OpenTheBooks.com – Every Dime. Online. In Real Time.

“At OpenTheBooks.com, we work hard to capture and post all disclosed spending at every level of government – federal, state, and local. In 2022, we filed 50,000 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and captured 25 million public employee pension and salary records. We also broke open the California state checkbook for the first time …

Subjects: Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research, Search Engines

South Korea’s plan for AI textbooks hit by backlash from parents

FT.com / no paywall: “South Korea’s plan to introduce artificial intelligence-powered digital textbooks in schools has provoked a backlash from parents and academics concerned about children’s overexposure to digital devices and potential misinformation. Education minister Lee Ju-ho said this week that tablets loaded with AI features were “pivotal” to a planned overhaul of the Korean …

Subjects: AI, Education

AI and Plagiarism Detection Tools

Journalist’s Toolbox – Mike Reilley: “I post this here as a warning. There are tools such as AI Undetect and Humanize AI Text, rewrite tools that offer an AI detection remover service. They can fool GPTZero, ZeroGPT, Copyleak, etc. There also have been isolated reports that the detection tools may have a bias against international …

Subjects: AI, Copyright, Intellectual Property

The Economist US election forecast model

The Economist’s model of America’s presidential election estimates each major candidate’s chances of winning each state and the overall electoral college. Developed with a team of scholars at Columbia University, the forecast combines national and state-level polls with fundamental data about the state of the economy, historical voting patterns and the demographics of each state …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Legal Research

U.S. Congress Legislative Status Steps Image added to Congress.gov

In Custodia Legis: “July was a great month for Congress.gov. Robert shared news of our first release of the month and I blogged about the second. Andrew Reiter detailed how we modernized treaty documents. Cassidy Charles discussed all of the appropriations information on Congress.gov and highlighted the new appropriations resources video. With today’s release there is …

Subjects: Congress, E-Government, Economy, Government Documents, Legal Research

FBI Releases Motor Vehicle Theft, 2019—2023

“On August 12, 2024, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program released Motor Vehicle Theft, 2019-2023, on the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer at https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov. This special report provides information concerning motor vehicle theft and trends on carjacking. Incidents of motor vehicle theft included in this report are from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Participation in …

Subjects: Government Documents, Transportation

Yale Library – Objects from 200-plus collections are new online

“April 1 through June 30 of this year, more than 8,500 new object landing pages were created. These pages contain 30,000-plus images of individual items, including handwritten letters, manuscripts, photographs, maps, and more. The Lewis Walpole Library alone added digital images for more than 2,000 items, including objects from the British Theatrical and Literary Prints …

Subjects: Education, Internet, Legal Research

The Red Hand Files

Kottke: “The musician Nick Cave was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert earlier this week (full interview) and he read a letter from his Red Hand Files, an AMA project where fans write in with questions and he answers them. The question was: Following the last few years I’m feeling empty and more cynical …

Subjects: Knowledge Management