Pluralistic: Blue states should play “constitutional hardball” (18 Oct 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Society
Pluralistic: Penguin Random House, AI, and writers’ rights (19 Oct 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax
ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.
Finding the Money – There's another side to the national debt.
Pluralistic: Retiring the US debt would retire the US dollar (21 Oct 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
The value of craftsmanship: how traditional skills are enduring in the modern world
From brushmakers to glassblowers, and saddlers to weavers, we meet the people keeping traditional crafts alive in the UK
Forget Gladwell
Society should withhold all esteem and attention to a nonfiction author whose entire oeuvre spitballs explanatory social theory under the bad faith idea that he holds his ideas “loosely” and readers should too
The Washington Post: Malcolm Gladwell's new book rehashes "The Tipping Point"
I wrote a review of Malcolm
The magnificent Swiss 10-centime coin
The Swiss 10-centime coin has a lot to teach us about monetary economics. On its face, the Swiss 10-centime (rappen in German) looks like a ...
Only Forward - Wikipedia
Only Forward is a science fiction novel by English writer Michael Marshall Smith; his debut novel, it was first published in 1994 by HarperCollins. It was the winner of the August Derleth Award (1995) and Philip K. Dick Award (2000).
Courts Agree That No One Should Have a Monopoly Over the Law. Congress Shouldn’t Change That
Some people just don’t know how to take a hint. For more than a decade, giant standards-development organizations (SDOs) have been fighting in courts around the country, trying use copyright law to control access to other laws.
Sophia Goodfriend · Kill Lists
The IDF’s AI-assisted systems allow the military to bypass the many intelligence analysts, munitions experts and...
The time it takes to buy it
Rax King on the film Anora
Pluralistic: Of course we can tax billionaires (15 Oct 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Pluralistic: You should be using an RSS reader (16 Oct 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Moonshots for Europe - Book
Our book Moonshots for Europe demands a new, courageous leadership for the next decades.
Dark forest hypothesis - Wikipedia
The dark forest hypothesis is the conjecture that many alien civilizations exist throughout the universe, but they are both silent and hostile, maintaining their undetectability for fear of being destroyed by another hostile and undetected civilization.[1] It is one of many possible explanations of the Fermi paradox, which contrasts the lack of contact with alien life with the potential for such contact. The hypothesis derives its name from Liu Cixin's 2008 novel The Dark Forest,[2] although the concept predates the novel.[3][4]
The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet
Why the dark forests of the internet — podcasts, newsletters, and other private channels — are growing, and why might that pose a problem
Some online conspiracy-spreaders don’t even believe the lies they’re spewing
These people share conspiracy theories to promote conflict, cause chaos, recruit and radicalize potential followers, make money, harass, or even just to get attention.
I’m a Hunter. I Study Mass Shootings. Here’s What the Debate Over Gun Ownership Is Missing.
Keeping a gun can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
Pluralistic: Dirty words are politically potent (14 Oct 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Fixing Social Security means raising taxes — and not just on the superrich
Politicians need to get realistic about what it will take to protect Social Security.
After Hurricane Milton, here's how to improve evactuations during disasters
When millions of people are under evacuation orders, logistical issues arise.
If You Can’t Say Anything Nice
You know what your mom would say, right? This week, we got an above average number of useless negative comments. A project was described as looking like a “turd” – for the record I love the hacker’…
Pluralistic: Lina Khan’s future is the future of the Democratic Party – and America (11 Oct 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
The Terminator
Noam Chomsky's savage review of B. F. Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity, published in The New York Review of Books in 1971, is sometimes credited as the coup de grâce to behaviorism – its widely-read condemnation of that particular strand of psychology (alongside what Chomsky argued were its political ramifications) published
The FBI conducted a sham investigation into Brett Kavanaugh. Surprised? | Moira Donegan
The bureau shamefully allowed itself to be used as a prop in political theater, orchestrated by the Trump administration
In Texas’ Third-Largest County, the Far Right’s Vision for Local Governing Has Come to Life
From cutting social services to changing election rules, Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare has pushed his agenda with an uncompromising approach. His term offers a rare look at what happens when hard-liners exert influence in a battleground county.
The life-changing magic of Japanese clutter | Aeon Essays
The world sees Japan as a paragon of minimalism. But its hidden clutter culture shows that ‘more’ can be as magical as ‘less’
The Last Word On Nothing | The Evidence of the Senses
Pluralistic: Cars bricked by bankrupt EV company will stay bricked (10 Oct 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow