Pluralistic: 29 Jun 2020

Today's links

Female Furies: Cecil Castellucci finds the story that Jack Kirby missed.
How to break up Google: A making things company, not a buying things company.
Facebook and Trump collaborate on rule-rigging: You can't break the rules if you make the rules.
NYC housing lottery favors the least-needy: The private sector cannot and will not solve the housing crisis.
Podcast: Part 8 of Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town: Families are weird.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Locus Awards winners: Fantastic science fiction and fantasy from 2019.
Bailouts should come with strings attached: Ensure financial resources are reinvested productively.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

How Big Tech distorts discourse: My free Oxford Internet Institute webinar.
Talking Job Guarantee with Pavlina Tcherneva: My latest for the LA Times.
Walkaway, Chicago-style: Protesters re-enact the climax of my 2017 novel (and it worked!)
759 Trump atrocities: McSweeney's saved the receipts.
Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act: $80B for universal fiber rollout.
Canada Reads is back: The debates will happen July 20-23.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

The Case for a Job Guarantee: Pavlina Tcherneva's urgent pamphlet, in the midst of the employment crisis of the century.
The real cyberwar is Goliath, slaughtering an army of Davids: It's asymmetric, but the asymmetry goes the other way
Coders as RPG classes: Product managers are bards.
Podcast: Someone Comes to Town Pt 7: The Father's Day episode.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

SF anthology to benefit covid charities: With Neil Gaiman, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Robert Silverberg, Jonathan Maberry, Seanan McGuire, Andrew Mayne, Scott Sigler, Orson Scott Card, Alan Dean Foster, A.C. Crispin and me.
Politics and sf: Highlights from my Torcon panel with Nnedi Okarafor.
Robots aren't stealing your job: Your boss is destroying it and blaming it on automation.
Earbuddy: "Enabling On-Face Interaction via Wireless Earbuds."
The Worm: 1975 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Graphics Standards Manual, NHB 1430.2 January 1976, Section 2.1 "Reproduction Art, Logotype."
CDA230: Americans don't trust Big Tech to moderate their communities.
Hue and cry, posses, sheriffs: What did we do before cops?
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Hank Green and me in conversation: July 10 for Minneapolis's Magers and Quinn books.
Facebook Workplace can block employees from discussing unionization: Oops, they said the quiet part out loud.
Secrets of a seventeen year old scraper: How 17 year old Avi Schiffmann built the web's leading covid case-tracker and Black Lives Matter protest-tracker.
Facebook endorses Terra Nullius: Facebook's nudity filter blocks images of Aboriginal slavery.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

EFF offering legal referrals to protesters: If your phone was seized or you were targeted with electronic surveillance, they've got a list of lawyers.
The unsatisfying history of obscenity: "I know it when I see it" was always a cop-out.
A ride through of Elitch Gardens' Kaleidoscope: Meow Wolf's ride for Denver's centuries-old theme park.
Big Tech is good at being big: But that shouldn't get them a pass on anti-monopoly law.
Personalized, signed copies of Little Brother/Homeland: With an intro by Ed Snowden!
No fix for Chrome's Incognito Mode: What matters more: user privacy or paywalls?
DoJ seizes pro-BLM coronavirus masks: The Flu Klux Klan wants protests to be death sentences.
Science Fiction Writers of America on Black Lives Matter: Free dues, travel and memberships for the Nebulas, and a reading list.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Minneapolis racists threaten arson over BLM signs: A modern cross-burning.
White House recants "antifa bricks" conspiracy: American Surkovs.
Rave for "Poesy the Monster Slayer": "Some children fear monsters at bedtime, but Poesy welcomes them."
Autodetecting autogenerated text: The answer to the machine is the machine.
AMC's bankruptcy is the first domino in monopolist collapse: When monopolism bites Disney in the ass.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Dems can and MUST fight police violence: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil…
Save Uncle Hugo's: Crowdfunding for Minneapolis's beloved, torched science fiction bookstore.
Ella Jones is Ferguson's new mayor: The city's first Black mayor.
Why protests become violent: Cops keep mashing the "be violent" button.
PPE vs riot gear: Revealed preference, revealed.
Zoom wants to help the FBI spy on you: Encryption is a luxury good.
Trivial-to-spoof UK contact tracing: A gift to identity thieves and fraudsters.
AT&T; will punish Disney+ viewers: Can you hear me now?
K-pop fandom pivots to human rights hacktivism: Flooding the zone with fancams.
This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Australia caves on "robodebt": Dialing down the automated performative cruelty by a single notch.
Locus Award shortlist: Some of my 2019 favorites made the cut.
Why I haven't written about CDA 230: Life is too short.
Bus drivers refuse to take arrested protesters to jail: And they're unionized, so they don't have to.
AI has been stagnating for a decade: "The high-water mark was set in 2009."
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading