of genomic depth and clinical breadth unmatched by any research program in the world.”

WikiEdu: Celebrating 250 Years: Cultural heritage professionals expand U.S. history on Wikipedia. “In partnership with the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH), we launched the ‘250 by 2026’ initiative with an ambitious but straightforward goal: engage 250 cultural heritage practitioners in improving Wikipedia’s coverage of U.S. history before the nation’s semiquincentennial…. Thirteen editing courses later, we’ve exceeded our goal, and couldn’t be more proud of the initiative and the contributions of its participants.”

MakeUseOf: Google’s latest updates for Chrome extensions are a big boon for privacy. “On July 1, Google announced some significant changes to the Chrome Web Store’s policies. These changes will impact Chrome extensions in several key ways, but the primary focus is on enhancing user privacy.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TechSpot: Microsoft reverses stance and adds Google account sign-in to Edge browser. “Microsoft latest release of the Edge browser adds a much-requested feature for users working within Google’s web ecosystem. Edge 150 finally provides a way to sign in with a Google account, usable alongside a Microsoft account.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Canadian Press: Mother of B.C. teen who died calls out dangerous social media algorithms pushing harm. “The mother of a 13-year-old girl from British Columbia who died after her family says social media repeatedly pushed harmful content onto her feed is calling for regulation of self-harm and suicide-promoting content targeting minors.”

Mother Jones: ICE Finds a New Way to Dodge Congress About a Secret Protester Database. “The administration has repeatedly denied that DHS maintains a specific database of US citizens who protest ICE operations or photograph federal agents. But this letter, which was addressed on May 22 and comes amid mounting litigation over ICE’s alleged intimidation of protesters, appears to sidestep the question of a standalone protester database entirely.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Daily Nous: The New Open-Access Journal Philosophical Logic Is Now Publishing. “Last December, all of the editors-in-chief and associate editors of Springer Nature’s Journal of Philosophical Logic resigned and formed Philosophical Logic, a new ‘diamond’ open-access journal.”

Florence Daily News: Brancacci Chapel Becomes European Test Site for Accessible Cultural Heritage. “The Brancacci Chapel in Florence has become the Italian pilot site of a European project aimed at improving accessibility and sustainability in cultural heritage sites. The initiative, known as AccesS and funded through the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, has introduced a range of new technologies and visitor services designed to make the chapel more accessible while supporting the long-term conservation of its renowned frescoes.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Associated Press: Rare copy of Declaration of Independence found by UK National Archives in papers of captured US ship. “Michael Scurr has been volunteering at Britain’s National Archives for the last 11 years, spending his Thursday mornings painstakingly cataloging documents for the benefit of future researchers. Then one day last May the retired insurance executive made a discovery of his own while sifting through the letters of an 18th-century Royal Navy captain.” 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.

Read Only Memo: Introducing Warp Point, a Web 1.0 gaming blog directory built for 2026. “There are no algorithms. No AI summaries. No paid promo slots or accounts meant to keep you on the site. We want you to leave — by browsing through the list of independent bloggers and essayists and newsletter writers and archivists, finding one that interests you, and clicking on it. Hopefully you come back and do that again and again.”

Obsolete Sony: The Walkman Archive Is Now Open. “The archive currently includes 1,066 Sony portable-audio model entries: 441 cassette Walkman models, 171 Discman / CD Walkman models, 106 MiniDisc / MD Walkman models, and 348 Network Walkman models.”

University of Windsor: Decades of graduate student scholarship digitized and shared worldwide. “The University of Windsor is making more than five decades of graduate student scholarship easier to find, search and share by digitizing about 3,400 Major Papers produced between 1962 and 2017. Soon to be freely available through the University’s Scholarship repository (Scholaris), the collection preserves student research and creative inquiry while making it discoverable to students, alumni, community members and researchers around the globe.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Cal Matters: California lawmaker rolls back new public records barriers after fierce opposition. “Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco has once again rolled back her controversial proposal to amend California’s public records rules. The Downey Democrat alarmed First Amendment advocates in March when she introduced a measure that would make it more expensive for some people to get public records from government agencies, which she said was intended to cut down on malicious or profit-driven requests.”

Ars Technica: Reddit will require you to log in to use old.reddit.com. “Reddit will start requiring people to be logged into Reddit to use old.reddit.com. The new requirement will take effect ‘over the next month,’ a Reddit employee going by the username boat-botany announced on the social media platform today. The person claimed that the change is part of an ongoing effort to ‘tighten how automated systems access Reddit.'”

9to5 Google: Google pulls the plug on Tenor API, killing GIF pickers around the web. “GIFs are a huge part of the modern web, with Tenor being one of the libraries that powers a variety of apps including Twitter/X. Google acquired Tenor in 2018 and, while the library itself remains intact, the Tenor API is shutting down today.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Jalopnik: These Google Maps Alternatives Make Scenic Detours The Road Trip Rule, Not The Exception . “Here at Jalopnik, we believe that taking the scenic route should be a universal road trip rule, so Google Maps’ reluctance to provide drivers with a scenic route option really rubs us the wrong way. You’re in luck, though, because we’ve dug up tons of road trip map alternatives that can get you the best views the world has to offer without constant attempts to reroute you right back to the hackneyed old interstate.”

Deadline: Peacock Ad-Free Tier Launches On YouTube Primetime Channels As Part Of 2025 Distribution Deal. “YouTube has made good on a provision in a 2025 distribution agreement with NBCUniversal, launching the ad-free tier of Peacock on its channel store.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Courthouse News Service: Federal judge’s ruling gives Yelp a leg up in antitrust case against Google. “A federal judge on Tuesday agreed to recognize another judge’s finding that Google has monopoly power in the internet search market. The ruling effectively gives Yelp a step up in its lawsuit against the tech giant, allowing it to skip discovery on the issue.”

Bleeping Computer: US seizes hundreds of FIFA World Cup illegal streaming domains. “The U.S. Justice Department’s Criminal Division has seized nearly 400 web domains used for illegally streaming matches at the FIFA World Cup. These websites provided visitors with unauthorized real-time streams of 2026 World Cup matches, in violation of U.S. copyright law.”

High Country News: Will betting on wildfires lead to arson?. “In January 2025, Polymarket listed almost 20 questions, created by the platform’s ‘markets team,’ related to the wildfires burning up Southern California. How many acres will the Palisades Fire burn by Friday, three days after it ignited on a Tuesday? Will the Palisades Fire reach Santa Monica by Sunday? When will the Palisades fire be 50% contained? Will the Palisades and Eaton fires be contained before February?”

RESEARCH & OPINION

ARTNews: Russia’s Hermitage Museum Suspends Archaeological Expeditions in Crimea, Citing Fuel Shortage. “The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg has suspended all archaeological expeditions in annexed Crimea as the Kremlin declares a state of emergency amid a severe fuel shortage and continued Ukrainian attacks, according to the Moscow Times.” 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.

Technology Times: Agora Policy’s searchable repository for Nigeria’s public policies goes live. “Agora Policy has launched Policy Registry, a digital platform designed to make Nigeria’s public policy documents more accessible, searchable and actionable for researchers, journalists, policymakers, businesses and citizens.”

RTE: Almost 200,000 Irish historical records released online. “Almost 200,000 historical records have been released online by the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland. The release of 194,000 records will cover seven centuries of Irish history and will make over half a million documents free and permanently available to the public.”

EVENTS

Internet Archive Blog: Preserving the First Draft of History: Reflections from the National Summit on Local News Preservation. “According to the Pew Research Center, 38% of webpages that existed in 2013 are already gone and nearly a quarter of news webpages contain at least one broken link. The local record of our communities is vanishing in real time. This urgent challenge is what brought two very different professions together on June 17 in National Harbor, Maryland. Hosted by the Internet Archive with the Poynter Institute and Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), the National Summit on Local News Preservation gathered journalists, editors, archivists, librarians, and researchers to start a conversation between the newsrooms producing local journalism and the memory institutions preserving it.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Daily Nous: Online Philosophy Resources Monthly Update. “Here’s (usually weekly, but during the summer, monthly) report on new and revised entries at online philosophy resources, new reviews of philosophy books, and new podcast episodes.”

CNBC: Google Chromebook graft case sees Indonesia’s former education minister jailed for 10 years. “An Indonesian corruption court on Tuesday sentenced former Education Minister Nadiem Makarim, a co-founder of ride- hailing and payments giant Gojek, to 10 years in prison for corruption. Makarim was found guilty in a case linked to the procurement of Google Chromebooks for schools under the country’s education digitalization program that ran from 2019 to 2022.”

USEFUL STUFF

XDA: Kage makes it stupid simple to archive websites before they disappear, and it has become my favorite read-it-later app. “…aside from my movie collection, ripped ROM files, and ebook library, I also have smaller-sized files that I prefer to store on my local workstations. Web pages are one such medium, and between link rot corrupting my curated collection of posts and JavaScript-laden websites refusing to run well even after I save them, I was starting to run out of options for my website archival needs. Fortunately, I ran into Kage while doom-scrolling on GitHub the other day, and this tool has everything I need to store entire websites locally.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Economic Times: Tourism ministry, Google ink MoU to boost promotion of India’s destinations via digital tech. “India’s tourism sector is set to receive a significant digital boost as the Ministry of Tourism partners with Google. This collaboration will harness AI, data insights, and digital technologies to enhance the promotion of India’s destinations, cultural heritage, and experiences for both domestic and international travelers.”

404 Media: How I Bought a Private Jet By Selling $10 Subscriptions to 404 Media. “The extremely obvious truth (which is barely even veiled) is that at least most of these hustlebros are faking it. They hope to make money selling their courses. The scheme is not the AI babe or the drop shipping, it’s the course, the community, the fantasy. They’re LARPing, or LARPmaxxing, if you will. In recent months, LARPing has become a whole subculture on TikTok and Instagram; pretending you’re rich, just for the hell of it.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TechCrunch: In major privacy win, Supreme Court rules geofence warrants are protected by privacy rights. “The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday limited the law enforcement use of ‘geofence’ search warrants, in a major legal ruling that is likely to have broad ramifications for privacy rights and law enforcement across the United States.”

The Register: Australia investigating five social media giants for not enforcing ban on kids. “Australia’s government has decided to double the fines it can levy companies that don’t take appropriate steps to enforce the country’s ban on children under 16 accessing social media – and said Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube are under investigation for possible non-compliance.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NIST: NIST Launches Center to Drive the Manufacture of Quantum Technologies. “The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced an agreement with SRI International, a nonprofit research and development institution, to help advance U.S. quantum research, development and manufacturing capabilities.”

Ars Technica: Why did this journal retract two 1940s papers by Max Planck?. “German physicist Max Planck was one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics in the early 20th century, earning the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of quanta. There has never been a whisper of scandal about the man’s integrity or his scientific work. So a pair of science historians were puzzled when they discovered that a scientific journal had inexplicably retracted two of Planck’s papers from the 1940s.” 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.

Chicago Reader: WHPK builds a digital archive to broadcast its place in music history. “On Sunday, nonprofit community radio station WHPK announced an ongoing effort to digitize its collection of program guides and magazines. The University of Chicago provides the great bulk of WHPK’s funding, and the station’s headquarters are in the school’s main student center, the Reynolds Club. Station staffers and volunteers dug up the archival material by looking into every nook and cranny of the building.”

Boing Boing: Wiki Spy lets you explore 43,815 cut-out Wikipedia objects. “Wiki Spy is a wonderful website that shows cut-outs of 43,815 objects from Wikipedia. Each image is pasted like a sticker against the white background…. When you click on an object, you’ll be taken to a new page that includes similar findings.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Register: Four years into Ukraine invasion, Russia turns influence-ops back to US and Europe. “Four years into the Kremlin’s illegal invasion of its neighboring country, Russian influence operations have moved beyond their near-exclusive focus on Ukraine to their former favorite targets: the US and Europe, and especially covert cyber-ops intended to undermine political stability within these countries and the unity between them, according to Google Threat Intelligence.”

TechCrunch: The ‘Father of the Internet’ is finally retiring. “Vinton Cerf will step down from his role as Google’s chief internet evangelist next week, marking the conclusion of one of the most influential careers in technology history.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

AsAmNews: New digital series showcases ‘The United States of Asian+America’. “The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) has launched a new digital series on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram that will feature ‘AAPI trailblazers and stories that changed America.’ The United States of Asian+America, produced in partnership with Wong Fu Productions, launched this past week with a trailer and the premiere episode. Additional episodes to be released on a rolling basis through the end of 2026, TAAF said.”

Scientiac: A too Brief Intro to Smolweb. “There is so much more to the internet than your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, and chat GPTs. And these things are not known by the general masses, not because it’s a quality problem, but instead it’s a discovery problem.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Spokesman-Review: Judge declares Al Merkel’s Nextdoor posts to be public records subject to release. “Spokane Valley Councilman Al Merkel violated the city’s social media policy and the Washington Public Records Act by discussing council business on his private social media accounts and refusing to submit the posts for public records requests, a Spokane County judge ruled last week.”

Ars Technica: US offers $10 million for info on group behind Signal and WhatsApp hacking spree. “Federal authorities are offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of a Russian state cyber group that has compromised thousands of Signal and WhatsApp accounts belonging to investigative reporters and US government employees.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NRK: Order 138. “NRK has worked together with Nordic public broadcasters and Estonian Delfi to uncover the ongoing Russian military buildup along the Nato border. We have also conducted a data investigation to identify and examine 120 areas that have been blurred by the Russian map service Yandex Maps.”

Gizmodo: Here’s Why Weather Forecasts Have Seemed So Inaccurate Lately. “Before the cuts, the NWS was launching weather balloons twice per day (once in the morning and once in the evening) from 100 locations. Today, the number of morning launches in the Lower 48 has been reduced by half, according to MyRadar senior meteorologist Matthew Cappucci.” 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.

UK Government: The Queen Elizabeth Digital Memorial marks major milestone with new features. “Memories of the Late Queen Elizabeth shared by members of the public and those who knew her are now live as part of a milestone digital archive into her life, and can be viewed at http://www.queenelizabeth.com. Also launching today is a fully digitised version of the Court Circular (Queen Elizabeth’s official diary) covering the entirety of Queen Elizabeth’s reign from 1952 to 2022.”

Alec.is: IP Crawl: Exposing The Massive Open Webcam Crisis. “IP Crawl…actively crawls the web for exposed webcams—specifically targeting feeds that require absolutely no username, password, or specialized exploit to access. If it’s open to the public internet… then it’s on this radar.”

EVENTS

Pablo Enoc: Blog Carnivals Around the Indie Web. “Over on powRSS I’m putting together a list of blog carnivals happening around the web. Send me an email if you are hosting or participating in another community’s carnival!” PowRSS is a public RSS aggregator focusing on indieweb / smallweb.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

WBEZ: The Onion relaunches InfoWars, Alex Jones’ right-wing conspiracy website, this week. “Here’s something you absolutely can trust, barring some last-minute legal roadblock: the Chicago-based satirical newspaper, The Onion, is set to launch InfoWars on July 2, a year and seven months after it won the initial auction to take over the website founded by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TheDesk: C-SPAN to assist local newsrooms with footage, partnerships during midterm election campaign. “As part of the initiative, C-SPAN journalists and photographers will record candidate town halls, forums, campaign stops and other events, then offer full-length video coverage and interviews to participating non-profit local newsrooms and independent media outlets at no cost, executives said on Monday.”

KPBS: California school libraries blindsided by ‘catastrophic’ budget cut. “Without notice to schools or librarians, the Legislature last week canceled $5.5 million that pays online fees for the Encyclopedia Britannica, New York Times, PBS videos such as Ken Burns documentaries, scientific journals and thousands of other online materials used by students and teachers. The cut goes into effect on July 1, 2027.”

Mighil: Notes from building Tinkerfont. “Tinkerfont is a browser extension for inspecting, replacing, and testing fonts on live websites…. Free on Chrome and Firefox. No account. Everything stays in local storage on your device.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Engadget: Flock cameras track more than your license plate, and they’re spreading fast. “Although Flock cameras are often referred to as license plate readers, that’s reductive. Reading license plates is their primary task, but they can be used to track just about anyone or anything.”

Associated Press: Four days to make victims fall in love: How global scammers use US tech to fleece people. “The instructions were clear: He had four days to make each victim fall in love. And there were a lot of victims. Online, Safeer Mohammed Koorimannil, who was trafficked to a scam center in Myanmar, impersonated a 28-year-old Singaporean woman named Ella. On a typical shift, he said, he chatted with more than 100 people across dozens of profiles at the same time, as supervisors prowled among the desks with electric batons.”

Yonhap News Agency: Watchdog launches review on Google’s alleged fair trade violation. “Seoul’s antitrust watchdog said Wednesday it has launched an investigation into U.S.-based Google LLC, as well as its Singaporean and South Korean offices, over allegations of violations of the fair trade law involving game developers on its app marketplace.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Northeastern University: Most social media child safety features fail the test, Northeastern research finds. “Researchers found that 35 of 86 child safety features tested across major social media platforms worked as promised, while 51 failed to meet their standards.”

Bellingrath Gardens & Home: Bringing the Bellingrath Home into the Digital Era. “Over this past winter and spring, I have begun to rephotograph every artifact in the Home with a high resolution digital camera and enter the detailed descriptions provided by Mr. McGehee into the PastPerfect program. The digital files on each object are then appropriately catalogued, tagged, filed, and indexed to library and archival standards. Once the project is done, researchers and museum professionals can reference portions of the Bellingrath collection with ease.” 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.

Associated Press: AI is an energy and water hog, here’s what you can do to counter that. “Artificial intelligence and the data centers they require use growing amounts of energy and are water hogs — and AI companies aren’t transparent about how much of those resources they use, experts said. So each time you turn to the internet and seek an AI-fueled response, it’s gobbling up precious resources.”

Ars Technica: Trump’s plan to redesign every .gov website leads to AI-designed horrors. “Last August, Trump created the National Design Studio, or NDS, by executive order. A temporary DOGE-like entity that answers only to the president, NDS was tasked with creating new standards to update the US Web Design System (USWDS) and overhaul 27,000 dot-gov websites in just three years…. Most people agree that updating government websites is a worthwhile and necessary endeavor. But about a year into NDS’s existence, the team hasn’t accomplished much.”

DATA CENTERS

Data Centre Insight: The Scarlet letter: How the EU’s new A-to-G energy stickers will expose underperforming data centres. “Imagine having your worst habits put on a billboard for everyone to see. Or wearing a huge, ruby red ‘A’ on your clothing. For years, data centres have kept their energy and water bills private, but this is about to change. The EU is rolling out new rules to grade data centres based on their performance publicly. These new mandatory energy stickers rate them from A-to-G, just like the ones found on your washing machine.”

NJ Spotlight News: NJ has crucial choices on data centers, environmentalist says. “Data centers contribute to heat islands, or higher temperatures locally relative to their regions. Cities, and even some blocks within them, can experience hotter weather in part because of scarce trees and other vegetation.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

Associated Press: New York City Council candidate is accused of forgery over AI-generated posts. “A former New York City Council candidate has been charged with forgery over allegations he used artificial intelligence to post fake endorsements and news articles on social media. Jonathan Rinaldi was arrested outside his home Wednesday and could face up to two years in prison if convicted. The 47-year-old ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a council seat from Queens last year.”

CommonWealth Beacon: Healey slams brakes on data center tax incentives. “THE STATE WILL NOT accept applications for data center tax incentives until further notice, Gov. Maura Healey announced Thursday as she simultaneously rolled out the guidance that she had pledged would focus on energy independence and environmental impacts.”

AI IN WORK

TechCrunch: Ford rehires ‘gray beard’ engineers after AI falls short. “Ford executives said they have hired 350 veteran engineers — some of them were former employees, while others had been working at suppliers — after artificial intelligence and automated systems failed to deliver the desired quality level.”

Futurism: Bosses Are Becoming Obsessed With AI, Using It to Make Every Decision, Barraging Their Employees With Nonsensical ChatGPT Directives, and Even Asking It Who to Fire. “This attorney was one of numerous employees who spoke to Futurism about their experience with AI-obsessed bosses, relaying feelings of frustration and anger as managers and executives use the tech to barrage staff with nonsensical directives, unnecessary work, and perpetual pivoting. (Everyone we spoke to requested anonymity to avoid retaliation.)”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

CNBC: Google limits Meta’s use of its Gemini AI models, FT reports. “Google has put limits on Meta’s use of its Gemini AI models after the social media company sought more computing capacity than the rival tech group could provide, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.”

The Harvard Gazette: You take AI, I’ll take my iPod (if I can find it). “Analyst Sara Watson ’07 has written in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Slate, and other publications about bending the arc of technology from individual convenience toward the collective good. In this conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, Watson, who was a fellow and affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society from 2013 to 2019, shares insights on the ‘tech-lash’ and how it might unfold.”

Anthropic: Introducing Claude Sonnet 5. “Claude Sonnet 5 is built to be the most agentic Sonnet model yet. It can make plans, use tools like browsers and terminals, and run autonomously at a level that, just a few months ago, required larger and more expensive models.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Mashable: Prosecutors use man’s ChatGPT log in unsuccessful arson trial. “According to California prosecutors, suspected arsonist Jonathan Rinderknecht ‘used ChatGPT like a diary,’ not only building up a fascination with fire but generating images of cities burning, reports the BBC. In one prompt pulled from Rinderknecht’s ChatGPT history, he asked the AI whether he could be held responsible for a fire caused by his fallen cigarette, according to ABC News.”

Reuters: US removes curbs on Anthropic’s latest Fable and Mythos AI models. “Anthropic said on Tuesday that the U.S. Commerce ​Department lifted export controls on its most advanced Fable and Mythos AI models, less than three weeks after the company was ordered to suspend their access over national ‌security risks. Washington has stepped up oversight of new model releases to identify potential threats amid concerns that advanced AI models could be misused by military intelligence in China, Russia or other countries of concern.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Stuttgart: Innovative Algorithms for species conservation. “Patterns reveal the individual: The AI algorithm RAPID identifies wild animals by their unique patterns in real time. It works quickly and precisely, enabling significant progress in the monitoring and protection of zebras, jaguars and giraffes.”

Florida International University: FIU researchers reveal how altered images can bypass AI safeguards. “As shown in research presented at the 2025 International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), the team found that by introducing microscopic pixel-level changes called ‘perturbations’ into an image, they could trick these AI systems into generating responses that they would normally block.” 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.

Capital B News: Why We’re Building a Black Oral History Archive. “For the Record: A Black Oral History Archive is a collection of over 100 firsthand stories from Black Americans across regions, generations, and identities. Since last year, our reporters and partners have been gathering recollections from Black people that paint a vivid picture of resistance, resilience, invention, and celebration.”

Sun Journal: Maine’s roadside farm stands now have their own map. “[Mike] Connery spent a weekend building the Farmstands Guide website… with a form for anyone to add their own stand. It now has more than 100 listings and averages 300 users a month.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Roundtable: Google AI Overviews Tests Button To Go To Only Web Results. “Google is testing a button in the AI Overview within Google Search that takes you to the web only tab. As a reminder, the web only tab does not have any AI search features or other search verticles, it only has the web search results.” I’d like a button that turns the AI off entirely. I know there are ways you can get around it, but I want GOOGLE to offer an opt out.

New York Times: Australia Says It Will Toughen Its Social Media Ban for Children. This link goes to a gift article. “…the government said on Saturday that it would toughen penalties for tech companies found to be violating the law, doubling the maximum fine to about $70 million. The government also said it would increase the online safety regulator’s legal authority to compel companies to provide information about what they were doing to keep children under 16 off their platforms.”

USEFUL STUFF

FOSS Linux: Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide (2026). “I have been reviving old hardware with Linux for the better part of a decade. The machines Windows 11 left behind are not trash. They are waiting for the right operating system. In this guide, I walk you through distro selection, RAM tuning, SSD upgrades, and browser optimization based on real testing, not guesswork.”

MakeUseOf: The compass app on your phone is not as reliable as you think. “You’ll notice that, outside of the magnetized needle, old-school compasses don’t typically feature magnetic metals. The compass chassis is often made out of plastic, and if it’s made out of metal, it is a non-magnetic metal like aluminum or brass. This is because other magnetic parts can interfere with the magnetized needle that helps the compass find magnetic north. When you think about all the magnetic components inside modern smartphones, it’s easy to understand how they might interfere with its compass utility.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Vintage Aviation News: The Yorkshire Air Museum Receives Lottery Funding of £250k for Collections Project. “The Yorkshire Air Museum has secured a £249,227 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to support a major collections project at its historic RAF Elvington site. The funding will help enhance storage facilities, modernize collections management, and improve access to thousands of aviation-related artifacts, documents, and personal stories preserved in the museum’s archive.”

Tubefilter: Twitch says its ads–both pre- and mid-roll–aren’t getting longer. Viewers say otherwise.. “Whatever the explanation, though, the focus here should still be on the existence of pre-rolls. YouTube has them too, obviously, but YouTube runs on VODs. The content will still be there, unchanged, after a viewer sits through a 30-second ad. Twitch, on the other hand, relies on being able to get audience members into the stream in the moment, so they can experience what’s happening in real time.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Guardian: ‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears. “An opaque White House office staffed largely by veterans of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has quietly rebuilt some of the federal government’s most sensitive websites – for passport applications, voter registration, prescription-drug pricing and children’s savings – in ways critics say appear to violate federal law.”

Associated Press: The US lags other countries in social media restrictions for kids, but a reform push is growing. “A pair of landmark jury verdicts this year showed a way forward for holding tech companies accountable. And while the U.S. is nowhere near embracing social media bans for children like those seen from Australia to Indonesia, a push for regulation is simmering again in Congress.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: The hidden burnout crisis facing social media marketers. “We’re marketing researchers who study digital and social media wellness and teach the students who go on to fill these jobs. In a study published in September 2025, we interviewed social media marketers in the United States, Ireland, India, Germany and Australia and saw a profession quietly running on empty: passionate, creative people who are mentally drained by jobs that rarely turn off.”

Cornell Chronicle: Digital research repository arXiv to start new chapter as nonprofit. “When [Professor Paul] Ginsparg returned to Cornell as a professor in 2001, he brought the online research repository arXiv with him. And for 25 years it has remained at Cornell, where it has grown into a global clearinghouse for millions of research papers, accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Now, arXiv embarks on its next chapter: a transition to an independent nonprofit.” 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.