Link round-up for 11 April 2026
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The GoFundMe for blogger Mary Kirkland's ill daughter is still slightly short of its goal. I'm sure anything you can spare would be appreciated.
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It's laundry day, online style.
Time for some smiling faces.
The parking brake in a car exists for a reason.
Save the bird within the bird.
How tiresome.
What is it like when your mom becomes you? (Notice how almost all of them look way better in their original incarnation.)
Watch humanity begin the destruction of an alien race.
He is saved! It's a miracle!
Offer a refuge to those in danger.
See a demonstration of the Chinese rope dart.
Serenity Falls in Australia looks to be well-named (click photo for full size).
This is Norway (NSFW blog, requires Blogspot login).
Watch a chameleon's life begin.
For the first time in fifty years, the Hudson river is clean enough that fish from it are safe to eat.
Watch out for this nasty new CAPTCHA scam.
Recognize the past as it truly was, both good and bad.
Your doctor may start using "AI" to take notes during your visit. Here are your options.
Don't use ChatGPT to time anything.
Use fluid dynamics to cool down a hot car.
Starfleet Academy was such a gigantic flop with viewers that it may finally spell the end for new Star Trek shows. They've been desperately beating this dead horse for decades now. Just let it rest in peace and let us enjoy our DVDs of the real Star Trek from the old days.
In the New York city hospital system, dumbass administrators who don't know anything are preparing to replace radiologists with "AI", likely with disastrous results.
Google's "AI" overviews are giving users tens of millions of wrong answers per hour.
Modern problems require antiquated solutions.
Beware of weird racist interpretations of fantasy.
This is serious abuse and the people responsible need to be sued into oblivion.
Bluesky is now shrinking rapidly. It seems to have been captured by ideological types who make a habit of hounding anyone with different views off the platform -- a surefire formula for declining into irrelevance.
This man is an exorcist. And he believes the US is controlled by demons. And he gets taken seriously. In the twenty-first century. Incredible.
Bikers against Child Abuse is a real organization, and a worthy one.
"Is there anything more stereotypically male....."
This is what Iran used to be, and will be again.
Voters overwhelmingly support raising taxes on the wealthy and on large corporations.
Younger Americans are increasingly souring on "AI". People are far more trusting of fully human-produced work than of work produced wholly or partly with "AI".
The feminist forum Ovarit shut down a year ago, but there is now an archive version preserving all the posts and comments.
"It wasn't until last month..... that administrators took a closer look at the group they had signed up to work with and realized they had been duped by a lying Christian."
Aw, he's so sad that he can't cheat any more.
Polymarket briefly allowed users to place bets on the fate of US airmen shot down over Iran.
Changing word usage reveals a colonial take-over.
The enemy is running scared.
This person exists.
"When people see no way out of debt, no way forward to retirement or a life lived for themselves, when they have nothing to lose what else are they supposed to do?"
Billionaire tech bros are delusional megalomaniacs and the CEO of OpenAI in particular allegedly hardly knows his own field.
"But it's not a fetish!"
The murderer of Iryna Zarutska has been deemed not competent to stand trial. (A deleted comment on this post claimed that the murderer is an immigrant. He is not.)
Blogger John Hill has some questions about Jesus.
In a win for sanity, the DNC has voted down a resolution singling out AIPAC -- but not any other (non-Jewish) lobbying groups -- for condemnation.
Corporations, a major tool of billionaire oligarch power, are trying to sabotage the right-to-repair laws which give their customers a little independence from them.
52% of Americans now favor impeaching and removing Trump, including 14% of Republicans.
The Wall Street Journal is going down the "AI" tubes. So is the Associated Press.
Think politics can't get any worse? Now we've got this piece of shit running for Congress.
Epstein-files activist congressman Thomas Massie has a massive lead in the Republican primary in his district, despite Trump's determined campaign against him.
There is still a chance that voters in Virginia will stop the super-gerrymandering of their state.
"A public institution cannot make emotional reassurance the test for what it is allowed to endorse."
Religious nutball fucks up baptism, kills someone, desperately tries to dodge responsibility.
Lack of religion is now a permanent reality in the UK, especially among young people.
There's a category of sex abusers who are even more coddled by the system than Epstein's clients.
West European governments are now desperately trying to save Hezbollah from destruction so it can recover and kill more Jews in the future. France wants a special role in negotiations on the future of Lebanon, but has shown it can't be trusted.
Russia is suffering a drone shortage while Ukraine produces them in abundance -- a potentially fatal disparity in a war which is now dominated by drone warfare.
A Ukrainian company is working on a defensive missile system comparable to the US Patriot system, but much cheaper.
This took guts: A Russian officer declares that Russia's military is so decrepit that it couldn't fight Poland effectively (well, it can't seem to fight Ukraine very effectively, so.....). On the issue of Russia's nuclear weapons, see this post.
Russian soldiers are reportedly sabotaging their own equipment to avoid being sent to the front. The Russian military is getting seriously worn down by the war, and there's little doubt that Russia has been gravely weakened.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia has been providing the Iranian theocracy with targeting information to attack Israeli infrastructure. Russia denies this, but there's plenty of evidence of increasing cooperation between the two gangster-regimes as they fight the democracies.
In Israel, younger voters are shifting strongly to the right, thus increasing Netanyahu's support. The October 7 attack and its aftermath are the main drivers of the trend.
Whatever happens with the Iranian theocracy, the West Bank remains a ticking time bomb.
"The main messages I get from inside [Iran] are just constantly asking to remind everyone not to leave the regime standing."
The regime-imposed internet blackout in Iran has now lasted a thousand hours, the longest such blackout since the dawn of the internet.
The positions of the theocracy and the US are so far apart that the ceasefire is unlikely to last. In the long run, peace is impossible without the fall of the theocracy.
China has more shipbuilding capability than the US, but in a real war that probably wouldn't matter.
More links at Red State Blues, WAHF, and Comedy Plus.
My own posts this week: a short video on deception, the moral depravity of the ideological mind, an image round-up, a few observations on the Iran war, and a unique bit of music.
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I'm glad that Artemis II and its crew returned safely. It remains a fact that sending humans into space is excessively dangerous and expensive, and serves no scientific or practical purpose.
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The Hungarian national election is tomorrow. Orbán's rule could be reaching its end quite soon.
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Trump's Tuesday threat that "a whole civilization will die tonight" turned out to be true in a perverse sense. If Western civilization cannot stick with a project as important as overthrowing the Iranian theocracy until the job is done, just because the price of oil went up or the media threw tantrums, then it indeed might as well be dead.
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posted by Infidel753 at 12:19 AM
11 Comments:
Good roundup of links this morning, Infidel!
- I love the Orville! Great clip!
- Good news about the Hudson River. I had been following several stories about conservationists who restarted the oyster beds all around lower Manhattan as a means to filter the water. And they have had incredible success! The general water quality around the metropolis has improved considerably!
- Brown University Health bought out, like, ALL of the hospitals and healthcare in our region. Needless to say, the quality has gone down and the confusion has gone up. Most recently, they have signs up that the medical staff will begin using AI for exactly that purpose - to transcribe for the doctors. On my recent visit, I asked the PA if it was being used in my local office, she said no - just something that is being rolled out. in the larger hospitals. Something to keep an eye out for.
Rade
Wow, so much interesting stuff here! My favorite is the sea lion refuge boat. That made me tear up 🥺
Re Bluesky… I was so excited about it at the beginning as an alternative to X, which I dumped as soon as Musk took over. After 10/7 however, it became flooded with antisemites, who seemed weirdly aligned with trans activism. I was spending more time blocking people than having fun, so I gave up and exited. Good riddance!
Love the little movies, especially the aliens and the cigarettes. The laundry day video was strange. And the parking brake one was eye-opening.
Rade: It's great what they've done with the Hudson river. There have been similar improvements with the Thames.
Private monopolies are the worst system -- no competition and no accountability to voters. And I'm afraid this "AI" fad is going to spread into almost everything for a while. Someday there will be an accounting of how many people died because of it.
Paula: Bluesky seems to be becoming a left-wing echo chamber, mirroring the right-wing echo chamber of Twitter. No room for a diversity of viewpoints. And from what you say, not even the whole left but only the worst of them.
Ricko: I didn't really get the point of the laundry video, but it was unique. As for the guy who forgot his parking brake, I'd hate to have his insurance bills now.
Handy tip on Captcha. I wouldn't have fallen for that but I know people who would. My MiL has to have me or my wife have to cleanse her computer and phone roughly twice a month. She's got a "click on everything told to" mentality.
As to religion in the UK... I'm 52 and I have never thought of this country (England - it's a bit different in the Celtic fringes - especially Ulster) as religious. Most "religious" people aren't actually that religious. I have known many (including Men of the Cloth) who will freely admit to atheism. I'm a Quaker Warden and right now it's Meeting for Worship but most of 'em don't really believe in God. The Quakers are kinda the Green Party sort of praying. It's a social thing and involves an awful lot of eating cake and biscuits (which as warden I have to clean up the crumbs of) but I don't think many Brits take religion that seriously. I think that is the thing. Brits by and large aren't so much irreligious - they just don't take it seriously.
My local corner shop is run by "Pakistani" muslims and they do a roaring trade in booze. They have a big LED sign saying "Beer & Wine".
In an odd way I think having an established church has played a major role in this. The Church of England is a farce and has been since God knows when. It is an organised hypocrisy to misquote Disraeli.
Here is an example. The CofE doesn't do gay marriage (some religions do: Quakers, some Methodists and some Jews) even though much of the clergy are openly bowling from the pavillion end. The Archbishop of Wales (Wales is technically England - sort of - since Edward I) is an out lesbian with a female partner. And that is all cool and froobie with the church but could she marry her girlfriend? No. Not even in her own cathedral. They could of course have a civil wedding... You ever wondered where our taste for the ludicrous comes from?
I don't think we're less "religious" than you splitters over the Atlantic we just don't tend to take it seriously and those very few that do are viewed with something between suspicion and ridicule.
My first trip to the USA was to Georgia. What surprised me was not so much how much religion was there but that people really believed it and acted on it rather than pay lip service.
England isn't so much post religion as realising it never really was that religious.
NickM
(still can't get past the anon thing)
NickM: That's pretty much consistent with the impression I have of the UK. When my parents first immigrated to the US, one of the things that startled them the most was how religious people were -- people they had just met asking what church they attended and suchlike. And this was in New York, albeit in the 1950s. Back in the UK it was very different.
Generally, "more religious" and "less religious" refer to intensity of belief at least as much as to numbers.
To comment using a name without being logged in, on the comment form, click the down-pointing arrowhead to the right of the word "Anonymous" above the comment form, and choose the "Name/URL" option. Enter your name on the "Name" line and leave the "URL" line blank, then click on "continue" at the upper right. Then enter a comment as usual. It works the same with Chrome and Firefox, which are the only browsers I can easily test.
Another Sunday, another list of fascinating topics:
--As someone who is on Bluesky, I'm afraid to say that James Ball is correct. There are only a couple of accounts that I check in on day to day, but even they have said the same thing--the site has become a hotbed for some truly vile people (and also bots) who are anti-Israel, anti-Democrat, and yes, antisemitic.
--Using typewriters in class to combat the influence of AI? I love it! After all, I was trained on manual and electric typewriters first and it is far different from typing on a computer keyboard. The whole article gave me vibes from the reboot of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, where the crew of the Galactica have to depend on older or obsolete technology to combat the highly advanced Cylons.
--I confess that I have only seen one episode of STARFLEET ACADEMY but I have watched STRANGE NEW WORLDS. But we have been here before when STAR TREK has gone into hibernation; the ten years between the end of the original series and STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE; 20 years ago, STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE went off the air, the last TNG film NEMESIS didn't do well at the box office, and the franchise was essentially dormant until the 2009 prequel/sequel/reboot film simply called STAR TREK. As for me, my favorite ST series still remains STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE. Make no mistake--I love the original and TNG was quite better after Season 3 (just my opinion, of course), but DS9 really took TREK in a direction it needed to go, and the episode "Far Beyond The Stars" is perhaps one of the best episodes of TREK ever made, and certainly a landmark in television.
--The people of Ukraine continue to show that they are truly David to Russia's Goliath--and that they are giving Russia the body-blows it deserves. That they are at the cutting edge when it comes to drones and drone warfare is something that we should all take notice. To think that Putin thought his war would last only four days--now it's four years later and Ukraine still stands true.
--I am very, very happy that the DNC rejected that garbage resolution targeting AIPAC and AIPAC alone.
--Dan Bilzerian is a clear sign that the aftermath of October 7 and the skyrocketing wave of antisemitism that followed will lead to candidates for office who will be loud and proud in their antisemitism while also gathering supporters. And it isn't just the GOP; candidates like Bilzerian are running in Democratic primaries and as third-party candidates. Some of those candidates running as Democrats have thankfully been defeated in primaries, but as Mamdani's win in the NYC Mayoral election shows, one does get through.
--As someone who believes in both manned and unmanned space missions, I am extremely happy that the Artemis II crew had a successful mission and a safe return. A side benefit is seeing how this mission caused consternation among the Flat-Earthers and the conspiracy theorists who could not debunk this mission. Sorry folks--they really did go to the moon and come back while taking some truly amazing photos and ending a nearly 55 year absence of humans in deep space. However, the Trump Administration's plans to make huge cuts to NASA's budget should be called out, especially the cuts to NASA's science division. I really wish the media would focus on just how anti-science Trump and his gang are.
--The percentage of Americans calling for Trump's impeachment and removal is over 50%...but it needs to be higher. Much higher.
Whew! Went on for a bit there.
As to the state of the Russian military...
"Air for the crew was provided by a bleed air system on the engine compressors. This air was hot and had to be cooled before being pumped into the cockpit. This cooling was provided by a large total-loss evaporator running on a mixture of 40% ethanol and 60% distilled water (effectively vodka). This system garnered the aircraft one of its many nicknames, the "supersonic booze carrier".[11] As the system vented the coolant after use, the aircraft could run out during flight, and comfort had to be balanced by the possibility of running out of coolant.[24] Numerous cases of Tu-22 crews drinking the coolant mixture and becoming paralytically drunk led to a crackdown by Soviet Air Force authorities. Access to the bombers after flights was restricted, and more frequent checks were made on coolant levels. This higher level of security, however, did not end the practice. " - Wikipedia
I had heard it wasn't just the flight crews either. The ground crew would drink the ccolant which contributed to the (now defunct) Tu-22 having an abysmal level of readiness. Russia's military being a bit rubbish is not exactly new...
Thank you, Infidel. I appreciate the share on the fundraiser.
I thought the "Smiling faces" was going to be scary like that movie, Smile. lol Those were fun instead.
I was hoping the new Star Trek show would be good but nope.
I was on Bluesky for a while but I have much more engagement on Twitter.
Marc: It's really too bad Bluesky turned out like that. I wonder if we'll ever get a platform of that type that doesn't end up being ideologically captured in some way.
Maybe "AI"-addicted students will start claiming they can't use typewriters. I hope not. It's true that it would make editing a lot more difficult, but if people are going to cheat using "AI", it's hard to see any other alternative. It doesn't seem to occur to them that employers will quickly learn that degrees or certifications from schools that tolerate "AI" use are worthless.
Some of the earlier Star Trek spinoffs did have their good points, but the original will always be definitive, with its bright, colorful, optimistic imagery and ideas. Over time the more recent versions have become dark, murky, and cynical -- the very opposite of what Star Trek is supposed to be. It's hardly surprising that viewers have turned away.
Ukraine actually seems to be turning the tide and beating back Russia now, not just holding its own. It's an incredible achievement. They will make a formidable partner for the West in the future. Excluding them from NATO would be foolish beyond words.
It's indeed a positive that the DNC held the line in the AIPAC resolution case. Even so, the activist fringe is framing it as the DNC being out of touch with the rising young wave of fashionable Jew-hatred. Israel needs to prepare for the possibility of losing US support in the future. As the Holocaust passes out of living memory, the old anti-Semitism is re-asserting itself, even here.
I've actually seen a few people on right-wing fringe blogs claiming that the Artemis mission is being faked. The truly dedicated conspiracy nut is immune to any level of reality or evidence.
Trump's unpopularity is at historic levels, but always remember that the Democratic party is much less popular than he is. As much as people hate Trump, many think the current incarnation of the Democrats might be worse. If our system allowed third parties to succeed, I think one or more would already be sweeping the Republicans and Democrats aside, as we see with the nativist parties in Europe.
Anon: Very interesting, and consistent with the impression I have of the Russian military. The Chinese military seems to be similarly riddled with corruption, though without the alcoholism.
Of course the drunken and politicized Red Army of the World War II era did defeat the Nazis, but the Nazis were another totalitarian regime whose army rapidly deteriorated in performance as Hitler took over direct control from the real generals, and the US and Britain bombed its industrial base into ruins. This is the first time the Russian army has had to take on a free society just fighting like hell to survive.
Mary: I hope it helps a bit with the fundraiser.
I try to keep the first part of the link round-ups for light and funny stuff. If something's gross or scary I generally include a warning.
I never watched any of Starfleet Academy, but I haven't heard anything good about it (except from the terminally woke). There seems to be a lot of unhappiness with Bluesky too. People really want a refuge from the constant blare of ideology these days.
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