Author: Josh Witten

http://www.thefinchandpea.com

MLF – Mermaid Liberation Front

I did not watch the Animal Planet fake mermaids documentary. I was busy watching The Little Mermaid with my kids. Contrary to popular opinion, the funniest part of this movie is not Sebastian trying to avoid being cooked or Scuttle mistaking a fork for a comb and calling it a “dingle hopper”.

It’s that poor, naive Ariel thinks young women are more liberated in Renaissance Europe than in Triton’s undersea kingdom:

Betcha on land they understand
That they don’t reprimand their daughters
–Little Mermaid, “Part of Your World” (by Alan Menken & Howard Ashman)

Pedantic Cow

The Laughing Squid is a font of linkjoy, like this stylized, but functional illustration of a cow’s digestive processes.

Cow from Nova Jiang on Vimeo.

Nova Jiang’s sculpture, Cow, is not, however, a “Rube Goldberg-style” machine, as described in the Laughing Squid piece:

“Cow” is an interactive wooden sculpture that demonstrates the complicated digestive system of a cow with a complicated Rube Goldberg-style mechanism. – EDW Lynch

Rube Goldberg-style machines are unnecessarily complicated. The game Mousetrap involves the construction of a Rube Goldberg-style machine. The “This Too Shall Pass” video from OK Go we featured as our Song of the Week shows the operation of a Rube Goldberg-style machine.

This machine is not unnecessarily complicated. It is necessarily complicated, because digestion in cows is complicated.

Held: Genes are products of nature

Today the US Supreme Court rules that there cannot be patents on genomic DNA information (PDF – 139kb), only modified DNA products like cDNA. Note that the decision was effectively unanimous, the opinion was written by Thomas, and Scalia’s concurrent opinion is essentially an admission of ignorance in the specialty field. I have not had time to read the full opinion, but at initial review this seems like a very reasonable result. Naturally occurring DNA sequences are, well, natural. Sequences modified with intent may be patent eligible. It will be interesting to see in the future if discovery of naturally occurring sequences that are identical to patented sequences modified naively to match a natural variant will invalidate patents.

Myriad’s DNA claim falls within the law of nature exception.Myriad’s principal contribution was uncovering the precise location and genetic sequence of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes…Myriad did not create or alter either the genetic information encoded in the BCRA1 and BCRA2 genes or the genetic structure of the DNA. It found an important and useful gene, but groundbreaking, innovative, or even brilliant discovery does not by itself satisfy the §101 inquiry…Myriad’s patent descriptions highlight the problem with its claims: They detail the extensive process of discovery, but extensive effort alone is insufficient to satisfy §101’s demands. Myriad’s claims are not saved by the fact that isolating DNA from the human genome severs the chemical bonds that bind gene molecules together. – SCOTUS (PDF -139kb)

Trying to explain “Fair Use”

If I have learned one thing from reading Cory Doctorow’s novels, it is that you do not want to be sued by Disney. That means that you probably want to be familiar with the Fair Use concept from Copyright Law. I’m not a copyright lawyer. The odds indicate that you are not a copyright lawyer. This means that neither of us is truly familiar with the Fair Use concept from Copyright Law.

Fortunately, the American University Center for Social Media has published a Set of Principles in Fair Use for Journalism:

This document is a statement of principles to help journalists in the United States interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. It is intended for anyone who engages in the set of practices that entails creating media of any kind that refers to real-life events of public interest, in service of public knowledge, whether that person is a full-time professional or an individual who takes it upon himself or herself to report about specific issues or events…Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances—especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant.

It is intended for “journalists”, but I’m not really sure what that means anymore, either. Heck, they happily punt on the definition too. If you ever feel the urge to write things related to copyrighted material, you probably want to review this.

*Hat tip to Ellyn Angelotti at Poynter.

 

Eva is a @RealScientists

Last week, Eva tweeted on behalf of @RealScientists. They have helpfully created a Storify for her discussions of science and cake:Storify of Eva's Tweets for @RealScientists