Elsewhere for December 20, 2020

You should read this for 12/2o/2020:

Biden Begins

Biden Administration: Here’s Who Has Been Named So Far

In his latest selection, Biden tapped Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., to lead the Department of Transportation. Buttigieg has not previously served in federal office but gained national prominence during his presidential bid in the 2020 Democratic primaries. If confirmed, he will be the first openly LGBTQ person to serve in a permanent Cabinet role.

Books, Libraries, Writing, and Language

Samuel Delany: Why I Write

Food and Drink

Revealing Photo Series Documents School Lunches Around the World

History and Archaeology

Fit for a king: true glory of 1,000-year-old cross buried in Scottish field is revealed at last The cross in question was part of the Viking-age Galloway hoard found in 2014.

The Galloway Hoard was buried in the late 9th century in Dumfries and Galloway, where it was unearthed by a metal detectorist in 2014. The cross was among more than 100 gold, silver and other items, including a beautiful gold bird-shaped pin and a silver-gilt vessel. Incredibly, textile in which the objects had been wrapped was among organic matter that also survived.

Boudicca revolt: Essex dig reveals ‘evidence of Roman reprisals’

Dr Niamh Wycherley, Department of Early Irish, School of Celtic Studies, Maynooth Univeristy: Christmas in medieval Ireland

Science and Nature

H/T Yasmin: Tasmanian devils claw their way back from extinction

For decades a ghastly facial cancer has been decimating Tasmanian devils. Spreading from animal to animal when the stocky, raccoon-size marsupials bite each other, the transmissible cancer has killed up to 80% of the devils in Tasmania, their only home for millennia. Some researchers saw extinction as inevitable. Now, a new study in Science, suggests the remaining 15,000 devils have reached a détente with the cancer. Until recently it was spreading exponentially, like the pandemic coronavirus among humans in many parts of the world. But geneticists calculate that each infected devil now transmits tumor cells to just one—or fewer—other devils. That could mean the disease may disappear over time.

Technology

The EFF responds to Facebook’s attack on Apple regarding Apple’s decison to have users opt-in to having their data usedFacebook’s Laughable Campaign Against Apple Is Really Against Users and Small Businesses

Facebook’s campaign is targeting a new AppTrackingTransparency feature on iPhones that will require apps to request permission from users before tracking them across other apps and websites or sharing their information with and from third parties. Requiring trackers to request your consent before stalking you across the Internet should be an obvious baseline, and we applaud Apple for this change. But Facebook, having built a massive empire around the concept of tracking everything you do by letting applications sell and share your data across a shady set of third-party companies, would like users and policymakers to believe otherwise.
Make no mistake: this latest campaign from Facebook is one more direct attack against our privacy and, despite its slick packaging, it’s also an attack against other businesses, both large and small.

SetApp: A Suite of macOS Apps for a Single Price Affiliate link for a great collection of 75+ apps for a single price.

💩🔥💰 Trumpery 💩🔥💰

The inside story of how Trump’s denial, mismanagement and magical thinking led to the pandemic’s dark winter

Pay It Forward and Make It Better