Weekend link dump for March 20

Giant Spiders From Asia Are Poised to Invade the U.S. East Coast”. Go home, 2022, you’re drunk.

“Meet ‘Super Mario’, the man who’s lived on cruise ships for two decades”.

“On May 24, 2020, as the United States passed 100,000 recorded deaths, The New York Times filled its front page with the names of the dead, describing their loss as “incalculable.” Now the nation hurtles toward a milestone of 1 million. What is 10 times incalculable?”

“Police departments around the U.S. are donating tactical gear to Ukraine, whose annual defense budget is smaller than the NYPD’s.”

“In states that expanded Medicaid, medical debt has been cut in half. In states that didn’t, medical debt has stayed about the same.”

“How an obscure Finnish EDM artist hijacked countless Spotify playlists.” The most recent Reply All podcast looked into another example of this.

Meet the Shackleton Wreck crab, just hanging out in a very cold part of the ocean.

“These boycotts are perhaps even more jarring if you remember past periods in which pop culture tried to paint a picture of deliberate, optimistic, post-Cold-War thaw. In the 1980s, particularly in the wake of the policies of glasnost and perestroika in the former Soviet Union — which encouraged openness and reform — artists went to places they wouldn’t have gone ten or even five years before. It was in 1987, 35 years ago this July, that Billy Joel brought a big pop-rock show to Leningrad and Moscow; 1989 when Billy Crystal traveled to find his Russian relatives in an HBO special called Midnight Train to Moscow. That year also brought the Moscow Music Peace Festival, with Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, and Bon Jovi among the performers.”

“Scientists have found the oldest known ancestor of octopuses – an approximately 330 million-year-old fossil unearthed in Montana.”

RIP, William Hurt, Oscar-winning actor known for tons of movies like Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Big Chill, Broadcast News, several Marvel flicks, and more. Which unfortunately includes Marlee Matlin’s account of his abusive behavior towards her.

“On the open road, where drivers maintain steady speeds of 50 to 80 mph, reducing speed by 10 mph can save 75 cents a gallon on a five-dollar gallon of gas—or 90 cents a gallon on a six-dollar gallon of gas, already the price where I live, in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles.”

““Facing Nolan,” a new feature-length documentary on Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan, who spent the longest stretch of his career in an Astros uniform, premiered Saturday afternoon at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin.”

“But to really appreciate the many-layered weirdness of this business, I want to start at the beginning. Or, at least, near the beginning — with a story that starts in Boston in 1706.”

“Yacht-Watch: The Fancy Boats Getting Snatched Away From Russian Oligarchs”.

“The 2020 election was an anomaly in many ways, but the Election Performance Index (EPI) shows us that election administration continued to trend in the direction it was already heading: up. While there was more early voting and voting by mail than previous years (a pre-existing trend that 2020 accelerated), overall, more states improved their practices, data, and reporting.”

“Plenty of prominent right-wing media figures in the United States are pushing out Vladimir Putin’s propaganda for him.”

“The 4 pillars to convicting alleged January 6 US Capitol rioters”.

Under no circumstances should this guy be allowed to take possession of any children, Ukrainian refugees or not.

“Koch Industries is attempting to argue that continuing to operate in Russia is in the best interest of Ukraine and the Russian people. The company suggests that shuttering its massive glass manufacturing plants would benefit the Russian government. The implication is that the hundreds of companies that have left Russia are, in fact, empowering the Putin regime.”

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