Hey Look! Congress Still Gets Paid!: The military vet freshman representative from Hawaii is disgusted and sending her paycheck back to the treasury. She's a Democrat. I'm so glad this was all caused by the election of a president who ran on health-care reform, passed the promised reform, was elected again, and BUT OH MY GOD THE LAW STILL HAS TO GO BECAUSE AND OTHERWISE WE SHUT IT DOWN.

The REST of the Economics of the Shutdown: It costs the US $300 million a day. But hey, stocks are up and the markets are "shrugging."

GOP Moderates Can Solve This Thing: This story involves a (Ted) Cruz-control pun.

Will Obama Travel to Asia-Pacific Economic Conference?: He's postponed trips to Malaysia and the Philippines due to the shutdown.

Flowers! Older Than We Thought!: By one hundred million years. Let this be a lesson to you when you set out to make a flower painting set hundreds of millions of years ago.

Chirlane McCray: Profile of a "onetime student of powerlessness" who's now a forceful presence in Bill de Blasio's bid for mayor of New York. (They've been married for years.) Interesting story. She namechecks the good new ideas of Seattle; I'd love to hear what specifically she's referring to.

Get Your Breasts Checked!: Less than 73 percent of us are doing this. Do this.

The Neo-Nazis of Greece: Golden Dawn members were up in the polls! Until they were all arrested after the murder of a lefty musician.

"Buddhist men armed with machetes": Attacking Muslims, burning mosques, in Burma.

Google Found Potentially Liable for Wiretapping: Again. This time, through your Gmail. Google says you knew you had it coming. Do no evil?

For Heart Disease and Various Such Conditions: "Exercise can be as good a medicine as pills."

Anti-Revenge Porn and Pro-Health Care Bills: Signed by Jerry Brown in California.

The Postal Service Defaults on Retiree Payments: For the third time. Predicted but sad. Go to your post office! Yes, I like a post office.

Venezuela: Missing Chavez. The new guy's not working out so great. "When he fell off his bicycle on live television recently, the event threatened to become a metaphor for a struggling presidency."

Skiing on October 1 at Crystal: Earliest opening ever. Probably won't be more skiing for a while, but there it was.

Someone yesterday suggested I look into a Logic 101 course. Please enjoy.