Read Only Memo: Introducing Warp Point, a Web 1.0 gaming blog directory built for 2026. “There are no algorithms. No AI summaries. No paid promo slots or accounts meant to keep you on the site. We want you to leave — by browsing through the list of independent bloggers and essayists and newsletter writers and archivists, finding one that interests you, and clicking on it. Hopefully you come back and do that again and again.”

Obsolete Sony: The Walkman Archive Is Now Open. “The archive currently includes 1,066 Sony portable-audio model entries: 441 cassette Walkman models, 171 Discman / CD Walkman models, 106 MiniDisc / MD Walkman models, and 348 Network Walkman models.”

University of Windsor: Decades of graduate student scholarship digitized and shared worldwide. “The University of Windsor is making more than five decades of graduate student scholarship easier to find, search and share by digitizing about 3,400 Major Papers produced between 1962 and 2017. Soon to be freely available through the University’s Scholarship repository (Scholaris), the collection preserves student research and creative inquiry while making it discoverable to students, alumni, community members and researchers around the globe.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Cal Matters: California lawmaker rolls back new public records barriers after fierce opposition. “Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco has once again rolled back her controversial proposal to amend California’s public records rules. The Downey Democrat alarmed First Amendment advocates in March when she introduced a measure that would make it more expensive for some people to get public records from government agencies, which she said was intended to cut down on malicious or profit-driven requests.”

Ars Technica: Reddit will require you to log in to use old.reddit.com. “Reddit will start requiring people to be logged into Reddit to use old.reddit.com. The new requirement will take effect ‘over the next month,’ a Reddit employee going by the username boat-botany announced on the social media platform today. The person claimed that the change is part of an ongoing effort to ‘tighten how automated systems access Reddit.'”

9to5 Google: Google pulls the plug on Tenor API, killing GIF pickers around the web. “GIFs are a huge part of the modern web, with Tenor being one of the libraries that powers a variety of apps including Twitter/X. Google acquired Tenor in 2018 and, while the library itself remains intact, the Tenor API is shutting down today.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Jalopnik: These Google Maps Alternatives Make Scenic Detours The Road Trip Rule, Not The Exception . “Here at Jalopnik, we believe that taking the scenic route should be a universal road trip rule, so Google Maps’ reluctance to provide drivers with a scenic route option really rubs us the wrong way. You’re in luck, though, because we’ve dug up tons of road trip map alternatives that can get you the best views the world has to offer without constant attempts to reroute you right back to the hackneyed old interstate.”

Deadline: Peacock Ad-Free Tier Launches On YouTube Primetime Channels As Part Of 2025 Distribution Deal. “YouTube has made good on a provision in a 2025 distribution agreement with NBCUniversal, launching the ad-free tier of Peacock on its channel store.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Courthouse News Service: Federal judge’s ruling gives Yelp a leg up in antitrust case against Google. “A federal judge on Tuesday agreed to recognize another judge’s finding that Google has monopoly power in the internet search market. The ruling effectively gives Yelp a step up in its lawsuit against the tech giant, allowing it to skip discovery on the issue.”

Bleeping Computer: US seizes hundreds of FIFA World Cup illegal streaming domains. “The U.S. Justice Department’s Criminal Division has seized nearly 400 web domains used for illegally streaming matches at the FIFA World Cup. These websites provided visitors with unauthorized real-time streams of 2026 World Cup matches, in violation of U.S. copyright law.”

High Country News: Will betting on wildfires lead to arson?. “In January 2025, Polymarket listed almost 20 questions, created by the platform’s ‘markets team,’ related to the wildfires burning up Southern California. How many acres will the Palisades Fire burn by Friday, three days after it ignited on a Tuesday? Will the Palisades Fire reach Santa Monica by Sunday? When will the Palisades fire be 50% contained? Will the Palisades and Eaton fires be contained before February?”

RESEARCH & OPINION

ARTNews: Russia’s Hermitage Museum Suspends Archaeological Expeditions in Crimea, Citing Fuel Shortage. “The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg has suspended all archaeological expeditions in annexed Crimea as the Kremlin declares a state of emergency amid a severe fuel shortage and continued Ukrainian attacks, according to the Moscow 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.

Technology Times: Agora Policy’s searchable repository for Nigeria’s public policies goes live. “Agora Policy has launched Policy Registry, a digital platform designed to make Nigeria’s public policy documents more accessible, searchable and actionable for researchers, journalists, policymakers, businesses and citizens.”

RTE: Almost 200,000 Irish historical records released online. “Almost 200,000 historical records have been released online by the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland. The release of 194,000 records will cover seven centuries of Irish history and will make over half a million documents free and permanently available to the public.”

EVENTS

Internet Archive Blog: Preserving the First Draft of History: Reflections from the National Summit on Local News Preservation. “According to the Pew Research Center, 38% of webpages that existed in 2013 are already gone and nearly a quarter of news webpages contain at least one broken link. The local record of our communities is vanishing in real time. This urgent challenge is what brought two very different professions together on June 17 in National Harbor, Maryland. Hosted by the Internet Archive with the Poynter Institute and Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), the National Summit on Local News Preservation gathered journalists, editors, archivists, librarians, and researchers to start a conversation between the newsrooms producing local journalism and the memory institutions preserving it.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Daily Nous: Online Philosophy Resources Monthly Update. “Here’s (usually weekly, but during the summer, monthly) report on new and revised entries at online philosophy resources, new reviews of philosophy books, and new podcast episodes.”

CNBC: Google Chromebook graft case sees Indonesia’s former education minister jailed for 10 years. “An Indonesian corruption court on Tuesday sentenced former Education Minister Nadiem Makarim, a co-founder of ride- hailing and payments giant Gojek, to 10 years in prison for corruption. Makarim was found guilty in a case linked to the procurement of Google Chromebooks for schools under the country’s education digitalization program that ran from 2019 to 2022.”

USEFUL STUFF

XDA: Kage makes it stupid simple to archive websites before they disappear, and it has become my favorite read-it-later app. “…aside from my movie collection, ripped ROM files, and ebook library, I also have smaller-sized files that I prefer to store on my local workstations. Web pages are one such medium, and between link rot corrupting my curated collection of posts and JavaScript-laden websites refusing to run well even after I save them, I was starting to run out of options for my website archival needs. Fortunately, I ran into Kage while doom-scrolling on GitHub the other day, and this tool has everything I need to store entire websites locally.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Economic Times: Tourism ministry, Google ink MoU to boost promotion of India’s destinations via digital tech. “India’s tourism sector is set to receive a significant digital boost as the Ministry of Tourism partners with Google. This collaboration will harness AI, data insights, and digital technologies to enhance the promotion of India’s destinations, cultural heritage, and experiences for both domestic and international travelers.”

404 Media: How I Bought a Private Jet By Selling $10 Subscriptions to 404 Media. “The extremely obvious truth (which is barely even veiled) is that at least most of these hustlebros are faking it. They hope to make money selling their courses. The scheme is not the AI babe or the drop shipping, it’s the course, the community, the fantasy. They’re LARPing, or LARPmaxxing, if you will. In recent months, LARPing has become a whole subculture on TikTok and Instagram; pretending you’re rich, just for the hell of it.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TechCrunch: In major privacy win, Supreme Court rules geofence warrants are protected by privacy rights. “The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday limited the law enforcement use of ‘geofence’ search warrants, in a major legal ruling that is likely to have broad ramifications for privacy rights and law enforcement across the United States.”

The Register: Australia investigating five social media giants for not enforcing ban on kids. “Australia’s government has decided to double the fines it can levy companies that don’t take appropriate steps to enforce the country’s ban on children under 16 accessing social media – and said Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube are under investigation for possible non-compliance.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NIST: NIST Launches Center to Drive the Manufacture of Quantum Technologies. “The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced an agreement with SRI International, a nonprofit research and development institution, to help advance U.S. quantum research, development and manufacturing capabilities.”

Ars Technica: Why did this journal retract two 1940s papers by Max Planck?. “German physicist Max Planck was one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics in the early 20th century, earning the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of quanta. There has never been a whisper of scandal about the man’s integrity or his scientific work. So a pair of science historians were puzzled when they discovered that a scientific journal had inexplicably retracted two of Planck’s papers from the 1940s.” 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.

Chicago Reader: WHPK builds a digital archive to broadcast its place in music history. “On Sunday, nonprofit community radio station WHPK announced an ongoing effort to digitize its collection of program guides and magazines. The University of Chicago provides the great bulk of WHPK’s funding, and the station’s headquarters are in the school’s main student center, the Reynolds Club. Station staffers and volunteers dug up the archival material by looking into every nook and cranny of the building.”

Boing Boing: Wiki Spy lets you explore 43,815 cut-out Wikipedia objects. “Wiki Spy is a wonderful website that shows cut-outs of 43,815 objects from Wikipedia. Each image is pasted like a sticker against the white background…. When you click on an object, you’ll be taken to a new page that includes similar findings.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Register: Four years into Ukraine invasion, Russia turns influence-ops back to US and Europe. “Four years into the Kremlin’s illegal invasion of its neighboring country, Russian influence operations have moved beyond their near-exclusive focus on Ukraine to their former favorite targets: the US and Europe, and especially covert cyber-ops intended to undermine political stability within these countries and the unity between them, according to Google Threat Intelligence.”

TechCrunch: The ‘Father of the Internet’ is finally retiring. “Vinton Cerf will step down from his role as Google’s chief internet evangelist next week, marking the conclusion of one of the most influential careers in technology history.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

AsAmNews: New digital series showcases ‘The United States of Asian+America’. “The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) has launched a new digital series on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram that will feature ‘AAPI trailblazers and stories that changed America.’ The United States of Asian+America, produced in partnership with Wong Fu Productions, launched this past week with a trailer and the premiere episode. Additional episodes to be released on a rolling basis through the end of 2026, TAAF said.”

Scientiac: A too Brief Intro to Smolweb. “There is so much more to the internet than your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, and chat GPTs. And these things are not known by the general masses, not because it’s a quality problem, but instead it’s a discovery problem.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Spokesman-Review: Judge declares Al Merkel’s Nextdoor posts to be public records subject to release. “Spokane Valley Councilman Al Merkel violated the city’s social media policy and the Washington Public Records Act by discussing council business on his private social media accounts and refusing to submit the posts for public records requests, a Spokane County judge ruled last week.”

Ars Technica: US offers $10 million for info on group behind Signal and WhatsApp hacking spree. “Federal authorities are offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of a Russian state cyber group that has compromised thousands of Signal and WhatsApp accounts belonging to investigative reporters and US government employees.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NRK: Order 138. “NRK has worked together with Nordic public broadcasters and Estonian Delfi to uncover the ongoing Russian military buildup along the Nato border. We have also conducted a data investigation to identify and examine 120 areas that have been blurred by the Russian map service Yandex Maps.”

Gizmodo: Here’s Why Weather Forecasts Have Seemed So Inaccurate Lately. “Before the cuts, the NWS was launching weather balloons twice per day (once in the morning and once in the evening) from 100 locations. Today, the number of morning launches in the Lower 48 has been reduced by half, according to MyRadar senior meteorologist Matthew Cappucci.” 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.

UK Government: The Queen Elizabeth Digital Memorial marks major milestone with new features. “Memories of the Late Queen Elizabeth shared by members of the public and those who knew her are now live as part of a milestone digital archive into her life, and can be viewed at http://www.queenelizabeth.com. Also launching today is a fully digitised version of the Court Circular (Queen Elizabeth’s official diary) covering the entirety of Queen Elizabeth’s reign from 1952 to 2022.”

Alec.is: IP Crawl: Exposing The Massive Open Webcam Crisis. “IP Crawl…actively crawls the web for exposed webcams—specifically targeting feeds that require absolutely no username, password, or specialized exploit to access. If it’s open to the public internet… then it’s on this radar.”

EVENTS

Pablo Enoc: Blog Carnivals Around the Indie Web. “Over on powRSS I’m putting together a list of blog carnivals happening around the web. Send me an email if you are hosting or participating in another community’s carnival!” PowRSS is a public RSS aggregator focusing on indieweb / smallweb.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

WBEZ: The Onion relaunches InfoWars, Alex Jones’ right-wing conspiracy website, this week. “Here’s something you absolutely can trust, barring some last-minute legal roadblock: the Chicago-based satirical newspaper, The Onion, is set to launch InfoWars on July 2, a year and seven months after it won the initial auction to take over the website founded by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TheDesk: C-SPAN to assist local newsrooms with footage, partnerships during midterm election campaign. “As part of the initiative, C-SPAN journalists and photographers will record candidate town halls, forums, campaign stops and other events, then offer full-length video coverage and interviews to participating non-profit local newsrooms and independent media outlets at no cost, executives said on Monday.”

KPBS: California school libraries blindsided by ‘catastrophic’ budget cut. “Without notice to schools or librarians, the Legislature last week canceled $5.5 million that pays online fees for the Encyclopedia Britannica, New York Times, PBS videos such as Ken Burns documentaries, scientific journals and thousands of other online materials used by students and teachers. The cut goes into effect on July 1, 2027.”

Mighil: Notes from building Tinkerfont. “Tinkerfont is a browser extension for inspecting, replacing, and testing fonts on live websites…. Free on Chrome and Firefox. No account. Everything stays in local storage on your device.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Engadget: Flock cameras track more than your license plate, and they’re spreading fast. “Although Flock cameras are often referred to as license plate readers, that’s reductive. Reading license plates is their primary task, but they can be used to track just about anyone or anything.”

Associated Press: Four days to make victims fall in love: How global scammers use US tech to fleece people. “The instructions were clear: He had four days to make each victim fall in love. And there were a lot of victims. Online, Safeer Mohammed Koorimannil, who was trafficked to a scam center in Myanmar, impersonated a 28-year-old Singaporean woman named Ella. On a typical shift, he said, he chatted with more than 100 people across dozens of profiles at the same time, as supervisors prowled among the desks with electric batons.”

Yonhap News Agency: Watchdog launches review on Google’s alleged fair trade violation. “Seoul’s antitrust watchdog said Wednesday it has launched an investigation into U.S.-based Google LLC, as well as its Singaporean and South Korean offices, over allegations of violations of the fair trade law involving game developers on its app marketplace.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Northeastern University: Most social media child safety features fail the test, Northeastern research finds. “Researchers found that 35 of 86 child safety features tested across major social media platforms worked as promised, while 51 failed to meet their standards.”

Bellingrath Gardens & Home: Bringing the Bellingrath Home into the Digital Era. “Over this past winter and spring, I have begun to rephotograph every artifact in the Home with a high resolution digital camera and enter the detailed descriptions provided by Mr. McGehee into the PastPerfect program. The digital files on each object are then appropriately catalogued, tagged, filed, and indexed to library and archival standards. Once the project is done, researchers and museum professionals can reference portions of the Bellingrath collection with ease.” 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.

Associated Press: AI is an energy and water hog, here’s what you can do to counter that. “Artificial intelligence and the data centers they require use growing amounts of energy and are water hogs — and AI companies aren’t transparent about how much of those resources they use, experts said. So each time you turn to the internet and seek an AI-fueled response, it’s gobbling up precious resources.”

Ars Technica: Trump’s plan to redesign every .gov website leads to AI-designed horrors. “Last August, Trump created the National Design Studio, or NDS, by executive order. A temporary DOGE-like entity that answers only to the president, NDS was tasked with creating new standards to update the US Web Design System (USWDS) and overhaul 27,000 dot-gov websites in just three years…. Most people agree that updating government websites is a worthwhile and necessary endeavor. But about a year into NDS’s existence, the team hasn’t accomplished much.”

DATA CENTERS

Data Centre Insight: The Scarlet letter: How the EU’s new A-to-G energy stickers will expose underperforming data centres. “Imagine having your worst habits put on a billboard for everyone to see. Or wearing a huge, ruby red ‘A’ on your clothing. For years, data centres have kept their energy and water bills private, but this is about to change. The EU is rolling out new rules to grade data centres based on their performance publicly. These new mandatory energy stickers rate them from A-to-G, just like the ones found on your washing machine.”

NJ Spotlight News: NJ has crucial choices on data centers, environmentalist says. “Data centers contribute to heat islands, or higher temperatures locally relative to their regions. Cities, and even some blocks within them, can experience hotter weather in part because of scarce trees and other vegetation.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

Associated Press: New York City Council candidate is accused of forgery over AI-generated posts. “A former New York City Council candidate has been charged with forgery over allegations he used artificial intelligence to post fake endorsements and news articles on social media. Jonathan Rinaldi was arrested outside his home Wednesday and could face up to two years in prison if convicted. The 47-year-old ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a council seat from Queens last year.”

CommonWealth Beacon: Healey slams brakes on data center tax incentives. “THE STATE WILL NOT accept applications for data center tax incentives until further notice, Gov. Maura Healey announced Thursday as she simultaneously rolled out the guidance that she had pledged would focus on energy independence and environmental impacts.”

AI IN WORK

TechCrunch: Ford rehires ‘gray beard’ engineers after AI falls short. “Ford executives said they have hired 350 veteran engineers — some of them were former employees, while others had been working at suppliers — after artificial intelligence and automated systems failed to deliver the desired quality level.”

Futurism: Bosses Are Becoming Obsessed With AI, Using It to Make Every Decision, Barraging Their Employees With Nonsensical ChatGPT Directives, and Even Asking It Who to Fire. “This attorney was one of numerous employees who spoke to Futurism about their experience with AI-obsessed bosses, relaying feelings of frustration and anger as managers and executives use the tech to barrage staff with nonsensical directives, unnecessary work, and perpetual pivoting. (Everyone we spoke to requested anonymity to avoid retaliation.)”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

CNBC: Google limits Meta’s use of its Gemini AI models, FT reports. “Google has put limits on Meta’s use of its Gemini AI models after the social media company sought more computing capacity than the rival tech group could provide, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.”

The Harvard Gazette: You take AI, I’ll take my iPod (if I can find it). “Analyst Sara Watson ’07 has written in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Slate, and other publications about bending the arc of technology from individual convenience toward the collective good. In this conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, Watson, who was a fellow and affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society from 2013 to 2019, shares insights on the ‘tech-lash’ and how it might unfold.”

Anthropic: Introducing Claude Sonnet 5. “Claude Sonnet 5 is built to be the most agentic Sonnet model yet. It can make plans, use tools like browsers and terminals, and run autonomously at a level that, just a few months ago, required larger and more expensive models.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Mashable: Prosecutors use man’s ChatGPT log in unsuccessful arson trial. “According to California prosecutors, suspected arsonist Jonathan Rinderknecht ‘used ChatGPT like a diary,’ not only building up a fascination with fire but generating images of cities burning, reports the BBC. In one prompt pulled from Rinderknecht’s ChatGPT history, he asked the AI whether he could be held responsible for a fire caused by his fallen cigarette, according to ABC News.”

Reuters: US removes curbs on Anthropic’s latest Fable and Mythos AI models. “Anthropic said on Tuesday that the U.S. Commerce ​Department lifted export controls on its most advanced Fable and Mythos AI models, less than three weeks after the company was ordered to suspend their access over national ‌security risks. Washington has stepped up oversight of new model releases to identify potential threats amid concerns that advanced AI models could be misused by military intelligence in China, Russia or other countries of concern.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Stuttgart: Innovative Algorithms for species conservation. “Patterns reveal the individual: The AI algorithm RAPID identifies wild animals by their unique patterns in real time. It works quickly and precisely, enabling significant progress in the monitoring and protection of zebras, jaguars and giraffes.”

Florida International University: FIU researchers reveal how altered images can bypass AI safeguards. “As shown in research presented at the 2025 International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), the team found that by introducing microscopic pixel-level changes called ‘perturbations’ into an image, they could trick these AI systems into generating responses that they would normally block.” 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.

Capital B News: Why We’re Building a Black Oral History Archive. “For the Record: A Black Oral History Archive is a collection of over 100 firsthand stories from Black Americans across regions, generations, and identities. Since last year, our reporters and partners have been gathering recollections from Black people that paint a vivid picture of resistance, resilience, invention, and celebration.”

Sun Journal: Maine’s roadside farm stands now have their own map. “[Mike] Connery spent a weekend building the Farmstands Guide website… with a form for anyone to add their own stand. It now has more than 100 listings and averages 300 users a month.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Roundtable: Google AI Overviews Tests Button To Go To Only Web Results. “Google is testing a button in the AI Overview within Google Search that takes you to the web only tab. As a reminder, the web only tab does not have any AI search features or other search verticles, it only has the web search results.” I’d like a button that turns the AI off entirely. I know there are ways you can get around it, but I want GOOGLE to offer an opt out.

New York Times: Australia Says It Will Toughen Its Social Media Ban for Children. This link goes to a gift article. “…the government said on Saturday that it would toughen penalties for tech companies found to be violating the law, doubling the maximum fine to about $70 million. The government also said it would increase the online safety regulator’s legal authority to compel companies to provide information about what they were doing to keep children under 16 off their platforms.”

USEFUL STUFF

FOSS Linux: Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide (2026). “I have been reviving old hardware with Linux for the better part of a decade. The machines Windows 11 left behind are not trash. They are waiting for the right operating system. In this guide, I walk you through distro selection, RAM tuning, SSD upgrades, and browser optimization based on real testing, not guesswork.”

MakeUseOf: The compass app on your phone is not as reliable as you think. “You’ll notice that, outside of the magnetized needle, old-school compasses don’t typically feature magnetic metals. The compass chassis is often made out of plastic, and if it’s made out of metal, it is a non-magnetic metal like aluminum or brass. This is because other magnetic parts can interfere with the magnetized needle that helps the compass find magnetic north. When you think about all the magnetic components inside modern smartphones, it’s easy to understand how they might interfere with its compass utility.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Vintage Aviation News: The Yorkshire Air Museum Receives Lottery Funding of £250k for Collections Project. “The Yorkshire Air Museum has secured a £249,227 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to support a major collections project at its historic RAF Elvington site. The funding will help enhance storage facilities, modernize collections management, and improve access to thousands of aviation-related artifacts, documents, and personal stories preserved in the museum’s archive.”

Tubefilter: Twitch says its ads–both pre- and mid-roll–aren’t getting longer. Viewers say otherwise.. “Whatever the explanation, though, the focus here should still be on the existence of pre-rolls. YouTube has them too, obviously, but YouTube runs on VODs. The content will still be there, unchanged, after a viewer sits through a 30-second ad. Twitch, on the other hand, relies on being able to get audience members into the stream in the moment, so they can experience what’s happening in real time.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Guardian: ‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears. “An opaque White House office staffed largely by veterans of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has quietly rebuilt some of the federal government’s most sensitive websites – for passport applications, voter registration, prescription-drug pricing and children’s savings – in ways critics say appear to violate federal law.”

Associated Press: The US lags other countries in social media restrictions for kids, but a reform push is growing. “A pair of landmark jury verdicts this year showed a way forward for holding tech companies accountable. And while the U.S. is nowhere near embracing social media bans for children like those seen from Australia to Indonesia, a push for regulation is simmering again in Congress.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: The hidden burnout crisis facing social media marketers. “We’re marketing researchers who study digital and social media wellness and teach the students who go on to fill these jobs. In a study published in September 2025, we interviewed social media marketers in the United States, Ireland, India, Germany and Australia and saw a profession quietly running on empty: passionate, creative people who are mentally drained by jobs that rarely turn off.”

Cornell Chronicle: Digital research repository arXiv to start new chapter as nonprofit. “When [Professor Paul] Ginsparg returned to Cornell as a professor in 2001, he brought the online research repository arXiv with him. And for 25 years it has remained at Cornell, where it has grown into a global clearinghouse for millions of research papers, accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Now, arXiv embarks on its next chapter: a transition to an independent nonprofit.” 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.

Idaho Capital Sun: New digital tour honors the work of Japanese American artist incarcerated at Minidoka during WWII. “The work and story of Japanese American painter Takuichi Fujii is now available via a digital tour produced by Friends of Minidoka — a nonprofit built to partner with the Minidoka National Historic Site where Fujii was incarcerated during World War II.”

Amanda Quraishi: Announcing the Launch of the 84000 Doors Oral History Project. “Last year I announced that I’d been accepted to a fellowship program housed at The Institute for Diversity & Civic Culture where I’d be doing an oral history project featuring the lived experiences of Texas Buddhists. I named it ‘84000 Doors’ after the Buddhist concept that there are infinite entry points to enlightenment. I’m pleased to share that the project is live!”

TechCrunch: New website names and shames companies that still don’t offer passkeys to users. “When it comes to securing accounts against hackers, passkeys are now widely considered the gold standard. And yet they are still not offered by one in four major apps and services on the internet, including Instagram, Netflix, and Spotify. Those stats come from a new website that names and shames companies that still don’t give users the option to use passkeys to log in to their apps and services.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: How I use Gmail aliases to create disposable email addresses instantly. “There are many reasons why you might want to get or send emails from an email address that’s not your main one. Setting up entirely new Gmail accounts for one-time use purposes can get annoying quickly, though. Luckily, if you have Gmail, you don’t have to do that. Instead, once you’ve mastered the art of email aliases, your single Gmail account will be all that you need.” The old heads know this, of course, but it’s soooo useful.

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CNBC: TikTok and YouTube are reinventing sports viewership. Broadcasters are taking note. “TV and streaming platforms have been attracting some of the biggest audiences for live sports this year. The NBA Finals series claimed an average of 20.6 million viewers per game on Disney’s ABC and ESPN networks. And yet social platforms like TikTok and Google’s YouTube are claiming a disproportionate amount of viewing time for Generations Z and Alpha — often at no cost.”

Hackaday: A Standalone YouTube Streaming Rig. “YouTube streaming typically involves a camera with an HDMI output, a USB3 HDMI digitiser, and a suitably beefy PC to run it all. It’s quite a process, and for [Coreymillia], more complex than it needs to be. He’s come up with something simpler, a dedicated self-contained streaming rig using a Raspberry Pi 4.”

Mashable: Twitch’s CEO says passive scrolling can’t beat the community of live streaming. “If there’s one thing Twitch CEO Dan Clancy wants people to know about what makes Twitch special, it’s that the live streaming site is all about community.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

MediaPost: Google And TikTok Battle ‘Vigilante’ Parents Over ‘Choking Challenge’ Videos. “Google and TikTok are urging a federal appellate court to reject parents’ request to revive a lawsuit alleging that the platforms failed to remove dangerous material, including ‘choking challenge’ videos that depict people strangling themselves until they pass out.”

Ars Technica: FCC accused of hiding Chairman Carr’s messages with DOGE and Musk. “An advocacy group trying to investigate DOGE’s influence on the Federal Communications Commission accused the FCC of failing to comply with a public records request and of concealing Chairman Brendan Carr’s use of the Signal messaging service.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

PetaPixel: Artist Attaches Game Boy Camera to Space Telescope and Takes Photo of Jupiter. “A Game Boy enthusiast recently took his classic 1998 console to Mount Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles and attached it to an enormous 60-inch telescope. The 128-pixel camera has just four shades of gray to make images from. The 60-inch telescope on Mount Wilson, in its current Cassegrain configuration, has an equivalent focal length of about 24,384mm.” 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.

University of Washington: GovScape lets you easily search millions of government documents. “At the end of every presidential term, the End of Term Web Archive preserves that administration’s web presence as a vast trove of documents and webpages. The archive began in 2008, with George W. Bush’s second term, and runs up to 2024, collecting images, text, graphs, redacted pages and other media. So while it contains important public information, finding that information in the glut can prove difficult. A University of Washington-led research team created GovScape, an efficient search system for PDFs from the End of Term Web Archive.”

Climate.us: Climate.us launches independent website for trusted climate information. “Climate.us today launched the full version of its new independent, nonprofit climate information website, creating a public-backed home for trusted climate science at a time when access to federal climate resources has become increasingly vulnerable to disruption.”

Sportal.edu: L’Espresso Opens Its Digital Archive: Seventy Years of Italian History Just a Click Away. “L’Espresso, in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo, lifts the curtain on the project to digitize the weekly magazine’s entire historical archive, with the first phase launching on Friday, June 26, and an initiative that highlights the legacy that of the magazine founded in 1955, which spans seventy years of investigations, reports, and covers that chronicle the country’s transformations.” I wasn’t sure if this was a paid archive or not, so I visited the site and looked at the archives. I was able to access two issues with no trouble.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Voice of OC: State Lawmaker Backs Off Gutting California Public Records Act. “After a slew of organizations representing journalists and government watchdogs opposed a bill looking to gut the state’s public records law, the lawmaker who authored the proposed law is backing down, according to her chief of staff.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Hollywood Reporter: Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ to Skip Social Media Influencer Screenings. “Studios typically make the decision whether to have word-of-mouth screenings on a case-by-case basis depending on the film, but it has become pretty standard procedure for films that are aiming for popcorn movie blockbuster status. Universal’s decision also comes at a time when fans have gotten savvier about the relationship between studio marketing departments and influencers.”

Ars Technica: Google finally releases a Finance Android app, promises iOS version later in 2026. “Google Finance is not a new product—it has been around for 20 years, long enough that it initially relied on Flash to display charts and graphs. The website has gotten a few major updates over the years, but it has never had a mobile app until now. Google has released the first standalone app for Google Finance, which is currently exclusive to Android, with iOS planned for later this year.”

Tubefilter: On your marks: TikTok, Strava establish six-digit fund for running creators. “TikTok and Strava are sprinting across Europe to find the continent’s most exciting run clubs. That’s the gist of the Pan-European Local Movement Fund, a €100,000 pool that has been allocated for running creators and their associates.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: US judiciary to hike PACER fees to fund accelerated system upgrade. “The U.S. federal judiciary on Friday said it will temporarily hike fees to download documents from its online court records system known as PACER in order to accelerate the development of a new, more secure case management and public ​access system.”

Gizmodo: Hackers Steal Funds From Polymarket Users, Potentially Millions. “A third-party vendor has been compromised, and some Polymarket users have lost money to hackers, according to a tweet from the betting site. The company has not confirmed how much was lost, though independent monitors on X suggest it could be around $3 million.”

Politico: Polymarket sued over ‘flagrantly deceptive’ social media ads. “A consumer protection group accused Polymarket of orchestrating ‘flagrantly deceptive’ social media ad campaigns to raise its profile and persuade American consumers to place bets on a platform that wasn’t technically available in the U.S.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Kyiv Post: Despite Public Break With Russia, Springer Continues Publishing Russian Journals. “When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Springer Nature joined many Western institutions in condemning the war. The academic publishing giant announced it would halt new sales in Russia and Belarus and expressed support for Ukrainian researchers. Yet more than four years later, Springer continues to distribute roughly 200 Russian scientific journals through a partnership with Pleiades Publishing, a company that specializes in translating and distributing Russian academic publications to international audiences.”

American Library Association: American Library Association launches national advocacy campaign to fight FCC attack on library funding. “The American Library Association (ALA), along with Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition partners, announced a national advocacy campaign today after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to advance a proposal that asks whether the E-Rate program, which has provided affordable broadband to schools and libraries for nearly 30 years, should be terminated or limited to only rural areas.” 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 Exeter: Website showcases new wave of Ukrainian wartime poetry . “Lines of Resistance is a cultural initiative between the UK and Ukraine to translate, publish, and research Ukrainian wartime poetry, bringing it to English-speaking audiences worldwide. The website features numerous video recordings of poet-soldiers reciting their work – even while on active duty.”

State of California: California becomes the first state to launch a tool to monitor and track artificial intelligence’s impacts on the workforce. “The tracker, which will be updated monthly, provides early indicators of possible AI‑related job displacement, allowing the state to proactively identify where interventions — such as job‑search support, retraining and upskilling opportunities, health‑coverage guidance, and other essential resources may be needed most.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Search Engine Land: Bruce Clay, the Father of SEO, has passed away. “Bruce Clay, known as the Father of SEO, sadly passed away in late May. Bruce Clay was one of, if not the, founding father of the SEO industry, starting a real professional SEO agency back in 1996. He was the first sponsor of the first SEO conference, ever and he has given more of his time, resources and money to the creation of the SEO space than almost anyone else.”

Gizmodo: One of Wikipedia’s Cofounders Banned From the Site Over Influence Campaigns. “After years of criticism and complaints about the direction of the site, Larry Sanger, one of Wikipedia’s cofounders, has been banned from editing articles. Sanger was indefinitely blocked from editing privileges on Wikipedia after volunteer editors accused him of violating the site’s rules by trying to get his online followers to influence an internal discussion on the platform.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BBC: TikTok influencer charged with Dubai murder. “A 23-year-old TikTok influencer charged with the murder of her boyfriend in Dubai is facing death by firing squad, a human rights group has said. Brooke George, from Gravesend, Kent, has been charged over the stabbing of a man who she was in a relationship with after they met online, advocacy group Detained in Dubai said.”

United24 Media: Moscow Allocates $2.15 Billion for Disinformation Campaigns Against the West. “Russia has allocated 185 billion rubles ($2.15 billion) to fund disinformation campaigns directed against European Union and NATO countries, marking a 50% increase compared to the previous year.”

The Hill: Secret Service didn’t secure mobile devices, putting leaders at risk, report says. “The Secret Service left itself vulnerable to hacking due to issues with both official and personal devices, a government watchdog found in a report ordered after the assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, Pa.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Texas at Austin: New Database for Subsurface Energy Storage Could be Boon for Natural Gas Industry. “The new study builds upon and significantly expands two existing databases: one maintained by the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the other by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. While these databases provide basic facility-level information, Mirzaei Paiaman and his team took the analysis a step further by compiling detailed geological, subsurface, and operational data for underground gas storage facilities across the United States.”

New York Times: How Phones Alerted Millions Before Quakes Shook Venezuela. This link goes to a gift article. “Venezuela does not have a national early warning system of its own, but people with Android phones received alerts from Google’s Earthquake Alerts system, which can pull data from more than two billion phones equipped with built-in accelerometers. The same sensor that detects rotation on the screen can also sense vibrations from seismic waves.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Boing Boing: Used coffee grounds can now be turned into fuel in 90 seconds. “The South Korean National Research Council of Science and Technology announced that a Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) research team has figured out how to turn used coffee grounds into biochar: a type of high-quality charcoal that can be used in power generation. The process takes just 90 seconds, start to finish.” 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.

Euronews: Fact check: Were you fooled by these AI-generated images of the World Cup?. “The World Cup has officially kicked off, and with it so has a wave of AI-generated misinformation — ranging from fake fans in the stands, fabricated political appearances and false quotes attributed to players.”

DATA CENTERS

Gizmodo: Data Centers Were the Biggest Losers of the Week. “Around the country, pro-data center politicians lost elections, local governments moved to slow or ban new projects, and we even saw consumer tech prices rise due to AI-driven chip shortages. The bad week comes as major tech companies are racing—and spending billions—on massive new data center projects to train and run advanced AI models.”

AI IN EDUCATION

City University of New York: Teaching Generative Artificial Intelligence: Inside Hunter College’s Camp AI. “As generative AI rapidly reshapes higher education, Hunter College has brought together faculty across disciplines to rethink how they teach, assess, and engage students using the new tools. At the center of the effort is Camp AI, a multi-day professional development initiative that quietly has grown into a campus-wide — and, increasingly, CUNY-wide — resource. Just in time, too.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

North Dakota Monitor: North Dakota lawmakers zero in on AI, data centers . “North Dakota lawmakers on Thursday announced a new interim committee that will study data centers and artificial intelligence ahead of the 2027 legislative session. Senate Majority Leader David Hogue said the goal is to equip legislators with more expertise so they’re better prepared to make policy decisions related to rapidly-changing technology.”

AI LEGISLATION

Michigan Advance: Michigan House Democrats pitch transparency, community benefit requirements for data centers. “According to the sponsors, House Bills 6135–6142, would ensure these energy-intensive facilities bear the full cost required to provide them with electricity, require community benefits agreements for developers looking to build in Michigan communities, set guardrails on water usage and require a study to determine how much noise data centers emit.”

AI IN WORK

Associated Press: CT among first states in group trying to preserve jobs amid AI boom. “A new bipartisan nonprofit hopes to ensure that America can realize the economic gains promised by AI without its workers suffering. RAISE US is starting with more than $500 million to deploy on new forms of education and training, putting a focus on partnering with states and major employers rather than the federal government.”

New York Times: Could A.I. Find Brazil’s Next Pelé?. This link goes to a gift article. “Eager to impress, the young soccer players darted and dribbled around the purple cones laid out on the patchy grass. Their speed, control and footwork were all being carefully evaluated — but not by a veteran scout. Not even by a human being. Instead, the Brazilian athletes were being assessed by a mobile app powered by artificial intelligence, part of a handful of new tools promising to revolutionize the way that talent is discovered in the soccer-mad nation.”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

Rest of World: When Americans choose Chinese AI. “U.S.-based developers and small companies are turning to Chinese models to cut costs. Although Chinese models still lag behind the best American ones in performance, they can handle most tasks at a fraction of the price.”

Associated Press: AI chatbots are helping people communicate with dating partners. Here are some do’s and don’ts. “There’s understandable skepticism about the technology’s place in dating. Still, a growing number of people are turning to AI as a de facto dating coach or relationship expert. Some use the technology to get guidance on creating a dating app profile, decode messages from potential partners and draft replies or seek general dating advice. But those inquiries can have varying degrees of success.”

Search Engine Journal: WordPress Developers Say New AI Feature Does Not Belong In Core. “The new feature, which is already in Gutenberg, functions as a centralized repository of guidelines and knowledge about a website for use by people like editors and contributors, as well as for internal AI agents and tools. The proposal quickly received a thumbs down from developers, who generally felt like this feature is out of touch with what users actually need.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Nvidia sued by music company Jamendo over AI training. “Jamendo, owned by Winamp ‌Group, said in the lawsuit filed on Monday, opens new tab that Nvidia copied hundreds of thousands of audio files and related metadata from its platform to train Fugatto, ​an AI audio generator, and Audio Flamingo, an AI language ​model that describes sound.”

TechSpot: Nvidia’s banned AI servers are selling for $1.1 million on China’s black market. “Think Nvidia products are expensive in the United States? In China, one system is being sold for the equivalent of $1.1 million. But that’s for the DGX B300 platform, which not only costs around $400,000 in the US but is also banned in the country. It’s those increasingly tight export restrictions that are pushing up prices for AI hardware on China’s black market.”

The Register: It’s looking like a hot, messy summer for security teams as AI finds countless previously hidden vulns. “It’s going to be a “messy” summer for security folks, especially when it comes to fixing the open source code that underpins their organizations. That’s according to Dan Lorenc, CEO and co-founder of Chainguard, a software supply-chain security company leading Athena, a newly formed coalition of about two dozen companies that wants to make the process of finding and fixing open source bugs ‘as easy to consume as possible.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Wall Street Journal: What AI can’t—or shouldn’t—do for you. “Overuse of today’s AI models isn’t going to lead to a massive plume of radioactive fallout, but it could have a number of far-reaching consequences that will seem obvious in retrospect. These include mass layoffs, angry and alienated customers, and the destruction of a huge amount of value at companies that are misapplying it.”

Sun Journal: Maine should crack down on data centers’ costs | Letter. “Maine should pass laws requiring data center developers to assume these costs as a requirement for approval. First, legislation should require that developers install renewable energy generating capacity (wind, solar, etc.) equivalent to the center’s expected energy consumption. Second, legislation should mandate that data center heating/cooling requirements be fulfilled through means other than groundwater extraction, such as by utilizing geothermal technologies.” 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.