Vernon Lee Evans has been sitting on death row in Baltimore, Maryland for more than 20 years. He doesn't have a computer or Internet access in his prison cell, but he's still managed to become one of the most-talked about people in the blogosphere. His Web site, meetvernon.blogspot.com , describes his final days on death row before his planned execution during the week of February 6. Evans relies on Virginia Simmons, an anti-death penalty activist who manages the site. Simmons collects questions from readers around the world and then sends them to Evans, who either gives handwritten or typed responses. Vernon answers questions about life on death row, often suffusing his responses with reflections of Christianity. Vernon takes questions at meetvernon@gmail.com  -- but, please, nothing about last meals.

The Futurist's Toolkit

Must-read book lists are as old as Gutenberg's printing press. Usually, they deal with certain genres of literature or biographies. Seldom is the focus on the future. But the scholars at California's RAND Corporation recently got together and asked a simple question: Fifty years from now, when we examine humanity and the problems we faced, what books should we have paid more attention to? Unless you prefer a heavy diet of political issues like climate change, capitalism, the environment and globalization to the lighter fare of Anne Rice or Amy Tan, then these books are unlikely to bring pleasure to your bedtime reading. But if you think about the future and ways to make it better -- the RAND list  could provide a good starting point.