The Post-Partisan Emporium

  Aliens are big in the news recently, fueled by congressional hearings about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), formally known as UFOs. But while the idea of aliens visiting Earth may be exciting, the better bet is still the idea that aliens might exist on distant worlds. We already know potentially habitable planets are common and intelligent life has arisen on at least one world, so why not many? But after 60 years of searching for evidence of extraterrestrials "out there," we've found nothing. So what does that tell us? Although it seems odd at first blush, an absence of evidence can tell us things about the universe. Given the fact that we have found no definitive technological radio signals from an   alien civilization , we can't simply conclude that they don't exist. But a prolonged silence after decades of study does tell us something about the likelihood of   aliens , or at least the chances of us finding them. That's the focus of a new study in...

If we insist on doing the transition the hard, slow, costly way rather than the easy, fast, cheap way, it's going to be a needlessly arduous, soul-crushing slog. Let's cover a few common-sense points and ask a few questions about the Global Energy Crunch.  Let's start with the high-tech, super-costly solutions that many promote as the surefire source of abundant, affordable energy: thorium reactors, mini/modular-reactors, clean coal plants and fusion. Every one of these may turn out to be a solution, but in the here and now they take many years to build and huge sums of money.  Full-scale functioning examples of these technologies do not yet exist. Various prototypes are in development, but the timelines are long and uncertain. For example, one modular nuclear reactor design recently gained approval, and the first prototype will hopefully be ready for testing in 2030. As for when we can expect the first full-scale modular nuclear reactor to start producing electricity, nobo...