span class=”content”span class=”content” style=”color:#505050;”i”Since I am too lazy to wash dishes, I built a power sponge. Click “read more” for detailsbr /br /Well, Nadja and I are getting married, and by the time that most people read this, we will be married (we’re getting/we got married on March 11th, 2006). One of the few areas where I am pickier in terms of cleanliness is with dishes, so we decided that I would be the one to always clean the dishes (Nadja agreed to do most/all of the other stuff in exchange for that). Now, we don’t have a dishwasher (if we did, it would be a very unfair deal!). Nonetheless, I don’t feel like washing a ton of dishes by hand and I realized that it had to go faster…br /br /br /br /So I decided to invent the electric sponge. Well, I’m sure it wasn’t an actual invention of imine/i, but whatever. I thought it up on my own. Basically you take an electric hand mixer and a (relatively thick) sponge. You cut the sponge to make it round and attach it to one of the hand-mixer attachments. Then the sponge rotates when you turn on the mixer. So now instead of scrubbing, all you have to do is press the sponge onto the dish which has to be washed.br /br /br /br /Just a couple notes: you probably shouldn’t wash anything with it that is still filled with water. That will splash the water all over the place. Basically, you make the item wet, make the sponge soapy, then scrub.br /br /br /br /For pictures, go to a href=”http://www.michaelnehring.com/modules.php?name=gallery2amp;g2_view=core.ShowItemamp;g2_itemId=1571″http://www.michaelnehring.com/modules.php?name=gallery2amp;g2_view=core.ShowItemamp;g2_itemId=1571/abr /br /br /br /Enjoy!”/i /span/span

span class=”content”span class=”content” style=”color:#505050;”I have posted a review about the international money transfer service know as XETrade. To read the article, please see: a href=”http://www.michaelnehring.com/XETrade-Review.html”http://www.michaelnehring.com/XETrade-Review.html/abr /br /br /I hope this review helps!/span/span

The famous Michael in Germany blog has been painstakingly transfered to the new website. Please go to this website
I have also posted the Germany pictures to the gallery. I will soon post a lot more! (Or maybe not – who knows). Anyhow, it is much easier to manage the site now with PHPNuke and Gallery. Nothing like a little content management.

span class=”content”span class=”content” style=”color:#505050;”Welcome to the new design of MichaelNehring.com. I am now using PHP Nuke as my content management and Gallery 2 as picture management. Both are excelent pieces of free software. I would like to draw your attention to various parts of the website.br /a href=”http://www.michaelnehring.com/modules.php?name=Content”The articles section/a contains various stories and articles that I wrote. At the moment, I only have the articles from the old website.br /a href=”http://www.michaelnehring.com/modules.php?name=gallery2″The photo gallery/a has various pictures and images. Some may be cool. I’ll try to update it regularly.br /a href=”http://www.michaelnehring.com/modules.php?name=Journal”The blog section/a will soon have my various blogs. At the moment it does not include my Michael in Germany things, which can currently still be access at a href=”http://www.ftper.com/cgi-bin/teemz/teemz.cgi?board=_master”http://www.ftper.com/cgi-bin/teemz/teemz.cgi?board=_master/abr /br /Anyhow, that’s it for now. Check back for more cool stuff in the future./span/span

span class=”content”span class=”content” style=”color:#505050;”Here is a dumb patent in my series of dumb patents. US patent number a href=”http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2amp;Sect2=HITOFFamp;p=1amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.htmlamp;r=2amp;f=Gamp;l=50amp;co1=ANDamp;d=PTXTamp;s1=6,368,227amp;OS=6,368,227amp;RS=6,368,227″6,368,227/a. The introduction to the patent is:br /”A method of swing on a swing is disclosed, in which a user positioned on a standard swing suspended by two chains from a substantially horizontal tree branch induces side to side motion by pulling alternately on one chain and then the other.”br /So, swinging from side to side on a swing is patented. Here is an actual quote from the patent text:br /”The user may even choose to produce a Tarzan-type yell while swinging in the manner described, which more accurately replicates swinging on vines in a dense jungle forest. Actual jungle forestry is not required.”br /br /I don’t think I even need to comment/span/span

span class=”content”span class=”content” style=”color:#505050;”Continuing on my list of dumb patents, we have US patent number a href=”http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2amp;Sect2=HITOFFamp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htmamp;r=7amp;f=Gamp;l=50amp;d=PTXTamp;p=1amp;p=1amp;S1=5,443,036amp;OS=5,443,036amp;RS=5,443,036″5,443,036/a. This patent, co-invented by two people (this required a ton of brain work) is summarized as follows:br /”A method for inducing cats to exercise consists of directing a beam of invisible light produced by a hand-held laser apparatus onto the floor or wall or other opaque surface in the vicinity of the cat, then moving the laser so as to cause the bright pattern of light to move in an irregular way fascinating to cats, and to any other animal with a chase instinct.”br /So, the patent basically is using a laser that the cat chases. Nothing was actually invented. They took a laser (invented – perhaps – by Townes, Basov and Prokhorov) and a cat (invented by God) and showed the laser light to the cat. Impressive!/span/span

span class=”content”span class=”content” style=”color:#505050;”Another dumb patent is number a href=”http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2amp;Sect2=HITOFFamp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htmamp;r=1amp;f=Gamp;l=50amp;d=PTXTamp;p=1amp;p=1amp;S1=7,082,894amp;OS=7,082,894amp;RS=7,082,894″7,082,894/a. They claim that it is non-obvious to put beef jerky into a dog chew toy. The text states:br /”A plurality of flavor chunks, for example jerky pieces, are interspersed in the rawhide bit mixture to provide an enticing flavor and aroma that encourages an animal to continue to chew to reveal more flavor chunks.”br /That is supposed to be non-obvious to an *expert* on dogs. So, if you ask an expert on dogs who does not know of this invention “how can I make my dog chew on something?”, there is no reasonable way to expect – according to the US patent office – that the expert will answer “Well, you could make the chew toy taste good, maybe by putting meat in it or something”. Thankfully, we have 3 hard working inventors who told us this!/span/span

span class=”content”span class=”content” style=”color:#505050;”This patent, a href=”http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2amp;Sect2=HITOFFamp;p=1amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.htmlamp;r=1amp;f=Gamp;l=50amp;co1=ANDamp;d=PTXTamp;s1=5,960,411.PN.amp;OS=PN/5,960,411amp;RS=PN/5,960,411″number 5,960,411/a is a famous patent. This patented, controlled by Amazon.com, is the one-click patent. This patents storing customer credit card information so that users can purchase items with one click on a future visit. This was considered patentable, novel, and non-obvious. The workaround that some other companies have used is to require the users to click two buttons instead of the Amazon invented one-button system./span/span

span class=”content”span class=”content” style=”color:#505050;”Teaching children to use the toilette is not always easy, but the methods are – according to the US Patent Office – patentable. If we look at a href=”http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2amp;Sect2=HITOFFamp;p=1amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.htmlamp;r=1amp;f=Gamp;l=50amp;co1=ANDamp;d=PTXTamp;s1=6,250,929.PN.amp;OS=PN/6,250,929amp;RS=PN/6,250,929″US patent number 6,250,929/a, we see a patent for “Methods for improving the effectiveness of toilet training”. Here are some statements from the patent:br /”…wherein the recommendations are divided into a plurality of unique groups also based on the age of the child.”br /”…wherein the recommendations are divided into a plurality of unique groups also based on the gender of the child.”br /And – drumroll please – get this:br /”…wherein the recommendations are divided into a plurality of unique groups also based on the age and gender of the child.”br /The patent basically is a set of recommendations for potty training based on various aspects of the child. Perhaps the advice is good, but is it patentable?!?/span/span

span class=”content”span class=”content” style=”color:#505050;”Continuing my poopy-patent of yesterday, we look at a href=”http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2amp;Sect2=HITOFFamp;p=1amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.htmlamp;r=1amp;f=Gamp;l=50amp;co1=ANDamp;d=PTXTamp;s1=4,443,200.PN.amp;OS=PN/4,443,200amp;RS=PN/4,443,200″US patent number 4,443,200/a. This is a “toilette training device” described as:br /”Disclosed is a toilet training device for toilet training of children, embodied as an animal, such as a bear, having a lower torso having anterior and posterior chambers with upper access ports for filling the anterior chamber with water and the posterior chamber with soft material. Upon sufficient pressure being applied to the anterior chamber, a lower valve opens to allow the water to pass therethrough representing urine; and upon sufficient pressure being applied to the posterior chamber, a lower valve opens to allow such soft material to pass therethrough representing stools.”br /So, in short, this is a stuffed animal that can poop and pee. “The squeezing pressure applied to such posterior chamber is similar to the pressure experienced in human defecation.”/span/span