I’m sorry this is so late. My mother just got back from a couple days in the hospital and we’re getting at the physical therapy stuff set up. I am required to act as an extra pair of ears and keep my mother’s dog from spontaneously combusting. Trying to get my feet under me but I haven’t felt steady since Granny passed away in December. I’ll keep trying.
NEW RESOURCES
Scienmag: AI-built database of 378,000 English word families reveals how morphology shapes children’s reading. “A team of reading researchers has unveiled what they describe as the largest morphological database of English ever constructed, and used it to map, with unprecedented scope, the word-building patterns that children encounter as they learn to read.”
Found in my RSS feeds, apparently launched in late April: the Techno-Optimism Archive. “Techno-Optimism Archive traces the long history of hype surrounding new technologies….explore moments when the next big invention was supposed to solve the world’s problems.”
TWEAKS AND UPDATES
DigitalTrends: Arc browser is shutting down in December. Long live, ya trailblazer . “Arc browser is shutting down on December 22, following a long spell of maintenance-only work as the company behind it moves forward with its successor, Dia. Earlier today, The Browser Company announced that the beloved web browser will ride into the sunset in two months, but will continue development of the Dia browser.”
New York Times: When Starshield Cut Out, Ukrainian Drones Fell From the Skies. “Ukrainian accounts of Starshield’s abrupt throttling have become a flashpoint in a worsening feud between President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and President Trump. A week after the first problems were reported, Ukrainian troops said that the situation had improved but that connectivity issues remained. The Trump administration has offered mixed messages, both denying any change to Starshield service and saying that service has been restored.”
NiemanLab: Publishers pressure Meta to nix new terms that would let the company scrape their websites. “The largest news publishing trade association in the United States is calling on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to suspend the implementation of the company’s new commercial terms of service, set to go into effect on October 30. In an open letter to Zuckerberg published Thursday, News/Media Alliance’s president and CEO Danielle Coffey wrote that Meta should ‘withdraw these terms and should hold discussions around future changes with NMA and publishers.'”
AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD
Variety: Trump Says Google CEO Rejected His Request to Rename Atlantic Ocean on Google Maps. “President Donald Trump, who has already renamed two bodies of water after America, said he would like to redub the Atlantic Ocean as well — but that the CEO of Google pushed back on the idea.”
Associated Press: A Vermont woman scrubs grime from gravestones and researches who is buried there. “[Caitlin] Abrams doesn’t solely focus on the cleaning process. She researches and then shares the details she has found of the individual lives in her videos while filming the moss and buildup being washed away. Abrams focuses on 18th and 19th century headstones in remote yet picturesque graveyards in Vermont, and her viewers are drawn to her deep dives into the past that also touch on the dark nature of death and spirits.”
SECURITY & LEGAL
CNBC: Meta ordered to pay $25 billion penalty in New Mexico Cambridge Analytica case. “Meta
was ordered to pay $25 billion in penalties by a New Mexico court on Wednesday as part of a data privacy case that stemmed from the company’s Cambridge Analytica scandal from nearly a decade ago.”
Reuters: California settles 23andMe data breach claims for $6 million. “California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday announced the state will receive a $6 million settlement payment in 23andMe’s bankruptcy, resolving California’s legal claims related to a 2023 data breach that exposed 6.9 million customers’ genetic and other personal information.”
Politico: The Pentagon is quietly building an elite new tech sabotage agency. “The Pentagon has spent months quietly building an elite new tech agency to help covertly disrupt and sabotage foreign technology programs considered threats to American military superiority.”
RESEARCH & OPINION
Neil Turner Photographer: Bye bye Alamy . “The best that I could hope for was 40% but my calculations told me that I would be dropping to their basic 20% level pretty soon. I’m a level-headed chap and the thought that 20% of something is better than 100% of nothing went through my head many, many times. When you factor in that more and more of my limited sales were coming through at US$0.39 each and that I was actually only going to receive 8 US cents or around 6.5 British pennies for each of them, the final straw was well within reach.”
OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL
Second Wave Media: Nature beneath the power lines: Transforming utility corridors into public trails . “In Portage, partnerships with Consumers Energy have allowed land used for electricity infrastructure to become connections for bikers and pedestrians…. In July, Consumers Energy announced that it had not only surpassed its goal to ‘enhance, restore, or protect 6,500 acres of land,’ but reached that goal earlier than anticipated.” Good evening, Internet…
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Categories: afternoonbuzz