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08 September 2024

Link round-up for 8 September 2024

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

o o o o o

A man suffers a series of strange mishaps.

Cybertrucks are symbiotic.

Being a pain in the ass has consequences.

Blogger Annie brings us animals goofing off, mostly pandas.

The demands of the rebellious prisoners cannot be met.

She only wanted to start the motorcycle.

Beware the beer.

I will hunt you down..... oops.

Cats do drama.

Can low intelligence reduce an organism's chances of reproducing?  See for yourself.

A polite man engages in some freelance pest control.

What manner of abomination is this?

This band would probably be a hit, but is unlikely ever to form.

Don't let gadgetry and social media dominate your life.

Here is a short video tour of an odd-looking house I posted in this week's image round-up (NSFW blog, requires Blogspot login).

Anywhere else, you'd need some pretty good drugs to see something like this.

The Skeleton Key, a Halloween blog, posts only during September and October -- so it's now active.

This Colorado cemetery is haunted by the ghosts of abused women.

The way people think of numbers is part of how "psychic" scams work.

Gorillas sometimes find humans entertaining.

Time to learn more about tiny vertebrates.

The Portland area is suffering a measles outbreak due to Oregon's high rate of vaccine exemptions.

Some speculation here on why birth rates are declining.

Nazi racial ideology was religious, creationist, and anti-Darwinist.  This is a long post, but that's because it cites a huge amount of all-important supporting evidence.  Save it as a storehouse of ammo for arguing this topic with religious nuts.

"AI" does not know, and never can know, what anything is.  Any results it produces that appear valid are usually based on random extraneous factors.

Literature can now be stupidized for lazy people.

One of the main spyware features of Windows 11 can't be gotten rid of.

Don't fall for this kind of scam.

Time to give NaNoWriMo a miss.  It's all about sponsorship, meaning money.  This organization understands the issue.  So do commenters at Ars Technica.  If you have a NaNoWriMo account, you too can take a stand.

These people exist -- would you hire them?

Those who abuse and yell at others who aren't to blame and can't fight back, just reveal themselves to be assholes.

This kind of political fund-raising is hugely self-defeating.  Just stop.

OK, the gender-identity nonsense has now definitively jumped the shark.

There are reasons why Americans dress like slobs.

In some parts of California, police can tow your car if a crime happens to occur near where it's parked.

Good discussion here on why the Republicans can't steal this year's election -- and why claiming that they can or will is actively harmful.

Stop normalizing child abuse.

Darwinfish 2 blog assesses Tim Walz.

At last the Nashville shooter's manifesto has been made public.  Here is the whole thing, completely unedited and uncensored (posted by Area Ocho blog).  There are some annoying watermarks, but everything is visible and readable.

People who resort to name-calling and twisting an opponent's words are just showing that they can't make an honest case for their position.

Republican women in Florida come together to support their state's abortion-rights initiative.

This person exists.  Frankly I'd rather read a book giving the story of the family he betrayed.

Women should abandon misogynistic religions -- which is almost all of them.

Here's a compendium of Trump's asshole behavior, listing more than a thousand specific acts from 2011 through the end of his presidency.

Remember Lili Elbe -- but do so honestly.

The problem isn't men in general, it's the "bros" (actually the worst of the assholes call themselves "alphas" these days).

Support this if you don't have a hundred million dollars.

Do atheists want to lead others to abandon religion?

Blogger Aunt Polly has some child-protection ideas after reading a PITT Substack post (presumably this one).

More women discover how porn is turning male sexuality into shit (here is an accessible version of the original article).

As Hispanics assimilate, their voting patterns become more like those of other Americans who are demographically similar.  It has taken the Democrats a long time to understand the implications.

Tucker Carlson's recent promotion of a crazed Nazi apologist is part of a long flirtation with Jew-hatred.

Harris wants Republican voters, but she won't compromise on the real wingnut crazy stuff.

Work-from-home is radically changing commuting patterns.

The massive and growing unpopularity of Project 2025 is becoming a serious problem for Republican candidates.

"This is an abusive relationship.  We want out."

Even in red states, many schools, local officials, and Constitutionalist groups are resisting efforts to push Christianity in the classroom.

Biden will try to prevent Nippon Steel's take-over of US Steel.

Forced-birthers need to recognize the limits of their power, even within the Republican party.

"I know theologically conservative and politically conservative evangelicals who are not going to vote for Donald Trump -- and not a small number."

Kroger admits to price-gouging its customers -- allowing it to absorb Albertsons would just make things even worse.

The oligarch-owned media are supporting Trump by making Harris disappear.

Men's feelings are always more important than women's.

If you are considering voting for a third-party candidate on the left, check out who's supporting them.  You're being played for a sucker.

Twenty-six states and hundreds of colleges are rejecting the destruction of Title IX.

Talking politics with right-wing relatives can be worthwhile, if they're potentially reachable and if you have the type of mind that can endure that kind of conflict.

"Do we Christians really want to be known as the people who force others to conform to our preferences through the might of legislative mandate?"

No, your spouse cannot find out how you voted.

Republican primary voters in Florida, tired of strident extremism, reject lunatic-fringe MAGA candidates.

Get your barbarian bullshit out of our civilized cities.

US and British intelligence say that Russia is committing sabotage in Western countries.

Ukraine is bringing Putin's war home to Moscow, hitting a refinery and even the city center.

This Russian man is furious at the priorities of the elite.

Russian soldiers in Kursk are looting homes and stores -- yes, within their own country.

A Russian mercenary leader is now openly calling for the overthrow of Putin.

Taliban Afghanistan should be as much of a pariah as apartheid South Africa.

More links at Perfect Number.

My posts this week:  an image round-up, the political season, and a brief update on the local Fred Meyer labor dispute.

o o o o o

Only 53 days until Halloween!

I have to go back to work again, starting tomorrow, so there will be a delay in approving comments during the daytime.  No idea yet how long this job will last.

o o o o o


"We have to resist the siren call of being an asshole."

11 comments:

  1. I laughed way too hard about the cat that fell into the washer trying to get the fly. Way too hard.

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  2. still have a Windows and I need to get a new laptop but after looking at some of them and reading reviews I just can't pick one that will work for me. Spyware is just another thing that I hate about the new laptops.

    I thought that dog was a sea monster on the beach too. LOL

    We're looking forward to Halloween over here. My daughter has been putting things away to make room for Halloween decorations.

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  3. Three or four items below the one wondering why people berate and abuse employees who have no power over the crappy situation there’s another item fantasizing about murdering the flight attendants because flying is unpleasant… Lovely!

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  4. Thanks for Modern Politics post. You’re always good for a bracing slap of reality. We can’t set ourselves on fire. Not now. We can win this.

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  5. Leanna: Well, it was pretty funny. Assuming the cat didn't actually get hurt.

    Mary: I can't see ever buying a new one, the way things are now. I'll just keep repairing and upgrading the old one.

    A lot of blogs are very focused on Halloween right now. The excitement is palpable. Maybe especially this year it's valued as an escape from politics.

    Anon: That second item is from a very right-wing blog, and the language there can be very intemperate sometimes (though that's more common among right-wingers than you may be used to). I dithered about whether to include it or not, but decided it had enough entertainment value to do so. Never assume I agree with every last detail of something I link to. It's pretty common for aspects of the links here to contradict each other.

    Tim: Thanks -- it's a good post, and much needed. There are people who seem to have a psychological need for something to panic about. Unfortunately they can corrode other people's determination to act.

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  6. Half the joy of reading a classic book is for the beautiful, intriguing l, language. What is the point if it is just dumbed down?

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  7. Ooops - sorry about the typo.

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  8. Exactly. The dumbed-down language strips out all the life and color.

    In any case, looking at the example they gave of a "hard" original -- "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since" -- in what universe is that hard to understand?

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  9. The man with the mishaps: I've seen him shattering into ice before but none of the others. He's very creative and talented with his film making.

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  10. Thanks for the reblog. Great bunch of links, as usual.

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  11. Ricko: I can tell -- those short transformations are very well-done.

    Applequeen: Thanks for the post!

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On work days there is likely to be a substantial delay in approving comments, since I can't do blog stuff in an office. For this I apologize.