Yep. I found it last night. I added it as a Category of law on my site below "Copyright" but I'm doing that only on the assumption I will get the site's author's permission. The site uses the "Transmitter" theme like I do, but I think it is clear the site is being run by Schwimmerlegal.com. I wonder if the author is related to David Schimmer?
One humorous thing I picked up from the site was this reference to "Trademark Barbie". Check it out. And check the site out. There is a lot of good stuff about domain names etc.
10:44:43 PM
New Yorker Article - What Bush Knew Not As Important as FBI Weaknesses
From New Yorker: "The F.B.I.'s technological weakness also hinders its ability to solve crimes. In March, for example, Leahy's committee was told that photographs of the nineteen suspected hijackers could not be sent electronically in the days immediately after September 11th to the F.B.I. office in Tampa, Florida, because the F.B.I.'s computer systems weren't compatible. Robert Chiradio, the special agent in charge, explained at a hearing that "we don't have the ability to put any scanning or multimedia" into F.B.I. computer systems. The photographs had "to be put on a CD-ROM and mailed to me."
Now this is scary. You've got college age kids (Shawn Fanning) creating peer to peer file sharing systems and then pre-teens can learn to access the system and share MP3's, but the nation's top law enforcement agency can't figure out how to send a digital image from one system to another? Hey guys, ever hear of PDF's, JPEG's or GIF's?
10:33:05 PM
From kuro5hin.org: "According to the Washington Post, Two of Ohio's representatives in Congress are asking the Ohio Board of Education to add the theory of "intelligent design" to its science curriculum as an alternative to the theory of evolution. Intelligent design theory claims that God deliberately designed life on Earth."
Been there, done that. Here in Louisiana we blew a wad about 15 years ago defending the clearly unconstitutional Creationism law (see my prior post on this). The background facts are always the same B-movie, bad science fiction deal: legislators in rural or fundamentalist populace try to appease their constituents by showing that they can get a law passed that will "restore religion to its proper place." To people like this the separation of Church and State is a comic book fairy tale. But, they sure don't seem to mind using State revenue to tilt at legal windmills. God bless, their little misguided hearts. It's so fun to see them racing around in the backyard pretending to understand how the world works....
10:18:09 PM
News Aggregators & Bloggers = Human Routers?
From Jon Udell: "the raw output of the online news collective is filtered for me by people doing what they do best: spotting patterns, alerting the tribe."
A great article on the emerging use of news aggregators, which lists some free aggregators that the non-Radio folks can use. And winds up with a good summary quote from Jenny.
8:36:20 PM
After quietly settling a suit with New Jersey residents who alleged they were ill from contaminants from a munitions plant, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. was hit with another suit, with 1,800 new plaintiffs, spearheaded by a small New Jersey plaintiffs' firm. DuPont responded by hiring a Chicago-based heavy hitter. The stakes are high for both sides in the case, which is currently awaiting a jury verdict. [Law.com]
The Institute of Museum and Library Services issues the first federal report on technology use in libraries and museums.
Some of the findings include: "Libraries' technology use is pervasive, and libraries indicated having sources of funds that have enabled them to invest in technologies." "Museums have fewer sources of funds for investment in technology.... Twenty percent report having no funding for technology." [Link]
I'm sure Jenny has seen this, and I'll be interested in what she has to say about this report.
7:37:38 PM
And from the U.K. obituary pages: The Earl of Kimberley Passes Away
From The News Telegraph: "The 4th Earl of Kimberley, who has died aged 78, achieved a measure of fame as the most-married man in the peerage; once known as "the brightest blade in Burke's", he worked his way through five wives in 25 years before settling down contentedly with a former masseuse he had met on a beach in Jamaica." [more] via [Greg Grimsal]
He was also a Championship Tiddlywinks player. Man, they don't make 'em like that anymore...
7:19:06 PM
From Law.com: "Chicago-based Sara Lee Foods has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle 139 separate discrimination lawsuits brought by black workers at a Sara Lee subsidiary who said they were the victims of racially biased employment policies. The workers were forced to file separate lawsuits after a judge refused to certify a class action brought by nine black workers at the Hygrade Food Products plant in Philadelphia."
It would be too easy to say something using the famous Sara Lee advertising slogan. I won't do that, but I will note that if there were only nine workers affected then I guess it shouldn't have been a class action.
4:11:20 PM
From The Virtual Chase: "This article, originally published by Law Office Computing as the April/May 2002 Tyburski Files column, demonstrates how to use Internet resources to gather background information on an expert witness."
From PR Web - Legal: "In response to the over 5,000 people that have registered crime, fraud, and damages from defective products, at www.bigclassaction.com, a new legal portal has been launched today at www.worldjustice.com, where hundreds of legal resources are available for easy and convenient access by lawyers and by the public."
This is just what we need, a resource to help spur more class action lawsuits...
1:36:38 PM
From TVC Alert: Man must return more than $1.8 to advertisers for diverting and trapping unsuspecting site visitors.
10:50:39 AM
More on the "New Economy" from John Robb
From NYT: "Intel cuts prices of its chips by up to 53%. In response, analysts cut earnings estimates by 7%. "
Then from John Robb's Radio Weblog: "This is an example of the New Economy at work. Intel, through the application of new manufacturing technology, has radically boosted productivity. As a result, it has opted to pass on to customer these cost savings rather than using the savings to boost short term earnings. Why? Intel is paranoid New Economy company. It knows that pricing power is in the hands of customers and competitive advantages are fleeting. Information travels too fast now. Intel's paranoia is now the standard for the rest of corporate America. It has opted for lower sustainable earnings over short term stock growth that keeps investors happy.
An underlying flaw in financial theory is that corporations operate as efficient vehicles for capital. The theory implies that companies will return earnings to investors if it doesn't have investment opportunities that provide a return greater than those available to its investors. Corporations aren't efficient financial vehicles. They have a will to survive.
I would put it a slightly different way: at one time corporations were efficient financial vehicles. But now there are other smaller organizational entities that distribute and receive information very quickly (thanks to the Internet). This trend will continue and follow a geometric growth trajectory. It won't mean the end of corporations, but it will be a force that corporations have to contend with. The ones that can think and act "outside the box" will probably have much greater success.
10:49:44 AM
