May 24, 2024
THE DEMOCRATS’ CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Ex-prosecutor Marilyn Mosby sentenced in scheme using COVID funds to buy Florida condo. “The ex-prosecutor was found guilty of multiple felony charges in two separate trials, one that took place this year and one last fall.”
As a black Democratic woman, she received no prison time. Privilege.
SOME PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK: SpaceX sends 23 Starlink satellites into orbit on third flight in two days.
SO YOU’RE SAYING THE “PUBLIC HEALTH” PEOPLE AREN’T DOING THEIR JOBS VERY WELL? Over 750,000 antimicrobial resistance deaths preventable yearly via vaccines, water, sanitation and infection control.
TRUMP’S RUNNING MATE: Tom Cotton? We could do worse.
A GREEN FANTASY MEETS REALITY: The “Energy Transition” Won’t Happen. Foundational innovation in cloud technology and artificial intelligence will require more energy than ever before—shattering any illusion that we will restrict supplies.
WHY ET WON’T WIPE US OUT: Humanity Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Say Hello to Aliens. I enjoyed the “3 Body Problem” Netflix series and the sci-fi trilogy on which it’s based, but I disagree with the premise: that sending a message to an extraterrestrial civilization would doom Earth. The doomsayers, who want to ban the transmission of any more interstellar messages from radio telescopes, say that the reason we haven’t detected signals from aliens is that the only civilizations that survive are the ones smart enough to keep quiet. This is known as the “dark forest” hypothesis — the universe as a dark forest in which solitary hunters remain quiet and hidden, because they fear being killed by another hunter with much more advanced technology.
But as I argue in the Wall Street Journal, this scenario is flawed because it’s based on the axiom that expanding civilizations will inevitably deplete their natural resources and need to conquer other worlds.
The fear of conquest by aliens rests on the dubious premise that they would greedily crave the natives’ land and resources. But that’s not how civilization is proceeding on Earth as our technology advances. In the past, armies fought wars over access to scarce resources (salt, grain, oil), and 20th-century intellectuals predicted that overpopulation would lead to an “age of scarcity” with catastrophic global shortages of food and energy.
But thanks to technological progress, humans today are better nourished and wealthier than ever. Over the past century, the cost of food, energy and other commodities has plummeted more than twentyfold by comparison with workers’ wages. Natural resources now matter less to individuals or societies seeking wealth than an intangible resource: knowledge. The modern economy is increasingly dominated by industries that traffic not in physical commodities but in information: finance, software, communications, entertainment, artificial intelligence, education and research.
Because of this economic shift, today we wouldn’t react as 16th-century Europeans did to the discovery of a “new world” with less advanced technology. We’d exploit it differently. Sure, there would be oil and mining companies ready to extract resources, but they’d run into fierce opposition from scientists, politicians and activists determined to preserve and study its ecosystem and native cultures.
Why wouldn’t ET react similarly to the discovery of Earthlings? An advanced civilization wouldn’t be desperate for food and natural resources (which would be available on plenty of uninhabited planets and asteroids).
Earth’s farmland and minerals would be far less valuable to the aliens than the knowledge to be gained from studying the strange new life-forms on Earth. Even if they regarded us as appallingly primitive creatures, even if they felt no moral obligation to spare an inferior species, they’d be as eager to observe us as we are to watch animals in a zoo.
In fact, aliens may already be observing us without making themselves known, a possibility known as the “zoo hypothesis.” I prefer this to the dark forest hypothesis as an explanation for the Fermi paradox. In this scenario, the reason we haven’t heard from aliens is that they want to observe the behavior and evolution of Earth’s creatures unaffected by outside influences.
So let’s keep sending messages to the stars. Now that we can finally say something to aliens, maybe they’ll be curious to converse with the creatures in this zoo.
THEY WANT YOU DEAD: NY Congresswoman Seeks to Outlaw Civilian Body Armor.
IT ISN’T ALWAYS NICE TO MAKE TWITCHY: Princeton Professor Gets SMACKED DOWN by Facts After Claiming Homeschooling Is ‘Educational Neglect.’
FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: The Score Doesn’t Lie: This Is the Greatest Florida Man Friday EVER.
NEW FROM PROF. CAROL SWAIN: ‘THE ADVERSITY OF DIVERSITY.’ With the current products of the campus DEI bureaucracy rooting as hard as they can for people on the other side of the world to kill each other, it’s getting awfully hard to pretend there’s something past the adversity…
FOSSIL FUELS FOR THE WIN: Natural Gas is Behind the Nation’s Largest Heavy-Duty Electric Truck Charging Station.
SUNKEN SUBMARINE USS HARDER FOUND IN SOUTH CHINA SEA:
The final resting place of an iconic U.S. Navy submarine that was sunk 80 years ago during World War II was located 3,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, the Naval History and Heritage Command said Thursday. . . .
The USS Harder, led by famed Cmdr. Samuel D. Dealey, earned a legendary reputation during its fifth patrol when it sunk three destroyers and heavily damaged two others in just four days, forcing a Japanese fleet to leave the area ahead of schedule, the command said. That early departure forced the Japanese commander to delay his carrier force in the Philippine Sea, which ultimately led to Japan being defeated in the ensuing battle.
But Harder’s fortunes changed in late August 1944. Early on Aug. 22, Harder and USS Haddo destroyed three escort ships off the coast of Bataan. Joined by USS Hake later that night, the three vessels headed for Caiman Point, Luzon, before Haddo left to replenish its torpedo stockpile. Before dawn on Aug. 24, Hake sighted an enemy escort ship and patrol boat and plunged deep into the ocean to escape.
Japanese records later revealed Harder fired three times at the Japanese escort ship, but it evaded the torpedoes and began a series of depth charge attacks, sinking Harder and killing all 79 crewmembers.
Submarines were highly effective in the Pacific, but submarine duty was very dangerous.
READER FAVORITE: Levi’s Men’s 505 Regular Fit Jeans. #CommissionEarned
SO YOU’RE SAYING COVID WAS OVERSOLD? Research reveals that more people died from hot or cold weather conditions than COVID-19 in parts of UK.
CHRISTOPHER RUFO: Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Columbia. For decades, the university cultivated the conditions that led to its campus Intifada.
CHANGE? 13 Oregon counties have now joined the Greater Idaho movement.
Crook County residents voted Tuesday on a measure that would allow the county to join the Greater Idaho movement. The movement seeks to move the Oregon-Idaho border to incorporate parts of eastern Oregon into the Gem State, specifically 14 full Oregon counties and three partial ones. As of Wednesday afternoon, the measure in Crook County is set to pass, making it the 13th county to join the movement.
Although the measure is on track to pass, votes won’t be certified in Crook County until June. If the measure does pass, it doesn’t mean the move would automatically happen; rather, it would show both state legislatures and Congress that voters support it.
“The voters of eastern Oregon have spoken loudly and clearly about their desire to see border talks move forward. With this latest result in Crook County, there’s no excuse left for the Legislature and Governor to continue to ignore the people’s wishes,” said Matt McCaw, the executive director of the Greater Idaho movement.
“We call on the Governor, Speaker of the House, and Senate President to sit down with us and discuss next steps towards changing governance for eastern Oregonians, as well as for the legislature to begin holding hearings on what a potential border change will look like.”
Crook County joins 12 other eastern Oregon counties that have already passed a measure in support of moving the border: Baker, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Union, Wheeler and Wallowa.
Last year, the Idaho legislature approved a measure to allow negotiations to admit eastern Oregon counties but Congress would have to approve any changes.
CHRIS BRUNET: I was interviewed by the Harvard Crimson. “I spoke to them on the phone for half an hour, and I was hesitant because I thought they would twist my words or butcher them. I am pleasantly surprised that it is a relatively competent and unbiased article.”
It’s here: Copy-and-Paste: How Allegations of Plagiarism Became the Culture War’s New Frontier.
As for the spurious claim of racism leveled by Rufo’s critics, if you’re examining the work of DEI officials, and those officials are all black women, that doesn’t make you the racist, though it reflects poorly on the people doing the hiring of the DEI officials. Plus: “They’re not real scholars. It’s a fake profession to begin with. So, when it’s fake and plagiarized, it makes it double funny.”
Yes, they know they have to check to boxes with dissertations, etc., but nobody really expects much from them. The work thus tends to be pro forma, and often bogus. This is exposing that.
IN RECENT YEARS THEY MIGHT BE A BETTER INDICATOR OF WHO SHOULDN’T VOTE: Diplomas as Voter ID: Elites Believe Only College Grads Should Vote.
