With all due respect to George Washington Carver, America’s greatest food inventions have all originated in one place — the state fair. From cotton candy to corn dogs to deep-fried Coke, the enterprising folks at America’s state and county fairs top themselves year after year. Some observers thought state fair cooks had hit their peak…

Wired has a story about Saturn’s aurora, recorded with the Cassini orbiter. Lisa Grossman describes the aurora: Much like Earth’s northern and southern lights, Saturn’s aurora is triggered when charged particles from solar winds are channeled toward the poles by the planet’s magnetic field. At the poles, these particles interact with charged gas or plasma…

Just in case… Survive a Dog Attack – Wired How-To Wiki.

England is an especially vile place. See, British badgers face firing squad.

Good news following difficult employee concessions: MILWAUKEE — Harley-Davidson Inc. agreed Tuesday to keep open its two Wisconsin production facilities, saying it gained the cost savings it needed when union members agreed a day earlier to a concession-laden contract. Via Harley agrees to keep 2 Wisconsin plants open.

Crackpot dictator Hugo Chavez has ruined a nation that was once a prosperous paradise: As they go to the polls this month, Venezuelans will undoubtedly be concluding that arrests, censorship, and other restrictions on liberty are no substitute for economic and political freedom and sensible public policy. Via Venezuela on the Brink.

The Bed Bug Registry exists to give travelers and renters a reliable and neutral platform for reporting their encounters with bed bugs. Though most Americans have still never come across one one, these retro pests are spreading extremely quickly across American and Canadian cities. Wisconsin Reports: http://bedbugregistry.com/location/WI/ Via Bed Bug Registry – Check Apartments and…

Sensible thinking saved a family camping near the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage from disaster when a tornado struck: The Park Falls man [Larry Krznarich], his wife, Rita, and their dog, Lilly, along with Mark and Gay Rumppe of Clinton, used the 2,000-pound log table on his campsite to escape the ravages of a tornado. The storm occurred…

Fascinating… Some 50 years ago, the renowned linguist Roman Jakobson pointed out a crucial fact about differences between languages in a pithy maxim: “Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey.” This maxim offers us the key to unlocking the real force of the mother tongue: if different…

The Wall Street Journal has a story about online appraisers, entitled Services Spot Hidden Gems Among the Junk. For those who live far from an appraiser, a service like this might help someone learn the approximate value of possessions sitting in an attic. I wouldn’t rely on an appraisal like this for goods of high…

What could go wrong? Exclusive: Jimmy Carter headed to North Korea on rescue mission | The Cable | ForeignPolicy.com.

I’ve posted on the the dangerous and foul conditions at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex previously. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a solid newspaper, has a two-part series describing what mental patients — often involuntarily committed to that facility — have endured while there. See, Out of Chaos, a Baby is Born (part one of…

Good morning, Today’s forecast for Whitewater calls for a chance of thunderstorms, with a high temperature of eighty-six degrees. The Friday Comment forum topic for today will be ‘top ten favorite films of all time.’ I’ve found it hard to create a list with only ten, but it’s been fun trying. Herman Leonard, renowned photographer…

A clever idea, but as some of the students quoted in the story observe, lots of kinks that can be exploited by clever bettors, too. Two New York entrepreneurs are offering college students the chance to put their money where their grades are. Their website lets college students place wagers on their own academic performance,…