I saw a Texas editorial that blamed the disaster, in part, on lax LOCAL zoning. Like not letting an explosive fertilizer plant be situated near homes and schools, common sense stuff.

(Depending on a volunteer FD to handle an industrial fire is ASKING for a disaster. )

The first comment on the piece accused the writer of being a liberal in love with big government and, I swear "the Obamassiah."

Note once again: the writer was calling for local zoning.

That's very sad about the Texas fire.

The test said I'm 42, and then asked what my real age and it was surprisingly hard for me to figure that out. I'm all "I am 42! No, wait, 45. What year is it?" Took me over a minute, I think.

oh msbelle, how awful! I don't know how, as a town, you get over something like that.

I keep thinking about those two brothers and trying to understand how you can live somewhere for 10 years, have good friends there, and yet want to blow it up. It doesn't make sense. The only way I can make sense of it is to imagine that planning to do something so deadly and so secret must give someone a heady sense of their own importance. I can only understand it as ego-driven, ego propped up by ideology.

In massively trite news, I was back on the Harvard site looking at tests, and this one is supposed to predict your age: [link]. I'm going to take that as a compliment.

I took the test last night using the touchpad of my netbook and my lefthand. It estimated my age at 50. Today using my wrong hand on a mouse, it estimated my age at 31.

My father's old upholstery shop was donated for a training burn. Old wooden structure that had decades of lint in it, on top of having been a garage and gas station for decades before then. The fire department was all giddy about it, especially as one of the firemen was my BIL, so he knew all about the conditions of the place. They said beforehand that they knew it would go fast, so they were practicing keeping it from being a fireball and catching the rest of the area on fire. But looking at the pictures hurt.

I was back on the Harvard site looking at tests, and this one is supposed to predict your age: [link]. I'm going to take that as a compliment.

Hmm, they were very complimentary to me too, either that or their algorithm is off. I'm not that dexterous.

No test burns, but if you catch an episode of Chicago Fire in the next few weeks with a porch collapse, that's on my block.

That test was one year off; said 39, and I'm 40. But I used my numb hand, on painkillers, so I'll take that as a win.

I was back on the Harvard site looking at tests, and this one is supposed to predict your age: [link]. I'm going to take that as a compliment.

Hmm, they were very complimentary to me too, either that or their algorithm is off. I'm not that dexterous.

I feel pretty good. It guessed I was 29. I click like a 20-something! Woo!

I am the only one that is about as decrepit as I'm supposed to be? Well, I can't say I'm surprised. Y'all have youthful pixels, too.