Keep the hose handy

Saturday 8:28 p.m. 24-hour report for Jackson: 2.40 inches. We were missed again.

With this morning’s 71 degree temperature, this is probably the warmest morning of the summer. There might have been one other 70 degree morning. I’d have to check with Mr. Isobar.

I heard in a forecast yesterday that a temperature record might be set today. That seemed odd for the mid-90s forecast. I just checked the records for Toledo. The “low” records are 94 for Aug. 16 and 18. There are a couple of 95 days. Four records are in the 100s.

• I started reading a New Yorker article last night about drug-resistant bacteria and saw a link this morning to one that focuses on agriculture. I guess I haven’t been paying attention on the ag side. I knew antibiotics were fed routinely to farm animals to keep them healthy (as opposed to human use to get healthy again), but I learned only last night that the antibiotics also promote animal growth. Check out the New Yorker article. Very interesting stuff, and somewhat worrisome.

• If you’re a fan of science news, the New York Times has an excellent run-down on current reports. This morning there’s a report on the U.S. military’s concern with climate change and, for me, a story about seeing fossils in 3-D.

• Confirmed leftist Robert Reich offers some caution on supposedly improving employment figures:

Be careful with these figures, though. They don’t include the increasing numbers of people working part-time who’d rather have full-time jobs. Nor do they include a large number who have given up looking for work. They don’t reflect the many millions who have found new jobs that pay less than the old ones they lost. And they don’t include one of the shortest typical workweeks on record, for those who still have full-time jobs. (On this score, though, another indication that things are worsening more slowly — the workweek went up very slightly from 33 hours.) Nor, for that matter, do the numbers reflect the 130,000 people who are coming into the labor force each month ready and willing to work, who can’t find jobs.