There's a funny article in this month's ABA magazine about trial techniques, and how an attorney has won cases by using some unorthodox methods. There is not much legalese in it, so it should be funny even for a non-lawyer. Be forwarned, the article does contain profanity. Here is a link.
There was an interesting post on Boston 1775 (a blog I read) about a Virginia Supreme Court case that involved a copy of the Declaration of Independence that was stored in the attic of a house in Maine. It looks like Maine's attorney, by not preserving issues for appeal, lost out on arguing a number of things before the Virginia Supreme Court.
There was an interesting article in the Times today about a Manhattan assistant district attorney who intentionally lost a case where he did not believe in the conviction. According to the Times article, the responsible court agency (which I presume is the First Department Disciplinary Committee) chose not to purse a case against Mr. Bibb. The case raised the question of what zealous representation means when one is a district attorney.
A country music singer, John Rich, who, according to Wikipedia, used to play in the country music band Lonestar, has come up with a song about the current economic situation. While I don't think it's ever going to gain the same historical traction as some of Woody Guthrie's songs, I do think the song is pretty good. His website has a streaming version of it.
Another country music song that discusses economics is Cafe Down on the Corner by Sawyer Brown. That's much older.
By calling one toll-free number:
800–829–1040, you can get answers to your tax questions, order free publications and order transcripts of information you entered on previous tax returns. All of these services are free.
With regard to publications, may I suggest Publication 17, both for its utility in answering tax questions and helping you fall asleep.
The automated system for getting transcripts will ask you for your address, so I'm not sure how it will react if you want things sent to a new address because you've moved. In any case, though, the phone system is quite efficient, and you can order multiple transcripts with one phone call.
See:
http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq/0,,id=199557,00.html
Google has set up a status page for its applications (like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Talk, etc.)
See:
http://www.google.com/appsstatus
They really ought to have had such a status page since the beginning of Gmail, but I suppose late is better than never.
Yesterday and tonight I poached salmon fillets for dinner. To make this, I did the following:
1. Took a frying pan and put a little bit of water into the bottom of it.
2. Brought this water to a boil.
3. Put the salmon in the water and covered it with a lid.
4. Waited until the salmon was done (flaked easily with a fork and was light pink).
I also made a side dish of pasta (small pasta works better, like orzo if you have it or elbow macaroni), and served it with lemon juice, which you can pour right over the fish and the pasta.
You could also, I suppose, use rice instead of pasta, although then I suppose the lemon juice wouldn't work so well.
It was quite easy to do and did not take long at all.
Last Thursday night a friend and I went to see Sons of Bill (music samples are on MySpace and Facebook). They were quite good, and both of us thought that they were better than the main act, Reckless Kelly. I'll definitely keep my eye open for them to see if they are in Metro DC again.
There's been an interesting discussion in both the mainstream media and Facebook's blog (there have been two entries) about Facebook and copyright law. My three cents is that the only thing that Facebook needs a perpetual license to is an email that I send to a friend via Facebook. I think it's weird that they'd even need this, given the fact that one normally doesn't think of email as copyrighteable. If I send an email on Gmail to my friend on Yahoo!, am I really granting Gmail a license to copy my email and send it to my friend? Ordinarily, I wouldn't have the need to claim copyright on an email I sent. Even if I was sending my friend a manuscript for a book I was writing, could I then sue Gmail for copyright infringement? I don't think I'd have a cause of action.
Anything else that I post on Facebook, like a wall post or photo, can be deleted. Therefore, any license I give Facebook for posting something like that should be revocable at my will.
I wonder whether someone who sued Facebook for copyright infringement for redistributing his or her pictures would even have a cause of action (so long as Facebook posted them in compliance with his or her privacy settings). I guess Facebook is covering itself, but are they going over the top?
Flickr's terms of service are pretty clear. Once I remove my content from Flickr (which is owned by Yahoo!), Yahoo!'s license to display and/or distribute this information is instantly revoked. Sometimes, as when I submit content to a Flickr-sponsored group, the license, by its terms (you'll need a Yahoo!/Flickr account to see these terms), expires at a certain time.
Google's answer to Flickr (Picasa Web), on the other hand, has much broader (and less favorable) terms for me as an end-user. If I upload a photo to Picasa Web, under the terms of service (Section 11.1), I give Google what essentially amounts to an irrevocable royalty-free license to display my information. As a result, I don't use Picasa much.
It's interesting to see what at tangled web is woven with all these license agreements. It also shows the importance of reading license agreements.
Go to this website for free coffee. There's no strings attached.
Update: They're out.
If you use Gmail as your email provider, you might be interested to know about this Google group. Only Googlers can post to it. It will let you know if there is a problem with Gmail. There's also an RSS feed you can subscribe to if you are so inclined.
This website from the FDA has information on the peanut recall and a comprehensive list of every product affected.
The other day I was on Amazon MP3 and saw a free download (still free as of this writing) from Steve Martin. At the time, I thought the name was just coincidence, but then I saw this article in the Times about how Steve Martin plays bluegrass.
Last Thursday, there was a piece on NPR's All Things Considered about people who are preserving "old-timey" music. The CDs available for purchase on the group's website are pretty pricey, but the audio on the story's page on NPR is free.
Google posted some interesting statistics about searches during the inauguration. It's neat (although not surprising) to see the drop in U.S. queries during President Obama's swearing in/speech.
Google also posted some interesting stats awhile ago regarding the election. I had meant to post them earlier, but here they are now.
I saw this recipe in the Times and thought it was worth a try. I modified it slightly. I used plain olives and frozen cauliflower which I prepared in the microwave. I also omitted the thyme because I didn't have any. It still worked out perfectly well.
If you're bored, you can try going to Settings|Language in Facebook and picking English (Pirate) as your language. You'll have to scroll down through the languages, but it is there. Facebook's developers apparently had a lot of time on their hands. It looks like they rewrote the entire interface in Pirate.
There was an article in the New York Times a little while back about runners and cars. When I can, I like to avoid running with cars, but, unfortunately, living in an urban area, that's sometimes difficult. I usually try to defer to cars, but it can annoy me when cars don't yield to me when I am in a cross walk. Right now, on weekends, I like running in Rock Creek Park on Beach Drive. At least a portion of that road is closed to vehicular traffic.
I also discovered a useful link, that lets you see what your pace is based on mileage run and distance traveled.
There was an interesting piece on NPR yesterday which was a musical analysis of Buddy Can You Spare A Dime -- a depression era song. Even though my musical knowledge is pretty limited, I was able to get a lot of what the analyst was talking about.
I also didn't know that the lyricist for this song also wrote Over the Rainbow of Wizard of Oz fame.
A few weeks ago when I went camping, I made Hobo Stew over a campfire. The meal is readily transferable to non-campfire cooking.
What's nice about this recipe is that you can use pre-cooked items, so you don't have to worry about cooking things extra thoroughly.
So, without further adieu, here is the recipe:
In a non-stick frying pan (although you can use a regular frying pan if you want), combine:
