August 11, 2011

Since the economics of civil lawsuits, especially patent lawsuits, prevent most cases against small defendants from ever getting near a court, the potential cost to society of issuing an invalid patent is massive.

If someone threatens your small business with a patent lawsuit, it doesn’t matter whether the patent is valid. Because for you to prove that it’s invalid would take far more time and money than you probably have. The only sensible course of action, the path taken by almost everyone threatened by patent litigation, is to settle with the patent-holder as quickly as possible for whatever amount of money they demand.

In practice, therefore, an issued patent is a valid patent as long as the patent-holder doesn’t try to sue anyone too large. (And even the largest corporations usually settle.)

Why software patents are not fixable – Marco.org

* * *
July 29, 2011

Britain's Dim and Grim Carbon Fetish

Here’s what the Brits are saying about their “green energy” policy-makers:

I’m afraid we are in the hands of very dangerous children, upon whose deranged wishful thinking a large part of our country’s future depends.

The fact is that so-called “green energy” is expensive to the point that only the richest of the rich can afford to heat their homes.

As the London Times’ Matt Ridley said:

The future belongs to countries that can get their electricity, heat and fuel supplied as cheaply and reliably as possible. That is the priority, not the carbon fetish.


* * *
July 13, 2011

Scott Adams on why creativity is so rare these days


* * *
June 28, 2011

A lack of mental focus is the reason you’ve got a dozen half-finished projects lying around the house. Dabbling in many things is easy; focusing on one is difficult. But great men of history knew that one of the keys of success was the power of concentration and the ability to hone in on a singular aim and see it through to completion.

Your wandering mind not only keeps you from achieving greatness, it also makes you less happy as well. Psychologists at Harvard University recently conducted a study on the relationship between our activities and our happiness… they found that people were happiest during sex and exercise (activities in which we are fully present in our physical bodies!), while those engaged in commuting, working, and grooming felt the least chipper. But what was really interesting was the finding that not only were 47% of people daydreaming at any given time, but that the more a person’s mind wandered, the less happy they were. Focusing on the activity at hand increased a persons happiness. Of course some daydreaming is quite healthy for our minds and our creativity. But there is something to be said for giving yourself over to something-mind, body, and soul.

Become Fully Present as a Man

* * *
June 14, 2011
Charlie Chaplin and Helen Keller: Beautiful.

Charlie Chaplin and Helen Keller: Beautiful.


* * *
June 1, 2011

Cell phones are no more carcinogenic than coffee

Phil Plait:

I’ve read about lots of studies showing no link at all between cell phones and health issues (besides quadrupling your odds of a car accident if you drive while using your phone), so my reaction was one of fair skepticism. I’d be surprised if a strong connection had been found.

… Basically, the WHO put cell phones into the Group 2B category, meaning they are “possibly carcinogenic to humans”. Aiiiieee! Sounds scary… except that word “possibly”, it turns out, needs to be understood a little more quantitatively…You may also wish to note what other things are categorized as Group 2B possible carcinogens, including gasoline, pickled vegetables, and (GASP!) coffee.


* * *
May 31, 2011

WhatsApp Messenger: Free Today for iPhone!

Free SMS-like texting for iPhone and iPod Touch. Get it while it’s free!


* * *
May 28, 2011
We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in. When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch.

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

* * *
If our religion is something objective, then we must never avert our eyes from those elements in it which seem puzzling or repellent; for it will be precisely the puzzling or the repellent which conceals what we do not yet know and need to know.

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

* * *
May 20, 2011

The worst thing about this “rapture” business.

I’ve been taken back by the attention given to all this business about May 21 being the “rapture.” For those unfamiliar, a radio talk show host, Harold Camping, says he’s figured out that Jesus is returning to take his followers to heaven that day.

The attention Camping has drawn seems out of proportion for who he is.

I often say I’m not ashamed to be a Christian, but I’m often ashamed of Christians who make the rest of us look bad. Worse, they make Jesus look beyond bad: they make him dismissible.

And I think that’s the worst thing about this whole Harold Camping “Rapture on May 21” business: nobody should take this guy seriously, and I’m afraid that means people will be less likely to take Jesus Christ seriously.

Jesus Christ deserves to be taken seriously as the most important feature of human history. For many years I assumed the whole Christian story was a matter of fiction, but at some point I was confronted by the possibility that it was a matter of fact, bolted to the bedrock of reality. On further investigation, I was confronted that it was not merely possible; it was the best explanation for the way things are.

For example: If he did not live, die, and rise from the dead, why are we still talking about him? It is inadequate to explain the whole history of the Christian church as merely the legacy of a crucified carpenter from a redneck part of Palestine. The only serious explanation that can adequately explain the seismic effects of Christianity throughout history, both on macroscopic and microscopic levels, is that Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose from the dead. (And if that is true, it would tend to validate his teachings, wouldn’t it?)

As C.S. Lewis said, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” I hope this “rapture” nonsense does not give anyone cause to think that Christianity is anything other than infinitely important.

P.S. this whole “rapture” business is an extremely recent idea, at most 200 years old (give or take). None of the principal figures in the history of the Christian church prior to about 1800 ever heard of it — and that means guys like Augustine, Athanasius, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, and Edwards (to say nothing of the apostles) would turn out to be ignorant of things supposedly revealed to Harold Camping et al.


* * *