This. How should we know where it is hosted? Or care? This is the internet - I am demonstrably "not in the USA" right now, and it doesn't matter in the least where the other end is.

Or did you mean your comment to be sarcastic?

In all these years, nobody has rear-ended me in the dark. Even if the back lights of my car doesn't blink.
The battery argument I understand, but to that I say "Luxury!". We used to have dynamos on our bikes, and we could not even dream about rear lights.

Why should a rear light flash in the first place? I don't think it adds at all to a rear lights functionality, and does cause - at least for me - a rise in adrenaline: flashing usually means something is out of order, or exceptional (e.g. emergency vehicles or someone hitting the breaks).

Parent is modded +5 insightful ??
I was thinking +5 funny, or even a -1 off topic. Insightful is just wrong

IMHO, all patents patent an abstract idea to some extent. There is always an element of "we can do X to achieve Y" in any invention, and that is in my definition an "abstract idea". If there is no abstract idea behind a patent, then the invention most likely is "obvious", and not patentable.

Even if they started demand a working prototype/demo at the patent office would concrete implementations of "abstract ideas" be patented.

The problem is that the entire system is a quagmire, and it doesn't get any better by people yelling that "software patents are evil" - that's just missing the point.

This entire debate is a red herring.

You mean the rifled musket?

Who cares about a secret trade agreement? Of course there are secret agreements... But that the EU finally shows its true colours - this is the news!

Perhaps this was never done at MIT before, and that is the news?
Speaking seriously, I feel sorry for MIT with all the nonsense headlines like this one, ridiculing the school over the past few years. It almost feels like someone is on a vendetta against MIT.
Sure, the team might have done something new (didn't read TFP), all kudos to them for that. But was this truly the best thing since sliced bread?

These are not doctors and patients, but researchers. And the device in question is a passive recorder of brain activity (AFAIK).
Also, I don't think that many people want to record the brain activity of mice, so the biggest cost here is that the equipment is pretty custom made causing big non-recurring expenses.
Furthermore, an IC subcontractor had made a miniturized four dedicated custom ICs into one, and from the article it sounds this device was the first to use the new chip. Expect all other manufacturers to jump to this new chip too, probably shaving off big % of the total price.
This is news only for the intersection of the sets "neuroscientists" and "nerd". The rest of us are happily unafected.

I don't have a parking space at work, reserved or othervise. And the office furniture is uncomfortable as-is. Might just take up obesity for its benefits, if this law passes.

Well, at least our children (we?) are not fucked, as the previous generation managed to thwart the nuclear apocalypse.
Should we do any less with the threat of the apocalypse we are facing now?

Write the word "never" (in your local language) on a piece of paper, and that mechanical device tells pretty accurately (n most parts of the world) when the ISS is overhead.

Doesn't these polls usually go:
"Where's the Most Unusual Place You've had sex?"

/. indeed...

Agreed, on all points.

Don't you just hate it too, when a good argument ends up in the realization that it was only an argument about semantics :(
Sorry for my bad English :)

I'm sure there were quite a bit of legit stuff on torrentz.eu, too. I don't see how you can extrapolate from one legit video to them all.
Also, I don't believe you actually went trhough all those 23M hits this quickly.