06 February 2022

Link round-up for 6 February 2022

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

o o o o o

Faces, faces everywhere!

Racist things listed here (from commenter NickM).

Everybody should be demon-possessed, based on this.

Educate with puppetry plus philosophy.

Do you pray, just in case God is real?

Odd set of services for a "saloon", or any other business, to offer.

Mighty nervous priest here.

There's a right and a wrong way to photograph a dog.

The sexualization of M&Ms is getting out of hand.

Temporarily non-usable due to rain.

Useful tip for murderers here (found via Yellowdog Granny).

The oven and the microwave are different.

Have some astronomy dumbth and evolution dumbth.

Outstanding USS Enterprise cutaway model here.  Would like to see some higher-resolution photos of this.

Genuinely amazing domino structure here.

It's the first day at a new job.

There is such a thing as good and bad interior design.

"Have y'all tried marrying people you like?"

Trump and Obama do Barbie Girl.  And Trump certainly should know that haters gonna hate.

Yellowdog Granny's blog appears to have moved again.

YouTube has terminated Exulansic's account.  Her videos are available here.  The canceling of people who dissent from mandatory Correct Thought seems to be rapidly getting worse; I'm stepping up measures to ensure that I can re-create my own blog, or as much of it as possible, on another platform if it gets removed.

California is about to incarcerate an adult man, who sexually assaulted a ten-year-old girl, in a juvenile facility for girls.

Some (mostly rather confused) end-of-civilization speculation here, prompted by polar bears.

Beware of expert-bashing anecdotes that sound good but turn out to be false once you do some digging.

A planned new skyscraper in Paris is causing some controversy.

This belongs to the Assemblée nationale, the lower house of France's legislature.

Acacia trees use ants and chemicals as weapons in their war against giraffes.

See a short but impressive time-lapse video of some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

This is Paris in 1900.

Audiences don't hate diverse characters, they hate bad quality.

What could be more cowardly than nihilism?

If you need money and are seeking donations on the internet, this may be useful.

Growing up in a home with a lot of books confers long-lasting mental advantages.

"His father before him didn’t do this, and your son will not live like you."

Two paths.....

Compare the shippers (found via Yellowdog Granny).

Compare the brains.

This is not living.

Fake pronouns disrupt thought and communication.

The New York Times is shit.

These are the pros and cons of working from home.

In this concept of capitalism, you deserve no rest.

Please make a dumb car (found via Voenix Rising).

Here's another reason why people should read Maus.

"There's no one else here."

Every blogger meets this person eventually.

A Texas border butterfly sanctuary is the latest target of wingnut conspiratardia.

Dishwashing succinctly illuminates gender ideology.

Don't mess with the USPS.

Evangelicals create a self-imposed ghetto filled with second-rate imitation culture.

Shitty giant cars are making US roads more dangerous.

Anti-science cranks use modern technology (which science and only science made possible) to spread their medieval nonsense (found via Hackwhackers).

A lizard experiment reveals the adaptability of life.

Cryptocurrencies are a scam.  Here's a blog, Web3 is going just great, that follows the cryptocurrency/NFT wackiness.

Darwinfish 2 looks at the Supreme Court, the battle of Spotify, and televised cornholing.

You can't really debate things that are purely imaginary.

Texas has chosen a conspiratard crank to revise its school standards (found via Mock Paper Scissors).

Local retail is probably doomed, even after the pandemic ends.

The rapist is an agent of God.

History deserves study because it's the story of humanity.

Jane Clare Jones flushes away a new "sex is a social construct" turdule.

If you bring a wheelchair on an airplane, know your legal rights.

There's something suspicious about the job-growth figures originally released for November and December.

A Christian adoption agency in Tennessee rejected a Jewish couple due purely to their being non-Christian.

Maybe the problem with anti-vaxers is poor reading comprehension.

Meta's stock plummets by $200 billion (yes, billion) as Facebook's user base shrinks for the first time ever.

Nothing has been done to avoid another power-failure disaster in Texas.

Tell people that they can't read something and they're bad people for wanting to read it, and they'll be all the more determined to read it.  Students can and should defy censorship.

"You've stolen all that we built, Mister....."

The Biden administration takes a step backward on prison policy.

Yes, some vaccinated people get covid-19; no, that doesn't mean the vaccines don't work.  Here's how much difference they make.

The Bible doesn't mention autism, so it must be caused by demonic possession.

The Russian and Ukrainian languages are more different than you probably think.

On so-called World Hijab Day, remember those who stood for real choice.  Don't silence the victimsMore here.

"For your own safety you should probably keep your mouth shut."

It's management, not workers, who should be grateful.

Scientists have enabled a frog to re-grow a lost leg, something frogs cannot normally do any more than humans can (found via Miss Cellania).

The US Army is getting rid of soldiers who refuse covid-19 vaccination.  There aren't many.

Vaccine plus infection will provide "super-immunity" to covid-19.

There's now been an actual book-burning in Tennessee.

Emboldened neo-Nazis are on the march in several parts of the US.

Body modification will likely cause problems in old age.

Beating global warming requires an accurate picture of the problems and solutions.

He saved 200 American POWs from summary murder by the Nazis.

In an age of bullying, threats, and cancel culture, anonymity is vital to allow dissenters to speak out.

Those anti-vax convoy truckers in Canada are assholes.

The UK police have their priorities.

People who know they're pushing a lie must silence all dissent to make it stick.

The thoughtcrime concept Orwell predicted has become a reality in the UK.

Boris Johnson is getting in deeper and deeper trouble over parties that flouted covid-19 safety rules.

People are getting weary of creeps like this claiming victimhood about everything.

Ireland's implementation of the "Nordic model" for sex-work laws is a predictable disaster (found via The Honest Courtesan).

A Christian school in Australia requires students' families to denounce homosexuality as a condition of enrollment.

Putin has an ally within NATO -- who is also widely admired by US wingnuts.

Person-in-the-street interviews in Moscow suggest there's not much enthusiasm for a war with Ukraine.

Putin promotes the lie that Ukraine is culturally and historically the same nation as Russia (found via Hackwhackers).  His bullying is causing other east European countries to align together against Russia.

We must end this horrific oppression.

The Iranian theocracy has just executed two men for the "crime" of homosexuality.  Yes, the Islamists are serious about this, and don't forget that the Bible mandates the same barbarism.

Caste bigotry pervades India's technology sector.

A media project run by Dalit women (the Dalits, formerly called "untouchables", are the lowest level of the caste system) is making waves in India.

India joins the diplomatic boycott of Beijing's "genocide Olympics" -- which is turning into a covid-19 hotspot anyway.

More links at Fair and Unbalanced and The Honest Courtesan.

o o o o o

My own posts this week:  a call for sanity by Bill Maher, and addressing religion's threats to freedom.

[Image at top:  schoolgirls in Iran give the upraised middle finger to a plaque bearing the Islamic invocation in Arabic "In the name of God the merciful and compassionate" (the opening words of the Koran).]

10 Comments:

Blogger Jack said...

Thanks for including my post. It is always nice to be considered among so many outstanding blogs!

06 February, 2022 05:32  
Blogger NickM said...

As to pignorance about astronomy...

When I was in six form (final two years at school here in the UK) there was this girl who'd only just learned the world isn't flat. She'd learned this in an A-Level (qualifications for university entry) geology class. I asked if she'd ever seen a globe. She said she'd thought they were just a "pretty" way of showing a map*. She came back with the classic Holmes excuse, "I don't need to know". God knows what she thought about the solar system.

I ended-up studying physics and astrophysics. And if I had a quid for every daft bastard who has offered argument as to how CERN, Hubble, Webb, [insert physics program here] is a criminal waste and "If you're all so smart why haven't you cured cancer or done something useful then?" which they regard as the trump (if not Trump**) card. They do this triumphantly because it is a position you simply can't argue with. There is no point. I used to try but...

Anyway - as to the "cure cancer" thing (it's usually cancer but it could just be whatever their granny just kicked the bucket from) - I guess I do have an answer sort of. I knew this guy passably well...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Mansfield

... a truly lovely bloke.

I think we can all agree three things. NMR is a quantum phenomenon. Quantum Mechanics is a pretty abstruse area of study. NMR is a very important diagnostic tool for cancer (and other things). Oh, and a final thing Sir Peter Mansfield FRS, Nobel Laureate did a lot more for the human condition than a legion of bar-stool pontificators ever have or will. I say "will" because, alas, whilst bars and stools exist they shall sometimes be occupied by wankers who hold to a view with a certainty exactly inversely proportional to that view's tenability or verifiability.



*I decided the game was not worth the candle to talk about projections and such.
**Although I guess if US hospitals had started injecting Covid cases with bleach they'd indeed have very few such patients on the wards.

06 February, 2022 05:37  
Blogger Leanna said...

Can you do Jackie Sue(Yellowdog Granny) a favor? Last night I redid her blog for her, with her blessing and it is now
http://yellerdawggranny.blogspot.com/
Could you pass the word for her.

06 February, 2022 06:55  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Jack: Thanks for doing the post. You also helped provoke the one I wrote on Friday.

NickM: God knows what she thought about the solar system

Moving dots on a big dome over the flat Earth, probably. I doubt she'd even have heard about crystal spheres.

One never knows when knowledge of the deep workings of physics will produce something of practical use, but it's quite likely that in the long run the more we know, the more useful things we can invent. I suppose the study of distant stars is unlikely to ever be of practical use, but fortunately those "wankers" who can't see any value in abstract knowledge aren't the ones setting policy in most advanced countries.

Leanna: That's already in the link round-up -- I found it via her blogger profile.

06 February, 2022 08:25  
Blogger SickoRicko said...

Thanks for YellerDawgGranny's new location. (You too, Leanna.)

06 February, 2022 11:34  
Blogger yellowdoggranny said...

I can't tell you how grateful I am to all of you for going to so much trouble keeping up with ydg...you rock..all of you..js

06 February, 2022 18:58  
Blogger Mary Kirkland said...

The Jupiter and Saturn video is really cool. I like anything to do with seeing the planets and astronomy.

I had to watch that video twice about the adult male being housed with female juveniles. That is just wrong.

07 February, 2022 15:22  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Ricko: I'll track her down wherever she goes. :-)

Granny: We don't want to lose you!

Mary K: And that's actual imagery taken by spacecraft, not computer animation or anything. It's amazing what technology now allows us to see.

Putting men (many of them violent sex offenders) in women's prisons is now official policy in California, Illinois, Washington state, Canada, and the UK (and those are just the places I know of. The response of officials to public opposition is to try to hide what they're doing -- most people would oppose this if they knew about it. There's a lawsuit under way in California to try to stop it.

Exulansic (who posted that video) was actually kicked off YouTube for speaking out about this. It's crazy.

08 February, 2022 00:18  
Blogger NickM said...

Yes, it happens in my country too. More bizzarely a journalist recently tested store changing room rules. He got away with it a lot. He actually asked staff as well. Wouldn't have happened when I worked at NEXT 20 years ago. This guy didn't even vaguely look trans - he has a beard. He just said he identified as a woman. He Had A Beard!!!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10300295/Bearded-6ft-reporter-let-female-changing-room-stores.html

The time I've spent outside the changing rooms before my gf/wife came out and asked, "does this look good on me?" when all that time I could've been trying on Peppa Pig undies...

08 February, 2022 10:14  
Blogger NickM said...

I have to disagree... The tipping point for science was Newton. Just the idea that these distant worlds* obey laws which we humans can understand and those laws also apply here is utterly transformative. It helps that they are also mathematically utterly beautiful.

A few years back my wife bought me a flying lesson in a DH Tiger Moth. That was at Duxford, just outside Cambridge. We also visited Trinity College and they had Newton's own copy of The Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.


*And back then the relative distances for planets and stars wasn't understood quite as it now is.

10 February, 2022 06:39  

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