Guys and gals I’m only $200 bucks short of salvation this month thanks to a number of generous readers. If you can kick in a few more shekels I will say a special prayer for you be able to continue working on issues near and dear to our hearts for at least another few weeks! My Paypal email address is DarkSydOtheMoon-at-aol and my snail mail address for those who dislike Paypal is in the first comment, thanks again! Context for the above image and more science-y stuff below the fold.

It’s cold as this is written, in much of the nation. Soon, I’ll be flying in to Washington, D.C., to schmooze and tour and talk about some science stuff. But my early AM Sunday flight could be delayed by snow and ice. It’s too bad I’m not flying over the midwest, where I might look out at 10,000 feet and see pigs winging their way above the Hoosier State:

Jim Brainard, five-term Republican mayor of Carmel, Indiana, a fast-growing city of 80,000 outside of Indianapolis, spoke about some of the reasons that his constituents had acted locally to address issues of sustainability. “Residents want good jobs and a good quality of life, that’s what motivates them,” Brainard said. “After World War II only twenty-five percent of Americans owned cars, since then we’ve thrown away 10,000 years of urban planning experience and expertise to build suburban sprawl.”Brainard also took this opportunity to talk about climate change, a taboo subject for most with his political affiliation. “I believe that everything we do needs to be analyzed in terms of climate change,” he said. “Literally every function of city government.” Brainard said he didn’t believe climate change should be a political issue. “It’s important to point out that peer-reviewed science shows that the climate is changing. We shouldn’t shrink from this idea. People out there still deny the moon landing and think the earth is flat.” In response to the frequent retort that the climate is always changing, Brainard said, “maybe it’s better to call it drastic climate change because what we’re experiencing now is more drastic than any time in history.”

• Explosive evidence that Europa has oceans of liquid water beneath its icy crust. And completely unrelated, sky fireballs ahead this weekend!
• Our genome appears to be bilingual: cue the immigration satire plays on right-wing paranoia … maybe a bill sponsored by the usual suspects stating English is the one and only official language for American genomes?
• Taking a traditional media journalist to task over sloppy, pseudoscientific reporting: the glorious fisking of Katie Couric and her merry band of anti-vaxxers begins here.
• For the most part we minions of Kos are under His total control, as we have no minds of our own, we are the Chinese Rooms of progressivism fascism as ordered down from on how. But once a year big brother gives us the luxury of fest-i-vaul and free thought and a touch of a soul, I’m spending mine this season in DC on Monday and Tuesday, weather permitting. Hope to see some of you fellow pod people there!
• Remember the essay I posted last week about some space/science programs being singled out for special perks, all of which happened to benefit red states? Here’s some context of what has happened to space science over the last decade and the sneaky language in one version of the bill which look like they’re saving science, when in fact it’s singling out special “covered” programs and special covered aerospace-defense contractors:
  

  Prohibits the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from reserving funds from amounts appropriated for a covered program, and instructs the Administrator to direct prime contractors not to reserve funds for potential termination liability costs respecting such a program. Declares void and unenforceable any provision in a prime contract entered into before enactment of this Act … Bars the Administrator from initiating termination of a prime contract on a covered program …