Just when we’re convinced the legal system does not work…
I’ve been following the Tour de France ever since Greg LeMond emerged triumphant. This was not supposed to happen. Americans were always also-rans.
But it turned out LeMond was a genetic freak. That’s what it takes to win in basketball as well as bike racing, if you’re playing by the rules. Despite the success of Muggsy Bogues, you cannot compete in the NBA if you’re of average height. And Muggsy didn’t make it on sheer pluck alone, he could jump! I’m surprised no short person has sued the NBA, claiming they’ve been locked out of a career. That’s the American way, suing to success.
But suits take money. And winning is rarely everything. Because oftentimes you can’t collect.
But ever since O.J. it’s been common knowledge that the government’s lawyers are amateurs compared to the high-priced attorneys available on the outside. Hell, I winced watching that trial, because no one on the government’s side realized trials are theatre. It’s not only about the facts, but how you present those facts, whether you weave a coherent story. It’s like being able to write a hit song but being unable to perform it. You’d better not book a gig. But the government has been booking gigs forever…and losing. Except for Rudy Giuliani and Eliot Spitzer. That’s how they built their names and careers. By doing the impossible. Fighting power and winning. And we know their names because their success was so rare. Everybody else working for the home team is if not an incompetent also-ran, someone not quite good enough.
But they nailed Lance Armstrong. Not the government, they couldn’t even lock up Roger Clemens. They’re all show, and no go. And they gave up on Armstrong too. But the non-profit, non-governmental USADA (http://www.usada.org/about) got Lance, when no one else could.
He doped. There’s no question of that. I could recite the evidence, but if you still believe he’s innocent, you probably believe lowering taxes on the rich will balance the budget and a woman can prevent pregnancy by squinting and squeezing her legs.
But what Lance did not do was admit it. No one admits their mistakes anymore. Everybody’s got to be perfect, all the time.
Hell, I knew Lance was guilty before he even started to race. Because I went to college with bike racers, back in the seventies. World class cross-country ski racers, every summer they went to Europe to compete in bicycle races. Were they planning to graduate and go pro? Of course not. Because all the winners were on dope!
You’ve got to be on dope to win.
That’s what Lance should have said. In a crooked, illegal game, I played and won. He was king of the dopers! Instead, he keeps saying he’s innocent like a kid in a locked house protesting over an empty plate that he didn’t eat the cookies. We could have a turning point in the national discussion if only Lance would come clean, be a force for good. But Lance is all about image, like a bad “rock star” whose hits were written by committee and produced by Dr. Luke… They’re afraid the facade will crumble.
And do you know despite wearing a yellow wristband, essentially none of the money donated to Livestrong goes to cancer research? (http://bit.ly/A8dl88) That’s not their mission. They’re about awareness… Are people truly clueless when it comes to cancer? And if the word needs to be spread, shouldn’t Lance be forthright and honest? No, he employs subterfuge, the same way he won the Tour de France, he wants you to believe one thing while he does another.
As for the Samsung Galaxy products… If you don’t think they’re a rip-off of Apple gear, you’re truly blind.
And this is about everything musicians rail about. Copyrights. Only in this case, it’s called patents. Can someone steal with impunity?
Then again, patents don’t last forever.
But can you ride the back of someone else’s hard work and innovation to riches? Can someone copy your CD at no cost? If you don’t think so, then you must come down on the side of Apple in this lawsuit, however much you hate the Cupertino company.
And in this case, it was the best against the best. And the judge was a hoot, she’d take no gruff, she didn’t lose control of her courtroom. Hell upon seeing Apple’s witness list, she asked the company’s barristers if they were smoking crack!
And I don’t want to get into a lengthy discussion of whether patent protection should exist, I’ll just say there were rules. And Samsung broke them, just like Lance Armstrong.
And if the rules are bad, you lobby to change them.
But Lance is not part of the solution, he’s truly part of the problem.
So what did we learn here?
1. Innovate or die. That’s how Lance won all those trophies, by employing cutting edge doping technologies. And that’s how Apple escaped the doldrums. If you’re in a creative business, sleep with one eye open, never rest on your laurels, you’re only as good as what you did today.
2. Hire the best legal help you can. Oftentimes, that’s more important to success than whether you’re innocent or guilty. Hell, look how long it took to get Lance!
3. Like in the westerns of yore, the bad guys win for a while, but lose in the long run. Choose your path. Brief success or long term struggle. Hell, Apple’s been around in excess of thirty years. It took the company this long to get into this fight. As for Lance Armstrong, he worked long and hard for an athlete, but most athletes peak and are done way before they’re forty, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? Kinda like those kid stars who end up robbing 7-11′s, or those wearing blinders who believe retirement will never come and don’t prepare for it.
4. Don’t put your faith in the government or institutions, but in yourself. That’s what all successful entrepreneurs have, a belief that they’re right and the rules are meant to be bent. Now this is complicated:
a. Companies lobby for less regulation because they want to continue to rape and pillage and prosper. They don’t care about the hoi polloi. If you restrict them, they don’t go out of business, they just have a slightly harder time making tons of money. It’s the government that looks out for the people. So when you’re pro-corporation, you’re against yourself, unless you’re running or high up in said corporation.
b. That’s the problem with sports. The bending of the rules. The reason we’re fascinated with sports is because we believe it’s the last bastion of honesty, a place where we can see all the angles, a fair fight. That’s why we root out dopers. We don’t really care who wins, it’s just that we need faith in the system.
c. But my main point is if you think there’s always somebody smarter than you, who knows better and more and is looking out for you…you’re sorely mistaken. If you’ve been aggrieved, you’ve got to look for your own solutions.
5. The press is not as powerful as you think. There was a whole book written about Lance doping, years ago, but it was never translated from the French, the media building Lance Armstrong up was reluctant to tear him down. And these same reporters were so beholden to the Apple god, so star-struck and at the same time angry that technology is undermining their business, that they could never get the story straight. It’s a big problem with reporters, they get the facts but miss the story. Winners understand the underpinnings, the strategy… Not only is government one step behind, but the media too.
It’s hard to believe we’re in a brand new era when the Supreme Court hands Bush II the Presidency and Justice Roberts employs fallacious logic to uphold Obamacare, but maybe the tide is turning. Maybe the real America is on a comeback.
And the real America is not solely blood and guts and combat, but playing within the boundaries, the rules, and owning your actions. Hell, if you didn’t do anything illegal Mitt Romney, release your tax returns. If you employed offshore accounts, let’s put them in evidence, let’s have a national discussion. And speaking of discussion, even the left wing patron saint Paul Krugman believes Medicare spending must be addressed, but nobody on the left will even entertain a discussion.
But ain’t that America. Where we’ve got no faith in the institutions and we argue all day long, accomplishing little.
If you had faith in Lance Armstrong, you were duped. Plain and simple. Which is why people are still defending him, they don’t want to have to upend their beliefs, rewrite history.
It turns out we can only have faith in Apple. Which is purely in search of excellence and puts forth a scorched earth policy defending itself. Apple is the hero in the westerns and John Lennon and all the icons that have withstood the test of time.
Because Steve Jobs did not worry about being liked. Because he fought 24/7 for what he thought was right, despite everybody else saying he was wrong.
I’m not sure where we go from here, but for one day, there’s justice in the world.
P.S. I realize having faith in Apple contradicts #4 above, but that’s the point. Our heroes have failed us so many times that we’ve become enamored of a corporation. Hell, Apple products are better than any hit record of the past decade. More innovation, more surprises and seamless quality. We used to have these elements in individuals. We need them to return.
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Category: Legal, Technology
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
Fantastic piece of writing Barry.
1.What people must learn is, it is in human nature to compete. Warren Buffet is not investing to make more money than the rest. He’s investing to drink all of you milkshake…with a smile.
2. Weak people who think less govt, and less taxes will magically “increase” job creation, need some serious prayers in their lives. Less taxes for the rich = more money for the rich. Taxes have no bearing on capex. In fact, low taxes (like low interest rates) discourage risk taking and capex. But most people don’t believe that.
Forbes.com
Innovation Rules
The Age Of Cheats
Rich Karlgaard, 08.20.12
One day in the 1980s my father called to share some exciting news. A shot-putter on his track team–Dad was a high school athletic director–was breaking all the state records. “This kid spent the whole winter in the gym, lifting weights. Real dedication. A testament to hard work.” Then Dad paused and added, “He has a terrible temper. The coaches don’t know what to do with him.”
“That’s interesting,” I said. “Does he happen to have a lot of acne on his shoulders and back?”
“Yes,” Dad said. “How’d you know?”
“Steroids, Dad. The sudden bulk, the bad temper, the zits. Classic signs.”
Then Dad said something that betrayed the weak link in his optimistic and innocent 20th-century American attitude: “Our kids would never take steroids.”
I truly believe America is going through a bad patch that future historians may well call “The Age of Cheats.”
…
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2012/0820/innovation-rules-athletics-the-age-of-cheats-rich-karlgaard_print.html
The patent system in the USA (at least) is a joke and sucks big time. Apple got utility software patents for a particular way to move your fingers? They got a design patent for a square phone with rounded corners? A design patent For the arrangement of icons on their phone screen? And there is more (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/technology/jury-reaches-decision-in-apple-samsung-patent-trial.html ). Puh-leeze to all of this!
The USPTO seems to have thrown the “novel” and “nonobvious” patent requirements out the window!
Speaking of USPTO patent jokes, here is hugely funny example:
———
Political Calculations
August 24, 2012
One Inventor’s Stick-to-itiveness
Over the last several months, we’ve been featuring a number of patents that, well, can only be described as “unusual”. Our list so far includes:
* The Best Mousetrap Ever,
* A “Drink Swinging Apparatus”,
* One heck of an “ass kicking machine”, and of course,
* “An Apparatus for Simulating a High Five”!
What all these patents have in common is that they involve some degree of unique creativity by their inventors. Our unusual patent today however involves just about absolutely no creativity on the part of the individual who filed the patent, except perhaps for their ability to convince the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to issue them a patent for their “invention” in the first place.
To see why, just consider Figure 1 from U.S. Patent Number 6,360,693, which was issued on 26 March 2002 to Ross Eugene Long III of Oakland, California, for what he titled an “Animal toy”:
U.S. Patent 6,630,693 Figure 1
Yes, someone actually convinced the U.S. Patent Office to issue them a patent for a stick. Really. We’re not making this up. Here’s the patent’s abstract:
….
http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2012/08/one-inventors-stick-to-itiveness.html
Mr. Lefsetz,
Cool post! Love that the jury nailed Samsung, the judge must have allowed intelligent people on the jury, despite Samsung’s lawyers fighting otherwise. The press is still missing the point, they think this is “no biggie”, the lawyers will be stalling it in the system forever, rather than thinking all the companies blatantly trying to copy Apple’s products are cancelling product plans right and left. I believe CNET has the point right, very few others.
One item that’s suitable for a Barry’s linkfest next week is : “Burn Wall Street” http://burnwallstreet.net/ A group of artists are making 40 to 70 foot high models of the Bank of Unamerica, Merrill Lynched, and several other buildings at the Burningman festival in Nevada, and they’re going to blow them up spectacularly next Thursday or Friday evening. Something both the 99% and the Tea Party types can cheer :-)
Cool that a group is taking the initiative to visually represent the feelings of many people regarding the banks. If one thinks “no biggie”, YOU try to build 70′ high model buildings to last only a week before blowing them up with spectacular pyrotechnics ;-)
Barry, that was great. You need to get that into your W. Post column.
Most of the patents I looked early in the trail were absurd: A patent for a rectangular phone – really? The patent system is busted. Patents are no longer being used to protect innovators but instead to stifle competition.
Ummm, Jojo,
The Apple patents ruled to be infringed upon also included, as explained by the CNET article http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57500273-37/apple-v-samsung-the-infringing-device-scorecard/ , and reiterated by a ZDNET article http://www.zdnet.com/samsung-apple-verdict-the-aftermath-7000003166/ :
381 patent: rubber band effect when scrolling to bottom of page, dragging documents, pinch/zoom, twist/rotate
’915 patent: Distinguishing between a single-touch scroll and a multi-touch action (pinch/zoom)
’163 patent: Double-tap the screen to zoom in or center a web page, photo, etc.
These patents are also blatantly violated in all Android devices, which makes this a major ruling. As well as Samsung being ruled a “willful copier”. Whoops. Google is going to have to make some significant changes to Android to use less of Apple’s software UI design, or the individual companies need to make the the changes, pretty much ASAP.
So Barry, one of your best long-form commentaries. In a capsule: lies drive out tries.
Either we have systems of competition where those involved compete to the best of their insight and ability, or we have Potemkin shows where everything is up on jacks including the audience, a rigged fraud where the outcome has nothing to do with the performance and the money is essentially heisted. Maybe one doesn’t like MMA byt the alternative is ‘pro wrestling’ where everything is faked except the fees extracted from the watchers’ wallets. If we don’t create a regulatory/monitoring structure to ensure actual comeptition, we assuredly get fraud or simple theft. It’s that simple, but it plays out in all arenas.
I’ve been waiting for that cheat Armstrong to get busted and banned for 13 years. Not only has it been totally obvious he was juiced, but we’ve had practically a revelation a year on the dude since he began. The lie structure of him and his is bigger than Pennsylvania. Watching the media get down on their knees and suck up his fraud and excuses has been demoralizing to say the least. Bartolo Colon’s career has been completely _unbelievable_ if one knows the least thing regarding baseball pitching performance. Seeing Clemen’s walk was puke inducing, but I wouldn’t put that all on the prosecutors, the jury were in aggregate a failure. Some people surely prefer to believe their lying eyes than the pattern of material evidence, though.
And Apple . . . we finally see justice. Long time back, this case went to court; different product, different perp, identical circumstances. Microsoft simply stole Apple’s product, not a shade of a doubt. (Yes, Apple didn’t invent the interface, but they made it go and took it to market, in the exact form which MS simply stole, having pretended to be a ‘partner’ in order to get the inside dope on it.) In that prior case, the judge was a rock head. To him intellectual property had to be a widget, or an exact line of code or type. He didn’t get that ‘an interface’ IS a product, and is in many ways the essential product for consumer use of technology. So he handed the handed a corporation which never made a serious innovation of their own, having bought or usually stolen their best selling products, a total victory over a corporation which has innovated like crazy from the getgo. Now, corporations aren’t our friends, and Apple has its flaws and dirty linen, but they innovate, and they make products that work as well as humanly possible. And they were robbed because the judge didn’t get it.
Fast forward a generation, and now the jury ‘got it.’ Yes, Apple’s product was patently jacked, it was plain to see. Samsung isn’t the real crook, but Google had a body between themselves and the explosion, so one target at a time.
Either people get credit and profit from their effort, or everything’s a mafia where the game is rigged, the supply is cartled, and someone with a bomb, a gun, or a crooked courtroom decides how the money’s cut and who rules the serfs. That is what too many folks don’t get about stealing other folks stuff: it may be convenient, but you make a society where the most ruthless crook runs your world. Regulation and simple justice are preferable in my world.
As a trivial aside, Krugman isn’t ‘on the left.’ He is what the real ‘center’ is. We lefties have very limited use for his perspective, although at least he’s more or less honest, give him that. Leftists aren’t allowed into these kind of policy debates at all, and only get on camera if they stop traffic or something.
Samsung Galaxy is a better product-faster and better camera in both directions, faster operation, lighter and more flexible in operation. People hand me Iphones to take pictures of them (tourists), the device sits there like a dead squirrel waiting to take a picture. Still drops calls, etc. The design emulates dozens of other prior art products including Star Trek and its sequels which featured identical devices with similar interfaces.
Apple has been resting on its laurels because it can; it is a boutique brand and Steve Jobs is dead. Samsung will innovate around Apple and come back with better products in more niches because that is what Samsung does in all of its market segments. Success for Apple has been an excuse to extract rents because it is cheaper and easier than innovating and improving. Great product for relatively inexperienced or undemanding users, though, much like a Fisher Price product would be. That’s why Apple’s stock is so high now (the buy what you know approach) and why it could just as easily start to lose market share as economic conditions continue to worsen and Apple’s policy of small, incremental product changes makes each new release a bigger letdown.
Barry, most of the athletes dope. Only recently I heard there is a high quality steroid which would stay just for a day and one could cheat and go into the field. I firmly believe that most of the Gold Medalist of most of the countries dope. Only thing is those guys don’t admit. Only very few practice end no of times to achieve their goals(without doping). From Marathon Runners to 100m racers everyone dope. You’re an icon till you’ve been caught red handed. Situation is similar to Madoff, who returned 12% pa until his D-DAY. This is the reality. Doping was there, is there and would be there in Athletics. Only few games viz., Cricket (one of the laziest game to my knowledge) and ?? (I don’t know any other lazy one like cricket) doesn’t need doping. Even in Cricket one of the legend named Shane Warne (from OZ) has been caught in the world cup (2003). US Carl Lewis was also caught red handed in trials. Until and unless you have been given or getting a chance you’re pure gold. If given a chance ?? This is the reality that is the profession. Only few people are honest. I don’t take this too much. When I read bankers making bonuses of 100M and 200M I wondered what is stopping me to earn atleast 1% of this bonuses. Only thing that stood against me – I can’t go too cheap to earn my money.
Take it with a grain of salt since I was rooting for Laurent Fignon, but I remember Johnny Carson of all people asking LeMond about doping and LeMond said cycling is an endurance sport and there was no way doping could improve performance. Fignon later admitted doping.
Let’s see. You are proud our government went after the athletes. They are entertainment. What about the bankers and illegal activity on Wall Street? Look what they have done to our country.
TLH, precisely! So much effort expended on a guy who won some cycle races a decade ago, and you’re lucky to even get an investiagtion into the fraud on wall street and corrupt interactions with politicians.
Just another circus to distract the plebs …
Bob,
“And speaking of discussion, even the left wing patron saint Paul Krugman believes Medicare spending must be addressed, but nobody on the left will even entertain a discussion.”
Of course Medicare spending must be addressed. But not by eliminating Medicare and replacing it with a voucher system. We know this will not work. How do we know this ?
A) Medicare costs are currently rising much slower than in private-sector insurance, so how does giving someone a voucher to go buy coverage from the private-sector lower costs ? It doesn’t.
B) We tried this. The Republicans previously insisted that “more competition” was the answer, and foisted ‘Medicare Advantage’ upon us. Right now ‘Medicare Advantage’ costs 18% MORE than regular fee-for-service Medicare. Turns out the RightWing’s “more competition” is merely more Corporate Welfare. What a shocker.
The only problem with Medicare is that it is purchasing medical care from a greedy, bloated, inefficient, for-profit private-sector healthcare industry.
We could save FAR more money if everyone with private-sector insurance went on Medicare. The administrative overhead in the private-sector is between 15% and 35%, whereas the administrative overhead in Medicare is less than 2%.
Oh, and as Kline mentioned, there is no political “Left” in this country.
On the Samsung/Apple case, IP wars are the new trade wars of yesteryear. Apple hasn’t exactly been winning its cases in other foreign jurisdictions, so how much of this is a good company versus evil foreign company being played out in a different guise.
Some of Apples patents don’t even stand up to basic scrutiny – shape of phone, tiles of apps (Palm Pilot), size/shape of tablet (Star Trek), hand gestures (minority report movie) etc.
I agree the “novel” and “nonobvious” patent requirement seems to have gone out the window, with the aim of rent extraction. That seems to be the main game in this modern economy of ours.
Quick someone sue the ancients, those tablets have rounded edges:
http://www.tkasian.com/pages/stone/Ritual_Vernacular/1917/full/1917-3.JPG
Must be a slow day to have this drivel posted. Better to stick to some proven, factual information.
It’s interesting to see the polarized comments here, on both the writing and the content. Note that this is not Barry writing, but long-time guest, Bob Lefsetz.
I’m down toward the ‘this is bad’ pole for Apple-Samsung. Anyone here follow groklaw.net? They cover the technology IP beat about as well as anyone can. Their post on the verdict quotes another blogger:
“Here’s the thing, ladies and gentlemen of the Apple v. Samsung jury: It would take me more than three days to understand all the terms in the verdict! Much less come to a legally binding decision on all of these separate issues. Did you guys just flip a coin?”
One can argue that a simple dividing line between the “Left” and “Right” does not adequately capture ideological differences. [ie, where does a person who believes in "free markets and smaller government", while being "pro-choice and advocating strict gun control" fall in the political spectrum?] Nevertheless, from a meta-perspective, there is a Left/Right distinction. Of course the boundary line changes over time, but this reality only affects the Line’s consistency, not its persistence.
To say there is no political “Left” in this country…it’s just silly. If there’s no political “Left”, then there’ not a political “Right”, either. You don’t believe that.
“Left” and “Right” do not exist independently any more than “hot” exists independent of a reference to something that is cold. Krugman may be to the Right of you, but no reasonable person looks at the US in 2012 and says that Krugman is on the Right of the majority.
Your point seems to be that the Left as you knew it has disappeared and that someone like Krugman is actually a Centrist in comparison to the Left as you knew it.
Which, of course, simply means that in your view the Left has shifted to the Center. And you’re pissed about it. Taking it any further, and declaring that “the Left does not exist”, however, borders an infantile solipsism, because all you’re really saying is that in your mind the Left does not exist.
Just watch the Armstrong coverage over the next few days: Even on an issue like USADA vs Armstrong, the opinion breaks down along ideological lines. It’s early yet, but as the commentary crystallizes, the Right will see this case as just another example of an ever-expansive government and the dangers of “excessive regulation”.
The Left, on the other hand, will be the reactionary side in this debate, ultimately defending regulatory reach of quasi-government organizations, like the USADA.
Left vs Right. Every Day. All the Time.
The outcome of living in an ethics-free world.
IMHO: Intellectual Property has become another aspect of the phantom financial game, a complete scam, and an affront to common-sense.
It is no longer about protecting true innovations for a limited period of time, but more often about filing papers quick enough to restrict others from using ideas that others might naturally come up with, whether by logic or inspiration.
We’re so lucky that Gottlieb Daimler lived in 19th century in Germany and not 21st century California. If he were, nobody else would’ve been able to legally build 4-wheel engine propelled moving vehicles.
My question is: Why the heck doesn’t Xerox sue Apple? Clearly Xerox PARC folks created “tablet” computing devices.
Finally some sanity. Author seems to be happy that the government went after athletes. And that again as author himself put in his post, a theater. Theater because it was easy to build a case on athletes as opposed to the wrongdoers on Wall Street.
Jon Corzine has not been touched so far and you are saying there is justice in the world?
This is why it is obvious even without reading that this post was not written by Barry. Barry has clarity.
Not for nothing I sat through every minute of the trial, and that trial will be famous for techno-hubris. Design patents relate to P-O-P confusion; Apple brought no credible evidence that any significant number of consumers bought Samsung by mistaking it to be the Apple. Ornamentation is the heart of the rule, functionality obviates that. The one-finger scrolling and two-finger gesture binary decision/switch is the heart of the main utility patent yet two-fingered scrolling ability in the Samsung devices didn’t break the jury’s mindset. Prior art in the Mitsubishi Electronics Research Labs’s Diamond Touch (2001) was demonstrated to in their open lobby, and tablet control movement the Fiddler patent (1994) anticipated the icon activated finger-moving picture tablet. Samsung didn’t bother with guard rails on the always old country road, and will build freeways around the most valuable company in the US.
R-O-W isn’t going to wait for once a year when 16 designers come down from Cupertino Mountain with the new tablet to see the world. A Greek tragedy pauses for a Phyrric victory. Let the games begin!
Hell yeah.
@xSiliconValleyEE – But many of those functions listed in the CNET URL were previously available on computer systems in general via mouse movements. My desktop computer Cirque brand touch mouse has also support “gestures” on its touch screen for at least the last 8-10 years.
There appears to be plenty of “prior art” that Samsung should have been able to bring to the table, which alone would have invalidated many of Apple’s arguments. Why didn’t they? Maybe their lawyers didn’t understand the USA patent system?
All Apple has done is port existing ideas to a new device and UI. That is not novel and/or non-obvious.
Cognitive dissonance. The author writes:
Hell, I knew Lance was guilty before he even started to race. Because I went to college with bike racers, back in the seventies. World class cross-country ski racers, every summer they went to Europe to compete in bicycle races. Were they planning to graduate and go pro? Of course not. Because all the winners were on dope!
AND:
But it turned out LeMond was a genetic freak.
Really. So from that we can we conclude that:
Armstrong was a genetic freak or LeMond doped.
Apple’s Look and Feel GUI, IS made up of 100′s of small patents of the unique features and gestures it created to build a solid FAST user experience.
Pointing out the tree in the argument, and Ignoring the totality of the Copy Job makes you look like a fool.
Samsung COULD Have Hired their own GUI experience artist and put out a UNIQUE Product, they chose to go CHEAP and ride off Apple’s Design. Samsung chose to be the cheap competitor instead of the innovator. Why should they be rewarded for that?
And what would you do if you were Lance Armstrong?
USADA has won 58 of its 60 arbitration cases.
In his career, Armstrong was investigated by the French government, an independent lawyer from the Netherlands hired by the International Cycling Union, and then by the US government.
No penalties ever were issued.
An arbitration panel awarded Armstrong $US7.5 million ($A7.20 million) in damages in 2006 after Dallas-based SCA Promotions refused to pay him a $US5 million ($A4.8 million) bonus because of what it claimed was Armstrong’s drug use to win its Tours.
The agency never revealed the identities of its witnesses in its official charging document. But in an August 10 court hearing, USADA said two of those witnesses were Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton, both of whom failed drug tests.
As for Medicare and Social Security, both cheaper solutions to private enterprise, I only trust a Democrat to reform them. Social Security, with ultra low expense ratios and a proven successful track record managed by someone not paid 10′s of millions of dollars, just a “government employee”, proves the flaws of transferring wealth from the bottom 99% to the 1% to successfully manage anything, except sheer greed.
Trend: CEO’s get paid more, middle class loses more buying power, business fraud explodes.
Correlation IS Causation.
BITFU,
“To say there is no political ‘Left’ in this country…it’s just silly.”
Not at all.
“If there’s no political ‘Left’, then there’ not a political ‘Right’, either.”
Non sequitur.
“You don’t believe that.”
I wasn’t referencing beliefs.
“Your point seems to be that the Left as you knew it has disappeared and that someone like Krugman is actually a Centrist in comparison to the Left as you knew it.”
Nope.
The point is that in contrast with the other industrialized countries on the planet, there is no “political Left” in this country.
Examine the 535 elected members of the House and Senate. There are a large number of the Republican party members that are the equivalent to RightWing political parties in other countries, there are a large number the Republican party members who are the equivalent to extreme RightWing political parties in other countries, there are a very large number of the Democratic party members who are the equivalent to Centrist parties in other countries, and there is ONE member who self-identifies as a Socialist who is the equivalent to Leftist parties in other countries.
If you want to try and claim that Bernie Sanders is the equivalent to a “political Left” in this country, have at it.
“Taking it any further, and declaring that ‘the Left does not exist’”
WHO made that declaration ?
Of course the political Left exists, just not in this country.
“however, borders an infantile solipsism”
Actually, what’s solipsistic is limiting your frame of view to the borders of one country on the planet.
“And do you know despite wearing a yellow wristband, essentially none of the money donated to Livestrong goes to cancer research? (http://bit.ly/A8dl88) That’s not their mission. They’re about awareness… Are people truly clueless when it comes to cancer?”
Is there some point you are trying to make with that remark?
There are only two possibilities with Armstrong, he is innocent and they perpetrated an injustice, or he is guilty but so is everyone else in biking which means he still won and this is an injustice. Either way, he still looks much better than biking.
Are people truly clueless when it comes to cancer?”
Is there some point you are trying to make with that remark?
How much research is directed away from the current corporate-institutional research paradigms?
Is cancer a transient event that can be made permanently fatal by immediate attack when such intervention has consistently resulted in significant failure?
Is autism a result of pure souls entering a technological world enveloped in cognitive dissonance?
Since 1970 the EPA and CSA have removed environmental and nutritional science from all but corporate pharma and academic grantkissers by regulation and fear of some substances for political (existing cash-flows). Nixon and Mitchell , two corporate lawyers, were the architects of our modern science policy if you don’t know..don’t forget Rumsfeld and Monsatan at the end of the 70′s as well for aspartame and unnatural DNA for the benefits of private ownership of life. Sustainable seeds have been the way of survival since Genesis 1:29, and will continue long after after self-service rules makes the neighborhood uninhabitable.
Our culture embraces scientific advancement. Our entire food system is genetically modified and full of performance enhancing hormones. We believe this to be a huge success.
So, why are we surprised that our athletes embrace this belief system?
Quite frankly, I could care less. I still think Lance is the man.
[...] Source http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/08/samsung-armstrong/ [...]