Category Archives: Fun

More on Feynman’s Patents

Back in 2013, I wrote a stubby post to create a link to audio of an interview with physicist Richard P. Feynman, in which he describes how he came to be named as inventor on U.S. patents. Since that post … Continue reading

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Espresso Granola

Okay. I have been making granola for dunno over five years. Here’s my once uber-non-public recipe. Combine the Goop Mess and Espresso with the Dry Mix. Bake, stir, and cool. Easy. Expectable IP comment to follow.

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Thorin’s Deal

For the past few months, I’ve been memorizing The Hobbit as part of a project of mine to have a look at how (my) memory works. So far I’m towards the end of Chapter 2. The poetry is the hardest … Continue reading

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A sense of proportion–5

One can see, then, where Bayh-Dole comes into play in this meaningless mess. Bayh-Dole was drafted by the same folks who created the IPA system. The IPA system was shut down in 1978 as ineffective and contrary to public policy. … Continue reading

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A sense of proportion–4

To lay it out in bullet points, the now dominant university patent-based approach to research inventions defaulting to exclusive licenses: fragments invention platforms with no way to restore them attracts speculative investors while pushing away companies raises barriers to early … Continue reading

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A sense of proportion–2

University administrators have engaged in a thirty-year effort of research invention management that creates patent gridlock for what amounts to a tiny bit of the overall inventive activity in the country. That’s the black border area on this nice blue … Continue reading

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A sense of proportion–1

“If life is going to exist in a universe this size, the one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.” —Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy In the Bayh-Dole era–1981 to the present–the US Patent … Continue reading

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Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Invention Systems

A Dialog Concerning the Two Chief Invention Systems Interlocutors Libero , Proprietario, Kissero Kissero: Look! Here’s something I’ve done in my research! Libero: Whoa! Very interesting! Was it done under our federal contract? K: Yeah, I think so. During work … Continue reading

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University policy beyond higher purposes and loopholes

The University of California Standards of Ethical Conduct (Regents Policy 1111) states that individuals must set aside their own ethical judgment and comply with institutional policy, conform to institutional roles: Each situation needs to be examined in accordance with the … Continue reading

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After Inventor Virtue

In After Virtue, Alasdair MacIntyre describes “emotivism” as the approach to morals that arose in the debris of the failed Enlightenment effort to find a rational basis for morals. Emotivism asserts that there can be no such rational framework and … Continue reading

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