Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Limits to the New Magisterium

Posted on June 13, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Robert Waldmann discovers that Google, and therefore a Google-dependent parent, is neither infallible nor omniscient.

Posted in Internet | Comments Off on Limits to the New Magisterium

UM Strike Card Check Result to be Announced Thursday

Posted on June 12, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Word is that this Thursday, June 15, at noon, the result of the chard check ballot of the would-be bargaining unit will be announced on the UM Campus at the Episcopal Church.

Recall that the settlement of the strike requires the unionizers to get a 60% super-majority in order to be recognized. But it gave them until Aug. 1 to achieve this total.

I have no inside information as to what this early announcement means, but logically it must mean either that they got the 60% or that so many people have voted that 60% is no longer possible. I’ll bet on the former.

Incidentally, the strike-related student discipline cases grind on. Because the formal charges were not filed until the summer term, the cases will be heard in camera by a single dean, acting as judge and jury; had charges been filed before the end of the school year, the students would have been entitled to much more process, to students as members of the tribunal, and to representation before the tribunal. So that’s not so great, unless the administration were to use this as an occasion for clemency — something for which I hope, but I’m not holding my breath.

Posted in U.Miami: Strike'06 | Comments Off on UM Strike Card Check Result to be Announced Thursday

Eyewitness at Guantanamo

Posted on June 11, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Via Talkleft, an eyewitness report from Guantanamo.

Horrible stuff.

Posted in Guantanamo | Comments Off on Eyewitness at Guantanamo

Depression

Posted on June 10, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Tropical Depression One, that is.

From the look of the projected path, not coming near here, but the 2006 hurricane season sure hasn’t wasted much time getting started.

Posted in Miami | 1 Comment

Caroline is going to PUSH

Posted on June 10, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

I get invited to some pretty cool events, and even manage to go to some. But I’m not sure I’ve ever been to an event quite like the one my wife and colleague, Caroline Bradley, is going to in Minneapolis: PUSH 2006. Billed as “an experience first, a conference second,” they say it’s about the future,

Well, it’s happened. The dizzying and accelerating changes we’ve experienced over the last 100 years have finally brought us to the brink. It’s no longer sufficient to say we’re undergoing some changes, a few pokey paradigm shifts. Folks, we’re in the process of redefining life itself.

Reality, unreality, creation, spirituality, identity, power and meaning–our basic core human experiences are in a state of flux and redefinition. And what a wild ride it’s going to be.

Speakers from all over the world will gather at PUSH 2006 to discuss reality, its virtual variations, genetics, politics, biological miracles, ethics, emerging forms of social organization, and the questions such change raises for us all.

Caroline’s topic (which is something about money, the new financial order, and virtual worlds) is under the rubric “Social Dances: Networks, Power, and Meaning”. And people are going to pay $1,300 to hear her.

Posted in Talks & Conferences | Comments Off on Caroline is going to PUSH

Power Corrupts

Posted on June 9, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

I knew these aphorisms:

  • Lord Acton: Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely
  • Anon: Those who recall Lord Acton’s dictum are condemned to repeat it
  • Anon: Power corrupts, powerpoint corrupts absolutely
  • Advert: Bad power corrupts, get a line conditioner

But now I need to add another one:

Posted in Law School | 3 Comments