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Insights into our methods and our mindset. Or just what we find interesting.

March 28, 2023

More Cooks in the Kitchen

I thought of this book for Women’s History Month because Zott was a scientist in the 1950s and ‘60s, ahead of her time, and in a field and industry where few women then ventured. And while Zott is a fictional…

March 17, 2023

Sunshine of Our Love: Why FOIAs are an Investigator's Best Friend

This week is Sunshine Week, which promotes the importance of government transparency and allowing citizens access to public records. Sunshine Week, held on March 12 to 18, was started in 2005 by the American…

February 15, 2023

Remember the Maine - And Remember the Facts

Today is the anniversary of the explosion of the U.S.S. Maine, which blew up in Havana Harbor in 1898, killing most of the crew and escalating tensions between the United States and Spain to the point that…

February 14, 2023

Beware Scammers Selling Bad Romance

Forty percent of people who fell victim to romance scams last year said scammers first contacted them on social media, while 19 percent said contact began on a website or app. Criminals study the information…

February 6, 2023

ChatGPT: Write Me a Blog

Artificial intelligence - particularly OpenAI’s ChatGPT software - has been the subject of much discussion lately and for good reason. Advancements in AI over the past 20 years have led to technology that was…

January 25, 2023

Numbers Don’t Lie, But Those Who Use Them Sometimes Do

Every so often court cases pop up in the news that serve as good reminders of all the ways a due diligence exercise can go wrong, and now is one of those times. At 221B Partners, we couldn’t help notice the…

January 6, 2023

OSINT for Good: Online Sleuths Fight Sex Trafficking

All Things Possible—a nonprofit that helps people affected by trauma—has partnered with Echo Analytics Group to bring together groups of vetted volunteers to identify potential victims of sex trafficking and…

December 21, 2022

Covid Changed How We Work – And How Our Kids Learn About It

The onset of the pandemic forced employers to reexamine how and where work is done. But as Covid restrictions have eased, 2022 might be remembered as the year working from home settled in as the new norm for…

November 18, 2022

What Would the Amazing Randi Say?

James Randi, known by his stage name “the Amazing Randi,” was an accomplished magician, escape artist and sleight of hand practitioner who, in the 1970s and 1980s, took to exposing as frauds and charlatans…

October 28, 2022

Spies in the Skies

Am I nosy or am I just an investigator? When I notice an interesting piece of information or catch a glimpse of something out of the ordinary my brain can’t help but go into overdrive and want to figure out…

October 14, 2022

How one investigator unburied a 50-year-old Alaskan mystery

I love a story that takes a morsel of common knowledge and turns that small narrative on its head, expanding it into something astonishing and new. Last year, I listened to a podcast called “Missing in Alaska”…

September 30, 2022

Catfishing in America: Te’o’s Story a Cautionary Tale for any Social Media User

Most Americans probably had never heard the term “catfishing” in January 2013, when news broke that Manti Te’o, star linebacker for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, had become a high-profile victim of the online…

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