The Boy Scouts where I grew up sold Christmas trees (seemed to be doing pretty well) and the Boy Scouts where my parents live now collect Christmas trees after the holidays (no idea how they’re doing, but my parents always use them).

This is more a question of political analysis of “what would happen if you removed Trump from the equation” than of my sexual mores or willingness to take one for the team.

My mom was in charge of sex ed for my fifth grade class and somehow scheduled it for when my dad was taking me out of the country on a ski trip.

This is true.

Not only does DC get almost two feet of snow per year, it tends to get the bulk of its snow in decent-sized storms. A half dozen flurries, and then one or two or three storms that drop six inches or more in one go. Not only should DC be able to handle snow, it should be able to handle lots of snow at once.

An administrative judge, yes, because PTAB just declared an interference.

Yep. While publications count as prior art (to say “no one can get a patent on this”), date of invention (at least under the pre-AIA system, which applies here because both parties claim a priority date in 2012) determines who gets a patent as between the two parties.

Because both parties claim priority dates in 2012 (placing us in pre-AIA first-to-invent territory), the issue of Doudna’s patent application being prior art is irrelevant. The interference is going to be about date of invention.

If anyone wants more detail on the patent dispute, this article is pretty good, with the addendum that an interference was officially declared last week. In other words, the Patent and Trademark Office is going to have the two parties go head-to-head to determine which of them invented the tech first starting in…

CX, LD, or PF/TT?

(In Ohio, participating in a robbery that leads to someone’s murder leaves you liable for the murder.)

Nothing is catching my attention. Time to cancel my Crunchyroll account.

GRRM vs. Puppies delights me.

Fafner: Exodus was the best anime of the year, hands down. I enjoy Iron-Blooded Orphans, but Fafner’s depiction of war makes Iron-Blooded Orphans look like Looney Tunes. Beautiful robot animation, perfect music, meaningful sacrifice, character development, wonderful depictions of parents’ love for their children. It…

Really? Damn, shame on her for building hype, then. I know she’s been involved with the entire creative process.

They also have very nice Rey costumes at the Disney store.

True, but I’d pin that on the marketing people rather than the creative people.

He died so Kylo could cry while listening to Linkin Park, so yes.

So “women do politics, men do fighting” is something I see a lot in mecha anime, and I don’t actually think it’s a good thing. From a real-world perspective, politics and generalships are important. But from a cinematic perspective, they’re not what we go to the movies to see (at least until someone makes Star Wars…

I think Phasma was originally not supposed to be a big deal.