Pluralistic: 30 Apr 2020

Today's links

Berlin in color, after the Reich's fall: So vivid you could reach out and touch it.
Nikolai Kolchitski: He defined the Soviet look of space exploration for a generation.
Medicare for All (Congressjerks): Congress is happy to fund its exclusive white-glove concierge medical system.
Swedish covid death rates soar above neighbors': "Do nothing" is not doing something.
Financial services workers dying for junk mail: Broadridge workers denied PPE, sick leave.
AMC: "We will never show another Universal movie": Watch the monopolies form in realtime.
Revived Haunted Mansion videos from early internet fandom: The squees of yesteryear.
Marc Laidlaw reads his fiction: A new Youtube series from the author of Dad's Nuke and Half-Life.
A Room of One’s Own: New pandemic sf from Tochi Onyebuchi, with a live seminar to follow.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, current reading

Indie booksellers during the pandemic: Better news that you might expect.
Podcasting Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town: "A glorious book unlike any book you've ever read."
Billionaires thriving on our pandemic losses: Plutocracy is comorbid with pandemic.
Pandemic proves ISP data-caps were always a pretense: Rent-seeking vs capex.
Hospital cuts healthcare workers' pay, pays six-figure exec bonuses: Denver Health Medical Center shows us who really matters.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Web-wide copyright filters would be a disaster: No filternet. Not before, and especially not now.
Apartment buildings didn't cause the pandemic: The problem with slums is slumlords, not buildings.
Unmasking the registrants of the "reopen" websites: Koch Network, grifters, GOP orgs and musketfuckers.
Covid burns through Charter Cable employees: The company forced its workers to go to the office, denied PPE to field techs.
Disney heiress slams top execs' compensation: Abigail Disney wants the C-suite to zero out their bonuses
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Rural swing-state voters' social media show growing disapproval for Trump: Putting his literal signature on covid response makes it hard to argue it's not his fault.
The Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act: Ilhan Omar's bill to protect renters and mortgage payers during and after the crisis.
Garbage Math: XKCD on the mathematics of uncertainty
ICANN pauses selloff of .ORG registry: The GOP billionaires behind Ethos capital have to wait a while longer.
Delivery services are gouging restaurants to death: Call the restaurant, order your meal, and pick it up.
Post-collapse maker utopia sim: Not quite Walkaway, but interesting nevertheless.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Jailbreak for CPAP machine reveals hidden ventilator functionality: A $700 CPAP becomes a limited BIPAP through a software patch.
State treasurers demand ventilator manufacturers publish manuals: Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Delaware, and Rhode Island want the Right to Repair.
Ten graphic novels for kids, teens and adults in lockdown: My picks for True North Comics.
One person is in charge of oversight for $2.2T in stimulus: Bharat Ramamurti is the sole member of the Congressional Oversight Commission.
Universities want to infect students’ laptops with undetectable rootkits: Invigilation tools + shared laptops + overstretched IT departments = Bad, bad news.
I Void Warranties for a Living: Name-your-price stickers.
2600 Magazine hit hard by pandemic: Bail 'em out by buying the current ish as a download.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

LA begins randomized covid testing: Is distancing working?
Trump and the Rapture Right: The end of the world is a feature, not a bug.
Foxconn's potemkin "Innovation Centers": Empty promises and empty buildings.
The power of collaborative note-taking: From WIPO meetings to videoconferences.
AMC is going bankrupt: Maybe allowing them to buy all their competitors was a bad idea?
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, 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