Pluralistic: 30 Aug 2021

Today's links

India's 'toxic' ed-tech giant: How Byju's hard-sells desperate parents into taking out predatory loans for their kids' education.
Podcasting "Utilities and Empires" and "FB's War on Switching Costs": A twofer from EFF's Deeplinks blog, on this week's podcast.
This day in history: 2001, 2011, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Meet the new generation of pro-abortion activists: No more Mx Nice Intersectionalist.
Anti-vaxers cool the mark: Using sociology to understand the con.
Drone delivery crashes: What do AI, self-driving cars and Amazon drones have in common?
Facebook escalates war on accountability: Privacywashing vs Ad Observer.
This day in history: 2011, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Charter schools are money laundries: "The hidden world of charter schools operated for financial gain."
Disney parks and aggregate demand management: My ongoing series on Medium, for an age of supply shocks.
Oregon's carbon offsets go up in smoke: The Bootleg Fire is more evidence that markets can't solve the climate emergency.
Surge pricing violates antitrust law: Even the weaksauce version pushed by the econ establishment.
This day in history: 2011, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

The pandemic showed remote proctoring to be worse than useless: Kill it with fire.
This day in history: 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

The Big U: America's elite educational institutions are as rich as countries.
How To Destroy Surveillance Capitalism Part 4: The latest installment of my podcast.
This day in history: 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Boundless Realms: The definitive guide to the Haunted Mansion.
Student data breaches vastly underreported: When monopolism meets ed-tech.
UK corporate registrar bans code-injection: But you can still register +++ATH, Inc.
Someone Comes to Town Part 22: My latest podcast episode.
This day in history: 2005, 2010
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Facebook threatens ad-transparency group: Ad Observatory gets the Power Ventures treatment.
The madness of elite varsity sports: WWI by another means.
Bob Dylan sings a EULA: You've already made a legally binding commitment to watch this.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Beastie Boy mashups: Beastles, Beachtie Boys, Ghostbeasties.
Educator sued for criticising "invigilation" tool: Proctorio has permanently disqualified itself from being entrusted with learners' educations.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Attack Surface vs Audible: My Publishers Weekly op-ed.
Foodcrime: The tech predators destroying America's restaurants.
We Are Beautiful: 3D printable anatomical models of real bodies.
Precursor: Andrew "bunnie" Huang's new open source hardware mobile platform.
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Fight the Power: Another summer.
Physicists overestimate their epidemiology game: Dunning-Kruger, meet the vaporisation of qualitative factors.
Trump is a salesman: He lacks the attention-span for fascism.
CO asphyxiation accounts for half of Hurricane Laura deaths: Generators are as deadly as 40mph winds.
Political ads have very small effect-sizes: Mind-control rays remain elusive.
Incredible Proof Machine: Lineal descendant of Sierra's Incredible Machine.
Kickstarting a Girl Genius game: Adventures in Castle Heterodyne.
This day in history: 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading