Patents kill. Every single day that NewLink delays shipment of vaccines, in the interest of keeping “control over the development of the vaccine,” is an act of repeated mass murder. #AbolishIntellectualProperty #PatentsKill – – – cut here – – – At the center of the controversy is NewLink Genetics, a small company in Ames, Iowa, that bought a license to the vaccine’s commercialization from the Canadian government in 2010, and is now suddenly caught up in what WHO calls “the most severe acute public health emergency seen in modern times.” Becker and others say the company has been dragging its feet the past 2 months because it is worried about losing control over the development of the vaccine. But Brian Wiley, vice president of business development at NewLink Genetics, says the company is doing all it can. “Our program has moved forward at an unprecedented pace,” he says. Even if it took another few months, “we would still be breaking a record in terms of getting this into patients.” – – – cut here – – –

Fnished The Clouds. Damn, that was a bit darker of an ending than I was expecting.

Northeast US left-lib folks: are you or anyone out know interested in doing an ALL/C4SS/S4SS outreach / lit table at the upcoming New York SFL Regional (Saturday Nov. 15, Columbia University, NY NY)? The table would be free, I can make the arrangements, if we’ve got people down for the tabling.

Denver-area left-lib folks: are you or anyone out know interested in doing an ALL/C4SS/S4SS outreach / lit table at the upcoming Colorado SFL Regional (Metropolitan State University, Denver, Colo., Saturday Nov. 8)? The table would be free, I can make the arrangements, if we’ve got people down for the tabling. Jason Lee Byas says that some of OU Students for a Stateless Society might be there.

If you could have a booklet edition of just one radical thing that is currently not available, or too hard to find, or too expensive, in print, what would you want a booklet edition of?

Overall Co. Coffee, Opelika. Calculus and Aristophanes.

I’ve heard too many people in the last two weeks going on and on about how what will really solve the problems with the Federal government is if they’d just repeal the 17th amendment and get rid of direct election of Senators. I have a better suggestion, while we’re repealing shit. #AbolishTheSenate

MonkeyWrench Books is a great anarchist bookstore in Austin, which very kindly offered us a venue for a book talk during the Markets Not Capitalism tour a couple years back. Here’s what they are working on now, please consider tossing a few coins in the hat: “The radical, all-volunteer collective I worked at earlier this year, MonkeyWrench Books, is looking to renovate and partner their space with Red Rabbit Cooperative Bakery! In addition to this, they’re hoping to build custom-made bookshelves, tables and display racks; redo their floors, as well as stock up their shelves with new titles from ranging categories. To do this, they’re looking for a few bucks from whoever might sympathetic to their cause. Any donated amount will only get them closer to their goal! Support these projects, for you can’t get better synergy than a volunteer collective and a worker coop joining forces.”

O.K., here are my controversial philosophical theses for the day. 1. Acidic soil is good for azaleas. 2. The fact that acidic soil is good for azaleas is a fact about nature. 3. The color of an azalea (for example, the fact that it is red) is a property of the azalea. 4. Mathematical facts (for example, the relationship between the horizontal distance, vertical distance, and direct-line distance between me and the azalea) can be objects of direct perception. Now it’s time to go read “The Clouds.”

So now I’m seriously arguing about whether or not it’s a fact about nature that tree poison is bad for trees.