Pluralistic: 09 Apr 2020

Today's links

Neighbors treated to socially isolated buildingside screening: Scott Duggan treated his terrace to "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
Philips quadruples ventilator costs: They reneged on their HHS deal and will get $646.7m for their trouble.
Kansas GOP nukes ban on large Easter gatherings: What's wrong with Kansas?
Kickpunch's Disney comics/horror movie mashups: Daniel Björk's terrifying poster children for fair use.
Plastic-eating enzyme: Leaf-branch compost cutinase to the rescue.
Cold brew coffee chemistry: Making the black stuff reproducible.
Tails adds Secureboot support: Evil chambermaids, beware!
Crisis makes heroes of IT workers: When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth.
Automating fake PDF signatures: Make it look like you printed, signed and scanned.
Pocket Art Director: Your high-handed boss in D20 form.
This day in history: 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Solnit on the revelations of crisis: Pandemic speeds up processes that were too slow to notice.
Nurse suspended for distributing crowdfunded PPE: Shame on Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.
Cleveland Plain Dealer executed by union-busting owners: Firing health reporters during a pandemic.
Monster-themed covid pinup PSAs: By Alejandra Oviedo.
The Onion on Wisconsin's election: We need strategic Onion reserves for all our calamities.
NSO Group says Facebook tried to buy its malware: NSO is worse than Facebook, but it's a close-run thing.
How to pay for covid: Unearthing Keynes's "How to Pay for the War."
Smart lock hemorrhages user data: And it broadcasts its unlock code over Bluetooth.
TSA wanted to inspect 16 year old trans girl's genitals: Jon Corbett is on the case.
Roger Fuckebythenavele vs Bannatyne Manuscript: Black Plague-era f-bomb eclipsed by 14th century frottage artist.
Rube Goldberg feeding device: Now that's physical comedy.
Public domain Zoom backgrounds: Fantastic backdrops for an absurd moment.
This day in history: 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Pickled 2001 computer store: Deadstock ahoy!
A farewell to APIs: Greed, spam and entropy killed mashups.
Machine learning model performs butthole recognition: Peak Internet of Shit.
Covid loteria cards: Cabronavirus.
California's fiber for all bill: Tell your senator to support SB1130.
1978 Doonesbury stereotype: Come for the Indochina political humor, stay for the printer's lore.
LA crime plummets: Down 23% (domestic violence is down 11%).
US stimulus is one week's cash: Deflation ahoy.
Private equity blinks on cuts to health workers' wages: Speeding up slow destruction makes it impossible to ignore.
Virtual greenscreen: Incredible computer science paper from the 2020 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.
Landlord changes church's locks: The pastor of Cross Culture Christian Center in Lodi, CA refused to stop holding services.
This day in history: 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

The Jubilee: Fill Your Boots: My latest podcast, on a redefined form of abundance and luxury.
Illinois reinstates physical restraints for special ed kids: Revenge of the "quiet room."
Youtube vs 5G arsonists: There's plenty of things wrong with 5G, but coronavirus isn't one of them.
Hamilton original cast reunites on Zoom: A ray of sunshine at a dark time.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Socioeconomics of coronavirus: Everything bad is now worse.
How to drain your lungs: Knowledge is power.
Bookshop: a local, indie alternative to Amazon: What could booksellers find to buy one-half so precious as the stuff they sell.
This day in history: 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Private equity looting public health in a pandemic: The math is part of the con.
MacGuyver mask tutorial: Crafter/filmmaker marriages for the win.
Prescient Reagan-era text-adventures: What we can learn from the 1985 Infocom game "A Mind Forever Voyaging."
Landlord accidentally organizes rent strike: When you're threatening 300 tenants, don't CC them all on on the email.
The Pandumbic: Fox News is a suicide cult.
This day in history: 2005, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

The Public Domain Review Coloring Book: Hokusai, Albrecht Dürer, Harry Clarke, Virginia Frances Sterrett, etc.
Amazon's leaked anti-worker smear plan: They put it in writing.
Wikipedia vs patent troll: No, you didn't invent autocomplete.
Bug bounty programs as catch-and-kills: Companies are not good stewards of their own bad news.
The Tea Party killed pandemic preparedness: "No one warned us" -Congressman who was warned repeatedly.
This day in history: 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Private equity titan squats on empty hospital: But he'll get a massive stimulus bailout anyway.
A promising, plausible plan for "privacy-preserving" surveillance: A thoughtfully designed, opt-in based way to do contact tracing.
UK public health official endorses official reagents for covid tests: Chemicals is chemicals.
An AI's prank suggestions: I have provisionally uncancelled April Fool's Day, but only for these.
How David Got His Scar: A free story in the universe of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies books.
Bird's "Black Mirror" mass layoffs: Revenge of the Kwak.
At Home with EFF: An online discussion of covid-19 and digital rights.
Ted Chiang on pandemics as idiot plots: We can't afford a return to the status quo.
How you are subsidizing the otherwise unprofitable Fox News: Fox cheats.
Ghostcrash: Car crashes with all but one of the cars removed.
The paintings of Rod Serling's Night Gallery: Now streaming on Hulu!
Borderlands is shipping books: Shop a science fiction institution, not Amazon.
Coronavirus travel posters: Stay the fuck home.
Turn on wifi sharing: Save a kid's future.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Wood-metal worry beads: Chris Bathgate's latest, "The Woody."
Overly descriptive color palettes: Handpicked from the Colorschemez bot.
American Prospect high-school essay contest: An antidote to the Ayn Rand Institute contest.
Snowden's Box: The logistics of leaking are a mix of tradecraft and philosophy.
Alteon cuts covid-fighters' pay: $20k paycuts for docs fighting covid-19.
Tiktok Kremlinology: Systematically exploring Tiktok's algorithm.
American employment exceptionalism: Why the US is losing jobs much faster than other countries.
Solar as a beneficial fad: How good ideas spread.
This day in history: 2015, 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading