On April 2, 2025, our president announced major new taxes on imports from foreign countries (“tariffs”), ranging from 10 percent to 49 percent. The stated goal is to bring manufacturing back to the United States and to “make America wealthy again.”

These tariffs will not work. In fact, they may even do the opposite, fail to bring manufacturing back, and make America poorer in the process.

This article gives the 14 reasons why this is the case, how the United States could bring manufacturing back if it were serious about doing so, and what will ultimately happen with this wrongheaded policy.

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On April 2, 2025, our president announced major new taxes on imports from foreign countries (“tariffs”), ranging from 10 percent to 49 percent. The stated goal is to bring manufacturing back to the United States and to “make America wealthy again.”

These tariffs will not work. In fact, they may even do the opposite, fail to bring manufacturing back, and make America poorer in the process.

This article gives the 14 reasons why this is the case, how the United States could bring manufacturing back if it were serious about doing so, and what will ultimately happen with this wrongheaded policy.

Read full article

Comments

On April 2, 2025, our president announced major new taxes on imports from foreign countries (“tariffs”), ranging from 10 percent to 49 percent. The stated goal is to bring manufacturing back to the United States and to “make America wealthy again.”

These tariffs will not work. In fact, they may even do the opposite, fail to bring manufacturing back, and make America poorer in the process.

This article gives the 14 reasons why this is the case, how the United States could bring manufacturing back if it were serious about doing so, and what will ultimately happen with this wrongheaded policy.

Read full article

Comments

A government whistleblower told lawmakers that DOGE's access to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) systems went far beyond what was needed to analyze agency operations and apparently led to a data breach. NLRB employee Daniel Berulis, a DevSecOps architect, also says he received a threat when he was preparing his whistleblower disclosure.

"Mr. Berulis is coming forward today because of his concern that recent activity by members of the Department of Government Efficiency ('DOGE') have resulted in a significant cybersecurity breach that likely has and continues to expose our government to foreign intelligence and our nation's adversaries," said a letter from the group Whistleblower Aid to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence leaders and the US Office of Special Counsel.

The letter, Berulis' sworn declaration, and an exhibit with screenshots of technical data are available here . "This declaration details DOGE activity within NLRB, the exfiltration of data from NLRB systems, and—concerningly—near real-time access by users in Russia," Whistleblower Aid Chief Legal Counsel Andrew Bakaj wrote. "Notably, within minutes of DOGE personnel creating user accounts in NLRB systems, on multiple occasions someone or something within Russia attempted to login using all of the valid credentials (e.g. Usernames/Passwords). This, combined with verifiable data being systematically exfiltrated to unknown servers within the continental United States—and perhaps abroad—merits investigation."

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A government whistleblower told lawmakers that DOGE's access to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) systems went far beyond what was needed to analyze agency operations and apparently led to a data breach. NLRB employee Daniel Berulis, a DevSecOps architect, also says he received a threat when he was preparing his whistleblower disclosure.

"Mr. Berulis is coming forward today because of his concern that recent activity by members of the Department of Government Efficiency ('DOGE') have resulted in a significant cybersecurity breach that likely has and continues to expose our government to foreign intelligence and our nation's adversaries," said a letter from the group Whistleblower Aid to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence leaders and the US Office of Special Counsel.

The letter, Berulis' sworn declaration, and an exhibit with screenshots of technical data are available here . "This declaration details DOGE activity within NLRB, the exfiltration of data from NLRB systems, and—concerningly—near real-time access by users in Russia," Whistleblower Aid Chief Legal Counsel Andrew Bakaj wrote. "Notably, within minutes of DOGE personnel creating user accounts in NLRB systems, on multiple occasions someone or something within Russia attempted to login using all of the valid credentials (e.g. Usernames/Passwords). This, combined with verifiable data being systematically exfiltrated to unknown servers within the continental United States—and perhaps abroad—merits investigation."

Read full article

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A government whistleblower told lawmakers that DOGE's access to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) systems went far beyond what was needed to analyze agency operations and apparently led to a data breach. NLRB employee Daniel Berulis, a DevSecOps architect, also says he received a threat when he was preparing his whistleblower disclosure.

"Mr. Berulis is coming forward today because of his concern that recent activity by members of the Department of Government Efficiency ('DOGE') have resulted in a significant cybersecurity breach that likely has and continues to expose our government to foreign intelligence and our nation's adversaries," said a letter from the group Whistleblower Aid to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence leaders and the US Office of Special Counsel.

The letter, Berulis' sworn declaration, and an exhibit with screenshots of technical data are available here . "This declaration details DOGE activity within NLRB, the exfiltration of data from NLRB systems, and—concerningly—near real-time access by users in Russia," Whistleblower Aid Chief Legal Counsel Andrew Bakaj wrote. "Notably, within minutes of DOGE personnel creating user accounts in NLRB systems, on multiple occasions someone or something within Russia attempted to login using all of the valid credentials (e.g. Usernames/Passwords). This, combined with verifiable data being systematically exfiltrated to unknown servers within the continental United States—and perhaps abroad—merits investigation."

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Several years ago, Harvard University roboticist Robert Wood made headlines when his lab constructed RoboBee , a tiny robot capable of partially untethered flight. Over the years, RoboBee has learned to fly, dive, and hover. The latest improvement: RoboBee has learned how to stick the landing, thanks to biomechanical improvements to its landing gear modeled on the crane fly, which has a similar wingspan and body size to the RoboBee platform. The details of this achievement appear in a new paper published in the journal Science Robotics.

As previously reported , the ultimate goal of the RoboBee initiative is to build a swarm of tiny interconnected robots capable of sustained untethered flight—a significant technological challenge, given the insect-sized scale, which changes the various forces at play. In 2019, Wood's group announced its achievement of the lightest insect-scale robot so far to have achieved sustained, untethered flight—an improved version called the RoboBee X-Wing. In 2021, Wood's group turned its attention to the biomechanics of the mantis shrimp's knock-out punch and built a tiny robot to mimic that movement

But RoboBee was not forgotten, with the team focusing this time around on achieving more robust landings. “Previously, if we were to go in for a landing, we’d turn off the vehicle a little bit above the ground and just drop it, and pray that it will land upright and safely,” said co-author Christian Chan , one of Wood's graduate students. The trick is to minimize velocity when approaching a surface and then quickly dissipating impact energy. Even something as small and light as RoboBee can generate significant impact energy. The crane fly has long, jointed appendages that enable them to dampen their landings, so the insect served as a useful model for RoboBee's new landing gear.

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Several years ago, Harvard University roboticist Robert Wood made headlines when his lab constructed RoboBee , a tiny robot capable of partially untethered flight. Over the years, RoboBee has learned to fly, dive, and hover. The latest improvement: RoboBee has learned how to stick the landing, thanks to biomechanical improvements to its landing gear modeled on the crane fly, which has a similar wingspan and body size to the RoboBee platform. The details of this achievement appear in a new paper published in the journal Science Robotics.

As previously reported , the ultimate goal of the RoboBee initiative is to build a swarm of tiny interconnected robots capable of sustained untethered flight—a significant technological challenge, given the insect-sized scale, which changes the various forces at play. In 2019, Wood's group announced its achievement of the lightest insect-scale robot so far to have achieved sustained, untethered flight—an improved version called the RoboBee X-Wing. In 2021, Wood's group turned its attention to the biomechanics of the mantis shrimp's knock-out punch and built a tiny robot to mimic that movement

But RoboBee was not forgotten, with the team focusing this time around on achieving more robust landings. “Previously, if we were to go in for a landing, we’d turn off the vehicle a little bit above the ground and just drop it, and pray that it will land upright and safely,” said co-author Christian Chan , one of Wood's graduate students. The trick is to minimize velocity when approaching a surface and then quickly dissipating impact energy. Even something as small and light as RoboBee can generate significant impact energy. The crane fly has long, jointed appendages that enable them to dampen their landings, so the insect served as a useful model for RoboBee's new landing gear.

Read full article

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Several years ago, Harvard University roboticist Robert Wood made headlines when his lab constructed RoboBee , a tiny robot capable of partially untethered flight. Over the years, RoboBee has learned to fly, dive, and hover. The latest improvement: RoboBee has learned how to stick the landing, thanks to biomechanical improvements to its landing gear modeled on the crane fly, which has a similar wingspan and body size to the RoboBee platform. The details of this achievement appear in a new paper published in the journal Science Robotics.

As previously reported , the ultimate goal of the RoboBee initiative is to build a swarm of tiny interconnected robots capable of sustained untethered flight—a significant technological challenge, given the insect-sized scale, which changes the various forces at play. In 2019, Wood's group announced its achievement of the lightest insect-scale robot so far to have achieved sustained, untethered flight—an improved version called the RoboBee X-Wing. In 2021, Wood's group turned its attention to the biomechanics of the mantis shrimp's knock-out punch and built a tiny robot to mimic that movement

But RoboBee was not forgotten, with the team focusing this time around on achieving more robust landings. “Previously, if we were to go in for a landing, we’d turn off the vehicle a little bit above the ground and just drop it, and pray that it will land upright and safely,” said co-author Christian Chan , one of Wood's graduate students. The trick is to minimize velocity when approaching a surface and then quickly dissipating impact energy. Even something as small and light as RoboBee can generate significant impact energy. The crane fly has long, jointed appendages that enable them to dampen their landings, so the insect served as a useful model for RoboBee's new landing gear.

Read full article

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