ESPN.com

• This wheel's on fire
  Alberto Contador won the Tour de France last week, riding the 2,140 miles in 85 hours and 48 minutes, an average of nearly 25 miles per hour up towering mountains and across wind-swept fields and shores.
  
  He used two wheels. The slacker.
  
  If you want an impressive cyclist, check out Joe Myers [a scheduler in Western Washington University's Facilities Management] on this video of a ride up Washington's Mount Baker (you can see him at the 2:07 and 5:53 points). Myers rode this weekend's annual Cougar Mountain Climb for Cancer in 18 minutes, 42 seconds on a unicycle. The Cougar Mountain ride is about two miles long with an average gradient of nearly 7½ percent and some stretches as high as 16 percent. To give you some perspective, that's almost as steep as the Tour's legendary Alpe d'Huez. It's not pleasant on two wheels, let alone one.

The Bellingham Herald

• WWU scientists study harmful algal blooms in Puget Sound
  Under a microscope, Heterosigma akashiwo looks like a potato or a cornflake. To the naked eye, sea lettuce is a big, green sheet of seaweed. In most cases, these different algae are food for the ocean's vegetarians.
  
  But every few years during summer and early fall they multiply in massive numbers until they harm the marine ecosystem, kill fish or die off themselves and wash onto Puget Sound beaches, where they reek like rotting seafood.
  
  Two scientists - Suzanne Strom and Kathy Van Alstyne - at Western Washington University's Shannon Point Marine Center in Anacortes are studying these harmful algal blooms.
  

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• Seahawks sign former WWU standout Simmons
  The Seattle Seahawks have waived reserve linebacker Tony Taylor and signed former Western Washington University linebacker Shane Simmons. Taylor was released with the designation of injured because of a knee injury. Seattle signed the two-year veteran from Georgia as a free agent in May.
  

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• Opinion: time to push science, math, and technology education
  Now, more than ever, science, technology and mathematics need to be at the forefront of what we as a society deem to be important as we educate our young people, from grade school through graduate school. In sports terms, we used to be the dominant team; if this were a sports competition the odds makers might not give us a chance.
  
  -- Arlan Norman is the dean of Western Washington University's College of Sciences and Technology and a board member for the Washington Technology Center, the American Museum of Radio and Electricity and the Technology Alliance Group (TAG).
  

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• NOAA chooses Oregon city
  Bellingham will not be the new home of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Operations Center-Pacific, officials announced Tuesday, Aug. 4.
  
  After a lengthy, much-anticipated process, federal officials determined that the Port of Newport, Ore., was the best fit for the facility. It is expected to bring the coastal Oregon community an estimated 175 shore-side employees, researchers and on-board crew members assigned to four vessels and two itinerant vessels, which would be at sea much of the year.
  
  NOAA also was touted as a good fit with plans to bring Western Washington University facilities such as Huxley College of the Environment to the waterfront.
  
  Port interim Director Seeger said he didn't believe NOAA's decision would adversely impact the potential for WWU facilities on the waterfront.
  The sentiment was confirmed by Steve Swan, WWU's vice president of university relations.
  
  "We're obviously disappointed because this would have been a big plus for Bellingham and our entire region," he said, "Western remains firmly committed to being on the waterfront. The decision of NOAA in no way changes that."
  

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• Riverboarding puts riders eye-to-eye with raging waters
  She's technically from Western Washington University and regularly sports pads and a helmet. But Rochelle Parry never played for the now-defunct Vikings football team.
  
  Maybe she should have.
  
  The 46-year-old, who works as a web and graphic designer for the Bellingham university, spends a good chunk of her time dodging her own share of would-be tacklers, though these more resemble large boulders, crashing waves, souse-holes and strainers.