Patent life: how the Supreme Court fell short

Patent life: how the Supreme Court fell short - Boing Boing "You can't patent the building blocks of life, but you can patent a type of synthetic DNA that contains all the same information. Maggie Koerth-Baker explains how the Justices misunderstood the science and the effect that their verdict could have on future research.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia admitted he doesn’t really understand it. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote an entire court opinion implying—unconvincingly, to scientists—that he does. And, as of right now, there’s still nothing stopping you from filing patents on it. Meet complementary DNA (cDNA), the confusing molecule at the heart of the recent Supreme Court ruling on DNA patents.

The case, ruled upon in june, was hailed as a victory over efforts to turn the human genome into corporate property. But the ruling may not be the smackdown of gene patents that it appeared to be, and cDNA is where much of the uncertainly lies. Big questions remain: What is cDNA actually being used to do? Why does it matter who owns it? And what do scientists think this debate is really about?"

The case for Larry Summers

Ezra Klein makes The case for Larry Summers and Brad DeLong follows up On Larry Summers....

Both good reads.

Trusting iPhones plugged into bogus chargers get a dose of malware

Trusting iPhones plugged into bogus chargers get a dose of malware "Plugging your phone into a charger should be pretty safe to do. It should fill your phone with electricity, not malware. But researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology have produced fake chargers they've named Mactans that do more than just charge your phone: they install custom, malicious applications onto iPhones."

Kind of a clever attack using a vulnerability that probably shouldn't have been in there first place. To be fair, this is yet another attack against an Apple product that isn't in the wild and the hole will be closed by Apple before you have to care.

Watch this German village get trounced by a freak hail storm

Watch this German village get trounced by a freak hail storm " This past weekend, a Germany town in Lower Saxony was absolutely pummelled by hail stones the size of tennis balls. Damage is estimated to be in the millions."

More videos at the io9 link.

Pwned again: An exclusive look at Pwnie Express’ newest hack-in-a-box

Pwned again: An exclusive look at Pwnie Express’ newest hack-in-a-box

"The new Pwn Plug looks less like a DC power supply plug—the form factor of its predecessor—and more like a small Wi-Fi access point or router. But inside, it's really a Linux-powered NSA-in-a-box, providing white hat hackers and corporate network security professionals a 'drop box' system that can be remotely controlled over a covert Internet channel or a cellular data connection."

"Once a Pwn Plug R2 is deployed and turned on, it will start trying to find a way to call home to establish a persistent SSH connection between the device and its operator's server—including a GSM-based 4G cellular data connection compatible with AT&T and TMobile. "Out of the box you can configure it to try six different covert channels," Porcello said. "It'll automatically tunnel out of whatever network it's plugged into over a bunch of differently used covert channels that attackers usually use, such as tunneling over a trusted protocol like HTTP, SSL, DNS, and ICMP. And then if none of those works, you can always access over 4G. Or if your test is to try to avoid detection, than 4g is the way to go, because none of your control traffic will hit the target network.""

Pretty crazy stuff.

Tax what? New software tax leaves tech executives dazed and confused

Tax what? New software tax leaves tech executives dazed and confused "The tax, passed as part of a bigger transportation bill, compels businesses around the state to collect 6.25 percent sales tax on software design services, which the Department of Revenue defined as the ‘modification, integration, enhancement, installation, or configuration of standardized or prewritten software.’"

First I've heard of it.

Corporate sell-outs exploit a secret new gimmick

Corporate sell-outs exploit a secret new gimmick

"As The Hill reports, the U.S. Senate’s ‘top tax writers have promised their colleagues 50 years worth of secrecy in exchange for suggestions on what deductions and credits to preserve’ in a tax ‘reform’ bill that aims to overhaul the tax code from scratch. The system, reports the newspaper, allows only 10 congressional staff members to have ‘direct access to a senator’s written suggestions’ and ‘each submission will be given its own ID number and be kept on password-protected servers, with printed versions kept in locked safes’ in the National Archives until the end of 2064.

The architects of this scheme, Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) suggest that secrecy is the best way to facilitate input from all senators, as lawmakers will know they can make substantive suggestions without the fear of political retribution."

Ridiculous. I wonder if the votes will be secret too?

Is Natural Gas More Climate-Friendly? Researchers Map Thousands of Leaks in Washington, D.C.

Scientific American reports Is Natural Gas More Climate-Friendly? Researchers Map Thousands of Leaks in Washington, D.C.

"Bob Ackley may be the only person who has driven up and down every single street -- 1,500 miles total -- in Washington, D.C. While Ackley, a plain-speaking New Englander, enjoyed exploring the nation's capital, which he described as 'beautiful,' this was serious business. He was measuring leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is also the main component of natural gas. Measured in terms of warming the atmosphere, methane is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide."

"Although the results for the District of Columbia are not final, preliminary numbers indicate that the nation's capital has thousands of leaks from its natural gas distribution system. It has a number of leaks per road mile similar to that of Boston, but has about twice as many miles of road, said Jackson. The district also appears to have bigger leaks than Boston's, he said. In Boston, the researchers counted 3,356 leaks. They also determined whether leaks were from natural gas pipes or more natural sources, such as landfills, where it is created by decaying garbage."

15 Over-Used Movie Poster Clichés

15 Over-Used Movie Poster Clichés is pretty amusing.

Stanley Kubrick's Favorite Films

Stanley Kubrick, cinephile | British Film Institute "On the occasion of Stanley Kubrick’s 85th birthday, Nick Wrigley explores the director’s favourite films and viewing habits with the help of Kubrick’s right-hand man, Jan Harlan."

The Ten Greatest Space Achievements Nobody Knows About

io9 lists The Ten Greatest Space Achievements Nobody Knows About. I knew about half of them. I think it's worth it for the story of Aleksey Leonov and this video alone.

Greenland: A Global Warming Laboratory

Greenland: A Global Warming Laboratory - In Focus - The Atlantic "As the sea levels around the globe rise, researchers affiliated with the National Science Foundation and other organizations are studying the phenomena of melting glaciers and the long-term ramifications. Rapid warming at the summit of the Greenland ice sheet has caused year after year of record melting at the surface, raising concern, even as recent research indicates the ice sheet has endured warmer periods. The warmer temperatures that have had an effect on the glaciers in Greenland also have altered the ways in which the local populace farm, fish, hunt and even travel across land. Getty Images photojournalist Joe Raedle traveled north recently, spending two weeks documenting the scientists tracking Greenland's transformation, as well as some of the spectacular scenery and residents engaged in their daily lives. [34 photos]"

I didn't read any of this, I just looked at the gorgeous photos

Spy agencies ban Lenovo PCs on security concerns

Spy agencies ban Lenovo PCs on security concerns

"Computers manufactured by the world’s biggest personal computer maker, Lenovo, have been banned from the ‘secret’ and ‘‘top secret’ ­networks of the intelligence and defence services of Australia, the US, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand, because of concerns they are vulnerable to being hacked."

"The ban was introduced in the mid-2000s after intensive laboratory testing of its equipment allegedly documented ‘back-door’ hardware and ‘firmware’ vulnerabilities in Lenovo chips."

Yellen vs. Summers: Who would be a better Fed chair?

Neil Irwin breaks down Yellen vs. Summers: Who would be a better Fed chair?.

digby explains, Uhm no: why progressives don't want Larry Summers as Fed Chair by Chris Hayes.

I'm not really sure. From what I've read lately, Summers was during the crisis more for stimulus than we initially thought. Yellen is certainly qualified and policies will be like Bernanke's. My understanding is that the Fed chairperson is the head of a voting body and has to convince other fed chairs to vote for policies. I have no idea if Yellen's quieter or Summer's abrasive demeanor is more likely to be able to get votes for more stimulus.

The Millennial Stimulus Plan

This is from May's Atlantic magazine The Millennial Stimulus Plan. "Millennials got a bad rap during the recession. They have been working less, earning less, and, as I’ve pointed out in this magazine before, buying far fewer houses and cars than their parents did—or than the economy needs them to in order to move forward. But all of this is poised to change. In the near future, these same young people may be the very ones to supercharge the recovery. How? By growing up."

He then makes his case in 6 simple charts.

No Edge: The Shape of the Universe. (Part 1: Flat Models)

ZoggFromBetelgeuse explains some possible mathematical models of the shape of the universe in 10 mins. I learned a few things from it. So far parts 2 and 3 don't exist yet.

Slow motion video of an AK47 being shot underwater

Slow motion video of an AK47 being shot underwater "Here's slow motion video from Smarter Every Day of what it looks like when an AK47 is shot underwater. Not only is the slow motion footage beautiful (best shots at 2:40, 4:30, 7:20), the science behind why the bubbles do what they do is explained. Science!" (thanks kottke)

Signed Mac Malware Using Right-to-Left Override Trick

Signed Mac Malware Using Right-to-Left Override Trick "Right-to-left override (RLO) is a special character used in bi-directional text encoding system to mark the start of text that are to be displayed from right to left. It is commonly used by Windows malware such as Bredolab and the high-profile Mahdi trojan from last year to hide the real extension of executable files. Check out this Krebs on Security post for more details on the trick."

I would hope there will be some OS X update to turn off unicode for filenames for systems that don't typically need it, or that perhaps checks for .app used in this way.

2013: The Year PG-13 Broke

I agree 2013: The Year PG-13 Broke

Scientists discover what’s killing the bees and it’s worse than you thought

Scientists discover what’s killing the bees and it’s worse than you thought

"Scientists had struggled to find the trigger for so-called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that has wiped out an estimated 10 million beehives, worth $2 billion, over the past six years. Suspects have included pesticides, disease-bearing parasites and poor nutrition. But in a first-of-its-kind study published today in the journal PLOS ONE, scientists at the University of Maryland and the US Department of Agriculture have identified a witch’s brew of pesticides and fungicides contaminating pollen that bees collect to feed their hives. The findings break new ground on why large numbers of bees are dying though they do not identify the specific cause of CCD, where an entire beehive dies at once.

When researchers collected pollen from hives on the east coast pollinating cranberry, watermelon and other crops and fed it to healthy bees, those bees showed a significant decline in their ability to resist infection by a parasite called Nosema ceranae. The parasite has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder though scientists took pains to point out that their findings do not directly link the pesticides to CCD. The pollen was contaminated on average with nine different pesticides and fungicides though scientists discovered 21 agricultural chemicals in one sample. Scientists identified eight ag chemicals associated with increased risk of infection by the parasite.

Most disturbing, bees that ate pollen contaminated with fungicides were three times as likely to be infected by the parasite. Widely used, fungicides had been thought to be harmless for bees as they’re designed to kill fungus, not insects, on crops like apples."

David Simon | The Koch brothers and The Baltimore Sun

David Simon | The Koch brothers and The Baltimore Sun

"The second criteria is one that I would apply — and do apply — as well to the national newspaper corporation who decades ago began scarfing up America’s locally owed newspapers and stringing them into corporate chains, congealing the nuance and idiosyncracy of various American cities into a generic product.  And then, armed with an economy of scale, they took their monopolistic creations to Wall Street, where the analysts explained to them that by cutting costs — reporters, news hole, coverage — they could actually make more money putting out a weaker, shittier newspaper than a good one.  Wall Street was right in the short term.  Wall Street is always right in the short term.  The long-term health of an industry?  The future beyond the next fiscal quarter?  Sustained economic growth?  Not really the Street’s problem anymore.

No, for the long term, print journalism was showing contempt for its own product — and for its connection to the cities and regions that it claimed to serve.  And when the internet then arrived, and newspapers needed to demand a real revenue stream from within the new delivery model, they had already eviscerated themselves.  Unsure of their own product, they gave it away, and foolishly so.  And now, it is a long hard fight to maintain and restore that weakened product through the obvious, inevitable and belated advent of the newspaper paywall.

You would have to look long and hard to find an industry in which the captains so thoroughly butchered their own future.  Not even the American auto industry in the 1970s, with its Gremlin- and Pacer-adorned contempt for the American consumer fully on display, did as poorly.  After all, Detroit lost out to the Japanese and Germans, and lets face it, to the better cars that were actually being built overseas.  The newspaper industry took a beating from the internet, which, while democratizing commentary, has proven itself thus far incapable of providing much in the way of first-generation beat reporting and high-end journalism, save for what it leaches from mainstream media.  If only the newspapers themselves had, in the run-up to digitization, maintained the substance and validity of their actual product."

How An "Impossible" Aviation Challenge Led To An Innovation Breakthrough

How An "Impossible" Aviation Challenge Led To An Innovation Breakthrough "On June 13, an enormous, ridiculous-looking pedal-powered contraption wafted itself into midair and made history. The helicopter, called Atlas, was designed to win an aviation challenge--the Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition--that had defeated scores of aircraft designers and engineers for 33 years. The task sounds simple: Create a human-powered aircraft that can hover three meters in the air for at least a minute without drifting outside a 10-meter square. But satisfying those constraints meant designing an aircraft like nothing you’ve ever seen:"

"This kind of innovation strategy often goes by clichéd names like "lateral thinking" or "thinking outside the box." But according to Robertson, "the box" was actually the key to succeeding where 33 years’ worth of other designs had failed. Atlas won the Sikorsky prize by zeroing in on the right box to think inside--and then rigorously, intensely, and persistently analyzing it. "Achieving the so-called 'impossible,'" he says, "is a matter of removing unnecessary constraints, and understanding what’s in the box.""

Supermarkets’ solution to patent trolls: fight it out at the USPTO

Supermarkets’ solution to patent trolls: fight it out at the USPTO "Lieberman explained why the supermarket industry was getting heavily involved with patent reform: in growing numbers, supermarkets are being accused of patent infringement for using basic website functions. In recent years, supermarkets have been hit with patents claiming rights to 'store locator' features on websites, having a clickable menu on a website, rendering JPEG graphics, and sending out text messages with embedded links, said Lieberman."

Pictures of Earth Taken From Saturn By NASA spacecraft Cassini

Cassini: First pictures of Earth taken from NASA spacecraft orbiting Saturn "Thousands of astronomy fans looked to the heavens and posed for a unique picture on Friday afternoon - a shot of planet Earth from Saturn."

Summer Movie Reviews *Spoilers*

I've been disappointed with all the summer blockbusters thus far and I've been remiss in reviewing them. Here are some thoughts. Maybe I'm getting old and cranky or maybe I've just seen too many movies but I find they're all making the same mistakes. They're either mindless action sequences riddled with inconsistencies strung together with a moronic plot delivered by bad writing or they just fail to get the the tone right.

Iron Man 3

I already reviewed it here Movie Review: Iron Man 3 Spoilers

Star Trek Into Darkness

I think I enjoyed myself in this film better than I did the first one, but I'm not sure why. I thought the first had captured the characters well but had a dumb plot centered around an underdeveloped villian and had horrible visuals based on shaky-cam and lens flares. The creators might have actually read my complaints and tried to address them in this film. The villian is well developed, there's a plot which is a metaphor for our response to 9/11 and there's less shaky-cam and lensflare. Win! Right?

Well not quite. This film made the choice to focus on the Kirk-Spock relationship at the expense of the other characters. It's a valid choice but they have less of those interesting characters they had in the first film. Second they get Kirk wrong. All that maturing that happened in the first film, gone. In the original Kirk was the middle between Spock's logic and McCoy's emotion. Now he's just the Stephen Colbert persona, doing everything based on his gut, and they contrast that with Spock.

Everyone else is stupid too. Remember in Star Trek when Khan quoted Moby Dick (which the plot also referenced). In this film there's literally a scene where Kirk yells "What was I supposed to do!" and the Admiral yells back "I'm not listening to you, you don't listen to me!". No he didn't have his hands covering his ears while saying "nah nah nah I'm not listening to you" but it was remarkably close.

Kirk fires Scotty in this because Scotty has some morals. Then this happens and I don't think the stupidity needs to be explained:

• Kirk: "Chekov, you were once in engineering right?"
• Chekov: "Yes, sir"
• Kirk: "You're now chief engineer, get a red shirt"

There's another scene where Spock literally calls Old Spock to ask what to do.

But really, overall it just makes no sense. The villian's scheme is overly-complex to the point of being ridiculous. Apparently there are no security forces anywhere on or near earth, let alone at Star Fleet. And then you get to the end. They need Khan's wonder-blood to save Kirk so Spock has to chase him, alone, on foot over flying cars throughout San Francisco. Meanwhile McCoy, having discovered wonder-blood, takes another person with said wonder-blood out of a cryo-unit to put Kirk in it. I just don't understand how anyone could watch (let alone write) this and not moan at the stupidity.

But the worst sceen was just before and was worse not because it was dumber plotwise, but because it was horrible movie making. They copy the most famous scene in all of Star Trek and have no idea what emotion they want or how to get it. In Star Trek II they kill Spock in act of self-sacrifice and friendship and it's topped off with an over-acted scream that's been parodied countless times. This film copies the scene and oh look, they swapped roles, how clever and ironic or something. But the death was obviously not real because they had just shown McCoy bringing the tribble back to life. Kirk and Spock are barely friends in this reboot so there's much less resonnance. And moments before dying Kirk was realigning the warp core by literally swinging from rafters and kicking it with both feet like a gorilla. I honestly didn't know if I was supposed to be crying or laughing.

Someone please call Ronald D. Moore to write the next Star Trek film.

Man of Steel

Superman was exactly what I feared it would be once I heard Christopher Nolan was involved. While he did a great job on the Batman films, he used the same tone for his Superman movie and Superman has always been a different character and the contrast between him and Batman has been a staple of the comics for decades. If you accept the film on it's own terms, and I realize that you're supposed to, it's not bad. But I had a hard time doing that, it just wasn't Superman to me.

In my world, Pa Kent doesn't tell Clark to let a bus of school kids (his friends!) die in order to keep his secret. And in my world, Superman tries to save innocent people whenever he can and he doesn't kill his enemies no matter how bad they are.

It did the effects pretty well even it did copy the alien designs from other films. I thought the 3D view screens were pretty neat. The fights between Kryptonians never looked better and the destruction they would cause was spectacular. I also liked that Lois was smarter than she's ever been, but while I love Amy Adams there wasn't much chemistry between them (the script didn't develop it) and the kiss was completely unearned.

A few weeks after seeing it, i barely remember it. How Man Of Steel Should Have Ended is pretty good.

A few days after I wrote the above I saw Film Critic Hulk's analysis and it's long (19,000 words!) but good, THE IMPORTANCE OF DRAMATIZING CHARACTER and has a 6,000 word followup A FEW CLARIFICATIONS ON HULK’S MAN OF STEEL ARTICLE

World War Z

I've not read the book but I kind of want to. It apparently treats the notion of a zombie apocalypse very seriously but it separate oral narratives so it's hard to adapt to a film. The movie added a main character and a bunch of quests to send him around the globe.

That's all fine but I hated the way it looked. Lots of shaky-cam running with lots of closeups. I was unfortunately sitting in the second row so that might have influenced what I thought, friends sitting further back really liked it. Shaky-cam has it's place to give a scene a sense of confusion and immediacy, but I don't see the point in a whole film being that way. It gets redundant. I was thinking about walking out but it turns out I'm glad I didn't. The last set piece was the best part of the film. It's also the ending added at the last minute, and filmed differently so that it was about tension and suspense.

It did start with stupidity. It was one of those scenes where otherwise thoughtful characters meet and are suspicious of each and barely talk so they just become more suspicious. I actually said out loud "Just use full sentences and be done with this". It's just bad writing, forcing an emotion for no logical reason. And the ending was just groan inducing, though better than the original one planned. Honestly, they just should have written the family out of the film and it would have been much better.

Pacific Rim

This was the best of big action flicks I've seen. Guillermo del Toro is remarkably gifted at bringing something improbable to life and making it look good (e.g., Hellboy and Pan's Labrynth). Pacific Rim is giant robots vs giant monsters and it definitely delivers that. I wish at least one of the fights was in sunshine so you could see things better, but it's easier to hide things in the dark and rain. Still it wasn't shaky-cam and you could see what was going on.

I didn't watch any trailers for it beforehand and didn't know much about it other than it was taking its premise seriously. I had heard there was a plot and real characters. I was a little disappointed that it was a cartoon plot and anime characters. The governments just shut down the robot program for an ineffective wall so the marshall has to go it alone. Soldiers with daddy issues and needing a retired soldier because there's an old robot. The worst are the scientists, breathlessly getting out as many words as they can very Speed Racer style and acting completly unlike real scientists and for some reason without any government backing. There's a lot about the soldiers bonding via a neural connection, but I think the relationships in Top Gun look like Hamlet in comparison.

Ron Perlman is fun, as always. There's an extra scene in the middle of the credits, stay for it (though I was expecting it to happen earlier in the film).

I want a T-shirt that says "The kaiju want the little dude"

Update: Drift Compatible goes into some details of the genres that Pacific Rim was maneuvering.

This is the End

How would Hollywood celebrities faces the apocalypse? Some of this was funny, particularly the various cameos and some of the (what I hope are fake) characterizations, particular Michael Cera. Some bits went on way too long, but if you inclined to see the film, it will probably deliver enough so that you'll enjoy it.

20 Feet from Stardom

So far this is the best film I've seen this summer. A documentary about backup singers. Great music and interesting stories. It seems that like 5 woman have sung every song you've ever heard. And you'll never listen to Gimme Shelter the same way again.