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Central American Songbird Provides Confirmation of Intelligent Design Lincoln, NE (AP) - Researchers at the University of Nebraska have, for the first time, confirmed a prediction of the controversial theory known as intelligent design, or ID.  The unexpected discovery was made by Paavamanti Ashook and Jessica Aylesworth, two graduate students working under the direction of Dr. Peter Harl, a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Nebraska, while they were sequencing a section of the genetic code for the turquoise-browed motmot, Eumomota superciliosa, a Central American songbird. The Turquiose-browed Motmot of Central America may provide the first...

Patterns in Nature The new focus on self-organizing processes links such diverse natural phenomena as a zebra's stripes and a mound of termites.By Scott Camazine A cross section of a head of red cabbage shows how the leaves interdigitate in an intricate and beautiful pattern.Photo by Scott Camazine The natural world abounds in eye-catching patterns. Consider the synchronized movements of a school of fish gliding through deep ocean waters; or the coordinated turns and swoops of a flock of starlings whirling among tall trees before coming to rest on a telephone wire. How do all the individuals in the...

By Seth ShostakSenior Astronomer, Project Phoenix, SPACE.com Relative to their size, humans have the biggest brains on the planet. Check out the guy sitting next to you on the bus: hunkered beneath a fringe of moussed hair and a few millimeters of skull are three crinkly pounds of brain -- the only substantive difference between you and species you regard as food or pets. But how did this happen? What special circumstance, what unperceived evolutionary force, nudged our hulking, hairy ancestors toward intelligence, and silently trebled the size of their brains in two million years or less? This question is...

The Cobb County statement BY KEVIN GRIFFIS "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically examined." And now a word from the author Kenneth Miller is a Brown University biology professor and one of the most prominent voices in the science community's debate against intelligent design creationism. He also happens to be the author of one of the textbooks -- "Prentice Hall Biology" -- in which Cobb County will place disclaimers that warn students about evolution....

Is the fabric of the Universe a seething mass of black holes and wormholes? We may soon be able to venture into this maelstrom in search of the theory of everything, reports Michael Brooks   ON YOUR kitchen table are the following implements: a chainsaw, a wooden mallet and a pair of boxing gloves. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use one of these tools to split an atom. It is, of course, a ridiculous assignment, but it would sound like child's play to researchers studying quantum gravity. They believe that the very fabric of space-time ...

SSP No. 21 October 5, 2000 Social Security Is It "A Crisis That Doesn't Exist"? by Andrew G. Biggs Andrew G. Biggs is a Social Security analyst at the Cato Institute. Executive Summary A consensus has developed across the political spectrum that the Social Security program faces significant problems and is in need of far-reaching modifications. Would-be reformers debate vigorously on the best changes for Social Security. Some argue for transforming the nation's pension program to a defined-contribution system of personal retirement accounts while others support retaining the current defined-benefit structure through a series of tax increases and benefits ...

Executive Summary One of the most enduring myths of Social Security is that a worker has a legal right to his Social Security benefits. Many workers assume that, if they pay Social Security taxes into the system, they have some sort of legal guarantee to the system’s benefits. The truth is exactly the opposite. It has long been law that there is no legal right to Social Security. In two important cases, Helvering v. Davis and Flemming v. Nestor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Social Security taxes are simply taxes and convey no property or contractual rights to ...

Serious analysts of the Social Security system have said for years that fundamental reforms are needed because the current pay-as-you-go system will collapse under the weight of Baby Boom retirements. But politicians of both parties have avoided the issue, following the old procrastinators' dictum: Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? But events in Japan show the consequences of failure to enact real reforms. Japan's parliament recently voted to slash benefits for that country's equivalent of our Social Security system by 5 percent overall, and the parliament also voted to raise the retirement age by 5 ...

------------------------------------------- CNET INSIDER: An Opinionated Take on Tech ------------------------------------------- This Week: Taking Up the Tax By Steve Fox, Editor, CNET Online ------------------------------------------- So, the handpicked commission that was supposed to tell Congress what to do about taxing the Internet came up empty this week. The 19-member panel chaired by Governor James Gilmore III of Virginia (13 politicians and 6 business representatives) needed 13 votes--a two-thirds majority--to make an official recommendation. Unable to muster more than 11 supporters, Gilmore, who personally favors a permanent ban on Net sales taxes, decided to send the plan to Congress anyway. The Federal Advisory Commission ...

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan warned against letting "irrational exuberance" cause us to ignore stock market fundamentals, and we should be also careful that today's booming economy doesn't make us ignore the fundamentals of Social Security and wishfully conclude that the system does not face a crisis after all. Some commentators have gotten great publicity by doing just that. The status quo faithful, led by Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot of the Economic Policy Institute, claim that "any shortfall that Social Security may have in the future can result only from a dismal economic performance." If economic growth ...

Viewpoint It's time to kill the tax code Robert Hardaway Last fall, when presidential candidate Sen. Richard Lugar joined the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in supporting the substitution of a consumption tax for the income tax, the prospects for the repeal of the federal income tax became greatly enhanced. The addition of a Colorado representative to those in Congress calling for a consumption tax also increased the chances of abolishing the Internal Revenue Service. Unfortunately, however, supporters of the income tax repeal have chosen only to emphasize the economic benefits of repeal. It is true that few ...

Imagine no income taxes to pay. Imagine no federal deductions from your paycheck. Imagine no individual tax filing. Imagine no IRS. Imagine April 15th as just another day of spring. Congressmen Linder (Ga) and Peterson (Mn) have introduced HB 2525, The Fair Tax, which will accomplish all of this when passed. The plan repeals all personal and corporate income taxes, capital gains taxes, and estate and gift taxes. The plan also repeals all payroll taxes, including Social Security and Medicare taxes. This allows individuals to receive their paycheck without any federal deductions! How then would we pay for government? Under ...