In today’s Huffington Post Canada, Mitch Joel poses the question “Is Podcasting Poised for a Comeback?”

Podcasts, you may or may not know, are like internet-based audio or video shows, created in a series, syndicated via the internet often through iTunes, and portable i.e. viewable on computer or mobile devices such as iPods, tablets or smartphones.

Mitch points specifically to five podcasts that could help the medium make a resurgence:

• Foundation with Kevin Rose. 
• Here’s The Thing with Alec Baldwin. 
• Nerdist Podcast with Chris Hardwick.
• Pursuit of Spark with Julie Burstein.
• WTF with Marc

It’s surprising to me what a powerful an interest we have in our origins, surprising because we all have the same ultimate origin in fact (the African genesis of all people seems to be holding up), and surprising, too, because the sorts of things that concern us don’t make any difference. History’s done and dusted, so to speak. And while it might be a good thing to know the past so that in politics we don’t repeat our mistakes more than a few hundred times, there’s nothing we can do about who we are as individuals, as tips of branches . . . [more]

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

With the resignation of Guy Pratte, independent counsel in the Canadian Judicial Council inquiry into the conduct of Manitoba Justice Lori Douglas, the wretched business oppressing her is back in the news again. I’m not about to wade into the dark waters of commentary here — at least, not until this process has run its course — but a Slaw reader suggests, and I agree, that we might point you to the inquiry website. There you’ll find the documents that will let you see the legal issues facing the panel and Justice Douglas, as well as some of the . . . [more]

Dear All,

Once upon a time, a trial judge said that an article I’d written on causation was “complete” and that some of what I’d said was “the current state of the law in Canada”. However, the “complete” adjective was part of a phrase: “complete, if not overly analytical” – see here.

Anyway, starting this week, my “overly analytical”, denser (all implications intended), posts on causation will now appear on my own blog called “The 4th Monkey“. I will still post about important causation issues on Slaw, but those posts will will be shorter and punchier . . . [more]

A nice little infographic, challenging us to take account of our online personae.

Has your cellphone number leaked out by accident? Are your eHarmony details jangling cacophonously with your LinkedIn resume? Do your Dad’s Facebook updates invite snark from your hipster webdev team?

Some may be surprised to learn that they can control some of this info. Others may be surprised to learn how little of it can be controlled. For instance, deep web data is now being exploited by US political fundraisers, in ways similar to established marketing practices. This data, scooped from banking transactions and the . . . [more]

It’s an astonishing thing to me at least that we human beings, who prize our consciousness, spend a third of our lives blithely unconscious. That jumped up little homunculus who sits on the tiger’s neck giving orders left and right simply . . . goes away at night, only to reappear as if by magic in the morning without so much as a “Didja miss me?” and as full of itself as ever.

There’s a lot that’s fascinating, if not astonishing, about sleep. We all do it (“birds do it, bees do it…” No, no, they really do.) every . . . [more]

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

We have talked about TED Talks before–a series of talks that get us thinking in new directions. They are usually both informative and highly interesting. TED has released a list of 20 most-watched talks to date on its blog:

1. Sir Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity (2006): 13,409,417 views
2. Jill Bolte Taylor‘s stroke of insight (2008): 10,409,851
3. Pranav Mistry on the thrilling potential of SixthSense (2009): 9,223,263
4. David Gallo‘s underwater astonishments (2007): 7,879,541
5. Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense (2009): 7,467,580
6. Tony Robbins asks Why we do what we do (2006): 6,879,488
7. Simon Sinek on how great

Since what happens in the U.S.A necessarily affects Canada (eventually). It might even get past Alberta’s firewall.

DEATH AND TAXES AND ZOMBIES

Adam Chodorow (Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.)

The U.S. stands on the precipice of a financial disaster, and Congress has done nothing but bicker. Of course, I refer to the coming day when the undead walk the earth, feasting on the living. A zombie apocalypse will create an urgent need for significant government revenues to protect the living, while at the same time rendering a large

The French horn isn’t. French, I mean. It’s German, if anything. So the International Horn Society — oh, yes, there is such a thing — has decided we should join most of the rest of the world and leave off the nationalism, calling it simply a “horn”

Whatever you call it, this brass snail occupies a special place among the instruments — and I don’t just mean at the back of the orchestra. It seems to have a reputation as the most difficult instrument to play. This has something to do with the its great range — five octaves — . . . [more]

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.