Pluralistic: 29 Nov 2021


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Give Me Slack

My parental worries, ca.Ā 2021.

subgenius.com

I was a mere lad of fifteen when I first encountered the Church of the Subgenius, a joke religion started by a group of prankster surrealists out of Austin and parts elsewhere. The faith is represented by J.R. ā€œBobā€ Dobbs, a grinning, square-jawed salesman with a pipe clenched in his square, white teeth, who promises ā€œslackā€ to all who profess the faith.

Slack wasā€Šā€”ā€Šand isā€Šā€”ā€Šan enticing concept. I always interpreted ā€œslackā€ as a synonym for ā€œforgiveness,ā€ that is, the idea that our systems would have graceful failure modes, in which errors and failings were never terminal, and could always be redone. A philosophy for an age of ā€œSave Gameā€ and āŒ˜-Z.

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Pluralistic: 28 Nov 2021


Today's links

  • The Cuban vaccines: Omicron, vaccine apartheid, WTO TRIPS waivers and the false hope of viruses "gentling" themselves.
  • This day in history: 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016
  • Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 26 Nov 2021


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Pluralistic: 25 Nov 2021


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Pluralistic: 24 Nov 2021


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Pluralistic: 23 Nov 2021


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Pluralistic: 21 Nov 2021


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Appleā€™s Right-to-Repair U-Turn

Celebrate, but keep your eye on theĀ prize

A picture of a disassembled Iphone from Ifixitā€™s ā€œIPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown,ā€ it is surmounted with the Apple ā€œThink Differentā€ wordmark; in the bottom corner, behind the Ifixit logo, is Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars with a speech bubble that reads ā€œItā€™s a trap?ā€
Image: Ifixit, Apple, Lucasfilm

Itā€™s been a pretty great week. Ever since Apple announced that it would sell its customers spare parts and tools to affect their own repairs, and supply them with the documentation to do so, Iā€™ve been thrilled to do my comradesā€™ online victory laps. For a decade, Iā€™ve fought alongside my pals in the Right to Repair movement against a coalition of the best-capitalized, most powerful multinational companies in the world, who used their incredible might to trample all other considerations: fairness, climate justice, safety, and security.

We introduced dozens of state right to repair billsā€Šā€”ā€Šbills that set out the principle that when you buy a product, you should get to decide who fixes itā€Šā€”ā€Šand watched as, time and again, a coalition of big business, led by Apple, used lies and scare-talk to convince lawmakers to vote the bills down.

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