The good thing is that your cellphone lets others know where you are. The bad thing is that your cellphone lets others know where you are — whether you want it to or not.

Every few seconds your cellphone checks in with either a relay tower or a GPS system, which is how it’s able to perform the wonders of geolocation on Google Maps or Yelp or whatever apps you use to tell you where you are and what’s available around you. Of course, all this checking in leaves electronic records with those who provide or manage the connections, records . . . [more]

Almost two decades have passed since the United Nations began digitizing its documents. The UN started the Official Document System (ODS) as a pilot project in 1992, and officially launched it in 1993. Since then, there has been an explosion of UN documents and publications available in electronic format from a variety of sources, for free and via subscription. I recently checked the current status of UN documentation online, and here’s what I found. And what I expected to find, and didn’t. And some worrisome developments.

Discovery Tools

UNBISnet, the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library bibliographic information system, indexes e-versions . . . [more]

Canadian biotech funding came from diverse sources this week.

Even deals that looked traditional, such as Aquinox’s $25 million raise, included corporate venture capital funds (in this case J&J and Pfizer). These pharma-backed venture funds continue to play a big role in supplementing traditional VCs’ coffers.

In B.C., the government put money towards research on and medical isotopes, while the Ontario government’s OETF isn’t attracting qualified investors as quickly as some would like.

Other government agencies disbursed some funds as well, with Alberta’s Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation joining FONDACTION, Innovati0n PEI, the U.S. Navy . . . [more]

As discussed in other Slaw posts this weekend, it has been a difficult weekend in Toronto with peaceful protests associated with the G20 meeting being marred by criminal violence. The mainstream media has covered the more violent aspects as well as the human angle of people being held for four and a half hours in the rain on the streets last night, both aspects of which have been shocking to many of us living in the city. We also saw interviews on TV with people as they were being released from a temporary detention centre.

However, one thing we saw . . . [more]

I read the quote more than a month ago and I still can’t quite get it out of my head. It appeared in a brief item by Julius Melnitzer at the Legal Post blog, and I’ll take the liberty of reproducing it in full here (emphasis, as they say, added):

Pfizer, whose general counsel has created the Pfizer Legal Alliance to manage its external counsel relationships, has brought the concept to Canada, and is seeking bids from Canadian firms. The pharmaceutical giant has limited its US representation to 19 firms, which may indicate that it is looking for only

And now for something long ago and far away. “Somethings,” I should say: the Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas has an online exhibition of old legal dictionaries that will leave you itching to look something up — again and again. The exhibit features 30 of the some 100 old (before 1800) and rare dictionaries in their collection, stemming from the common law, Roman law, and civil law systems.

[click image to enlarge]

Vocabularius, for example, a small excerpt from which is pictured here, was first published in 1475 and last published early in the 17th century. . . . [more]

For anyone who knows and loves the City of Toronto, the G20 conference has been a disaster. But not all disasters are inevitable.

Kenneth Grant Crawford stated Canadian Municipal Government in 1954,

It would be difficult to overemphasize the importance of the local government in the everyday life of the citizens, more especially for those who live in urban centres. That is not to say that one level of government is necessarily more important than another, for all perform functions which are essential to complete the probramme of governmental service demanded in a modern society. Yet few fully appreciate the

There are long traditions in Canadian political life, and not all of them are consistent with the placid, social democratic vision that was shattered along with windows and police vehicles this afternoon. . . . [more]

Let’s all sing along with the Buffalo Springfield or (fittingly) the Police.

As Bugs almost said to Elmer: be afwaid, be vewwy afwaid. Consider this poster:

[“Steph All-Mighty” … “Stephen Harper: What if you could do anything, just like George W. Bush, for 4 years?”]

 However, for those who are looking for a more symbolic reasons, consider this sculpture of our national emblem . (Look up Beaverlodge, Alberta).

It predates even the first coming to Alberta of our current Great Leader, nonetheless …

“That’s Mr. Beaver, Sir, to you.”

 Those with a poetical bent might recall these words, from . . . [more]

There’s much to like about cities. At least, I think so. But there is one glaring disadvantage, and I use the term advisedly. We urbanists have lived in constant light pollution ever since electrification arrived, blotting out the night sky. A chance to see the stars is one good reason to get out of town.

If you are at all moved by the sight of the limitless, glittering heavens at night, you’ll want to take ninety seconds to watch the universe spin above the Ecuadorean volcano Cotopaxi, as filmed by Stéphane Guisard. In this lovely piece of time-lapse photography, . . . [more]

World Cup 2010 has been full of intrigue and interest; in posting about the legal aspects of the world cup last week I felt that was too much of interest to post at one time so this post continues the legal aspects of the world cup as we prepare for the round of 16.

It seems that World Cup 2010 has been a boon for South African Law Firms.

FIFA does indeed have a legal committee but I haven’t had much luck trying to discover the terms of reference for the legal committee nor even a description of what . . . [more]

This entry’s a mixed bag of five items of interest, each of which deserves a post on its own. But here in blogland news and links come rushing by and are easily lost in the wake if they aren’t at least noted in passing. Herewith, then, NB:

FreeLegalWeb

U.K. publishing consultant Nick Holmes’s grand dream of 

. . . a collaborative project designed to join up and make sense of publicly accessible law and authored commentary, and to encourage ongoing contribution and participation, for the benefit of lawyers, advisers and the public at large . . .

is now a . . . [more]