Your dog drinks out of the toilet - why can't you?

Orange County, California is setting up a facility to recycle sewage as drinking water. "Toilet-to-tap" sounds gross, but this actually happens in nature already. Treated effluent typically is released to places where it re-enters the global hydrological cycle, either through evaporation, percolation into groundwater storage, or returning to rivers and lakes. In many cases the water that comes out of sewage treatment plants is cleaner than the bodies of water it enters. The OC facility is not going to take freshly treated water and pump it right back into drinking water supplies, though. The output of the plant will be put into area riverbeds where it will infiltrate to the groundwater and join the existing sources of drinking water. The cycle will take, at the very least, several months if not years to complete, so sewage that enters the plant now isn't going to be coming to a faucet near you for quite a while.

New instructor characterizes student perfectly

Okay, okay - Has anyone yet coined the term "blogorrhea"? If not, I hereby do. But this I just HAD to share.

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EDIT: Apparently, "yes": this page provides a much more satisfactory definition than Urban Dictionary
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My metro design seminar is being taught by a relatively recent graduate of the MLA/MURP program here at the U, although he's roughly my age or maybe a little older. He's pretty cool, and the coolometer just spiked when I received a note about the projects we're presenting starting tomorrow.

We will be presenting to a mock planning commission, acting the role of planning staff. We review a project against subdivision and zoning ordinances, and then make a recommendation (approve, approve with conditions, deny).

So the instructor sent a note about the presentations, and added:

In order to make the mock planning commission meetings a little more interesting and hopefully fun, I created a character or role for each of you to play.

Here's mine:

Brain Fewell – local realtor known for pushing “affordable” housing, but has a second home in the penthouse on the top floor of the Carlisle in downtown Minneapolis. His penchant for living high is legendary and there have been rumors that his life style has exceeded his earnings due to the on-going housing slump. As any new development represents new sales commissions, Brian has never seen any project he doesn’t like and is ready to approve anything regardless of planning staff concerns. No apparent criminal record, at least as far as anyone knows.

I can't freakin' wait!

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EDIT: One of my classmate's descriptions starts with "Drawn to the city for the watersports, ..."
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Okay, okay - you don't have to shoot me now

Whew - I found a backup copy of my browser bookmarks. So that's nice.