Link round-up for 2 May 2021

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

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Stone-age cartoons here.

Worst vehicle paint jobs ever.

Absolutely, she wants him to improve his diet.

Learn about early precursors to World Book Day.

Latest wingnut fad:  bizarre flag symbolism.

One day later, he did not get the message.

We needed an old guy for president.

"If you get this devil-made vaccine, you will....."

This plant exists.

Rawknrobyn visits Ashland OR.

Here's a report from the era of the black death.

See some signs of the times.

When the boss yells at you.....

Make a Lego construct float in the air (found via TYWKIWDBI).

Roadrunners are more than just a source of frustration for Wile E Coyote.

The French language is a bit of a mess.

It's just a polite introduction.

The eel is the real deal, even at the Last Supper.

Revealed -- the battle cry of the samurai warrior.

Exercise takes effort.

Get off my lawn!

This is why they have those "do not stop on tracks" signs (found via TYWKIWDBI).

First they came for the hamburgers.....

Old ads reflect a bygone culture.

Hear Disney princesses sing in their own languages.

Indiana has a sand dune that eats people.

Cats are already so full of themselves, we might as well worship them.

Shrooms on your lawn?  That's a good thing, not a bad thing.

This person exists, according to Margaret.

Death comes for a shipwrecked sailor, but he's not ready to go (fun video).

Octoberfarm observes Walpurgisnacht.

We don't need cannibalism and vampirism.

Lose yourself in labyrinths.

Annie Asks You posts an eloquent poetic tribute to her garden and its flying denizens.  Found via that post -- why male birds are usually more colorful than females.

By Hook or by Book observes National Poetry Month with a short piece from Sue Vincent.

Sometimes even Death messes up his job.

Good advice.

How much should we respect religious beliefs?  This much.

Cryptocurrencies are stupid and waste huge amounts of electricity.

See the bony-eared assfish.  Then try to unsee it.

Why don't kids go outside any more?

This guy converted an abandoned church into a magnificent house.....

.....but this church is too goofy-looking to be salvageable.

Vagabond Scholar looks at the Oscars.

You have manufacturing defects.  So much for intelligent design.

Cas d'Intérêt has a round-up of miscellany including wine fraud, the 1871 communards, and a shortage of farmers.

Shower Cap looks at masks, lies, and meat-based beer.

Boo hoo, bosses can't find find workers to take their shitty treatment and low pay (must-read).

Elon Musk's Las Vegas car tunnel is stupid and his Tesla cars burn up spontaneously and good luck getting out when it happens.  But this is totally the guy we want to put in charge of space travel.

Loggers got a surprise when they cut this tree open (note: gruesome image).

Just-deceased astronaut Michael Collins made the case that STEM should be STEAM.

Learn what consuming dairy products does to your body -- and what giving them up can do.

Nobody will have the guts to put this sign in front of their house.

Redistricting won't have much impact on Congress.

Capitalism was trending toward monopoly even before Amazon.

Historic words.

Science and literacy are not just for white people.

Tick tock, asshole.

Growing up in a home with plenty of books has a great effect on mental development.

"When it comes to broadband, America is the original shithole country....."

We need to lose all the gods.

Green Eagle plumbs the depths of wingnutosphere lunacy.

Orwellian re-definition of language applies to some but not to others.

This family is a fine example of Trump-inspired entrepreneurship.

Here's where we stand in the progress of covid-19 vaccination.

Arkansas legislators reject -- barely -- a proposal to teach mythology as science.

An error of facial-recognition technology led to an innocent man being arrested and facing a year-long legal struggle.

Interesting personal-experience post here about sex and asexuality.

Black people are underrepresented in the film industry, more behind the camera than in front of it.

Nan's Notebook has disturbing video of yet another mass shooting.

Biden is getting stuff done.  It's what the public wants.

Two impostures, two reactions.

Ophelia Benson doesn't care about Islamic taboos, and neither should you.  Same principle with Christianity.

Electoral-Vote has a round-up of reactions to Biden's speech.

The Spartan Atheist looks at the problem of Paul.

The Rude Pundit blog responds to Tucker Carlson.

Meet the new homophobia, same as the old homophobia (long-ish article, but it's well worth reading the whole thing).

Here's what happens when covid-19 denialists get the disease (found via Miss Cellania).

"Just because it is your tribe does not make it OK."

Connecticut has eliminated a dangerous religious exemption from vaccination rules.

Men competing in women's sports (and displacing women) is already happening, not just a hypothetical problem.

A DC police officer expresses his frustration with wingnut lies about the January 6 lynch-mob attack on the Capitol.

The Chauvin conviction is welcome, but we shouldn't expect more such verdicts to come easily.

View the 1954 Castle Bravo test, the largest US atmospheric H-bomb test ever (use fullscreen).

When a coup attempt goes unpunished.....

I hope they're not doing it with the person they just killed.

Other countries welcome the US back into the fight against global warming.

The UK is sending a huge naval armada to east Asia to support fellow democracies against China.

Putin's gangster-regime escalates its crackdown on dissent.

Algeria evidently does not have freedom of expression.  More here.

India's covid-19 disaster stems from the arrogance and incompetence of its religio-nationalist ruling party, which encouraged huge political rallies and religious gatherings while the pandemic raged (sounds familiar).  Authoritarianism kills, whatever the country.  Crematoria are running out of wood and people are getting mad at the government, which is trying to suppress criticism by censoring social media.

Learn how elephants are treated in India, and how we can help.

Kenya uses technology to fight locusts.

See video of the Ingenuity helicopter's fourth flight on Mars, including some footage from the copter itself.

More links here.

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In case you missed it -- this week I posted a book review on biogeography, a poetic tribute to a beautiful spirit, and a video for Walpurgisnacht.