\n
<\/p>\n
You may or may not have ever realized it, but for more than six decades, the CIA published an incredible resource called The World Factbook<\/em>\u200b<\/a>. It was a free reference guide to all the countries on Earth, along with several non-state entities such as the European Union, and it was filled with all sorts of eye-opening info.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You might\u2019ve noticed I\u2019m referring to it in the past tense. That\u2019s because after having maintained this project since 1962\u2014first as a printed book and then in more recent years online\u2014the CIA unceremoniously discontinued and deleted The World Factbook<\/em> earlier this year.<\/p>\n But, as so often happens, the internet has come to the rescue. And now this one-of-a-kind resource and all the wisdom within it is available for anyone to tap into again.<\/p>\n This tip originally appeared in the free <\/em>Cool Tools newsletter<\/em><\/strong><\/a> from <\/em>The Intelligence<\/em><\/a>. Get the next issue <\/em>in your inbox<\/em><\/a> and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n On February 4, the CIA announced\u200b<\/a> it was shutting down The World Factbook<\/em> once and for all. Every single page was deleted simultaneously.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the bad news. The good news: Someone\u2019s already brought it back, and it\u2019s available once more as a free online resource.<\/p>\n \u279c The new version is called OpenFactBook\u200b<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s a community-maintained successor to the original from the CIA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nYour free global field guide<\/strong><\/h2>\n