Pluralistic: 25 Mar 2020

Today's links

Internet Archive lifts lending restrictions on ebooks: They're calling it the "National Emergency Library."
Kaiser threatens to fire Oakland nurses who wear their own masks: They're treating positive patients from a cruise ship with insufficient PPE.
No more O'Reilly events: We've been here before, kinda.
Trump's Bible study teacher thinks coronavirus is God's wrath: For homosexuality, China, environmentalism, Catholics, and women in the workforce.
A chatbot that petitions companies for financial relief during the crisis: Donotpay's robot lawyer is here for you.
East London showman Mat Ricardo's Youtube playlists: Lockdown TV for "comedy, variety, circus, magic, dance, music."
Xi's enemies sense weakness: Autocracies are only as good as their last crisis-response.
Locked down in a lockup: Coronavirus meets immigration detention.
Doctors hoard choloroquine: MDs to lupus sufferers, "Drop dead."
Toilet paper separator: Covid crafting for household essentials.
Conzealand goes virtual: The first time a Worldcon isn't in person since WWII.
Posties are key to America's emergency response: The only agency that could deliver covid meds to every US household in a single day.
Volante's masks for covid responders: Streetwear for Superheroes.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, current reading

This year's Nebula Awards will be held online: It's $150, and raising funds to bail out corona-shattered writers.
Make America Well Again stamps: from the artist who brought you the Trump Zero Cents stamp.
Data is the new toxic waste: It never was the "new oil" (my latest podcast).
Stock Jump: A ski-game that lets you play the stock charts of cratered businesses.
Murdering 20% of elderly Americans is bad strategy for the GOP: Terrified old people are the turkeys who vote for plutes' Christmas every four years.
Join me on the Quarantine Book Club: April 1, 3PM Pacific.
The Party of Death: It's a good time to buy exterminism futures.
Financial stability vs economic stability: Debts that can't be paid, won't be paid.
Quarantine reveals the falsity of the automation crisis: Augmentation isn't replacement.
Bailouts and moral hazard: If we never teach big business, it won't ever learn.
MIT's ingenious manual/automatic open source ventilator: Now in FDA testing.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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

How prepper media is coping with the crisis: Fantasy meets reality while grifters pick up the pieces.
Law firm tells work-from-homers to switch off smart speakers: Bugging your own house is not compatible with attorney-client privilege.
Gorgeous painting of coronavirus from a molecular scientist: Free to use, too.
Slim's is shut, but DNA Lounge needs your help: It's not a business, it's a community.
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.
Rashida Tlaib proposes minting two trillion-dollar coins: A people's covid bailout.
How "concierge doctors" supply the "worried well" with masks, respirators and tests: Pandemic capitalism is guillotine capitalism.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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

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

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