9 comments

  • mindcrime 32 minutes ago
    "CIA World Facebook"--> Is that a code name for PRISM or ECHELON or whatever??
    • klodolph 4 minutes ago
      It was a literal factbook online. In high school, I remember using it to look up facts like the area or population of different countries.
    • MrDrMcCoy 25 minutes ago
      No, it was a guidebook anyone could use for just about every country. It well predates PRISM, and was well regarded until it was discontinued.
      • lmz 8 minutes ago
        That was the factbook
    • ButlerianJihad 20 minutes ago
      Freudian Slip. Everyone knows that Facebook is Five Eyes Book/Mossadbook
  • erikig 13 minutes ago
    Thank you for including data sources as well as some basic data analysis. The scatter plots are quite helpful in analyzing some demographic assumptions that often arise when discussing economic and social development.

    You’ve earned yourself a bookmark :)

  • walrus01 7 minutes ago
    You know what else they killed? The SIGAR.mil website (special inspector general for afghan reconstruction), the congressionally chartered oversight/audit entity that had a very well laid out website with chronological ordered list of every document that the SIGAR had ever produced. But no, let's sweep it under the rug.

    All of its PDF are still out there in the public domain, just scattered and not well organized in a single set of tabular pages. Here's its final report for an example of what it did.

    https://www.ecoi.net/en/file/local/2145129/sigar-final-repor...

  • MrDrMcCoy 21 minutes ago
    Feature request: include the source and date last updated for all information fields.
  • newman314 20 minutes ago
    Request for higher contrast please for my old eyes.
  • oofbey 35 minutes ago
    What happened to the CIA world factbook? It was great.
    • serf 34 minutes ago
      "On February 4, 2026, following the restriction and closure since 2025 of other government-funded information websites, the CIA announced, with no warning and no explanation, that The World Factbook was discontinued."[0]

      [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Factbook

    • penskymaterial 11 minutes ago
      If more people visited it instead of asking what happened, they probably could have justified their budget for existing.

      Traffic was likely low and did not justify the manpower for upkeep.

    • tejtm 11 minutes ago
      It got spellchecked into the boards

      Maybe @dang can fix the autocorecto

  • ulfw 11 minutes ago
    Last thing I want is another Facebook
  • k310 1 hour ago
    Factbook, please.
  • penskymaterial 16 minutes ago
    The real irony about the seething and salty tears being spilled over the loss of the site: Aren't the CIA world-renowned experts in propaganda? What better way to run an influence campaign than publishing your own "factbook"?

    That proves the reflexive reaction was never about the content; rather, the time and by whom it was removed. 9/10 complainers probably went directly to Wikipedia or accepted the regurgitated AI slop Google returned to your query as "facts".

    • alexgartrell 3 minutes ago
      new account, obvious troll
    • dudeinjapan 10 minutes ago
      CIA Factbook was mundane things like population, land area, system of govt, major exports, etc. Stuff that is now on the right-hand sidebar of Wikipedia. Presumably it was made for US govt employees to have a basic understanding of other countries. It was useful to do a 7th grade research report on Uzbekistan circa 1997.