Science
Here’s one you probably didn’t expect. According to a study by A.M. Best, Rhode Island is a top-10 State in terms of projected damage per square mile caused by tornadoes and “related weather events”… Most people associate tornado activity with the “Tornado Alley” of the Great Plains states. While this is true in terms of…
Ian Donnis rather wryle points out that “one of the country’s top evangelicals, Kentucky-based Albert Mohler, has suggested that pre-natal treatment to change homosexuality in the womb would be biblically justified.” Donnis also directs us to a recent piece by Mary Ann Sorrentino on the same topic. Writes Sorrentino: The same gang that for decades…
I suspect this is an argument we’ll be hearing more and more as this century unfolds: “The potential scientific gains outweigh the objections.” No doubt liberals and libertarians will join together in arguing that women have a right to sell their own eggs. But as the scientific promises move ever closer to immortality, can there…
From a local Oregon television station, via Drudge…In the face of evidence agreed upon by hundreds of climate scientists, George Taylor holds firm. He does not believe human activities are the main cause of global climate change. Taylor also holds a unique title: State Climatologist…. In an exclusive interview with KGW-TV, Governor Ted Kulongoski confirmed…
I know. I’m not supposed to be posting anything on the 2008 Presidential campaign before June. However, I’m adding a codicil to my New Year’s resolution: I can make an exception when able to present primary-source material about a Presidential candidate (or someone with a Presidential exploratory committee) that adds to a discussion area already…
Ramesh Ponnuru has been offering up clear-headed argumentation on the social conservative side of the stem-cell debate. Readers can follow the latest spat backwards from here, but I think this is a key paragraph: President Clinton’s bioethics commission concluded that “the derivation of stem cells from embryos remaining following infertility treatments is justifiable only if…
The Providence Journal steals some bases in its stem-cell–related editorial today: But amniotic stem cells, though plentiful, may not be able to develop into the full range of cell types that embryonic stem cells provide. Because they are only a few days old, embryonic cells are extremely flexible in terms of what they might become.…
The wonders that modern science is promising in the very near future (really, so near we can touch it, honest) seem so bright that they impart such sparkling innocence that even constitutional pessimists fail to see obvious dark sides. One such, John Derbyshire, writes: If you don’t like eugenics, you are not going to like…
One could, I suppose, respond to Andrew Stuttaford’s prods about an intelligent designer by wondering aloud why this sort of thing isn’t an example of built-in wonder — a cold-blooded miracle, if you will: Twice within a year the brown arole lizard has evolved changes in its body and behaviour to outwit a predator —…
This short passage from Froma Harrop‘s stem cell column from yesterday contains one of the misconceptions that Senator Tom Coburn talked about last weekend…Adult stem-cell research is promising — but already fully funded. And only embryonic stem cells can be turned into other types of body cells to replace damaged tissues. That’s why researchers are…