morningbuzz

3D Anatomy Models, Visualizing Density Database, Google, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, September 18, 2025

NEW RESOURCES

Brno Daily: Masaryk University’s Faculty of Medicine Launches New Database For Printing Anatomical Models. “The Faculty of Medicine at Masaryk University (MUNI) has launched a portal offering freely accessible data for the 3D printing of anatomically accurate models of bones and organs, which can be used as educational aids both for teaching and in clinical practice.”

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy: Lincoln Institute Unveils Updated Visualizing Density Database. “The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy launched an updated iteration of Visualizing Density, a database containing hundreds of aerial photographs of neighborhoods each measured by housing density in units per acre. Intended for planners, designers, public officials, policymakers, practitioners, journalists, and citizens, the tool helps communities manage misperceptions about density as they consider residential development.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Land: Google Search rank and position tracking is a mess right now. “Google removed the ability to see 100 search results per page and both third-party tracking tools and maybe even Search Console seem off since. If you are trying to understand your ranking position, or other Google search metrics, in Google Search right now, you might see some confusing, inaccurate or different data.”

Engadget: Snap’s AR glasses are getting a better browser and support for Spotlight video. “Snap is upgrading the software that powers its augmented reality glasses as it gets ready for the first non-developer version of its ‘Specs’ next year. The latest update to Snap OS includes an improved web browser, as well as the ability to browse Spotlight videos in AR.”

Mashable: YouTube Live gets a Twitch and TikTok inspired update . “According to YouTube, more than 30 percent of daily logged-in YouTube viewers watched live content in Q2 2025. Livestreams are growing on YouTube, and it appears the company realizes it needs to compete with some of the more unique livestreaming features on competitor platforms like Twitch and TikTok.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

404 Media: AI-Powered Animal Crossing Villagers Begin Organizing Against Tom Nook. “A software engineer in Austin has hooked up Animal Crossing to an AI and breathed new and disturbing life into its villagers. Using a Large Language Model (LLM) trained on Animal Crossing scripts and an RSS reader, the anthropomorphic folk of the Nintendo classic spouted new dialogue, talked about current events, and actively plotted against Tom Nook’s predatory bell prices.”

Mashable: Celebrate Emmy-winning shows like ‘The Pitt’ with Google Easter egg. “The 2025 Emmys may be over, but you can continue to celebrate your favorite TV shows’ wins thanks to Google’s post-Emmys Easter egg.”

Ars Technica: Mods react as Reddit kicks some of them out again: “This will break the site”. “A recent post on the r/modnews subreddit announced plans for new restrictions on how many subreddits users can moderate. Those who currently don’t meet those restrictions will be asked to leave their post(s) or seek an exemption(s).”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: Nork snoops whip up fake South Korean military ID with help from ChatGPT . “North Korean spies used ChatGPT to generate a fake military ID for use in an espionage campaign against a South Korean defense-related institution, according to new research.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Cornell University: Research at risk: Cultural fluency and critical language expertise. “In 1958, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act, which created National Resource Centers (NRCs) at universities to train experts in regions critical to U.S. interests. Cornell’s Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) earned NRC status that year, with the South Asia Program (SAP) following in 1985. … Last week, the U.S. Department of Education formally ended the National Resource Center program, a loss of approximately $1 million in funding a year.”

UCLA Anderson Review: Barred From Stalking Us Across the Internet, Returns for Some Advertisers Plummet. “A paper forthcoming in Management Science by Northwestern’s Guy Aridor, Columbia’s Yeon-Koo Che, UCLA Anderson’s Brett Hollenbeck, Hamburg University’s Maximilian Kaiser and University of Maryland’s Daniel McCarthy estimates the economic costs of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency for Meta, Google and their advertisers. Its findings at once suggest that app tracking works — we buy a lot of stuff from companies that track us — and turning it off is devastating to some of those stalkers.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Alex Plescan: Just for fun: animating a mosaic of 90s GIFs. “…let’s go behind the scenes of how the GIF mosaic came together. We’ll look at sourcing the GIFs, cleaning them up so they’re safe for public display, and animating them.” Good morning, Internet…

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