I'm not super familiar with patents themselves, but I used to work in genetics back when human genes were able to be patented, and Myriad Genetics used their patent of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes to lock genetic testing for these common factors in breast cancer predisposition behind a massive paywall. Even after gene patents were no longer allowed, they refused to share their previous test results with researchers trying to develop a more comprehensive, accurate, and cost-effective test, slowing down medical research.

Research eventually progressed without Myriad Genetics' help, and within a few years after the genes stopped being patented, genetic testing for the BRCA genes and many more was down to an affordable price, even for people without insurance coverage. We now learn more and more about these genes quicker than ever, and can offer tests that cover many genes at once for a low price and with high accuracy, due to the sharing of test results between labs that never would have happened while genes were patented.

This may be an outlier in patent usage - though I doubt it - but it still shows that big companies can use patent laws more to bully fair competition than to offer a better product. Patents are a good idea for helping small businesses and individuals protect their right to make a new product without a big company swooping in, but there are still massive issues with the process that need to be fixed to keep those same big companies from using the process in reverse to keep small businesses from growing into the competition necessary for a healthy economy.

My sister has a lot of anxiety about whether or not she's acting like our mom, who was a real piece of shit. I always tell her that the fact that she's even reflecting on it shows that she's not. The defining feature of people who lack empathy is that they don't self reflect. They lack the ability to understand others because they don't even understand themselves.

Ha! Good one.

The pledges mean nothing; Trump uses words as nothing more than a way to get people to do what he wants. To him, speaking truthfully is as foreign and unnecessary as speaking backwards.

People think it because those in power want us to think it, and tailor the media coverage accordingly.

They didn't forget, they enacted a decades-long propaganda campaign to ensure we'll be too preoccupied with fighting each other to band together.

That's the thing, though - there isn't anything else. Just think - would you still go to work if they stopped paying you? If, like most people, you answered no, then everything besides the pay is just a neat bonus on top of the only real thing you're there for.

I said this in my first interview, and while I still go the job, they made it clear that it was very much in spite of the response. Sorry that it wasn't my life goal at 16 to put tags on clothing...

Looks like my wife's ass. She thinks it's gross, but I love it. This is a real ass, kids. Once you're in your 30's they all look like this, and that's not a bad thing.