The “population bomb” is now, officially, a dud. Planned Parenthood, the U.S. State Department’s Agency for International Development, and even the People’s “Republic” of China used to work in conjunction with the United Nations to slow “unsustainable” population growth. Now the UN has released facts that debunk the notion that an increasing world population is detrimental to our survival.
Good things can be learned in conversation with persons of goodwill outside of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but problems arise when that tradition gets slowly lost in the conversation.
The world has become more connected through advances like the Internet, and software and technology innovators have found a welcome market. As they scramble to achieve market position, their rush to patent and copyright their works or products has renewed interest in the issue of intellectual property rights.
“Too much time online makes people more likely to go offline in real life,” began a story this month in the Washington Post . The story reported the findings of a small online survey conducted by the Stanford-based Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society (IQSS). Words like “recluse” and “lonely” were used to describe heavy Internet users and phrases like “isolating technology” and “electronic cleansing” were applied to the wider social impact of the Information Age.
Automobile accidents take too many lives each year. Common sense leads many Americans to shop around for larger and therefore safer cars for their families. But CAFE standards dramatically limit the ability of consumers to make these choices. And the costs in terms of human life can be severe
For the past two decades, China's rulers have attempted something no less impossible: to create the outline of a capitalist economy (with private property and freedom of enterprise) without free association or a modicum of free speech.