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[SpikeThurs] Linux Group are buying up patents, Let sleeping cows lye, buy your own LOST complex, Christmas Facts#45
The WallStreetJournal writes today that the Open Invention Network, a non-profit company, is taking donations from the likes of IBM, Sony, Redhat, Philips and Novell to go and buy software patents. These patents will then be granted, royalty-free, to any company that pledges not to assert their own patents against the networks other licensees. A risky strategy, and definitely a novel way of fighting the patent problem. If you can't beat them, join them sort of attack. The Open Invention Network doesn't appear to have any sort of pressence on the web yet though. This cartel seems to be operating very secretively; one then wonders, are we just moving the problem instead of solving it?
We all have our dream office. Some want a new view of Manhattan, some favour a coastal view. Myself? I want to go underground. Anyone following the recent ABC Lost series will have noticed they have found a massive underground complex stocked full of goodies. Well, the Ministry of Defence here in the UK is selling off one its massive nuclear bunkies built during the cold war in the 1950's. It has everything 100ft below ground - kitchen, offices, sleeping quarters, a studio and check this, even a PUB! Makes you proud of your government I tell you.
This story popped up in the Register yesterday, but it was too good to let slip. There is an old adage that states you can sneek up on a sleeping cow and tip them over. Although just how much sneeking you actually need to do is still being investigated, but the tipping theory has at least been disproved. University of British Columbia student, Tracy Boechler and her professor Dr Margo Lillie, calculated "a cow of 1.45 metres in height pushed at an angle of 23.4 degrees relative to the ground would require 2,910 Newtons of force, equivalent to 4.43 people". And there you have it.
Countdown to Christmas Fact#45:
Kissing under the mistletoe custom dates back to 17th century England, where by one would kiss your victum under mistletoe and remove a berry afterwards. After no more berries, no more kissing.
Courtesy of http://www.care2.com/gates/holidays/christmas/holidaycards.html
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