Another policy proposal

re: pharmaceutical companines.

If you get public funding for your drug, then the length of your patent is reduced proportionately to the amount of funding recieved--if 50% of your funding was public, then your patent is only half as long as it would otherwise be. This clearly won't solve the prescription drug problem, but at least it will prevent so much blatant profiteering off of the public's dollar.

Just for those who would argue that there is not any, and never has been any, mysogony in math and science...

I gleamed the following peice of wisdom in my (admittedly old) grad-level differential equations book this morning (bold emphasis added):

We will discuss a problem which is purported to have been solved for the first time by Queen Dido of Carthage--of course, in a purely intuitive way, as is characteristic of female reasoning, especially if tricking a man and making considerable gain is the goal

Ah, how damn lovely. Jackass.

In other news, it's a good day, despite my pointing out an example of the jackassery extant in the world. *smile*