Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Yale Law Journal Innovates Online With “Pocket Part”

Posted on October 19, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

The Yale Law Journal has done something new, interesting, and probably useful which it calls The Pocket Part:

The Pocket Part is the online companion to The Yale Law Journal. As members of the legal community know, legal publications often contain “pocket part” supplements with up-to-date information and commentary. The Pocket Part plays an analogous role. It features op-ed length versions of Journal articles and responses from leading practitioners, policymakers, and scholars. The Pocket Part also serves as a forum for our readers and authors to discuss legal scholarship.

While full-length scholarly works remain at the center of legal debate, students, professors, and practicing lawyers are increasingly turning to the Internet to read about, and comment on, developments in the law. With The Pocket Part, the Journal hopes to combine the strengths of both print and online media, broadening the readership and influence of traditional legal scholarship while enriching the dialogue among the academy, bench, and bar.

Posted in Law School | Comments Off on Yale Law Journal Innovates Online With “Pocket Part”

Managing Expectations (Rove et al)

Posted on October 18, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Regarding my previous post, Eric Muller asks “if Fitzgerald’s got the goods on the veep, why would he refrain from indicting?”

My point is more modest: at this stage of febrile speculation, with the number of indictments rising from rumor to rumor (4 … 10…24…), it’s time to manage expectations downward so that whatever happens can’t be spun as “less bad than expected”.

In fact, wouldn’t it be just like Rove to be leaking the inflated totals just to be able to say afterwards, ‘see it was only three of them’ or something of the sort?

Plus, trying to get people on record as to the resignations of unindicted co-conspirators covers the bases for the indicted ones too. And even if anyone says no resignation needed, you can always go back to them if there turns out to be any substance to the rumors.

Posted in Politics: The Party of Sleaze | Comments Off on Managing Expectations (Rove et al)

Cheney

Posted on October 18, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Yet again, there’s excitement in blogland about the possible indictment of Vice-President Cheney, and yet again it doesn’t seem based on much more than smoke, rumor and wishful schadenfreude.

My only contribution to this fest is this: Rather than ask, ‘Will Cheney resign if indicted,” far better to ask, “Will Cheney resign if named as an unindicted co-conspirator.”

PS. Do note, please, that the rumor as to who would replace Cheney is the person I picked as the leading candidate to replace him.

Posted in Politics: The Party of Sleaze | 4 Comments

Please Let Me Know When It’s Time To Panic (Bird Flu)

Posted on October 18, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Uh-oh: Boing Boing: Bird flu, ahoy! (click through to see the graphic)

Er, don’t lots of migratory birds winter in Florida? (I gather they don’t tend to fly here from Europe, that’s just the people, but presumably as soon as we have bird flu almost anywhere in the North, South or Central America, we get it too, right?)

Posted in Science/Medicine | 5 Comments

This Blog Breaks the (Design) Rules — Should I Reform?

Posted on October 17, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Jakob Nielsen is an authority on web design. When he writes Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes, one should at least pay attention.

By my count, this blog only clearly adheres to two three of the ten rules, and totally fails at least three, arguably five — and doesn’t do too well on the last two either.

1. No Author Biographies [arguably FAIL] (I do link to my homepage…)
2. No Author Photo [arguably FAIL] (ditto)
3. Nondescript Posting Titles [FAIL sometimes]
4. Links Don’t Say Where They Go [FAIL sometimes] (I do try to be conscious of this one, but I get sloppy sometimes).
5. Classic Hits are Buried [FAIL]
6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation [PASS]
7. Irregular Publishing Frequency [PASS]
8. Mixing Topics [FAIL MISERABLY]
9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss [FAIL] (Tenure is nice)
10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service [PASS]

Should I change my ways?

PS. Please treat this as an open invitation to make any other blog-related comments/suggestions.

Incidentally, it’s clear that I’m also very bad at publicity: last night at dinner, one of my colleagues asked rhetorically if I had a blog, and seemed taken aback a bit when I said that well, yes, I did.

Posted in Discourse.net | 17 Comments

Catch-22?

Posted on October 17, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Dan Solove gives what seems to be an excellent distillation of the current wisdom on how aspiring law professors should approach their screening interviews at the AALS.

And then comes Paul Horwitz to warn us law professors not to be fooled by the people who follow Dan’s advice…

Posted in Law School | Comments Off on Catch-22?