Link round-up for 13 March 2022

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

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Nowadays, $5 worth of gas isn't much.

If ghosts existed, people would find a practical use for them.

Go for a drive at the airport.

How would the CDC respond to a zombie apocalypse?

Trim trees the easy way.

Fish can be funny.  Other critters too.  They help us get through hard times.

Be accepting of unconventional relationships.

He committed a dastardly deed.

You can get some really cool stuff at Trump's garage sale (found via Octoberfarm).

See the performance Mark Hamill most regrets.

Try dropping a pallet of wood on a car in different places in the solar system.

He's playing the saxophone and pipe.

Most bizarre building design ever.

This is an atheist vision of Hell.

If I'm ever forced to work in an office, I'm gonna dress like this.

One freedom fighter helps another in an interesting mix of Hindu and Biblical imagery.

"Non-binary".

Every crisis produces scammers trying to make a buck.

Sometimes, putting things in perspective is not helpful.

Lady M finds Halloween in March.

Vibration can do surprising things.

Watch Phil Tippett's nine-minute 1984 stop-motion dinosaur film Prehistoric Beast, a classic of its kind rarely shown in full.

This painting isn't what it seems at first viewing.

Good riddance.

Feel better via useless clichés.

One of the great classic horror films narrowly escaped total obliteration (found via Miss Cellania).

Diderot's Encyclopedia was a massive compendium of 18th-century knowledge -- and a bit subversive as well.

Retirement is often the beginning of a meaningful life.

This band is doing a fundraiser for Ukraine.  See some war-related "memes" here and here.

Take better care of your brain.

This is what leadership looks like.  Well, they do give her such great material to work with.

Stephen Colbert makes some points about the Ukraine war, his way.

".....the war persists in unfolding as though it were designed specifically to raise global awareness of Russian military ineptitude....."

Slavery among the Vikings was different, and more pervasive, than you probably think.

Most primitive fantasy worlds don't work economically.

Prosthetic limbs are becoming more sophisticated, promising great improvements in quality of life for amputees.

Some simple souls seem profoundly shocked at the idea that anyone might express views different from their own.

Tax policy is class war.

Stop calling women degrading names.

Even the process of applying for a job is maddening and stupid (this is not wrong, trust me).

Again, verified charities here to help Ukrainians.

Some tips here on political songwriting from someone who has been doing it for a while.

"All the nonsense about how the West is decadent, the West is over, the West is in decline, how it’s a multipolar world and the rise of China, et cetera: all of that turned out to be bunk."

If you have left a religion, Bruce Gerencser may be interested in a guest post from you.

What is autogynephilia?

Darwinfish 2 sees no end to the Ukraine war while Putin remains in power.

The twentieth century was "the prohibition era", and we are wise to leave its taboos behind.

Remember to appreciate basic technology.

Don't put babies and animals together except under close supervision.

It's just a harmless call for murder, nothing to get upset about.

There's a reason why religious leaders tend to encourage women to stay with abusive men.

When losing an argument, resort to name-calling (in case of a right-winger, substitute "Marxist" or similar).

Here's a good dissection of whataboutism about the Ukraine war (read the whole thing).

What church do you go to?

"Women be quieter and start apologizing challenge" -- sorry, dude, not happening.

The King James Bible is a fraud.

You can make almost anything "voluntary" if you make the alternatives horrible enough.

To the standard miseries of being an office drone, now add Orwellian propaganda.

There are cases where even people from wealthy backgrounds deserve financial aid.

Christian proselytizers often aren't honest about what they're pushing.

Use language that reaches people as they are, not as you wish they were.

Biden is making "fund the police" the Democratic party's path back to the sensible center.  It's a popular message, but more needs to be done.

Solidarity with workers includes those in industries you disapprove of.

Astonishing miracles were performed in a city of 80,000 people, and nobody noticed.

Stop saying Trump isn't being held accountable -- it's happening.

She opened her heart -- and learned some hard lessons.

Rick Scott's "rescue America" plan would raise your taxes.

Richard Dawkins takes on some of the usual religio-dumbth.

US universities are being destroyed.

The details of what a religion believes do matter.

GMG union has won its strike after just four days.

Administering testosterone has strange and disturbing effects on the female body.  More here.  There are better options.

By 79 to 19, the Senate has now passed legislation to reverse earlier Republican schemes to undermine the Postal Service.

Smart move here to deter lawyers from signing on to stolen-election bullshit in the future (found via Mock Paper Scissors).

Dragging work-from-home people back to offices guarantees misery and resentment.  Some employers seem to be deliberately antagonizing employees by rubbing it in.  And yes, Biden is on the wrong side of this issue -- all the more absurd given the gargantuan waste of gasoline it would involve, at a time of rising prices.

The trans insanity will end as soon as the broad mass of people finally realize what it actually means -- and when people like this grow up and start suing the hell out of people like this.

There aren't "different versions of the truth".  Religion is merely wrong and irrelevant.

The US health-insurance system is an expensive failure.

Surgery is inherently dangerous and shouldn't be performed unless really necessary.

Anybody who pulls a stunt like this is just asking to be arrested -- or shot.

This is not healthcare.  It's barbarism.

Rammstein, one of the most popular Western bands in Russia, joins the boycott of the country.

Sweden stopped transitioning minors almost a year ago.

With hospitals threatened or destroyed, Ukrainian babies are being born in basements and shelters.

The big attack on Kyiv will probably come within the next few days.  General Petraeus is still unimpressed with the Russians' tactics and capabilities.

In Kherson, Russian occupation troops are taking an oddly hands-off approach, at least for now.

This is the Mariupol children's hospital which Russian forces attacked, apparently in a targeted strike.

See Ukrainian troops fight to push the Russians out of a village near Kyiv.

Putin is trying to recruit mercenaries and Middle Eastern volunteers to beef up his invasion forces.

Some Russians are trying to circumvent the regime's censorship to get real information about the war.

Raif Badawi, one of Saudi Arabia's most prominent political prisoners, has been released -- but still can't leave the country.

Saudi Arabia has carried out 81 executions in one day.

The outcome of South Korea's presidential election is bad news for feminists.

The strong unity of the democracies against Russian aggression is a warning for China.  Xi now knows what kind of response an attack on Taiwan would meet -- and that Russia is of limited value as a military ally.

China's internal internet censorship is suppressing criticism of Russia's invasion, and bullying dissenters.

More links at Fair and Unbalanced, The Honest Courtesan, and The Psy of Life.

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My own posts this week:  some Ukrainian pop music, why we can't impose a no-fly zone (includes a good video on Russia's logistical issues), and a brief announcement from Putin.