That blue-green algae (which isn't really algae) can kill.

Toxic algae blooms!

Brookline officials want well intentioned people to stop trying to scoop up oily birds from the Muddy River following yesterday's bizarre oil spill, because most people don't really have a clue how to get oil off a duck's back.

The Tab reports that up to 5,000 gallons of mineral oil that leaked out of an electrical conduit at Sutherland and Strathmore roads in Brighton this morning got into a drainage pipe that then dumped it into Leverett Pond and the Muddy River on the other side of Brookline on the Jamaica Plain line.

Brookline Police report charging a juvenile with indecent assault and battery after he allegedly attacked the woman shortly after noon yesterday.

The Urban Pantheist discovers a creative effort, on a Riverway bench.

The Tab is tracking down info on three armed holdups on the Brookline side of the Muddy River last night and this morning: Two guys in hoodies.

Brookline Police have posted info on two Longwood-area holdups and one at Washington and School streets last night:

Victim robbed at gunpoint around 8:30 p.m. at 96 Franklin St.; another victim robbed around 10:30 at 7 Netherlands Rd. by two men. In the first case, police are looking for a dark skinned black male in his 20s, approximately 6-ft. tall, wearing a baggy sweatshirt and a black baseball cap; in the second for two Hispanic men, one 5'8" to 5'10, weighing about 180 lbs. and wearing a black hoodie.

Around 7:30, a woman at Washington and School reported that two men in a dark sedan stopped and asked her for directions - at which point the passenger jumped out, pushed her to the ground and took her purse. Police are looking for a couple white guys, one thin, in his early 20s, wearing a blue zip-up sweatshirt and jeans.

Jeff Taylor introduces us to a colorful mushroom that can be found along the Muddy River that is bad for people but just great for squirrels.

Jef Taylor is going around balancing rocks on top of each other again.

If you walk along the Muddy River in the Fenway and see all these rocks balanced atop each other on the pedestrian bridges, thank the Urban Pantheist.