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After a week of tense negotiations, the 195 countries that met in Paris agreed to the text of a historic climate change agreement late Saturday. The accord is not itself an end game, but it lays out the road the world will have to travel in order to limit the harm of climate change.

The international agreement states that nations will aim to limit “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels." International negotiations have long been focused on a 2°C limit, but the 1.5°C language was a surprise addition.

Rather than prescribe some common emissions target, the negotiations took a “bottom-up” approach, with nations each submitting their own emissions pledges. Current pledges are only good enough to limit 20^th century warming to around 3°C. But a key part of the agreement is a framework for revisiting emissions pledges every 5 years, with the goal being that those pledges are ratcheted down over time. To that end, it states that nations will “aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible” and reach net-zero emissions “in the second half of this century”. While the details remain to be filled in, the agreement also calls for transparent reporting of emissions to keep nations to their pledges.

(credit: sailko)

Changes to UK copyright law will soon mean that you may need to take out a licence to photograph classic designer objects even if you own them. That's the result of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, which extends the copyright of artistic objects like designer chairs from 25 years after they were first marketed, to 70 years after the creator's death. In most cases that will be well over a hundred years after the object was designed. During that period, taking a photo of the item will often require a licence from the copyright owner, regardless of who owns the particular object in question.

The UK government is holding a consultation into when this change should enter into force: after a six-month, three-year, or five-year transitional period. The Digital Reader quotes an article in The Bookseller that puts the starting date as October 2016, but without citing its source. In any case, the change is definitely coming, and quite soon.

As with the recent announcement that it is once again illegal to make private copies of music you own, it is unlikely that the public will pay much attention to this latest example of copyright being completely out of touch with how people actually use digital technology. But for professionals, the consequences will be serious, and not so easily ignored.

The #3 CJ Wilson Racing Mazda MX-5 leads its sister car through one of the Circuit of the Americas' brightly painted turns. (credit: Sideline Sports Photography)

When it comes to natural talent, racing a car is a lot like most other sports. Innate ability counts, of course, but it's no substitute for hard work. Data also has its role to play, enabled at the race track by rugged devices with embedded processors and GPS. It's something we've delved into at a strictly amateur level in the past, but we've been curious to see how the pros do things. Enter CJ Wilson Racing.

If you're more of a fan of stick-and-ball sports than the four-wheeled kind, you'll probably know CJ Wilson for his day job—pitching for the Anaheim Angels Major League Baseball team. However, Wilson is also a committed gearhead. He likes fast cars—he owns a McLaren P1, an R32 Nismo GTR, and a Dodge Viper ACR among others—and since 2010 he's had his own racing team. The team started off racing in the Playboy Mazda MX5 Cup (a one-make series for Miatas) before graduating to the Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge.

2015 was a good year for CJ Wilson racing. It raced Mazda MX-5s in the Street Tuner (ST) class, for cars that are allowed relatively few modifications from the road car. The #5 car, driven by Steven McAllen and Chad McCumbee, won at Watkins Glen and Lime Rock Park. Coupled with two more podiums (Sebring and Austin) and several other Top 10 finishes, it was enough to win the 2015 ST championship. The team also ran a second car at some of the races, the #3 driven by Marc Miller and Tyler McQuarrie, and we sat down with them—along with team manager Andris Laivins—in the team's transporter at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin to learn more about how data helps them succeed.

(credit: Uber)

On Friday, Uber pushed a new 21-page agreement on to all of its 400,000-plus drivers nationwide, forbidding them from filing a lawsuit in the event of a future labor dispute. Drivers were required to agree to the terms on their phones and could not accept any more fares until they did so.

As a result, the lawyer representing California-based Uber drivers in an ongoing class action lawsuit has asked a federal judge in San Francisco to immediately put a stop to the new agreement.

Under Uber's new agreement, drivers are now supposed to only file for arbitration rather than sue or join a class action lawsuit. Unlike the public judicial system, arbitration is wholly private and almost always favors companies over people. Worse still, it makes class action cases nearly impossible, creating a situation where individuals en masse can rarely hold companies accountable for wrongdoing.

Welcome to Ars Cardboard, our new weekend look at tabletop games! Check out our complete board gaming coverage right here—and let us know what you think.

This week Ars Cardboard dives into miniatures wargaming—but forget stereotypes of tiny Napoleonic soldiers walking across home-crafted terrain. We’re talking about Star Wars miniatures here, from capital ships to TIE fighters to Darth Vader himself. If you’ve ever wanted to command a squad of X-Wings, take control of an Imperial Star Destroyer, or experience a shootout with stormtroopers, the current trio of licensed Star Wars miniatures games from Fantasy Flight have you covered. And with the Force Awakens mere days away, there's never been a better time to dive in.

If you haven’t played a miniatures game before, know that these aren’t quite like traditional board games. Movement takes place not on a board but on a large, flat play surface covered with stylized miniatures that represent squads, fleets, or squadrons. Movement and range calculations are based on physical distance and angles. Miniatures can pack a visceral cool factor—these aren’t just cards or chips on a board—but they can also be intimidating for the new player.