Link round-up for 16 October 2022

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

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This fish launched a perfectly targeted attack.

When praying, speak clearly.

What if dragons were loonies?

It's the love that dare not speak its name.

He had a complaint about Star Trek.

Right away, you can tell this is Japan.

Friends stick together, rain or shine.

That's a big frog.

That's a big fish.

That's a scary potato.

They just keep on rollin'.

Such people exist.

This ebola song deserves to go viral.

Baby M reports from the Disney Haunted Mansion.

John Lennon would have turned 82 last week.

It's always much easier to bash a content creator than to actually create something oneself.

Nobody does Halloween like Lady M and her hometown.

Here's why Inigo Montoya is such an iconic character.

Here's why Lupita Nyong'o wasn't in The Woman King.  The film's drastic revision of history conceals a more interesting and complex truth.

Our long national nightmare is over -- Amazon's Rings of Power has finally stumbled to its ludicrous end.

Costumes are another way in which filmmaking has deteriorated.

Audiences don't hate "diverse" characters.

Now and then, you should do something lame and corny.

Learn to avoid making up guys to be mad at.

Beware these commonly-confused words.

Blogger Esme finds an antique tome.

Writer Aithal describes immigrating to the US at the dawn of the IT age.

Here's another sign that cryptocurrency is on the way down.

These are the Glowworm Caves of New Zealand.

This is London in the 1930s.

Rest in peace, Robbie Coltrane.

There are good reasons why we hate the lesser evil more.

In space, William Shatner found only the cold and dark of death.

If you don't want your private stuff spread around after you're dead for people to jack off over, burn it while you can.  James Joyce apparently didn't think of that.

Forget your dreams of subsistence farming.

The bridges we build to other people deserve careful consideration.

For Johnny Profane, memory and solitude were the keys to a joyful existence.

Not everyone can be a gardener.

Consider the horror of an ant on the bus.

Photos from space provide a colorful new view of geology.

The DART mission was a smashing success -- see the impact debris.

Chernobyl provides an example of natural selection in action.

At least some dinosaurs were very colorful.

The advocates of space colonization have no grasp of how complex and demanding the biological underpinnings would be (read the comments too).  But there's a precedent for their dreams.  Space colonization would also raise new issues of sexual harassment.

Another political blog has been taken down, while yet another has had several posts removed.  Both left-leaning and right-leaning blogs have been hit in the apparent new wave of censorship.  As I said two weeks ago, if you have a blog that includes any sexually-explicit material or controversial opinions, or if you have trolls/assholes who would like to see you censored or silenced, you need to back up all your material frequently and do your research on censorship-free platforms, so that if you get taken down, you can be back up and posting on a suitable new platform as quickly as possible.

Mass migrations have long played a major role in human history.

This asshole tried out his spyware on the wrong people.

If humans have souls, what about twins?

The promise of consumer technology has turned bleak and sour.

Hispanic Americans are becoming less Catholic.  Only 48% now self-identify as Catholic.

The old lies about marijuana have no credibility any more.

A preacher promotes a new technique for being an asshole to baristas and fast-food workers.

It's a message from God, but why did he bother?

Here's a discussion of abortion from an unusual perspective.

Wildfires return to my state, bringing the smokiest air in the US.

Read Trump's childish letter to the January 6 committee.  Here's an analysis of the final day of hearings, plus video.

Social Security can be fixed without cuts (link from Annie).

"When one believes a Big Lie, small truths are easy to ignore."

Why have evangelicals turned against separation of church and state?

Elon Musk is no friend of democracy.

If this is true, the Postal Service is destroying some business-reply envelopes.

Nobody should be saddled with a lifelong dependence on artificial hormone treatments.

Biden delivered for younger voters.

What kind of threat does monkeypox pose?

People need to get out of Florida.

It's Lysenkoism all over again.

At least one minor victim of incest has been denied an abortion in Florida due to the state's draconian forced-birth laws.

Will Trump's clear culpability sway any of his followers?

Annie Asks You interviews a voting activist.

Today's Republicans are more likely to follow through on threats to not raise the debt ceiling because they are stupider and more ideological than their predecessors -- but there's a way for Democrats to neutralize the danger.

Racism isn't dead, but.....

"I said f--k the voting, let's get right to the violence."

The trauma that afflicts first responders is different than you'd think.

Mandela Barnes has been damaged by accusations of being soft on crime.  Democratic candidates need to avoid taking positions that render them vulnerable to this line of attack.

Apparently some Medicare Advantage plans are a rip-off.

Don't let anyone discourage you from voting.  It's a long game.

Here's a map of likely H-bomb targets in the US in a major nuclear war (military bases, ports, airports, administrative centers, and suchlike).  The big clusters in Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming-Nebraska represent Minuteman missile bases, which would be priority targets since those missiles would be used to strike back against the attacking nation.

The Canadian Federation of Library Associations stands up to would-be book-banners.

Here's what it's like being in a hurricane.

These jackasses are just making unpleasant work for store employees, and giving vegans a bad name.

Russia's ill-trained new conscripts are doomed.  The country's schools are being crippled as teachers flee conscription (both links found via Earth-Bound Misfit).

Aside from advanced weapons, conventional heavy artillery is playing a role in Ukraine.

Here's a way to discourage Russia from attacking civilian targets.

Here's why Russia probably won't use nuclear weapons.

Ukrainians have no interest in surrender or negotiation.  One expert argues that a Ukrainian victory is almost inevitable.  There are growing signs of infighting and instability within Putin's regime.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali sees hope for Iran, partly because so many men are supporting women's freedom.  Protesters express their defiance of the regime.  A song composed from rebellious tweets got 40 million plays in 48 hours.

Iranian oil workers are joining the uprising.  At least 26 of the regime's thugs have been killed.

Repression of women is integral to autocracy.  Autocratic regimes have an innate tendency to become incompetent.

The murder of a Palestinian man in Hebron unmasks a little-discussed persecution.

The Saudi regime is an enemy of the West and Western values, not an ally.

More links at Angry Bear, Miss Cellania, and Fair and Unbalanced.

My own posts this week:  an image round-up, a personal request*, and a Republican threat to Social Security and Medicare.

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If you want to send me something as a suggestion for inclusion in the link round-up, you can use my e-mail, which is in the profile.

*Sincere thanks to those who have donated so far -- I truly appreciate each one of you!