Government of Yukon: Yukon Archives launches new database during International Archives Week. “In conjunction with International Archives Week, Yukon Archives is announcing the launch of its new online database, which makes it easier than ever for the public to search, find and learn from historical records. For the first time, descriptive information for close to 400,000 records is available in one place. This includes photographs, maps, sound recordings, films and many other materials.”

Polk County Florida Clerk of Court: Polk County Clerk & Comptroller Preserves Historic Cattle Brand Book for Future Generations. “Polk County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller Stacy M. Butterfield, CPA, is preserving a unique piece of Polk County’s agricultural history through the restoration, preservation, and digitization of the historic Cattle Brand Books. The collection includes cattle brand records maintained by the Clerk’s office from the 1860s through the 1940s, when ranchers used brands to identify livestock across the region.”

EVENTS

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

EL PAÍS: Frances Haugen: ‘We are worse off today than when I leaked the Facebook documents’. “Haugen now lives in Puerto Rico (she understands Spanish but doesn’t speak it). Her years at Google, Pinterest, and Facebook are behind her: she has founded an NGO, Beyond the Screen, aimed at making social media more transparent. She spoke exclusively to EL PAÍS in Barcelona after taking part as a keynote speaker at the first International Meeting on Digital Rights.”

MakeUseOf: After years of forcing Bing into Windows 11, Microsoft is finally backing down . “For years, Microsoft has been forcing Bing into Windows 11’s local search functionality, making it nearly impossible to search for the apps and files you already have on your PC with trudging through lists of other nonsense. However, new reports suggest the company is actually backing down, and that could make Search on Windows 11 actually usable again.”

USEFUL STUFF

PetaPixel: New Chrome Extension Brings Batch Editing to Google Photos. “According to creator Yair Levin, the idea for Batch for Google Photos came from a familiar frustration after returning from a family trip with hundreds of smartphone photos that needed the same adjustments before being shared with relatives.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CBC: Facebook is paying people overseas promoting Alberta separatism. “Nieta Aqila is among 14 overseas accounts CBC identified in four popular Alberta independence Facebook groups. The accounts have posted politically divisive content about Alberta separatism, Western annexation and other hot-button Canadian topics within the past two months.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: Norks blast 250+ fake job offers to developers over 6 weeks to try and snarf creds and crypto. “A previously unseen phishing crew, suspected to have DPRK ties, sent more than 250 emails to people working in almost 100 organizations, mostly based in the US, over six weeks in April and May. According to security sleuths, it is yet another digital-heist attempt designed to steal cryptocurrency wallets and developers’ credentials.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Daily Bruin: Progress toward full repatriation of Indigenous items differs across UC. “Progress toward full repatriation of Native American cultural items, as required by state law, varies greatly across the UC system. UCLA has repatriated 58,482 items – about 92% of the 63,897 in its possession – as of February 2026, according to the UC’s website. But some other UC campuses – including UC Berkeley, which has returned less than 25% of the items in its collection – lag behind in these efforts.”

Rare Disease Advisor: Researchers Launch Open-Access Biomarker Database to Accelerate DMD Research. “MDBiomarkers, a searchable online database consolidating biomarker findings from multiple serum and tissue datasets in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), is now available, the creators announced in a report published in the Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

NewScientist: Wildlife thrives in solar farm built on restored peatland . “A solar farm on a rewetted peatland is home to more types of bird than drained agricultural fields nearby, suggesting that land used for renewable energy can make money for landowners, lock away carbon and boost biodiversity at the same time.”

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

This launched in January when I was in the middle of moving and mourning my Granny so I missed it. California State Library: California State Library Announces Release of Newly Digitized Prison Press Collection Spanning 1915-1991. “Featuring 21 distinct periodicals created by incarcerated writers, editors, and artists, this California Prison Press collection offers an unparalleled window into daily life, creative expression, and evolving perspectives of people living in the state’s penal system across much of the 20th century.”

Calishat: New dataset of GLAM (Galleries / Libraries / Archives / Museums) RSS feeds available on GitHub. “RSS feeds aren’t dead! And to prove it I’ve started working on a new dataset of GLAM (Galleries / Libraries / Archives / Museums)-related RSS feeds. I’ve uploaded the initial version — 399 GLAM-related feeds, all human-verified, most updated this year (a couple dozen updated in 2025, nothing earlier than that) — to GitHub ( https://github.com/ResearchBuzz/GLAM-RSS-feeds ).”

Ball State University: Ball State IDIA Lab Launches Mesa Verde Virtual Companion App for Apple and Android Devices. “Ball State University’s Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts (IDIA Lab) has launched the Mesa Verde Virtual Companion, a new augmented reality mobile app designed to deepen public engagement with Mesa Verde National Park through immersive, interactive digital experiences.”

EVENTS

British Library Blog: Open Repositories 2026: looking back at OR2025. “The Open Repositories conference returns this year as a free online event from 8–11 June 2026. The conference brings together repository managers, developers, librarians, researchers, and open scholarship practitioners from around the world to learn about formative techniques and technologies while connecting with people who are solving related issues at their institutions.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

SSRN Blog: SSRN’s Ongoing Commitment to Legal Scholarship . “We are aware that Professor Bainbridge raises understandable concerns about changes at SSRN, particularly given how central the platform is to legal scholarship. For many of us, SSRN is not just a repository; it is the backbone of early dissemination, discovery, and intellectual exchange in the legal academy.”

AppleInsider: App Store overhaul gives developers new ways to sell subscriptions. “Apple is overhauling the App Store with new subscription tools, personalized recommendations, and marketing features that give developers more ways to attract customers and grow their businesses.”

Engadget: Meta quietly removes face-recognition code from its smart glasses app . “Wired uncovered the dormant tool on June 4. It contained algorithms which would have converted photos of faces into biometric identifiers stored on-device and cross referenced with each new facial scan. On June 5, an update was released which removed it entirely.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Gizmodo: Kalshi Asks Influencers to Take Down Sponsored Conspiracy Posts About the LA Election. “According to reporting from Semafor, the prediction market Kalshi sought to clean up apparent messes on Friday after some of its influencer relationships essentially made it look like it was paying to distribute conspiracy content online. Posts have now been removed at Kalshi’s request. However, similar sponsored posts associated with Kalshi’s competitor, Polymarket, do not appear to be disappearing.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TechCrunch: Microsoft’s open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers. “Microsoft has cut off access to dozens of its open source projects hosted on GitHub as it investigates how hackers apparently breached the projects and injected password-stealing malware into the code.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Politico: A judge said the Trump administration can’t dismantle a weather research center. The damage may already be done.. “The Trump administration cannot dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a federal judge ruled this week. But the damage may already be done. Staff are fleeing, equipment has been offered for sale and multiple critical projects are paused, possibly never to be started again.”

Disciples of Christ Historical Society: Digitization 101: I’ve Got 99 Problems, But Will Digitization Solve Any of Them?. “This is the second article in our ‘Digitization 101’ series, which aims to answer questions the archival team regularly receives about digitizing and providing online access to historical records. This month, we confront digitization’s reputation as the panacea for all historical records challenges.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Tom’s Hardware: Developer gets Half-Life running at 30 FPS on a Nokia N95 — proves 2007 phones can just about match 1998 PCs. “Argentine developer Dante Leoncini has gotten the original Half-Life running at 30 FPS on a Nokia N95, the Symbian slider phone that launched in 2007, and has added mouse and keyboard support, he said in a post on X this week.” 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.

Asia Business Daily: Cultural Heritage Administration to Offer 800 Free 3D Assets and Traditional Pattern Data. “The Cultural Heritage Administration will make over 800 digital source assets freely available starting June 8, including 545 3D assets of national heritage and 262 traditional pattern data sets. These resources will be released through the National Heritage Digital Service website, as well as global platforms such as Fab and Unity.”

EVENTS

Lifehacker: WWDC 2026 Live Blog: Announcements About iOS 27, AI Siri, Apple Intelligence, and More. “On Monday, June 8, Apple will kick off its week-long developer conference with its famous WWDC keynote. If you’ve watched these events in the past, you already know a lot of what to expect: announcements regarding the next era of Apple’s software, including iOS 27, macOS 27, and watchOS 27, among others.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bangor Daily News: Balloon team that launched from Maine makes history. “Their success means they’ve soared into ballooning history. The three pilots are the first to complete a trans-Atlantic crossing in an open-basket balloon powered by hydrogen. But the flight is historic for Hempleman-Adams as well, who has become the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a gas balloon.”

USEFUL STUFF

New Orleans Museum of Art: “Preparing Your Photos for Hurricane Season” Guide Now Available. “Nayla Maaruf, Conservator of Photographs and Works of Art on Paper at NOMA, developed a guide for protecting important family photographs ahead of hurricane season. This guide is available now as a free PDF for you to print and download.” Quick and useful.

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Is LinkedIn Entering Its Post-Cringe Era?. This link goes to a gift article. “Now, celebrities, athletes and other content creators are leaning into their LinkedIn presence, and the usual business executives and ‘thought leaders’ more associated with it are getting more personal. One top executive at Blackstone even posts while jogging.” I posted about a new mop I really like recently.

Tubefilter: TikTok and Sundance team up for microseries writing program. “Following a partnership earlier this year that focused on TikTok’s influence in film fandom, the app and Sundance Institute this week announced they’re offering a microseries writing program. The program comes through Sundance Collab, the Institute’s digital learning and community platform.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Guardian: Microsoft to tighten human rights measures after inquiry into Israel’s use of its tech. “Microsoft has said it will tighten human-rights controls when working with national security agencies after an inquiry into how the Israeli military used its cloud technology for the mass surveillance of Palestinians.”

TechSpot: Signal, DuckDuckGo, and NordVPN threaten to exit Canada if metadata surveillance law passes. “The latest version of Canada’s Bill C-22 would require digital services such as internet service providers, messaging platforms, email providers, and potentially hardware companies to retain up to one year of user metadata. In addition, tech companies would have to implement mechanisms that allow authorities to obtain ‘lawful access’ to that information for criminal investigations.”

Tom’s Hardware: Ukraine’s birds adapt to battlefield environment, weaving nests out of drone fiber-optic cables — resourceful wildlife adapts to miles of littered drone fibers. “Example photos of these optical fiber nests were shared on Twitter/X by a Ukrainian civil society leader and anti-corruption advocate, Olena Tregub. She called the carefully woven avian construction an ‘apocalyptic bird’s nest’ and credited Oleg Malchenko as the photographer.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PBS News: New proposal would give Trump officials more control over scientific research grants. “The Trump administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul on how the federal government awards billions of dollars in research grants. But researchers say it could allow the administration to limit and exert more control over critical scientific research. Craig McLean, the former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, joins William Brangham to discuss.”

Science: The architecture of the internet creates risks for democracy. “Will democracy survive the internet? Do we need to choose between Facebook’s surveillance capitalism or democracy? Layered lines of evidence can inform questions like these. When considered together, the evidence gives rise to a concerning picture, as summarized in a recent report for the European Commission that I co-led.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

PetaPixel: Artist Farms World’s Largest Living Photograph That’s Visible Only From the Sky. “The project occupies 11,000 square meters of cultivated land and is believed to be the largest photographic artwork ever made since the entire field is transformed into a living photographic image, produced through the growth of plants, photosynthesis, and chromatic variation.” 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.

Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University: Zimmerli Art Museum Launches Global Resource for Soviet Nonconformist Art. “The Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University—New Brunswick is proud to announce the launch of a new website (dodge.zimmerli.rutgers.edu), dedicated to its internationally renowned Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union, the largest collection of its kind in the world.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mashable: Substack gives creators control of the conversation with new Reply Rules. “Substack is giving writers expanded control over their comments sections. The paid newsletter website announced in a blog post on Wednesday that it is introducing a new system called Reply Rules. With Reply Rules, individual writers who open up comments underneath their posts can write out a quick summary of what they’d like to see from said comments.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: 3 weekend Raspberry Pi projects that actually solve real problems at home (Jun 5 – 7). “Are you ready to tackle more Raspberry Pi projects this weekend? Well, you’re in luck, because I have three more fun projects to try out, including building an offline version of Wikipedia, setting up Network UPS Tools, and building a network troubleshooting toolkit.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BBC: The gamers taking on the industry to stop it switching off games. “Can a company take away something you’ve already paid for? In the world of online video games, some already do. Publishers can decide to switch off a game’s servers, often leaving it effectively unplayable. Stop Killing Games, a growing consumer rights campaign started by American YouTuber Ross Scott in 2024, is challenging that practice.”

The Guardian: ‘Mogging’ is suddenly everywhere. Is that a problem?. “This word for outdoing or outshining others originated in the manosphere, but is now thoroughly mainstream. Why is it so popular – and should we be worried about slang that arises from toxic subcultures?”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: RFK Jr. seeks to peek at Americans’ medical records for clues on autism and vaccines. “U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pursuing federal government access to most Americans’ medical records, in a quest to research a link between vaccines and autism — a connection the medical establishment studied for decades and flatly rejects.”

PetaPixel: Who Took This JFK Photo? Museum and Collector Clash in Copyright Case. “The photograph in question shows a smiling President Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in their motorcade on the day of his assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963. In the case, which was first reported by Plagiarism Today, private collector Cade Campbell filed a claim with the Copyright Claims Board (CCB), alleging that the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas was unlawfully displaying this photograph.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Ars Technica: My SSN was exposed in a breach at Columbia—a school I have no connection with. “A weird text from my dad in February sent me on a months-long quest to solve a mystery that has been troubling an odd group of victims from a Columbia University data breach last year. That group? People with absolutely no connection to the school. The text included a photo of a letter from Columbia, informing me that I was a victim of a data breach last June, one that exposed a wide range of sensitive information, including 1.8 million Social Security numbers.”

Vietnam.vn: Vietnamese intellectuals in the UK are building the first database of experts.. “For the first time, more than 200 Vietnamese experts in the UK are connected in a specialized database, creating a bridge between overseas knowledge resources and the needs of domestic science and technology development.”

Castellani Art Museum: Open Call: Help Build CAM’s Digital Art Resource Library. “As part of Hardwired: Foundational Works in Digital Art and the launch of the Nanula Digital Art Gallery, CAM is developing a Digital Art Resource Library—an expanding collection of texts that trace the history, theory, and future of digital practice. Rather than building this library from a single curatorial voice, CAM is opening the process to the wider community.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Georgia Museum of Art: UGA Students Create Tactile Replica for Museum Visitors with Low Vision. “Most museum visitors know the rule ‘look, but don’t touch,’ but where does that leave people who are blind or have low vision? As museums work toward increasing accessibility, many are exploring the incorporation of tactile images, or three-dimensional objects designed to be interpreted through touch.” 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.

Indy Week: In Durham, Protesting Rising Duke Energy Rates Through Drag. “The performers and onlookers—who traveled from around the state—were gathered at the courthouse to protest proposed rate increases by Duke Energy and the rise of high-energy-consuming data centers used by tech behemoths like those portrayed in the skit. After the villains were quelled, the crowd went inside to give testimony against the proposed rate increases at a public hearing held by the North Carolina Utilities Commission.”

Tom’s Hardware: Indiana mayor secretly recorded saying AI data center protestors only live in ‘sh***y’ houses — office issues statement of clarification over controversial comments. “Scott Ferguson (R), the mayor of Shelbyville, Indiana, was caught on camera insulting community members who were opposed to a proposed data center project near the city. The mayor’s office has been forced to issue a statement after he was secretly recorded claiming he had only seen ‘No AI data center’ signs in “sh***y,” unkempt houses.”

DATA CENTERS

Planet Detroit: Allen Park planners reject proposed data center: ‘We’re gonna celebrate with one eye open’. “The rejection is due to the need for extensive revisions to comply with the city’s zoning ordinance; missing information; a lack of adequate engineering studies on the facility’s impacts; and a sound study that failed to demonstrate noise-related nuisance will be mitigated, among other reasons, [Commissioner Madison] LaPalm said.”

Ars Technica: “We pissed off a lot of people”: Giant data center plan cut 50% amid protests. “One of the world’s biggest data center projects was designed to be nearly three times the size of Manhattan, stretching across multiple Utah sites. But intense local backlash in Box Elder County has now pushed the developer to cut the project plans in half before construction starts.”

Missouri Independent: ‘They’re already here’: Regulating data centers stalls in Missouri. “At the local level, St. Louis suburb St. Charles is one of the first cities in the country to enact a local moratorium on data center construction. In Festus, south of St. Louis, voters in the April election rejected a slate of four city council members who supported a local data center. Weeks earlier, hundreds of residents mobbed a city council meeting, and council members were escorted out by police.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

CNBC: Trump administration, OpenAI discussing possible government stake in the AI startup. “OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the White House are in ongoing talks about a possible government stake in the artificial intelligence company, CNBC confirmed on Friday.”

Reuters: White House AI policy adviser Krishnan to leave position. “A top White House artificial intelligence policy adviser ‌on Saturday said he will leave his position at the end of June, marking the exit of a leading figure helping craft policies for frontier technologies. ‘This journey has been the privilege of a lifetime,’ the adviser, ​Sriram Krishnan, posted on social media platform X.”

Oklahoma Voice: Oklahoma ethics agency to consider regulating use of AI in political campaigns. “The Ethics Commission officially kickstarted their rulemaking process Friday. The agency will explore options for regulating the tool, such as defining AI, requiring disclaimers when it’s used, exemptions for parody or satire and addressing concerns about First Amendment rights or protected political speech.”

Chicago Sun-Times: Gov. JB Pritzker puts pause on data center tax breaks after legislative effort stalls. “Gov. JB Pritzker’s office will halt tax breaks that had been offered to incentivize the construction of data centers in Illinois, after state lawmakers failed to advance legislation reining in developments powering the artificial intelligence industry and driving up energy costs for residents nationwide.”

AI LEGISLATION

Spectrum News NY: N.Y. lawmakers pass bill aimed at protecting minors from AI chatbots. “On Thursday, state lawmakers passed a bill aimed at protecting minors from artificial intelligence chatbots. The legislation prohibits AI features that are considered unsafe for minors.”

AI IN WORK

Associated Press: Actors’ union approves 4-year contract with studios and streamers. “Television and movie actors on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to ratify a four-year contract with studios and streaming services, a month after their union leaders negotiated a deal they say provides protections against synthetic actors created by artificial intelligence.”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

SECURITY & LEGAL

Texas Tribune: Texas county rescinds its data center moratorium after $100 million lawsuit from developer. “A rural North Texas county that appears to be the first in the state to pass a data center moratorium has rescinded the measure after being sued by a developer for $100 million in damages.”

Politico: The lawsuits that could give AI its ‘Big Tobacco’ moment. “…some key differences between AI chatbots and traditional social media platforms could be relevant to courts, particularly when it comes to speech laws. One of those differences concerns Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the 1996 regulation that shields online platforms from liability for user-posted content.”

TechSpot: Anthropic is blacklisted by the Pentagon and being used by the NSA at the same time. “It appears that the US government isn’t completely against American agencies using technology from Anthropic, a company it designated a ‘supply chain risk’ earlier this year. According to a new report, the NSA is using the AI firm’s Mythos model ‘for offensive cyber operations.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Space Daily: An AI trawled through 35 years of Hubble images and found more than 800 strange objects that had never been documented before, showing that one of astronomy’s most famous archives is still hiding discoveries in plain sight. “Two researchers at the European Space Agency have run an AI tool across nearly 100 million cropped images from the Hubble Space Telescope archive and come back with a shortlist of unusual objects, more than 800 of which had never been described in the scientific literature.”

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.

Ohio Attorney General: Yost Unveils Statewide Crime and Sentencing Data Dashboard. “The Ohio Crime Statistics Dashboard, now accessible on the Attorney General’s website, compiles felony arrest and sentencing data dating back the past 10 years for all 88 counties. It is the first public-facing dashboard of its kind in Ohio.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Kagi Blog: An update on Kagi Translate. “Some of you might have noticed that Translate no longer works when you’re signed out, or that it shows as offline. This is because we have temporarily turned off free access while we work through the cost of running Translate. If you have an active subscription, Translate still works.”

TechCrunch: TikTok launches TikTok Pro Events, an app for cultural moments like the FIFA World Cup. “TikTok announced on Wednesday that it’s launching a new stand-alone app in the U.S. dedicated to cultural milestones like the upcoming FIFA World Cup. The new app, called TikTok Pro Events, allows users to engage with other fans, explore trending videos, and access curated creator feeds.”

Engadget: Google experiments with sending Chrome searches straight to AI . “Windows Report has discovered a new hidden hidden flag in Chrome Canary, the browser’s most experimental variant meant for developers and early adopters, that will take you to AI Mode by default…. Google’s VP of Search Engineering, Rajan Patel, quickly shot this down though with a post on X.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Guardian: Consumer protection agency deletes thousands of pages as Trump administration seeks to dismantle it. “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau deleted at least 2,200 webpages from its website last month, a move advocates say is part of the Trump administration’s latest effort to dismantle the federal consumer finance watchdog.”

CT Insider: Rare Lincoln documents lost in New London after historian drives off with folder on car roof. “It was shortly after 4 p.m., when the library closed, that everything went wrong for [Sameer] Somal. While moving video equipment out of the building, he placed the black folder containing the rare documents on the hood of his car, along with a book on Lincoln. Then, he drove off.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Mashable: Meta quietly added facial recognition code for smart glasses to its app, says it’s just exploring. “A Wired investigation discovered that the code has been added to Meta’s AI app over ‘multiple updates this year.’ The feature is internally called NameTag, and it can reportedly identity people captured by the camera on Meta’s smart glasses, including Ray-Bans and Oakleys, as well as alert the wearer when it recognizes someone.”

Reuters: Thai watchdog to sue Meta over Facebook scam ads targeting users. “Thailand’s consumer watchdog said it will sue Meta’s Facebook for allegedly allowing scammers ​to use the platform to defraud users through adverts ‌and for failing to protect consumers, the Consumer Council said on Thursday.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

UCLA: California Bird Atlas calls for public help to map breeding birds. “This first annual California Bird Atlas Big Weekend is an intensive event in which thousands of people will log bird observations and submit them to the world’s largest ornithology database. Scientists will study the information submitted to understand how and where birds live in a dynamic world.”

PsyPost: Recommendation algorithms might be making your entertainment boring, new research suggests. “A recent study published in the Journal of Cultural Economics suggests that highly accurate content recommendation algorithms might accidentally make our entertainment feel boring over time. The theoretical model indicates that injecting a small amount of randomness into these systems tends to improve long-term user satisfaction.” 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.

Cobb Courier: At a Tennessee Hospital, a Nurse Stole Fentanyl and AI Missed It, State Records Say. “The hospital uses the newest line of defense against drug diversion: Sentri7, medication-monitoring software powered by artificial intelligence and designed to detect missing drugs faster than any human can. But for months at Erlanger, Sentri7 failed to raise alarms, overlooking missing drugs and other ‘inconsistencies’ that ‘should have been flagged,’ the nursing board’s order states.”

TechSpot: Spammers are flooding Reddit with fake posts designed to show up in AI search results. “Moderators of the /biohackers subreddit say they are dealing with spam that isn’t just about pushing sales, but about shaping how AI systems answer questions. They say companies are seeding discussions with posts intended to appear in AI-generated answers, effectively turning the subreddit into a battleground over which information large language models surface.”

Gizmodo: Should You Hijack a Corporate AI Chatbot for Free Tokens?. “A developer went viral for reconfiguring Chipotle’s customer support bot into a coding assistant, and providing the playbook for others to do the same to other chatbots.”

Reuters: Texas grid flags risks as data centers, crypto sites fail voltage tests. “Several ​large data centers and crypto facilities planning to connect to the Texas power grid ahead of ‌peak summer demand have failed key reliability tests, raising the risk of power outages just as electricity use hits its seasonal high, according to the state grid operator.”

DATA CENTERS

Ohio Capital Journal: Data center opponents give Ohio lawmakers an earful. “More than a hundred Ohioans submitted testimony ahead of state lawmakers’ Select Committee on Data Centers’ single hearing for public comment. Lawmakers heard an array of concerns about the proliferation of data centers around the state — the environmental impact, the cost of tax breaks, and the use of nondisclosure agreements to avoid public scrutiny.”

Ars Technica: How some data center operators are tackling their water use problems. “Water use is emerging as one of the most contentious data center issues. A recent Gallup poll found that seven out of 10 Americans are opposed to data center development, with water scarcity ranking as the top resource concern. Facing increasingly fierce resistance, some tech companies are scrambling to assure the public that they’re facing the issue head-on.”

NBC News: Leopards, tigers and AI data, oh my! Nashville Zoo tries to halt proposed data center. “The zoo, a popular destination in Tennessee’s capital city, is trying to block a proposed 69,000-square-foot data center from being built next door. The zoo says that the facility would be about 50 yards from some of its animals and that the noise could disturb its residents, including a leap of leopards that hail originally from Southeast Asia.”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

CNBC: Google to pay SpaceX $920 million a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers . “Days before a planned IPO that’s expected to raise record sums of cash, SpaceX has inked a deal with Google that will bring in $920 million a month by providing AI compute capacity to the search giant.”

Engadget: Google pledges to replenish more water than it uses at data centers by 2030 . “The company now has 165 stewardship projects across 97 watersheds, which are expected to replenish 19 billion gallons a year by 2030. Google says that’s more than double its consumption for 2024 and would allow the company to use more water over the coming years and still achieve its goal.”

ZDNet: I paid Microsoft’s premium Copilot agents to do my work – they were confidently bad at it. “Over the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to use the AI features in Microsoft 365 and Windows for a variety of everyday work tasks. Copilot shows occasional flashes of competence, but more often, the results I’m seeing are a mishmash of misinformation, hallucinations, and time-wasting dead ends. Allow me to share my recent experiences with you.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

PBS: Authorities struggle to stop AI tools generating nude images without consent. “There has been a sharp rise in so-called ‘nudification’ technology. These AI-powered tools can generate realistic fake images and videos that depict people as undressed, often without their knowledge or consent. William Brangham reports on the growing concern over the technology and the efforts underway to rein it in.”

University of Toronto: U of T researchers demonstrate AI worm could target any online device. “The researchers, who released their work June 2, are believed to be the first to show that publicly accessible AI models can be used to power a worm that adapts its strategy as it spreads from one device to the next. It can seize control of an entire network and hijack computing power to allow hackers to launch sophisticated attacks at virtually no cost.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

MIT News: MIT researchers teach AI models to interpret charts. “…researchers from MIT and the MIT-IBM Computing Research Lab developed a multifaceted resource for AI users that is specifically designed to teach vision-language models (VLMs) how to effectively interpret charts. They used a novel data generation method to build a state-of-the-art dataset that includes more than a million varied charts. The dataset also encodes many visual, linguistic, and numerical components of each chart image, which enable models to robustly reason about the information in a chart.”

Ars Technica: These LLMs are the best at resisting Russian propaganda. “As more people rely on large language models to provide pat answers to complex questions, state governments are understandably worried about those LLMs spouting what they see as dangerous propaganda promoted by foreign adversaries. To help combat this problem, the government-sponsored Estonian Language Institute (ELI) has released a new ‘Propaganda Resistance’ benchmark ranking dozens of LLMs on their ability to avoid ‘tak[ing] positions on topics that the Russian Federation uses in its strategic narratives.'”

University of North Carolina: Carolina launches study on libraries and generative AI in local communities . “UNC-Chapel Hill has launched a statewide two-year collaborative planning and pilot study aimed at understanding how North Carolina communities are encountering generative artificial intelligence and how local libraries can support AI literacy in meaningful, locally relevant and sustainable ways.” 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.

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health: Public Health Launches First Countywide Interactive Map of Hazardous Sites. “The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health today launched its first countywide interactive environmental mapping tool for Los Angeles County, giving residents, community organizations, researchers, and policymakers more transparency into the location of oil and gas facilities and industrial and waste sites across Los Angeles County, including in and around neighborhoods, schools, and other community areas.”

PR Newswire: Money Announces Financial Advisors Database; 389,000 Advisors Listed Spanning All 50 States (PRESS RELEASE). “Today Money announces the launch of Money’s Financial Advisors, a comprehensive financial database that spans all 50 states and includes more than 389,000 advisors.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Press Gazette: European publishers seek £552m+ from Google claiming ad market abuse. “The European Commission said that any people or company affected by anti-competitive behaviour outlined by this case could seek damages, which would be considered separately to the fine imposed on Google. The publishers involved in the case argue they should collectively be awarded damages of more than €640m (£552m) due to the impact Google’s actions had on them.”

9to5 Google: Google shuts down Pixel Studio with the latest app update. “Google is shutting down its AI-powered Pixel Studio app less than two years after its debut and instead pushing users over to Gemini and Nano Banana for image generation.”

MakeUseOf: Brave Origin might be the one browser people don’t mind paying for. “There are two versions of Brave Origin available: a standalone browser that functions as a separate product, and an upgrade for the regular Brave browser that adds toggles for the various features. A single purchase gives you access to both options. This is a flexible approach, if a little confusing.” The Linux version is free, to my mild surprise.

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Reuters: Starmer calls for Elon Musk to stop interfering in UK politics. “Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday ​said Elon Musk should stop interfering in British politics, after the billionaire X owner posted ‌on his platform about a murder that has triggered a public outcry and protests.”

PBS: This chef will teach you how to make healthy $5 family dinners. “With rising grocery prices, many Americans are struggling to provide healthy, complete meals for their families. One chef is teaching his TikTok followers how to eat well on a budget, one $5 meal at a time. Deema Zein reports.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Mashable: Google patches more than 100 Android security vulnerabilities. “Android users, update your devices. Google has just released new security updates for Android that fix a slew of vulnerabilities. Just how many things did Google fix? A whopping 124 vulnerabilities, according to Bleeping Computer, have now been addressed in Google’s June 2026 Android security patches.”

Investing.com: UK lawmaker Jess Asato sues Elon Musk’s xAI over deepfakes. “British lawmaker Jess Asato filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI on Wednesday, claiming the company’s Grok AI platform was used to generate fake sexualized images of her.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

TechSpot: Mathematicians used Minecraft mobs to calculate Pi without writing a single line of code. “Minecraft was never designed to behave like a calculator. Its world is built entirely from cubes, with no smooth curves and no native concept of continuous geometry. That makes it an awkward place to tackle a number like pi, which depends on the properties of a perfect circle. But two mathematicians have shown that, even in a blocky universe, you can still get surprisingly close.”

Poynter: Opinion | A merger could put two of America’s most important news archives under one owner. “The proposed merger threatens to place CNN and CBS News, two of the most significant news libraries in America, under a single owner. The future preservation and accessibility of these archives are at risk if they are allowed to be merged under one private entity, as the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger would entail.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Tom’s Hardware: Aviation enthusiast uses Raspberry Pi and ADS-B radio to create viral real-time airport tracker — open-source ‘Skylight’ intercepts aircraft signals and projects flight paths onto your ceiling. “Living near an airport isn’t for everyone. But for some, like software engineer Cameron Paczek, the unique environment offers inspiration for very unique projects. Paczek’s latest creation, Skylight, harnesses the power of a Raspberry Pi 5, a radio antenna, and a projector to listen for aircraft signals as planes pass over your house and then instantly projects their real-time paths across your ceiling exactly as you hear them soaring above.” 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.

University of Prince Edward Island: Mi’kmaw-led digital archive launches for 300th Anniversary of 1726 Treaty. “L’nuey is launching a new Mi’kmaw-led digital archive to mark the 300th anniversary of the 1726 Peace and Friendship Treaty on June 4, 2026. The project aims to make Mi’kmaw history in Epekwitk (Prince Edward Island) easier to find, understand, and use.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

UPI: Doodle for Google contest winner celebrates beauty of textured hair. “Google has announced the winner of its 17th Doodle for Google contest. Washington high schooler Kameirah won the competition with her illustration celebrating kinky hair and its culture.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Nazarbayev University: Kazakhstan to Create a Digital Archive of Historical Monuments. “The project is based at Kazakhstan’s first Art&Tech laboratory within the NU Өnergy Creative Hub and applies LiDAR technologies in close collaboration with researchers at Nazarbayev University. According to the team, this interdisciplinary approach goes beyond creating visual 3D models and instead builds a comprehensive scientific database that integrates knowledge from geodesy, archaeology, architecture, biology, ecology, digital humanities, and museology.”

Vietnam.vn: We will build a database and map of typical pho restaurants representing Vietnamese pho.. “Data, stories, and maps of typical pho restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City will be compiled by the Saigon Pho Association in collaboration with other organizations to promote Vietnamese pho culture.”

WHEC: George Eastman Museum’s new $400-per-hour photography fee has local photographers calling for a lower, more affordable option. “Local photographers are pushing back against the George Eastman Museum’s new policy requiring a $400 hourly fee for professional photo shoots on the grounds. The museum recently announced the policy change, which photographers say stems from an altercation involving a prom party.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Signal Akron: Ohio Republican senator called cops seeking charges against blogger . “A powerful state senator asked that his local police chief file criminal charges against a political blogger, leading to an eventual arrest and formal accusation of telecommunications harassment, new records show.”

NPR: United Airlines flight to Spain pulls U-turn, apparently over Bluetooth device name. “A United Airlines flight from Newark, N.J., to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, pulled a U-turn late Saturday over what appears to have been a suspiciously named Bluetooth device on board.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

UCLA: How misinformation about archaeology spreads online. “What happens when a 12,000-year-old archaeological site becomes fodder for TikTok videos and the subject of pseudoscientific theories? That’s the sort of question Lara Fabian asks students to wrestle with in a new Fiat Lux seminar.”

Washington Blade: Fighting ‘Rainbow Panic’ in museums. “Please know the LGBTQ community will remember the hard truths we learned this past year — that we and our histories were expendable. If we can be cast aside, hidden, or disowned, whose histories are safe? How can (and can we) rebuild trust in the institutions that failed us this past year?”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Yale News: Growing a new ‘leaf’ that harnesses sun, water and CO2 to make liquid fuel.”A Yale-led research team has developed the first standalone device that produces the liquid fuel methanol using only sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide as the ingredients.” 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.

Spotted in my RSS feeds: The Last Museum, a search engine for museum art. From the About page: “The Last Museum is the largest search engine for museum art. It uses semantic search, allowing you to search for artworks by theme, style, subject, vibes, or any description you can imagine. We currently have around 5 million artworks indexed, and strive to eventually index all museum art in the world.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Google is letting social media stars customize their search result page. “Google now lets big creators and publishers in the US claim dedicated profiles in Search to highlight things like videos, articles, and their other profiles online.”

CNBC: Bluesky was launched as a Twitter rival — but it’s far less popular. Now it’s eyeing Reddit for inspiration. “Bluesky, the social media platform that originated within Twitter, rose to prominence as a rival to the network after Elon Musk acquired the company and rebranded it as X. But, two years since its launch, the site has around just 10% of X’s estimated global users. Bluesky’s Chief Operating Officer Rose Wang told CNBC that the site saw its future not in rivalling X, but in taking inspiration from the online community forum Reddit.” I finally got on Bluesky. It’s fine, but Mastodon is still best for engagement and conversations.

NBC News: Bot web traffic has overtaken human web traffic, data shows. “Website traffic from AI agents and bots has eclipsed its human-generated counterpart for the first time, according to Cloudflare, an earlier-than-expected milestone that speaks to AI’s rapid advance and impact.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: ‘Teachers Are Going to Hate It’: How Social Media Apps Hooked Teens at School. This link goes to a gift article. “Again and again, the world’s leading social media companies have targeted students, even as complaints have mounted that they are hurting teenagers’ mental health and academic performance, according to a New York Times review of internal documents that lay bare for the first time these tactics to hook young users.”

Politico: Polymarket is paying some of social media’s biggest political influencers. “At least 20 of the content creators identified by POLITICO promoted Polymarket on social media after they started receiving money from [chief marketing officer Matthew] Modabber, according to the payment records and POLITICO’s analysis of their social media activity. During the 14-month span reflected in the payment records, they posted about Polymarket at least 490 times on the social media platform X without clearly disclosing a paid partnership.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

FTC: FTC Seeks Comment on X Corp. Petition to Set Aside or Modify FTC Order Concerning Twitter. “The Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comment on a petition from X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, to set aside or modify its 2022 settlement order with the agency. In its petition to the Commission, X Corp. cited several reasons why it believes that the order should either be set aside or modified so that it terminates at the end of 2026.”

Reuters: Meta loses challenge against EU gatekeeper label for Messenger. ” Meta Platforms lost its ​fight on Wednesday against the EU’s labelling of ‌its Messenger app as a powerful ‘gatekeeper’, which places obligations on tech companies with significant influence. Europe’s second-highest court upheld the European Commission’s ​finding that Messenger is an important gateway ​for businesses to reach users, triggering obligations under ⁠the bloc’s Digital Markets Act.”

Ars Technica: Google ordered to put clearer links in AI search and let UK publishers opt out. “UK regulators today ordered Google to put clearer attributions and links to publishers’ content in its AI-generated search features. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also said Google must give publishers a way to opt out of AI features in search.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Digital Preservation at the University of Cambridge Libraries and Archives: Digging for Data: Recovering Files from Forgotten Word Processing Systems. “The collections we work with contain disks from machines that were once used professionally but are now largely forgotten. While imaging the disks themselves was possible, none of our usual tools, or others we could find online, were able to extract the discrete files to make it possible to appraise and access the material on them.”

Mashable: Survey: Teens regularly see harmful content, messages on Snapchat. “Teens on Snapchat frequently encounter unwanted or dangerous content on the platform, according to a new survey. A third of the poll’s 1,016 respondents said they’d seen or received unsafe content or messages in the past week. More than half said they’d had at least one such experience in the past year.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

The Guardian: ‘They surprise me every time’: bees can use tools to solve problems, study finds. “In the latest research, bees were shown to be able to roll a polystyrene ball to a specific location and climb on to it in order to access an artificial flower on a low ceiling. The findings challenge the longstanding assumption that insects operate purely on instinct and mindless trial-and-error learning.” 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.