AFF's Doublethink

President Obama’s decision earlier this month to overturn restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research was widely praised by supporters. Yet even setting aside the moral controversy involved, there are good reasons to challenge the wisdom of devoting public dollars to the cause.

As it stands now, NASA will retire the remaining Space Shuttles—Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis—sometime in 2010 in order to make way for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and a launch vehicle known as Ares I. By shutting down the Shuttle program, NASA will be able to divert precious economic, human and material resources to the CEV program. But there are problems with this.

As early as this week, 100,000 Americans will be waiting for donor organs they may never receive. On Monday, the United Network for Organ Sharing reported that the number of Americans on the waiting list was 99,986 and counting. More than 70% of these patients need a kidney, and most will languish on dialysis or die before they get one. It’s time to consider creating a legal market for kidneys.

Morgellons is a disturbing condition that causes victims to develop open sores that won’t heal, sprout strange, brightly colored fibers, and feel sensations of something moving, stinging and biting under the skin. The CDC is investigating.

Despite doomsday rumors, the world’s largest supercollider is a boon for science.

LiveJournal suicides, Theresa Duncan, and why you need to shut your laptop to mourn the dead.

According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimate, each year at least 183 people — mostly children and the elderly — die when a motor vehicle backs-over them. As a concerned citizen and consumer, what do you do about it:

(A) Look twice before putting the car in reverse? (Nah, too burdensome); (B) Buy [...]

Record companies are trying to fight illegal piracy. In the end, however, they’re watching everything you’re doing online.

Will the “trauma pill” erase what makes us human?

The West Nile Virus is a threat, but a teeny, tiny, eensy, weensy little one. So why waste money trying to fight it?

Get your cell phone company to agree to an “open” relationship.

Hedgehogs and foxes in the Sudan divestment race.

Not sure if you’re aware of this, but the Internet has changed everything.

Fair use isn’t a game of “Mother May I?” It is assertion of our freedom of speech.

No one will mistake Second Life Hentai for real children but what if you Photoshop an eight-year-old head on an eighteen-year-old boyish figure?

A little alarmism once in a while is hardly a bad thing. So what’s wrong with crying about a big asteroid that will destroy the Earth and life as we know it every now and then?

The Federal Research Public Access Act hasn’t even been passed and it may already be obsolete.

Brazilian court rulings and copyright capes might spell the end for YouTube.

Meet the MySpace for people who don’t need people.

Why EU antitrust authorities might strip Windows Vista of some of its functionality.

Have you noticed there have been no hurricanes this season? The science of global warming isn’t nearly as settled or simple as the alarmists would like to believe, and cooler heads are needed to counter the overheated claims of a global apocalypse.

What F.A. Hayek’s teachings can tell us about net neutrality regulation.

We’ve grown accustomed to assuming that computerized devices are always better than older technologies. That’s true of most devices, but it’s probably not true of voting machines. When it comes to our elections, it would be a good idea to follow the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Is Google News’ rejection of conservative websites censorship? And do we even want an impartial news selection service?

Why does Steve Jobs insist on keeping all songs on the iTunes Music Store priced equally at 99 cents? Has he never heard of supply and demand?

The advocates of network neutrality regulations are working very hard to create a sense of crisis, but is there really a need to regulate the Internet?

France recently mandated Apple to open up its iTunes technology. But the right approach is for the state to remain neutral, neither forcing companies to open their proprietary technologies to others, nor preventing rivals from building compatible devices if they can figure out how to do so without the incumbent’s help.

Just like news and opinion is free on the Internet today, so will new music be tomorrow.

A new telecom bill would probably make things worse than they already are. For supporters of free markets, the best telecom bill is probably no telecom bill.

If it’s absurd to require newspapers to sell their news, sports, and business sections separately so that consumers can get just what they want, how is forcing cable TV to offer channels “a la carte” any less nuts?

Hollywood movies are replete with bad guys nefariously plotting to control the world, but these days, music and movie industry associations are looking awfully like power-hungry villains themselves as they attempt to assert control over the devices that play and record their content.

Security researchers recently discovered that digital rights management (DRM) software bundled with some of Sony BMG CDs will, among other things, send information about the user’s listening habits back to remote servers. This is simply not a good business strategy. Smart businesses treat their customers as cherished assets.

In the battle over control of the Internet, it’s not that the U.S. government manages the Internet better than other countries would, it’s that it barely manages the Internet at all, and it’s important that it stay that way.

A review of the new book, Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution, by Ron Bailey.

Banning technologies through legislation is not the answer to piracy. Copying is here to stay, so companies must change their business models if they hope to cope.

Copy protection in iTunes and iPods treats honest customers like criminals while locking them into Apple products. So why does the recording industry insist on it?

Does copyright infringement involve creating an unauthorized copy, or accessing that copy once created? If mere copying is copyright infringement, then Google Print is illegal–and so is the Internet for that matter.

Paypal shut down a good Samaritan’s Katrina fundraising drive because the federal government and the states–including Louisiana–has forced the company to treat its customers like criminals.

Does banning cell phones in cars really improve road safety? How about banning chihuahuas?

Does Microsoft hold the patent on the iPod’s click wheel even though Apple invented it?

Google Print will let you search the full text of every book ever printed–unless the law gets in the way, that is.

Boxers now know that they’ll be banned from the sport should virtually any sort of brain injury come to light. As a result, they’re going to be much less likely to seek diagnosis and treatment.

They say sunlight is the best disinfectant, which is why getting modern information technology to dissidents abroad can help shine a bright light on oppressive regimes everywhere.

Embryonic stem cells do show more promise than their opponents would have us believe.

Mandatory “net neutrality” rules are unnecessary because good old-fashioned competition is sufficient to ensure an open future for the Internet.

Now that the FCC’s “broadcast flag” has been struck down, broadcasters would do well to stop obsessing over exaggerated piracy threats and focus on competing with cable and satellite.

The FCC might soon be regulating speech on cable and satellite TV, but the fact that over 85 percent of homes in the U.S. subscribe to those less-regulated services shows that consumers are willing to pay for programming that is racier than traditional broadcast TV.

Last year the Ninth Circuit accepted Grokster’s argument that because it has no knowledge of what files are traded and no ability to filter them, it cannot be held liable as Napster was for infringement. The Supreme Court should not be so gullible.

Digital rights management technologies may yet prove an effective piracy deterrent, and companies should be free to deploy them. But requiring customers to comply with them on pain of criminal penalties is a step too far.

Federally mandated electronic medical records may sound wonderful, but before rushing to put a system in place, we need to consider the downsides.