Provisional Patents Don’t Exist

This is a very important thing for inventors to know. I’ve always promoted used a provisional patent as a basic protection and this directly applies.

“One of the most common misunderstandings relates to the notion of a “provisional patent.” I’ve heard people say, “I have a provisional patent” or “I am protected because I have filed for a provisional patent.”

Because of their misunderstanding of the process, many have unintentionally surrendered any patent rights they may have secured for their invention. There is no such a thing as a provisional patent.

There is, however, a provisional application for patent, which is just that – an application. It’s not a granted patent. A ‘provisional application for patent’ provides a way to establish an early priority date for a subsequently filed non-provisional application. Once you file a provisional application, you can use the term “patent pending.”

“Patent pending” gives notice that a current patent application covering an invention is on file with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It does not mean that a patent has been or will be allowed, only that an application for a patent is currently on file. Many are confused when they hear about provisional rights authorized under 35 U.S.C. §154.

This section does not grant rights to a provisional application for patent, nor does it grant rights before a patent has been granted. Provisional rights under §154 relate to the retroactive enforcement of patent rights in very limited circumstances. If final patent meets certain criteria, you may be able to enforce your rights for some period before the date the patent was granted.

The takeaway is this: There is no such thing as a provisional patent. And while a provisional patent application allows you to use the phrase “patent pending,” you have no patent enforcement rights under a provisional patent application.” – Full Article Source

Asthma Breakthrough

Excellent!

“Half of the most seriously ill asthmatics are also suffering another condition called Vocal Chord Dysfunction, which accounts for many of their symptoms but can be easily controlled, a team from Southern Health has discovered.

Patients who had been regularly hospitalized with severe asthma attacks in the past are now attack free and have been able to abandon most of their medication in favour of vocal exercises, such as whistling or humming, to stretch their vocal chords. The condition causes the patient’s vocal chords to close when they attempt to breath out, limiting them to taking breaths through a hole the size of a straw and creating symptoms previously indistinguishable from asthma.

“But this is not for people who need to use a puffer when they are out running around on the football field, it’s for those people who can’t make it to the footy (British slang for soccer game) in the first place because they are so out of breath,” he said.” – Full Article Source

Lightning prods shiitake to multiply

Electro-culture, well known but hardly ever used.

“According to Koichi Takaki, associate professor at the faculty of engineering and a member of the research group, experiments have shown that exposure to high-voltage lightning can double the yield of shiitake compared with normal cultivation methods.

During the lightning process, the protein and enzymes secreted by the mushrooms’ hyphae initially decrease but then multiply dramatically. It is thought that the hyphae, sensing danger, accelerate development to leave more shoots.

“If we applied this to other vegetables, it could lead to an advancement in farm produce,” Takaki, 46, said. Similar experiments are being carried out on daikon sprouts, which appear to be budding earlier than usual. Inspired by the saying “lots of lightning gives a good harvest of mushrooms,” the high-voltage experts in the city of Morioka developed a device using four condensers.

They hit mushroom bases and bed logs two to four weeks before harvesting with 50,000 to 100,000 volts for a 10-millionth of a second. According to results of experiments carried out in the local woods since 2006, the shiitake crops have approximately doubled using this method, while “nameko” mushrooms increased by 80 percent and fried chicken mushrooms by 30 percent.

Results have shown that the most effective size of the voltage varies with each mushroom type. “maitake” mushrooms died, while high-quality “matsutake” did not multiply with any voltage.” – Full Article Source

How to Make a Car use Less Fuel?

When the car is running, it generates as much as the alternator from heat…hmmm…

“Russian engineers suggest a technique for making electric current from car emissions. Improved thermogenerator, which is a special exhaust tip, helps reducing carbon dioxide concentration in exhaust gases and cutting fuel consumption.

The device will generate electric current due to temperature difference – 30 degrees of difference between exhaust pipe and cooing element are enough for electrons to start flowing. Electricity will move to car accumulator and other electronic devices of a car. Generator power output can reach 750 Watt, which is comparable to common car accumulators, developers say.

When tip’s efficiency coefficient becomes high enough, scientists claim that no accumulators would be required in cars. Estimated costs of this device will not exceed 300 rubles ($10), when serial production starts.” – Full Article Source

The Most Useless Machine EVER

And yet everybody wants one!!! Complete instructions for building this device: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Most-Useless-Machine/ – Full Article Source

Tunguska Mystery Solved

Well, it’s a new take on it if nothing else. You know how these things go, people love mysteries and hate to see them solved.

“Researchers from Cornell University have confirmed that the mysterious Tunguska explosion was caused by a comet. In 1908, this explosion levelled 830 square miles of the Siberian forest. Now the new findings have been validated, strangely enough by the exhaust plume from a NASA space shuttle. The two events are related by bright and night-visible clouds, also known as “noctilucent” clouds which are developed when ice particles form at high altitudes in extremely cold temperatures.

A few days after the Tunguska Explosion, reports from Europe, especially Great Britain, described night skies that shone brightly. Noctilucent clouds could be the only reason for this phenomenon. The comet would have begun to break up at the thermosphere and release copious amounts of water vapour, just like the space shuttle.

Previously, there has been discussion on how this vapour travelled so far without scattering and diffusing, as expected according to conventional physics laws. ”There is a mean transport of this material for tens of thousands of kilometers in a very short time, and there is no model that predicts that,” Kelley said. “It’s totally new and unexpected physics.”

The development of this ‘new’ physics could be due to counter-rotating eddies with extreme energy. Water vapour can travel at speeds of 300 feet per second when caught in these eddies.” – Full Article Source

New Device For Plants To Talk and Send Text Messages

Nowhere near intelligent plant communication but it’s a neat toy.

“The device can send short messages to a mobile phone or, by using a service called Twitter, it can send short messages to the Internet. The messages can range from reminders to water the plant, a thank you or a warning that you over- or under-watered it.

To communicate, probes in the soil emit electric waves. A voltage level based on the moisture content is sent through two wires to a circuit board that compares the optimum moisture level with the current one. A local network receives this data and allows the plant to send a message through the device.

“They’ll recognize when they’ve been watered, and they’ll say thank you, and they’ll also let you know if you’ve over-watered or under-watered,” said Botanicalls developer Katie London. Botanicalls researchers have created units with a soil-moisture sensor.

“We have a little micro-controller unit that’s basically a little computer that’s hooked up to your plant,” said developer Kate Hartman. Probes in the soil send out electrical waves. Based on amount of moisture in the soil, a voltage level is sent through two wires to a circuit board that compares current moisture levels to the optimum moisture level.

This data is received by a local network, which allows the plant to send a message for help. “We decided to tap into existing communication systems and allow them to talk like people,” Hartman said. Not only is it for growing botanists — it’s also for budding engineers. Each device has to be assembled from basic parts.

Each Botanicalls kit is $99. Developers say it’s worth it if you like your plants but don’t always remember to take care of them. The new kit is the third generation of the Botanicalls system. The team is continuing to innovate and hopes to make it smaller, cheaper and easier to use.” – Full Article Source

Simple Experiment to Talk with the Dead

Always fascinated with EVP.

“The phenomenon has a scientific name – the electric voice phenomenon (EVP). There are plenty of online resources dedicated to this phenomenon. The most distinctive movie of the genre, White Noise, describes a miserable widower who traces radio interferences day and night and discovers messages from the other world once in a while. Many scientists tried to establish a connection with the other world using various technical devices.

In 1920, Thomas Edison put forward an idea that our ego, transferring to the other world, had to preserve its ability to affect matter even from there. If this is the case, then sensitive equipment would be able to register these effects, it just has to be invented. This original idea was used as the epigraph for White Noise.

Friedrich Jürgenson, a Swedish documentary film maker, is one of the most famous researchers of EVP. He accidentally tape-recorded the voices of his diseased relatives. Dr Konstantin Raudive, a Latvian psychologist, was Jürgenson’s supporter and follower. They conducted numerous experiments together, and Raudive soon realized that the best results can be achieved when the recording process is accompanied by white noise. He believed that the dead are somehow using this noise transforming it into sounds of their voices.

The sound of electronic voices usually vibrates at high frequency. The phrase rhythm of electronic voices is also unusual and supernatural. The tempo of speech is generally faster than normal. Another typical feature of these voices is monotony. The most intriguing part of the phenomenon is that a person who encounters EVP recognizes the voices of her diseased relatives without fail, provided the record is of good quality.

All you need is a recording radio with AM/FM reception and headphones to hear electronic voices. Take a clean audio cassette, insert it in the radio and put your headphones on. Then turn on the radio and look for empty frequencies. You need to find a space between two radio stations when you can clearly hear static but cannot hear radio stations. Try to relax, press the “record” button and ask those who are dead to talk to you. Do not try to hear the voices while you are recording, it will not happen.” – Full Article Source

The future of brain-controlled devices

These things run around $150 or so but I think would be a lot of fun and great for hacking. What I never understand is why companies think they can use brainwaves devices that rely on alpha waves to control games where the user gets excited? Maybe I’m missing something but it doesn’t make a lot of sense because you need to be relaxed which doesn’t fit with an action game.

Researchers are already using brain-computer interfaces to aid the disabled, treat diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and provide therapy for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Work is under way on devices that may eventually let you communicate with friends telepathically, give you superhuman hearing and vision or even let you download data directly into your brain, a la “The Matrix.”

Researchers are practically giddy over the prospects. “We don’t know what the limits are yet,” says Melody Moore Jackson, director of Georgia Tech University’s BrainLab. At the root of all this technology is the 3-pound generator we all carry in our head. It produces electricity at the microvolt level. But the signals are strong enough to move robots, wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs — with the help of an external processor.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) come in two varieties. Noninvasive techniques use electrodes placed on the scalp to measure electrical activity. Invasive procedures implant electrodes directly into the brain. In both cases, the devices interact with a computer to produce a wide variety of applications, ranging from medical breakthroughs and military-tech advances to futuristic video games and toys.

One of the more controversial uses under development is telepathy. It would require at least two people to be implanted with electrodes that send and receive signals back and forth. DARPA, the Pentagon’s technology research division, is currently working on an initiative called “Silent Talk,” which would let soldiers on secret missions communicate with their thoughts alone. This stealth component is attractive, but naysayers fear that such soldiers could become manipulated for evil means.

Games like Mindflex and the Star Wars Force Trainer use headsets with simple electrodes to monitor levels of concentration and relaxation. The signals trigger a fan that can move a ball up or down, depending on how hard you’re thinking. Jackson calls it a “fascinating application of a very sophisticated technology in a very cheap package.” The headsets used in both games were designed by the California company Neurosky.” – Full Article Source

almost 45 day delayed update…my bad…

Can’t believe I haven’t updated this since before the New Year! Too many irons in the fire, plus distractions. But something good will come of them, I guarantee! Wore out another keyboard so got that replaced.

Got some new toys, a spycam in a pen for $21, a spycam in a keyring alarm for $40 and a pair of spy sunglasses for about $70. Now what in the world do I want with all that spy stuff? Well, sometimes you see things you want to capture and send up to youtube, but don’t be obvious about it…like bar fights and stupid things that one encounters in life. During the summer, I sometimes see mexican women get in fights and more often men, so it would be fun to just switch on my little spy device and capture it.

I’ll tell you what I learned about them though…don’t even think of getting any video cam, spy or not that has less than 30 frames per second…my pen and sunglasses are both 25fps so when I play back the video it is jumping for fast moving images…but the 720 @ 30fps does a decent job. I wore the sunglasses while riding my motorcycle and at speeds over about 10 mph, the images are just hitting too fast to get it.

But the 25fps which are supercheap now, will do a decent job if you just put it on a table or some unmoving support. Also got a usb network gadget and a video grabber that is pretty slick. Got to have an occasional toy every now and then.

Bought one of the XUFO things with 4 propellers and a central gyro…but I can’t get it to stabilize for the near perfect flight they show in their promotional videos…thats when I found the reviews complaining that the gyro was glitchy and not smooth, causing the onboard computer to overcompensate for one or more propellers…it has attacked me no less than 3 times now. Seems to be doing good and all of a sudden it will tilt and aim for my head!!!

The fun things are the little palm size helicopters that use IR. That means you can’t get more than about 30-40 feet from them or you will lose control, but they are amazingly precise and I have fun with them…they had a deal of 3 for $150 where they normal price is about $75 each. So I gave one away and kept the other two to play with. Best not to fly them where you have any sharp edges or it might crash a prop into the edge and break one of the blades off…I have one with one blade broken off so found a pack of 5 for $5 which I ordered to repair it.

The problem with these little toys, the XUFO and the helicopters is they take between 15-20 minutes to recharge but only fly 5-10 minutes max. But I’ve had great fun with the helicopter in the bars, cafes and plazas.

A friend brought me 3 of those high voltage tennis rackets which you use to swat bugs. It kills them on contact with about 10,000 volts. They are fairly well made except for this really cheap power switch. You press it to energize the web as you swat. But I bought a grab bag of 150 switches from Jameco for about $20. Haven’t gotten around to repairing them yet.

I’ve been wanting more space but I love my little 2 bedroom house, so decided I wanted a cheapy row house in another town where I do business and sometimes get blitzed in the bars. Two years looking for one and always they are too high, too far away, too big, too many nosey neighbors, too much traffic…finally one turned up for $150 a month and then another for $200. Hoping I’ll get it this next week, then I can move a lot of my spare stuff there and also have a place to sleep or rest if I don’t want to drive back to my little town about 10km away.

A gringa here is trying to help the poor and abused mexican women to make their own way by baking breads, pastries and selling keifer cultured milk. She wanted a website so I made her a simple one at Socorros Pride. It’s only for local sales in the Lake Chapala area. She gave me a gallon of the keifer milk so I drank my first glass today. It’s a lot like buttermilk in taste and texture but if you click on the website you can read all the benefits of drinking this stuff. At least with a website they will have a contact address so anyone can check out what they offer, how much and where to get it. Still working on it as I get more information, so maybe this week they will have the prices and products.

Other things also have been sapping my time, plus I hate cold weather and we had 4 consecutive days and nights of rain, totally unheard of here and it was very chilly and cold…I hate cold which is why I moved here where its normally 85-95 year round except for Dec/Jan/Feb. But spring and summer will soon be here and everything will be green, lush and temperate.

Thats enough personal stuff as my EXCUSE for not updating, so I’ll add some news now. Nos vemos (seeya!)