The Latest | Page 575

Broadband: A Life-Saving Technology

original article In a small military hospital in Guam, a cardiac patient lay unconscious as a catheter was slid carefully into the right chamber of his heart. The surgery was fairly routine, save for one notable absence: The physician in charge wasn’t in the operating room during the procedure. In fact, he wasn’t even on the island. Dr. Benjamin Berg Read More ›

Former Rep. John Miller Confirmed as Ambassador-at-Large

The U.S. Senate has confirmed former Seattle Congressman John R. Miller as Ambassador-at Large, upgrading his current position as head of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Miller leads much of the U.S. effort to fight slavery around the world. Miller, who served until last year as chairman of Discovery Institute’s Board of Directors in Read More ›

CNN Airs False Report Claiming Teachers will be Fired

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 6, 2004 SEATTLE, APRIL 6 — CNN is being urged to correct the record after airing a false report about proposed legislation in Missouri it claimed “would fire teachers who refused to teach alternatives to evolution.” In fact, the provision cited by CNN is no longer part of the Missouri bill. “Its whole story about legislation to Read More ›

A Cheap-Talkin’ Bureaucrat

original article (requires a subscription) Michael Powell, who runs the Federal Communications Commission, ended a recent visit to the Journal with a discussion of Internet telephony, the next so-called killer application that techno-gurus predictwill do for broadband penetration what e-mail did for the Internet. The technology, known as Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP, will not only change the way Read More ›

Where Does the Evidence Lead?

To order DVD or VHS copies of Where Does The Evidence Lead? click here. Where Does the Evidence Lead?, like the documentary Unlocking the Mystery of Life from which it is derived, documents how scientists are abandoning naturalistic explanations for the origin of life and the universe and looking to theories of design for better answers. This video modularizes the Read More ›

empty-classroom-back-to-school-concept-in-high-school-classroom-interior-vintage-wooden-lecture-wooden-chairs-and-desks-studying-lessons-in-secondary-education-generative-ai-stockpack-adobe-stock
Empty Classroom. Back to school concept in high school. Classroom Interior Vintage Wooden Lecture Wooden Chairs and Desks. Studying lessons in secondary education. generative ai
Image licensed via Adobe Stock

Evolving Double Standards

The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is on the front lines of the battle to keep religion out of the nation’s science classrooms. A group whose self-described mission is “Defending the Teaching of Evolution in the Public Schools,” the NCSE routinely condemns anyone who wants to teach faith-based criticisms of evolutionary theory for trying to unconstitutionally mix church and Read More ›

Confusing Control and Security

Suppose you were a sadist and really hated your fellow men — what type of job would you try to get? Well, you might try to become head of airline security for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), where you could devise a system like the following.

You would:

  • Hire people who are wannabee drill instructors, to order passengers around as if they were new Marine Corps recruits.
  • •Demand passengers show their IDs up to four times before boarding, even though you know IDs are easily forged.
  • •Require people to wait in long lines, even though you know almost precisely how many people will travel through each airport each hour.
  • •Force people confined to wheelchairs or who have implants or pacemakers to go through unnecessarily lengthy, degrading, embarrassing and intrusive physical inspections.
  • •Take away relatively harmless personal items, such as tweezers, hat pins, sewing scissors, etc., while leaving people with items that are much more lethal in trained hands.
  • •Harass small children, elderly women, infirm individuals, and young attractive women by making them go through difficult body motions and inappropriate touching.
  • •And finally, waste taxpayer monies by hiring excessive personnel to ask the same questions over and over or allow them to hang around doing nothing.

You would think, of course, what is described above could not possibly occur in a society that calls itself free and democratic, but unfortunately every day millions of Americans are subject to some or all of the above if they try to fly.

People are being unnecessarily abused by agents of their government because those charged with our security all too often fail to distinguish between security and control, fail to use basic cost-benefit analysis when designing systems and procedures, and are ignorant or insensitive to civil liberties.

Read More ›

What’s Darwin got to do with it?

What’s Darwin got to do with it? When it comes to evolution, quite a bit! But many people don’t understand Darwin, or the emerging scientific theory of intelligent design. Here’s a book that helps make sense of it all in a way that is easily accessible for young students. A group of scholars, teachers, writers and illustrators teamed up to Read More ›

Science World in Vancouver, Canada
Science World and BC Olympic Place illuminated at night in Vancouver, Canada
Licensed from Adobe Stock

2010 group on target

The shovels haven't broken dirt but it looks like Vancouver's Olympic committee is right on schedule when it comes to the 2010 Winter Games. Read More ›