Give A Hoot, Prosecute

Your IP, that is. Xeni Jardin: "Couldn't we just settle this with a round of topless onion dip wrestling and some free draft pitchers?" More from J. Craig.

A Different Kind Of Crack Baby

"Childproofing" only goes so far.

Watching The Blawgs Go By

Lisa Stone, who ably wrote the Convention Blog Watch for the L.A. Times during the DNC, is now watching (and blogging) the new Law.com network of law blogs. It's nice to see blawgers getting paid while retaining full editorial control over their sites. That Law.com ad-spot, though — oy.

Absorbing

Says here SpongeBob SquarePants is the "most watched kids' show in television history," with an estimated 60 million viewers.

Says here Chris Locke has added the title Chief Blogging Officer to his list. (Still, it's tough to beat "Loose Cannon.") In the blogging-for-dollars discussion, this works for me on both levels, i.e.,Chris flacking for hire, and bloggers getting to use and point readers to what would otherwise be unavailable material. I hope the project will encourage HighBeam's considerable list of publishers to follow the lead of The New York Times as far as giving bloggers access to closed archives and enduring article links.

Thdnnkk

Pretty quiet here at B&B this week, had to speak at an MCLE program yesterday, finish up Monday's IP Memes (my last batch for the year), and help my son shake off an ear infection. Today is the first in two weeks he has really been himself again, and what happens? Ten minutes ago he cartwheels over the laundry basket head first into the chest at the foot of the bed. Why do babies inevitably lead with their heads? How do parents bear up psychologically under the non-stop avalanche of what we euphemistically call "boo-boos," where a couple of inches are all that stand between you and a sojourn in the Emergency Room wondering if they make a glass eye that small? He's fine, sound asleep. (Or possibly knocked out, it's hard to tell.)

The MCLE presentation yesterday went swell as such things go, but left me even further convinced there needs to be a shake-up in the ways in which continuing education requirements may be satisfied. It was one of these all-day affairs frequented largely (I'm guessing) by people who had pushed off their compliance obligations until the last minute. My colleague and I spoke for an hour and tried to include lively subject matter, but I couldn't help thinking the audience there for the duration must have felt exactly like they were attending traffic school. The educational, entertainment, and convenience value of blawgs and podcasts are a vast improvement over MCLE as we know it. Things like Ernie's podcasts, a rousing Lessig talk, and the learning involved in reading and/or writing a legal weblog strike me as orders of magnitude more compelling than logging time in a room somewhere to get your name on an attendance list. (Apologies to any of our audience members who might actually have enjoyed their day...) We blawgers will be doing the profession a great favor if we begin approaching our state bars about accrediting some of our more substantive online activities.