Day archives: February 5th, 2026

New Database Maps the Politics of America’s Workplaces

PHYS.org: “Researchers, including Professor of Management and Organization Reuben Hurst at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, have produced VRscores, an unprecedented public database for understanding the partisan lean of different employers in the United States. Hurst, with co-authors Justin Frake (University of Michigan) and Max Kagan (Columbia University), developed VRscores …

Subjects: Education, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Don’t lock yourself out of your iPhone

“Tech Brew [reg reqd]: Getting locked out of your Apple Account is the digital equivalent of locking your keys in your car—except your car (iPhone) contains your entire life—including every photo you’ve ever taken. Getting back in isn’t always as quick and easy as calling roadside assistance: Apple’s verification process can often make DMV wait …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Privacy

The Chatbots Appear to Be Organizing

Vox – AI agents could change your life — if they don’t ruin it first. ChatGPT is boring compared to what comes next. The Atlantic [no paywall] – “The first signs of the apocalypse might look a little like Moltbook: a new social-media platform, launched last week, that is supposed to be populated exclusively by …

Subjects: AI, Economy, Financial System, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media

Olivetti

Beautiful machines from a beautiful country – “Olivetti’s history can be divided into three distinct parts. First, there were typewriters. As the crisis of this first era mounted, the company moved into microcomputers for its second era. With the IBM PC dominating the world, the company moved into its PC era. When this era came …

Subjects: Knowledge Management

ICE and CBP’s Face-Recognition App Can’t Actually Verify Who People Are

Wired: “ICE has used Mobile Fortify to identify immigrants and citizens alike over 100,000 times, by one estimate. It wasn’t built to work like that—and only got approved after DHS abandoned its own privacy rules.The face-recognition app Mobile Fortify, now used by United States immigration agents in towns and cities across the US, is not …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Records, Free Speech, Legal Research, Privacy

CIA ends publication of its popular World Factbook reference tool

AP: Close the cover on the CIA World Factbook: “The spy agency announced Wednesday that after more than 60 years, it is shuttering the popular reference manual. The announcement posted to the CIA’s website offered no reason for the decision to end the Factbook, but it follows a vow from Director John Ratcliffe to end …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Records, Education, Knowledge Management, Legal Research