Today’s comic by Jen Sorensen is Canned patriotism:
• New study says burning all fossil fuels would boost temperature by 8°C (14°F):
The starting point for the new study is a world in which there are no efforts to curb emissions. Under this scenario, CO2 stabilizes at roughly 2,000 parts per million (ppm) in 2300.
For context, this is more than five times higher than today’s level (~399ppm) and seven times what it was before humans started industrializing (~280ppm). [...]
Five trillion tons of carbon would raise global temperatures by 6.4-9.5 C, relative to preindustrial times, according to the study. The Arctic, which is already warming faster than the rest of the world, would see temperatures rise at least 14.7, even as high as 19.5 C.
• Jon Ralston lovingly talks about his daughter who is now his son.
• Delaware bridge needs a half-million-dollar fix—raising it 6 inches so taller trains can pass under. The bridge was rebuilt at a cost of $5 million specifically to allow enough clearance for freight trains carrying two stacked containers. But the surveyors made a mistake:
The most likely cause, said Barry Benton, Delaware Department of Transportation’s state bridge engineer, was a DelDOT surveying team that had mistakenly measured the clearance for the span from the ground rather than from the top of the tracks’ steel rails.
“It appears that the original survey shots may not have been top of the rail; they may have been bottom of the rail,” Benton said.
• That itty-bitty presidential run of Scott Walker has left him $900,000 in debt.
• Smoking still kills nearly half a million Americans a years, but fewer adults are smoking: The government reports that smoking among adults fell to 15 percent in 2015, a 2 percent drop since 2014 and the largest one-year decline in more than 20 years. The rate has been falling for decades, but usually only by 1 point a year or less. Despite the decline, smoking still kills more than 480,000 Americans each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
• The Legal System Uses an Algorithm to Predict If People Might Be Future Criminals. It's Biased Against Blacks: And it's terrible at predicting future crimes.
• On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: It’s all Armando, all the time. Well, not literally. But it’s an extended discussion with him of the Dem convention platform committee developments, and what can (and cannot) come of them. Plus, your daily roundup of the Hairspray von Clownstick follies.
On iTunes | On Stitcher | Support the show: Patreon; PayPal; PayPal Subscription