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Why Software Patents Are a Joke — Literally
eburnette writes "A former Sun/Oracle employee explains how developers created patents in an unofficial contest to see who could get the goofiest patent through the system. James Gosling said, '... we got sued, and lost. The penalty was huge. Nearly put us out of business. We survived, but to help protect us from future suits we went on a patenting binge. Even though we had a basic distaste for patents, the game is what it is, and patents are essential in modern corporations, if only as a defensive measure. There was even an unofficial competition to see who could get the goofiest patent through the system. My entry wasn't nearly the goofiest.' Now Oracle is using patents from the same folks as the basis for its lawsuit against Google."
The chances of you dying by holding your breath are slim to none (and even then slim only in a handful of cases where holding the breath isn't the cause but rather the trigger to some other underlying serious condition). Even if you can somehow overcome the body's gasp reflex when deprived of oxygen while conscious, you'd pass out long before you died and your body would start breathing again at that point.