Link round-up for 23 April 2023

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

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Cats rule.

Russian soldiers load a tank onto a truck for transport.

Don't bring a cat to a funeral.

A warrior carries out a daring rescue from the citadel of the enemy.

Some people should not use ladders.

He's not very good at fishing.

Learn to speak rooster in every European country.

Belarusian soldiers display their skill at doing..... whatever the hell they're doing here.

Tell Me a Story blog re-defines some obscure words.

Here's a vivid, if somewhat confused, imagining of medieval life.

Here's a sample response to guys who send unsolicited dick pics -- though it may be better to just not engage with them at all.

No one can out-stare this baby.

Unusual painting technique here.

I didn't know doing laundry was so dangerous.

It's cutting-edge technology.

This is a disturbingly smart rat.

Snow avalanche pwns river.

This is what engraving looks like.

On a plane flight, just look out the window -- it'll be relaxing.

Working in a lighthouse can be scary.

He got past the mudslide -- but keep watching.

This is Italy -- not sure what town.

Some nice creepy decorations here.

Different kinds of people simply prefer different kinds of movies -- although some will always see them their own unique way.

It's a high-energy music performance.

I would definitely want a second date with this person.

Blogger Carol Seidl, currently visiting France, reports on a side trip to Norway, including the story of the first woman in that country to own real estate.

Awesome ad.

ChatGPT basically just makes things up.  It's also very thirsty.  Google is now pushing something similar for medical use.

Learn more about Earth's only flying mammal.

See some great photos from an astronaut.

Science is starting to understand what gender dysphoria really is.

This is a long elevator ride (found via Miss Cellania).

Research is confirming the health benefits of teh shrooms (found via Lady M).

Anthropologists can determine the sex of an adult human skeleton with 100% accuracy if the pelvis is intact (and with 71% accuracy from an intact skull).

Beware of card-reading devices at ATMs and at self-checkout lanes in stores.

If you had an active US Facebook account between 2007 and 2022, you may be able to get some money.

Landlords can be assholes -- know your rights.

If you doubt how much of a problem online predators are, watch this short video.  The rest of the story is here.

These people are perfectly normal and anybody who criticizes them must be an -ist and a -phobe.

Here's a site where you can arrange to get an e-mail every time your senator or congressperson votes on something.

Imgur has decided to go the way of MySpace.

JK Rowling is well prepared for the flaming nutballs' boycott of her upcoming TV series.

Taylor Swift is smarter than the crypto bros.

Elon Musk issues a challenge -- and gets a response.

This man exists.  Seriously, do watch.

Get ready for the secular age.

Stop using ridiculous pretentious language to describe ordinary things.

Job seekers these days are insisting on work-from-home jobs.  Some companies are apparently listing in-office jobs as work-from-home in order to trick people into applying.

Alissa Heinerscheid, the Bud Light VP of marketing who mastermined the Dylan Mulvaney partnership that resulted in a nationwide boycott, has been put on a "leave of absence" and is being replaced.  I haven't been able to find any hard sales figures which would show how much impact the boycott is having, just a lot of posts from pundits rather desperately insisting it doesn't matter.  I have seen a lot of anecdotal evidence suggesting sales are down substantially.

Update (Monday):  A second Anheuser-Busch marketing executive is out the door.  This looks more and more like the company -- which certainly does know how its sales are doing -- is seriously concerned.

Managers at a New Jersey restaurant used Google reviews to asshole their waitstaff.  In this case, to give credit where due, those managers were themselves fired by the restaurant chain.

Thirty Minnesota Republican legislators voted for an amendment to ban state funding for "the occult, divination, necromancy, soothsaying, Santanism, pedophilia".  Not sure whether "Santanism" is a typo or if there are people in Minnesota who worship the 1960s band Santana; but either way, given Republican official support for Christianity, I call religious discrimination.

REI is closing its only Portland store, citing intolerable levels of theft and other crime despite spending over $800,000 on increased security.

An indigenous woman addresses the "two-spirit" concept.

Don't let religionists get away with absurd re-definitions of the word "God".

Traute Lafrenz, the last surviving member of Germany's anti-Nazi White Rose group, died this week at 103 (found via SickoRicko).

This is an all-out dystopian attack on civilization itself.

30% of US Latinos no longer identify with a religion; among the US-born, it's 39%.

You're fired!  Also, can you come in to work to cover some shifts?

The IRS is functioning better, and for all except the wealthiest, that's a good thing.

Younger Mormons are becoming more liberal, while younger non-whites and Muslims are trending more Republican.

"The logic goes like this: being dis-agreed with makes you a victim; victims are good; people saying things you disagree with therefore deserve to be silenced and punished."

The MRFF has pwned a fundie military commander who was harassing a Jewish pilot.

It's not cool to brag about committing domestic violence.

Here in Portland, a public site for homeless people who live in vehicles has been completed and ready for use since November -- but it still hasn't opened.

Self-righteous politicians are knowingly callous toward those who pay the price for their posturing.

Two shootings, similar circumstances, but only one gets overwhelming attention.

Expect lots of resignations at this company.

Why is the trans movement so uniquely intolerant?

US attitudes toward atheists are gradually becoming less negative.  The really unpopular group is evangelicals.

Some Floridians today are backward and ignorant -- by the standards of Italy in 1504.

A defector from North Korea finds disturbing similarities in the US.

Twenty-one states have now legalized recreational marijuana, and the industry is booming, with some growing pains.  New Jersey has an interesting plan to make amends to some victims of prohibition.

Which side has blood on its hands?

The Texas senate has launched its most flagrant attack yet on the First Amendment.

Heather Cox Richardson sees a new transparency in politics.

Government regulations are written in blood.

Republicans demand work requirements for welfare recipients, which are proven to be harmful to children, rather than revisit their tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy.

Blogger Lily Maynard describes how she saved her lesbian daughter from ruining her life.

In Pennsylvania, right-wing efforts to ban a novel from the local school backfired spectacularly (found via Hackwhackers).

Christian nationalist ideology is provoking a "pluralist resistance", which includes even some explicitly Christian groups.

Even some Republican leaders are getting tired of DeSantis's vendetta against Disney.  North Carolina is considering incentives to get Disney World to move there.  Disney probably won't consider that for now -- it would be a big upheaval, and in a few years DeSantis may be gone and things may get back to normal.  But if he does something permanent like building a state prison next to the park, relocation might look like a good option.  Disney has undoubtedly noticed that its other big park, Disneyland in blue California, never has to deal with such problems.

The forest service in Colorado wisely fired this man after he posted a threatening video with an assault rifle.

Oklahoma officials who were recorded fantasizing about murdering reporters and black people are now shamelessly bitching about the fact that they were recorded.

Joe Manchin supports ending VA abortions for rape victims.

Discussion here on how to de-crazy the Democratic party.

Ohio Republicans want to make it harder for ordinary voters to protect abortion rights or to end gerrymandering.  Some of their Michigan colleagues have a mind-set right out of Victorian times.

Stay the hell out of Chicago.  This looks even worse than Portland.  Video here including a mob attack on a terrified cornered woman (disturbing, but essential viewing).

While the Biden administration frantically approves one giant fossil-fuel project after another to worsen climate change, Google, of all people, is working on helping the private sector buy clean energy.

Again see the inevitable results of letting men into women's shelters.  "There seem to be more and more cases of this type of thing."

Dr Laura Favaro was doing research into whether British academics feel their universities are censoring them.  Then her own university suppressed her work and seized her data.

It's now 200 years since the UK introduced separate prisons for women -- a reform which is under new attack in our own time.

In Australia, a tram driver stopped driving because he felt too stressed to continue safely.  His employer was supportive; the Devil knows what a US company's response would have been.  Studies from multiple countries show that overstressed rail drivers continuing to work are a major cause of injury accidents.

In New Zealand, the man who punched an elderly woman in the face at last month's Let Women Speak rally has been found and charged.

Russian army recruitment ads invoke silly machismo.

Details here on Russia accidentally bombing one of its own cities.

Putin is making Russia into a totally militarized society.  Discontent with his rule is rising behind the scenes.

The way to deter China is to help Ukraine.

Hijab is not "culture", it's religion.  Protests in Iran have died down, but women are asserting freedom via sheer defiance.

Iranians won't settle for a dead-end existence under a surveillance state that serves no purpose except its own perpetuation.

The Taliban are continuing to destroy what's left of Afghanistan's educational system.

India, China, and southeast Asia are suffering record-breaking heat waves.

This African artist refuses to submit to colonialist manipulation of language.

Four members of a church in Kenya starved to death after their pastor ordered them to fast.  Police suspect there may be as many as thirty more dead.

More links at Fair and Unbalanced and WAHF.

My own posts this week:  murky movies, some truths and inspirations, and the importance of small details.

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Awards for people who stand up to bullying (from whatever source) are a great idea.  And I can't think of a better guy to do them.

Even if psychedelic mushrooms become legal for recreational use some day, I'd likely be afraid to try them; I find the concept of hallucinations disturbing.  But I support making them legally available for those who do want them.

Calling women "Karens" is almost exactly equivalent to calling black people "uppity" -- and the people who do the former sound just like the people who do the latter.