that he can get their invention accepted. that he will work his executive magic, and get them a contract with the war department. of course, lincoln had -- had many, many other things to deal with rather than -- help people -- get contracts. and indeed, citizens from all walks of life are flooding, flooding the -- the federal government with these different suggestions that they have. as another correspondent put it, the whole yankee world its studying and contriving some method of destroying the merrimac. and the panic in washington and eastern seaboard cities after the events of march 8, 1862, was almost palpable. gideon wells, although he is certainly no fan of stanton, wells says in his diary and elsewhere, he describes how stanton is panicked. he is a made the merrimac is going to sail up the potomac and shell the white house. it is basically a game changer. that the entire war is going to be changed because of this invention. and indeed, the northern public were very fearful of this exact thing happening, another corres

usually, some of these ideas aren't terribly inventive. that is, after ericsson's monitor proves itself to be capable of taking on the "merrimac," many people write in with all sorts of add-on gadgets. that this, their invention, can make the "merrimac" -- or pardon me, the "monitor" the ultimate killing machine. and again, if only the government will buy. and one of the other things that i was lucky enough to be able to find, this is an original drawing that ericsson submitted to the french government for his original "monitor" in 1854. indeed, you can tell the basic elements of the "monitor" that we know and love is there. but already in the 1850s ericsson has this idea floating around about how to create this ultimate warship. as i said, the fear that is -- that you find in northern cities, especially the seaboard cities after the events of march the 8th is tremendous. that the fear is the "merrimac" is going to be showing up the next day in new york harbor or baltimore or philadelphia and that these cities will be either raised or laid

usually, some of these ideas aren't terribly inventive. after ericson's monitor proves itself capable of taking on the merrimac, many people write in with all sorts of add-on gadgets, that their invention can make the monitor the ultimate killing machine if only the government will bichlt one ott the other things i was lucky enough to be able to find. this is an original drawing that erics ericson submitted to the french government for his original monitor in 1854. you can tell the basic elements of the monitor we know and love is there. already, in the 1850s, ericson has this idea of how to create this ultimate warship. the fear that you find in northern cities, especially the seaboard cities after the events of march the 8th is tremendous. the fear is that the merrimac will be showing up the next day at new york harbor, baltimore or philadelphia and that these cities will be razed or laid under contribution. one of the easiest ways some people write in on is saying, we need to lock the merrimac in the elizabeth river. lock her in or lock

who invented the butt slap? >> paul mccartney. >> john travolta. >> how many strikes in an out. >> three. >> the correct answer is -- a lot of people think it is three, but it is -- >> what is the phrase to can a corn. >> to catch a ball? >> a lot of people think that. it is a can of corn. you go and buy a can of corn. what is, sexy ladies, can i ask you a couple questions about baseball and opening day and whether you are single? >> are you promoting maybeline. don't you want to do it in a national audience. >> maybe it is not maybeline. are you excited? >> come to fly with the airlines. >> baseball players are on steroids, but we are clearly on ecstasy. >> isn't opening day on thursday? >> i don't think i know what -- >> opening day of a new macy's. >> oh, a new macy's? >> i know, it is exciting. i am told half off converse and all handbags. what do you think about that? >> that is excellent. >> i think it is more than excellent. it is exuberant. >> i like you. >> i like you more. >> who is the all-time homeru

secret inventions are also proposed. in fact, there are people who write in that say, my invention is so unbelievable, i can't tell you what it is. i can give you a rough outline, but i really can't tell you everything, although it can whip anything afloat. and they also insist that i will tell my idea to the president alone, or, if the president is not available, the secretary of war, maybe navy. in fact, louis winterbauer writes in and the navy says, thank you for suggesting your idea, however, we cannot judge it because you gave us no particulars. in fact, everyone wants to get in on the act. lincoln gets a letter from an unexpected source, a pastor from a baptist church in new hampshire, william sausen, who writes in saying, i have perfected an invention of the most marvelous destructive power that can immediately destroy the most powerful warships at a distance. you, sir, may smile at all this and suppose it is only the dream of an excited brain. but only a few days are needed to convince the world of its reality. t

there are so many other inventions in there. look at all the lives that have been saved just because we have blood typing and the blood bank. again, very important for all of our lives. and most people don't understand that that was a black american and they were crucial in figuring these things out. >> including super soaker, the big squirt gun. >> some of these kids play with it, and they are not aware of who invented it. this is such an important aspect for it telecommunication. three d. is such an important aspect of telecommunication. >> programs here are interactive, see you can call up kareem abdul-jabbar about his book. this is his seventh book. the first one was back in 1983. he's been writing for 30 years. we welcome your questions about his writing and about his projects and what life is an author is like light in addition to his accomplishments in life. we will put the phone numbers at the bottom of the screen. we can also take your tweets and e-mails. look through the list, and there was only one woman. why is that?

. >>> coming up, google shows off its newest invention. and reaction is mixed. you be the judge, next. >>> plus, the bacteria bonanza on your desktop. which parts of your work space are dirtier than a toilet? >> that's disgusting. >>> this guy showed off sweet moves. all of it caught on a security camera. now, police want him locked up. >>> well, another wave of foreclosures may be on the horizon. analysts warn that banks are about to pick up the pace of claiming properties. the lenders had been holding back on foreclosures until a major government lawsuit was resolved. that happened in february. more foreclosures will keep housing prices low. >>> overseas markets are lower because of worries about europe's debt. and also disappointment over the federal reserve's plans. tokyo's nikkei average gave up 52 points today. hong kong's hang seng was down 241. in london, the ftse opened lower. and on wall street, the dow fell 125 points yesterday. big drop there. the nasdaq index lost 45 points. >>> many of the new jobs being created are going to older workers. they're

we have gone from an era in which most inventions were made in similar fields into a world in most inventionsre across fields and collaboration is required. >> the patent system has not been able to keep up. >> there are 700,000 applications that have not even been opened yet. >> it has flooded our court system. in 2011, an act was introduced and among other changes, it would convert the patent system invent systemst-to- to a first-to-file system. as opposed to having the patent office go back and look at prior versions of the invention. the detailed debate ensued. does this fit constitutional criteria? >> it gives protection to the first to invent. first bill's inclusion of inventor system is constanconsit with the constitution's requirement. >> some have argued that the first-to-file provision violates the constitutional provision, but does not say how it can work do so. congress has decided it is consistent with constitutional powers. >> with that decided, congress had to decide whether this bill would promote science. opponents criticized the bill for the possibility of harming the patent

invent the transistor that our government helped invent the vacuum tube for that matter there's going to be a lot of things you can out of a bar in the end i really did our job right in the yes slack very yeah the original mac operating system came out of the star operating system out as their eyes which came out of it do you have an impression not able to invent things because you can't make money off it and you think the bill get to the bill gates that was he a government employee when he invented all these wonderful things that we use in a daily basis actually the government was one of the major clients for the original three point one operating system i mean these are simply facts and information. that intelligence. i think the problem is i think the problem you get into is that you can show a conservative government operating well. as a constant force profile republican losing money every year until the put it because i look at the television i think you can speak quite a bit let me get a few words out and tell the republicans changed the law in congress that made it so that the

he is the inventer of vaseline. so, chessborough writes in and he works for a petroleum company at the moment and i was very amused to find that one of the letters how to melt the merrimac its written on a company called the brooklyn fire insurance co. so apparently they, they knew how to start fires. chessborough again says, what you do, you put a 5,000 gallon tank on the monitor, use a worthington force pump and you spray the merrimac with this fluid. in 15 minutes her gun deck will be untenable. in 30 there will probably be an explosion. it can be readied in three days, cost as the bis about $5,000. i am aware the cry of inhumane warfare will be raised. but he says the object is to only induce surrender. as soon as the rebels surrender then the monitor can switch to spraying water an it will wash the flames off. and again you will achieve your ends. if fire couldn't be used, how about live steam? in fact there are several people who suggest that if you want a dead ironclad, you inject live steam. and you basicall

anything but invented a wrist pill low. it will give the winner of the product a chance to sell the product on the retail shelves. at the very least, they deserve a first bump. john berman, abc news, new york. >> maybe you can win the walmart challenge. thank you for watching. we are always on abcnews.com, "nightline" later. we will see you tomorrow. captioned by closed captioning services, inc.

invention still matters. to say that a lot, because what people often miss is that they focus too much on bridging gaps in access to health care technologies. there's a fantastic story where somebody donated $25,000 color ultrasound machine and the local maintenance technicians tried to tune into the world cup on it, given that it had a color monitor. and within five hours, they rendered that machine useless. so in our lab, we would have done two things. we would have added a socket, so you could put the ufh antenna so you could tune in, or added an alarm to that other socket saying, if you pull this cable, you are going to ruin me, so don't. >> so if i understand this correctly, i mean, you're thinking processes, you're trying to determine what the need is, first of all. >> of course. >> and then create a supply chain that is something that people can find, wherever they are. toys, for example. >> we create an enabling technology. it can use toys, sometimes it can use other parts. but more importantly, it ha

anything but invented a wrist pillow. dream now? >> get this on the market and maybe sell millions of them. >> reporter: walmarts says it will give the winner of the product a chance to sell the product on the retail shelves. at the very least, they deserve a first bump. john berman, abc news, new york. >> maybe you can win the walmart >>> new details as a suspect in the oakland shooting rampage is brought to court. tonight the d.a.describes him as a loser. >> you're going to hear from the first officer on the scene of the shooting. and state regulators and and a thousand workers will lose their jobs and raises new questions about the future. >> and an official-looking notice landing in mailboxes but not for the government. 7 on your side is straight ahead. >> you were a loner and some might call a loser. >> that is the district attorney's description of one goh, charged with seven counts of murder in a shooting rampage that rocked oakland on monday. >> a 43-year-old murder suspect did not react as he was charged this aft

they began in 1945 and culminated with of this invention of the transistor. as leader sort of let the work, but yet when they made advances that ultimately resulted in the point of contact transistor, he certainly can and does come angeles and the king himself fascinated by the idea of improving this idea on there were already. and shortly thereafter, it resulted in something called the junction transistor in shockley, the role not only was open door that you were not to compete with the people that you manage. a nobel prize winner phil anderson when i interviewed him for the book she said this was the transgression he made and could never be forgiven and set him on a pass the increasingly in the weeks after that in the months after that which are intensely collaborative and a very cohesive and apart he pretty soon after went to illinois to become a professor and left working with shockley completely to pursue his own projects. eventually shockley was stuck in the kind of middle management position that bell labs. it was very clear to me that kelly who i just

with the invention of the cable car, these hills became accessible. he watched horses be dragged to death. cable cars were invent in san francisco to solve the problem with it's unique, vertically challenged terrain. we are still using cars a century old >> the old cable car is the most unique thing, it's still going. it was a good design by then and is still now. if we don't do something now. it's going to be worse later. >> the cable cars are built the same as they were in the late 1800's. we use a modern machinery. we haven't changed a thing. it's just how we get there. >> it's a time consuming job. we go for the quality rather than the production. we take pride in our work and it shows in the end product. >> the california line is mostly locals. the commuters in the morning, i see a lot of the same people. we don't have as tourists. we are coming up to street to chinatown. since 1957, we are the only city in the world that runs cable cars. these cars right here are part of national parks system. in the early 1960's, they became the first roles mon

but isaac newton once came on board and said, wow, there must be 50 patentable inventions here. and that number has always kind of come down as the classic number. but there were a lot of very interesting modern pieces. some of them worked better than others. and again, it's possible that the rudder -- sorry, the anchor compartment, the hass hole in the rudder may have been one of the things that contributed to the flooding and the sinking. and we just heard also there was a new pump installed in the yard period. so there were a lot of new con triechbss, contrivances as they called it at the time. although the question of the speaking tube came earlier. every crew member's account said there was a speaking tube between the pilot house and turret but it was out of commission during the battle. nobody's really clear on what that actually means and how a speak tube can be out of commission. but again, the communications part, the internal part for how the crew was going to learn what was new, and to expect the crew to fight the ship without any training. they had no training on the

the how that's crony capitalism that our government helped invent gulko that our government helped invent the transistor that our government helped invent the vacuum tube for that matter there's going to be a lot of things you can out of authority and i really did our job really and yes very yeah the original mac operating system came out of the star operating system on a xerox which came out of a government project not able to invent things because you can't make money off it and you think that bill get to the bill gates that was he a government employee when events and all these wonderful things that we use in the daily basis actually the government was one of the major clients for the original three point one operating system i mean these are simply facts and information but he. was right. i think the problem i think that probably you read into is that you can show a conservative government operating well. as the post office would opposed to tell republican losing money every year for the public access television i think you can sneak in quite a bit and get a few words out and tell the

communists ain't invented a bullet that can kill me, blood, he would reply.ell, i said, what if they did last night and today they're passing them out? well, he answered, at least i'll be cool when i go out of here. but the coolest bloods were the ones i met in the ninth division. they were driving the company commander, a white guy from harrisburg, pennsylvania, nuts because they would sing the temptations whenever they got into a fire fight. ♪ i know you want to leave me they would sing. then they would begin to fire. bam, bam, bam, bam. ♪ but i refuse to let you go bam, bam, bam, bam. there was a white guy behind them shouting "sing faster, guys, sing faster." well, i first went to vietnam to pursue my theory that the armed forces was the best integrated institution in america. i quickly found out that uncle sam was, indeed, an equal opportunity employer on the front lines. my guide to this was an information officer of the 25th infantry division, a dynamic black officer who was about my own age, captain riley leroy pitts. we became immediate friends. he f

you got the money to do that by inventing pay358. >> with some other people, yes. >> jon: okay but didy launch rockets? >> no. >> jon: so you went on from paypal to launch rockets. why? >> okay so people wonder how did you go from internet payments to rockets. >> jon: this was my question. >> a reasonable question. >> jon: thank you. >> when i was in college there were three areas i thought would most effect the future of humanity. those were the internet, sustainable energy and space exploration making life interplanetary. >> jon: we all thought that but none of us could do anything about it. we got high and played dungons and dragons. >> i did that, too. >> jon: you identified these areas. how did you prioritize them? how do you create a hire ash. y where you -- hierarchy where you moved to next? >> i didn't expect i would be doing them but it turned out that way. >> jon: right. >> the advent of the internet and particularly the sale of paypal give me the capital to start a rocket company and a car company. because these are high capital endeavors. i almost ran out of money. >> jon:

the term vietcong had not been invented. actually the term vietcong was invented by the south vietnamese government. there were a few communist guerillas left over from the struggle against the french. they would occasionally pop up to stage quick raids and disappear. we had an ambassador there, the american ambassador by the name of eldridge der borrow, a rolly, poly figure with a rather rotarian manner whose gawk i can wife insisted on wearing the vietnamese dress in which she looked rather ridiculous. at the time the only foreign reporters in sigh gong with a handful of stringers and visitors like myself from hong kong. evidently unaware that vietnam had been a nation for about 3,000 years, der borrow kept telling us that one of america's priorities was nation building which meant converting the vietnamese into being facsimile americans. he was always promoting schemes of one sort or another to achieve that objective. one which had been invented earlier by colonel ed lands dell, the cia agent, was to recruit guitarists to

>> but wasn't he driving that invention? >> he certainly was. but there was a set of platforms that he could ride upon and those platforms, one of them being the internet. one of them being the microprocessor. both of those core technologies were fundamentally supported by the u.s. government. >> the government invented an awful lot of things that we enjoy today. >> absolutely. >> especially the internet. >> and also the drilling. >> i know. we live in a time when there are politicians saying the companies will do it, get the government out of it, get the government out of it. well as most, if not all or most or many critical things, including the jet airliner owes more to the government than any particular corporation. >> absolutely. so really a partnership. the government plays a critical, enabling role to get these technologies ready for entrepreneurs. >> what do you feel about the future of energy? >> for no other reason, we've got countries like china and brazil that will expand their fossil fuel supply, so we've got to get to a clean energ

. >> he invented a new way to think about the oldest broadcast medium. >> if they want to call that genius, i think they should. >> while you may not know his face, for millions of fans all over the world, they do know his voice. they host this popular radio show called radiolab. >> he's like thegerschin of journalism. >> they make science extremely accessible. >> there are not too many programs out there that are like radiolab. >> why this may be a little unconventional for television, i want you to sit back and listen, even more than watch. i'm dr. sanjay gupta. you're watching "the next list." >> my name is jad abumrad. i host and produce a show called radiolab, which airs on wnyc, distributed to a bunch of public radio stations. so radiolab is kind of crazy, slightly psychedelic adventure through a big idea. >> we're talking about escape. >> stories of people being trapped and then getting out, getting free. >> they're kind of like these big, usually one-word titles. the stuff that everyone's been thinking about back to aristotle that really has no answer. like, what is time? what is s

. >> jimmy: i think we just invented something here. whose name is your star next to? >> it's right next to the singing cowboy gene autry. >> jimmy: that's pretty cool. >> he owned the angels. he had his horse trigger. >> jimmy: he sold like a hundred million records. >> he was a stylist and a regular film actor.

after all, our middle-class was built by workers who invented

so he undertook a way to invent a leading. first thing he did was work with counsels of war they had been very difficult body before. this was normal in 18th send schur rearmies. in the british army, counsel of war was a place where the commander told his subordinates what he intended to do. they did it. in american its was a little more complicated than that. washington had often, fluctuated between that authoritarian style he had grown up with. and continental congress ordered him to consult with other officers. which he undertook to do. it was not very successful at first. but then they worked out a way of doing it. nathaniel green, his chief lieutenant was sent to the continental congress and in december they worked out an understanding, first of all that the continent congress would be the supreme body. representing the sovereignty of the people in america. and the generals would obey. but the generals would be allowed to get on with the war. and that was a very unstable compco compro is co compro is co compromise. and ma

a lot of problems so in the last couple of months what they have done the democrats is they have invented this phony war on women to. do this and that. was republicans who invented the war on women when they decided to take their two thousand and ten election mandate to create jobs and instead work hard to kill rights for women and now the republicans are staring down an eighteen point deficit among female voters it's time to call in the p.r. team over a fox news that's very clear of. all the nine kings and queens of the supreme court mull over the fate of obamacare the rest of the world is looking at us like we're freaking crazy as john hudson over the atlantic wire sums up the idea that health care coverage largely considered a universal right in europe could be deemed an affront to liberty is baffling first the u.k. where the supreme court cannot strike down laws is weighing in on what's going on over here and guardian's kevin pollak published a column last week saying it wasn't the point to make sure the richest and most powerful nation on the planet could protect its own people as ot

and suddenly people invent new forms of content for television. it seems to me that with the exception of perhaps blogs, there really isn't a new form of content that has been invent ed for the interactive digital age. >> i'm not sure i would agree with that. if you go on your website and you read that, what is different about that than the paper you're getting tonight or tomorrow morning? for instance, on "the new york times" today, i could find out what happened in the supreme court at 11:00 in the morning. i would have questions about that in terms of how much time is there to report that story. and you know, maybe they are not being able to report as well. but on the other hand, in addition to that, i'm on my ipad and i'm watching video and i'm reading about an obituary of somebody who died and i can look at their artwork and go to the archives. suddenly a newspaper becomes a live event and i can talk back to reporters and other stories. it seems to me that has changed the nature of what a newspaper is. >> there are several strains that are di