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Remaining Factual Errors In Biology Textbooks, as of April 2004

REMAINING FACTUAL ERRORS TO BE CORRECTED IN BIOLOGY TEXTBOOKS PROPOSED UNDER PROCLAMATION 2001 The Texas State Board of Education voted last year to adopt eleven proposed biology textbooks for use in state schools after a commitment from the Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency that all remaining factual errors in the textbooks would be addressed by publishers before the textbooks Read More ›

California Cloning

Proposition 71 on the November ballot looks like the last thing voters in debt-ridden California would want to approve right now. It would authorize $3 billion in bonds to finance stem cell research at a time when the state still hasn’t produced a truly balanced budget. But this proposition is no ordinary bond issue. It has the look and feel Read More ›

A Big Fat Jury Verdict

IN LATE APRIL, a Beaumont, Texas, jury voted to award $1 billion to the family of a plaintiff who allegedly lost her life as a result of taking fen-phen, a drug combination popular among dieters in the 1990s before it was linked to heart-valve damage. The woman, who was morbidly obese and whose family had a history of heart problems, Read More ›

Of Stem Cells and Fairy Tales

“PEOPLE NEED A FAIRY TALE,” Ronald D.G. McKay, a stem cell researcher at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, told Washington Post reporter Rick Weiss, explaining why scientists have allowed society to believe wrongly that stem cells are likely to effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease. “Maybe that’s unfair, but they need a story line that’s relatively simple to understand.” Read More ›

Cell Wars

Opponents of human cloning and federal funding of embryonic-stem-cell research are being fast marginalized by a myth that cloning will be an immediate panacea to the ravages of degenerative disease and disabling injury. The intensity of belief in science as savior, combined with a desperate desire that it be so, has become so fervent that faith in this research has Read More ›

Marketing Failure

Did you know that the U.S. has the fastest-growing economy among all of the rich nations? During the past year, the U.S. has been growing threefold the rate of the average of the European Union countries and about 50 percent faster than Japan, and is now experiencing the fastest rate of GDP growth in 20 years. The unemployment rate is Read More ›

Sailing Away From Traffic

Original Article More than a dozen passengers boarded the Fremont Avenue as it prepared to depart from the Maritime Heritage dock on South Lake Union. The 50-foot, double-deck vessel, owned and operated by Capt. Larry Kezner, normally operates as a tour/charter boat on Lake Union. But, today was a little different. Instead of taking people out for an ice cream Read More ›

NPR Criticized for Evolution Misinformation and “AWOL” Ombudsman

SEATTLE, June 2 — Discovery Institute today criticized National Public Radio (NPR) for mounting a campaign of misinformation about the teaching of Darwinian evolution in public schools. The Institute also questioned whether NPR’s “ombudsman” who is supposed to investigate listener complaints really exists. Culminating with the cancellation of a guest critical of Darwinian evolution last week, NPR has aired a Read More ›

Documentation of NPR Errors in Reporting on Teaching of Evolution

Discovery Institute has documented at least five recent reports on NPR about the teaching of evolution that are inaccurate, misinform listeners on the key issues in the story, and misrepresent the Institute’s position on these issues. To date, NPR has responded to only one complaint raised by the Institute. Below are PDFs of letters to reporters, producers and the NPR Read More ›

Phony Federalists

original article (requires subscription) A phony theory of federalism may paralyze the Federal Communications Commission’s halting movement toward deregulating the telecom industry. The battle cry of the faux federalists is “states’ rights,” which is not the first abuse of that term, or of the federalist principle. Like similar abuses, this one deserves to fail. The flashpoint is whether the FCC Read More ›