On the Creative Use of Analogy

Using analogies is a great way to discover new ideas. If you can take some topic and reframe it in terms of an analogy, sometimes this can lead you to views of that topic which you would never have had otherwise.

New Orleans - To Rebuild or Not

Should New Orleans be rebuilt exactly as it was?
Forgive me if this seems insensitive. I do not wish to minimize any loss of life, I think all human life is precious and deserving of respect and love, but for the future, Should New Orleans be rebuilt? Why not let part of the New Orleans resemble Venice?
Bolster the foundations in the lowest parts of the city and somehow let water, minus sewage, trash, and anything else negative, flow in the streets of those parts of the city. Give a little to mother nature and the Mississippi and let them have little pieces of the city such as described. Let the city become semi-porous to the waters that constantly push at its borders. Just a concept for exploration.

Patent Reform

With all of the problems associated with the US patent process today comes the recurring debate over the purpose of patents.
One line of thought is that patents exist to protect the rights of inventors with, I guess, the main right being the ability to prevent anyone else from making a profit from an idea without the inventor's permission.
However, my question is, wouldn't people still invent even if they could not profit from their ideas?
Also, with the pretense that "necessity is the mother of invention" and the premise that "problems" normally equate to "necessities", what happens, in terms of inventing solutions to problems, when all of the best solutions have no potential for profit?