I am from Somalia, and I have witnessed its decay right to its downfall, including the three days during which the government dispersed and the central bank threw out its stash of local currency in large garbage bins.

Haiti will not die. For one, the suffering has been universally afflicted on all Haitians. This will strengthen their bond more than anything. Even if warlords and gangs form their own fiefdoms throughout the country, the humanitarian efforts, whenever they're ready a year or ten from now, can always tap into that shared Haitian identity, forged through an equally-endured hardship.

An earthquake has no one to blame. Probably as many Somalis died as in Haiti (though not in one day) but we only have ourselves to blame, and each victim left a blood debt on his killer, which "must" be avenged (or it has been avenged, and now the victim's family are awaiting reprisals)

I heard the patent office wants to modernize their system, but they can't because there's a patent already covering 'a system to electronically manage patent submissions...'

The embarrassing part of the patent system is not how long it takes but the way patents have been perverted from their original purpose.

The point of a patent was that you would get an exclusive license to your invention for 8 years. In exchange, you would provide detailed instructions on how to duplicate your invention so that after 8 years, other people could build it. It was supposed to spread innovation. It was a trade you made with the government: they would protect you, you would inform them.

Instead we have patent trolls who build nothing and use patents to extort money from those who do, actively hindering development of new products. The patents granted these days do not include instructions on how to build a device, they just say "I do it this way so now you can't". It's a disgrace.

If it's possible for somebody else to copy your invention without reverse-engineering your product, then you shouldn't be granted a patent.

To use the voting average is a really bad way of doing this. I answer a lot of 'Ask HN' style threads, these are hardly ever voted up and they are a ton of work.

If the effect of this change is that doing work like that gets punished then that is really putting the horse behind the cart.

For instance:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1049551

Essentially you are punishing people for being nice to others.