Link round-up for 22 February 2025

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

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Something's not quite right about this box.

The teacher sets an example for the students to follow.

She's the strongest girl in the world.

I'll get you yet, you fiend!

It's time to clear away the snow.

This clever new device will keep pedestrians safe while crossing streets.

Bratty kid.....

This is not how a bazooka is supposed to work.

Romance blossoms in the most unlikely places (mildly NSFW).

Always consider the source, especially for unlikely-sounding claims.

Here are some goofy visions of the future as imagined by the past (NSFW blog, requires Blogspot login).

Lady M visits the hometown of Elvira and Lon Chaney.

This kid needs to re-take geography class.

When it's this big, you get the hell out of its way.

I've done all but four of these things, and still do some of them.

The first woman ever to serve as official chef for a French president later faced an even more daunting challenge.

The Bogie Book is a guide to Halloween traditions from a century ago.

This is the coast of Ireland.

These dogs just came home.

Green roofs are cooling the favelas of Brazil, having been adapted for the purpose (they were formerly considered impractical for improvised structures due to weight).

The wingnutized Department of Agriculture "accidentally" fired several employees working on dealing with bird flu, and is now urgently trying to get them back.

One of Musk's SpaceX rockets has crashed in Poland.  It was supposed to land in the Pacific ocean, but evidently it missed slightly.  Details, details.

YouTube's science channels may soon come under threat, but you can help.

The inimitable vlogger Overlord DVD explains why Dr Who may soon be canceled after a run of sixty-two years.  Disney has changed it into something that not even the fans like any more.

Spinoza was a troublemaker.

If you have an Android phone, take a look at it -- it may have just had a censorship/spyware app installed without your knowledge.

The political blogosphere is not the real world.

Here's what "AI" has to say about flies.  If you're using it for anything, this is the level of accuracy you're getting.

Ten years ago this büngwad lost $800 million in bitcoin when his hard drive got thrown away.  Now he's trying to buy the landfill so he can look for it -- as if a hard drive would still be in readable condition after a decade in a landfill.

Artists take note -- Twitter is abusing art that gets posted there.

They're selling us crap-quality fabric compared with what was standard a century ago.

It's monstrous cruelty.

Reddit moderators are facing an uphill battle keeping "AI"-generated garbage off their site.

Nobody has any right to require you to lie.

Atheist Revolution blog is contemplating a shutdown or change of direction.

"So, the evidence doesn't suggest that today's young women are reveling in sexual liberation.  Instead, it suggests that a lot of women are having unpleasant, crappy sex out of a sense of obligation."

A story is circulating that human brains now contain huge amounts of microplastics.  It's not true.

Luigi Mangione and his lawyers have issued statements addressing his supporters.  There's now an informational website on his legal defense.

This pastor wants to "absolutely terrorize" us, and his program would indeed have that effect on most people (found via Red State Blues).

A Democrat has won an Iowa state senate seat for a district Trump carried by 21 points.

Annie Asks You blog finds an inspiringly defiant open letter from Marc Elias to Elon Musk, and a call to action against Trumpist attacks on the Constitutional system.

The spirit of the Nazis lives on, among us today.

The Trump administration has reversed its cancellation of a contract to provide legal aid to migrant children -- another example of how Trump tends to back down if resisted firmly enough.

There are those who are paralyzed with fear and those who organize.  If anyone saves the first group, it will be the second.

Support federal workers.  They need it.  The post has some specifics.  And yes, I do appreciate them -- for keeping my Social Security and Obamacare coming, for all NASA has learned about other worlds, and everything else.  Some are already organizing resistance to Musk's vandalism and have set up a site to spread information about DOGE.

Mormon Church officials allegedly failed to report an ongoing case of child sexual abuse in Oregon and Washington.

AOC's rights-education efforts show how high-profile Democrats can fight back effectively despite the supposed powerlessness of minority status in Congress.  If you're checkmated by the system, go outside and around the system, via public channels or whatever is appropriate.

Sorry, billionaires, majorities of Americans want you taxed more and want the government to do more to reduce inequality.

Read the brave and truth-filled words of Big Bill Haywood, a hero from a century ago.

Republican congresscritters are getting an earful from angry voters.  With enough pressure, they'll realize that kowtowing to Musk and Trump will actually hurt their re-election chances.

This Alabama town's police department faces accusations of shocking corruption.

A retired air traffic controller is strongly concerned about the impact of Musk's random firings at the FAA.

Here's the truth behind the rubbish about 150-year-old Social Security recipients and "$4.7 trillion unaccounted for".  FFS these people are idiots.  Here's another silly lie exposed.

The governor of Wisconsin has a solid plan for cracking down on health insurance companies.

On this one issue, please give Musk and Trump exactly what they want.

"AI" is likely the future of porn, with both good and bad implications.

It's time to put a stop to this kind of abuse.

The Oklahoma legislature has rejected a set of proposed Christian-supremacist laws.

A claim is circulating that the "full mobilization" of just 3.5% of the population virtually guarantees success to a social movement, but this claim comes with a lot of caveats.  It sounds very odd to me.  What if you have two opposing movements which each mobilize 3.5% of the people?  That can't be unusual.

Here's some info on ketamine, allegedly Elon Musk's drug of choice.

Why didn't the Democrats codify Roe vs Wade?  Here's why.

A Missouri judge has blocked the abortion restrictions that the state government kept in place despite the state's voter-approved abortion-rights amendment.  But the assholes never stop.

The economy is already stalling due to consumer concerns about the effects of Trump's tariffs and Musk randomly buggering things up.

This incident was bad, but needs some clarification.

Well-targeted boycotts are a form of action every person can participate in.  This post recommends targeting Tesla and Florida.  A solid Tesla boycott would hit Musk hard.

The billionaire-owned MSM grovel before Trump and Musk.  The Washington Post even turned down $115,000 to run an anti-Musk ad (although that means far more people have now seen it than would have if they'd accepted it).  A free press is supposed to be a bulwark of democracy, but the oligarch-owned media refuse to fulfill that role.

Work-from-home federal employees being dragged back to offices find that those offices don't have enough space or resources for them.

The resistance is winning many battles, with lawyers, not Democratic politicians, taking the lead.  Judges are taking action to rein in Musk and Trump.  Following one court order, the administration has now restored several CDC webpages which it had taken down.

The abusive treatment of Luigi Mangione is a form of class war, meant to assert the supposed superior value of the lives of the parasite class.

Executive orders have their limits.

Trump is repeating his first-term pattern of picking fights with fellow democracies, pointlessly insulting and quarreling with Canada, Mexico, and various European countries.  He's already got Canadians booing the US national anthem, and now the other way round.  Who benefits from this?  Only Putin and Xi.

In Australia, frightening anti-Jewish hate is appearing in the medical profession, with support from nationwide Muslim organizations.

Danes are making fun of Trump.

Ukraine looks to Europe to help it keep defending itself, with the US potentially out of the picture.  Europe is planning a huge €700 billion defense package to help Ukraine and oppose Russia generally.

After eighty straight days, protests against Russian domination still continue in Georgia.

The ICC's absurd "arrest warrant" for Netanyahu was based on false information.

Hamas cannot even release hostages without imposing some final degradation.

Israel needs to stop tolerating the intolerable.

Afghanistan's Taliban regime is becoming divided over just how badly to oppress women.

More links at Red State Blues, WAHF, and Chop Wood Carry Water.

My posts this week:  an image round-up, a new Lone Animator video, and a mini-post about the lack of real posts.

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The person who cannot say "no" to his own appetites can never be truly free.

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If it were a fascist government, you would be immediately arrested for calling it one.

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Science and literature and philosophy are nutrition.  Deep and rational thinking does not come naturally.  We all need help to achieve it.