Link round-up for 1 February 2015

Is auto cucumber really this bad?

Door signs should be designed carefully.

A weatherman plays a technical problem for humor (found via Mendip) -- contrast with certain politicians who implode when their teleprompter seizes up.

Tug-of-war could become a much more exciting game, but it would be a bad idea.

Terminal cuteness: babies and pets (found via Mendip).

Take a good look at a butterfly wing.

Ugh!  I think we all know this form of "horrible sanity" is still around (found via Mendip).

Racism can get kind of weird.

Here are some movies with one letter removed.

Could you pass this "science" "test" from a Christian "school"?

18th-century England had plenty of ribald slang (found via Mendip).

The lies taught early keep you in a death grip.

Here's why Frozen is such a huge hit with little kids.

A parent defends the right to refuse vaccination.

Is Romney in or out?  Either way it's disappointing.

We're finally getting some real data on the effects of marijuana.

Ladies -- any truth to this?

Anti-abortion nutters are scarier than you think (found via Republic of Gilead).

Some Republicans propose to "get government out of defining marriage" to avoid including gays.  Here's what that actually looks like.

The story of Bryan Fischer's quasi-firing by the AFA involves some pretty ugly stuff.

Here are some hot women with a difference.

A former TSA agent comes clean.

Green Eagle's latest Wingnut Wrapup features some hilarious comments and a shocking clipping from an American publication called -- seriously -- "The Daily Stormer".

They don't just have an imaginary friend, they have an abusive and violent imaginary friend.

Some liberals just don't get it about Islamic extremism.

Bill Jack is the epitome of fundie ignorance, intolerance, and paranoia.  No wonder he's a rising star.

Bruce Gerencser has a few questions for compassionate Christians.

Flaky, clownish Republican Presidential candidates run the party into the ditch.  More here.

Christians disrupting a Muslim rally in Texas actually make the Muslims look good by contrast.

No, hard work and dedication won't get you ahead -- that's not how it works.

Read Alexis Tsipras's very reasonable open letter to the German people.

Here's an Iranian view of Senate Republicans' efforts to sabotage US-Iran nuclear negotiations.

The Kurds have finally pushed ISIS out of Kobani.  This is what's left.

Tunisia's new liberal order still needs some work.

This oral tradition preserved memories of long-vanished geographical features for ten thousand years without writing (found via Mendip).

United we are strong -- is this instinct or collective intelligence?

Transitional fossils, which creationists keep claiming don't exist, provide details of snake evolution.

About 400 light-years away, there's a planet with a ring system 200 times the size of Saturn's.

Tim McGaha remembers the lost pioneers.