Finally I finished reading Daniel Yergin's brilliant and necessary The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, a doorstopper of a tome which deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize back in 1992. I sincerely wish I had read it decades sooner. It rewired my thinking about World War II, among multitudinous other things. What prompted me to pick it up is that for the book I am writing about Far West Texas I needed a broader historical perspective for the oil industry in the Permian Basin. One oilman mentioned in The Prize whom I'll be writing about is pioneer geologist and philanthropist Wallace E. Pratt... More about him anon.
Next on my reading list: Mason Inman's new book about M. King Hubbert, The Oracle of Oil: A Maverick Geologist's Quest for a Sustainable Future
> A lengthy and fascinating memorial to M. King Hubbert in The Geological Society of America (PDF).
An academic article that represents a parting of the seas.
Low Tech Magazine on Medieval Smokestacks: Fossil Fuels in Pre-Industrial Times
An almost unknown history well worth knowing.
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A few more fascinating items I've happened upon in recent surfaris:
Strange and powerful, a highly recommended read. (But I still think I must have stepped into some parallel universe, this one where Donald Tump is President and Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize.... I am not comparing Dylan to Trump, however. And, apropos of that lecture, I will say that I'm a serious fan of Buddy Holly.)
On Jeffrey Mishlove's "New Thinking Allowed":
Psychedelic Experience with Stanley Krippner
I am not planning on seeking out any psychedelic experiences myself; current events seem plenty psychedelic to me. But I do find it fascinating to listen to other people's experiences and to learn some of the cultural history. For psychonauterie and psychedelia, the very articulate and matter-of-fact Professor Krippner is the elder guru.
Psychedelic Experience with Stanley Krippner
I am not planning on seeking out any psychedelic experiences myself; current events seem plenty psychedelic to me. But I do find it fascinating to listen to other people's experiences and to learn some of the cultural history. For psychonauterie and psychedelia, the very articulate and matter-of-fact Professor Krippner is the elder guru.
Check out this post on the blog of Jeff Peachy, blogging book conservator extraordinaire.
Another thoughtful post from Granola Shotgun.
And finally, a couple of especially interesting pieces both in the New York Times:
The Hidden Radicalism of Southern Food by John T. Edge
Is there an ecological unconscious? by Daniel B. Smith
