Some thoughts on bears. And life. A decent read.

"Dirty flags advertise rock-bottom discounts on empty starter mansions. On the ground, foreclosure signs are tagged with gang graffiti. Empty lots are untended, cratered with mud puddles from the winter storms that have hammered California's San Joaquin Valley." That's the Times' Timothy Egan reporting from the town of Lathrop, where median home prices have fallen from $500,000 to $150,000.

The ruins of past civilizations come to mind, like Pompeii or something from the Amazon.