Apple released an iPod software update (v. 1.2.6) last Thursday that is intended to restore that 10 hour battery life many of us once enjoyed but have been missing for awhile. Early reports say it actually works. This is great, as I've been debating sending mine back to the mother ship for a fix. The update installed with no trouble this morning; will put it to the test and let you know if I'm among the thrilled.

I can't actually remember a time when I thought, "Y'know, I just don't have enough to read." If you should find yourself in that happy circumstance, however, this might help: The Popular Science Book List. Currently featured: Sync, by Steven Strogatz.

Paul Coggins, on Yoga for Lawyers: "There's really no need to describe the cobra position, as it's the pose lawyers naturally settle into." (Link serenely added.)

These articles from the Recorder and ABA Journal eReport, respectively, complement each other well:

• "9th Circuit Tops New-Judge Wish List, Biggest and busiest court would get seven of 11 new circuit seats:" "The Catch-22 is that with additional help comes additional pressure to break up the circuit."
• "Splitting The Ninth, Two Senators Propose Creation of 12th Circuit:" "Many attorneys who practice in the region say the court works fine the way it is."

Dave Winer: "I've never programmed on the campus of a law school (is that legal?)"

"[W]hen humans first took stylus to wet clay, the first thing that they were compelled to record was . . . prices." (Charles Fishman, in Fast Company.) Those prices and other cultural artifacts were written down on tablets by the ancient Sumerians, who used to live right about where all the troops are. (Small wonder there's hostility toward the place; some say that's where law as we know it got its start.) You can pick up one of these tablets on eBay if you are so inclined, but best to think twice: "Bidding at auction for that tantalizing tablet puts you at risk of trafficking in hot antiquities." [via Salon]

If you agree, you have until July 1, 2003 to submit your application to become Dean of the Boalt Hall School of Law. The Office of the Chancellor has further information (PDF) about evaluation criteria and submission guidelines.

Some well timed lighter fare: Matt Round has taken the flotsam of late 20th century television, stirred well, and come up with a sidesplitting alternative to "Lorem Ipsum" for Web designers. Behold his Text Generator.

Bernard Hibbitts at The Paper Chase is doing an excellent job discussing all sorts of legal aspects of the Iraq conflict, including assassination in his post yesterday: Target Saddam - international law on attacks against enemy leaders in wartime. (I'm also enjoying Bernard's periodic "Law blog prof-watch" updates.) Be sure too to check the comments to my last post and the links there.

Grant Henninger has a question about war, law and assassination: "If we kill Saddam in the first strike is it an illegal assassination or is it a legitimate action as part of the war?" On this subject, the Guardian today writes, "By declaring war, Mr Bush legitimised the apparent assassination attempt against President Saddam. In a state of war, the congressional prohibition on the assassination of leaders is lifted." Related reading: Professor Jeffrey Addicott's JURIST Forum piece last November, entitled The Yemen Attack: Illegal Assassination or Lawful Killing, and a Los Angeles Times analysis, U.S. Enters a Legal Gray Zone, reproduced at Global Policy Forum.

[Update] From a press briefing earlier today by Ari Fleischer:

Q: Ari, if the United States is at war, and if you assert that the United States has the right to target the Iraqi leader and his inner circle as part of command and control, does that make the President and the White House a legitimate target for Iraqis?

MR. FLEISCHER: Somebody — a reporter asked me that question a few weeks ago and my answer this [sic] is my answer now; you can tell anybody who wants to know the answer to that to get their own international lawyer, I won't do it for them.

Mr. Fleischer apparently was referring to his February 26, 2003 briefing: "I have no intention of becoming Saddam Hussein's international lawyer."

[Update] On September 22, 2001, Glenn Reynolds pointed to Jacob Sullum's discussion of the development and interpretation of the assassination ban ("License to Kill"), and wondered about "Assassination as Policy:" "[I]t doesn't involve killing lots of innocents, as war inevitably does, and it has a tit-for-tat quality that seems fair. [¶]What I've never seen mentioned, though, is the corrosive political effect it might have...."

"[T]he United States spends more on trash bags than 90 other countries spend on everything. In other words, the receptacles of our waste cost more than all of the goods consumed by nearly half of the world's nations." [Fast Company]

"There are nearly 5 million households in America with a net worth of at least $1 million." [Fast Company]

The number of appellate decisions ordered depublished by the California Supreme Court in 2001-02 was at a 20-year low of 23. The high water mark for the period was 1983-84, with 154. [Administrative Office of the California Courts]

Things I need to pay more attention to later, but that doesn't mean you should delay:

• Tim Hadley's reconstructed deconstruction of Creative Commons license nuts and bolts.
• Kevin Heller's personal knowledge management strategy.
• DIRECTV Latin America's bankruptcy. (More from PRNewswire.)

My firm lost a treasured colleague and friend to pancreatic cancer on Friday. Memorial services for Ben Paik were held yesterday afternoon, and the outpouring of grief, fondness and respect for this amazing young man was overwhelming. To help combat the swift and deadly disease that has robbed us of Ben (and so many others), please visit the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN). To help celebrate and memorialize Ben's affection for his undergraduate alma mater, the University of California, Berkeley, and its students, the Ben Paik '92 Memorial Alunmi Scholarship has been established. Donations payable to the California Alumni Association (address) are being accepted, and should reference the Ben Paik '92 Memorial Alunmi Scholarship.

It's impossible to believe I no longer will have the privilege of recruiting with Ben, or savoring all the little joys of his friendship like agonizing for the twelfth dozen time over the optimal specs of his home computer system. His death has shocked and shaken us all.

Benjamin Michael Paik

• Mason Wilson writes Blogwash ("What I like about the law: Judge duct tapes defendant's mouth"), and Tiger Law, a blog for students at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law ("You must understand that law students have entirely too little fun").
• Must Sleep is by a 1L at Northwestern trying to acclimate to the Chicago weather (not possible) and Property (possibly possible).
• [Blog Goes Here] is by a 3L at the University of Oregon with, among other things, unique culinary talents.

[All via the Blawg Ring] Also, two more Truckstops for your pie and parking pleasure: the ChessLaw blawg directory and JURIST blawgdex (blawgroll of The Paper Chase).

Frank Paynter: "My dad invented the wiener tunnel."

So says Leo Laporte in recommending RSS to Screen Savers viewers, and in particular aggregator applications NetNewsWire (Mac) and NewsDesk (Windows). Among other things, Leo explains why RSS is not PointCast, and links to UserLand's and Web Reference's definitions of RSS.

(I say put the aggregator in the browser, but that's a segment for another day.)

Creative Commons: "Our weblog now takes comments." (Identifies the authors of particular posts too, which is new and nice.)

Paul Boutin has the scoop on Centrino, with two Slate articles on the subject: "Stop the Clock" and "Intel Outside." Says Boutin, "If personal computers were the first stage of the digital revolution and the Internet the second, then Wi-Fi is the third stage, letting you take your computer and the 'Net wherever you go." TechTV is excited about Centrino too, though not so much about the 802.11b card component: "Does it mean Centrino is better in the wireless world than other non-Intel wireless cards? We're not convinced quite yet." Bonus links: Doc Searls answers Paul's questions about World of Ends via email, and David Weinberger does so by blog. And yet another bonus link: Intel's hotspot finder.

(Not believed nearly as endangered as spotted tree frogs.)

• Elmer Masters writes about technological issues in legal academia and the profession. [via JURIST]
• The blogging arm of Alabama law firm Dice & Gregory is Class Actions. [via Ernie]
• iBusinessLaw.info belongs to high tech and Internet lawyer Jonathan Bender in Washington, D.C., and runs on b2. [via Blawg.org]

Jonas reports that the first version of "pundyt" should be available shortly:

I believe it's about time to lift the veil of secrecy and let you all in on the big project plan: I give you: pundyt , a full fledged microcontent management and news delivery system. Pundyt is somewhere between Radio Userland, Movable Type, Drupal, and Ampheta Desk. Blawgy goodness built in, that means, for example, a citations database, case crossreferences, auto-linking of whatever you'd like to autolink, but especially bluebook-style citations, etc.

But that's not all. Pundyt comes with desktop frontends for Mac OS X, Windows (not finished, yet), Unix (it's Open Source), and Palm OS, and has a fully integrated workflow management backend.

Woah, sounds super!

It looks like Jonas has been having some fun with the Blawgistan feeds, and has The Blawgregator ("A daily dose of blawgy goodness...") up and running. Very nice.