The Electronic Frontier Foundation has just hired two new staffers focused on the EU: Icelandic poet, artist, and free expression activist Birgitta Jónsdóttir, and European Internet policy expert Christoph Schmon.

In my latest podcast (MP3), I continue my serial reading of my novella Party Discipline, which I wrote while on a 35-city, 45-day tour for my novel Walkaway in 2017;… Read the rest of the article: Podcast: Party Discipline, a Walkaway story (Part 3)

McChristian says, "Rather than send/give out Holiday Cards this year, I decided to make punch and assemble Holiday 'kits.' The sleigh and reindeer were models found on Thingiverse, and I… Read the rest of the article: 3D printed "model kits" as Christmas cards

Propublica's meticulously researched and reported story about McKinsey's roles in designing ICE's detention centers, advising ICE to skimp on supervision, food and medical care, is as unimpeachable as all of… Read the rest of the article: McKinsey is lying about its role in building ICE's gulags, and paying to own the top search result for "McKinsey ICE"

The final spot on Boston's city council race for at-large councillors went to Julia Mejia, who edged out her opponent Alejandra St. Guillen by a single vote (22,491 to 22,492).… Read the rest of the article: Boston city council election decided by a single vote

Bunnie Huang (previously) is a legendary hardware hacker, and one of his claims to fame are his annual trips to Shenzhen — China's electronics manufacturing hub — with groups of… Read the rest of the article: Bunnie Huang's classic "Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen" is now free online

In his latest BIG newsletter, Matt Stoller (previously) relates the key moments in the history of private equity, from its roots in the notorious "leveraged buyouts" of the 1980s, and… Read the rest of the article: Private equity firms should be abolished

Here's what's happened: first, ICANN (the legendarily opaque US corporation that runs the internet's Domain Name System) approved a change in pricing for .ORG domains, run by the nonprofit Internet… Read the rest of the article: ICANN hits pause on the sale of .ORG to Republican billionaires' private equity fund

In my 2008 novel Little Brother, the underground resistance uses a secure operating system called "Paranoid Linux" that is designed to prevent surveillance and leave no evidence of its use;… Read the rest of the article: Happy 10th birthday, TAILS — the real Paranoid Linux!

With just days to go before it would have to close its doors forever, San Diego's beloved science fiction bookstore Mysterious Galaxy has found a new location and new owners:… Read the rest of the article: San Diego's Mysterious Galaxy bookstore is saved!

Consulting giant McKinsey is embroiled is a string of scandals, from the revelation thatit designed ICE's gulags to the news that it charged New York $27.5m for a fraudulent (and… Read the rest of the article: McKinsey's internal mythology compares management consultants to "the Marine Corps, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Jesuits"

Ohio lawmakers introduced legislation that would see women and doctors charged with murder if they did not re-implant fetuses from ectopic pregnancies in women's uteruses, a procedure that does not… Read the rest of the article: Lawmaker admits not independently researching lobbyist's claim that ectopic fetuses could be reimplanted in the uterus, blames medical journals

Taylor Swift has been embroiled in a terrible dispute with Scooter Braun, who acquired Swift's former label for $300m, delivering him control over Swift's first six albums. Swift says that… Read the rest of the article: Private equity looters startled to be called out by name in Taylor Swift award-acceptance speech

Every year, the AI Now Institute (previously) publishes a deep, thoughtful, important overview of where AI research is and the ethical gaps in AI's use, and makes a list of… Read the rest of the article: AI Now's annual report: stop doing "emotion detection"; stop "socially sensitive" facial recognition; make AI research diverse and representative — and more

Radicalized, my collection of four novellas, is one of the Wall Street Journal's picks for best sf books of 2019! My thanks to Tom Shippey, who listed it alongside of… Read the rest of the article: Radicalized is one of the Wall Street Journal's top sf books of 2019!

Facebook's decision to default to end-to-end encryption for Facebook Messenger prompted the governments of the UK, the USA and Australia to write to Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to delay implementation… Read the rest of the article: Large, diverse coalition of civil society groups tell the US, UK and Australian governments not to ban working encryption

Spin is a short-hire/e-scooter company — one of those firms like Bird and Lime that fill city streets with future-ewaste vehicles that block wheelchairs. It's owned by Ford.

Nulledcast is a realtime podcast streamed on a Discord channel for the hacking forum Nulled: the hosts break into Ring and Nest cameras in realtime, blare sirens at the owners,… Read the rest of the article: Nulledcast: a podcast where hackers play live audio of themselves breaking into Ring cameras and tormenting their owners

Finally, a police union has identified a form of misconduct it will not defend: necrophilia.

Abbott Labs makes a continuous glucose monitor — used by people with diabetes to monitor their blood-sugar levels — called (ironically, as you'll see below) the Freestyle Libre.