I just finished playing with Google Coop which features a new Custom Search Engine (CSE) — it’s similar to Rollyo, with a couple of new additions. Here’s the TechCrunch post where I found it, and also check out the Google Documentation & FAQ.

From my initial tour, the two big differences that I could see were:

1. The removal of the 25 site Rollyo limit. Looks like Google Coop will let you include “as many sites as you want”.
2. No limit on the addition of advertising code such as Adsense, which will put some more pennies in the

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Comme une trainée de poudre, la semaine passée, s’est propagée l’idée qu’Internet est un monde dangereux où il ne fait pas bon mettre une souris dehors. Partout, une information, assez nébuleuse, s’est dissiminée faisant état d’études décrivant l’horreur du décor: La Presse, La Gazette, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, CTV, juste pour identifier les coupures que j’ai eu l’occasion de lire.

Michel Leblanc, un de mes anciens étudiants, mais je pense qu’il est plus juste de l’identifier comme un des gourous de la blogosphère québécoise, a eut un coup de sang pour ce qu’il considère . . . [more]

Largely as a result of the Canadian penchant for vesting the sales of wine in government monopolies, our law of wine is singularly underdeveloped. I had occasion to reflect on this while attending a book and wine evening at the UofT Faculty Club profiling the marvellous Natalie McLeanThis is an intelligently designed and thoroughly accessible website too., whose new book Red and White and Drunk All Over would make an excellent Christmas present for anyone who enjoys books or wineFor those of more frugal instincts, she has an amazing free email newsletter about wine, written in an accessible and . . . [more]

Since we haven’t discussed tax research for a while, I thought I’d direct you to a small classic ostensibly from the Inland Revenue, whose bona fides – such as they might be – are attested to by its publication in The Guardian, a paper of impeccable probity and accuracy.

Dear Mr Addison, I am writing to you to express our thanks for your more-than-prompt reply to our latest communication, and also to answer some of the points you raise.

I will address them, as ever, in order.

Firstly, I must take issue with your description of our last

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On October 19, Ontario’s Access to Justice Act, Bill 14, had Royal Assent, becoming S.O. 2006 c. 21.

This Act includes as Schedule F the Legislation Act, 2006. This is a comprehensive statute on the publication, citation and proof of statutes and regulations (including making e-Laws a presumptively accurate statement of law – no more disclaimers), changes of law (in the absence of decennial revisions), and a revised Interpretation Act. The Legislation Act, 2006, will come into force one year from Royal Assent, unless proclaimed in force earlier (which I am hoping will happen.)

Bill 14 in final form will . . . [more]

Ms Dewey, the next generation of search engines, was released this week. Rumour has it this is from MSN. Watch as Ms. Dewey flirts and cajoles you to type in a search. Try these or make up some of your own:

forensics
baby
horn
American Idol
Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie (or anyone else really famous)
Janina Gavankar
what’s your sign?
radio
Howard Stern

You have to try some of these 2 or 3 times. Hours of fun, but definitely not for the whole family. She has a number of intros as well, so worth visiting multiple times.

I don’t . . . [more]

I know someone who sends me those annoying email jokes that do the rounds. Usually I toss ’em; occasionally I read ’em and toss ’em; but for some reason I accorded the last one a place on my hard drive — where I found it today when browsing through the oddments section looking for a Friday Fillip. It’s a list of “euphemisms” for stupid.

Stupid is one of the prime things we who read Slaw cannot be, at least in our professional lives. We got where we are by being or appearing smart, and smart is what lets us hang . . . [more]

Because of a newspaper article today, my attention was drawn to a feature of the federal government's proposed Federal Accountability Act I hadn't really noticed before.

Today, an extremely important media freedom case. Reporter Juliet O’Neill of the Ottawa Citizen has won her case against the RCMP in connection with its investigation into leaks involving the Arar case. In the process, Justice Lynn Ratushny also struck down the Security of Information Act that was used to justify RCMP raids on a journalist they suspected of having received leaked material in the Maher Arar affair.
Judge Ratushny said the police used “the spectre” of criminal charges to try to uncover her confidential sources and cast a chill over the entire media. In doing so, it effectively . . . [more]

I was wondering how Simon Chester read the Gateway before I did (it’s in a stand out in the hall). Maybe he’s using some Canadian version of http://www.campusreader.com/? . . . [more]

For the second time in the past two months, a NS Judge has ordered a Cabinet Minister and/or Department to deal with individuals in the courts.

Yesterday, Judge Pam Williams ordered the NS Community Services Minister to appear in court as the legal guardian of a troubled teen who in the care of the Department of Community Services. Story here and here.

Last month, Judge Bill MacDonald ordered a 70 year old woman accussed of arson into the care of the Department of Health. Story here.

I’m not sure if Judges in Nova Scotia are intentionally trying to make . . . [more]

Our library has the new edition of Fridman on Contracts, this up to date as of the Summer Solstice 2006.

A new edition of a standard contracts text is an achievement. For a 78 year-old, it’s remarkable.

In the course of a long and distinguished academic career, Fridman has published 18 books, including among them the standard works on the common law Canadian law of obligations, as well as his works on Agency and Sale of Goods.

May he keep writing as long as Austin Scott, who was still working on his treatise on the Law of Trusts well . . . [more]