Link round-up for 3 May 2025

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

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Here are some examples of grave humor.

This probably sells well in certain parts of the country.

Good question.

Here's what happens when you put a red-hot metal ball in a glass of aloe vera gel (definitely put the sound on).

Learn from the wisdom of cats.

Riding standing up in a crowded bus can create certain problems.

A vicious brawl ends with the triumphant winner gloating.

This is the most unethical possible way to film an ad.

To catch fish, use the right kind of bait.

A petty thief gets pwned by a shopkeeper.

This is the Elbphilarmonie, an unusual building in Hamburg, Germany.

Here's a wide variety of Venetian doors.

Danishes and croissants both originated in the same country (found via Silverapplequeen).

Lady M observes Hexennacht, with tariff-free home-made decorations and a bit of protest.

Alaska is seriously big.

"I have never seen it.  But deep in my body, I remember it."  I love this.

Three teenagers in India have invented a mini-refrigerator that needs neither electric current nor a battery.  It works via the chemical cooling effect which certain types of salt produce when dissolved in water.

A blood test costing only £5 can identify people at risk of heart attack long before the attack happens.

There are posts going around claiming that medieval peasants were freer and worked less than modern people.  It's absolute nonsense.

Nice image round-up here (some political).

Here are some sources for movies on DVD.

Sinners, an original vampire movie (that is, it's not a sequel, remake, reboot, etc) is sweeping away all competition at the box office.  Director Ryan Coogler's unusual deal with the studio could set a new precedent undermining the entire sclerotic status quo in Hollywood.

If you post art online, post on many different platforms.  You never know when your favorite art site will get shitted up with ads, "AI", censorship, etc.

Here's a tip for getting better results from Google searches -- but it's still better to use a different search engine.

As sanity returns, never forget all the people who were hurt, and the people who hurt them (found via Silverapplequeen).

Collection of political images here.

Blogger Annie is acrostically aggravated with Trump.

Everyone must be held to the same standard.

Religion is really stupid (NSFW blog, requires Blogspot login).

God is too short-tempered and easily triggered.

Julia Butterfly Hill went all out to save the trees.

Different places have different standards.

Here's a database of pro-Trump and religio-wingnut businesses; it's meant for people who support them, but would be equally useful for boycotting them.  It doesn't seem very user-friendly, unfortunately.

Meta's "Ray-Ban" (whatever the hell that is) is disabling users' ability to opt out of having their voice recordings stored on "the cloud".  They want to use such recordings to train "AI".

There's soon going to be a new spyware browser to avoid.

Smartphones are vulnerable to "choicejacking" attacks which enable hackers to steal data or run malware on them without the user clicking on anything.

No, generative "AI" is not analogous to earlier innovations like books and calculators that helped us avoid mental work.  It's dangerous in a far more fundamental way, partly because it so often gives inaccurate information.

Here are step-by-step instructions for disabling the "Recall" spyware feature of Windows 11.

Some tips here if you want to leak information to a journalist.

Nan's Notebook blog invites a discussion on the death penalty.

The Cybertruck is one of the biggest flops in the history of cars.

Twenty-five years after we eliminated measles via vaccines, the US is at risk of it becoming endemic again if current lowered vaccination rates persist.  And misinformation is making things worse, especially among right-leaning parents.

Tech workers used to be one of the few categories of US workers with the power to defend their rights even without unions.  The bosses have managed to destroy that power.  All workers are natural allies in the class war.

The Alabama state senate has failed to pass a bill requiring the state to call the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America".

They really buggered up the lettering on pope Francis's tomb (found via Miss Cellania).

Amazon had planned to do something good for a change, listing tariff costs as a separate line item on its invoices to show customers how much tariffs are adding to item prices.  So of course Trump threw a tantrum and Bezos canceled the plan.

Starbucks admits that cutting workers in favor of automation has failed, and will be reversing course.

Lee Gelernt is an influential lawyer fighting for migrants targeted for deportation.

Trump backs down, restoring funding for a women's health survey and full visa rights for almost five thousand foreign students, and signing a resource agreement with Ukraine that includes almost nothing he had demanded.  The Trumpazoids have also backed down on creating a registry of people with autism, now claiming they never planned to, which contradicts an earlier statement.

Some Holocaust survivors are finding the present situation in the US frighteningly reminiscent of the early days of Nazism.

Americans aged 18 to 21 lean Republican by 12 points; they chafe at things like cancel culture, campus speech codes, and trans ideology, which are associated with the left.  They also have a bigger political gender gap than any other age cohort.

Spoiled brat throws tantrum.  Sounds like a spanking is in order.

Trump just announced that any country which buys oil from Iran "will not be allowed to do business with the United States of America in any way, shape, or form".  90% of Iran's oil exports are bought by China.

This mayor exists.

"What we Democrats have been saying shows people that we haven't been listening.  And that's unforgivable."

Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein's victims, has died -- apparently by suicide, something she recently declared she would never do.

Mack Trucks is cutting production in the US and laying off workers, due to the uncertainties created by tariffs.

Video here from May Day anti-Trump protests all across the country.  About a thousand people turned out here in Portland.  Robert Reich assesses the state of the resistance.

A claim is circulating on the internet that the governor of Maine has threatened to withhold federal taxes if Trump cuts off funding to the state.  It's not true.

Holy shit, RFK Jr doesn't believe in germ theory, the most important foundation of medical science since the nineteenth century.  This is literally on the same level as flat-earthism, except that it's a lot more dangerous.

52% of Americans view Trump as a dangerous dictator.  Even 17% of Republicans do.

I haven't verified this horrifying story, but these days, it's all too easy to believe.

Vaccine experts and medical leaders are launching a new initiative to counter the ignorant nonsense emanating from the government under Trump and RFK Jr.

Don't listen to posh upper-class men whose class background insulates them from any exposure to the problems of ordinary people.

On my recent post referencing Pete Buttigieg, one commenter asked if he shares the obsession with identity politics which has so crippled and corrupted the Democratic party in general.  Here's a comprehensive overview of Buttigieg's political views.  Most of this looks sensible and mainstream to me.  Aside from his correctly pointing out that Trump is one of today's worst perpetrators of identity politics, I see no mention of the topic.

Yes, the bosses would work people to death if there were nothing to stop them.

The NYT stands up to Trump.

These Republicans want to designate vaccines as weapons of mass destruction.  They've gone completely bonkers.

The government is ending a program that has saved twenty thousand veterans from losing their homes.

RFK Jr wants to replace Narcan with platitudes (link from reader Chief Squirrel).

Poverty is a political choice.

The Trumpified FDA is poised to bugger up the process for quickly approving updated seasonal covid vaccines, which would render the country more vulnerable to renewed outbreaks.

If you seek medical help in Tennessee, you'd better hope you don't get a doctor whose religion has some random taboo on whatever kind of treatment you need.

There will need to be trials for crimes such as this.

86% of Americans oppose the US trying to take control of Canada, 76% oppose trying to take control of Greenland, and 80% oppose Trump running for a third term.  Even among Republicans, only minorities support those things.

This Catholic priest declares that Francis was not a true pope and that therefore all the cardinals he appointed (who are about 80% of those eligible to elect the new pope) are not real cardinals; he calls for the remaining 20% not appointed by Francis to hold a separate conclave to elect a legitimate pope.  I would love it if this really happened.  Just imagine two rival popes from opposite ideological camps, each of them claiming to be the only real one and excommunicating the other and his supporters.  It would take them ages to straighten out that mess.

If the conclave elects a "heretic" (that is, a liberal, non-godhatesfagsian type) as pope, many traditionalist Catholics may not acknowledge him as pope.  Such traditionalists are a minority among Catholics in the US and Europe, but an overwhelming majority in Africa and probably in Latin America.

This is harassment and these men need to be arrested.

65% of Americans view ties with Israel as important.

Here are some of the problems being caused by tariffs on China.  Most of these won't go away quickly even if the tariffs are revoked, due to the uncertainty that has been created.  Empty shelves and business failures lie ahead.

Target's business is being substantially damaged due a boycott by customers unhappy with its rejection of DEI.  Obviously I don't agree with DEI, but this is another example of how a properly-organized boycott can be an effective means of exerting pressure even on a large corporation.

Americans need to be more aware of how healthcare works in other countries.

Trump has ruined the US relationship with Canada, but there's still hope for the future.

Indigenous Indian leaders in Alberta accuse the provincial premier of fomenting secessionism from Canada, which she denies.  25% to 30% of Albertans have secessionist leanings.

The rights of crime victims are more important than somebody's fantasy "identity".

"We shall burn you as Hitler did, but this time we won't have a single one of you left."

Richard Dawkins believes apologies are in order.

It's important to understand the true nature of the enemy.

Some people are disgusted by the Supreme Court ruling.

More than 95% of the drones used by Ukraine in the war are now Ukrainian-made.  The country's weapons industry is highly capable.

The US will sell $50 million worth of "defense articles" to Ukraine, the first such deal since Trump took office.

Russian troops are charging into battle using random vehicles like golf carts and scooters, suggesting that their supply of regular armored vehicles is nearing exhaustion.

A new Russian satellite believed to be part of a space-weapons system has suffered a critical malfunction, reducing the danger to our own satellites.

Lindsey Graham says there's overwhelming support in the Senate for "bone-crushing" sanctions on Russia and countries that support it.

See the total destruction of a $45 million Russian air-defense system.

Mistakes are inevitable in any war, but civilized armies -- unlike their barbarian opponents -- take accountability for them.

Israel's oldest Holocaust survivor has died.

36,000 Gazans have left the Strip since Hamas started the current war with Israel, and many more would leave if they were free to.

The toll from the huge explosion at Iran's port of Bandar Abbas has risen to at least 70 killed, 1,200 injured, massive destruction, and 57% of Iran's total loading/unloading capacity knocked out.  Unconfirmed reports suggest the cause was mishandling of Chinese fuel shipped to Iran for use in missiles.

Pakistan depends on India for much of its water, and the latter is now threatening to cut it off due in the wake of the jihadist terror attack in Kashmir.

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

My posts this week:  Buttigieg shows how it's done, an image round-up, and videos for Hexennacht.

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If anyone needs an extra reason to celebrate Hexennacht, April 30 is also the date on which Hitler shot himself in 1945.

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The main feeling I get while reading many Tumblr blogs is profound thankfulness that the internet didn't exist when I was in my twenties, so that all the absolute nonsense I used to believe back then wasn't permanently recorded for people now to find.  Today's young people will one day wish they'd been so lucky.

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Tip:  If you're concerned about food safety after DOGE has buggered up government food inspection systems, consider shopping at kosher or halal stores.  They have their own food standards managed by religious authorities, independently of the government, which should protect against many forms of contamination.

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Many have drawn inspiration from recent escalations of Democratic politicians' rhetoric against Trump, but it's important to remember that none of that is doing as much concrete good for the American people as Schumer and a few allies did back in mid-March by voting to deny Elon Musk the government shutdown he declared he wanted, which would have made life even more desperately difficult for millions of already-struggling people, and would have helped Musk and Trump tear down the federal government even faster.  It was the prog fringe that stood shoulder to shoulder with Musk, demanding that Senate Democrats vote against the spending bill and subject the country to the disastrous shutdown.  Remember that, when you read about radical insurgents attacking or primarying "establishment" Democrats.  Not all radicals are working for the good of the people.  Some are, but some just want to "fight" and smash things regardless of who gets hurt.

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More Chinese civil engineering.  I doubt there's another country on the planet where quality standards are as godawful as this (more here and here).  Any claim that this ridiculous ratshit garbage dump of a country is a serious competitor to the West is simply laughable.