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ScienceHealthOK, Sure, Let’s Just Add Some Bubonic Plague to the Mix
On Sunday, officials in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, recorded a case of bubonic plague, otherwise known as the Black Death, while another case was reportedly detected in neighboring Mongolia. Thankfully there’s no need to freak out about a pandemic yet—other than the one we are currently facing and from which the U.S. has … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
Tech NewsFacebook Axes TikTok Clone to Focus on Its Other TikTok Clone
Cue up “Mad World” and reflect on the folly of having more money than sense: Facebook confirmed today that it’s shitcanning Lasso and Hobbi, two sad products you’ve probably never heard of. What’s Lasso? A dating app for cowboys would be a good guess, but no, Lasso was Facebook’s misguided attempt to rip off Bytdance’s … Continued
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Tech NewsSick DaysMy Friend Died From This. How Can You Take This So Lightly?
Are you a frontline worker dealing with new stresses or irresponsible management? Is working (or not working) from home starting to take a psychological toll? How are you coping with reopening? Submit a story using this Google form or send me an email with the subject line “My Covid Story” and provide as much detail as … Continued
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Tech NewsNewsInstacart Sues Seattle Over Hazard Pay for Delivery Workers
After the proposal received unanimous support from the city council, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan last Friday signed in local ordinance 119799, the seemingly unimpeachable purpose of which was to impose “premium pay” for gig workers delivering groceries during the ongoing pandemic. Not even a week later, the city is being taken to court by Instacart, … Continued
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Tech NewsAmazonIt’s Not a Bonus, and It’s Less Than You Deserve
In a blog post today, Amazon announced it would be distributing “a special one-time Thank You bonus” to its workers, the largest sums of which would go to non-hourly managers. Let’s begin by stating the obvious: Labor has value That value is, for most workers, compensated with money Because of covid-19, the value of essential … Continued
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Tech NewsUber’s Arbitration Clause Ruled Invalid by Canada’s High Court
One of the biggest arrows in Uber’s quiver was snapped clean in half by the Supreme Court in Canada today. It’s about damn time. As we’ve discussed over and over, again and again, Uber is a wage theft scheme wrapped in the facade of a technology company. It accomplishes this through systematic misclassification of its … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
Tech NewsMicrosoftThe Microsoft Store Is Selling Zunes or Whatever in Heaven Now
Dearly beloved, we are gathered to mourn the loss, and celebrate the memory, of all 82 of Microsoft’s retail locations. They became incapacitated as a result of complications due to the current coronavirus pandemic in mid-March; their parent company, Microsoft, opted to take the ailing stores off life support today. Born in Scottsdale, Arizona, on … Continued
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Tech NewsLet’s Kill Facial Recognition For Good
There’s a buffet of things to be scared shitless about these days, but for those who have sampled even a taste of big tech’s eagerness to build and sell facial recognition surveillance software to law enforcement, it’s uniquely rancid. Among the challenges in reining in this dangerous class of artificial intelligence—which marries the lack of … Continued
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Tech NewsSick DaysWhy Not Just Be a Total Jerk? It’s the End of the World as We Know It
Are you a frontline worker dealing with new stresses or irresponsible management? Is working (or not working) from home starting to take a psychological toll? How are you coping with reopening? Submit a story using this Google form or send me an email with the subject line “My Covid Story” and provide as much detail as … Continued
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Tech NewsTransportationCalifornia AGs Seek Injunction ‘to Force Uber and Lyft to Play by the Rules’
It’s been a long road to regulation for Uber and Lyft in their home state of California, but it may be coming to an equitable end—one that would see their massive workforce of driver-contractors finally given legal employee status. State AG Xavier Becerra, along with the Attorneys General of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
Tech NewsGoogle1,600+ Googlers Call on Company to Kick Cops Off Gmail, End All Other Police Contracts
In its enviable tradition of employee dissent, Googlers have used this moment of civil unrest to reassess their company’s relationship to police. The verdict, according to over 1,600 of them, is that there shouldn’t be one. Accordingly, a petition began circulating last Wednesday asking CEO Sundar Pichai to end all sales of its products to … Continued
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Tech NewsNewsPolice Tried to Take a Protester’s Prosthetic Legs After Macing Him, Witnesses Say
After a directive from Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther to “immediately stop the use of tear gas and pepper spray” on peaceful protesters, a rally in Ohio’s capital appears to have included not only the use of such chemical agents, but also, according to eyewitnesses, involved uniformed officers removing and attempting to confiscate the prosthetic limbs … Continued
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Tech NewsFacebookFacebook Removes Trump Ads With Nazi Iconography
Measured against its peers, Facebook has been particularly soft on Donald Trump and his administration’s penchant for spewing violent rhetoric, misinformation, and outright lies. It seems, after no shortage of pressure, the social media company has found where it draws the line for a sitting president: the extraordinarily low bar of invoking symbols used in … Continued
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Tech NewsSick DaysMy Dad Rewrote His Will in Case He Dies Alone
Are you a frontline worker dealing with new stresses or irresponsible management? Is working (or not working) from home starting to take a psychological toll? How are you coping with reopening? Submit a story using this Google form or send me an email with the subject line “My Covid Story” and provide as much detail as … Continued
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Tech NewsAmazonU.S. Lawmaker Calls Out Amazon’s ‘Performative’ Support of Black Lives Matter
Last week, Amazon made a terse announcement that it would institute a “one-year moratorium on police use of Amazon’s facial recognition technology,” known as Rekognition, in response to the wave of global protests against police brutality spurred by the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. At least one lawmaker is unsatisfied by the company’s … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
Tech NewsCrimeFired eBay Execs Charged in Batshit Cyberstalking Plot Against Company’s Critics
An unfortunate reality of journalism is that, while anyone in the industry for long enough has gotten their share of death threats, some coverage—reporting on white supremacists, taking photos in a war zone, exposing deep-pocketed oil companies—simply tends to be more emotionally, physically, financially dangerous to pursue. Not to be outdone by the other various … Continued
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Tech NewsSick DaysI Came Home, Emptied My Grocery Bags, and Violently Wept
Are you a frontline worker dealing with new stresses or irresponsible management? Is working (or not working) from home starting to take a psychological toll? How are you coping with reopening? Submit a story using this Google form or send me an email with the subject line “My Covid Story” and provide as much detail as … Continued
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Tech NewsAmazon Takes Bold Stance Against Momentary Bad Optics
For the second time in a week, Amazon is trying to score PR brownie points for doing next to nothing in the wake of global anti-racist protests—this time for the weakest possible concession around some of its most dangerous software. And so intones our humble refrain: Fuck off! Amazon has a cozy relationship with the … Continued
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Tech NewsCultureNew York City to Sex-Havers: 😉
The moment we’re living in is so strange that even the phrase “unprecedented times” is seeing unprecedented usage. Fear is a natural response to such uncertainty, but it’s worth remembering that this time also makes great change possible. For instance: The New York City Department of Health seems to have quietly endorsed the use of … Continued
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Tech NewsTell Us, Jeff Bezos, Precisely Which Customers You’re ‘Happy to Lose’
“Dave, you’re the kind of customer I’m happy to lose,” Jeff Bezos captioned a recent Instagram post showing a customer email laden with expletives and racial slurs. As you might expect, Dave (his last name redacted) claimed to be speaking on behalf of “White America” against Amazon’s recently announced support of the Black Lives Matter … Continued
By Avery Ellis
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