News Updates

The new Pentagon office set up to study unidentified objects, including any of the flying type, has found “nothing” yet to affirm the existence of space aliens, the Washington Post reports. A top defense official said the Pentagon continues to analyze emerging evidence and will take “appropriate actions” regarding possible alien craft—but declined to elaborate. Writing in Issues, Keith Kloor likewise comes up doubtful about unidentified flying objects. He is certain of one thing: the Pentagon “may well have its own good reason for keeping the UFO story alive”—but likely will never elaborate on that either.

Through gains in artificial intelligence, cameras, and engineering, roboticists are building robots capable of “seeing” objects of varying shapes and, by adjusting their mechanical grasp, picking up the objects and sorting them. This skill, the Washington Post reports, opens the door for robots to take over a variety of jobs long thought suitable only for humans. This is just what Stuart W. Elliott worries about. Writing in Issues, he calls for policymakers and researchers to regularly monitor the growing capabilities of information technology and robotics and how they might transform jobs and affect employment in coming decades.

Tennessee is considering new ways to fund highway projects, long underwritten by motor fuel taxes that are declining as people switch increasingly to more efficient vehicles. But as Martin Wachs sees things, state-level action won’t be enough. In Issues, he argues that the federal government should adopt new policies to change the very nature of how the nation funds its roads and other components of the transit system. The key, he writes, will be shifting to a system of direct user fees, such as charges based on vehicle miles traveled, that will provide needed revenue, reduce traffic congestion, and price travel more equitably.