Patent reform is getting a boost in Congress and, possibly, in the Supreme Court. \u00a0The House voted 325-91 last week for serious reform, beating back a number of Democrat amendments that would have gutted reform. Passage of the bill is a big step for patent reformers, which would have been hard to imagine even one […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Via Design Taxi: Those familiar\u00a0with the\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0franchise will remember the scene where Darth Vader uses the Force to get a hold of Han Solo\u2019s DL-44 Blaster. Now, this iconic pistol will be up for sale on 21 December 2013 via\u00a0Invaluable.com. “I know you’ve got a certificate and a great story, but I need to be […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

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Not exactly encouraging: When the screening in Jiangsu ended, state media reported, local party chief Luo Zhijun exhorted the assembled officials to “correctly understand the lessons of history.” The film’s message: The Soviet Union didn’t fall apart because of the communist system itself, but because of individuals who betrayed it, especially Mikhail Gorbachev. The film […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

A profile of Kenneth Libbrecht, the man who wrote the book on snowflakes (literally, as BoingBoing points out). Over the course of his research, Libbrecht\u2019s work has grown to encompass art and science. He\u2019s produced both\u00a0scientificpapers\u00a0and hundreds of beautiful photos of natural snowflakes (which he\u2019s\u00a0published\u00a0in\u00a0severaldifferentbooks\u00a0and\u00a0had featured on U.S. postage stamps), and also devised ingenious ways […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Even with a contentious Senate primary getting underway for the Republican nomination, some are writing off the seat and conceding it to Udall. \u00a0Sean Trende, not so much: If Republicans had a stronger field, this race would probably move up a tier. But there\u2019s no doubt that Udall is benefiting from a field of relatively […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

What people who can’t afford authentic Star Wars memorabilia have been buying for the last half-century:<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Yes, you’d expect a bank to say that. \u00a0But isn’t savings actually earned success for most people? \u00a0I know it makes me feel happier.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

That would be James Hansen, last seen “adjusting” historical climate data to show the “correct” increases. \u00a0He’s still at it, plugging away, claiming that while we’ll have to suffer through 1-degree changes, we have a moral obligation to cripple our economies\u00a0to prevent 2-degree warming. The new study is a departure from the typical climate science […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Yes, pensions. \u00a0No, we are not\u00a0Detroit or Illinois, and won’t be for some time, even if we left things as they are. \u00a0Still, our problems are far from solved, and rather than writing foolish columns about what Detroit could have learned from PERA, we’d do better to learn from Detroit and Illinois. Eileen Norcross from […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n