CNN is covering some of the problems.

Two women have died swimming in the Atlantic off the coast, and rip currents are the most probable reason, as tropical storms and hurricanes create the conditions for the currents. The biggest problem is that people tend to choose to swim in areas that have rip currents because the surface of the water is much smoother than surrounding areas. That is one of the easiest ways of spotting a rip current from the beach, unusually smooth surface waters. The currents are channeling water away from the beach and are the result of a low spot on the bottom.

The third death was an individual testing his gasoline generators INSIDE HIS HOUSE! Of course it will kill you, and anyone else in the house, as it fills with carbon monoxide. This is just so needless. The PSAs telling you not to do this are endless on all of the media during storms, but every storm there are deaths.

A new Pew poll shows that Dems have once again missed the wave: Survey: Americans feel churches shouldn’t meddle in politics.

Displaying the amazing ability to miss the trends caused by the “tape delay” effect of the conventional wisdom of the Washington Village, everyone jumped on the “faith” bandwagon after the public has decided that the separation of church and state probably is a good idea.

It isn’t a large majority, but the trend is more important than the numbers. You need to get aboard the trend before it peaks, not while it is dying.

Bridget Kendall, BBC diplomatic correspondent, has an interesting piece, Russia’s neighbours go their own way, that is rather surprising to me in many ways.

I’m going to be putting up some pieces on the creative cartography of the Soviets, and some of the reasoning behind it. Unlike the map drawing done by the Europeans after the First World War, many of these quirks were not simple ignorance, but designed specifically to cause problems, rather than resolve them.

Keith at Invisible Library reminded me of one of my favorite comedy bits: Eddie Izzard’s Cake or Death routine performed with Legos.

Position: 29.3 N 81.4 W. [10 PM CDT]
Movement: West [270°] near 3 mph.
Maximum sustained winds: 60 mph.
Wind Gusts: 70 mph.
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 175 miles.
Minimum central pressure: 994 mb.

It is 25 miles Northwest of Daytona Beach, Florida, and dumping buckets of rain wherever it goes. It’s chasing the ‘gators and snakes to higher ground.