Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):

[Editor's note: There were 20 suspicious items this week.]

Holden

Monday, November 30

9:57 a.m. Party out of gas on Main St.
4:39 p.m. Stolen tree stand on Mill St.; two cars in area at the time
6:22 p.m. Mother requesting assistance for 16-year-old who is out of control

Tuesday, December 1

5:49 a.m. Physical dispute between mother and daughter on Newell Rd.
8:36 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle on Malden St.
1:37 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle on Main St.
3:26 p.m. Business in Big Y Plaza left open; owner will respond to close it
5:28 p.m. Male hunting off North St. is lost
8:00 p.m. Loose dog in yard on Shrewsbury St., leash still attached

Wednesday, December 2

8:25 a.m. Caller searching for lost dog
8:29 a.m. Lights at Main St. and Shrewsbury St. flashing; MassHighway contacted
12:10 p.m. Report of individuals rolling joint in parking lot on Main St.
1:31 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle on Salisbury St.
5:05 p.m. 911 Report of possible pedestrian accident; car owner under car looking for area to attach tow
7:29 p.m. Lights at crossing on Industrial Dr. may be stuck
7:30 p.m. Car with flat tire found in driveway on Raymond St.
8:46 p.m. Loose dog on Salisbury St.
9:21 p.m. Caller reports two cars tried to hit him while walking his dog on High St.
11:14 p.m. Report of person with all black clothing on High St.; door open at residence there, but unit appears vacant; OK, resident in driveway

Thursday, December 3

7:51 a.m. Abandoned bicycle on railroad tracks on Salisbury St.
10:15 a.m. 911 Blown transformer and power outage on Parker Ave.
10:22 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle on Main St.
2:18 p.m. Missing dog found
7:29 p.m. Tree limb removed from road on Harris St.
7:46 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle at end of driveway on Sterling Rd.; vehicle later exited toward Sterling

Friday, December 4

8:05 a.m. Vehicle parked in handicapped spot on Main St.
8:26 a.m. Neighbor reports neighbor pumping water into street at Cook and Stoneleigh; afraid the water will freeze
9:51 a.m. Landscaping trailer blocking one lane of travel on Main St.
11:45 a.m. RV stuck in road blocking one lane of travel on Quinapoxet St.
1:17 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle on Harris St.
3:11 p.m. 911 Vehicle stuck on rock on Mason Rd.
6:30 p.m. Car with flashers on stopped at bad corner on Wachusett St.
7:09 p.m. Caller requests well-being check on four children at home alone on Salisbury St.
10:20 p.m. Report of middle school males throwing spitballs outside business on Main St.; mother arrived and will speak to individuals
10:45 p.m. Water pipe burst on second floor on Walnut St.; tenant can’t get landlord; squad will shut off water
11:06 p.m. Kids reported screaming from vehicle on Surrey Lane; no contact
11:08 p.m. Caller regarding incident with spitballs earlier; youths spending the night at her home
11:35 p.m. Suspicious kids in area of Towle Dr.

Saturday, December 5

10:07 a.m. Caller regarding which hunting season it is, wanting to post her property to prevent hunting there
11:22 a.m. Stubborn child reported on Sandy Glen Drive
12:22 p.m. 911 Caller about tree lighting in town; advised to use business line
2:26 p.m. Yellow lab from Wachusett St. found wandering
3:53 p.m. 911 Caller concerned about unlocked cars at residence on Mayflower Cir.
6:58 p.m. Suspicious vehicle at vacant property on Centerwood Dr.
11:50 p.m. Vehicles parked in handicapped spot on Mayo Dr.

Sunday, December 6

12:57 a.m. 911 Abandoned call; on callback, party said domestic occurred earlier, and reported long night of drinking; two taken into protective custody
3:21 a.m. Suspicious person on foot on Main St.
4:43 a.m. Report that individuals got out of vehicle and ran toward restaurant on Reservoir St.
9:25 a.m. Caller reports mother having problem with pump, water backing up; advised to contact plumber
4:34 p.m. Cars parking in travel lane for party on Bullard St. causing traffic problem
6:44 p.m. Suspicious person in 20s driving Thunderbird; acting strange and causing disturbance at gas station

Paxton

Monday, November 30

8:55 a.m. Assist other agency, Marshall St.
10:53 a.m. Assist citizen, Pine Acre
6:40 p.m. Assist fire dept., Asnebumskit/Ridgewood Rds.
8:39 p.m. Assist at scene of chimney fire, West St.
8:50 p.m. Tractor trailer truck partially blocking roadway, Marshall St.

Tuesday, December 1

4:52 p.m. Attempt to deliver summons, Monticello Dr.
6:45 p.m. Caller found dog, Ridgewood Rd. Owner found
7:15 p.m. Attempt to deliver summons, Monticello Dr.

Wednesday, December 2

2:25 a.m. Assist Leicester PD with motor vehicle stop, Reservoir Rd.
9:20 a.m. Assist fire dept., Tanglewood Rd.
4:59 p.m. Gunshots behind home, Wildwood Dr.
6:19 p.m. Attempt to deliver summons, Monticello Dr.
6:47 p.m. Summons delivered, Monticello Dr.
11:32 p.m. Report of suspicious motor vehicle and occupants going through trash in front of home, Richards Ave.

Thursday, December 3

5:13 a.m. Transport individual to Spencer Police Station for holding
7:26 a.m. Tree limb in roadway, Pleasant St.
12:30 p.m. Open door at building, Pleasant St.
3:19 p.m. Officer collects evidence, Sunset Ln.
11:28 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Brooks Rd./Pleasant St.

Friday, December 4

9:11 a.m. Residential lockout, Bel Arbor Dr.
2:45 p.m. Two females at station to speak with officer, Pleasant St.
5:36 p.m. Report of ATV speeding up and down Camp St., no headlights
11:49 p.m. Assist Holden PD at large gathering of youths, Reservoir Rd.

Saturday, December 5

9:11 a.m. Residential lockout, Grove St.
10:55 a.m. Caller reports no power. Multiple other calls from area of Grove, Orchard and Holden Rd.
12:17 p.m. Assist fire dept., Sunset Ln.
12:53 p.m. Report of deer hit, Holden Rd./Bel Arbor Dr.
3:54 p.m. Disabled motor vehicle spilling oil, Richards Ave.
4:21 p.m. Report of missing shih tzu, Pine Acre

Sunday, December 6

7:31 a.m. Motor vehicle accident. Report of vehicles damaged due to snow plows, Highland St.

Princeton

Monday, November 30

6:45 a.m. Traffic safety hazard, Fitchburg Rd.
7:53 a.m. Aggressive operation of motor vehicle, Rte. 140 N
1:54 p.m. Officer investigation, Mountain Rd.

Tuesday, December 1

5:54 p.m. Request for light dept., Sterling Rd.
6:12 p.m. Request for animal control officer, Main St.
6:33 p.m. Suspicious incident, Merriam Rd.
10:21 p.m. Disturbance, Leominster Rd.

Wednesday, December 2

3:37 p.m. Disturbance, motor vehicle, Old Colony Rd.
3:46 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Clearings Way

Thursday, December 3

7:49 a.m. Request for animal control officer, Worcester Rd.
11:15 a.m. Public service, Brooks Station Rd.

Friday, December 4

11:55 p.m. Assist Holden PD, Towle Dr., Holden

Saturday, December 5

9:00 a.m. Medical assist, Boylston Ave.
6:46 p.m. Request for highway dept., Fitchburg Rd.

Sunday, December 6

3:30 p.m. Traffic control duty, Town Hall Dr.

Rutland

Monday, November 30

9:30 a.m. Hunter reports loose dog in camps, Prison Camp Rd.
11:51 a.m. Probation check, officer wanted, Main St.
3:07 p.m. Officer on road where complaint was received about speeding bus, Bigelow Rd.
3:48 p.m. Person at station to speak with officer, Main St.

Tuesday, December 1

6:42 a.m. Caller reports hunter in her back yard, Pleasantdale Rd.
4:02 p.m. Person at station to speak with officer, Main St.
7:14 p.m. Person at station to speak with officer, Main St.

Wednesday, December 2

7:27 a.m. Dog ran off while owner was visiting home at Princeton/Rutland town line. Dog is a beagle/boxer mix
9:39 a.m. Attempt to serve papers. Person has moved, Miles Rd.
12:30 p.m. School bus stuck under low-hanging wires, Turkey Hill Rd.
6:27 p.m. Motor vehicle lockout, child in car, Maggies Way

Thursday, December 3

12:08 a.m. People hearing strange noises, Maple Ave. Want officer to check
7:00 a.m. Caller reports gray car in her driveway, has happened two other times, Wheeler Rd.
7:45 a.m. Large branch blocking half of Campbell St.
9:04 a.m. Repo company advising it is picking up vehicle, Cameron Dr.
1:26 p.m. Suspicious parked motor vehicle, Watson Lane
2:28 p.m. Person at station to be fingerprinted for employment, Main St.
3:49 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle behind buildings, Maple Ave.

Friday, December 4

7:24 a.m. Request for officer to respond for repeated trespassing incidents, Cameron Dr.
7:26 a.m. Call about young black Labrador running in roadway, Fisherman’s Rd.
10:40 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Maple Ave.
11:20 a.m. Complaint about two dogs loose in yard, Summerhill Dr.
11:29 a.m. Caller wants to speak with officer about accident that happened two years ago, Main St.
12:30 p.m. Report of loose terrier, Wachusett St. Owner later found
1:49 p.m. Caller asking about beaver control for pond on Pommogussett Rd.
2:34 p.m. Wallet found, Main St.
3:11 p.m. Report that people in Atlantic Beef truck were in her yard, kept coming closer to house after being asked to leave, Wheeler Rd.
7:25 p.m. Report of dead dog on Pommogussett Rd.

Saturday, December 5

12:04 p.m. Person at station to have officer check on dollar bill he thinks isn’t real, Main St.

Sunday, December 6

9:16 a.m. Report of missing license plate, Pleasantdale Rd.
10:42 a.m. Person at station to speak with officer regarding security system, E. County Rd.
4:28 p.m. Report of disturbance. People reacting verbally to New England Patriots loss, Maple Ave. Rd./Main St.

Sterling

Monday, November 30

11:00 a.m. Missing bearded collie, Squareshire Rd. Dog later retuned home
11:31 a.m. Public service, Plantation St.
3:57 p.m. Officer wanted, damage to lawn, Leominster Rd.

Tuesday, December 1

7:32 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Gates/Campground Rds.
9:27 a.m. Deer hit, Redemption Rock Trl./Beaman Rd.
10:45 a.m. Missing German short-haired pointer, Boutelle Rd.
12:54 p.m. Altercations between movers, Patriots Way
4:09 p.m. Window missing from top of snack bar, Holden Rd.
4:14 p.m. Report of husky in yard, Holden Rd.
5:26 p.m. Assist motorist with flat tire, Leominster Rd.
11:50 p.m. Person at station to speak with officer, Leominster Rd.

Wednesday, December 2

10:54 a.m. Attempt to deliver summons, Riverview Rd.
1:04 p.m. Attempt to deliver summons, Riverview Rd.
3:54 p.m. Attempt to deliver restraining order, Riverview Rd.
5:42 p.m. Deer struck, Princeton Rd.
6:37 p.m. Attempt to deliver restraining order, Riverview Rd.
8:34 p.m. Restraining order served, Riverview Rd.

Thursday, December 3

8:38 a.m. Attempt to deliver summons, Newell Hill Rd.
12:00 p.m. Assist with funeral procession from Princeton to Lancaster, Redemption Rock Trl./Princeton Rd.
12:05 p.m. Officer out with DCR Ranger, Waushacum Ave.
12:37 p.m. Suspicious activity, Pamela Ln.
1:15 p.m. Suspicious activity, Pikes Hill Rd.

4:28 p.m. Report that male boxer dog was hit and is deceased, Metropolitan Rd.

Friday, December 4

7:09 a.m. Report that wind took down sign, Worcester Rd.

Saturday, December 5

11:44 a.m. Loud bang, found to be mailbox bomb, Chocksett Rd.
11:52 a.m. Complaint of chocolate Labrador ripping up trash and digging in yard, Justice Hill Rd.
8:04 p.m. Person requesting escort home, Meetinghouse Hill Rd.
8:33 p.m. Disabled vehicle, broken key, has to be towed, Fitch Farm Rd.

Sunday, December 6

2:43 p.m. Caller wants to speak with officer about ongoing incident, Beaman Rd.
11:00 p.m. Caller wants to speak with officer regarding deer hit, damage to vehicle, Riverview Rd.

New colonel of the Massachusetts State Police

Governor Deval Patrick has appointed Marian J. McGovern to be the next colonel of the Massachusetts State Police.
Here are the Boston newspaper stories:

• Governor Patrick taps 1st woman to lead state police - BostonHerald.com 
• Patrick names first woman superintendent of State Police - Local News Updates - The Boston Globe

Meanwhile, here's the Telegram's story with a local angle: Millbury's McGovern to lead state police.
The  commenters, meanwhile, think that she's fat and unqualified. Stay classy, Worcester.

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Full disclosure: my son is a sergeant in Massachusetts State Police.

Dept. of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happinefs

Not only do we get a celebration of one of America's favorite semi-foods, but we get a yellow car point as well.

A monument to the marshmallow: Peep store near D.C. is talk of the town - The Boston Globe

Just Born, maker of the chick- and bunny-shaped marshmallow Easter favorites called Peeps, is officially opening the first store devoted to them today.

The Peeps & Company store will open today in National Harbor, a mall and convention center in Oxon Hill, Md. (Jacquelyn Martin/ Associated Press)

Thanks to Friend Bill for the tip.

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This is one in an occasional series of notes regarding the greatness that is America, the greatness that is our dream.

via Publishing the Declaration of Independence (Journeys and Crossings, Library of Congress Digital ReferenceTeam)

The future of books

A while ago, I posted a picture of the garage where we lived. After my father finished building the house, the garage became, first, a garage. Then, my mother opened a book store. If I recall correctly, my father was away a lot of the time, working construction jobs that would take him away from early Monday morning to late Friday evening. The Westminster Book Shop gave my mother an interesting project and a chance at a dream.
You'd never have a more passionate bookshop owner than my mother. You'd also not likely have a more unlikely owner. She'd rather give books away than sell them, read than market, talk than run a business. We lived nearly three miles from town, so there wasn't a lot of walk-in traffic. She didn't drive at the time, so, well, you get the idea. As difficult as it was for her to accept at the time, it probably wasn't a bad idea that my father decided to reclaim the garage for a welding business. (Interestingly, he wasn't great at running a business, either, and had more freedom working for other people than working for himself. Another story for another day.)
Out of that time, of the book shop, came the Hakkarainen Clipping Service ("No obligation to read, acknowledge, or return."), a practice that was, for my mother, as natural as breathing, to send newspaper clippings, magazines, books, and anything else written to someone for whom this might be interesting. It's what blogging looked like in the Eisenhower era, except that the messages were delivered to one person at a time and the communications medium was the mailman.
Spin forward a half century and we have plenty of new things to consider. One intriguing site came across the wire this morning by way of this post, Building communities: Introducing Bookfuturism.com « Snarkmarket. The site is Bookfuturism | mapping the future of reading: "Bookfuturism.com is a digital commons and multi-user blog open to anyone interested in the future of reading."
It's a new site with just a few contributors so far. The threads around newspapers and books and such are things that we've discussed here and elsewhere around town. So, let's see where it goes.

So, now, Facebook is telling me what I can't post.

I tried to put a link to the Rolling Stone top 100 albums of the decade on my Facebook wall:

I get this:

So, now I have to know what might be bothersome to someone someplace for some reason?

Dept. of Christmas

Matthew 10:34-36 (King James Version)

 ³⁴Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
 ³⁵For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
 ³⁶And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

Matthew 10:34-36 - Passage Lookup - King James Version - BibleGateway.com

frontières sans frontières

In last Sunday's New York Times, Scott Shane describes The War in Pashtunistan. The Pashtun people have occupied a broad area that spans the Afghan and Pakistani borders, a unity that predates the borders drawn by the British in 1893. Most of the Taliban are Pashtun and move within Pashtunistan as they need to. The American soldiers often find their pursuit of the bad guys halted because our troops have GPS units that can tell them where the border is located and our rules of engagement respect national borders.

The idea is simple once you think about it for a minute. While history is full of examples of conquering nations redrawing the national boundaries of those whom they (temporarily) control, natural ethnic 'nations' persist for generations, centuries, and millenia.
It gets really bad in some places, such as the lands known variously as Israel and Palestine or the many-named Congo regions or the Balkans. Groups who have occupied the lands for hundreds and even thousands of years contend with other groups who have been there for as long or as longer.
Yugoslavia was held together by Tito's force of will. When he died, the regional reverted to its Balkan nature.
Sometimes, nations get desperate to secure their borders. The BBC has a story about a wall that Egypt is build to keep people from Gaza from crossing the border. Walls are nothing new (Great Wall of China). This one on the Egypt-Gaza border is special, though. It's 18m deep, made of bomb-proof metal, and intended to prevent Gazans from tunneling into Egypt to acquire food, guns, and other essentials.
The arctic peoples, Saami in northern Europe, Inuit, Athabascan, and Aleuts in northern America, Yakuts and dozens more in Russia, by necessity of their nomadic lives, cannot afford to be too careful about national boundaries, a notion that often is problematic for their more southern governments.
Also in the Sunday Times, James Bradley recounts Teddy Roosevelt's role in the war between Japan and Russia in the early 20th century. Although Roosevelt won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in settling the war, the settlement may have set the stages for Japanese expansionism in the succeeding decades, resulting in the attack on Pearl Harbor and all that followed. Roosevelt brokered a deal that effectively erased Korea as an independent nation, giving control to Japan, and establishing Japan as Asia's natural leader.
An essential part of war, diplomacy, and pretty much everything else in life is understanding what's most important to the other guy. We easily fall in the thinking-trap that what motivates us also motivates other people. We assume that murderers are deterred by the threat of capital punishment. We assume that all groups aspire to be democratic republics, respecters of borders, human rights, and the power of the Christmas message.

There, I Fixed It: Epic Kludges + Jury Rigs That’s Not Traumatizing Or Anything «

The other may have a completely different world view. We might disagree, even to the point of believing that the other is beyond redemption, but, if we ignore how the other sees the world, we do so at our great peril.

Yesterday's weather today

see more Funny Graphs

More on blogging and news

Every time that I think about bloggers as citizen journalists, I also remember Gomer Pyle shouting "Citizen's Arrest" on the dirt streets of Mayberry (21 sec. video clip ). We see a wrong and we write about it.
Recently, local writers Nicole and Jeff have posted interesting pieces about bloggers as journalists. Nicole, in Citizen Journalism in Brattleboro: An Interview « Nicole, Worcester, shows how Brattleboro VT has developed a community of contributors and identifies some of the challenges associated with coordinating a team of volunteer and usually amateur writers. Jeff's piece, Wormtown Taxi: Journalistic Legwork, demonstrates that the local professional journalists are less than thorough in using basic, publicly available resources to complete a story.
Somehow, then, from this highly irregular legion of professional journalists join with paid and unpaid bloggers to consume and produce streams of news from credible and incredible sources.

As long as you don't look too closely, it just might work.
Which means, of course, that it's time for the federal government to weigh in.
New FTC guidelines for endorsements and testimonials went into effect last week. Among other things, the guidelines try to ensure that bloggers disclose any financial interest in the products, services, or business about which they write.
Seems reasonable. You, faithful reader, should know if my opinions are shaped by my desires for revenue enhancement.
So, naturally, the blogosphere sees this move by the FTC as attempt to control free speech by redefining bloggers as advertisers, that 'mommy bloggers' will be subject to $11,000 fines per blog post if they fail to disclose that they received a free sample of anything, that this is part of a great takeover of the news industry in general.
Look, we're in areas that are simultaneously new and yet with precedent. The role  of the federal government in news goes way back. The newspaper industry has long benefited from favorable postage rates. When technological advances in the 19th century reduced printing processes, it became practical for non-traditional (i.e., poor, immigrant, non-white, or non-English-speaking) publishers to deliver news by and for new communities.
And with the growth of foreign-language newspapers came the concern, even among relatively liberal New Yorkers, that the radicals might be taking charge.

via New-York tribune. (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, July 20, 1919, Image 60 - Chronicling America - The Library of Congress

Fortunately, with the exception of the Finns, Russians, and Hungarians, most immigrant groups behaved well and weren't very radical at all.

More on primary politics and news

• Are we well-served when the media, in the interest of being fair and balanced, present each candidate as having an equal chance of winning when the pre-election polls and the actual vote count showed that this race was over in September? And, that for the final, it's over now?
• At 8PM last night, I was driving home from the provinces and turned on the radio to try to find some election news. WBUR and WBZ had full-time coverage, but no data at the time.
  
  
  • 'BUR went on for quite a while, giving equal perspective on each candidate's position and campaign, as though it was going to be a close race.
  • Dan Rea on 'BZ, meanwhile, concentrated on the real story, that after such passion surrounding the death of Ted Kennedy, less than 20% of the electorate voted.
  • Meanwhile, we're sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, where voters have reportedly had their fingers cut off for the act of voting.
    
• NECN is reported to have said that Martha Coakley was rehearsing both an acceptance and a concession speech during the hour that they waited for the votes to be counted. Was her campaign that clueless that exit polling hadn't told her by 9AM that she was going to win big? Or that she should let people know that she was rehearsing both speeches?
  
• I have never, ever, ever had such an onslaught of robocalls as I've experienced with yesterday's Democratic special election primary. It's been on the order of two or three calls on behalf of each candidate each day. To their credit, it was impressive that each candidate has been able to array such a list of supporters and get the phone machines cranking out the calls.
  
• When the race started in the summer, it seemed as though Martha Coakley would walk away with it all, which she did. The other three were determined to make it a real election.
  
• Last month, some friends asked who we supported. The agreement among this group of Democrats was that all were pretty good and would represent us as we'd wish, but none inspired real passion. I, for example, wish that Barney Frank had run, bringing his intelligence, wit, and doggedness (not to mention how well he undermines the stereotype of what gay men are supposed to look like) to the election and to the Senate.
  

No patent for patent leather shoes

Our attitudes regarding patents, and their cousins, copyrights, struggle to be clear and simple. Recalling the basic premise of patent law, that, to be patentable, an invention must be novel, non-obvious, and have utility. It's got to be new, creative, and work.
The basic premise, that a creative individual ought to benefit from that creativity, but that society at large also has a countervailing interest of having ideas freely available for our use and for future invention, is defined in the Article 1, Section 8, of the U. S. Constitution

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

Note that the words patent, copyright, and trademark are not used; those terms were established by later legislation and affirmed by court cases.

From simple and noble, honoring the garage tinkerer, we've reach point, as one Microsoft engineer and holder of eight patents, notes,

never search, view, or speculate about patents. I was confused by this guidance till I wrote and reviewed one of my own patents. The legal claims section—the only section that counts—was indecipherable by anyone but a patent attorney.

Originally, patents were intended to reward physical inventions, such as the cotton gin, light bulb, or transistor. With the  patenting of software, and the establishment of the U. S. Court of Appeals and its jurisdiction over patents, the number and type of patents has grown including business process patents that are now the subject of a U. S. Supreme Court case. (See The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's Impact on Patent Litigation.)
The Supreme Court, in Bilski v. Kappos, is now considering whether business processes that ideas and processes are patentable. Groklaw's transcript shows that the justices are skeptical of the claim. (The official transcript is available on the Supreme Court site.)

JUSTICE SCALIA: You know, you mention that there are all these -- these new areas that didn't exist in the past because of modern business and what-not, but there are also areas that existed in the past that don't exist today. Let's take training horses. Don't you think that -- that some people, horse whisperers or others, had some, you know, some insights into the best way to train horses? And that should have been patentable on your theory.

MR. JAKES: They might have, yes.

JUSTICE SCALIA: Well, why didn't anybody patent those things?

MR. JAKES: I think our economy was based on industrial process.

JUSTICE SCALIA: It was based on horses, for Pete's sake. You -- I would really have thought somebody would have patented that.

While we await the Court's decision, we're left to ponder how  such a noble idea wound up with such silly attempts and/or results:

• IBM's attempt to patent the 40-minute meeting; Slashdot | IBM "Invents" 40-Minute Meeting
An application to patent spam email processes was tossed out of court because the solution was obvious - Slashdot Your Rights Online Story | Federal Appeals Court Tosses Spam Patent
• What's brown and sticky? A stick, US006360693B1 - An apparatus for use as a toy by an animal, for example a dog, to either fetch carry or chew includes a main section with at least one protrusion extending therefrom that resembles a branch in appearance.
  

and contention:

• An international intellectual property war looms as is India moves to patent yoga poses in bid to protect traditional knowledge.
  
• Software patenting has been a scourge in the global technology industries, let loose by a misinterpretation of US patent law by lower court judges biased in favor of patentability.
  via Software Freedom Law Center Files Brief with Supreme Court Arguing Software Cannot Be Patented

A whole new industry, called by non-practicing entities (commonly known as patent trolls), whereby companies buy up patents, sue others who might be infringing on those patents. The patent trolls don't actually make anything, except money.

via Dilbert comic strip for 09/09/2009 from the official Dilbert comic strips archive.

• Everyone hates patent trolls (except, perhaps, the patent trolls' mothers) - To troll or not to troll, is that the question? | The Open Road - CNET News
  
• Patent Trolls Erode the Foundation of the U.S. Patent System
  
• Channel Intelligence Sues Just About Everyone Who Offers Wishlists
  
• Intellectual Ventures, co-founded by former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold, has moved into a new phase, by selling patent rights to companies who will sue and pay IV a portion of the bounty:
  
  
  

  Intellectual Ventures has started selling some of its 27,000 patents to people who aren't afraid to sue -- and in some cases IV will get a share of the prize. It's a scary scenario for tech companies that may end up in the legal crosshairs, but industry observers say it was only a matter of time
  

  
  
• Leading to an effort to patent the process of patent trolling: Halliburton Tries To Patent Form Of Patent Trolling.
  
• To which the good guys respond by buying patents with a promise not to sue: Trolling for Patents to Fight Patent Trolls.

So where do we go from here?  Likely, we're going to spend the winter waiting for the SCOTUS ruling on Bilski. While doing that, we can sit back and admire an American inventiveness with no apparent limits :

U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,607: Scented doll with the appearance of an aged person.via They Invented What? (No. 142) « Anticipate This!™ | Patent and Trademark Law Blog




U.S. Patent No. 7,574,752 Garment with Integral faux thong extension and associated method

via Fake Thong

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The patent is for a process for creating patent leather which, in turn, is an old process for treating leather so that it has a high gloss finish. You can start your research here. I'm tired and the Simpson's are on.

What's wrong with this picture

Hint: it's empty.
On a snowy day, the feeders should be filled with birds. I saw one squirrel earlier this morning, but that's it.

The struggle is never over

The Wingnuts Daily (WND.com) are launching a new campaign to bring back the old.

Join the call to return to Reagan's values

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Ronald Reagan warned while he was president that government's view of the economy could be summarized with, "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Now WND's new "I WANT YOU TO FIGHT SOCIALISM" Pin is the top seller at the WND Superstore.

The pin is part of WND's latest line of banners, buttons and bumper stickers. The series of products features an exclusive, original design of a vintage Reagan that is modeled after the iconic Uncle Sam recruitment posters of the World War I era.

And, lest we forget, Bloom County reported on the impact of The Great Communicator's vision as it happened:

Let us also not forget that libertarians of the time were skeptical of Reagan's true conservatism: The Myths of Reaganomics - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Institute.

From About the Mises Institute: "You have found the world center of the Austrian School of economics and libertarian political and social theory."