Academic

Things Antebellum (and a little post bellum) in Southampton Virginia

Posted on August 19, 2009
Just back in the office briefly after a trip to Philadelphia. Couple of really cool things to share right now, before my trip down to lovely Athens tomorrow for a conference on Thomas Cobb. (The image at right is of...

Harvard Yard Transformed Into Plaid Blazer

Posted on August 19, 2009
Neville Longbottom, the notoriously incompetent young wizard from Harry Potter, must have just materialized in Cambridge, Mass. How else can we explain the fact that Harvard Yard has just been convered into a plaid blazer. And a pair of khaki...

Mid-week Links 8-19

Posted on August 19, 2009
Mike Konczal, Tyler Cowen, and Felix Salmon on NPR?s Planet Money answer the question: has financial innovation in the last 25 years been positive or negative? Podcast here: http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/pmoney/2009/08/podcast08.17.09.mp3?_kip_ipx=725366478-1250611423 Duke History Professor Laura Edwards guest blogging at Legal History Blog...

tl;dr and discourse

Posted on August 18, 2009
tl;dr, or, alternatively -- TL;DR or TLDR -- is an abbreviation for "too long, didn't read." It is used when a post or description of something is considered too long by the forum members or community in which it is...

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Chicken (&) Breasts

Posted on August 18, 2009
Thanks to Tiffani Darden for forwarding me this link about a protest at an Orlando Chick-Fil-A related to patrons' rights to breastfeed in the restaurant without "covering up". Having asked a breastfeeding mother to cover her baby while feeding, the....

Fraud, Fortune Telling, and The First Amendment

Posted on August 18, 2009
The ACLU of Maryland says that a Bethesda law against fortune telling violates the First Amendment. Their client, who says he learned the craft from his father, was denied a permit to open a fortune telling shop because the practice...

Why We Should Ignore The ?Octomom? . . . Except Maybe Tomorrow

Posted on August 18, 2009
Via The New York Times, Fox Broadcasting will present a two-hour television special on Nadya Suleman on August 19: The special could reignite debate over the well-being of the children and the media frenzy that surrounded their birth. Ms. Suleman...

Laptops On State Bar Exams

Posted on August 18, 2009
Most of our students use laptops constantly. They take notes (and surf and IM) on their laptops. And they most certainly take final exams on computers. But when it comes time to take their bar examinations, they'll discover that not...

Maurice Sendak, Courtroom Artist

Posted on August 18, 2009
My morning has already improved. I was watching an Onion newscast about PETA's degrading and exploitative treatment of women ("they make women strip down, put vegetables over their genitals, and subject them to hours of photo shoots") and at the...

Health Care Hypocrisy: Glenn Beck Channels Karl Rove

Posted on August 17, 2009
Remember this delicious segment from Jon Stewart - when he tastefully noted the way the GOP talking heads like Karl Rove had flipped on the experience and gender issues with the arrival of VP candidate Sarah Palin? Stewart is at...

We Know Drama, And Its Name Is The University of California

Posted on August 17, 2009
According to the Economist, the best public education in the world is to be found in California, and it is endangered. (HT: Mark Thoma) The Academic Ranking of World Universities, compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, ranks UC...

Who Owns (and will profit from) Native Culture

Posted on August 17, 2009
Since I'm recycling posts from years and years ago--like "who owns American folk culture? Parker Brothers, apparently"--and also thinking about issues of cultural property again, I thought I'd blow some dust off a post on native culture from propertyprof back...

Weekend Links

Posted on August 16, 2009
Eater.com analyzes the Madoff AmEx statements, released to the public this week (PDF copy here), to determine the Madoff clan?s most expensive meal ($1,943.46 at Patroon); worst tip (6% at Lure); restaurant visits by neighborhood; and other matters of interest...

Teaching Law School Seminars

Posted on August 16, 2009
There seems to be a lot of talk today about law schools and law school teaching. Should we engage in new methods of assessment (as someone who dealt with a system replete with discussions of "assessment, objectives, aims and outcomes"...

Cindy Sherman Meets Mad Men: Frank Ockenfels' Sterling Photos

Posted on August 16, 2009
My friend Jeremy Butler points out that this photo of Peggy Olson (played by Elisabeth Moss) screams Cindy Sherman. It's really part of a fetching gallery of photos by Frank Ockenfels, prepared to promote Mad Men Season 3, which premieres...

Social Networking as Discourse

Posted on August 14, 2009
With everything that's been going on in relation to health care reform, there are debates everywhere. Some are interesting, some provide some good, basic information, while others are, well, ridiculous. In the midst of this, the blogosphere is going ballistic...

Is Your Cell Phone Manufacturer Tracking You?

Posted on August 14, 2009
Privacy. We talk about it all the time as an abstract concept. And we don't pay much close attention until our identity is stolen or our email password has been hacked. (Yes, both have happened to me.) But lurking in...

Alabama Finally Allows HIV Positive Prisoners To Have Work Release

Posted on August 14, 2009
After years actively discriminating against prisoners with HIV, Alabama prisons have now changed their work release policies. HIV positive offenders are now eligible for these valuable programs. South Carolina is apparently alone among the 50 states in banning inmates with...

Fordham Law v. Reed Smith, Or, How To Scare Away Firms From OCI

Posted on August 13, 2009
Those of you who follow the associate recruiting game may be interested in this little story. Apparently, Reed Smith - a law firm you never realized was so huge (1500 lawyers in 23 cities) - recently withdrew from On Campus...

Why August drives your dean crazy

Posted on August 13, 2009
As a prof, months that start with the letter ?A? are the worst. In April you?re scrambling to finish teaching the material, you?re writing exams, and you?re making final plans for the summer. In August you?re scrambling to get ready...

The FAR form, a candidate's perspective

Posted on August 13, 2009
So, after asking questions here (after joining a conversation here), I promised to let everyone know what I, as a candidate, think about the FAR forms and Tim's questions about them. It is, of course, a question many of our...

Cleansing History? Confederacy Museum (And Trip Advisor) Retouch The Past

Posted on August 13, 2009
Our colleague Eric Muller is at the center of a remarkable set of events involving the White House of the the Confederacy, in Richmond, and Trip Advisor - the travel review and marketing website. Last weekend, Eric visited the White...

Future Directions on Probate in the Old South

Posted on August 12, 2009
I've spent some time over the last few weeks talking about the new paper Stephen Davis and I have up on probate in the Old South. Now I think it's time to talk about new directions for scholarship. While we...

Search Engines: Origins (Trivia)

Posted on August 12, 2009
Here's a trivia quiz about the history of Internet search engines. Do you know how the following search engines got their names? 1. Archie 2. Lycos 3. Yahoo! 4. Overture 5. Google Answers below the fold... 1. Name derived because...

FAR Forms -- The First Distribution

Posted on August 12, 2009
The AALS is scheduled to release the "first distribution" of FAR forms tomorrow (Thursday). How many forms will be in the "first distribution"? Here's my guess: 943. How about you? (For those of you who are fans of "The Price...

What's Law School Like?

Posted on August 12, 2009
I guess the impending school year is getting on top of me, but I keep having thoughts about how best to explain this strange career (and particularly the hiring process) to those who have not yet embarked upon it. And...

Mid-week Links

Posted on August 12, 2009
The Odds On Athletes Spending Time Behind Bars This Season (via Above The Law). In The New Yorker, economist Andrew Zimbalist on the sports recession. Mary Dudziak at Legal History Blog with book reviews (here and here) of interest to...

Dodson to William and Mary

Posted on August 11, 2009
Scott Dodson is moving from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, to William and Mary this summer. From the W&M Press release: Dodson received a B.A. from Rice University and a J.D. from Duke Law School, where he was an articles...

When 'any' means 'some' . . . or arguments only a lawyer could love

Posted on August 11, 2009
At issue in DOD v. ACLU is whether the government is required to disclose 21 additional torture photos under the Freedom of Information Act (link to prior post here). FOIA requires the government to disclose certain information to the public,...

Weiner on Iceland ... and Slavery

Posted on August 11, 2009
Resurfacing from work to mention a really great post over at legalhistoryblog.... At some point I need to talk about Mark Weiner's great books (like Black Trials) on race and law in American history. But right now I want to...

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