As most Slaw readers will know, there’s an important case coming up before the United States Supreme Court requiring the justices to interpret the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution for the first time since the 18 paragraph decision in United States v. Miller 307 U.S. 174 (1939). The new case, District of Columbia v. Heller, No. 07-290, will challenge a trio of D.C. gun control laws.

The poor Second Amendment has been the butt of a lot of tortured analysis, part of the fascinating (and to my mind somewhat bizarre) attempt of American judges and lawyers to . . . [more]

• Newspaper Clipping Generator
• Cliché Finder
• Bullshit Generator
• Futuristic Cereal Name Generator
• Band Name Generator

And just so it’s a true Slaw Six…

• The Ninja Text Generator

. . . [more]

I’m sure that some Slawers know what to expect from my post this week, and even though I am loathe to be predictable, I am going to oblige. The Mitchell Report on the use of steroids and other performance enhancing substances in baseball, was published yesterday with much fanfare. It was a fairly damning indictment of the past 15 – 20 years of Major League Baseball [MLB] and comes on the heels of Barry Bonds breaking baseball’s most hallowed record, under a cloud of suspicion, this past summer.

The report was compiled by former United States SenatorGeorge Mitchell at . . . [more]

Like some giant ocean liner or oil tanker, Google is slowly turning the ship to a different heading, and now it’s watch out Wikipedia and all the little “–pedias” that are bobbing on the net. The Official Google Blog reveals that the big plex isn’t content with serving you up your own data but plans to write its own — or, rather, have you write it for them in good Web 2.0 fashion — and deliver it when you search. The project, now in private beta (i just love writing that bit of insider jargon), is called knol, which . . . [more]

The impressive provider of online apps, Zoho, is coming out this weekend with an updated version of its presentation software, Zoho Show 2.0. (Sounds appropriately seasonal, doesn’t it: zoho show two oh, ho ho?). If you’re looking for an alternative to heavy and costly PowerPoint, this might be it, particularly as your presentation is going to live on someone else’s server and be there (more than likely) when you’re fumbling around for the memory stick that has your deck on it.

Its features are listed on the Zoho blog, and there’s a video to talk you through them. . . . [more]

Today’s Globe and Mail article “Ottawa, don’t pull the plug on superb website” is about the shutting down of the Canadian Health Network, an online source of reliable Canadian health information. The strength of this article is its comparison of the Canadian Health Network with the new Healthy Canadians website. Interesting. . . . [more]

Sounds impressive, no?

I saw one of the millenium’s trends in person: fewer live bodies at smaller symposia with more people attending electronically.

I spoke earlier today at a Law Society of Upper Canada CLE symposium. I’m told there were about 140 registrants. Only about 70 were there in person. The other 70 were elsewhere catching the webcast. I was able to get a “feel” for how the live audience was responding to the audibility, pace and content of the lecture. I haven’t the faintest idea about the web audience. I’m assuming things were fine or those at the production . . . [more]

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the historic Supreme Court of Canada decision on aboriginal rights known as Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, [1997] 3 S.C.R. 1010.

For the first time, the Court directly addressed the issue of aboriginal title.

The Gitxsan Nation and the Wet’suwet’en Nation in British Columbia had started a lawsuit in 1984. Their claim covered 133 individual territories, amounting to 58,000 square kilometres of the northwestern part of their province. They claimed both ownership of the land and jurisdiction.

The Supreme Court did not rule as to whether the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en have aboriginal title to . . . [more]

Those who are interested in the XO laptop (the One Laptop Per Child machine) – including those of us who have bought/donated for our (or others’) children (or ourselves) – may be interested in this little piece on the BBC News Technology page. The correspondent presents a review by his nine-year old son, apparently the first British child to use the XO. I found it quite exciting to read how quickly the child interacted with children overseas already using the XO. From that page, one can also watch a 30-odd minute video of the child’s review. (I watched only . . . [more]

Patrick Monahan has been reappointed Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School for another 5 year term, beginning July 2008. York President, Mamdouh Shoukri, announced that the executive committee of the Board of Governors approved the appointment today.

My congratulations to Patrick, who will now have the opportunity to oversee the new building that Osgoode is planning. . . . [more]

The Canadian Parliament held emergency sittings of both the House of Commons and the Senate last night to pass through Bill C-38 on an urgent basis. This Bill is meant to force the re-opening of the Chalk River Nuclear Reactor, previously closed by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in November on safety concerns. This reactor reportedly creates two-thirds of the world’s isotopes for use in medical evaluations or treatment, including for cancer. There is now a world shortage of these isotopes which has pressured the government to make this move. Bill C-38 was passed last night, but is not yet . . . [more]

Yesterday was a big day in blog postings about Twitter! A full explanation later when I have more time, but in the meantime here is a note about one of my favourite posts from yesterday–

The Logic + Emotion blog gives a visual explanation of why Twitter is becoming increasingly popular in December 11th’s post “Why is Twitter Exploding? Because it’s a Conversation Ecosystem.”

My favourite part of the explanation? The “gratuitous analogy” calling Twitter “the Crocs of the web”. A visual:

You will have to head over to the original post to see the comparison. . . . [more]