This day in history

2004, 2009, 2014, 2019.

I’m on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TONIGHT (Apr 17) in CHICAGO, then Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

#20yrsago Mickey Mouse’s dwindling brand https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/arts/film-building-a-better-mouse.html

#15yrsago Wired publishes documents detailing the FBI’s spyware https://www.wired.com/2009/04/fbi-spyware-pro/

#15yrsago Gorilla-viewing glasses prevent eye-contact https://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/no-eye-contact-glasses/

#15yrsago Man assaulted by police during G20 died from internal bleeding, not heart-attack http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8004222.stm

#15yrsago Sales booming in remote-kill devices for cars sold to poor credit-risks https://edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/04/17/aa.bills.shut.engine.down/index.html

#15yrsago Canadian Members of Parliament voting records (finally) online https://web.archive.org/web/20090419144031/http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/620435

#15yrsago Jokes from the Cultural Revolution https://thechinabeat.blogspot.com/2009/04/jokes-from-great-proletarian-cultural.html

#15yrsago Swedish Pirate Party membership surges after Pirate Bay verdict https://web.archive.org/web/20090420055230/http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpress.piratpartiet.se%2F2009%2F04%2F17%2Finternet-kokar-piratpartiet-har-nu-fler-medlemmar-an-fp%2F&sl=sv&tl=en

#15yrsago Google Book Search settlement gives Google a virtual monopoly over literature https://memex.craphound.com/2009/04/17/google-book-search-settlement-gives-google-a-virtual-monopoly-over-literature/

#15yrsago Bruce Sterling’s “White Fungus” — architecture fiction for rising seas and the econopocalypse https://web.archive.org/web/20090420053737/http://www.sunarchitecture.nl/upload/49d601a8ba4b25.51434338.pdf

#10yrsago Video: Bart Gellman and me opening for Ed Snowden at SXSW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mltClsxsJw4

#10yrsago UK Tory MP who helped kill Legal Aid is wiped out by defending himself against sexual assault claim https://web.archive.org/web/20140414232920/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/130000-poorer-in-fees-nigel-evans-admits-regret-for-past-support-of-legal-aid-cuts-9259579.html

#5yrsago “A Message From the Future”: short film about the “Green New Deal Decade,” narrated by AOC, drawn by Molly Crabapple, presented by Naomi Klein https://theintercept.com/2019/04/17/green-new-deal-short-film-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/

#5yrsago Canadian Civil Liberties Association sues Toronto, Ontario, and Canada over the plan for a Google Sidewalk Labs “smart city” in Toronto https://www.vice.com/en/article/gy4bgj/canada-is-getting-sued-over-sidewalk-labs-smart-city-in-toronto

#5yrsago Ecuadorean authorities have unjustly arrested free software developer Ola Bini as part of their Assange dragnet https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/04/free-ola-bini

#5yrsago Bernie Sanders outraised every other Democrat in North Carolina https://amp.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article229277549.html

#5yrsago What it’s like to watch someone you love fall down the Fox News rabbit-hole https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/i-gathered-stories-of-people-transformed-by-fox-news.html

#5yrsago When Rivers Were Trails: an indigenous take on Oregon Trail https://indianlandtenure.itch.io/when-rivers-were-trails

#5yrsago As the EU Copyright Directive was approved, Germany admitted it requires copyright filters, putting it on a collision course with the EU-Canada trade deal https://memex.craphound.com/2019/04/17/as-the-eu-copyright-directive-was-approved-germany-admitted-it-requires-copyright-filters-putting-it-on-a-collision-course-with-the-eu-canada-trade-deal/

#5yrsago London cops switch off wifi in the tube to make it harder for climate protesters to organise https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/17/18411820/london-underground-tube-wi-fi-down-shut-off-protests-extinction-rebellion

#5yrsago Republican lawmaker who dared AOC to come visit coal miners in his constituency gets scared, withdraws offer https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1118181129213943815

#5yrsago Lulzy Instagram memers are organizing a deadly serious trade union https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/04/instagram-memers-are-unionizing/587308/

#5yrsago Denver suburb officially changes name from “Swastika Acres” to “Old Cherry Hills” https://www.denverpost.com/2019/04/16/swastika-acres-renamed/