His column appears on Wednesday and Friday. The nation's alarming trend away from funding basic research was highlighted by the welcome announcement by Microsoft that it intends to increase spending on basic research by 300 percent next year. Most companies, such as the once-groundbreaking Bell Laboratories, unfortunately are going the other way. They're cutting back on basic research in favor of applied research, which is focused on producing specific products. Our government similarly has moved to slash funding for basic research that doesn't produce immediate, tangible results.
Any payoff is nearly always unanticipated and often decades away.
Any nation that walks away from conducting fundamental explorations into the nature of the planet and universe does so at its peril. I believe this constitutional limit on home equity law should be modified because it restricts statewide economic development, hinders small business expansions and costs Texans consumers more when they borrow money. Under current law, liens cannot be placed on homesteads except to pay for the house, make home improvements or settle taxes due. This restriction's roots go all the way back to the early 1800s when many early settlers were fleeing creditors and coming to Texas during a national economic depression to make a new start. Starting with a sweeping homestead exemption law recommended by Stephen F. Austin to protect colonists' land grants, the idea has continued to be legislated and enforced up until today as we enter a new century.