The Friday Link for 1/31/25

Hi all!

I'm going to start you off with a great short film, Echo Torch! This showed up in my feed, and I thought it was very good.  A man invents a light that allows him to see otherworldly dimensions.  Yes, there are a few jump scares and a bit of a horror feel to it, but it also has a really nice ending (no spoilers!). Worth a watch! 

Then two videos for you that talk about the modern conflicts we have.  The first is a heartbreaking video from a guy I featured on the Link before, John Green.  He and his brother came up with the Crash Course series on YouTube, which are very good school-like lessons.  They have many channels and I highly encourage them for people who like to learn things.  

I also featured John talking about tuberculosis.  He has done a lot to educate people on how deadly it still is today, but it is preventable.  By the way, there's currently a TB outbreak in the state of Kansas which has the potential of becoming an absolute mess. 

Today, he talks about how the vast majority of what we would call modern humans never lived beyond 20 years old, and it's only in the last 50 years that we've been able to make child mortality rates plummet. Why?  Government-funded programs have undoubtedly saved millions of lives and made it to where most humans are almost guaranteed to live past 20.  That is all being threatened by the Trump administration cutting funding for the programs that have kept us safe.  This is not politics.  This is a real threat to undo the advances humans have made in the last 50 years. 

The last thing is another Dan McClellan video.  He is REALLY good.  The modern MAGA "Christians" are trying to argue that Jesus would have LOVED ICE roundups of immigrants and anyone thinking differently is only "weaponizing empathy." They say that like it's a bad thing.

If you are doing something where basic human empathy is a threat to your agenda, you are CLEARLY doing something even you know is horrible.  Shame on these clueless content creators for trying to validate their bigotry by twisting Jesus to fit THEIR needs. 

Have a great weekend.  Get your vaccinations while you can, as I guarantee Trump will make that harder.