Patents must become increasingly absurd in order to make it clear to people that patenting ideas is not the best way to ensure that inventors receive credit for their innovations.

Perhaps instead we ought to have a public registry which new ideas may be entered into, and all prior art may also be seen and shown when it exists. Those with a truly novel concept would be clearly noted as such and those making use of their invention would voluntarily contribute to encourage the further development of science and progress.

Much like the Free Software movement, but as applied to all inventions.

Salvia divinorum is the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

All pain killing substances have one property in common: they are relaxants. They relax your mind in different ways, and have different effects upon your mind but for this property. If you do not know how to begin relaxing, learn how these materials work, train your mind to them and remember how to return yourself to that state. Then you will not need to use these substances any more, you will be able to end your symptoms by yourself.

Not all relaxants immediately seem to work in this way, but require an effort of mind to tune yourself to this effect. For instance, a very powerful relaxant is ordinary tobacco. Note that most cigarettes that are sold commercially are hardly tobacco at all, they contain numerous other chemicals that change the effect in dramatic ways, not to mention the harm they do to your body.

While it is impermissible by law for any tobacco seller to make this claim, you are doing your body a huge favor if you use a product which is 100% tobacco.

A further note on the risks of smoking, tobacco is a very powerful concentrator of soil radioactivity. Most tobaccos are fertilized with phosphates that contain radium in trace amounts, this is absorbed into the tobacco leaves and when you smoke, it is deposited in your lungs. Smoking a pack a day could be as harmful as having 200 chest x-rays every year. No wonder people get cancer from smoking.

If you instead use a tobacco which is grown organically, in soil that is free of contamination, the negative health effects are minimized. American Indians smoked tobacco for thousands of years and did not suffer the same ailments that cigarette smokers today experience.

Natural American Spirit is the only current example of an organic blend that is ideal for the health conscious smoker. They may be hard to find, but can be found online and their taste is wonderful. I have no financial connection to the company, I just like their products and speak from my own experiences.

Do you suffer from a chronic illness or pain? Do you have headaches, congestion, infections of one kind or another? Relax. All of these symptoms result from stress. You may have an injury, but your body keeps telling you that you must feel pain because it is under constant tension from your mind.

But how can you relax? There are so many things to be concerned about. How will you pay the bills this month? How will you get the things you want? How will you get a relationship with somebody that isn't based on games and deception?

When you relax, all of these daily concerns will evaporate. You will know what you should do and you will do it, because you will have no conflicts between your goals.

Conflicts are tension, plain and simple. If you have conflicting obligations, your attention is divided, you keep trying to balance what cannot in truth be balanced. Resolve your obligations to the best of your ability, give them up when they are opposed to your true goals.

Make peace with those with whom you have conflicts now, and those with whom you have had conflicts in the past. Settle your disagreements, have a conversation and listen to one another. If you have wronged someone, apologize, make whole what you have broken.

Relaxing is not a passive act. You can learn to meditate and gain a calm center, but to relax fully you must take actions to end the tensions that are otherwise present in your life.

Be honest, do not deceive for you will always fear being discovered and this will govern your state of mind. You cannot relax and be a liar at the same time. If you have practiced artfulness in your life, stop doing it now. Admit what you know to be true and be truthful thereafter.

Be considerate, for if you do an injury by negligence or intent, the effect upon your consciousness will cause you to suffer guilt, and you will not relax. If you have been inconsiderate, apologize and make peace.

Be open to other perspectives and gain an understanding of your adversaries. If you are closed to new ideas, you will fight them in your mind and this conflict will keep you from finding the peace you desire.

Another fine article today by Robert Klassen.

Good article by Butler Schaffer.

God smokes.

The network will become fully sentient soon.

All the indications are clear. Within 10 years' time, the consciousness of the people comprising the communications of the planet are combining into a common intelligence.

It is not only predictable, it is now inevitable. Just as Moore's Law predicts the doubling of circuit density every 18 months, the doubling of communications links proceeds at a geometric rate.

Copyright will fall to the network. The intelligence of the network is directly proportional to the number of unique voices to which any individual may listen at any time. Copyright imposes a cost to hear each voice, as this cost reduces to zero, the entirety of the connected human population will hear one another, at will.

When this happens, a new Renaissance will flourish. Art will be promoted on quality, not on its profitability to the distributors. For if distribution costs nothing, there is no incentive to promote the latest Britney Spears album to the masses of people who do not know any better.

When you can hear anything, you will want to hear the best music you can find. Friends will recommend to you what they enjoy, and you will be able to listen at once and form your own opinions.

Artists will prosper under the new system. People will gladly pay people to produce quality, to perform, to entertain and enlighten them. And without the middleman distributors, 100% of the money going to such things will enrich the artist.

This is the new world, it will be here soon.