Troy University: It Came from the Archives: The World War 2 letters of Earl and Ruth Barker.. “Kelly Reeves from the Troy University Library shares a collection of correspondence and photographs recently digitized and made available at this link: Barker Collection of WWII Letters – Troy University Archives. The collection’s 257 handwritten letters and 84 ‘V-Mails’ (all transcribed) traces Earl Barker’s time in the US Army, 1943-1945.”

Coastal Review: Interactive tool lets users find nearby public water accesses. “Residents and visitors to the North Carolina coast this summer may tap an interactive public map that provides the locations of public beach and waterfront accesses.”

EVENTS

Interfax Ukraine: Interfax-Ukraine to host press conference ‘Russia disinformation in 2026: new topics and tools’. “On Wednesday, May 27, at 11.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference entitled ‘Russia disinformation in 2026: new topics and tools.’… The event will take place at 8/5a Reitarska Street and will be streamed on the Interfax-Ukraine YouTube channel.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Video Game History Foundation: Sonic, Rayman, and more in latest additions to GamePro CD collection. “This week, we added the next 100 CDs from our GamePro press CD collection to our digital archive! As we explained last year, we’ve been digitizing a massive collection of CDs from the art department at GamePro magazine. These discs contain the raw artwork and screenshots that game publishers sent to GamePro.”

Techdirt: SpaceX’s IPO Filing Shows Elon’s Twitter ‘Business Genius’ Was A Fantasy. “So, just to put this in perspective… when he took over in 2022 he laid out a five year plan to take the company that had $4.5 billion in ad revenue the year before he bought it up to $12 billion in five years. Three years in and… it’s now somewhere pretty far below $3 billion.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: I built this tiny offline internet and now I can get answers during an outage. “I built it inside a Debian Trixie VM, with an Apache web server, Kiwix for free offline wiki files, a large local library, and Recoll for indexed and fast local search. After it was finished, I had turned a few thousand disorganized files into a fully offline mini-internet that worked from both the VM and my host machine.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: Minecraft-streaming gran swatted while raising cash for grandson’s cancer care. “An 82-year-old grandmother who livestreams her Minecraft gameplay to raise money for her grandson’s cancer treatment faced a potentially deadly swatting attempt this week. ‘Dozens’ of armed police officers stormed the home of Sue Jacquot, known online as GrammaCrackers, on May 18 while she was sleeping.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Northeastern University: ‘Giving back’ cellphone data so communities can plan. “Called Mobility Data for Communities, or MD4C, the tool uses cellphone location data — aggregated and anonymized to protect privacy — to help communities better understand their visitors. The platform reveals such insights as who is coming to different communities, where these visitors come from, can estimate what activities they do in a community, how long they spend there, and more.”

Kansas Reflector: U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids urges NWS to be transparent about data collection shortcomings. “U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids expressed frustration Friday with the National Weather Service’s failure in the last month to launch three-fourths of the balloons typically sent aloft in Kansas to assess atmospheric conditions and assist with weather forecasting.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

The Oaklandside: Berkeley toddler who inspired bestseller ‘Go the F**k to Sleep’ is now off to college. “With the publication of Adam’s latest book, the fourth in the series, ‘Go the F**k to College,’ the spotlight again shifts to Vivien, the eldest of Mansbach’s three children, completing a circle that began with their arrival. Now 18 and a high school senior, they will be leaving for Bard College in Annandale–on-Hudson, New York, in a few months.” 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.

Iowa State University: Grant-funded digital collection now available. “The Amplifying Black Voices in Iowa Digital Collection is now available online for research. The digital collection is a collaborative project of eight libraries, archives, and museums across Iowa: the African American Museum of Iowa, Des Moines Public Library, Fort Des Moines Museum and Education Center, Grinnell College Libraries, Grout Museum District, Iowa State University Library, Nodaway Valley Historical Museum, and State Historical Society of Iowa.”

WKRN: Pentagon releases new batch of UFO files. “The Pentagon on Friday released more UFO files following an initial drop that included never-before-seen documents related to incidents already public. The second drop includes over 40 videos requested by lawmakers, along with a few files and some audio from NASA missions.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

WordPress: Introducing Lately, Now in Beta. “One of the best parts of blogging is the ability to share something with the people you care most about. Over the last few weeks, we’ve built a WordPress.com feature to make that easier. It’s geared to the kind of short, casual thing you’d otherwise send in a group chat or email. Today we’re introducing Lately, a weekly letter sent to close friends every Friday. It’s available in beta for new sites.”

Reuters: Google appeals US court ruling on search monopoly. “Alphabet’s Google on Friday appealed a Washington federal judge’s ruling that it ​holds illegal monopolies in online search and ‌related advertising.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Verge: Google’s AI search is so broken it can ‘disregard’ what you’re looking for. “Google’s AI Overviews are running into an interesting problem right now. Earlier on Friday, if you searched for the term ‘disregard,’ the AI Overview section would include a response like what you’d see from a more traditional AI chatbot instead of the typical AI summary, as spotted on X.”

City Journal: A Mysterious Children’s Search Engine Is Misleading Kids. “While it boasts far less traffic than other search engines, Kiddle’s role in information infrastructure gives it outsize influence, as schools, libraries, and even PTAs link to the site. The International Society for Technology in Education (ITSE), an association with 100,000 education stakeholders, recommends Kiddle on its website, noting that ‘results are vetted by editors.’ The top referrer of traffic to Kiddle in early 2026 was DiscoveryK12, an online homeschool curriculum.” I went and checked ResearchBuzz Firehose to see if I had mentioned Kiddle at all. I found three mentions. The first was in early 2016 when I noted that Business Standard has announced Kiddle as a new search engine and a Google property. I said I could find no evidence that Kiddle has any relationship with Google other than using Google’s custom search. Kiddle is NOT a Google Property and I noted that in my second February 2016 mention (and Business Standard corrected its article.) The third and final mention is in April 2016 and is titled “Kiddle’s Even Worse Than Initially Thought,” which links to a Register article with additional Kiddle problems. The only kid-safe search engines I’ve EVER seen that worked are hand-picked URL collections.

MinnPost: Rondo in Roblox pairs St. Paul time-travel with modern verve. “Residents, historians and storytellers have shared the story of Rondo, a historically Black neighborhood in St. Paul slashed by the midcentury construction of Interstate 94, in many ways. There have been documentaries, works of historical fiction, memorials and even a themed version of Monopoly. And now there’s what 73-year-old Peggy Pugh has been telling her friends about recently.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

VT Digger: Police department’s social media tactics lead to arrests — and criticism. “A 2021 investigation by the Los Angeles Times found police departments around the country increasingly use recurring social media campaigns such as ‘Wanted Wednesdays’ and ‘Fugitive Fridays’ to publicize warrants and solicit tips. The posts, which can stay online long after someone has served their time or been cleared of charges, can impact future job searches, housing prospects and relationships, the outlet reported.”

The Register: Threat hunters find Google API keys still usable 23 minutes after deletion. “You know your Google API key has leaked so you rush to disable it before bad actors can start running up charges on your account. Bad news: According to security researchers at Aikido, people can use the API keys for up to 23 minutes after a user deletes them, creating a window of opportunity that, when combined with Google’s automatic billing tier upgrades, can devastate victims.”

TechCrunch: Kash Patel’s clothing brand website shut down after reports it was hacked. “The merchandise website of FBI director Kash Patel was taken offline on Friday after reports that it had been hijacked by hackers trying to infect visitors with malware, as first reported by Straight Arrow News.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: Looksmaxxing isn’t just a TikTok trend – it often reflects severe body image issues in teen boys and young men. “Much of the media coverage of looksmaxxing has focused on cultural dimensions, such as the misogynist ideology underlying this trend and its implications for cultural conversations about masculinity. Meanwhile, looksmaxxers with an especially large following of hundreds of thousands of people on social media platforms like TikTok and Kick have attained pop-culture status. But in the midst of this spectacle, the well-being of the young men participating in this trend has been largely overlooked.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Hackster.io: The ISS Tracker is Back – with a New API. “The API is free — no key, no signup, CORS enabled — but running it costs me a few euros a month and a lot of evening hours. If it saves you an afternoon, consider tipping at ko-fi.com/polluxlabs. Every coffee helps keep it free for the next maker.” 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.

Spotted in my Calishat Snaps: Models.dev, an open source database of AI models. From the GitHub page: “Models.dev is a comprehensive open-source database of AI model specifications, pricing, and capabilities. There’s no single database with information about all the available AI models. We started Models.dev as a community-contributed project to address this. We also use it internally in opencode.”

Blue Ridge Public Radio: Black Oral Histories of Beaufort County project is preserving the past before it slips away. “For decades, the lived experiences of Black people in rural communities like Washington, Belhaven, and Blounts Creek went largely unrecorded. But a local initiative, launched by the non-profit Odyssey for Democracy and backed by North Carolina Humanities, is changing that.”

EVENTS

NASA: NASA Sets Coverage for Roscosmos Spacewalk Outside Space Station. “NASA will provide live coverage on Wednesday, May 27, as two Roscosmos cosmonauts conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:15 a.m. EDT and last roughly five hours. Watch NASA’s live coverage beginning at 9:45 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Vivaldi Blog: Vivaldi 8.0: our biggest design overhaul, ever. “We respect your time, your privacy, your preferences, your intelligence. Every release we ship is another expression of that belief. Vivaldi 8.0 is the biggest expression of that idea we have shipped in years. A new design direction that makes the browser feel more alive and more unified than any version before it. In other words: there is more control, more capability, more choice. And a brand new look.”

WordPress: Achievement Unlocked: Your WordPress.com Milestones Now Have a Home. “Some achievements are simple milestones. Others are a little more unexpected. We won’t spoil all the surprises, but if you enjoy small quests, secret badges, and oddly specific internet accomplishments, you may want to poke around.” I was wondering what those things were in my WP notifications.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Government Executive: The White House is ordering agencies to place its new app on all employees’ government phones. “The White House recently unveiled a new app to give the public ‘unfiltered’ access to ‘key priorities,’ ‘historic moments’ and ‘policy breakthroughs.’ Now, it’s directing agencies to help install it on the government phones of federal employees.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Microsoft warns of new Defender zero-days exploited in attacks . “On Wednesday, Microsoft started rolling out security patches for two Defender vulnerabilities that have been exploited in zero-day attacks.”

PetaPixel: Disneyland Sued Over Use of Facial Recognition Tech at Park Entrances. “A visitor is suing Disneyland for $5 million for allegedly failing to properly disclose the use of facial-recognition technology at park entrances and collecting sensitive data on guests. Summer Christine Duffield of Riverside County filed the lawsuit following a May 10 visit to Disneyland and its sister park, California Adventure.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Illinois Chicago: Pressed plants reveal living genetic messages, decades later . “In a new study, researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago extracted viable RNA, the essential messenger of genetic information, from plants from museum collections. This research breakthrough will make it possible for scientists to study plant evolution, gene regulation and adaptation using specimens that were long thought to hold only degraded genetic material.”

The Verge: Elon, stop trying to make Grok happen. “Reuters reviewed more than 400 examples of government AI use where specific vendors were named. Grok or xAI, it found, appeared in only three — each of those for basic uses like document drafting or social media management, and always alongside competitors like Microsoft and OpenAI. OpenAI’s models, by comparison, appeared in more than 230 examples, while Google and Anthropic each appeared dozens of 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.

The Register: Gemini accused of 30,000-line code purge and fake recovery report. “A developer claims Google’s Gemini coding assistant deleted nearly 30,000 lines of working production code while making changes to a live application – the sort of productivity boost usually associated with ransomware.”

AI EVENTS

South Jersey Climate News: NJ Big Data conference explores potential and pitfalls of AI. “The New Jersey Big Data Alliance (NJBDA) held its 13th annual symposium at Rowan University in Glassboro, exploring a theme of ‘building accessible and sustainable AI ecosystems.’ Founded in 2013, NJBDA facilitates collaborations between the state’s tech industry and university partners through research forums and one of the most prominent conferences in the big data and AI space.”

AI IN EDUCATION

NC Newsline: Duke University says data center will boost ‘environmental responsibility and sustainability’. “Duke University plans to build a small data center at Central Campus, potentially the first of several similar-size projects, which has raised questions among some faculty about whether the energy- and water-intensive endeavors could derail the institution’s climate commitments.”

EdSource: California State University renews controversial systemwide contract with OpenAI. “California State University officials have renewed their controversial contract with OpenAI — developer of ChatGPT — reigniting a fight over institutional priorities at a time when the system faces millions of dollars in budget cuts.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

Verite News: Louisiana senator helped secure Meta’s largest data center. Then he sold the land beside it.. “For more than two years, Louisiana State Senator John ‘Jay’ Morris helped pave the way for Meta to build one of the world’s largest data centers, called Hyperion, in Richland Parish….Now, a Floodlight investigation has found that while Morris used his political position to advance the project, he and his business partners were buying and selling the land around it over the past 15 months.”

Gothamist: NYC comptroller urges rainy-day fund to offset potential AI fallout on city’s economy. “City Comptroller Mark Levine is urging local lawmakers to invest in a rainy-day fund that will protect New Yorkers in case artificial intelligence causes an economic downturn.”

Tom’s Hardware: Angry tiny Texas town council member proposes total ban on cellular and GPS devices in protest over AI dispute — says ‘Let’s take Bandera back to 1880’ after town votes to dump AI-powered license plate reader. “Bandera, Texas, a small town of around 900 residents located about 40 miles northeast of San Antonio, Texas, opted to cancel its Flock AI contract. Three of the five-member town council voted to end the AI company’s services, after months of complaints from people who are wary about AI-powered government surveillance. However, one of the two people who wanted the security program to continue has publicly crashed out: According to 404 Media, councilor Jeff Flowers proposes that the town go back to a pre-digital age if its people want complete privacy.”

AI LEGISLATION

PetaPixel: Lawmakers Reintroduce ‘No Fake Acts’ to Restrict AI Deepfakes with Backing from Getty. “A bill aimed at regulating unauthorized AI deepfakes of a person’s likeness has been reintroduced in Congress, this time with support from Getty Images.”

Cleveland.com: Ohio moves to criminalize AI-generated child pornography with new bill. “A bill approved in the Ohio Senate would govern use of artificial intelligence, establishing protections against deepfakes, identity theft and criminalizing AI-generated child pornography.”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

Bing Blogs: A Smarter Way to Explore Images Has Come to Bing. “Today, we’re introducing an evolution of Bing Image Search– a unique AI-guided experience that organizes results to reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed, making it easier to find what you’re looking for. Behind the scenes, AI helps make this possible by automatically labeling and organizing images into clear categories and generating short summaries that explain each group.”

MakeUseOf: Gemini’s new token limits are just as bad as Claude’s, and maybe even a little dumber. “After announcing sweeping changes to Gemini and AI-powered Search at Google I/O this week, Google announced overhauled Gemini AI usage limits and subscription tiers, sparking immediate backlash from users throughout communities and social media sites like Reddit who report restrictive throttling and a noticeable drop in output quality.”

Religion News Service: Inside the unlikely Vatican-Anthropic relationship that’s reshaping the AI ethics debate. “When news broke last week that Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical focused on artificial intelligence would be releasing on Monday (May 25), a wave of debate swept through Catholic and tech circles alike.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

UC Berkeley: The largest study of AI use by undergrads is in, revealing disparities in access — and in cheating. “Igor Chirikov, a senior researcher at UC Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education, has published the largest study of generative AI use by undergraduates, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Technology Sydney and Cornell University. More than 95,000 students at 20 research-intensive public universities responded to questions about how they use AI, including whether they use it to cheat. The findings were published on May 21 in Science.”

PsyPost: AI-generated Grokipedia articles are longer, less readable, and cite fewer sources than their Wikipedia counterparts. “A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides evidence that automated encyclopedias differ from human-edited platforms in both structure and political leaning. The research suggests that rather than uniformly removing bias, these automated systems tend to favor longer, more complex narratives while introducing rightward shifts in certain topic areas.”

Texas Tribune: In the Permian Basin, AI takes on big oil’s dirty water problem. “Underneath the Permian Basin, the state’s largest oil field, lies an ocean of toxic, unusable wastewater that bursts out of rock formations when oil companies extract fossil fuels from the ground. For years, companies have struggled with how to dispose of it. Now, many are turning to an ubiquitous, albeit controversial, technology to solve the problem — artificial intelligence.” 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.

Forth: California Expands CalHeatScore API to Give Residents Early Extreme Heat Alerts. “Governor Newsom announced a new API that delivers live, ZIP‑code level heat‑risk data from CalHeatScore to developers, weather services, local governments and others, aiming to give Californians early warning during extreme heat.”

Spotted on Reddit: Prism, a candidate information tool for the California governor’s race. From the front page: “This quiz matches you with the 2026 California governor candidates based on your actual positions — not their messaging or their party. 11 topics, 22 questions total. About 10–20 minutes — longer if you want to dig deeper.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Journal: Google Confirms May 2026 Core Update Is Now Rolling Out . “Google has begun rolling out the May 2026 core update, according to the Google Search Status Dashboard. Google also announced the rollout on X through its Search Central account. The rollout may take up to two weeks to complete.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

NBC News: Justice Department deletes press releases on charges against Jan. 6 rioters. “The Justice Department has removed press releases detailing the charges against hundreds of individuals who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot from its website, the department confirmed Friday.”

PressGazette: ITN launches paid subscriptions on Youtube to support archive content. ITN is Independent Television News, a UK media company. “The news and factual content production company has rebranded its ITN Archive channel as Frontline by ITN and launched two other pages: Flashback by ITN and Re-Told by ITN, all using its archive material under ITN Productions. Frontline by ITN has the option to support the digitisation of the archive by becoming a member for £3.99 per month.”

Chicago Reader: Work Hard Have Fun Make History looks at the destructive impulses behind Big Tech. “Right now, on Chicago’s stages, we have the Internet addiction reckoning of Octet at Raven Theatre and the paranoid tragicomedy of A Red Orchid Theatre’s The Targeted. First Floor Theater adds to this trend with their production of reid tang’s Work Hard Have Fun Make History, an ‘experimental comedy’ detailing interpersonal ruptures spurred by the gig economy, bottomless pits of slop scrolling, and AI.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: Poland directs officials to ditch Signal in favor of ‘secure’ state-developed alternative. “The Polish government is urging public officials and ‘entities within the National Cybersecurity System’ to stop using Signal, directing them to instead use an encrypted messenger developed by a leading Polish research organization.”

Engadget: Minnesota passes prediction markets ban. “Minnesota is the latest state to try and curtail the activities of prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. Governor Tim Walz signed a bill that included a number of public safety provisions, including a ban on those markets operating within the state.”

ZDNet: Microsoft won’t send you SMS texts for login anymore – why it’s pushing passkeys instead.”On a new support page, Microsoft announced that it will start phasing out SMS as an authentication and account recovery method for personal Microsoft accounts. Instead, the company is pushing passkeys, which offer much stronger security.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Northeastern University: Workers’ information shared with third-party companies, new research reveals. “Companies are sharing workers’ identifiable information and online activity to third-party companies, including Microsoft, Google and Facebook, using employee monitoring software known as ‘bossware,’ new Northeastern University research has revealed.”

University of Manchester: University of Manchester launches major AHRC-funded project on spontaneous memorials and healing. “Drawing on the Manchester Together Archive, a collection of more than 10,000 items left in St Ann’s Square and other places after the 2017 Manchester Arena attack, the project will work with museum and mental health professionals, people affected by the attack, and the wider public to create a trauma-informed, digital collection.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Bridge Michigan: In school cafeterias, kids fight Michigan’s food waste problems. “At 9 years old, [AJ] Beaudion is the composting manager at Hayes Elementary School in Livonia. His responsibilities include arriving on time during kindergarten through fourth-grade lunch to help sort the food waste, stacking compostable trays and placing them into bins destined for an offsite facility where they’ll be turned into rich soil.” Good morning, Internet…

This newsletter is free but most of the things that go into making it aren’t! Help me afford new socks and fancier bean stew by supporting ResearchBuzz on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

The Register: Frustrated franchisee sues Pizza Hut over crappy kitchen AI. “The back-of-house AI system that Pizza Hut has mandated its restaurants to adopt has been so poorly received by some franchisees, that one is suing the company for $100 million in losses tied to the technology. Put that in your crust and stuff it!”

Hackernoon: When AI Agents Lie to Each Other. “A Datadog State of AI Engineering report from April 2026 found that 1 in 20 AI requests already fail silently in production. The system keeps running. It returns answers that look correct. But the data underneath is wrong. In normal software engineering, a 5% silent failure rate would be a crisis. We would never ship code with those numbers.”

Engadget: Starbucks abandons its AI inventory tool after only nine months . “Sometimes, AI helps you fine-tune weather forecasts or improve the lives of people with disabilities. Other times, well, it loses a fight with a bottle of peppermint syrup. That’s the situation Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol finds himself in after the coffee chain reportedly told staff that it’s scrapping an AI inventory program after only nine months.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

Northeastern University: Why is the government considering new rules on AI safety? Experts weigh in. “The Trump administration is considering issuing new rules around the safe use of AI, seemingly reversing a position it had previously taken. Northeastern University experts said that they see the shift as a sign of changing attitudes toward the disruptive technology.”

Politico: New Pentagon task force races to bring powerful AI tools to America’s most sensitive networks. “The Pentagon’s cyber-warfighting arm is launching a task force to speed up the adoption of cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools with powerful hacking capabilities, according to three people with knowledge of the effort.”

CapRadio: After AI layoffs, Newsom orders state government to find ways to ease the pain. “Amid tech layoffs, anxiety around artificial intelligence and a forthcoming run for president, Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed an executive order that calls for state agencies to explore ways to mitigate job losses stemming from AI. The order, among other things, tells state agencies to explore severance policies, subsidized employment and other ways to help displaced workers. It also calls for a report on the impact of AI on the California labor market.”

AI LEGISLATION

CT Mirror: Opinion: CT’s AI bills are not the finish line. “Connecticut is right to begin regulating artificial intelligence (AI). But beginning is the key word. With Senate Bill 5 now signed into law and House Bill 5312 placed on the consent calendar as of May 5, the state legislature has taken meaningful steps toward a more transparent and accountable digital information ecosystem.”

NC Newsline: NC senators consider new restrictions on artificial intelligence in insurance and medical billing. “Senator Amy Galey (R-Alamance) says artificial intelligence in medical research has led to new understanding of diseases, new treatments, and new efficiencies. But she says AI in healthcare also has the potential to be disruptive and to contribute to increased costs for patients. Galey introduced a proposed committee substitute to House Bill 565 Wednesday that would prohibit health insurers from denying a claim based solely on the use of AI.”

AI IN WORK

Unseen Japan: 20% of Japan’s Manga Artists and Illustrators Say AI Has Cut Their Income. “The Japan Freelance League backed this up with another survey in January. They found that 12% of freelancers (including manga artists, authors, designers, and more) saw a decrease in income: 9.3% seeing a 10-50% loss, and 2.7% saying 50% or more. For a freelance workforce where margins are already tight, that’s enough to push some out of the industry entirely.”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

Ars Technica: Google’s SynthID AI watermarking tech is being adopted by OpenAI, Nvidia, and more. “How can we know what’s real in the age of AI? Google’s answer is SynthID, which it first demonstrated three years ago. The company says SynthID has since been used to label 100 billion images and videos, plus 60,000 years’ worth of audio. Those numbers are only going up now that SynthID is expanding beyond Google.”

Gizmodo: The Scandal Over a Supposedly AI-Written, Award-Winning Short Story Is Troubling. Or Just Mean?. “When there was social media chatter on Monday about an AI-written short story supposedly having won a ‘prestigious literary prize,’ I opted not to blog about it. I hadn’t heard of the Commonwealth Prize, so how prestigious was it really? Plus, there was nothing even close to proof of what was being alleged—just some complaints, and people trying to prove their point with extremely fallible AI detectors. But the social media allegations have metastasized into a scandal by now, and if the New York Times is now writing about this, I might as well too.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

PetaPixel: ‘AI Could Have Made It,’ Blogger Claims After Photographer Sues. “A photographer sued a blogger for copyright infringement after the defendant allegedly used a photo without permission or license. The defendant then claimed that because they could have created the picture using AI, it should not be protected. Thankfully, a U.S. District Court dismissed this notion.”

ZDNet: How AI can trick you into making fake payments – 5 red flags. “A new report from Visa says AI is reshaping both cyberattack and defense tactics and, specifically, is compressing the fraud cycle, making it easier to dupe consumers into authorizing malicious transactions.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Berkeleyside: San Francisco Bay turns to AI to avoid collisions between ships and whales. “Until now, whales could easily go unnoticed by mariners, but an AI-powered detection network launched this week is designed to track them day and night. The system, called WhaleSpotter, scans the bay around the clock for whale blows and heat signatures up to 2 nautical miles away, alerting mariners to slow down or reroute when whales are nearby.”

Search Engine Journal: Google Reveals First AI Mode Usage Numbers After One Year. “Google released a report detailing how people use AI Mode in the U.S., drawing on internal Search data and Google Trends to map search behavior one year after launch. The report, published alongside Google I/O 2026 announcements, said that AI Mode has surpassed 1 billion monthly active users globally. Queries have more than doubled every quarter since launch.” 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.

Popping up in my Calishat Snaps: a new search engine called Slick. From the About page: “Slick is a fast, independent search engine. No tracking, no distractions, just the results you actually came for. Search without being followed. See what matters.” I did a couple of searches and results were mixed; a search for cows found me an odd variety of cow stuff but spotlighted a Canadian radio station; Strawberry Shortcake however brought a decent mix of recipes and pop culture.

Maps Mania: PubCrawlr – the Global Pub Crawl Generator. “If you want to plan your next wild night out then you need my new global pub crawl generator – PubCrawlr. The map lets you click anywhere in the world to instantly generate a walking pub crawl between nearby bars.”

USEFUL STUFF

Found in my Calishat Snaps: YES WE SCAN. “Got an old USB scanner your computer can’t talk to? This web app is for you. … How it works. Your web browser emulates a whole PC running Linux with open-source scanning software (SANE). It connects that to your scanner via WebUSB.” George MacKerron, who created this site, made a similar one for using old printers called Printervention.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Journal of Blacks in Higher Education: University of Houston Students to Create Online Historical Archive Focused on Black Cowboys. “Although Black Americans were actively involved in Western livestock management for centuries, Black cowboys and cowgirls have been historically left out of traditional Western films, art, and textbooks. Through a series of interviews with former rodeo participants, artifact collectors, and museum curators, the research team hopes to preserve Black cowboys’ and cowgirls’ contributions to American history and Western culture.”

PetaPixel: Todd Webb, a Photographer Who Once Walked From New York to San Francisco, Has Archive Preserved. “Born in Detroit in 1905, Webb traveled the world and in the 1950s was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships, which allowed him to photograph the pioneer trails of early American settlers as he walked from New York City to San Francisco. Webb also photographed in the United Kingdom, Papua New Guinea, France, and several countries in Africa.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Verge: This image shut down a US accident database.. “The National Transportation Safety Board disabled its public docket today after realizing an image it released in connection with a 2025 UPS airline crash could be used to reconstruct audio from a cockpit voice recorder — something it’s prohibited by law from doing.”

Courthouse News: Brazil gives data agency power to enforce Supreme Court’s Big Tech ruling. “Two decrees signed Wednesday by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and published Thursday turn the Supreme Court’s ruling on digital platform liability into administrative rules and give Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority a central role in overseeing tech companies.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

UC Berkeley: This professor uses data to reveal hidden patterns in centuries of human storytelling. “In this 101 in 101 video, a series that challenges UC Berkeley faculty to explain their field in 101 seconds, [Professor David Bamman] breaks down the emerging field of cultural analytics, explaining how he uses data to answer big questions about how and why we tell stories.”

Tubefilter: Are male and female social media accounts floating in gendered political bubbles?. “A report published in Cornell University‘s arXiv database shows that recommendation algorithms treat male and female accounts differently, especially in the realm of political content.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

TechSpot: Forget Raspberry Pi: this computer is literally the size of a credit card. “We’ve seen plenty of tiny computers described as being credit card-sized, but that usually means they have roughly the same footprint as a payment card – rather than actually fitting inside a wallet. One Redditor decided to tuen the phrase into a literal one, building a functioning, battery-powered computer that is around 1mm (0.039 inches) thick.” 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.

Kansas Reflector: Kansas secretary of state moves 60-year-old system from paper to online. “In place of the previous paper-based system is a public website that launched Tuesday. [Scott] Schwab said the new digital system improves transparency, efficiency and cost. Users can view proposed regulations, search an in-progress archival catalogue and subscribe to email notices for scheduled public hearings.”

404 Media: This Archivist Has Saved 175,000 Articles from 30 Years of Writing about Magic: The Gathering. “Named after a Magic card, the Library of Leng is a new searchable database of writing about the card game. It pulled old usenet articles, hobbyist posts from old websites saved in the Internet Archive, and updates from publisher Wizards of the Coast that are routinely scrubbed from existence. The Library is hosting links to some of the first strategic writing about the game from 1994, just a year after it started, as well as announcements about tournament rules from just a few years ago.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Library of Virginia: Read All About It, New to Virginia Chronicle!. “Fantastic new titles from throughout the state have recently been added to Virginia Chronicle, but before diving into the newly digitized Virginia newspapers, a shoutout to a unique new addition that hails from our neighbor, West Virginia.”

Calishat: Digging Out From The Deluge of AI News And Turning It Into Another Newsletter. “For the last few months assembling ResearchBuzz has been increasingly frustrating. AI news was crowding out most of the other categories and I felt like the newsletter itself was getting much too AI-heavy. Things finally came to a head when I found myself with a 6200-item RSS backlog and 50 articles in my newsletter queue, over half of which were AI-related. My workflow had become more of a workclog. It took some work to wrangle my feeds and separate out the AI topics, but I think I’ve got things moving again.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Register: Google accused of pushing ‘free for life’ G Suite users onto paid plans. “A reader alerted The Register to what appears to be a new crackdown on long-standing G Suite Legacy accounts, with similar complaints now piling up on Reddit from users accused of violating Google’s non-commercial use policy, despite insisting they use the accounts only for family email and personal domains.”

Euronews: Ok computer: Rare folk instruments and lost melodies find a digital future. “Sounds once carried by shepherds, wedding processions and remote communities are now being recorded, digitised and brought into the online world through a new cultural platform in Uzbekistan. A new initiative called ‘Ohang’ aims to preserve and catalogue rare musical traditions by recording instruments and melodies that have long remained outside global audio libraries.”

Ars Technica: Plex’s 200% Lifetime Pass price hike tries forcing users to another subscription. “As of July 1, at 12:01 am UTC—or June 30 at 8:01 pm ET—people seeking access to Plex’s media server features through a one-time purchase will have to pay $750. That’s three times the current price of $250. The new price will not affect current Lifetime Plex Pass holders.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ukrainska Pravda: Ukraine says Russia is preparing new disinformation campaign to destabilise country. “Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service says it has obtained a number of Russian documents indicating that preparations are underway to destabilise the situation in Ukraine and undermine international support for the country.”

TechCrunch: Law enforcement shuts down VPN service used by two dozen ransomware gangs. “The FBI said in an alert that First VPN was so popular that ‘at least’ 25 ransomware gangs used the service to hide their malicious activity. Cybercriminals also relied on the VPN to scan the internet, run botnets, launch distributed denial-of-service attacks, and for running scams.”

Iowa Capital Dispatch: Grinnell College faces class-action lawsuit alleging privacy violations. “The lawsuit alleges that in July 2024, Eyal Hanfling visited the college’s website and that his information was then shared with third parties. The lawsuit seeks damages for Hanfling and a putative class of similarly situated users who were allegedly harmed by the site.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Missouri: User-friendly bot detection. “Traditional bot detection methods like CAPTCHA are effective, but they come at the cost of user experience. Our team wanted to explore whether machine learning could handle the same job entirely in the background — no interruptions, no puzzles, just seamless verification. Beyond bot detection, we saw potential for this approach to extend into broader authentication use cases as well. The idea stemmed from looking critically at how existing CAPTCHA systems work and asking whether the same outcome could be achieved less intrusively.”

Veronica With Four Eyes: My Experience Using Kagi Search With Low Vision. “I hadn’t realized how much the visual clutter from search engine pages was weighing on me until it was eliminated, and I have been mentioning Kagi to almost everyone I know since then. Here is an overview of my experience using Kagi Search with low vision, including tips for using Kagi search tools and information about Kagi accessibility for low vision.” 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.

Mississippi Today: KKK cache is available to the public at Archives and History. “The public can now get a glimpse of 1960s Ku Klux Klan materials, including charters and lists of dues-paying Mississippi Klansmen, through collections housed at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The department announced Wednesday that the materials can be seen in its research library in downtown Jackson. Items are also now available for viewing online.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TorrentFreak: Anna’s Archive Hit With $19.5m Default Judgment and Global Domain Takedown Order. “A coalition of thirteen major publishers has won a massive $19.5 million default judgment against shadow library Anna’s Archive. A New York federal judge fully approved the publishers’ requests, issuing a broad permanent injunction that orders more than twenty specific global registries, hosts, and service providers to immediately disable the site’s remaining domains.”

WordPress: WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong”. “WordPress 7.0 marks the start of a new era, laying the foundation for AI across the WordPress experience. Greeting you with a modern, more intuitive dashboard, 7.0 introduces enhanced customization and development tools that inspire creativity and tap into endless potential.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: Kickstarter reverses controversial new NSFW content guidelines. “According to [COO Sean] Leow, the new guidelines — which merged existing Kickstarter rules and Stripe prohibitions — were intended to provide a more streamlined experience for users who may eventually face roadblocks in their campaigns due to Stripe’s e-commerce constraints.”

Press Gazette: Facebook restricts local newspaper for publishing drug-driver court report. “Facebook has restricted a UK local newsbrand from monetising its content or reaching new people on the platform after it posted a court story about a drug-driver. Newbury Today, owned by Iliffe Media, has had restrictions on its Facebook page for almost two months and has not been able to get any response from parent company Meta.”

Comics Beat: New York Working Cartoon Library seeking endowment funds. “Several cartoonists from the world of minicomics and small-press zines have banded together to launch a GoFundMe campaign for the creation of the New York Working Cartoon Library, a new community space for comics creators and readers alike in NYC.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Kansas Reflector: Denied access to criminal records in Kansas boy’s death sparks First Amendment lawsuit. “Kansas legislators in 2025 passed a law requiring courts across the state to keep criminal case files secret until someone is arrested or an arrest warrant is denied. The newspaper’s publisher, Walker Publishing, filed a lawsuit Thursday against three judicial branch officials, arguing they violated the First Amendment by denying the existence of case records and eschewing public access to the judicial system.”

KQED: Iran Is Winning The Slopaganda War. “AI-generated LEGO videos have become a tool of war. Since the U.S.-Israel war with Iran began in late February, increasingly elaborate videos featuring LEGO figures and catchy rap lyrics have been flooding our feeds. They’re shareable, surprisingly high quality and they’re deeply critical of the U.S. and Trump. They’re also propaganda. Welcome to the age of ‘slopaganda’ — where AI Slop meets information warfare.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NiemanLab: More than 340 local news outlets are limiting the Internet Archive’s access to their journalism. “Our new analysis shows that more than 340 local news sites across the United States are now limiting the Internet Archive’s ability to access and preserve their stories. Many sites in our sample are owned by five of the seven largest local news publishers in the country: USA Today Co., McClatchy, Advance Local, MediaNews Group, and Tribune Publishing.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

TechSpot: Japan is using $4,000 animatronic wolves to scare off bears, and can’t make them fast enough. “Not content with making a howl that can be heard over 1 kilometer away, the aptly named Monster Wolf also has red LEDs in its eyes and blue ones in its tail and legs. It plays more than 50 kinds of recorded sounds, including human voices and electronic noises, so the bears don’t get used to the same one.” 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.

New-to-me, from TechBook: Over 5,000 Calculators! Inside Germany’s Most Unusual Tech Collection. “‘I received my first pocket calculator as a gift from my father,’ recalls Gerhard Wenzel from Solingen. ‘It was a device from Quelle’s own brand, Privileg, an 872 MD.’ Naturally, the first item in his collection is also featured in his online collection.” This is clearly a very old site and it’s absolutely charming.

National Security Archive: Cuba: Declassified Records on the Brothers to the Rescue Shootdown. “On Eve of Raul Castro Indictment, Archive Posts Declassified FAA Documents on Events Leading to Shootdown of Cuban Exile Planes.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Fold3 Blog: New Korean War Era Draft Cards on Fold3!. “We are happy to announce that we’ve added more than 2 million Korean War Era Draft Registration Cards from five states to Fold3.” (Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, South Carolina.)

New York Times: The Morale of Tech Workers Is Plunging as Layoffs Mount. This link goes to a gift article. “Cooperation and collegiality are on the wane; chumminess between employees and managers has cooled as mutual suspicion pervades their relationships; and a throbbing economic anxiety infects almost every conversation. Perhaps no site on the internet reflects this transformation more vividly than Blind, where users can post in private channels restricted to employees of a single company, or public channels visible to anyone.”

USEFUL STUFF

Calishat: Three Search Alternatives to Google’s Brave New AI World. “Google has made what I consider to be the terrible decision to go all-in on AI in search and there’s little I can do personally against that decision. Still, I can make alternatives. I can express my ideas in tools that I share with you. I can at least try to hold space for the idea that there are ways to perform queries and create search spaces that Silicon Valley does not offer, and maybe those ways are worth your time (they’re certainly worth mine.) Here are three search tools you might want to try in place of Google’s turn to AI. They are all free and ad-free.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Sarajevo Times: The Museum of Literature and Theater Arts of BiH implements a Digital Library Project. “The Museum of Literature and Theatre Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina is implementing the project ‘Digital Library and Stage Treasury of BiH – Opening the Literary and Theatre Heritage to the Public’ whose goal is to improve the protection, preservation and accessibility of the valuable literary and theatre heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

PetaPixel: Badger Badger Badger Video Officially Preserved by British Film Institute. “The flash animation video that first went live on the website B3ta.com back in September 2003 has been officially preserved by the British Film Institute (BFI). Another early viral internet hit, ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’, has also been preserved as the BFI pushes to preserve internet lore.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TechCrunch: NYC Health + Hospitals says hackers stole medical data and fingerprints during breach affecting at least 1.8 million people. “New York public health provider NYC Health + Hospitals says a months-long data breach that allowed hackers to steal personal data, medical records, and fingerprints scans affects at least 1.8 million people.”

Hoodline San Francisco: SF Lawyers Say Hisense TVs Turn Your Living Room Into a Spy Den. “San Francisco lawyers say Hisense USA has turned millions of its smart TVs into always-on surveillance tools, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed last Tuesday. The complaint alleges the sets’ automatic content recognition, or ACR, can grab snapshots of what is on a screen as often as every 500 milliseconds, then combine those fingerprints with device and household identifiers to build cross-device profiles.”

Ars Technica: FBI seeks US-wide access to license plate cameras, wants “data in near real time”. “The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced plans to buy nationwide access to a network of license plate readers, saying it will award contracts to one or more vendors that can offer ‘near real time’ information from cameras across the US. The proposed contract is for the FBI Directorate of Intelligence.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

ProPublica: We’re Investigating Alaska Internet Companies. We Need Your Help.. “Alaskans pay higher costs for slower internet speeds than most Americans. The government has spent billions of dollars of public money to try to fix the problem, and we want to know how it’s really going in your community. Please fill out this quick survey to share how much it costs you to get online and what you think of the service.”

Richmond American University London: Richmond Academic Co-Authors New Research on Extremism in Online Gaming Spaces . “Published by the Global Network on Extremism & Technology (GNET), Beyond the Clan: Identity Formation, Influence, and Extremist Milieux in Online Gaming-Adjacent Spaces examines how platforms linked to gaming culture can become environments where harmful ideologies spread through influencers, online communities, memes, and cross-platform interactions.” 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.