Mutilate Your Thirst

Priorities

Via ATL, this motion to continue at trial on the grounds that it conflicts with the LSU-OSU game is pretty awesome.

Head Tracking with the Wii

The End of the World

Rent to Own

Merrill Lynch's expectations for the housing market:

But with the sales backdrop still softening, they may have to slice their construction plans by another 30% before we hit bottom on a cyclical basis. And, that bottom could be as long as a year away. Beyond that, weak demographic fundamentals point to years of sluggish real estate activity, particularly in terms of the “price”. The looming dominance of the “move down” buyer suggests that home values will continue to soften long after the building industry mops up the current excess supply. In fact, real estate pricing in general can be expected to be in the doldrums through 2012.

Which, conveniently, is the first year that my net worth will become non-negative.

That's a scary thought.

Finito

Also, I finished my last exam (Copyright). I am outta here. Touchdown in San Diego at 8:10 p.m. PST.

The Death of the 3L Paper

This is the best news in a long time:

All J.D. students are required to produce either

(1) a substantial research paper of publishable or otherwise professional quality, to be written in close consultation with a faculty advisor, in conjunction with a seminar or workshop (for an addition of 1, 2, or 3 credits), or through independent study or the January Term writing program (for 2 or 3 credits); a 3-Credit project should have the scope and ambition commensurate with a 3-credit course, and students electing 3 credits should make sure that this would not cause them to exceed the 12-credit limit on writing credits nor interfere with their plans to pursue cross-registered and clinical courses, the credits for which, along with writing credits, count toward the 16 non-law-school-classroom credits students may take for degree credit.

or

(2) two pieces of writing of a different sort from those encompassed in (1), which could include any of the following, provided that at least one of the pieces was written under the supervision of a faculty member or clinical instructor:

a. lawyers work product: this category would include substantial writing in a clinic, upper-level moot court briefs, or the equivalent, as certified by the supervisor of the relevant program, but not written work from a summer job or paid work;

b. law school course and seminar papers: substantial writing as part of a course or seminar, including the standard series of reaction papers, amounting to no less than 15 pages;

c. law journal writing: including notes, book reviews, descriptions of developments in the law, and the like (totaling no less than 10 publishable pages);

d. nontraditional writing produced under faculty supervision: this might include interactive web-based material, surveys of students or practitioners with analysis, case study materials appropriate for classroom use, or other law-related writing outside of the forms mentioned above.

Everyone winds up writing plenty of long papers for various classes and activities, and tacking another extra long paper requirement onto the tail end of 3L year was just gratuitous, especially for those of us who have no interest in pursuing an academic career. I was going to have to come up with some 30-40 page research paper and bash my brains out trying to write it over the course of next semester.

Now, I don't have to.

Hooray!

Take Admin

It was rough at the time and seemed hopelessly obscure, but one short semester later I can already tell you that taking Administrative Law was one best things I have done to deepen my understanding of how tings actually work. Insights form Admin have helped me in all of my classes this semester, including the venture capital class I took at the business school.

I normally hate on the standard curriculum, which most people seem to take unthinkingly, but please forgive this momentary lapse into earnestness: take Admin.

This Time It's Serious

Boston finally decided to stop playing around and snow for real.

Naturally, we received an e-mail informing us that finals will continue unaffected:

Dear Students:

Just to confirm, exams will take place today as scheduled. Given that most students can reach the school by foot or by public transportation, the Law School has traditionally held exams in the snow without disruption.

Update: The business school, where I am this afternoon for a final presentation, is completely shut down. There's talk of canceling project presentations and doing them again in the spring.

Foxboro Hot Tubs

Been listening to this all week on my ipod. Supposed to be Green Day's new secret side project, only not so secret I guess. Either way, good music, and free, too.

1-900-Turing-Test

Russian chat bots con personals seekers out of their credit card numbers

Barack Obollywood

The lip syncing is awesome, but for my money the best part is the dance at 1:25.

The Race is Over. You Are All Winners.

0 pages still to write. 4 hours until deadline.

Who wants shots?

The Race Is On

15 pages still to write. 28 hours until deadline.

Ready, Go!

Finals

Suck.

But you know this.

A Question of Discipline

One of the professors in my awesome cross-registered course is a medical school professor, and will be teaching a class in the spring called "Human Disease." This brings to mind two questions:

1) Isn't that a fairly broad topic for a one-semester course?

2) What exactly were the med students learning last semester?

Imagine the Harvard Alumni Association With an Army

Westerners think the Communist Party still has something to do with political ideology. You know there is no political philosophy in China except prosperity. The Communist Party is basically a gigantic Skull and Bones. It is one of the social networks its members use to build wealth together.

David Brooks has a quite good column on China.

Heroes Finale

Sigh. For a moment there, it looked like they were going to take the series in a really interesting direction. I confess, I got my hopes up.

It's probably just as well. Given that Heroes watching is now a drinking game in my household (take a drink any time something stupid happens, which is often) it's just as well. They probably couldn't have pulled it off.

Blogger Ethics

MPRE results are out. According to the scaled score, I am nearly twice as ethical as required by the state of California.