Monthly Archives: September 2012

I'm all for eliminating patents entirely

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The main benefit claims of the patent system are to enable inventors to profit from their ideas and also to make those ideas public so that others can build on them providing further advancements. 

In most cases, (aside from pharmaceuticals), the time that it takes to actually get a patent is so much longer then the time it takes to bring a product to market and technology advances so quickly that only overly broad patents are of any real value because they skim off the profits of others long after the the original implementation.

As for sharing the ideas, reverse engineering has advanced to such a point that once a product has been brought to market, competitors can figure it out in short order anyway. The only way to remain competitive is to continue coming up with new ideas that advance the state of the art. 

The Case for Abolishing Patents (Yes, All of Them)
A new paper says that our patent system is killing innovation, and that dismantling it entirely would have fewer consequences than you think.

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It's a damn shame that Carl Sagan had to die so young

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He was an amazing teacher and we need more like him in this time when we have people believing in everything from chem trails to the ability for a woman's body to not get pregnant from rape while at the same thing rejecting evolution.

Reshared post from +M Monica

#ScienceSunday   

Spot-on foreshadowing from Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark." First published 1995. 

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Marketing and communications "professionals" that don't have a basic…

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Marketing and communications "professionals" that don't have a basic understanding of math and science should never be allowed to create ads or press  releases that invoke such concepts. 

Reshared post from +Kevin Marks

These ads have been annoying me for a while, so I thought I'd explain why. (ps why no SVG upload, G+?)

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Not only do we not really understand what GMO foods are doing to us, the very idea… 6

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Not only do we not really understand what GMO foods are doing to us, the very idea of big corporations controlling seeds and foodstocks through intellectual property law is a fundamentally bad idea.

Reshared post from +James Lovette-Black

Americans need to wake up and stop growing and spreading these frankfoods….

Russia bans all GM corn imports; EU may also ban Monsanto GMO in wake of shocking cancer findings
Russia bans all GM corn imports; EU may also ban Monsanto GMO in wake of shocking cancer findings


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+Elon Musk deserves a lot of credit for persevering against all of the odds to… 2

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+Elon Musk deserves a lot of credit for persevering against all of the odds to make sure +Tesla Motors survived long enough to bring the Model S to market. Unfortunately the same ego that enables people like Musk to start businesses has also led him down a wrong path when it comes to charging his cars. 

It's one thing when when Apple designs a proprietary connector for its portable devices that costs $10-30. Doing that for a car without a could technological reason is just asinine. Chelsea Sexton has a great opinion piece in Wired about the dumb moves automakers are making when it comes to defining charging standards for electrified vehicles. 

EV Plug Wars: Charging Ahead When What We Really Need Is More Cars | Wired Opinion | Wired.com
Electric-vehicle charging is just one giant pissing contest these days, with different companies crossing streams in a quest to prove connector, standard, or network superiority. The latest involves T…

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England is a weird and wonderful place where people do all kinds of odd things in… 4

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England is a weird and wonderful place where people do all kinds of odd things in their backyards and sheds from building sports cars to restoring get engines.  This gentleman recovered a Roll-Royce RB211 turbofan that had been retired after 20 years of use on a TWA Lockheed L1011. This guy set it up in his backyard and set about seeing if he could get it to run again.  


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John Oliver, Patrick Stewart and Jon Stewart provide their take on the NFL referee…

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John Oliver, Patrick Stewart and Jon Stewart provide their take on the NFL referee lockout

Reshared post from +Colleen Kelly Henry

Patrick Stewart. 5:08. Amazing

September 26, 2012 – Olivia Wilde
The NFL referee lockout continues, Patrick Stewart replaces John Oliver, Jason Jones investigates Sudden Wealth Syndrome, and Olivia Wilde talks life in Kenya.

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Looks like the iPhone 5 camera may be susceptible to some of the worst chromatic… 12

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Looks like the iPhone 5 camera may be susceptible to some of the worst chromatic aberration I've ever seen.

Reshared post from +Mashable

The iPhone 5‘s camera might have a flaw. If you point the camera toward the sun or bright lights, a purple halo appears around those light sources, and in some cases, purple lens flares also appear within the frame.

We took three similar shots in the same conditions to create the picture below, using the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5 and the high-end Nikon D300 digital SLR as a control. As you can see, the iPhone 5 is the only one producing this somewhat undesirable special effect in this instance. In addition to that huge purple blowout around the sun, you can also see a lens flare that looks like a purple rainbow lower in the frame.

If you have an iPhone 5, have you experienced this problem?

Read more: http://on.mash.to/PGwZUz

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