31 January 2021

Link round-up for 31 January 2021

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

o o o o o

If you use a cornbread pan to make brownies, nobody will eat them.

A computer program can help find your cat.

Debra She Who Seeks does Scotland -- and the goddess Lakshmi.

Good work-from home tip.

Snow, snow, snow.....

You're not worth it.

Interspecies soccer game of the day (found via Crooks and Liars).

Put on a happy face.

Here's how the Dutch view other languages, apparently (found via Miss Cellania).

When you verb, are you etymologying correctly?

This cheap and simple device can enhance home security.

All bark, no bite.

Vibrators have their uses (found via A Tale Untold).

The time has come to weigh our penguins.

Tie your load securely in place.

Turn left at the dongsign.

Some nice tree photos here (click for bigger).

Margaret Atwood explains why the siren song always works.

Elephants can't jump, but they can handle sharp drops.

View the diatom art of Osamu Oku.

A Catholic priest is trying to exorcise Biden's election victory, which was apparently demonic.

And she just created a new "dumb blonde" joke (found via Yellowdog Granny).

Here's a pretty good standard response to dumbass comments.

If Trump starts a new party, what should it be called?

Wise words indeed.

Religion and counseling don't mix.

Here's how to photograph a snowflake -- apparently they're not really symmetrical.

Cas d'intérêt recounts the gripping finale of the Vendée Globe.

Annie Asks You investigates Jon Swift, the primordial blogger behind Vagabond Scholar's annual memorial blog-post round-up.

Eat the shoe, dammit, eat the shoe!

Why do novels rarely mention social media?

Counterweight is a new site promoting real liberalism as opposed to "woke" thought-policing.  More information here.

Some lose, others gain.

We're gonna be seeing a lot more articles like this.

At the doctor, be an empowered patient.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is the new face of the Republican party.  She once claimed that the 2018 California fires were caused by a giant orbiting laser (this is obviously absurd since if space lasers were doing things like that, the alien Satanic lizard people would put a stop to it).

Bruce Gerencser remembers the first time he met a gay person.

There's not much point in an English department that doesn't teach English literature.

Trump and the Republican party are now one and the same.  I endorse Tengrain's suggestion "the Coup Klux Klan" as the party's new name.  Yet another non-Trumpy member is censured.

It's easy to see that the Bible is a work of fiction.

Some "conservatives" are now openly nostalgic for a dictator (found via Fair and Unbalanced).

"As elected terrorists / Circumvent metal detectors, / Yowling threats....."

Don't let the internet become a place where survival depends on being bland.

What should be grounds for losing your job?

Don't listen to Bart Ehrman, you might, uh, actually learn some stuff.

My state's Republican party goes full wingnut.

What a deeply dedicated idiot (found via Yellowdog Granny).

Some parts of Mississippi haven't even gotten past Prohibition.

Here's what the wingnut movers and shakers have been up to this week, and here's what the wingnutosphere's "news" sites have been "reporting".  More insanity here.

Do something -- run for office.

The Lovejoy Surgicenter, a prominent Portland abortion clinic, has closed its doors (Lovejoy is where I was a clinic defense volunteer many years ago).  It will re-open in March at a new location.

Think times are hard now?  Mary K finds a relic from a time of real privation.

Biden and Democrats are ready to bypass Republican obstruction, rather than repeat the errors of Obama's first term.

Here's one kind of "fundamentalism" I'm proud to embrace.

Police forces are finally getting serious about rooting out right-wing extremism.

The biggest cemetery in the US is now freezing bodies because it can't keep up with all the covid-19 deaths.

The "stupid one-third" is trying to sabotage the vaccination effort.

"Why would anyone have any reservations about this form of activism?"  Also read comment #7 for an interesting point about domestic violence.

Biden has started a commission on court reform.  Let's hope this leads to some real action and not just talk.

Debate ideas, not identities.

There is no obligation to forgive abusers.

Republicans suffer from deficit attention disorder.

Jerry Coyne describes the experience of getting the covid-19 vaccine.

"A pseudo-official name for a type of fantasy."

Vagabond Scholar remembers Auschwitz and looks at latter-day Nazis.  A lot of people knew at the time.  This defiant gift survived.

Covid-19 denialists are harassing health-care workers in the UK.

London cracks down on a religious threat to public health.

This is not healthcare.

A remote French village receives a reward for its brave history (found via Butterflies and Wheels).

Russian intelligence has been cultivating Trump as an asset for forty years.

If you think American fake news is bad, check this out.

China's fascist regime is testing Biden by bullying Taiwan.

Uyghurs in exile struggle to help their wretchedly brutalized homeland.

People are fleeing Hong Kong while they still can.

Most complicated solar system ever -- six suns and the Devil knows how many planets.

Here's an easy way to cut your risk of stroke, diabetes, and heart disease.

"But, as always, it is science that is delivering the goods whilst religions stand by heckling from the side-lines....."

The 1977 "Wow!" signal might have been power leakage from a beamed-energy propulsion system.

More links here.

o o o o o

In case you missed it -- this week I posted a poetic mingling of the personal and historical, a redneck close encounter, and observations on the end of the "Republican civil war".

[Image at top by Johnnyprofane1]

10 Comments:

Blogger Hot guys said...

Always wanted to know where my cat goes, so... That 2nd link could be quite useful for me! 🙂 Enjoyed those tree photos A LOT! 👏🏻 And the snow... 🤍 So lovely!

Thanks for yet another awesome link round-up! 😉

31 January, 2021 06:27  
Blogger Debra She Who Seeks said...

Hahahahahaha, loved the vibrators and vertigo story! I enjoyed Bruce Gerencser's post about meeting his first gay person, too.

31 January, 2021 07:40  
Blogger Mary Kirkland said...

Brownies done in a cornbread pan is hilarious.
We actually got a tiny amount of snow last week here. it was just enough to cover the top of the cars but didn't stick to the ground. My dog doesn't like snow or water on his dainty little paws. lol

31 January, 2021 11:25  
Blogger yellowdoggranny said...

Pi are square cornbread are round.

31 January, 2021 12:46  
Blogger Mike said...

The Spartan Atheist is trying to show how history can be fake. He says that "Jesus was supposedly born in a town that did not exist at the turn of the first millennium." Well Nazareth, according to Wikipedia, was founded in 2200 BC (Early settlement) and by 300 AD was
a Major city. Not that I'm defending religion, but his whole paragraph about Jesus is all innuendo with nothing to back it up. 'born in a town' 'hung out at a sea' 'two rulers supposedly in power' I know what he's getting at, but he's doing the very thing he's complaining about.

31 January, 2021 21:13  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Hot: Something that imitates the sounds that attract cats could be quite useful in that situation. If it doesn't exist, someone should invent it.

Debra: Genuinely useful information about the vibrators, despite the slight giggle factor in buying them.

Mary K: They don't look appetizing, do they? We escaped having any snow here so far, thank goodness.

JackieSue: And brownies are.....

Mike: I wouldn't take Wikipedia as, well, Gospel in such cases. If you click through to the actual back-up of the claim that Nazareth existed pre-Jesus, the evidence for any substantial settlement earlier than the second or third century is pretty meager. There's this too. The fact that Nazareth probably didn't exist in Jesus's time is fairly common knowledge, so Spartan probably didn't feel a need to cite support for it, just as one wouldn't feel a need to cite support for a statement like "France is in Europe". Similarly, the fact that the reign of Herod and the census of Quirinius didn't overlap is just a matter of historical record.

01 February, 2021 05:37  
Blogger Martha said...

How to find your cat, the trees and the happy faces on objects! Loved them!

A lot of nuttiness out there. Can there be that many stupid people around? Yes, yes there can be. *sigh*

05 February, 2021 04:41  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Yeah, there are a lot of stupid people -- but a lot of witty ones as well.

05 February, 2021 12:48  
Blogger Tommykey said...

As a supporter of the right of the people of Taiwan to be recognized as a free and independent democratic country, I hope that the Biden administration will support Taiwan against PRC aggression and advocate for its membership in international bodies and organizations such as the WHO.

08 February, 2021 20:39  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

We need to be more strongly supportive of Taiwan. Any claim we have to be the leader of the free world is empty if we can't help them preserve their democracy.

09 February, 2021 01:28  

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