Link round-up for 18 February 2024

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

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Here are some more cats being goofballs.

This sporting event is sponsored by the makers of aspirin.

Follow the adventures of fish.

Music can be confusing.

Valentine's Day?  Bah.  Give us Valloween!

A desperate bid for freedom is cut short.

It's time for howling lessons.

Ocean critters turn philosophical.

This dog can relax at high speed.

It's hard to tell whether this is a horror movie or just ordinary US retail culture.

Is there any new stuff you just don't get?

Speaking of not getting things, this person exists.

Here are some words, including one we may not need.

Here's a better glass slipper story.

Even in an 18th-century convent, a nun managed to obtain a discreet luxury item (NSFW).

Some movie special effects from the old days still look impressive.  This one took guts.

The Greek navy believes in tradition.

As if Mary Kirkland's neighborhood didn't have enough problems, it's now besieged by Mormons.

There is such a thing as being too clean.

Do you worry about what your "legacy" will be?

Don't assume that stuff you find on the internet is true just because it resonates with your own beliefs.

".....and all my obedience would never be enough."

Check out the strange physics of Prince Rupert's drops.

Lots of NASA videos here.

To keep your brain healthy as you age, learn something new.

Make way for the big machine.

It still landed safely.

Worker pwns jackass boss.

"Those are not happy tears."

People these days are too quick to condemn and ostracize those whose opinions differ from their own.  It's childish and leads to existing in an echo chamber, eventually cut off from reality.

This is what happens when you use "AI" for a scientific paper.

If you're a woman, beware the risks of this common medical procedure.

If you use unchecked capitalism against your customers, they will use it right back at you.

Happy Valentine's Day..... eurgh.

Don't waste your time on trolls.

Performative non-conformists are mundane and banal.

Don't trust any information a corporate chatbot gives you.  And don't trust "romantic" chatbots with any private details.

If you have a Wyze camera, read this.

Those who make excuses for atrocities may eventually fall victim to them.  Frankly it's too bad that doesn't happen more often.

Solidarity matters, then and now.

Two Florida cops got into a shootout with an acorn, with serious consequences.

If you're looking for a non-ideology-befuddled therapist for a gender-confused child, TherapyFirst can help.

The seven states hit worst by long covid are all deep-red states, while the Pacific coast and New England have low rates of it -- doubtless a result of different levels of vaccine acceptance.

Those who refuse to take a stand against evil reveal themselves as evil.

At last, some street-blocking thugs are being held accountable by law enforcement.

Republicans' hypocrisy on border security is having real ballot-box consequences.

FIRE lists the ten worst censors of 2023 in the US.

Much of what the MSM are reporting about the Gaza war is distorted, unverifiable, or just plain false.

The American Bar Association acts to defend free speech.

Trans ideology is being used to phase out gays.

The latest January 6 insurrectionist to be arrested is also an anti-vax agitator.

Congress has almost unanimously condemned Hamas's sexual atrocities.  But I do wonder who was the one member who voted "present".

Most Americans support diversity -- they just don't want a bunch of ideology rammed down their throats in the workplace.

Hawaii is flat-out ignoring a decision by the Federal Supreme Court.  Expect many red states to do the same if the Court rules that Trump should be removed from presidential ballots.  The Supreme Court is now so politicized that a total collapse of its authority wouldn't be surprising.

The MRFF squelches another plot to proselytize a captive audience of military personnel.

New Hampshire Republican legislators have blocked a proposal to let the voters vote on an amendment to the state constitution to protect abortion rights.

Those who are blinded by ideology cannot see injustice even when they're looking right at it.

Anti-vax disinformation is undermining RSV vaccination efforts in the US.

Netanyahu describes Biden as "very clear and very focused" during their interactions.

People are getting wise to articles like this claiming trans people suffer an unusually high murder rate -- see the comments there and also this.

These are the Republican senators who voted against support for fellow democracies under threat.  Infuriatingly, three Democrats including my own state's Merkley joined them.

The FBI has stopped a Russian hacking campaign targeting US citizens.

The US must support NATO, the cornerstone of our national security for generations.  US leaders speak out to undo the global damage caused by noisy isolationists here.

Public bullying and menacing is considered OK by many these days, if the target is Jewish.

A[n alleged] sexual abuser's feelings must be respected at all costs.

The EU is setting aside the profits from frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine, though this step still falls short of seizing and using the assets themselves.

Dutch leader Geert Wilders, whose opposition to immigration, Islam, and the EU is called "far right" by out-of-touch elitists but actually represents the mainstream among European people, is now more popular than ever despite ongoing difficulties forming a governing coalition (be glad of our two-party system).

Germany has overtaken Japan to become the world's third-largest economy -- but India will soon overtake both.

Immigration continues to enrich Italian life and culture.

Greece has legalized same-sex marriage, the first Eastern Orthodox country to do so.  Of course, the Church vehemently opposed the move, but 62% of the Greek people support same-sex marriage.

This is the reality of aid to Ukraine.

No matter what the details of Navalny's death, Putin is responsible.  The regime is actively suppressing public mourning across Russia.

The war has helped Putin turn Russia into a full-blown tyranny where propaganda is omnipresent and people fear to speak their minds.

In Mexico's presidential election this year, both major-party candidates are women.

An apparently abandoned ship has caused an ecological disaster on the island of Tobago.

An Arab Israeli TV presenter explains why Israel is so essential to the Middle East's future.

The demands from some Arab and US politicians to reward Hamas's October 7 atrocities with a "two-state solution" are like wanting to reward the September 11 attacks by setting up an al-Qâ'idah state on the US border.  Israelis are having none of it.

An apparent fellow traveler spreads lies about Iran.

Turkmenistan conducts barbaric "virginity tests" of high school girls, reporting those who "fail" to the police and even publicly shaming their parents.

Catholic bishops in Africa are flat-out rejecting the pope's approval of blessings for same-sex couples.

More links at WAHF and Fair and Unbalanced.

My posts this week:  some truths and inspirations, and some improved word definitions.

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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Ideologists, stop declaring everything to be the apocalypse.  You're not fooling normal people, you're boring us.