{
  "id": "1995-july-bits-bytes-and-barks",
  "slug": "1995-july-bits-bytes-and-barks",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1995-july-bits-bytes-and-barks.html",
  "year": 1995,
  "month": "July",
  "monthNum": 7,
  "headline": "Bits, Bytes and Barks",
  "kicker": "",
  "author_name": "",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "",
  "summary": "A journalism newsletter highlighting resources for reporters, including government bulletin boards for tracking piracy and organ transplant data, Commerce Department's consolidated STAT-USA website, and online communities for investigative journalists.",
  "keywords": [
    "piracy",
    "data",
    "reporting"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Data & Databases",
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Technology"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "modem/BBS",
    "gopher",
    "FTP",
    "spreadsheet",
    "World Wide Web",
    "Internet"
  ],
  "full_text": "Bits, Bytes and Barks\n\nTracking pirates\n\nA speedboat with armed bandits chased down a cargo ship in the South China Sea. Masked bandits stole from a container ship anchored off Rio de Janeiro. These incidents are part of the rise in piracy, according to the Journal of Commerce. Reporter Michael Fabey used a government electronic bulletin board service (BBS), Marlinespike, to help report the April 8 story.\n\nThe BBS is (202) 366-8505, with settings 8-1-N. The section to check is the ONI World Wide Threat to Shipping.\n\nCheck out transplant rates\n\nUsing data from the United Network for Organ Sharing, Hartford Courant reporter Robert S. Capers charted the survival rates of organ transplant patients at hospitals across the country and in the newspaper's backyard.\n\nThe bulletin board information is easily downloaded and analyzed with spreadsheet or database software, and can be tailored for any audience in the country.\n\nThe UNOS data includes patient survival rates at four time intervals for six procedures at every U.S. transplant center over a three-year period. It also contains demographics on donors and recipients and comments from transplant center officials.\n\nTo find the UNOS organ transplant data, dial into the HHS bulletin board at (301) 443-5913. Enter your name and address when prompted and you will be added to the department's database for future logons.\n\nChoose the file menu, then the download option. The file is survival.zip. For those who don't have it, decompression software is also there. UNOS also runs a World Wide Web site with numerous facts and statistics on organ transplants. Visit http://www.infi.net/-shreorg/unos.html\n\nCommerce changes on-line data site\n\nThe U.S. Commerce Department consolidated its vast STAT-USA Internet sites June 15. That means the STAT-USA gopher and ftp servers are being shut down. The agency now charges a subscriber fee of $24.95 for three months, or $100 for a year, for access through its web site.\n\nSTAT-USA includes more than 300,000 government reports, including the federal government's budget, the president's economic report, regional and national economic data, and foreign trade reports. The sources include U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Trade Data Bank.\n\nAmong the more useful sections is the Economic Bulletin Board, which offers reports \"just minutes after its official release\" from the Federal Reserve Board, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Treasury Department and other federal agencies.\n\nFor more information or to subscribe, go to www.stat-usa.gov, or call STAT-USA at (202) 482-1986.\n\nJoin NICAR on the Internet\n\nDon't forget to keep up with NICAR on the Internet. Subscribe to our listserve and join in as reporters talk about how to do the job better. E-mail to listserv@mizzoul.missouri.edu. In the message, on the first line, write: subscribe nicar-1 your name. To join Investigative Reporters and Editors on the Internet, the instructions are the same except, on first line, write: subscribe ire-1 your name.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "extracted_at": "2026-07-05",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "1997-decemberjanuary-bits-bytes-and-barks",
      "score": 0.24
    },
    {
      "slug": "1996-may-bits-bytes-and-barks",
      "score": 0.211
    },
    {
      "slug": "1997-january-the-reporters-network",
      "score": 0.204
    },
    {
      "slug": "1995-april-check-clintons-budget-on-line",
      "score": 0.203
    },
    {
      "slug": "1995-june-organ-transplants-tracked-on-line",
      "score": 0.192
    }
  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1995-july-bits-bytes-and-barks.html",
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}