Link round-up for 18 December 2010

Meet Dragan Stevic, fearless shark hunter (found via Mendip).

An Ohio man sees an image of Jesus and Mary in a piece of candy (sent by Ranch Chimp) -- hmm, to me it looks more like an image of Winona Ryder shoplifting a piece of toast.

It's not a lifestyle choice -- it's genetic.

Even with aliens, turnabout is fair.

Dai Haifei built his dream home -- but Beijing authorities have scrambled his plans (found via Mendip).

Pompous fascist thugs and sexual puritans are easily rattled.

Murr Brewster doesn't much care for the idea of post-mortem religious conversion.

Pastor Wiley Drake and his crack team of prayer warriors are watching over the Senate.

British shipbuilders respect tradition perhaps a bit too much (found via Mendip).

World War II in the Pacific was a religious war (found via Uzza -- check out her profile). Uzza also looks at the hilariously fake Mormon history of North America.

Greg Bean looks at Palin's hunting style (found via A Feather Adrift). Hysterical Raisins has, as usual, a funnier view.

Paranoid fantasies of a war on Christmas are nothing new.

Liberation comes when you realize that what you have been told throughout your life is a lie. The journey can be painful, but it is worthwhile.

Christianity among most teenagers isn't what it seems.

God is on the wane as a topic in books.

Ranch Chimp takes a look at my home city.

Gut feeling doesn't prove anything.

Teabagger influence on Republican primaries saved Democrats' Senate majority this year -- and could do so again in 2012.

The American people support the Obama compromise on taxes and unemployment benefits, 59% to 36%. The supposed liberal backlash against Obama over the deal is small-scale.

Frank Schaeffer points out that institutional Christianity is in no position to denounce sexual sin among gays.

We're lucky that Obama, and earlier Presidents, didn't act as the ideological purists demand. But the Republicans have far worse problems with their own ideological purists.

Christopher Hitchens turns his keen eye on the teabaggers.

NOM wants to dictate who can use an image older than humanity.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that Fox viewers are less well- informed than other people. Frum Forum looks at an example.

Chrys Stevenson looks at the Christian take-over of Christmas (found via Russell Blackford).

Religion may work by appealing to the same brain quirks as bad movies do.

Sweden's recent first-ever suicide-bomb attack was the result of another stupid hissy-fit over cartoons (sent by Ranch Chimp).

Americans must continue to learn foreign languages -- just not the same ones as in the past.

Thugs in South Africa "cure" lesbians with "corrective rape".

Ukraine will open the Chernobyl disaster site to tourists (found via Mendip).

Indonesia's religious pluralism doesn't include everyone.

In the midst of sectarian fanaticism, an Iraqi police officer died as a true hero.

After a nuclear explosion, the most important thing to do is avoid the fallout.

Why bother to go on living?

When getting information from the internet, consider the source.

Here's an overview of important themes in current anti-aging research.