Patenting Newton's Laws

During my first week of the current semester I had the privilege of spare time, and this time I spent doing some final research on some scientific stuff that I won't bore you with here. During the process I came across some boxes in the Engineering Library at UNL, these boxes were the size of a paper sheet and about 3" tall. On the front of each of the boxes was the label "Plant Patents".

"Plant Patents?", I wondered to myself, "Maybe manufacturing plants?"

But there were about 100 of these boxes, and that would be a strange way to save manufacturing blueprints, so I popped one open. Inside each box I found about 300 little 'pagelets'. Two pages stapled together, on one was a color picture of a flower or vine or some other plant, and on the other page was the patent text.

Chrysanthemum Gloria Speakum Latinum, said one, and it's description was just as interesting: "Stamen is more red than the standard breed" and also "Leaves have a more waxy feel than Crysanthemum Gloria Nospeakum Latinum".

I looked at about a dozen of these "patents" and they were all the same: Somebody got a patent on some plant that they bred with another plant. Not through generations of successive breeding even, just one breeding attempt. It's like the flower guys went patent happy "Hahahaha! Let's patent everything!"

Also this week I had a class about mechanisms. Little gears, swing arms, and all that stuff. Things like the Archimedes screw and gear teeth are thousands of years old but still in wide use today, and I get to study them. In fact, there are at least a few mechanisms that are so widely known, and go so far back in history that they are almost considered physical laws. They will never cease to exist until the earth ceases to exist.

But in looking at some mechanisms, I noticed that some of them were patented. And I'm not talking about the mechanism in the Ferrari engine, I'm talking about a bar swinging on a pivot. Something kids make with their Tinker Toys. Patented.

Maybe you aren't as amazed at this as I am, so let me try an analogy:

When you have two objects sitting on your table, they are both attracted to the ground. In fact, they are actually attracted to each other, but in such a small way that you can't tell unless you have a really expensive detector. In physics we call this magical attraction the "gravitational force". It's the force that holds you to the earth and keeps satellites up in the sky just the right way.

Well, the reason you can't detect the two bowling balls being attracted together is because you have to have a big object to really notice. A very smart man, Isaac Newton, figured out an equation a long time ago that showed how much that force depends on the size of something. I'll write it here: F=G*M*m/d2

All that really matters about that equation is that it's been used in just about everything you have ever seen built. Skyscrapers, houses, bridges, cars, you name it, everybody uses that equation to understand the universe.

So here is a question: What would have happened if Isaac Newton had patented his equations? Right now I could come up with an equation which explained how everything in the universe worked, and with it people could maybe make teleportation and flying cars and all the other things nerds dream about, but if I patented it, no one could use it without my permission.

Even if someone did years of research and came up with the same equations as me, they couldn't use them because I already patented them.

That's the stupidest thing I've heard in years.

I'm an engineer, and I will likely put years of research into figuring something out, but I am totally against patent law.

A Year in Review

It is good, I think, to periodically review one’s past life. Not to wallow in self-pity or regret, and not to be filled with pride over how many challenges one has accomplished, but to take take note of one’s “inner man”, to seek to understand.

So here it is, nearing midnight, and I am reflecting on another year gone by. Another year of failures and regrets, of life half spent and inner conflicts never resolved. Another year of should haves, of would haves, of broken promises and empty dreams.

And yet there is within me a hope and a peace that burns fiercer than any earthly fire.

There is an anticipation for more, a quickening of my heart, when I look forward.

I have purpose, and it is being directed by someone who is far wiser than myself.

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

Money is hard to come by

So right about now I'm starting to worry about my finances. I have, I don't know, about 20$ on me. Maybe less. It's hard to get around with that little of money, I'm noticing.

But here's the thing: I have plenty of potential money. I mean, I have a car that I'll be selling this weekend, Kelly Blue Book estimates it's value at 1200$. I have a pretty cool cell phone I can sell for about 25 bucks, once this part comes in. I have a laptop that I'm selling for a couple hundred. I could even sell my netbook for a little over a hundred, and with a little work I could sell my other car for about 1000$.

So it's not that I don't have capital, it's that I don't have Federal Reserve Notes. The almighty dollar. And that's where it counts, don't it?

It's not that I'm doing badly, it's just that I don't have 10 million in untraceable dollars sitting around in my bedroom.

Because that's what I want: 10,000,000$

Ten million smackers. Ten million.

I guess if it was in gold bullion I wouldn't complain, but it's hard to buy things with gold. It's hard for me to go out and buy a 12-axis CNC machine with gold.

How on earth do mad scientists get their funding? I'm sure it's through some illegal means, but it's never talked about and I want to find out so I can follow in the steps of the mad.

It is very late.

It's nearly midnight here, and I should be getting in bed so I can enjoy the Sabbath tomorrow. Thankfully I slept in today, so I can stay up for another few hours and be fine. I mean, be mostly fine.

Lately I have been accosted by many troubling situations, mostly by friends who, I found out, no longer consider themselves to be "Christian". These are people who have, at least to my general knowledge, been reasonably active "Christians", and people who I never would have suspected to desert "the faith".

You will notice I put a few choice words in quotation marks, and perhaps you wonder why I did that? I have been thinking, since this happened, about how several of my friends currently attend church, and if pressed would probably say they are "Christian", but in reality I would not be able to tell. What I mean is, I think a disturbingly large percentage of youth presently attending church have not made a conscious decision to believe the need for God's saving sacrifice.

Many times I have even become dissapointed by the lack of commitment shown in the current "youth" of the church, and I wonder why it is that this could happen.

In a large part, I would place the blame on the previous generation, for not raising their children as they ought. I have spoken against public education before, and the more I study the Bible the more strongly I conclude that public education is a sin. Not just "a bad idea" but a sin, and like murder and theft it has far-reaching results. While this may be a conversation for another time, I would place the blame for the failure of this generation on the failure of the previous generation to actively take part in their childrens education.

Bit I digress.

When I see all of these people, and don't know if they are saved or not, it makes me wonder: "Do they know that I am a Christian, or do they just assume?" Must I always say "I am a Christian" when I see people? Certainly I must not be ashamed to say it, but should I say it all the time, just to remind everyone?

These are the things which keep me awake late at night.

That and wondering if I could assemble a Victorian era suit for a reasonable price.