25 April 2021

Link round-up for XXV April MMXXI

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

o o o o o

Sometimes evolution is kind of a letdown.

Actually, do lead me into temptation.

This is an American-style mousetrap.

A little bag of air -- I know the feeling.

NASA has been rather naughty.

How do you prepare the chicken? (found via Yellowdog Granny).

Play a tune on the train.

Kneel at the cross.

Like.....

Break free!

Know your monsterfuckers.

I'd do the same.

Lots more tree photos here.

Are Roman numerals obsolete?

Don't leave your poem unwritten.

Books are wonderful.

On the Border blog has a poetic tribute to an accident with far-reaching consequences.

Sometimes alone is best.

Certain species need to go extinct.

".....like a parody of you....."

What crappy behavior (found via Hackwhackers).

Those gender reveal parties are just getting worse.

The stupidity is just getting worse.

A bumbling vandal self-pwns in Arizona.

Who the hell came up with National Rape Day?  Of course it's not real, but it's causing problems.

Wingnuts spin a ludicrous tale of Hillary Clinton on trial.

Bruce Gerencser hears from a passive-aggressive Christian.

No, the ancient Greeks were not color-blind.

Nan's Notebook hosts a debate (in the comments) about colonizing Mars.  I think I won.

For heart disease, treat the underlying causes.

An accountant analyzes AO3's finances.

For some right-wing reactions to the Chauvin verdict, see the comments here.

Somebody is getting ripped off.

Don't these people realize this is horrifying?

Some good tips here on computer and phone scams -- with video from a computer expert who turned the tables and spied on the scammers.

A tragic loss offers a reminder -- listen to what your body is telling you.

Get vaccinated, get free stuff.

California employees don't want to be dragged back to offices after the pandemic ends.

Young white liberals aren't the only ones leaving religion.  For example, many black people are.

The new woke identity politics is a politics of privilege.

Sometimes the brain gets things wrong.

Health-care workers are burned out, overloaded, and ready to quit.

This is a totalitarian mind-set better suited to North Korea than a free society.

The divide between business and the Republican party has been developing for years.

Delusional beliefs are not harmless.

A Tennessee pastor calls on Christians to wage holy war and seize control of the country by force.

After a year of window-smashing, arson, assault, looting, and general terrorization by mob violence, Portland's mayor starts to sound serious about the problem.  The fact that local black leaders are speaking out against the mobs probably stiffened his spine.

You're not obligated to compromise your sexual boundaries to avoid hurting people's feelings.

Religion will never have the moral high ground.

Even a lot of right-wing voters support getting "dark money" out of politics.

This is what dishonest polling looks like.

Evangelicals use God and Satan to avoid responsibility for their actions.

Republican politicians are still scamming their own donors (not the big ones).

QAnon qrackpottery is being encouraged by foreign dictatorships to undermine the US.

This is what happens when people listen to idiots instead of scientists.

Trump voters are sick.

There are many kinds of bad arguments.

Wingnuts have a persecution complex.

If you don't tell the truth, people will turn to those who do.

Australia stands up to China, the regime flies into the usual snit.

The Greens are now Germany's most popular political party.

Putin's mafia state intensifies repression of protests.  He's still bullying Ukraine, too.

40% of Iranians are now atheists, agnostics, humanists, or "nones".  Only 32% self-identify as Shiite Muslim, the official religion of the regime.

In India, cremation centers are becoming overloaded as the new covid-19 surge takes hold.  Looks like they went back to mass public gatherings too soon.

How many T-rexes existed?  More than you'd think, but not many at once.

Democracy produces better decisions than authoritarianism, and may even have deeper roots in nature than we think.

Learn why cheese is fattening and addictive.

More links at Fair and Unbalanced.

o o o o o

In case you missed it -- this week I posted the Mars helicopter's first flight and a reason for blogging.

11 Comments:

Blogger Paul said...

No.
NO.
There is NOTHING wrong with CHEESE.
I can QUIT at ANY time!

25 April, 2021 04:55  
Blogger Hot guys said...

Some interesting and educational reads in here, alright! 👍🏻😉

25 April, 2021 08:07  
Blogger Debra She Who Seeks said...

(1) I'm surprised that American mousetrap never caught on. (2) Rossini is turning over in his grave right now because of that train/bottle orchestra. (3) Love the "Break Free" video, especially the ending, LOL! (4) If kids today can't even read cursive handwriting anymore, what chance do Roman numerals have? None. None whatsoever. (5) I enjoyed all those book memes!

25 April, 2021 08:07  
Blogger CAS said...

For "How do you prepare the chicken?" I thought it was going to say "We simply tell them they'll go straight to heaven and they passively lay their heads on the chopping blocks."

26 April, 2021 08:11  
Blogger CAS said...

I'm very happy to see the poll from Iran. It seems like they diligently did what they could to avoid bias in the survey. In some ways, the outcome doesn't surprise me because Iran has always seemed liked it has a sizable population of progressive intellectuals, even after many fled when the Ayatollah came to power.

26 April, 2021 08:29  
Blogger Ranch Chimp said...

(Pt.1) Just browsing through some of these, and dropping a few comments ....

I had no idea what a "gender reveal party" was, for some reason, I assumed that it was some kind of coming out party for gay folks (Hell, I didn't even know that my city council member for my district, that I voted for yesterday as well as his first run, was gay, but he's openly gay, and so are 3 city council members in Dallas, I just found out yesterday). When I looked up "gender reveal party", it said it was basically nothing but a "baby shower" according to the definition I read. So blowing up shit and starting big fires to announce another baby's gender these days, eh? I wonder why they changed the name? ... maybe political correctness, cancel culture or something, I don't see the word "baby" as offensive, though. One of my daughters just attended a baby shower of her fried a week ago, she called it a baby shower, but they had all kinds of COVID restrictions, and no explosives.

Californians (or anyone) that want to work from home? ... well, should be allowed to work from home, if it works. It shouldn't matter where the work is done from, as long as it's successful (it certainly isn't for American corporations who outsource our goddamn cuntomer services to places like a foreign country, that we have to try to understand and deal with as customers in our country ... and the customer reps are names like Sally and George). I have a daughter, and her husband, that cannot work from home, they are both RNs (nurses), and been out even in the strongest of the pandemic working, they haven't a choice, unless they change careers, another daughter that works as an instructor in a college, which has been closed on and off, and she can do some from home, but she also works a local television studio, where she goes in person. Another daughter and her husband are able to work from home, and have both told me, they are anxious to go to their offices, they popped in on occasion to pick up something only. Many can work from home, many cannot. My daughter got so anxious to get out and work (most of her meeting are on video, whatever they call that, with clients), last week she flew to L.A. for the day, just to have lunch with a client.

Damn! ... I didn't even know folks were giving out free shit to get vaccinated!! I got my CDC card (I got mine back in January), but guess it's too late to get free shit ... but wouldn't take the time to drive to get a donut either. But that's cool, at least to try to get folks vaccinated, I reckon. I think there are going to be alot of folks that are going to refuse to be vaccinated, some news polls said over 25%, at least say they won't. IMO, this, as well as spring break parties, nightclub parties, etc, etc ... are partly responsible for the new variants of the virus, some are even stronger. I read somewhere, that the Spanish Flu (1918-1920), had offshoots of that, that went on up to like 1950, whether that is fact ot not, don't really know. But this is just an up and down thing, and I expect it to be around for some time. I still wear masks and even practice social distancing (within reason). And I have been outdoors daily, shopping, ate at a nice restaurant with family for my birthday (they had COVID guidelines), etc, and even visiting folks, during this whole thing, just cautious, so I haven't been locked down at all. I mean, me and a neighbour were having a couple mixed drinks one day on my patio, but we had enough distance between us, and we both been vaccinated, and I'm the one who convinced him to get vaccinated, at first he was worried about it. Now we have these folks scared because the J&J vaccine showed some blood clots in a small portion of folks (I believe it may have been females), so people are going to put up their guard again. I hear we may need boosters, if so, I will try to get Pfizer again, since I had no reaction to it.

26 April, 2021 10:20  
Blogger Ranch Chimp said...

(Pt.2) The thing about AOC and money for campaigning or whatever ... weird, because I meant to look up what that was about, only because a gal I know the other day started telling me about AOC is being investigated, because she knows that I like AOC. So I haven't got around to looking it up yet. But as I told this gal the other day ... as far as any politicians who are looking shady in financial matters, campaign or other wise, it is the "lawmakers" (aka politicians) who passed the laws to allow whatever they're spending, accepting and doing, eh? ... make sense? As I told her, example ... you go to right media like FOX, they will tell you all day of the corruption within Democrat party, you go to left media, they will tell you all day long of the corruption within the Republican party, or whatever the ill story is. Politics (through the help of corporatism and campaign financing of those with big bucks, Citizens United, etc) has became a sort of gameshow mixed with WWE wrestling (phony wrestling for show), and is basically entertainment, and designed to keep us at each others throats, over a bunch of rich folks, instead of our true issues. After a decade of following this (or more), my views of politics have changed drastically. Bottom line, especially after folks like Trump, many folks are beginning to identify as independents, such as myself, and tht will grow ... in time (even though I vote democrat, only because the alterative is worse). I never seen politics like this in my entire life, as today. And it's become more like a cult/ religion, people wearing red or blue, like L.A. gangs of the 80s and 90s ... I don't have time for that shit, and most are older folks directing it, with old ideas. I won't even put a bumper sticker on my damn car these days, just because I don't want to be identified as belonging to one of these cults, yes, I'm ashamed. Even now kissing religions asses till the cows come home, cancel culture, lack of common sense, etc, etc. Even in the 1970s. I never seen so much religious pandering out of politicians, as I do today ... and the polarization. I don't see this changing, unless we change Washington, financial affairs, campaign funding, etc. And how many in Washington want to pass legislation to change things, it's been such a lucrative business (politics) to get into ... as I said years ago, with all the incentives, tax breaks, amenities, stock trading hints, etc, etc ... that politicians are able to get these days ... if you were a politician, would you want change? ... make sense?

The Zack Hunt post, with red coloured water fountain with 3 crosses (representing those 2 other dudes that died with Jesus), as being horrifying ... I don't get it, I don't see nothing horrifying about it ... I mean, did this dude ever see a slasher flick, or look at the number of dismembered bodies from bomb attacks that our own country have done, the plastic waste in our coastal waters, etc, etc. It's typical Christian stuff to me, I mean ... duuuhh ...read the bible (I have). I mean, it's full of bloodshed, science fiction, horror in some parts, occultism, family tree stories, sacrificing humans and animals, discrimination, etc, etc. Look at the 1960s song "Sons of God", an old Christian folk favourite, the lyrics "eat his body, drink his blood, and we'll sing a song of love" (similar wording if I recall) ... this talks of vampirism and cannibalism being a song and festivity of "love". Of course, Christains explain that it don't mean that, and means something else, which I'm aware of, but don't have enough time to write it out. No, it's meaningless to me, and not horrifying at all, it's basically art of this particular cult, is all ... I've seen alot worse things in my life.

26 April, 2021 11:47  
Blogger Ranch Chimp said...

(PT.3)Living on Mars ... I only viewed, because you say you don't like to debate, but stated you had got into a debate here. Will folks ever live on Mars? ... beats the shit out of me ... but it's obvious this environment is not meant to support life as we live and know it. When I done my Mars piece, this is what I was pointing out, for those who that claim that the Martian surface is fake, by NASA or whatever to get gvmnt funding, etc and that it's really Arizona or whatever. I have been across very heavy desert regions, parts of California, Mexico, Arizona, Texas ... and wherever you go, there is some sign of life, even if it's just a tumbleweed, etc on Earth ... look at how empty the Martian surface is. No, I don't believe that it's a hoax, I actually believe it is Mars, until I see proof otherwise. Humans are adventurers, they migrate, planets are not exempt, people will try to move to them, whether they die of not, especially those with vision and much wealth. I figure they may try to transform a planet such as Mars, even though I figure that would be a task ... and whatever their plans are, are for "rich folks only". I only wish that some of these folks with all this money to blow, would spend as much money and time to try to inprove the condition on Earth that we created. Hadn't wrote this much in months probably ... I'm outta here ....

26 April, 2021 11:47  
Blogger Sixpence Notthewiser said...

Ohhh juicy!
It sometimes takes me two trips to check the links I liked... LOL
What! Roman numerals are the coolest!
The video is fantastic.
And the computer and phone scams tips are actually quite useful! Oh, you have no idea how many (very smart) people I know have clicked on those hyperlinks...

XOXO

26 April, 2021 15:47  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Paul: Then it might be a good idea.....

Hot: Glad to be of service.

Debra: Someone is probably working on a new version of that mousetrap right now, using an assault rifle. And if the kids can't read cursive or Roman numerals, maybe adults can use them as a secret code to communicate among ourselves.

Carol: Iran is very different from how Americans generally picture it because of its government. That theocracy is grotesquely at odds with the real culture of the country, which extends back long before Islam existed.

Ranch: It's projected that we're heading into a worker shortage of historic proportions, so it's going to be very hard for companies to force people back into offices when the best employees have their choice of jobs. The companies that continue work-from-home will have a huge advantage recruiting people.

I think there were a total of six blood-clot cases from that J&J vaccine, which has probably been used on hundreds of millions of people globally. Your odds are still far better with the vaccine than with the disease.

The blood-streaming cross is horrifying to most people because they're not used to seeing Christianity's gory imagery made so explicit. See the comments on that Twitter thread, or here.

I'm sure some people will want to move to Mars permanently even with all the problems. Good luck to them getting governments/taxpayers to agree to spend the trillions of dollars it would take to get them there.

Sixpence: It's great when somebody who is so expert in computers turns the tables on the scammers. He got the exact location of their office, video of their faces, everything. I hope a lot of scammers found out about this and got scared off.

27 April, 2021 11:13  
Blogger yellowdoggranny said...

I've been watching a lot of mars...

02 May, 2021 13:13  

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