Link round-up for 14 June 2025

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

o o o o o

An alpaca is mostly just fluff.

A son managed to help his father despite enforced absence.

Faces, faces everywhere!

The spectators must have been a bit startled.

If this is some sort of new fashion trend, I don't understand it.

For Friday the 13th, Lady M has a few spooky images.

The muppets invade Hitchcock's The Birds.

This is more frogs than anyone really needs.

The waitress gets an enthusiastic reception when she delivers the meal.

Whatever the hell this person is doing, don't try it at home.

This is the Dettifoss waterfall in Iceland.

Japanese scientists have developed a form of plastic that dissolves in seawater, breaking down into nutrients for oceanic bacteria instead of becoming permanent pollution.

Some parts of the US have much higher rates of dementia than others.  The worst areas aren't very surprising, given the overall health issues there.

Moderate caffeine intake protects against several dangerous health conditions.  (If drinking tea makes you live longer, I'm probably immortal.)

It's now the fiftieth anniversary of the European Space Agency, an institution more important than ever now that the Trumpazoids are buggering up NASA.

Despite Elon Musk's fantasies, we can't colonize Mars.

YouTube is getting so clogged up with "AI"-generated fake music that some posters are marking their playlists as "no AI" to reassure viewers.

What these dogs do looks amusing -- until you think of humans who would do the same.

Parents are not reading to their children as much as in the past.

ChatGPT tried playing chess and got trounced by an Atari toy from 1977.

Always delete the tracking junk from your links.

"AI" is now even ruining creative-writing groups.

This kind of thing is why people wish the universe was just.

Sounds tasty.

"Me, me, me, me, me!"

The internet needs to be less shitty.

This is just gross.  What the hell was she thinking?

The mere act of being an asshole to the community does not constitute "protest".

Wikipedia has stopped doing "AI" summaries of articles after editors rebelled.  See the comments too.

These nasal and baby swabs are being recalled due to dangerous fungal contamination.

"The keynote will not promise exciting new products, because there aren't any, and last year's still don't work."

US imports are plummeting as tariffs begin to bite.

Yet another asshole billionaire CEO had no clue how much people hate "AI".

Pundits ignore what Democratic leaders are doing to resist Trumpism because they're too committed to the narrative that no one is doing anything (link from Marc McKenzie).

The tech media need to cover "AI" more honestly.

Americans are migrating into the areas most at risk from climate change.

"Today's influencers do not follow justice, they follow the camera."

It's all about class, always.

MSN posted an obituary written by "AI".  It went about as well as you'd expect.

Protests bring about the release of a family abducted by ICE.

Some people actually understand and value education.

My state is trying to fend off the corporatization of healthcare.

One-quarter of Catholic and mainline protestant clergy believe Adam and Eve really existed.  Seriously.  In the twenty-first century.  And among evangelicals it's even higher.

DOGE used "AI" to assess Veterans Affairs contracts, canceling hundreds of them on the basis of completely wrong information.

Some people believe murder is OK so long as the victims are of a certain ethnicity.

"Isn't it fucking weird how hard it is to do anything?  Don't you remember when it was easier?"

The launch of Tesla's robotaxi system has predictably been delayed.

CEOs are creating "AI" avatars of themselves, which spout the usual bewildering gibberish at underlings.

Almost a quarter of the workers in my state are working only part-time, but they are still counted as employed -- which is why unemployment statistics don't capture the real picture.

Most leading Congressional Republicans don't plan to attend Trump's tacky parade.  The TV MSM won't be giving it much coverage either, relegating it to streaming.

Snopes assesses a widely-circulated claim that "seat fillers" are being hired for the Trump parade.

Blogger Johnny Profane is suspicious about why all of that military hardware is being assembled in Washington.

The Cybertruck reminds us that Elon Musk is just as incompetent in his chosen field as in government.

Almost as painful as the recent wave of anti-Semitic attacks is the silence of those who should be speaking up.  I can't help noticing that, when other bloggers take images from my "truths and inspirations" posts and repost them, they never repost any of the ones denouncing anti-Semitism.

"You wouldn't be a rabbit."

Don't fall for anti-voting propaganda.

Congress voices its support for Israel's attack on Iran's missiles and nuclear program.  Schumer speaks out.

As if people didn't already hate car dealerships enough, some of them are now replacing their phone customer service people with "AI" bots.

You shouldn't uncritically believe everything you read.

Blogger Annie assesses the situation in Los Angeles and the importance of the No Kings rallies.

If you go to a protest, take precautions.

Kirsten Gillibrand gets it -- the Democrats must drop all the boutique culture-war nonsense and get back in tune with mainstream voters.

"Sometimes, you can only fight fire with fire."

It's all a matter of whose ox is being gored.

A dingbat billionaire is doing the usual "private equity" thing of buying functional businesses, looting them, and dumping the carcasses -- but with an "AI" smokescreen.

Are we really a civilized society when this can happen?

Some in the right-wing blogosphere are preparing for the No Kings rallies, in their own way.

He's got trophies -- from a bathroom.

Elon Musk's departure from the government was a victory for mass resistance.

There is evil among us.

Imane Khelif's leaked DNA test proves what everybody actually damn well knew all along.

Eight states are considering legislation to ban something that doesn't exist.

These guys have the worst flags.  Don't take any bullshit from them.

The surge in anti-Semitic violence just highlights why Israel needs to exist.

RFK Jr has fired all the vaccine experts on the CDC's immunization advisory panel, presumably so they can be replaced with anti-vaccine quacks.  Public health experts are alarmed.

"That's weak man behavior."

Some of our politicians still refuse to recognize that the slogan "free Palestine" -- a call for the destruction of Israel and the death of millions of Jews -- is anti-Semitic.

These people are full of monstrous, stygian evil to the very depths of their dead, rotting souls.

Hegseth is grossly unsuited to his position.

The abuser's feelings are more important than his victims.

Now that the administration is desperately trying to re-hire essential workers DOGE got rid of, not everybody even wants to come back.

This is the Nova music festival site today.

I agree with Bannon here.  If SpaceX and Starlink are so vital to the national interest, then they should not be under the control of one private individual, especially one as selfish, stupid, and impulsive as Musk.

The US manufacturing sector, which Trump claimed tariffs would revive, is actually suffering the most damage from them.

A real patriot doesn't flee to some foreign tax haven.

The High Court of England and Wales promises serious punishments to lawyers who use "AI" to write their briefs.

"Nothing I can say about the violent, fetishistic narcissism at the heart of trans activism is half as persuasive as what trans activists say themselves."

A French legislator has a message for Americans (scroll down for the English version).

Tesla owners in France are suing the company for turning their cars into "extreme right" symbols.

Macron backs down on recognition of a fatuous "Palestinian state".

An informant uncovers a conspiracy to poison hundreds of Israelis at a festival in Portugal -- but the authorities are unresponsive.  More here.

Drone hits Russian mobile air-defense system -- kaboom!

Drones keep getting the job done.

Russian soldiers who get wounded are treated like shit by their own officers.

Kazakhstan is supposedly a Russian client state -- but has just signed a military cooperation agreement with the UK.  Abandoning the sinking ship?

"Brave people of Iran, your light will defeat the darkness" -- Bibi Netanyahu.

The perpetually-irritating Greta Thunberg made a fool of herself with the "selfie yacht" publicity stunt.

The protests against Hamas in Gaza are so persistent that even the MSM are starting to notice.

This is the true face of Hamas.

Several major countries (and the corrupt, anti-Semitic UN) are still stuck in pre-October-7 fantasies of a "two-state solution" -- which would only be a stepping stone to a second Holocaust.

India and the UK are discussing closer cooperation against terrorism.  All democracies need to work together to defeat jihadism.

From 2012 to 2022, the proportion of India's population below the "extreme poverty" line fell from 27.1% to 5.3%, lifting more than a quarter-billion people out of poverty.  Unfortunately, in Pakistan the trend is in just the opposite direction.

More links at Red State Blues and WAHF.

My posts this week:  some truths and inspirations, and a science-fiction novel review.

[Image at top:  explosions in Tehran during the Israeli attack]

o o o o o

Reminder:  If you can publicly call the government of the country you are in "fascist" and not get arrested, it probably isn't fascist.

o o o o o

Obviously the arrest of senator Padilla must be condemned, but I don't understand why roughing up a senator is considered more shocking than roughing up a plumber or a bus driver.  "No kings", remember?  Congresscritters (and presidents) are bureaucratic functionaries, not exalted personages more sacrosanct than the rest of us.

o o o o o

o o o o o

This place makes the Trump administration look like a model of competence and efficiency:


Ukraine struck an awesome blow in defense of the democratic world:


Russia is totally buggered -- the Ukraine war is just speeding up the inevitable: