SUN PILLAR

22 Jan 2008 -- Sunrise looking over the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. The shaft of light  forward is Mie scattering from water droplets. The shaft going vertical -- a sun pillar -- is light scattered at 90 degrees from ice crystal turbidity, like seeing a flashlight beam through a smoky room. 

GREAT PLACE TO WALK

Art Institute of Chicago 31 Dec 2011

IN WITH THE NEW

Setting up new exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center 30 Dec 2010

ICE TRICK

North Pond 12 Dec 2010

LOVELY AFTER SOME SNOW

Art Institute of Chicago, South Garden 06 Dec 2010.
Nothing like this so far this year.

MAPLES FIRST

SCIENCE FRAUD ENABLES SCIENCE DENIERS

My reaction to  this science fraud story in the news today is this:
Science deniers are very greatly enabled

by any scientist cutting any corner,
bending any rule,
beautifying any data,
hiding any assumptions,
misrepresenting any errors, . . .

EINSTEIN ENVY: THE "BEYOND US" VERSION

The idea that work in science can not be understood by ordinary people even if they tried became widespread with popular reactions to the eclipse test of general relativity late 1919.

This led to not trying.

Which enabled science deniers to convince too many people that scientists conspire to feather their own nests.

GREED

Greed focused on increasing property and privilege can be a driver of innovation.
Greed focused on self and against common good is a high barrier to innovation.

PULLING TOGETHER -- PULLING APART

During and after WWII we pulled together, were positive, with a can-do spirit, bringing over fifty years of incredible innovation.

Now we are pulling apart, are negative, with a can't-do spirit, erecting huge barriers to innovation.

EINSTEIN ENVY: THE "WAS HE WRONG?" VERSION

Einstein envy takes many forms.

One form is when folks get all excited at the slightest suggestion that relativity might be wrong, even though special and general relativity are confirmed by many independent measurements all with tiny error bars and the new result has huge error bars and very many dicey assumptions.

INNOVATION RIGHTS INCLUDE MUCH MORE THAN PATENT RIGHTS

"Right" has many and various meanings such as "just and good" such as "correct" such as "genuine, real" such as "preferable" such as "best practices" and more. Along with understanding patent rights, understandings related to many of these various meanings of "right" are included in the goal of helping the greatest diversity of persons understand innovation rights.

CREDIBILITY REQUIRES DISCLOSING ALL UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS

It's not that I don't believe what you say.
Knowing that there are always underlying assumptions,
I want to uncover underlying assumptions, often hidden.
I want to know how changes there might change what you say.
If you don't tell me about underlying assumptions,
I give very low credibility to what you say.
Because there are always underlying assumptions.

[Yes, this does apply to stories about neutrinos going faster than the speed of light. The physicists do a good job of disclosing the underlying assumptions. Folks in the "media" do not!]

THE COUNTER ATTACK AGAINST DIVERSITY AND INNOVATION IS UGLY

After invention of farming, farmers tremendously
out-reproduced hunters and gatherers.
This made property and privilege super important.
Now city-dwellers out-reproduce farmers.
Now diversity and innovation are super important.
This challenges old ideas about property and privilege.
The counter attack on behalf of the old ideas is ugly.

HELPING THE GREATEST DIVERSITY OF PERSONS UNDERSTAND INNOVATION RIGHTS IS THE BEST WAY TO ENCOURAGE INNOVATION

Know-it-all big-shot: I just read that we continue to fall behind our trading partners in innovation.
Geezer pragmatist: Yes, the trend is rapidly downward on various measures.
BS: Geezer, you studied innovation as a physicist and as an historian of science each for several decades, working directly with inventors in the Inventors' Council for two decades, and now working on the second decade of working directly with inventors through the Patent Clinic at the law school. So, what do you suggest is the best way to encourage innovation.
GP: BS, the best way is to lower barriers to innovation.
BS: For example?
GP: Helping the greatest diversity of persons understand innovation rights lowers a huge barrier to innovation.
BS: Nonsense, my friends at the country club know plenty about how to hire lawyers to look after their intellectual property rights. That's all we need.
GP: Wrong on two counts Ace. First, innovation rights include much more than intellectual property rights. Second, innovation depends on diversity, diversity of ways to look at things, diversity of ideas. Your country club friends are too focused on excluding people not like them and on excluding ideas which might threaten their existing privileges. Those exclusive country club attitudes are dragging us down.

WILL BELIEVE ONLY IF ALL ERROR BARS ARE INCLUDED

It's not that I don't believe what you say.
Knowing that there's always error,
I want to know what the error is.
I want to see all of the error bars.
If you don't tell me about the error,
I give very low credibility to what you say.
Because error is never zero.

MOCK TRIALS -- DRAMATIC UNITIES

Innovation rights mock trials (left panel) have the classical Aristotlian dramatic unities of action, place, and time and thus are especially potent means for understanding, in our case for understanding practical issues in innovation rights. 


The photo of a sun pillar over lake Michigan was shot 19 Sep 2008 from the window of a former residence.

INTEREST IN INNOVATION IS BOOMING, BUT INTEREST IN INNOVATION RIGHTS IS LAGGING

Using Google to search "innovation" alone yesterday found 41,700 entries per day.

Searching "barriers to innovation" with the quotation marks found 234 entries per week.

Searching "innovation rights" with the quotation marks found 89 entries per year.

You might say that patents and patent rights and intellectual property and intellectual property rights are better search terms than innovation rights.

The response is that innovation rights is much broader than those terms because innovation rights should also include many other areas such as contract law, tricky innovation joint ventures for example; tax policies, R&D credits for example; NIH, NSF, etc funding policies; much more.

And, intellectual property rights are best related to innovation within a context of thorough understanding of innovation, barriers to innovation, diffusion of innovation, and more.

We know that the most diverse groups are the most innovative, but the diversity of researchers is not close to the diversity of our whole population. I at least consider this an important innovation rights issue.

FUD* IS NOT AMONG INNOVATION RIGHTS

Teach the controversy!
Teach the facts!
No! Teach the controversy!
No! Teach the facts!
But, there is no "controversy."
And, there are no "facts."
In science all results have error bars.
Teach the results with the error bars.
And, ask folks teaching controversy
to put the error bars on their “results.”
Watch the scientific error bars get smaller.
Watch the folks teaching controversy squirm.

[* FUD means promoting "fear, uncertainty, doubt" and is the marketing tool of choice for nasty people to use to discredit anyone threatening the status of those nasty people.]

The photo from 09 Jul 2011 shows part of the Agora installation in Grant Park just north of Roosevelt here in Chicago. 

INNOVATION RIGHTS CAN BE HURT BY "DEADLY SINS"

Though the “deadly sins” - extravagance, lust, gluttony, greed, acedia, despair, sloth, wrath, envy, pride, vainglory – can be drivers of innovation they are at least as likely to be barriers to innovation.

[See also 11, 08, 06, 04 Jul 2011]

The photo from 19 Sep 2008, 5:20 AM overlooking lake Michigan from a former residence.