Free Republic

Millions of Years of Evolution Equal Engineering? by Brian Thomas, M.S. * Increasing numbers of innovative researchers borrow from biology when they examine and incorporate living systems into man-made designs. We know how man-made designs originate— people design them. But what about living designs? Two recent biomimicry research programs let slip major logic errors when accounting for the origin of the creatures they copy: the seahorse and kangaroo. In a video posted online about a year ago, researchers led by the University of California's Joanna McKittrick were seen mimicking the seahorse tail's expert balance between flexibility and rigidity in their...

Last week’s disappointing unemployment report has refocused attention on the question of why, despite modest signs of economic recovery in recent months, American companies aren’t hiring. Indeed, some of the most puzzling stories to come out of the Great Recession are the many claims by employers that they cannot find qualified applicants to fill their jobs, despite the millions of unemployed who are seeking work. Beyond the anecdotes themselves is survey evidence, most recently from Manpower, which finds roughly half of employers reporting trouble filling their vacancies. The first thing that makes me wonder about the supposed “skill gap” is...

Investor's Business Daily reports that due to ObamaCare, Health and Human Services is on track to become "the first $1 trillion federal agency." This expansion of government leads to new hiring (e.g., 650 new employees to work in the Medicare/Medicaid Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight), and these new federal employees need desks and cubicles. Thus it's not surprising to read in the Montgomery County Gazette: The federal government proved the savior for commercial real estate in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., last year and 2011 is shaping up the same way. That was the good news...

<p>ON CAPITOL HILL Valerie Wilson Testifies Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) chairs a House Oversight and Government Reform Ctme. hearing on the disclosure of CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson's identity. The hearing will look into whether White House officials followed appropriate procedures for safeguarding the identity of Ms. Wilson.</p>

HOT DANG--IT'S FRIDAY!!! This thread is dedicated to your employers and co-workers. It's dedicated to the people you love and the people you hate. This thread is dedicated to all the office games and pranks. This thread is dedicated to the office flirts and the office tards. We salute the fond memory of the office snitch and the promoted kiss-@ss. We dedicate this thread to those that frequent the restroom and those caught in the janitor's closet. We even salute you, Guy That Wears Way Too Much Cologne Here's To Office Politics: Rock On OFST!

A new survey says U.S. co-workers' annoying habits are the number one source of stress in the workplace. The top complaint was talking too loudly on the phone, followed by constant whining about work, the Boston Globe reported. Nearly 60 percent of respondents to an online survey by job-search Web site www.truejobs.com said their co-workers' annoying habits negatively affected their work relationships, and 40 percent said it led them to seek a different job. When a co-worker gets on your last nerve, it can create a physiological reaction, such as rising blood pressure, that increases stress and decreases concentration, psychologist...

When I heard the walrus' rambling argument with Specter about a document that he had supposedly sent, I immediately had the vision of Milton from Office Space. You know, the way he went on about the swingline stapler.What do you all think?

'Office Space" opened in theaters in February 1999 and pulled in roughly $4.2 million in its first weekend. By May of that year, its total theatrical gross had crawled to about $10.8 million. For perspective's sake, consider that two weekends ago, "The Fog" opened - opened, do you hear - with $14.2 million. Of course, any movie tempts lackluster receipts when it opens in the dead of winter with no big-name stars except Jennifer Aniston - regarded back then as a small-screen fixture, with no Brad Pitt in her immediate vicinity.But I, at least, expected better initial results. When reviewing...

"It's actually rather scholarly, or at least as scholarly as a book written about films like ILSA, SHE-WOLF OF THE SS can be." - reader review on Amazon.com. "... the result is a book that blends fascinating pop-culture history, first-rate film criticism, and learned commentary on the stunt-vomit in The Exorcist." - today's National Review. HORROR SHOWBrigg’s Disturbing. Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History!, by Joe Bob Briggs (Universe, 256 pp., $24.95) EDITOR'S NOTE: This review appears in the September 1, 2003, issue of National Review. The title is reassuringly lurid and the cover comfortingly nasty, but, on opening...

SEATTLE - Some high-tech companies in the Seattle area have a big problem on their hands: too much office space. Space they don't need. Space they can't get rid of. For example, Bellevue's Onyx Software spent more than $6 million during the first half of the year, on empty office space. That's enough room for a thousand employees. With office vacancy rates at a 10-year high, companies, like Onyx, have been hard pressed to find tenants to sublease the space.