Pluralistic: 30 May 2020

Today's links

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

Walt's grandson calls for Disney execs' bonuses to be canceled: Brad Lund wants the money directed to furloughed workers.
The Lost Cause and MMT: The climate emergency and centuries of full employment.
Patent troll sues ventilator makers: Swirlate IP says anyone who uses LTE is violating its patents.
Private equity's healthcare playbook is terrifying: Biopsy reveals metastatic private equity tumors throughout US healthcare's every organ.
On Madame Leota's side-table: The evolution of a fine Haunted Mansion detail.
Black Americans' covid mortality is 2.5X white mortality: AKA, "Why Republicans no longer care about coronavirus."
Spotify's trying to kill podcasting: Another federated system facing monopolistic enclosure.
Monopolies killed corporate R&D;: And that killed productivity growth.
How spy agencies targeted Snowden journalists: Barton Gellman's Dark Mirror.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Hackers on Planet Earth, in the cloud: HOPE will not be cancelled.
Climate and machine learning: Machine learning is roasting the planet.
Seeking Fitbit owners' stories: Help EFF explain why the Google takeover is wrong.
Software secrecy: Code is (bad) law.
Grocer won't show employees results from mandatory temp-checks: Coronavirus theater, class war edition.
Bill Clinton sings "Baby Got Back": Speech synthesis is just sublimely weird.
Webinar on Controlled Digital Lending and the pandemic: Talking about the Internet Archive, this Friday.
Google vows no custom AI for oil and gas: Reversing its 2018 position, which was garbage.
Re-positive coronavirus cases are not infectious: Finally, we catch a break.
Ifixit's medtech repair manual trove is full to bursting: Right to Repair, pandemic edition.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Ada Palmer, being brilliant for 2.5h: On the Singularity Podcast.
Restaurateur wreaks algorithmic vengeance upon Doordash: Nonconsensual delivery services vs arbitrage.
England's storks are back: A 600 year old deep cut.
See through walls with free software: TEMPEST, GNU Radio style.
Universal broadband now: Broadband is a human right.
Airgap-busting malware: Probabilistic sneakernet injections.
Deliveroo, without Deliveroo: The problem isn't the service, it's the social arrangements.
Podcast: Part 3 of Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town: Have your read all those books?
US insurers say paying for pandemic treatment is "selfless": Blind boxes r us.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Rep Steve Cohen wants to clawback billionaires' bailout: Sending bailout pork to the slaughterhouse.
Democratize workplaces now: Labor investors demand a seat at the table.
NYC teens fight period poverty: Period products bundled with school meals.
No sides: We have a shared destiny.
Google faces antitrust blitz: I'm feeling lucky.
Zuck wants Giphy: Pronounced "J-I-F," spelled "S-P-Y."
This day in history: 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Probability and pandemics: Billions of people generate one-in-a-billion outcomes.
Striking New Orleans garbage collectors replaced with prison labor: New Jim Crow, pandemic edition.
Factchecking virologist/conspiracist Judy Mikovits: Demonstrably false claims.
Pandemic countermeasures from the porn industry: How to control contagion in intimate circumstances.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

US public health officials on apps: "Meh": Exposure notification is no substitute for labor-intensive contact-tracing.
Volcano gods demand workers: Reopening is only possible under threat of starvation and homelessness.
Animal Crossing Haunted Mansion: Needs more AOC.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

A new Marcus Yallow/Little Brother story!: "Force Multiplier" is free if you pre-order Attack Surface, the third Little Brother book
DRM and CHI: When the metaphor shear is deliberate.
Talking with Toronto Public Library's Shelve Under podcast: Toronto is a hell of an sf town.
The law is free: Carl Malamud wins big at the Supreme Court.
"Absolutely faithful" Discworld TV adaptations: Will we finally get a decent Discworld video adaptation?
Read the prologue of "The Lost Cause": My post-GND novel-in-progress
Foreclosure vultures hold illegal auctions on courthouse steps: You say "investor," I say "profiteer."
Hands-free door-handles: Ability is a spectrum.
NYC will pedestrianize 40 miles of city streets: Hey I'm walkin' here.
Citizen DJ: The Library of Congress wants to bring back the golden age of sampling.
"Essential" workers will strike across America for May Day: Amazon, Instacart, Whole Foods, Walmart, Target, and FedEx.
Synonyms vs machine learning: An adversarial example to defeat sentiment analyzers.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015
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