If I were clever, this entry would be the briefest fillip yet. But… I ain’t and it ain’t. So let me go on at just a little length about abbreviation in messaging. See, there’s no real cost to my prolixity: on a blog, no one is charging me for the publication of each word. But if I were texting you I might try to compress things so that my thumbs wouldn’t fall off and your eyes wouldn’t fall out from reading on the teeny tiny screen. This is old news: who doesn’t know LOL, RU, 2NTE, TTFN, etc.?

Curiously, Twitter . . . [more]

Yet another search engine has been launched. Spezify from Sweden is essentially a meta-search tool that presents combined results from Google, Yahoo, Twitter, and other sources in a pictorial fashion, thanks to its use of Flash technology. Results are spread across a window that is meant to be larger than your open viewing port, so that to see more results you scroll (or drag) up, down, left or right. The image slice below — the results of a search for Canada and courthouse will give you some idea; click on it to see a full window screenshot.

Clicking on any . . . [more]

A Canadian, a Mi’kmaq, a man wrongfully convicted of murder. Mr. Marshall passed August 6, 2009. The CBC news has good coverage of the story. Wikipedia’s page on Mr. Marshall is also up to date.

The CBC news archive contains good links and summaries of wrongful convictions.

It should always be disturbing when justice is denied, delayed or miscarried. Fortunately or unfortunately, justice is in the hands of humans. Mistakes are inevitable, but will hopefully decrease as humans learn to live with technology. DNA testing, video surveillance, and advances in forensic science offer hope.

Rest in peace Mr. Marshall. . . . [more]

Just drawing our readers’ attention to a brand new Canadian IP law blog, Innovation and Culture.

James Gannon describes his aims as:

to update the blog daily with legal developments that have an effect on, among other things, IP, innovation and culture in Canada. While I hope to keep the focus of the blog on Canadian stories, major International stories will also be reported, especially those that may be of interest to Canadian IP scholars & laywers, authors, composers, musicians, programmers, film producers and creators of all kind.

And while we’re on new blogs, a FAQ-rich blog for SMEs in . . . [more]

InternationalProBono.com is a development of the International Bar Association aimed at providing a place for lawyers around the world who are involved in pro bono work to share reports and draw on resources provided on the site.

As you might imagine there’s an associated blog, to which you’re invited to submit a post as a guest blogger interested in pro bono work. . . . [more]

Surveillance cameras seem to be everywhere these days. They are one of the creeping invasions of privacy that raise difficult issues. Isolated cameras on private homes or businesses controlled by the owner and which retain images for short periods of time are easy to justify on security grounds. On the other hand, massive networks of connected and centrally controlled cameras that track everyone’s every move (the UK for example) and save that information for long periods of time cross the Orwellian threshold.

Some of the questions that don’t appear to have fact based answers include:
– Does camera surveillance really . . . [more]

This began as a comment, and then got out of hand. It is a response to Simon Fodden’s post on squigglies, pilcrows, and gaspers and Gary Rodrigues’ post, “The full stop in legal citation – has its time finally come?“.

Looking at a printed page in a law report, I don’t care whether the law report abbreviations have periods or not, as long as the periods are consistently there or not there. The context will almost certainly make it clear, without the periods, whether “A” is the Atlantic Reporter or an indefinite article, and whether “OR” is the . . . [more]

Doing some filing work I came across a photograph I took during a visit to the Supreme Court a couple of years ago: In one of the courtyards that bring light to inner-facing windows (see an image of the plan) there’s a badminton court. At least, I’m reliably informed that’s what it is:

click image for full view

The thought of justices whacking away at shuttlecocks is a mighty pleasing one, though I suspect that the court is used by staff or the clerks. The net seems a bit low to me, though, so maybe it’s for counsel to . . . [more]

Charon QC, the UK’s one-man blogging, podcasting and ‘zine publishing machine, has put a contract text online and made it available for free. Properly Mike Semple Piggot, he has taught contract law over the past 25 years at BPP Law School, an institution that he helped found. His text is, as he says, more of an outline, along with a collection of other resources related to contract law. On the site you’ll find up-to-date contract news; links to appropriate recent case reports are available within the text notes.

Semple plans a similar site dealing with the sale . . . [more]

Law commissions like to operate on a relatively regular schedule of making documents public, whether consultation papers or interim or final reports, especially given the insatiable demands of today’s websites. As with any organization, however, the ready excuse of “best laid plans…” naturally operates to throw off the timetable. A consultation paper scheduled to be released in April may be postponed until September for unforeseen reasons, for example. Difficulties finding a translator may mean a delay of a month in releasing a final report. Even building in some leeway in setting timetables doesn’t always address delays, just like thinking you’re . . . [more]

Congratulations to Connie Crosby for penning the 6000th comment for Slaw. I haven’t done any real analysis, but if we assume conservatively that each comment consists of only 50 words, that totals to 300,000 words our readers have written. And if a novel comes in at 50,000 words, say, that means you’ve written six novels in four years — not a bad rate at all. Keep up the good work, please. . . . [more]

This week was for introductions:

• At the Cross-Border Biotech Blog, we introduced a new science writer! Richard Chan started off with his first Friday Science Review and he covered a lot of ground, from obesity to toucans to sushi.
• Direct-to-consumer genetic testing was introduced to Canada this week  and we’ll continue to follow the trend worldwide, all the way to Gattaca if neccesary.
• The Globe and Mail introduced its readers to Canada’s longest-running biotech takeover battle, the JLL-Patheon bid, which has been constant fodder for the blog’s Monday Deal Review since January.
• The Ministry of Research and Innovation