Link round-up for 21 April 2013

Here's a 3D Mandelbrot fractal, apparently.

Bad wizard!

Next time you're on an airplane, better hope you're not sitting next to "Mark".

Fox News names a surprise suspect in the Boston bombing.

Find the conspiracy theory that's right for you with this handy flowchart (click image to enlarge).

Gutsy West Virginia high-schooler Katelyn Campbell (pictured above) rallies opposition to yet another officially-sanctioned intrusion of religious bullying into education.  More here and especially here.  And click here to sign a petition supporting Campbell.

Religious nuts, what a bunch of wankers -- if only!

The SPLC has a listing of right-wing terrorist attacks and plots in the US since 1995 (found via Green Eagle) -- you'll be stunned at how many there have been in less than two decades.

Gin and Tacos looks at the role of idiots in state-level government.

There's an alternative to the Boy Scouts which isn't homophobic -- or gender-segregated.

I'll pray for you!

Utility companies are worried about the potential of solar power in individual hands (found via Politics Plus).

Americans strongly reject the "chained CPI" scheme to cut Social Security COLAs.

An anti-gay rally in Minnesota flops.

Churches won't give "Homeless Jesus" a home (found via Lady Atheist).

Once a rising Republican star, Marco Rubio is now widely denounced on the right for championing illegal-alien amnesty -- here's an example.

Ideology makes more fertilizer-plant explosions likely.

Theater chain Regal Entertainment cuts workers' hours to avoid providing benefits, while giving top executives massive pay increases.

Rand Paul needs a lesson in the real history of Republicans, civil rights, and the South.

If you still eat meat, read this.

The lessons of the Gosnell case are exactly the opposite of the right-wing spin.

Here's a letter from the family of marathon bombing victim Lu Lingzi.

The case for austerity policies was rooted in an Excel spreadsheet error -- and lacked credibility even before that was known.

In Britain, a bigoted teacher gets reined in.

Has the American Christian Right been fomenting anti-gay violence in France?  Conservative rhetoric there is getting scary (both links found via Republic of Gilead).

The EU continues its ruthless destruction of Portugal's economy.

New Zealand has legalized gay marriage, and Ireland will hold a referendum on doing so.

Russia has its own view of the Boston terrorist attack.

A Salvadoran woman is being prevented by law from aborting an obviously non-viable fetus -- even though the operation is necessary to save her life.  PZ Myers comments.

Turkey backslides further from Atatürk's secular vision as composer Fazil Say is convicted of blasphemy.

Kabul residents declare sympathy for Boston.

A new study provides more data on the acceleration of snow melt in the Antarctic Peninsula.

Gaining sight after being blind can take getting used to.

Here's a massively detailed map of US English dialects.

NASA has found three possibly Earthlike planets -- emphasis on "possibly".