Link round-up for 14 July 2019

Various interesting stuff I ran across on the net over the last week.

o o o o o

Kaboom!

Soft landing?

Have some cartoons while living in the modern world.

Whoever designed this packaging knew exactly what he was doing.

Time for some religious humor.

Captain Kirk sometimes got a little over-the-top.

Who the hell thinks up the names of fish?

To drink from the bottle, unscrew the cap first.

If I tried to do this, I'd give myself a concussion in about three seconds.

Here are some kites to scare the shit out of people.

One rarely sees such an enthusiastic product review (NSFW).

This is built-in recycling.

It's time to get tough on crime.

Make sure you understand what people mean by "respect".

Follow the Bible, sometimes.

Do you believe this is art?

Get ready for Saint Fulton.

Stephen Jennings had some interesting things in his car.

Interesting discussion here on The Andromeda Strain, one of the great real science-fiction movies.

If you interact with bloggers on the net, would you be interested in meeting them in person?

I'm not sure how authentic I'd want this experience to be.

A 2-terabyte flash drive for $8?  Well, no.

The crackpots behind that fake Noah's ark in Kentucky are now running a school.

What you choose to read is your own damn responsibility.

$300,000 hardly seems like enough for this kind of harassment.

The "prepper" nutjobs probably wouldn't do very well in a real apocalypse.

Getting rid of a computer hard drive can be difficult.

When racists are so dumb they carry smartphones, they're not much of a threat.

Quacks and mystics chant "quantum mechanics" like an incantation to legitimize their bullshit.

This is Trump's maturity level.

Here's a way Megan Rapinoe might go to the White House.

Priorities, priorities.

Floods in Texas are caused by.....everything that somebody doesn't like, apparently.

Over the last decade the non-religious percentage of Americans has grown dramatically in almost every state; confidence in religion is at an all-time low.

Darwinfish 2 debunks some more wingnut propaganda.

A recent "study" claiming that "gay conversion therapy" works has been unmasked as a fraud.

Vaping is safer than smoking, but it's still not safe.

"We're losing an entire generation.  They're just gone.  It's one of the worst things to happen to the Church."

It's not immigrants who take jobs away from Americans.

This fairy tale is badly written.

Don't believe everything you read.

I just knew some asshole was going to do this in response to the Epstein arrest.

Americans' support for abortion rights is at the highest level in a quarter-century.

Bruce Gerencser, who has been tracking clergy crime for years, has some observations on the subject.

Non-religious Americans are the most accepting of refugees.

This fanatically anti-abortion pastor had a dark secret.

A shortage of adulation gives Trump withdrawal symptoms.

Someone's been scrubbing incriminating posts from that "10-15" Facebook account now that it's been exposed, but The Intercept has preserved the evidence.

The spirit of the time of Trump is captured in one image.

Obsolete fundies yammer impotently as the culture moves on without them.

Google Maps is being honest (the link in the post is real -- go ahead and click it).

Religious control freaks, like racists, hate intermarriage.

There's a new contender for most corrupt state in the US.

Sometimes Nazi comparisons are unavoidable.  No one can tell me this kind of thing is acceptable.

Epstein is a monster, but he has some "oddly useful" friends.  Here's what's inside his creepy house.  Be prepared for a cover-up using Machiavellian tactics.

Save the world by breeding cows that burp less (found via this post at Nan's Notebook, which has some good discussion in the comments).

University of Washington scientists have built the first human brain-to-brain interface with more than two people (found via Mendip).  They demonstrated a two-person interface in 2013.

Desalination is booming, now supplying water for more than 300 million people.  Yes, it has some negative environmental effects, but so does everything humans do on a large scale -- technology will likely resolve those problems in the future.

We're looking for city lights, very far away (found via Mendip).

The Voyager probes are still sending back data after 42 years in space.

Quebec has passed Bill 21, a law prohibiting bureaucrats in positions of power from wearing religious symbols.  All the usual religious cults and freaks bitched up a storm, as did the Canadian federal government; kudos to Quebec for sticking to its guns.

A sunken submarine is leaking radiation into the Norwegian Sea.

It's not safe to use Office 365 or Windows 10 even if the servers are in your own country.

Greece's church-supported fascist party got crushed in the latest election there.

She was arrested for singing in public.

The Saudi regime uses cell phone data to track down women who flee the country.

India does a much better job than the US of ensuring that every eligible voter can vote.

Bangladesh is seeing a rise in sex crimes.

Chinese manufacturing is suffering from the trade wars.

The Democratic nomination race is pretty much down to five people.

Warren's campaign is genuinely different.

In the Senate races, we have a secret weapon -- terrible Republican candidates.

The House is trying to rein in Trump's skullduggery in the Middle East.

The "Justice Democrats" are getting in hot water with the Congressional Black Caucus. And they shouldn't be conducting their squabbles on social media.

Never assume the election is in the bag.

Trump's cave on the census citizenship question is not playing well out in wingnutland.

The only way impeachment could succeed:  keep digging and hope something comes out that sways public opinion enough to get us those 20 Senate Republican votes for removal.  It's gonna be a tall order.

Shower Cap looks at Epstein and Gorka and the rest of the madness.

[906 days down, 556 to go until the inauguration of a real President.]