Pluralistic: 20 Sep 2020

Today's links

Amnesty International barred from Assange trial: Hard cases make bad law.
Packing the court: Lessons from history.
No Time for Enemies: A new Gangstagrass album.
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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

The Fifth Pig: OG antifa agitprop.
"Fuck the algorithm": English children force Tories to U-turn on algorithmic educational assessments.
Mr Cook, Tear Down That Wall: Interop, Apple, Fortnite and the Berlin Wall.
Deindustrialization is a market failure: Future crises are never priced into market transactions.
Fed cops substitute dollars for warrants: Why talk to a judge when you can talk to a data-broker?
Upbeat surveillance marketing: Hikvision's jolly medieval spy-tech.
South Africa's copyright and human rights: Fair use, the Berne Convention, and Ramaphosa.
This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Contextual ads can save media: Behavioral ads aren't just creepy, they're a scam
GE's billion dollar tax-fraud: "Financial engineering" is a euphemism for doing crimes.
Qanon is an ARG: "I'm a researcher."
Cori Bush triumphs in Missouri: Ferguson uprising continues by another means.
Trump wants to force you to invest in failing fossil fuel companies: Big Oil sure loves Big Gubmint.
Qanon is magical thinking: Satanic Panic 2.0.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Facebook's morale problem: Facebookers worry that they're destroying civilization.
My HOPE keynote this Sat: We Used to Have Cake, Now We've Barely Got Icing.
Changes coming to UK's feudal "leaseholds": Britain's rentier class loses, a little.
Konstantine Anthony for Burbank City Council: All politics are local.
Private equity doesn't create value, it destroys it: Wealth accumulation doesn't signify value-creation.
Mass market book sales surge: But it's just trading one monopolist for another.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 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

New podcast: Part nine of my reading of Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town.
Europe's interop coalition: DSA + Interop = Competition.
Scarfolk beermats: Ministers' Stout Hubris and more.
Miami cop owns illegal mansion nightclub: For some reason, the cops didn't prevent the nightly Lamborghini races.
Video and transcript of my OII talk: If you missed last week's "What Big Tech does to discourse, and the forgotten tech tool that can make tech less big."
Shower temperature vs handle position: You're not imagining it.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Bojo's "New Deal" is neither: tldr 0.2% of GDP is not 40% of GDP.
The real racial wealth gap: The 1% distort our statistics.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Dems can and MUST fight police violence: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil…
Save Uncle Hugo's: Crowdfunding for Minneapolis's beloved, torched science fiction bookstore.
Ella Jones is Ferguson's new mayor: The city's first Black mayor.
Why protests become violent: Cops keep mashing the "be violent" button.
PPE vs riot gear: Revealed preference, revealed.
Zoom wants to help the FBI spy on you: Encryption is a luxury good.
Trivial-to-spoof UK contact tracing: A gift to identity thieves and fraudsters.
AT&T; will punish Disney+ viewers: Can you hear me now?
K-pop fandom pivots to human rights hacktivism: Flooding the zone with fancams.
This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Ada Palmer, being brilliant for 2.5h: On the Singularity Podcast.
Restaurateur wreaks algorithmic vengeance upon Doordash: Nonconsensual delivery services vs arbitrage.
England's storks are back: A 600 year old deep cut.
See through walls with free software: TEMPEST, GNU Radio style.
Universal broadband now: Broadband is a human right.
Airgap-busting malware: Probabilistic sneakernet injections.
Deliveroo, without Deliveroo: The problem isn't the service, it's the social arrangements.
Podcast: Part 3 of Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town: Have your read all those books?
US insurers say paying for pandemic treatment is "selfless": Blind boxes r us.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading