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Apparently this is something that Matt Damon (via Ericka Andersen) and Katha Pollit (via Ezra Klein) are, or are at least pretending to be, very deeply worried about. Is this meant to be a serious question? Is there any reason to think that the answer is yes? I for one think that intelligent design is [...]
Filed under: politics, religion, science/tech
Don’t read me! Read Kevin Carson, now downblog in the comments here.
Filed under: agriculture, science/tech
Concerning the discussion downblog, one reader writes in to suggest that, in addition to converting the ethanol-producing land to the growth of crops that are, you know, edible, we might also plow under our abandoned Walmarts and shopping malls. Short answer: Yes. We. Should. Another sends in this, which was linked in the comments thread [...]
Filed under: agriculture, food, science/tech
Ronald Bailey has a post on the question, in which he praises Nina Federoff for defending genetically modified foods and criticizing the push for organic farming. I don’t have much to say about the first issue, except that the kind of genetic modification that happens in a lab is obviously different in a bunch of [...]
Filed under: agriculture, government/law, science/tech
I know that I’m a bit late getting to this, but Paul Roberts (whose new book on food policy looks quite interesting) had a nice piece in last Friday’s Slate detailing a few reasons why genetically modified foods are not – at least in the short term – likely to be the thing that will [...]
Filed under: agriculture, food, science/tech
Will makes a fair point about my #5 here: I agree that merely being offline is not a disqualifier. What worries me is that technology-related issues are going to be a big deal for the next President, and it’s pretty clear that this stuff isn’t even on McCain’s radar. This is surely right, though as [...]
Filed under: politics, science/tech
I’m not sure how Andrew Sullivan envisions it working, but it seems pretty clear to me that the feasibility of the Nordhaus/Dyson suggestion that we can reverse climate change via genetically modified carbon-sequestering trees is ultimately going to require politics to do quite a lot more than “nudge the process along”. Even if you are [...]
Filed under: environment, politics, science/tech
Radley Balko links to an article on the health benefits of saturated fat. As the example of my household – where we seem to grow thinner by the day as eggs, lard, butter, and full-fat milk and yogurt are consumed with abandon – is happy to attest, you should believe approximately nothing of what the [...]
Filed under: food, science/tech
Dennis Dale Patrick Ford thinks the rise of the new iPhone may mark the end of Western civilization. Megan McArdle thinks its great. Reihan Salam thinks it’s pretty cool but still isn’t going to upgrade. Peter Suderman camped out all night to buy one and then broke it within a day. For my part, I [...]
Filed under: science/tech
Andrew Sullivan is fine with FISA, but apparently Old Man McCain’s ignorance of the fineries of modern technology pretty much disqualifies him as a presidential candidate. As my little brother might text, WTF?
Filed under: civil liberties, politics, science/tech