Breaking News

From drone to door

There's a new delivery system in town. Well ... maybe not in your town. In some places, drones are now allowed to deliver small packages, groceries and takeout. Companies like Wing and Zipline bring people hot meals in under 10 minutes. I had to watch it to believe it. You can see it ...

News flash: We live in a mixed economy

Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan keeps calling himself a capitalist. And the Democratic Socialists of America keep backing him to the eyeballs. Why? Because the DSA understands that El-Sayed has to say that to win over even Democrats in a moderate state like Michigan. ...

What bank ATMs teach us about AI

New inventions and technologies, from the lightbulb to the farm tractor to the automobile to the laptop computer to Uber drivers, cause serious job market disruptions. They also cause a backlash, as horse and buggy operators, cab drivers, video rental stores and typewriter makers inevitably ...

Varmint Vexations

Wildlife must be doing quite well, judging by the volume of roadkill I've seen lately. There seems to be a season for each species to commit highway hara-kiri. For instance, a month or so ago skunks were the prevalent source of roadside gore. Most of the stinkers appeared to be fairly young, ...

A foreseeable and dire munitions crisis

During the 1979-1980 hostage crisis, a defiant Iran starkly demonstrated the limits of American power. Forty-five years later, it is doing the same thing, although in vastly different circumstances. Back then, when the post-Vietnam military was at a low ebb, we didn't strike Iran, and a ...

Talking ourselves into failure

There are a couple of stories that seem unrelated but are very related. They show the story of a country that used to build things and has decided, without ever quite admitting it, that building is too hard. Start with the missiles. Rep. Mike Turner was on television last week talking about ...