Friday is in the house and we're cookin' with fire today:

Slate has an interesting 'splainer on why the Chinese use lead paint on toys in the first place. Hint: "It's bright, cheap and lasts forever."

Lakeland Local shows us that crime ain't just for the Big City Folk™, it's smeared all over Lakeland.

Mark Holmgren muses on the state of healthcare in America, quite a popular topic these day (sic).

Mariella at Sticks of Fire and Wayne Garcia the Political Whore™ both have excellent posts concerning the recent Hillsborough County Commission vote on how wetlands are protected.  Here's what Mariella had to say:

Commissioners voted 7-0 yesterday to save their jobs, the EPC wetlands division, and implement Dr. Garrity’s compromise Hybrid Proposal. After receiving about 3″ of e-mail from an outraged public (Rose Ferlita held up the stack), and taking a constant beating in the press ever since their preliminary vote in June to eliminate the division, they had to vote for the hybrid. It was clear that a vote to eliminate the epc wetlands division would have been political suicide.

Ouch.

No more fears when visiting Canada. Sasquatch has been arrested.

Oh, snap! Instructional flowchart.

Map of the USA. Can you get all the states right. I only got an 87% in 1.39 minutes. Oh snap!

Shameless Plug: Brendan wanted me to remind e'erbody that Flashpoint is this Sunday. He interviews a Forbes.com writer who basically says that Tampa's ability to attract elite university graduates ranks only slightly higher than Yeehaw Junction. And something about wanting to slap someone with a "dueling challenge glove".

Enjoy the weekend!