Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

ID Cards in Real Life (Italian ed.)

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Robert's Stochastic thoughts describes Robert Waldmann's futile attempt to acquire a new copy of an Italian work permit, a “permesso di soggiorno.”

The process doesn't result in an actual card, but it makes him happy.

Posted in ID Cards and Identification | 1 Comment

35 Counties in USA Have Half the Foreclosures — and Boy Are We One of Them

Posted on March 6, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

USA Today (which appeared outside my hotel room door) has a very arresting graphic today showing that Most foreclosures pack into a few counties.

4close-map.jpg

More than half of the nation's foreclosures last year took place in 35 counties, a sign that the financial crisis devastating the national economy may have begun with collapsing home loans in only a few corners of the country.

Posted in Econ & Money: Mortgage Mess | 13 Comments

Nomos and Acronyms

Posted on March 6, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

BlenderLaw » what's in a name? asks some thought provoking questions about EDGAR and Gabriel, two electronic financial info retrieval systems — with male names.

I was particularly struck by this, not just because it's a fun post and uses a foreign character set, because I gather that UM may be buying an electronic medical information system, with a PHR system named Lucy.

Could it be that if it's about money, you want a boy's name, but if you want the punters to think of it as a non-threatening, nurturing system, do you give it a girl's name? The sample is too small for any firm conclusions, but it bears watching.

Posted in Kultcha | 1 Comment

Berkeley Security Breach Conference on Friday

Posted on March 5, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

(Too) Early Thursday morning I'll start my journey towards Berkeley CA, where Friday I'm going to attend what looks a really useful and interesting seminar on BCLT – Security Breach Notification Laws.

Most folks who work in this area concentrate on private data collectors. I'm writing about government data holders, so I'm on the panel that probably should be called “other” but is in fact called Comparative Approaches to Security Breaches.

As I think about it, one thing I've often tried to do is identify issues that other people are not working on and think about them. This is good in many ways, and it has been good to me, but it does turn out to have some costs — fewer folks to talk to, and they don't always know where to put you in conferences.

Oh well, I guess as long as they're still inviting me I shouldn't worry too much.

Posted in Talks & Conferences | 2 Comments

Nice Clean Political Fun

Posted on March 4, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

The DCCC is having some nice clean fun with this “Rush Limbaugh rules the GOP” thing.

Here's the latest: I'm Sorry Rush apology generator for GOP leaders who dare to criticize the Leader, and then need to write a grovelling apology.

Unfortunately, the options are too limited, and will quickly be used up by Congressional Republicans.

Posted in Politics: US | 1 Comment

What He Said (Gang of 4 Hypocrites Dept.)

Posted on March 4, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

TalkLeft: The Politics Of Crime, Remember The “Gang Of 14?”

So when McCain, Graham, Snowe and Collins promised to only filibuster “under extraordinary circumstances,” they were lying.

Posted in Politics: US | Comments Off on What He Said (Gang of 4 Hypocrites Dept.)