"Broccoli" patent hearing cancelled

Taking into account the ruling of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO that methods for the production of plants which comprise conventional breeding steps as well as technical ones are not patentable under the applicable European patent law, the patentee has proposed to limit its original patent by excluding the breeding methods. Thus, only the broccoli plants as such remain protected.

[...]

French company Limagrain and Swiss group Syngenta filed notices of opposition to the patent in 2003 and maintained their challenge in subsequent appeals. They allege, among other things, that the patent protects an essentially biological method of breeding plants excluded from patentability under the European Patent Convention (EPC) binding on the EPO. The technical board of appeal hearing the two appeals stayed the proceedings and referred questions to the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) with a view to obtaining clarification of the term "essentially biological processes for the production of plants (or animals)" and the associated exception to patentability.

'Broccoli' patent found here, same issue with the 'Tomato' patent.

Vertical Video Syndrome

Enhance

At least 12,000 people have died this year in Mexico's drug war

Through Nov. 30, 12,456 people were killed, making 2010 the deadliest year since Mexican President Felipe Calderon began a government crackdown against traffickers in 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported. The death toll since the start of the drug war is nearly 30,200, said Mexican Attorney General Arturo Chavez. Other officials estimate the death toll at about 32,000.

Photo from Blog Del Narco which covers a lot of this.

War on Drugs... :(

Animals teach us how to be people

Tequila Suicide

We should do this sometime!

Note: Sweden has some serious issues man...

FOX has trouble with percentages AGAIN

And at least on of their presenters is acting.

Here's the last time they failed at numbers.

Spot the mistake

There's something not quite right with this pie chart.

Lenny Kuhr & Les Poppys - Visite

CSI = retarded

Parodied on Red Dwarf:

This happens when you only wank with one arm

Supposedly he trained one arm to gain the advantage in arm wrestling, but we all know what he used it for. More pictures and video...

Larry goes to the market

Larry is drunk. And craving for a beverage.

One of the funniest FAILS ever!

Medievil helpdesk

This one is specially for expandable asset, but some of us will see our parents and/or girlfriend in it.

Dutch Police Fail

At 47.000 plants, the Dutch police proudly thought they had raided one of the "largest marijuana plantations" ever, turns out to be an industrial hemp farm for research by Wageningen University. The police even claimed the value of the plants at 4.5 million euros, which is ridiculous because industrial hemp barely contains THC and is not suited for smoking. You would also think the drug police would be able to spot the difference between industrial hemp and cannabis. The police had already started destroying the crop when the University found out about it and supplied the permit. source 1, 2

Seriously Annom

You're taking this to far...

Unicef Fail

There, I Fixed It

Another nice picture blog.

Hot Water

Ahhh, Air Conditioning

Plug Fail

Fixed Sunroof

BBC Exposes Psychics

One of the funniest fails in recent days...