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^{Chapman Center
February 15, 2020
Citizen Leadership, Discovery Institute}

The 2020 Census is Here and it’s Counting on You!

_{Chapman Center
February 15, 2020
Citizen Leadership, Discovery Institute}

In mid-March you will receive a letter from the US Government preparing you to reply to the 2020 Decennial Census. Therewith starts a large series of changes, from numbers for each state in the U.S. House of Representatives to the allocation of $1.5 Trillion in federal aid to states and localities. The 2020 Census also will give us a new Read More ›

^{Gale Pooley
February 11, 2020
Economics}

Discovery Research Fellow Gale Pooley: Are We Doomed to Run Out of Resources?

_{Gale Pooley
February 11, 2020
Economics}

Are humans using up Earth’s scarce resources too quickly, posing an existential threat to humanity itself, as the chief villain in the popular movies “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame” believed? No, says Discovery Research Fellow Gale Pooley, an economist and associate professor of business management at Brigham Young University-Hawaii, who more fully explained his answer Monday, Sept. 9th at a luncheon on Maui sponsored by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. Pooley recently co-authored with Cato Institute senior policy analyst Marian L. Tupy a study, “The Simon Abundance Index: A New Way to Measure Availability of Resources,” showing that Earth’s resources are actually becoming more plentiful. Read More ›

^{Gale Pooley and George Gilder
February 11, 2020
Economics}

The Simon Abundance Index

_{Gale Pooley and George Gilder
February 11, 2020
Economics}

Are we running out of resources? That’s been a hotly debated question since the publication of Paul Ehrlich’s book The Population Bomb in 1968. The Stanford University biologist warned that population growth would result in the exhaustion of resources and a global catastrophe. University of Maryland economist and Cato Institute’s Senior Fellow Julian Simon, in contrast, argued that humans would Read More ›

^{Discovery Institute
January 6, 2020
Discovery Institute, Natural and Artificial Intelligence}

A Moral Argument for Killer Robots: Why America’s Military Needs to Continue Development of Lethal AI

_{Discovery Institute
January 6, 2020
Discovery Institute, Natural and Artificial Intelligence}

Doomsday headlines warn that the age of “killer robots” is upon us, and that new military technologies based on artiﬁcial intelligence (AI) will lead to the annihilation of the human race. In his new, short book The Case for Killer Robots: Why America’s Military Needs to Continue Development of Lethal AI (Discovery Institute Press 2020), artiﬁcial intelligence expert Robert J. Marks investigates the potential military use of lethal AI and examines the practical and ethical challenges. Dr. Marks directs the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artiﬁcial Intelligence at Discovery Institute, and he is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University. Marks also heads up the Center’s daily news website, Mind Matters News and hosts the Mind Matters Podcast. This short monograph is published in conjunction with the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artiﬁcial Intelligence and the Center is making if freely available as a digital book at the Mind Matters website. Physical copies are available through Amazon.com. “Marks makes a lucid and compelling case that we have a moral obligation to develop lethal AI,” said Jay Richards, philosopher and author, The Human Ad-vantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines. “He also reminds us that moral questions apply, not to the tools that we use to protect ourself, but to how we use them when war becomes a necessity.” Read More ›

^{Discovery Institute
January 6, 2020
Discovery Institute, Human Exceptionalism}

Discovery Institute Announces New Fellow Tom Shakely Joining its Center on Human Exceptionalism

_{Discovery Institute
January 6, 2020
Discovery Institute, Human Exceptionalism}

Discovery Institute is pleased to announce Tom Shakely , who serves as Chief Engagement Officer at Americans United for Life, has joined the Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism as a Research Fellow where he will focus on human dignity, human rights, and law and policy. Read More ›

^{Discovery Institute
December 17, 2019
Economics}

Christopher Rufo Featured in WORLD Magazine Story on Tiny Houses

_{Discovery Institute
December 17, 2019
Economics}

Seattle plans to stop funding another tiny house village for the homeless after months of fighting with the property’s managers. It will be the second time the city has closed down a tiny house development. Northlake Village, one of nine tiny house villages the city has built since 2015, opened in March 2018. A nonprofit group called the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) managed it and subcontracted with Nickelsville, an activist organization of homeless and formerly homeless people. Sharon Lee, LIHI executive director, said Nickelsville did not make residents look for permanent housing or work with a case manager. They also used evictions “arbitrarily and unjustly made people homeless again,” Lee said. Tension grew, and in April, Nickelsville refused to allow LIHI or city staff on the property. They closed the gates with padlocks and posted signs telling the residents working security to keep LIHI or city staff out. In September, the city gave LIHI an Oct. 7 deadline to enroll residents in the city’s Homeless Management Information System. LIHI failed to comply, blaming Nickelsville for not cooperating. Read More ›

^{Bailey Takacs
December 6, 2019
Education}

Why Only One Type of School?

_{Bailey Takacs
December 6, 2019
Education}

A fascinating new micro school has been making significant strides in Arizona. Prenda is like the Splenda of schooling. An alternative to the traditional government-run school. What’s different about this new method of schooling? For starters it is placed in the homes, offices, or studios of the coaches or mentors. This not only shifts the old classroom setting, desks lined up facing the front of the classroom. It also eliminates the need for specific degrees or credentials for those who are willing to connect with young people. There is a valid concern about the qualifications of those doing the teaching. Not everyone is qualified to teach. However, the elimination of certifications opens the door for very skilled workers in fields outside of education. What else is different? The three-year range in school composition. For example, a child in second grade can work with those in fourth grade. There are no age restrictions. Rather, the learning readiness of the child determines where they are placed. One might extend this principle even further. Why should a third grader not be placed with eight graders if he or she can read at that level? Read More ›

Delicious roasted whole chicken or turkey on plate with cutlery and sauce , harvest grilled vegetables on dark rustic background, top view, banner, frame. Thanksgiving Day food

^{Jay W. Richards
December 4, 2019
Discovery Institute, Religion and Civic Life}

One Person’s Journey to a Fasting Lifestyle: Week Three

_{Jay W. Richards
December 4, 2019
Discovery Institute, Religion and Civic Life}

In week three of the plan I lay out in the forthcoming Eat, Fast, Feast, fasters limit all of their food intake to four hours a day for at least three days during the week. (The days don’t have to be consecutive.) This is called the 20/4 routine, since you don’t eat for twenty consecutive hours of the day. (This includes sleep time of course.) There’s still no attempt to eat less food during the day than you normally would. At this point, you’re just trying to get your body acclimated to going longer periods without food and using its fat-burning metabolism more effectively. This third week happened to land on Thanksgiving week, so I expected it to be even harder for our volunteer faster. Read More ›

^{Discovery Institute
December 4, 2019
Discovery Institute, Economics}

Leading Economist and Developer of Time-Prices, Dr. Gale Pooley Appointed as a Fellow of Discovery Institute

_{Discovery Institute
December 4, 2019
Discovery Institute, Economics}

Seattle — Discovery Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Gale L. Pooley to serve as a fellow with the Institute’s Center on Wealth and Poverty. “Gale Pooley is the world leader in the most important movement in contemporary economics — based on the recognition that wealth is knowledge, money is time, and the only true prices are Read More ›

^{Jay W. Richards
November 27, 2019
Religion and Civic Life}

One Person’s Journey to a Fasting Lifestyle: Week Two

_{Jay W. Richards
November 27, 2019
Religion and Civic Life}

In the first week of the six-week plan in my forthcoming book Eat, Fast, Feast, you eat a “ketogenic” diet to get your fat-burning metabolism up and running. This is a physical prerequisite for long-term fasting. In the second week, you begin to limit the amount of time during the day when you eat, starting with sixteen hours off, eight hours on. In other words, you eat all your meals with a single eight-hour time window. A few days ago, I checked in with my friend who volunteered to try out the plan and report his results. Read More ›