Canada’s online legal magazine.

The Friday Fillip

Because I’m an academic, September will always be the new year for me. I get a kind of excitement when the first threads of coolness enter the air, and part of that excitement has to do with beginnings, new beginnings, if that isn’t redundant. There’s something liberating about fresh starts. Too, these are often associated for me with having moved to a new town or country and taking up life there as an unknown person. I used to consider becoming someone other as I stepped of the plane, so to speak…. maybe hair slicked back and sunglasses, with a derring-do . . . [more]

Posted in: Miscellaneous

Infobits by Phone

I don’t have a Black Berry — deadly admission, I know, revealing a distinct lack of social status, because, rather like visits to Tokyo, you can’t manage it unless it’s a corporate expense, which necessitates the presence of an interested and able corporation, that source of all power in today’s world.

But I do have a cell phone and, moreover, one that can do text messaging, painfully because there’s not keyboard per se (have I mentioned that I don’t have a Black Berry?). Text messaging is a feature that I’d never used until today, Bcz IDK any1 LS who Duz . . . [more]

Posted in: Miscellaneous

Twain on Law

Not having much time as I prepare for the new school year which will dawn next week, hahahahaha (that is an uneasy laugh). I just want to present you with some quotes from Mark Twain (one of my favourite authors) on Law and Lawyers, which remain particularly insightful today.

From Twainquotes.com I find this site a great resource for quotes when writing papers and reports.

  • Twain on Law
  • Twain on Lawyers
  • Okay, here is Twain on Libraries too.
  • . . . [more]
    Posted in: Miscellaneous

    Innovate: Journal of Online Education

    Innovate: Journal of Online Education is a bi-monthly, peer-reviewed online journal focusing on the innovative, creative ways information technology is used in corporate, academic, and government settings to enhance the learning process. Articles are authored by leaders in information technology and education, including librarians, professors, program administrators, and software designers. You can search articles going back to October/November 2004. Innovate also hosts webcasts with the authors.

    Free registration is required to access full-text articles.

    Notable articles include:

    “A_FLIP to Courseware: A Strategic Alliance for Improving Student Learning Outcomes”
    This article outlines the Administrators, Faculty, Librarians Instructional Partnership (A_FLIP) model, which . . . [more]

    Posted in: Miscellaneous

    Irwin Law’s E-Books

    announce[d yesterday] the launch of our new Digital Editions, in partnership with VitalSource Technologies Inc. In September, we will offer six titles in our Essentials of Canadian Law collection in this new digital format.... In addition, users can customize page views, perform single and multiple book searches, highlight text, make searchable notes, link easily to case law databases and print, copy, and paste with bibliographic support. If you have access to QuickFind through the Quicklaw system, you can highlight citations in our Digital Editions and link seamlessly to the full text, summary or citator record for that case on Quicklaw.
    Posted in: Miscellaneous

    U.S. State Supreme Court Elections – the Role of Big Money, Lobbies, and TV Air Wars

    We Canadians thought that allowing a parliamentary committee to very briefly and very, very politely interview a nominee for the Supreme Court of Canada last winter was a big deal. And they even did it on TV! Wow, that sure made us feel innovative. Maybe even a little too radical for Canada.

    Many expressed worries that this could lead to an overpoliticization of the judicial appointment process in Canada.

    Well, our friends in the great Republic to the South seem to have an even bigger problem: the rapidly growing influence of big money in judicial elections for state supreme courts. . . . [more]

    Posted in: Miscellaneous

    Flickr Geo-Tagging With a Legal Twist?

    Yesterday, Yahoo & Flickr announced geo-tagging which combines Yahoo maps with photo overlays. Users can easily drag their photos using an overlay tool to position them on a Yahoo map, and voila! Want to know what Vancouver looks like? — check out the photos. Very cool.

    So what does this have to do with law, technology, research, or any combination of the above? Well, one of the things I try to do when new web-technologies come out, is to re-think them with either a legal or library perspective. For example, rather than geo-maps, I’d like to take the floor maps . . . [more]

    Posted in: Miscellaneous

    The Coolest Law School Course Ever

    Professors Charlie Nesson of Harvard Law School and his daughter, Rebecca Nesson, a computer scientist and instructor at Harvard Extension School, are giving a course this fall called Law in the Court of Public Opinion that will be taught in part at least within the virtual world of Second Life and by their online avatars.The course description says this:If we do say so ourselves, the course will be unlike any that has ever been taught.... Throughout the course we will be studying many different media technologies to understand how their inherent characteristics and modes of distribution affect the arguments that are made using them. Students will be immersed in this study through project-based assignments in which they will be using these technologies to make their own arguments.
    Posted in: Miscellaneous

    An Excursis Into Bayes’ Theorem… More or Less

    [I]f a rare event (10/1000) is reported by a very reliable witness (80/100), the chances that the rare event happened is closer to its base rate (10/1000) than the accuracy of the reliable witness (80/100)
    Psychology of Compliance & Due Diligence Law: “What does a 18th Century Philosopher have to Offer the 21st?

    I didn’t do well with statistics in university. Didn’t do it at all, really. Which is my loss, because now probability fascinates me: it’s the next frontier for reason for most of us.As has been discussed a fair bit lately, thanks to potential catastrophes . . . [more]

    Posted in: Miscellaneous

    Oor Wullie & the Humourless Magistrates

    Observe Willie JohnstoneNot that Wullie.

    WillieA spokesman for Her Majesty’s Court Service confirmed that the court had filed a complaint against Mr Johnstone, who is married and is originally from Ayr in Scotland. is being investigated by the Law Society after he dropped his trousers inside a packed court in protest over security measures.

    See what you’re reduced to when you don’t have Charter remedies to protest unreasonable search.

    And so without further ado, here’s Willie:
    . . . [more]

    Posted in: Miscellaneous