Regulation

I didn't know the government fixed the price of helium. No wonder there's a shortage.

""In 1996, the US Congress decided to sell off the strategic reserve and the consequence was that the market was swelled with cheap helium because its price was not determined by the market. The motivation was to sell it all by 2015," Professor Richardson said. The basic problem is that helium is too cheap. The Earth is 4.7 billion years old and it has taken that long to accumulate our helium reserves, which we will dissipate in about 100 years. One generation does not have the right to determine availability for ever.""

It's not caused by global warming. That's one of the stupidest accusations the frauds have come up with yet. Of course some of the shortage could be caused by the demand for army spy blimps. Government intervention in the market always creates problems.

A US appeals court today upheld gene patents. On the one hand...

"In a statement released today, ACLU attorney Chris Hansen called the decision extremely disappointing. “This ruling prevents doctors and scientists from exchanging their ideas and research freely,” he added. “Human DNA is a natural entity like air or water. It does not belong to any one company.”"

On the other hand...

"In the court’s decision, Judge Alan Lourie writes: “Each of the claimed molecules represents a nonnaturally occurring composition of matter.”"

I have an idea to resolve this: abolishing patents and all IP. IP is just information, and information is not a scarce resource, therefore it can be freely traded and improved on. If you tell me a story, you don't lose the story, and you shouldn't be able to prevent me from re-telling it.