This is not a problem with patents only. This is a problem with the legal system. If a rich person (or a company) can intimidate a poorer person (or a company) just by threatening it with legal action (not by threatening with a SUCCESSFUL legal action, this an entirely different situation), then something is wrong in the legal system itself. This is a problem which needs fixing, not by getting rid of the patents, because in order to intimidate someone by legal action you don't necessarily need to have patents, you may use trademark, copyright, license issues, whatever.
Isn't it because of the reason given in one of Clancy's novels? That tactical nukes are nonsense, because using even a tactical nuke is a political decision, which makes this nuke a strategical weapon?
They also had a thing for rather unscientific experiments involving testing random things on concentration camp prisoners.
Unscientific? I know about one attempted PhD in biology which was based partly on the results published by one Dr Mengele. How more scientific can you get than being cited by researchers 50 years after publishing your paper?
(This guy didn't get his PhD, don't worry. And I also think it's wrong to cite Mengele.)
You don't feel like you're fighting for the good guys when your side uses the weapons that horrified the world in the last war.
How much different is that from knowing that your army shells civilians, strafes them on the road, kills them in summary executions, loots their homes and burns their libraries and even sends some part of them to concentration camps -- in fact, everything that Wehrmacht did and what the Germans knew perfectly well? The REAL reason all armies were reluctant to use gas was it would be a) bad propaganda and b) (mostly b)) -- it would probably kill a lot of your own troops, may the wind change its direction.
If this was really the case for the use of the bomb, I'd call this a very dirty strategy. Impress the Russians by killing a lot of Japanese. But there were other reasons, mainly to make the Japanese militarists acknowledge their defeat and stop the useless war.
The same order of magnitude of civilian casualties was caused by one air raid over Tokyo. Doesn't it bother you too? If it doesn't, than your apparent criticism of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan is founded on some other grounds than just compassion to the victims; if it does, than how do you propose the USA shouild've forced Japan to surrender?
In times of Columbus, those crazy Europeans already knew the Earth was not flat (at least the guys at the University of Salamanca knew that when they dumped Columbus' proposal to sail West to reach Indies).
I suppose they use other wavelengths, longer ones (they're not trying to tell the position of each atom in their artefact, just the density variations -- I suppose). Longer wavelengths -- lower frequencies -- lower energy of the photons -- less damage.
Just my two cents: given the fact that science in America was developed by generations of people who came from Europe and other parts of the world (Michelson, Einstein, Ulam...), it's a very selfish and egoistic move.
A side note: Liquid helium is very expensive to produce. The bulk of the cost of production is in harvesting the gas to compress down to liquid form. All the helium that exists on Earth is the product of eons of radioactive decay. When the liquid boils off, the escaping gas rises far above our reach. That's ironic, given that He is the second most abundant element in the universe... yet we have to pay more for it than for oil (around $10 per liter).
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Everything costs something to somebody
Some books cost much more than $20.
I can surely "distribute" this money. Half for me, half for my pals at work.
This is not a problem with patents only. This is a problem with the legal system. If a rich person (or a company) can intimidate a poorer person (or a company) just by threatening it with legal action (not by threatening with a SUCCESSFUL legal action, this an entirely different situation), then something is wrong in the legal system itself. This is a problem which needs fixing, not by getting rid of the patents, because in order to intimidate someone by legal action you don't necessarily need to have patents, you may use trademark, copyright, license issues, whatever.
So the only reason to write this one is political, not technical.
Or the fact there still is not Macromedia Flash player for amd64.
That's what I said: impressing the Russians was an added bonus. If it was the main purpose, than...
Isn't it because of the reason given in one of Clancy's novels? That tactical nukes are nonsense, because using even a tactical nuke is a political decision, which makes this nuke a strategical weapon?
They also had a thing for rather unscientific experiments involving testing random things on concentration camp prisoners.
Unscientific? I know about one attempted PhD in biology which was based partly on the results published by one Dr Mengele. How more scientific can you get than being cited by researchers 50 years after publishing your paper?
(This guy didn't get his PhD, don't worry. And I also think it's wrong to cite Mengele.)
In order to compare against Chernobyl, you'd need to have Germans drop a working nuclear reactor on London.
You don't feel like you're fighting for the good guys when your side uses the weapons that horrified the world in the last war.
How much different is that from knowing that your army shells civilians, strafes them on the road, kills them in summary executions, loots their homes and burns their libraries and even sends some part of them to concentration camps -- in fact, everything that Wehrmacht did and what the Germans knew perfectly well? The REAL reason all armies were reluctant to use gas was it would be a) bad propaganda and b) (mostly b)) -- it would probably kill a lot of your own troops, may the wind change its direction.
Most probably no one expected there to be so much from a bomb, however.
In fact, there wasn't that much radiation from the bombs dropped on Japan. Tchernobyl caused much more contamination.
If this was really the case for the use of the bomb, I'd call this a very dirty strategy. Impress the Russians by killing a lot of Japanese. But there were other reasons, mainly to make the Japanese militarists acknowledge their defeat and stop the useless war.
The same order of magnitude of civilian casualties was caused by one air raid over Tokyo. Doesn't it bother you too? If it doesn't, than your apparent criticism of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan is founded on some other grounds than just compassion to the victims; if it does, than how do you propose the USA shouild've forced Japan to surrender?
Germany used gas to kill thousands of Jews.
Millions, to be more precise.
In the '40s people were not that aware of the dangers of nuclear radiation. So the demoralising effects would be quite smaller than today.
Wear and tear are macroscopic phenomena. Atoms stay the same practically forever, if there is nothing around to ionize them.
How much do you value you eyesight?
It already did.
In times of Columbus, those crazy Europeans already knew the Earth was not flat (at least the guys at the University of Salamanca knew that when they dumped Columbus' proposal to sail West to reach Indies).
I suppose they use other wavelengths, longer ones (they're not trying to tell the position of each atom in their artefact, just the density variations -- I suppose). Longer wavelengths -- lower frequencies -- lower energy of the photons -- less damage.
It's the GREEKS, Mr Bush.
Just my two cents: given the fact that science in America was developed by generations of people who came from Europe and other parts of the world (Michelson, Einstein, Ulam ...), it's a very selfish and egoistic move.
Mail transfer agents and mailing list software ought to block attachments by default.
Sure, because my professor being able to send me a PDF file with his paper would be just too terrible to allow?
A side note: Liquid helium is very expensive to produce. The bulk of the cost of production is in harvesting the gas to compress down to liquid form. All the helium that exists on Earth is the product of eons of radioactive decay. When the liquid boils off, the escaping gas rises far above our reach. That's ironic, given that He is the second most abundant element in the universe... yet we have to pay more for it than for oil (around $10 per liter).
That's why decent physics laboratories re-capture spent liquid helium.
There is no peer review on arXiv.