I have made some updates to my legal research and writing website:

1) Knowledge Management

I have added on my website a page devoted to Knowledge Management that provides some basic information on knowledge management in the legal profession, along with links to various resources. When I wrote the third edition of my book last year, I added what was a brand-new chapter to the book on knowledge management. It was only during my presentation last week at the New Law Librarians’ Institute (see my previous post) did it dawn on me that the accompanying website lacked information . . . [more]

So what’s this?

It’s not the barcode for a box of Froot Loops. Neither is it the barcode for the Rainbow Six video game. In fact it’s the barcode of an Arctic warbler (a.k.a. Phylloscopus borealis).

And what makes this LBJ (“little brown job”) so special is its inclusion, along with more than a hundred thousand other species, in the International Barcode of Life data system, a Canadian project out of the University of Guelph.

The planet is host to a vast number of animal species, many of which we’re just discovering now. And figuring out which beast belongs . . . [more]

One of the inventors of the electric guitar, Les Paul, is honoured by Google’s doodle today. And it’s a doozy: an interactive guitar you can play with your mouse or keyboard, and the ability (only in the US!? pity!) to record your tune and send it to a lucky friend. Click the small keyboard and then you can play a scale with any of the rows of letters starting from the left.

Here’s the official explanation:

For the next 24 hours on the Google homepage, you’ll find an interactive, playable logo inspired by the guitar developed by the

Do yourself a favour and spend a minute or two on CNET’s Reporters’ Roundtable page. The topic was those complex, prolix, and tricky software license agreements, a.k.a. End User License Agreements. To spice things up a little, they asked actor Richard Dreyfuss to read portions of Apple’s iTunes EULA. The result is a license in four parts, each in a different voice. Lovely.

It makes you think that these things on the web should all have an audio version — done by someone with talent, of course.

[via @privacylawyer] . . . [more]

My dad made beautiful lawns. I cultivate no grass. This sort of careful sidestepping is part of the way that one generation succeeds another, I believe. And in my case it’s also how I avoid the plague that’s even now striking Calgary. I’m talking of Taraxacum officinale, better known as pissenlit and dandelion. Apparently they’re spreading like crazy in Calgary, and the city can’t do anything about it.

The reason is that provincial legislation no longer lists the humble (and edible) dandelion as a noxious weed. Alberta, like most provinces, has a Weed Control Act that lets you — . . . [more]

It isn’t uncommon to read in local, national and international newspapers stories of domestic workers being ill-treated, underpaid and overworked. While Canadian employment standards offer some protection to domestic workers, this certainly isn’t the case across the globe.

With the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) International Labour Conference currently taking place in Geneva from June 1 to June 17, with the agenda including an item entitled “Decent work for domestic workers”, there are hopes that a Convention supplemented by a Recommendation will be adopted to afford what is seen as urgently-needed protection to domestic workers (see the ILO website for more . . . [more]

We human beings like to pride ourselves on being, uniquely, the reasoning animal. Yet we are actually poor at reasoning in a lot of contexts, if the aim is to produce good outcomes. We do badly at judging risks, for instance , as when we shun cucumbers because of an e-coli outbreak on the other side of the Atlantic yet yak on the phone about it while driving. So psychologists have started asking themselves with increasing frequency why, if reasoning developed to help us, does it lead us to screw up so often. Now a group of researchers has proposed . . . [more]

F-i-l-e.

Those four letters cover a surprising lot of ground. Even so, when you look in the OED at the base, or original, meanings of the nouns spelled that way , it’s not entirely easy to see which root sense evolved into the word that gets used a million times a day in law work. (No, you lay readers of Slaw. It’s not the “pick-pocket” meaning. Lawyer jokes file me the wrong way and are only told by files…) It’s the “thread” sense, of course: things you want to keep and order are strung along a thread — a file. . . . [more]

Nominations are open until June 20, 2011 for the 12th Annual Justicia Awards that reward “outstanding broadcast and print or Web journalism that fosters public awareness and understanding of the Canadian justice system”.

The Awards are given each year by the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) and the Department of Justice Canada for French or English stories in two categories: print and broadcast media. The 2011 Awards will be presented at the CBA’s Canadian Legal Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia in August.

Last year, a team from the Victoria Times Colonist was the winner in the print category for a series . . . [more]

My last post (on the minimum wage vs. a “living wage”) garnered a good amount of discussion. A comment was made to me that it was surprising given that this is a “legal blog” and my post was mostly about a social issue. I see it from a different perspective. I think that our laws are meant to be a reflection of society – after all, they are passed by a duly elected parliament that is supposed to express the “will of the people”. As we all know, this is not always the case. Our parliament does not always express . . . [more]

Tomorrow is Memorial Day in the United States, and the American Bar Association is commemorating the holiday this year by calling on members to support veterans.

ABA President Stephen N. Zack wrote to members on Friday saying,

Veterans face a wide array of legal issues created by their unique circumstances, including challenges in obtaining medical care, disability benefits, reemployment rights, as well as help with consumer, housing, criminal and family law matters, but often are unable to afford legal counsel.

By partnering with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the ABA has . . . [more]

On the last day of April the UFC or Ultimate Fighting Championship held an event at Rogers Centre (nee Skydome) in Toronto. Personally, I’m not a fan but I find aspects of the MMA odyssey, that could be said to have culminated on April 29th in Toronto, to have interesting legal aspects. What does a combat sport have to do with law? Quite a bit; until 2010 mixed martial arts was illegal in Ontario; however, a regulatory change announced last August and commented on here at Slaw at the time was implemented last Autumn and allowed for this multi-million dollar . . . [more]