Does anybody have a link to this patent? I couldn't find it in Google patent search, and I know it was there, previously.

I was reading the debate below as well, pertaining provisional patents. Provisional patents are typically granted in order to protect an invention when it isn't fully fleshed out, because once there is "discoverable" information about an invention, it's too late. For example, you invent a new kind of sprinkler attachment, and you're afraid your competitors are going to come up with the same idea or somebody is going to leak the idea to them, so you put a rough draft in via a provisional patent while you are working on the full patent.