What Caught My Eye Today - Internet, Helium, Abstinence

Internet - Twenty years ago, researchers renounced the right to patent the World Wide Web.  Taking a stand for the greater good, or just plain stupid? I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions. Officials at CERN, the European research center where the Web was invented, wrote: "CERN relinquishes all intellectual property to this code, both source and binary form and permission is granted for anyone to use, duplicate, modify and redistribute it." It's a dull sentence from a dull document. But that document marks the moment when the World Wide Web entered the public domain — a moment that was central to creating the Web as we know it today. If you ask me, this moment also shows that brilliant scientific minds don't always make brilliant business decisions. This begs the question, could the Web have been patented? According to some intellectual property experts, it is entirely possible that the Web could have been patented. A patent right could have changed the course of innovation from the decentralized Internet model to a centralized information superhighway model. I think, if you read between the lines, the question raised here is whether or not the course of innovation would have been greater or smaller if patent protection had been afforded to CERN or anyone else for that matter. I have no doubt that the Internet certainly would be a lot more expensive to access if someone did hold a patent on it.  Heck, I certainly would have cashed in on it if the opportunity presented itself to me. Given that, it does seem worth pausing to appreciate the moment when a group of researchers renounced their intellectual property rights to patent and gave the World Wide Web to the world.  If it was up to me, I would probably go with "ponder the absurdity of..." But okay, "appreciate" works too.

Helium - The U.S. House of Representatives agreed to delay the closure of the Federal Helium Reserve (Seriously, there is a strategic reserve of helium?), on a vote of 394 to 1, amid fears of a potential shortage of the inert, lighter-than-air gas.  Now this, my friends, is a moment to appreciate -- an issue that found not just bi-partisan support, but overwhelming so, in Congress. The Texas-based reserve contains a third of the world's helium supply, which is sold off by the government to U.S. companies that use it in everything from MRI machines to party balloons.  In 1996, Congress voted to close the program, hoping the private section would move in and take over, but companies have been put off by the high operational costs, leaving the prospect of a supply gap. I'm veering a bit off course here (gee, that never happens), but this sort of thing strikes a nerve with me.  Time and time again, government is blasted for overreaching its boundaries and infringing on the rights of individuals and private enterprise.  Here is a case, where government is trying to cede control back to the private sector and can't, because the private sector thinks it is too expensive. Private enterprise shouldn't be allowed to cherry pick what it thinks it can profit from and leave the government to foot the bill for everything else.  That just ain't right, people.

Due to the subject matter, this last item is intended for mature readers only.  But seeing as I probably don't have of those, go ahead and read it anyway.

Abstinence - There is a burgeoning movement among young men who have sworn off both Internet porn and masturbation. Let's assume for the moment, that these upstanding lads are actually telling the truth here. You know the old adage -- 90% of men masturbate while the other 10% lie about it. They contend that online porn conditions men to want constant variety and requires them to experience increasingly heightened stimuli to feel aroused. Yeah, that is a big problem.  I cannot tell you how many times my partner has complained about too much variety or being stimulated too much. Moreover, men who engage in too much masturbation, or "fapping," can't  perform when they find themselves with real women. Can someone please explain to me how you get "fapping" out of "masturbation"?  "Chaffing" I totally get, but "fapping"? Practicing "fapstinence"  enables them to conserve their vital energies, and thus makes them more confident with real women, and more masculine in general. To each his own, I say.  However, I'm not sure abstinence will necessarily contribute to conservation of vital energies (there's a fascinating euphemism, if ever I heard one). We males have all had our dry spells, whether self-imposed or not.  Admittedly, I'm speaking from personal experience, but when that watershed moment finally ends my drought, there is very little conservation going on.