Pluralistic: 07 May 2020

Today's links

The TSA is hoarding N95s: It doesn't even use 'em.
Look at this banana gondola.: Just look at it.
America is united: Turkeys skeptical about Christmas.
$3 router rebooter: If no_google then reboot.
EFF's Guide to Digital Rights During the Pandemic: Digital rights are human rights.
Wink will brick your smart home if you don't pay a monthly fee: How you act in bad times reveals your true character.
Helicopter flyover of deserted Disneyland: We find it delightfully unlivable here in this ghostly retreat.
EU: "Cookie walls violate the GDPR": Another blow to cookie consent theatre.
Unix and Adversarial Interoperability: The "one weird antitrust trick" that defined modern computing.
Sidewalk Labs pulls out of Toronto: Sic Semper Boondoggle.
Wechat spies on non-Chinese users for in-China censorship: Your dank memes, banned in realtime.
Hidden doors disguised as bookcases: No books harmed.
Vent dragons: Alas, you can't use them as working vent covers.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Lovecraft Country: Jordan Peele's official trailer for his adaptation of Matt Ruff's book.
$150,000 "Magic" grants: For people to pursue their passions.
Pandemic could make Big Tech our permanent overlords: Kara Swisher on pandemic profiteering.
Hospital CEOs making millions amid cuts: Nurses and docs vs execs.
Wired workers have unionized: Just in time for rumored Conde Nast cuts.
The failure of software licensing: The right to hire a lawyer is not software freedom.
XML inventor quits Amazon over whistleblower firings: Tim Bray is no longer an Amazon VP and Distinguished Engineer.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Problems with Pepp-Pt: Privacy-preserving contact tracing is really hard.
Disney publishes an official Dole Whip recipe: Orange whip? Orange whip? Three orange whips.
Reset Everything: Crisis means crossroads.
Usage stats from the National Emergency Library: Most of the checkouts are of books more than a decade old and last less than 30 minutes.
RPG hagaddah: The Role-Player, what does he say?
Managing UI claim surges: Hundreds of phone calls, day after day, without ever reaching a person.
Realtime wildcat strike map: Coronavirus is leverage for low-waged workers.
501 Developer Manifesto: Free time over free snacks.
Privacy Redirect: Nitter > Twitter.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, 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

The most beautiful RPG dice I've ever seen: And you can also make your own.
The king of Dutch climate denial was secretly in Shell's pay: Frits Böttcher was a packrat, and his papers detail exactly how he was paid to sow climate doubt. He was very good at it.
American Catholic officials helped priests who preyed on children escape to Mexico: At least 51 "credibly accused" priests left the US and took up positions abroad.
A grifty AI company conned the state of Utah into giving access to everything: Banjo claims it will predict and head off terrorist attacks, mass shootings, and child abductions without invading anyone's privacy.
Clearview AI says it only lets cops use its facial recognition tool but it's lying: Investors, cronies and pals got to literally use it as a party trick.
South Korea's beating covid-19 with free testing: Testing is part of the free national health system, and 140,000 tests have been administered.
The web is unusably beshitted with terrible ad-tech: "No, I don't want great articles."
For $3, a robolawyer will automatically force data brokers to delete you and sue the ones who don't: Donotpay meets the CCPA, it's like peanut butter and chocolate.
This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Daniel Pinkwater wrote a new novel! Yippee for "ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL!"
Warner Chappel discoved a new form of copyright fuckery so dense it blew a wormhole into another dimension: From the people who fraudulently claimed to own "Happy Birthday" for decades.
RIP, Jim Tyre: The free internet just lost one of its most dedicated defenders.
Decentralizing the web is a human problem: The web needs stewards, not owners.
Right to Repair is the right to resilience: Independent repair is how we keep things going during emergencies.
Keyless car fobs can be defeated with a cheap RFID cloner: Car manufacturers wontfix a showstopper bug. Again.
Bookstores, libraries, human thriving and mental health: Books are great, even if the science behind their greatness is thin.
Copyright experts' panel on fair use removed from Youtube: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?
Radicalized is out in paperback: Just hit every one of Canada's national bestseller lists, too!
African Whatsapp modders are outcompeting Facebook: Adversarial Interoperability is how you beat digital colonialism.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Russian Multiplication: turning hard multiplication into easy addition with binary.
Cops' qualified immunity: so long as it's not identical to an established atrocity, it's fine.
Bloomberg's Plan B: buying the DNC: I don't care who does the voting, so long as I get to do the nominating.
Private equity looters underperform the S&P 500: Believing that you are accomplishing extraordinary things merely because you are paid extraordinary amounts is top-grade self-delusion.
New podcast about the history of Gopher and adversarial interoperability: It's judo for network effects.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading