Pluralistic: 23 Jul 2020

Today's links

Canadian judge invalidates Safe Third Country Agreement: Asylum seekers are not safe in America.
Supreme Court poised to destroy machine learning security research: Why the CFAA should be narrowly interpreted.
Where Will Everyone Go: Modelling the climate emergency's migration emergency.
BLM footage censored by copyright bots: Background music makes it impossible to post human rights violations to social media.
This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 25 Jun 2020

Today's links

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

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Pluralistic: 29 May 2020

Today's links

Big Tech distorts our discourse: No mind-control required.
How the IoT reinforces gentrification: Smart doorbells and predictive policing are fully automated karens.
Private equity goes mainstream: If you're gonna loot, you MUST also asset-strip.
What to do about the police: 15 concrete things that should be done to reform American policing, right now.
Masks work: Source control is a thing.
Walmart's crummy anti-theft AI: Employees blow the whistle on their employers' credulous machine learning procurements.
GOP lawmaker hid his diagnosis from Democrats: Andrew Lewis wandered around Pennsylvania's statehouse, shedding virus particles.
Canadians newsrooms restructure as co-ops: And readers can join!
Get a peronalized, signed Poesy the Monster Slayer: Dark Delicacies will ship you copies signed by me and the original Poesy.
This day in history: 2005, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 13 May 2020

Today's links

University requires students to buy nonexistent webcams: Unobtanium vs. cheating.
Gadget that adds steps to your Fitbit: An open source hardware answer to Fitbit-tied insurance programs.
How Marcus Hutchins saved the world and lived to tell the tale: A nuanced portrait.
Red states prep for postal vote: Murdering the elderly won't help them at the ballot box.
Corporate Dems want to bail out lobbyists and dark money orgs: Centrism kills.
Feds want national snitchlines for bosses whose workers don't want to die: Homelessness or coronavirus.
Restaurants, hotels and bars cut the cord: The curse of bigness.
NSO Group tried to sell malware to US law enforcement: Khashoggi killers, doing deals.
Senate Dems want to ban internet disconnection: Broadband is a human right.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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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

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Pluralistic: 13 Apr 2020

Today's links

I'm teaching a teen writing class: "Stories are Super Weird. Here’s Why They Work."
Trump will deliver killing blow to the USPS: The murder's been underway since 2006.
Fighting the EU Copyright Directive in court: Former MEP Julia Reda has a new gig doing impact litigation.
Virginia's election-day holiday: They also eliminated Lee-Jackson Day.
Quantifying Boris Johnson's body-count: Ireland makes for a natural experiment.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 28 Mar 2020

Today's links

Charter techs get $25 gift cards instead of hazard pay: No hand-san or PPE, either.
The Pandemic Playbook: Trump won't rtfm.
Boardgame Remix Kit: Make 26 new games out of Monopoly, Clue, Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble sets.
McMansion Hell visits 1972: "Architecture store? I'd like one of everything."
Free Cheapass Games print-and-plays: KILL DOCTOR LUCKY, GIVE ME THE BRAIN, LORD OF THE FRIES, UNEXPLODED COW and so many more!
Trump officials killed Walmart opioid prosecutions: With help from Jones Day.
United gets $25B stimulus and announces layoffs: The biggest corporate giveaway in history.
FLICC vs denialism: A taxonomy of scientific denial, just in time.
This Waifu Does Not Exist: Autogenned anime characters, with backstories.
Fever cameras are garbage: It's the pivot-to-covid for grifty police enablers.
Employers scramble to buy remote-worker spyware: Even if you're paying for the product, you're the product.
Canada Reads Q&A on Apr 23: Unfortunately, it's on Facebook.
Cowboy Economist on covid stimulus: Congress doesn't spend taxes, it spends and then taxes.
88 Names podcast: Talking VR, AR and gold farming with Matt Ruff.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 26 Mar 2020

Today's links

EFF's videoconferencing backgrounds: With a deep cut from the NSA's secret listening post.
The ideology of economics: Economics doesn't have "laws" it has "policies."
LoC plugs Little Brother: Open access FTW.
Canada nationalizes covid patents: An Act respecting certain measures in response to COVID-19.
Exponential Threat: Trump threatened to sue media outlets that aired this spot.
Sanders on GOP stimulus cruelty: "Millions for plutes, but not one cent for workers."
Record wind-power growth: Covid stimulus could start a Green New Deal.
Social distancing and other diseases: Do we trust IoT thermometer companies, though?
Badger Masks: UW Madison's open facemask design.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 26 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 19 Mar 2020

Today's links

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

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Pluralistic: 14 Mar 2020

Today's links

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

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 14 Mar 2020"