Link round-up for 13 December 2025

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

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Watch a cat discover snow.

See the advanced technology needed to take down a spy drone.

Cats and Christmas do not mix.

Follow the teacher's example.

When it's winter vs people, people lose.

Pwn several cats at once with this toy.

This person just bought a new refrigerator.

Feel the power of the wind.

Philosophers go to war.

What is the true meaning of being good or bad?

This ad from France (promoting healthy eating, apparently) shows that it's possible to create ads entertaining enough to actually watch.  And, yes, it's made by actual artists, not "AI" garbage.

Take a ride among the trees.

Once-endangered sea turtles are thriving again on the Indian coast.

Nitrous oxide can alleviate depression.

Exercise reduces cancer risk.

Denmark is close to eradicating the most dangerous types of HPV, thanks to vaccination.

The aeroleaf can generate wind power in urban areas where there isn't room for windmills.

"They say autistics don't have emotions", but grief is the strongest emotion of all.

The new "AI"-powered browsers are an abject failure.

Here's a timely image round-up.

Women don't owe you anything.  The world is not a movie.

Look it up, fact-check, verify -- always.  That's how to avoid publicly making a fool of yourself in a world awash with misinformation.

"Nuance means asking better questions..... Not 'which side,' but 'what's the claim, and what supports it?'"

Here's a way to slightly de-shittyize typing on a Windows 11 computer, and here's how to get rid of Copilot.  Better advice:  don't use a Windows 11 computer.

Lilies are highly poisonous to pet animals, and apparently to babies too.

Do not let these goddam things anywhere near your kids.

Here's (part of) what smoking and vaping do to you.

Fake videos of animals are proliferating, and can cause real problems. 

A new company is offering anonymous phone service to protect privacy.

Don't be like this smug, condescending asshole.

When a new video game turned out to be partly "AI"-generated, backlash from fans was so fierce that the company withdrew the game.

Uber is selling data about you so you can be pestered with even more targeted ads.

Data centers will be powered by jet engine turbines that don't exist, from a company that doesn't actually make anything.

"No cis, just woman."

In 1911 a dim-witted patriot stole the world's most famous painting and evaded capture for two years.

Here's how those "AI" news summaries work.

I'm not surprised that this shirt is sold out.

xAI says it can now incorporate ads directly into streamed movies and TV shows.  Yes, really.  You'll be watching Aragorn's great inspirational speech at the Black Gate and he'll pause in mid-sentence to hold up a tube of hemorrhoid medication and recommend it.

"Because I feel like we're all just winging it, you know?"

Contacting Amazon customer service is a nightmare of "AI"-fueled obstruction.

This chart takes a lot of scrolling to read, but you'll get the point.

Hundreds of millions of Windows users are refusing to "upgrade" to Windows 11, recoiling from all the built-in ads and pop-ups and the infestation of invasive "AI".  Here's how to get rid of the ads; you can't get rid of the "AI".  When I was dealing with my computer problems last week, the repair guy told me there's been a big increase in interest in Linux recently due to Windows 11 being such a disaster.

The Indiana state senate has overwhelmingly rejected the gerrymander Trump demanded, despite being bullied by his toadies.

A third of a million Missourians have signed petitions to force a referendum to stop the gerrymandering of their state.  The secretary of state is cravenly trying to go forward with it anyway.

It's becoming ever more clear that Trump's power is in decline.

A doctor with fourteen years experience working with dementia patients thinks that Trump has only three to five months left to live (the relevant segment is from 2:50 to 4:40 in the video).

The city council of Chandler AZ unanimously rejected a data center, despite Trumpist pressure.

This is a good example of why it's necessary to fact-check things.  What Ben Shapiro and his blogger supporter say here sounds very plausible to a lot of people, but in fact every detail of it is wrong, and easily exposed as wrong.

Tesla takes billions in state subsidies and then doesn't deliver on its promises.

"AI" users keep asking librarians for materials that don't exist.

ChatGPT claims these things aren't ads.  They must think their users are idiots.

Tennessee women have settled on telehealth and mailed abortion pills as a work-around for their state's draconian forced-birth law.  This is most likely the emerging status quo in other forced-birth states as well.

Ohio Republicans keep trying to attack abortion rights despite the state having a constitutional amendment protecting those rights which voters passed 57%-43% in 2023.

Health insurance customer service is a scam.

These things are Waymo trouble than they're worth.

You are not a mushroom.

Two small towns on the Oregon coast defy ICE.

An event last year promoting Tesla's Optimus robots was faked, with hidden human operators remote-controlling the supposedly autonomous robots.

Hegseth unveils "the future of American warfare", and it's stupid.

The "LifeWise" program pushes Christianity on school kids and encourages Christian students to pester their classmates about religion.

Many states and cities will see increases in the minimum wage in 2026.

North Carolina welcomes ICE.

In a test, 39% of college students were caught using "AI" to cheat on a book essay.

Automation shittyizes job-hunting.

Americans are under severe economic strain, with half the population struggling to afford the basics.

"AI" subjects schoolkids to creepy, rancid-looking "art".

Imagine if Trumpazoidal immigration policy had been in effect earlier in US history.

Drone enthusiasts are assholing in our national parks.

In a country where there is so much hunger, it's important to prevent wastage of food.

This flaming nutball is seeking virtuous pedophiles for a study.

Never mind the statistics -- this is what tells you how the real economy is doing.

"Delayed gratification" is a scam.

Jasmine Crockett's recent entry into the Texas Senate race was clandestinely encouraged by the Republicans, who consider her the easiest opponent to beat.

If you've been dumped and are too immature to just get on with life, "AI" can help you with advice on stalking and harassment.

The ACLU is trying to get even more male criminals into women's prisons to terrorize the women inmates.

There is a lot Congress can do to rein in the Supreme Court.  It's just a matter of having the will to do it.

Here's what some of our billionaires have been up to recently.

Compared with what could have happened, the January 6 insurrection was an utter failure.

California has opened an online portal for people to submit evidence of ICE crimes.

Where is the kindness?

A staggeringly-ignorant Christian military officer is forbidding a Jewish soldier from putting up Hanukkah decorations.

Measles is continuing to rampage through northern South Carolina, due to its low levels of vaccination.

Dismissing the overwhelming evidence of mass rape during on October 7 attack is the new Holocaust denialism.

Collaboration with jihadists always leads to disaster (in response to Brzezinski, the Soviet state was unsustainable and would have collapsed with or without the Afghan war).

This UK school has become so chaotic due to lax enforcement of rules that the teachers have gone on strike about it.

In Australia, an automated government system pursued tens of thousands of welfare recipients for non-existent debts, cutting off their benefits and driving some to suicide.

Australia has banned social media for children and teens under sixteen (found via Rade).  This may prove difficult to enforce, but it's worth making the effort.

In Denmark, at least, the government is trying to fight the explosion of Jew-hatred.

The shield around the ruined Chernobyl nuclear reactor was damaged by a drone strike in February and may be allowing radiation to escape.

A fire has broken out at a factory in Orsk that supplies much of Russia's artillery and missile supplies.

Ukraine confirms yet again that it will not give up any territory for a peace deal with Russia.

India has started paying women for household work.  The amounts are meager by Western standards, but can still make a difference in a country where most incomes are low.

More links at Red State Blues, WAHF, and Comedy Plus.

My posts this week:  some truths and inspirations, and a video on why the economy is headed for a collapse.

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Note:  In case this wasn't already obvious, I will not link to any post which contains "AI"-generated content (unless explicitly for the purpose of condemning or debunking it), or which suggests that it is possible to use "AI" ethically.

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Ukraine is hammering Russia's economy:


Windows may finally have doomed itself: