The Last Woolworth Luncheonette in America Hides in Bakersfield - Eater LA:

The menu is simple at Woolworth Diner, mostly just burgers and a chili dog with sides like fries, baked beans, or macaroni and potato salad. There are milkshakes available, root beer floats too, but nothing even comes close to crossing the $10 mark. Signs hang both inside the dining area and beyond showcasing five-cent Coca-Colas or ten-cent sandwiches, an overt homage to the five-and-dime history of the place. The workers still don black and white outfits when flitting around behind the counter, and many in the dining crowd are old enough to remember Woolworth in all its glory. For everyone else, there is this place; one unassuming four-story antique mall in the heart of Bakersfield, where Frank Woolworth and his important luncheonette still live on.

There’s a place very much like this just near my house, and it’s one of my favorite places to get breakfast, if you can get a seat…

A low moment in Apple’s proud history, and a sadly iconic moment for Tim Cook. I hope avoiding those tariffs is worth it. — Read on daringfireball.net/2019/11/cook_trump_campaign_ad

each month. A form of vitamin E has been identified as a “very strong culprit” in lung injuries related to vaping THC, health officials reported on Friday, a major advance in a frightening outbreak that has killed 40 people and sickened 2,051. — Read on www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/health/vaping-illness-cdc.html

Taken together, they show how Zuckerberg, along with his board and management team, found ways to tap Facebook users' data — including information about friends, relationships and photos — as leverage over the companies it partnered with. In some cases, Facebook would reward partners by giving them preferential access to certain types of user data while denying the same access to rival companies. — Read on www.nbcnews.com/news/all/leaked-documents-show-facebook-leveraged-user-data-fight-rivals-help-n1076986

Back to windows after twenty years - Signal v. Noise — Read on m.signalvnoise.com/back-to-windows-after-twenty-years/

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What this experiment taught me, though, was just how much I actually like OSX. How much satisfaction I derive from its font rendering. How lovely my code looks in TextMate 2. How easy it is to live that *nix developer life, while still using a computer where everything (well, except that fucking keyboard!) mostly just works.

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My very favorite quote along these lines is from Brian Kernighan: “Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. So if you’re as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?” — Read on daringfireball.net/linked/2019/11/01/van-rossum-clever-code

I find that python, and Perl before it, are laden with “clever solution” issues which make it near impossible for someone else to pick up a codebase and run with it.

The cult classic was set in today’s world, but how many futuristic predictions did it get right? — Read on www.bbc.com/news/technology-50247479

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday ardently defended Facebook’s controversial political advertising policy a little more than an hour after Twitter took a shot at its rival while announcing it will ban all political ads — Read on thehill.com/policy/technology/468216-zuckerberg-doubles-down-on-facebook-political-ads-policy-after-twitter-ban

Name a significant event in horror history over the past half century, and odds are Tom Savini was there. From his childhood spent watching Saturday afternoon horror matinees, to his pioneering effects work with director George Romero, to his more recent transformation into an actor and director, Savini’s been involved in the genre in every capacity you can think of. Most recently, he’s been preparing a hybrid autobiography-coffee table book featuring his work simply called Savini: The Biography, as well as directing a segment for the season finale of Shudder’s Creepshow TV series. — Read on www.avclub.com/24-hours-of-horror-with-makeup-legend-tom-savini-1839450285

"While internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics," company CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted. — Read on www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50243306

This kind of "inauthentic coordinated behavior" violates Facebook's rules. Facebook has taken down smaller and less coordinated networks that promoted liberal content. But Facebook told Popular Information that it will continue to allow this network to operate and amplify The Daily Wire's content.  — Read on popular.info/p/facebook-allows-prominent-right-wing

Baker's willingness to admit the technical incoherence of crypto bans is great, a massive step forward, but American legal officials shouldn't even be debating whether or not it's possible to ban crypto. If Barr managed to produce a working "solution" to the problems that Baker raises, we still shouldn't use it, because Americans have the right to make choices that enhance their own security, privacy and integrity, even if that makes cops work harder. — Read on boingboing.net/2019/10/28/san-bernadino-conversion.html

When Salem, NJ’s Fred C. Arena applied for a job at Philadelphia’s Navy Yard, he underwent an FBI background check in which he falsely claimed that he was not a member of the Vanguard America, a white nationalist group that was part of the lethal far-right “Unite the Right” 2017 gathering in Charlottesville; whose members… — Read on boingboing.net/2019/10/27/brotherly-love.html

I remember when I read your column, one of the sentences that most surprised me was: "I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me." Yes, I strongly believe that. I think there's many meanings behind this. One is, it was his decision, not mine. Two, at least for me, I can only speak for myself, it gives me a level of empathy that I think is probably much higher than average because being gay or trans, you're a minority. And I think when you're a majority, even though intellectually you can understand what it means to be in a minority, it's an intellectual thing. It's not intellectual for me to be in a minority. I'm not saying that I understand the trials and tribulations of every minority group, because I don't. But I do understand for one of the groups. And to the degree that it helps give you a lens on how other people may feel, I think that's a gift in and of itself. — Read on peopleenespanol.com/chica/tim-cook-the-power-of-diversity/

REP. OCASIO-CORTEZ: Would I be able to run advertisements on Facebook targeting Republicans in primaries saying that they voted for the Green New Deal? I mean, if you’re not fact-checking political advertisements — I’m just trying to understand the bounds here. What’s fair game?

ZUCKERBERG: Congresswoman, I don’t know the answer to that off the top of my head. I think probably. — Read on pxlnv.com/linklog/zuck-testifies-again/

Like the United States under the Trump administration, Mordor under the rule of the Dark Lord Sauron, at the end of the Third Age of this world, was a vibrant and unquestioned world superpower suddenly facing threats from various sides. A revived Gondor under King Elessar Telcontar loomed on its western borders. To the north, the Elves of Lothlórien joined with the Woodland Realm and the extranational, quasi-religious White Council to conquer the Mordorian exclave of Dol Guldur in Mirkwood. While Mordor, much like the United States with Saudi Arabia, pursued alliances with the nearby Variags of Khand and the Corsairs of Umbar, most of its military and economic support came from more distant powers like Rhûn and Far Harad. — Read on foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/21/trump-administration-mordor-failed-hegemon-tolkien/

Every now and then, my brain clamps on to obscure trivia like this. It takes so much time. “Because the paper beds of banknote presses in 1860 were 14.5 inches by 16.5 inches, a movie industry cartel set a standard for theater projectors based on silent film, and two kilobytes is two kilobytes” is as far back as I have been able to push this, but let’s get started. — Read on exple.tive.org/blarg/2019/10/23/80x25/

Getting Tough on the Corporate Snoopers | Irreal — Read on irreal.org/blog/

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Imagine if Facebook were prohibited from collecting its users’ information without their permission and that Zuckerberg could go to jail for ignoring the ban.

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Steam Remote Play Together will let you play local multiplayer games online with pals who aren’t, y’know, local. You can try it in a beta today. — Read on www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/10/21/steam-remote-play-together-takes-local-multiplayer-games-online/

Metropolis Meets Afrofuturism: The Genius of Janelle Monáe | Tor.com — Read on www.tor.com/2019/10/18/metropolis-meets-afrofuturism-the-genius-of-janelle-monae/

“I thought science fiction was a great way of talking about the future,” Janelle Monáe told Bust Magazine in a 2013 interview. “It doesn’t make people feel like you’re talking about things that are happening right now, so they don’t feel like you’re talking down to them. It gives the listener a different perspective.”

A PHONE CONVERSATION BETWEEN DREAD LORD NYARLATHOTEP AND A MINOR SHOGGOTH REGARDING INVESTIGATING RIVAL GREAT OLD ONE, HASTUR — Read on www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-phone-conversation-between-dread-lord-nyarlathotep-and-a-minor-shoggoth-regarding-investigating-rival-great-old-one-hastur

www.jwz.org/blog/2019/10/resurrection-men-llc/

Max Headroom wasn’t exactly the roadmap I wanted for the future…

boingboing.net/2019/10/16/watch-how-magazines-were-prod.html

A message on a new Wastelanders release date, private servers, updates to the Atomic Shop and much more. — Read on fallout.bethesda.net/en/article/6eNqXDms6VbtrHubE26y4r/new-wastelanders-release-date-private-worlds-the-atomic-shop-and-more

This is the update I’ve been waiting for - private worlds.