A 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes 16 miles from Port-au-Prince, a city of 700,000 in Haiti, and 230,000 people die. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes 13 miles from Christchurch, a city of 400,000 in New Zealand, and no one gets killed.

Review in The Wall Street Journal. Get the CD (or MP3) at Amazon.

Eric Felten in The Wall Street Journal." A federal judge in Hawaii ruled last month that a man claiming to be addicted to a videogame can sue the game's maker for gross negligence in not warning him he could become a joystick junkie. Craig Smallwood alleges in his lawsuit that, as a result of playing the online game "Lineag

On our lawn about ten minutes ago. They weren't going at it very hard; just rattling their racks. It's 90 in the shade and they were panting like dogs. After a minute or two they gave up and headed down to the river. There's a nice cool bar down there where they can have a drink and a swim.

I've been invited to climb Mt. McLoughlin again, and so, since returning from the campout, I've been training. Today I walked out the door promptly at 5:00 and reached the summit of Nugget Butte, that is at 6:30. The old radio beacon tower is still hanging in there and so, apparently, are my legs. I wasn't even sore.

Alaska Dispatch: "At 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski ended her bid for the GOP nomination to the seat she has held since her father passed it on to her eight years ago."Can somebody tell me what the hell just happened?

Why do you even try?

This is August? Leslie finally broke down about ten o'clock and turned on that old gas fired scorched air monster in the basement with the sheet metal dustwork going every which way. I smelled it before I heard it. But I can't really blame her. It was cold and drizzly outside, and even colder inside.

At the campout last weekend I planked a few salmon and seasoned them with three different rubs. One mesquite, one Italian, and one I call Szechuan. It has a secret ingredient. Szechuan peppercorns or huajiao are small, reddish brown peppercorns with a flowerlike husk. Dry roasted and ground, it has a pungent, aromatic flav

Sarah Palin spoke to 300,000 people in Washington today. "Now, I've been asked to speak today, not as a politician. No, as something more something much more. I've been asked to speak as the mother of a soldier, and I am proud of that distinction. You know, say what you want to say about me, but I raised a combat vet, and

Thanks to the Mind Numbed Robot.

In tomorrow's Wall Street Journal. The money quote: "Though heavily outspent, Mr. Miller was helped by former Governor Sarah Palin's endorsement and especially by Ms. Murkowski's failure to understand the anti-Washington mood. When he asked Senator Murkowski in a debate which part of the Constitution permitted Roe v. Wade a

Leslie stewed a savory pot of home made chili for dinner, with fresh chopped onion and grated cheese. "Dinner!" she called up the stairs. No answer. She pressed the button on the intercom. "Dinner!" No answer. "Should I text them?"

"If you spend 72 hours in a place you've never been, talking to people whose language you don't speak about social, political, and economic complexities you don't understand, and you come back as the world's biggest know-it-all, you're a reporter... What do you want to know about Afghanistan, past, present, or future? Ask m

At the Eighteenth Annual Durand Family Campout. The median age of the siblings this year reached the half-century mark, and of the three dozen shots I took this one was mercifully soft-focus, and nobody had a particularly goofy look, so this is the best I could do, standing in front of the camera. Standing: Becky, Randy,

I finally had to clear away the clutter on the coffee table and admit that our vacation was over and done. But first a still-life for my computer's desktop. Now, if you bother to click the pic to view the full-size, you'll see prominently featured a bottle of Alaska Distillery Smoked Salmon Flavored Vodka. We discovered th

Jon Krakauer on books about mortality and existential angst. Nothing to Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes The Hours by Michael Cunningham The Moviegoer by Walker Percy Darkness Visible by William Styron The Road by Cormac McCarthyKrakauer, of course, knows a little about staring into the void. On Greg's recommendation I rea

The green was so intense I had to turn the car around and go back for a second look. I'm still sorting through my photos from Alaska looking for the occasional nugget. If and when I find one, I'll post it here. Tonight I'm camping out on the lawn with my camera on a tripod to try to catch a Perseid or two. Wish me luck.

It was only the luck of the draw that prevents me showing you the last thing Ted Stevens ever saw. That morning at Talkeetna Air Taxi we boarded the DeHavilland Beaver and not the Turbine Otter. They have three Beavers and two Otters, and a couple Cessna 185s. All excellent planes in top condition, even if they are fifty

(Click pic for full size.) On Wednesday evening after changing into dry clothes we drove to Chugach State Park just outside Anchorage. There we watched a sunset at 10:30 PM and took in the panoramic view below us. My camera doesn't have one of those fancy-pants pano settings so I stitched this together in Paint. Pretty d

On Thursday we headed south for the third time in three days but this time we took a right at Moose Pass. The weather was showery and we decided to drive when it rained and stop when it didn't. Along about Cooper Landing it stopped, and we did too. Our friends from Bird Point had recommended the Kingfisher so we gave it a

Almost home. The kids are home. The cat's fine. The fish are OK. We'll be there soon. All out of gin. Gotta pay airport prices now. I think our plane just arrived. More later... Tired, tired, tired.

Last night we had a fine meal at The Mermaid Cafe in Homer, AK. Music was live fiddle, guitar, and mandolin playing Irish reels. The rest of Homer is over-rated if you ask me, unless you're here just for the halibut.

We rented a car today (which is a story all its own; more later) and drove to Seward. The weather alternated partly sunny to overcast and drizzly, mostly the latter. Seward harbor was beautiful anyway, and the Alaska Sealife Center better than the guidebooks allowed. Spendy, true, but then it seems that almost everything is

Leslie and I boarded the Denali Star this morning and rode to Talkeetna, where we we had reservations on the Talkeetna Air Taxi for a little flightseeing around Mt. McKinley. On arriving we learned that they had upgraded us, at no extra charge, to a glacier landing. So here we are at the top of Ruth Glacier, standing in fro

We went to the Anchorage Market Festival to shop the touristy booths and buy knick knacks and such. I got all shopped out in an hour or so, and then I heard the music. Irish fiddle, and very well played. Very, very well played. After a half hour or so he took a break and I went over to chat. What's your name? Sky Kelsey

Alaska Air continues to improve the entertainment value of their preflight briefing. Here the instructional card graphically invites plump middle-aged ladies to (in the event of an emergency, of course) rip that door off and catch a little air on the way out.

In transit to a secure undisclosed location. We hope to arrive by Saturday afternoon. As a last minute security measure we decided to let my sister's half-cousin Lenny keep an eye on things while we're gone. He hates staying in that group home and anyway prefers to be by himself. Lenny's been pretty stable since he got ou

On "the narcissism of small differences." "It is my experience that among white Americans of all regions and classes, feelings about black peoplemuch less Hispanic peoplein the generality are never as strong as feelings about other white groups. The passion you can hear from a liberal college professor in Massachusetts when

Julea Ward's Christian beliefs violate the American Counseling Association code of ethics. "A federal judge has ruled in favor of a public university that removed a Christian student from its graduate program in school counseling over her belief that homosexuality is morally wrong. ""Code of ethics." Ha. It's a code, all ri