CBC: How a stationary bike, paired with Google Street View, helps seniors with dementia. “Residents at an Oshawa, Ont., retirement home are among the first people in the country to try an innovative therapy for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients called the BikeAround. The device combines a stationary bicycle, a dome-shaped projector and Google Street View technology. Users sit on the bike and are able to pedal through video of meaningful destinations — a childhood home, a vacation destination, the spot they were married — projected onto the screen in front of them.”
Research & Opinion
EurekAlert: A research study analyzes the influence of algorithms on online publicity and advertising
EurekAlert: A research study analyzes the influence of algorithms on online publicity and advertising . “When we look for information on the internet, buy online or use social networks we often see ads relating to our likes or profile. To what extent are these ads chosen by the web’s algorithms? A group of researchers are trying to answer this question under the name of «MyBubble», a science project from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and IMDEA Networks Institute.”
CBR: Facebook and Google “Inspired” $1.5 Trillion Dark Web Entrepreneurs
CBR: Facebook and Google “Inspired” $1.5 Trillion Dark Web Entrepreneurs. “Cybercrime revenues now rival the GDP output of major world economies at a colossal $1.5 trillion annually, according to an independent academic study published today. Surrey University’s Mike McGuire spent six months researching cybercrime profit distribution for his ‘Web of Profit’ report; speaking with GCHQ, the FBI, Europol, global financial institutions and covert security workers that have infiltrated the dark web.”
IFLScience: How Twitter Helped Find, And Possibly Save, An Endangered Plant
IFLScience: How Twitter Helped Find, And Possibly Save, An Endangered Plant. “There’s nothing Internet users like better than correcting an expert they think is wrong. So when botanist Professor Chris Martine of Bucknell University put the wrong name on a plant he’d photographed, it got a swift response. In the end, it led to the discovery of an unexpected population of one of America’s rarest plants, and a chance to protect something that otherwise might have been lost.”
New Scientist: Global cancer scheme lets people share data across the world
New Scientist: Global cancer scheme lets people share data across the world. “People with cancer will soon be able to donate their medical information to a global database aimed at discovering new treatments…. When the database becomes fully functional later this year, any individual with cancer will have access to a document – the ‘Universal Patient Consent Form’ – that will allow them to make their medical and genetic data freely accessible to all cancer researchers.”
Poynter: Who reads fact-checking and why? Here’s what one outlet found out
Poynter: Who reads fact-checking and why? Here’s what one outlet found out. “A British fact-checking organization recently heard from more than 2,000 people about how and why they read fact checks. On Tuesday, Full Fact published its first large-scale audience research survey, based on a fall 2017 survey of self-selected participants that contained 24 questions, supplemented with data from Google Analytics and polls. While not representative, the findings are part of a larger trend among fact-checkers to conduct in-house audience analyses.”
Help Net Security: Researchers develop algorithm to detect fake users on social networks
Help Net Security: Researchers develop algorithm to detect fake users on social networks. “Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and University of Washington researchers have developed a new generic method to detect fake accounts on most types of social networks, including Facebook and Twitter.”
