What do you know about patents? Want to be depressed? Read on. Originally monopolies over some product or service granted at the whim of royalty to those in their favor or for a cut of the proceeds (that is, a bribe), patents have evolved into a sort of social contract between inventors and the state. A balance has been struck. In return for being granted a limited monopoly (maximum of 20 years) on an original invention, the inventor is required to publish a complete description and ensure by way of manufacturing or licensing that sufficient are available to meet public …

Having Scottish ancestry, as I do, can have consequences at times—-like the apparently inescapable genetic programming by which hands are very reluctant to reach into pockets. Of course, the Scots aren’t the only nationality with a reputation for being canny, the Dutch are also renowned for arms that become inexplicably short on occasion.

Daughter Kerri Lynn, home from Wellington, decided to organize some extertainment down on the back paddock. Originally it was just to be a race between the old’s mobility scooter and our ride-on lawn mower, but entry was soon opened to include a tractor, another lawn mower, Chris’ derelict “push-me” motorcycle, a replica of the firstever motor car, a bicycle, and, wait for it, a gas turbine-powered kite buggy. By the form card, the tractor had 65 horsepower, the buggy 60, motorcycle 15, lawnmowers 14.5, Benz 3/4th, and mobility scooter ½.

The excellent Pasir Gudang festival in Johor State at the Singapore end of Malaysia is growing and getting better every year; there were more than 140 invited international fliers there last February. Festival organizers are rightly pleased with how well it’s working and are committed to making this event even stronger in years to come.

On a visit to the west coast of Java some years ago, Philippe Cottenceau of the French kite association Au fil des Vents saw a traditional, probably quite ancient use of a kite not many Westerners have reported on. He saw a kite being used to catch food. Bats, to be precise. The scene was the village of Pangandaran, west of Jakarta, where an annual international kite festival is held.

In a career spanning almost 70 years, meteorologist John H. Conover, who died recently at age 88, pioneered radar and time lapse photographic studies at the famous Blue Hill Weather Observatory in Milton, Massachusetts, near Boston, and was the observer on duty during a hurricane in l938 when wind speeds of 121 mph were recorded over a five minute period and a gust of 186 mph measured, the second highest wind ever recorded in the world.

In 1993, Robert Brasington and wife Tracey had excellent jobs in England as horticulturists, he as production manager of a major firm, she as a department manager. They had saved up a fair amount of money, “enough capital to comfortably set us up in business,” he says.

Born and raised in Raton, New Mexico, in the American Southwest, where his father was a lawyer, Scott Skinner, now 50, graduated from the United States Air Force Academy and served 7 1/2 years as a flight officer, achieving the rank of captain. Initially a KC135 tanker co-pilot, he returned to the academy as a pilot-instructor flying low and slow “bug-smasher” T41s. Leaving the Air Force, Skinner earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Denver and settled into a career as manager of family investments.

Iqbal Husain from the Tecino of Switzerland is a regular at major European kite festivals with his dramatic kite trains. He not only collects kites from around the world but also prints and paintings, as well as old Chinese porcelains and Oriental rugs.

The Drachen Foundation recently expanded its Board of Directors from six to eight. Added were Dave Lang, of Seattle, a veteran aerospace engineer, and Jose Sainz, of San Diego, renowned for his beautiful, elaborate kites with Indian motifs which reflect his personal Aztec heritage. “For us to grow,’ says Ali Fujino, Administrator of Drachen, “we needed some new viewpoints. Lang with his strong scientific background and Sainz with his refined esthetic sense bolster the Foundation in these two important areas.”