Poland Dodges US Bid to Extradite Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski
(Image: wikipedia.com)

The Department of Justice, fresh from its disgraceful hounding of whistleblowers (sorry, liberals, but that's the truth), has found time to spare to continue its decades-long hunt for Roman Polanski. The most recent episode of "Get Roman" took place in Warsaw, where the Polish-born director of The Pianist was visiting. According to a BBC report, Polanski was questioned by Polish prosecutors at the behest of the United States for several hours before he was released. The Feds wanted Polanski extradited to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, so that he would serve a jail term for a 1977 conviction for having sex with a minor. Hey, why waste your time crimestopping "Eastern European" cyberhackers when you can corral a 77-year-old global celebrity who is a convicted sex offender?

Ironically, Polanski went to his native land to attend the opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The BBC story did not indicate whether American government representatives attended the event, if they acknowledged Polanski's presence, or if these tone-deaf representatives of "justice" knew about Polanski's suffering and survival as a child in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Obama Nominates Former Google Attorney to Head US Patent Office

Once upon a time, the US Patent and Trademark Office was a quiet place where inventors big and small staked their claims to originality. Silicon Valley's inventive tumult, along with the insatiable commercial beast known as the pharmaceutical industry, transformed the feds' Sleepy Hollow into Ground Zero for intellectual property rights. Now the question is who could earn marketplace trust while maintaining a zeal to protect the public interest?

Michele Lee
(Image: fedscoop.com)

Well, when in doubt, President Obama taps his tech allies for someone who has the right stuff. In the Patent Office case, 44 considered his friends at Google and wondered whether they had a suitable candidate. Mountain View tapped Michele Lee as the chosen one. According to The Washington Post, Lee was appointed acting director in January, 2014. Now, BO would like to make Lee's coronation official. Apparently, she has sailed through Senate vetting.

The Post story points out that Lee's ascension is a big win for Silicon Valley firms. They typically have a perspective on intellectual content rights that essentially conflicts with Big Pharma's viewpoint on the issue. Keep in mind that Obama has characteristically gone out of his way to help Big Data firms, such as Amazon (thank you, CIA and Department of Defense contracts) and Google. While no one is disputing Lee's qualifications (electrical engineering and law backgrounds), some wonder what voodoo Big Data lays on the president of the United States.

Interview with Pot Sales Software Developer

My wife and I went to an art studio open house yesterday in which someone or someone and friends smoked some pot. (For the record, neither my wife nor I indulged.) We thought the situation was hilarious (no contact high jokes, please). Of course, marijuana possession for recreational purposes is illegal in New Jersey, where we live and where the studio event took place. No one pulled an Eliot Ness and burst into the room demanding hands up and evidence down.

Ben Curren
(image: mercurynews.com)

I didn't think too much about the episode until today, when I read a siliconvalley.com interview with Ben Curren. The California entrepreneur has developed a pot-sales software program called Green Bits. The product's value proposition centers on the notion that minimally trained customer service representatives are unwise to the legal side of pot sales. Ah, what a difference an algorithm makes! What might have been a legal minefield becomes a sexy, profitable business.

Curren comes across in the rather brief siliconvalley.com Q&A as a sympathetic figure. His childhood years, with frequent change of venue and schools, left him skilled at improvisation and fearless regarding chaos. His fix-it, can-do character, along with a passion for computer programming, made him a natural fit for Silicon Valley enterprises. No Harvard, no MIT, no Stanford. Just good old-fashioned brains, determination, and ambition. Just don't ask me if he gets high.