Pluralistic: 17 Apr 2020

Today's links

Wenceslaus Hollar's Pack of Knaves: "Count yourself lucky that you are not cooped up with this lot."
Charlie Stross on how we'll screw up the "re-opening": Helicopter money or collapse.
Ellen DeGeneres's union crew takes paycuts while Ellen records from home with non-union contractors: Unlike Jon Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel, Samantha Bee, and Desus and Mero.
Health insurance industry in rosy good health: Billions in stock buybacks, 60% paycuts for doctors.
DoJ to convicted fraudsters: keep your money!: Settlement payments suspended until at least June.
Reflections on fictional pandemics during a real one: Naomi Kritzer on the prophetic meaning of 2015's "So Much Cooking."
Coop pandemic masks: Sold at cost, including Randotti skulls.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Podcast swap with Wil Wheaton: Wil and I read each others' work in our podcasts this week.
Corona-denying pastor dies of coronavirus: Governments who depend on the religious right have a conflict of interest.
Ticketmaster ends refunds for canceled events: Ever wonder what "terms subject to change without notice" really means?
Amazon fires tech workers for their warehouse worker solidarity: Threatened for speaking out on climate, fired for speaking out on warehouse conditions.
Southern states in for worst of coronavirus impact: The white gerontocracy has engineered a perfect pandemic storm.
Abolish Silicon Valley: Wendy Liu's new memoir is a case-study from the tech worker uprising.
I'm doing Podapalooza! It's a pay-what-you-can onlin podcast festival with proceeds to Give Directly.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015
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

100 Ideas for Dungeon Masters: Based on the Pathfinder Bestiary, readily adaptable for other systems.
Attack Surface author's note: My latest podcast is the afterword from the third Little Brother book.
Trump admits voter suppression: Proving intent was never easier.
Reality endorses Sanders: Pandemics have an obvious leftist bias.
Amazon fires walkout organizer: Low waged workers, doing the most important work in America, exposed to lethal risk.
Monopolists stole your respirator: Dying a gasping death is pareto-optimal.
Corporate welfare vs food stamps: A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.
How viruses experience social distancing: XKCD mixes atavistic satisfaction with science communications.
Scarfolk pandemics: This isn't the worst timeline after all.
This day in history: 2005, 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