So long, USA, it was a disappointment knowing you « Kostya's Boring Codec World

Society
Where Journalism Fails
“What’s the story?” No question is asked more often by editors in newsrooms than that one. And for good reason: that’s what news is about: The Story. Or, in the parlance of …
The Ground-Game App That Consumed All The Data
A presidential get-out-the-vote campaign learns the hard way that rural areas have pretty terrible internet access.
Manifesto of the Committee to Abolish Outer Space
There’s nothing there already
How the World Ran Out of Everything - 99% Invisible
There’s an image that’s stuck with many of us from the early pandemic: dozens of cargo ships anchored off the coasts of US ports, stacked high with hundreds of thousands of containers filled with goods, just sitting there in a traffic jam. At the same time, grocery store shelves sat empty of essentials like flour,
Contrafactuals
Making a list of pros and cons of getting in a time machine and going back to 1992 to run a nightclub. Cons: Everyone smokes inside, all the time, everywhere. So disgusting. Pros: Literally everything about: The entertainment industry; The music industry; The economy; The feasibility of running a small business; Housing costs; Artistic culture. Live Nation doesn't exist. AEG doesn't exist. ...
When Knowledge is Dangerous, but Information is Power
Tressie McMillan Cottom delivered an excellent "mini lecture" on TikTok this week about AI, politics, and inequality. In it, she draws on Daniel Greene's book The Promise of Access: Technology, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Hope: his idea of the "access doctrine" that posits that in a time of
Hillbilly Cinematic Universe
On today's episode of "TV Yelling with Dr. Kingfish", The Hillbilly Cinematic Universe:
Why Insurance Companies Are Rationally Failing Their Social Purpose
[Disclosure: Kent has worked in insurance since 1996.
See how your neighborhood is giving to Trump and Harris
In most states across the country, more people donated to Vice President Kamala Harris than to former president Donald Trump. See the donor breakdown near you.
‘Fandom has toxified the world’: Watchmen author Alan Moore on superheroes, Comicsgate and Trump
Enthusiasm can be a productive force for good, but our culture has rapidly become a fan-based landscape that the rest of us are merely living in
How Google is Killing Bloggers and Small Publishers - And Why - Just a Pack
How Google is Killing Bloggers and Small Publishers - And Why - The one in which we break down how Google is killing our site. And why. Fun!
Iceland embraced a shorter work week. Here’s how it turned out | CNN Business
Iceland’s economy is outperforming most European peers after the nationwide introduction of a shorter working week with no loss in pay, according to research released Friday.
The problem with economic models
Ideology disguised as math.
News consumers are more influenced by political alignment than by truth, study shows
For many years, the conventional wisdom was that only highly biased, less educated media consumers would put partisanship over truth—in other words, they would believe news that confirmed their worldview, regardless of whether it was true.
The Iron Fist Behind The Invisible Hand
Kevin Carson The Iron Fist Behind The Invisible Hand Corporate Capitalism As a State-Guaranteed System of Privilege 2001 Originally published as a pamphlet...
Pluralistic: Shifting $677m from the banks to the people, every year, forever (01 Nov 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Pluralistic: Bluesky and enshittification (02 Nov 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Seattle area ranks No. 1 for child-free couples with dogs or cats
Among more than 100 metro areas, Seattle has the highest percentage of married people under 50 who have a dog or cat but no children, writes FYI Guy,
The Unfettered Selfishness of Digital Nomads
We all know they’re insufferable, but they’re also making the world worse.
Walt Disney’s Corporate Strategy Chart
From 1957, this is a drawing of the synergistic strategy of Walt Disney Productions, or what Todd Zenger of Harvard Business Revie
‘Take Back the States’: The Far-Right Sheriffs Ready to Disrupt the Election
Constitutional Sheriffs are duly elected lawmen who believe they answer only to God. They’ve spent the last six months preparing to stop a “stolen” election—by any means necessary.
Meet ZachXBT, the Masked Vigilante Tracking Down Billions in Crypto Scams and Thefts
He just untangled a $243 million bitcoin theft, what may be the biggest-ever crypto heist to target a single victim. And he has never shown his face.
The Renegade Sheriffs
A law-enforcement movement that claims to answer only to the Constitution.
Constitutional Sheriffs
The origins of constitutional sheriff ideology lie in the two concepts of the county supremacy movement: The county – not the state or federal governments – should control all land within its borders, and the county sheriff should be the ultimate law enforcement authority in the U.S. These ideas were pioneered by Christian Identity minister William Potter Gale in the 1970s and described as “Posse Comitatus.”
Inside the 'constitutional sheriff' movement
NPR's Cheryl Thompson speaks with Maurice Chammah of the Marshall Project to talk about the growing "constitutional sheriff" movement and what its aims are.
God-given rights: The nationwide spread of the ‘constitutional sheriff’
The Constitutional Sheriff and Peace Officers Association has spread its ideology across the U.S., seeking to become more mainstream in part by securing state approval for taxpayer-funded law enforcement training.
'Constitutional sheriffs' contend they have the power to determine what the law is
“Constitutional sheriffs” contend that their authority goes beyond enforcing the law to determining what the law is.
Meet the Far-Right Constitutional Sheriffs Ready to Assert Control if Trump Loses
There are hundreds of Constitutional Sheriffs around the country who believe they are the ultimate legal power in their county. We break down how they have coalesced with the election denial movement.
Constitutional Sheriff
Ostrom’s 8 Rules of the Commons for Anarchists
Ostrom’s 8 Rules of the Commons for Anarchists: The commons are resources self-managed by communities who need and use them. Commons are managed through dialogue, deliberation, and collective…