AFP: Ukraine seeks UNESCO cultural protection for Odessa. “Ukraine’s government will ask the UN’s cultural watchdog to add the historic port of Odessa to its World Heritage List of protected sites as Russia’s invasion continues, the agency said Tuesday. Russian forces have advanced to within several dozen kilometres (miles) of the city, which blossomed after empress Catherine the Great decreed in the late 18th century that it would be Russia’s modern gateway to the Black Sea.”
Monthly Archives: August 2022
Yale University: Symposium on the Reconstruction of Ukraine is announced
Yale University: Symposium on the Reconstruction of Ukraine is announced. “The symposium aims to devote particular attention to cities, architecture, art, culture and psychological trauma – but the scope of the conversations it aims to start is broader. In due course, the discussions held during the symposium may coalesce into myriad projects, initiatives and experiments undertaken by government institutions, municipalities, educational and cultural bodies and other more interstitial actors.”
Wall Street Journal: Google, Meta and Others May Soon Need to Disclose Pay on California Job Listings
Wall Street Journal: Google, Meta and Others May Soon Need to Disclose Pay on California Job Listings . “California may soon require nearly all employers hiring in the state to begin listing pay on job postings, a move that could affect many of the biggest U.S. companies. A bill passed by the California legislature mandates that all organizations with 15 or more employees include the hourly pay or salary range on job listings in the state.”
Scoop: Truth Social’s Google Play Store holdup
Axios: Scoop: Truth Social’s Google Play Store holdup. “Google hasn’t yet approved Truth Social’s Android app for distribution via its Play Store because of insufficient content moderation, a Google spokesperson tells Axios.”
Texas Monthly: Why the Texas Archive of the Moving Image Is the Best Follow on TikTok
Texas Monthly: Why the Texas Archive of the Moving Image Is the Best Follow on TikTok. “The Austin-based nonprofit has become a social media star with clips of vintage local newscasts, bizarre industrial films, and one-of-a-kind celebrity encounters.”
Hawaii Public Radio: Memorial concert for Harry B. Soria to support digitizing his Hawaiian music collection
Hawaii Public Radio: Memorial concert for Harry B. Soria to support digitizing his Hawaiian music collection. “Territorial Airwaves is the longest-running weekly radio show on Hawaiian music here in the islands. For decades the program celebrated our music history. Music host Harry B. Soria took up the torch from his father and grandfather. He died on Dec. 7, 2021. The golden oldies and tales told by Soria can now be heard online — hundreds are available, with more to come. To pay homage to his remarkable Hawaiian music collection, a memorial concert is in the works to help raise money to make it accessible to everyone.” Mostly an audio program.
Analytics India: Google Just Stepped Up the Game for Text-to-Image AI
Analytics India: Google Just Stepped Up the Game for Text-to-Image AI. “Google’s DreamBooth takes a moderately different approach when compared to other recently released text-to-image tools like DALL-E2, Stable Diffusion, Imagen, and Midjourney by providing more control of the subject image and then guiding the diffusion model using text based inputs.”
MIT Technology Review: What does GPT-3 “know” about me?
MIT Technology Review: What does GPT-3 “know” about me? . “Large language models are trained on troves of personal data hoovered from the internet. So I wanted to know: What does it have on me?”
The Phoblographer: The Best Communities For Photographers In 2022
The Phoblographer: The Best Communities For Photographers In 2022. “Let’s be honest, photographers are really annoyed at Instagram. They’ve been considering places like TikTok and more but those are spaces for content creators. Thankfully, there are still communities that think photographers are valuable. So we’ve rounded up some of the best communities for photographers.”
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: Flurry of seizures intensify pressure on the Met over artifacts linked to accused traffickers
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: Flurry of seizures intensify pressure on the Met over artifacts linked to accused traffickers . “The largest museum in the United States, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, is facing increasing scrutiny from police and federal agents investigating international art smuggling. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has obtained nine warrants to seize ancient works from the Met since 2017, according to records reviewed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with reporting partner Finance Uncovered.”
Bleeping Computer: Montenegro says Russian cyberattacks threaten key state functions
Bleeping Computer: Montenegro says Russian cyberattacks threaten key state functions. “Members of the government in Montenegro are stating that the country is being hit with sophisticated and persistent cyberattacks that threaten the country’s essential infrastructure. Targets include electricity and water supply systems, transportation services, online portals that citizens use to access various state services, and more.”
A neighborhood’s cryptocurrency mine: ‘Like a jet that never leaves’ (Washington Post)
Washington Post: A neighborhood’s cryptocurrency mine: ‘Like a jet that never leaves’. ” It’s midnight, and a jet-like roar is rumbling up the slopes of Poor House Mountain. Except there are no planes overhead, and the nearest commercial airport is 80 miles away. The sound is coming from a cluster of sheds at the base of the mountain housing a cryptocurrency data center, operated by the San Francisco-based firm PrimeBlock. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, powerful computers perform the complex computations needed to ‘mine,’ or create, digital currencies. And those noise-generating computers are kept cool by huge fans.”
ProPublica: Real Money, Fake Musicians: Inside a Million-Dollar Instagram Verification Scheme
ProPublica: Real Money, Fake Musicians: Inside a Million-Dollar Instagram Verification Scheme. “A jeweler. A plastic surgeon. An OnlyFans Model. They and others received a blue check in likely the biggest Instagram verification scheme revealed to date. After ProPublica started asking questions, Meta removed badges from over 300 accounts.”
CyberScoop: Most top mobile carriers retain geolocation data for two years on average, FCC findings show
CyberScoop: Most top mobile carriers retain geolocation data for two years on average, FCC findings show. “Ten of the top 15 mobile carriers collect geolocation data and provide no way for consumers to opt-out, according to information from the telecom companies the Federal Communications Commission published Thursday.”
University of Texas at San Antonio: UTSA Libraries to lead new federal grant to preserve historical ITC collections
University of Texas at San Antonio: UTSA Libraries to lead new federal grant to preserve historical ITC collections. “UTSA has been awarded a two-year, $240,442 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for UTSA Libraries to digitize and catalog audiovisual items that were produced by the Institute of Texan Cultures for classroom and museum instruction, entertainment, and more, over a nearly 50-year span.”