Pluralistic: 17 Mar 2020

Today's links

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

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

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

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

Announcing the third Little Brother book, Attack Surface: And a new Little Brother/Homeland reissue, with an intro by Ed Snowden!
Where I Write: A column for the CBC that's really about how I write.
Stream 200+ global news channels: Each hand-picked, no registration required.
AT&T's CEO fired 23,000 workers and gave himself a 10% raise: Life on the easiest setting.
Chelsea Manning is free: But she's been fined $256K for refusing to testify to the Grand Jury.
Rep Katie Porter forces CDC boss to commit to free testing: Literally the most effective questioner in Congress.
Trump's unfitness in a plague: It's not because he's an ignoramus, it's because he's a nihilist.
Malware that hides behind a realtime Covid-19 map: Peter Watts' prophecy comes true.
Locked-down Siennese sing their city's hymn: A cause for hope in the dark.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

TSA boss doubles down on taking away health care from part-time screeners: They're touching your junk with diseased hands.
Akil Augustine on Radicalized: My book's Canada Reads champion lays out the case for Radicalized.
A former top Cigna exec rebuts Joe Biden's healthcare FUD: Wendell Potter is the prodigal corporate villain.
Ars Technica's Covid-19 explainer is the best resource on the pandemic: Beth Mole has outdone herself.
Boeing is even worse at financial engineering than they are at aircraft engineering: The $43B they incinerated through stock buybacks would sure come in handy about now.
Senate Republicans kill emergency sick leave during pandemic: Sick leave is cheaper than pandemics, but pandemics generate cost-plus contracts for the donor class.
The EU's new Right to Repair rules finally come for electronics: Snoods cocked at Apple and other US Big Tech monopolists.
How to run a virtual classroom: Masterclass from the 14-year-old Stanford Online High School.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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