I am currently in Seattle at the Special Libraries Association annual conference. SLA is a large international organization made up of specialized information professionals.

SLA awards were handed out last night, and I am delighted to report law librarian Sabrina Pacifici was honoured with the J.J. Kellar Innovations in Technology Award for her long-standing work as creator, founder and sole editor of law and technology blog beSpacific and e-zine LLRX.com. Sabrina Pacifici was one of the first in the legal research industry to harness the Internet and especially blogs as a way to communicate with colleagues and bring together . . . [more]

Sometimes, though perhaps not on Friday, you want to be elsewhere — or elsehow. Come to think of it, wandering and mood-altering were probably among the very first things that people took up way back at the beginning. (A moment of respectful silence for travel and legal drugs.) Now the internet wants to help you escape the moment and the momentary you. There are lots of ways it can do this, and I’m sure you’ve probably discovered most of them. A late entry in the field is Moodstream, by Getty Images, the folks who make available some 70,000,000 still . . . [more]

The wonderful Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas in Austin is developing a collection dedicated to the portrayal of law in popular culture, the goal of which “is to provide as broad a picture as possible of the image of the lawyer in the United States and British Commonwealth.” There is material from print, TV and movies, with only cartoons missing — an important aspect, I should have thought, but one that may be difficult because of copyright.

The collection circulates to those with a Tarlton library card, of course, but for the rest of us there are . . . [more]

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society has been elevated from a Harvard Law initiative to a University-wide research centre. Now, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

From the story:

“The Berkman Center’s focus on advancing the public interest at the intersections of law and technology, civic engagement, and international development, has already created a community of scholars from across the University,” said Harvard Provost Steven E. Hyman. “The elevation to a University-wide initiative is a natural evolution and we are eager to create new networks of interaction on a University-wide basis with the intent

It’s a trio of trills today.

• First up is a fillip of finches. Alek Komarnitsky has set up a web cam pointed at a nest of baby finches. The image is refreshed every few seconds, which makes BirdCam even more fun than his other enterprise, which is titled “Watching Grass Grow – The Most Boring Website in the World” Of course, you may prefer the silence of the lawn to the imagined tweets of baby finches. You can also let Alek’s site play you some bluegrass music while you contemplate the chicks or chickweed.
• Now for some real sound. Sort

We’ve featured Google graphics before, but this one this morning is sensational.

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It’s a sad day today. It seems that the license to the Hockey Night in Canada theme song will not be renewed by the CBC. From the composer’s release:

The CBC has been offered a new license on terms that are virtually identical to those that have existed for the past decade (the cost to CBC to use the theme is approximately $500.00 for each game broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada). However, the CBC has chosen to move in a new direction.

Given Annette’s post earlier today, do you sense a trend? Aren’t the CBC supposed to . . . [more]

Another Canadian flagship on the chopping block.

Lend your voice!

http://savecbcorchestra.com/petition

http://www.standonguardforcbc.ca . . . [more]

Mindmaps can be useful tools, when hierarchical arrangements don’t get at the scope of an idea or plan. (See Mind42, MindMaps Online, Thinkature, and Free Mind for some posts about mindmaps here on Slaw.) But it can be tedious to put the players on the field. Text2Mindmap is an online application that creates an online mindmap (in Flash) from a simple text outline. You’re then free to do some modest rearranging and styling of the components — though there’s as yet no ability to move an element from one node to another, for instance. This is a . . . [more]

As announced on Google’s blog the day before yesterday, Google Finance is now displaying real-time stock quotes.

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Information overload. Yeah, yeah. But infogreed at the same time, right? The Globe didn’t arrive outside my hotel room this morning and that stressed me; the wireless connection I was using in the room decided to lock me out, adding another stress. But when I managed to get online I had three hundred and change new posts in my RSS reader and an annoying number of emails…

What is a datafella to do? Well, filter is one pretty good answer. Filter and aggregate. This is what Steve “StemLegal” Matthews always advises. But I never seem to have/take the time to . . . [more]

Montenegro’s new top-level country-code domain — .me — is coming available in stages, so if you’re interested in acquiring something nicely narcissistic in the way of URLs, you’ll need to be on the alert. Phase 4, the period when anyone, whether or not in Montenegro and whether or not with a registered trademark, can apply for a domain, begins on June 6. The goodies get given out on a first-come first-served basis.

[via Rouse & Co. International] . . . [more]