Letters to the Editor
shotsie
Published Letters: 42 Editor's Choice: 9
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We need to revise the patent laws.
[Read the article: Will BlackBerry go out of season?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When I was searching the US patent site, I noticed that a good chunk of ideas were just that - ideas, not products, or even demonstration of products. The US Patent office needs to rethink the intellectual property of ideas to make these ideas more pragmatic -an idea that can be demonstrated in an actual application in action is a much more powerful idea than an idea which may just be unique (which basically involves just researching other patents for similiar approaches).
I propose different patent types for ideas versus practical applications. A valid idea patent would be granted a five year period for the inventor to demonstrate a practical, commercial application, after which the patent would turn into an application patent, with a 10 year period. (Or whatever time period is deemed necessary.) For assessing damages, the idea patent holder would have to provide the burden of proof that the patent was uniquely his/hers; the practical patent holder wouldn't.
Software patents need to be considered as idea patents, not application patents, unless the inventor submits a software program which is based upon just that idea.
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Maybe Have Two Levels of Support
[Read the article: Roe for men?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Since the woman in this case told this man that she couldn't get pregnant, and he didn't want children with her (and the marriage that goes with that), the amount awarded to her seems a bit excessive (but not by a lot), and dependant upon the father's income more than anything else. I would suggest that father-unwanted babies be awarded child payments not to exceed the state's welfare support. However if the father wanted to be involved in the baby's up-bringing, then treat the child support as if a divorce was involved. This would mean sharing more expenses, time (weekends, summer, etc..) and getting court permission to move. To prevent guys from just impregnanting every young girl out there, he would have to demonstrate that he was aware of the birth control situation, and didn't coerce the young lady into having unprotected sex.
In my youthful days, I can remember one or two girls who told me that they were on the pill, when they really weren't (surprize!) - luckily nothing happened, but I sure dropped out of their lives really fast. ( No way was I going to have a family at nineteen!)
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Probably a good thing that Campbell wasn't selected
[Read the article: Early-rising Americans not ready for pretty childless women]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Does the sentence "..single, which Brown was until April, when she married GOP strategist Dan Senor" sound some sort of alarm, like maybe some heavy pre-editing of stories, airing certain stories or burying "un-friendly" news items? No matter how good someone's intentions are, the close proximity of a political operative would have made any political story suspect, in my view.
Speaking of unmarried women, I have a tough time taking Julie Chen seriously also, for a morning show. Being married, with kids, really does help the average morning viewer relate better to the host of the morning show. Campbell is probably better doing cable news.
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New Mexico Changed Their Method For the Better
[Read the article: "Hacking Democracy"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Upset by the large, un-explained percentage of undercounts in the last election (ie, mysteriously, folks didn't cast votes for president, but did for the other offices), NM is using strictly paper ballots this year, and, as far as I can tell, there's no disadvantage to them compared to the previous system.
The ballot is printed on two sides - one side for the candidate selection, and the other side with a complete explanation of the various bond issues or changes to the state charters. You fill out the oval next to your selection and then feed the sheet into a machine that makes sure that your ovals are properly filled in - if not, you get another ballot. (My only recommendation would be to have a ink pad/stamp for this.) Done! Your ballot has all the information on it, and is stored for manual recount. The BIG advantage of this system is the fact that the voting "Booths" are simply desks with high sides attached - nothing high tech - no extra machines to buy if the turnout is extremely high, just add some cheap desks with side panels. And, we got to vote early, 28 days prior to the election, at numerous polling places.
I work in the software verification/testing business, and am quite leary of ANY electronic machine, especially those without paper receipts. I can tell you that software engineers can easily hide code hacks that no election worker would ever find. NM's paper ballot seems like a much safer solution to the whole mess.
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Baseball needs to cut players more ruthlessly, like football
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Giant contracts are handed out by football teams all the time, but rarely, rarely do the players collect, because this is one tough contact sport, and the chances of blowing out some players knees is proportional to his weight. Pretty damn high. After two or three operations, the player is worthless, and the team can CUT him. Why don't the Mets cut or trade Pedro? Because they can't, without paying him his whole salary, so he naturally goes under the knife and maybe will pitch okay for a year or two, but not Cy Youngish. But, in football, if a terrific player has some injuries, and is still under contract, well, he can be cut, no mercy, hope your next team isn't in our division, etc...
In essense, being able to cut players who no longer produce without worrying about paying off their contracts keeps football salaries somewhat sane. Baseball needs to do the same thing - destroy your shoulder, lose your job and paycheck. Teams could then use (and develop) new talent, instead of being forced to carry all the old dinosaurs because they signed huge contracts. (Piazza???, Wells??? - c'mon, baseball, let's see some new talent.)