What, no cracks about conducting research whilst drinking a certain brown ale?

What about any other companies/institutions who have been working on something similar also for several years? It looks like Venter's patent application is so broad that it would effectively shut down these other players who have been doing separate work in parallel. The patent system should not be a race. Sure, some guys did something special and they should be rewarded for it, the next guy also does something special but takes a little bit longer and is all of the sudden infringing upon the first guy. They both did hard work, they should both be rewarded.

http://www.myalli.com/ =)

Was anyone else reminded of this quote? "If, he thought to himself, such amachine is a virtual impossibility, then it must logically be a finite improbability. So all I have to do in order to make one, is to work out exactly how improbable it is, feed that figure into the finite improbability generator, give it a fresh cup of really hot tea ... and turn it on!"

I wonder what the PvP system would be like...

I recall a study done several years ago by MIT students regarding tin foil hats. Apparently certain folds will actually amplify certain frequencies!
http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/

Why actually go outside and get wet and risk drowning when I can use Google Maps to take a virtual tour of the river from the comfort of my own home! I can even read reviews from actual kayakers on that river and decide for myself if I liked the experience or not.