Too geeky not to mention:
Actor George Takei, best known for his portrayal of Lt. Sulu on Star Trek, has announced his upcoming marriage to longtime partner Brad Altman.
Thank you CA supreme court, for letting Lt. Sulu get married.
I'm still pinching myself, but we won. Strict scrutiny, marriage equality. From an elderly, Republican, cautious California Supreme Court.
NASA's foremost climate scientist, Jim Hansen (you may remember the Bushies trying to muzzle him), has a new paper on arxiv.org. Here's the abstract:
Paleoclimate data show that climate sensitivity is ~3 deg-C for doubled CO2, including only fast feedback processes. Equilibrium sensitivity, including slower surface albedo feedbacks, is ~6 deg-C for doubled CO2 for the range of climate states between glacial conditions and ice-free Antarctica. Decreasing CO2 was the main cause of a cooling trend that began 50 million years ago, large scale glaciation occurring when CO2 fell to 425 +/- 75 ppm, a level that will be exceeded within decades, barring prompt policy changes. If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm. The largest uncertainty in the target arises from possible changes of non-CO2 forcings. An initial 350 ppm CO2 target may be achievable by phasing out coal use except where CO2 is captured and adopting agricultural and forestry practices that sequester carbon. If the present overshoot of this target CO2 is not brief, there is a possibility of seeding irreversible catastrophic effects.Emphasis added by me. Holy shit, people. The cliff's ahead, and we're blithely driving toward it.
