Yep, and that's exactly how clinical drug trials are done: they're just a bunch of anecdotal accounts of people who tried out drug X and what side effects they experienced.
Reputable clinical drug trials always have at least two groups of people in similar circumstances; in the case of just drug X versus no treatment, 1/2 of of the group get drug X and the other half get a placebo. The experimenters record the anecdotal accounts of side effects from each group. If the the same percentage of each group have the same side effect, then that effect is probably not due to drug X.
I'm talking about peer review, university grants, and the esoteric publishing/journaling system that goes on with such a process.
As to the last item on your list, it's frustrating to find an apparent link to the discussion of a scientific subject in which I'm interested and then notice that the link takes me to Springerlink or Elsevier or one of those other sites that will allow me 24-hour access to the article for a mere $24.50. I thought that legislation had been passed a few years back that entitled the public the right to access scientific articles where federal monies had paid for the research. If so, it must require 100% federal money -- the 2% kicked in by CorporationX must disqualify the public's right.
I sincerely hope the inventor manages to make it a bit cheaper to own before this thing hits the streets....
Folks better not try "hitting the streets" anywhere except the bike lanes. 13mph seems to be about par with the average golf cart and we all know they're not street legal. In fact, I'd guess that a nice Amish horse and buggy could pass this Yike, except that it would probably break that old rule about "don't scare the horses."
notable trademarks that have been used for a long time include LÃwenbrÃu, which claims use since 1383, and Stella Artois, which claims use since 1366.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark. IMHO, the difference is that copyrights and patents prevent consumers from the free use of the invention or ideas covered while Trademarks are used to give consumers confidence that the product that they're purchasing or using is indeed the genuine article (or, in recent years, a facsimile of a product that they wanted to purchase or use).
Factorials were someone's attempt to make math LOOK exciting.