Pluralistic: 09 Apr 2020

Today's links

  1. Neighbors treated to socially isolated buildingside screening: Scott Duggan treated his terrace to "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
  2. Philips quadruples ventilator costs: They reneged on their HHS deal and will get $646.7m for their trouble.
  3. Kansas GOP nukes ban on large Easter gatherings: What's wrong with Kansas?
  4. Kickpunch's Disney comics/horror movie mashups: Daniel Björk's terrifying poster children for fair use.
  5. Plastic-eating enzyme: Leaf-branch compost cutinase to the rescue.
  6. Cold brew coffee chemistry: Making the black stuff reproducible.
  7. Tails adds Secureboot support: Evil chambermaids, beware!
  8. Crisis makes heroes of IT workers: When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth.
  9. Automating fake PDF signatures: Make it look like you printed, signed and scanned.
  10. Pocket Art Director: Your high-handed boss in D20 form.
  11. This day in history: 2019
  12. Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 09 Apr 2020"

Pluralistic: 07 Apr 2020

Today's links

  1. Pickled 2001 computer store: Deadstock ahoy!
  2. A farewell to APIs: Greed, spam and entropy killed mashups.
  3. Machine learning model performs butthole recognition: Peak Internet of Shit.
  4. Covid loteria cards: Cabronavirus.
  5. California's fiber for all bill: Tell your senator to support SB1130.
  6. 1978 Doonesbury stereotype: Come for the Indochina political humor, stay for the printer's lore.
  7. LA crime plummets: Down 23% (domestic violence is down 11%).
  8. US stimulus is one week's cash: Deflation ahoy.
  9. Private equity blinks on cuts to health workers' wages: Speeding up slow destruction makes it impossible to ignore.
  10. Virtual greenscreen: Incredible computer science paper from the 2020 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.
  11. Landlord changes church's locks: The pastor of Cross Culture Christian Center in Lodi, CA refused to stop holding services.
  12. This day in history: 2010, 2019
  13. Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 31 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. 100 Ideas for Dungeon Masters: Based on the Pathfinder Bestiary, readily adaptable for other systems.
  2. Attack Surface author's note: My latest podcast is the afterword from the third Little Brother book.
  3. Trump admits voter suppression: Proving intent was never easier.
  4. Reality endorses Sanders: Pandemics have an obvious leftist bias.
  5. Amazon fires walkout organizer: Low waged workers, doing the most important work in America, exposed to lethal risk.
  6. Monopolists stole your respirator: Dying a gasping death is pareto-optimal.
  7. Corporate welfare vs food stamps: A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.
  8. How viruses experience social distancing: XKCD mixes atavistic satisfaction with science communications.
  9. Scarfolk pandemics: This isn't the worst timeline after all.
  10. This day in history: 2005, 2019
  11. Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 18 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Ethiopian factory sports Jack Ma quotes: Global trade currents are shifting fast.
  2. Charter orders all workers to keep showing up: Even the 15% of its workforce who could work from home.
  3. MAGA firefighters dismiss coronavirus as Democrat hoax: And/or a Chinese bioweapon.
  4. Flatter Me, a compliments card game: Kickstarting now.
  5. American Airlines blew billions, now it wants a bailout: Socializing losses, privatizing gains.
  6. John Green's mutual aid manifesto: The only way through is together.
  7. How to split a single ventilator for four patients: Peer-reviewed simulations.
  8. Bigoted Republican Congressjerk votes against coronavirus relief because it might cover same-sex partnerships: Rep Andy Biggs wants to send us all to meet Jesus.
  9. Epidemiology and public health in 14 minutes: An epidemiologist and an sf writer make an outstanding science communications team.
  10. 3D printed ventilator hero got a patent threat: Human rights vs property rights.
  11. If nothing is for sale, how will covid stimulus work? Can you fix a supply shock with stimulus?
  12. How to make your own toilet paper: A craft for your isolated kiddos.
  13. Plague precautions from 1665: No feasting, but you can tipple in a bar until 9PM.
  14. This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
  15. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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Pluralistic: 09 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Jesse Jackson endorses Sanders: "I stand with him because he stands with you."
  2. Choose Your Own Adventure was Milton Friedman for Kids: There Is No Alternative.
  3. Woman sues TSA over "pat-down" that penetrated her vagina: Las Vegas airport's finest.
  4. Shat-out pig pedometer sparks farm-fire: Beyond Thunderdome, free range
  5. UCSC strike prompts systemwide student and faculty solidarity strikes: Meanwhile, the regents are deporting striking TAs.
  6. An open syllabus on "housing struggles": Detailed resources from the Pirate Care collective.
  7. Yanis Varoufakis on how austerity leads to fascism: And how "constructive disobedience" can win support for alternatives.
  8. John Deere is Right to Repair's archnemesis: Digital feudalism has reinvented the tenant farmer.
  9. This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
  10. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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Pluralistic: 05 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Daniel Pinkwater wrote a new novel! Yippee for "ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL!"
  2. 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.
  3. RIP, Jim Tyre: The free internet just lost one of its most dedicated defenders.
  4. Decentralizing the web is a human problem: The web needs stewards, not owners.
  5. Right to Repair is the right to resilience: Independent repair is how we keep things going during emergencies.
  6. Keyless car fobs can be defeated with a cheap RFID cloner: Car manufacturers wontfix a showstopper bug. Again.
  7. Bookstores, libraries, human thriving and mental health: Books are great, even if the science behind their greatness is thin.
  8. 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?
  9. Radicalized is out in paperback: Just hit every one of Canada's national bestseller lists, too!
  10. African Whatsapp modders are outcompeting Facebook: Adversarial Interoperability is how you beat digital colonialism.
  11. This day in history: 2015, 2019
  12. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

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Pluralistic, your daily link-dose: 28 Feb 2020

Today's links

  1. Clearview AI's customer database leaks: Sic semper grifter.
  2. The Internet of Anal Things: Recreating Stelarc's "Amplified Body" with an IoT butt-plug.
  3. Oakland's vintage Space Burger/Giant Burger building needs a home! Adopt a googie today.
  4. Fan-made reproduction of the Tower of Terror: Even has a deepfaked Serling.
  5. Drawing the Simpsons with pure CSS: Impractical, but so impressive.
  6. Let's Encrypt issues its billionth cert: 89% of the web is now encrypted.
  7. AI Dungeon Master: A work in progress, for sure.
  8. How to lie with (coronavirus) maps: Lies, damned lies, and epidemiological data-visualizations.
  9. This day in history: 2019, 2015
  10. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic, your daily link-dose: 28 Feb 2020"