I may add a contact form to this page soon to make it even easier.

I know there is a good online patent search. I found it a month or two ago. I thought it was a .gov website but I haven’t found it in my bookmarks yet. I only found google.com/pantents right now- funny. I’ll keep looking for a better place to search. Let me know if you find anything. And, “NO” – don’t trust anybody with your ideas- just get a move on before somebody else thinks about it.

About three years ago, I heard about a new app that scanned barcodes. I thought it was going to find the cheapest prices for anything I scanned. To save money, I went out and bought the only phone that used this app. Like a child with a new toy, I scanned everything I could. I loved the app. It was the first of its kind as far as I know. Like other users, I quickly found that the app was limited. Don’t get me wrong, the app is great for larger priced items and electronics that you would find in large stores or online. It didn’t really help users find prices on smaller things like groceries in their area. I was upset about it at first but came to understand why.

I still love the app but it lost its charm after a few days. I quit scanning everything I saw after awhile. However, when I was shopping for groceries, I noticed a bag of potatoes with a barcode. Above the bags, there was a “Made in Texas” sign (with a giant Texas flag in the background). I figured the sign was just a marketing ploy.

I don’t know about other states, but Texans are very proud to support our local growers. Feeling that the sign may mislead shoppers, I pulled my phone out and scanned the bag. Not to my surprise, the bar code on the potatoes tracked back to a P.O. Box in Texas with no company name attached. I was able to use the app to look a little deeper. It only took a few minutes to track the bag of “local grown” potatoes to another P.O. Box- in New Jersey! Crazy, huh? If you think about it, it’s not really that hard to believe. It happens more than people know. Who would have thought the largest supplier in our country isn’t being honest?

I’d love to see how your idea develops. It would be so great to see what other people find with a little bar code scanning and database lookup. I never found out where those bags of potatoes really came from. It looks like good ol’ Wally lied again. Surprise. Surprise.

Recent events are making people question everything in “Big Business”. Places like muckety.com have become a giant help for people trying to make better buying decisions- for their own protection. Having a database right at our fingertips would be a great service.

Thank you for sharing your ideas.

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Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com

Researchers work on cocaine vaccine

HOUSTON – Two Baylor College of Medicine researchers in Houston are working on a cocaine vaccine they hope will become the first-ever medication to treat people hooked on the drug. “For people who have a desire to stop using, the vaccine should be very useful,” said Dr. Tom Kosten, a psychiatry professor who is being assisted in the research by his wife, Therese, a psychologist and neuroscientist. “At some point, most users will give in to temptation and relapse, but those for whom the vaccine is effective won’t get high and will lose interest.”

The vaccine, currently in clinical trials, stimulates the immune system to attack the real thing when it’s taken.

The immune system — unable to recognize cocaine and other drug molecules because they are so small — can’t make antibodies to attack them.

To help the immune system distinguish the drug, Kosten attached inactivated cocaine to the outside of inactivated cholera proteins.

In response, the immune system not only makes antibodies to the combination, which is harmless, but also recognizes the potent naked drug when it’s ingested. The antibodies bind to the cocaine and prevent it from reaching the brain, where it normally would generate the highs that are so addictive.

“It’s a very clever idea,” says David Eagleman, a Baylor neuroscientist. “Scientists have spent the last few decades figuring out reward pathways in the brain and how drugs like cocaine hijack the system. It turns out those pathways are difficult to rewire once they’ve seen the drug. But the vaccine just circumvents all that.”

Kosten asked the Food and Drug Administration in December to green-light a multi-institutional trial to begin in the spring and is awaiting a response.

Approval would mark a breakthrough in the treatment of cocaine addiction, which now mostly involves psychiatric counseling and 12-step programs. It presumably would be the final clinical hurdle before the vaccine — more than a decade in the making — might be approved for treatment. But one expert warns against expecting too much.

“Addiction vaccines are a promising advance, but it’s unlikely any treatment in this field will work for everyone,” said Dr. David Gorelick, a senior investigator at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Still, if they prove successful, they will give those working in drug addiction an important option.”