They died for junk mail: Six workers died of COVID-19 at a Long Island, New York, warehouse for a company that prints and mails financial documents.
The company, Bainbridge Financial Solutions, pressured employees to avoid taking sick days, and delayed distributing PPE.
Coronavirus Kills Six Workers at Broadridge Warehouse
Thanks, Cory!
Last night, Julie and I watched the first episode of “Tales from the Loop,” an anthology series on Amazon Prime about the people in an Ohio smalltown where everybody works at some kind of paranormal research facility.
The episode was long on visual style and mood, short on actual story.
I’m not inclined to watch it again.
On the other hand, Julie likes it and I don’t dislike it enough to not watch another episode with her. So I’ll give the show at least one more try.
Even the fact that the show is apparently set in the 70s or early 80s was not enough to pull me in. 📺
Zoom Crasher Becomes Too Engrossed In Sales Meeting To Scream Obscenities
Congress Concierge Health Clinic Quietly Gets Funding Boost — Congresspeople who reject government healthcare for the people — including Rand Paul and Nancy Pelosi — enjoy the finest government healthcare themselves.
The corporate right is giving us two choices: Work, or starve
67 bits of good unsolicited advice, and one modest joke, from Kevin Kelly on his 68th birthday.
Underrated Netflix gems to add to your must-watch list — I’ve added most of these to the watchlist.
Since when does Looper do real articles, btw? I thought they were pure clickbait.
Today on Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic
++ Cigna health insurers are telling investors they’re looking ahead to a great year, even while the health insurance lobby group is begging for a handout from Washington.
++ Damien Patton, co-founder of Banjo, a “grifty” AI surveillance startup that works with police, is a convicted Ku Klux Klan terrorist.
As a 17-year-old, Patton “was a Nazi skinhead who once helped a KKK leader stage a drive-by shooting that ‘sprayed bullets’ into a synagogue.” He was active in the Dixie Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
Patton was the wheelman for a Klansman who fired a TEC-9 into a Nashville synagogue, and then was smuggled out of state by another Klansman….
His testimony included this phrase: “We believe that the Blacks and the Jews are taking over America, and it’s our job to take America back for the White race.”
Patton says he no longer believes those things to be true, and he sincerely regrets his youthful actions and beliefs.
Banjo “has conned the state of Utah into giving it access to state’s surveillance feeds with the promise of fighting crime using secret methods that Utahans (and independent reviewers) aren’t allowed to understand.”
++ In other surveillance news: NSO Group is a cyber-arms dealer that helps “the world’s most despicable dictators” commit crimes against humanity – including the Saudi murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi.
At least one NSO employee used National Security Agency tools to stalk a woman he knew personally. He broke into NSA offices in the United Arab Emirates. This practice is so common that the NSA has a cute nickname for it, LOVEINT.
++ After the British Empire conquered the world and looted cultural artifacts, the British Museum, is claiming copyright over images of those artifacts. I’m planning to steal my next-door neighbor’s lawnmower and then claim copyright on pictures of it.
++ The medical debt collection industry is going strong during the pandemic. Victims include a nurse who is borrowing gas money to get to work because all of her pay is being garnisheed.
++ 68 pieces of advice from Kevin Kelly on his 68th birthday. Includes:
Also:
Friends are better than money. Almost anything money can do, friends can do better. In so many ways a friend with a boat is better than owning a boat.
And:
Before you are old, attend as many funerals as you can bear, and listen. Nobody talks about the departed’s achievements. The only thing people will remember is what kind of person you were while you were achieving.
Google is making Meet free for everyone — I’m sticking with Zoom for now. I know it works and I don’t feel like fooling around with another platform.
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
I watched Britannia, with Julie, and am rewatching I, Claudius. I just started reading “Silver Pigs,” the first book of the historical mystery series by Lindsey Davis about Marcus Didius Falco, a private investigator in 1st Century Rome. I read many of those books years ago but I have essentially forgotten them so I’m quite enjoying “Silver Pigs.” I did not get through the whole series then, and plan to do so now.
Man Just Buying One Of Every Cleaning Product In Case Trump Announces It’s Coronavirus Cure
Damning Report Finds White House Ignored Skeletal Horsemen Galloping Through Sky As Early As January
Obama: ‘I’m So Proud To Endorse Joe Biden—That’s Who They Went With, Huh?—For President’
Trump Accuses New York Of Padding State’s Mortality Rate By Including African American Deaths
Teleconferencing Pastor Requests Any Worshipper Currently Speaking In Tongues Go On Mute
I’m thinking of trying Amethyst, a tiling window manager for the Mac, even though I have a mental block against adding keyboard shortcuts to my brain.
I wonder if I have any Post-It notes around the office?