the ersatz vegetarian

There was a unanimous Supreme Court decision today in ASSOCIATION FOR MOLECULAR PATHOLOGY v. MYRIAD GENETICS where Myriad (the owner of the BRCA gene patent that got so much press from Angelina Jolie lately) was told that naturally-occurring genes and DNA are patent-ineligible.

“Today, the court struck down a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation,” Sandra Park, an ACLU staff attorney said. “Myriad did not invent the BRCA genes and should not control them. Because of this ruling, patients will have greater access to genetic testing and scientists can engage in research on these genes without fear of being sued.”

…

Patents for exclusive genetic testing have also been issued for a host of genes, including those related to cystic fibrosis, heart arrhythmias and hemochromatosis. Exclusive tests associated with these types of patents are also in peril, said Thomas Goldstein, a Supreme Court litigator and a founder of the SCTOTUSblog. “Other people can now develop other tests,” he said in a telephone interview.

[via Wired]

This is a pretty amazing online tool for pulling a subject out of the background without having to painstakingly draw line around the entire perimeter of the area you want to remove. Draw green on what you want to keep and red on what you want to remove. Here’s the interface…

It can be a little crude is there are fuzzy borders (like the shadow under the car, but, with a little zooming to fine tune the borders that need tweaking, it’s a pretty neat little tool to have.

Texting while driving now kills more teens than drunk driving according to a new study in Pediatrics.

“Multitasking is fine if you’re sitting in your dorm room or at home in your bedroom, but multitasking in the car is a terrible idea,” [Dr. Tom] Frieden [Director of the CDC] told [NPR]. New drivers are less adept at recognizing hazards while driving, and less good at dealing with them than more experienced drivers, he says. “It’s amazing how quickly things can go wrong in the car.”

It’s a little unusual to have the CDC director volunteer to talk about an agency study. But he’s got some personal data on this topic. “Speaking as a parent of a teenage driver, having your kid learn to drive is one of the most stressful things,” Frieden says. “It’s easy to forget because driving is so routine for adults.”

Here’s how well-meaning guests can totally ruin what the actual person being paid to capture the day is trying to do.

I also completely understand that some have a love for capturing images and enjoy taking pictures at weddings they are guests at.

However, my heart breaks when a guest ruins an otherwise lovely image or jumps in front of me when I’m capturing a key moment from the day. It completely slays me when this happens because while I am not remotely egotistical at all, I am fairly confident that my image would have been better than the one they captured.

In the past 6 years of being a professional wedding photographer, it’s also been sad to watch the progression from seeing smiling, encouraging and happy faces as the bride is escorted up the aisle to faces hidden behind the backs of cameras and cell phones that line the aisle.

These are all reasons why I am elated when I hear of couples opting for an Unplugged Wedding – or at the very least an Unplugged Ceremony.

Read the rest here.