Interesting Links for 11-08-2025

[andrewducker]

1. Torn Apart: Robot Crab Meets Terrible Fate When Its True Nature Is Discovered by Real Crabs

(tags:robot crabs )

2. One of the things I'm enjoying about parenthood is being introduced to new music by the kids. In this case "Golden" from the "KPop Demon Hunters" soundtrack

(tags:music korea video )

3. Shirley Temple Shares Her Experience with Naked Producers At MGM (when she was twelve)

(tags:video history movies Child_abuse interview )

4. Against Sundials

(tags:time society technology poetry )

5. New open letter demands change to latest RSHE guidance to prevent another Section 28

(tags:UK school bigotry LGBT transgender )

6. Always ignore the fun police

(tags:fun society advice )

7. Denying unanimous consent (one way the Democrats are slowing down Trump)

(tags:politics usa )

Comments

[calimac]

3. My recollection is that in her autobiography, Shirley Temple clarified that Freed wasn't entirely naked, he unzipped and exposed himself. But the rest of the story matches. What happened to her mother is that Louis B. Mayer propositioned her.

4. My experience, as for instance right now with a cat wriggling on my desk, is that cats have an imperfect sense of when feeding time is. So I query the premise of this poem.

6. Yes. I find it puzzling that this is a problem. Many things that other people do that I find repellent or incomprehensible don't affect me, so it's not my business to object. But others seem to find it offensive that they have to live in a world where these things exist.

[andrewducker]

4. The point of the poem, surely, is that it is feeding time when you are hungry. And thus, your cat is entirely correct.

[calimac]

Only if you want giant overweight cats. Which I don't. Cats get fed at feeding time, not ad lib.

[channelpenguin]

I believe not all cats overeat. At least so I have read.

Mine does not overeat. He's 3 and still as slim as a year old kitten. He is an ex-feral farm cat from generations of farm cats, and is an indoor-outdoor cat on my rural property and he hunts for himself too. In summer there is pretty much an endless supply of rodents and insects. He takes out hares too! He absolutely does NOT have any fíxed mealtimes, but the dry food machine only goes off once a day with a small portion and I offer him wet food when he acts like he wants it. Sometimes he just sniffs it and walks off. He might or might not eat it later (it goes in the fridge in between, max 1 day).

Even as a kitten when I kept him in until he got neutered, he did not overeat, but I guess a cat under 6 months pretty much cant get enough food to keep up with growth!

He is 4-5kg (heavier in the winter, as from autum equinox to winter solstice he eats MUCH more than usual, then his appetite goes right down again). I keep an eye on him as he has an imperfect navel (hernia) and the vet says I should not let him get fat!

[channelpenguin]

Cats are ALWAYS entirely correct. Especially about feeding time. Ask any cat!

[simont]

6. I was particularly struck by a tiny comment subthread in which one person asked "What's wrong with hotdogs and ketchup?", in what looked like a tone of genuine enquiry ("I never heard you weren't supposed to") – and the reply insisted extra hard that it was morally wrong ("Haram" and "unforgivable"), without answering the question.

That's not just the fun police. That's the totalitarian fun police. We don't even have to explain why it's wrong. It's wrong because we say it's wrong, and that's all the reason we need, citizen.

[andrewducker]

Yup! It's terrible!

[calimac]

"Haram" is a reason - it's forbidden by Islamic law - but it doesn't say why anyone other than a religiously observant Muslim should follow it. Making the rest of the world follow a religious law is what's totalitarian.

[simont]

"Haram" is a reason if they mean it's actually forbidden by Islamic law. Surely not in the context of putting ketchup on your hot dog, though? Unless I've 100% misunderstood, a hot dog of any kind would be haram in the first place, because it's made of pork.

Surely in this context the word is used figuratively, to suggest that "put some other condiment on your frankfurter" is a religious law for Chicago-dwelling hot dog consumers.

[calimac]

I don't know anything about the requirements of Islamic food law, e.g. whether tomato may be eaten with meat. But I do know that there are all-beef hot dogs. I've seen the packages in groceries. I understand they're geared to the needs of pork-forbidding religious groups.

[andrewducker]

In this case I am fairly sure that the comment "I grew up in the Chicago area. Ketchup on hotdogs is Haram, and this is one thing upon which I shall not bend. Ketchup on eggs at breakfast? Whatever gets your little boat afloat and more power to you, but upon a frankfurter sausage? Unforgivable." is using "Haram" as a shortcut for "This is forbidden by my people" (in this case, people from Chicago), rather than because they are a muslim.

[calimac]

My people have lots of food-forbidding and preparation rules, but they're our rules and not anybody else's. The whole point of them, I've been told by responsible authority, is to distinguish us from other peoples. Therefore we shouldn't even want others to adopt them, let alone that we should promulgate them.

[haggis]

I think that was exaggerating for comic effect, rather than a serious statement.

[kmusser]

K-Pop Demon Hunters is so much fun, definitely recommend watching the movie if you haven't yet.

[andrewducker]

I have seen the first half an hour. And then Gideon's attention span ran out, and he wanted to play board games with me, so I had to leave Sophia to it. I will get to it at some point, I'm sure!

[calimac]

I saw the whole movie after reading an enthuse by a K-pop-loving friend. It reminded me of the movie of Josie and the Pussycats: incomprehensible plot, enjoyable camaraderie among the members of the band, not-unpleasant songs.

[mtbc]

Ha, when my youngest was little, at the cinema they would watch the first half of a movie then come sleep on me for the remainder.

[dewline]

1. Crabs are smarter than we think. Noting that.

7. If you can't stop the Vulgarian, by all means keep slowing him down.