Link round-up for 7 June 2025

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

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Always make sure your fish tank is made of strong enough glass.

Sometimes, cats help out (link from Chief Squirrel).

"Where did that damn kid go?  I know he's around here somewhere....."

Blogger Beetleypete has some interpretations of medieval art.

Some inept signs and editing here.

"I didn't know you could do that!"

See robots tested against various kinds of obstacles.

"Don't look now, but I think somebody's following us."

What kind of horror movies would different Star Trek races have?

People are starting to think everything is "AI".

Here's a short tale of a life on the run.

This should be good -- Guillermo del Toro has made an adaptation of Frankenstein.

The remains of Pompeii offer us a window into the lives of women in ancient Roman culture.  Based on these examples, it was normal for women to run their own businesses and actively participate in public life, something not common in most societies at the time.

Robotics hasn't totally overcome the uncanny valley effect yet -- but it's getting there.

NASA is planning to build a radio telescope on the side of the Moon that faces away from Earth, where it will be shielded from interference from Earth's numerous radio sources.  The telescope will be built by robots and presumably operated by remote control, so there will be no need for dangerous and expensive manned missions to the Moon.

Here's why the Titanic is rotting away on the ocean floor while much older sunken wooden ships are preserved.

Japanese researchers have apparently found the cause of long covid -- and a treatment that reduces its symptoms.

It turns out that eating marijuana edibles is as bad for your heart as smoking the stuff is.

Pigs don't fly, but their shit does.

SpaceX is far below the level of technological proficiency that NASA achieved sixty years ago.  The endless "Starship" test failures show that the concept is unworkable and should be abandoned.

Honor the heroism of Togo and Balto in 1925.

Remember George.

Beware of this phone scam.  Even if your caller ID says the number is legitimate, you can't trust it -- that number can be faked.

Some tips here for driving away "AI" scraper bots.

This person exists -- and he may piss on your car.

Beware of fake computer peripherals being sold by shady retailers.

When you frequently comment on and link to bloggers who only rarely give your own posts supportive comments or link to them, it can get discouraging (I know!).  This blogger has some advice for those who find themselves in that position.

A photographer and poet laments the proliferation of fake art.

This writer asked ChatGPT to review some of her essays, and posts the full conversation that resulted.  It's a bit long, but if you believe "AI" is useful for anything, you really need to read this.

Here's an interesting, if somewhat morbid, tale of the future.

This stunning likeness of Elon Musk was on display at a Tesla protest.

Too many tourists vandalize the places they visit.

This supermarket sells local produce.  Very local.

Here are some personal thoughts about the Bible, including mine (see the comments).

The decline of book-reading is undermining the capacity for abstract thought on which liberal democracy depends.  It's not the only threat to the latter, but it is a threat.

Blogger Bluzdude is worried about "AI" getting out of control.

This person refused to condemn a horrific attempted mass murder because he wasn't allowed to express his sympathy for the would-be killer's bigotry.

Believe it or not, this is a right-wing blog.

When self-driving cars go wrong, they go really wrong.

These girls had courage.

The brilliance and imagination of Ukraine and Israel are the perfect antidote to the moan-groan-doom-gloom crowd's pessimism about the democratic world.

Elon Musk's flimsy Starlink satellites are easily knocked out of orbit by solar storms.

As the internet fills up with "AI"-generated garbage, "AI" programs seeking material to plagiarize are increasingly eating their own shit, driving themselves ever closer to collapse.

This food and product recall sounds really bad.  Here's the FDA announcement.

"We said no.  Manage your expectations."

Retail workers are sharing documentation of huge price hikes as tariffs start to bite.

Ricky Gervais celebrates the defeat of cancel culture -- and indeed he deserves a lot of the credit.

Added link:  Kilmar Ábrego García is back in the US.

The Catholic Church is suing to stop a Washington state law that would force them to stop shielding child abusers.  Sorry, the internal rules of your silly cult don't exempt you from the actual laws passed by actual elected legislators.

Walk into the restroom and -- smile, you're on some asshole's candid camera.

The "No Kings" protests will take place next Saturday, June 14.  Here's their main site, where you can find an event or get other information.

Never forget the Farhûd.

The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that all plaintiffs should be judged by the same burden of evidence regardless of sex or ethnicity -- a big step toward real equality under the law.

A newly graduated law clerk used a chatbot to write a legal brief, and of course the brief was riddled with errors and cited at least one legal case that doesn't exist.  He has been fired, and needs to be blacklisted too -- students who use "AI" need to know that it's the royal road to a life of "do you want fries with that".

The Camden DE police department -- the only police department in Delaware to have formally partnered with ICE -- has abandoned the partnership due to opposition from local people.

"It's about domination."

This company claimed to have "AI" that actually produced usable software.  In fact, it was a trick -- the software was actually created by human engineers posing as "AI".

The Senate is now considering a bill which would give cryptocurrency holders priority over people with real dollars in case of a bank collapse, in certain cases.

Right after the election, I said, "Giving Elon Musk a prominent role in the Trump administration might be even worse; an alliance of two stupid, bumbling, narcissistic megalomaniacs with different agendas is asking for trouble."  After this week's events, I claim vindication.  Both these guys are impulsive, bullying toddlers whose wealth has shielded them all their lives from having to learn normal self-control.  There's probably no limit to how much this poo-flinging fight can escalate.

Keep up the pressure on Elon Musk.  With his money, ideology, and mental issues, he's still a threat to democracy and national stability even without a government role.  If the Tesla Takedown campaign succeeds, it will ruin him and destroy Twitter and his other deranged ventures as well.

Right now there are half a million more houses for sale in the US than people wanting to buy them, creating downward pressure on prices.  Hopefully it's another step toward making housing in general more affordable.

Proposed Trumpazoid cuts to NASA's budget would be disastrous to US space science.  They would defund most real science and shift NASA's focus to sending humans to Mars, which is not going to happen and would serve no scientific purpose if it did.

Thuggish mobs of street racers took over several Portland streets last weekend, but police were too busy dealing with even worse violent crimes to respond.

RFK Jr's "AI"-generated "report" on health in the US is total garbage, no matter how many excuses and lies the administration bleats out.

Tesla owners are installing improvised gimmicks to get their car doors open in an emergency.

Trump's meeting with Merz was just another reminder of what a huge embarrassment he is to the US.

Job-seekers find that the employment market is the worst it's been in their lifetimes.  This will likely hurt Republicans in 2026 and 2028 the same way inflation and crime hurt the Democrats in 2024 -- people care about what they're actually experiencing in their own lives, not the statistics spouted by talking heads on TV.

Tariffs have forced Alaska Airlines to delay accepting new planes it had ordered, leading to numerous canceled flights.

A human-rights lawyer explains why he changed his views on trans ideology.

ICE has released a green-card holder they arrested when she returned from a trip overseas.  They kept her locked up for three months -- for nothing.

Business Insider is embracing the usage of "AI", laying off many employees and requiring the remaining ones to read books that don't exist.

In Texas, a draconian proposed law to block shipments of abortion pills seems to have failed.

Here's why it matters that Trump has turned against the Federalist Society.

Far more gay people feel that they have a lot in common with straight people than feel the same about trans people.  The "LGBT" thing was always a lie.

Democrats need to focus on policies that help people directly and in easily-understood ways.  That means economic populism instead of babble about Gaza and preferred pronouns.

US military recruitment is way up -- the Army has already met its recruitment goals for this fiscal year, four months early.

In an ominous sign for my state's future, it now has more people over 65 than under 18.

Disgusted clients are abandoning law firms that kowtow to Trump.

The Washington Post continues its slide into irrelevance with plans to start publishing "AI"-generated crap.

Trump backs down again, canceling plans to garnish Social Security benefits for unpaid student loans.

The administration is now scrambling to re-hire thousands of federal workers laid off during the DOGE idiocy.

CEOs' confidence in the economy plummets amid tariff chaos.  And that chaos will likely continue for some time yet.

The Democrats probably can't win back young male voters without backstabbing Israel -- but they can win elections without them.

JK Rowling is one of the rare rich people who uses her money to do good.

More anti-Semitic vandalism in Europe attests to the prevalence of deeply sick minds.

The UK will donate a hundred thousand drones to Ukraine this year.

Finland is using interest on frozen Russian assets to buy €90,000,000 worth of ammunition for Ukraine.  Japan is donating $3 billion in cash from the same source.

Russian online mappers are blurring out military sites on their maps -- thus revealing their locations.  Is everybody drunk over there?

NATO assesses the effects of Operation Spiderweb -- "at least 40 aircraft were damaged" just as Ukraine claimed, even if not all were totally destroyed.  Damaged planes will be difficult or impossible to repair.

Many Russian submarines have become useless due to lack of spare parts -- "the domestic [Russian] & Chinese replacement parts are crap".

Some Russian troops in Ukraine are surrendering because the abuse they suffer from their own side is worse than being taken prisoner.

New video here of bombers on fire at Belaya airbase.

The Russian oil depot at Engels has been hit and is burning furiously.

Israel's ambassador to the UK says out loud what has been obvious since October 7 -- the "two-state solution" idea is dead and buried forever.

If European countries carry out their disgusting threat to "recognize" a "Palestinian state" (which does not exist and never will), Israel may respond by de facto annexation of the West Bank.

Jewish women in Israel now have a higher fertility rate than Muslims.  I can remember when the Jew-haters used to gloat that Muslims in Israel would someday overwhelm the Jews via population growth.  Not gonna happen.

The BBC has retracted claims of a mass shooting at a Gaza aid site; the video which supposedly showed the event was taken at a completely different location and time.

More links at  Red State Blues and WAHF.

My posts this week:  the audacity of Operation Spiderweb, an image round-up, and a video in bullet time.

[Image at top:  NASA's New Horizons probe approaching Pluto, a reminder of a time when the US government had proper respect for science]

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Had a difficult tooth extraction Friday -- the dentist gave me a sedative for the procedure, which resulted in sleeping right through most of the afternoon and evening.  So I may have missed some recent posts.

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See reactions from ordinary Russians in the area as the drone attack on the Belaya airfield unfolded:


The Kyiv Independent put together this video footage from the drones' own cameras as they closed in on various warplanes.  1:33 to 1:59 shows attacks on two AWACS planes, super-expensive high-tech airborne command-and-control posts.  When a drone gets in close and the video cuts off, that likely means the drone detonated at that point: