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Patents

The Post-Bilski Era Gets Underway 94

Posted by kdawson from the method-in-their-madness-but-no-apparatus dept.
bfwebster writes "A set of pharmaceutical process patents for 'evaluating and improving the safety of immunization schedules' (Classen v. Biogen et al.; see US Patents 6,420,139; 6,638,379; 5,728,385; 5,723,283) were held to be invalid due to unpatentability. The decision was appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, but was upheld with a terse citation to In re Bilski (which decision we discussed here). Here's the entire text of the appeals decision: 'In light of our decision in In re Bilski, 545 F.3d 943 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (en banc), we affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment that these claims are invalid under 35 U.S.C. 101. Dr. Classen's claims are neither "tied to a particular machine or apparatus" nor do they "transform a particular article into a different state or thing." Bilski, 545 F.3d at 954. Therefore we affirm.' It will be interesting to see what happens when these same standards start getting applied to software-related patents."
Earth

Scientist Patents New Method To Fight Global Warming 492

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the and-we-will-need-an-additional-10,000-coal-plants-to-power-this dept.
SUNSTOP writes to tell us that a relatively unknown Maryland scientist has proposed a public patent that he claims could combat global warming. The proposed plan would require massive amounts of water to be sprayed into the air in an effort to bolster the earth's existing air conditioning system. "First, the sprayed droplets would transform to water vapor, a change that absorbs thermal energy near ground level; then the rising vapor would condense into sunlight-reflecting clouds and cooling rain, releasing much of the stored energy into space in the form of infrared radiation. Kenneth Caldeira, a climate scientist for the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University whose computer simulation of Ace's invention suggests it would significantly cool the planet. The simulated evaporation of about one-half inch of additional water everywhere in the world produced immediate planetary cooling effects that were projected to reach nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit within 20 or 30 years, Caldeira said."
Earth

Scientists Find Hole In Earth's Magnetic Field 200

Posted by samzenpus from the better-tan dept.
Velorium writes "The Earth's magnetic field has been found to have two large holes that are making Earth's surface vulnerable to solar winds. Despite what scientists originally thought, these holes allow 20 times the normal amount of solar particles through when they are facing away from the sun. This is the opposite of what the scientists had first speculated."
United States

Submission + - Barak Obama Voted President of The US (cnn.com) 3

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "Barak Obama has just achieved 297 electoral votes ensuring him the presidency of the United States of America for the term 2008-2012. This is an historic event for the nation and possibly even the world. What changes will he bring as he sweeps Democrats into other leadership positions? What brought this momentum and change in party majorities/control?"

Timing Technology Behind Olympic Record Results 118

Posted by CmdrTaco from the even-clocks-are-at-least-sixteen dept.
An anonymous reader writes "We've been on the edge of our seats cheering on the athletes at the Beijing Olympic games — but so often do athletes' victories and defeats rely on accurate timing. As the athletes compete on the world stage behind the scenes technology records their results. This interview with Omega's Christophe Berthaud (video) — the company's 23rd time as official Olympic timekeeper — explores how far the technology has come since the first time it was used in 1932."

Comment Re:Damned with and without "paper trail" (Score 1) 507

by noliver (#23678647) Attached to: How To Spot E-Vote Tampering?

And if it does, a voter can be bought and/or pressured to vote for someone else — the buyer (or the thug) will demand to see the voting confirmation before giving the money (or letting the kids go)...

Not if the paper trail can't be taken from the polling place. It's the same as with a paper ballot--you verify that it reflects your choices, and then trust that all the votes will be securely and correctly transferred to the central voting authority.

If you can't take the paper with you, (as you can't currently) then your point is moot.
Input Devices

OCZ's Brain Mouse Hits the Store 150

Posted by CmdrTaco from the world-will-never-be-the-same dept.
John Roller writes "Three months to the day since Slashdot originally received word that OCZ's "brain-mouse" — the Neural Impulse Actuator was ready for shipping, the first in-depth review of the device containing pictures of the retail packaging along with several videos have arrived on the internet. Overclock3D.Net got the first look at the device, and although it's still early days, they managed to play a game of "Pong" using only brain power. The article is only part one in a month-long log of using the device, but it's extremely interesting to see what the people who have pre-ordered the device can expect from it when it arrives on their doorsteps shortly."
IBM

IBM Suspended From US Federal Contracts 136

Posted by Zonk from the shouldn't-aught-to-have-done-that dept.
theodp writes "IBM has been temporarily banned from receiving future contracts with federal agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency confirmed on Monday. The suspension went into effect last Thursday due to 'concerns raised about potential activities involving an EPA procurement,' the agency said in an e-mailed statement. Under a reciprocal agreement among federal agencies, when one issues a ban, the others follow it. The EPA said it will not comment further on the matter. An IBM spokesman said he had no immediate comment. 'You don't see this very often, particularly for large companies,' commented a stunned industry analyst, mentioning a bankrupt MCI as a notable exception. IBM earned an estimated $1.5 billion in revenue from federal prime contracts in fiscal 2007."
Businesses

Best Buy Customer Gets Box Full of Bathroom Tiles Instead of Hard Drive 990

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the newest-in-ceramic-drives dept.
The Consumerist is reporting that a Best Buy customer recently purchased a hard drive only to discover that the box contained six ceramic bathroom tiles instead of the Western Digital drive he had expected. The rub of it is Best Buy is refusing to grant a refund or exchange for the non-existent drive. "The employee and assistant manager were more than willing to help, saying that it happens. So they set up the return and I repurchased the drive and while I was checking the contents to ensure it was a hard drive this time, the store manager came up, took the box from me and said to take it up with the manufacturer. Now to my surprise, I argued with the guy saying that they have already accepted the return and I have now purchased the new one. He said I was shit out of luck. I followed up with the manufacturer today and they said they would get the complaint to the Best Buy Purchasing department. Best Buy corporate said that they stand by their manager's decision."

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