Legal Commentary

Random Thought (15)

Posted on November 12, 2008
Was Water the Pete Best of Earth, Wind & Fire?[Previous Thought]

Around the World

Posted on November 10, 2008
It famously took Phileas Fogg eighty days to go around the world; Australian IP strategist and IP Think Tank blogger Duncan Bucknell does it in a much more expeditious two dozen links or so. His Blawg Review #185, after a brief recognition of Hollywood beauty and wireless spectrum pioneer Hedy Lamarr, covers global IP strategy from political, economic, and legal standpoints and is worth a read...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (192)

Posted on November 07, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (from Tuesday, November 4; link good at time of posting):A visiting St. Olaf instructor who wrote an online essay about stealing John McCain lawn signs -- "like a ninja under the cover of [a] cloudy Minnesota night" -- has resigned, the Northfield college announced...

There's an election of some sort tomorrow...

Posted on November 03, 2008
...but today, there's Blawg Review! I for one know which I prefer. For those who can't get enough election coverage, Dan Filler and his colleagues at The Faculty Lounge offer some that's actually interesting in Blawg Review #184. Highlights include a tolerant view of Governor Palin's misunderstanding of the First Amendment, a not-so-tolerant view of Senator McCain's accusations of socialism, and a few thoughts about the whether an Obama presidency would have an adverse effect on domestic law-and-order...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (191)

Posted on October 31, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of Reuters (from Monday, October 27; link good at time of posting):An Austrian man, charged with drink driving, drove to a police station to complain about the charge whilst drunk, officials said on Monday...

Random Thought (14)

Posted on October 30, 2008
I've been mishearing the lyrics to "Me & You & A Dog Named Boo" all these years. The animal in question is clearly just a contingency plan should these itinerant hippies' vehicle break down somewhere where they cannot "live off the land" as "free men...

IP and Transactional Skills -- Two Great Tastes Which Taste Great Together

Posted on October 29, 2008
In passing this morning, I mentioned a post from Shubha Ghosh, who's guest-blogging over at The Conglomerate. Ghosh writes concerning the overlap between intellectual property and transactional skills:There are five areas where intellectual property and transactional legal skills overlap: (1) formation of a business, (2) licensing, (3) employment, (4) identifying sources of transactional value, and (5) securities disclosure and due diligence...

California, Here I come

Posted on October 27, 2008
We have great weather, In-n-Out Burger, and Disneyland. As Kimberly Kralowec points out in Blawg Review #183, California also offers an abundance of great legal blogging.I had the pleasure of meeting Kimberly at one of Professor Eric Goldman's periodic meetups of Bay Area legal bloggers; she does a commendable job of gathering the stars of those meetups as well as others from around the Golden State in this California-centric edition of the carnival of legal blogging...

Abandon hope, all ye who podcast here

Posted on October 24, 2008
My love of Dante has been well-documented (see here, here, and here) and rewarded (see here, here, and here). For those of you who've yearned for a more scholarly treatment of the first canticle of Dante's Divine Comedy, Inferno, the most recent episode of Melvyn Bragg's BBC Radio 4 program, In Our Time, covers the topic and is available online.

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (190)

Posted on October 24, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Associated Press (from Thursday, October 23; link good at time of posting):A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband's digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday...

How do you say "congratulations" in Hindi?

Posted on October 22, 2008
I've no clue, so I'll just say it in English: Congratulations, India, on your successful first moon launch.This historic occasion also causes me to reminisce about the time, several years ago now, when Reason magazine's Hit & Run blog called one of my Fark headlines the "Headline of the Year"...

A man walks into a bar exam with a duck on his head...

Posted on October 20, 2008
OK, confession time here. Back in 1995, I took the Oregon bar exam at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. To my relief and others' dismay, I passed the first time around; nevertheless, it was a solid year before I could drive past that building without my stomach tightening...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (189)

Posted on October 17, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Associated Press (from Tuesday, October 14; link good at time of posting):Adolfo Paz Gracia, 35, Javier Carreno Cruz, 29, and Jose Diaz Valenzuela, 29, were booked into Fourth Avenue Jail in Phoenix on three counts of forgery and one count of fraud schemes each...

Feeling conflicted? Today's your lucky day.

Posted on October 13, 2008
Soon-to-be Blawg Review Sherpa Emeritus Diane Levin hosts this week's Blawg Review #181 at her Mediation Channel blog. As Diane explains, today is International Conflict Resolution Day, co-sponsored by the Association for Conflict Resolution and the World Mediation Forum to promote awareness of conflict resolution resources...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (188) . . . The Sequel!

Posted on October 10, 2008
This week's bonus joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of Telegraph.co.uk (from Tuesday, October 7; link good at time of posting):Richard Fuld, the disgraced head of Lehman Brothers, was punched in the face in the office gym amid the bank's collapse...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (188)

Posted on October 10, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Las Vegas Review-Journal (via Deadspin) (from Sunday, October 5; link good at time of posting):O.J. Simpson was so confident that he was going to beat the rap again that he had an acquittal party planned, it was learned...

Enjoy the best along with the wurst.

Posted on October 07, 2008
Germany-based Andis Kaulins hosts Blawg Review #180 at the LawPundit blog this week. Posted yesterday on German-American Day here in the United States, this edition celebrates all things German-American. Kaulins notes that German is the most prevalent ethnic background for those of us in melting-pot America, which might explain the ubiquity of and enthusiasm for Oktoberfest in the States...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (187)

Posted on October 03, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of ESPN Soccernet (from Tuesday, September 30; link good at time of posting):TThe debacle at Newcastle United shows no sign of coming to an end as Joe Kinnear found an empty training ground on his first official day as interim manager...

Reconciling Google's Un-General Releases With Traditional Software Betas

Posted on October 01, 2008
Several years ago, I wrote about Google's curious practice of widely releasing developed (but still developing) products while officially designating these products as "beta" for extended periods -- often years -- without any discernible plan to remove that designation...

Blawg Review #179 is the greatest thing since Blawg Review #178

Posted on September 29, 2008
Blawg Review celebrates inventiveness on a regular basis, not just by covering the best intellectual property-related legal blogging but also by showcasing the creativity of its hosts. Blawg Review #179, hosted by the proprietors of the Securing Innovation blog, manages to achieve both in high style...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (186)

Posted on September 26, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Register (from Monday, September 22; link good at time of posting):The first ever British spy to purposely appear as such on TV had his false moustache fall off during filming, it has been revealed...

Random Thought (13)

Posted on September 23, 2008
I missed yesterday's "OneWebDay." I was on another web at the time and didn't get the message until this morning.[Previous Thought]

I'm mostly there already -- I just need the "ter".

Posted on September 22, 2008
It always seems to me that Peter Black of the Freedom to Differ blog is a bit ahead of the curve. I like to think that it has something to do with the fact that he's located in Australia, where his day begins eighteen or so hours ahead of mine; sure that's a stretch, but it allows me to continue dismissing the mounting evidence that I'm just a little dim compared to him...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (185)

Posted on September 19, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Associated Press (from Thursday, September 18; link good at time of posting):It wasn't the preferred way to enter the Knoxville Museum of Art, but Richard Anthony Smith told police he was on a mission...

Givin' Us the Business

Posted on September 18, 2008
When noted business blogger Anita Campbell is scheduled to host Blawg Review, it's something I look forward to and (unlike a few things in life) that anticipation never ends in disappointment. So it is with Blawg Review #177 this week -- it's straightforward, no-nonsense, and highly informative...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (184) . . . The Sequel!

Posted on September 12, 2008
This week's bonus joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Register (from Thursday, September 11; link good at time of posting):An Oz state government minister was yesterday obliged to resign after it was revealed he'd thrown a few shapes to techno music in "very brief" underwear during a drunken late night party in his in his Parliament House office, the Guardian reports...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (184)

Posted on September 12, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Beautiful Game (from Tuesday, September 9; link good at time of posting):Stupid injuries are the best. Gotta love rich athletes absolutely humiliating themselves.Enter Fabian Espindola...

A Literacy Day Event to Write Home About

Posted on September 08, 2008
When it comes to legal literacy, Hanna Hasl-Kelchner has literally written the book. It's fitting, then, that she hosts Blawg Review #176 at her Legal Literacy blog on International Literacy Day. She notes:Today, September 8th, is International Literacy Day...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (183)

Posted on September 05, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Register (from Thursday, September 4; link good at time of posting):The lapsed website of the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit has been snapped up by an opportunistic German marketeer.Up until recently nhtcu...

5 Blogs & 5 Blawgers

Posted on September 02, 2008
Today is the anniversary of King's lesser-known "I have a meme" speech.Well, actually it's not. It is, however, the day the Blawg Review Editor chose to honor the recently-passed Blog Day with a meme: "The idea is to post links to five great blogs (other than law blogs) on your blawg and tag five of your favorite blawgers to do the same under the post title '5 Blogs & 5 Blawgers'...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.