Environmentally-Friendly Light Bulbs

The NY Times has a good article about Walmart trying to sell more environmentally-friendly light bulbs, but meeting a variety of obstacles: Wal-Mart Puts Some Muscle Behind Power-Sipping Bulbs (via Slashdot and Metafilter).

I have one of these light bulbs (given to me by Seattle City Light) and its lasted at least 18 months (and it's in a lamp that is on most of the time that I'm home). Unfortunately, I still have 3/4th of a package of regular light bulbs to use up before I get more.

Patenting Thoughts

For example, the human genome exists in every one of us, and is therefore our shared heritage and an undoubted fact of nature. Nevertheless 20 percent of the genome is now privately owned. The gene for diabetes is owned, and its owner has something to say about any research you do, and what it will cost you. The entire genome of the hepatitis C virus is owned by a biotech company. Royalty costs now influence the direction of research in basic diseases, and often even the testing for diseases. Such barriers to medical testing and research are not in the public interest. Do you want to be told by your doctor, "Oh, nobody studies your disease any more because the owner of the gene/enzyme/correlation has made it too expensive to do research?"

Michael Crichton has an editorial, This Essay Breaks the Law in the New York Times (via Slashdot). It addresses a patent case before the US Supreme Court that will decide whether thoughts and relationships are patentable.