[Plura-list] Jeremy Meyer's typewriter assemblages; HHS to pharma: stop bribing writing docs; The Attack Surface Lectures
Cory Doctorow
doctorow at craphound.com
Mon Nov 16 16:52:22 EST 2020
_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_
I'm speaking on a panel at Kaspersky's Shaping the Digital Future Summit
early tomorrow morning:
https://transparency.kaspersky.com/home
_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_
Today's links
* Jeremy Meyer's typewriter assemblages: Symmetry is everything.
* HHS to pharma: stop bribing writing docs: No more cash-for-Rx.
* The Attack Surface Lectures: Part 1, Politics and Protest.
* Youtube-dl is back: EFF to the rescue!
* Someone Comes to Town Part 23: The latest in my podcast.
* This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing
projects, current reading
_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_
🏊🏽♀️ Jeremy Meyer's typewriter assemblages
It's been a decade since I started writing about Jeremy Meyer's
assemblage sculptures: incredible, intricate pieces made from the
disassembled parts of old typewriters.
https://jeremymayer.com
These pieces speak to me, recapturing the incredible fascination of the
old Underwood Noiseless I tinkered with in my parents' basement when I
was growing up. In fact, I am so taken with Meyer's work that I bought
one of his handmade octopuses.
Today, Colossal features new work by Meyer, a series of massive
symmetrical, abstract sculptures with wingspans up to 65 inches.
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/11/jeremy-mayer-typewriter-sculptures
Meyer consumes 12-15 broken typewriters (he seeks out bargains on
unsalvageable machines) per year. He's in the midst of a ten-part series
of covid-lockdown pieces.
_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_
🏊🏽♀️ HHS to pharma: stop bribing writing docs
With its US body count around the 200k mark, the opioid epidemic may
seem like small potatoes next to the vast slaughter of the bungled covid
pandemic, but it's a still-suppurating wound on the body politic, a
ghastly reminder of America's regulatory forbearance for plutocratic
mass murderers.
How did the opioid epidemic burn through the country so ferociously?
Blame Big Pharma, who have perfected the art of throwing gas on fires,
bribing doctors with ruses so transparent and obviously harmful that
they constitute existence-proof of the complicity of US regulators.
Maybe it's finally changing. The Department of Health and Human
Service's Office of the Inspector General has issued a "special fraud
alert" on "Speaker Programs." Maybe 'speaker program" and "fraud" don't
suggest an obvious connection, but hoo-BOY.
https://freepdfhosting.com/42d39ff305.pdf
If you're a pharma giant, your profit margin is largely dependent on the
willingness of doctors to prescribe - and overprescribe - your products.
Doctors often don't want to do this, so you need to "align incentives"
to make the magic happen.
Lucky for Big Pharma, docs have a "continuing education" requirement to
keep their licenses current. This creates a vacuum. Pharma companies pay
the expenses of docs who write a lot of scrips for their dope to attend
"seminars" in fancy resorts, flying in their families.
For the writin' doc whales who top the overprescription charts, pharma
companies have an even sweeter deal: they get to PRESENT at these
"seminars" and pull down six-figure "speaking fees" on top of the
all-expense-paid family junket to a luxury tropical resort.
The memo details the results of OIG and DOJ investigations into these
practices and concludes that they are exactly what they appear to be:
potentially lethal scams.
They find that
* docs who'd been tapped to speak at events were told that their slot
(and fee) was contingent on meeting a prescribing quota for a given kind
of dope
* the events were held at entertainment venues or during recreational
events or otherwise in a manner not conducive to an educational
presentation (e.g., wineries, sports stadiums, fishing trips, golf
clubs, and adult entertainment facilities)
* or at $500/plate restaurants
And that the attendees were the same docs, over and over again, all
getting the same "educational seminar" while their spouses and kids
played in the pool, got spa treatments, etc.
The memo reminds doctors and pharma companies that the US has an
anti-kickback statute that creates civil and criminal liability for this
behavior, with both the briber and the bribee facing fines of up to
$100k and 10 years in prison.
They call out junkets as scams, a means of "inducing or rewarding"
prescriptions. They say that if a doc wants to learn more about a med
or a device, they can attend a webinar, read the paper packaging insert,
or subscribe to a medical journal.
They warn that future junkets will invite scrutiny under the
anti-kickback statute, especially:
* if "little or no substantive info is presented"
* there's free booze or expensive food
* the same seminars are offered repeatedly
* companies hold seminars for products that haven't been updated or
where there has been no new research of note
* the same docs go to the same seminars repeatedly
* pharma companies comp family members, lovers, etc
* the speaking fee is excessive
All this follows on the heels of this summer's massive bribery scandal
involving Novartis:
https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/07/tired-of-winning/#novartis
though it's not clear whether that's the inciting event.
One thing is clear, though: none of this corrupt behavior is new. For
more than a decade, it's been clear that pharma companies bribe docs to
do things that hurt or even kill their patients. As always, Propublica's
work on this is indispensable:
https://www.propublica.org/series/dollars-for-docs
The best part of their coverage is the Dollars For Docs search-engine,
that lets you see how much money your doctor has taken from pharma reps:
https://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/
_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_
🏊🏽♀️ The Attack Surface Lectures
Last month saw the publication of my novel ATTACK SURFACE, the third
book in the multi-bestselling Little Brother series. For the launch, Tor
Books and I threw an eight-part seminar series in collaboration with
eight outstanding indie bookstores.
https://read.macmillan.com/torforge/cory-doctorow-virtual-lecture-series/
Each event featured me and two guest co-hosts discussing themes from the
book, ranging from politics and protest to cyberpunk to information
security to intersectionalism, race and surveillance.
Now, the booksellers involved have begun to post their recordings, and
I'm pleased to present them to you! I'll be doing one a day for the next
eight days (assuming the stores' posting schedule keeps up!).
First up is "Politics and Protest," featuring the amazing Ron Deibert
(Citizen Lab) and Eva Galperin (EFF), hosted by Strand Bookstore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlORdWC3g3E
If you'd prefer to watch without subjecting yourself to Youtube's
surveillance, you can also view it on The Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/asl-politics
Or listen to it as an MP3:
https://ia601507.us.archive.org/25/items/asl-politics/Politics%20and%20Protest%20with%20Eva%20Galperin%20and%20Ron%20Deibert.mp3
I'm also folding these daily releases into my podcast feed. If you'd
prefer that, use your podcatcher to subscribe to The Cory Doctorow
Podcast, or sign up through the RSS feed:
https://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast
_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_
🏊🏽♀️ Youtube-dl is back
The RIAA threw an October Surprise late last month when it sent a
takedown demand to Github over Youtube-dl, a general purpose, lawful
tool that allowed people to download Youtube videos.
https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/28/trumpcicles/#yt-dl
The RIAA's position on this was downright bizarre. First, it asserted
that the kind of obfuscation that Youtube uses to hide the download URLs
for its videos were a form of DRM, illegal to bypass under Section 1201
of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Second, it asserted that it had the right to demand the removal of this
tool because some RIAA members' works were available on Youtube, so
bypassing Youtube's access controls gives the RIAA standing to shut the
tool down.
These are both extreme legal positions, untested in court, but DMCA 1201
carries stiff penalties: a five-year prison sentence and a $500k fine.
So Github (a division of Microsoft, itself a member of the RIAA) (!)
removed youtube-dl.
But in the weeks since, and behind the scenes, Github's legal team have
been working with EFF to reinstate youtube-dl, and today, that's just
what they did:
https://github.blog/2020-11-16-standing-up-for-developers-youtube-dl-is-back/
In their letter to their users, Github points to a letter from EFF's
Mitch Stoltz that explained why the RIAA's legal threat was baseless,
saying that this was a key factor in reinstating youtube-dl
https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2020/11/2020-11-16-RIAA-reversal-effletter.pdf
Github closes out with a series of promises for handling future DMCA
1201 claims: detailed legal and technical reviews before taking any
action; erring on the side of developers; giving devs a chance to
dispute claims; and allowing devs to download their code after takedowns.
They are also creating a $1m defense fund for "developers who want to
push back against unwarranted takedowns" and committing to lobbying for
reform of DMCA 1201.
This is basically the best possible outcome and it can't have been easy
for Github.
_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_
🏊🏽♀️ Someone Comes to Town Part 23
This week on my podcast: part 23 of my serial reading of my 2006 novel
"Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town," a book Gene Wolfe called
"a glorious book unlike any book you’ve ever read."
https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/11/16/someone-comes-to-town-someone-leaves-town-part-23/
You can catch up on the other installments here:
https://craphound.com/podcast/?s=%22someone%20comes%22
and subscribe to my podcast feed here:
https://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast
Here's a direct link to the MP3 (hosting courtesy of the Internet
Archive; they'll host your stuff for free, forever, too!):
https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_368/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_368_-_Someone_Comes_to_Town_Someone_Leaves_Town_023.mp3
_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_
🏊🏽♀️ This day in history
#15yrsago Sony’s spyware “remover” creates huge security hole
https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2005/11/15/sonys-web-based-uninstaller-opens-big-security-hole-sony-recall-discs/
#15yrsago Sony issues non-apology for compromising your PC
https://web.archive.org/web/20051124053248/http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/
#15yrsago Sory Electronics: Will Sony make amends for infecting our
computers?
https://web.archive.org/web/20051125005137/http://www.soryelectronics.com/
#15yrsago Sony infects more than 500k networks, including military and
govt
https://web.archive.org/web/20060614050935/http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,69573,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2
#15yrsago Sony’s rootkit uninstaller is *really* dangerous
https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2005/11/14/dont-use-sonys-web-based-xcp-uninstaller/
#10yrsago New Calgary mayor sets bar for transparency with searchable
vids and realtime audio streams of council meetings
http://gordonmcdowell.com/20101108-yyc-city-council/
#10yrsago Copyfraud: Anne Frank Foundation claims father was
“co-author,” extends copyright by decades
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/14/books/anne-frank-has-a-co-as-diary-gains-co-author-in-legal-move.html
#1yrago Banned from Youtube, Chinese propagandists are using Pornhub to
publish anti-Hong Kong videos
https://qz.com/1747617/chinese-users-go-to-pornhub-to-spread-hong-kong-propaganda/
#1yrago Why are we still treating economics as if it were an empirical
science that makes reliable predictions?
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/12/05/against-economics/
#1yrago “Hope literacy,” “functional denial” and other ways to keep
going in this difficult time
https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry/despairing-about-climate-crisis
#1yrago Uber pretended its drivers were contractors, and now it owes New
Jersey $650m in employment tax
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/uber-hit-with-650-million-employment-tax-bill-in-new-jersey
#1yrago Thanks to an article about why science fiction great John M
Ford’s books are out of print, they’re coming back
https://slate.com/culture/2019/11/john-ford-science-fiction-fantasy-books.html
#1yrago Hong Kong protesters’ little stonehenges impede police cars
https://twitter.com/rhokilpatrick/status/1195350548062654465
#1yrago The poorest half of Americans have nothing left, so now the 1%’s
growth comes from the upper middle class
https://wolfstreet.com/2019/11/13/how-the-fed-boosts-the-1-even-the-upper-middle-class-loses-share-of-household-wealth-to-the-1-the-bottom-half-gets-screwed/
#1yrago American health care’s life-destroying “surprise bills” are the
fault of local, private-equity monopolies
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/gougers-r-us-how-private-equity-is-gobbling-up-medical-care/
#1yrago Big Tech’s CEOs can’t possibly fix Big Tech
https://medium.com/bloomberg-opinion/mark-zuckerberg-is-totally-out-of-his-depth-887682ba70b9
#1yrago Trump’s signature tax break for poor people went to subsidize a
superyacht marina in Florida
https://www.propublica.org/article/superyacht-marina-west-palm-beach-opportunity-zone-trump-tax-break-to-help-the-poor-went-to-a-rich-gop-donor
#1yrago Activists target Facebookers over “Gold Tier” sponsorship of
Kavanaugh event
https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/14/20963865/facebook-ads-brett-kavanaugh-federalist-society-employees
#1yrago Hong Kong protests: “Might as well go down fighting”
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/11/escalating-violence-hong-kong-protests/601804/
_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_
🏊🏽♀️ Colophon
Today's top sources:
Currently writing: My next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel
about truth and reconciliation. Friday's progress: 515 words (84217 total).
Currently reading: The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson
Latest podcast: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (part 23)
https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/11/16/someone-comes-to-town-someone-leaves-town-part-23/
Upcoming appearances:
* Shaping the Digital Future Summit/Kaspersky, Nov 17,
https://transparency.kaspersky.com/home
* Misinformation and Disinformation in Science Fiction and Fantasy/LITA,
Nov 17, details TBD
* Keynote, Data Natives, Nov 18, https://datanatives.io/tickets/
* Keynote, Cologne Futures, Nov 27, details TBD
* Keynote, Cybersummit 2020, Nov 26 https://www.cybera.ca/cyber-summit-2020/
* Beaverbrook Lecture: How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism, Nov 30,
https://www.mcgill.ca/maxbellschool/channels/event/2020-beaverbrook-annual-lecture-part-ii-cory-doctorow-325538
* Teach-In Against Surveillance, Dec 1,
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/teach-in-against-surveillance-tickets-128926228821
* Keynote, NISO Plus, Feb 22-25,
https://niso.plus/cory-doctorow-to-keynote-at-niso-plus-2021/
Recent appearances:
* Fully Charged: The future of energy over the next 300 years
https://fullycharged.show/podcasts/podcast-84-the-future-of-energy-over-the-next-300-years-cory-doctorow/
* Allen School Distinguished Lecture "Early Onset Oppenheimers"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep78A-jtcrE
* Author Stories Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxSPZn8EGTE
Latest book:
* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone
technothriller for adults. The *Washington Post* called it "a political
cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution
and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies
* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet
analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a
solution.
https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59
* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new
introduction by Edward Snowden:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies
here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html
* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime,
gender, and kicking ass. Order here:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed
copy here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1562/_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer.html.
This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially,
provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link
to pluralistic.net.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are
included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the
basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.
How to get Pluralistic:
Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):
Pluralistic.net
Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):
https://pluralistic.net/plura-list
Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):
https://mamot.fr/web/accounts/303320
Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and
advertising):
https://twitter.com/doctorow
Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising):
https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic
When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla -Joey "Accordion Guy"
DeVilla
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 195 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://mail.flarn.com/pipermail/plura-list/attachments/20201116/ed95935c/attachment.sig>
More information about the Plura-list
mailing list