I was checking out the new Google Patents service, which is a much improved interface over the one offered by the USPTO, and which I’d heard about via Googling Google. I was also looking at information about the onstage 45-degree lean performed by Michael Jackson and his dancers during concerts featuring the song “Smooth Criminal” - it’s a damn cool move, one that was done in the original video with wires. (Up until I read this article, I had assumed they just had hyper-developed muscles from so much dancing - I didn’t realize it was faked!) To perform it onstage, Michael Jackson developed a special device, which received U.S. Patent 5255452 in 1992 - “Means and method for creating anti-gravity illusion.”

So I thought “hmm, has the King of Pop created any other patents?” I searched for Michael Jackson and got far too many results, so I figured I’d put his name as it was shown in the Anti-Gravity Illusion patent: Michael J. Jackson. The first hit was for that very patent. The second was for: Internal nasal implant. Yes, this entire post was an elaborate joke about Michael Jackson’s nose. I just had to share my amusement.