Pluralistic: 29 Jul 2021

Today's links

Bankruptcy and elite impunity: The Sacklers offer billions of reasons to overthrow the system.
Stories from Black women's customer service hell: The women who answer the phone when you call Disney, Airbnb, Carnival and others.
Tracking you with accelerometer signatures: Yet another latent unique identifier with horrifying consequences.
Unauthorized cups: RFID-equipped disposable cups deny water to homeless people.
This day in history: 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Crooked Timber's Ministry for the Future Seminar: It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.
This day in history: 2001, 2011, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Cyclopedia Exotica: Aminder Dhaliwal's cryptid history of our one-eyed cousins.
Let's eat all the cicadas: Harnessing the paperclip machine for good?
This day in history: 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Privacy Without Monopoly: A new EFF white paper, co-authored with Bennett Cyphers.
Broad Band: Claire L Evans's magesterial history of women in computing.
$50T moved from America's 90% to the 1%: The hereditary meritocracy is in crisis.
This day in history: 2006, 2011, 2016
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

We don't know why you don't want to have public sex: But it's probably not because of Arabian babblers.
Big Tech welcomes (some) regulation: Monkey's paw ju-jitsu.
This day in history: 2005, 2010
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Principles for platform regulation: User control, algorithmic transparency, accountable governance and anonymity.
Hagoromo, mathematicians' cult chalk: The Blackwing pencil of chalkboards.
Gender and the Hugo Awards: It's still wildly skewed.
Outdoor education beat TB in 1907: A brisk precedent for in-person schooling.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Afterland: Lauren Beukes's regrettably brilliantly timed plague novel.
Mexican copyright crushes free speech: Trump's trade deal takes away Mexicans' fundamental rights.
Audible Exclusives: Monopolists gonna monopolize.
Snowden's Little Brother intro: The Age of Mass Surveillance Will Not Last Forever.
Police "unions" are not unions: They're protection rackets.
Quick, inaccurate, cheap covid tests: Frequency vs accuracy.
Swarov.se: Once you see it…
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Female Furies: Cecil Castellucci finds the story that Jack Kirby missed.
How to break up Google: A making things company, not a buying things company.
Facebook and Trump collaborate on rule-rigging: You can't break the rules if you make the rules.
NYC housing lottery favors the least-needy: The private sector cannot and will not solve the housing crisis.
Podcast: Part 8 of Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town: Families are weird.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Scarfolk on Cumgate: Government Employee Eye-Test Slide (1970s).
Texas profiteers make bank from NYC's homeless: Crewfacilities.com LLC is gouging the city while finding hotel beds for homeless people.
FCC's willful broadband blindness in a pandemic: You can't fix broadband if you don't know what's wrong with it.
Uber is scrapping thousands of Jump bikes: Bikes are essential during lockdowns.
White Americans are increasingly opposed to democracy: Turkeys, Christmas, etc.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Podcast: Part 2 of "Someone Comes to Town": Matrioshka babies.
President Supervillain: Coronavirus Trump is Red Skull.
What "writing rules" actually mean: It's not list of rules, it's a list of pitfalls.
Negativland's "This is Not Normal": Gnomic, sad and celebratory.
Leaked Trump doc projects 3000 US deaths/day: A new 9/11, every day, by the end of this month.
Pandemic profiteering could create social chaos: Societies with 25-35% unemployment do not produce vaccines.
Papercraft re-creations of classic Kenner Star Wars toys: From Marc "Paper Dandy" Hagan-Guirey.
A federal jobs guarantee: MMT has its moment in the sun.
Teen Vogue on socialist feminism: "No boss" beats "Girl boss."
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2005, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading