Pluralistic: 03 Dec 2020

Today's links

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

Comedic obituary poetry: Out of the Hurly-Burly.
Tom Lehrer in the public domain: 96 songs' lyrics, up for grabs.
Trustbusting is stimulus: Piss on trickle-down.
Falsehoods programmers believe about time: All discrete phenomena are continuous.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming 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

California's preventable fires: 1,000,000 acres of fire-debt.
Zuck calls Apple a monopolist: I know you are but what am I?
This day in history: 2005, 2010
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

Podcast: How Big Tech distorts our discourse: No mind-control required.
EFF statement on Black Lives Matter: Black lives matter on the Internet.
Why quarantine is getting harder: Sustained vigilance is impossible without perceptible feedback.
Writing while Black: Tochi Onyebuchi unpacks the impossible contradictions of being a Black writer in this moment (and all the moments like this).
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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