[Plura-list] The Americans; D2020; Shanghai's walking building

[Cory Doctorow]

Today's links

* The Americans: Love letters from voluntary exiles.

* D2020: Roll for initiative.

* Shanghai's walking building: Five stories' worth of ambulatory primary
school.

* This day in history: 2005, 2015

* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing
projects, current reading

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🍠 The Americans

The West End Phoenix is home-delivered Toronto print newspaper published
by Canadian music legend Dave Bidini (cofounder of The Rheostatics). The
current issue is called "The Americans" and it tells the story of
Americans who emigrated to Canada.

https://www.westendphoenix.com/the-americans

It's a series of beautifully told stories about people whose love of the
land of their birth was overshadowed by the terror and precarity of US
racial and economic and gender warfare against its own people.

They're love letters to the people these ex-Americans left behind, the
family and friends they fear for, amid guns and conspiracies, health
care gouging and unlimited economic cruelty. Their testimonials describe
how much easier it is to live the American dream in Canada.

"Having lived on both sides of the border, Canada simply offers a lot
more support for regular people and as a result a lot more opportunity."
-Tim Ellis, US military veteran

https://www.westendphoenix.com/americans/tim-ellis

"Nobody asks me why I don’t wish to live in America anymore." -Brad Wheeler

https://www.westendphoenix.com/americans/brad-wheeler

"If Trump gets four more years, I’ll be among those who will aid
American citizens crossing the border and making Canada home, just as
they did in the ’60s when the draft dodgers came." -Joanne Smale

https://www.westendphoenix.com/americans/joanne-smale

"I wonder, if Trump gets elected, how many more people will die, and
whether they will be the people I love." -Valerie Hunter

https://www.westendphoenix.com/americans/valerie-hunter

"I miss the U.S. itself: a nation that put a man on the moon not two
months after I was born now rejects science. I am ashamed for myself,
and afraid for us all." -Andrew Sullivan

https://www.westendphoenix.com/americans/andrew-sullivan

"People expected Trump to be maybe a rodeo clown or game show host, not
a despot. A matinee grifter. Trump sucks the good life out of us." -Bill
King, Vietnam draft-dodger

https://www.westendphoenix.com/americans/bill-king

"In each family meeting, there’s a lot of talking over one another,
saying how much we love each other, then about how angry we are at the
president and the evil motherfuckers enabling the traitor." -Maureen Honore

https://www.westendphoenix.com/americans/maureen-honore

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🍠 D2020

The D2020 is 2020-themed 20-sided die from Storm Crow. It's up for
pre-order now, at (what else?) $20.20, for early December shipping (you
can get 20 for $320).

https://shop.stormcrow.com/apps/bundles/bundle/44893

Here are the 20 values of the D2020:

* Locust Swarm
* Online Education
* Zoom Happy Hour
* Meth Gators
* Market Crash
* Bleach Injection
* Lockdown Hair
* Donald Trump
* Quarantine
* Australian Bushfires
* Riots
* Hand Sanitizer
* Murder Hornets
* Autonomous Zone
* Recession
* World War 3
* Brexit
* X Æ A-12
* Tiger King
* Covid-19

I'd clean forgotten about the meth gators.

Boy howdy, it's been a year.

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🍠 Shanghai's walking building

Shanghai's Lagena Primary School is a 5-story, 76 kiloton 85-year-old
T-shaped structure that was rotated 21' and relocated 62m down the road
over 18 days by means of "walking machines."

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/shanghai-relocate-building-preservation-intl-hnk-scli/index.html

These are 198 sensor-studded, actuating mobile supports that alternately
raised and lowered in two groups, allowing the building to slowly
shuffle around and manoeuvrer into its new position.

The legs were installed by workers who excavated around and beneath the
structure, relying on its existing support pillars to support it; when
the legs were in place, the pillars were sawn through.

The success of the walking machines is heralded as a reprieve for
China's older buildings, which have been razed in vast numbers to clear
the way for high-density urban expansions, ending the post-Mao vogue for
architectural preservation.

The novel I'm working on now, "The Lost Cause," is a post-GND utopian
story about truth and reconciliation with white nationalist militias who
lost the war on the planet and its life.

https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Adoctorow%20%23dailywords%20%22lost%20cause%22&src;=typed_query&f;=live

It turns on all kinds of urbanist stuff like this, as people roll up
their sleeves and embark on hugely ambitious climate remediation and
adaptation projects, like relocating every coastal city ~20km inland.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-decameron-36398964

This kind of stuff absolutely skewers me: whole buildings on the move.
It gives me hope that our historic structures may survive as more than
future marine habitats.

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🍠 This day in history

#15yrsago Hollywood after the Anal. Hole again
https://web.archive.org/web/20051107214754/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004106.php

#5yrsago Inkjet Samhain: awesome, printable Hallowe’en masks
https://web.archive.org/web/20121028035931/https://www.superpunch.net/2011/10/dozens-of-downloadable-masks.html

#5yrsago Hallowe’en with NYC’s super-rich
https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2015/10/29/fashion/halloween-in-manhattans-most-expensive-zip-codes/s/29UESHALLOWEEN-slide-LRGS.html

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🍠 Colophon

Today's top sources: JWZ (https://www.jwz.org/blog/), Naked Capitalism
(https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/).

Currently writing: My next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel
about truth and reconciliation. Friday's progress: 525 words (79380 total).

Currently reading: Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

Latest podcast: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (part 20)
https://craphound.com/news/2020/10/25/someone-comes-to-town-someone-leaves-town-part-20/

Upcoming appearances:

* How to Fix the Internet/Reboot 2020, Nov 9,
https://www.rebootconference.org/day-two

* Cyberterrorists, Post-Apocalyptic Landscapes, and
Were-Pomeranians/Texas Book Festival, Nov 12,
https://www.texasbookfestival.org/events/cyberterrorists-post-apocalyptic-landscapes-and-were-pomeranians-new-in-speculative-fiction/

* Let's Talk About Influence/Designthinkers, Nov 16,
https://www.designthinkers.com/week-2/strategy-lets-talk-about-influence

* Shaping the Digital Future Summit/Kaspersky, Nov 17, details TBD

* 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 20, 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

* Keynote, NISO Plus, Feb 22-25,
https://niso.plus/cory-doctorow-to-keynote-at-niso-plus-2021/

Recent appearances:

* Author Stories Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxSPZn8EGTE

* The Gould Standard:
https://www.glenngould.ca/thegouldstandard/#cory-doctorow

* Attack Surface: A Reckoning
https://draxfiles.com/2020/10/26/show-278-attack-surface-a-reckoning/

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.

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When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla -Joey "Accordion Guy"
DeVilla

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