Today is World Book and Copyright Day, initiated by UNESCO and promoted by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).

Here is a message from Ingrid Parent, President of IFLA and University Librarian at the University of British Columbia:

If you can remember books, you’ll also likely remember book jackets, those slipcovers that help you mark your page, keep sliding off when you try to read in bed, and announce to the world what it is you’re into. Of course, they also hook you into buying the book in the first place — if they’re good enough. And that’s where a man called Chip Kidd comes in: he’s the star of book cover designers.

Bright. Startling. Imaginative. And above all, effective. His efforts wrap the authors’ in just the right judge-stuff.

No surprise then, that in person he’s… well, . . . [more]

I’m having that deja blog feeling, but even if this app has been featured on Slaw before, it can’t hurt to bring it around again. I’m talking about a simple little time waster called Kick Ass. It exists as an iOS app, but you might find it more useful in its bookmarklet form, because the simple point of the “game” is to destroy websites, element by element.

You find yourself on a website that needs some… adjustment. Perhaps it’s an ad, perhaps it’s an irritating blog post or — hard to imagine — a headshot that just doesn’t . . . [more]

A Globe and Mail article by Adriana Barton, reporting on a study featured in the Economist, discusses how physical looks might actually be a liability for female job-seekers. And this, despite the numerous studies that have shown that attractiveness aids in job advancement.

The researchers sent out fake resumes with a photo attached to 2,500 vacancies; those with pictures of beautiful women were less likely to get an interview. Those with pictures of handsome men were, in contrast, more likely to get an interview. These researchers came to the conclusion that this turn of events was in large part . . . [more]

Today the Google Doodle celebrates Eadweard Muybridge, the British photographer who:

is known for his pioneering work on animal locomotion in 1877 and 1878, which used multiple cameras to capture motion in stop-action photographs, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible perforated film strip. He went on to make many studies of animals and humans in motion, capturing what the human eye could not break down as separate movements.
Wikipedia

So head on over to Google and put the horse through its paces. . . . [more]

Would the public tolerate giving judges discretion in the sentencing of murderers?

Are online child pornography offenders likely to commit offences involving sexual contact with children?

Are job training programs for people leaving prison useful?

These — and another four — interesting questions get addressed summarily in the current issue [PDF] of Criminological Highlights, a publication of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies. Although criminal law is a specialty practised by relatively few lawyers, given the present federal government’s interest in crime, it might not be a bad idea if more of us educated ourselves . . . [more]

The august Royal Canadian Mint, birthplace of the lovely golden loonie (but not the snappy new plastic bills) and soon to be the graveyard for the penny, is moving to take metal out of the coin equation altogether. They’re now promoting a plan to implement the MintChip, a system for exchanging value via electronic devices with ease and security:

MintChip brings all the benefits of cash into the digital age. Instant, private and secure, MintChip value can be stored and moved quickly and easily over email, software applications, or by physically tapping devices together.

Wisely, perhaps, the . . . [more]

A friend sent me an ad from an airlines magazine, promoting Toronto as a place to visit. In tiny print (white on gray background) at the bottom, it says ‘Toronto is a trademark of the Toronto Convention and Visitors Association.”

Can this be?

Can none of us use the name of the city without the say-so of the Association? Can no one else advertise the many attractions of Toronto without its approval?

So far as I can see from the official trade marks register, the Association does not own “Toronto”. It owns a few marks that involve a design . . . [more]

We tend to focus a lot on Google on Slaw, and for good reason – it’s still the main search engine that people use to find information, including information relating to law and lawyers.

The Advanced Search function is indispensable in refining searches, especially if you’re looking for things like results from a specific date range, a different language, results on a particular website, and a certain file type. In late 2011 Google removed Advanced Search from the main search page, though it was still available through the gears tab or by direct link.

Jim Calloway lamented the move on . . . [more]

Here is a nice, printable, breakdown of fallacies commonly deployed in argument. Helpfully, the authors have also provided an example of analysis, applying the typology to a published opinion on same-sex marriage penned by Cardinal O’Brien, Britain’s foremost catholic cleric. . . . [more]

The other day I chanced again on one of the great comedy sketches of all time: Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks. (If you haven’t seen it, may I recommend you have a look. Sorry about the laugh track: that’s the way things were back then.) Part of John Cleese’s stride — how does he do that?! — put me in mind of a soldier’s exaggerated parade step, so I thought I’d see what “silly walks” I could find among the armies of the world. As ever, the internet provided. What follow are videos about which I have little . . . [more]

I’m working on the road most of this week, and am currently in Sudbury . I had the good fortune last night of seeing Dr. Jane Goodall at Laurentian University. She presented her 2010 documentary Jane’s Journey and then answered questions from the audience (you can see the trailer here). I have always thought of Dr. Goodall in terms of her work studying chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. However, there is so much more to her work.

As the documentary explains, at a certain point she realized the chimpanzees she was studying were declining in . . . [more]