Tech policy analysts of a certain glamorous age may remember the “Gore Tax.” That’s the partisan moniker given to a program established by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and implemented…
By Jim Harper | August 27, 2024
As AI continues to advance, its potential applications in education have become a subject of considerable interest and debate. Recent studies illuminate AI’s promise and limitations in different facets of…
By John Bailey | August 26, 2024
Earlier this year, NASA’s most advanced lunar rover—the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover or VIPER—seemed to be on track to the moon. Engineers integrated the VIPER’s final instrument of four in February.…
By Will Rinehart | August 26, 2024
On Tuesday this week the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement (STA) is due to expire unless the U.S. and China can agree on its extension. Today I provide some background…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | August 26, 2024
Recently, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo proudly announced that the US had achieved a “milestone” in its drive to build secure advanced semiconductor plants within its borders. Specifically, the Department of Commerce…
By Claude Barfield | August 24, 2024
The Biden administration is a full-employment act for energy/environment policy analysts, in particular those interested in defending the market allocation of resources, the national wealth and freedom inherent in expansion…
By Benjamin Zycher | August 24, 2024
Although the US Supreme Court recently ruled in three First Amendment cases involving social media platforms, Justice Clarence Thomas, its longest-serving member, wrote just once—a separate concurrence in Moody v. NetChoice. Daniel Lyons recently explained that Thomas’s concurrence mostly…
By Clay Calvert | August 22, 2024
Large-scale, dynamic social and economic change is often more difficult, incremental, and slower than anticipated. Consider James Watt and Matthew Boulton in Birmingham in 1776, having invented and refined the…
By Lynne Kiesling | August 22, 2024
Last January, upon submission of my paper (since published) — Scientific integrity and U.S. “Billion Dollar Disasters” — I submitted a “request for correction” to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | August 21, 2024
Child Online Safety bills are crafted with the intention of protecting minors from harmful content on the internet. However, they can infringe on First Amendment rights, affecting the freedom of…
By Shane Tews | August 20, 2024
As AI rapidly advances, an emerging challenge threatens to weaken the foundations of societal institutions: How can we maintain trust and accountability online when AI systems become indistinguishable from real…
By John Bailey | August 19, 2024
It is memory-holed now, but acid rain was the largest environmental threat in the 1980s. Grisly pictures emerged, prompting research and then action by the government to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen…
By Will Rinehart | August 19, 2024
About 20,000 years ago, the world was in an ice age. The era is called the Last Glacial Maximum and had global sea levels more than 120 meters (~400 feet)…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | August 19, 2024
By early 2024, NASA had made significant progress on its ambitious lunar exploration project, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER). NASA had unveiled VIPER in 2019 as a solution…
By Will Rinehart | Kate Beinkampen | August 16, 2024
Last week, US District Judge Amit P. Mehta handed down a significant ruling, finding that Google unlawfully maintained a monopoly in general internet search and search text advertising. This decision marks…
By Mark Jamison | August 15, 2024