Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Regarding ‘The South Florida Giant Underground Weirdness Magnet’

Posted on February 24, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Is there a South Florida Giant Underground Weirdness Magnet? Many people seem to think so.

I prefer the theory that someone once picked up the US and shook it, and all the loose screws fell to the bottom…

Posted in Florida | 2 Comments

Downtime Sunday

Posted on February 23, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Saturday night, February 25th, at about 11:15PM PST (i.e. Sunday morning here on the East coast), this blog and everything else hosted at Dreamhost will go dark as Dreamhost is shutting down everything in its building.

With luck, it should be back up again by 4AM PST (7am Sunday over here). It seems that someone discovered of some super-dangerous wiring flaw in the building that hosts the servers and they need to fix it.

Posted in Discourse.net | 2 Comments

Blogging from the Dias

Posted on February 23, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

I'm giving a talk soon at a conference organized to honor my colleague Bernard Oxman. My talk has one of those titles I would never have expected to be speaking about: “What the Law of the Sea Teaches Us About the Regulation of the Information Ocean.”

If the audience doesn't throw too much, I may post a preliminary text later.

Posted in Talks & Conferences | 1 Comment

Do-It-Yourself Book Banning in Miami Schools

Posted on February 23, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Local uber-blog Stuck on the Palmetto reported it first: Book Banning: Business As Usual In Miami-Dade County (UPDATED).

It seems some parents are tired of waiting for the school board to hear their complaints, so they are seizing copies of a book that is insufficiently anti-Cuban for their tastes from right off the school shelves. Not state action here — pure vigilantism.

And the Herald got there eventually.

Posted in Miami | 1 Comment

Senator’s Office Finds New Way to Avoid Voters

Posted on February 22, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Senator Gordon Smith R-OR) sinks to a new low in voter relations.

Having two self-described little old ladies arrested when they visit your office and ask to see you seems like an odd way to treat your constituents.

Posted in Politics: The Party of Sleaze | Comments Off on Senator’s Office Finds New Way to Avoid Voters

Which Metaphor Works Best Here?

Posted on February 22, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

A good rant from The Carpetbagger Report about the media's tendency to focus on trivia at the expense of what matters.

Read it, then help me out: is this the modern equivalent of bread and circuses? Or the opiate (or is that Oprahate?) of the masses?

Posted in The Media | 4 Comments