Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: The Epstein class and collapse porn; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/09/sloppy-steve/
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Discussion
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Hey look at this
* RIP, Dave Farber https://seclists.org/nanog/2026/Feb/18
* Outlier and collapse: The enron corpus and foundation model training data https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20539517261421474
* You're Doing It Wrong: Notes on Criticism and Technology Hype https://peoples-things.ghost.io/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype/
* How Big Cloud becomes Bigger: Scrutinizing Google, Microsoft, and Amazon's investments https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5377426
* Go Left, Young Writers! https://jacobin.com/2026/02/new-masses-proletarian-literature-wright-gold/
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#25yrsago Yours is a very bad hotel https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/yours-is-a-very-bad-hotel/34583
#20yrsago Kids refuse to sell candy after completing health unit https://web.archive.org/web/20060223010123/http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5600588,00.html
#20yrsago Disneyland model recreates Yippie invasion of 1970 https://web.archive.org/web/20051228122604/http://dannysland.blogspot.com/2005/12/great-moments-in-disneyland-history.html
#20yrsago Canadian Red Cross wastes its money harassing video game makers https://web.archive.org/web/20060221020835/https://www.igniq.com/2006/02/canadian-red-cross-wants-its-logo-out.html
#20yrsago How Yahoo/AOL’s email tax will hurt free speech https://web.archive.org/web/20060213175705/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004398.php#004398
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#20yrsago Adbusters and the Economist have the same covers https://pieratt.com/odds/adbusters_vs_theeconomist.jpg
#20yrsago Head of British Vid Assoc: Piracy doesn’t hurt DVD sales http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4691228.stm#6
#20yrsago Countries around the world rebelling against extreme copyright https://web.archive.org/web/20060629232414/http://www.michaelgeist.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1095
#20yrsago Web 1.0 logo-mosaic https://web.archive.org/web/20060506074530/https://www.complexify.com/buttons/
#15yrsago Is it legal to print Settlers of Catan tiles on a 3D printer? https://web.archive.org/web/20110131102845/https://publicknowledge.org/blog/3d-printing-settlers-catan-probably-not-illeg
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#15yrsago UK Tories get majority of funding from bankers https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/feb/08/tory-funds-half-city-banks-financial-sector
#15yrsago Colorado Springs school bans kid who takes THC lozenges for neuro condition from attending because of “internal possession” https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2011/02/07/teens-medical-marijuana-fight-escalates-as-school-says-he-cannot-come-back-to-class-after-going-home-for-medicine/
#15yrsago Hamster-powered strandbeest walker https://crabfuartworks.blogspot.com/2011/02/hamster-powered-walker.html
#15yrsago Daytripper: wrenching existential graphic novel https://memex.craphound.com/2011/02/08/daytripper-wrenching-existential-graphic-novel/
#15yrsago Pactuator: a mechanical, hand-cranked Pac-Man https://upnotnorth.net/projects/pac-machina/pactuator/
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#15yrsago Floppy drive organ plays toccata www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmoDLyiQYKw
#15yrsago Mike Mignola talks setting and architecture https://www.bldgblog.com/2011/02/ruin-space-and-shadow-an-interview-with-mike-mignola/
#15yrsago BBC to delete 172 unarchived sites, geek saves them for $3.99 https://web.archive.org/web/20110210152012/https://bengoldacre.posterous.com/nerd-saves-entire-bbc-archive-for-399-you-can
#10yrsago Australia, the driest country on Earth, eliminates basic climate science research https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/australia-cuts-110-climate-scientist-jobs/
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#10yrsago Copyright trolls who claimed to own “Happy Birthday” will pay $14M to their “customers” https://web.archive.org/web/20160210091717/http://consumerist.com/2016/02/09/happy-birthday-song-settlement-to-pay-out-14-million-to-people-who-paid-to-use-song/
#10yrsago Eviction epidemic: the racialized, weaponized homes of America’s cities https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/08/forced-out
#10yrsago Association of German judges slams US-EU trade deal for its special corporate courts https://www.techdirt.com/2016/02/09/top-german-judges-tear-to-shreds-eus-proposed-tafta-ttip-investment-court-system/
#10yrsago A digital, 3D printed sundial whose precise holes cast a shadow displaying the current time https://www.mojoptix.com/fr/2015/10/12/ep-001-cadran-solaire-numerique/
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#10yrsago Jughead is asexual https://www.themarysue.com/jughead-asexuality/
#10yrsago Vtech, having leaked 6.3m kids’ data, has a new EULA disclaiming responsibility for the next leak https://web.archive.org/web/20160210092704/https://motherboard.vice.com/read/hacked-toy-company-vtech-tos-now-says-its-not-liable-for-hacks
#10yrsago How America’s presidents started cashing out https://web.archive.org/web/20160208210036/https://theintercept.com/2016/02/08/taxpayers-give-big-pensions-to-ex-presidents-precisely-so-they-dont-have-to-sell-out/
#10yrsago Bill criminalizing anal and oral sex passes Michigan Senate https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2016/02/michigan_senate_passes_bill_saying_sodomy_is_a_felony/
#10yrsago Hacker promises dump of data from 20K FBI and 9K DHS employees https://web.archive.org/web/20160208214013/https://motherboard.vice.com/read/hacker-plans-to-dump-alleged-details-of-20000-fbi-9000-dhs-employees
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#10yrsago Blooks: functional objects disguised as books https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/30/blook-madness-inside-the-world-of-bogus-books
#10yrsago Indian regulator stands up for net neutrality, bans Facebook’s walled garden https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/02/facebooks-free-internet-app-banned-by-indias-new-net-neutrality-rule/
#10yrsago British spies want to be able to suck data out of US Internet giants https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-british-want-to-come-to-america--with-wiretap-orders-and-search-warrants/2016/02/04/b351ce9e-ca86-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html
#5yrsago Fleet Street calls out schtum Tories https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/09/permanent-record/#foia-uk
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#5yrsago The ECB should forgive the debt it owes itself https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/09/permanent-record/#ecb
#5yrsago Favicons as undeletable tracking beacons https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/09/permanent-record/#supercookies
#5yrsago Snowden's young adult memoir https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/09/permanent-record/#ya-snowden
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Saturday's threads: End of the line for video essays; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116028440196993763
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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 latest nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
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My ebooks and audiobooks (from FSGxMCD, 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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