BurtLaw's Featured Sites

BurtLaw's Featured Sites
BurtLaw.Com	- LawAndEverythingElse.Com - Copyright (c) 2006 Burton Randall Hanson

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-- "Norse mythology, Scandinavian mythology, Viking mythology; all refer to the pre-Christian religion of the Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish peoples." An interesting site devoted to Norse Mythology.

-- The New York Post's Page Six is where the likes of Demi Moore, the President's model niece, celebrity lawyers, and other sad folks regularly appear.

-- The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice is "A private non-profit organization whose mission is to reduce society's reliance on the use of incarceration as a solution to social problems." There are some very good things at this site. Did you know, for example, that "More state and federal prisoners were added to US prisons during President Clinton’s 8 years in office than during the term of any prior US president, and more federal inmates were added under Clinton than under Bush and Reagan, combined"?

-- WED-log, the leading weblog on weddings & marriage. It has come to my attention that an entry of mine dated 11.15.2001 titled Harvard, Emerson and the Marriage Penalty was featured in and is now in the "archives" section of this site. WED-log also has provided its readers with links to this site and to some of the "Law and Love" pages (see one, two, three and four).

-- Movie Review Query Engine - search & easily find reviews of over 25,000 movies.

-- Life magazine cover collection - all the covers from 1936-1972, when Life was published weekly.

-- Overlawyered.com, in its own words, "explores an American legal system that too often turns litigation into a weapon against guilty and innocent alike, erodes individual responsibility, rewards sharp practice, enriches its participants at the public's expense, and resists even modest efforts at reform and accountability." This deservedly popular site is personally maintained by Walter Olson, "America's leading authority on over-litigation." While I don't agree with everything Olson says, I think his basic critique is correct. For example, like Olson, I get irked when the settlement that class action lawyers negotiate "on my behalf" entitles me to coupons I'll never use and them to cash to pay them for their costs and effort. More... The ATLA (American Trial Lawyers Association), a politically-potent lobby, is doing its best to counter the influence of critics like Olson. It has launched a site in which it presents what it calls The Other Side of the Story.

-- Google, which provides the best search engine, has started a new Google catalog search engine that allows you to search catalogs from 600 mail-order merchants. The folks at Google have scanned in the actual pages of the current catalog of each mail-order merchant. You can search all of the catalogs at once, limit your search to catalogs in a certain category, or search a single catalog. You can also browse through each catalog, just as you would through one you hold in your hand. This should prove a boon to secretaries who love to browse catalogs on the job and comment back and forth to each other about various items but don't want to get caught by their bosses (even though their bosses are busy browsing, too). "Go ta page 31. D'ya think I'd look nice in that? Ooooh, I like that black-and-white polka-dot one. Sorta 'spensive, tho...." Click here to gain access to an alphabetized listing of all the merchants.

-- The Gentleman's Page is a practical guide for the 19th Century American man (of which, I'm afraid, I may be one). There you'll find good stuff like this: "A gentleman will assist a lady over a bad crossing, or from an omnibus or carriage, without waiting for the formality of an introduction. When the service is performed, he will raise his hat, bow and pass on." In other words, he won't try get her phone number.

-- A Prisoner's Dictionary. "There are forms of expression that can never be fully understood by the outside world. There are also words that vary from race to race, prison to prison -- as well as slang that find its way into prisons from the outside."

Examples: "Blanket party: Throwing a blanket over a despised prisoner, so he or she can't identify an attacker." "Hawk: Inmate who watches or stands guard to notify another inmate when staff is approaching." "Bastille by the Bay: San Quentin, a term coined by San Francisco columnist Herb Caen. Also, the title of a column in the now-defunct San Quentin News."

-- Are you one of those folks, like my law-student daughter, who still likes to play "board games"? If so and if you like Monopoly®, as she and her friends do, then you might like this site, Probabilities in the Game of Monopoly®. If you read it and understand it and apply the information next time you play, you may increase your odds of winning.

-- Thanks to the internet, you can vicariously experiencetwoe highly-important aspects of dorm life at MIT by visiting the Random Hall bathroom server and Random Hall laundry server.

-- I'm a Norwegian Lutheran. In other words, my heritage is Judeo-Christian. I don't believe in repressing the "Judeo" part of that heritage. One of my favorite web sites is Jewish World Review. I visit it a couple times a week. I always find "good stuff" there. Its list of insightful columnists is impressive. I recommend allowing yourself to be surprised by just randomly clicking on links.

-- Celebrity Bra Sizes actually performs a public service other than merely satisfying the voyeuristic needs of our celebrity-obsessed society (which I've discussed elsewhere). Sadly, too many women are convinced that men are more attracted to women with big bosoms than women with small busts. The information provided at this site should help put the minds of many troubled, self-doubting women at ease. For example, if a woman who really is a size 34a reads this site, she will realize it is not necessary a) to wear a 34b in an effort at self-delusion, b) to falsely tell others she is a 34b, c) to take foolish steps (surgical implants, suction cups, creams, etc.) to try actually attain "34b-ness," or d) to compensate Napoleonically for her "34a-ness" by becoming a Bully Broad.

-- The Internet Medieval Sourcebook - Selected Sources on Sex and Gender. This is a rich collection of links to sources gathered under four main headings: a) women's roles, b) men's roles, c) constructions of sexuality and gender, and d) marriage. Under headings are subheadings; e.g., under "marriage" are i) general ii) theology, iii) law and marriage, and iv) married lives. You'll be surprised at things you learn exploring these links.

-- Famous Mugshots features mugshots of celebrities, politicians, etc. -- e.g., Hugh Grant, depicted left, arrested in 1995 for prostitution offense involving....

-- Some judges seem to follow a paint-by-the-numbers approach to writing judicial opinions. Not a bad approach for many judges. :-) Anyhow, I thought of them while perusing the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's fascinating Paint-By-Number Exhibition.

-- Gallery of Obscure Patents -- a site featuring strange and obscure patents, e.g., a braille slot machine for blind people, on which "each [braille] pad is provided with vertically movable pins...so that as the reel rotates the operator can sense the characters represented on the reels."

-- RatherBiased keeps an eye on TV news anchor Dan Rather. On July 19, in an interview by Don Imus, Dan said, "I’ve been a dumb-ass all my life." He also said, "[I]t’s a matter of record I’m bone-headed." Responding to Dan's comment that NBC was into "softer" news, Tom Brokaw said, "Whenever there is the first hint of a counter-clockwise symbol on a weathermap in the fall that a hurricane might hit land, 'Mr. Hard News' is down there wrapped around a lamp-post." You'll find recent good stuff like that in the What's New section. Other sections worth a visit are: Compare & Contrast - Bizarre - Courage. (P.S., click on "Courage" if you want to see a hilarious pic of Dan actually "wrapped around a lamp-post.")

--When you "play it by ear," what are you really doing? World Wide Words is a fascinating site devoted to "investigating international English from a British viewpoint."

A good collection of first sentences from novels & stories. Most legal brief writers & judicial opinion writers could learn a thing or two from studying opening sentences. If you can't write a good one, you likely won't be able to hold (or merit) the reader's attention.

-- Turnstile part II is a mesmerizing, constantly changing display of "content," primarily on the subject of "love and loneliness," content that is generated by the "live culling of network 'objects' from html pages, live chat, email...faxes and incoming mail" at "Stadium." I'm not sure what sort of an outfit "Stadium" is. Anyhow, watching the display for a few minutes is a strange experience. I'd like to see a similar display of "content" randomly selected from all the online verbiage generated by lawyers, judges, etc. :-)

-- An intro to Oslo, Norway - a web project at Macalaster College of the son of my cousin, Grant Herfindahl.

-- What can I say, I can't remember when I wasn't fond of WCAL-FM, 89.3, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN.

-- StyleWORKS, a non-profit organization founded and run by Malaak Compton-Rock (comedian Chris Rock's wife). The organization provides "comprehensive grooming services, i.e., hair styling, make-up application, skin care analysis, facials, waxing, clothing, accessories, and image consulting to women and men who are moving from welfare to work."

-- PseudoDictionary.Com is where "all of your made up words, slang, webspeak and colloquialisms become part of the dictionary." Examples: "Screenager - the generation that lives their life glued to a tv screen or monitor. mainly refers to those addicted to games." "Petroulette - risky game of driving with your fuel gauge below empty." "Karenizing - an office worker act. Pretending that he/she is totally busy with office work but in fact, the person does not have a single project/ work."

-- The Nonverbal Dictionary is a dictionary of "gestures, signs & body language cues - from 'adam's-apple-jump' to 'zygomatic smile.'" For example, click on "arm-cross" & this is part of what you'll find: "A report summarizing studies of North American college students found a. that women use open arm positions with men they like, but cross-arms with men they dislike (men, on the other hand, show no difference)."

-- Movie Cliches contains a list of "the most annoying and common logic flaws and stereotypes found in movies." For example, here are a few of the cliches in the category "women": 1) "A female lead with feminist leanings will always despise a macho hero--until the first time he rescues her from certain death. She will then become totally conventional and dependent. Once she does this, the hero will become vulnerable and tell her about some tragic loss that will explain his belligerent attitude." 2) "Women wear make-up to bed, and wake up with hair and face completely intact." 3) "Women don't need to go to the bathroom when they get up but will shower frequently."

-- Law Meets Blog: Electronic Publishing Comes of Age by Denise M. Howell at LLRX.com, features some of the law-related weblogs, including BurtLaw's Law And Everything Else. LLRX.com is a Web journal dedicated to providing legal and library professionals with the most up-to-date information on a wide range of Internet research and technology-related issues, applications, resources and tools. I visit LLRX every Monday for features like this and I also visit many of the other blawgs mentioned.

Front page

Announcement. We've finally gotten around to launching our new webzine/blawg: BurtLaw's The Daily Judge:

It is not an online newspaper and is not affiliated with or intended to be mistaken for any existing or previously-existing newspaper or journal. Rather, it is a so-called "blawg," a law-related personal "web log" or "blog," one with a subjective, idiosyncratic, and eccentric sociological and social-psychological slant that focuses not on the latest judicial decisions of supposed great importance but on a) the institution of judge in the United States and in other countries throughout the world, b) the judicial office and role, c) judicial personalities, d) the great common law tradition of judging as practiced here and throughout the world, e) judges as judges, f) judges as ordinary people with the usual mix of virtues and flaws, etc. We link to newspapers and other sources in order to alert the reader to ideas, articles, stories, speeches, law books, literary works and other things about "judges" that have interested us and that may interest the reader.

We don't promote our blawgs, but readers of this blog and of our affiliated political opinion blog, BurtonHanson.Com, may be interested in it. We don't think there is another blawg quite like it.