Happy Birthday, Edge

I heard this on the radio this morning

There is a talk show on local AM morning radio here that really brings out the hateful Trumpsters. I never listen to it, but....

I was in my car and searching for something else and by mistake came upon this fouling of the airwaves. They were talking about LeBron James. This guy on the phone -- I couldn't believe my ears -- was saying how LeBron's new school in Akron was the most terrible thing for our country .... because .... kids that get chosen to go there will get everything for free ..... breakfasts and lunch, books, computers, backpacks, school supplies, food pantry for the family, a bike, etc. etc. And all that does is teach them that everything in life should be free and that you don't need to work for anything because there's always some way to get it for free. And that makes them grow up into entitled adults!

I am so appalled that anyone could put this kind of spin on LeBron's school. I don't even know if I'd have been able to call in the show and rebut this fool, I was so angry and rattled.

How bad are the Mets?

NEW YORK (AP) — NEW York Mets fans struggling with their team's lousy season now have somewhere to cope besides sports talk radio.

An online mental health marketplace is giving free, confidential therapy sessions to Flushing faithful who fill out a form asking for their most difficult moments as fans.

New York-based UMA Health made the offer this week after Tuesday's 25-4 loss to the Washington Nationals, the worst loss in Mets history.

UMA says the lighthearted promotion is meant to bring attention to the important role of therapy. The company says it wants to eliminate the stigma of going to a therapist.

https://www.usnews.com/news/offbeat/articles/2018-08-04/amazin-frets-free-therapy-for-new-york-mets-fans

Hey Floyd

What's the return policy on a boomerang?

Welcome to life in America, aging baby boomers

For a rapidly growing share of older Americans, traditional ideas about life in retirement are being upended by a dismal reality: bankruptcy.

The signs of potential trouble — vanishing pensions, soaring medical expenses, inadequate savings — have been building for years. Now, new research sheds light on the scope of the problem: The rate of people 65 and older filing for bankruptcy is three times what it was in 1991, the study found, and the same group accounts for a far greater share of all filers.

Driving the surge, the study suggests, is a three-decade shift of financial risk from government and employers to individuals, who are bearing an ever-greater responsibility for their own financial well-being as the social safety net shrinks.

The transfer has come in the form of, among other things, longer waits for full Social Security benefits, the replacement of employer-provided pensions with 401(k) savings plans and more out-of-pocket spending on health care. Declining incomes, whether in retirement or leading up to it, compound the challenge.

Cheryl Mcleod of Las Vegas filed for bankruptcy in January after struggling to keep up with her mortgage payments and other expenses. “I am 70, and I am working for less money than I ever did in my life,” she said. “This life stuff happens.”

More:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/05/business/bankruptcy-older-americans.html?nl=top-stories&nlid=74838209ries&ref=headline

Have some lead, folks

The nation’s largest source of industrial lead pollution is just 20 miles down the Lake Michigan shore from Chicago, churning more than twice as much of the brain-damaging metal into the air each year as all other factories in the region combined.

ArcelorMittal’s steel mill in Burns Harbor, Ind., emitted nearly 18,000 pounds of lead during 2016 and has topped the national list since a Missouri lead smelter shut down in 2013, according to a Tribune analysis of federal records that raises new questions about the oversight of big lakefront polluters by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Burns Harbor plant also emitted 173,000 pounds of benzene during 2016, the newspaper’s analysis revealed, making the sprawling steel-making complex by far the nation’s largest industrial source of a volatile chemical known to cause leukemia.

Lead and benzene pollution from the steel mill rose sharply during the past decade as airborne levels of both toxic substances dropped nationwide. More pollution could be on the way if Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel-maker, ramps up U.S. production in response to President Donald Trump’s controversial tariff on imported steel.

More:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-burns-harbor-steel-mill-lead-pollution-20180723-story.html

Funeral for a Turtle

We've had three red-eared sliders in a large aquarium ever since my son was 7 (he's 30 now). When he was 7 he was fascinated with turtles.

We run a filter in the water, provide a light on a timer, a sunbathing platform, and feed them special turtle food (an an occasional stink bug). All three are the size of a small dinner plate.

Sadly, one of them died this morning. I guess we'll be having a turtle funeral later on today.

Any ideas for a musical selection from DUers?

Someone Like You

Give Me One Reason

It's not just Finland

Europe could break an all-time temperature record in the next few days. And parts of southern Spain and Portugal are forecast to go above 47C (116.6F), surpassing national records.

But if you couldn't tell from the thermometers, there are giveaways everywhere - from a melting mountain in Sweden to a rumoured Brussels sprout shortage.

Here are just some of the developments - some weird, some disturbing - that the heatwave has sparked across the Continent...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-45054964

**********

But, remember, our Republican friends tell us global warming is a hoax!