Friday Morning News, Views, And Links

Active rigs: 182

RBN Energy: another in the series on shale gas production economics; downloadable spreadsheet;

The WSJ

Wow, this is shocking. Walt Mossberg will leave the WSJ at the end of the year.

Same firm vetted Snowden, Navy Yard shooting suspect, and 30,000 others. This is a story?

Mars rover cannot fine methane in the air, dealing a blow to hopes that life might be found on Mars; I suppose without methane, no evidence of Martial warming either.

Dueling banjos. First, it was Putin's op-ed. Now Senator McCain weighs in.

The NYT

Top story, above the fold, with photograph: oil thieves in Nigeria. Great photograph of Nigeria's crude oil takeaway method.

The Boston Globe

Politics, sports, and excessive spending at Westfield State. Nothing about fracking or the Bakken on the front page.

Los Angeles Times

Top story: looming federal government shutdown.

Third story down: thirteen human beings shot in Chicago, including a 3-year-old; basketball-court shooting was apparently gang-related. Ya think?

Supreme Court will decide whether corporations can claim a religious exemption to the healthcare's contraceptive mandate. Question: just how expensive are birth control pills compared to the alternative? My hunch: separation of church and state will trump.

Water colour by May Garcia