The Mind Trap

The Top 10 Misconceptions Of Life-Science Patents

Wisconsin Technology Network: This is for people wanting to file patents...

Climate Care As A Selling Point

From a car ad...pretty cool.
"The amazing new Civic Hybrid is powered by Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) system which combines the use of a petrol engine and electric motor to boost or supplement power only when needed. The Civic Hybrid slashes emissions, cuts fuel consumption and also comes with Honda’s exclusive Climate Care Warranty. The warranty ensures that 18 native trees are planted during the course of the three year manufacturer’s warranty. In this way, the small amount of emissions produced by your Civic Hybrid will be offset by the trees planted on your behalf, effectively neutralising your carbon emissions during this time."

Prison Art In M&Ms

NYTimes: The New York Times has a cool piece on Donny Johnson, who's currently serving some life sentences in solitary confinement. He whiles away the time making art with candy.
"He orders his supplies from the prison commissary once a month. The M&M's are 60 cents a pack, and he gets 10 packs at a time. He puts from one to five of the candies in each of the jelly containers, drizzles a little water in and later fishes out the chocolate cores, leaving liquid of various colors, which get stronger if they sit for a couple of days...He has tried other candy, but there are perils. "It's the same process with Skittles," he said, "but I end up eating them all."...Sometimes he experiments with other materials. "Grape Kool-Aid in red M&M color makes a kind of purple," he wrote in a letter to a reporter not long ago. "Coffee mixed with yellow makes a light brown. Tropical punch Kool-Aid granules can be made into a syrup and used as a paint wash of sorts. But it's a bear to work with and it's super-sticky and it never dries."
Trapping the body is not the same as trapping the mind...

Should Music Downloads Be Free?

BBC: The Association of Independent Music -- which represents independent music labels in the UK -- has proposed that consumers pay a compulsory fee to ISPs to pay for music they stream over the internet, and will be able to get any song they want. They will have to pay for a permanent version on a CD, though. An ingenious solution, although it fails on several fronts including that people who don't listen to music will be paying for it anyway and that the distribution system favours big bands and labels over indies and unsigned bands.
It's not a done deal, of course..."ISPs had been contacted, he added, but "they don't reply much". Possibly because the music industry -- finally admitting that suing customers is a bad idea -- are looking for ways to sue ISPs for copyright infringing activity on their networks.

War Bad For Business

SMH: A comment from an Israeli near the Lebanese border: "It's bad for business," he said. "Whenever there's shooting the chickens stop laying. It can take a week for production to get back to normal."
It's not bad for all business, of course, certain companies make a killing from war.

Killer kangaroo, Demon Duck Of Doom

Reuters: Some interesting extinct species found in outback Australia... "galloping kangaroos, with big, powerful forelimbs. Some of them had long canines (fangs) like wolves...Very big birds ... more like ducks, earned the name 'demon duck of doom', some at least may have been carnivorous as well".

Intellectual Property is Intellectual Theft ... at Gun Point

Infoshop: Here's a story arguing that the introduction of a law for a "broadcast flag" to be recognised by equipment will inevitably lead to raids on the public to check whether they've got non-compliant software on their computers. It's a bit obtuse, but plausible...

Smiley Face Is Serious to Company

NYTimes: Nothing is sacred...Wal-Mart is battline SmileyWorld over the trademark for the smiley face.