Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Nicholas D. Rosen's LiveJournal:

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Monday, May 28th, 2012
11:23 pm	Memorial Day Let us remember those who have served, dead and yet living. (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 26th, 2012
7:07 am	The Red Queen's Race and Geek Pride Day I dealt with my two oldest amendments this week, and two new ones showed up, leaving me with six amendments. I also finished a first action rejection of my oldest Regular New case. One of the searchers in the Electronic Information Center informed me that this is Geek Pride Day, so I put on a geek button (it says GE2K, with a superscript 2, G E squared K), and forwarded the announcement to various friends and colleagues. The Patent Office is a real haven for geeks. I thought I was leaving in time, but found a street blocked by a firemen's parade, while a band from the FDNY played bagpipes and drums. I was willing to cheer the firefighters, but by the time I got to the King Street Metro, and caught a train, it was too late to reach the Pentagon City Metro station by 8:00 PM, so I missed the last shuttle bus to my apartment. Since the weather was good, I walked a mile and a half home; it was probably good for my legs and circulation anyway. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012
10:53 pm	Debt Collectors Yesterday, I found my cellphone beeping, because someone had left a voicemail message. It turned out to be Legree Financial Services, trying to reach Aloysius van Rinderpest about debts he supposedly owed; I had heard from them before, and told them that I wasn't the man they were looking for, and my cellphone number was not his, and supposedly gotten them to realize it. By the way, they leave these messages using the voice of a woman with a British accent. I called, and didn't get through. Later in the afternoon, I called again, and someone answered, asking for my account number. I told her that I didn't have one, and could they please stop calling my number? I wasn't Aloysius van Rinderpest. (OK, I'm making up the names, but you get the idea.) She confirmed the cellphone number, and assured me politely that she would get the fact into their system, and stop calling me. I had had the cellphone in one hand while working at my desk. I should have returned it to the pocket in my backpack, but I forgot, and left it in the office overnight. When I came in this morning, I found that Ms. British Accent had left another canned message from Legree Financial Services, trying to get Mr. van Rinderpest to talk about his alleged debt. Maybe the latest entry to the computer system hadn't gone through, or maybe it's hopeless. Anyway, my cellphone was exhausted from all this talk and beeping, and is now being recharged. (Comment on this)
Monday, May 21st, 2012
11:18 pm	Schalkenbach Board Meeting I'm back at work after spending most of the weekend in New York, participating in the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation Board meeting. We passed a budget (if only the United States Senate could manage that), hashing out how much to spend on which projects. We also elected officers for the coming year; our current president was re-elected despite a challenge, but the challenger and his faction (of which I was one) basically got their way on the budget. We stayed in the House of the Redeemer, a wealthy family's mansion donated to the Episcopal Church, and used for religious retreats and other events (there was a wedding on Friday, when I arrived). It's an interesting place, with steep staircases, wood paneling, shared bathrooms, a refectory, a library, and so forth. (Comment on this)
12:10 am	"The Fall of the King" I first learned about Johannes Jensen's novel The Fall of the King from an appreciation of Jensen written by Poul Anderson (it's in Anderson's All One Universe, as I recall). I looked for the book in my local library, which didn't have it, and online, where I found someone offering a copy printed in the 1920's, and supposedly in good condition, for a rather astronomical price. I wasn't that eager to obtain it, but I recently found a trade paperback for sale online (I was actually hoping that Amazon might have digitized it, and offered a Kindle edition), and I ordered it. This is supposed to be the Great Danish Novel of the 20th century, for which Jensen was awarded the Nobel prize in literature. Whether the Nobel Committee could have found a better book and a better author is a question to which I do not claim to know the answer; I will say that The Fall of the King is an impressive achievement in its way, although not always pleasant reading. The king of the title is Christian II of Denmark, who fought the Swedish rebels to preserve the Union of Kalmar, and remain king of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, along with such possessions as Iceland. After Stockholm surrendered on terms, after he promised amnesty, he held a great feast for prominent Swedes, and then seized them, and had them beheaded in the public square, beginning with a couple of bishops, and proceeding with city councilmen and other leading burghers. He made enemies at home in Denmark as well; he seems to have alternated between ferocity and vacillation; and he ended up being overthrown by his uncle and most of the Danish nobility. Whatever his faults, he had favored the peasants and middle class against the nobles. This is not a history text, however, and the protagonist is not the king, but a man much further down the social scale, Mikkel Thogersen, whom we meet as a not very studious student at the University of Copenhagen. He has what one might call social and psychological problems, or spiritual problems, as they would likely be seen in his time. After being expelled from the university, he becomes a mercenary soldier, and years later is in Stockholm to witness the massacre. As a yet older man, he returns from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, drops by at the old homestead, where his brother has become a substantial yeoman, and witnesses the peasants' attempt to restore Christian the Second to power, which the nobles and their mercenaries suppress with bloodshed far exceeding -- as Jensen points out -- the Stockholm butchery. The book was originally published as three short novels, and even in one volume, it is not especially long. Jensen could have written a doorstop, following Mikkel's life in much greater detail. I can only wonder what impulse or what spiritual crisis led Mikkel, who has committed his share of violence, and not only on battlefields, to go on a pilgrimage. There are episodes of the supernatural or the surreal. I am not sure what Jensen intended to be taken as literal truth within the context of his tale, what to be taken as symbolism, and what to be taken as hallucinations experienced by the characters. Perhaps the matter is deliberately left ambiguous. A woman friend to whom I described some of this told me, "It sounds dreadful!" and thanked me for sparing her from reading the book. I can understand that reaction, especially from a woman (as I didn't get around to telling her, there are various instances of men behaving very badly toward women). Yet, although I don't recommend The Fall of the King for those with low squick thresholds, I cannot deny that it is a powerful book that makes a strong impression. You can despise some of Jensen's characters, but it would be hard to call them pallid and forgettable, or to lose all thought of the book's images and scenery: the white nights of a Danish summer, a frozen winter in a Swedish woodsman's hut, burning manor houses, an enterprising German merchant's shipload of whores, a scholar's homunculus; the giantesses turning their quern Grotte, and speaking of what they grind. (Comment on this)
Friday, May 18th, 2012
11:57 pm	Schalkenbach Meeting I'm in New York at the Board Meeting of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. More about this later. It's my first in-person Schalkenbach Board meeting, after being elected last year. (Comment on this)
11:53 pm	The Red Queen's Race As of yesterday, one new amendment appeared on my docket, and I dealt with two amendments this week, leaving me with a total of six. I did a Continuing New case this week, but not a Regular New. I'll have to try to do four Regular News in the next four weeks to manage one per biweek for the quarter. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
10:59 pm	The Red Queen's Race This should have been posted at least three days ago, but I've been having trouble with my Internet connection: On Thursday, the Patent and Trademark Office celebrated Community Day, although contrary to what the article says, I don't thin we got two hours off for it. It was my understanding that we got one hour off to participate. I also spent an hour manning the USPTO Toastmasters table at Community Day. A fair number of people came by and signed up to receive our emails. Some of them may end up actually joining. I didn't get any new amendments this week; I disposed of one, bringing my total down to seven, and I'm working on a second amendemnt. I also finished a Regular New case this week, my second of the quarter. I need to do to some more somehow, while juggling amendments, Continuing New cases, and Special Programs New cases. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 6th, 2012
11:39 pm	Internet Trouble and Red Queen's Race I've been having trouble with my Internet connection lately (things are slightly better now that I'm using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer). I haven't been able to post lately, but now maybe this will go through. Wednesday morning was "Breakfast with the Executives," sponsored by the Patent and Trademark Office Society. I got a cup of coffee (I had already eaten at home, so I didn't partake of the rest of the continental breakfast), and talked with the Patent Commissioner, Peggy Focarino, and some other executives at the U.S.P.T.O. She was gracious, and invited me to email her any time I had recommendations for getting things done better, etc. This past week, I disposed of one amendment, and did not get any new ones, so I'm currently at eight amendments total. I'm currently working on a Regular New case, and hoping to finish it by tomorrow at 3:00 PM, but I probably won't make it. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 30th, 2012
11:34 pm	Blinds Replaced I called Maintenance, and they sent someone (it ended up taking two someones) to put new blinds on my office window, and the first man to come also sprayed adhesive on a patch of carpet tht had torn loose from the backng (undercarpet? whatever you call it). This rather disrupted my morning of examining, but at least that's taken care of now. (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 28th, 2012
4:42 pm	"The Iron Shirts" Again I have reread the Michael F. Flynn story, "The Iron Shirts" -- get it for your Kindle! and, by the way, read the author's weblog m_francis. It's a story worth rereading; it's good the second time but in a slightly different way, when you know how things end up. Also, there's a mention of milsen (acute accent over the e) as one of the foods on the table at a chief's welcoming feast for a prominent man from another clan. It was as easy to find milsen online as it is to find some things, but I did in time find an explanation: It's a sort of cheese, or pressed curds that have not yet become aged cheese. I get the impression -- I could be wrong -- that it's more solid than cottage cheese, but nothing like an aged Vermont cheddar. (Comment on this)
Friday, April 27th, 2012
10:19 pm	The Red Queen's Race I got two amendments this week, and I dealt with four, so I'm down to nine amendments on my combined Regular Amended, Special Amended, and Expedited dockets. (I don't have anything on my Expedited docket now, but I did earlier this week.) I have now picked up a new case, and begun work, but it isn't a Regular New. I may be able to work on my oldest Regular New next week, and possibly even finish it. The blinds in my office have been troublesome for a few days, and are now outright broken. This afternoon, I interposed newspapers to reduce the glare as the sun shone from my right side, onto my eyes and my workstation monitors. Monday, I'll call Maintenance to get the blinds fixed or replaced, but I'm afraid that that will mean moving furniture and various clutter. (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
10:28 pm	Housing "Recovery" I sent a letter to the Financial Times a week or so ago. Since they have not, so far as I've seen, printed it, you can only read it here: Aside from other points that might be argued, Edward Luce never explains why an economic recovery depends on a housing recovery, or even why an increase in real estate prices should be called a "housing recovery." From the perspective of a young couple seeking to buy a house, a further fall in prices would be a real recovery. I submit that he has cause and effect reversed: when an economy prospers, and a country or region becomes a good place to live and work, then real estate prices climb. Unfortunately, they tend to climb to an unsustainable level, and then the bubble bursts. A rise in the price of houses as such might at least have the benefit of raising the demand for construction workers, but real estate bubbles are primarily increases in land prices. A country does not become genuinely richer merely because its citizens are able to charge each other more for a fixed supply of land. (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 22nd, 2012
11:24 pm	"The Iron Shirts" I've downloaded and read Michael F. Flynn's story "The Iron Shirts" from Amazon. It hasn't been published in a dead tree magazine, so there's another reason to have a Kindle Fire. It's a well-told story (duh! of course it is; I told you that it's by Michael Flynn) of an alternate medieval Ireland, visited by American Indians. In this timeline, the Amerinds' remote ancestors didn't exterminate the horse, so some of their descendants are horsemen, without waiting for the Columbian Exchange. There is a trickle of contact via Ireland, Iceland, and Greenland, and so -- but this isn't an (alternate) history text, it's a story, and I recommend reading it. (Comment on this)
7:50 pm	Ways the IRS Is Screwing Americans There are fundamental economic reasons why I think that land value taxation is better than taxing income, sales, profits, imports, or buildings and other property created by human effort. There are also administrative reasons, for examples of which I direct the Gentle Reader to this article from Reason magazine. With land value taxation, there would be no need to demand detailed information -- sometimes detailed to the point of being impossible to provide -- from Americans with foreign bank accounts, and from foreign financial institutions. Then we wouldn't have foreign financial institutions refusing to let American expatriates keep accounts, as causing them too much trouble. There are descriptions of other problems created by the I.R.S. as well, including its recent power grab in imposing licensing requirements on tax preparers, not authorized by the actual laws passed by Congress. Here's more reason to end the income tax. (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 21st, 2012
12:58 am	The Red Queen's Race I got two new amendments this week, and didn't deal with any, bringing me up to eleven on my combined Regular Amended and Special Amended dockets. I'm hoping to deal with at least one by 3:00 PM Monday. Also, I did a quasi-amendment this week; a patent attornye called me about a case on my Rejected docket, and proposed claim amendments for me to make by Examiner's Amendment. I was able to do that, and allow the case. I did my first Regular New case of the quarter this week. Now I have to do another one each biweek, and one extra, to make up for the first biweek of the quarter, when I didn't do any. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012
10:30 pm	Georgist Conference in Minnesota, Part 36 This was on the morning of Saturday, August 6; I'm concluding with the third part of the panel discussion on "Taking Land out of the Market: Economic Potential of Community Land Trusts." We heard more from Greg Finzell and the other Community Land Trust people. A high percentage of the folks living in Community Land Trust homes are single mothers or other single female heads of household. Mr. Finzell also mentioned saving old houses by moving theme elsewhere. Mike Curtis (the Georgist from Arden) said that we need to figure out how to assess leases, put that in the contract for the lease, and avoid trouble. Dan Sullivan, another Georgist (not a panelist), commented that we're not trying to keep land off the market. We're trying to keep land on the market. Keeping land off the market is what land speculators, Redevelopment Authorities, and conservation trusts do. Ed Dodson, who used to be the Community Land Trust liaison person at Fannie Mae, said that scale is a problem for CLT's. Scattered sites are possible for CLT's -- the CLT's in Minnesota are doing it. In his Fannie Mae days, Dodson thought that scattered-site CLT's were a good idea, until the bean counters told him, "There's no scale." Damon Gross said CLT's have the potential to build up land equity to pay for services. Janet Lindbo replied that they can't use land held in trust for lines of credit or anything; they can't encumber the land. There are covenants. Michael Curtis said that a land trust could accumulate money and buy more land. But then they'd be rack-renting the householders, not providing them special services or low rent. It's a dilemma. Janet Lindbo said that the homeowner pays all property taxes. Ed Dodson noted that that accounts for the low groundlease charges. This was the last panel of the conference; after it ended, we attended the Friendship Brunch, drank our toasts, and went our separating ways. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
10:49 pm	Georgist Conference in Minnesota, Part 35 This was on the morning of Saturday, August 6; I'm continuing with the second part of the panel discussion on "Taking Land out of the Market: Economic Potential of Community Land Trusts." Mike Curtis spoke. He began with the 1895 invasion of Delaware by Georgists, trying to persuade it to go single-tax, and serve as a model for other states. They spent $25,000 -- back then, equivalent to at least several hundred thousand dollars now -- and made thousands of speeches. A newspaper said that if they had instead paid for votes what the Republicans paid for votes, they'd have had more votes. After that, the town of Arden was founded. Joseph Fels provided a $9000 start-up loan, and the Georgists bought farmland. At first, they had dirt roads and well water. They charged land rent to the leaseholders and used the money to pay the property tax (on land and buildings) imposed by local government. Growth was slow at first, but the town filled up in time. It attracted some artistic, Bohemian people, and is noted for several theatres, and special interest clubs or guilds, including the Georgist Guild. In 1922 (did I get that right?), more land was purchsed, and became Ardentown. In 1950, there was a further expansion, called Ardencroft. The Trust collects about one third of the economic rent, and uses this to pay the local property taxes (which are pretty low in Delaware; people pay substantial income tax instead). If Arden were a few miles away in Pennsylvania, things would be different. Land values are actually higher in Arden than in nearby communities; you would pay more for a house and leased plot in Arden than a house of the same size with title to a plot elsewhere. Teresa vanderBent said some more about Community Land Trust operations, and Janet Lindbo spoke a bit about delinquencies and loan modifications. Mike Curtis said that there have been no foreclosures in Arden, ever. At first, banks wouldn't make mortgage loans there, but then they saw that leases ther sold for as much as land titles elsewhere. It's not in my notes, but I think that at some point he said that if the Arden Trust had collected 100% of the land rents, and used the surplus after paying local property taxes to buy more land, the Ardens could now be as large as the state of Delaware. Teresa vanderBent said that homeownership isn't about wealth creation; it's about a place to live, and a good community to live in. Janet Lindbo agreed, "Shelter first, investment second." There was more discussion; I'll do a further installment. (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 14th, 2012
1:44 am	The Red Queen's Race Two new amendments appeared on my docket this week, one of them a Special Amended case that isn't really an amendment; it's a Board of Appeal decision. I believe that of the last twelve cases I've had sent back from the Board of Appeals, I was affirmed nine times, affirmed-in-part twice, and overturned once. Feeling lucky, punk? And I acted on four of my earlier amendments this week, bringing the total on my combined Regular Amended and Special Amended dockets down to nine. I also did a Continuing New case, and I picked up a Regular New case and began work just before escaping Friday evening. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 9th, 2012
11:16 pm	Attention, Unemployed Geeks The United States Patent and Trademark Office is hiring; learn more at http://www.USPTOcareers.gov/. There are positions both in Alexandria, Virginia (near DC), and at the new office in Detroit. They're reaching out to veterans especially. (1 Comment |Comment on this)