Pluralistic: 07 Oct 2021

Today's links

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

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