Heat

Well today is the 3rd hot day in a row in lovely PDX. The crow's nest gets boiling hot these days.....it's 2pm and as soon as that sun comes in here I have to shut the door and retreat to the back of the house. I have been offline for 2 days because my router appears to have died. So I'm headed out to best buy to get a new one. The comcast guy says they have gone down in price. Now that I know what's up with my internet, I wish I was gone kayaking, but I just had to deal with that and the pile of bills on my desk before I could begin to play anymore.
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Stephen Pinker on violence

Excellent talk here, suggesting that our death rate at the hands of fellow humans is lower now than it ever has been, and consideration of a few possible causes. Mind-broadening viewpoints.

TOXIC Blue-Green Algae Bloom in Tualatin River

When it gets hot, I like to go jump in the river. The Oregonians think the river is too dangerous, too polluted. I was repeating this viewpoint minutes ago, while sitting in a kiddy pool in my back yard with one of the young reporters who lives downstairs. She told me that in late July there was a toxic algae bloom in the Tualatin River. The Tualatin flows into the Willamette at Lake Oswego.

Public Health officials advised boaters and swimmers to stay away from it, and put up signs to warn people to keep out and keep their animals away. The USGS reports that 8-9 dogs/year die of drinking blue-green algae infested water.
( the toxins they aren't reporting about because they are so scarey )

Mr. T is not a Homophobe

Here you can watch Mr. T defend himself against people who think he might be a homophobe. A snickers commercial that showed Mr T harassing a speedwalker with a candy-shooting gun was pulled from British TV. The ad is in here. The speedwalker's swishing ass is shown, and apparently a lot of gays were up in arms about the implied homophobia of the swish in combination with Mr. T's usual schtick about 'be a real man' and 'get some nuts'. I know of no correlation between speedwalking and gayness. I do find Mr. T's general belligerence distasteful. On the other hand, I love the way Mr. T calls Bill Reilly "Beeul". His dipthong sounds positively east Tennesseean.