Commentary: Deadly heat shouldn't be a curiosity. It's a disaster and a tragedy

Visitors are making perilous trips to California's Death Valley as temperatures climb to within a few degrees of the highest on record. And there's no doubt it takes a certain breed to trek into some of the worst heat humanity has known.

But as this miserable heat persists,, I found myself thinking about why some people are fixated on experiencing these temperature extremes, even if vicariously through a news story or a photo next to a practically melting thermometer.