In February, the geniuses at Mensa will host keynote speaker James Hansen, among others, to frighten them with scary stories. How can bright people believe, like the UN Secretary General, that computer model scenarios of the future are more frightening than Hollywood movies? Because they’re . . . real?

Well, apparently because they also accept observed, um, truths like “It is now firmly established that Earth’s global surface temperature is increasing and that human emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the primary cause of that global warming.”

Ahem.

Back to my point about this nerdy “second life” and avatar business going too far, when things that only happen in computer models are the new reality. Something about this is just odd. Methinks I smell another membership group being hijacked by a few activist members, a la the American Meteorological Society and all of those others now invoked as proof of a consensus, though their members never were asked to vote on whether they agreed to lend the group’s name to the cause. So going along with the crowd to be cool and — who knows, pocket some of the billions — is also the smart thing to do.