Friday, October 29, 2010

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Adam Mossoff in the WSJ

Posted: 29 Oct 2010 01:00 PM PDT

Adam Mossoff's work on patents was recently discussed in a Wall Street Journal blog post entitled What Smartphone Makers Can Learn From the Sewing Machine Patent War by David Zax. It begins:
The smartphone market is highly lucrative, has many competing players, and involves countless patents. In other words, it's a recipe for lawsuits. In the last month alone, Microsoft lobbed a suit at Motorola, who in turn sued Apple. Nokia and HTC both have sued Apple, and Apple has sued both Nokia and HTC.

The web of competing claims on smartphone technology might seem a uniquely 21st-century problem. But according to legal scholar Adam Mossoff, the smartphone woes are reminiscent of a forgotten 19th century legal melee: the Sewing Machine War.
It's a quick look into some fascinating history that's very relevant to policy debates about patents today. So go read it!

If you're interested in these thorny and crucial questions about intellectual property, I strongly recommend that you join Adam Mossoff's upcoming webcast. You have until November 6th to pledge, and the details can be found in this post. This evening, I'll set up Google Moderate for the people who pledged enough to participate in the asking of and voting on questions. (Those pledgers will get an e-mail from me with the URL.)

If you'd like to pledge, here's the form:



I'm really excited about this lecture, and I do hope that you'll join us!

Craig Biddle: Justice for John P. McCaskey

Posted: 29 Oct 2010 12:14 PM PDT

Craig Biddle posted a personal statement this morning about Leonard Peikoff's moral condemnation of John McCaskey. You can find it on his personal web site, here: Justice for John P. McCaskey.

If you're interested in this issue, I recommend that you read it. Paul and I will have something to say about it next week.

My comments are open to discussion of this statement and related matters. However, my strict comment policy stands: any commenters must be not just civil but also respectful in the process. I will strictly enforce the rule against personal attacks by deleting objectionable posts.

Update: To forestall any confusions, Paul and I wanted to make one point clear now. Like Craig Biddle, we think that a person can judge Dr. Peikoff's ultimatum about and moral condemnation of Dr. McCaskey as wrong, while still very much respecting and admiring Dr. Peikoff and his achievements. Moreover, a person can do that while judging the Ayn Rand Institute to be blameless in this matter. That's basically Paul's and my view. We have some concerns about ARI's future, but we regard their silence on Dr. Peikoff's letter and Dr. McCaskey's resignation as the right course. Unless something changes, we expect to continue our support of ARI.

NoodleCast #40: Interview with Earl Parson

Posted: 29 Oct 2010 07:00 AM PDT

Last Sunday, architect Earl Parson was kind enough to endure all kinds of technical troubles for the sake of a 35-minute informal webcast interview with him about his work.

I wanted to interview Earl now because he's speaking in Denver on November 6th on "The Role of Ideas in Architecture." I thought that a video interview would be a great introduction for the people in the FRO community who don't yet know him. Sadly, technical troubles prevented me from recording the video feed of him from Skype. (That's particularly sad, because Earl is darn handsome!) Hence, as you'll see, the video below shows far too much of me at the beginning and the end. However, don't despair! You'll see lots of great pictures of Earl's in-progress Tennessee House in the middle. Also, the sound and video quality from the interview isn't great, due to the fact that I had to use to the version recorded as a live webstream.

Now... without further ado or apology, here's the video:



If you prefer to just listen to the audio, you can do that here:

Listen Now

    40:37 minutes
Download This Episode
Here are the pictures of the Tennessee house discussed in the interview:



Last but not least, here is the announcement for Earl's upcoming FROST lecture:

Earl Parson on "The Role of Ideas in Architecture"

Please join us on Saturday, November 6th for a FROST Supper Talk by Architect Earl Parson:
  • What: FROST Supper Talk by Earl Parson on "The Role of Ideas in Architecture"
  • When: Saturday, November 6, 2009, 3:00 pm Doors Open; 3:15 pm Lecture Begins; 4:45 pm Q&A Begins; 5:30 pm Dinner at Dixon's Downtown Grill. (Note: Dinner is optional and everyone is expected to pay for what they order, plus tax and 20% gratuity which will be automatically added to our bill.)
  • Where: Room 640 (Zenith) in the Tivoli Student Union Building, UC Denver Campus. (That's Building 7 on the campus map. See also the parking map.)
  • Cost: $30 for regular attendees; $15 for students
  • RSVP by November 1st to kelly@frontrangeobjectivism.com. Please indicate whether you plan to attend the dinner or not.
  • Payment: You may pay at the door via cash or check. To pay in advance, please send a check to: "FROGS Inc." c/o Betty Evans; 1140 US Hwy 287 STE 400-283; Broomfield, CO 80020. You can also use PayPal to send your payment to frogsinc@frontrangeobjectivism.com.
About the lecture:
"The events of any given period of history are the result of the thinking of the preceding period." -- Ayn Rand, "For the New Intellectual"

Join architect Earl Parson as he explores the application of this brilliant observation by Ayn Rand, regarding the relationship of ideas to history, to the field of architecture. By examining primary source documents, including writings, drawings, and photographs of existing buildings, we will examine the ideas that emerged in 19th Century architectural thinking which led to, and made possible, the fabulous career of one of the 20th Century's greatest architectural minds: Frank Lloyd Wright.

As a designer, Wright was a superlative genius. As a young man, his creativity was channeled and focused by his close relationship to perhaps the greatest architectural thinker of all time: Louis Sullivan. Sullivan's early theories of modern architecture were themselves heavily influenced by the writings of French architect and theoretician, Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.

This presentation will examine these men, their theories, and their buildings, to discover the link between their ideas and concrete actions in 19th and early 20th Century architecture.

Earl Parson is an architect, and an Objectivist, practicing in Los Angeles. You can follow the construction progress of his latest designs at his blog, Creatures of Prometheus.
I hope that you can join us!
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