Two solid analysts, ex–Bush 43 speechwriter Marc Thiessen and Hudson Institute intelligence scholar Gabriel Schoenfeld, have published defenses of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) controversial new scanning and patdown policies. They argue that TSA’s policy is a necessary reaction to the evolution of terrorism. Their analysis rests on eight air-security myths. 1. The fact that there have been no attacks since 9/11 vindicates Read More ›
This article, published by NextGenWeb, contains an interview with Discovery Institute Senior Fellow George Gilder: NextGenWeb recently sat down with George Gilder, Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, Editor in Chief of the Gilder Technology Report, and contributing editor to Forbes magazine (for a complete bio, click here). The rest of the article can be found here.
Adaptive evolution can cause a species to gain, lose, or modify a function; therefore, it is of basic interest to determine whether any of these modes dominates the evolutionary process under particular circumstances. Because mutation occurs at the molecular level, it is necessary to examine the molecular changes produced by the underlying mutation in order to assess whether a given adaptation is best considered as a gain, loss, or modification of function. Although that was once impossible, the advance of molecular biology in the past half century has made it feasible. In this paper, I review molecular changes underlying some adaptations, with a particular emphasis on evolutionary experiments with microbes conducted over the past four decades. I show that by far the most common adaptive changes seen in those examples are due to the loss or modification of a pre-existing molecular function, and I discuss the possible reasons for the prominence of such mutations.
Read More ›It’s that time of year when the CBC asks me to look back on my annual predictions in the world of bioethics to see how I did. The answer? Quite well. In fact, I think it was my best year ever. Obamacare First, I predicted that what has come to be known generically as Obamacare—actually the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—would Read More ›
While I was in China, I blogged about why the US is not going to get Chinese-style high speed rail. Now the Chinese Academy of Sciences is saying that maybe China shouldn’t get it either: The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) reported to the State Council recently, urging the large-scale high-speed railway construction projects in China to be re-evaluated. The Read More ›
FULL REPORT (PDF) SUMMARY In 1994 the Legislature revised Wisconsin’s telecommunications law to permit and encourage competition as a catalyst for delivering new technologies, improved service quality and choice among telecommunications providers and ultimately lower prices for consumers. Although the 1994 act opened the market to competitive entry, it contains significant vestiges of legacy regulation that are no longer necessary Read More ›
The day after the Obama administration’s shellacking at the polls, Peter Orszag, former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, defended Obamacare from the ramparts of the New York Times. Dubiously asserting that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a money saver, Orszag extolled the establishment of an arcane new commission to oversee the Medicare budget: Read More ›
Andrew Brown’s comment on the debate I had with Michael Reiss missed a critical point. My contention is that “the purposeful arrangement of parts” to achieve a specific purpose is the criterion that enables us to recognise design. I argued that the conclusion of design in the bacterial flagellum and in many other biological systems is no different from discerning Read More ›
Link to Interview Senior Fellow George Gilder appeared on Fox Business Channel’s Varney & Co. this morning, discussing the negative effects of environmental laws on the economy. Click on the link above to watch the interview.