BBC News has a piece, Factfile: XO laptop, on the current form of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) machine being developed by Nicholas Negroponte and MIT Media Lab. It’s proving to be a long and parlous road to final release and distribution: Intel recently got on board (AMD makes the XO chip at the moment) which may swamp the non-profit canoe, and there’s been constant criticism from just about every quarter.

I have to say, though, that it looks to be a sweet machine. It boasts wi-fi and the ability of one machine to connect to others . . . [more]

I blogged about the Manchester University based research database, Intute, a year ago. I’ve since had occasion to return and to discover that they’ve not only continued to expand the fund of searchable materials but also have added lots of functionality to the site. Thus, for example, you can click into the Social Sciences database, drill down to the law subsection, where you’ll find:

• a highly detailed subject matter list (currently only 150 records for Canada)
• a list of the latest 50 additions to the law subsection
• and, wonderful to say, an RSS feed so that

If you’re interested in a free and handy screencast app, you should take a look at Jing. It enables you easily to frame a screenshot and take it either as a still or as video — with sound, too, if your machine is equipped for it. It works on both Windows and Mac (and is something of a godsend for the latter, because there was no good cheap tool for making screencast videos for the Mac). Jing — it styles itself as a project — hopes you’ll find it handy for folding videos or stills into IM, email or . . . [more]

We’re all familiar with the use of animal species names (general and specific) as labels for a sets of human charateristics, for descriptions of types of people, some good, some bad; for example; lion, tiger, weasel, rabbit, rat, dinosaur, pigeon, shark, albatross, crow, snake, (teddy) bear, sloth, insect, rodent, bug, cat etc. I haven’t heard a new usage; or rather, I don’t know of one that doesn’t have a good history.

So, it’s time for a new contest. Let’s identify a group of animals that aren’t associated with a human stereotype and then see if we can identify the stereotype . . . [more]

Here’s question that has both a serious and humorous side, and one which connects with our earlier discussions about teaching law students to “think like lawyers” and better preparing those of them who want to practice for the “real” practitioner’s world.

It also connects to a the question of close to “real time” should law school materials be when the law is in a significant amount of flux. 

What happens when the law in a particular subject (let’s say a private law subject so we’ve the prospect of provincial variations), at a particular time in the jurisdiction where the law . . . [more]

Since I’ve designated today as a day to think about ethics, it’s worth quoting from a recent US judgment on a issue that had and has both legal and moral implications that comes from the boomer days – the Viet Nam war and the consequences of the use of Agent Orange – and comparing that to how the Canadian government handled the problem that produced Authorson v Canada. . . . [more]

Any day is a good day to think about matters of ethics; this being Saturday, it’s as good a day as any. In no particular order of demerit, I’ll list some of the issues I’ve seen over the past month. Much of this is, of course, the eternal ends and means discussion.

1. Lawyers too lazy, or too incompetent, or not aware, or who simply don’t care, about their obligations to give the judge the current law and not knowingly give judges law that is out of date;

2. Lawyers too willing to make arguments that ought not to be . . . [more]

Tough for a Friday, perhaps, but if you have a moment over the weekend when you feel you just need to tussle with a patch of legal prose, take a look at the recent executive order issued Tuesday from the White House, “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq.”

I’ve cut to the chase by choosing what I think is one of the more worrisome paths through the order (always a risky business, so read the original if you’re at all curious):

S.1 (a)
…all …interests in property of the following persons, that are

As many SLAW readers likely know, Fox’s “ The Simpsons” includes a number of great legal references, primarily through the character called Lionel Hutz, a.k.a Miguel Sánchez, as the “law talking guy” (voiced by the late Phil Hartman). One of Lionel Hutz’s scenes even has him talking about legal research. In the episode “Flaming Moe” (where Homer accuses Moe of stealing his cocktail recipe), Homer and Marge consult Lionel Hutz for legal advice:

Marge: So, Mr. Hutz, does my husband have a case?

Hutz: I’m sorry, Mrs. Simpson, but you can’t copyright a drink.

Homer: [whines]

Stephen Taylor of “Blogging Tories” has just released the Newspaper Viewer, a nifty website that lets you look at the front page of a lot of Canadian newspapers from the last couple of years. Designed in Flash and looking very like the iTunes jukebox albumn cover view, it presents you with an image that is somewhat legible. However, if you want to read the page, double-clicking on it will bring up a PDF version.

This has some potential to be a useful research tool, at least so far as major, i.e. front page, stories are concerned, and . . . [more]

. . . [more]

Just read an article on Law.com about this interesting new search engine that focuses on retrieving people information. According to the article, Spock searches sites like MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr and more for information and then compiles bios of people. Similar to Wikipedia, it works by allowing members to contribute information about themselves or others. Its currently in an invitation-only beta test mode, but it plans to launch in a month with a database of about 100 million people. . . . [more]