Link round-up for 14 April 2024

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

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Some wrestling matches aren't staged.

Go out and walk swim the dog.

The Rapture wouldn't be complete without Blondie.

They are clumsy divers, but it seems to work out OK.

He brought the dump truck to the site and they filled it up (found via Hackwhackers).

Here's an amusing little tribute to classic movies.

This school teaches practical life skills.

Here's a make-up ad that's actually fun.

Listen to Boney M's "Rasputin" in the most appropriate language.

An eleven-year-old boy in England noticed a curious metal object.  His mother thought it was worthless.  She was mistaken.

Maybe you don't have mental problems.  Maybe your life is just shit.

This is nature.

Increasing tree cover can mitigate the effects of global warming, at least in some areas.

This is what puberty blockers do.

You can now get a petunia that glows in the dark.

To detect "AI" "art", look for errors a real artist wouldn't make.

No, there is no such thing as an "Anthropocene" period.

Vulture poo is undermining US border enforcement efforts.

People who denounce any challenge to their views as "hate" aren't fit to participate in a pluralistic society.  See here for a dissection of a fight-picker comment on that post.

Wait, the plane still went ahead with take-off after this happened?

What a charming man.

Important:  A proposed online privacy law is advancing in Congress, with bipartisan support.  This sounds like a good, tough law -- well worth citizens going all-out to support it.  The bad guys will certainly be lobbying like hell against it.

Here's how the Nightshade program combats the theft of real art by "AI" fake art programs.

This flasher thought he could get away with it.  He thought wrong.

Someone who actually understands the subject explains why those who claim that polls are worthless, inaccurate, to be ignored, etc are wrong, wrong, wrong.  Yes, some polls are deliberately skewed to favor one side, but many are not, and professionals know the difference.  And in recent elections (before Dobbs) Republicans have usually done better than the polls forecasted, not worse.

JK Rowling is our time's George Orwell.

Trader Joe's is being accused of some disturbingly shady practices.

This is what Berkeley has come to.  Almost daily I am still thankful that I got out of academia.

Check out the new portrait of America's most annoying member of Congress.

Some people are turning to "dumbphones" to avoid toxic always-online culture.

This is how you do it.  Hit hard.  Tell the truth.  Don't let the enemy obfuscate with abstractions.

Parents are relentlessly harassed for allowing their children even the slightest independence.

Trump can only get worse.

This person exists.

With obesity already at a catastrophic level in the US, "influencers" supported by big food companies are pushing an anti-diet message and encouraging people to eat even more sugary, fatty, and processed junk.  It recalls the efforts of tobacco companies in decades past to convince consumers that cigarettes were not dangerous.

Darwinfish 2 debunks Marjoreene's earthquake nonsense, as well as a common lie about electric cars.

We're still trying to figure out how to combat the plague of "AI" fake images.  "If you're in doubt, just assume it's fake."

Don't imagine that you understand someone else's motives and wants better than he himself does.

"Gender dysphoria" is a common adolescent phase which goes away on its own if left alone.

Republicans are furious that deadbeat students are getting their loans forgiven (found via Hackwhackers).

Cornell West and his running mate refuse to condemn the mass murder and torture of Jews.  Anyone who votes for this ticket is a Nazi collaborator.

Newsom is just another boss, spouting boss clichés and shitting on workers.

H&R Block bucks the boss trend by listening to workers and canceling return-to-office plans.

"There are taboos, heretics, inquisitions, expulsions, lies, bullying, slogans, blasphemy laws -- none of which you want in a medical issue."

75% of Americans, including 49% of Republicans, believe Trump should go to prison if found guilty.

Many universities now use ideological litmus tests in hiring, which makes them actually more intolerant and conformist that most money-grubbing corporations.  No corporation has ever asked me about my political views before hiring me.

Here's why one Republican is turning against the party.

The US tolerates atrocities against children.  Will the perpetrators be held accountable for what they've done?

This year's election is about freedom.

Christian nationalism has escalated into Christian supremacism.

Republicans who have doubts about supporting Trump -- this is for you.

70% of Britain's land is owned by less than 1% of the population, mostly descendants of the Norman-era aristocracy -- and inequality is rapidly getting worse.

A women's-rights rally in Scotland is harassed by enraged, threatening men.

In Belgium, the "pro-Palestinian" movement once again shows its true character.

The US should help Argentina and other countries dollarize.

Israel is winning in the Gaza Strip and will achieve its objective of eradicating Hamas -- while keeping civilian casualties astonishingly low.

The son of a Hamas commander speaks some uncomfortable truths.

The Iranian theocracy's attack on Israel had very limited effects -- and may have been intended that way.

The US Navy secretary was "floored" by the superior ship-building capabilities of South Korea.  Why has the US fallen behind?

More links at WAHF and Fair and Unbalanced.

My own posts this week:  some truths and inspirations, and a warning video from 1947.

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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It is false to claim that the dramatic economic boom and job growth in the US since Biden took office is just bounce-back from the economic contraction during the covid pandemic.  Every country went through the pandemic and has recovered since, yet the US boom is unique among major economies -- China is stagnant and probably contracting, most European countries are struggling, etc.  The relevant point about the last three years is the difference between the US success and other major economies' failures.

Fundamentalists can spout all the excuses they want for supporting the gross, corrupt, anti-moral Trump -- but to everyone outside their own mental bubble, their hypocrisy is so vast and flagrant and obvious that it now defines them completely.  The victories they won by empowering this disgusting man, such as the wave of new forced-birth laws, will be swept away soon enough -- but the shame and disgrace they smeared all over their own religion will not fade.