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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
[The most innovative patent yet! What will those cunning inventors think of next? Here's my favorite excerpt: "It should be noted that because pulling alternately on one chain and then the other resembles in some measure the movements one would use to swing from vines in a dense jungle forest, the swinging method of the present invention may be referred to by the present inventor and his sister as 'Tarzan' swinging. The user may even choose to produce a Tarzan-type yell while swinging in the manner described, which more accurately replicates swinging on vines in a dense jungle forest. Actual jungle forestry is not required." --Declan] --- Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 12:22:05 -0400 From: Gabriel Rocha <gabe@seul.org> To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: Patent for swinging on a swing sideways. Message-ID: <20020417122202.D16067@seul.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline X-UIDL: cab4a9e5f16fb5ec7cb3d608189ef5c2 I still haven't been able to bring myself to believe it, but it is on the official uspto site, so I don't know what to think. This is the abstract for patent number 6,368,227 issued on April 9, 2002 (if the date had said April 1 I would not have believed it at all) --Gabe Abstract A method of swing on a swing is disclosed, in which a user positioned on a standard swing suspended by two chains from a substantially horizontal tree branch induces side to side motion by pulling alternately on one chain and then the other. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='6,368,227'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,368,227&RS=PN/6,368,227 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sign this pro-therapeutic cloning petition: http://www.franklinsociety.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------