Monthly archives: August, 2025

The End of Handwriting

Wired – no paywall – “For years, smartphones and computers have threatened to erase writing by hand. Would that be so bad? Parents, educators, and fellow penmanship advocates have been lamenting the end of handwriting for years. Email began edging out cards and letters decades ago. Then smartphones hit the market, and our reliance on paper …

Subjects: AI, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management

The State of Independent Technology Research 2025: Power in Numbers

Coalition for Independent Technology Research: “A report on the struggle to keep public-interest technology research alive and the growing Coalition working to protect it. What’s At Stake – Understanding how technology shapes society shouldn’t be dictated by corporate agendas or political interests. It should be driven by and for the public, because without independent research, …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management

The Dangerous Legal Strategy Coming for Our Books

The Atlantic – Our picture book was pulled from library shelves in Florida [no paywall]: The argument being used to defend the ban threatens the right to read. By Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. “In 2023, our book was one of thousands pulled from library shelves around the country, and as we write, an evolving …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Government Documents, Legal Research

Blaugust: Four Tools for Easier Date-Based Searching

Tara Calishain – “Do your Internet research tasks include a lot of date-based searching? I find that date-based searching helps a lot when searching historical (and man do I feel weird saying that about stuff that happened just a couple decades ago) events, companies, people and information. The results you’ll find when searching for something …

Subjects: Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Search Engines

I Wanted to Find Out What Google Knows About Me and Finally Found a Way

MakeUseOf: “I’ve always known Google had a lot of information on me, but “a lot” is vague. I wanted to see the receipts. That’s when I stumbled upon a tool hidden in plain sight: Google Takeout. It gave me a way to download my data directly from Google’s servers, neatly packaged for my inspection. Google …

Subjects: E-Mail, E-Records, Internet, Knowledge Management, Privacy, Search Engines

Amid Deregulatory Blitz, Trump Quietly Deletes Key Public Comment Tool

Common Dreams: “It’s clear that Trump doesn’t want the public weighing in on these dangerous deregulatory initiatives,” said Katie Tracy of Public Citizen. On Friday, the General Services Administration—an independent agency that supports the functioning of the government bureaucracy—quietly eliminated a tool known as the POST Application Programming Interface (API) from the Regulations.gov website. Last …

Subjects: Censorship, E-Records, Economy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

What the Smithsonian actually is

Dean Blundell – “The Smithsonian is not one museum, and it isn’t a partisan project. It’s the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex: 21 museums, the National Zoo, and a network of research centers. Created by Congress in 1846, it receives federal support but is governed independently, with a public mission to collect, conserve, …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Education, Knowledge Management