WHY WE NEVER GOT OUR JETPACKS. BLOCKADING INVENTORS…
– Special Interest Groups Kill The Great New Technologies
– Organized “Suppression” Counter-lobbyists and “Hit Crews” exist in each industry that makes billions off of consumers. ie: Oil spends billions killing electric cars; battery industry spends billions killing fuel cells, Comcast tries to kill Web Video, railroad industry spends tens of millions killing suppliers not in “the group”, etc…
– Many “THINK TANKS” are actually “CONTROL-THE-MARKET-TANKS” as revealed in this NY TIMES Article. IE: The EPRI “THINK TANK” controls what gets into (AND STAYS OUT OF) the Energy Industry. Free Geo-magnetic energy for all? FAH-GED-ABOUT IT!
– Many inventors killed in the media and by actual bullets and poison. Too many to be a coincidence; Chieky, Conley, etc…
– One investigation details group hit: first for video innovation, then cheap homes innovation, then energy innovation, then free internet innovation. Same attackers in each case
– Another investigation reveals the actual communications and deals between 3 Silicon Valley VC’s who planned the execution of a technology company that competed with their portfolios.
– “Technology Suppression” is an actual thing
– Silicon Valley billionaire cartel sought to shut down patent system in order to halt independent inventors
– Banks, Insider Trading Senators, VC’s & Special Interest Groups do the suppressing to monopolize profit chain
– They killed U.S. innovation and removed world-improving products from market
– Government grants and “loan programs” kill more new technologies than help them because they are rife with cronyism
– Biggest loser: Citizens. All voters encouraged to write their representative and demand “REAL SUPPORT” for small American Innovators. Demand felony charges for acts of suppression.
THIS IS A DEVELOPING TEAM STORY, Check back for updates…
BACKGROUND STORY 1 (VC THUGS)
BACKGROUND STORY 2 (Hit Teams)
BACKGROUND STORY 3 (Killing Conley)
BACKGROUND STORY 4 (Do Crazy Billionaires Really Do Insane Sh*t Like this- Read This)
BACKGROUND STORY 5 (MORE VC THUG-ACTION)
Rail industry stops technology to prevent derailments
By Robert J. Ahern
The screech of a train derailment shattered the silence in the woods near New Unionville, Ind., last October. Fourteen cars filled with coal, weighing 140 tons each, went off the rails, another victim of a failed wheel bearing. Two years earlier, failed bearings caused a much larger accident near Portland, Ore. Derailed freight cars shredded 2 ½ miles of track before smashing into two parked fuel tankers carrying ethanol, which ignited and forced a community evacuation.
Failure of wheel bearings – the round, metal rods inside a railcar’s wheel assembly that help the wheels roll smoothly – are the nation’s third-largest cause of train derailments, according to a 2012 University of Illinois study. Only broken rails and track irregularities cause more accidents each year.
Rail travel, for both freight and passengers, is safer now than it has ever been. Yet problems persist. Bearing failure is one; accidental uncoupling is another. Innovative companies have devised solutions. Unfortunately, the railroad industry has been hostile to remedies that come from beyond its closed culture. This stonewalling puts American lives and freight at risk.
Companies such as Stage 8 Locking Fasteners of San Rafael, Calif., and Columbus Castings of Columbus, Ohio, have promising technologies and are hoping the federal government can help clear the way for them. Legislation is pending in Congress that would require the Federal Railroad Administration – the government agency that oversees the rail industry – to adopt and enforce mandatory safety standards that would ensure bearing failures, decoupling and other accidents do not happen. This would permit railroads to use any technology – from inside or outside the industry — that meets the standards.
In the strange case of Columbus Castings, the Ohio firm – a railroad industry outsider, despite being the nation’s largest steel foundry – created a product called the Z-Knuckle, which prevents accidental uncoupling.
The Z-Knuckle met the railroad industry’s newly created standard for such devices. But in an remarkable twist, because the Z-Knuckle was the only device that met the standard, the industry refused to authorize its use. Instead, it chose not to enforce its own standard.
Bearing failure caused 257 U.S. derailments between 2001 and 2010, with more than 1,700 cars skipping the tracks, the University of Illinois researchers found. This led to millions of dollars in lost freight, cleanup and track repair costs, not to mention the tragic loss of life. These derailments happen because the screws holding the bearing end caps — which maintain proper tension in the bearing — vibrate loose after thousands of miles of service.
The rail industry has tried for 50 years to devise a reliable screw-locking technology of its own, but to no avail. The best locking system the rail industry has been able to come up with still allows a failure rate of 23 percent, which means that nearly one out of every four wheel problems is caused by loosened screws.
In 2009, Stage 8 invented the Cap Screw Locking System designed to keep rail car wheel screws from vibrating loose. But then it ran into the rail-industry bureaucracy. All new products that companies want to market to the nation’s rail carriers must be approved by the American Association of Railroads (AAR), the freight rail industry’s powerful trade group.
The organization withheld approval for years, blocking the new product that would threaten the revenue stream of bearing-replacement suppliers.
Stage 8 continued to hack through the red tape until the AAR set up another hurdle: A field test intended to prove the device’s flaws. But after 150,000 miles of the AAR’s own testing on rail cars, the locking device showed no failures. It was a complete success.
In 2010, the railroad industry spent $223 million to repair and replace wheel sets because of screw loosening. The Stage 8 device would not only wipe out that expense, if it were installed on every freight car in the U.S. over a seven-year roll-out period, a reliable analysis shows that the rail industry would save nearly $1.1 billion.
Many companies have created groundbreaking solutions to problems that have dogged the railroad industry for years. Congress should act on their behalf – and on behalf of the railroads themselves and their many users – to help make America’s railroads safer. Passage of legislation would repair the railroad’s broken system.
Ahern is director and executive vice president of Stage 8 Locking Fasteners Inc.
Killing Mike Chieky: Silicon Valley Vc’s want total control of “Green Energy”, but only their version, so they “kill” off the outsiders!
The Verge published an article, today, by a writer who, his targets say, is “a hired character killer”. The article covers a prolific inventor who is painted as a “criminal” because he has invented “too many things”. The writer clearly set out to do a malicious hatchet job on the guy, including fake post-story blog comments by the same attackers. Let’s look at both sides of the case.
The price of being a creator is high, but the price of conflicting with the Silicon Valley VC’s is PR death.. or, in the case of Gary Connely, Real death (SEE THIS LINK)! (An investigation charges Silicon Valley VC’s with causing, or ordering, his death. The story is almost the same as Chieky except Connely ended up with a bullet in his head)
Chieky built and sold a number of things for a few decades; like Edison, Tesla, Marconi, and tens of thousands of other inventors. As with all people gifted with the use of more brain than the rest of us, he was abrupt and had poor social skills, like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, featured in films as a hopeless socio-pariah. The writer had no ability to comprehend the way that Chieky communicates and paints him from an acrimonious perspective without giving Chieky any response outlet or counter-point within the story. The writer clearly didn’t want to hear feedback from Chieky, or his partners, he wanted to “kill”.
Giving the writer the benefit of the doubt: So what if Chieky was a dick in his personality style. Steve Jobs is famous for being a dick. Half of the Google execs are screwing their staff and cheating on their wives in glorious ValleyWag technicolor dick-ness. Larry Ellison is glorified for Dick-hood. Being A DICK IN SILICON VALLEY seems to be the main ingredient to success. So why destroy Chieky for using short sentences and speaking efficiently without platitude embellishment, as autistics do? There are a vast number of pictures of Steve Jobs with an equally bad haircut and eye-glass selection as Chieky. Did Jobs deserve to die for that? Does Chieky?
Chieky is autistic, according to his ex employees. Should Ben Popper be destroying the lives of war veterans that have no legs? Should Ben Popper be destroying the life of Mark Zuckerberg because he has Aspergers Syndrome? Do only those in the Frat boy club get a pass on not treating their disability as a sin? What publisher let’s his staff write and deliver stories that tell disabled American’s that they will never be looked at as actually enabled in special ways?
Chieky spent his life creating and building things to improve the lives of American’s, and people around the world, and this is how we pay him back? All of his inventions are for the greater good. One article like this ruins one’s life forever. Did Chieky actually deserve it? Where is the counterpoint. If Chieky actually is “evil” as the article says, then let’s string him up. But if the author is evil, then re-size the noose. Where is the counterpoint from Chieky and his representatives to the charges in the article?
Chieky seems to have made the mistake of crossing the path of these “GREEN ENERGY VC guys (SEE THIS LINK)! and accidentally competing with these particular VC’s grand schemes for controlling “clean energy resources”. Do Draper, Khosla, Perkins, Doerr and the rest, get to destroy those that are not in “the frat boy club” with impunity?
Chieky is terrifying to the Silicon Valley VC’s because he has 1.) a proven history of inventing things that obsolete their older investments, 2.) a proven history of getting funded and 3.) a proven history of launching products. The three skills that no Stanford frat boy VC can stand… because they can’t do it. The VC’s are little money automatons and not “creators”. The VC’s can only grub up cash from pension funds and banking groups as they follow each other like sheep.
So the article uses these classic takedown “hit” techniques (HERE)
Alas, The Verge published the article in all countries and thus gives Chieky the right to file defamation lawsuits overseas, where there are no SLAPP laws protecting tabloids. Cyber bully laws can now be enforced in a large number of states and countries. Writer Popper may have also violated ADA laws. Let’s see how the story evolves…
Chieky is either a crook or a targeted victim but let’s have a trial, with ALL of the evidence, before we lynch him.
Shell- HUFFPO
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HOW THEY KILLED THE ELECTRIC CARS
By AW
“Summary –
These people really, actually, killed the electric cars (AKA: “The Dirty 7”):
– Senators with Insider Trading Deals
– Campaign Financiers with Investments in Competing Areas
– Venture Capitalists with Competing Investments
– The Steel Industry (because electric cars avoid using steel)
– The Unions (Because they have certain deals with the “old” car companies)
– The Oil Cartel
– The Detroit Auto Cartel
- The steel industry has a kick-back scheme with Detroit and a large number of Senators
- The oil industry has a kick-back scheme with Detroit and a large number of Senators
- The auto unions have a kick-back scheme with Detroit and a large number of Senators and Party Officials
- Chrysler, Ford & GM have kick-back schemes between a large number of Senators, The oil industry and the steel industry
- None of them make any money with electric cars so they don’t want any electric cars
- GM, Ford & Chrysler manipulate funding, marketing, laws and politicians to hold off the electric car market on behalf of themselves and their steel and petro-chemical cartel partners.
- Electric cars don’t use much, if any, steel so the steel industry feels it can keep billions of dollars for itself if it stops electric cars. The steel industry gets billions of dollars of contracts from Detroit which it pays back to some Detroit boards in repercussive stock and supplier arrangements.
- Electric cars don’t use petroleum products so the petroleum industry feels it can keep hundreds of billions of dollars, for itself, if it stops electric cars. The petroleum industry gets hundreds of billions of dollars of contracts from Detroit which it pays back to some Detroit boards in covert ways.
- Using a complex series of tactics deployed by hundreds of hired operatives, “consultants” and shills and costing Detroit over $16 million per year, this ongoing strategic interdiction plan has been very effective; until the internet came along.
- Here is their playbook. Here are the details about how they do it. If you think it is how your world should work then you do not need to do anything, If you think it is wrong then you need to use all of the same techniques that they use to end it. If you think this is over-the-top or not credible then you need to think about what you think people might do to control trillions of dollars of profit and political power. Since you probably cannot even imagine that world, yet you know it exists, then you might want to help fix it:
THE DIRTY 7′S PLAYBOOK:
Targeted Blockade Efforts – All of the groups at the top of this report get together, via their lobbyists, and undertake coordination of all of the efforts listed below…
Department of Energy Manipulations – Documents have been uncovered which show that the Detroit Big 3 co-authored and lobbied the laws and decision process for DOE funding. The Big 3 represent that they are “competitors” but they conspire to direct all money to only themselves in auto funding efforts with tax dollars. Rahm Emanual, while working as head of the White House, is said to have given Steven Chu a “do Not Fund” list prepared by Detroit and Campaign Backers.
Lobbyists – It costs $50,000.00 to $150,000.00 to buy any politician in Washington. There are only 32 people, at a time, you need to buy in Washington to change policy and laws that affect hundreds of millions of citizens. Buying is accomplished with cash, sex, tickets, plane trips, meals, after-Washington (“private sector”) kick-back jobs , lawyers, access, mortgages and other secret trades.
Tucker-izing – The Tucker incident was a grand example of a car company “take-down”. See the Francis Ford Coppola Movie: “A Man and His Dream” for a set of classic playbook tactics
Fake “White Papers” – Lobbyists write white-papers or hire McKinsey Consulting to write white-papers that are made to look academic but are really a series of shill documents skewed to try to trick politicians into voting for kickback schemes to campaign backers and Detroit
Staged Venture Capitalists – Silicon Valley and NY VC groups organize to agree to not fund any but a few select companies that they control. They still take pitches from all of the other players so they can steal ideas and technology
Shill Pundits – Lobbyists who pretend to be subject experts and appear on TV and radio to say the same sales pitch/mantra over and over to embed falsehoods in the mind of the public
Shill Bloggers – Lobbyists who pretend to be subject experts and appear on blogs to say the same sales pitch/mantra over and over to embed falsehoods in the mind of the public
Corporate Saboteurs, Moles, Honey Traps & Spies – Over 500 Corporate Saboteurs, Honey Traps & Spies work in Silicon Valley alone. They are actually escorts, private eyes and undercover lobbyists. They are hired to infiltrate a competing company and cause a staff ruckus, prep a hostile take-over or get the CEO in a lawsuit. They try anything to slow-down or sabotage the new technology that is competing with the “Dirty 7” above.
Controlling the Battery Industry – VC’s bought control of the battery industry and ore supplies in order to create their own cartel
Goldman Sachs – False front organizations which appear to be one thing are actually manipulating funding, public policy and media coverage, ie: McKinsey, EPRI, Goldman Sachs, Lobby Groups, Banking Groups, Venture Capital Groups
Shill “Reporters” – The key tactic is to make the public think that the EV market is crashing or is not being accepted by the public. This is accomplished by making sure every car is too expensive or too hard to fuel so that the public will not want one, under the current synthetically generated limits.
Trade Industry Blockades – (SEE THIS STORY)
Penalty & Discouragement Laws created by Detroit Lobbyists – Making laws that only Detroit Cartel members can meet.
Green-Washing – A thing that is very deadly, explosive, toxic, impossible to dump safely, etc. (ie: Lithium ion) is branded and PR-hyped as a “green”-thing or “Cleantech”. Ie: Detroit said they needed more money because nobody was buying their cars so they told DOE to say they would give them free tax money to make “green cars” they never intended to market.
Building “See-It-doesn’t work” anti-EV’s – Car companies, who really don’t want to build electric cars, will build a few and either price them out of market interest or create a failure point so that they can say: “oh well, we tried, see it doesn’t work, back to gasoline then!”
Manipulating the stock market – By having the same investors in the Dirty 7 also be the same investors in the media companies and internet companies who control public information, the 7 can delete any negative news and push only positive news about their cartel products (ie: Tesla/Google)
White House “Consultants” – Steve Rattner (Indicted), Steven Chu (Under Investigation) or certain “Expert Executives” that are part of a cartel get “appointed” as “advisers” so they can manipulate the taxpayer money from within the system
Controlling the Unions and their Votes – Senior Washington Executive Staff go to the unions and say” If we give your associated companies, that hire your members, a bunch of money will you make all of your members vote for our party/candidate/bill?”
The GM EV1 – Ahead of it’s time, consumer raves, killed off because it was too successful
Fake science papers – Lobbyists write papers or hire McKinsey Consulting to write white-papers that are made to look academic but are really a series of shill documents skewed to try to trick news editors into creating articles and news stories which skew to support kickback schemes to campaign backers and Detroit
Anti-Advertising – An example of this is the Chevy Volt ad showing the Volt being driven into a gas station for the owner to use the bathroom and then the owner getting abused and harassed by the other customers. For millions of dollars of ad buys and video production, the main subliminal message is that you will get harassed if you buy the car and you associate it with bathroom urges. Chevy and Madison Avenue knew EXACTLY what they were doing. You don’t spend millions on “focus group ad response research”, as shown in the UI/UX research budget for this ad, without knowing it will have a negative effect ahead of time.
Manipulation Front Organizations – False front organizations which appear to be one thing are actually manipulating funding, public policy and media coverage, ie: McKinsey, EPRI, Goldman Sachs, “Plug-in America”, Lobby Groups, Banking Groups, Venture Capital Groups”
Companies run by Andrew Cuomo’s biggest donors have won millions in state grants: records
EXCLUSIVE: At least seven companies that received a total of $15.25 million in grants from state Regional Economic Development Councils are linked to $1.25 million in donations to Cuomo’s campaign treasury since 2010, the records show.
ALBANY — Several companies run by big-time donors to Gov. Cuomo have won millions of dollars in state economic development grants since he took office, state records show.
At least seven companies that received a total of $15.25 million in grants from state Regional Economic Development Councils are linked to $1.25 million in donations to Cuomo’s campaign treasury since 2010, the records show.
One of those companies, Taylor Biomass LLC in Orange County, was awarded $1 million in 2013 to build a waste-to-energy facility.
Its president, James Taylor, gave Cuomo’s campaign more than $100,000 since 2010, including $34,000 this year, campaign finance records show. And the company and its affiliates gave Cuomo another $50,000, including $12,500 this year.
In another case, BFC Partners, of Brooklyn, won $3.5 million in 2013 to construct Empire Outlets, a planned development on Staten Island featuring 100 designer outlets and a posh hotel just steps from the ferry terminal.
BFC donated $25,000 to Cuomo’s campaign in 2014, the year following the grant. And three of the company’s partners, Donald Capoccia, Joseph Ferrara, and Brandon Baron, have ponied up a combined $81,500 since 2010.
New York Daily News; Photo by Chester Higgins Jr./The New York TimesCuomo aides said the grants cited by the Daily News represent a fraction of the more than 2,600 projects awarded $2.2 billion in funding since2011 under the Regional Economic Development Council program.
The aides also said the governor’s office has no formal role in selecting who receives the awards. The projects, they pointed out, are recommended by the 10 regional councils, under a system Cuomo established in 2011 to create competition for the hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding distributed each year.
The Cuomo-controlled Empire State Development Corp. scores the recommendations and picks the winners, which Cuomo typically announces in a public ceremony.
Cuomo aides said the process is far better than the old “member item” system in which state legislators picked projects in their districts to fund, without much vetting. The aides also argued that some donors to the governor applied for project funding but did not receive grant money.
“To suggest any conflict or connection here is absurd as the recommendations for all of these projects are made by local community representatives,” said Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa.
http://bfcnyc.com/ In another case, BFC Partners, of Brooklyn, won $3.5 million in 2013 to construct Empire Outlets, a planned development on Staten Island featuring 100 designer outlets and a posh hotel just steps from the ferry terminal.Cuomo aides said several of the companies cited by The News, including Taylor Biomass, received state and federal funding for other projects in the past. Some of the grants, they said, funded projects that already were under way before Cuomo even became governor.
In one case cited by The News, a $2 million grant for the Dover Knolls Development, a plan to renovate an abandoned psychiatric hospital in Dutchess County, was withdrawn when the developer sold the project.
The company, its parent, Benjamin Millennium Group, and assorted affiliates contributed a combined $271,700 to Cuomo, and the company’s president at the time, Alvin Benjamin, gave $25,000 in 2011.
Bill Mahoney, of the New York Public Interest Research Group, said the awarding of grants tied to donors raises questions. “Businesses rarely contribute to candidates for purely altruistic reasons – in most cases, they’re hoping to help their bottom lines,” Mahoney said.
“If Gov. Cuomo had fulfilled his promises to overhaul the campaign finance system, perhaps there wouldn’t be concerns over decisions like these.”
ALL OF THE “WINNERS” OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY FUNDING UNDER OBAMA’S STEVEN CHU WERE THE BIGGEST OBAMA CAMPAIGN DONORS AND FRIENDS OF CHU. ALL OF THEIR BUSINESS COMPETITORS WERE KICKED OUT OF THE PROGRAM.
The system is rigged against the little guy. A true technical innovation company, who has not signed onto the bribe programs, will never have a chance.
That is why you always see the “same old crap” from the same old-boys clubs getting the grants, and “never any new technology that would actually make a difference”, Said Arnold Wester of The Inventors Alliance
The FIX IS EASY! WRITE YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS, HERE (AT THIS LINK) and DEMAND a law in EVERY STATE that makes it illegal for any group who has a connection to campaign funding to receive a state or federal grant! Easy!, DONE!
Recognizing the problem
The problem is easy to recognize.
Step one: Does your City, State or Federal group offer a grant program, application-based funding program or other program which gives tax dollars to outside entities?
Step two: Have you had this, or a similar program, in operation for more than a year?
Step three: When you line up a list (LIST A) of the past “winners” alongside a list (LIST B) of their campaign contributions, lobbying expenditures, gifts and incentives; are the curves of each of those lists “strangely” the same?
If the answer is Yes: THEN YOU HAVE THE PROBLEM!
The General Process Issues
Over 30 “green”, “cleantech” companies were put out of business by the DOE ATVM/LGP program.
Many more companies, in each state, were terminated by the “efforts” of the officials of those states. Some were intentional terminations because they competed with contributor’s business interests and some were terminations caused by mismanagement of the grant process.
::
Most grant programs ostensibly seek innovation and better solutions.
BUT: Most “winning applicants” end up being big old companies who supply the same old thing who generally usually “win” the “contests”.
::
True innovators are scientists, chemists, physicists and engineers. They do not know about, have the skills for or have the aptitude for generating political documents.
BUT: Big old campaign contributor companies have rooms full of grant writers and spin doctors who can conveyor-belt out, political grant document-after-grant document, with all of the checklist items in carefully mnemonically metricized catch-phrases, but they offer no innovation.
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Big campaign contributor “winners” have big teams of people that go around and “work the system” (promise or imply incentives). These teams are smiley, golden-ratio faced, out-going personality-type PR people.
BUT: True innovator scientists, chemists, physicists and engineers are, more often than not, socially awkward and uncomfortable with that sort of PR pretension and they avoid working the system.
::
If one wants to pay off campaign contributors then these “contests”/”grant programs” they actually are a great way to provide “kickbacks in plain sight”.
BUT: In the age of the Everybody-Can-See-Everything internet, the public is now pretty much aware that this is what is going on, ie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHiicN0Kg10
Reality:
If a City, State, Federal or NGO group wants true innovation solutions to public problems and issues, then they need to recognize that their grant programs, award programs and public funding programs are, in most cases, set-up to accomplish exactly the opposite!
One Perspective- From Tesla’s Former Marketing Head
“Siry Slams DOE Loan Program For “Stifling Innovation”
By Edward Niedermeyer in “THE TRUTH ABOUT CARS”
Former Tesla PR honcho Daryl Siry lays into the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan program (ATVML) at Wired’s Autopia blog, taking the $25b program to task for “stifling innovation.” At its core, his argument is a simple one:
Startup companies that enjoy DOE support, most notably Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive, have an extraordinary advantage over potential competitors since they have secured access to capital on very cheap terms. The magnitude of this advantage puts the DOE in the role of kingmaker with the power to vault a small startup with no product on the market -– as is the case with Fisker — into a potential global player on the back of government financial support.
As a result, the vibrant and competitive market for ideas chasing venture capital that has been the engine of innovation for decades in the United States is being subordinated to the judgments and political inclinations of a government bureaucracy that has never before wielded such market power.
All of which sounds very TTAC… in fact, our lengthy Bailout Watch series began with a similar analysis of the ATVML program (albeit with a Detroit-focused twist). Unfortunately, Siry’s intentions in this case are questionable… as are his conclusions.
At the very bottom of his editorial, Siry reveals himself to be a “special advisor to Coda Automotive,” the EV startup born from the ashes of Miles Electric Vehicles. That Coda has not sought an ATVML handout (because all its manufacturing is done in China) is presumed to give Siry a free pass on conflict-of-interest questions, but Siry’s critique relates directly to the private capital market as well. Siry writes:
The proposition is so irresistible that any reasonable person would prefer to back a company that has received a DOE loan or grant than a company that has not. It is this distortion of the market for private capital that will have a stifling effect on innovation, as private capital chases fewer deals and companies that do not have government backing have a harder time attracting private capital. This doesn’t mean deals won’t get done outside of the energy department’s umbrella, but it means fewer deals will be done and at worse terms.
Translation: Coda can’t raise funds without DOE backing, a reality the company petulantly hinted at in the most recent post on its corporate blog. There, the company lashed out at analyst suggestions that DOE loans would be best spent on established automakers, and now Siry is bashing the DOE’s “kingmaking” of “small startups with no product on the market.” So which is it? The answer can be found in Siry’s conclusion:
A potential solution to this problem may seem counter-intuitive. The best way to avoid market distortion would be for the DOE to cast the net more broadly and provide loans and grants to a larger number of companies — which ironically means being less selective. Subject to the existing equity matching requirement, this would allow the private markets to function more effectively in funding a broader range of companies and driving more innovation. Several innovative companies with great potential have been in the DOE pipeline for many months. Perhaps it is time for the DOE to stop playing favorites and start spreading the love.
Give out money to more firms, less selectively. What a plan. But if Siry is suggesting that Coda Automotive represents the kind of “innovation” being “stifled” by the ATVML program, he’s able to see far more innovation in selling an electrified Chinese Hafei sedan with 100 miles of range for $45k than we do (he doesn’t explicitly, preferring Aptera as a poster child for stifled innovation). The reality is that the EV sector is crammed with as many hucksters and wannabes as legitimate innovators, and “spreading the love” is more likely to result in wasted investments. In theory we agree that DOE “kingmaking” distorts the market, and elevated some questionable firms to near-player status… but interpreting those results as a reason for the DOE to be “less selective” with its lending makes even less sense. Unless, of course, you work for a firm that might benefit from lowered loan standards.
As a lesson in the ATVML’s unintended consequences, Siry’s editorial is dead-on. As a roadmap for future DOE policy, however, it comes up way short.
Posted in Electric Vehicles, Government, Green, News Blog
Tagged as ATVML, Coda, DOE, electric car, EV, Fisker, Tesla “
The Solutions- Part 1
- Go to greater lengths to find the small innovators and let them know about the program. Sending a general email out to “the usual suspects” doesn’t cut it.
- Provide a dedicated small innovator advocate, in each funding program who is missioned to assist the small innovator companies. Make them call, and email, each one personally.
- Fire that advocate if more than 3 small business groups prove that they are compromised.
- For any applicant with less than 10 staff, YOU, verbally interview them and fill out the forms for them. They do not have the staff to do it. You place them in a “no win” situation by even offering these grant opportunities, they all know it by now and so almost none of them apply any more unless they just formed their company. After the first burn, when they realize the cards are stacked against them, they won’t waste their time again.
- Make the application as simple as possible. One of the richest people in the world: Bill Gates, and his wife Melinda, decided to give away quite a lot of money in grants. They had the resources to test, validate and prove what the best kind of grant application is. What did they figure out for the Grand Challenge: That they just needed a TWO PAGE APPLICATION. They have used this for years, it works great and has funded some of the greatest innovations in the world.
- Announce who your reviewers are, by name and affiliation. Just like the law now requires for financial writers. State ANY positions your reviewers have in any companies related to the industry involved in the grant.
- Post the reviewer results online. Allow the transparency to have their assumptions, or comments challenged to prove the game isn’t rigged.
- Does the world seem to be in disarray? Does every news cycle seem like there are more and more problems and more and more people complaining? IT ISN’T TRUE! The same amount of disarray and problems exist today as have existed over the last few centuries. BUT NOW EVERY VOTER CAN SEE EVERYTHING. While the internet has brought us awful things like cyber-bullying child suicides and the hacking of everything, it has created a transparency that will never go away. The toothpaste is out of the tube. Organizations need to accept the fact that corruption only works in darkness and the internet has lit up everything. If old systems of reward exist to pay back donors, it can now be found out by a bored soccer mom or an out of work construction worker with a notebook computer, and there are millions of them. Change up any systems that could be rigged because we live in an age where those sorts of things can come back and bite you during your current career cycle. The FBI is much tougher on these sorts of things these days.
- News Media now have databases equal to those of the NSA. New online media outlets have been starting up in great quantities, lately, using “big data” story research engines. They can track every connection of every applicant, executive and associate and other party in a very short period of time. Just read the detail they have gone into about CGI Federal, the company that screwed up Obamacare, and their staff, ownerships, personal relations, etc. Plan on transparency in the new world. It has arrived.
- To repeat, however efficiently you think your application is written: YOUR APPLICATION PAPERWORK IS TOO LONG. The DOE spent more money and resources on due diligence and had more application paperwork for their ATVM/LG and other loan programs THAN ANY COUNTRY HAD DEVOTED IN HUMAN HISTORY! Yet we had the stunning failures of Abound, A123, Fisker, Solyndra, etc.. etc…
- Hold three online web conference for 1.) Under 10 person companies 2.) Under 20 person companies 3.) The big guys. Give each segment a chance to comment, ask questions and get informed within their peer group.
- Publicly identify revolving door staff.
- Allow for a challenge process for any member of the media or applicant groups to challenge a decision and correct, or comment on, erroneous data.
- Don’t rig the stock market or investor market by setting up financing that makes your organization cause outside investors to wait until they see your term sheet like DOE did.
- Provide a CrowdFunding support resource in all new funding from now, forward. The SEC has made CrowdFunding fully legal now. Allow Crowdfunded offsets and co-promote them using your agency PR resources.
- Don’t use the “delayed review” tactic to try to put contributors competitors out of business by stringing them along until they run out of cash. The media has covered this tactic in great detail and new laws allow those who got strung out to sue you and win if they catch you.. and it is easier to catch people these days.
- More Solutions coming…
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The sure sign of a great idea is when some big gorilla steals it from you.
Inventors+ Who Changed the World and Got Screwed in Return
As we’ve discussed before, just because your hard work and perseverance led you to create something that changes the world, it doesn’t mean that you’ll get fame, fortune, or the slightest bit of recognition out of it. In fact, some inventors get so little credit that we completely forgot about them in our previous article, and since we really don’t like angering the ghosts of people who could probably invent a way to punch us from beyond the grave, here they are.
#6. Siegel and Shuster, Superman’s Creators
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman, the most famous superhero ever, perhaps with the exception of Spider-Man or that kid who changes the channel with his eyes in X2.
Debuting in 1938, Superman was an instant success. DC Comics soon followed up the “man in underpants punches criminals” concept with Batman, and that was it, there was no turning back: Siegel and Shuster’s creation had started a multibillion-dollar industry that is still going strong today, spawning toys, T-shirts, and, oh yeah, some of the highest-grossing movies of all time.
Nice one, Siegel and Shuster!
Alan Light “Take it from us, kids: Work hard, change the world, and you too can see absolutely no reward from it!”
But Then They Got Screwed
“Nice one, Siegel and Shuster” is exactly what DC must have said, in a sarcastic tone, when the duo famously sold them all rights to Superman for a measly $130, a check that’s now ironically worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
At the time, no one suspected that the guy in blue pajamas that they’d been drawing would turn into a cultural icon — so when he did, and Siegel and Shuster continued getting squat, the pair embarked on perhaps the longest clusterfuck in copyright history.
The duo spent the better part of their lives unsuccessfully trying to reclaim some part of their creation, only to be rebuffed time and time again. While DC raked in billions from Superman alone, Siegel and Shuster lived the lives of paupers. They were given a yearly pension in the late 1970s by Warner Bros. (which had purchased DC), but only because the studio couldn’t afford the bad publicity with a Superman movie on the way.
In 1999, three years after Siegel died, his family successfully won the rights to his half of his creation. A happy ending, right? Nope! This meant dick to Warner Bros., who still refused to pay them a penny, leaving them to fight in court for another 10 fucking years. And the superdickery continues: More recently, documents disappeared from Siegel’s daughter’s attorney’s office and somehow wound up in the hands of Warner Bros. executives.
#5. Philo T. Farnsworth, the Farm Boy Who Invented Television
Philo Farnsworth, besides having the supreme honor of inspiring a Futurama character, was a serial inventor with a list of credited patents longer than his forehead.
Among those patents was the one that made television possible: an “image dissector” that could capture images as a series of lines to be displayed electronically. If that isn’t impressive enough for you, consider the fact that Farnsworth came up with the idea at age 14, while growing up on a farm in Idaho, and first demonstrated it at 21, in 1927. If that didn’t make you feel bad about yourself, it should have.
But Then He Got Screwed
When the young inventor applied for a patent at age 20, David Sarnoff of the Radio Corporation of America took notice. Radio had a pretty cozy spot at the center of the American living room at this point, and Sarnoff wasn’t interested in letting that change. And if it did, then he would at least make sure that RCA would be the one getting rich from it.
Sarnoff kept Farnsworth tied in a series of legal battles over the next decade using a number of bullshit tactics, likehiring a Russian inventor to spy on him or using said inventor’s earlier patents (which they could never get to work) to argue that he had invented TV. At one point Sarnoff just said “Fuck it” and started making TVs without paying Farnsworth. RCA was eventually forced to pay him a one-time $1 million licensing fee, but it wasn’t worth the emotional stress that had left the man crippled.
Then the whole television business was put on hold when the ’40s rolled around and the government told everyone to focus on building things that could kill Germans. The final blow came when Farnsworth’s patents expired just as World War II ended … and, what do you know, television sales skyrocketed. RCA, or anyone else for that matter, no longer had to even pretend to give a shit about paying Farnsworth for his invention.
It wasn’t until 20 years after his death that the government decided that Farnsworth probably deserved some recognition. No shit.
Following Farnsworth’s final wishes, his statue is about to insert something into Sarnoff’s anus.
#4. Edwin H. Armstrong, the Father of FM Radio
When is the last time you listened to AM radio? Intentionally? The sound quality is so bad that most of the programming is reduced to things that already sound like shit, like conservative talk radio or a single, never-ending religious sermon in Spanish.
The much superior FM was invented by Edwin Armstrong, who created a system to reduce interference across radio bands in the 1910s. He continued his lifelong vendetta against crappy sound in the ’20s, when he came up with frequency modulation (FM) as a way to reduce static. We will now reiterate that he developed all this technology nearly 100 years ago, and it’s still present in all modern radios.
But Then He Got Screwed
Things seemed to be going swimmingly for Armstrong for a while, but it was at this point that a remarkably smug asshole came into the picture.
Yes, David fucking Sarnoff from RC-fucking-A proceeded to mess with the life of yet another world-changing inventor. Sarnoff had built his empire with AM radio, so he decided that if FM was the way of the future, then he’d do anything possible to pull a John Connor on that future. Since Armstrong wouldn’t relinquish his patent, Sarnoff made sure that RCA not only stopped supporting the development of the new technology, but actively tried to stop it.
In 1937, Armstrong used money from his own pocket to build the very first FM radio station. Another followed, then another, until by the mid ’40s a string of stations known as the Yankee Network were busy convincing everyone of the superiority of FM, just by existing. And then it all stopped.
In a dick move of epic proportions, Sarnoff successfully lobbied the FCC to move the FM band to a different place on the dial, from 42 to 50 MHz to 88 to 108 MHz. While there were somewhat valid technical reasons for this, a happy side effect for RCA was that it made all of Armstrong’s stations instantly obsolete.
It took decades for FM radio to recover. In the late ’70s, it finally surpassed AM, but Armstrong was long gone by then, having committed suicide in 1954 by jumping from the 13th floor of his office building, presumably screaming “FUCK SARNOOOOOOFFFF” all the way down.
#3. John Walker, Inventor of the Match
About 500 billion matches are used every year in the United States — that’s the kind of volume you can do when your product sets itself on fire with every use. Before the invention of self-igniting friction matches, people simply used sticks that caught on fire when you, y’know, put them near fire.
This changed when John Walker, an English chemist born in 1871, began coating sticks in a number of dangerous-sounding chemicals until he happened upon one that, when struck against a surface, erupted in flames. Other self-igniting matches had been tried before, but they were extremely impractical, by which we mean that a lot of people probably lost their eyebrows or worse using them.
And clearly, eyebrows were very important to this man.
Walker’s invention caught on fire, both literally and figuratively, and we still keep matches around today, despite the fact that we’ve all heard of lighters.
But Then He Got Screwed
Walker, unaware of the potential of his invention, worked on these new “friction lights” for about a year, then promptly forgot about the whole thing and stopped selling them. People close to him implored Walker to patent his friction light, since he’d just revolutionized the creation of fire and all. Walker declined, believing that his invention could better benefit mankind without a patent.
Others, however, believed that Walker’s invention could better benefit mankind by making them rich.
Getty- “How does fire help humanity if it doesn’t allow me to buy prostitutes?”
In 1829, another inventor named Isaac Holden independently came up with an improved version of Walker’s friction matches. Like Walker, Holden neglected to patent his idea … and that’s where one Samuel Jones came in. Jones, realizing that Walker and Holden had effectively created one of the most useful inventions in the history of civilization and weren’t making money from it, decided to do it on their behalf, because he was nice like that.
Almost immediately, Jones patented the exact same thing and began selling it under the name “Lucifers,” because fuck it — if you’re gonna be evil, you might as well go to the source. Soon other brands began offering improved versions of the same thing, all for a price, of course. It wasn’t until they were all dead that Walker was credited for his invention, and Jones for being a douchebag.
#2. Stephen Foster, the Father of American Music
There are some tunes that you’re just born knowing. If we somehow forced you to hum a melody right now, chances are that a great number of you would go with something like “Oh! Susanna”:
Or “Camptown Races” (you know, the one that goes “doo-da, doo-da”):
Or maybe something more nostalgic, like “Old Folks at Home”:
Man, can you imagine if all these songs had been written by the same guy, and that he’d been actively trying to get money from them? That dude would have been richer than Madonna and Bono combined.
Actually, all those songs and more were written by the same person, and he did try to cash in on them — the keyword being “try.”
Then “she” came around the mountain and snatched up all his royalties.
But Then He Got Screwed
In the 1800s, Stephen Foster wrote classics like “My Old Kentucky Home” and “Beautiful Dreamer” and over 200 other songs. Foster was a professional songwriter before those existed. Seriously: The profession literally did not existbefore Foster trailblazed it like a motherfucker.
Of course, the problem with being the first in his profession was that there were no such things as “enforcing copyright” or “not screwing over songwriters” back then. Today, Foster would have earned obscene amounts of money from “Oh! Susanna” alone, but in 1848, he got exactly $100 for the rights to publish the sheet music, while the publisher made $10,000 selling his work.
Even when Foster became a minor celebrity, he continued getting nothing but pennies for every copy of his work that was sold. For his dozens of hit songs, he saw around $15,000 in royalties in his whole life. In the 1860s, he was dumped by his wife, who had probably had enough of sticking around with this dude who wrote like a rock star, anddrank like a rock star, but was not rich like one. He died at the age of 37 after hitting his head on a washbasin, with around 40 cents in his pocket.
Some of which were melted down to make this statue.
His contributions can’t be overstated. Not only did he create most of the conventions of popular songwriting as we know them today, but he also demonstrated the need for intellectual property laws by getting repeatedly screwed.
#1. Gary Kildall, the Father of the Operating System
Gary Kildall is one of the guys we have to thank for the fact that you don’t need to be a genius to use the ultra advanced computer you are looking at right now to search for porn. Thank you, Gary.
In 1973, Kildall made life a lot easier for nerds everywhere when he created CP/M, a groundbreaking operating system for microcomputers (which is what they called any computer smaller than a semi truck back then). The program became the industry standard for the next decade. This guy was basically Bill Gates before Bill Gates was Bill Gates.
Michael Ochs Archives / Getty
“It’s cool, I’ll just donate a bunch of money to charity someday when I’m all old and prune-faced.”
But Then He Got Screwed
Of course, at the same time, Bill Gates was busy trying to become Bill Gates, and he eventually achieved that at Kildall’s expense.
In 1980, IBM was getting ready to launch its first personal computer and needed an operating system to operate the shit out of it. They first knocked on Microsoft’s door, but Microsoft wasn’t really into the OS-making business at that point, so they directed the IBM suits to Gary Kildall’s company. However, as nerd lore has it, Gary picked that day to go flying (he was an amateur pilot), blowing off IBM and his chance at history.
Accounts differ on whether Kildall met the IBM suits that day or not, but either way, the company went back to Microsoft, totally forgetting the whole “We don’t make OS’s here” part. Not one to miss out on an opportunity, Bill Gates turned to local programmer Tim Paterson, who had built a CP/M clone he called QDOS (for “Quick and Dirty Operating System”), bought it for a paltry 50 grand, then turned around and sold it to IBM under the name PC-DOS.
The term “user-friendly” meant something very different back then.
PC-DOS, later renamed MS-DOS, was included in every computer IBM made, and, long story short, that’s why roughly 90 percent of you are using Microsoft Windows right now.
Today, Kildall’s name is barely known, while Bill Gates will be a household name in the fucking 25th century. Most of Kildall’s innovations ended up being credited to other people — and he can’t even defend himself, having died in 1994 after falling down in a tavern, which pretty much just seems like his luck.
Today’s lesson is, if you’re an inventor, wear a freaking helmet.
Karl Smallwood wrote a book (yes, a real one), which you can read all about here. If you want to read words he’s written for free, feel free to follow him on Twitter. Mike Floorwalker has a website that’s like … whoa. Like, seriously, dude … whoa.
Robert William Kearns (March 10, 1927 – February 9, 2005) was an American inventor who invented the intermittent windshield wiper systems used on most automobiles from 1969 to the present. His first patent for the invention was filed on December 1, 1964.
Kearns won one of the best known patent infringement cases against Ford Motor Company (1978–1990) and a case against Chrysler Corporation (1982–1992). Having invented and patented the intermittent windshield wiper mechanism, which was useful in light rain or mist, he tried to interest the “Big Three” auto makers in licensing the technology.
But then he got screwed.
They all rejected his proposal, yet copied his idea and began to install intermittent wipers in their cars, beginning in 1969. march Abraham made the film: ” Flash of Genius” about him.
Preston Tucker was a car-crazy kid who hung around auto speedways and grew up to create an automobile–the Tucker–that was years ahead of its time. He was a man of pioneering spirit, ingenuity and daring, who revolutionized Detroit in the 1940s with his stunning “Car of Tomorrow.” It was streamlined, futuristic and fast–the car every American dreamed of owning, at a price most people could afford.
A man of endless enthusiasm, Tucker publicized his model all over the country to wild acclaim. He sold stock, set up a factory . . .
But then he got screwed.
…and then the auto industry launched a devastating anti-Tucker campaign in order to character assasinate, industrially spy on and sabotage his car. Francis Ford Coppola made a movie: “The Man and His Dream” about him.
Nikola Tesla helped established robotics, radar, remote control, and he helped expand ballistics, nuclear physics, and theoretical physics.
But then he got screwed.
Practically no one’s heard of him. Why? Because of a man named Thomas Edison, who is widely credited with the invention of the light bulb. Edison was an all-around pretentious ass, who totally tried to steal Tesla’s credit… which kinda worked, considering everyone remembers him and not Tesla.
Anyway, the two men had initially worked together — well, Tesla worked for Edison –and this is where Tesla was first screwed over by the man. Edison had offered $50,000 — over a million bucks, adjusted for inflation — to someone who could fix his crappy and inefficient motors. When Tesla did (probably by staring them down until they worked harder), Edison wrote his deal off as a joke, and continued to pay Tesla $18 per week. Keep in mind, Tesla was one of the most brilliant humans to have ever lived; it didn’t take long for him to flip Edison the bird and get his ass outta there to start his own company.
Soon enough, Edison’s electricity, direct current (DC) was competing with Tesla’s far superior electricity, alternating current (AC). Edison actually tried to discredit Tesla’s AC by having the first electric chair run on it; this was supposed to discourage people from putting it in their home. There are a few movies based on Nikola, one is: “The Prestige”.
Silicon Valley lobbyists trying to get out of paying inventors! Tries to create law to make intellectual property theft OK! Technology Suppression by Billionaire Cartel.
Proposed Bill Is Anti-Innovation and Serves Only Billionaire Special Interest Groups
http://www.aminn.org
New York, N.Y. − American Innovators for Patent Reform (AIPR), an industry group representing small patent owners − start-ups, R&D companies, universities and independent inventors − as well as patent practitioners, is opposed to the “Trade Protection Not Troll Protection” bill introduced last month by Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX).
“This is yet another misguided ‘anti-troll’ legislative proposal that misses the point entirely, and shows a fundamental lack of understanding by Rep. Farenthold of what a patent really is,” says Alexander Poltorak, founder and President of American Innovators for Patent Reform. “Non-practicing entities − what Rep. Farenthold calls ‘patent trolls’ − are no different from any other patent holder because practicing a patented technology has no relevance in patent law. A patent is a quid-pro-quo for invention disclosure, not for practice of the patent,” explains Dr. Poltorak.
“Our Founding Fathers were very clear when they included the ‘patent and copyright’ clause in the U.S. Constitution,” adds Alec Schibanoff, Executive Director of AIPR. “Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 establishes the purpose of patents and copyrights to be to ‘…promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts…’ There is no reference in the Constitution to inventors practicing their inventions or song-writers singing their songs.”
The sharp rise in the use of the International Trade Commission (ITC) for patent disputes is not a sign of litigation abuse, but a direct consequence of the eBay Supreme Court Decision, which muddled the definition of a patent as the ‘right to exclude’ and made it practically impossible for an NPE to obtain an injunction against an infringer of the patent-at-suit. The ITC has the mandate to issue an exclusion order, which is not available to non-practicing entities in a Federal Court. Hence, the ITC has become the battleground of choice for patent litigation,” elaborates Dr. Poltorak.
American Innovators for Patent Reform calls on every engineer, researcher, inventor and entrepreneur − and every U.S. citizen who values American innovation − to write to Rep Farenthold and urge him to withdraw this misconceived bill!
About American Innovators for Patent Reform
Headquartered in New York City, American Innovators for Patent Reform (AIPR) represents a broad constituency of American innovators and innovation stakeholders, including inventors, engineers, researchers, entrepreneurs, patent owners, small businesses, universities, investors, and intellectual property professionals such as patent attorneys, patent agents, tech transfer managers and licensing executives.
AIPR opposes any patent legislation that makes it more difficult to enforce patents because such legislation ultimately weakens the U.S. Patent system and decreases the value of patents. AIPR advocates patent reform that creates a multi-tier patent system, strengthens U.S. patents, and provides full funding for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
For more information about AIPR, please visit www.aminn.org
