Iced Borscht

• Portland artist Bijijoo provides a great service to our nation — portraits of our presidents cradling ham hocks.

• Three questions: What is a “second chakra,” what is it doing in the pubic area, and why does Al Gore have an alleged interest in releasing it? (h/t Jack B)

• Why Peruvians are painting the Andes white

• Big, bad-ass bears from Kamchatka

• Sperm whales, unlike many Portlanders I know, have personalities

• Swimming lizard robot. Hi, fella!

• Bagby Hot Springs gets a write-up in Atlas Obscura

• Does the public function as a mass, partisan critic of administration moves, or does it behave more like a thermostat?

• Following a mishap with a combine harvester, Oscar the Cat gets bionic appendages

• Mark your calendars, Oregonians: July 11, 2010, AD at Lincoln City — the prestigious Competitive Rib Eating Contest returns. Making an appearance will be Joey Chestnut, the world’s most decorated gustatory athlete.

• Did a bag of potato chips lure a confession out of a portly rapist?

• Screwing up makes us whipsmart

• Why is a Ukrainian jet stuck in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan?

• 5 Interesting tidbits about Stevie Hawking

• Obama and cheeseburgers

• The most grating mystery of our time, and one deserving of unrelenting scientific inquiry, is the question of why Ozzy Osbourne is still alive

• Why don’t Penn and Teller attack Islam on BULLSHIT? The reason is a valid one, and I respect and appreciate it, although it offers a sad, illuminating commentary on the state of the world: they have families, and they don’t want to see them beheaded or suffer some other insane atrocity at the hands of murderous, pathological thugs who are offended by what two magicians say on TV.

I guess that’s where we are these days in terms of global, intellectual discourse — if free speech still exists, it’s either hanging on by a loose, tattered thread or floating about nominally. Markets used to rule the world, and back then, we thrived. Now pathological madmen who live in caves rule the world, and nobody can speak ill of them lest we want to see our loved ones slaughtered in the streets.

Barbarism. Seventh-century idiocy. Nukes as readily available as Little Debbie Snack Cakes.

Yep, I like the direction this world is headed in.