Pluralistic: 19 Aug 2020

Today's links

Amazon's Monopoly Tollbooth: Quantifying the market-power abuses of Amazon's platform.
Thomas Hawk's Talking Heads: Judy's in the bedroom inventing situations.
Orwell prize winner trapped in orwellian nightmare: Jessica Johnson's predicament puts the "kafkaesque" in "orwellian."
Spikey: Infering key geometry from the sound of lock-entry.
Hedge fund won't return Citi's accidental $175m deposit: No backsies.
Yale admin: "Prepare for death": It's not quite "boola boola."
Austerity breeds Nazis: Analyzing Weimar election data.
This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Terra Nullius: Podcasting my column about "IP," John Locke, genocide and erasure.
How they're killing the post office: The USPS has been under threat for decades, but now it's an existential crisis.
When you hear "intangibles"…: Think "monopolies."
Text-based, cyberpunk MMORPG: CyberCode Online is based on the VSCode interface.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Warren Buffet, monopolist: Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power.
Uber lost $4b in H1/2020: They're not even making it up in volume anymore.
Dragon's Lair skeleton Dirk pin: Come for Dirk, stay for Leia.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

NY State's promising new antitrust law: Senator Mike Gianaris will let the state step into the federal vacuum.
Ventilation vs covid: Survive winter with DIY HEPA filters plus over-indexed steam heaters.
Writers Guild vanquishes a major agency: ACM folded, WME and CAA next.
NY AG wants to dissolve NRA: "Rampant corruption" is not compatible with tax-charitable status.
Qanon is an ARG (pt II): The other Hon brother weighs in.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Break 'Em Up: Zephyr Teachout's trustbusting program for the 21st century.
Unauthorized Meat: Mellow Sous Vide journeys to the Internet of Shit.
Let's force Big Tech to interoperate: Here's why…and how.
No consequences for police violence at BLM actions: Propublica followed up on viral videos showing gross misconduct and found…crickets.
The Internet Archive defends online libraries: First filings from the Hachette lawsuit.
Bitcoin is not a socialist's ally: Yanis Varoufakis responds to Ben Arc.
Where "software" comes from: "In October, 1953, I coined the word 'software.'"
This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Working as intended: My upcoming free lecture on the role monopoly plays in distorting our discourse and creating conspiracies.
Buying (not licensing) my ebooks: The best way to get my ebooks and audiobooks.
Scihub boosts cites: Public sphere vs Elsevier.
Topple monuments…with science: Popular Mechanics is here for you.
Privacy Analyzer: What does the web know about you?
Frederick Douglass's descendants read his July 4 speech: "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 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

Trump wants to dismantle the OTF: Replacing open, auditable tech freedom tools with closed, untrustable ones.
Algonuts: A bottomless, mutated machine learning Peanuts strip.
Trump's covid "test-tubes" are contaminated miniature soda bottles: The Art of the Deal.
Avia, c'est mort: France kills a catastrophic "anti-terror" censorship law.
Austerity in disrepute: Vast majority of Americans favor continued or expanded unemployment benefits.
Microsoft criticizes Apple's monopolism: They're the experts, after all.
This day in history: 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Minneapolis racists threaten arson over BLM signs: A modern cross-burning.
White House recants "antifa bricks" conspiracy: American Surkovs.
Rave for "Poesy the Monster Slayer": "Some children fear monsters at bedtime, but Poesy welcomes them."
Autodetecting autogenerated text: The answer to the machine is the machine.
AMC's bankruptcy is the first domino in monopolist collapse: When monopolism bites Disney in the ass.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Big Tech distorts our discourse: No mind-control required.
How the IoT reinforces gentrification: Smart doorbells and predictive policing are fully automated karens.
Private equity goes mainstream: If you're gonna loot, you MUST also asset-strip.
What to do about the police: 15 concrete things that should be done to reform American policing, right now.
Masks work: Source control is a thing.
Walmart's crummy anti-theft AI: Employees blow the whistle on their employers' credulous machine learning procurements.
GOP lawmaker hid his diagnosis from Democrats: Andrew Lewis wandered around Pennsylvania's statehouse, shedding virus particles.
Canadians newsrooms restructure as co-ops: And readers can join!
Get a peronalized, signed Poesy the Monster Slayer: Dark Delicacies will ship you copies signed by me and the original Poesy.
This day in history: 2005, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading