For the patent-news-hungry, I recommend Ben Klemens’ recent op-ed piece on “U.S. Patent Imperialism.” Klemens’s book “Math You Can’t Use” is a very readable critique of many types of software patents. When Brookings and the WSJ are reaching similarly skeptical conclusions about the patent system, reform may well be in the offing. (By the way, I could only link to a spring jeremiad by the WSJ about the patent system, but even last week they were on the warpath against the ITC’s role in expanding the effective scope of patent rights.).
For the audiophile: A few weeks ago I wished here for audible versions of more public domain books. It looks like a new site called LibriVox is trying to take care of that. I hope they use the tried-and-true wiki method of decomposing the task into manageable steps…however much I like George Eliot’s Middlemarch, I’d never read out loud the whole thing! I hope more authors consider reserving their audiobook rights and possibly giving them to enterprises like this…I just find the audiobook pricepoint very high nowadays, though I sympathize with the enormous effort that goes into making them.
(PS–Poking around the iTunes music store, I did find an audio Bible already available–conveniently broken into 365 pieces.)