Pluralistic: 12 Mar 2020

Today's links

TSA boss doubles down on taking away health care from part-time screeners: They're touching your junk with diseased hands.
Akil Augustine on Radicalized: My book's Canada Reads champion lays out the case for Radicalized.
A former top Cigna exec rebuts Joe Biden's healthcare FUD: Wendell Potter is the prodigal corporate villain.
Ars Technica's Covid-19 explainer is the best resource on the pandemic: Beth Mole has outdone herself.
Boeing is even worse at financial engineering than they are at aircraft engineering: The $43B they incinerated through stock buybacks would sure come in handy about now.
Senate Republicans kill emergency sick leave during pandemic: Sick leave is cheaper than pandemics, but pandemics generate cost-plus contracts for the donor class.
The EU's new Right to Repair rules finally come for electronics: Snoods cocked at Apple and other US Big Tech monopolists.
How to run a virtual classroom: Masterclass from the 14-year-old Stanford Online High School.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Daniel Pinkwater wrote a new novel! Yippee for "ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL!"
Warner Chappel discoved a new form of copyright fuckery so dense it blew a wormhole into another dimension: From the people who fraudulently claimed to own "Happy Birthday" for decades.
RIP, Jim Tyre: The free internet just lost one of its most dedicated defenders.
Decentralizing the web is a human problem: The web needs stewards, not owners.
Right to Repair is the right to resilience: Independent repair is how we keep things going during emergencies.
Keyless car fobs can be defeated with a cheap RFID cloner: Car manufacturers wontfix a showstopper bug. Again.
Bookstores, libraries, human thriving and mental health: Books are great, even if the science behind their greatness is thin.
Copyright experts' panel on fair use removed from Youtube: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?
Radicalized is out in paperback: Just hit every one of Canada's national bestseller lists, too!
African Whatsapp modders are outcompeting Facebook: Adversarial Interoperability is how you beat digital colonialism.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

My new podcast, "Disasters Don’t Have to End in Dystopia": Tired: Look for the helpers. Wired: Be the helper.
The next frontier for school censorware is spying on kids all the time: It's how we'll stop ISIS, apparently.
I'm coming to Kelowna on March 5: It's my first-ever trip to the BC interior and more than half the (free) tickets are gone. RSVP now!
Cool Mules, an investigative series on a Vice editor's cocaine-smuggling ring: From the people who brought you the stunning "Thunder Bay."
Soviet Space Graphics: Cosmic Visions from the USSR.
Apple, Nike and Dell's supply chain includes enslaved Uyghurs: Xinjiang Phase II.
Drugs Without the Hot Air: The best book I've ever read on drugs and drug policy, in an expanded new edition.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Ripping the window-dressing off the .ORG selloff: It's not even an ethos.
CDC guide to filter-mask-friendly facial hair: You're good to go with a Zappa, Villain or Hitler, but stay away from the Dali, Hulahee and the dread F(l)u Manchu.
Don't trust Google to build Toronto's Smart City: Sidewalk Labs's sleaze has disqualified it.
A "girls-only" social service wants to analyze your facial bone structure: "It's science!"
Norman Rockwell turned into a radical civil rights activist: His last painting was of Nixon, too.
Gmail's filters are blocking opt-in election emails: Mayo Pete and Andrew Yang are winning the spam-filter primary.
Talking Radicalized with The Next Chapter: Shelagh Rogers is a national treasure.
Neoliberalism kills, the coronavirus edition: And you thought capitalism would kill us all with climate change!
Bernie Sanders and Public Enemy LA rally this Sunday: With Sarah Silverman and Dick van Dyke!
Venezuelan women's "army" break into dead factories to reboot them: "Only the people can save the people."
Meet Akil Augustine, voice of the Raptors…and Radicalized: A fighter in my corner.
This day in history: 2019, 2015, 2005
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading