Articles Posted in January, 2007

I’m not sure why I follow some of the news I do, but my instincts generally are good. Following Shlep’s links to the BRB Public Records Blog (and don’t hurry past this entire posting of David’s on public records at Shelp), I found out that Garda has acquired Kroll’s international security division. I haven’t a clue why this is useful information, but past experience tells me it will be. Anyway, doing a [very] loose search for more information lead me to this, and then this interesting story on what security experts should know about ethics. It takes one back to Watergate when the response to suggestions that the White House staff should receive ethics training led one wag to remark, yes, but one needs to have the “aptitude” for the subject to benefit from any teaching. Hmmm. (Yes, I promise to look for the exact quote one day.)

I’m going to be talking a lot over the next couple of months about “How to Find a Lawyer,” (I have at least two public presentations on the subject coming up). In the course of preparing for it, I’ve learned a lot about the Lawyer end of referrals, as opposed to the potential client end. Here’s a posting on the subject, which I linked to from the Stark County Law Library blog, always a source of useful law practice and legal research information – they sure save us a lot of blog-surfing!

“The incubation period for classical CJD may be as long as 38.5 years. Accumulating evidence suggests that the asymptomatic incubation periods of vCJD may be very long as well (sometimes exceeding 12 years from the time of exposure to the BSE agent), ….” FDA FAQ.

I used to be a regular blood donor until the new rules on Mad Cow Disease (CJD) cut me out. I lived in the U.K. for a year in 1990/91 (amazing time to be there too) and even though I was and still am not a meat-eater (not a veggie though – I do eat fish) I suppose One Never Knows, as they say, or at least as the FDA and other blood regulators say. But I do keep up with the regulations and cross my fingers that I will either pass the cut-off date or a test for CJD will show up and I will be able to donate blood again. I was one of those odd people who always felt BETTER after donating blood. (Maybe I just have too much of it :-). But when I saw the above FAQ from the FDA recently, I threw up my hands – 38.5 years! Good grief, as Charlie Brown would surely say.

This week’s (1/10/07) Willamette Week’s cover story is titled “Loopy Laws.” For the “real thing,” go to the Oregon Legislature’s web sites, here and here.

KATU reports on the Jordaan Clark and OHSU arguments in the Oregon Supreme Court on Tuesday, January 9th. Last line in the story:

“In the meantime, State Senator Vicki Walker has submitted a bill in the legislature that would effectively overturn the cap and remove OHSU’s protection from lawsuits.”

You can now search this 2007 legislative session’s bills, here.

If you need a laugh about law, libraries, MP3 players, and personal injury, here you are.

More and more librarians and IT people are talking about Web 2.0. If you don’t know what they are talking about, don’t feel bad. A lot of them don’t either, but a lot of them do! Here, and here, are a couple of places to look so you don’t feel completely out of the loop and these articles will give you ideas for questions the next time someone who seems knowledgable talks to you about Web 2.0.

To me, zines are print blogs. I’m not talking about e-zines (they are just blogs – aren’t they?). I think print zines should be encouraged because 1) lots of creative young, and not so young, people are making zines, 2) zine creators are obviously still enjoying the tactile pleasures of print, paper, binding, and books. Isn’t this to be celebrated by bibliophiles? I love looking at zines – the artwork, the bookmaking, the writing (not always good but usually smile-inducing) are all pleasing and stimulate the bibliophile brain the way looking at art stimulates the artist in us all.

I don’t know of any print LAW zines, though. Surely there is a place for a law zine, isn’t there? The new-ish Oregon Appellate Almanac, a publication of the Appellate Practice Section of the Oregon State Bar, could have been a zine. The editors might have had a bit more fun with it if it had been. Not that they didn’t have fun, but I’m just saying they would have had MORE fun, if they could have had the freedom of creating a Zine. See, that’s the other thing I like about Zines – creative license and fun.

Anyway, if you live in the Portland metro area, here’s the Multnomah County public library’s Zine zone and their Zine Collection Party.