Link round-up for 29 November 2025
If you like a blog post I link to here, remember to leave a supportive comment on that post as well as (or instead of) here. That way you can be sure the blogger will see it.
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The cat scores!
Ikea has the perfect gift for your favorite junkie.
These cats have things their own way.
When this happens, you know it's too cold.
Don't try this at home. Or anywhere.
He's a non-conformist.
You may like this zany battle on planet Insomnia.
Even the trains in Canada are cooler than here.
Fear the wrath of mommy cat.
This is the Inca city of Machu Picchu in Perú (NSFW blog, requires Blogspot login).
Eating more fruits and vegetables will help you sleep better.
Drinking three to four cups of coffee per day can slow down aging.
How do you justify relying on science?
Bird flu is killing seals. I wonder if there's a seal flu that can kill birds.
Language and intelligence are not the same, which is why the "AI" we have now is not a step toward actual artificial intelligence.
Doctors at a London hospital worked with car racing pit-stop teams to improve their procedures.
Don't try to turn your passion into a job.
How popular is Harry Potter?
Some companies are now using "AI" in video games, resulting in games so bad that customers are demanding refunds.
At last, we've found a use for birds.
"I wasn't born under a star named rage."
Work, work, work.....
Don't get scammed on health insurance.
Keep your money in an actual bank or credit union, not in some "app" or retailer-sponsored system.
There was a side of Elizabeth Taylor you may not know.
Don't trust quotations you find on the internet unless you fact-check them. They are often inaccurate. And as always, especially fact-check things that you want to believe are true.
There is now a support group for people suffering mental breakdowns from using chatbots, and their family members.
Let's look at the lives of oppressed people.
The "Trump Mobile" phone was supposed to be released this August. There's still no sign of it.
You can get good results from "AI" -- by not actually using "AI".
Do not give your kid this teddy bear.
This is a story of colonization and decolonization.
The border patrol is spying on American drivers and stopping and even arresting those whose driving patterns it deems suspicious.
South Korea carried out a huge experiment with "AI"-generated school textbooks. The result was an abject failure.
Plain honest language will set you free.
The expensive hardware in all those "AI" data centers is degrading very rapidly from overuse and becoming obsolete.
A bizarre cult is teaching women to give birth with no medical help. It's very dangerous -- the medical knowledge and technology we have now was developed for solid reasons. Before that, childbirth was a leading cause of death for women.
Our country is addicted to a dangerous sport.
"We will remember who opened the door."
A now-fired safety engineer is suing the robotics company at which he formerly worked, alleging serious negligence of safety issues.
Christian theology is an incoherent mess.
Microsoft is turning Windows 11 into an "AI"-infested nightmare. Most users appear to be unhappy.
A thousand-year-old letter shows how history repeats familiar themes.
Women are being legally punished for challenging men.
Changes in Trump's speech patterns from 2015 to 2024 show signs of serious mental deterioration.
Public resistance has stopped construction of a data center in northern Michigan.
Asshole bosses can make a company sound and operate like a cult.
Several states are acting to protect our right to pay in cash at stores.
Trump thinks he can speed up scientific progress using "AI".
A Russian priest preaches female subjugation. Note that the Bible does indeed say "let the woman learn in silence with all subjection" and "for the husband is the head of the wife". The evil here is the Bible itself -- this is not some specifically Russian aberration.
Yeesh, that brain worm really messed him up.
This data center in Louisiana is already wreaking havoc on local people, and it isn't even fully built yet.
Everyone is susceptible to propaganda, but.....
Some Oregon cities are turning off their traffic cameras to make sure they can't be used by ICE to help abduct people.
Meta's track record on child safety is appalling.
You can't trust the media.
Many private schools in Alabama push junk education.
US customers are unhappier than ever before, as customer service degenerates into a shithole of automation and chatbots in which it's getting harder and harder to reach an actual person.
The biggest rental-housing company in the US has been fined seven million dollars for using an anti-competitive price-fixing algorithm. It's better than nothing, but I'm not sure a fine that size means much to such a huge company.
An Ohio journalist contrasts his state with Singapore.
"They present themselves as friends to the Arabs but in reality they're just enemies to the Jews."
Break free from mind control. Interrupt the loop. Anything that stops the endless scroll is a win.
Elon Musk's "AI" supercomputer presents a national-security risk -- and similar risks may extend to our whole power grid.
63% of Americans support Medicare for all.
Large-scale software projects routinely fail disastrously as management repeats the same mistakes over and over. Some of these failures have led to people being falsely accused of crimes, even punished for things that never happened.
Rand Paul is warning Trump that invading Venezuela would turn the MAGA movement against him. This actually seems plausible -- many of Trump's supporters voted for him because he promised to keep the US out of foreign military involvements. 70% of Americans oppose an attack on Venezuela.
In 2024 I posted about the plan to re-introduce dangerous wolves into the ranching country of western Colorado, a move opposed by the local people but forced on them by voters in the urban parts of the state who would never have to suffer the consequences of it themselves. Now, two years on, the program looks like a disaster, with the transplanted wolves dropping dead left and right and costs over budget by millions (what the hell are they doing, flying the damn things to Colorado first class and putting them up at the Ritz?). The locals haven't even needed to shoot them.
The venture capitalists and CEOs who have the most to lose when the "AI" bubble collapses are desperately trying to convince us (and maybe themselves too) that it isn't a bubble and that there's a viable industry here. In fact, the "industry" mostly consists of companies circulating the same money round and round among themselves so everybody can claim to be getting revenue. "True end demand is ridiculously small. Almost all customers are funded by their dealers."
And yes, when the bubble collapses, "AI" will mostly disappear from everyday life. Good riddance.
Reminder: it would be almost impossible to purge the Epstein files of incriminating material.
Santa Fe NM has passed a law linking future minimum wage increases to housing costs, not just to meaningless official inflation figures.
"These perverted men want to be in female spaces. There's no euphoria boner to be had in the third category."
Elon Musk spreads neo-Nazi ideas online and supports the murderous tyrant who rules Saudi Arabia. The post also has reports on what other billionaires are up to. You really need to be reading this blog regularly.
ICE agents are apparently not trained to recognize tribal ID cards.
Insurers are trying to avoid covering "AI"-related damage, since "AI" technology's constant random errors and the associated costs are so unpredictable.
Orthodox churches on the US are attracting a lot of young men, but it's not actually a positive for those churches.
After wasting millions of dollars and pointlessly disrupting essential services, DOGE is finally gone. The government is still trying to assess and repair the damage it did.
There are shortages of skilled workers everywhere, for some mysterious reason.
Canada's supreme court has re-affirmed the criminalization of most aspects of sex work, ignoring the pleas of sex workers and perpetuating a dangerous environment for them.
A new health-care law in Québec is driving doctors out of the province.
The British military is now testing a high-powered laser to shoot down drones, a far cheaper alternative to anti-drone missiles.
Germany is suffering a surge in violence against women.
Security forces in European countries, with the aid of the Mossad, have thwarted several jihadist terrorist plots.
Russia's youth counterculture opposes the regime and the Ukraine war. It's hard to assess how much support this actually has among the broad mass of young people, though. Since that post, Loginova has gotten out of jail and fled the country.
The number of Israeli citizens with gun licenses has more than doubled since the October 7 attack. People want to be able to fight back if such a thing happens again.
Contrary to what the Western MSM report, Israel is becoming more valued by its Middle Eastern neighbors as a partner against jihadism and the Iranian theocracy.
Japan has placed medium-range missiles on a Japanese island less than seventy miles from Taiwan, to help deter a Chinese invasion of that nation.
Kim Jong Un has reportedly ordered North Korean soldiers in Russia to blow themselves up rather than surrender.
Air pollution in Delhi is becoming unendurable. This will soon be the world's largest metro area. India needs to make sure that it remains habitable.
Paternity tests are now all the rage in Uganda, often with disquieting results.
More links at Red State Blues, WAHF, and Comedy Plus.
My posts this week: some truths and inspirations, and the dangers of our country's skyrocketing inequality.
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"That's part of what Democrats can do to win in the areas that have been slipping away. Another is to start talking like normal human beings again. We're not going to win the messaging battle if we say that Trump's policies make people 'food insecure.' No, they make people hungry. Kentucky was hit hard by the opioid epidemic. I didn't lose a friends and acquaintances to 'substance use disorder'; I lost them to addiction."
Kentucky governor Andy Beshear
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"Ultimatums don't make people re-think their politics. They make them re-think you."
In recent years millions of Chinese escaped dire poverty by migrating to cities, but now the crumbling economy is forcing them back:
posted by Infidel753 at 12:38 AM
9 Comments:
Long reply - two-parter...
- “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life!” I did that for a while. I became a Licensed Massage Therapist and had a private practice for about 14 years. I loved the positive energy that came from a session; repairing something in a client that had been bothering them. I loved it. At the peak, I had a dozen or so steady clients. I was still working a full time corporate job (more on that later), and my practice was the perfect balance to the stress of the day job. BUT… in the end, it was work. The overhead to ensure the linens were washed, the studio was set up, that I remained on top of my required training and certifications. It was fine through my early 50’s, but I came to realize that… age was a bitch. That eventually an hour-long session meant several days of physical recovery. Finally, the body just said “Enough.” and I closed up the practice and let my license expire. I never made a living from massage; it was only “pin” money. It would never have brought in an income to cover things like the mortgage (my studio was in our home) or utilities. I know therapists who maintain their practices into their 60’s and 70’s, but like me back then, that is just one minor facet of their activity. The ONLY thing that falls into the category of “Do what you love…” is retirement, but even this has hit some roadblocks. Who knew that keeping house and cooking every f-ing meal would feel like a soul-crushing chore?
- Loved the Kalvin & Hobbs!
- I am also surprised by the number of people who live on Apple Pay and Venmo! The article is correct; if any of those services go away, so does their money. Much like cryptocurrency, too! I think part of the drive away from banking is the realized predatory nature of financial institutions like Bank of America, JPMC and the like. My heart breaks when I see the “infomercials” that run here, especially during the times of the Special Olympics, where they show BoA managers instructing special needs populations on the benefits of banking with them. All I can see is the bank grabbing their money in the “special fees” for everything from cashing a check to ATM use. All I see are nothing but fucking vultures finding another group to prey on. I have been using credit unions for 30+ years now; never a problem and everything is always up front.
Part two...
- Finally… the disasters of large scale software projects. In my final years in cyber security, I became versed in the cloud computing. Everyone wanted to push their IT into the clouds! Offload server farms and having to have dedicated data centers. Cloud! Cloud! Cloud! I wore two hats at that time; management and programmer. And I attended a cloud conference. At the conference, they had two tracks; a management track and a programming track. I planned my itinerary to cover as much as I could. The “management” track were all the upper managers sitting in a banquet hall, listening to “Glorious tales!” of how MUCH MONEY they will save by offloading their data centers to cloud services! Glossy presentations and platitudes that made every manager and instant fanboy of cloud. Then I went to the programming track. They had working demonstration of “how cloud code works!” on the Jumbotron. And I am watching these programming “leaders” – code jockeys - blasting code out; hundreds of lines, no… documentation… even within the code. Just… slop. Note - by this time, I had over 30 years in coding to know shit code when I saw it, and that was all shit code. One of the programmers was running his code remotely on his companies servers, and crashed the server (while we were all watching). Well, my leadership didn’t want to hear that. On return, my leadership ONLY wanted to hear about the “Glorious Tales!” as they had already bought the licensing for cloud services AND hired in a handful of those code jockeys to get everything set up. My peers were all seasoned IT professionals who (at that time) worked to support the company. The code jockeys were not. They pushed out crap code, made something somewhere else come on line, updated their resumes, took the checks and bailed… leaving me and the rest of my peers to clean up the shit in their wake. Where the “Glorious Tales!” painted a picture of “fast, agile programming!”, it took YEARS to unravel and fix the mess. Then leadership bought into shifting the coding development over to “Agile Programming” teams, whose sole purpose was to provide cloud code through daily team meetings. Huzzah. Up to the time I retired, I don’t think they delivered on line of functional code – but were reorganized four ways from Sunday “to improve their productivity”. I took my retirement check and never looked back. This is also why will never... ever trust AI. I know the people responsible for the code.
Ok. I didn't see the inclusion of my spoken word coming. Thank you my friend.
Stay weird. Stay fierce. Stay alive.
We need you.
Not sure if more fruits and vegetables have helped me sleep better but I'm weird and always have nightmares.
The younger generation use the electronic payment apps a lot more than banks. I know I've tried to get my daughter to use a bank and she doesn't see the point.
Being in a hospital to give birth is the only way to go. I wouldn't take advice from free birthers or those saying to give birth anywhere other than a hospital. What if something bad happens. My daughter was born from a C-section and she almost died.
The fact that some people are having a hard time paying in cash is crazy. I haven't had any problem paying in cash but I also don't go to many places.
Thanks, always, for the shout-out. I, too, liked the Calvin & Hobbs. And all of the little movies.
Rade: Unfortunately, as soon as you're doing something for money that was previously just for fun, everything changes. You're no longer doing it just as you like it, you have to do it to fit the requirements of whoever's paying you. And almost anything will become a chore when you have to do too much of it.
It never occurred to me that some people keep large amounts of money in payment service accounts. I can see why people don't like banks, but at least they're regulated and insured. And as you say, credit unions are different. I've been at a credit union for fourteen years now and the service is much better, plus there have been none of the weird mistakes that banks used to make. And since credit unions are typically local, the customer service people are usually American and can actually understand what you're saying.
Your cloud story seems to affirm my own view that business management, like politics, just doesn't attract the best people. The top executives spend so much time surrounded by toadies who are afraid to contradict them that they start to think of themselves as infallible, things become true just because they want them to be true, and trying to correct them is malignant or subversive. Just like politicians, especially the authoritarian ones. Business leaders are probably more insulated from reality than politicians in a democracy are. It's easy to see how management people like those you describe would funnel billions upon billions of investment dollars into "AI" when just about everybody else can see that it doesn't work.
Johnny: Thanks for the post. I hope the link got you a few extra views.
And thank you for the kind words. It means a lot.
Mary: I suspect any nightmares are more to do with the stresses imposed by that awful neighborhood you live in. Many of the inhabitants are fruits and vegetables in their way.
If there's a credit union in your area, you might try to get your daughter to use that. In my experience they're more reliable than banks and give better service, and they have all the same insurance and protection as banks. If a bank or credit union goes out of business, you will still get your money back, but if Venmo or Paypal shuts down, any money in it is just gone.
We developed all this medical technology and knowledge because so many people died of so many things before we had it. It's crazy to refuse to make use of it when it's available.
There's something of a drive on among some companies and miscellaneous nutcases to achieve a "cashless society". That would mean every single transaction you make could be monitored. It seems to be only a minority of retailers, though.
Ricko: Thanks for the pictures, they were interesting.
Once again, thanks for this list of news and factoids--it's always great to wake up on Sunday mornings and read these.
--The "Free Birth" movement has to be one of the most terrifying things I've read about. And once again, the people pushing it have rejected real science in favor of...well, bullshit. And women and their children are suffering for it.
--The article on the British laser weapon was fascinating! Talk about science fiction becoming science fact....I still remember as a child reading about the SDI program but it is interesting to see that 40 years later a practical laser intercept system is possible.
--Good point on comparing the AI craze to the 3D movie craze. Frankly, the only 3D movies that truly impressed me were the first two AVATAR films (I'm talking about the visuals and the experience of watching these films; we can discuss the story later! :) ). Now, you barely see any mention of 3D, but instead you see mention of IMAX (which is frankly a better experience).
--The whistleblower case against Figure AI has once again made me wonder if any of the heads of these robotics and AI companies have ever read Asimov's robot stories...much less even heard of Asimov. Because they sure as hell are not making these technologies safe. I work with robots at my job, but these are more of the Roomba types used for delivering products from one area to another and they have many restrictions. And I still don't see something like what Figure AI is pushing replacing human workers anytime soon.
--Yes, all of us are susceptible to propaganda. And yes....far too many people are not reading regularly. I still get stares for bringing books (or graphic novels) to lunch at work to read, setting aside my phone. But I've also fallen for propaganda too. With the proliferation of GenAI we have to be even more cautious.
--The posts about Israel and Gaza are, as always, eye-opening. And they once again shatter the idea being pushed by far too many online that Israel and by extension Jews are the problem and Hamas are "noble freedom fighters" (that one has been pushed by a truly disgusting writer who posts their garbage on Medium). The post about Mahmoud Darwish was especially eye-opening.
--I've had an account with my bank for well over twenty years--ever since I opened it when the bank was originally a credit union (obviously it's changed a lot since then!). The post about the unregulated banks/banking apps reminds me of the "wildcat banks" that operated in the 1800s...and when they collapsed, it lead to a major economic panic and crisis. I do wonder if history will repeat itself.
--As a video game player, I'm also against the use of GenAI in games and I'm glad to see other players push back against it. Of course, AI is used in the programming of NPCs and opponents you face in many games (with the Xenomorph from ALIEN: ISOLATION being the best example of this) but this is not to be confused with the slop that is GenAI. It is simply the type of programming that has been around since video games began, but of course, companies today slap "AI" on just about anything.
--The sooner the AI bubble pops, the better.
Thanks again for posting all of these!
Marc: I found the birth cult article one of the most disturbing things I've read in a long time. Babies and women in obvious distress were being ignored and left to suffer while people who should have helped just mumbled empty words.
I really don't see how "AI" survives on any real scale. It's incredibly expensive and it just doesn't add enough value (if any at all) to justify the cost in most situations.
Business these days seems to view safety features as an annoying extra cost they want to minimize. Also, one of the major applications of robotics will probably be military, which would rule out anything like Asimov's Three Laws. Their capabilities are still very limited, though. I don't see how a humanoid robot that could actually replace a person for many tasks could be economical compared to just hiring a person.
Hopefully those goofy quasi-banking services don't have enough of the money supply in them to cause a serious national problem if they went bust. They'll certainly hurt the people who rely on them, though.
As long as the net is still here, I'll keep finding stuff to post in these.
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