Has there been work done on researching methods for recovering land that has been subject to G.R. style farming practices? Is it possible to rebuild topsoil or is that something we have to let time and the insects handle?

There is also this crazy idea about sensible gun legislation that would help to prevent stuff like this. You know, if we're talking crazy things that will never happen in the U.S.

Oh my god yes! Bring on the Nuclear Hand Drills!

There might as well be a Dunning-Kruger effect built in to Photoshop, considering the number of photographers who suffer under the delusion that the terrible shit they produce is actually art.

Full disclosure - I'm a cranky photographer who's not total shit but is still mostly shit.

Her description of the location of the classified documents sounds like something my computer illiterate grandmother would say trying to relate the plot of "War Games" or "The Net."

What IT person do you know in this world that says shit like that?

"commercial, nonattributable spyware that's proprietary to a government agency"

You can't parse that and have it make sense.

Commercial spyware that's somehow unable to be attributed to a person or organization? That defies the whole point of a commercial software product.

Commercial yet proprietary to a small group of government agencies? Again, that's not really the definition of commercial.

I can believe she had some sort of breach on her machine, most likely malware. Hell, I'd even be willing to believe there was some sort of spearphishing attack against her by someone who wanted data off a well-known reporter's computer but the rest of it just reads like a bad movie about the internet.

That's pure bullshit Conservative non-sense. I've had a pilots license for nearly 20 years and with the introduction of Part 61 licenses and the expansion of the aircraft allowed under sport and private pilots licenses its much easier to qualify these days.

But hey, don't let me get in the way of a good old fashioned big government hatefest. I know it must be terrible to have regulations for people who want to operate a vehicle that requires specialized training, and I'm sure that fuel costs and aircraft costs have nothing to do with it whatsoever. Right?

This story is only one word away from being a Cards Against Humanity favorite.

How long before we're hiring kids to go pick up nano pore condoms off the beach so we can recycle them in to materials to keep the nanobots off our lawns?

Probably never, but I finally get to make the reference!

Wait, so I can literally blame anything on the NSA?

I ran out of ideas and motivation for my next book because of the NSA!

I'm late for work today because of the NSA!

Sorry, I can't afford child support this month because of the NSA!

This really sounds like a steaming pile of bullshit to me. Not that I'm in any way supportive of the actions of the NSA, but stating that you're not going to finish a series because it has become too much like real life just smacks of someone taking an easy way out.

Who will make the "life-like" driver busts that can banter with eleven different sorts of inane chatter? JohnnyCab it is not!

Yep, I rode that storm out in Houston. It was a Cat 2 but HSI 45 while in the Gulf and low 30s at landfall. Katrina was mid-30s at landfall. Most of those points were, of course, for size.

The Saffir-Simpson scale is pretty antiquated for the exact reasons mentioned. Just measuring wind speed gives a very poor idea of how dangerous or destructive a storm will by, and gives no indication of relative size.

The better scale that the AMS is starting to lean toward is the Hebert-Weinzapfel scale, which has a much easier to spell name as the Hurricane Severity Index, or HSI.

With the HSI model, the speed of wind and the size of the wind field are taken in to account so a storm that is moderate intensity but very large in footprint, like Katrina, has a similar rating to a hurricane with a high intensity and very small footprint like Andrew. Both were similar in the amount of destruction they caused but Katrina was only SS Cat 3 at landfall, where Andrew was SS Cat 5.

But hey, lets just make jokes about Al Gore instead, cause Al Gore. Am I right here people?

Ok, first off it's the Miranda Warning, not the Miranda Rights. You have them at all times, read to you or not. The warning is there to remind you that you have the option not to incriminate yourself.

Or, at least it was until this decision. Ahh, The Roberts Court, whittling our rights down one 5-4 at a time.

A network of stations where fresh mounts/batteries can be picked up for a courier going over rugged and perhaps dangerous terrain.

So... this would be the Droney Express?