The Word

James Surowiecki calls a foul on the U.S. patent system. Also in this week's New Yorker, a short story by Nabokov: "The Word".
Time magazine's Persons of the Year: Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono.
SwarmSketch: collective art on the web.
Beck's video for "Hell Yes" features all four working Sony QRIO robots performing a fan dance (see the video by going to Beck.com > Videos > "Hell Yes"). Domo arigato, mister robotos. Since Beck loves performing the robot when he performs, I thought the robots might accompany him in that. Robots performing the robot...guess I'll have to wait until I have a QRIO of my own to pull that off.