Science & Technology
Science & Technology
The Heroes who Enabled Advance Warning of Sandy
Michael A. LaFerrara November 9, 2012
It came all at once, without warning. . . . It was unexpected and unannounced, sudden and surly, inundating, devastating, mutilating, obliterating. It battered and bludgeoned the shore until there was no more shore, until it was all running water and milling debris, until almost every trace of a human…
Science & Technology
Amazon Kindle E-Reader Brings Books to the Developing World
Ross England November 8, 2012
Through the invention and sale of its Kindle e-reader, Amazon has brought incredible convenience to many readers. The compact, sleek, and affordable Kindle allows its owners to carry upwards of one thousand books anywhere. It enables easy searching, highlighting, and note-taking; instantaneous book purchasing; transferring of purchases to other devices;…
Politics & Rights, Science & Technology
Science Should be Funded Privately, Not Through Federal “Investment”
Ross England November 6, 2012
Lamenting predicted cuts under the Romney budget plan, Neal Lane, former director of the National Science Foundation, called for more “federal investments in science and technology” in a recent New York Times op-ed. “Scientific knowledge and new technologies,” argued Professor Lane, “are the building blocks for long-term economic growth.” According…
Science & Technology
Alex Epstein to Debate Bill McKibben on Whether Fossil Fuels Improve or Harm the Planet
Ross England November 2, 2012
On Monday, Alex Epstein, president and founder of the Center for Industrial Progress, will debate arch-environmentalist Bill McKibben at Duke University. Epstein will argue that fossil fuels improve the planet; McKibben will argue that they harm it. In July, McKibben, whom the Boston Globe has called “the nation’s leading environmentalist,”…
Science & Technology
Cheers to the Heroes Driving the American Oil and Gas Boom
Michael A. LaFerrara November 1, 2012
"Peak Oil” will have to wait. Confounding the “experts,” amazing new technologies such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have led to an astounding surge in American production of crude oil. Jonathan Fahey reports that the United States is set to become the world’s top oil producer: The Energy Department…
Politics & Rights, Science & Technology
The Left’s False Alternative on Health Care
Michael A. LaFerrara October 30, 2012
The latest incarnation of “Medicare-for-all" was introduced in 2009. Though the plan, H.R. 676, was quickly eclipsed by the debate and passage of ObamaCare, it is still simmering just below the political surface. Ray Stever, president of New Jersey One Plan One Nation Coalition, provides an indication of where the…
Philosophy, Science & Technology
Evolution is Scientific Fact, Not a “Lie from Hell”
Ross England October 28, 2012
Georgia Congressman Paul Broun made some waves when he stated that the theory of evolution, the fundamental integrating theory of biological science, is a lie “straight from the pit of hell.” Charles Darwin spent more than twenty years of his life gathering evidence for the theory of evolution. He presented…
Politics & Rights, Science & Technology
Kristof’s Readers Properly Reject Guilt-Laden Argument for ObamaCare
Ross England October 22, 2012
New York Times opinion writer Nicholas Kristof has expressed consternation that many of his readers were “savagely unsympathetic” in their responses to a column in which he shares the story of his recently deceased friend, Scott Androes, in hopes that “his story would help readers see the need for universal…
Science & Technology
Praise Is Due for Facial Transplant Success
Ross England October 20, 2012
Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez and his team of surgeons at the University of Maryland School of Medicine deserve praise for their success in “the most extensive face transplant performed to date.” Seven months after receiving a new face, Richard Lee Norris, a 37-year-old Virginia resident who for fifteen years was…
Science & Technology
Congratulations to Felix Baumgartner and Red Bull Stratos
Joshua Lipana October 16, 2012
Congratulations to Felix Baumgartner and Red Bull Stratos for their amazing and exciting achievement. One is reminded of what Ayn Rand said of Apollo 11: [N]o one could doubt that we had seen an achievement of man in his capacity as a rational being—an achievement of reason, of logic, of…