Tag: Patents

Different is Scary – Have you Forgotten Your Meds?

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Clearly along with Senior Service cigarettes and the odd whisky and ginger, my mum must have had too much N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)acetamide when she was pregnant with me. The Flintstones in the White House have so decreed. What does Wilma make of all this?

Last night we watched a film “The Accountant” in which Ben Affleck played a neurodivergent maths whizz who was a trained martial artist and special forces trained assassin sniper. He is a big bloke. His dad told him,

“Different is scary! Sooner or later different is scary and they don’t like it. Fight. Don’t be a victim.”

Or words to that effect. He encouraged his son to fight back when bullied.

I have experimental evidence gained from a FFT EEG; a fast Fourier transform {FFT} frontal lobe electroencephalograph that my brain waves differ from family and friends. The experiments were not exhaustive, they were indicative. The fact that I downloaded and worked through the patent for the device is unusual for others, not for me. I wanted to understand the instrument and its limitations. I know more about FFT than many because I did my undergraduate third year research project using a state of the art Bruker FFT infrared spectrometer on 77K solid state Platinum and Palladium mixed valence compounds. I looked into Fourier transformation. It had a tenth of a wavenumber resolution and could measure tiny site splitting in crystal lattices. We were particularly interested in very low frequency vibrations along the pseudo one dimensional longitudinal crystal axes.

On this basis it is safe to suggest that I could be classed as neurodivergent, without specifying in which manner.

As a further piece of evidence I cite the dream data catalogued here. It diverges significantly from normal.

Using the tag line from the film, some people might find me scary others just odd. I can say that when viewed from a neurotypical perspective I have trouble making and sustaining friendships. I do not engage in the highly transactional itchy back game and quasi-sycophantic behaviours often deemed necessary for career progression. I am not a toady or an arse licking nematode.

If an increasing number of people are being “diagnosed” on the spectrum is that indicative of an increase in the number of people who have passed the qualifying workshops to make such a diagnosis or is it a real thing? Is humanity evolving? Will neurotypicals become an artefact and extinct? The dinosaurs will die out from measles and COVID soon enough…

Of course if you are scared of people like me it is easy to prescribe chemical cosh medication to make the anomalous more compliant. The “monged” argue less. You could suggest that the entire reason I have such an active dreaming is that I have simply forgotten to take my medication like a good boy.

“Have you forgotten to take your meds again?

Just take a few of these and everything will be alright…

You will be normal and somnambulant like the rest of us.

Look here is a big new mobile ‘phone.

Pretty, shiny, precious….

There, there, don’t fret…”

Following the Quantum Thread…

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As is so often the case the whole world gets to hear about what is going on in the USA. The world, the internet, has a USA based centre of gravity and America likes to tart its wares. The endless self-promotion urge originates there. PR and hype have their home, therein. Understated is not a word in common parlance, not even sotto voce.

As someone who has probably read more patents than is good for them, who has even worked through in detail to understand dozens, it is something of a hobby.

“Old fart in his shed reads patents.”

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Speichergasse 6 Bern

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We have heard a lot about the big American tech companies and their quantum computing (QC) efforts. It is a piss on the street corner type of approach to mark territory. When I last looked in detail at the patent landscape ~2017-8 there were a lot of US patent applications on QC whereas the Chinese were then focussing on quantum communication and key distribution. There were a lot of Chinese applications.

Clearly quantum cryptography is the killer app for quantum computing.

First pass shows that the Chinese are now releasing press notes on their QC chip technologies, there are a few rumblings in Moscow. There are efforts elsewhere like Singapore and South Korea. An issue remains, quantum talent, and for Russia quantum brain drain has been mooted. The USA may worry about training would be Chinese quantum talent.

As mentioned earlier in the blog, I am due to be incapacitated in winter. So I might need somethings to keep me busy.

I wonder has there been any genuine quantum leap innovation since 2017?

What is left of the patent lifetimes?

Is it worth another scooby?

Alice & Bob – Quantum Jobs

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Prompted by the answer to a question on University Challenge, I typed Alice and Bob into the font of paid for promotion previously known as a search engine. The Mecca of product placed wisdom came up with a French quantum start up called Alice and Bob. They have received 100 million series B funding. They also have a fairly extensive job vacancy list. It was a tad French and probably not overly attractive internationally except for those fond of Alice in Paris Francophiles. French job descriptions can be as rigid as a rigid thing. They do not travel well.

Maybe there is a general shortage of quantum savvy job applicants….

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It occurred to me that the Quantum hype has been drowned out by the deafening AI roar. Maybe it has gone submarine like AUKUS.

That Luddite Herr Trump has been threatening the Harvard intellectual property (IP) portfolio. What a great way to ensure the death of US inventiveness and technological superiority, discourage invention and application for patents unless they are handled by MAGA lawyers, toadies and sycophants!! Already the incentive to NOT have an idea whilst at a university is high, because contractually the university owns your IP. Best stifle ideas until you are a free thinker…

Sometimes holes can be difficult to get out of. That can include ways of thinking and playbooks.

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It looks like Herr Trump is going to try again to leverage Ukraine into accepting a fait accompli agreed with Vlad the Impaler in Alaska. This forceful manipulation is an old Trump play. If he keeps alienating people, he may find himself in a hole like increasingly Billy-no-mates Israel. Trump does not understand that “friend” has a different meaning in KGB speak.

Oh look another groundhog…where did that come from….

What is the first rule when you find yourself in a hole?

Human beings can be pig-headed and stubborn. Inventive people do not share the same deal or no deal mentality as realtors. They are easily discouraged and disincentivised. One day the straw goes on the camel’s back, one too many.

Sometimes that tired old play book simply does not work. Thinking the same way that gets you into a problem cannot help to get you out of it.

There is no point in trying to explain this to someone who is vehemently adamant that they know best. Advice is as unwelcome as a dose of antibiotic resistant syphilis.

Some people are obsessed at the notion of a “corporate” solution when none exists. They may get all their ducks in line to present someone with a fait accompli sure that such a thing is irresistible. Even so-called intelligent people like professors can think like this. They can seek within group consensus oblivious that people outside the Olympian Ivory Towers do not think like them. This may not occur.

It is quackers.

People often talk with the monkey and ignore the organ grinder completely…

Anyway…

Has AI killed off the notion of quantum computation?

Where will they put all the server farms?

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Is this what our future looks like?

Just in from the IPO…

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I have not long ago made this on my PC…

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This is what a patent grant would look like for Mr McNutjob. Times New Roman looks good!!

Careful examination of the application date is strongly advised, it is a glimpse of the future.

I am no expert, it only took me a few minutes.

Heaven knows what those skilled in the art might do…

Information and Context

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Because people are lazy, they tend to treat information in a monopolar way, without actually acknowledging that. We have monopolar information. They are very confirmation bias oriented. The red caps might hear gospel from the don, the green caps from The Guardian and the anti-brown-Islam-o-phobes might want to hear Uncle Nigel pontificate. People perceive according to how they want to perceive, they believe what they want to hear. Perception is monopolar and not balanced or heteropolar. Bias is pandemic.

Taking a monopolar information source out of a wider context is rarely wise. Newspapers are sold to their biased audience and articles are targeted at that bias. Tell me what I want to hear and I will buy your newspaper, or clickety-click it on line so that you can get advertisement revenue.

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I could say that I have a fair general knowledge. Out of context that is a lie. I would be shit at normal pub quiz general knowledge, because a) I don’t like soccer, b) I have no idea about current soap operas and c) I know nothing about package holiday destinations nor who is hot on social media. I would be a middling team member on a University Challenge quiz team.

I can say with a fair degree of confidence that I understand how academic science is enacted and reported. I may be rusty on nuance, but I have a good gist. I can read a Nature article and know to what extent I understand and if there are gaps in understanding which I might need to follow up on. If I watch a video on YouTube, I know that it is almost always surface and that people have a click generating agenda. Pass the Saxa salt, please.

I have read widely in the esoteric – occult – new age bookshelves of the library, the one with actual books in not on-line. I have intellectual access to that context something your common or garden scientist will not have. Many so-called scientists are disproportionately fearful of being labelled “whacko”. The gossip around “cold-fusion” is exemplar. Yet I have discussed over a cigarette on the steps of the Chemistry Department at Imperial College with a practising homeopath and staff member. We talked and speculated on quantum effects in water memory. Homeopathy is derided by many a sceptic yet demonstrably erudite scientist.

People are scared of the occult. It actually means “difficult to see” as in “an occult fracture of the T3 vertebra”. It does not mean that I am going to bite the head off a bat, spit blood to anoint the bone of goat and point that at you whilst chanting incantations for your demise.

People can and do get the wrong end of the stick.

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It is possibly not illegal to file a patent application on “Quantum Telepathy” using the name Whacko McNutjob at the Intellectual Property Office in Newport, less eye catching perhaps at the European Patent Office unless the examiner was a Brit. One could ascertain if there was prejudice against Nut-jobs. We could define a new term, nutjobphobic.

I am confident that I can write an application of sufficient plausibility. I have three granted patents already.

People can over and misinterpret just about anything which they read on the internet. Rarely do they check understanding nor can they be arsed to read around or do further research. The gospel according to SEO optimized Google search returns is a highly skewed and paid for version. People forget and rely.

The informational fodder is not always the best fully nutritional meal for an avid clicker.

Hare Brained Patent Ideas

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Following on from the dream mentioning the EPO in Munich, I have been revisiting some of my hare-brained patent ideas.

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Assuming all goes ahead with the operation I am going to be out of action gardening wise for several weeks. In order not to not drive myself and the wife mad, I will need something to do.

In around 2017 when I became very dis-illusioned with the REQUIRED verbatim parrot answers for “A” level chemistry exam questions, I looked into things quantum. As an aside if the physics syllabus back in the early ‘80s was as it is now, with quarks and astronomy etc., I would have tried a physics degree instead of chemistry. The so called right hand and left hand rules were boring and had other meanings. It was pretty soporific.

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I kept wondering when afternoon double physics would end. The teacher had been to the pub at lunch time and kept going off to the prep room mid lesson.

In a previous dream the notion of Quantum Telepathy was raised. I have already ascertained that the number of patent applications pertaining to telepathy are low. There are a few “occult” patents in French. To attempt to get a patent granted referring to quantum interruption of service for quantum computing or quantum cryptography would be fun and a challenge. The media might be interested.

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“Eccentric ex-boffin applies for quantum telepathy patent…”

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French is one of the languages at EPO. To make it even harder I could attempt to write the application in French. The possibility of opening a Pandora’s box lies perhaps therein.

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How deep the rabbit hole might go remains to be seen.

I was struck when looking at the quantum computing literature and patents at how far-fetched some of the claims were like ammonia trapped in buckminsterfullerene as an isolated molecule with a quantum superposition state of permutation inversion levels being the entangled pair. This person was not a molecular spectroscopist.

Other patent applications were longer than a Ph.D. thesis. It has to be a shit patent if it needs a hundred pages to explain. It was pretty obvious that people were getting patent number increase as a means for funding justification. It was also interesting seeing overt public reference go  suddenly “submarine”.

I have not seen data yet for quantum start-up failure rates. It seems some get bought up.

Around that time I had an idea for an entangled pair photon source produced by electric field induced spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC). I submitted that application in May 2019 and with some “discussion” it got granted. I speculated that because I was a “man in his shed” I was taken less seriously at the IPO in Newport. In one letter I mentioned the Imperial magic word and that I already had two patent grants. After that he was less discursive.

In that SPDC in low photon regime, and not parametric oscillator power range, requires that the electric field is quantizable along harmonic oscillator creator annihilation operator lines. I thought to myself there could be some new physics to be explored here….

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I also wondered why not exploit the time domain for quantum computing. Quantum entangled states are known to “beat” under certain circumstances. Working in the time domain before environmental dephasing kicked in could negate the need for extensive and expensive refrigeration.

Given my background in molecular symmetry it occurred to be that certain molecules could be used as a quantum gate. If they were allowed to “operate” on an entangled pair, they would in effect perform a computation on the state information. Molecular symmetry discussions were largely absent from the patent literature.

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A third order hyperpolarizability tensor looks very matrix like. Neo would be happy.

I had a third idea which escapes me now.

A while back I was looking into nuclear fusion reactor design patents. It occurred to me that for Tokamak and torus designs ignition could be enhanced by laser induced plasma ignition procedures. Hence a hybrid laser ignition “Tokamak” design may have benefits. Confinement in high energy laser ignition facilities to sustain fusion was then a known issue.

As a result of a largely NIMBY campaign to prevent an energy from waste municipal solid waste incinerator being installed next to the village, I looked into these. I came up with the idea for a laser induced plasma incinerator for ultra-high toxicity / biological hazard waste. At very high, near solar laser induced temperature, complete oxidation downstream from plasma formation could be ensured with high completion extent. In the cooling plasma reaction with oxygen free radicals could work. I approached Kilburn and Strode who helped me with the EUV patents. They were reticent in case they had a conflict of interests with one of their clients, the start-up I once co-founded!

It turns out that my ex-flat mate is a patent attorney and another from my year at university a patent litigator.

The other idea I had was to get my patent published in Welsh at the IPO in Newport.

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Cyfarpar i gynhyrchu parau ffoton

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Most of the Welsh patent agents I contacted were very supportive. They pointed me in various direction but the show stopper was that an English translation was also required. So much for equal…

Not quite sure why I am in this space this morning…

Edinburgh Patents Bioluminescence Dream 02-07-23

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Here is this morning’s dream.

The dream is set in Edinburgh. I am with a smartly dressed young woman who has a briefcase. We are in a large old-school department store on a floor devoted to weddings. We are organising a wedding, somehow the young woman is involved in the wedding. It is not clear whose wedding we are organising. I am talking to the be-suited floor manager and his female assistant. They both have Scottish accents. There is some banter as we go over seating plans, flowers, and cakes. I am due to come back in a months’ time once I have finalized things with the castle venue.

We leave and go down into the train station to catch a train back to the airport. We need to get back to London for important meetings later in the day. The woman is some kind of lawyer and is working for/with me. As we go down to the platform, I see SF my old university flat mate. I say hello to him and ask if he recognises me. He says yes but that he would prefer not to have anything to do with me because I am unsettling and cause chaos. I say to him that that was all well over fifteen years ago and not as recent as he remembers it. I bid him farewell and we head off onto our platform which is starting to fill.

SF comes towards us on the platform and says that yes it was well over fifteen years and how time flies. He asks me what I am up to now. I say that I have a patent pending for a light source and that I have been mulling over a design for a UV light source an EUV laser. In principle there is no reason why a cavity could not be designed. I indicate the young woman who is with me as my assistant and attorney. He says that he has something he wants to show me and that I am just the right kind of person to discuss. He asks if we can take a later flight. Yes.

We then drive off in a big expensive 4X4 to an industrial site out of town. He undoes the chains on a gate and drives us in. We go into a big hanger. He explains that he has been working on biphotonic bioluminescent device. He has found that a certain type of bioluminescence produces two photons and wonders if it could be turned into some kind of dye laser. He shows me various glass flasks in which there is a clear liquid emitting in the near ultraviolet / blue part of the spectrum. The light is making the white paper behind the flask fluorescence. He says that there is only one problem. The plant which produces the bioluminescent material is carnivorous. It has mutated to attack humans.  Down on the warehouse floor there are various large plants growing. Some are being tended.

We go down and get close. One of the plants divides and a part of it starts to chase SF. It reminds me of a triffid. He hits it with a stick and calls an aid. It is getting a bit out of hand. He says that he will be in contact and to take any one of the cars from the yard. They all have a key in them and belong to him. He says to leave it at the airport and one of his guys will pick it up later. We select a silver-grey Hummer quasi military SUV and head off to the airport.

Dream ends.

Patent Attorney Dream 8-12-17

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I go back to bed for a snooze after breakfast, my body is tired after Aikido last night and the logs the day before. It is very unusual to dream in these snoozes.

I am in my garden, with a small house and a wooden fence. I go through the gate at the end of the garden onto the footpath that runs behind all the houses. The footpath is on the edge of hill which overlooks a large lake. The water in the lake is clear and azure blue. To the side of the big lake is a smaller similar coloured lake. From where I am standing I can see fish swimming in the lake. It is a clear sunny day of indeterminate season.

I go back into the garden and my sister has a telescopic fishing rod which looks to be a bit tangled with fishing line. I say, that was just what I was thinking. Let’s go and see if we can catch some fish. She follows with the rod. Attached to it are two pike fishing plugs. I say we won’t be needing these. We can find some hooks later. I have half a loaf of sliced bread. I start to roll some of the bread into balls and throw it from the hill into the water. It seems to attract the fish. But my throwing is off. I decide to go down to the lake.

At the edge of the lake I throw some bread balls in. The smaller fish are attracted. I then try to throw the bread out to where the bigger fish are. These are also attracted to the bread.

I go over to the smaller lake. To my surprise there are two women swimming in the lake. They are wearing fashionable, expensive, swimsuits. They are tall and athletic. I ask them what the water is like, one says cold. Just as I am asking I fall into the water fully clothed. The water is fine. One of them swims close to me and in a slightly sexually provocative manner. We talk for a bit and I can hear that she has an accent. We go over to the shallows and the two women get out as do I. They have to get back to work.

I ask them where they are from, Germany, south, I suggest. Yes one is German and the other Russian. I ask them why they are here. They are working, both of them, in patents, one is writing a patent and the other is a patent attorney.  I say to them, in the dream, that I pay particular attention to strange things and explore them. Two women working in patents in a lake is a strange thing, and because they are German, this is even stranger.

I ask them how they feel about living in the UK. It is OK they say. It isn’t very modern but green and has nice trees. I say that Germany has all changed since the reunification.

Dream ends.

Thunder Cats – Patents – Dream 11-05-23

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Here is last night’s dream it is another out of the blue.

The dream starts in a busy open office environment there are many people milling about. There is a lot of noise and the people are mostly “young guns” wearing grey business suits. It has a feel of the city of London, but it is not there. There is a lot of excitement. 

On a screen in the corner is a camera pointing at a stock board at the London Stock Exchange. One can see a blank board and it is before the exchange opens for the day. An initial public offering has been made by the company and everyone is waiting to see if the share price starts higher than that of the offering.

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I find myself in the midst of chaos. There has been a lot of investment and many people have been employed but I can see nobody who is going to get down and do the hands on work. There are too many suits.  I shout out, “Do we need any more intellectual property? “No”, is the answer.

I ask who is in charge of patents. Amidst all the youngish British men a more mature tall and slim woman puts up her hand. “I am”, she says in a Californian accent. I say to her that we need to talk and could she find us a quiet place.

On the building opposite I can see the Thundercats logo projected. It pertains to the company and we and most especially I have this logo. In the dream I am slightly surprised on one level but not on another.

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The patent lady and I walk off out of the noise and struggle to find a quiet room to the side of the office. Once we are in, I say to her than we need more quiet spaces amongst the bedlam.  Which she agrees with. We sit down and she outlines that there is indeed need for further intellectual property which is more to do with applications and extensions. I ask her how come they recruited so many suits. She shrugs her shoulders and says that it was not her idea. I ask her to scope out in detail more of her ideas concerning applications.

A young man comes running to the door and knocks. “I am sorry to disturb you but there is a man at the front desk who keeps asking for you and he won’t go away.  He says that he knows you.” I say to the patent lady that I will be back and go with the young man to the front desk.

When I get there, it is Prof. TJ. He says that can we go for a walk and have and “off the record” chat. He has come up with an application for the intellectual property and would like to discuss it. He has in mind, using it to buy some shares in the company and joining in. We walk off into an industrial estate and he outlines his ideas.

The dream ends. 

Patents-VCs-Dream-19-02-18

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Here is this morning’s dream. Last night we watched Dragons’ Den on TV and I had another dream of its ilk earlier in the night which I cannot recall.

I arrive at some swanky offices in London and go into reception. It is plush and modern with a glass fronted airy atrium. The security guards at the desk take my name and give me a badge to wear. They direct me to a holding area / outer office. I am suited and booted but with no tie.

The PA greets me. In the holding area there is another man sat. He is clutching documentation and a tablet computer. I tell the lady, who is smartly dressed, that I am here for a 10 o’clock appointment. It is 9:24AM. The other guy is about to go “in”. Knowing that I am, as per usual, early, I ask the PA how the timing and schedule is going. “Is it Swiss?”, I ask. She says, “not quite” with a wink. So, I say that I will pop out for a coffee and come back. She points me in the direction of the canteen. I say I would rather go to a coffee shop; she is unhappy about this as it threatens her scheduling. She doubts I will be back on time.

I head off into town and find a coffee shop. I sit at one table and am joined by three other people. They do not notice me and are deep in heated discussion. I can see that they have a design for a beam steering column to be used in conjunction with a microscope. They are discussing a possible patent application. The younger one is talking the others through the design drawings which are in clear view on the table.

Just as they are about to leave, I say that the design looks OK but that is doesn’t look all that novel to me. Anyone “skilled in the art” might have come up with it, they need to find a better angle or way of doing it. They are a bit shocked.

I look down at my watch it is 9:55AM. I had better leg it back. I get in my car and drive fast through the traffic back to the office.

As I arrive the other guy is coming “out”, clutching his documents. I wish him luck.

I sit in a chair close to the open door which leads to the inner office it is now 10:02AM.

Through the ajar door one of the posh geezers says that I had better come in. In the room there are a number of men (~4-5) dressed in expensive suits and “Rolex” type watches. They are having their coffee refreshed. The first man ushers me towards some chairs facing the men whom I know to be rich VC types. I say that I would prefer to stand. Which I do facing the semi-circle of investors. I have no documentation or IT. Just me. I am very relaxed.

The PA leaves the room and one of the men there says that I should tell them about myself.

I start off on the cancer and tutorial story. I can sense their eyes glazing over and the thought “time waster” starting to manifest. One says, “That explains why we haven’t heard anything from you or about you!”

I then say that I have also been looking at and delving into patents. I know a patentable idea when I see one and I have a couple sketched out. This sparks their interest a little more. The tone and the mood in the room suddenly changes. One of them who is the lead turns to another and mutters something under his breath. I have their attention now.     

At that point I start engaging them in a very relaxed manner. “What kinds of investment opportunities are you (plural) looking for? “

Because thy have been sat all morning listening, they welcome the chance to speak for a bit, so they begin.

The dream ends.