A Little IP Action

Lewis and Clark's own Joe Miller has joined madisonian.net, a "blog about law, society and technology."

I came to madisonian.net for its "Get ready for law school" series of posts and stayed for the IP action. If you like IP law you'll probably like it over there. Check it out.

Any Takers?

My blog is worth $16,371.66.
How much is your blog worth?

(Thanks LawMom!)

lsac.org

I got a visit from someone at lsac.org this morning. Can you imagine how freaked out you would have been if someone from LSAC had visited your blog during the admissions process?

On a related note, I've been getting a lot of traffic from "I hate the LSAT" and similar again. Were the October scores just released? I remember around this time last year someone told me that the "hardest part about law school is getting in." They were wrong! At least in my case. Far and away the hardest thing for me about law school is dealing with the socratic method. What if the LSAT was administered with the socratic method? Now that would be hard.

Grades

My thoughts on my future first semester law school grades:

It's a win-win-win situation, really.

Scenario #1: I do well. Super! Pat me on the head, tell me I'm a "good student" and all is right in the world.

Scenario #2: My performance is mediocre. Fine. It won't kill me. It's an "opportunity to improve" next semester.

Scenario #3: Utter failure. Okay, so no more law school. Is that such a bad thing?

To Women In Law School:

To women in law school (or anyone who wishes to answer):

What would you say to a male classmate who said to you (seemingly out of the blue): "I don't know how girls make it through law school. They are so catty, and only want to talk about soap operas."?

Assignment

To Self:

Repeat as needed, at least once per day:

I will not get swept up into the pre-finals frenzy of anxiety.

Happy Outer Space Treaty Day!

It was on this date in 1967 when the General Assembly adopted the "Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies," otherwise known as the Outer Space Treaty.

Article I of the Treaty tells us:

The exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind.

Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be free for exploration and use by all States without discrimination of any kind, on a basis of equality and in accordance with international law, and there shall be free access to all areas of celestial bodies.

There shall be freedom of scientific investigation in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and States shall facilitate and encourage international co-operation in such investigation.

And Article IX tell us in part:

States Parties to the Treaty shall pursue studies of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter and, where necessary, shall adopt appropriate measures for this purpose.

As of January 1, 2005 98 countries, including the US, have ratified the Treaty and another 27 have signed.

Happy Sputnik Day!

It was on this day in 1957 when the first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1, was launched.

Listen to Sputnik-1 telemetry! How cool is that?

Why the Hell Not?

A New Measure of Well-Being From a Happy Little Kingdom

"In 1972, concerned about the problems afflicting other developing countries that focused only on economic growth, Bhutan's newly crowned leader, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, decided to make his nation's priority not its G.D.P. but its G.N.H., or gross national happiness."

"Around the world, a growing number of economists, social scientists, corporate leaders and bureaucrats are trying to develop measurements that take into account not just the flow of money but also access to health care, free time with family, conservation of natural resources and other noneconomic factors."

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."
-- Dale Carnegie

World Space Week

"The purpose of the week is to celebrate annually, at the international level, the contribution that space science and technology can make to the betterment of the human condition."