Here it is again: the LLRX tour d’horizon of gadgetry, “60 Gadgets in 60 Minutes” by Ed Vawter, Barbara Fullerton and Dina Dreifuerst. From the frivolous (marshmallow gun) to the somewhat less frivolous (a Cadillac automobile), the gadget gamut is certain to offer you something that you just can’t live without — even if only for ten seconds, until rational thought kicks in again.

It’s offered as an iPaper set of slides and as a PDF and PowerPoint presentation suitable for downloading and viewing while you let your “sweat analysing shirt” do its work. . . . [more]

We’ve written about punctuation a few times here on slaw in the past, in particular, Simon’s lament for the semi-colon.

It’s not every day you get to read a lengthy article on the history of a punctuation point, but Slate’s piece today, “Has modern life killed the semicolon?” was just that. Despite current despair in France and the Fodden household about its declining use these days, the author points out that its disuse was despaired as far back as 1865.

The author seems to suggest that it was the telegraph that killed the semicolon. Makes you wonder . . . [more]

Over at Above the Law, a silly season list of the best songs about the law, as polled by readers of that blog.

Here’s the official ATL Top Ten Law Song list:

1. I Fought The Law – The Clash [ Lyrics│YouTube ]

2. Lawyers, Guns, and Money – Warren Zevon [ Lyrics│YouTube ]

3. 99 Problems – Jay-Z [ Lyrics│YouTube ]

4. Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash [ Lyrics│YouTube ]

5. We’re All Winners, as arranged by Nixon Peabody [ Explanation]

6. Law and Order theme . . . [more]

How many Canadian law students could identify John Humphrey or explain his significance to the law? I certainly couldn’t when we met at a meeting in 1976, convened by the Ontario Human Rights Commission. He was then seventy, a tweedy academic in bow tie, who had come down from the McGill Law School. Only at a break did a friend lean over and tell me that this academic had held the pen for the drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . . . [more]

1-800-4664-411 equals 1-800-GOOG-411

Okay dear readers, another number to put on your mobile’s autodial. Google 411 launched in Canada today.

Dial 1-800-GOOG-411 to connect to a computer armed with voice recognition software.

The automated voice will ask for city and province. A voice menu runs you through finding the information you’re looking for ((Business information only – they won’t offer residential service)).

I asked for Indian restaurants in Toronto and got decent recommendations with location details and an opportunity to connect by phone. . . . [more]

There have been so many mythical quotations attributed to Bill Gates over the years, that it’s helpful to have a journalist actually separate myth from reality.

As Bill Gates moves on to the next stage in his career, Nancy Weil has done us all a favour by gathering the quotes together. . . . [more]

One of the unfortunate things about the web is that glitches happen.

Remember the picture of Truman holding a paper announcing the election of President Dewey?

The National Post let out an alternative story which was still on its website an hour after the decision.

Since it will doubtless be taken down, here is the story of what would have happened in a parallel universe, where the SCC had sat nine judges on Tuesday.

Supreme Court rules in favour of BCE bondholders

Sean Silcoff, Financial Post Published: Friday, June 20, 2008

Reuters File

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of . . . [more]

“One thing leads to another” again, starting with Hypertextopia, an online writing environment built by Jeremy Ashkenas. The idea is one of a number that have tried to capitalize on the ability of html and the web to allow a network of non-linear linkages. Essentially, you construct a “story” using text or pictures and link either to major elements as your story advances or to “shards” of one sort or another that strike off in parenthetical directions — all of which is better explained, unsurprisingly, in the short movie provided on the site.

Take a wander through the Grand . . . [more]

Following the adventures which took place in the Halifax region that started a week ago today (on Friday the 13th), I became interested in the legalities of a mandatory evacuation order. Emergencies in Canada are covered by the Emergencies Act, R.S.C. 1985, c.22 4th Supp. Provincial acts apply as well, in Nova Scotia the Emergency Management Act, S.N.S. 1990, c.8. Each act, delegates power to the R.C.M.P. or police as the case might be, to implement the measures specified under the act, including evacuation orders. What I’m not clear on, is that neither act I’ve looked at, Federal or N.S. . . . [more]

StatsCan’s Health Reports delivered a one-two punch today with its interrelated reports on “Screen time among Canadian adults: A profile” [or PDF] and “Sedentary behaviour and obesity” [or PDF]:

A recent study of adults based on data from the 2007 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) found evidence that screen time (time spent viewing television and using computers) was positively associated with obesity, inactive leisure time and a poor diet.

I must say that at first blush the screen-time data don’t look as bad as I’d feared: 29% watch two hours of TV a day, . . . [more]

At a Univ brunch on Park Avenue last month, I met a bright young English blogger, Roz Savage, who is blogging from a rowing boat, as she crosses the Pacific in a bid to be the first to row the largest ocean in the world. This may not have much to do with most of what we find on Slaw, but if you’re not awed by the boldness and courage of the venture, not to mention the humour of the blog, and the way that she is engaging with her friends commenting on the blog, then go to the next . . . [more]

Here are a couple of links to interesting pieces that editors (in their infinite wisdom) decided didn’t need to appear in the print versions of either the Globe and Mail or Canadian Lawyer.

Martha McCarthy was asked to comment on the five years that have elapsed since the Ontario Court of Appeal’s Halpern decision.

Philip Slayton talks about how little we actually know about the judges of the Supreme Court of Canada. He observed from a conversation in a Yaletown bar that it was easier for two Canadian lawyers to list members of the U.S. Supreme Court . . . [more]