Thursday, October 12, 2017

What Is Russia Up To?

Dark Side of Genetically Engineered Crops

The problem with any sort of natural engineering is that evolution will eventually find a way around it. This is an arms race that must be approached thoughtfully. How can we sufficiently control pests without applying so much pressure that it becomes advantageous to circumvent the controls?


Thursday, October 05, 2017

Anti-Abortion Laws Don't Work

In policy debates, it's always useful to have actual cases to which one can refer and possibly learn. Mexico is a poster-child of what happens under strict abortion laws.
Mexico and Latin America have some of the world's strictest laws and consequently have some of the world's highest abortion rates. If one genuinely wants to limit the number of abortions, making them illegal not only fails but makes the numbers higher than they would be otherwise.


Cause for Permian Extinction Found

Another of those geologic mysteries bites the dust. During the time of the eruptions, sedimentary deposits in the area that would eventually become West Texas and New Mexico were laid down. These would eventually be transformed into one of the most productive set of oil fields in the nation.