Link round-up for 18 August 2024

Various interesting stuff I ran across on the net over the last week.  Note: If you have a political blog, see the notice at the end of this post.

o o o o o

We have too much gadgetry in our lives.

There is magic at work in this household.

Here's some good advice for bad people.

Don't take philosophy too literally.

How ironic.

You're going to wish you hadn't eaten that, you idiot.

Here's a new and much-improved version of the Book of Genesis.

Conservatives may be overlooking the perfect candidate.

She needs to dump this guy if he doesn't quit being such a pain in the ass.

Stop catering to stupid people.

This is a serious case of social media obsession -- and she's definitely overfeeding that cat.

You can tell right away that this bridge is in China.

If you try to eat a giant bug, don't be surprised if it tries to eat you.

Sometimes you have to take a tough approach in dealing with noise problems.

Blogger Annie poetically assembles This Puzzle We Call Earth.

Flaubert's Madame Bovary is a literary classic about dull and depressing people.

Cutest audience ever.

It's still a ways off, but take comfort -- Halloween is coming.

Experience flying through a nebula.

Nicely-done video here of Batman vs the Death Star.

Dunno what people in the 1930s were smoking when they came up with these visions of the future (NSFW blog, requires Blogspot login).

What would happen if we teleported the oceans to Mars?

Oh, great, a transparent snail.

Learn the surprising origins of 21 common expressions (found via Silverapplequeen).

Chemistry is educational.

This is the Detroit Institute of Art.

The Roman conquest of Britain was followed by the growth of large-scale industries of several kinds.  As impressive as this sounds, Britain wasn't even one of the more developed parts of the Empire.

Touchscreens in cars are difficult to use and make driving dangerous, so why do most new cars have them?  Some car makers are actually going back to physical buttons and knobs, due to customer backlash.  In the meantime, I'm all the more determined to just keep fixing my 1999 car rather than buy a new one (even if I could afford one).

This is what "gender-affirming care" actually leads to.

3D-printed houses are getting better.

Drones are changing sea warfare.  All countries with navies will need to adapt.

This is what happens when you trust "AI"-generated shit.

Some things were better in the past.  Some.

Here is FemiNuremberg, a feminist video platform.

If you can't make your point without saying things like "dichotomous" and "discourse", you've already lost the battle to persuade normal people.

Watch out for the latest annoying thing assholes are doing.

This cartoon is offensive (click twice for full size).

Even when driverless cars aren't killing people, they're still a pain in the ass.

Artists score a legal win in the battle against "AI" image generators.

Atheist Revolution blog considers non-religious concepts of an afterlife.

Some choices should not exist.

This blogger has a message for the "pro-Palestinian" mobs at Harris rallies.  This follow-up discussion shows how fed up a lot of people are with tired old race and gender clichés.

Most disgusting legal technicality ever.  These companies are utterly shameless.

I feel like this about 80% of the time.

Fuck this asshole.

The "Ark Encounter" dingbats in Kentucky have plans to build a fake Tower of Babel to go with their fake ark.  Are they sure this is a good idea?  Didn't God, like, punish the people who built the original one?

You've heard about yachts being attacked by orcas, but a lot of them deserve it.

Trump's disgusting disdain for veterans hits a new low.  He respects no one but the oligarchical parasite class.

A new study shows that evangelicals make up only 10% of US adults, a smaller fraction than is widely believed -- and that they're less religious and less politically engaged than we think.

A woman boxer who has fought Imane Khelif speaks out, noting that most boxing federations have banned him from competing as a woman and only the IOC is an exception.  A BBC sports presenter has received death threats after questioning the IOC/media lies and gaslighting.

Illegal border crossings into the US have decreased dramatically over the last five months.  Thank goodness they stopped this guy.

Here are the details on Biden's deal to cut prescription drug prices for people on Medicare.

"Why haven't feminists been fighting gender ideology?" is a stupid question, but Meghan Murphy answers it anyway.

Don't send cash via Fedex -- it's likely to be stolen.

Nearly-blind runner Melani Bergés Gámez will not be competing at the Paralympics -- and here's why.

After a string of heat-related worker deaths, workers across the US are rallying to demand protective measures such as cooling breaks and access to water.  Many employers refuse to enact such measures, and the governments of Texas and Florida prohibit local authorities from requiring them.

I guess this is the next logical step in being "inclusive".

The oligarch-owned mainstream media are already trying to sabotage Harris.  They're in a snit because Democrats quickly rallied around her instead of delivering the chaos they wanted.  At this point an NYT or Washington Post subscription is essentally a campaign donation to Trump.

Among the youngest US adult generation, more women than men are now abandoning religion, contrary to the earlier pattern (link from Lady M).

"Holocaust inversion" is the latest Big Lie of the modern Jew-haters.

This person exists.

Don't let your boss get away with that stupid cliché about parachutes.

The New York Times is still being shitty and dishonest.

Meet the new Brownshirts, same as the old Brownshirts.

Every Secret Service agent involved in this incident needs to be fired and prosecuted.  Incredible arrogance.

There's empirical evidence that celebrity endorsements have a real impact on elections (found via Hackwhackers).

Yet another Christian-supremacist military officer gets in trouble, this time for insulting the Sioux Indians.

An initiative in Oregon to set up a basic-income program funded by a tax on corporations is being opposed by both parties.  The billionaire parasite class will go all out to stop this, including using the power over politicians they exert via campaign contributions.  Unfortunately the proposed basic income amount is only $1,600 per person per year, a mere pittance beside what corporations gouge out of the average worker via underpaying for the real value of labor.

Even in the US, the bullying-enforced "consensus" on horrific surgical and hormonal transing of minors is beginning to break down.  Most European countries have already stopped the practice.

The number of minor girls in the US who have been given "gender-affirming" mastectomies is probably in the thousands.

Pregnant women, some with life-threatening conditions, are being turned away untreated by emergency rooms in states with forced-birth laws because doctors aren't sure what they can legally do.

Corporate price-gouging is slowing down because consumers refuse to put up with it.  I know I've found cheaper alternatives for quite a few things, and won't go back to buying what I used to until prices come back down to more reasonable levels.

Overview here of Harris's economic plan, proposals which will actually help ordinary people in concrete ways.  Expect a barrage of negativity from the billionaire-owned mainstream media.

Here's what's going on all over the Western world (Tumblr login required).  This is an emergency.

Taiwan's government is trying to bully UK newspapers into silence on the truth about the Olympics.

The land of my ancestors is becoming a tragically hostile place for its Jewish citizens.  Those who are supportive need to make themselves heard, loudly.

If people are taught to believe one form of nonsense, they will more easily believe others.

There is evil on the loose in Australia (Tumblr login required).

Yet another peaceful women's rights rally is violently attacked and disrupted by unhinged men.

The plot against the Taylor Swift concerts in Austria was part of the wave of Islamist violence against Western civilization generally.

Visiting Paris for the Olympics wasn't much fun.

Russian soldiers are surrendering in large numbers in Kursk, despite the fact that they're fighting for Russian territory.

See dramatic and sometimes gruesome videos of the fighting in and near Ukraine.

Argentine security forces have prevented a planned jihadist terror attack on a Jewish community there.

So, what's the story with the Sde Teiman allegations?

The US is now sending a massive amount of military firepower to the Middle East to help deter an Iranian attack on Israel, or repel it if it comes.  Despite the usual threats, the theocracy seems hesitant to attack.  After the ghastly atrocities of October 7, Israel would certainly be morally justified in a nuclear response; using nuclear weapons in Gaza is impractical due to the proximity to Israeli territory, but no such objection would apply with Iran, whose regime played a major role in building up Hamas's power.

The rape-murder of a doctor in Kolkata triggers massive protests and a national work stoppage.  Police are trying to suppress the protests, but doctors remain defiant.

More links at WAHF.

My posts this week:  some truths and inspirations, and more music from earlier times.

o o o o o

Fair and Unbalanced blog has been down since Friday.  Blog owner Burr Deming informs me that it has been hacked; before it went down, logs showed at least two unsuccessful login attempts from a location in Moscow.  The hackers did extensive damage and it may not be possible to restore the blog, though Burr will not know for certain until later this week.

So it may be that Russia is targeting political blogs in the US as part of its efforts to interfere in the coming election.  If you have a blog which leans left politically, or which is critical of the Putin regime, make sure your passwords are uncrackable, activate two-factor authentication, be alert for suspicious e-mails that might be delivering malware, and take any other possible precautions.

I hope that Burr will be able to restore Fair and Unbalanced.