http://www.discoverynews.org/ covers politics, foreign policy, science, technology, media and culture with an eye toward issues of conflict between worldviews. It reports otherwise under-represented developments and discovers facts and points of view that otherwise might be missed in public dialogue. Contributors include former Discovery News ambassadors and elected officials, public policy fellows and writers nation-wide. en Copyright 2013 Wed, 22 May 2013 14:21:36 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss The Honorable Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island is getting a lot of well-deserved criticism for stating that natural disasters such as the tornado that devastated Moore, Oklahoma this week are the products of climate change (nee, "global warming") and, therefore, somehow the responsibility of climate change doubters. Moreover, since many Republicans are among those questioning the assertions of global warming and especially the idea that people mainly cause it, he said, they ultimately are responsible for forcing the rest of the country--including his state--to help pay the costs of disaster relief. This kind of thing would be the stuff of satire if it were not taking advantage of the recent tornado deaths and destruction in Oklahoma. Discovery fellows Steve Meyer (author of the forthcoming, Darwin's Doubt) and Jay Richards were on the Michael Medved show today to talk about a variety of similar claims fraudulently made in the name of science. Misperceiving patterns and lessons from random information is a form of psychiatric disease called "apophenia," a delusional condition the sufferer confuses with reality. The political and metaphorical version of it is conspiracy theory, or, in this case, an attempt to claim for climate change what even scientists (including those who fully accept the idea that the Earth is warming and that people are responsible for it) don't claim; namely, that specific severe weather can be attributed to climate change. Moreover, even if you did hold weather is a reflection of climate change, you would have to deal with the statistics that until this week's tornados, the past year has been notable for a relative paucity of tornados. In the same way, Hurricane Sandy last year was terrible in its destruction in the populous Northeast, but otherwise not an example of a trend in hurricanes. The Medved program did a good job dispatching the Sheldon Whitehouse case of political aprophenia. The trouble is, the disease is contagious, as comments from Sen. Barbara Boxer show. ]]> http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/apophenia_in_the_senate072391.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/apophenia_in_the_senate072391.php Wed, 22 May 2013 14:21:36 -0800 master's degree online in computer science for only $7,000. If you actually go to Georgia Tech's campus and get your master's, the fare is $40,000. This is the next wave of revolution in higher education. The halls of ivy have priced themselves out of the reach of the middle class, and even the upper middle class. Giving more "scholarships" is a way for the most-endowed schools to handle sticker shock, but that usually does not meet the needs of people who just don't want to pay so much for what increasingly is irrelevant, ideologically driven schooling. ]]> http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/heck_of_a_wreck_in_higher_ed072261.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/heck_of_a_wreck_in_higher_ed072261.php Thu, 16 May 2013 10:41:02 -0800 ">reopening of the Eastern Orthodox Halki Seminary. ]]> http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/us_should_quiz_turkish_pm_on_c072241.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/us_should_quiz_turkish_pm_on_c072241.php Wed, 15 May 2013 15:37:18 -0800 A stunning provincial election surprise in British Columbia Tuesday returns the more free enterprise Liberal Party to power with a larger majority over the left wing New Democrats (NDP). The NDP was expected to win--it was up eight to nine points in pre-election surveys--because of supposed voter opposition to gas and oil pipelines to connect Alberta's energy fields to ocean shipment points in B.C. The NDP had pledged to stop the pipelines. The Liberals will exact environmental protections, but they support the pipeline expansions, especially the controversial Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline to ship Alberta tar sands crude oil through Burnaby, B.C. With the oil pipeline and the Enbridge Northern Gateway gas pipeline expansion both likely to get a go-ahead in B.C., Canada's leverage in persuading the Obama Administration to approve the Keystone XL pipeline through the central U.S. probably is increased. Had the New Democrats, who oppose the B.C. pipelines, won yesterday, the national Canadian government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper would have lost a psychological advantage on the energy issue, as well as a practical alternative to Keystone. Now Mr. Harper can advise the Americans, either allow Keystone to go through or we will send our added energy supplies to China. The pipeline controversy was expected to hurt the incumbent government of British Columbian Premier Christy Clark. Instead Liberal Party strategists think it helped. British Columbians apparently were satisfied that the gas pipeline and the extension of an oil pipeline would not hurt the environment and would boost the province's economic future. This sentiment was plainly missed by pollsters going into the election. Photo Credit ]]> http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/bc_election_will_spur_us_pipel072231.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/bc_election_will_spur_us_pipel072231.php Wed, 15 May 2013 11:15:00 -0800 1) Reduce the size of government. 2) Reduce tax rates. 3) Clarify criteria necessary for attaining non-profit (tax free) status. 4) Prosecute those who leaked IRS data to political opponents. Maybe start with 4). http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/solutions_on_irs072221.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/solutions_on_irs072221.php Tue, 14 May 2013 22:15:18 -0800 useful, if not exhaustive, analysis. ]]> http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/strange_alliance_of_islamists_072211.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/strange_alliance_of_islamists_072211.php Tue, 14 May 2013 20:10:39 -0800 A Saudi Arabian has been detained as he entered the US at Detroit carrying a pressure cooker in his luggage. The Tsarnaev brothers' weapon of choice, the pressure cooker apparently can be converted to a bomb following directions online, courtesy of al Qaida. Will we soon have pressure to ban pressure cookers? Well, some Miami-Dade County students have a petition for just that cause. Williams-Sonoma already has taken pressure cookers off their store shelves. Can Crate&Barrel be far behind? ]]> http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/alarm_over_pressure_cooker072131.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/alarm_over_pressure_cooker072131.php Mon, 13 May 2013 15:18:35 -0800 Obama has given him his blessing. Cameron also is proposing a free trade zone with the U.S. and Britain, which has long made sense. But it is hard to see how that works--unless one of two things happens. 1) Britain exits the Eurozone, or 2) part of "fixing" the EU is to abandon much of the regulatory regime and to make freer trade among free market/democratic countries a stronger standard going forward. The "fix", in that case, means an end to the EU as we know it and a new free trade zone that includes Europe and North America. ]]> http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/pressure_builds_for_radical_re072111.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/pressure_builds_for_radical_re072111.php Mon, 13 May 2013 12:06:53 -0800 after-birth abortions, an idea that literally was only the stuff of satirical invention a couple of decades ago. But in 1997 "ethicist" Steven Pinker of Harvard more or less defended the practice in an article in the New York Times. That helped break the taboo among some, though hardly all, progressives. Regarding Gosnell, it is said that the disgusting conditions of his clinic, the insensitive, even cruel treatment of women there and the readiness to "snip" the spinal cords of babies born alive after an abortion attempt shows the need for better facilities under nicer conditions. ]]> http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/a_choice_for_pro-choice_suppor072051.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/a_choice_for_pro-choice_suppor072051.php Thu, 09 May 2013 17:14:30 -0800 Instapundit been on this topic for months, but today Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, also has a fine piece on "The Benghazi Patsy" at Politico.com. Remember, after the killings, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised the father of one of those killed that the maker of the video would be "arrested and prosecuted." Indeed, he was. And he is still in jail, though ostensibly for parole violation. ]]> http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/more_voices_raised_on_benghazi072031.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/more_voices_raised_on_benghazi072031.php Thu, 09 May 2013 13:54:03 -0800 He has just testified to Congress, "I was stunned. My jaw dropped." ]]> http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/free_nakoula071991.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/free_nakoula071991.php Wed, 08 May 2013 15:57:36 -0800 One of saddest qualities of ego-driven politics is some new office-holders' refusal to learn from their predecessors. I have seen it in local, state and national governments. One would think that the newly elected official would be eager to learn all he can from those who went before, especially since there is no longer any threat to his own position. Instead some new office-holders think that the people who had a job before couldn't possibly know as much about the office they just left it as does the newcomer. For example, take the case of Dixy Lee Ray, who followed Daniel J. Evans as governor in Washington state in 1976, a job for which Evans did not seek re-election. The outgoing governor and his staff prepared a file cabinet full of precise status reports on government agencies for his successor. But these reports were contemptuously tossed aside. That was a sign of hubris, not any warranted confidence. http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/a_refusal_to_learn_from_the_pa071981.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/a_refusal_to_learn_from_the_pa071981.php Wed, 08 May 2013 15:22:24 -0800 It is an irony that the Reinhart-Rogoff study on national debt's role in limiting economic growth was not widely known until the left started pummeling it recently. It was ushered into prime time by Rachel Maddow at MSNBC as if it were a new Watergate scandal. (Bengazigate gets no such attention.) Reinhart-Rogoff had omitted some data that changed the nature of their claim that after 90 percent national debt, economies flag. But, after they corrected their data, the validity of their main argument remains. Our Discovery Senior Fellow Scott Powell finds it all distracting. You don't need the Reinhart-Rogoff study to know that governments that borrow to much are also borrowing trouble. http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/the_usefulness_of_controversy071961.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/the_usefulness_of_controversy071961.php Tue, 07 May 2013 14:44:26 -0800 The three major parties in Britain are faced tonight with a huge movement of votes in local elections to the relatively new United Kingdom Independence Party. UKIP's main issue, ironically, is Britain's place in the European Union. Essentially, the Establishment is out of sorts. The UKIP has been dismissed as "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists" by Prime Minister Cameron, who now has to explain that, of course, he is not talking about the roughly quarter of the country that voted UKIP. Still, alarm bills are ringing in political party offices and teeth are gnashing in newspaper editorial offices and the BBC. It reminds me again of the old Noel Coward song, "There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner." ]]> http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/theyre_out_of_sorts_in_the_uk071851.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/theyre_out_of_sorts_in_the_uk071851.php Fri, 03 May 2013 16:47:28 -0800 One reason George W. Bush is regaining popularity is that the truth will out, even in this wicked world! In Bush's case, the truth is flattering. For example, without fanfare the former president entertains wounded vets at his ranch about once a month. It is his way of showing appreciation and support. Recovery from a serious injury can be very lonely, and having some attention paid by the former Commander in Chief has to help. Here is a picture of "43" dancing with a female vet. He's informal, he's obviously sincere and gentle. A gentle man. Photo Credit]]> http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/george_ws_decency071841.php http://www.discoverynews.org/2013/05/george_ws_decency071841.php Fri, 03 May 2013 15:35:41 -0800