Legal Commentary

College Football Game Predictions and Results - 2008 Season - Week 5

Posted on September 22, 2008
After a strong week of prognostication, in which we beat the spread 26-17-1, we now go into week 5 with presumably more information available, so that for the first time this season, we rely solely on the 2008 football stats to make our predictions for the games for which odds are made (the line, the spread)...

College Football Game Predictions and Results - 2008 Season - Week 4

Posted on September 19, 2008
Odds used are those posted at Yahoo Odds on Monday, September 15, 2008. The system used for game prognostications is SPRS. The stats is parentheses give the net average yards per play gained on offense and allowed on defense thus far this season. We disclaim any and all liability for any reliance of any kind on our prognostications...

College Football Game Predictions and Results - 2008 Season - Week 4 (part 2)

Posted on September 19, 2008
Arkansas State (7.7, 4.3) is favored at home by 5 points over Middle Tennessee (4.7, 5.0).Our call: 35-28 for Arkansas StateLast year, these teams, clearly stronger this year, were nearly even in the ratings and rankings, with Middle Tennessee holding a slight edge...

Short-term European Schadenfreude and the US Investment Banking and Subprime Mortgage Crisis on Wall Street

Posted on September 18, 2008
A thought-provoking analysis of the US investment banking and subprime mortgage crisis is given at the New York Times by Nelson D. Schwartz and Carter Dougherty in As Europe Watches Wall Street Fall, Schadenfreude Gives Way to Worry.Whenever fortunes are being lost, fortunes are being made...

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Job Earnings Statistics of US Census Bureau led by Law Occupations (Lawyers, Judges, Paralegals) at Twice the National Median Household Income

Posted on September 14, 2008
Have you ever thought about what an average lawyer, teacher, taxi driver or dishwasher earns? Is dishwashing really at the bottom of the earnings list from which there is nowhere to go but up to make one's millions? Indeed, what do people in the various jobs, occupations and professions in the United States actually earn? This posting can tell you - for example, the dishwasher is in fact at the absolute bottom of the US income and earnings scale...

Real Estate Investment in the European Union : Buying in Berlin

Posted on September 10, 2008
The New York Times Great Homes and Destinations tells us that Berlin is a great place now to buy real estate.Hat tip to CaryGEE.

Why do People in the USA Vote for the Republican Party : The Role of Morality and Emotion versus the Exercise of Reason in explaining Voting Behavior

Posted on September 10, 2008
At Edge.org, Jonathan Haidt, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, who researches morality and emotion, has a short thought-provoking politically-oriented piece titled What Makes People Vote Republican?What particularly interests Haidt is the following question:"Why in particular do working class and rural Americans usually vote for pro-business Republicans when their economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies?"Haidt argues - in summary of his observations - that morals and values are the deciding factor:"People vote Republican because Republicans offer "moral clarity"?a simple vision of good and evil that activates deep seated fears in much of the electorate...

The LawPundit Wins the Men's Golf 2008 Club Championship at the Mosel Golf Club in Cochem, Germany

Posted on September 09, 2008
Over the past weekend, the LawPundit won the men's golf 2008 club championship at the Mosel Golf Club in Cochem, Germany, which was quite an event for this writer given the LawPundit's age - 61. The LawPundit, a long hitter, was aided by the terrible weather on the weekend, with high winds and prolonged rain, which made the course very difficult to play for nearly everyone, especially the shorter hitters...

LawPundit Predicts a McCain / Palin Presidential Election Victory

Posted on September 09, 2008
For months, we have supported Barack Obama in the US Presidential campaign. This we have done for many reasons. As a graduate of Harvard Law School and as the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, Obama had what were arguably the best educational credentials of any candidate...

College Football Game Predictions and Results - 2008 Season - Week 3

Posted on September 08, 2008
Week 3 College Football Games with Oddsas published at Yahoo Sports, Monday, September 8, 2008(Numbers in parentheses are our own SPRS ratings for a team, adjusted if necessary for current season performance - adjustment are made only if there is a large discrepancy visible already between this year and last)Thursday, September 11, 2008Rutgers is favored at home by 4 1/2 points North Carolina...

Palin's Last Speech at the RGA Republican Governors Association

Posted on September 06, 2008
As written at FoxNews.com, "Governor Sarah Palin attended a private luncheon of the Republican Governor?s Association today at the Russian Museum of Art in Minneapolis. After the luncheon she addressed the press...."

The Great USA Divide 2008 : The Choice of Vice-Presidential Nominees Turns the Presidential Election Upside Down

Posted on September 05, 2008
Political centrists such as the LawPundit are extremely sensitive to changes in the momentum of current events. One such fundamental change has been the choice of Vice-Presidential nominees by the Democratic and Republican Parties in the United States...

R&R for Stressed Professionals : Does a Discreet German Five-Star Spa Hotel in Traben-Trabach Have the Answer? The Daily Telegraph Reports

Posted on September 05, 2008
The Daily Telegraph just featured an article by Adriaane Pielou, Ayurvedic spas: Detox is a girl's best friend, reporting about the Parkschloesschen, a discreet five-star spa hotel in Traben-Trarbach, Germany, which offers professionals and executives from around the world "a welcome antidote to a stress-filled life"...

College Football Game Predictions and Results for the Weekend of September 6, 2008 (Week 2 of the NCAA Season)

Posted on September 03, 2008
These are our SPRS-based predictions and results for the second week of college football in the 2008 / 2009 season, first posted September 4, and then updated regularly by the final scores. We do this because it interests us. We disclaim any and all liability for any reliance of any kind on our prognostications...

Conservatives Liberals Libertarians and the Art of Seeing and Believing

Posted on August 26, 2008
A fried of mine sent me the following bumper sticker:Conservative: Seeing is BelievingLiberal: Believing is SeeingOur reply went something like this:The distinction between Seeing and Believing is an artificial one. Belief, verily, is the Absence of Proof...

College Football Game Predictions Weekend of August 28, 2008

Posted on August 24, 2008
These are our SPRS-based predictions for the first week of college football in the 2008 / 2009 season. We do this solely because it interests us and we disclaim any and all liability for any reliance of any kind on our prognostications. May the best team win...

How is the Economy Doing? One Way to Judge is to Check Out the Increasing Crowds at Discount Supermarkets : German Discounter ALDI Surges in the USA

Posted on August 24, 2008
When world leaders or Presidential candidates in the USA make statements about the state of the economy, who is telling the truth?One way to judge how the economy is doing is to look at the clientele shopping at discount supermarkets. This Week in Germany points to the rising success of food discounters ALDI and Lidl throughout Europe:"Rising food costs surely explain much of the discounters' success: As in America, the middle classes are trying to save money and are flocking to the cheaper stores to buy their groceries, which can cost some 30 to 50 percent less than at ordinary supermarkets...

Usain's Bolt : Jamaica Lightning Runs 9.69 100-Meter in the 2008 Olympics : But Will You Ever See It? Copyrights Limit the Sports Broadcasting World

Posted on August 17, 2008
Toss the idea of the Internet as a large open worldwide community out the window.Our copyright laws and the invisible webs of business and monopoly powers and dependencies impose substantial limits on the Internet, not even to mention the intentional squelching of Internet content by governments...

"Rise Up!" and be Queen or King for a Day : Badoo Makes it Possible for its Users to Announce "I am here"

Posted on August 15, 2008
One of the rising stars in social networking is the London-based website Badoo. As written at the Wikipedia, Badoo has a number of interesting features, with the outstanding one being its method of finance:"Badoo is a multi-lingual, London based, social networking website...

The United States Supreme Court under Chief Justice Roberts

Posted on August 15, 2008
Via the August 2008 edition of Law@Stanford, a monthly e-newsletter for alumni and friends of Stanford Law School, we were directed to an article by Jeffrey Rosen at the New Republic on the United States Supreme Court under Chief Justice Roberts, suggesting that Roberts is becoming more successful in getting a more united Supreme Court in terms of their decision-making...

Landmark Federal Circuit Decision holds that Open Source Copyrights are Legally Enforceable

Posted on August 14, 2008
Here is a great Federal Circuit decision on Copyrights in Open Source which the New Media & Technology Law Blog (Jeffrey D. Neuburger) describes as follows:"There are so few judicial opinions dealing with open source licenses that any single one is of great interest, but the pro-open source ruling of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Jacobsen v...

Medical Alert : Can Sweetener Aspartame Cause Depression after High Doses of 0%-Sugar Zero-type Soft Drinks? Can Phenylalanine Cause Seizures?

Posted on August 14, 2008
Sainsbury's large retail supermarket chain in the UK banned the controversial sweetener aspartame from soft drinks on its shelves in 2007, but aspartame-containing soft drinks are still readily available around the world.Natural News writes about Aspartame as follows:"The problem with aspartame lies in overconsumption...

Top 100 Most Prestigious Law Firms in the World According to Vault.com

Posted on August 12, 2008
[This posting has been updated from a previous version.]Vault.com has just published its annual listof the Top 100 Most Prestigious Law Firms,as determined by the Vault.com associate survey.Our former law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, which, in our opinion, remains the top litigation, telecommunications and entertainment law firm in the country, remained at the same overall 13th spot - in the eyes of the surveyed law associates everywhere - that it held last year...

The Million Dollar Blawg : Calculate the Value of Your Weblog with Dane Carlson's Business Opportunities Blog Worth Calculator

Posted on August 12, 2008
Dane Carlson's Business Opportunities Weblog has a blog valuation service - the Blog Worth Calculator - whereby you merely plug in the respective URL and it calculates the value of almost any blog based on "Data from Technorati and inspired by research from Tristan Louis...

Networking for the Legal Profession + Ways to Get Wild About Work, Increase Energy, Raise Kids & Improve the Environment, Reducing a Family Footprint

Posted on August 12, 2008
Building a Solo Practice has a posting titled Networking for Shy Lawyers, linking to 25 posts as compiled by the M.A.P. Maker on networking for shy people.DO LOOK at both those websites.Building a Solo Practice by Susan Cartier Liebel is very popular among solo practitionerswhile M...

HEADLINE UPDATE : Russia Ends War with Georgia over South Ossetia : The Roots of the Conflict by Anatol Lieven

Posted on August 12, 2008
UPDATE : RUSSIA ENDS WARJust minutes ago, via CNN from Moscow:"Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced Tuesday that he has ordered an end to military operations against Georgia. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called a halt to the advance of Russian troops in Georgia...

Usefulness of Expert Witnesses in Trade Mark Disputes

Posted on August 11, 2008
All things in law and life are decided upon facts or evidence, at least what we view to be facts or evidence, or the absence of same.Throughout our professional life, we have been very skeptical of "experts", especially if this involves any of the humanities...

Email Archiving and Hosting Outsourcing Solutions for Firms and Businesses in Compliance with Legislation : SEC CFTC Sarbanes Oxley NASD NYSE FRCP

Posted on August 11, 2008
Is your professional, firm or business email archiving in compliance with legislation in force? SEC? CFTC? Sarbanes-Oxley? NASD? NYSE? And what about the FRCP? And what about email hosting outsourcing?GFI Software, a software company specializing in content and network security, messaging and compliance solutions for SMBs, at very competitive prices, has compiled various documents focusing on email archiving laws affecting businesses in the United States...

Russia Georgia Caucasus Ossetia Abhkazia : Ethnolinguistic Map : Empty Google Map : Ancient Peoples of Region : Jason and the Argonauts : Zemanta

Posted on August 11, 2008
What does your average Internet commentator know about the Caucasus? We think it is very little, but we leave you to answer that question as you read Internet commentary on the current situation between the Black and Caspian Seas. We hope to add a bit of knowledge below...

Fair Use Reform in the Context of Overenforcement of Copyrights

Posted on August 10, 2008
This posting continues where some of our last postings at LawPundit left off, particularly concerning free speech and copyrights.Solove's blog, Concurring Opinions, just posted links to articles in the last issue of the Iowa Law Review, Volume 93, Issue 4 (June 2008), including Fair Use and Copyright Overenforcement by Thomas F...

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