Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: Delta's AI-based price-gouging; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/30/efficiency-washing/
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Discussion
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@pluralistic it's funny you published this on the day I experienced it.
@pluralistic Also, accidental cartel:
> Delta accomplishes this pricing through a partnership with Fetcherr, a six-year-old Israeli company that also counts Azul, WestJet, Virgin Atlantic, and VivaAerobus as clients.
> Delta accomplishes this pricing through a partnership with Fetcherr, a six-year-old Israeli company that also counts Azul, WestJet, Virgin Atlantic, and VivaAerobus as clients.
@pluralistic Old story about a new employee at an optician. He asks the owner how much he should charge for glasses. The owner says, “Say $100, and see if the customer flinches. If he doesn’t then say that’s just for the frame, the lenses are another $100. And if the customer still doesn’t flinch, then say, each.”
@pluralistic Delta Diamond / 1M+ miles here. Delta is already the most expensive airline so much so that I have not flown them this year. Every time I price compare they are way more expensive so have been flying with Turkish and Singapore (both cheaper and better than Delta). Not sure they are going to get any more $'s from me with or without AI.
Hey, German-speakers! Through a very weird set of circumstances, I ended up owning the rights to the German audiobook of my bestselling 2022 cryptocurrency heist technothriller Red Team Blues and now I'm selling DRM-free audio and ebooks, along with the paperback (all in German and English) on a Kickstarter that runs until August 11:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/red-team-blues-auf-deutsche-drm-freie
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Delta's AI-based price-gouging: Running an airline like a hedge-fund.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114943535707445743
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Hey look at this
* Lina Khan: Democrats Can Learn from Zohran Mamdani https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/opinion/lina-khan-mamdani-democrats-small-business.html?unlocked_article_code=1.aE8.ImpN.jTAaetDTuJYy&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
* 8647 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2025/07/8647/
* Into the Abyss: Trump's Bizarro New Deal https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/into-the-abyss-trumps-bizarro-new
* Block Google login popups https://mas.to/@markwyner/114941092519598133
* Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/try-the-mosquito-bucket-of-death/ (h/t Hacker News)
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#20yrsago Homeland Security radio-tags foreign visitors https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/08/rfid_cards_for.html
#20yrsago Pix from today’s photog-mob at the unphotographable 1 Bush St building https://www.flickr.com/photos/avantgame/sets/668574/
#20yrsago The copyfight and international development https://web.archive.org/web/20050802001155/http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003214.html
#5yrsago Interop to the rescue https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/30/roto-en-mexico/#interop-competition
#5yrsago Why sweat smells https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/30/roto-en-mexico/#no-sweatski
#5yrsago Solar heroin https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/30/roto-en-mexico/#solar-heroin
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#5yrsago Google destroys yet more smart-glasses https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/30/roto-en-mexico/#focals#5yrsago Mexico's new copyright vs cybersecurity https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/30/roto-en-mexico/#ciberseguridad
#1yrago An open copyright casebook, featuring AI, Warhol and more https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/30/open-and-shut-casebook/#stop-confusing-the-issue-with-relevant-facts
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Yesterday's threads: Boss-politics antitrust and the MAGA crackup; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114937805982793442
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My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels
--
My next nonfiction book is "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," out from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux on October 7:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
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My ebooks and audiobooks (from Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."
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