Time and again, I find myself thinking about radium suppositories: specifically, I get to thinking about the day that the consensus shifted from "radium suppositories are great" to "stop putting radioisotopes up your ass."
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Time and again, I find myself thinking about radium suppositories: specifically, I get to thinking about the day that the consensus shifted from "radium suppositories are great" to "stop putting radioisotopes up your ass."
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPTreplied to Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT last edited by
The thing is, people *really* liked radium-based quack remedies. They drank radium-infused water, smeared radium cream on their faces and bodies, and yes, rammed radium suppositories up their assholes:
Radium Girls | Maximum Fun
The Radium Girls, factory workers who used radium-laced paints, were among the first to indicate that it may not be as safe as we imagined. Charlie McElroy is here to tell us about their fight for workplace safety.
Maximum Fun (maximumfun.org)
The fact that this made whatever ailed you sicker didn't deter the radium true believers: if you're getting sicker, then you must need *more* radium.
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPTreplied to Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT last edited by
When I think about the debate over radium, I imagine that the people who understood that radium was really bad for you must have run up against critics who told them they were being unreasonable. "You can't tell people to *stop* using radium. Tell them to use suppositories with *less* radium. Tell them to use them less frequently. But you can't just tell people, 'stop putting radium up your asshole.' They won't take you seriously."
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPTreplied to Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT last edited by
About 20 years ago, I started pitching various institutions that reviewed consumer tech policy on the idea that they should reject any product that had DRM. After all, DRM didn't just restrict how you used a gadget *today*, it provided a facility for nonconsensually, irreversibly field-updating that gadget to add *new* restrictions tomorrow.
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPTreplied to Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT last edited by
How could a reviewer in good conscience say, "Go ahead and buy this device if you need this feature," if they knew that at any time in the future, the gadget's maker could take that feature away and leave the buyer with no recourse?
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPTreplied to Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT last edited by
Here's the warning I (half-seriously) suggested magazines run alongside such products:
> WARNING: THIS DEVICE’S FEATURES ARE SUBJECT TO REVOCATION WITHOUT NOTICE, ACCORDING TO TERMS SET OUT IN SECRET NEGOTIATIONS. YOUR INVESTMENT IS CONTINGENT ON THE GOODWILL OF THE WORLD’S MOST PARANOID, TECHNOPHOBIC ENTERTAINMENT EXECS.
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPTreplied to Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT last edited by
> THIS DEVICE AND DEVICES LIKE IT ARE TYPICALLY USED TO CHARGE YOU FOR THINGS YOU USED TO GET FOR FREE — BE SURE TO FACTOR IN THE PRICE OF BUYING ALL YOUR MEDIA OVER AND OVER AGAIN. AT NO TIME IN HISTORY HAS ANY ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY GOTTEN A SWEET DEAL LIKE THIS FROM THE ELECTRONICS PEOPLE, BUT THIS TIME THEY’RE GETTING A TOTAL WALK. HERE, PUT THIS IN YOUR MOUTH, IT’LL MUFFLE YOUR WHIMPERS.
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPTreplied to Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT last edited by
No one took me up on my offer. Over and over again, magazine editors, managers of nonprofit review outlets, and indie gadget reviewers told me that it was unrealistic to publish a roundup of, say, this year's portable music players with the recommendation, "Just don't buy any of these. None of them are fit for purpose."
In other words: No one wanted to publish, "The correct amount of radium to stuff up your asshole is *zero*."
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Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPTreplied to Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT last edited by
But the correct amount of rectal radium for you to administer is "none" and the correct car for you to buy today is *none of the cars*:
This isn't the first time the correct automotive recommendation was "don't buy any of these cars." Back before seatbelts came standard in cars, the correct car was "don't buy a car." Sometimes, the correct answer is "none of the above."
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