The U.S. Airforce has a new ad campaign that suggests it's looking for recruits adept at handling crashing Windows systems. One of the ads features police officers cruising the streets searching for a teenager. One officer says to the teen "It crashed again," referring to his onboard computer, to which the teen replies "Reboot with F-8 and safe mode." Good to know that the important skill for the Airborne Operations Technicians they are seeking is rebooting Windows boxes. Aim high!

According to an article in The Oregonian the U.S. Department of Homeland Security dispatched agents to Pufferbelly Toys after receiving a trademark infringement complaint about their selling of the Magic Cube (a Rubik's Cube clone). Agents demanded that the owner remove all of the product from her shelves and "watched to make sure she complied." Toysmith Group, maker of the toy, said "The Rubik's Cube patent had expired, and the Magic Cube did not infringe on rival toy's trademark." Sounds a little like the recent actions taken against suspected copyright "infringers." No one likes to do their homework, but come on.

Amr Mohsen, founder and former CEO of Aptix, is being accused of trying to hire a fellow inmate at a correctional facilty to murder the U.S. District Court judge who presided over a civil patent lawsuit involving Aptix as well as a criminal case against Mohsen. According to an affidavit, the potential hitman told Mohsen "murder of a federal judge is a 'big deal' and would cost $25,000, but Mohsen allegedly answered, 'That's very high ... I heard it's more like ten ($10,000).'"

This appears to be the end of a long descent by Mohsen. The original patent suit set off a chain reaction in other IP related cases after Mohsen "falsified engineering diaries and staged a break in of his own car to conceal evidence."

The New York Times reports that Russians are claiming the US is violating their intellectual property rights by distributing illegal clones of the famed AK-47 assault rifle.

Once licensed to 18 countries for manufacture, only the plant in Izhevsk, Russia claims the right to sell the rifles now. The US is favoring the AK-47's because "the automatic Kalashnikov is inexpensive and requires less training to master than modern American rifles."

Eric Schwartz, a vice president of the International Intellectual Property Alliance, said "I'm not a big fan of guns, but that said, if the creators of this intellectual property have rights to enforce, I really do hope they can get them enforced in every country." Makes you wonder what the enforcement will look like...

Teenagers in the city of Edinburgh will soon be able to receive therapy from a CD-ROM or a website, mainly to help with depression. An article in The Scotsman says The Young People's Unit at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital decided to create the tool after finding that especially boys (who have twice the suicide rate of girls) were more likely to search the internet than talk to a person about depression. The tool uses Cognitive Behavioral Thereapy apparently first practiced by Buddha

Well, here's my second attempt at posting a story. Still trying to figure out what the editor gods are looking for.

Signs of Life in Martian Meteorite Doubtful

Scientists from the Office of Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science at the Johnson Space Center say the ALH84001 meteorite likely doesn't point to signs of life on Mars. In 1996 scientists from the Johnson Space Center and Stanford University reported they had found possible evidence of life on Mars on the meteorite. Dr. Steven Hawley says "the final answer may not be known until Mars samples can be retrieved for study by scientists." Is this more or less of a reason to send a manned mission to the red planet?