Puff daddy

Say what you want about 2011--it's a great year for puffballs. The spousal unit photographed this fungal monstrosity this weekend. The boots provide perspective if you can make them out. We're talking bigger than a basketball. Luckily, it hasn't started talking and eating people yet.

MESSY BUT GOOD. Here's Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson on the Occupy Wall Street movement.

MATHEMATICAL MODELS FOR PEACE AND VIOLENCE? Maybe.

GOOD CARTOON here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED