You're right -- Rall's piece was as full-on essay, complete with an amazing quotation from a Time magazine of decades ago, if I understood correctly, and countless links and specifics about a generational rub. (Or not.) Rall does often rant on the site, but this was much more.

Heard from a young hiker on the trail named Tyler, from Thousand Oaks, that this book is now available for free on Kindle. Just saying.

Thanks Mike. Thought of you guys, possibly visiting Palm Springs (which has remarkably big square blocks when seen from above).. My buddy Chris recovered, and far outstripped me as we approached the end of the trail near I-10 in the San Gorgonio pass. Think he's had enough of thru-hiking, sadly for me, but not backpacking: he (and I) will be out again. For me, perhaps not so long...hope to do about 500 miles of the PCT this year.

Thanks for filling us in. Goes straight to the point.

Readers should note that in response to this story...the commentator launches an unrelated and unsubstantiated attack on a much more famous and influential scientist. The best defense is a good offense, I suppose, but for me, the fact that the allegation was not denied by either Soon or his would-be defender is proof enough of its validity.

The mapping of disposal wells in Texas via the Texas Tribune is very impressive and a great idea. I wish I had these kind of big data skills, but maybe that's something I could shoot for over time. I recall Andrew Revkin of the NY Times discussing a site that focused on fracking in Pennsylvania. He said the creator of the site transferred the numbers from the state's database on fracking -- completely legally -- to an interactive site in four hours (once it had been set up). Could be an enormously useful tool around here (potentially).

That's absolutely the right question, Brian. Fracking is too big and too complex a question for local regulation alone. The leading environmentalist in the county, Supervisor Steve Bennett, went to a State Senate committee hearing to beg regulators for help. "Bennett said to the state Senate panel: “I implore you: The state has to do something.'” From a story by Marianne Ratcliff in the Santa Paula Times: http://www.santapaulatimes.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/26869/V.C._supervisor_at_fracking_hearing:_I_implore_you:__91The_state_has_to_do_something_92.html

Well, as usual, you make a great point. More than one, actually, but it's so true that Monroe was really funny. I was thinking about "The Seven-Year Itch," which despite its famous title, despite Billy Wilder, and despite an iconic image of Monroe in her prime, still is a pretty crummy movie. (Tom Ewell is pretty much unbearable.) But somehow Monroe, despite being pinned like a butterfly to an awful role, escapes into frivolity and delight. It's amazing. I also was a little stunned by the Grissom website. I only wish he sourced his entries, so I could double-check, but evidently some version of the site will be published. It's an amazing piece of work, and you can really hear Williams voice (when he quotes him).

Thank you for your incredibly thoughtful comments, Brian. No one (in my experience, at least) wields logic more powerfully than JS Mill. (Plus, because he's a good writer, he's underrated as a philosopher.) But I wonder if Mill wouldn't make a distinction between regulating tobacco, and punishing smokers. Most smokers today want to quit, but many simply can't. Given that tragic fact, to want to make tobacco as expensive and obscure as possible, especially for vulnerable young people, is a kindness, not a cruelty.

Yes, the dark-skinned Caucasian and the light-skinned African-American directly challenge our society's racial categorizing, and you are absolutely right to point out how crazy and thoughtless that labeling quickly becomes. "Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?" by Toure, is a book on the theme that sounds interesting to me.

Thanks for the very thoughtful comment/post. "We almost lost Detroit" is a book I want to read now.

I'm going to stand up for metaphor, for thinking poetically about issues like climate change. The imagination is arguably our species' greatest gift; to put it aside because there is no known material connection between alcoholism and global warming would be to deprive us of one of our greatest powers, potentially. An example to cite from the past would be from the Orwell related post, which links a relevant quote: A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. George Orwell, Politics and the English Language In his elegant way, Orwell sees a parallel between alcoholism and bad political writing/thinking. In fact, there is no inherent connection, but the metaphor helps us see past the obvious, and avoid distracting questions of guilt and blame. Useful.

I'm still not cynical enough. it's been a problem for years.

Damn -- is that her? Singing it? In the mustache? Jeez. Now I don't know what to think.

The Atlantic Wire has more on the whole naming the storm question: "Threatening as they actually may be, snowstorms aren't hurricanes — and just because The Weather Channel started naming them doesn't mean that's proper meteorology. This isn't some sort of meteorological oneupmanship. AccuWeather and other services don't play along with the new name game, says Kines, because the practice "confuses people." Unlike a hurricane, which affects everything in its path, a winter storm's wrath doesn't have the same certain doom. "The National Weather Service does not name winter storms because a winter storm's impact can vary from one location to another, and storms can weaken and redevelop, making it difficult to define where one ends and another begins," National Weather Service spokesperson Susan Buchanan told The Wire. Which is all a fancy, weatherman kind of way to say that everyone except The Weather Channel — which was called out for its preparation alarmism on Thursday — is trying to avoid panic."

Thanks for clarifying, Steve.

I like the way you're thinking...I know near Los Angeles there are several brownfields that are way too polluted to be of use, and are in the Superfund program, but which stand vacant or nearly so. I don't know how the EPA would regard planting grasses on those kind of areas, but it might be interesting to find out. Thank you for thinking out loud about it.

Well put. Yes, the black-out was refreshingly real. Odd to see players out on the grass exercising, waiting for it to be over. No one knew what to do. And as Anonymous tweeted: Finally, America cares about the infrastructure in NOLA.

Sorry about the sign-in, Jon. I try to make it easy, but I'll ask TypePad about what else might be possible. I admire Nabhan, though I (obviously) don't know that book. Thanks for opening my eyes -- and the memory.

Hadn't thought of that. Suppose some grasses might actually be easier to grow than vegetable gardens, if not as tasty, and possibly not bad looking. Waves of biofuels?

Thanks Susanna. I do what I can. Of course the real credit goes to Nathan Lujan, Devin Bloom, and Cynthia Watson, who wrote the op-ed linked above.

Interesting examples, and I think an interesting question. Can we trust those who never change their minds, or never admit doing so? I'm beginning to doubt it.

Thanks for the comment, Amy. I completely agree. For more on this fascinating question, take a look at an NYRB piece on the subject (on Kushner's closeness to the historical record, and Day-Lewis' portrayal of Lincoln) http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jan/10/how-close-lincoln/ To cut to the chase, David Bromwich extolls both Kushner and Day-Lewis, but also takes a look at past Lincoln's, and tips his hat to Henry Fonda: "The Lincoln whom Kushner has written and Day-Lewis has performed is full of stories, all of them effective and some of them barnyard-low. We are made to see that his skill as a master of arguments ran close beside his gift and his trove as a teller of stories. This was an aspect of Lincoln’s character that two earlier films, Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) and Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), also leaned on heavily. In the best scene of any of the Lincoln movies, John Ford showed Henry Fonda at the door of the jailhouse in Young Mr. Lincoln, protecting two young men from a lynch mob by singling out the howling men in the crowd. He knows them all, and he talks to them. He does it with little anecdotes and characterizations. The scene is affecting because it shows civic courage and physical courage blended in a single act; and though Lincoln was never involved in a confrontation quite like it, the incident draws on knowledge of what he knew and said about mobs. Raymond Massey in Abe Lincoln in Illinois walked through Lincoln’s stories as if they were lines that he was told somebody might laugh at and so he rehearsed them straight. Day-Lewis tells them like a man who has studied the high adepts of the cracker barrel and is ready to lead a revival. Fonda alone—it is one of the things that make Young Mr. Lincoln a great contribution to folklore and myth—talked as if the humor were native to him, as if there was hardly a moment in a circle of men when a story might not come into his mind. A flicker of the possibility of humor was always behind his eyes. Also, the possibility of anger. Fonda remains the actor of Lincoln who can astonish by a vehemence that is not unfettered rage." Fonda and Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln still doesn't have the great range of this year's biography, but befitting its prequel nature, does have a marvelously crisp ending.

It can get scary out there in Internet-land, can't it?