Sat 20 Nov 2004

What the hell is wrong with people?

"This is awesome," said Bobby Large, 24, of Greenwood. "This is the craziest thing I have seen in sports live in a long time. I was sitting there watching TV with a friend. He and I just looked at each other. We couldn't believe it was actually happening."

"We're here to support our Pacers," Large said. Referring to the Pacers like Ron Artest who had gone into the crowd, Large said, "I don't think they should have run into the crowd. But 'Go Ron'."

As if I needed another reason to quit watching the NBA. Problem is, really, is baseball that much better? I'm a big Cardinals fan, but I've never really gone to any games there. This makes me not want to. This is just sickening. I'm not gonna say one side is to blame more than the other -- frankly, I think it's a systemic thing. Everybody's to blame. And it's really hard for me to justify to myself being part of that system.
Posted around lunchtime [ /society ]

Wed 17 Nov 2004

Last night, I was having a political discussion with some friends of mine, and happened to mention that I haven't seen Fahrenheit 911, nor will I ever see it. What happens? "Well, aren't you interested in what the other side is saying?" In less disguised terms, what, are you completely closed-minded?

Man, that crap pisses me off. Look, I read Atrios, I read Farber, I don't need to see some propagandistic movie in order to know "what the other side is saying." Maybe I should read Crooked Timber, too, just so I can see more arguments, but I don't. There are only so many hours in the day.

And really, if the girl who asked me that spends any of her time perusing National Review, The Weekly Standard, or The Wall Street Journal op-ed page, I would be surprised. How does she get her information about what the other side is saying? Probably by reading Friedman. That's balance for liberals.

OK, let's face it, this is just another manifestation of my ego, poking through. I honestly think I read more than most other people I know. And very little pisses me off more than when someone assumes I don't know something that in fact I do know. What is it with people? One of my professors blithely told me last night that I didn't know who Pogo was. OF COURSE I KNOW WHAT POGO IS! Walt Kelly, "we have met the enemy, and he is us"! ARGHHH!!! That's as bad as the time in Con Law when the professor states in class "none of you know that Alf Landon was from Kansas" (OK, in all honesty, he might have thrown a "probably" in there to soften the blow a bit -- I can't remember)

Anyway, needed to vent. Rant over. Breathe deep...
Posted before Wills and Trusts [ /politics ]

Wed 03 Nov 2004

So, it looks like the democrats are going to try the same thing in Ohio that they tried 4 years ago in Florida -- recount until you get the result you want, then throw your hands in the air and say, "let's quit now!" And this time they don't even get the benefit of saying that their candidate won the popular vote. But they have to try to make up 130,000 votes, which is a bit more than the, what, 5,000 that the closing tally was in Florida?

And I love the silence from Atrios. Makes my day. I expect to see a post up from Balkin, urging Kerry to withdraw because he lost the popular vote any time now. BWAH HA HA!!!!

UPDATE: November 9, before Admin Law: Well, obviously I underestimated the guy, because although he didn't urge Kerry to quit, he did reiterate his hatred for the electoral college. So at least he can claim to be consistent.
Posted after a good night's sleep, thank you very much. [ /politics ]

Tue 26 Oct 2004

<**RANT ALERT**>

In the last eight hours, I have:

1. received a phone call, on my cell phone, during class, from the democratic candidate for governor here in Indiana reminding me to vote
2. been handed a petition to protest the library and bookstore subpoena provisions of the Patriot Act
3. been forwarded an email from the EIC of the journal, urging me to get involved in an openly democratic effort to enfranchise where no enfranchisement should exist.

LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!

Yeah, I wanna spend 8 hours next tuesday in some godforsaken corner of the Cincinnati hood, making sure every crack addict has the right to come in and punch the ballot for Lurch. Right. And you know what? They're quitting at 5 pm. (According to what I overheard someone say today, anyway -- this may not be true.) In other words, when the people with JOBS start showing up.
Posted in the evening. [ /politics ]

Tue 05 Oct 2004

As long as I'm posting, I just want to say that I am completely burned out on this election. Sick of it. Period. At this point, I would give the whole thing to Kerry just so everyone would shut the heck up about it. I'm tired of the rants on Lessig, Layne, and Farber, and to be honest, I'm even tired of the relentless partisanship of those on my side.

Guess I'd best find some new blogs, or go to foreign sources.
Posted in the morning [ /politics ]

Do you know what I dislike? Professors who show up late, then run 10 minutes over on the first day of class.

Other than that, though, the class was pretty interesting.
Posted in the morning [ /law ]

If you are in the mood to read a good rant today, try this one, about the forever ongoing problems in Africa. I don't know how true this stuff is myself, but if you have personal knowledge that contradicts what he lays out, I'd appreciate any correction.
Posted in the morning [ /politics ]

Mon 20 Sep 2004

Note to self: The statement, "I'm a reasonable person" is roughly akin to <JoeIsuzu>"Trust me"</JoeIsuzu>, meaning precisely the opposite of its dictionary meaning.
Posted in the afternoon [ /society ]

Mon 06 Sep 2004

Read about Beslan here.

I remember a couple of days after September 11 writing in some column or other that weepy candlelight vigils were a cop-out: the issue wasn't whether you were sad about the dead people but whether you wanted to do something about it. Three years on, that's still the difference. We can all get upset about dead children, but unless you're giving honest thought to what was responsible for the slaughter your tasteful elegies are no use. Nor are the hyper-rationalist theories about "asymmetrical warfare".

Tue 31 Aug 2004

Great article in the Jerusalem Post, about attitudes vs. the policies of the French.

via Arts and Letters Daily, another site I should probably blogroll.
Posted in the afternoon, shortly after Law and Economics [ /politics ]

Mon 30 Aug 2004

Two things caught my eye this morning -- first, using anecdotal evidence, Phil puts his finger on why the heck I am in law school anyway.

Second, Layne comes up with the best argument against Bush that I've seen.

Let me say this publicly, if only to save my own sanity -- the world won't end if Kerry is elected. The world won't end if Kerry is elected. Heck, we survived 8 years of Clinton, didn't we? And that turned out a lot better than I expected -- he kinda turned conservative anyway.

And you just know if Bush is reelected, he's gonna be impeached, sooner or later. Such is the "us against them" climate that prevails in our capital today.
Posted later in the morning [ /potpourri ]

Wed 25 Aug 2004

Oh no! Now the Europeans have resorted to beheading, too! Proof positive that they're on the other side...

Via Dave Barry, of course.
Posted around lunchtime [ /society ]

Thu 19 Aug 2004

I think most of you know who I support in November. I almost wish I had registered to vote in Illinois while I was working there this summer just so I could vote for Keyes. But there are serious problems with some of the people who "support the troops", or at least do so selectively. In a story even more disgusting than the one below, did you know how people treat tattle-tales in America?

Farber has it covered. I agree with him here, 100 percent.
Posted in the evening [ /politics ]

Wanna see something disgusting?

via Farber.
Posted in the evening [ /society ]

Wed 18 Aug 2004

We're down in the basement right now, waiting out the most recent tornado warning. Fun fun. The best part is trying to keep the kids from stepping in the big puddle around the drain. At least Isaac isn't doing that, yet. I had time to turn on the wireless router and dialup bridge before I came down, though, along with grabbing the laptop computer. Just to make sure you know I have my priorities straight.

And I've been thinking of a lot of things I ought to blog, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Sorry. I just don't feel too obliged to add stuff here, I'm afraid.
Posted in the evening [ /home ]

Thu 05 Aug 2004

Well, I'm pretty happy right now. Our new son, Isaac Owen, was born today at 9:39 am.

Fri 09 Jul 2004

OK, some background here for the non-news junkies:

1. Authority was handed over to the new Iraqi government early.
2. Paul Bremer made some remarks which were broadcast on Iraqi TV.
3. The Washington Post flubs the story.
4. Bloggers yell and scream.
5. Chandrasekaran (the author of the flubbed story and WaPo Baghdad Bureau Chief) emails one of the bloggers in question.

Needless to say, the speech was not resonating among the score of people my Iraqi translators talked to that day to gauge public reaction to the handover.

Wed 07 Jul 2004

Boy, I love it when sites post links to help, but then don't write any help for almost two years. Also, the copyright notice is from before the date at the top.
Posted in the morning. [ /computers ]

Mon 28 Jun 2004

Hey, if anybody out there hasn't heard the news, Microsoft sucks. Use Firefox.
Posted in the morning. [ /computers ]

Mon 21 Jun 2004

So, according to the latest study, it's more environmentally friendly to drive than to take the train. Uh-oh, better not tell my kids -- they live for trains...

via Blair.
Posted in the evening [ /society ]

Trying to come up with the names of black actors who weren't in Roots, a number of names were tossed out. (Lavar Burton? Chris Rock? Chris Tucker? Damon Wayans?) Then, my coworker says, "Orlando Bloom?" Boy, I imagine Orlando Bloom would have been great in that movie, don't you think?
Posted before lunch. [ /society/popculture ]

Sat 19 Jun 2004

From The Mystery of Capital, a book I think I may have heard about once or twice, but never really thought about -- a compelling quote:

To get an idea of just how difficult the [rural-to-city] migrant's life was, my research team and I opened a small garment workshop on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. Our goal was to create a new and perfectly legal business. The team then began filling out the forms, standing in the lines, and making the bus trips into central Lima to get all the certifications required to operate, according to the letter of the law, a small business in Peru. They spent six hours a day at it and finally registered the business--289 days later. Although the garment workshop was geared to operating with only one worker, the cost of legal registration was $1,231--thirty-one times the monthly minimum wage. To obtain legal authorization to build a house on state-owned land took six years and eleven months, requiring 207 administrative steps in fifty-two government offices.... To obtain a legal title for that piece of land took 728 steps. We also found that a private bus, jitney, or taxi driver who wanted to obtain official recognition of his route faced twenty-six months of red tape.

Wed 16 Jun 2004

A disclaimer: The views expressed on this blog do not represent those of Ken Jennings. His political views shall remain a mystery, although I'm grateful he disagrees with William Shakespeare, desiring instead to do in the businessmen. A mixed reference to Lenin and Douglas Adams, perhaps? Hey, when I read it, I laughed. But then, I've read Adams.
Posted just before bed (dang, gotta quit staying up so late) [ /politics ]

So, did you know that thousands of Iranians are crossing the border into Iraq? Neither did I, until now. Wonder if they're all there to fight for Al Sadr. Some probably are, but I doubt that it's a majority. But hey -- what the heck do I know?

Via Vinod, who I should probably blogroll. (If a link is created on a blog nobody reads, does anybody -- including the blog author -- care? What if the blog author himself doesn't care if his blog is read? Oh, the philosophical conundrums!)
Posted in the evening [ /politics ]

Bought some Big Macs the other day, so I decided to try out the Sony music download store, since hey, it's free. Their software requires 400 megs.

400 megs.

That's more than the hard drive on my first computer (and don't play the, oh, on my IBM XT I only had 5 megs! I know, OK, I know.) They need 400,000,000 characters, or 3,200,000,000 pieces of information (loosely defining a bit as a piece of information, admittedly), just to let me use their stupid software. Not only that, but they insist I install it on my primary drive; no option to put it on d: or e:. You just know that most of that 400 megs is probably little promotional pictures of teeny-boppers with their ipod-lookalike thingies (can't have ipods themselves, they don't play WindowsMedia! But we'll do our best to fool all the gullible people out there...) (And don't bother telling me that ipods do play WindowsMedia. They probably will, eventually.) Well. So, do I uninstall something just so I can make obeisance to Sony and their demand for 400 megs? Corel WordPerfect Suite 8 is only 100 megs, and that'll let you do just about anything you want office-wise. OpenOffice.org is 150 megs. Granted, the kings of bloatware -- MS -- most recent office product weighs in at 500 megs, which would give me more than enough room. Do I dare get rid of the standard? hmm...

Yesterday I tried downloading it in Lynx on my ancient Dell Pentium 90 laptop. Exercise in futility, I know, especially since that thing doesn't even have a sound card (so I can't really blame Sony that it won't play music ;) but I just wanted an excuse to rant. Luckily, I found something better to rant about...
Posted in the morning. [ /computers ]

Mon 14 Jun 2004

So now Ken Jennings has won more money than anyone in Jeopardy history. Makes me feel a little better about myself -- I always thought I was kinda smart, too, until I got to be his cannon fodder in quiz bowl practices. Of course, I was also fodder for Earl and Dave, too, freak win based upon REM lyrics notwithstanding. It's kinda cool to say that I know the guy who's wiping the walls with jeopardy contestants. And I can flatter myself by thinking that, in some small way, I contributed to his record.

I'm wondering, though, if the Jeopardy buzzers are similar to those we used at the Zoo in practice. Only person who can answer that for me is Ken, but I don't much feel like intruding on the Jeopardy message boards (where he is a regular) just to ask one question, the answer to which no one else there would be particularly interested in...

I can't remember too many Ken anecdotes, though the time we got a bonus which asked, "This restaurant started giving away these coveted toys with children's meals. First, name the restaurant, second name the toys." I had no idea, but guessed the obvious -- "McDonald's" and "Beanie Babies". Ken accurately described the situation, miming the question (he was on the other side at the time) "Name a restaurant. Name a toy."

If I had to pick of everyone I have ever known, who would win $200,000 on Jeopardy, needless to say, it would've been Ken. Hey, if Ken's actually reading this -- congratulations!
Posted late in the evening. [ /society ]

Wed 05 May 2004

Maybe you've heard of this letter that a bunch of diplomats (or, more likely, ex-diplomats) sent to President Bush, excoriating him for supporting Israel. Well, I was googling around, to see if I could find a complete list of the people who signed it, wondering if Ralph Earle II had signed it -- apparently not, though I wouldn't have been surprised. But in the course of googling, I came across this -- apparently the letter had been posted to some community website (Talkabout? never heard of 'em) about a week ago, soliciting diplomats to add your name to the letter! And in self-parody, practically, the post was written from an email address called "stop_the_nazis@" something-or-other. Well, Godwin's law applies before the stupid thing was even sent out!

I still can't believe how common it is for people to equate Israel with Nazis. Hello! Hello? Even Monty Python did it, 25 years ago. Sad.
Posted in the afternoon, taking a break from studying for Income Tax [ /politics ]

Mon 03 May 2004

Saw this article and made me think. It's about a kid who could throw the ball 95 mph his senior year in high school. But the coach made him throw a lot of sliders, and had him throw way too many pitches, and then he ended up being hurt a lot. Neyer paints the High School coach as the bad guy, of course, and I don't disagree. But, I mean, for the greater glory of what? The coach wanted to win baseball games, the kid wants to play major league baseball. The millions of dollars are incidental, of course. Does the kid just want to play baseball, or does he want to win? What is more important? Or, when it comes right down to it, is either one important?

Man, I don't know what's come into me, but I just care less and less about baseball nowadays, and I don't doubt that law school is partly to blame. I wonder if I take Sports and the Law if I'll feel better or worse about it.

Who am I kidding? I'm only thinking of taking that class because the professor is way cool, other than the Cub fan thing. Not to say that the rest of my professors aren't cool, though! Um, yeah.
Posted after my Communcation Torts final (which went OK -- I think) [ /society/baseball ]

Hey, for all you dentists out there -- did you see that they're using stem cells to grow new teeth?

via /.
Posted before my Communications Torts final [ /society ]

Thu 29 Apr 2004

One down, four to go. Glad that's over with. Don't get me wrong, I liked the class, but class: good, exam: bad.

I wonder, though, on these open-ended policy type questions, if it's better to parrot what the professor thinks, or to disagree. Actually, the best thing to do is probably to come up with some new spin on the idea -- however, that's not likely to happen in the half-hour you generally have on those things. Besides, there's nothing new under the sun, right? Failing that, it's better to be articulate than anything else -- agree or disagree is moot. At least I hope so!
Posted after my Products Liability final [ /law ]

Tue 27 Apr 2004

Just thought I'd share a heart-warming little story about the cops beating up a 71-year-old blind woman. Via Daypop.

Just one reason I never want to be a prosecutor. I'd have to work with these guys.
Posted late in the morning [ /law ]

Mon 26 Apr 2004

In case anybody else who reads this blog is in my Income Tax Class, I thought you might find this concatenation of the professor's powerpoint slides from the entire semester helpful.
Posted around lunchtime [ /law ]

Fri 23 Apr 2004

Whaddaya know, the hate email I sent them (see below) bounced. Not only are they annoyingly stupid, but they're technologically stupid, too! All this, from an engineering college. Man, am I ticked off right now. I am soooo glad that I don't live in that festering rathole called California.
Posted n the morning [ /computers ]

Thu 22 Apr 2004

I snapped this morning. Got an email today from some academic postmaster telling me to check my system for viruses, because they got an email from me with a virus. I replied, very simply: "Haven't you heard of spoofed headers? (bleep) you." However, to be perfectly honest, the "(bleep)" part isn't 100% accurate. Most of the time I just delete, but for them to tell me my computer is screwed up was the straw that broke the camel's back.

You know, I get about 20 emails a day from postmasters telling me my mail has bounced for a variety of reasons -- when I never sent them email in the first place. I am sick and tired of it. I realize that it's just an autoresponder, but those autoresponders are written by humans. Viruses can spoof headers, you know. I'd find a link for you, but I've already spent too much time with this. Use Google.

Yo, email server admins out there: Quit bouncing! You're using up bandwidth and my patience.
Posted in the morning (gonna get to work studying Crim Pro any time now!) [ /computers ]

Tue 20 Apr 2004

You'll have to forgive me, for more than one reason, for linking to this (via Volokh). It's a list of handy phrases in Aramaic for when you go see The Passion. Not that I've seen it, or have any intention of doing so, but still...
Posted late at night [ /society/popculture ]

Mon 12 Apr 2004

Maybe I should put some more thought into my site design...

Nah.
Posted in the afternoon [ /computers ]

Fri 09 Apr 2004

This (via Amygdala) had me laughing out loud. Guess I'm easily amused.

For the Census Bureau people -- remember the road kill messages?
Posted kinda late -- just before bed. [ /computers ]

Thu 08 Apr 2004

Holy crap. Kerry is getting to the right of Bush domestically. Pros for Kerry: picks up the hard-core libertarian vote (by hard-core, I mean the isolationist libertarians). Cons: risks alienating his base. However, Kerry's base is so dang rabid right now, I can't see them staying home in November for anything. And Nader is clearly persona-non-grata on the left, so I don't see that being an issue.

Of course, the probable truth is that this is just another empty campaign promise that will be forgotten soon, anyway. Some "emergency" will no doubt arise, as they always do, which will necessitate billions of dollars thrown at it.
Posted during an interminable discussion on like-kind exchanges in Income Tax [ /politics ]

Tue 06 Apr 2004

via Volokh (or Cohen, if you insist), an economic rant inspired by accounting rules...

The point is that I don't want to hear anyone complaining about the deficit unless they immediately begin to list ways of taking things away from old people and making them work harder and longer. Otherwise you aren't really bothered by the deficit at all.

Thu 01 Apr 2004

Interesting. The Cardinals are asking bloggers how much they should pay the best shortstop in the National League when his contract comes due. Redbird Nation is great, although I can't help but wonder if a line has been crossed here that I would rather not have crossed. Is my team so clueless that they're going to fans about financial decisions? If it were any other site, I'd be concerned.
Posted in the morning [ /society/baseball ]

Fri 26 Mar 2004

This morning (OK, yesterday morning, whatever) in Copyright class the professor asks, "Does anyone here have experience with programming?" Then he looks straight at me. Looong pause. "Well, not, um, commercially!"

That's what I get for being all gung-ho with the Apple v. Franklin case earlier in the semester. And that day he kept cutting me off, too. Just can't win, I suppose.

I will say this -- based upon my detailed analysis of the case in question (read: quickly reading two pages before the mangled definitions of computer jargon drove me nuts, and then skipping to the end just so I'd know how it turned out), I'd have to say that if Dworkin thinks defamation law resembles rococo curliques, he oughtta try to make heads or tails out of that crap. Let's make it easy, guys: You copy the code, it's infringment. You don't, it isn't. Okee-dokee?
Posted later still [ /law ]

Answer to my question below, I guess, is somewhat obvious -- if the guy thinks he can quit his job for $3000, then he's probably just dumb enough to be impressed by eating at Denny's. Sorry to have bothered you!
Posted even later at night. [ /society ]

This one is for you, Jeff.

A few weeks ago we all went out to eat at Denny's. We had a coupon, and the kids like breakfast food. However, there are two guys at the booth next to us, and one of them won't stop talking. He's talking all about "lifestyles" and work and stuff like that. For some reason, I thought he was a clergyman of some type, telling the other guy (a younger guy, practically a kid) to clean up his act. Why he would do that at Denny's, I have no idea, but that's what popped into my head. Although I started to wonder the second time he answered his cell phone...

Suddenly the talkative guy asks, "How would your life change if I pushed three thousand dollars across this table to you?" The other guy responds, "Well, I'd have a lot more free time, I wouldn't have to work..." I almost turned around and snorted at him. What a maroon, as Bugs Bunny might have said. Poor guy doesn't realize that $3000 is virtually nothing -- OK, it's 4 months rent for us, but it's not gonna get me out of a job.

The horror quickly dawned on me when the talkative guy starts talking about this great website, and how they sell all kinds of stuff... I mouth across the table to Heather, "Amway!" Sure enough, "the site is quixtar.com" (I'm not sure of the spelling, and frankly don't want to know. I know enough to know that they don't use the name Amway anymore because of the stigma, and push the name of their site instead.)

Anyway, my question for the Amway salesman is -- if you really want to impress someone with how much money you're making, why in the world would you take him to DENNY'S????
Posted WAY late at night. [ /society ]

Thu 04 Mar 2004

Look at this. They're having a nice little pro-abortion propaganda fest up at Michigan Law School, sponsored (if you look at the list) by the law school. Michigan taxpayers' money, at work! Now somebody tell me again why we need the American Constitution Society again? Oh yes, combat the pernicious influence of them evil, horn-bearing Federalist Society people. It's not like the schools will do that by themselves...

Crap, posting stuff like this, I'll never get a job.
Posted before Copyright [ /law ]

Mon 01 Mar 2004

I just want to contrast similar scenes from two different movies that came out last year -- Holes and Return of the King.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD -- but not really...

Both involve scenes where two undersized characters are struggling up the side of a mountain. In both movies, one character ends up having to pick up and carry the other to the top. OK, fine. Far-fetched, yes, but so what; it's dramatic as all get out.

In Return of the King, (Note: I consider myself a serious fan of the books, so take what I say with a grain of salt) Jackson seriously made me want to puke. Frodo and Sam are climbing up the mountain, Frodo falls down. OK, so what happens? We get a dialogue -- "I can't do it, Sam!" "C'mon Mr. Frodo, we need to keep going!" "Ugh..." (sorry, can't remember it all) until the music dramatically swells, we cut to Sam's face for a Hero shot, wind blowing his hair, hold for a couple of seconds, then "Well I'll carry you!"

I guess the whole "carrying" thing just wasn't dramatic enough for Jackson. No, we've gotta bash the audience over the head, and say SAM! IS! A! HERO!!!!! Makes me weep. For me, what made Sam so dang heroic was just his matter-of-fact way of going about things. Oh, you can't climb anymore? Um, OK, I'll carry you then. Just does it, none of this hero-shot, music-swelling, dramatic-shout nonsense.

In contrast, in Holes, the whole carrying-up-the-mountain thing was as clearly telegraphed as it was in Return of the King, but for some reason, it just didn't come across as forced. Stanley didn't want to carry him up, but kinda had to. So he did. And that makes him so much more the hero. The intercut scenes with Eartha Kitt helped, too, I must admit.

And don't get me started on the Scouring of the Shire. Really, don't.
Posted around lunchtime [ /society/popculture ]

Thu 19 Feb 2004

This is an awesome story. Someone came up to a engineering grad student at Oxford and asked him to deliver a series of lectures on global economics in Beijing. So he went and bought a textbook, then caught the flight to China. Funny thing is, the audience he was speaking to was PhD students in finance.

And the sad thing is, I'm insanely jealous. I only share my name with a scrub baseball player.

via Blair.
Posted around lunchtime [ /society ]

Wed 04 Feb 2004

I believe that congratulations are in order. However, where are the pictures? Oh, the 3 a.m. thing doesn't last forever, it'll end -- eventually. And of course, it's all worth it, immeasurably.
Posted during Income Tax [ /home ]

Just wish all leftists were as smart as Balkin. Oh wait a second, no I don't. Anyway, he has a great post that Democrats serious about retaking power should read, and Republicans concerned about Bush's fiscal policies should read as well.
Posted during Income Tax [ /politics ]

Wed 28 Jan 2004

Noticed this New York Times article (via the Business of Baseball blog) about the Ticos who sew major league baseballs in Turrialba. I spent 4 months in Turrialba back in 1994, and I remember talking to many people sho worked there. One guy who had just started -- newlywed with a newborn baby, trying to support his new family -- showed me his torn up hands. He would have to pull so hard on the cords, he literally cut his hands. I'm sure after a while he built up the callouses on his hands that all the other workers had, if he kept working there. Problem is, he really didn't have much of a choice.

One reason that the economy in Turrialba is depressed (that is not mentioned in the article) is the closing down of the railroad -- I'm not sure whether the reason for that was that an earthquake wrecked the tracks or the new highway was built through Guapiles -- so now all the people who want to visit the Caribbean coast don't pass through Turrialba anymore. Anyway, I don't have a good answer to their problems -- wish I did -- but I loved the place, and the people there. Hope that the pressure is effective, and doesn't cause Rawlings to just shut the plant down.
Posted in the evening. [ /society/baseball ]

Sat 24 Jan 2004

I just wanna say that Kaz Sasaki is a real man. It's kinda sad that it took him two years, though, to realize that his family was more important than baseball.
Posted in the afternoon [ /society/baseball ]

Think I've gotta add Impromptus to the blogroll. Always a good read. Today he comes to us with the second installment of a diary from Davos. He spends a good deal of time discussing Clinton's speech (as we know, all righties are obsessed with Clinton) and notes,

Clinton was very, very impressive ... and well worth listening to.

Self-flagellation is a favorite sport here, and sometimes the Annual Meeting threatens to devolve into a Guiltfest. (I should say that self-flagellation is the sport of successful Westerners; the flagellation of others is the sport of yet others!)

Isn't it wonderful to look at the news and see that a U.S. Senator is acting as a tool for a member of the axis of evil?
Posted late in the morning. [ /politics ]

Fri 23 Jan 2004

I'm in. Only two days after the official add/drop period ended, no biggie. And no, I'm not taking the class simply to avoid personal liability, although Lou is a miserable vomitous mass. Oh, and thanks for the coat!
Posted after Copyright Law. [ /law ]

Wed 21 Jan 2004

So the UK is downgrading dope, and the doctors don't like it. Money quote: "People are making the conclusion that it is safe where in fact it is actually more dangerous than tobacco." Now, lessee, is tobacco legal in Britain? Apparently not, or at least not if the BMA got their way. Ugh, paternalism.
Posted after Crim Pro. [ /society ]

Tue 20 Jan 2004

I'm next on the waitlist for Communication Torts. Cross your fingers for me. Only one more person needs to drop...
Posted after CrimPro [ /law ]

Look at this page carefully. Note that in the "Course Format" section, he states that PowerPoint slides will be available on the web soon after class. Nothing there yet, even though we're done with two days of class now. Somehow, I doubt that this is the professor's fault; I have a sneaky suspicion that somewhere out there is some computer geek who's been tasked with "building a website" that is the keymaster to all available out there. And he hasn't gotten around to uploading them, yet. Maybe I'm wrong; I actually think that secretaries can upload stuff. But why not give professors ftp access to the webserver? Or if they do have it, why not explain to them how the heck it works? OK, short answer -- law professors are as tech-illiterate as the rest of the world. Forget I ranted.
Posted after Crim Pro. [ /computers ]

Fri 16 Jan 2004

Just overheard in the library lobby: "I had to argue with him for 20 minutes on how you mandate a gift." (Emphasis in the original).

Dang, I love law school.
Posted late in the morning. [ /law ]

Fri 09 Jan 2004

Via /., an amusing description of literary deconstruction. I think my favorite part was the list of texts to deconstruct, separated into beginner, intermediate, advanced, and tour de force categories.
Posted before lunch. [ /society ]

Sun 04 Jan 2004

Just wanted to share something Jacob yelled in frustration last night: "My head won't fit through the sofa!" Hey, I thought it was funny.
Posted in the morning [ /home ]

Sat 03 Jan 2004

Just a short complaint about certain webpages -- if I want your links to open in a new window, I'll go ahead and right click on the link, OK? Quit it with your stupid scripts to open a new window for me so that I won't have to leave your wonderful site... if your site is all that, I do know how to use the back button. Grrr...
Posted in the morning [ /computers ]