Link round-up for 25 June 2023
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When making something, plan ahead.
If you play with toy boats, do it in style.
They're dancin' to the beat.
Just turn the car right-side up..... oops.
Watch one minute in a Texas backyard.
Whoever designed this church knew exactly what he was doing.
It's a simple illusion, but a convincing one.
See a resourceful escape artist at work.
I didn't know you could get this drunk.
She takes her coat off.
It's just an ordinary bridge.
Build your own aircraft launcher.
A single shot from the cannon brought the whole great structure down.
These two shouldn't be such close neighbors.
She's keeping this area private.
Save lots of space when packing clothes and bedding.
Leave no otter behind.
Osaka's monorail trains require precision.
I can't believe I ate the whole thing.
MrMenno sings of the many ways to be a woman.
OceanGate offers a job opportunity.
Jesus Effing Christ, these guys are so boring.
Here's why The Flash turkeyed out -- and why Super Mario Bros is such a monster hit.
The reason the Disney live-action remakes are so crap is that they don't understand the meaning of the originals.
A lot of movies and shows have been flopping lately because people are just fed up of having preachy woke messaging thrown in their faces in what's supposed to be light entertainment.
This idiot is lucky he didn't get much worse.
If you have a dog and buy sugar-free foods for it, read this warning.
Here's an idea for eradicating mosquitoes from your area.
Tigers don't care about identity.
See "AI"-generated images representing typical people in each of the fifty states. In the majority of cases they look pretty plausible.
Esme's Cloud returns with a meditation on togetherness.
There is a monument to the dinosaurs at the place where the meteor that killed them struck.
See the destructive power of a tornado.
Would you take this deal? You live a much longer life and get servants to take care of all your needs, but you have a tapeworm and end up being eaten by a woodpecker (found via Miss Cellania).
The existence of phosphates, a critical ingredient of life as we know it, has been confirmed on Saturn's moon Enceladus. I posted about Enceladus here.
Millions of hard drives that could be re-used are destroyed every year, due to data-security concerns (link from commenter NickM).
Younger Americans are rejecting two dangerous addictions -- alcohol and smartphones.
Don't get emotionally involved with wild animals. They live in nature, and nature is cruel.
New Witch has had it with creepy spammers. Some of this stuff sounds like you could get in legal trouble if you did allow it on your blog.
Anheuser-Busch acknowledges the Bud Light boycott as "an important wake-up call to all of us marketers". But their new campaign to win customers back sounds naïve and condescending, and doesn't include anything like an explicit apology. Reactions to this ad aren't promising.
You can get high on nutmeg, but it's not worth it.
Threats are fun.
What's the appeal of adultery?
Never post anything on your blog that could personally identify you.
The summer solstice brings the pagan observance of Litha.
The Titan implosion probably didn't leave any recoverable traces of the bodies.
Here's why, in the US and Canada, the Titan story got so much more news coverage than the migrant ship sinking near Greece.
Trump's Hollywood star has been upgraded.
The ACLU has gone crazy.
You can't have a "personal relationship" with a God who doesn't do anything.
Blogger Annie finds Trump's legal woes poetically inspiring.
No wonder Reddit is going down the tubes -- check out who the boss's role model is.
The Christian forgiveness fetish has an important exception.
Americans' acceptance of same-sex sexual relations has dropped 7% over the last year, and the reason isn't hard to discern.
New York state will provide legal cover for doctors who send abortion pills to patients in forced-birth states. Nationally, support for abortion rights continues to rise, with 80% opposing a nationwide ban. Even many religious groups are joining the fight to preserve rights.
DeSantis's crusade against migrants is creating a shortage of workers in Florida.
Darwinfish 2 dissects an example of pro-office propaganda.
68% of Americans oppose racist "reparations" schemes.
Despite how well Democrats did in the 2022 elections, the Hispanic shift toward the right is real.
A major economist confirms that current inflation is being driven by corporate price-gouging, not by wages. Public shaming, not more job-destroying interest-rate hikes, is the solution.
The left has drifted so far from its roots in the class struggle that some no longer see any point in voting.
Texas is suffering a serious heat wave, but the state's recent intensive development of renewable energy is protecting it from the kind of power outages seen in earlier years.
This is a declaration of war. Well, if they want a war, they'll get one.
In North Carolina, a flagrant attack on freedom of the press.
Biden has issued an executive order to make contraception more accessible.
It's not "quiet quitting", it's setting boundaries.
In 2020, the Seattle city government abandoned several square blocks to mob rule for an extended period. Now some victims are suing.
An Iowa TV weatherman is quitting due to threats and harassment for his accurate coverage of climate change.
Anti-Semitic hatred from both left and right is a rising threat at US universities.
Environmental groups are suing the Biden administration over its rushed approval of new oil drilling in California.
59% of Americans say Trump should abandon his run for president because of the recent indictment. A further 11% say he should do so if convicted.
"No, you don't pass. No, you're not welcome. No, we're not "cis", we're just women, and you're not. I understand it hurts to hear this, but you have left us no choice but to say it. And if you don't listen when we say it politely, you can expect to be told less politely."
According to this statement from the IBEW railway union, the recent wins on paid sick leave for rail workers were achieved with the aid of pressure from the Biden administration behind the scenes. This is a praiseworthy contrast with Biden's apparent inaction on the issue since December, though I don't see why such pressure couldn't have been exerted more publicly and been even more effective. (Thanks to the anon commenter who sent this link.)
A fully-engaged citizenry can defeat the religionist attack on liberal democracy.
Bernie Sanders is going after Amazon for its scandalously unsafe working conditions.
Teachers in the Midwest gather to trade ideas on "subversively and quietly" indoctrinating children without parents' knowledge. Even more outrageous arrogance was on display at this parent-browbeating session in Canada (discussion here). I hate to say it, but we've reached the point where the only option, for school board elections, is to vote straight Republican, or the equivalent in whatever country you live in. Putting a stop to this stuff needs to supersede all other considerations.
A bridge in Montana collapsed, dropping several freight-train cars into the river below, where they are now leaking asphalt and sulfur into the water.
Now that Trump has been indicted, we need to disregard his incessant bitching and get straight to the trial (found via Silverapplequeen).
An Arizona election official is suing Kari Lake for defamation.
The internet is driving detrimental Americanization of other countries.
Totalitarians don't just censor your views -- they force you to express their views.
Sorry, Liz, it was funny.
Activists in Ireland have been caught doctoring old photos to re-write history.
Some New Zealand doctors are openly practicing racial discrimination to prioritize patients for surgery.
New Zealand's state news broadcaster has been publishing stories edited to propagandize in favor of the Putin and Xi regimes, Hamas, and gender ideology.
The EU is protecting citizens from facial recognition technology in public places.
Secular Europe is finding new uses for its empty churches.
Lesbian groups are being banned from Pride events in France for refusing to admit men.
In Spain, people are getting tired of being bullied by gender ideology.
As the Ukrainian counter-offensive proceeds, Putinists in the West are stepping up calls for an armistice -- a disastrous error that would only encourage more Russian aggression. If Ukraine is making less progress than expected, blame Western foot-dragging with weapons supplies.
In some cases, Russia has been castrating Ukrainian prisoners of war before returning them to Ukraine (found via Reaganite Independent).
The Wagner insurrection in Russia has fizzled out, but it apparently scared the regime into taking extreme measures such as blowing up bridges and bombing fuel tanks within its own country. The fact that it was able to take even temporary control of a large city, Rostov-na-Donu (ras-TOF na da-NU), with no effective resistance, and then advance to within a hundred miles of Moscow, must have badly damaged Putin's strong-man image.
A looming deal between the EU and the South American trade bloc Mercosur could lead to increased use of dangerous pesticides on food crops.
Life in Saudi Arabia means being forced to exalt your own subjugation.
In India, the religio-nationalist Modi government's blatant violations of democratic norms and freedoms are becoming a major international concern. Its failure to condemn Putin's invasion of Ukraine also calls its broader commitment to democracy into question.
A Japanese politician who has supported gender ideology shows his true colors.
Taiwan plans to allow boys to compete in girls' high-school sports.
More links at Fair and Unbalanced and WAHF.
My own posts this week: visuals from the upcoming Barbie movie, an image round-up, and the Titan saga.
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To suggest an item for inclusion in the next link round-up, you can use the e-mail address on the left in my profile, or if you don't want to use e-mail, leave it in a comment to the previous link round-up.
[Image at top: Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. To me this guy always looks like he's half dead or zombified or something. He probably scares even Putin.]
posted by Infidel753 at 12:51 AM
10 Comments:
Did you know Prigozhin was a hot dog salesman in a "previous" life? Well, I suppose it shows something for social mobility to go from that to having a private army.
Russia - you just can't make it up.
Impressed though I was by the AI faces of the States - did you notice the women tended to look rather similar to each other. Check out SD and TN.
I'm rather surprised you didn't mention idenditarianism taken to 11. In England secondary school kids are identifying as animals (even dinosaurs). Apparently one 13 year old in Essex wears a tail and ears, drinks from a bowl and, rather than speaking English she meeows. All over the British press.
Well that monorail is really something and it's so fast, we were supposed to have a monorail years ago here in Vegas but it hasn't been built yet and I don't know if it ever will but they keep talking about it.
I've been watching videos of different tornadoes this week on twitter, they are amazing and terrifying at the same time.
Thanks for your mentions of my post about a fully engaged electorate overcoming the religious extremists, as well as my "ragged rhymes" about Donald Trump. I'm not spending too much time pondering why that awful man makes me wax poetic, but I hope any of your readers who visit will scroll down to the comments to find your super poetic response.
Exploring the state "AI" roll call, I was struck that apart from Hawaii and Indiana, nobody looked happy. I understand Hawaii; Indiana is a puzzle to me. There were a few slight Mona Lisa smiles, but apart from that, the world as seen through "AI" seems quite glum.
Oddly enough, from my experience the "Americanization" has largely gone the other way. I find increasing numbers of Statesians follow British English. Even slang - "I'm just popping out for a fag", "Piers Morgan is a wanker" and such like. OK that's an Anglosphere thing. It's probs different elsewhere but I suspect that since the rise of Hollywood talkies us Brits have been in a form of denial about quite how much soft power British English actually can have and the internet has released that.
Unfortunately if you vote straight Republican for school boards you end up with this https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/woodland-park-colorado-school-board-conservatives-rcna83311 so perhaps getting to know the school board candidates and what they believe would be a better option than dividing strictly on party lines.
NickM: I'd heard about Prigozhin's beginnings. The guy has drive, I'll give him that.
I think the similarity of the faces in those two cases is mostly a matter of similar positioning and expression. Aside from those things, the faces aren't all that similar.
I'd heard about the kids in England, and it strongly sounds to me like they're taking the mickey, as they say. When adults behave like morons and flagrantly commit themselves to believing utter nonsense, kids are often more than willing to take advantage of it or at least make fun of it.
British TV has long been popular with some cultural strata in the US, and they certainly pick up Britishisms in their language. I'm not sure how common it is across the whole country. But yes, the cultural flow is somewhat more multidirectional than that post spoke about. Japanese anime has a huge influence in many parts of the world, for example.
Mary K: Rail projects in the US have a way of getting, ah, derailed. The fossil-fuel and car industries put a lot of effort into undermining them. It's certainly happened in California.
Annie: Thanks for the posts. I suppose people react to Trump in their own ways. There's a blog I forget the name of that comments on politics entirely in the form of limericks.
Among the AI faces, the women were a bit more smiley than the men. AI just generates images based on other images it has been shown, and for something like this, they may have wanted a more "dignified" look. Given AI's track record, I'm impressed that in most cases it managed to produce something fairly realistic-looking.
Lady M: I'm aware of the negatives of Republicans getting power in the school system. A lot of the bad things they do, like book bans, can at least be circumvented, but the sexual weirdness and indoctrination being pushed on kids in the classroom is almost impossible to avoid, and to my mind, is even more evil. Hence my view that stopping it supersedes those other issues.
In practice I always look at individual candidates, and if I found a Democrat who was fully committed to stopping that shit being pushed on the kids, I'd vote for him or her. That would seem to be a rare case, though. The left's support or at least tolerance for this stuff is disgraceful and, in the long run, electorally suicidal.
thank goodness sane people are coming forward about the right to choose
Indeed, people have been rallying to defend that right once it became clear that it's under serious attack.
It is complicated. My wife recently had a trip to Germany. She bought a crime novel (in German, translated from English) because there was gonna be a lot of time hanging around airports - it is surprising how complicated a trip from Manchester to Frankfurt can be... Anyway, on the cover was the word "Thriller" and the term "Best Seller". Apparently the Germans have been appropriating English words for decades. I can only feel schadenfreude about this.
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