pluralistic

pluralistic, 3 hours ago to random

One of my favorite nuggets of writing advice comes from James D Macdonald. Jim, a Navy vet with an encylopedic knowledge of gun lore, explained to a group of non-gun people how to write guns without getting derided by other gun people: "just add the word 'modified.'"

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/27/cmon-do-it-again/#better_to_remain_silent_and_be_thought_a_fool_than_to_speak_and_remove_all_doubt

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pluralistic, 3 hours ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Against Lore; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/27/cmon-do-it-again/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 50 minutes ago to random

785 words (785 total) on Enshittification (a nonfiction book about platform decay) #DailyWords

pluralistic, 2 days ago to random

It's the start of a long weekend and I've found myself with a backlog of links, so it's time for another linkdump - the eighteenth in the (occasional) series. Here's the previous installments:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/25/anthology/#lol-no

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pluralistic, 2 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Inkjump Linkdump; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/25/anthology/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 2 days ago to random

In "The Scorpion and the Frog," a trusting frog gives a scorpion a ride across a brook, only to be stung to death by his passenger upon arrival. The dying frog gasps "why?" and the scorpion replies, "I am sorry, but I couldn't resist the urge. It's my character":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/24/record-scratch/#autoenshittification

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The interior of a luxury sedan as seen from the driver's PoV, with the driver's hands on the wheel. Mounted to the vent is a Spotify 'Car Thing' - a $90 tablet designed to stream Spotify music. The image has been altered. The sky behind the driver's windscreen is animated TV static. The album thumbnail on the Car Thing UI has been replaced with a 'code waterfall' effect as seen in the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies. A skeletal robed figure, clutching a sheaf of documents headed with the Spotify logo, reaches out a bony finger to prod at the Car Thing from the left side of the image.

pluralistic, 2 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: They brick you because they can; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/24/record-scratch/

#Pluralistic

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The interior of a luxury sedan as seen from the driver's PoV, with the driver's hands on the wheel. Mounted to the vent is a Spotify 'Car Thing' - a $90 tablet designed to stream Spotify music. The image has been altered. The sky behind the driver's windscreen is animated TV static. The album thumbnail on the Car Thing UI has been replaced with a 'code waterfall' effect as seen in the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies. A skeletal robed figure, clutching a sheaf of documents headed with the Spotify logo, reaches out a bony finger to prod at the Car Thing from the left side of the image.

pluralistic, 4 days ago to random

I have been a published writer since I was 17, and never in all those years have I encountered worse editorial suggestions than the automated ones generated by Microsoft Office365.

Makes Clippy look like EB White.

pluralistic, 4 days ago to random

Hey, @mozilla I'm really proud to be a paid Media Monitor subscriber, and I'm happy with the service, too.

But why do your emails pass their links through a tracking redirection service controlled by a third party?

My May statement links through https://blrv1ly5.r.us-west-2.awstrack.me/

?!

pluralistic, 4 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Red Lobster was killed by private equity, not Endless Shrimp; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spineless/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 4 days ago to random

A decade ago, a hedge fund had an improbable viral comedy hit: a 294-page slide deck explaining why Olive Garden was going out of business, blaming the failure on too many breadsticks and insufficiently salted pasta-water:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/940944/000092189514002031/ex991dfan14a06297125_091114.pdf

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spineless/#invertebrates

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pluralistic, 5 days ago to random

The crash of 2008 imparted many lessons to people who were only dimly aware of finance, especially how complexity was a way of disguising fraud and recklessness. That was really the first lesson of 2008: "financial engineering" is mostly a way of obscuring crime behind a screen of technical jargon.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/22/koteswar-jay-gajavelli/#if-you-ever-go-to-houston

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pluralistic, 5 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: How finfluencers destroyed the housing and lives of thousands of people; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/22/koteswar-jay-gajavelli/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 6 days ago to random

Oh, fuck you, British Airways.

pluralistic, 6 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Linkrot; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/21/noway-back-machine/

#Pluralistic

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A 1994 Yahoo homepage. It is animated. The blue links blur and then disappear.

pluralistic, 6 days ago to random

Here's an underrated cognitive virtue: "object permanence" - that is, remembering how you perceived something previously. As Riley Quinn often reminds us, the left is the ideology of object permanence - to be a leftist is to hate and mistrust the CIA even when they're tormenting Trump for a brief instant, or to remember that it was once possible for a working person to support their family with their wages:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/27/six-sells/#youre-holding-it-wrong

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pluralistic, 7 days ago to random

Depending on how you look at it, I either grew up in the periphery of the labor movement, or atop it, or surrounded by it. For a kid, labor issues don't really hold a lot of urgency - in places with mature labor movements, kids don't really have jobs, and the part-time jobs I had as a kid (paper route, cleaning a dance studio) were pretty benign.

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pluralistic, 7 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: The new globalism is global labor; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/20/a-common-foe/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 9 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Monopoly is capitalism's gerrymander; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/18/market-discipline/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 9 days ago to random

You don't have to accept the arguments of capitalism's defenders to take those arguments seriously. When Adam Smith railed against rentiers and elevated profit to a means of converting the intrinsic selfishness of the wealthy into an engine of production, he had a point:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/18/market-discipline/#too-big-to-care

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pluralistic, 10 days ago to random

As a science fiction writer, I find it weird that some sf tropes - like space colonization - have become culture-war touchstones. You know, that whole "we were promised jetpacks" thing.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/17/fake-it-until-you-dont-make-it/#twenty-one-seconds

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pluralistic, 10 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: You were promised a jetpack by liars; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/17/fake-it-until-you-dont-make-it/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 10 days ago to random

Eternal vigilance is the price of travel

pluralistic, 11 days ago to random

Residents of 21 cities in Utah have access to some of the fastest, most competitively priced broadband in the US, at speeds up to 10gb/s and prices as low as $75/month. It's uncapped, and the connections are symmetrical: perfect for uploading and downloading. And it's all thanks to the government.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/16/symmetrical-10gb-for-119/#utopia

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pluralistic, 11 days ago (edited 11 days ago) to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Utah's getting some of America's best broadband; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/16/symmetrical-10gb-for-119/

#Pluralistic

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