A frequent topic of posts here at Slaw and elsewhere in recent times has been the nature of print v. electronic publishing and what the future holds. It is a worthy topic that affects us all and fuels much discussion. In the midst of that I simply want to point out a publication that I find interesting in this information world, I’m not attaching special significance to it beyond the fact that it is interesting to point out. Grantland has been mentioned here at Slaw previously in the context of the Slaw feature You Might Like. Named for Grantland Rice . . . [more]

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but when it comes to things, they “go.” They may go well or go badly, of course. And occasionally they go very badly indeed. In which case English has a pile of idioms ready to apply to the disaster, a great many of them, unsurprisingly, involving the verb “go.”

At times, then, things go south. I’m not sure why that should be — that south should be the direction of disaster, I mean. As a Canadian, I’m pleased, I guess, that nothing going south can geographically land in my country, but it still . . . [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.

The Canadian Bankers Association just released a mobile payments reference model as a voluntary guideline for development of mobile payments at point-of-sale in Canada. In practice this means that your phone will have a mobile wallet that replaces your debit and credit cards. Phones with NFC (near field communications) will be able to use this feature to pay by holding it near a payment terminal similar to how we can now use the paypass feature on our cards. The CBA press release has links to the full guideline, and a summary version.

From the press release:

The voluntary guidelines, technically . . . [more]

Because two new Supreme Court judges were recently appointed, the Court has released an updated brochure [PDF] containing information about, and photographs of, the building and the judges. Little if any of what’s in here will be news to most lawyers, but you might find it useful to pass on to anyone you’d like to educate about the top court, its jurisdiction and its history.

Some of the historical photographs are interesting, but all of the images could be improved: the PDF renditions are not sharp, and they lack captions. I particularly like the skeletal view of the building as . . . [more]

I’m not a big gamer. I had a blast with Angry Birds for a bit and then lost the lust for launching the anti-pig petards. So when I’m trying to kill time in the absence of wifi, I’ll turn to good old solitaire — Klondike by threes, if it’s of any interest. I’ve noticed something odd about the game, whether on my desktop, smart phone or tablet. At least, I think I have. The cards the computer serves up don’t seem to be random. I’ll have a four face up at the bottom of one of the columns and . . . [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.

Since it’s not sponsored by the regular legal conference outfits, a conference in Toronto next month may have flown under the radar for the Slaw community. The first Symposium on Criminality in the Art and Cultural Property World will be held at Osgoode Hall, 130 Queen Street West, Toronto, on June 15-16, 2012. Next month, Toronto will be the centre of the art-legal world.

The conference is co-chaired by Bonnie Czegledi and Mr. Justice Patrick Healy, Court of Quebec, Criminal and Penal Division, Montréal, formerly Professor Healy from McGill, and the speakers are quite literally, the world’s experts: Lawrence . . . [more]

Law books tend to lack pictures. As do legal memos, factums . . . and judgments. Though a picture is said to sub for a thousand words, it’s not traditional for legal workers to speed things along that way. And neither is it easy, or possible, perhaps, to come up with images that capture the sort of conceptual thinking that law involves. Yet every now and then the image tells the tale, or, at least, an important part of the story, finding its way into judgments.

Some time ago we featured one such judgment, that by U.S. Justice Posner, . . . [more]

While significant in clarifying the defence of necessity in criminal law, Regina v. Dudley and Stephens has had an even larger cultural influence.

That’s the case of the Mignonette, which capsized on its way to Australia and whose shipwrecked crew faced tough choices in an under-provisioned lifeboat.

The latest NYT Best Seller list features a new book The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan – the author tells that her inspiration came from her husband’s criminal law text.

What hooked me was stumbling on my husband’s old criminal law texts and reading about the cases of sailors who survived shipwrecks and then

There’s not a lot to say about this week’s fillip: it’s to see. So if you’re reading this as email, fire up your browser and have a boo. Neonflames invites you to draw spectral shapes and lines, modifying colours, intensities, “noise,” fuzz, and other mysterious things. The net effect — of my trials, at least — is galaxies and glorious sweeps of stellar dust. I can see some nifty computer wallpaper coming out of this.

Be sure to hold down your mouse button for a while in order to see how intensity develops. Play with the controls, and try out . . . [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.