Link round-up for 11 January 2015

Mr. Bean?  Bah.  It's Blackadder that made Rowan Atkinson a comedy star (found via Mendip).

Murr Brewster looks at the decline of our local newspaper.

Here's a tree with a pub inside it, and more (found via GoodShit).

Take that, you dumb Brits.

Enough with the zombies and vampires, some people are still into fairies (found via Mendip).

When Faye Kane gets something right, she really gets it right -- and here's a swipe at religion too.

Standards change, like it or not.

Christian fanatics are ruining Christmas.

Why is the world becoming more peaceful?  Maybe because more and more people are non-religious.

28 cartoonists pay tribute to the Charlie Hebdo victims (found via Lady Atheist).  Ayaan Hirsi Ali calls on us all to keep their spirit alive.  And no, it simply doesn't matter if the magazine was vapid or even racist.

The right wing's rejection of evolution is about more than just evolution itself.

Here are the Secular Woman awards for 2014 (there's even a guy).

High on the newly-empowered Republicans' to-do list: fucking up Social Security.

That guy in Florida who threw his daughter off a bridge was in the grip of religious psychosis.

Teabagger vitriol against Republicans who voted to keep Boehner on as Speaker is so virulent that even Erick Erickson is shocked.

Here's where air travel is most and least safe.

The five best countries for women's rights are all in one small area.

Protests resume against the European Union's austerity policies.  The European central Bank has a new HQ building in Frankfurt, and it has a moat.  This election in two weeks could upset the whole eurozone applecart.

Here's a collection of dramatic photos from the Charlie Hebdo attack.  And here's some brief eyewitness video of the terrorists (autoplay), including the cold-blooded murder of wounded policeman Ahmed Merabet.  Here are the twelve victims.  And here's how the police got the terrorists (found via GoodShit).

Tauriq Moosa replies to the execrable Anjem Choudary.

Russia takes firm action against traffic problems by banning transsexuals from driving.

Here are seven living things that are, or were, too big (found via GoodShit).

We're finally finding planets similar in size and (probably) temperature to Earth, though we can't tell how Earthlike they are in other ways.

Swimming on the Moon would be really cool, if there were any water there.

A new research technique could turn the tide against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Think you know who's a big star?  Meet VY Canis Majoris.