Author archives

The US Library of Congress is under attack

FT.com no paywall – An institution that survived British torching in 1814 is now facing a new onslaught – “An institution that survived British torching in 1814 is now facing a new onslaught. The Library of Congress is a reference-only research library, its collections being built through legal deposit legislation, passed by Congress. A History …

Subjects: Censorship, Congress, Copyright, Education, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

At This $10 Billion Hedge Fund, Using AI Just Became Mandatory

Walleye Capital’s Will England is training his 400 employees to win with LLMs TL;DR: Today we’re releasing a new episode of our podcast AI & I. Dan Shipper goes in depth with Will England, the CEO and CIO of Walleye Capital, one of Every’s consulting clients. Watch on X or YouTube, or listen on Spotify …

Subjects: AI, Economy, Financial System, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

License Plate Reader Company Flock Is Building a Massive People Lookup Tool, Leak Shows

404 Media no paywall – “Flock, the automatic license plate reader (ALPR) company whose cameras are installed in more than 5,000 communities in the U.S., is building a product that will use people lookup tools, data brokers, and data breaches to “jump from LPR [license plate reader] to person,” allowing police to much more easily …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Records, Legal Research, Privacy, Transportation

Congress’s Librarian, Fired by the President

First Branch Forecast: “Congress’s Librarian, Fired by the President The presidential firing of Dr. Hayden raises serious questions about legislative independence. On Thursday, President Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. Dr. Hayden became the 14th Librarian of Congress in 2016. In that role, she oversaw the Library of Congress, a major legislative support agency. …

Subjects: Censorship, Congress, Education, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Decades of Deceit – Climate Fraud

Union of Concerned Scientists: The Case Against Major Fossil Fuel Companies for Climate Fraud and Damages – “Dozens of states, counties, cities, and tribes across the United States and its territories are currently suing major fossil fuel companies for fraud, climate damages, or racketeering. This report assesses the wealth of documentary evidence behind these lawsuits, …

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Legal Research

Read e-books for free

Consumer Checkbook “Almost all libraries now buy e-book licenses from publishers and make books available for download by patrons, formatted for device type, through services such as OverDrive.com and the popular Libby app. (Caveat: You’ll face long waitlists for bestsellers and other popular titles.) Other ways to e-read for free: Books in the public domain—which …

Subjects: Libraries

ChatGPT may be polite, but it’s not cooperating with you

The Guardian: “After publishing my third book in early April, I kept encountering headlines that made me feel like the protagonist of some Black Mirror episode. “Vauhini Vara consulted ChatGPT to help craft her new book ‘Searches,’” one of them read. “To tell her own story, this acclaimed novelist turned to ChatGPT,” said another. “Vauhini …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Knowledge Management

You’ll never guess which mobile browser is the worst for data collection

The Register: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the slurpiest mobile browser of them all? The answer, according to VPN vendor Surfshark, is Chrome. Surfshark’s research focused on the top ten browsers based on AppMagic rankings. This included Safari due to it being the default browser on iPhones. Between them, Chrome and Safari account …

Subjects: E-Records, Privacy, Search Engines

Deportation records

Data is Plural: “The Deportation Data Project, run by a team of academics and lawyers, “collects and posts public, anonymized U.S. government immigration enforcement datasets.” These include data from border apprehensions, deportations, Title 42 expulsions, ICE arrests and detentions, ICE-operated flights, and more. Some of the data files come directly from the government, while others …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Pluralistic: Who Broke the Internet? Part II

“Who Broke the Internet? Part II (permalink) “Understood: Who Broke the Internet?” is my new podcast for CBC about the enshittogenic policy decisions that gave rise to enshittification. Episode two just dropped: “ctrl-ctrl-ctrl“: The thesis of the show is straightforward: the internet wasn’t killed by ideological failings like “greed,” nor by economic concepts like “network …

Subjects: AI, E-Commerce, Economy, Financial System, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Transportation