Congress Did It. They Destroyed the American Patent System

The America Invents Act finally passed both houses of Congress, and now goes to the president for his signature. 
More than 220 years of invention led by independent inventors such as Franklin, Washington and Lincoln has now been crushed by the corporate interests.  My previous post on this subject mentions the various ways in which independent inventors will be disadvantaged.  But the worst joke will be on those who supported it. 
One of the objectives was to speed up patent processing.  But a flood of new applications from those trying to avoid the competition by filing before they are truly ready will only put an additional burden on the USPTO.
 In addition, by not agreeing to the original Senate version that put an end to fee diversion, the USPTO will still be burdened by Congress annually stealing fee income that is supposed to be dedicated to PTO activities like hiring the examiners who will be needed to handle the new business.

NASA at the Crossroads

It was more than a generation ago when JFK set the national goal of landing on the moon.  To be sure, it was a political goal because the Soviets had already beaten us with their man in space, but at least this would be a step ahead.
In the intervening years, NASA made sure to trumpet any technical achievement that resulted from the effort.  But few asked whether the same result could have been achieved from either doing the same experiments on earth or in an unmanned vehicle.
They made the best of the repair of the Hubble space telescope, with mentioning that the same effect could have been achieved by simply blasting up a complete replacement, as has been done in other instances.
Let's face it, NASA's manned space program is simply put, a jobs program.  The International Space Station is a total waste of money.  Bring the people home and let it decay in orbit and be replaced by......nothing.
Those scientists in the know are ecstatic about the unmanned space shots, since they actually bring back useful results.  Look at the Mars rovers, once still working years after its 90 day designed lifetime.
Let's call it a day on manned spaceflight. We did it and don't ever have to do it again.  Unmanned spacecraft can and have been routinely launched by unmanned rockets instead of by the shuttle.  The idea of sending people to Mars or even farther is so unrealistic as to be laughable.  There is so much to be on done on earth to which the same money could be applied.  Let's do that instead.  Congress can work the pork so that useful monies can be spread around their various districts in the same way that wasteful expenditures can.