2008, 2013, 2018. — #15yrsago Southern racists adopt “Canadian” as a euphemism for “black” https://memex.craphound.com/2008/01/26/southern-racists-adopt-canadian-as-a-euphemism-for-black/ #15yrsago Bavarian gov’t caught buying malware to intercept Skype calls https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Skype_and_the_Bavarian_trojan_in_the_middle #10yrsago Berlin activists create CCTV-smashing street game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GCsd2TJKjQ

”Yes, our beaches are the most beautiful, but our leaders are the dirtiest in the world, aren’t they?” — A common refrain from Facebook apologists and anti-anonymity activists is that its “Real Names Policy” promoted “civility” by making users “accountable” for their words. In this conception, snuffing out anonymous speech is key to protecting “the vulnerable” from trolls and other bad actors. If you’d like an essay-formatted version of…

Herd immunity is incompatible with shareholder capitalism. — Moderna is quadrupling the cost of covid vaccines, from $26/dose to $110–130. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel calls the price hike “consistent with the value” of the mRNA vaccines. Moderna’s manufacturing costs are $2.85/dose, for a 4,460% markup on every dose: https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/moderna-may-match-pfizers-400-price-hike-on-covid-vaccines-report-says/

2003, 2013, 2018. — #20yrsago Moses Znaimer ready to quit? https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/znaimer-ponders-his-future-at-chum-as-he-takes-sabbatical/article25277829/ #20yrsago Palladium changes name, but not stripes https://web.archive.org/web/20030216080548/weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/000755.shtml #10yrsago German court awards damages for loss-of-Internet, says net is “crucial part of people’s economic living standards” https://web.archive.org/web/20130127084852/http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/networking/3422348/internet-connection-crucial-everyday-life-german-federal-court-rules/…

The true, swashbuckling lives of matriarchs, anarchists, and pirates at the crossroads of the world. — The untimely death of activist/anthropologist/author David Graeber in 2020 tore a hole in the future, depriving us of not just Graeber’s presence, but of the books he had left to write — incisive, brilliant, hilarious followups to the likes of Debt and Bullshit Jobs: https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/07/facebook-v-humanity/#spectre

2008, 2013, 2018. — #15yrsago God Save Stan Lee tee https://memex.craphound.com/2008/01/24/god-save-stan-lee-tee/ #15yrsago FBI whistleblower tells librarians about discriminatory practices and bad procedure at the Bureau https://web.archive.org/web/20080127183738/http://alfocus.ala.org/videos/fbi-whistleblower-answers-questions #10yrsago Tim Wu: “Escape From Tomorrow” doesn’t violate Disney’s copyright https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/its-a-mad-mad-mad-mad-disney-world

Cal-Maine Foods owns every egg brand you’ve ever heard of and its profits are up 65%. — The very instant that world governments rolled out relief funds so quarantine-shuttered businesses wouldn’t fail and covid-furloughed workers wouldn’t starve, corporate executives started rubbing their forelegs together and planning to raise prices and blame it on inflation brought on by letting The Poors have too much money.

2003, 2013, 2018. — #20yrsago New CE lobby begs to voluntarily screw customers https://web.archive.org/web/20030413214359/http://alliancefordigitalprogress.org/ADP/content/?p=WhentheTechIndustryandHollywoodCooperate #10yrsago How the NY Daily News covered Stonewall https://www.yak.net/ian/stonewall.html #5yrsago Trump slaps 30% tariff on imported solar-cells https://www.axios.com/2018/01/22/trump-issues-tariffs-on-imported-solar-panels-1516657913

You may never shake the fear, but you might change how you feel about it. — Richie’s Plank Experience is a terrifying VR game first released in 2016. In the game, the user rides up a simulated elevator to a rooftop that is 525 (simulated) feet above street level. Then, the user steps out on a (simulated) plank and walks out on it, over a vertiginous…