Pluralistic: 14 Mar 2022

Today's links

Surprise billing's death-spiral may suck in untold patients: The best time to kill Envision Healthcare was before it started (the second best time is now).
Podcasting "Vertically Challenged": We need to investigate the companies Big Tech DOESN'T buy.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Grappling with Big Wrestling: Vince McMahon has a monopoly on violence.
Podcasting about the copyleft trolls who tried to shake me down: Pixsy and the depravity of speculative invoicing.
This day in history: 2002, 2012, 2017, 2021
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

DoS a federal agency, then charge for access: Enq carries on a tradition of genuinely terrible startup ideas.
"Inclusive Access" allows textbook monopolists to permanently consolidate their gains: Universities are auto-billing students for high-priced, self-destructing textbooks they can't loan or sell.
Scottish Limited Partnerships are still laundering criminal millions: Offshore is actually onshore.
This day in history: 2011, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

We paid to develop Merck's covid pill: And now they're charging us a 4,000% markup on it.
This day in history: 2016, 2020.
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Inequality, not gerontocracy: Who killed interest rates?
Monopoly power and political corruption: Starve the (corporate) beast, shrink it until it fits in a bathtub.
This day in history: 2006, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

ISP announces 86% slowdown "in line with others": Altice wins the race to the bottom.
This day in history: 2011, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Patent troll IP is more powerful than Apple's: Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
Podcasting "Free Markets": Taxation without representation.
This day in history: 2006, 2011, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Monopolies made America vulnerable to covid: Pharma, hospitals and other health industries were weak before the pandemic.
The Ministry For the Future: Kim Stanley Robinson's final (?) novel.
Graffitists hit dozens of NYC subway cars: Party like it's 1984.
Breathtaking Iphone hack: Zero-click wireless worms.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Cyberpunk and Post-Cyberpunk: Bruce Sterling and Christopher Brown on the Attack Surface Lectures.
Disney stiffs writer: Sure, what's new, but this is next-level fuckery #DisneyMustPay.
Tyson execs bet on covid spread in unsafe plant: Upton Sinclair was an optimist.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Ferris wheel fine dining: First the Budapest Eye, next, the world!
Monopolies Suck: There is nothing harder to kill than an idea whose time has come to pass.
The president's extraordinary powers: Congress handed the president emergency powers for centuries and never took them back (uh-oh).
Comcast v Comcast: Which is weird, because Universal owns Comcast.
Surveillance startup protected sexual harassers: Willingness to surveil is correlated with sociopathy.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading