Software patent madness, utter

Came across this patent for a Java application that seems to generate Rich Text output from a template and a data model. Are they having me on? I must have misread. Misunderstood. Is this a joke?

What do the good people of FreeMarker say to this?

And: would this patent prevent me from writing a Java application (or a set of Java classes) generating Rich Text output from my data?

Help! Please!

Elderberry liqueur, five bottles of

We went out collecting elderberries yesterday to make liqueur of. The net outcome of the activity was a kitchen wonderfully sprinkled in blue colour plus five bottles and a jam jar of elderberry liqueur. Now we just have to wait a month or two for the stuff to mature…

The large hadron collider thing

A few takes on this:

Has The Large Hadron Collider Destroyed The World Yet?

Turn-On.

A web cam.

And lots of photos.

Big spider

A rather big mechanical spider in Liverpool.

Milky river Inn

On the weekend we went cycling in Bavaria. In the town of Rosenheim we crossed the river Inn. Where does this river get its light blue milky quality from? Have not been able to find out.

Japanese paper space planes

Amazing. Heard about it a while ago. Can’t wait to see this happening.

BBC: Can Japan’s paper plane fly in space?