#patent application process

[trademarkagentservicesblog]

Affordable Trademark Registration in Solan: Expert Services Available

Are you curious about the cost for trademark registration in Solan. Discover affordable solutions through our specialized trademark agent services. Our team is committed to guiding you through the registration journey, ensuring your brand identity gains essential legal protection without straining your budget. Rely on our seasoned professionals to navigate the intricate processes of trademark registration in Solan, granting you peace of mind and enabling you to concentrate on expanding your business. For more information visit our website today!

[thepatentexperts]

How to Create Design Patent Drawings That Meet USPTO Requirements

Design patent drawings are an essential part of a design patent application. They help illustrate the unique design of an invention and provide the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) with a visual representation of the design. This content brief will cover the importance of design patent drawings, the requirements for creating them, and a step-by-step guide on how to create them.

I. The Importance of Design Patent Drawings

This section will explain why design patent drawings are important for inventors. It will cover the following points:

They aid in demonstrating an invention’s distinct design.

They offer the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) a graphic depiction of the design.

They have the power to make or break a patent application.

They must go with design patent applications.

II. Requirements

This section will cover the requirements for creating design patent drawings. It will cover the following points:

A. Types of Views Required

Multiple viewpoints are required for design patent drawings.

The views must include all sides, the top and bottom, and other pertinent information.

Perspectives may also be required.

B. Rules

The drawings must be in black & white, grayscale, or color.

The drawings must be clean, precise, and full.

The drawings must be on paper that’s thick and non-shiny.

The drawings need to be the right size.

III. How to create Design Patent Drawings

This section will provide a step-by-step guide on how to create design patent drawings. It will cover the following points:

A. Step-by-Step Process

Sketch the invention from various angles

Use drafting tools to create a clean, precise drawing

Scan the drawing into a computer

Edit the drawing using the software

B. Tools and Software

Pencils and drafting tools for creating the initial drawing

Scanner or camera for capturing the drawing

Graphic design software such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW for editing the drawing

C. Common Mistakes

Using too much shading or hatching

Failing to show all necessary views

Using dotted or dashed lines instead of solid lines

IV. Conclusion

The conclusion will recap the main topics of the essay and underline the significance of producing high-quality design patent drawings. Overall, design patent drawings are an important aspect of the patent application process. By following the instructions and advice described in this article, inventors can make sure that their drawings are precise, thorough, and meet USPTO criteria. Using well-crafted design patent drawings, inventors can boost their chances of a successful patent application and protect their original designs.

Still confused? Don’t worry we are here to help you.

The Patent Experts provide patent drawing services for all types of patents, including replacement drawings, patent application drawings, and patent illustrations.

We are a Patent Drawing Service Provider who specializes in all kinds of patent and trademark drawings to help you move forward with your applications.

To know more, visit: www.thepatentexperts.com

[hangingslothcentral]

whenever i start a new project, i find myself going on a little journey across the internet looking for advice on starting new projects. i know how to do it, but i'm always curious about other people's ideas. most of the stuff i read is aimed at new creators who don't know how to get things off the ground at all.

one thing that strikes me about it is that there isn't really any consensus about how to start something, and i think that's really great! there's a million ways to approach a problem, and (short of solutions which harm or exploit others) none of them are wrong if they're the one that's working best for you.

still, a significant number of the articles i read position themselves as having The Answer for how to make a thing. i think a lot of people sorta feel they have to frame their advice like this in order to give the impression that they know what they're talking about.

sometimes as i'm reading i get gripped with a sense of panic about it, a feeling of 'oh no i'm doing things WRONG', or concern that two ideas about new approaches which I've found would be interesting to try cannot be applied at the same time to the same project.

but! advice between one article and the next isn't necessarily going to carry over or map on perfectly. many pieces of advice about starting projects is going to be contradictory based on your sources. it makes me wonder how many people get caught in a loop of trying to take ALL the advice, even when it would be impossible to do so.

sometimes ripping out your whole process and starting from the ground up is the best thing you can do, creatively, but in many circumstances, taking the pieces of advice which will most meaningfully help you redirect your existing skills whilst leaving behind the things that don't serve you? that's also a valid and worthwhile thing to do!

drawing on the knowledge and experience of others is an important practice whatever stage you're at in your life as a creator of things. learning new methods and techniques can help you develop your own practice and sharing knowledge is incredibly important. just remember that there are many ways to solve the same problem, and part of what makes your creations unique are your approaches as an individual. it is impossible to take all of the advice! do continue to seek it out, and also know that you're not disrespecting it by deciding it's not something which will help.

above all, keep creating stuff!

--- Eira xxx

[worldipday]

Closing the Gender Gap in Patents Across Latin America.

Just over a year ago, we formed the Global Intellectual Property Alliance to build a world in which intellectual property enables all people to improve their lives and create a more prosperous and sustainable future.

GLIPA is now working in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America. Their mission is to attract more and diverse group of users to the intellectual property system. In line with these objectives, in 2023, the GLIPA Latin America (LATAM) chapter and the Mexican think tank, CAIINNO began working to get a clearer view of the participation levels of women in the IP system, specifically in the field of patenting in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

The gender gap in IP is a global problem is not confined to any single country or region; it is a global phenomenon. A recent study by WIPO, which offers an international comparison of the gender gap in global patenting between 1999 and 2020, finds that women participated in just 23% of all patent applications, representing 13% of the inventors listed, in that period. According to the study, if current trends continue, gender parity in patenting in Latin America will only be achieved in 2068, seven years later than the current global gender parity forecast of 2061. In Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, GLIPA and CAIINNOʼs work offers greater clarity on the role that women play in the invention process in those countries. The data also considers regional and communal levels.

From 2017 to 2022 the use of the patent system by both men and the already small number of women inventors obtaining patents fell in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. Interestingly, the rate of patenting by mixed teams shows a significant increase in womenʼs participation. While this trend is promising, there is still a sizeable gender gap in the patent system. This is a gap that we need to narrow. If current trends continue, gender parity in patenting in Latin America will only be achieved in 2068, seven years later than the current global gender parity forecast of 2061

Through its IP education and awareness programs, like this training event at the University of San Andrés in Buenos Aires, Argentina, GLIPA is drawing new users to the IP system and equipping them with the knowledge and skills they need to use IP rights effectively

The GLIPA/CAIINNO study highlights four key actions to help Latin American countries reduce the gender gap in patenting:

Closer collaboration with organizations like WIPO to support efforts to overcome blocks and standardize the collection of IP data, especially with respect to gender, from IP offices around the world.

Better and easier access to these data will help to show a clear picture of how the IP system is being used around the world and by whom. It will also help ensure the development and implementation of effective policies and strategies to encourage greater participation in the IP system by more diverse groups, including women.

Reaching out to women inventors and actively encouraging them to engage with the IP system is crucial. This requires close collaboration among all those who influence the IP landscape, including government, business associations, civil societies such as CAIINNO and GLIPA, local innovators and others.

We also need to rethink IP education. This involves moving beyond seeing IP exclusively as a technical legal field, and broadening our approach to ensure IP is seen as a practical toolkit for inventors, creators and entrepreneurs to translate their ideas into thriving businesses.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Engineered bacterial protein offers efficient rare earth metal separation

A newly discovered protein naturally houses an unusual binding site that can differentiate between rare earth elements, and researchers at Penn State have made it even better. Rare earth elements are key components used in everything from modern tech to gasoline production. The protein, called LanD, enriches neodymium and praseodymium over other similar rare earth elements (REEs) and has the potential to revolutionize industrial mining, researchers said. Scientists at Penn State, led by professor of chemistry Joseph Cotruvo, Jr., recently published their LanD discovery in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Each rare earth element has specific properties that make it useful for different applications, yet they are notoriously difficult to separate from each other," said Cotruvo, who has filed a patent application related to the work. "Current industrial methods are inefficient and require heavy use of toxic chemicals, so a protein-based method for rare earth mining could make this process more efficient, greener, and less expensive."

Read more.

[ptseti]

Valerie Thomas started at NASA in the mid-1960s. From her early days in data analytics to her contributions to image processing systems, Dr Thomas likened it to a rocket, launched into greatness and career success. She is renowned for her patent of the 3D Illusion Transmitter(1980), an invention that revolutionised our interaction with 3D imagery. This groundbreaking technology uses a video recorder to take a picture of a floating image and remains in use and development at NASA. Recent applications of the 3D Illusion Transmitter have been television technology and surgical imaging (SPIE, 2022). While advancing her career, she pursued further education, completing her Master’s in Engineering Administration from George Washington University (1985). A curious mind from a young age, Valerie Thomas shared in an interview with Oprah Daily, how her early interest in electronics and mechanics received little attention from her father and encouraged her to redirect her focus towards sewing and hairdressing. This narrative persisted within the education system, where schools at the time did not accommodate STEM(Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics) -related subjects for female students. Despite the odds stacked against her, her passion and curiosity propelled her towards pursuing a physics course at Morgan University, where she was one of only two female students in her class. Text via: Chocolate Tribe / LinkedIn

[max1461]

I've talked before about how scientific knowledge assumes a robust body of everyday knowledge. When you do a scientific measurement, you need to trust that your instrument is giving you the right reading instead of an error, for instance. You probably don't know the ins and outs of how the instrument works yourself—you're trusting technicians to be able to do their job and make the instrument work. They may use a mixture of formal knowledge and informal knowledge to do this. You hear all kinds of stories of technicians saying things like "this machine's a little finicky, if it doesn't give a reading just give it a couple of whacks" or whatever all the time.

You use everyday, "common sense" reasoning of various sorts to determine if your instruments work and if your technicians are trustworthy and capable and so on. You can bolster this knowledge in other ways—for instance, if another research group on the opposite side of the world gets the same result as you, that's some evidence that your readings weren't a technical error. But trusting this research group requires all sorts of other informal knowledge, which you get through e.g. your professional network as a scientist and so on, about whether they're working in a reputable lab and whether the journal they published in is reputable and so on and so forth.

I'm not saying that this makes scientific knowledge untrustworthy. Far from it, I think scientists' ability to manage these epistemic hurdles is generally quite good, although certainly not flawless. They're an occupational hazard of being a human and trying to collaborate with other humans to figure stuff out about the world, there's no way you can get around it. But I do think it means that if you want to consider yourself, you know... epistemically virtuous, a good skeptic, you need a working model of how everyday knowledge is and should be obtained, an epistemic theory applicable to "folk knowledge" not obtained through the scientific process. Not only because you use folk knowledge all the time in your everyday life and should probably be thoughtful about whether it's bullshit or not, but also because the scientific process itself relies on it in a straightforward way.

Anyway, I can't do a rigorous scientific study to figure out... how I should respond to my friend when they're down, or how to throw them a good birthday party, or whatever. And I would be dubious of any psychology study which claims to answer these questions in a general sense. But that doesn't mean that I don't know how to do these things for my friend! My specific, "folk psychological" understanding of who my friend is as an individual, what they care about, how they respond to things, these are more reliable guides than the psychological literature would be on this issue! That viewpoint is not "anti-science". The alternative view is so patently ridiculous that basically no one hews to it, not even scientists.

On second thought I'm sure there are like, some podcast guys who believe it...

[ryeun]

Rereading is wonderful because why did I forget about this little detail. Apparently they have chewing gum in the TEK world! A quick google search tells me the first chewing gum was patented in the late 1860s, which is interesting. Since TEK takes place in a fictional world and not on Earth, it’s hard to compare technological advances and eras.

On the same note, the reason why I went back to the earlier chapters in the first place was because I remembered that Nagyunn bought a magazine of Najin:

Which is interesting because having Najin’s picture on the cover and such (as magazines are) implies the existence of technology able to capture a person’s likeness and print it out. Either that or it is hand drawn and then printed, which is viable (unlike the possibility of every copy being hand drawn, because that is simply not plausible and entirely impractical/not cost efficient).

The extent to which the technology in TEK has advanced is unclear; there are magical scrolls distributed among the knights that are used for communication, and they seem to work like a messaging app or social platform on a phone (not sure if they have other applications or uses because we’ve only seen knights scrolling through chat logs or receiving an announcement/message).

But the question is… how long have they been around? They clearly don’t have actual scientifically made cell phones, as is common in fantasy worlds with the existence of magic, but Wild Dog Fidorance seems inept at communicating through the scrolls (I don’t have the screenshot sorry) as if they’re something new. Of course, it might just be because they don’t seem to be in the use of the common people, which would mean that those who become knights would not be accustomed to them growing up, but… I don’t know. Sure, Qilin and other knights, as well as Nagyunn, get the hang of it quickly, but that doesn’t mean it’s been around for a long time. In Nagyunn’s case, he didn’t even know they existed until he met the magician.

So, we know there must be a device used for printing copies of something, there is a magical device that is used by knights to communicate, and that somehow magazines with pictures are printed in color. Is there some device, likely magical, used to take pictures? Is someone meeting with people like Najin and having them pose for hours to capture their likeness? Who knows.

If you were looking for a crazy theory with an answer, I sincerely apologize… but I only bring questions, not answers!! Maybe you can think about it and come up with something, with these details presented to you. (And if you do, please share!! I’d love to talk about the TEK world more! I’m slowly in the process of rereading TEK and taking note of details whenever I have time, which is not too often. Originally I started rereading from chapter 20 and onward—the latest chapter I was working on was 66—but I came back to the first chapters to refresher my knowledge.)

[potterheadedme]

(the rest of) a bit of writing for Garbagechocolate's Truth virus AU

“Um…Friendo, I don’t, I don’t know how I feel about this” sun says from with the pizzaplex parts and service animatronic repair station™️. Having relized shortly after the repair station patented paralysis kicked in, that they may not be as on board with this idea as they thought they were

From with in there shared operating system, moon let’s out what might have been a deep exhausted sigh if either of the had lungs,

“Gasp! What? final come to your senses about randomly downloading software because ‘it’ll be cool’” moon mocks

“In my defense starlight seemed so excited, what was I suppose to say moony” sun says back from with in the OS

“.. the truth”

That’s when they both hear their repair specialist Y/N call back “Did you two says something” from From somewhere beyond their current scope of vision they can hear here it sounds pretty muffled, after a bit they seem to poke their head back into view.

“Nothing starlight!” Sun hurries out with a grin

At this moon huffs

“Oh, um.. ah, actually…moon? Has um a few concerns, about this download” sun stutters out

“ oh don’t you two fret, Minecraft is a completely passive program, and this version should be a hundred percent compatible with your operating systems” y/n finishes with a thumbs up

“Oh”

“Yeah, so are you two ready?”

Sunny can feel moon doing the equivalent of slowing shaking his head from further back in the code

“Ready when you are, starlight!”

At that y/n starts the download, from here they can hear the faint loading chimes the main Control panel emits,

"...Alright....there we are,... downloads started, shouldn't take all night ,but it may take a bit" y/n says as they turn their gaze from the screen in front of them to the currently immobil daycare attendent, sat within the repair station, in the depth of parts and service.

"how are you two holding up?" y/n asks after a bit, breaking the relative silence, of the subterranean room

“Just peachy starlight!” sun said without thinking, and while it wasn’t a total lie, it wasn’t exactly true either, over the years the daycare attendant has had countless updates to their software and operating systems and while the uploading process is slightly different each time, they know what to expect by now, they know enough to know that something feels off about this.

“Sun. No, you feel it to” moon says, his voice coming through over the rising buzz of an ever growing number of binary strings as the files enter their operating system and make their selves at home, burrowing in and warping the applications around it to its managed tasks.

“Moony, I’am sure it’s fine, starlights checked everything over, they say it’s compatible, sure the download feels a little funky, but am sure its nothing”

“This doesn’t feel like nothing, Sun”

“How would you know we only ever get new security and health protocols these days” punctuated with a mental pout “ this is a game moony!! We’ve never got a game before, of course it’s going to feel different!”

“Listen, theres reasons we’ve never directly downloaded games before, do you ever know if you can run the game after getting it? ‘Compatible’ doesn’t mean usable” moon snaps back

“Well if you gonna be a spoil sport, we can uninstall if it doesn’t work, happy”

At this moon mumble something Sun can quite hear over the new application own internal humming.

Upon realizing this conversation with his darker half has come to a momentary halt, Sun turns his attention back to their code, by now he’s having l a bit of trouble ignoring the itchy squirming feeling these files leave him with.

Sun goes to voice this concerns with there trusted technician… only to find that he can’t

moon let’s out a sound of exasperation, that can nearly be heard over the rumbling and buzzing of the code “tell y/n to pause this”

“…moony…I can’t, the controls are stuck”

“Let me see” moon says as he wrench control from sun, to see the interior controls are currently unavailable.

“What’d you do Sun?”

“ME! I didn’t do anything”

“The OS dosent just freeze like this on its own, and one download shouldn’t be enough to shut us down, what else is running” moons is growing noticeably more frustrated

While they continue to attempt troubleshootin, moon turns his attention outwards, now noticing that y/n may have been talking to them this entire time pacing back and forth for who knows how long.

“-portant you guys let me know, alright?” Y/n finished as they come to a stop in front of the glass cylinder, looking towards the still anamatronic expectantly.

“…right? …guys?” Y/n finish before concern starts to creep in

~~~~~

The daycare attendants have been uncharacteristically quiet, it has been a solid 15 minutes since they have lasted talked, I didn’t think much of it until there LEDs began to switch through a few settings before dimming completely.

At this point I am significantly more that a little worried, I fear, no I am certain that the altered version of Minecraft, that I suggest is causing this. I can’t just stop the download that is the first and most important thing they tell any engineer or technician that works here, that stopping mid upload or download or backup will cause irreparable damage to any and all of the bot under the faz co brand.

This is when it occurs to me that the most helpful I can do right now is, nothing, I’ve done enough damage already and any action I take now may just drawl this out or make it worse,

So instead of bolting to the console and running through every debugging program I can think of I sit, in the cheat plastic of the rolling chair sat by the console, and watch keeping vigil over the subterranean room and it’s robotic occupants.

~~~~~

“Oh. Hello” a metallic voice say, breaking the silence that’s settled over the room,

I jump a little, sorry to say I may have been zoning out as the hours of nothing stretched on, then spin around to see how bad I’ve goofed things up.

“Hey, your back” I say as I try and guess, who I might be talking to, usually it pretty clear which ai is fronting, if not by there appearance than there ‘voice’

This doesn’t seem to be the case right now, whoever just spoke is currently lacking Sun usually expressive lilt and Moons more taunting almost breathy inflection.

It seem like I might be I am be hearing there shared ‘base’ voice, this may mean they are still sorting themselves out, so while they finish ‘loading’ for lack of a better term, I turn my attention back towards to console to seem is I can gleam anything from the download stats.

After a bit of searching I think I come across the problem, while the application in question was compatible with the main operating system, it wasn’t nearly as compatible with the central processors of the attendances AI, and it seemed to have spawned new files in response. I can’t see see what they do from here, but this can wait,

In the computer screens reflection I can just barely see moon, sit up in the center of the repair station glowing red eyes fixed on me, I take a few deep breaths before turning to face the music.

“Moon” I say in acknowledgement, he simply nods back

“Alright, that didn’t seem to go quite to plan, could you run a quick diagnostics for me”

“Sure friend” moon responds in a surprisingly chipper manner, I try not to freeze up and being called a friend, I’ve worked alongside the daycare attendant for a while, and I’ve even talked with my predecessors on a few occasions, this first time I’ve ever heard of the night themed animatronic giving anyone this moniker, i try not to dwell or draw attention to this.

As I am getting ready to pull the nighttime attentions diagnostics stats up on my faz pad, he chimes in.

“Hm, everything’s moved around, I haven’t a clue what half of these files are” moon let’s me know, which it a bit suspicious, neither ai Is usual this forthcoming with there ailments, for whatever reason it usually takes more pestering to get this kinda information information.

“…what?” I blink in surprise, I am a little lost at whatever moons playing at

“There’s at least one background application running that doing something” he shrugs

“What’s that supposed to mean”

“No idea” he kinda shrugs again

“Alright. How are you feeling”

“No idea”

“What’s that’s supposed to mean”

“I don’t know yet” moon starts to look like he zooming out

“Fine, can I talk to sun then” I say try not to grit my teeth

“Sun doesn’t want to talk to you right now” moons eyes grow large in shock,some how he seems surprised by his own words.

~~~~~

Soon as he’s able moon begins shifting through all the losses files, sorting out tangled strands of code, and closing an application that can be before long everything is at least neat which doesn’t mean much as far but it at least a little easier to think,

Moon then turns his attention outwards to see y/n working on something, he sits and watches them work for a little bit before they freeze, and turn to acknowledge him.

“Moon” the nighttime animatronic nods in response

“Sure friend” moon mumbles not even paying attention

Before long they continued with “Alright, that didn’t seem to go quite to plan, could you run a quick diagnostics for me”

As moon starts the diagnostics he can hear Sun grumbling about something

Finishing the diagnostics, they see one maybe more applications failed to close when they were supposed to, along with brand new files that can be opposed,

“Hmm nothing to bad,”

Sun huffs “let’s let y/n know so we can get out of here moony!”

“Hm, everything’s moved around, I haven’t a clue what half of these files are” moon says for some reason

“Moon!! What ? We didn’t need to mention it” Sun mentally cuts it

“That’s not what I wanted to say”

They both hear the slight apprehension in y/ns voice “What’s that supposed to mean”

“No idea” moon shrugs

Moon hear feel suns deep frown from here

As y/n asks “Alright. How are you feeling” moon can feel sun starting to creep closer to the controls

“Come on moony, this one’s an easy one, I know the correct answer, you know the correct answer, go ahead and say the correct answer, we can still salvage this” sun is starting to sound a little anxious

“I got this sun” moon says as he starts to respond with the answer most every human expects to get when they ask, ‘fine’

“No idea” moon says this and sun does a mental double take

“We just talked about this moony”

“What’s that’s supposed to mean” y/n looks confused

“I don’t know yet” at this sun is yelling

“GAAHH, I can’t with either of you right not, I don’t know if you know but we’ve got a daycare to take care of!! Stop trying to get us started in parts and services!!!” Sun takes a ver digital deep breaths

“I’m not doing anything, I don’t know what’s going on” moon says

“We can talk about this later, smooth things over with y/n so we can get out of here, I don’t really want to talk to them and this exact moment” sun says after he’s calmed down

“Fine, can I talk to sun then” upon hearing y/n say this sun looks to moon and moon looking to sun

“I got this, smooths my middle name”

“Sun doesn’t want to talk to you right now” moons eyes grow large in shock,some how he seems surprised by his own words.

“MOON YOU, YOU TATTLETALE”!!!

Ant this point sputtering both inside and out, face in his hand how this go so bad

Part 1/?

Part 2

Here’s a snippet of writing for @garbagechocolate’s truth virus au,

it’s not betaed and I didn’t actually proofread, so if you see something that needs fixed let me know

[thepatentexperts]

Explore the essentials of patent drawing services, focusing on utility and design patent drawings. Discover why precise patent drawings are crucial for a successful patent application, common pitfalls to avoid, and tips for choosing a top-notch patent drawing service. Whether you’re an inventor or a company, gain valuable insights to ensure your patent application is thorough and compliant. Tune in for expert advice on protecting your intellectual property with accurate and professional patent illustrations.

Ready to secure your patent with top-tier illustrations? Visit The Patent Experts today to learn more about our comprehensive patent drawing services and how we can support your innovation journey!

[vermillioncrown]

ands snippet: fast and furious

Summary: Vivienne delivers on a promise and expected only the self-satisfaction of a “job well done.” His Dark Grace decides otherwise.

or tldr: the batmobile's first, official iteration gets its christening 😏 (making out + some d/s vibes) this is a write up of this post on how bruce (the batman, really) and vivienne "get together," originally written to entertain @rozaceous (and here's the link to the og concept) the gist is that it's pre-NYE party debacle, ros and vi are practically u-haul lesbians but it's no one's business (not even their authors') how involved they are with each other, and ros and bruce have not resolved their UST yet.

“—and there might be tolerance issues with the panels, but they should be resolved by next month.” Neel Singh, the Experimental Manufacturing lead, concludes his briefing and falls half a pace back.

“We’re not racing the clock, Neel.” Vivienne jots down her thoughts in her notepad, and adds, “The winter holidays are coming up. I don’t expect anything more until February, the earliest.”

“Y-Yes, of course.” After pressing him for continuous updates for the past few months, of course he’d feel discombobulated by the sudden release of the gas pedal, so to speak. Neel pulls out his phone to type a message. “Should I call anyone else to show you around, Vivienne? Someone from Facilities for the test track?”

Vivienne looks up and out past the glass, into the indoor test track where the subject of their discussion sits parked. All aerodynamic sleekness and curves, the diffused polish of a practical matte black coating, and the intuitive physical sense of power and nimbleness in its form…

Now that—that is her son, midwifed by the hardworking and circumspect members of her handpicked team.

A thought comes to mind. “We’re dealing with carbon fiber, yes? RTM process?”

Neel nods warily. “The team assessed it to be the best fit for purpose…”

“Let me see the molds. And I may have some thoughts on the trickier shapes.” At this point, it’s better to do things right than to play coy with knowledge. There aren’t any patents on the line, or papers to publish.

Bless Neel—he’s not the most inspirational team lead out there, but the man can get things done, keeps track of his flock, and does not put them in the line of fire if he can help it. It takes the entire hallway’s length to convince him that no, Vivienne isn’t here to take heads and draw blood. And yes, she does have some experience with composites. Thankfully, what she knows and has retained is relevant enough for their use case.

The setup tour and the technicians present are all of acceptable quality. There’s nothing wrong with their process, per se…

“I appreciate the team’s rationale in using vinyl ester. However, in application, the easier forming and mechanical properties with using epoxy should make it an appropriate trade-off,” she declares her verdict. No one is impolite enough to interrupt her (or they’re not green enough to), but the manufacturing team does exchange serious side eye among each other.

When dealing with technical experts, care must be taken to speak their language. Always acknowledge someone’s hard work, and give good faith that they’ve made their decision with good judgment behind it.

And, of course, one should give explicit reasoning when suggesting an alternative. “We won’t be seeing the same type of corrosion nor UV exposure on average, or most of the expected causes of catastrophic failure”—here, Vivienne meets their gazes directly, pausing deliberately so they get her gist— “will render long-term considerations, hm, superfluous.”

Various noises of scoffing and muffled chortles come from the team before her. “It’s likely to explode, GTA-style, before we care about actual sunlight in Gotham,” someone mutters. “Got it.”

Bonus: appeal to their good humor, show that you’re on their side. Show that if they work with you instead of against you, everyone benefits.

“Then, we’ll put the order in for epoxy instead?” Neel announces to the group.

“Let me liaison with the Testing guys, see which specific one they recommend,” one of the technicians answers while the others debate quietly between themselves. “And we need to check the MSDS for any changes needed.”

“Shouldn’t be much—I think we can relax some of the workflow, too,” another one calls out. “It’ll go a lot faster this round.”

Neel turns towards Vivienne, implicitly waiting for her approval.

“Go ahead,” she confirms. “No rush. You should have enough budget; if not, CC me on any requests.” She waits for Neel to nod before turning back to finish her notes.

One of the technicians whistles low and, undeterred by his coworker’s elbow to the gut, asks out loud, “How the hell are we getting the funding for this? It can’t be government.”

Vivienne pauses, looks up to raise an eyebrow at him. She gives it two seconds—enough to make it awkward but not enough to be aggressive—before answering nonchalantly, “Does it matter? As long as we can all go about our day without the mob brazenly shaking people down in public, or an attention-seeking wack job gassing the streets and locking down the expressway, I do not care.”

The emphasis nets her a “fair enough” gesture and no further questions, with the general atmosphere being one of jocular compliance and satisfaction.

Very good.

She turns to Neel, while announcing to the group at large, “That will be all. Everyone should make sure to confirm with my PA on their way out, so you all can receive your bonuses in a timely manner. Have a happy Thanksgiving.” Then, more directly at Neel: “I’ll meet with Facilities before closing the site for the holiday. Official half-day.”

He gets her unspoken “clear everyone out” order and turns to usher the technicians along, all while starting a phone call with other leads in the testing facility.

---

Vivienne takes the scenic route towards the direction of the Facilities Management suite, walking leisurely to keep her baby in her sights the entire time. She returns absent hums of acknowledgment to the people that greet her along her way, dismissing them when they try to ask if she needs anything, and eventually, the facility is empty.

Instead of turning into the Facilities suite, she goes to the nearby elevator to scan her card and wait.

The building lights dim to their low-occupancy standby state. Then, one of the shadows in the empty hallway distends into a vaguely humanoid form, stalking forward until there’s a glint of whited-out eyes.

Ever the dramatic. His Dark Grace’s penchant for positioning is comically perfect.

“I assume you’ve looped the cameras?” Vivienne tilts her head towards the Facilities suite.

The Batman gives a little, “Hm,” and continues towards her and the elevator.

Yes, duh. Vivienne doesn’t roll her eyes. It’d be wasted on this bat-shaped mime.

She instead flips her notepad to a later page, where she’s noted down the information received from Facilities via email a week ago. Meeting with them was entirely unnecessary. Her mind runs through what would be the most efficient loop of comprehensive testing—and if they waited until sunset, she could set up and open the outdoor portion of the track for “realistic conditions.”

It’s rather easy to ignore the looming shadow next to her—she’s had practice and more important things to think about. Normally, anyone impolite enough to look over her shoulder at her notes would be told to back off, but here she can hope that he’d absorb some proper methodology for fucking once. To be fair, any thought of “proper” leaves her head upon reaching the ground floor of the track.

The so-called “Batmobile” is gorgeous. If not in her heels, Vivienne would have sprinted over to him.

Her beautiful baby boy.

She tucks her notepad and pen away into her handbag, and loops the shoulder strap across her torso. All hands are needed for properly admiring this work of art.

“Ah—the slight ripples Neel mentioned,” she talks His Dark Grace through the visual inspection. “Project Lead Neel Singh,” she adds for clarification, letting him know who and what to satisfy his paranoia. “Yes, the matrix voids will be easier to mitigate with the modifications to their vacuum assistance setup, the tooling support, and of course, not using vinyl ester. More workable.”

She walks around the car, eyeing the front and back tires, noting the height of the chassis, and internally debates the optimum between aesthetics, performance, and practicality.

“Hm. This tire size is special order, but still commercial-off-the-shelf. The concern is that typical road conditions won’t allow for anything lower, but we need to balance the handling with the overall weight…especially since the chassis will be so lightweight.” She backs up and takes in the whole of the car’s form. “I…I’m actually a bit worried—we might not have the right balance between the aero and weight for the CG, being not for track purposes, so we can’t go as low as actual motorsport designs—”

“—then let’s test it,” Batman cuts through her fretting. He’s been following along with her inspection, practically hovering over her the entire time. The fingers of his gauntleted hand carefully trace where she was pointing out, trailing behind her hand’s path. “That’s why we’re here.”

Credit where credit is due—that’s true. At least he didn’t immediately demand to do so; his interjection is a polite ask, the bat and all things considered. And Vivienne wouldn’t have let him within a zip code of her new son if he wasn’t ready to handle. She can allow His Dark Grace some fun, for once.

She takes out the prototype key fob—slow enough to rile up the menacing furry next to her—and clicks. The doors unlock and pop slightly ajar before she dangles the fob in front of Batman.

He’s finally trained enough to be polite during their handovers; he takes the fob from her possession without force, and waits for her to situate herself in the passenger side before getting in himself.

“No helmets. Well, you better not get me killed,” Vivienne says blandly when Batman starts up the car. He purrs, lovely and smooth like a spoiled cat. “Or I won’t offer custom hubcaps. Ones with little bat decals.”

There’s a faint smirk on His Dark Grace’s face. “I’m better than that.” He teases with a brief revving of the engine.

The test track comes into hyperfocus in front of Vivienne; on a whim, she clicks an additional control up top near the rearview HUD of the car that opens up the gate to the outdoor track. She can recognize the adrenaline building up—it’s what follows a good challenge, either mental or physical, and she welcomes it with relish.

“Let’s see it, then,” she nods towards the gate, unable to help her toothy grin in return.

---

Her baby boy “handles,” is what Vivienne can say for now. She didn’t expect the response to be buttery smooth on first iteration, and for something experimental. The seeds of something are present—His Dark Grace pulled them into two hairpin turns in sequence—and coupled with the snappiness, she thinks they have an unpolished gem in their hands. The car is like having a barely tamed big cat, leashed up and ready to let loose on one’s orders.

It’s fucking exhilarating.

The stupid showoff figures out how to manage the car quickly enough. He pulls another turn that lets them slide perfectly against the side of the track into the bay that’s meant to be a small pit area. The uncovered half of his face is not as expressive as he pretends to be, day-to-day, but the expression present is full-on cocky as hell.

(Honestly, Vivienne can admit to liking it—or at least, this is much more tolerable than the public-facing himbo she needs to politely shake hands with whenever he deigns to muck around at the office.)

“Proven enough?” His typical growl is less forced, and more of a pleasant rumble that harmonizes nicely with the idling engine. In the full furry get-up, subtle side glances and all that aren't really possible. His Dark Grace turns to stare at her, goading for a response.

The cowl and the whited-out effect of the lenses are eerie up close, but dealing with the devil is much less intimidating when one has leverage. In Vivienne’s case—he knows she’s capable and motivated enough to possibly add something like a kill-switch to the car, just to fuck with him if he pisses her off. His Dark Grace wants her baby real bad, and with proof of concept she can probably get him to do anyt—

Hold up, Vi, say that again? Her inner Ros stops that train of thought.

“Differential adjustment shou—well. Acceptable,” she gives him the compliment, leaning back into the seat with a more relaxed posture. They never make the ergonomics of them fit for anyone of average height; her hairpin has slightly loosened from how the back of the seat rubbed against her updo, and she pulls the pin free to restyle her hair. She feels the Batman’s stare as he waits, and she keeps him waiting. “You’re competent and quick on the uptake. Adaptive.”

Wrangling the Batman was the equivalent of wrangling a division of egotistical engineers working at the cutting edge of everything—all very competent people that will step on each other’s toes, get in each other’s way, and are too used to being correct that they forget their purpose. The balance was slightly off here, becoming the classical joke of “one horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses.”

But everyone has their leverage points, and all are susceptible to The Carrot versus The Stick in personalized ratios and applied judiciously. Vivienne didn’t aim to do anything as Machiavellian as put the Dark Knight of Gotham under her thumb, but that’s where he somehow ended up. She, by sheer grit, found the winning combo of getting him to listen to her—at least when it came to nonsensical designs—and actively soliciting her opinion. She’s not dumb enough to lose that leverage when she sees it in her hands. Maintaining it requires work: showing agreeableness to an extent, with the occasional reminder that he’s in her territory and he would do well to remember it. A little flick to the ego, occasionally.

It helps to put into perspective that, at the end of the day, Bruce Wayne the Batman is nearly five years younger than her. Engineers and technicians under her, the ones ranging from two to ten years younger, with a plethora of tertiary degrees between them—her mind can’t help flagging them as “children” until they temper themselves with a real project, from bid to deliverable.

So, of course her brain demoted the fucking CEO of her company and its parent conglomerate to being a “boy” as soon as he called her Lucius’s PA. She has found no evidence contrary to that ever since. With him neatly categorized, accounting for unique attributes and handling, Vivienne knows very well how to deal with “boys,” because she wouldn’t have gotten this far otherwise.

“Hah. If you had wrecked my shit, as with your typical M.O., maybe I could’ve gotten a nice dinner out of you tonight.” Her tone is intentionally sharper, diction and accent more crass with the habitual New Jersey attitude rather than her usual featureless cosmopolitan speech pattern. Dusk was here, steadily eating away the evening hours as autumn progressed. They’ve stayed later than she anticipated, but…

…for once, in a very long time, she was having fun. The evidence is on her teeth—she was grinning wide enough to catch some of her lipstick on her canines, which her tongue can clearly feel the slick of it.

“Well. We’re done here. Keep up with”—she gestures at the whole of him with a dismissive hand— “that well enough, don’t piss me off, and maybe you’ll earn your new toy by the end of next quarter.”

That whole posturing—after prolonged proximity and the hot-and-cold of seemingly hard-won praise versus snide dismissiveness—is supposed to make His Dark Grace harrumph and skulk away.

Today, he grabs her hand. It’s not violent or anything, but he doesn’t touch her. She’s lost her temper enough to jab her finger in his cowled face, and he’s been taken aback enough and in the position to let her. He’s never touched her.

That—that’s not in the script.

His Dark Grace continues to stare at her, his exposed jaw not quite clenched enough to denote a possible temper tantrum incoming. So, she minutely cocks her chin up, adding a slight challenging tilt to her expression with a raised eyebrow and the slight baring of her teeth in a sneering smile. What are you doing? Are you really—really?

He has her wrist with his left hand, and his full attention and facing is towards her. The right hand comes closer. And because he doesn’t pull her that she lets him, it’s so much closer until—of all fucking things—she feels the gauntlet leather past the corner of her mouth and pressure on her teeth.

The thumbpad has her lipstick stain on it from him wiping it away.

She scoffs, half-between a laugh and an incredulous squawk, and tries to tug her hand away. It doesn’t budge. “How badly do you want this car?” The tone isn’t right—wrong mix of scathing versus levity. And yet, it seems to draw him in closer, the tireless masochist that he is. “Didn’t I say ‘don’t piss me off’?”

“I’m hoping to do the opposite.” This close, he doesn’t bother with the growl at all. He’s almost inaudible over the engine. The lipstick-stained gauntlet cups her jaw, the thumb carefully avoiding her skin, and he leans in when she doesn’t resist.

What the fuck. What is happening. Did he bug the apartment, overhear the sleepover-bullshit talks with Ros?

It’s fascinating, clinically speaking. From what Vivienne’s heard of local gossip, especially among the secretary pool and their particular brand of romantic fantasizing, the Batman is expected to be rough. Wild. He’s supposed to fulfill all sorts of “tall, dark, and handsome” daydreams and lonely imaginings at night, along with fighting crime—what a busy guy.

So, to have him soft and insistent at her mouth, but more like asking for permission than forceful, is a fascinating gap between expectation and reality. He’s not a shabby kisser at all; the playboy types usually have something else going on that makes everyone else do the work for them, and they get to reap all the pleasure. That is apparently not the case here.

Eventually, he pulls back so they can breathe and reassess.

Vivienne looks. She really looks—his face may be mostly covered, he’s still staring, but he’s flushed, visibly steadying his breathing, and her lipstick stains his mouth in a viscerally appealing way that makes her want to lick her teeth. He’s paradoxically much more exposed than she is.

And with that, His Dark Grace is really such a pretty boy—something Vivienne has constantly lamented with Ros over for his pissy attitude. He’s perfectly amenable now, though.

“You really want this,” she says this again, her free hand coming down to pat the console between them and leaning closer.

He’s still a cheeky shit, though. “I want it,” and tilts his head again, ready to close the distance at her say-so.

She means the damn car, but— “Then you’ll have to work for it,” and she closes the distance herself.

[mariacallous]

The US Patent and Trademark Office banned the use of generative artificial intelligence for any purpose last year, citing security concerns with the technology as well as the propensity of some tools to exhibit “bias, unpredictability, and malicious behavior,” according to an April 2023 internal guidance memo obtained by WIRED through a public records request. Jamie Holcombe, the chief information officer of the USPTO, wrote that the office is “committed to pursuing innovation within our agency” but are still “working to bring these capabilities to the office in a responsible way.”

Paul Fucito, press secretary for the USPTO, clarified to WIRED that employees can use “state-of-the-art generative AI models” at work—but only inside the agency’s internal testing environment. “Innovators from across the USPTO are now using the AI Lab to better understand generative AI's capabilities and limitations and to prototype AI-powered solutions to critical business needs,” Fucito wrote in an email.

Outside of the testing environment, USPTO staff are barred from relying on AI programs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude for work tasks. The guidance memo from last year also prohibits the use of any outputs from the tools, including images and videos generated by AI. But Patent Office employees can use some approved AI programs, such as those within the agency’s own public database for looking up registered patents and patent applications. Earlier this year, the USPTO approved a $75 million contract with Accenture Federal Services to update its patent database with enhanced AI-powered search features.

The US Patent and Trademark Office, an agency within the Department of Commerce, is in charge of protecting inventors, awarding patents, and registering trademarks. It also “advises the president of the United States, the secretary of commerce, and US government agencies on intellectual property (IP) policy, protection, and enforcement,” according to the USPTO’s website.

At a Google-sponsored event in 2023, Holcombe, the author of the guidance memo, said government bureaucracy makes it difficult for the public sector to use new technologies. “Everything we do in the government is pretty stupid, when you compare it to the commercial world, right?” he said. Holcombe specifically cited cumbersome budgeting, procurement, and compliance processes, arguing that they hamper the government's ability to rapidly adopt innovations like artificial intelligence.

The USPTO is not the only government agency to ban staff from using generative AI, at least for some purposes. Earlier this year, the National Archives and Records Administration prohibited the use of ChatGPT on government-issued laptops, according to 404 Media. But soon afterward, the National Archives hosted an internal presentation that encouraged employees to “think of [Google’s] Gemini as a co-worker.” During the meeting, some archivists reportedly expressed concerns about the accuracy of generative AI. Next month, the National Archives is planning to release a new public chatbot for accessing archival records developed with technology from Google.

Other US government agencies are using—or avoiding—generative AI in different ways. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, for example, specifically banned the use of AI chatbots for sensitive data. NASA did decide, however, to experiment with the technology for writing code and summarizing research. The agency also announced last week that it’s working with Microsoft on an AI chatbot that can aggregate satellite data to make it easily searchable. That tool is available only to NASA scientists and researchers, but the goal is to “democratize access to spaceborne data.”

[roach-works]

I just learned about the existence of plasma cutting machines from your blog which sent me down a fun little reading trail, so thanks! It’s so strange studying plasma physics and recognizing that there are many many many industrial applications for this field, but I’ve hardly ever learned about them? There’s a lot of focus on fusion and space plasmas - which is understandable, because hell yeah fusion, and who doesn’t love space? But all of the plasma-related tech that is currently used by people to make everyday things is hardly ever mentioned. And I mean, this is clearly because scientists who are interested in materials processing or manufacturing probably left academia to work for industry, and plasma physics is an ENORMOUS field, but I don’t think I’ve ever had someone sit down and say “here are all of the tools used today which are based on plasma technology.” Maybe it’s because that list is too expansive, or the details of certain devices might fall under patent laws, or a lot of the stuff related to their function is interdisciplinary and hard to cover in classes without presumed knowledge of a very broad array of topics, I dunno. It’s just funny to me that I’m picking up pieces of info relevant to my PhD on tumblr dot com. Also, the context of the post where you mentioned plasma cutting machines - that is, the alienation of some workers from tangible physical products - seems to relate somehow to this gap in my education in a way I can’t quite articulate.

that's very cool! this is what i babysit all night:

or at least something a lot like it. beams go in one end, get cut up by the arm, come out the other end and then i stack them. i also debug it like, constantly. it is not a smart machine or very good at its job. the great machine uprising is going to skip this particular dude.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Charles Goodyear (December 29, 1800 – July 1, 1860)

An American chemist and engineer, Charles Goodyear is most well known for his development of vulcanized rubber. Natural rubber is a soft material, and vulcanization stabilized and hardened the material, allowing it to be adopted for a variety of applications. However, although he patented the process in the 1840s, Goodyear never truly profited from his work. He died in debt in 1860, and it was only after his death that his family began to receive significant royalties. Notably, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has no association with Charles Goodyear or his family beyond being named in his honor when it was founded nearly 40 years later.

Sources/Further Reading: (Image source - Wikipedia) (PBS) (MIT) (Goodyear)

[dreadwedge]

Whats up gamers its me WimpCritic186 here, and welcome to yet another viral Minecraft video. Are you suffering? Are you tired of the tedious march through the morass of grief and heartache life has handed you? Have you heard it said one too many times that the "only way out" is "through"? Well.

In today's redstone tutorial, I will show you how to build what I'm calling the "emotional helicopter", a server-friendly, slime-block-powered redstone contraption I've devised for the express purpose of lifting you up and around difficult emotional barriers in your life without the hassle of actually "processing" your "shit". Don't forget to "Like" this video.

Coming up, I'l test this simple and compact device on two of my friends and fellow DVorceCraft SMP members, Neomilk and banal_lad, who, as you might know, just went through a messy, extremely public breakup. Will Milk and Lad find closure, or will they be caught in the blades? Can 1,600 pistons do what 72 hours of couples-counseling livestreamed over tiktok failed to? And how exactly can a single zombie pigman and an obscure quirk of Minecraft Java's lighting engine combine to form the perfect backdoor into what American psychologist Marsha M. Linehan refers to as the "Wise Mind" in her acclaimed Dialectical Behavioral Therapy framework? Stay tuned for all of this and more, but first, let me take a moment to tell you about Ziploc.

I, WimpCritic186, am thrilled to announce that Ziploc is the sponsor of today's technical minecraft video. Ziploc is a special bag that is extremely pog and goated. As a full time content creator, I have to stay mad organized, and I love using reusable Ziplocbags to store my various gamer items and gamer substances.

Let's talk history. Originally developed and test marketed by The Dow Chemical Company in 1968, Ziploc is an undeniable icon in the crowded sliding-channel-storage-bag market-space, standing head and shoulders above competitors like Glad and Hefty in terms of name recognition and brand loyalty – but it wasn't always that way.

The year is 1951. Danish Inventor Borge Madsen submits a patent application for a new type of plastic slide fastener. Enter businessman and innovator Steven Ausnit. Now, Steven was born in Romania in 1924. His father was Max Ausnit, then regarded as the "The Steel King" of Romania – at least until the fateful day an industry rival falsely accused him of a crime he did not commit, leading to his wrongful conviction and imprisonment. During World War II, after successfully escaping house arrest, … Click To Continue