Pluralistic: How workers get trapped by "bondage fees"; Red Team Blues Chapter One, part five (21 Apr 2023)

Today's links

How workers get trapped by "bondage fees": Two-sided markets always lead to enshittification.
Red Team Blues Chapter One, part five: The final installment – now get the book!
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2003, 2013, 2018
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Iowa's starvation strategy: Maybe the cruelty IS the point?
The Red Team Blues tour: LA, San Diego, Burbank, San Francisco, PDX, Mountain View, Berkeley, Vancouver, Calgary, Gaithersburg, DC, Toronto, Hay, Nottingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, London, Berlin.
Red Team Blues Chapter One, part three: Danny does THE THING.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2008, 2013, 2018
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

How tech does regulatory capture: An extremely frank and open look inside the ugliest of sausage-factories.
Red Team Blues Chapter One, part two: How Danny Lazer came back from the brink.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2008, 2013, 2018, 2022
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Podcasting "How To Make a Child-Safe TikTok": My Medium column on a surveillance-free internet.
Serializing the first chapter of Red Team Blues: Meet Marty Hench and his "foolish and ungainly and luxurious tour bus."
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2003, 2013, 2018, 2022
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Booklist on "Red Team Blues": "Another winner from an sf wizard who
has always proved himself adept at blending genres for both adults and teens."
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Kathe Koja's Dark Factory: Taking Bohemia seriously.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Attack Surface a la carte: Kickstarter is not a shopping cart.
Kapital! The board game: France's new national obsession.
Private equity's new debt-and-loot bonanza: "Divi recaps" is plute for "stealing."
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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

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

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