Today's New Blawg

ALM's Lee Feldman writes:

Commentary and opinion pieces from The National Law Journal are now available on NPR's new Talking Justice Blog. We invite you to blog and link to these columns, on topics ranging from constitutional issues to the most recent developments in IP case law. This new feature is a project of Justice Talking, the award-winning NPR program.

Justice Talking also has a podcast, which I'll have to check out.

The Cookie Constant

It's hard to go wrong spending a good part of the morning making chocolate chip cookies. No need to know the recipe, it's on the chip bag, and about the only way to torpedo the suckers is burn 'em. In addition to semi-sweets, I like to add butterscotch chips, pistachios, and walnuts. The sweet, gooey potpourri of them lingers for a couple of days. Tyler stands on a chair and stirs everything in, wants to taste the batter even when it's still just butter and flour, and today was a milestone: sole custody of the mixer blade was his when all was said and done. Next comes the social networking aspect: we'll never eat 'em all, so time to deliver care packages to the neighbors. Yum!

Join us Monday For A Public Conference Call On The Law Of Business Communities

In connection with our session at the the upcoming Community 2.0 conference, law professor Mike Madison and I will be hosting a public conference call on Monday, February 26 beginning at 1:00 p.m. PST, and we'd love your participation to help us hone in on the ownership considerations (IP; attention; identity), and issues of governance and liability, most critical to the creation, maintenance, and long-term health of business communities.

The call will be recorded and made available as a podcast from The Future of Communities blog. You can join us as follows:

From Skype: +990008275785861

From a regular phone (long distance costs apply):
US: 1-605-475-8590

In Europe, call:
Germany 01805 00 7620
UK 0870 738 0763

The Conference Room Number: 5785861

Hope to chat with you then.

(Cross-posted to Lawgarithms and Between Lawyers)

[Update, Monday 2/26 @ 1:15 p.m.:] Unfortunately, we had problems with the conferencing service lined up to support this, so are having to reschedule. I'll post the new date, time, and call-in details once they're available, sorry for the delay.

Flunking Play Group

Parenting is perpetually eye-opening. I'm learning that when when you have a child who is

• independent


• impetuous


• effervescent


• physically affectionate


• attention loving


• alert


• energetic


• curious and


• unrestrained,

it turns out from an educational standpoint the flipsides of those shiny, pretty coins are

• intractable


• wild


• frenetic


• violent


• selfish


• agitated


• overwrought


• disorderly and


• out of control.

Maybe much growing up just naturally takes place between the younger years and the commencement of sit-down-and-learn-something, dammit, actual school. Maybe we need a change of environment and approach. But my heart is beginning to go out to all those parents who must pursue dozens of such changes in the perhaps ultimately vain hope of finding someplace, and an infrastructure of someones, who behold the same small person the parents do, and banish the spectre of "something wrong" from the equation and classroom.

Useless But Vital

Box spring covers.