Pluralistic: 16 Apr 2020

Today's links

Plutocrats firehose money on primary challenger to AOC: Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a former Reagan Republican who wants to dismantle Social Security and Medicare
FCC will spend $9B to improve broadband…without an accurate broadband map: Reality's left-wing bias makes accurate data the enemy of conservativism.
Buddhist monk covers western pop songs: He's like a male, solo version of Shonen Knife.
Apple hunters recover ten "lost" varieties from forgotten farms: The Lost Apple Society needs help.
Finding the Money: A fabulous new documentary on Modern Monetary Theory
Evangelical pastor denied quarantine, now he wants your stimulus check: Tony Spell's death-cult has a business-model.
Zombie movies teach us all the wrong lessons for pandemic: Not only would a zombie plague be easy to contain, but people don't turn into monsters during crises.
Building a "web of books": What would a federated alternative to Goodreads look like?
The Facebook Political Ad Collector: Exposing targeted advertising's fraud and conspiracy
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 14 Apr 2020

Today's links

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

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Pluralistic: 12 Apr 2020

Today's links

LA begins randomized covid testing: Is distancing working?
Trump and the Rapture Right: The end of the world is a feature, not a bug.
Foxconn's potemkin "Innovation Centers": Empty promises and empty buildings.
The power of collaborative note-taking: From WIPO meetings to videoconferences.
AMC is going bankrupt: Maybe allowing them to buy all their competitors was a bad idea?
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 11 Apr 2020

Today's links

PE companies that looted healthcare want billions in bailouts: Plute socialism.
Automating arbitration claims: Fairshake recreates class action suits in arbitration form.
Non-secret votes vs e-voting: Don't use it for elections, but maybe for elected officials.
RNC plans ex-cop/military voter intimidation squad: Rebooting the "Ballot Security Task Force."
"Job creators" are job annihilators: Bailout for me, not thee.
Snowden warns of permanent pandemic surveillance: The new normal ain't pretty.
RIP MAD's Mort Drucker: One of "the usual gang of idiots."
This day in history: 2005, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 08 Apr 2020

Today's links

Solnit on the revelations of crisis: Pandemic speeds up processes that were too slow to notice.
Nurse suspended for distributing crowdfunded PPE: Shame on Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.
Cleveland Plain Dealer executed by union-busting owners: Firing health reporters during a pandemic.
Monster-themed covid pinup PSAs: By Alejandra Oviedo.
The Onion on Wisconsin's election: We need strategic Onion reserves for all our calamities.
NSO Group says Facebook tried to buy its malware: NSO is worse than Facebook, but it's a close-run thing.
How to pay for covid: Unearthing Keynes's "How to Pay for the War."
Smart lock hemorrhages user data: And it broadcasts its unlock code over Bluetooth.
TSA wanted to inspect 16 year old trans girl's genitals: Jon Corbett is on the case.
Roger Fuckebythenavele vs Bannatyne Manuscript: Black Plague-era f-bomb eclipsed by 14th century frottage artist.
Rube Goldberg feeding device: Now that's physical comedy.
Public domain Zoom backgrounds: Fantastic backdrops for an absurd moment.
This day in history: 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 07 Apr 2020

Today's links

Pickled 2001 computer store: Deadstock ahoy!
A farewell to APIs: Greed, spam and entropy killed mashups.
Machine learning model performs butthole recognition: Peak Internet of Shit.
Covid loteria cards: Cabronavirus.
California's fiber for all bill: Tell your senator to support SB1130.
1978 Doonesbury stereotype: Come for the Indochina political humor, stay for the printer's lore.
LA crime plummets: Down 23% (domestic violence is down 11%).
US stimulus is one week's cash: Deflation ahoy.
Private equity blinks on cuts to health workers' wages: Speeding up slow destruction makes it impossible to ignore.
Virtual greenscreen: Incredible computer science paper from the 2020 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.
Landlord changes church's locks: The pastor of Cross Culture Christian Center in Lodi, CA refused to stop holding services.
This day in history: 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 05 Apr 2020

Today's links

Socioeconomics of coronavirus: Everything bad is now worse.
How to drain your lungs: Knowledge is power.
Bookshop: a local, indie alternative to Amazon: What could booksellers find to buy one-half so precious as the stuff they sell.
This day in history: 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 04 Apr 2020

Today's links

Private equity looting public health in a pandemic: The math is part of the con.
MacGuyver mask tutorial: Crafter/filmmaker marriages for the win.
Prescient Reagan-era text-adventures: What we can learn from the 1985 Infocom game "A Mind Forever Voyaging."
Landlord accidentally organizes rent strike: When you're threatening 300 tenants, don't CC them all on on the email.
The Pandumbic: Fox News is a suicide cult.
This day in history: 2005, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 03 Apr 2020

Today's links

The Public Domain Review Coloring Book: Hokusai, Albrecht Dürer, Harry Clarke, Virginia Frances Sterrett, etc.
Amazon's leaked anti-worker smear plan: They put it in writing.
Wikipedia vs patent troll: No, you didn't invent autocomplete.
Bug bounty programs as catch-and-kills: Companies are not good stewards of their own bad news.
The Tea Party killed pandemic preparedness: "No one warned us" -Congressman who was warned repeatedly.
This day in history: 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 30 Mar 2020

Today's links

Lax antitrust killed ventilator stockpiles : The USG procured <$3k ventilators from a startup, so an incumbent bought them and shuttered them.
Koch network demands an end to lockdown: While sending its staff home for their safety.
Private equity firms scooping up pandemic bargains: It's not the wound that gets ya, it's the opportunistic parasitic infections.
Digital rights are human rights: Why broadband should be a public utility.
ACLU vanquishes the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: Terms of Service violations are not felonies.
Munching Squares and Munching Tunes: The music and visuals of slow-decay phosphors.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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