text:
Swimming and sickling

4 years old x 4 metres deep

4 years old x 4 metres deep

I’ve been thinking about swimming. We’ve just spent a few days up the mid-north coast visiting my parents – which means going to the beach every day for a swim. It used to be twice a day for hours and hours, but adolescence seems to have given AM an allergy to exercise, and now when we stay at the coast it’s once a day for a quick surf and that’s it.

Just as an aside, my boy told me he doesn’t want to be called ActionMan in this blog. In just one short year it has become a misnomer anyway. So until I can think of something more catchy, (that he approves of) he’ll just be AM – which also happen to be two of his initials. Perhaps they could also stand in for AdrenalinMan – his idea of fun these days would be Parkour (if he could persaude some friends to do it with him), parachuting and wing-suiting.  Eeeeek! What’s wrong with good old soccer?

But back to swimmimg. AM truly was an ActionMan from a very early age. I love swimming myself and I’d take him to the pool or beach often when he was little. The picture shows him swimming in a 4 metre deep pool just a few days after his 4th birthday. From the age of about 7  he had surfing lessons every summer.

I’d love to have been able to do the same with DadaK’s children, but as more of them kept arriving on the scene, it became increasingly difficult to manage. Taking a bunch of non-swimmers to the pool without another adult handy is a recipe for disaster.  So none of them can swim. Every summer I hope to rectify this situation at least with the oldest, 50 Cedis, and every summer we don’t quite make it.

I did take him swimming in Ghana, but it was an expensive expedition to go to the pool so we didn’t do it often enough. In Kumasi the only pools we found were attached to hotels. The Kumasi Cultural Centre gave me a list of them, and we went by tro tro and taxi to two that were – kind of – close to where we lived in Asuoyeboah. We went to the Wadoma (off the Sunyani road) and Rexmar (Patasi) hotels.

The joy of burgers

The joy of burgers

I felt I couldn’t just take AM, but also had to take his cousim Owuraku, 50 Cedis and usually one of his other brothers. AM, pining for non-Ghanaian food, wouldn’t leave the premises without having eaten at the hotel restaurant, so everyone else would have to as well, and I rarely got out of it having spent under $60 – comparable to Australian prices. The picture at right shows 50 Cedis’ rapture at the prospect of the Rexmar’s hotel’s unique mini-burgers and chips.

We managed to nearly drown Owuraku at the Rexmar pool, which has a very deep spot, but he and 50 Cedis both had a lot of fun at Wadoma, which is shallower, and one of the days we went they got to join in a riotous ball game with some young men who were there. (Who were quite drunk, so I had to keep a vigilant eye on my non-swimmers).

To be frank, 50 Cedis probably would have learned to swim years ago if he wasn’t such a panic merchant. AM hasn’t helped much in this regard; his sense of fun in the water is usually interpreted  as plain sabotage by non-swimmers. In the picture below you can see 50 Cedis enjoying a panic in about 1 metre of water. Perhaps Drama Queen is a better description. But with four siblings and non-swimming parents, the odds of him getting the aquatic attention he deserves have been slim.  Maybe this summer we’ll manage it.

I think swimming is such an important part of Australian culture the government should ditch the controversial citizenship test and just teach all new migrants swimming and water safety. I’m sure it would be more popular. Like barbecues, swimming is a part of our culture that most migrants embrace with enthusiasm – if not for themselves, at least for their children. We even have an Australian designed Burqini – “dynamic swimwear for today’s Muslim female”, just to make it accessible for everyone.

Even DadaK has expressed interest in swimming in the past. Not long after we met I took him to meet my parents, who were then living on the shores of a beautiful tidal lake on the south coast of NSW. I tried – unsuccessfully – to teach him to float on its shallow, sandy waters. In spite of his complete failure to float, it was fun – until the next day, which he spent moaning and writhing in bed, and I spent not wanting to believe that swimming had brought it on. This was my first encounter with a condition I’d only read about in high school biology text books, but neither of us knew it at the time: sickle cell disease.

Owuraku and 50 Cedis panicking at the shallow end.Sickle cell disease is a genetic blood disorder in which lack of oxygen in the red blood cells – triggered by a range of things, including dehydration and getting chilled – causes them to ‘sickle’ in shape and break down and block blood vessels. The main symptom is incredible, unbearable  pain as the surrounding area is starved of oxygen. The damage ranges from heart attacks and strokes to permanent bone damage to stunting children’s growth.

It took us a few years to get a diagnosis on what DadaK spoke of as his ‘unmentionable’ because his mother had told him never to mention it or it might come on. When feeling daring, he’d call it his rheumatism. These days he’ll refer to it as sickle cell, and still suffers the consequences of a life time with the condition, although fortunately he hasn’t had a severe attack for many years because he’s found a medication that helps stave it off when he feels it starting.

So, I mentioned it was genetic, right? Depending on the combination of genes you get, you can have no symptoms and just be a carrier, or you can have extreme symptoms – worse than DadaK’s. You can only get symptoms – generally – if both parents have a gene for it. And guess what. Out of all the women available, DadaK married Obaapa, who carries a gene for sickle cell.

They have been incredibly lucky really. Out of their four children, so far only Abrantie has been diagnosed with the condition. 50 Cedis and G Ketewa are only carriers (as is AM), and no-one’s been brave enough to test Treasure’s blood, but so far she’s not showing signs of it. Abrantie’s got the same genetic variant as DadaK – bad, but not as bad as it might have been. Bad enough tho, to make swimming a bit of a challenge.

It was taking him to the beach when he was about 18 months old that alerted us all to the fact that he had sickle cell. I got a call from DadaK in the evening afterwards, wanting to know if he’d hurt his leg because he was complaining of pain. No, I said, but could it be sickle cell? It sounded like it. (By this time I was somewhat of an expert on it, having been through quite a few ‘crises’ as the pain episodes are called, and hospitalisations, with DadaK). Obaapa was firmly in denial, DadaK  wanted to be in denial  but couldn’t help admitting that I might be right. A few months later (after another swim) Abrantie had another crisis and sometime the following year or two, he was hospitalised with it and diagnosed. This time swimming had nothing to do with it, to my relief, but you can understand I’ve been pretty wary of taking him to the pool ever since.

Looking into it online I’ve found that people with sickle cell can swim, but it must be in warm water and they have to keep their fluids up – and in my experience, not get chilled. I turn into a monster of anxiety when I take Abrantie swiming: Is the water ok? Are you warm? Are you cold? Do you want a drink? Where’s the towel? Wrap up really well. Are you cold? You’d better get dressed. Oh my god who got your T-shirt wet!? Are you warm enough? Have a drink.

It’s paid off in one respect, because he’s never had a crisis after going swimming with me, since those two early incidents – and he loves being in the water. But it’s another reason why no-one else in the family’s learned to swim. Sickle cell just complicates the picture. I find it very sad.

I did a quick look around the web for useful sites but decided to just link to two that are for kids, which I intend to show Abrantie. Check them out.

2 thoughts on “Swimming and sickling

  1. Sickle cell disease is one of those very interesting evolutionary “patches” that helps, but doesn’t get it quite right – if you just have one gene you’re more resistant to malaria, but if you get two, you’re in trouble. I’ve got my own genetic blood problem – my blood clots quicker than normal. Evolutionary good trait if expressed just a little bit, and you’re an active hunter-gatherer, and get wounded a lot. Bad trait in my case because I have a combination of blood clotting disorders which pushes it from “clotting quickly” to “clotting so quickly it clots too much”. Genes are funny.

    On a completely different note (I’m rambling here, I know), Aditya doesn’t know how to swim either, which bugs the California girl in me so much. I grew up next to the ocean, don’t remember learning to swim, was on my school’s swim team, etc, etc. I’ve tried teaching him, but he’s skinny, so he doesn’t float easily, and gets cold in the water quickly.

  2. Yes, sickle cell’s kind of weird like that. It’s not even clear to me how much it helps with malaria, tho I know the theory. The gene hasn’t stopped DadaK or AM getting malaria. And in fact I came across a news item about a Nigerian migrant family in the UK where sickle cell seems to *increase* the malaria complications: http://www.ncadc.org.uk/archives/filed%20newszines/newszine91/HelenLaolu-Balogun.html

    I wish you luck with getting Aditya swimming, I can understand why you want him to learn.

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Markets for Ideas

In spring quarter, I took “Market Design” from Eric Budish.  This was my final paper:

Markets for Ideas

Jordan Bell-Masterson

  1. Introduction

Despite their central importance for economic growth, markets for ideas remain woefully understudied.  This paper aims to describe extant markets for ideas and subject them to analysis using ideas from the market design literature.

Briefly, a market for ideas involves two sides – buyers and sellers.  For simplicity, we can assume that sellers are inventors, and buyers are firms (although additional trading can occur between firms alone, without the inventor).  The purpose of a market for ideas is to match an idea (or invention) with the entity best-suited to developing, producing, marketing, and selling them (for simplicity, we will refer to this bundle of activities as developing).  Any number of simple stories can account for this need to trade, i.e., why the original inventor may not be best-suited to develop an idea: there may be complementarities between ideas, advantages from economies of scale, or merely advantages to a division of labor.

Although both the structure of the problem as well as the salience of market design tools are both very apparent, the current literature context here is thin.  There is a long and robust market design literature, but almost none of it has tackled this particular market.  Likewise, there is a long economics literature on markets for technology, but its analyses have yet to embrace tools from market design.  One notable attempt has been made to marry these two literatures, and attack the markets for ideas problem – Gans and Stern (2010)[1] identify three unique features of markets for ideas from the economics literature (idea complementarity, user reproducibility, and value rivalry), and use Roth’s (2008)[2] three market design criteria (thickness, lack of congestion, and safety) to analyze these features’ effect on the market in question.  Though fairly cited six years later, few if any authors have followed Gans and Stern in this particular vein of work.

This paper seeks to build upon Gans and Stern (2010) by describing the dominant set of extant markets for ideas, and subjecting them to analysis using Roth’s three criteria described above.  Our contribution is twofold: an initial roadmap as to fruitful directions for additional markets for ideas research, and some preliminary implications for policy/practice.

The paper is organized as follows.  Sections II and III examine the role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in a market for ideas, and in particular examine a world absent IPR, and the U.S. patent system, respectively.  Sections IV and V assume an IPR regime, and explore two recent and novel market designs provided by private companies – an auction design operated by Ocean Tomo and ICAP, and a consulting arrangement operated by InnoCentive.  Section VI concludes with suggestions for future work, and implications for policy.

  1. Absent IPR

The vast majority of human history has operated without any formal intellectual property rights.  Indeed, the first patent system did not arrive until the 1400s, and the first U.S. patent was not granted until 1790.  Throughout this time, lawyers, economists, and policymakers have debated whether patents are even necessary: for example, Jaffe and Lerner (2004) hone in on a notable episode of debate in the Dutch system at the end of the 19th century.[3]  Even now, well-respected scholars make serious arguments for abolishing the patent system.[4]  Thus our analysis begins not with a moot point, but an object of both historical and present-day interest.

The primary issue with such a system is the lack of market safety, which breeds a thin market.  As Gans and Stern (2010) point out, there is a major user reproducibility problem with ideas, differentiating them from physical goods.  More specifically, without intellectual property rights, it is nearly impossible for an inventor to exclude others from copying the idea.  Consequently, inventors have a difficult time appropriating the full value of their invention, and are less willing to spend their time doing the costly work of inventing in the first place.

This would be a difficult enough problem if inventors were also always developers, since secrecy is difficult to maintain; the problem is exacerbated when we want there to be trading/selling of ideas.  Because an inherent property of a new idea is that it lacks comparables, potential buyers have no way of valuing a given idea without seeing it in action.  But this very act compromises the secrecy of the idea, and the inventor has no recourse against potential buyers “stealing” it, and paying nothing for the privilege.  Nor can we remedy the situation by establishing prices before such an idea-demonstration, ex ante – in such a situation, the inventor has every incentive to misrepresent the true value of the idea, and charge exorbitant prices for what s/he knows to be a dud.

We can fix ideas with a simple example.  Suppose that you are deciding whether to spend $40,000 researching and inventing a new energy-efficient lightbulb.  You are not a manufacturer, so you plan to sell the lightbulb “blueprints” to a manufacturer once invented.  Suppose further that you know the true value of this invention to be $1 million; that is what any competent manufacturer could expect in profits by producing this lightbulb.  After inventing the lightbulb, you face a dilemma – you shop around the prospect of buying the blueprints to various manufacturers and ask your fair price, $1 million, but no one believes you!  Hucksters come around all the time, making similar claims, and then making off with the money in exchange for non-working blueprints.  Furthermore, you know that if you show your blueprints to the manufacturers, establishing their authenticity and value, they are smart enough to go produce it on their own without paying you a dime.  With no sellers willing to buy sight-unseen, and you unwilling to have your invention stolen, you decide not to spend $40,000 inventing the new lightbulb in the first place (despite a potential $1 million payout, and the associated social welfare effects).

This is what economists refer to as a market unraveling, with similar phenomena posited by classic papers like Akerlof’s market for lemons (1970).[5]  Clearly we can play with the numbers in the above example, and relax various assumptions, but the central point still holds – we have far too few sellers, and far too few buyers, since there is no mechanism for establishing value without introducing the chance for theft.

There are two primary ways around this problem.  The first is by establishing some other form of monetary reward, provided not by the market but by government.  Since we cannot prevent people from reproducing an idea freely, and we want to properly incentivize the production of the idea, we might think that central governments can simply offer the “true value” as a reward to the first inventor who comes up with a given invention.  Indeed, there is wide historical precedent for such a system – proponents often point to the invention of a method for determining longitude at sea, induced by prizes from the British government, or more recently, DARPA’s Grand Challenges (which arguably kickstarted driverless car technologies).  Unfortunately, economists have pointed out that such a system is potentially riddled with problems.[6]  First is the measurement problem: it is very difficult for government, even a very informed and technically adept one, to place the proper value on an invention ex ante.  Too low, and inventors will not be induced to invent; too high, and soon the funding agency will run out of money.  Ex post solutions, like awarding the inventor the equivalent of a licensing fee, get far closer to an equilibrium outcome but can be costly to calculate.  Most damningly, however, governments are simply ill-equipped to predict all of the inventions that will be most socially useful, and it is infeasible to offer tens of thousands of prizes per year.  So, while this may work for special cases (and DARPA’s success indicates as much), it is unlikely to solve the market as a whole.

Instead, we might solve the unraveling problem via a trusted third-party intermediary that both buyers and sellers can rely upon to a) fairly value the invention, and b) prevent unauthorized “theft” of the idea, or reproduction absent sale.  We find just such a solution in the patent system.

  1. S. Patent System

The first U.S. patent was granted in 1790, to Samuel Hopkins.  Since that time, the patent system has evolved in minor and significant ways, and indeed has hardly ever remained static for long.  Furthermore, almost every country has its own patent law, each with its own idiosyncratic granting and enforcement process (e.g., China has a notoriously weak IPR regime).  Exploring the full range of variations, over time and across countries, is far beyond the scope of this paper.  Instead, we will focus on the current incarnation of the U.S. patent system, as of time of writing, and try to identify the most salient features from a market design perspective.

First, we provide a brief sketch of the U.S. patent system as it stands today.  Any individual, or team of individuals, may apply for a patent on any product or process.  The three requirements for granting are that the idea must be novel, non-obvious, and useful.  Once a patent is granted, the duration is twenty years, during which time the patent holder has exclusive rights to manufacture, produce, or sell the invention.  These rights may be transferred in any fashion, to any number of other parties, so long as those rights are not overlapping (e.g., you cannot sell the exclusive rights to manufacture in California to two different parties).  Critically, the entire patent need not be sold – the patent holder may sell pieces of exclusivity by geography, time, etc., or do the same by licensing.  The limits are essentially only in the creativity of the contract.

Should any party infringe upon these exclusive rights, the patent holder has the right to sue.  Relief typically comes in two forms – injunctive relief, by which a judge can force the infringer to stop the manufacture/sale of the product, and damages, which are a monetary payment that may either cover what a license would have provided and/or may be further punitive (e.g., due to lost sales, or changed product strategies).[7]

This system is a very deep and complex web of idiosyncrasies, and an entire research literature could be devoted to its study with relation to market design; therefore, we will confine our analysis here only to the most prominent features described above.  With regards to the granting of patents as a property right for ideas, the system (ostensibly) acts as a first-line verifier of quality for potential sellers.  That is, if someone tries to sell you a patent, there must be some floor of quality that it has already cleared.  More importantly, the system’s remedy for infringement via litigation effectively solves the unraveling problem, giving inventors a recourse if potential buyers attempt to “steal” or reproduce the idea without paying.  Thus, even if the patent office literally granted every patent application coming through the door, and served as no indicator of quality whatsoever, market participants could still safely put up an idea for valuation and sale without risk of going uncompensated (although the litigation system would strain under the weight).  Consequently, the patent system is an obvious improvement over the no-IPR scenario with regards to two aspects of market design – the market is far safer, and so naturally thickens.  Sellers are induced to invent in the first place, and then feel comfortable putting the invention on the open market without appropriability concerns, and buyers can then freely assess the quality of a given idea and offer that value to the seller.[8]

With this added market thickness, however, comes new problems of congestion.  In particular, the addition of more sellers (or ideas) into the market makes it progressively more difficult for buyers to find what they are looking for – since there is no good clearinghouse for patents, as the USPTO listings make little attempt to organize or simplify them (and patent language is typically dominated by legalese), search costs quickly become very high.[9]  In addition, although patents are in principle supposed to be completely novel, in reality many patents are granted which are overlapping.  As the number of sellers rise, the number of overlapping patents also rises (and indeed may do so nonlinearly), which introduces additional difficulty for buyers – they do not know if they will require a bundle of patents, or if one relevant patent will suffice, and there is no way to check prior to litigation if the buyer is 100% in the clear.  These additional costs prevent the market from growing as large as it should on the buy-side, and skew the distribution of patent-holders to larger firms which can more easily bear those costs.[10]

This tension between thickness (stemming from safety) and congestion is at the core of our analysis, because it suggests that the patent system must make a tradeoff between favoring patent holders and favoring patent buyers.  In a no-IPR scenario, the market completely favors patent buyers, because there is no fear of litigation and no safety – therefore the market is thin, since sellers do not want to participate.  But moving to a patent system is not merely a binary decision.  The easier it is for patents to be granted, coupled with ease of litigation (and probability of winning damages), increases the market safety for patent holders but drives up costs of doing business for buyers (through congestion-related search costs, overlapping-patent costs, and risk tolerance for potential litigation), in turn thinning that side of the market.  We posit therefore that a given patent system lies on a spectrum, that that position on the spectrum forces a tradeoff between desirable market design features, and that the likely welfare curve takes on a U-shape, with an optimal system balancing safety, thickness, and congestion.

While it is incumbent upon the USPTO and Congress to adequately address the litigation issues raised above (and explored in depth by other authors), private actors have had some luck in resolving the problem of search costs, even as the market explodes in size.

  1. Ocean Tomo and ICAP

In 2006, the private firm Ocean Tomo claims to have held the first open auction for patents.  It operated the auction as a first-price English auction with ascending prices.  For sale were only patents which had previously been presented to and vetted by Ocean Tomo’s internal patent review team, and this limited set of patents had to meet high (undisclosed) standards of value.  Similarly for the buy-side, Ocean Tomo required registration from potential buyers, including fixed fees in the thousands of dollars for the privilege of bidding on a given patent or patent lot.[11]

In 2009, ICAP (the world’s largest broker) acquired Ocean Tomo’s Transactions division, which ran the auctions.  ICAP took over these activities, switching over to a sealed-bid auction, but detailed information on these new auctions appears unexplored by researchers.  The exclusivity on both the seller and buyer side persisted, though – clients have included prominent IP players such as NASA and Foxconn.

The market design literature is rich in describing the advantages of auction systems, broadly construed.[12]  First, we should not have strong preferences between the types of auction offered by Ocean Tomo, then ICAP; each should lead, theoretically, to equivalent outcomes.  In particular, the strength of auction systems comes down to market safety – representing one’s true value in bidding for an object is a dominant strategy, with all other “gaming” being inefficient and not in one’s best interest.

Furthermore, Ocean Tomo and ICAP provide an additional value-add service by vetting the patents for quality, bundling them into relevant portfolios, and providing brief descriptions as to their purpose.  In this fashion, apart from any aspects inherent to an auction design, these private firms reduce search costs for buyers.  Even as the market thickens, a trusted-third party acting to bundle the goods and simplify the valuation mitigates issues stemming from congestion.  From this perspective, the auctions run by Ocean Tomo and ICAP are ideal next steps in designing effective markets for ideas, since they both guarantee market safety beyond litigation-remedies and make strides toward reducing congestion.

Some secondary problems arise, however, from these designs.  Specifically, there should be some cases in which neither buyers nor the broker-as-intermediary are best placed to value an idea – indeed, there must be some cases in which the seller has a better idea of the true value, and auction systems provide no incentive for that information to be made public.

More pressingly, an auction system like one of these will inevitably run into the same thickness/congestion constraints described above, in the more general market for patents.  Ocean Tomo and ICAP have artificially constrained the market by setting an undisclosed floor on value – only sellers with patent portfolios exceeding that floor, and buyers with capital sufficient to bid past that floor, can participate in the market.  If the firms were to reduce these constraints, however, and thicken the market, we should expect some of the regular congestion problems to return – it would remain difficult for buyers to assess the true value of a given patent, and bid accordingly.  In particular, it may be the case that Ocean Tomo / ICAP can perform their bundling and valuation services only because their fee is high enough from these high-value patents – there is no guarantee that such an incentive will exist for a private actor across the entire spectrum of patent quality, and theoretically there must be some patents of sufficiently low value as to not merit such services at all.

Although it is clear that an auction design, like that run by Ocean Tomo or ICAP, is both feasible in markets for ideas and desirable from a market safety standpoint, it nonetheless does not do enough to solve the tension between market thickness and congestion beyond the scope of very high-value patents or patent portfolios.

  1. InnoCentive

Spun off from Eli Lilly in 2005, InnoCentive is an innovation consulting firm which helps individual companies find solutions to pre-defined problems.  Roughly, the process works as follows: a client company will provide InnoCentive with a pressing problem that it wishes solved, InnoCentive will reach out to its network of scientists and inventors with details of the problem, and finally InnoCentive will identify the “winning” idea and facilitate any necessary transfer or licensing of intellectual property.

Since InnoCentive only works with one client firm at a time on a given problem, we have termed this model a monopsony matching market – there is one buyer for ideas, but multiple sellers, and InnoCentive’s service is to match the best seller with the buyer as given.  The economics literature has engaged with this model to a small extent,[13] but because this is a consulting arrangement and not a commonly applicable design, the market design literature has not engaged with markets of a similar type as of yet.

From the perspective of Roth’s criteria, this design looks very similar to the auctions explored above.  The principle advantage of this system is market safety – because this is a repeated game for the sellers, and InnoCentive acts as a gatekeeper for who gets to participate, the sell-side has very strong incentives to be honest about the true value of their inventions.  Very simply, if a successful seller has misrepresented the value of their idea, and that misrepresentation is assessable any time after the sale, that seller will be excluded from any further possible matches by having fallen out of favor with InnoCentive.  Unfortunately, the market is similarly thin as the auctions run by Ocean Tomo and ICAP – the buy-side is necessarily a monopsony simply because of InnoCentive’s business model, and the size and efficacy of the sell-side is limited by InnoCentive’s personal and likely idiosyncratic network.  The thinness likely avoids congestion problems, but there is not even the bundling and assessment mechanism in place from Ocean Tomo’s and ICAP’s model to compensate for increasing complexity if InnoCentive were to engage a larger portion of the potential market.

Overall, while InnoCentive’s design may indeed be beneficial for a given firm and a given problem, the ex ante limiting of the buy-side as well as the absence of a mechanism for reducing congestion concerns severely constrains the ability of this design to be effective, or more importantly, scalable.

  1. Conclusion

This paper has explored four forms of market design for markets for ideas, and their predicted properties with regards to Roth’s three criteria – market thickness, lack of congestion, and market safety.  We conclude with suggestions for areas of future work, and implications for policy and practice.

Although we have covered four principle designs for markets for ideas, one of the main questions left unanswered is whether other forms of markets for ideas exist, and how and why they might be superior (or inferior) to the types described herein.

Two particularly fruitful areas for study unexplored by this paper include Nathan Myhrvold’s suggested market for ideas, which approximates a VC-like structure,[14] and considering patents as securities, as recently suggested in the legal literature.[15]  Furthermore, scholars would be well-served by studying what small tweaks in markets for ideas might lead to especially large effects in effective market design – e.g., the CAFC reforms of the 1990s appeared administratively small, but ended up having a large impact on the efficacy of the market.  Researchers would do well to be able to predict the effect of such changes ex ante.

With regards to market design research veins more specifically, we note most emphatically that our focus on Roth’s three primary criteria need not be the central focus going forward.  Although this provides a useful starting place, these criteria are by no means the be-all and end-all, and scholars should ask what features of a successful marketplace are particularly salient in the context of markets for ideas (e.g., Gans and Stern focus on repugnance, which we have left untouched in this paper).  Critically, this literature would be best served by careful empirical analysis of the presence of these criteria, and their probable effects on outcomes (whether that be forward-citation weighted patents, product outcomes, or something else).  We can tweak theory and assumptions endlessly, but often hard data can lead us in the most fruitful directions, rather than trying “every bottle on the shelf.”

Finally, this analysis holds some preliminary implications for policy and practice.  First, it is apparent that we are not anywhere close to either the perfect market for ideas, nor having exhausted all ideas about the possible forms for that market.  As for the patent system itself, it is apparent that the government has a lot of room for small changes that might yield large improvements in market design, as the market appears right now to be too tilted toward patent holders.  As for building systems atop intellectual property rights, we would be well-served by more experimentation like Ocean Tomo and InnoCentive have done, and especially if these experiments are run by a social welfare maximizing central planner, i.e. the government.

This paper has been an early attempt at a large, largely unexplored, but highly important task – applying the tools from market design toward designing an optimal market for ideas.  Tremendous work remains to be done, but we hope that this paper serves at least as a spur for others in pursuing this critical line of inquiry.

[1] Gans, Joshua S. and Stern, Scott, Is There a Market for Ideas? (December 3, 2009). Available at SSRN:

[2] Roth, Alvin E., What Have We Learned from Market Design?. Economic Journal, Vol. 118, Issue 527, pp. 285-310, March 2008. Available at SSRN:

[3] Jaffe, Adam and Lerner, Josh, Innovation and its Discontents (2004).  Princeton University Press.

[4] Boldrin, Michele and Levine, David K., The Case against Patents (September 2012). FRB of St. Louis Working Paper No. 2012-035A. Available at SSRN:

[5] Akerlof, George A. “The Market for” Lemons”: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 84.3 (1970): 488-500.

[6] Jaffe and Lerner, ibid.

[7] Note that we provide only a very brief sketch here.  Thorough treatments of the U.S. patent system, from granting to litigation, are the subject of entire books.

[8] It is of course the case that information asymmetries can induce bidding away from true values.  If the seller has more information, s/he can ask for and receive a higher price than the idea is worth.  If the buyer has more information about the quality of the idea, which we might expect to happen especially in the case of idea complementarities (i.e., the buyer owns complementary inventions, which the seller has no knowledge about), then the buyer can bid for and receive a lower price than the idea is worth.  Remedying this asymmetry should be a key task for market designers going forward.

[9] E.g., it is not uncommon for patent applicants to hire specialists to conduct searches of prior art, and it is further not uncommon for these searches to fail to yield all relevant material

[10] Jaffe and Lerner, ibid.

[11] Fischer, Timo, and Jan Leidinger. “Testing patent value indicators on directly observed patent value—An empirical analysis of Ocean Tomo patent auctions.” Research Policy 43.3 (2014): 519-529.

[12] Klemperer, Paul, Auctions: Theory and Practice (March 2004). Available at SSRN:

[13] Lakhani, Karim R., et al. “The Value of Openness in Scientific Problem Solving.”

[14] Myhrvold, Nathan. “The big idea: funding eureka!.” Harvard Business Review88.2 (2010): 40-50.

[15] Risch, Michael, Patent Portfolios as Securities (September 19, 2013). Duke Law Journal, Vol. 63, p. 89, 2013; Villanova Law/Public Policy Research Paper No. 2013-3022. Available at SSRN:

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Realizations after Bad News

In the past two weeks, I received some bad news. First, my dance was cut from the Contemporary Dancers recital because not enough dancers signed up for it. Then, out of four sororities, none of them invited me back after the first day of recruitment.

Although I only received these two bits of bad news, I was devastated. Combined with the stress of my home life and school work, I felt a huge blow.

I choreographed an entire dance over winter break and then I found out my work had gone to waste. I was upset, but I kept my head up. Even though I was told by the executive board that my dance could still be in the show if a dancer dropped out, I knew I could not blame them for changing their minds. They did not want the show to be too long and since a dancer did drop out of my dance, it no longer met the minimum requirement to be in the recital.

But, since I am choreographing a dance for the cabaret at the end of the semester, I plan on using some of what I choreographed for the recital in that dance to “N.Y.C.” from the musical “Annie.” This helps soften the first blow because not all of my work will go to waste.

Last semester, I attended sorority recruitment for one sorority, but was not called back. I did leave what I thought was a good impression, though. So, I thought I would be a shoo-in when I attended recruitment this semester. Plus, there were more sororities to meet this time around.

But, it turns out I was wrong and I do not belong with any of the Greek organizations on campus. I cried for a while and then decided to go to dance rehearsal because I no was no longer allowed to attend recruitment.

When I arrived at rehearsal, one of the dancers on the executive board pulled me aside. She handed me a card and a stuffed unicorn and gave me a hug as I began to cry again. This time, though, my sad tears were mixed with happy tears.

I was happy because, even though I was not invited into a Greek organization, I realized there are others who care about me. I realized I should be part of the groups who show me kindness, not the groups who do not want to include me.

This kind gesture cheered me up. I no longer cared that my dance would not be in the show because at least I can dance alongside people who care about me.

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Beautiful: The Carole King Musical TICKETS - National Tour

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

— A new musical telling the story of Carole King's life through her music.

Long before she was Carole King, chart-topping music legend, she was Carol Klein, Brooklyn girl with passion and chutzpah. She fought her way into the record business as a teenager and, by the time she reached her twenties, had the husband of her dreams and a flourishing career writing hits for the biggest acts in rock ‘n’ roll. But it wasn’t until her personal life began to crack that she finally managed to find her true voice.

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical tells the inspiring true story of King’s remarkable rise to stardom, from being part of a hit songwriting team with her husband Gerry Goffin, to her relationship with fellow writers and best friends Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music history. Along the way, she made more than beautiful music, she wrote the soundtrack to a generation.

Featuring a stunning array of beloved songs written by Gerry Goffin/Carole King and Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil, including “I Feel The Earth Move,” “One Fine Day,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “You’ve Got A Friend” and the title song, Beautiful has a book by Tony Award nominee and Academy Award-nominated writer Douglas McGrath, direction by Marc Bruni, choreography by Josh Prince and took home two 2014 Tony Awards and the 2015 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. Beautiful is currently playing to sold out crowds at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on Broadway.

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical Video

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical Photos

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical Seat Map

Seatmap for Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Overture Center for the Arts
201 State Street Madison, WI

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New Administration, New Enforcement Priorities - Keeping your F and J Programs in Compliance!

Executive Orders, new policies and new enforcement priorities and funding point towards greater scrutiny of F and J program compliance. The resumption of J program site visits is demonstrative of the administration’s intent to closely monitor higher education and research institutions, both as F and J sponsors and as employers.

We have two immigration experts joining ACEI for an informative and interactive discussion of the Do’s and Don’ts of F and J program administration including a focus on admissions related SEVIS compliance.

Friday, July 28, 2017

10 AM - 11 AM PST

Fee: $95

We are proud to have our esteemed presenters:

Document1 001

Scott Cooper

Scott F. Cooper, an immigration attorney, serving clients including higher education, academic health centers and associated research and service institutions. Scott is an expert on US immigration practice, compliance and complex case matters to present and answer your questions about the new administration challenges surrounding OPT and H1 regulations.

Brooke Stokdyk

Brooke Stokdyk

Also joining us is Brooke H.M. Stokdyk, Assistant Director at Michigan State University. Brooke is an international education professional with over sixteen years of experience with F-1 and J-1 program administration at academic institutions sponsoring some of the largest international student and scholar populations in the U.S. Brooke has served as an F-1 and J-1 compliance consultant for more than six years.

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Maca and Chocolate Smoothie

Yes, another maca fused smoothie. Yes, it’s official… I’m hooked… I don’t know if it’s the caramel taste of maca or the fact that it does really energise me and keeps me going for hours and hours! This smoothie will get you wondering if it’s a dessert or if you are really having your breakfast (or snack)!

Ingredients:maca smoothie

1/2 -1 tsp maca powder

1/2 tbsp cacao

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 banana

2 tbsp oats

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond butter

How to:

  1. Simply place all ingredients in the blender.
  2. Enjoy every delicious sip.

  1. if you are new to maca, it is recommended that you start with 1/2 tsp
  2. you can cut small pieces of dark chocolate, instead of cacao.

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Magma 54 launches at the Troubadour

Another packed evening as well over 100 poets and friends met at the Troubadour in Earls Court, London, on 19 November to launch Magma 54. The Troubadour’s famous cellar was full as the editors, Cherry Smyth and Judy Brown, each hosted half the evening. Each poet read two poems – one from Magma and another – which gave great pace and variety. Everyone published in an issue of Magma is invited to read at the launch if there’s space and poets come from all over the country. Many have told us this is the first time they have read to a large audience and they enjoy appearing in the same line-up as some well-known poets.

Cherry started her half with strong readings by Martin Kratz (Manchester) and Anna Kisby (Brighton).

She introduced poets from Aberystwyth and Cardiff as well as the London area and they were joined by Mark Waldron whose latest book is The Itchy Sea (Salt).

and Patrick Brandon – The Republic of Linen (Bloodaxe) The first half ended with Sean Borodale reading his poem in Magma and several poems from Bee Journal (Jonathan Cape) link which is shortlisted for this year’s T S Eliot Prize.. The quiet intensity of his reading made us understand why the judges had chosen his book.

Just before Sean read, I spoke a bit as Magma’s Chair about the next two issues in February and June, and reminded everyone about our competition – closing date 16th December.

Judy’s half began with Tim Cumming whose latest collection is The Rapture (Salt) and Simon McCormack, Magma 54’s Showcase poet. It included a stunning reading by Kiran Millward Hargrave of her poem about the Emperor Tiberius and an urbane performance by South Bank editor, Peter Ebsworth.

We then had powerful readings by five of this year’s Gregory Award winners – all seven have poems in Magma 54 – including tours-de-force by Phoebe Power [video] and Jon Stone [video]. The evening ended with the much-loved Maurice Riordan reading his new poem in Magma and three others.

We staggered out into the Earls Court night knowing we’d heard many great poems from rising talents as well as the already famous.

This Post Has One Comment
  1. I was sorry I couldn’t have gone: sounded a great evening – read there for the first time a few weeks ago. Amazing atmosphere. At least I have the Magma issue to read at leisure.

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Collector’s Choice Antiques

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Belief # 1: You Bring About What You Think About

You’ve packed your bags and you’re on the road. Like Dorothy and her road of yellow brick, the world is full of possibilities for you. From now on, everything you learn can be put to use to Build Your Personal Brand With Powerful Presence.
Beliefs are the number one filter of experience. Your beliefs provide you with your version of reality and form the foundation of everything you do; they color your every experience, every minute of the day. Your beliefs are true for you; anything you don’t believe in cannot exist for you.
Although we have beliefs about everything in our lives, it’s our beliefs about ourselves that either increase or decrease our Powerful Presence. Without the three beliefs that form the foundation of this journey, Powerful Presence isn’t possible. So let’s start with the first one, and you can see for yourself.
You Bring About What You Think About.
Take a moment, at any point in the day, and ask yourself: “What am I thinking about? Is this thought building me up or tearing me down?” When you look at successful people, the ones who are delighted with their lives and who are magnets for their target markets, they all seem to put a positive spin on their lives, despite any challenging circumstances. Their circumstances don’t show — their beliefs do. When you look at the people who have had the most impact on the planet, they all share this quality of being conscious that their thoughts determine their reality. They believe in their capacity to create what they want and they set out to do it.

Everything else on this Journey grows from this core Belief. It makes Powerful Presence possible–
and it happens in 1st Gear.

This belief is the seed for everything I teach about Powerful Presence; it’s the one that completely changed my life once I chose to believe it. Once I discovered it and developed it as a practice, this belief allowed me to transform myself from an angry and powerless victim to a woman in charge of her own life.
The fact of the matter is that Powerful Presence can only come from inside you. This belief is your “inner flame” – it’s the source of your ability to choose your experience, no matter what circumstances you face.The first time I heard it, however, I thought it was absolutely the stupidest sentence anyone had ever uttered on the face of the planet. It could not possibly be true. That was in 1984.
So what made the difference for me? Once I ran out of every other option, I tried out this belief.  Once I started changing my thoughts, my experiences changed. In less than three years I had become a motivational keynote speaker, sharing my experiences with others. Three years later, I found the love of my life  and started my own company. Five years later, in 1995, I wrote my first book about the experience, Bootstrap Words: Pull Yourself UP! The premise of that book is: you bring about what you think about. Bootstrap Words is the story of the Journey.
Your presence is the result of what you believe about yourself – and it can’t be faked. Who you think you are –and who you think you’re not — comes into the room before you do. The most direct way to increase the power of your presence is to start on the inside with your thoughts. Update your thoughts and you update your beliefs; the change will show up in your presence.
Try This Out For Yourself.
For the next week, catch yourself thinking. Just pop in at random times of the day and capture your thoughts in your journal. No judgment – just capture your thoughts. At the end of the week, you’ll start to see trends. Don’t worry about what to do with them yet. You’ll discover that soon enough as you continue your Journey.
Thursday: A Strategy to Shift Your Thinking

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Garlic Prawns & Onion Fettuccine Recipe

About 8 years ago I went to a restaurant and they had a pasta I had never heard off on the menu (I can’t actually remember the name right) but I loved it. It was creamy, packed with garlic, and combined prawns and onions. When I got home, I googled for the recipe and couldn’t find it listed anywhere so I decided I to recreate it from memory. It has taken me 8 years to and a lot of pasta to perfect it but I have finally done it. It taste just as I remember.

I use pre-cooked prawns for this from the freezer section of my supermarket, just for convenience purposes.

I serve topped with shaved Parmesan which works really well but it can be eaten without it.

  • 500 g Fettuccine Pasta.
  • 25 g Butter for the sauce.
  • 1 Knob Butter for the onions.
  • 500 g Cooked Prawns Shelled & Deveined.
  • 400 ml Cream.
  • 1/2 Cup Cup of Chicken Stock.
  • 1 tbs Dry White Wine
  • 1/2 tsp Dry Mustard.
  • 1 Large Purple Onion Thinly Sliced
  • 1/4 tsp Paprika.
  • 1 Can Italian Diced Tomatoes.
  • 2 Large Cloves of Garlic Grated
  • 2 tbs Plain Flour.
  • Pepper to Taste.
  1. Cook pasta until soft & strain.
  2. Place knob of butter in a separate frying pan.
  3. Mix flour with 1/2 the chicken stop to make a thickening paste.
Cooking Instructions
  1. In a frying pan on medium heat place 25g of butter & melt.
  2. Add cream and garlic. Simmer or 3 minutes.
  3. Add 1/2 the chicken stock.

  4. Add wine & mustard and stir through. Simmer for 3 minutes.

  5. Turn off heat and leave to sit while you cook the onions.
  6. Melt the knob of butter and cook onions until soft.
  7. Return to the sauce & add cooked onion. Turn the heat back on.
  8. Add tomatoes and bring to the boil, continuously stirring.

  9. Add paprika, & pepper.
  10. Add prawns & and stir until heated.
  11. Add pasta and stir through the sauce.
  12. Serve

If you have any questions while making this recipe (or even if you’ve just tried the recipe and loved/hated it) please don’t hesitate to comment.

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The Power Of SMS

Notes of Grounds of Judgment in Nizar v Zambry Case

Posted in Uncategorized by malaysiasms on May 12, 2009

These are the handwritten notes of the High Court’s draft Grounds of Judgment in the MB v MB matter delivered orally on 11.5.2009, and recorded by my colleagues, Joanne Leong and Daniel Cheong, which I have vetted and edited. The learned Judge indicated that His Lordship’s full Grounds will be delivered soon. There may be gaps and inaccuracies in the notes due to the speed the Grounds was read, and any mistakes herein are mine.

This is the decision of the Court on the application of the Applicant for Judicial Review. Leave was granted and the Applicant seeks the following reliefs as in enclosure 28.

There is a dispute on constitutional law between the Applicant and the Respondent. The Attorney General (AG) intervened in this case because of public interest and public importance. The Court granted the application and the AG was made an intervener.

It is pertinent that the 3 letters of resignation show that the 3 ADUNs did not resign because there was a loss of confidence in the Pakatan alliance. According to exhibit MNJ-5 in the Applicant’s affidavit, the Applicant did not state any Article for dissolution. It is reasonable that MNJ-5 was the application by the Applicant appealing to His Royal Highness (HRH) to use his prerogative powers under Article 36(2). I say that it is reasonable because the leadership of the Applicant was never challenged as having lost the confidence of the members of the DUN up until 4.2.2009.

The issue of whether the 3 ADUN resigned/did not resign, wrote the letters/did not write those letters should not be decided here. They are being decided in other proceedings.

The State Legal Adviser (SLA) stated that on 4.2.2009, the Applicant had asked for dissolution under Article 16(6) and that the Applicant handed a draft Proclamation of dissolution to HRH (exhibit PSLA-1). The Applicant disputed the SLA’s position, and because the SLA had previously represented the Respondent. The Applicant stated that he did not inform or propose to HRH that he had lost the majority and that he had proposed a dissolution under Article 16(6).

The Applicant deposed that HRH informed him on 5.2.2009 that HRH refused to dissolve the State Assembly. The Applicant was also granted 15 minutes to explain himself. Among others, the Applicant informed HRH that it is constitutional convention for the Sultan to dissolve the Assembly on the advice of the Menteri Besar, and that the Palace would be placed in high esteem if HRH dissolves the Assembly because HRH will be seen to be neutral and above politics.

The SLA was very firm with his position. To resolve the conflict on the actual events on 4.2.2009, parties consented for the Applicant and the SLA to be cross-examined. I am of the view that the SLA has no pecuniary interest but his evidence as to his neutrality has to be taken with “a pinch of salt”.

The SLA, during cross-examination, told the Court that he was instructed to swear his affidavit. The word “instructed” is a strong word and it means that the person is under the command or control of another. It also means that one is not acting on one’s free will. The SLA, as a legally qualified person, could have come up with a better choice of word when he was asked but he chose to tell the Court that he was instructed. Therefore, it shows that he is not partial or neutral. In other words, the SLA might not have applied his independent view.

I am of the view that when the draft Proclamation was presented, the SLA did not make any effort to contact the Applicant to correct the Proclamation. He read the Proclamation and should have realised that the Applicant made no reference to Article 16(6). In the light of Article 36(2), the SLA should have pointed this out to the Applicant. It is considered strange that he did not do so because it is his duty to advise HRH or the State government and this includes advising the Menteri Besar. Therefore, I prefer the Applicant’s version that the Proclamation for dissolution on 4.2.2009 was under Article 36(2).

Counsel for the Respondent, Dato’ Cecil Abraham submitted that the Applicant should limit his argument under the intitulement to the action which is Article 16(6). However, with the new Order 53, it gives a wider scope and the Applicant may raise such issues.

Under Article 16(2) of the Perak Constitution, I never doubted that the appointment of the Menteri Besar is solely based on HRH’s judgment. Also no doubt, HRH has absolute powers to withhold dissolution. However, bearing in mind that once a Menteri Besar is appointed, he does not hold office at the pleasure of the Sultan – Article 16(7)

Reading the 3 clauses together, it seems that once appointed as Menteri Besar, the Menteri Besar is only answerable to the DUN and the Menteri Besar governs the State and advises HRH under Article 18. The Menteri Besar cannot be dismissed by HRH. The AG’s contention is that Article 16(7) must be read subject to Article 16(6). This is to suggest that by not resigning the Menteri Besar is going against the democratic process.

I do not agree with this submission. Except for the Menteri Besar, everyone else holds office at HRH’s pleasure. Clause 7 says that clearly. There is a qualifier that says when the Menteri Besar loses the majority, he shall tender the EXCO’s resignation.

Refer to Amir Kahar – it does not support the AG submission. It is distinguishable on its own facts.

On the question of dismissal, it will be clearer if one looks at the history on how the provisions came about. From the brief history, it is my opinion that the dismissal of Menteri Besar is never contemplated under Article 16(6).

Refer to Stephen Kalong Ningkan.

Next issue is whether there is a deeming provision under Article 16(6). The concept is a “legal fiction” and I do not think that the deeming provision should be read into it. This is because it would do violence to Article 16(6). No matter how mandatory the provision is drafted, it cannot be read as deeming the Menteri Besar position vacant. The language in Article 16(6) is very clear. What happens if the Menteri Besar refuses to resign? There is a lacuna in the provision but we cannot read a deeming provision into it. The lacuna should be filled by amendment by the Legislature.

I would adopt Ningkan and reject the AG’s submission on this point.

Now, the next issue is the loss of confidence in the Applicant. The AG submitted that dissolution can only come in 2 situations. I do not agree with the AG’s submission because the circumstances where a request to dissolve is made are unlimited.

On the undisputed facts, HRH has satisfied himself on who commands the majority but there was no vote of no confidence in the Menteri Besar and the Menteri Besar did not go to HRH to dissolve the State Assembly because he ceased to command the majority. Subsequently, how did the Menteri Besar cease to hold office?

In Adenbegro v Akintola – the term used was “support”. In Ningkan, the Court made a distinction between “support” and “confidence” and I find it correct.

On the issue of the Applicant having lost the confidence, there was never a vote of no confidence and the Applicant did not come to request dissolution due to the loss of the majority. That decision is material. On 4.2.2009, PR and BN had equal seats 28-28. Based on democratic practice, if there is a loss of confidence, it should be taken as a vote of no confidence in the Assembly. The media statement by HRH’s office which states that the positions of the Menteri Besar and EXCO members are deemed vacant should they refuse to resign amounts to a dismissal or sacking, and this is not permissible under Article 16(6).

On the issue of justiciability, there is no issue of HRH withholding dissolution and it cannot be questioned. The Court also cannot question the Sultan on the determination of facts. However, the Applicant is not asking the Court to question HRH’s decision. The Applicant is seeking declaratory reliefs that the Applicant is still the Menteri Besar. Non-justiciability does not apply at all.

The Court has been allowed to grant declaratory reliefs, and no longer do the granting of declaratory reliefs need be made only sparingly.

For the above reasons, the office of the Menteri Besar is not vacant or has not been vacated. The judgment is in favour of the Applicant according to the prayers as in enclosure 28.

Court adjourned at 3.50pm

[The prayers granted were as follows:

a. Perintah deklarasi bahawa Pemohon adalah dan pada setiap masa material dan masih Menteri Besar Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan.

b. Perintah deklarasi berkenaan tafsiran Fasal XVI(6) Undang-Undang Tubuh Kerajaan Negeri Perak bahawa dalam keadaan di mana:

(i) Menteri Besar Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan ingin, dan telah memberi nasihat, untuk pembubaran Dewan Perhimpunan Undangan Negeri Perak;

(ii) tidak terdapat pembubaran Dewan Perhimpunan Undangan Negeri Perak;

(iii) tidak terdapat usul tidak percaya yang diambil dan diterimapakai dalam dan oleh Dewan Perhimpunan Undangan Negeri Perak terhadap Menteri Besar Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan; dan

(iv) tidak terdapat perletakan jawatan Mentri Besar Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan;

jawatan Menteri Besar Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan tidak boleh dan/atau tidak dikosongkan.

c. Writ bersifat “quo warranto” dikeluarkan kepada Responden memerintahkan Responden untuk tunjuk sebab dan memberi maklumat bagaimana dan di bawah dasar atau kuasa atau authoriti mana Responden berhak kononnya memegang jawatan Menteri Besar Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan dan kononnya bertindak dan/atau menjalankan dan/atau melaksanakan tanggungjawab-tanggungjawab, fungsi-fungsi dan tugas-tugas Menteri Besar Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan.

d. Perintah deklarasi bahawa Responden tidak berhak untuk dan/atau tidak menjawat jawatan Menteri Besar Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan dan bukannya Menteri Besar Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan pada bila-bila masa yang material.

e. Perintah injunksi untuk menghalang Responden dan/atau agen-agen Responden dan/atau pengkhidmat-pengkhidmat Responden dari bertindak dan/atau menjalankan dan/atau melaksanakan tanggungjawab-tanggungjawab, fungsi-fungsi dan tugas-tugas Menteri Besar Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan.

(The ancillary prayers for punitive, aggravated and exemplary damages, and costs were withdrawn by Nizar at the end of our submission as this is a public interest litigation for judicial clarification on the legal position of Article 16(6), and is not intended to be a form of recrimination or punishment against the Respondent.)]

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Nov 14, 2015

Judge Mark McGinnis Defies Science, Constitution

"Groundwater in the humid Midwest, here in Wisconsin, almost always discharges to nearby surface water," said Dr. Madeline Gotkowitz of the Wisconsin Geological Survey," (Chase, Ashland Daily Press)

Dr. Gotkowitz presented her findings to the Bayfield County Large-Scale Livestock Committee on Nov. 12.

Gotkowitz' truism eludes Outagamie (Wisconsin) Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis who defying precedent, law and the Wisconsin Constitution's Public Trust Doctrine is carrying out the Republican Party's effort to block state protection of surface and ground water from polluters.

To understand how groundwater, streams, and lakes are connected, examine images below from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
U.S. Geological Survey image shows flow of groundwater, streams, and lakes
Image: U.S. Geological Survey; January 14, 2008
Figure showing potential sources of groundwater contamination
Image provided by USGS; January 14, 2008
Only a child or somewhat willfully ignorant or corrupt does not understand groundwater and surface water interact. What you put into the groundwater is vectored into surface water, and when you drain groundwater, you drain lakes and streams.

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Go Faster Food for Kids Review

Almost two weeks ago I was sent Go Faster Food for Kids, a lovely recipe book for busy children (and parents) to review.

As we have moved meanwhile and the time has passed I decided to include it on my possible Christmas presents list, which I will update regularly from now until Christmas.

The author, Kate Perry, has had a lot of experience in sports nutrition, going back to 2000, when she started researching foods that provide the best of fuel for athletes.  As a result, Go Faster Food, her first recipe book was written and geared to help athletes achieve the best results in marathons and sporting competitions by eating the right foods, in the right balance.

Her present book was written to provide ideas and inspiration for parents of athlete children and their coaches. It offers an array of tasty, healthy and nutritionally balanced recipes aimed to power and support training and competition preparation.

The book is neatly structured into two sections: the first offers a lot of researched information on children’ nutrition and eating appropriately for a sporting event.The nice touch that the author brings, and what makes this book different from a simple nutrition for children book is the inclusion of interviews with children and teenage athletes and the way they approach nutrition in the context of sporting competitions. I would wholeheartedly recommend the book for any aspiring little athletes you have in your family, the role model interviews provided in the book are deemed to impress and inspire them!

The second section provides breakfast&brunch, mains and light meal recipes supported by mouth-watering pictures.

As a busy mother and wife who strives to provide balanced meals to a picky eater, a pregnant mommy and a training athlete, I was particularly impressed by the mains’ section and the fact that they have been structured into meals that can be ready in under 20 minutes(!!), under 45 minutes and slow cooked, when time isn’t an issue. This means I have no excuses now to cook a nutritious meal, even when I am short of time and with 101 recipes to choose from the book will definitely provide me with inspiration when I run out of ideas!

I have included this as my first entry for what I hope will be a useful list of Christmas present ideas I will be posting until mid-December. I would definitely recommend it for the budding athletes in the family and for their cooking mothers!

This entry was posted in: Reviews

Mum of one beautiful girl on earth and one sweet baby boy in heaven. Daughter of a wonderful woman. Wife of a very entrepreneurial man.

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text:
Thea Hunter

Dr. T.K. Hunter is a historian (M.A. & Ph.D., Columbia), art historian (M.A., Hunter College), writer, consultant and public historian. She was a consultant for a WGBH-TV history production Africans in America aired nationwide, has been a speaker for Black History Month at a National Historical site, and is a long-time history walking tour guide leading tours that bring to light the life and contributions of New York City’s varied populations from the time of the Dutch to the present. Most recently, she contributed to the research and writing of a walking tour on Prohibition that was debuted in tandem with Ken Burns’ documentary Prohibition that aired nationally on WNET/Channel Thirteen. Dr. Hunter was chosen to participate in a rare fiction writing Master Class led by author Gloria Naylor at the 92nd Street Y and has worked on both fiction writing and non-fiction writing. She has published a book review on slavery in the Caribbean as well as numerous articles in a variety of specialized encyclopedias including an article on American Art in the Encyclopedia of New American Culture. An essay entitled “Geographies of Liberty” can be found in the book Prophets of Protest, (New Press) a collection of history essays that re-examine abolitionist thought and initiatives in 19th century America. A law review article “Transatlantic Negotiations,” presented at the Gloucester, England Law Conference on rights, can be found in the Texas Wesleyan Law Review and online through law article portals.

Dr. Hunter has taught at a variety of universities including Columbia University at the Institute for Research in African American Studies, NYU, Princeton University and The New School where she has recently been nominated for a Distinguished Teaching Award. She has received numerous fellowships including one from the University of Glasgow, Scotland and she has also been a prestigious Andrew W. Mellon fellow. Dr. Hunter loves the challenges found in teaching and engages students, enthusiastically, each time she steps into the classroom.

  • B.A. in Biology & Art History, Barnard College & Columbia University
  • M.A. in Art History & History, Hunter College (Art History) & Columbia University (History)
  • Ph.D. in History: Atlantic World & English Law, Columbia University

Courses Taught

  • HIST 206 - American History to 1878
  • HIST 210 - Great Issues in American History – 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries
  • HIST 381 - Declaring Revolution – Colonial and Revolutionary American History
  • Research
    • Early America
    • the Black Atlantic
    • Liberty & Natural Rights Ideology
    • 18th century English law
    • Modern African American Art
  • Publications and Scholarly Activities

    • Currently revising book proposal tentatively titled “Liberty’s Argument: Pressing for Freedom in the Black Atlantic” for publication.
    • “Tributes from Dr. Manning Marable’s Students,” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society, 13:4, pp. 432-442, 2011.
    • “Writing London, Writing Worcester County” in A Circle of Friends: Remembering Madeline L’Engle, ed., Katherine Kirkpatrick, A Circle of Friends Publication, 2009.
    • “Transatlantic Negotiations: Lord Mansfield, Liberty and Somerset,” Texas Wesleyan Law Review, Dec. 2007.
    • “Geographies of Liberty,” in Prophets of Protest: Reconsidering the History of American Abolitionism, eds. John Stauffer and Timothy Patrick McCarthy. New York, The New Press, 2006.
    • “Liberty and Law in the 18th century Anglo-American Transatlantic,” Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History, ed. Colin Palmer. New York, Macmillan/Gale Group, 2006.
    • “American Painting to the 1830s,” in Encyclopedia of the New American Nation, ed. Paul Finkelman, New York, Thomson/Gale Group, 2005.
  • Professional Experience and Memberships
    • Princeton University
    • The New School University
    • Columbia University (The Institute for Research in African American Studies)
    • Montclair State University (Art History)
    • NYU Legal History Seminar
    • New School Writing History Seminar
    • The AHA
    • OIEAHC - Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
    • NACBS - North American Conference on British Studies
  • Honors, Awards, and Grants

    • Society of Fellows Finalist, Princeton University
    • University of Glasgow Fellowship
    • Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship, Massachusetts Historical Society
    • Columbia University President's Fellowship Doctoral Fellow, Columbia University

  • Other

    Consulting/Advisory/Speaking Engagements:

    • Consultant/Researcher/Writer, “Satan’s Seat” history walking tour in conjunction with Ken Burns Prohibition documentary for Channel 13/ WNET, New York City
    • Consultant/Course Developing, CUNY College Now program
    • Speaker, “Colonial NYC 17th – 18th century,” for Prof. Jim Downs (Connecticut College) NYC Summer Seminar
    • Speaker, “Central Park – Contested Uses,” for Prof. Jim Downs (Connecticut College) NYC Summer Seminar
    • Speaker, “Columbia, Undergraduate Women of Color and Success,” Queen’s Pride Annual Dinner (an evening in honor and celebration of undergraduate black women at Columbia)
    • Speaker, “African/African Americans in Revolutionary Era,” St. Paul’s Church National Historic Site, Mt. Vernon, NY
    • Speaker, “Conversations” series, Institute for Research in African American Studies, Columbia University -- “Liberty: The Law and the African Diaspora”
    • Speaker, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh – joint invitation: “Imagined Geographies of Liberty: 1772 London, 1836 Boston (A Consideration of Two Cases)”
    • Speaker, “Why We Write” Conference, Columbia University: “Ideologies of Liberty and Print Culture: 1740s – 1780s”
    • Online Seminar Editor/Writer (content developer), Columbia Interactive, Selected portions of Eric Foner’s “The Struggle for Freedom”
    • History Consultant, Colonial America Episode 2 – “Revolution”, WGBH TV- Boston for PBS “Africans in America” Television Series
    • Currently completing a book proposal on liberty in the Black Atlantic, and writing an historical novel based on events in New York City in the early 20th century.


text:
4000 steps to Heaven’s View

Nepal Trip Day 3, Annapurna Circuit Trek Day 1

We slept very well that night, well we did, Jenny got woken up by a bunch of noisy tourists who were leaving early in the morning.  HAHHAHA.. That’s two nights in a row now. After breakfast, we took a 90 min drive to Nayapul.. and then we started our trek for real (or so we thought).  DSC02112DSC02111

It turns out, the first bit of the trek was to Birethanti which is not considered part of the trek. And there we were thinking, this isn’t too bad.  HAHAH.  Little did we know, the trek only begins at Birethanti after you’ve checked in with the tourism office.  DSC02124DSC02113

The real beginning bit of our trek looked like something out of the Lord of the Rings set.  It felt like we were walking in the shire in Middle Earth.  I couldn’t help humming the shire theme as we walked here.  DSC02146DSC02159

Unfortunately Jenny’s shoe fell apart while we were walking and we had to wait for our porters to catch up to grab our repair kit out of the bags they were carrying. Au Chew Travel Tip: Always bring a shoe repair kit with things like super glue and duct tape on these trips.

Then it was time for lunch.  Jet had mixed fried noodles, I had mixed fried rice Jenny has chicken fried rice and the boys had dhal bat..They were telling us that they eat dhal bat for every meal (excluding breakfast) and we couldn’t figure out how they didn’t get bored eating the same thing over and over again.  We would soon come to understand this.

This is quite amazing, the place we had lunch had a school nearby, but the houses were nowhere in sight.  Lama explained that the kids had to walk up and down the trails that we’ve been walking to get to school and back home, EVERY DAY.  We were gobsmacked.

Lama told us at our nightly after dinner briefing that we’d face 4000 steps on this trail and after lunch we soon found out he wasn’t kidding.. It was steps after steps after steps! and very steep too! I had to stop so many times, it was embarrassing and when we got overtaken by some local old ladies, I just wanted to crawl into the ground and stay there.

About mid way up the stairs, the mules / donkeys we had seen earlier had caught up with us.  Lama had warned us earlier that if we were to see donkeys / mules / horses etc, always hug the wall or at least walk on the inner side of the trail.  People have been pushed off by them and it’s a long way down.  The good thing about donkeys / mules / horses is there you’ll always hear them coming cause the owners always put bells on them.  The bad thing is, it’s really noisy when you’ve got a herd of them near you!! DSC02222

So with this herd of mules, we decided to try to stay in front of them, and that worked for a while but soon, they started walking with us which wasn’t great cause the path is quite narrow.  We decided to let them pass first, but we soon realise walking behind them wasn’t a good idea either.  The mules will find any opportunity to stop and eat.  Walking behind them means we have to wait for them to graze or their herder to hurry them along.  And because they keep eating.. well, what goes in, must come out.  YEAH.  THE SMELL OF FRESH MULE POOP IS NOT SOMETHING I’D EVER NEED TO SMELL AGAIN. OMG.  Not to mention we now had to watch every step so we didn’t walk onto it.

Lama explained that as it was already the tail end of the climbing season, quite a number of the locals that live along the trek had gone back down to the towns etc and would only return when the climbing season reopened.  This explained a number of closed hospital / medical center and guest houses along the way.  One of the strange sights we saw along the way was a closed church with the words Merry Xmas on the window.

Somewhere around this point of this climb I was so hungry that I could not go on.  We were told we were going to reach the guest house soon (like 10 mins) but I was so exhausted that I was like no just give me food now.  Jet took out my snack pack which contained my trusted Jacob’s crackers and Toblerone chocolate.   Once I had some food in me, I felt revived and got my second wind.    Au Chew Travel Tip: Always have your snack pack with you and eat when you’re hungry!   DSC02234

When we got to this 10 min away guest house (located in Uleri), we were told they didn’t have any space!! I was so glad I had my chocolate earlier.  We were also quite thankful not to have stayed there as it was full of noisy tourists with kids.

30 mins later, we finally reached our lodge (located in Banthanti) and saw some crazy people playing volley ball.  Strangely the first thing we heard was a Singaporean accent in the midst of all yelling.. Loo and behold we meet a Singaporean couple staying there.  We also met a Japanese girl travelling alone and a motley crew of Ang mohs from various parts of Europe.  I love the name of our lodge Heaven View Guest house! I think it’s quite apt.

volley ball

As Lama put it, we deserved a hot shower after that crazy hike. He also managed to get us rooms with attached toilets (not showers) with is a real bonus on these treks. As it was quite late, the clouds had already descended so there wasn’t much of a view.  But the rooms were really nice.DSC02245 DSC02247DSC02248DSC02249

After a nice hot steaming shower, it was time for dinner, Jet and I had dhal bat with chicken.  Jenny had dhal bat with vege and we ordered a portion of sukuthi to share. While waiting for the food we snuck into the kitchen to see them prepare and they allowed us to take a photo.

The Ang Mohs sat next to us during dinner and we found out they were trekking without a guide and all 4 of them had different trip lengths.  The Ang Mohs then tried to play citadel.  Well one of them tried to teach the other 3 how to play and took so long to explain it that I think they eventually gave up.  They asked if we wanted to play as well but after listening to the instructions the first time, we decided not to.

Then Lama came over to give us our nightly briefing for the next day’s trek, we realised we had climbed about 1000m vertically today.  We started at Birenthanti which is approx 1100m above sea level and heaven view which is at Banthanti is approx 2200m above sea level.  During our briefing, you could see the Ang Mohs perk up and one of them started asking Lama a bunch of questions. It was around this time I think they gave up playing Citadel and we decided it was time for bed!

K City to Pokhara

The Au Chews went to Nepal in end April – early May 2013.  This is day 2 of our Nepal adventure!

Despite being extremely tired, we all slept badly on our first night in Nepal.  It started with some annoying guests who came back at 1 am then there were the dogs and more dogs and then the birds (yes BIRDS!!). All of us gave up and woke up at 5 am although we still had one more hour to sleep.  We (esp Jenny) would soon learn that this would be a regular occurrence).

Breakfast was a giant box of bread and croissants which we packed along with us and then it was time to get onto the bus to Pokhara.  TZ and Lama came to pick us up and brought us to the tour bus street? it wasn’t exactly a bus station and more like a bunch of tour buses parked along a road.  The tricky thing is to make sure you get on the right bus.  AU CHEW TRAVEL TIP: Most tour buses to Pokhara leave at 7am so getting there early is important.DSC02011

  While waiting for the bus to set off, we saw lots of hawkers walking up and down the street selling bread, fruits and even hot tea.  One of the guys was selling berries and I was so tempted to go down and grab some cause they looked so good.  Then Jet reminded me about the incredible dust on the street and how the berries were likely to be coated in them as well.  With no place to rinse them, I gave up on the idea.  DSC02010

It was an 7plus / 8 hour uneventful bus ride with some break stops in between. Seeing how we had such great sleep the night before, most of us quickly knocked out on the bus.

As we moved further away from Kathmandu, the scenery got greener.

About one hour away from Pokhara, it started to rain heavily, and then it HAILED! That was a pretty amazing sight.  Little did we know (again!) that is was a sign of things to come.  Thankfully it stopped by the time we reached Pokhara and all we got was the nice cool after rain effect.

We stayed at Hotel Meera in Pokhara.  Like our other hotel, it was nice and clean, spacious with our own bathrooms.  I don’t know what Jenny is doing here.. or why she is doing it, I blame the long bus journey.

Doesn’t the plant look squishyDSC02057DSC02054

DSC02049These Buddhist prayer wheels can be found all around Nepal and we saw them mainly at entrances of buildings.  We knew it was good luck to spin these wheels when walking past them (and Jet was really enthusiastic about it) what we didn’t realise was that like most things in Nepal, you only spin it on the right side and with your right hand, not with the left! When La Ma explained it to us much later, we all had a *facepalm* moment. DOH!

We had some R&R time before meeting La Ma for a short walk about and dinner.  No surprizes what we did! Shopping!! It started to rain again so we ducked into a cafe for a snack.  Notice the shopping bags next to Jenny!

Then it was time to head back to meet La Ma and our porters.  La Ma introduced us to one of our porters of the trip Chandra (the other guy, Dil couldn’t make it) and then it was off to see a bit of the touristy sights and DINNER!

Lama brought us to see Phewa lake which had a temple in the middle of it which you can rent boats to get to. There were a few options for boat rental including rowing there yourself (!!). As it had started to drizzle again, we went off to get some dinner!.

Lama brought us to his aunty ‘s shop got some authentic local food. Ladies and Gents, consider this a public service announcement.  FISHTAIL MOMO RESTAURANT IS POKHARA’S HIDDEN GEM. YOU MUST GO THERE IF YOU ARE EVER IN POKHARA.

We started with some Gorkha brand beer with some roasted soy nuts,

Followed by buffalo mo mos,

Sukuthi – smoked buffalo cooked with spices.  I still dream of this dish!!

Buff chilli and chow mien.

I don’t know why we don’t have any photos of the chow mien but it looks and tastes like our fried noodles.  Au Chew Travel Tip: Pokhara rations the use of electricity in town by having  scheduled power shut downs everyday.  Your hotel should have the schedule available at the front desk.  This is important so you know what time the street lights will go out etc.  That day, the power shutdown was from 6pm to 9pm so we had a romantic dinner by candle light.

The Au-Chews go climb a mountain

we're taking the hobbits to IsengardSo sometime last year, we (read: Jet) decided to go Nepal for a trek.  yes just like that we decided to do it.  Our friend Jenny who was also keen to go, told us it would be fun.. FUN! we just needed to train a little bit before we went (read: go climb bt timah hill or walk from bt timah to and back every week for the months leading to the trip –____-). So on 27th April 2013, after about 6 months of “training”, it was time to fly to the land of the yaks and mountains.

The trip started with us flying into Kathmandu in the early afternoon. First impression: OMG it’s so hot!!.. And dusty too! Met Jenny’s friend, Tenzeng (who was also the owner of the treking company we had booked with) outside the airport and he brought us to check into the guest house.  We stayed at International Guest House and it was super nice and clean!

International Guest House 2International Guest House 1International Guest House 3International Guest House 4

While waiting for the hotel porter to bring up our bags, we realised we forgot to do one important thing.  WE DIDNT HAVE ANY LOCAL CURRENCY ON US.  We ended up giving him 5 usd as a tip –_____-.  Lesson one of the day: always change money first!!

We had some R&R time before meeting TZ and our guide in the evening so we quickly went out to change money (HA!) and do some shopping at the touristy district Thamel.  The shopping expedition did not start off too well as we were harassed by a local when we were at the money changers. He wanted a “commission” for “bringing” us to a money changer even though we walked in to the outlet ourselves. Jet told him to bugger off but he continued to follow us. At this time, Jenny showed her dark side and gave him a stern warning, telling him that if he kept it up we were going to go back to the money changer and demand a refund. He left us alone after that.  Lesson two of the day: never piss off Jenny, esp when she’s on holiday!

We wandered into a bookshop cause Jen and Jenny both wanted to get postcards.  Jenny was sending two back to her friend so I decided to do the same.. sent one the Mom since her’s was the only address I could remember. haha.

We continued walking along the touristy shopping district as Jenny and Jet were also looking for some trekking pants. After going to a few shops, it dawned on me that the two of them did not know the exchange rate even though they had just changed money earlier on.  So basically they were going around asking how much this and that were without any clue how much the shop keepers wanted to charge them.  -_________-.  And when they attempted to calculate the rate, they both got it wrong cause according to them, the shop keepers were selling a pair of pants for 680 sgd.

Luckily the shop keeper realized what they were doing and told us he would help us check the papers for the rate.  At the same time, I decided to calculate the rate myself and realised the rate was 1sgd to 68 rup.. Jet’s calculation was the opposite.. And he works in a bank! Then it dawned in us how cheap things were. One “genuine” North Face pants was about 20sgd. I also found a shop that had dresses in lovely prints like Desigual.. Guess who went mad in there. Lesson three of the day: calculate the bloody exchange rate before going shopping. SIGH you’d think this was our first time travelling anywhere ever.. SERIOUSLY.

Thamel 1Thamel 2

Thamel 3Thamel 4

Fresh Chicken Anyone?

Then it was back to the hotel to wash up and meet our guide, Lama and TZ.  Guide is very young and good looking! asked Jet if I could do a one for one exchange. Cause he was also clearly as cute and young like the guide. He wasn’t too impressed with my idea.

Lama had a climbing competition at the Astrek Climbing Wall before dinner so we went along to cheer him on.  The climbing wall is housed at the Belgium Consulate and there’s even a cafe there as well.  OMG those people are mad crazy. The way they went up the wall, you think they had all been bitten by a radioactive spider or something.  The climbing community also had a very island life / carefree feel to them.  It felt like I was back the dive shops in Tioman.. Then it was time for dinner!!

\i think this guy stayed like that for quite some time

i mean seriously.. WTH

Dinner was fantastic! We had a traditional Nepali meal Dhal bhat (which literally means rice and lentil / bean curry) but with all the bells and whistles.  it even came with a cultural performance during dinner. Dinner started with an appetizer sample set consisting of a really spicy chicken dish, millet rice, mo mos (dumpings), pickles and nuts.

the dhal bhat consisted of Aloo Gobi, chicken curry, wild boar, spinach.and of course rice with dhal! It was really yummy. DSC01996And I think I liked the wild boar the most.. Wild boar fat is damn nice..mmm. They also had is drink a shot of raksi which is some potent liquor that tastes like vodka and sake. that is supposed to keep you warm in a cold night. We also had some local beer which made Jenny and Jet very happy. HAHHA


text:
Tuesday, August 23, 2016, 9:41pm

Today’s Reading List: NPR, WikiLeaks, Trump, Clinton’s emails & more.

At some point I may be caught up to my work. This point is not that point. At any rate, here are several stories I’ve stumbled over lately that are worth a quick read.

And of course, it wouldn’t be much of a blog post if we didn’t check in on the Trumpster Fire and politics in general.

Finally, the Daily Cute.

But wait, where do I comment? No comments, sorry. Talk to me on Facebook or Twitter, instead.

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