I was sent the link to an interesting, and scary article, in Mother Jones with the title “Is Google Evil”? in which the author claims that Google really operates on the basis of expediency and that it is collecting an amazing amount of personal information about google users.

To quote: ” From the start, Google’s informal motto has been ‘Don’t Be Evil,’ and
the company earned cred early on by going toe-to-toe with Microsoft over desktop software and other issues. But make no mistake. Faced with doing the right thing or doing what is in its best interests, Google . . . [more]

This is big news for Canadian law librarians!

CanWest has announced that its Canadian-based electronic subscription news service, FPinfomart, will be adding access to the Globe and Mail. From its November 27, 2006 press release, FPinfomart Adds Globe and Mail Content:

Through an agreement between The Globe and Mail and CanWest MediaWorks Inc., FPinfomart will license The Globe and Mail and distribute content from the newspaper electronically through the FPinfomart product, including two years of archives and daily feeds. The Globe and Mail will be available to FPinfomart customers as part of the base subscription package.

This . . . [more]

We native Vancouver Islanders got tired of all the Albertans and Easterners, amongst others, moving out to “paradise” in Victoria, so we staged a fake winter storm to deter anybody who is thinking of relocating. Don’t believe what you see or hear in the media. Bet we had you fooled, huh? . . . [more]

The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab is launching psiphon this Friday.

psiphon is a human rights software project developed by the Citizen Lab that allows citizens in uncensored countries to provide unfettered access to the Net through their home computers to friends and family members who live behind firewalls of states that censor.

A description of psiphon and the software are available at http://psiphon.civisec.org/

I blogged about Psiphon back last February, picking up on a report in the Globe and Mail. Now the New York Times has a piece on it in the Technology section. Looks as though psiphon . . . [more]

The Research Information Network has released an interesting study aimed at assessing ‘the perceptions of resource discovery services by academic researchers in the UK’.The report is lengthy, but the executive summary makes for interesting reading, especially the varying perceptions by librarians of what the researchers need, and the views of the researchers themselves. . . . [more]

The Online Education Database has put out a list of 119 “authoritative, invisible and comprehensive” resources under the rubric of “Research Beyond Google.” Aimed at college students in the U.S., the list nonetheless can be useful for anyone building a compendium of search tools and resource sites or as a guide for someone in the firm who’s ready to go beyond the basics.

[via ResearchBuzz] . . . [more]

Earlier this month Satistics Canada introduced “a new electronic format to the publication Focus on Culture.” This might be a handy resource for those who like to keep tabs on such things as “film and video production and distribution, movie theatres, TV viewing and radio listening, the performing arts, book and periodical publishing, heritage institutions, government and private sector funding of culture, culture trade and investment, the culture labour force, Canadians consumption of culture.”

There’s a chronological index that’s probably the best way in. The current issue is “What Canadian households spend on culture goods and services.”

My only . . . [more]

Hello, All:

Apropos “Library 2.0 In Action” (Nov 24/06) and Simon F’s “Why is it that librarians are leagues ahead of lawyers in this sort of thing? Huh?”

With apologies to L. Carroll, because I’m inverting his question, we might as well ask: “why isn’t a raven like a writing desk?” The legal profession being, on the whole, what it is, the answers we’ll get will probably be even less useful, and nowhere near as humorous. (Those who’ve had the misfortune to have to read anything I’ve had published recently will probably have seen my tendency to quote . . . [more]

I’m delighted to announce that David Cheifetz has joined Slaw as an occasional contributor. David is a partner at Bennet Best Burns LLP practising “civil litigation primarily in areas that involve the interests of property and casualty insurers and institutional clients.” A lawyer for nearly thirty years, he has worked primarily in litigation but also boasts a stint in the Legal Division of the Research Branch of the Library of Parliament. David has written a text, Apportionment of Fault in Tort, as well as a number of articles for legal journals. And — pièce de résistance — “he was . . . [more]

H. Donald Wilson, who developed LexisNexis, has died at the age of 82. Perhaps appropriately, he was found in front of his computer. There’s a good short obituary in the Washington Post. . . . [more]

From last week’s leet to Latin this week, the language of law’s tags and maxims. Wikipedia again does it right, having a fine set of articles on Latin from various angles. The full list of Latin phrases is a good place to start. From a bene placito“from one who has been pleased well” Or “at will”, “at one’s pleasure”. This phrase, and its Italian derivative beneplacito, are synonymous with the more common ad libitum (“at pleasure”). to vox populi“voice of the people”, with a hundred or so phrases in between, there’s plenty here to amuse and arm yourself for . . . [more]

Well, there you go, another outdated technology bites the dust. This article in Variety announced the death of VHS: “After a long illness, the groundbreaking home-entertainment format VHS has died of natural causes in the United States. The format was 30 years old”.

However, there is some relief – the same article happily points out that Toy’R’US will still carry “Barney” VHS cassettes. . . . [more]