Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Mars Suffering From Extended Drought

Posted on March 2, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

He's probably thirsty:

We Want Your WATER

Posted in Science/Medicine | Comments Off on Mars Suffering From Extended Drought

RFID Tags in $20 Bills? Nah.

Posted on March 2, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

RFID tags are big news these days, and for good reason. But I'm fairly sure that if there were any truth to this claim that RFID tags were snuck into the new $20 bills and that the RFID Tags in New US Notes Explode When You Try to Microwave Them, I'd have heard about it. Slashdot ran the story, but I still think it's not so.

In contrast, RFID tags are going to be embedded in Euros. Which I think is supremely stupid, and an invitation to high-tech targeted mugging. Plus hiding cash under the mattress won't work if the burglars have an RFID detector. No word yet on what happens when you microwave a new-model Euro.

Posted in Econ & Money, Law: Privacy | 2 Comments

I Am Against Classroom Autodefenestration

Posted on March 2, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

I'm working desultorily on a longer post about strange things that can happen in the classroom, which may be why this story in the Miami Herald leapt out at me over breakfast:

Teacher loses bet over leap out window: A 17-year-old boy jumped out of a second-floor window at Miami Beach High last week after betting his teacher he was strong enough to do it and not get hurt.

He won the bet, landing unharmed. No immediate word on whether he got any money out of it.

The teacher has been reassigned to a non-teaching job at a regional ACCESS Center while police and school officials investigate the incident.

The science class was in the middle of a lecture on evolution on Wednesday when the student — whose name was not released — began talking about jumping out the window to prove his point, according to the police report.

The teacher, Yrvan Tassy Jr., bet him $20 that he would hurt himself if he jumped, police said.

That's when the boy jumped out the window. He landed on his feet — in a patch of dirt and grass — and returned to the classroom, the police report stated. He asked Tassy for the $20, and Tassy said he'd bring it the next day, students told police.

Unlike some other incidents I have in mind, where I can feel sorry for the teacher, this one defies sympathy. I will take a firm stand on this complex question: Autodefenestration has no place in the classroom. Indeed, I'll even go on record against all forms of classroom defenestration, especially from above ground level.

Posted in Miami | 8 Comments

With a Name Like ‘Uggabugga’ It’s Got to Be Good

Posted on March 2, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Uggabugga is to me about the oddest name for a blog. But whoever s/he is, s/he has a way with charts. This week's winner is a chart showing how the single hour that GW Bush says is all he can spare to speak to the 9/11 commission compares to his pre-9/11 vacation time.

I suppose it's sort of a cheap shot in that the better comparison would probably post-9/11 vacations (although there have also been plenty of those), but it's effective.

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on With a Name Like ‘Uggabugga’ It’s Got to Be Good

Daniel Murray

Posted on March 1, 2004 by Michael Froomkin
Dean Lynch sent out this message to the U.Miami Law community today:

Our colleague and friend Daniel Murray passed away late Saturday night. Daniel joined the faculty in 1957 and taught and wrote primarily in the commercial law and international sales fields until he retired in 1996. He was recognized as the outstanding teacher of the year several times, the Inter-American Law Review awarded Daniel the Lawyer of the Americas Award in 1987, he served for many years as the faculty advisor to the University of Miami Law Review and he was a prolific scholar. Our students often affectionately referred to him as “Shotgun Murray” because of his rapid fire delivery of his commercial law lectures. We all will miss Daniel

There will be a funeral Mass at San Augustine Catholic Church and Campus Ministry (located at the intersection of San Amaro and Miller Drive) on Thursday, March 4th at 1:00 p.m. Immediately following this memorial service, there will be a reception at the School of Law. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to the Daniel E. Murray Law Review Scholarship Fund at the Law School.

Dan Murray was part of a somewhat vanishing breed of law professor—one whose scholarly career was not much theory-driven, but was mostly about being a master technician. He wanted better and clearer rules, and he wanted to explain the impact of the rules we had. I've always thought that even (especially?) very intellectual and theory-oriented law faculties such as ours should make a bigger place for, and value more highly, the kind of scholarship Dan produced.

By the time I got here, Dan was in the endgame of his career, but he was still writing articles with titles like “Liability of the State and Its Employees in the Mishandling of Security Interests Under Commercial Codes and Motor Vehicle Laws,” “The Extension of Damage and Time Limitations of the Hague, Warsaw and Lausanne Conventions to Agents and Independent Contractors of Shiplines and Airlines,” and “Substitutes for Letters of Credit Sales: A Seller's Lot Is Not a Happy One.” And even after he retired, he kept coming in and keeping up until his health made that too difficult.

We crossed paths for the last time only two weeks ago, at the doctor's office, and he looked frail. “I'm feeling old” he said, but he made a joke of it.

Posted in U.Miami | Comments Off on Daniel Murray

Top 10 Reasons Not to Shop Online

Posted on March 1, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

AskTog: Top 10 Reasons to Not Shop On Line contains enough truth that it should make anyone designing an e-commerce system sit up and take notice.

I shop a lot online — I hate malls, and I like the convenience — and I've had about all of the experiences Tog complains about at one time or another. I've also had enough good experiences to make me think all is not hopeless.

Posted in Internet | 7 Comments