Potpourri!

* MetaFilter has a post on gay-rights activist Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to hold elective office in the U.S. and subject of a new Sean Penn biopic, assassinated twenty-seven years ago this week.

* Also via MeFi: the Star-Tribune has an online database of 600 challenged ballots in the Franken-Coleman race. The vote totals on the main page don't look especially good for Franken's chances, nor does the early word from elections guru Nate Silver:

The vast majority of challenges on both sides are frivolous, often utterly so. Perhaps 1 in 10 challenges -- maybe slightly more than that -- actually required a judgment call of some kind.

For what it's worth, Silver's projections now slightly favor Coleman, though "projecting" anything at all strikes me as a significant overreach on Silver's part on garbage-in-garbage-out grounds. Until we know something real about the character of challenged ballots vis-a-vis nonchallenged ballots, there's just no way of projecting what the final vote total will look like.

* In twelve-country poll, 43% see climate crisis as bigger problem than economy. Technological civilization is the chain-smoker who has also broken his leg: they're both big problems, one's just slightly more immediate at the moment.

* Bush is still president, but local leaders are getting the message: the mayor of Los Angeles has proposed a major solar initiative. Good on Villaraigosa, but the depth of our civilization's chain-smoking becomes evident when you read the fine print:

This massive solar proposal is nested in a larger commitment to reduce Los Angeles’ greenhouse gas emissions by 35% below 1990 levels by 2030.

35% below 1990 is a fairly decent number for a single initiative, but 2030's a long way off—the bad stuff is already starting to happen right now.

* The Dr. Horrible DVD is available for pre-order and coming out before Christmas. I'd also be remiss if I didn't link to Buffy! Movie! News!, but come one, there's absolutely no way.

Friday, Friday.

* Massachusetts has repealed the 95-year-old law that has been used to block out-of-state gay marriages, removing the last major barrier to nationwide legal challenges of marriage discrimination.

* There's water on Mars (but don't try to drink it). And there's a liquid lake on Titan, too.

* Also in legal news: Bush's claims of absolute executive privilege have been smacked down in the courts. Score another small victory for the rule of law, and start writing up that Karl Rove indictment.

* Garfield without Garfield book announced.

* The Los Angeles City Council has passed a year-long moratorium on new fast food restaurants in South L.A. (More at MeFi.) Food in this country, as we've talked about many times, is in crisis—but this is a symbolic gesture, not an actual policy.

* Also in food news: How Sysco came to monopolize most of what you eat. Also via MeFi.

* And now you can watch the growth of Wal-Mart across America. Locusts. Zombies. Plague.

* I refuse to believe that the new Indiana Jones movie isn't totally awesome, regardless of what people on the Internet have to say about it.

* Double-amputee Oscar Pistorius has won his appeal against the Olympic Committee and will be participating in the Beijing Olympics.

* Jesse the Body Ventura teases a third-party run in the Minnesota Senate race. I thought Franken would have this thing walking away, but his campaigning hasn't impressed me so far. I have no sense of whether Ventura helps him or hurts him.

* Los Angeles may be forced to turn to sewage to meet its water needs.

* How to get out of serving on the R. Kelly jury, via Kottke.

I blame R. Kelly for Sept. 11. When the judge asked one prospective juror about his feelings regarding Kelly, he cryptically answered: "R. Kelly may have led the Taliban in attacking us on 9-11, but you can't prove it." You're right, we can't. In fact, we're fairly certain that no one has ever tried.

* What went wrong: TNR reports on how Clinton blew it.

* And in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan calls 2008 for the Democrats.

Lake Mead, the water source for nearly 8 million people (including both Las Vegas and Los Angeles), could go dry by 2021.

The study’s findings indicated that there is a 10 percent chance that Lake Mead could be dry by 2014 and a 50 percent chance that reservoir levels will drop too low to allow hydroelectric power generation by 2017. There is a 50 percent chance the lake will go dry by 2021, the study says.

Researchers say that even if water agencies follow their current drought contingency plans, those measures might not be enough to counter natural forces, especially if the region enters a period of sustained drought or if human-induced climate changes occur as currently predicted.

"We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it was coming at us," said study coauthor Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California at San Diego. "Make no mistake, this water problem is not a scientific abstraction, but rather one that will impact each and every one of us that live in the Southwest."

In the pictures left and up top, the white level on the rocks indicates where the water level used to be.

Here's another striking photo, courtesy of National Geographic:



At Lake Mead National Recreation Area, for instance, a barren landscape has replaced a harbor that once attracted campers and boaters.