Free Republic

President Barack Obama announced Friday that John Podesta, his new "counselor" and the political operative responsible for creating the institutional left in Washington, will be the appointed "to lead a comprehensive review of big data and privacy" in the aftermath of revelations about the National Security Agency's electronic spying programs. When he joined the White House last month, Podesta's focus was said to be "climate change." The president's speech contained little news. It was a classic Obama set-piece, designed to demonstrate that he understands both sides of a complex argument, while delegating

In San Francisco, many long-time residents believe the influx of richly compensated workers at Google and other big technology companies such as Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc has pushed rents to unaffordable levels in neighborhoods that once were homes to the working class. Technology companies have grown more aware of the tensions. They recently reached an agreement with the city of San Francisco governing the use of municipal bus stops. Google recently began to experiment with a privately chartered boat that can transport some of its employees living in San Francisco to its offices. And Google may be taking extra...

The growing power to change human nature Science can be a little scary. Its potential to transform life itself has led to predictions that we might re-write our own genetic make-up or merge our minds with machines. But 2007 will show that it is not these sci-fi possibilities that are of immediate concern. Real possibilities of changing our human nature are creeping up from a less obvious direction. More and more drugs developed to treat disease are turning out also to offer the potential to “enhance” the cognitive powers of healthy people, and to push human life expectancy much further,...

In recent years, scientists have mixed the DNA of a jellyfish with that of a monkey, creating a "transgenic" animal that glows in the dark. ("Transgenic" means possessing the genes of more than one type of organism.) Scientists have also inserted spider DNA into the genes of goats, creating ewes that produce milk containing spider-web silk. The goal of the project is to extract sufficient web silk — one of the strongest and lightest substances known — to create an industry in spider-silk products. Other researchers are creating transgenic animals that contain minute quantities of human DNA. For example, the...