Author: Cory Doctorow

Pluralistic: 23 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Tacocat, a free print-and-play game from the Exploding Kittens team: Super smart endgame!
  2. Adafruit offers open source PPE manufacturing: They're retooling and available to help.
  3. It's time for a coronavirus jubilee: Debts that can't be paid won't be.
  4. Medicare for All is an economic stabilizer: Private health insurance turns recessions into depressions.
  5. Private Kit, a free/open app to give you control over your location history: Doing contact tracing without invading privacy.
  6. Italy's mayors berate quarantine-breaking citizens: "Does your dog have an inflamed prostate?"
  7. This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
  8. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 23 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 22 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. How prepper media is coping with the crisis: Fantasy meets reality while grifters pick up the pieces.
  2. Law firm tells work-from-homers to switch off smart speakers: Bugging your own house is not compatible with attorney-client privilege.
  3. Gorgeous painting of coronavirus from a molecular scientist: Free to use, too.
  4. Slim's is shut, but DNA Lounge needs your help: It's not a business, it's a community.
  5. Florida mayor ducks accountability for threatening power disconnections during the pandemic: Mayor Pam Triolo has permanently disqualified herself for public office, and commissioner Omari Hardy has the receipts.
  6. Rashida Tlaib proposes minting two trillion-dollar coins: A people's covid bailout.
  7. How "concierge doctors" supply the "worried well" with masks, respirators and tests: Pandemic capitalism is guillotine capitalism.
  8. This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
  9. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 22 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 21 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. My appearance on Cool Tools: My favorite gadgets.
  2. UK emergency science panel predicts mass altruism: Reality has a well-known collectivist bias.
  3. Don't Look for the Helpers: The text version of my essay for the new Nightvale anxiety podcast.
  4. After the crisis, a program for transformative change: Pandemic reveals the systems' failures, and what to do about them.
  5. Pandemic stimulus, realpolitik edition: Stephanie Kelton and AOC on a people's bailout.
  6. Beautiful judicial snark: "No, your unicorn trademark is not an emergency."
  7. Marc Davis's Haunted Mansion: What if Marc Davis had sole control over the ride's design?
  8. This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
  9. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 21 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 20 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Patent trolls spin their shakedown of covide testing tech: Monkey law firm hired by Softbank patent-trolls to use Theranos patents to attack covid testing engages in spin.
  2. Who Has Your Face? A short and sobering quiz from EFF.
  3. Judge overturns terrible copyright decision against Katy Perry: Sharpening up the "Blurred Lines" principle.
  4. Consumer Reports' covid-19 guide: Consistently the most reliable source of unbiased product info.
  5. Right to Repair during pandemics: Hospitals are the new farms: isolated, with systems that need to be fixed NOW.
  6. Republican senators told us everything was fine as they secretly panic-sold their stocks: But they made sure to clue in the donor class.
  7. Trump is outbidding state agencies for medical supplies: He says federal coordination would turn him into "a shipping clerk."
  8. Simon Pegg's coronavirus Sean of the Dead remake: "What's the plan?"
  9. Ifixit's new database of med-tech repair guides: They need your help.
  10. Open source hardware ventilator enters testing: From zero to prototype in 7 days.
  11. Dafoe's plague diaries: Party like it's 1665.
  12. This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
  13. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 20 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 19 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. The worst Democrat in Congress just lost his job: Dan Lipinski primaried by the amazing Marie Newman.
  2. Canada Reads documentary on Radicalized: The Great Canadian Book debate is indefinitely postponed, but here's an hour on my book!
  3. Africa's Facebook modders are world leaders: Technological self-determination through adversarial interoperability.
  4. Imagineering in a Box: Interdisciplinary theme park design lessons from Khan Academy and Disney.
  5. Data is the New Toxic Waste: It was never "the new oil."
  6. How to structure a fair covid bailout: Stimulus, not private jets.
  7. Fox News is a suicide cult: Telling your elderly viewers to perform tribal loyalty by engaging in high-risk behaviors is a career-limiting move.
  8. Grocery supply chains are resilient: One less thing to worry about.
  9. Magic in the time of coronavirus: Never let a good crisis go to waste, card-trick edition.
  10. This day in history: 2010, 2019
  11. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 19 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 18 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Ethiopian factory sports Jack Ma quotes: Global trade currents are shifting fast.
  2. Charter orders all workers to keep showing up: Even the 15% of its workforce who could work from home.
  3. MAGA firefighters dismiss coronavirus as Democrat hoax: And/or a Chinese bioweapon.
  4. Flatter Me, a compliments card game: Kickstarting now.
  5. American Airlines blew billions, now it wants a bailout: Socializing losses, privatizing gains.
  6. John Green's mutual aid manifesto: The only way through is together.
  7. How to split a single ventilator for four patients: Peer-reviewed simulations.
  8. Bigoted Republican Congressjerk votes against coronavirus relief because it might cover same-sex partnerships: Rep Andy Biggs wants to send us all to meet Jesus.
  9. Epidemiology and public health in 14 minutes: An epidemiologist and an sf writer make an outstanding science communications team.
  10. 3D printed ventilator hero got a patent threat: Human rights vs property rights.
  11. If nothing is for sale, how will covid stimulus work? Can you fix a supply shock with stimulus?
  12. How to make your own toilet paper: A craft for your isolated kiddos.
  13. Plague precautions from 1665: No feasting, but you can tipple in a bar until 9PM.
  14. This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
  15. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 18 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 17 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. The Masque of the Red Death and Punch Brothers Punch: My latest podcast is Poe/Twain bathos crossover.
  2. Fill in your census online: Otherwise you and people you care about literally won't count.
  3. Naomi Klein: this disaster has no room for disaster capitalism: It's our moment to seize.
  4. Scalzi's canceled bookstore: Support your local indie bookseller, especially now.
  5. My Twitter account was suspended: I got in trouble for putting trolls on a list called "Colossal Assholes."
  6. Talking digital writing careers with the Writing Excuses podcast: Covering a lot of ground in 15 minutes.
  7. A new anxiety podcast from Nightvale's Joseph Fink: Proud to be in the debut episode.
  8. Patent trolls try to shut down covid testing: Monkey-selfies, Theranos, Softbank – it's a garbage matrioshke!
  9. How to live with your kids: "Working and Learning from Home with Young Children."
  10. Brave files GDPR complaint against Google: Sharing data between Google services is a no-no.
  11. This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
  12. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 17 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 16 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Covid At Home: A guide for isolation, illness and recovery
  2. Trump wants a US-only vaccine: Reality has a well-known globalist/collectivist bias.
  3. Folding@Home to beat covid: 23 distcomp projects to give your CPU to.
  4. Italian hospitals fix their ventilators with 3D printed parts: Fablabs to the rescue.
  5. How to prepare for coming layoffs: A guide for techies junior, senior and prickly.
  6. Leaked Tiktok moderation guidelines are a censoring mess: No poors or ugly people welcome.
  7. Canceled Bar Mitzvah is still a mitzvah: Today I am a mensch.
  8. Shmoocon 2020 videos online: Hours of entertainment and infosec funnies.
  9. This day in history: 2005, 2010
  10. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 16 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 15 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. HRDAG analyzes the best covid-19 studies: Ninja statisticians FTW.
  2. Chelsea Manning's supporters pay off her $256,000 fine in a day: She had our back so we have hers.
  3. The Onion is there for us: Doing for pandemic what they did for 9/11.
  4. The CIA's information security is really terrible: Root password was "123ABCdef".
  5. Euroleaks: exposing the secret workings of the Eurogroup: Where they decided to strangle Greece.
  6. Things to do with kids during lockdowns: A crowdsourced list.
  7. Covered Dish: A site for stories of mutual aid during a crisis.
  8. How to pull your business out of China: A guide for the anxious.
  9. This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
  10. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 15 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 14 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Masque of the Red Death: Macmillan Audio gave me permission to share the audiobook of my end-of-the-world novella.
  2. When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth: A new podcast audiobook of my 2005 end-of-the-world story.
  3. Ada Palmer on historical and modern censorship: Part of EFF's Speaking Freely project.
  4. Glitch workers unionize: First-ever tech union formed without management opposition.
  5. Women of Imagineering: A 384-page illustrated chronicle of the role women play in Disney theme-park design.
  6. Tachyon celebrates 30 years of sff publishing with a Humble Bundle: DRM-free and benefits EFF.
  7. Honest Government Ads, Covid-19 edition: Political satire is really hard, but The Juice makes it look easy.
  8. TSA lifts liquid bans, telcos lift data caps: Almost as though there was no reason for them in the first place.
  9. CBC postpones Canada Reads debates: But you can read a ton of the nominated books online for free.
  10. Star Wars firepits: 750lbs of flaming backyard steel.
  11. This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
  12. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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