Link round-up for 28 January 2024

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

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These signs evoke dumbth.

Well, at least it's fresh.

She probably lives in Portland.

Victorian erotica was weird, but articulate.

Hey, I saw what you did..... ow!

Cat cartoon time.

It's a vicious tug-of-war.

This is not good engineering.

Ouch!

This is a lot of black cats.

Your carpet is getting wet.

Have a few revised words.

Sometimes it's best if your kids don't find out about your hobby.

Check out this intricate apple art (found via Silverapplequeen).

Let them see the snow.

Now this is a Halloween decoration.

Here are some things you should avoid doing at airports.

After a shocking provocation, US diplomats avert an international crisis.

Alligator violence is on the rise in Florida.  Clearly the state needs strict alligator control.

Mom doesn't catch on quick.

Here's a free tree, an accursed doll, and more oddities (please note -- this blogger does not want political comments).

You're better off without social media.

This is not "intelligence", artificial or otherwise.

I don't know what it is, I just want you to use it.

A smart dog gets the job done.

When your kids are sick, you may need to resort to desperate measures.

Collect the harvest, modern style.

She paid attention in school.

Here's a sensible explanation for bigfoot sightings.

This is the first direct image of another planetary system (found via Hackwhackers).

After a spectacularly successful mission, the Mars Ingenuity helicopter will fly no more.

Are you smarter than a dead fish?

No, it's not true that Putin declared the 1867 sale of Alaska to the US invalid.

Jews and Hindus have some things in common -- including a historical common enemy.

When fighting back against spyware, go all out.

"Oh, it's you again....."

These people exist (scroll down a bit).

"AI" ghouls made a fake show using a fake version of George Carlin, who died in 2008.  His estate is suing.  Update:  They've now admitted it wasn't actually "AI"-written.

Here's what happens when you get careless with sixty tons of dynamite in a populated area (found via Miss Cellania).

Here is a form of resistance which is not recommended by the person recommending it.

Look what some ding-dong wants to build in the middle of the land of giant tornadoes.

Must-read of the week:  A compendium of common sense that a lot of people really need to understand.

Most "smart" TVs send back data about what you're watching to their manufacturers, even if it's a DVD and not something broadcasted or streamed.  If you watched a porno DVD yesterday, the company that made your TV knows all about it.

Disappointed to see my favorite grocery chain going over to the anti-union dark side.

A woman prison inmate in New York who was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a male inmate is suing the city.

Important:  The Senate is considering the REPO act, which would authorize Biden to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.  Includes info on how to contact your senators in support.

A doctor argues that most doctors today are de facto employees and should unionize.  Judging by the abuses he describes, things need to change, and unionization of nurses sets an encouraging precedent.

Most Christians don't obey Jesus.

This is not a good time to get married.  The trogs are threatening to change the rules on you.

US live theater is being suffocated by insane ideology.  Those who believe in art for arts sake are leaving the corpse behind to start new, living institutions of their own.

The sheer arrogance and contempt here is staggering.  "Letters of education"?

In the escalating dispute between Texas and the federal government over border enforcement, the governors of twenty-five other states have signed a letter of solidarity with Texas.  Last year at least fourteen states sent their National Guard troops or other resources to Texas to support its efforts.  Texas is continuing to add razor wire along the border despite this week's Supreme Court ruling allowing the federal government to remove it.  The federal Border Patrol agents' union has issued a statement of solidarity with the Texas National Guard and declared that its members will not arrest National Guard troops at Washington's behest.

In yet another example of Elon Musk's reverse Midas touch, Tesla's earnings plummeted 40% in Q4 of 2023.

It's not only the Catholic Church -- evangelicals, too, have a pattern of protecting sexual abusers while silencing and bullying victims.  More here.

In Houston, you can be fined five hundred dollars for feeding homeless people without getting city permission (that is, struggling through some Byzantine bureaucratic process) -- but the city has difficulty enforcing this because most jurors aren't sociopaths (found via Fair and Unbalanced).

American voters overwhelmingly support Israel over Hamas, 80% to 20%.  Even among younger voters, it's 70% to 30%.

This child is being raised to be a lifelong helpless victim.

They destroy education for the sake of ideology.

A wheel fell off a Boeing plane about to take off in Atlanta.  Loose bolts have been found in many 737s.  More links and info here.  Is it possible Elon Musk has secretly bought Boeing?

Clarence B Jones has a lot to say about race relations in the US.

This person is a terrorist.

The right wing has its own oppressive gender ideology too.

An executive familiar with remote work recognizes the absurdity of dragging employees back to offices.

This is Harvard.

Campaigns to put abortion-rights amendments on the ballot in Nevada and Arkansas are just getting started.  Both will face major challenges.  Missouri's effort is quickly attracting massive support.

Wisconsin Republicans are working to put an anti-abortion-rights measure on the ballot.  Mmmkay, let's see how that works out.

Only the vilest people could support the Houthis.  And that's true about their flag -- it's line 4, Al-la'nah 'ala-l-Yahûd.

US economic growth last quarter exceeded expectations again, while China stagnates and flounders.

On immigration policy, Democrats should pay more attention to black voters.

The AMA estimates that, since the Dobbs ruling, there have been over sixty thousand rape-induced pregnancies in the US states with strict forced-birth laws.

The new Holocaust denialism:  A small but growing group of cranks now claims the atrocities of October 7 didn't happen or were a "false flag", despite Hamas itself having exhaustively documented those atrocities while it was committing them.

The United Auto Workers union has resoundingly endorsed Biden, while denouncing Trump as a scab.

The "intifada" isn't just in the Middle East -- it's coming to your town.

The University of Washington continued to practice blatant racial discrimination in hiring even after being warned that it was illegal.

Property insurers continue to pull out of California and Florida as global warming increases the frequency of expensive disasters.

The post-October-7 wave of anti-Semitism in the US has a lengthy pedigree.

A new analysis confirms that recent inflation is primarily driven by corporate price-gouging, not wage increases.

What's the deal with "Jewish Voice for Peace"?

Some Republican politicians are try to downplay their party's support for unpopular forced-birth laws.  Don't be fooled.  This is a core issue to the most important part of their voting base.  I won't believe they've changed course on it until they start repealing forced-birth laws in the states where they hold power.  Judge by actions, not by words.

New VA policies are abandoning and endangering women veterans.

As governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley did everything she could to keep unions out of the state.

The oppression of women is a world-wide crime against humanity.  "Feminism has not gone too far.  It hasn't gone far enough."

Canada's ruling party approvingly quotes a man who supports violence against women.  This is left-leaning?

The UK's culture war will sound very familiar to Americans.

Is it worth having bilingual signs when only 4% of the population speak the minority language?

"Ah yes, two men do civil disobedience by calling a woman a cunt as publicly and showily as they can."

Rape crisis centers in Scotland prioritize pushing ideology over helping victims -- and refuse to refer victims to the one place that doesn't do that.

The UK economy, weak as it is, is outperforming the major economies of the EU.

Europe will develop its own system to use in place of Starlink -- it's too dangerous to rely on technology that's subject to Elon Musk's random whims.

Ukraine scored a fiery hit on a major Russian oil refinery (found via Hackwhackers).

Hundreds of thousands of workers in Argentina joined a one-day national strike on Wednesday to oppose president Milei's austerity agenda.

Liberal Israelis who were in despair over Netanyahu's rule feel a renewed commitment to the country since October 7.

India is escalating its naval presence in the Arabian sea to help fight Houthi attacks on shipping.

Single mothers in Japan struggle with poverty.

Most Taiwanese don't consider themselves Chinese any more.

China faces crippling deflation, and Xi Jinping won't take the measures needed to fix it.

China claims its high youth unemployment rate has fallen, but actually, the regime merely changed the way it measures unemployment.

More links at Fair and Unbalanced, WAHF, and Angry Bear.

My own posts this week: an image round-up, and real art and how it's made.

If any links in this round-up are paywalled or require a log-in to view, please let me know so I can avoid linking to that site in the future.  To suggest an item for inclusion in the next link round-up, you can use the e-mail address in my profile, or if you don't want to use e-mail, leave it in a comment to the previous link round-up.

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The midpoint between the truth and a lie is still a lie.

Every great atrocity of history was made possible by obedience.

Using the name "Antifa" doesn't make those people anti-fascists any more than using the name "National Socialist" made those people socialists.

A tiny number of parasites who were born lucky wallow in obscene wealth -- all stolen from the working people whose labor actually created it -- while tens of millions of those working people struggle to survive from paycheck to paycheck.  That's the reality of our situation that must never be accepted.