Friends, scientists are increasingly confident that life exists on other planets. The latest indication of a universe teeming with organic life comes from K2-18b (that gem!), which is a mere 700 trillion miles away. Assuming your spaceship gets good gas mileage, that's a very manageable road trip. I, for one, hope I live to see the day when the nature of alien life becomes clearer, because that would be fascinating to behold. Bear in mind, though, that your ATM card and your T-Mobile phone won't work on K2-18b, so plan accordingly if you intend to pay it a visit.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c39jj9vkr34o
In other news, Deputy Emperor -- ahem, I mean Vice-President -- Vance is going to India soon to try to bolster our relations with what could become a superpower in the not-too-distant future. A U.S.-India alliance could go a long way to breaking the back of Chicom hegemony in Asia (and someday the world?).
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz95j2z3lpeo
President Trump met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni today, who is about as Trumpy as any European head of government gets. I hope they're right that a trade deal with the EU is in reach. That would be in everyone's best interest.
Finally, we saw a big win for school choice today in the great state of Texas. GOP-dominated Texas has been surprisingly reluctant to embrace school choice, but Governor Abbott put his foot down, and I'm glad he did. Eliminating the Department of Education is all well and good, but real change in our education system means disempowering teachers' unions and empowering parents. More and more states are doing it. With any luck, even blue states will get on the bandwagon someday.
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/17/texas-house-school-vouchers-public-education-funding/
Hi Nick, blue states are not going to change their approach to education because they prefer to be rated highly, rather than at the bottom, like Arkansas and Oklahoma.
ReplyDeleteHi Nick, BTW, the EU is far, far away from a trade agreement. It's more BS from Trump, and Meloni just goes along with her cult leader. For all the "deals" Trump has with other countries, there's not even a single agreed-upon framework negotiated yet. Trump -- the author of "Art of the Bad Deal." Rod
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Please forgive me for belaboring the point but such a discovery and what it may import further intensifies the fascination and astonishment we "jr. astronomers" from the '50s experience in this platinum age of space research. Its glorious.
ReplyDeleteI read a very closely reasoned and supported article in Science magazine several years ago about the possibilities for life beyond earth. I cannot reprise the author's argument but he argued that life is probably extremely rare; he or she outlined many plausible requirements for life the necessary coincidence of which is very unlikely. Nonetheless, the author admitted that it probably does exist somewhere in our galaxy but maintained that intelligent life is dependent on so many factors that it probably is not to be found in our galaxy . Outside of the galaxy he declined to speculate upon as I remember.
The article really gave me pause; can we even creditably reason about the ubiquity of planets, let alone life, just from the evidence presented in our astronomical neighborhood?
But I think I we have on earth an environment in which we have observed life perhaps as astonishing as any we could imagine: that is in the ocean depths. Some of those ethereal creatures seem right out of science fiction. With some of them, their evanescent beauty is breathtaking.
But maybe even my generation will see some answers from planned exploration within our celestially next door solar system. If they see critters in the ocean on Europa the coincidence would be compelling.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Its often said "As California goes, so goes the U.S." But maybe Texas is becoming as important a pace setter. That's very good news.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for school choice but here , I think is a caveat. You can't put kids so negatively formed by inescapable anarchic environments as to be very close to incapable of productive behavior in well performing schools and expect them to succeed. There is one exception to that I think:
That is in a setting in which strict discipline and insistence on orderly conduct are unrelentingly enforced. I taught inner city offenders at Shock Incarceration, which was run Marine Boot Camp style and we enjoyed some success with them but that environment, is to my knowledge, not found elsewhere. Plus, there we could offer them the incentive of shorter sentences.
If you put kids so imbued with the negativity so pervasive in some neighborhoods and towns, they'll bring it with them to virtually any school and raise hell. I also subbed at a public school where disorder and destructive behavior was rife, despite the best efforts of teachers and administration. The productive students there deserved a better setting; this school was in a low income area and school choice might have served these students well.
LBJ was a teacher in rural Texas in some very rough settings and according to one biographer, it instilled in him a lifelong desire to better life for unfortunates like the ones he taught.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: An alliance of nations facing the Chinese littoral could, if it were to hold together , be effective in containing China, if that becomes necessary (maybe it already is necessary). The Aussies are buying nuclear subs from us I think and Japan has commissioned a small carrier. There is much creditable speculation about Chinese land based antiship and hypersonic missiles. But those nations arrayed around China are unsinkable aircraft carriers and missile launchers too.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there is the still intimidating and ever present US Navy. Ours is a longtime true blue water force. Together I think we can contain China if we have the will and perhaps even turn China's views inward to a new Silk Road.
RAY TO DR. WADDY AND JACK
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter!
Ray from Jack: As much unto you on such a sublime occasion.
ReplyDeleteRod, are you suggesting that, say, California or New York State schools are uniformly good? They aren't. Plenty of them have ample reason to question their modus operandi. Leftist imperatives will ensure (regrettably) that they will refuse to do so.
ReplyDeleteRod, you seem pretty confident that Trump won't negotiate any trade deals, or that they won't be good ones, but isn't step one to getting us fair treatment from other countries...to try? Seems like a good start to me! And don't forget that we do kinda have a teeny tiny bit of leverage in this situation.
You're absolutely right, Jack: if we can find evidence of current or former life anywhere else in the solar system, then the presence of additional life, even intelligent life, in the Milky Way becomes a near certainty!
Jack, I take your point that school choice won't redeem every child, especially those that have been let down by their own parents. It isn't a cure-all. It's just a big potential improvement on the mess we've got!
Jack, an alliance between the U.S. and practically every nation near China would be immensely powerful, sure, but it's hard to imagine the sort of provocation that could forge it. I doubt very much that China invading Taiwan would do the trick. Most of those countries would tut-tut and wait for the U.S. to act.
HAPPY EASTER!!!
And unto you Doc Waddy. Jack
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I'm confident this administration has alot more in store with which to astonish us and to bring the far left that much closer to self destructive critical mass. Anyone of his age willing to put up with the truck DJT has gotten is a happy warrior who relishes the fight and his deal making verve is manifest.
ReplyDeleteLenin said "give the capitalists enough rope and they will hang themselves". But he was wrong; give the radicals enough rope and they'll do the hanging. And that's just what we've done since the '60s. Why we've actually put three of them in the Presidential bedroom and given the far left a willing marionette there for the last four years. What other country would, with such silly misplaced "tolerance", actually empower those domestic ingrates who would destroy it?
Well, to quote one of Sonny Liston's battered sparring partners " no more a this ain't gonna happen to me (us)". All it took was a new President for starters. Will we stick with him and see it through? We cannot hope for another opportunity like this one, to end the marxist curse on this good country.