May 24, 2024

TRUMP’S RUNNING MATE: Tom Cotton? We could do worse.

Posted at 5:43 pm by Glenn Reynolds

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.

Posted at 5:32 pm by John Tierney

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.

Posted at 5:31 pm by John Tierney

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…

Posted at 4:19 pm by Robert Shibley

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.

Posted at 3:59 pm by Glenn Reynolds

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.

Posted at 1:48 pm by Stephen Green

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.

Posted at 1:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

YES. Steven Hayward: The Growing Menace of the “Non-Profit” Sector. “Beyond the all-too-easy and predictable union of the left’s two main current obsessions is how massive the lavishly funded ‘non-profit sector’ has become to the overall project of the left. It is important to understand the playbook, because the left’s grand strategy goes beyond private philanthropy to radical causes, and now includes direct taxpayer support (in the form of federal grants and legal fee reimbursements) as well as buying off corporate support with tax breaks and subsidies. Universities are always the main hub for these efforts, but the spokes now radiate out deep into the corporate world and the halls of government.”

The non-profit sector — which might be better described as the “non-democratic government sector” — should be sharply reined in. I would limit non-profit status to groups directly providing services to the poor, and would cap their budgets at the level of what it takes to run a hospital or a school. Or perhaps simply abolish their tax exemptions entirely. If it’s worthwhile, people should donate without tax incentives. And if it’s spending its money on delivering services, it’s not earning any profits to tax.

Plus: “Hence what we have seen in recent weeks over the “Palestine” issue is an ominous case study. Observers stunned at the campus-based protest movement on behalf of Hamas have come to learn that this protest movement is far from spontaneous, but has in fact been lavishly financed and developed for years by leading left-wing philanthropies along with Arab states in the Middle East. Park MacDougald reports the architecture of the effort in detail at The Tablet. It includes all of the usual suspects, including George Soros, the Tides Foundation, but also many lesser-known donors and activists.”

Posted at 12:50 pm by Glenn Reynolds

DON’T GET COCKY…

…but there does seem to be something in the air.

Posted at 12:46 pm by Stephen Green

GOOD LUCK, I WANT YOU TO KNOW WE’RE ALL COUNTING ON YOU: ICJ orders Israel to halt Rafah operation in Gaza Strip.

The International Court of Justice in the Hague ordered Israel to halt its military operation against Hamas in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip on Friday, in a blow to Jerusalem’s diplomatic initiative and judicial system, on Friday.

But the court did not order the IDF to completely withdraw from Gaza or to restrict its military actions in other parts of the enclave.

Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and South Africa welcomed the ICJ order, while Israel objected to it.

In reading out the ruling ICJ President Nawaf Salam stated that Israel must immediately “halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah Governorate which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza, or conditions of life that would bring about its physical dysfunction, in whole or in part.”

Fortunately, cooler heads with equal legal authority over the issue prevailed:

Posted at 12:32 pm by Ed Driscoll