Tag: strike debt

Pluralistic: 2024 (apart from the obvious) (11 May 2026)


Today's links

  • 2024 (apart from the obvious): Some unforced errors.
  • Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
  • Object permanence: Denmark legalizing music trading; Babysuit; Patent Office invites "peer review"; DRM protest at the Bastille; Scientology's "super powers"; Banana Dalek; Florida v pediatricians' gun safety advice; Copyright filters and wage theft; "Who Broke the Internet?" Vatican astronomer v Creationism; Teens, privacy and Facebook; Čapek's graveside robot; Save iTunes; NZ laundered money for Latinamerica's looters; Memex Method.
  • Upcoming appearances: Barcelona, Berlin, Hay-on-Wye, London, NYC, Edinburgh.
  • Recent appearances: Where I've been.
  • Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
  • Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
  • Colophon: All the rest.

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Pluralistic: 06 Mar 2022


A picture of a grinning skull in a mortarboard. From The Epistasix (1920)/Medical Society of the University of Toronto.

The Epistasix (1920)/Medical Society of the University of Toronto

Today's links

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Give Me Slack

My parental worries, ca. 2021.

subgenius.com

I was a mere lad of fifteen when I first encountered the Church of the Subgenius, a joke religion started by a group of prankster surrealists out of Austin and parts elsewhere. The faith is represented by J.R. “Bob” Dobbs, a grinning, square-jawed salesman with a pipe clenched in his square, white teeth, who promises “slack” to all who profess the faith.

Slack was — and is — an enticing concept. I always interpreted “slack” as a synonym for “forgiveness,” that is, the idea that our systems would have graceful failure modes, in which errors and failings were never terminal, and could always be redone. A philosophy for an age of “Save Game” and ⌘-Z.

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Pluralistic: 29 Sep 2021


Today's links

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Pluralistic: 09 Feb 2021


Today's links

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