Today, J.T. offered some of this thoughts on music, so I figured I'd share some artists I think you ought to check out ...

If I Die Young by The Band Perry

Fiddlin' Around by Dierks Bentley

That'll Make You Want To Drink by Easton Corbin

All Over Me by Josh Turner

Get Off On The Pain by Gary Allen

Over at Dawg Gone Blog, we're rounding up the coverage of the apparent hiring of Greg McGarity to be the next athletic director at the University of Georgia.

At the end of qualifying week for local, non-partisan elections in Athens-Clarke County, Bertis Downs submitted a letter to the editor to the Athens Banner-Herald requesting additional information related to not just why the five declared candidates for Clarke County Board of Education were seeking office, but also where they stood on a variety of issues confronting the local schools. BTT decided to take his questions and ask them of all the candidates, and this is the third installment of those responses. Jill Caudill's responses are here, Sarah Ellis's responses are here and Carole Lumpkin's responses are here.

David Redman is up ...

How do we attract and retain quality teachers, the key ingredient in any child's education?

This is a sketch of the polite suspect who robbed Vision Video in Oconee County yesterday. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Sgt. Jay Higgins at 706.769.566.

The investigation into the damage wrought by chemical spill that resulted from the J & J Chemical Company fire two weeks ago began with a single text message, according to a report from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

With the fire still burning, Chris Martin, the Region Three Fisheries regional supervisor, received a text from an official with the Georgia Emergency Management Association late in the evening of Jule 28 that informed him of a fish kill in the east fork of Trail Creek. Martin contacted Michele Cortes with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division shortly afterward, who reported to him that oxygen levels were rapidly falling in the creek.

Cortes told Martin the plant produced the blue dye used in toilet bowl cleaner, but the chemical was non-toxic and contained various oils and perfumes. Additionally, Cortes said a berm had been built by the first responders to control run-off.

Internet musical sensation 'DeStorm' puts together an absolutely awesome acapella performance of various cartoon theme songs. The best part? This is the first of five installments.

Lost admist the usual blather of conservative talkings points, Sen. Saxby Chambliss dropped an interesting nugget of information regarding immigration reform during a visit to the Athens Rotary Club yesterday ...

On immigration, he predicted that more and more states would pass tough Arizona-style laws because the federal government is not doing its job. Congress should pass "overall immigration reform" that secures the borders first, but rounding up millions of illegal immigrants and sending them all back home is not practical, he said.

"If somebody wants to become a citizen, there ought to be a way to do it," he said. "It ought to take a long time and, by golly, you ought to appreciate what it means to be an American."

- Chemical levels in the area's waterways continue to decline, though the east fork of Trail Creek, close to the site of the orginal fire, remains disturbingly high and will probably be that way for a while. Additionally, note the blueness of Trail Creek, which is still striking after two weeks after spill.

- In Oconee County, we've got polite criminals.

- Howard Leeb is right.

This got recommended by Grift on Twitter yesterday, and I liked it a good bit ...

Following Oakeshott, I have long believed that the liberal and the conservative strands in Anglo-American political tradition and discourse are complementary. Oakeshott sketched these two ways of seeing the world - enterprise association (collectivism at worst, patriotism at best) and civil association (selfishness at worst, individualism at best) - and believed the genius of modern European politics and the Anglo-American tradition lay in using each resource as befits changing circumstances. There are moments in a country's history when collective action is required; ditto when a resurgence of individualism is necessary. The question is judging when, a matter of prudential judgment that true statesmen or women alone can discern.

Mapping Athens, an exhibit that showcases effective ways of communicating complex information and environmental characteristics, will kick off the Circle Gallery's 2010-2011 season this weekend. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will run from August 16 through Sept. 24.

Sgungkyung Lee, a professor with the University of Georgia, shared some of themes of the show  ...

Using map visualization as a primary method, students in the Master of Environmental Planning and Design program identified Athens’ unique physical, environmental and social characteristics. Mapping Athens is intended to illustrate the ‘big picture’ of Athens by focusing on objective statistical information and interpretive experiential networks that visualize everyday landscape experiences and practices.

The Circle Gallery, which is a part of UGA's College of Environment and Design, shares exhibitions that foster intellectual debate in the college and greater community. It's open 8:30 a.m. through 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, or by appointment.