Dear Archives and Permalinks:

Please come back soon. I promise better sodas and snacks.

Thanks,

—The Management

I'm on a blawgroll these last few days. These are too good to save for another big update, so here's a skinny-mini:

Political

• Paul Martin is MP for LaSalle-Émard in Montreal, Quebec. [Via, and more from, Dave Winer, who has word Mr. Martin "will likely become Canada's next Prime Minister (some pollsters report he has the support of about 80% of the delegates)."]

Practicing

• William J. Dyer has Texas-sized rations of charm, humor, and wit to spare—and I've never even met the guy. Go read, you'll see what I mean.
• George Wallace has fired up a blog on "on California Insurance and Professional Liability Law (and other legal topics)." George's A Fool in the Forest also is still going strong.

Integrating

• Jerry Lawson too has multiplied his blogging outlets and launched the eLawyer Blog. (What's with all this productivity, people? It can't all be due to the siren song of back-to-school advertising.)

Stay Tuned

• Something blawg-ed this way comes: Inventio. [Via Kevin Heller]

Missed this the first time around: Inc.com's list of weblog resources, a companion to Anne Stuart's July Blogging for Business article.

HEEEheeehooohaaaachortlekneeslapgetaholdofyourselfandjustpostalink! — Blogistan Pie, by Christian Crumlish. (Thanks, Shelley.)

Bonus link (from Christian's "year ago today" sidebar for the above masterwork): Davezilla's Top 20 Blogger Insults.

Three more blawgrollees before the weekend, all via the Blawg Ring:

Practicing

• Brainsalad is the journal of a government lawyer in the northeastern U.S.
• Don't you just hate it when what starts out as a group blog gets taken over by Tom Sawyer?
• Bryan Scheiderer is with the firm Beger, Bushie & Scheiderer, LLC, and blogs about Missouri law and issues.

(This one's in honor of Glenn's 2nd blog birthday—happy, happy!) Cruz Bustamante this morning on my local NBC affiliate: "You've seen the movie Twins? I guess I'm Danny De Vito."

I updated the blawgroll last weekend, but am just now getting around to posting about the additions. Before we get to that, please note that Buzz and Ernie have been having fun with TypePad, and until further notice can be found at those links. JCA also has Movabled. As for the newcomers:

Political

• Senator Tom Daschle writes Travels with Tom, documenting the 2003 version of his annual driving tour, which commenced on August 4 and will focus on the issue of health care. [Via Dave Winer]

Practicing

• Joseph S. Beckman writes the Patent Blog, and, if I'm not mistaken, the Copyright Blog too. Joseph and both blogs in any event are part of the Intellect Law Group. Note too that both sport Creative Commons licenses (see the end of this post).
• George L. Lenard practices labor and employment law with Harris Dowell Fisher & Harris, L.C. and provides in-depth coverage of new cases in his field, among other things.
• The blogger in residence at Misplaced Thoughts just took the Wisconsin bar, and may or may not still have some affiliation with Jones Day. [Via the Blawg Ring]
• Mommies at Law is a group blog written by some hot blawging mamas who warn that "we Lawyer-Mommies will soon be taking over! (Insert ominous music and maniacal laughter here.)" My belly kicks its approval.
• The Mommy Blawg is a solo effort along the same lines, whose authoress wonders whether "someone besides [herself] will be reading this." I haven't taken enough aspirin today (can't, actually) even to attempt a whole power law digression here, so instead will just posit "yes!"
• quantum meruit's author is a solicitor in private practice in Melboure, Australia. More here.
• Lawyer and legal writing instructor Robert M. Unterberger is writing four blogs (as Ernie quipped, he's "taking advantage of the newly relaxed FCC rules that allow for concentrated ownership of media"). They consist of personal injury law blogs for the states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, as well as a Law Student Writing blog. All I can say is I hope Robert has discovered the power of prenatal vitamins (heck, I hope you all have, I haven't had so much as a sniffle since March).

Learning The Craft

• Bikini Bread is doing law school with two kids and no $$, and has had a recent run-in with the USA PATRIOT Act. [Via the Blawg Ring]
• Richard Carstone starts law school in a couple of weeks, somewhere "really good," and has more to say about himself here. [Via Blawg.org]
• falconred is a law student to be, and passes along the tragic news that Open & Notorious no longer will be either: "we're all about free expression, but we care about our careers more. it's not worth it. let's just leave it at that." This truly blows, those folks have considerable talent and wit (I mean, just the thought of a "Learned Foot..."). I can see where being brutally, hilariously, and publicly honest about one's law school experiences could prejudice a student's chances with some employers. I can also see where it potentially could improve them. Let me ask you this: given those possibilities, which employer would *you* rather work with? (Climbs down off soapbox; continues blogging.) [Via Blawg.org]
• Fantasy Justice, a Jason Nemes production, aims to foster friendly competition among those inclined to call the outcomes of pending U.S. Supreme Court cases. If you're into this sort of thing, you might also enjoy Sean Carter's version.
• Dylan Fishberg has some insightful thoughts on blawger anonymity (and appreciates the value of a well-timed conspiracy theory). [Via the Blawg Ring]
• Chris Geidner is a 2L at OSU's Moritz College of Law and writes about a variety of legal issues.
• The blawger at Law v. Life just got some good journal news (so did JCA by the way, go say congrats), and might just know Chris Geidner since they're at the same school. [Via the Blawg Ring]
• Proper Binge starts law school this fall with a healthy appetite. [Via the Blawg Ring]
• TJ starts law school at Harvard in the fall, and, like Dylan (who provided the pointer) has been thinking about anonymity. TJ adds this to the mix, while holding off on a definitive decision: "...the Internet makes it easy to turn off a whole bunch of people very quickly, and I would hate to burn bridges before I even knew they existed." True enough, but there are bridges to be built as well as burned—particularly at Harvard, I would think.

Blawgers At Large

• Is a blawg parody still a blawg? Butt of course. [Via Howard Bashman]
• About all I can tell you about codigo-civil.net is it sems to be latin law straight out of Tenerife. Which certainly sounds fascinating. [Via Blawg.org]
• Lawb*tch has a plan—nay, a mission. [Via Howard Bashman]

Managing The Chaos

• z. at Legal References is a legal reference librarian who hates bad search engines and loves sharing the tricks of her trade, much to our benefit. [Via Blawg.org]

Truckstops

• 4lawschool.com provides a directory of student Web sites, including blogs. (Warning: annoying banner ads.)
• The Westminster Law Library at the University of Denver is listing blawgs.

It seems appropriate to wrap up this post with a pointer to Professor Lessig's mp3.com, we hardly knew you [via Dave Winer]:

Maybe the signature captures it all. The promise of something different at mp3.com — despite great technology and really innovative business ideas — must always compete with "legal." Innovation must compete with tradition.

Is it impossible to imagine the lawyers ever on the side of innovation?

You hundreds of blogging legal professionals, academicians, and law students one way or another are on the side of innovation, and I stand up and applaud you for it.

The leading cause of death among pregnant women? Homicide.

Reuters: "Terminating weeks of speculation about his political intentions, Schwarzenegger said on NBC's 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' that California's politicians are 'failing the people, and the man who is failing the people more than anyone is Gray Davis.'

'He is failing them terribly and this is why he needs to be recalled, and this is why I'm going to run for governor.'"

Our Practice Support Group here at the law firm is creating a database that includes user testimonials about our support applications. They asked me to give my $.02 about Real-Legal's Binder, something we use to help manage the record on appeal. As you can see, I'm a fan:

E-Transcript Binder is the most simultaneously intuitive and powerful transcript management application I have ever encountered, and I've used a bunch. It is smarter than any other program I've used about transcript importation and page and line numbering. Its use of headings from the transcripts themselves ("Cross Examination of Witness X") as navigation tools is as far as I know unmatched, and a huge time saver. It offers a variety of simple and more detailed search options, as well as a user-friendly, color-coded issue management system that makes it easy to achieve both semantic and chronological organization of issues across an entire case. It uses a variety of customizable yet readily comprehensible parameters for report generation. It works with a scroll mouse. It lets multiple users across the network work with a project in or out of the office and sync their work and comments up to the central server for common access. It allows for printing in condensed or full-sized formats. It is a whiz in the kitchen, and makes quite delicious french toast.

Binder's downsides are its pricing/licensing (PDF), and the fact it's Windows only. But then, perfection is a rare thing when it comes to these sorts of programs.

Like so many others, I laughed/cried at Marc Pilgrim's guide to installing Windows XP in 5 hours or less. An apt accompaniment would seem to be John Dvorak's August 4 column ("Magic Number: 30 Billion"), in which he works out, and puts in perspective, the estimated number of Windows system crashes per year. ("To give you an idea of how ridiculous that number is, here are few comparisons....")

"Breathe in experience, breathe out poetry." —Muriel Rukeyser. If, as MR also wrote, the universe is made of stories, not atoms, Locke has dropped another allegorical h-bomb. Film at 11:00.

I'm perpetually amazed by the way these pieces of code on a server connect with the wider world. Lately I'm not alone.

Anil Dash (on the fourth anniversary of Dashes): "I've made lots of great friends through this weblog, gotten a dream job, and improved my life in countless other immeasurable ways." [via Hylton Joliffe]

Rick Klau (on getting a bear hug from Joe Trippi): "There's knowing who you are and there's knowing who you are."

Jim Carroll: Should the Internet be used in a courtroom?

Jason Shellen recently posted instructions for using a SprintPCS wireless camera phone with Blogger.

David Edelstein has a bang-up (sorry) review in Slate of "Hell's Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films," and asks, "When is the benefit of instilling caution worth the price of the nightmares?"

David Maizenberg discusses lawyers and moblogging in this month's Modern Practice from FindLaw:

Modern Practice:

Are there dangers in all this freedom and individuality? Might it lead to a more insecure and less collegial professional environment — a kind of legal free-for-all?

Maizenberg:

For all intents and purposes, that is the environment we have already. Security in the legal profession disappeared some time ago. Even lawyers ensconced in big firms must be responsible for their individual career and client development in ways that were uncommon fifteen years ago.

The off the cuff comments of Al Roker and (from time to time these days) Willard Scott consistently are the best parts of the Today Show. Here's Uncle Willard this morning on the Plaza in front of Studio 1A, to an American Indian woman visiting New York with her group: "Hey, it's your country. Thanks for letting us keep it."

Matt Round presents: Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer? (Proving again that gray/grey is the most interesting color/colour.)

If you're a Safari user, you can also thank Matt (as I do) for the new CSS that makes B&B once again render properly in that browser.

Heard about these on Macworld Audible News. The first seems tailor made for switchers, while the second belongs on your keychain right next to your thumb drive:

• The TackyShirt learning DVD entitled Mac OS X: The Basics. Review: "I guarantee that everyone watching this DVD will get something out of it."
• The Kensington WiFi Finder, a pocket-sized, computerless WiFi signal detector that's unsurprisingly popular with bloggers, judging by its Technorati link cosmos. Here's more from MacCentral.

"[W]ho are the best anglers serving on the Eleventh Circuit and the federal district courts under its jurisdiction?" The answer to this question and more is revealed in Howard Bashman's interview with Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat of the Eleventh Circuit.

...when this Bambi, this Bambi, and this Bambi just make you think of Marty Schwimmer.