Link round-up for 7 December 2024

Notice:  as of this week, and going forward, I'll be posting the weekly link round-ups on Saturdays, not Sundays.

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Cats get their heads stuck in things.

Norway celebrates Christmas right -- with a Krampus march.

More people who drive in the snow here.

Remember these two?  Always fun on Saturday mornings, and not just cynically designed to sell toys.

If he stopped yelling, maybe he'd be better at parking.

Santa has traded up.

These cartoons are for the birds.

There is such a thing as being too helpful.

Big guy comin' through, everybody get out of the way.

Now this is interior decorating.

In dignified silence, he protests the injustice.

These are signs of the times (found via Nan).

Don't slap my ass, I don't even know you.

Life imitates art.

If you use this cat's name, a curse will descend upon you.

Some signs are improved by damage.

Hey, idiot, get out of the road before you get run over.

Australians need doorbell cameras.

She saved her niece from a terrible fate.

You'd better run!

If you've got $449,000 lying around, this disco ship house is for sale.

Just be glad this thing isn't any bigger than it is.

Everything wants to kill you.

Oh, for fuck's sake.  Can that mass extinction we keep hearing about please hurry up?

She lays it on thick, but the results are impressive.

This book offers two centuries of Paris history in photographs.

Here are some facts and myths about The Wizard of Oz.

This looks like an alien planet, but it's actually New Mexico.

Be a pragmatist, like William James.

Soon this will be the largest city on Earth.

See the beautiful -- and efficient -- terraced rice fields of Vietnam (NSFW blog, requires Blogspot login).

This is Mars, filmed from one of the rovers.

Beavers and their dams bring many benefits, even helping to mitigate climate change.

A new book tackles the moral implications of animal intelligence.

Science has finally solved the case of the mystery mollusc.

Most animals caught in the wild are infested with worms and other parasites, which don't magically vanish when the animal is killed and cut into pieces to be sold as food.  You won't normally notice them unless they're still alive, as in this case, but they're there.

Hassled by hornets?  Try brake cleaner.

Stay away from abandoned mines.

These clothes for wheelchair users look well designed (I don't use a wheelchair myself, so I can't speak from direct experience).

Spotify is now being shitted up with "AI".

Blogger Bilbo anticipates some changes to national holidays.

Don't trust every video you see.

The Tesla is a record-setting car.

If you're looking for a job, here are resume errors to avoid.

The Far Corner Café blog has a Trump advent calendar.

A Russian soldier proudly shows off his tank.

A mechanic warns that car parts sold on Amazon include "lots of fakes and cheap junk", often made in China with zero quality control.

Drunk and quarrelsome parents, you are an embarrassment to your children.

It's not just the "AI", it's what they're doing with it.

If you want a friend, try being one.

Carl Sagan's guidlines for detecting propaganda and bullshit are more relevant than ever today, as we're inundated with both.  And here's a good post on how to distinguish pseudoscience from actual science.

When a stranger knocks, it's not wise to ignore it.

It is a time to mourn.

Things are getting back to normal -- a mob of men who invaded a women's restroom actually got arrested.

Don't pirate books -- it's screwing over writers whose incomes are already shrinking.

This Christian nationalist pastor says that Jews, and non-Christians generally, should not be allowed to hold public office (this rule would violate Article VI of the Constitution as well as the First Amendment) -- and by "Christian" he means "Anglo-Protestant", so all you Catholics would be shit out of luck too.  He also wants to ban birth control and take away women's right to vote.

Earlier this week I suggested that Biden should pre-emptively pardon the many officials threatened with possible persecution when Trump takes office.  Apparently he is considering doing that very thing.

A bitcointard achieves the ultimate in self-pwnage.

The "word of the year" is "brain rot".

Don't these morons know anything?

This is the reality of The Salvation Army.

Don't let Trump live rent-free in your mind.

Sometimes current events can bring back memories.

The forced-birthers still have more misery and misogyny to inflict.

The renewed attack on Social Security is based on lies.

Who has the power to kill with impunity in America?

Nancy Mace calls attention to the violent threats cataloged at the TERF Is a Slur site.  It's about time this got real national attention.

The "AI" fad seems to be fading, without the perps even making any serious money from it.

Trifecta schmifecta, the Republicans' House majority is shrinking to almost nothing.

Yet another woman who was surgically mangled as a child is suing.

Reactions to the UHC CEO shooting continue.

Remember that Trump is a stupid, lazy, befuddled old man, which will limit the damage he can do.  And his plans are already facing growing resistance from Republicans.

The deadline mentioned in this post is today, so this link is late, but it's the best summing-up I've seen of why Medicare Advantage is a scam.

Oregon is idiotically continuing to destroy clean-energy generation capacity, while morons gloat about it.

"A form of boundary testing, to determine how open they can be about their fetish."

Karma happens.  A lesson was learned?

Among people who leave evangelical Christianity, a commonly-cited reason is the religion's association with Trump and right-wing politics generally.

These two arrogant dumbasses exist.

Be warned -- grocers are getting grosser.

Don't be like a self-defeating missionary.

Female Free Speech Friday honors an emerging heroine.

Arch-bullshitter Dinesh D'Souza has now issued a bullshit apology for bullshitting the country in his bullshit 2,000 Mules film -- of course, the damage is already done.

"How many other women are sick of seeing two men have a debate on whether women have a right to any privacy?"

You won't believe who's been selling guns, including machine guns, to criminals.

The voters in this Connecticut town have a message -- when people are struggling to make ends meet, telling them the economy is doing great doesn't persuade them, it infuriates them.

Yes, "cis" is an insult.

Interesting thoughts here on the implications of the assassination attempt on Trump.

UHC is the worst major health insurer in the US for denying coverage.  "AI" is part of the reason -- and now the basis for a lawsuit.

If you're hoping to become a dictator, don't piss off your military.

This medical school is training students to harass commuters and be assholes generally.

The Democrats have achieved something quite incredible -- they've made themselves seem crazier than Trump.

If RFK Jr really tries to impose his flaming-nutball beliefs on the HHS department, the courts will have something to say about it.

Where's #MeToo when we really need it?

If you want to avoid doing business with Trump supporters, Gloria Steinem has some lists of Trump-free and pro-Trump companies.

It's time to abandon the mainstream media (the second half of the article is the most important part).

To win in the future, Democrats will need economic populism -- but also more.

The bastards are running scared now.

Trump has nominated another anti-vaccine crackpot for a major health post.

"By standing up to a movement that relies on threats of violence, ostracisation and guilt-by-association, all of us have been smeared and defamed, but many have lost their livelihoods.  Some have been physically assaulted by trans activists.  Female politicians have been forced to hire personal security on the advice of police."

The European Federation of Journalists will stop using Twitter.

Spain's ruling Socialist party says it will ban men from women's sports.

Romania's highest court has annulled the country's recent presidential election on the grounds that there was aggressive Russian interference.

See video here of the huge factory fire in Yekaterinburg, about nine hundred miles east of Moscow, presumably caused by a Ukrainian drone strike.

In at least some cases, Russian convoys carrying food and supplies to front-line troops have been dumping their cargo and fleeing rather than get close enough to the war zone to deliver it.

Some interesting stuff here about Israel's pager attack on Hezbollah.

A criminal who tortured Gazans has been brought to justice.

The Taliban just keep coming up with new ways to make life shittier.  And then even shittier still.

When their democracy was threatened, South Koreans rose to the occasion.

More links at Red State Blues and WAHF.

My own posts this week:  the Hunter Biden pardon, some truths and inspirations, and Putin's empire imploding.

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I never knowingly link to "AI"-generated text or "art", but sometimes it's hard to tell.  If you can definitely determine that something I linked to is "AI"-generated, please let me know -- and let me know how you could tell it was "AI".

[Image at top:  Vietnam]

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