My latest Locus Magazine column is "Disruption for Thee, But Not for Me," and it analyzes how Big Tech has been able to "disrupt" incumbent industries, but has repurposed obscure… Read the rest of the article: Big Tech loves disruption, when they're doing the disruption
In the first injection in a human being of macromolecules whose primary structure was developed from a religious text a French 16 year old named Adrien Locatelli describes how he… Read the rest of the article: Teen self-injects verses from the Bible and the Koran that have been transposed into DNA
After four years of Freedom of Information Act litigation, the ACLU has prevailed and forced the Customs and Border Patrol to release 1,000 pages' worth of training documents in which… Read the rest of the article: The ACLU made the Border Patrol reveal its terrifying legal theories
The state of Tennessee pays doctor-contractors by the case to review Medicare disability claims, leading to a situation in which doctors review four or more cases per hour — and… Read the rest of the article: Tennessee doctors make a fortune kicking disabled people off Medicare
Baylor University political scientist Patrick Flavin's forthcoming study in Social Science Research finds that people in states with higher public goods spending (on "libraries, parks, highways, natural resources and police… Read the rest of the article: Americans' happiness is correlated with spending on public goods
The New York Times weighs in on an Authors Guild survey that shows a "drastic 42% decline in authors' earnings over the past decade. John Scalzi offers some important perspective.
Bill Gates has a long, complicated and showy relationship with malaria eradication, and in a new letter, he makes a case that mosquitoes are Earth's deadliest animals, outkilling even the… Read the rest of the article: Bill Gates wants us to fear mosquitoes, not sharks
In Patients' crowdfunding campaigns for alternative cancer treatments, published by researchers from Simon Fraser University in The Lancet Oncology (Sci-Hub mirror) we learn that thanks to Gofundme, 13,000 people have… Read the rest of the article: Gofundme jumpstarts a golden era of snake oil as desperate people raise millions for quack homeopathy cancer "remedies"
Documentarian Arlen Parsa had a key realization: slowing Trump down to half-speed "reveals how often times his logic is indistinguishable from that of a drunk person."
For years, Disneyland annual passes, parking fees and single-day-tickets have seen above-inflation price-hikes, but this year's will take the cost of the no-blackout-day "Premier Pass" (good for Disneyland and Walt… Read the rest of the article: Ahead of new Star Wars land, Disneyland raises pass prices by up to 25%
Last year saw a wave of teachers' strikes across America, but mostly in red states where public education has been starved of funds, putting teachers on starvation wages, subjecting kids… Read the rest of the article: LA's teachers are ready to strike on Tuesday, rejecting privatization of public education
Faith Goldy is the white supremacist who failed in her bid for mayor of Toronto (despite an endorsement from US white supremacist Congressman Steve King); during her campaign, she unsuccessfully… Read the rest of the article: Failed white supremacist "law-and-order" Toronto mayoral candidate is now breaking the law by selling Canadian coat-of-arms merch
When Ios launched, Apple's App Store took a 30% royalty on all apps sold. App vendors responded in large part by switching to free apps that charged in-app for annual… Read the rest of the article: Netflix walks away from App Store payments, costing Apple up to $256m/year
Last week, incoming Senator Kyrsten Sinema [D-AZ] was sworn in by Mike Pence, in his aspect as President of the Senate, choosing to take her oath on a book containing… Read the rest of the article: Arizona's kick-ass new bisexual Senator took her oath on the US Constitution, administered by cringing, homophobic Dominionist Mike Pence
Fannie Mae predicts a "coming exodus of older homeowners" as Boomers die, downsize or enter retirement homes, which will dump a ton of housing stock on the market and crash… Read the rest of the article: Millennials will be able to buy homes soon, thanks to Boomer senescence and mortality
Step one: write a bot that hits the "play this captcha as audio for me" on a Google Re:captcha; step two: record that as an MP3; step three: feed the… Read the rest of the article: Google will defeat its own captchas for you
How can America possibly fund a radical transformation into a carbon-free economy, centered on preparing for the coming centuries of climate crises? ACO knows: a 70% tax on people with… Read the rest of the article: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has a plan to pay for the Green New Deal: a 70% tax on the super-rich
Mark Marino is following up on his previous course on "how to write and read fake news" with an unaccredited Masters Class in Dad Jokes: "In this classy class, we'll… Read the rest of the article: Masters Class in Dad Jokes
Machinist/sculptor Chris Bathgate (previously) has revealed his latest piece: the OTFB (out the front/out the back), a spring-loaded, switchblade-inspired piece that substitutes rotation for a sliding switch, "creating a small… Read the rest of the article: The OTFB: a switchblade-inspired, machined sculpture
With the public domain re-opening for the first time in a generation (thanks, Sonny Bono), artists are once again getting a fresh installment of raw material with which to make… Read the rest of the article: The re-opening of America's public domain is good news for artists, less so for the corporations that exploit them
