Legal Blogs

Lyle Denniston (a journalist who has covered the Supreme Court for over 45 years, and presently contributes to SCOTUSblog) has published a piece in the Chapman Law Journal entitled, "Legal Blogs: The Search for Legitimacy." This highly readable, six page article can be found here.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Internet Movie Database

If your summer plans include escaping the hot weather in an air conditioned movie theater (or with a DVD at home), don’t forget to check out the Internet Movie Database (Imdb). This popular entertainment site is a one-stop gold mine of movie facts and news, ratings and reviews, actor biographies, filmographies, opening dates and local theater showings, awards and festivals, film and actor photo galleries, films on DVD, and much more. Imdb is the brainchild of founder and manager Col Needham, a British film enthusiast and engineer who started out in 1990 with only a bulletin board database of movie credits in the early days of the Internet. The success story of Imdb is the subject of a New York Times article by Richard Siklos (May 28, 2006).

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Sources For Summer Reading

Got some titles in mind for Summer reading material, before returning to pore over cases and statutes? Then try BookFinder.com, which describes itself as "the open marketplace for books online, —a one-stop ecommerce search engine where you can search through over 100 million new, used, rare, and out of print books for sale". BookFinder covers popular new and used book services, such as Amazon, ABE, and Alibris, as well as smaller and more obscure sellers.

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Hurricane Law?

We all know that Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath have changed lives and national politics. Did you know that there is a blog devoted to tracking how hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the recovery effort are also changing the face of the law? Hurricane Law Blog, published by the law firm of McGlinchey Stafford, PLLC, provides a “single online destination for hurricane-related developments in this rapidly-evolving legal landscape.” The Gulf Coast firm maintains the blog as a searchable up-to-date repository for news and information about hurricane-related legislation, litigation, federal and state regulatory issues, opinion and commentary. Hurricane Law Blog is a great way to keep up with post-Katrina legal developments in many key areas, including financial services, insurance, real estate, environmental, government contracts, health care and employment.
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Does History Repeat Itself?

Wondering if anything interesting happened on this date in history? There are several different websites to check out for events in past years. Try The Free Dictionary, On This Day from the N.Y. Times, or Today in History from Yahoo News.

Today in History (from The Free Dictionary) . . .
"John T. Scopes, a Tennessee biology teacher, was tried for violating the Butler Act, a 1925 state law banning the teaching of evolution. This so-called "Monkey Trial" became a flashpoint for debate among religious scholars and scientists as well as the general public. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, though the verdict was later reversed. Despite the outcry stemming from the case, the Butler Act was not repealed until 1967." For more background on the Scopes trial, see http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Scopes+Trial


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Devilish Diversion

Fans of the old Bugs Bunny cartoons may recall an inarticulate character that embodies chaos, indiscipline, and anarchy--in a word, the very antithesis of law and order--known as the Tasmanian Devil. The real Devil, however, is a very different beast from his cartoon counterpart, and a most interesting one. Those who are curious about this creature will find more information here.

I like them because they are natural enemies of dogs. ;-)

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Barbeque!

Too hot to cook? So, barbeque! I realize that barbeque is a style of cooking, but it is more fun and somehow seems cooler than turning on the oven. For everything you need to know about grilling over an open flame check out the Barbecue Bible website. Equipment, recipes and common sense advice are easy to find and understand. So if you don't have your grill out already, take it out now and barbeque!

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Wex - quick, reliable, legal reference

Many of us have done a quick search on Wikipedia to get a fact, date or rough idea on a topic. Wex, a similar new website provided by our friends at the Legal Information Institute, is

"A collaboratively built, freely available legal dictionary and encyclopedia. Much of the material that appears in Wex was originally developed for the LII's 'Law about...' pages, to which Wex is the successor. "

Like Wikipedia, Wex has multiple contributors, although there is a selection process in order to maintain quality and prevent vandalism.

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Medical Metasearch

If you ever need quick, sufficiently detailed and reliable information about a medical topic (who doesn't?), you need to know about OmniMedicalSearch.com. A free medical metasearch engine, OmniMedicalSearch is designed to simultaneously search up to 16 medical search engines and provide the top results from all. Sources include both United States and UK prominent services and institutes (such as WebMD, Healthline, and NHSDirect Online), each selected for being "unbiased and noncommercial in nature and an established authority for delivering responsible medical information." Users can opt to search the entire Web, medical news sources, images, or a single source. They can also select the "Web2" option that searches only .gov, .edu, .org and .ac.uk domains among four major search engines. Check out the site-map for dictionary and acronym search features and links to medical associations and journals.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Myth Information

The law, being a learned profession, has often made use of Classical and mythological allusions to illustrate its doctrines. To the modern reader, however, such references may seem obscure. The Encyclopedia Mythica, an online resource devoted to the world's mythology, shall quickly explain and clarify these allusions. So, if a phrase such as "cleaning the Augean stables" has you puzzled for a moment, then look no further than the Encyclopedia Mythica for a quick answer.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat