Wiki Sky—A Virtual Planetarium

The recent anniversary of the first Moon landing reminds us that Summer is an ideal time for outdoor star-gazing. Virtual star-gazing, however, can be interesting, too. See Wiki Sky, for instance. In this free virtual planetarium, you will discover all sorts of interesting information about, and images of, the night sky. Just click the “getting started” link at the top of the page and see for yourself.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

Monday, July 20th 2009 was the 40 year anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. Some of us older folk remember watching it live on television. It was a time when space exploration was new and exciting. NASA has organized a web page celebrating the event. The site includes restored videos of the moonwalk and a link to google moon so you can explore the landing area.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Paperback Swap

Do you have a lot of paperbacks at home? Do you love reading, but find that storing all those books is taking up too much space? You might want to try PaperBack Swap.

PaperBack Swap is an online group that allows you to swap your books with other members. All you need to do is create an account and post a list of books that you want to swap with other members (this process is fast and easy as you need only to enter the ISBN numbers). Once you do this, you are given 2 credits which you can use to "order" 2 books from other members. When another member requests a book from your list, you are notified by e-mail and are given the person's address and wrapper which you can use to wrap and mail the book. You get one credit for every books you send out.

It's a pretty convenient way to swap books and is an excellent way to enhance your summer reading. All you need to pay for is postage!




Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Sports Labor Law

This might provide a nice short break for anyone who is now studying for the bar but finding it impossible to stop thinking about law--even while taking a break to watch baseball highlights.

David Cone testified at Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings last week (transcript here) and he also happened to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium yesterday (a still-devastating curve). Cone was invited to testify on Sotomayor's behalf because he was a representative of the Major League Baseball Players Association when Sotomayor resolved baseball's most recent major labor dispute, in 1994. Here, Prof. Ilya Somin from George Mason, who also testified Thursday, mentions that Cone was a successful litigant who was testifying on behalf of a judge who made a decision in his favor.

In fact, the Supreme Court recently granted cert. in American Needle v. National Football League, which could significantly change labor relations in American professional sports, and some see Sotomayor as a potential disruption to the NFL's apparent plan to obtain antitrust exemption for all major sports leagues through that case. (Good analysis of the case is here from a practical perspective, and here from a legal perspective.)



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Searching the Deep Web

Did you know that you can search for Deep Web content? Completeplanet is a Deep Web directory that searches “surface” Web sites as well as Deep Web content contained in searchable databases.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Haymarket Affair: 1886-1887

Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair1886-1887

This collection showcases more than 3,800 images of original manuscripts, broadsides, photographs, prints and artifacts relating to the Haymarket Affair. The violent confrontation between Chicago police and labor protesters in 1886 proved to be a pivotal setback in the struggle for American workers' rights. These materials pertain to: the May 4, 1886 meeting and bombing; to the trial, conviction and subsequent appeals of those accused of inciting the bombing; and to the execution of four of the convicted and the later pardon of the remaining defendants. Of special interest and significance are the two dozen images of three-dimensional artifacts, including contemporary Chicago Police Department paraphernalia, labor banners, and an unexploded bomb casing given to juror J. H. Brayton by Chicago Police Captain Michael Schaack. The cornerstone is the presentation, as images and searchable text, of the transcript of the 3,200 pages of proceedings from the murder trial of State of Illinois v. August Spies, et al.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

The Earth Portal

Self-described as a comprehensive resource for timely, objective, science-based information about the environment, the Earth Portal was selected as one of Library Journal's "Best Free Reference" web sites of 2008. The Earth Portal covers the natural environment of the earth as broadly defined, from air and water to living organisms and interdisciplinary topics, including related law and policy. All content is governed by the Environmental Information Coalition (EIC), a group of scientists and scholars and the institutions and agencies for which they work. Well organized and easy to navigate, the site consists of three components: the Encyclopedia of the Earth (with a great topical browse feature); Earth Forum (commentary and discussion); and Earth News (international in scope). For environmental law background or personal interest, this is a great place to start.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

The World's Ten Smallest Animals

We follow up our list of the weirdest animals of 2008 with that of the ten smallest animals. If you've ever wanted to see the smallest lizard, or--*cough, cough*--the smallest cat, then have a look.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

It was a dark and stormy night...

The results of the 2009 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest are released. Most likely you think of Snoopy in the Peanuts comic strip when you see the phrase "it was a dark and stormy night", but the phrase is actually part of the first sentence of the novel Paul Clifford by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. The complete sentence is:

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

The contest is an international literary parody contest that honors the memory if not the reputation of Bulwer-Lytton. The goal of the contest is simple: entrants are challenged to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels.

The results are usually very funny. An example, the 2009 winner for the Detective entry:

She walked into my office on legs as long as one of those long-legged birds that you see in Florida - the pink ones, not the white ones - except that she was standing on both of them, not just one of them, like those birds, the pink ones, and she wasn't wearing pink, but I knew right away that she was trouble, which those birds usually aren't.

Eric Rice
Sun Prairie, WI

So if you would like a smile, check out the present and past winners.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Spring OCIs?

There is some talk of moving the summer associate recruiting process from the 2L Fall Semester (often, in reality, summer) to the 2L Spring Semester. There is no telling whether this idea will catch on.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat