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Tim Cook On Why He Met With President Elect Trump | TechCrunch

Read Tim Cook explains to Apple employees why he met with President-elect Trump by Matthew Panzarino (TechCrunch)

In a series of answers to questions posted on Apple’s internal employee info service Apple Web today, CEO Tim Cook commented to employees on some hot-button topics. We obtained some of the answers to interesting questions about a few topics, including the fate of the Mac — but more on that later.

First up is probably the most topical: Why did he feel it was important to meet with President-elect Trump? The short answer: You have to show up to have a say.

The movie that doesn’t exist and the Redditors who think it does | New Statesman

Read The movie that doesn’t exist and the Redditors who think it does by Amelia Tait (newstatesman.com)
Over the years, hundreds of people online have shared memories of a cheesy Nineties movie called “Shazaam”. There is no evidence that such a film was ever made. What does this tell us about the quirks of collective memory?

Underwater Hebrew Tablet Reveals Biblical-Era Ruler of Judea

Read Underwater Hebrew Tablet Reveals Biblical-Era Ruler of Judea by Tia Ghose (Live Science)
A huge slab discovered offshore in Israel has revealed the name of the ancient prefect who ruled Judea just before the Bar Kokhba revolt.

William F. Buckley Jr., conservative icon, dies | The Boston Globe

Read William F. Buckley Jr., conservative icon, dies (The Boston Globe)

William F. Buckley Jr., who as author, journalist, and polysyllabic television personality did more to popularize conservatism in post-New Deal America than anyone other than Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan, died yesterday at his home in Stamford, Conn. He was 82.

Why did William F. Buckley Jr. talk like that? | Slate

Read Why did William F. Buckley Jr. talk like that? (Slate Magazine)

He was an upper-class prep. English was not Buckley's first language: His nanny taught him Spanish, and he attended university in Mexico for some time. But there's little evidence of any Spanish influence in his Connecticut lockjaw sound. Instead, his aristocratic drawl, quasi-British pronunciations, and fondness for Latinate vocabulary seem to have originated at the schools he attended as a boy: St. John's Beaumont in England, when he was 13, followed by the Millbrook School in upstate New York. According to Buckley biographer Sam Tanenhaus, few of the writer's siblings shared his peculiar way of speaking. Tanenhaus also points out that Buckley picked up elements of a Southern drawl from his parents, both of whom were from the South.

EFF’s full-page Wired ad: Dear tech, delete your logs before it’s too late | Boing Boing

Read EFF's full-page Wired ad: Dear tech, delete your logs before it's too late by Cory Doctorow (Boing Boing)

EFF has run a full-page ad in this month's Wired, addressed to the technology industry, under the banner "Your threat model just changed," warning them that the incoming administration has vowed to spy on and deport millions of their fellow Americans on the basis of religion and race, and that they are in grave risk of having their services conscripted to help with this effort. (Trump is also an avowed opponent of net neutrality)

It’s time to unite in defense of users. [EFF]

This is what happens to the bodies of the women you know. | Medium

Read This is what happens to the bodies of the women you know. by Courtney Skott (Medium)

On Monday, December 5 at 6:30 a.m., I was kneeling on the floor in front of my toilet, hand plunged into the nearly opaque dark red water, fishing for the warm clumps that had sunk to the bottom. I had cleaned the toilet the night before in preparation, and the sterile specimen jar from the doctor’s office was waiting by the sink. I carefully sorted through the mess in my hand, looking for something to stand out. A small grayish oval with a black dot on the side emerged, no larger than my pinky nail. So that was the head, then. I put it in the jar and my hand back in the water, halfway up my forearm, to search for the body. Another grayish lump, nothing discernible, but then I wasn’t looking too closely because the dizziness was overtaking me.

This was my third miscarriage.

This is what a miscarriage looks like.

Trump’s Electoral College Victory Ranks 46th in 58 Elections | The New York Times

Read Trump’s Electoral College Victory Ranks 46th in 58 Elections by Jugal K. Patel and Wilson Andrews (nytimes.com)
Putting the president-elect’s win in context.

A Historic Number of Electors Defected, and Most Were Supposed to Vote for Clinton | The New York Times

Read A Historic Number of Electors Defected, and Most Were Supposed to Vote for Clinton by Kiersten Schmidt and Wilson Andrews (New York Times)
Results of the U.S. electoral vote.

Trump private security force ‘playing with fire’ | POLITICO

Read Trump private security force ‘playing with fire’ by Kenneth P. Vogel (POLITICO)
The president-elect continues to employ a battalion of retired cops and FBI agents to protect him and clamp down on protesters.

Vanity Fair reporter on Trump’s response: ‘I was kind of shocked’ | Columbia Journalism Review

Read Vanity Fair reporter on Trump's response: 'I was kind of shocked' by Pete Vernon (Columbia Journalism Review)
Choking down “flaccid, gray Szechuan dumplings” and dealing with bathrooms that “transport diners to the experience of desperately searching for toilet paper at a Venezuelan grocery store” were uncomfortable enough. But Vanity Fair reporter Tina Nguyen feared a...

Science and technology: what happened in 2016 | Daniel Lemire’s blog

Read Science and technology: what happened in 2016 by Daniel Lemire (Daniel Lemire's blog)

This year, you are able to buy CRISPR-based gene editing toolkits for $150 on the Internet as well as autonomous drones, and you can ask your Amazon Echo to play your favorite music or give you a traffic report. You can buy a fully functional Android tablet for $40 on Amazon. If you have made it to a Walmart near you lately, you know that kids are going to receive dirt cheap remote-controlled flying drones for Christmas this year. Amazon now delivers packages by drone with its Prime Air service. There are 2.6 billion smartphones in the world.

So what else happened in 2016?

Using WordPress RSS Feeds | Elegant Themes Blog

Read Using WordPress RSS Feeds by Kevin MuldoonKevin Muldoon (Elegant Themes)
RSS is a standard web feed format that was released in 1999. It was quickly adopted by all major publishing platforms. The word RSS stems from the phrase “Rich Site Summary”, though the term “Really Simple Syndication” has become more synonymous with the standard over the years. It...