Etymological Dictionary

Etymological Dictionary - "This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago."

The Gettysburg Address: Powerpoint Presentation

The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation

Patent Law

This Essay Breaks the Law by Michael Crichton

If you invent a new test, you may patent it and sell it for as much as you can, if that's your goal. Companies can certainly own a test they have invented. But they should not own the disease itself, or the gene that causes the disease, or essential underlying facts about the disease. The distinction is not difficult, even though patent lawyers attempt to blur it. And even if correlation patents have been granted, the overwhelming majority of medical correlations, including those listed above, are not owned. And shouldn't be.

He is right. The faulty rules the United States has been slipping into greatly harm society.

Is the US Patent System Endangering American Innovation? (pdf format)

See previous post:

• The Pending Problem With Patents


• The Patent System Needs to be Significantly Improved

Tags: Patent

Good Neighbors

Amish neighbors take just one day to rebuild home destroyed by twister by Steve Koehler:

Debris from the destroyed house was spread for hundreds of yards. Some still hangs in the nearby groves of trees. Fences were torn down. Wash lines snapped. Two other buildings and an outhouse were wiped away.

All were rebuilt in about a morning.

It is a remarkable testimony to the Amish spirit and credo that neighbors help neighbors in times of need.

NCAA Basketball Tournament Challenge

Once again I have created a group on the ESPN NCAA Basketball Tournament Challenge for curiouscat basketball fans.

To play, sign in to ESPN and register, if you need to, or sign into your account (using the link at the very top of the page).

Once you create your entry, you will see a link to "create or join groups." Click that link. Then enter curiouscat in the find group box. Then enter cat as the password.

Good Luck,

Recent Reading

I have been reading quite a few interesting books lately. I just finished Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson (the main theme is global warming).

I think he is a great author but this was not my favorite book of his (that would be: Escape From Kathmandu). It was enjoyable but I really most enjoyed that he mentioned the Food Factory a hidden, great Pakistani restaurant a few blocks from the National Science Foundation (a central location for much of the action), and other such details.

Other books I have read recently:

• The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach (great)
• Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (historical look at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and National Book award winner
  
• Magic Street by Orson Scott Card which I enjoyed a great deal but I enjoy everything of his so I might not be the best judge.
  
• Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson quite good.
• Neverwhere by Neil Gaimain (great)
  

Panda Kindergarten Webcast

Can you get much cuter than this? Panda kindergarden webcast

Simpsons 'trump' First Amendment

Simpsons 'trump' First Amendment

Americans know more about The Simpsons TV show than the US Constitution's First Amendment, an opinion poll says.

Only one in four could name more than one of the five freedoms it upholds but more than half could name at least two members of the cartoon family.

Great way to make a point and jab at the Americans: published by BBC. I named 4 of the freedoms but all 5 Simpson's so I guess it is true I could name more of the Simpsons than freedoms. I think it is good to poke some good natured fun at how little attention we pay to important things: including the Constitution.

By the way those 5 freedoms are: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and petition.

You have to love that "about one in five thought the right to own a pet was one of the freedoms."

Also see: John Simpson