Latest Articles

Bureaucrats Who Deserve A Salute
The military is a meritocracy that values competence, patience, discipline, and problem-solving.

November 13, 2018  •  Daily Caller

In a new Gallup poll, Americans' confidence in an array of U.S. societal institutions is largely unchanged, with the military continuing to earn the highest level of confidence of 15 institutions tested. (As usual, Congress is dead last.)

Maybe one of the reasons is that the military is more of a meritocracy than many other American institutions, one that values competence, patience, discipline, and problem-solving.

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Is 'Mindfulness' All In Your Head?
There's a physiological basis for mindfulness and similar approaches.

November 11, 2018  •  Fox News Opinion

How many times have you heard someone say to a person who is angry and agitated, "Hey, take a few deep breaths and chill." Well, it works, and there's now a physiological explanation for it. And for the popularity of the "mindfulness" phenomenon, which has spread rapidly worldwide. (A Google search for the word yields more than 138 million hits!)

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Turning Over A New (Organic) Leaf
Genetically engineered crops help farmers and feed increasing numbers of people, but the organic industry still rejects them.

November 5, 2018  •  Hoover Digest

Apologies for the bad link sent previously. This one works: https://www.hoover.org/research/turning-over-new-organic-leaf. (You need to click to advance to subsequent pages.)

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This Flu Season Should Serve as a Wake-up Call – We Need to Redouble Our Efforts to Prevent and Treat the Flu
There's too low a rate of vaccination and too little research

November 4, 2018  •  Fox News

Seasonal outbreaks of the flu cause thousands of deaths even in a good year, and the last flu season, 2017-2018, was a terrible one. It killed 80,000 Americans and sent 900,000 to the hospital, making it the worst influenza season in decades.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), show how much of an outlier it was: Previously, seasonal outbreaks since 2010, had killed between 12,000 and 56,000 and caused between 140,000 and 710,000 hospitalizations.

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Quick FDA Approval of GMO Human Insulin 36 Years Ago Contrasts with Today's Biotechnology Regulatory Sclerosis
Genetic engineering has aged better than its regulation

November 2, 2018  •  Genetic Literacy Project

This week marked the 36th anniversary of one of biotechnology's most significant milestones—the approval by the FDA of human insulin synthesized in genetically engineered bacteria. It launched a revolutionary new era in pharmaceutical development, and as the FDA medical reviewer of the product and the head of the evaluation team, I had a front-row seat.

The saga is remarkable in several ways, not least of which is that although both the drugmakers and regulators were exploring unknown territory, the development of the drug and its regulatory review progressed smoothly and rapidly.

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