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...

 The previous post! The AP 1000 Vogtle Unit 3 reactor in Georgia, 16 years in the making, became officially operational this week after several technical setbacks earlier this year had caused it to start up and power down again. The moment of commercial operation has been heralded in headlines and by the nuclear industry as a “milestone” but the   Financial Times   predicts that while Vogtle 3 may be the “first new US nuclear reactor in three decades” it also “may be its last”. The reactor came in seven years later than originally predicted and vastly over-budget. A second reactor, Vogtle 4, is expected to start commercial operation in 2024, but the total price tag for the two reactors is currently predicted to be $35 billion and could well climb higher. But, as the   Atlanta Journal-Constitution   reported, “Georgia Power ratepayers have already been paying for the two units in their monthly bills for years.” And, added the article, “Now that Unit 3 is complete...

  The Sorrows of War LINH DINH [Vung Tau, Vietnam on 8/27/22] On 7/27/23, there’s a wrenching tale in the Vietnamese newspaper,  Tiền Phong  [ Vanguard ]. The author was Thu Hiền. Certainly a pen name, it means benign or gentle autumn. Of course, that season of falling leaves connotes death. Though dreaded, it’s only a curse if comes too early. Nothing is worse than eternal decrepitude. Death, then, is a thousand autumns. Lying still, one reflects on all that has been wasted, thwarted or snuffed out, and not just by fate, but one’s confusion or cowardice. Shifting maggots rearrange one’s bones. If only one could sigh. Thu Hiền tells us about a 2022 wedding between Nguyễn Thị Diện, born in 1947, and Đặng Văn Cự, a year older. It’s odd enough when septuagenerians tie knots, and not as divorcees or widows, but for the first time. They had long been each other’s first love. Odder still, they had been dead for 51 years, since 1972. During war, a vast army of civilians must ser...