Month: March 2020

Pluralistic: 11 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Obesity and unsaturated fats: Blaming unsaturated fats for obesity is very plausible, but likely wrong, alas.
  2. The satiety index: Which foods cause or satisfy cravings?
  3. Sensor Tower's VPNs and adblockers spied on users: Like sneaking laxative into Immodium.
  4. Twitter's new Terms of Service help academics: Good bots welcome.
  5. Italy's "I Stay in the House" law: The comprehensive quarantine plan.
  6. Scam-buster hacks into a scam-factory: He gets their CCTVs, recordings of their calls, transaction data, Whatsapp chats, and more. Delicious.
  7. Postmortem: the catastrophic EU Copyright Directive. Testimony from yesterday's Senate hearing.
  8. Podcast: A Lever Without a Fulcrum Is Just a Stick: My latest Locus column, on how copyright failed artists and enriched corporations.
  9. This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
  10. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 11 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 10 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Safe and moral societies need "firewalls" between immigration and public services: The UK's "hostile environment" puts everyone at risk.
  2. Detroit will reconnect water services during the Covid-19 emergency: But it's $25/month thereafter.
  3. Thomas Piketty endorses Sanders: both his program and his electability.
  4. Sonos "recycling mode" no longer bricks working speakers: Fire the person who came up with this deeply shitty idea.
  5. Brave will randomize browser profiles to fight fingerprinting attacks: More from the most privacy-friendly browser.
  6. This day in history: 2005, 2010
  7. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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Pluralistic: 09 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Jesse Jackson endorses Sanders: "I stand with him because he stands with you."
  2. Choose Your Own Adventure was Milton Friedman for Kids: There Is No Alternative.
  3. Woman sues TSA over "pat-down" that penetrated her vagina: Las Vegas airport's finest.
  4. Shat-out pig pedometer sparks farm-fire: Beyond Thunderdome, free range
  5. UCSC strike prompts systemwide student and faculty solidarity strikes: Meanwhile, the regents are deporting striking TAs.
  6. An open syllabus on "housing struggles": Detailed resources from the Pirate Care collective.
  7. Yanis Varoufakis on how austerity leads to fascism: And how "constructive disobedience" can win support for alternatives.
  8. John Deere is Right to Repair's archnemesis: Digital feudalism has reinvented the tenant farmer.
  9. This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
  10. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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Pluralistic: 08 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. EU airspace is full of empty planes: Flight slots are use-em-or-lose-em.
  2. European Right to Repair for phones is finally on the horizon: Will the EU finally defy Apple?
  3. Patagonia offers tutorials and supplies to fix your clothes: Companies that guarantee their products for life have different incentives.
  4. This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
  5. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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Pluralistic: 07 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Audio from last night's Canada Reads event in Kelowna: Thanks to Sarah Penton for being such a great interviewer!
  2. Gig economy drivers won't get sick-pay if they have covid-19 symptoms: Your Instacart driver is being incentivized to handle your food through his fever-sweats.
  3. Compromise threatens Intel's chip-within-a-chip: A bug in the Management Engine threatens five years' worth of Intel systems.
  4. The savior of Waterstones will turn every B&N into an indie: James Daunt has opened 60 profitable stores in his career.
  5. This day in history: 2015, 2019
  6. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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Pluralistic: 06 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. The most beautiful RPG dice I've ever seen: And you can also make your own.
  2. The king of Dutch climate denial was secretly in Shell's pay: Frits Böttcher was a packrat, and his papers detail exactly how he was paid to sow climate doubt. He was very good at it.
  3. American Catholic officials helped priests who preyed on children escape to Mexico: At least 51 "credibly accused" priests left the US and took up positions abroad.
  4. A grifty AI company conned the state of Utah into giving access to everything: Banjo claims it will predict and head off terrorist attacks, mass shootings, and child abductions without invading anyone's privacy.
  5. Clearview AI says it only lets cops use its facial recognition tool but it's lying: Investors, cronies and pals got to literally use it as a party trick.
  6. South Korea's beating covid-19 with free testing: Testing is part of the free national health system, and 140,000 tests have been administered.
  7. The web is unusably beshitted with terrible ad-tech: "No, I don't want great articles."
  8. For $3, a robolawyer will automatically force data brokers to delete you and sue the ones who don't: Donotpay meets the CCPA, it's like peanut butter and chocolate.
  9. This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
  10. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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Pluralistic: 05 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Daniel Pinkwater wrote a new novel! Yippee for "ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL!"
  2. Warner Chappel discoved a new form of copyright fuckery so dense it blew a wormhole into another dimension: From the people who fraudulently claimed to own "Happy Birthday" for decades.
  3. RIP, Jim Tyre: The free internet just lost one of its most dedicated defenders.
  4. Decentralizing the web is a human problem: The web needs stewards, not owners.
  5. Right to Repair is the right to resilience: Independent repair is how we keep things going during emergencies.
  6. Keyless car fobs can be defeated with a cheap RFID cloner: Car manufacturers wontfix a showstopper bug. Again.
  7. Bookstores, libraries, human thriving and mental health: Books are great, even if the science behind their greatness is thin.
  8. Copyright experts' panel on fair use removed from Youtube: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?
  9. Radicalized is out in paperback: Just hit every one of Canada's national bestseller lists, too!
  10. African Whatsapp modders are outcompeting Facebook: Adversarial Interoperability is how you beat digital colonialism.
  11. This day in history: 2015, 2019
  12. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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Pluralistic: 04 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. A brokered convention will produce a powerless presidency: Transformative change requires a movement, not a plan.
  2. What the Siege of Gondor teaches us about medieval warfare: 40,000 riveting words from Roman military historian Bret Deveraux.
  3. ICE's risk assessment algorithm only ever recommends detention: NYCLU suing to force them to admit what we've all figured out.
  4. Probing China's Covid-19 censorship: Outstanding work from Citizen Lab.
  5. America is uniquely at risk from coronavirus: 77 million un- and underinsured people.
  6. This day in history:
  7. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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Pluralistic: 03 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense guide for students: Privacy is a team sport.
  2. Oregon's Dems have a supermajority, but the GOP won't show up for work: White nationalism is how plutes get turkeys to vote for Christmas.
  3. A Lever Without a Fulcrum Is Just a Stick: How to design a copyright to protect artists, not corporations.
  4. Facebook neutered "Download Your Data": "Your data" doesn't include a list of ad-tech companies that also hold your data.
  5. The EU's new copyright filters violate the GDPR: We told you so.
  6. Recycling spy agencies' malware for fun and profit: NOBUS is, and always has been, an idiotic idea.
  7. Japanese condiment company releases "sliced mayo": Comes in four flavors!
  8. Department of the Interior climate docs include junk science: Trump's man on the inside, sabotaging our future.
  9. This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
  10. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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Pluralistic: 02 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. My new podcast, "Disasters Don’t Have to End in Dystopia": Tired: Look for the helpers. Wired: Be the helper.
  2. The next frontier for school censorware is spying on kids all the time: It's how we'll stop ISIS, apparently.
  3. I'm coming to Kelowna on March 5: It's my first-ever trip to the BC interior and more than half the (free) tickets are gone. RSVP now!
  4. Cool Mules, an investigative series on a Vice editor's cocaine-smuggling ring: From the people who brought you the stunning "Thunder Bay."
  5. Soviet Space Graphics: Cosmic Visions from the USSR.
  6. Apple, Nike and Dell's supply chain includes enslaved Uyghurs: Xinjiang Phase II.
  7. Drugs Without the Hot Air: The best book I've ever read on drugs and drug policy, in an expanded new edition.
  8. This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
  9. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 02 Mar 2020"