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

I'm being inducted into the Canadian SF/F hall of fame: A club that would have me as a member!
Mexico's copyright vs self-determination and national sovereignty: Colonialism 2.0.
Self-bricking medical device: "Once EXOGEN delivers 343 treatments, it will not provide further treatment."
Apple's internal Right to Repair fight: Ifixit got leaked receipts.
Challenge questions suck: Your favorite food is pizza.
This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Canadian judge invalidates Safe Third Country Agreement: Asylum seekers are not safe in America.
Supreme Court poised to destroy machine learning security research: Why the CFAA should be narrowly interpreted.
Where Will Everyone Go: Modelling the climate emergency's migration emergency.
BLM footage censored by copyright bots: Background music makes it impossible to post human rights violations to social media.
This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Ukrainian steampunk masks: The gorgeous work of Dmitriy and Aleksandra Bragin.
OTF spared (for now): Trump's administrative incompetence saves the US Agency for Global Media from becoming Global Breitbart.
Insurers are secret, powerful police reformers: Money talks, bullshit walks.
Ohio GOP leadership arrested for racketeering: Largest corruption scandal in Ohio history.
Little Brother as a role-playing game: Notes from the Fiction & RPG Podcast.
Anti-facial recognition tool: Fawkes will alter your images in ways that are invisible to humans but confounding for algorithms.
Kentucky AG sues top GOP donors: Kentucky's Republican lawmaker is the best kind of class-traitor.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Homeschool to prison pipeline: Michigan judge jails Black teenager with a learning disability for not doing lockdown homework.
Spain has been an NSO customer since 2015: Whistleblower leaks the receipts.
McKinsey waxes fat off coronavirus failures: McKinsey got $100m (and climbing!) for its role in the disastrous US coronavirus response.
Biden's $2T climate plan: It's at least an order of magnitude shy of what's needed.
PE's three kids in a trenchcoat fraud: How private equity bilked PPP for hundreds of millions.
Leakypick: Probing smart speakers for covert audio exfiltration.
Poesy slays: Praise for "Poesy the Monster Slayer."
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Homebrew dongles let hospitals fix ventilators: You forgot Poland.
Teddy Ruxpin and the Haunted Mansion: Ken Forsse's miniature Sid and Marty Krofft haunted house.
Dataminr helped cops spy on protesters with Twitter: And then they split the most idiotic hairs imaginable over it.
Police militarization has a business-model: The unstoppable force of excess rents and Beltway Bandits.
How Finspy protects itself from security researchers: Despots' malware, wrapped in spaghetti code and VMs.
Clamshell currency: Pismo Beach's solution to the bank holiday of 1933.
Macron demands national database of porn preferences: Comment dit kompromat en Français?
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Muppet Hamilton: Bork bork bork
EFF celebrates its 30th (!) birthday with a full day of livestreams: July 10!
Stepping Stones by Lucy Knisley: A graphic memoir for young adults.
Cops are buying breach data: Why get a warrant when there are hackers?
Rock dust vs climate change: Some good (preliminary) news about carbon sequestration.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

New Little Brother/Homeland edition is out today!: With an intro by Edward Snowden.
There is no automation employment crisis: But there is a climate emergency.
Cyberpunk Culture: An online conference, Jul 9/10.
Or What You Will: Jo Walton's new, brilliant meta-meta-novel.
#BlackOutDay2020: Pledge not to spend a dime in a store or online, except in Black-owned businesses.
Right wing press duped by state-sponsored influence campaign: Deepfakes and avatars manipulated to defeat reverse image searches.
Coronavirus tests are a taxable benefit: HMRC creates a perverse incentive.
Big 4 accounting firms headed for breakup: When the referee cheats.
Home security cameras are really insecure: Even encrypted video streams can give away sensitive info.
Why covid cases are spiking but deaths aren't: Lead-time bias.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

A grifter's border wall is about to fall into the Rio Grande: Who knew the Rio Grande was such a big river?
Hong Kong law threatens people all over the world: China claims the right to kidnap anyone, anywhere.
1000+ accidental trigger-phrases for smart speakers: You bugged yourself.
Roller derby's brilliant re-opening plan: A template for global sport.
Unauthorized seat: BMW drives you straight to the Internet of Shit.
Don't Believe Proven Liars: The absolute minimum standard of prudence in merger scrutiny.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Surveillance electoralism: Comparing the surveillance of the Biden and Trump apps.
Blueleaks: Dox the police.
Virtual Ignite talks: Weds at 6PM.
Congress wants to read all your DMs: The EARN-IT Act doesn't mention encryption, but it still bans encryption.
Privacy in tracing tokens: Bunnie Huang's parameters for a privacy-respecting contact-tracing system.
A/B Seattle: Design your own urban grid.
Against AI phrenology: Stop publishing machine-learning "race science."
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading