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August 02, 2008
Korean family values
At Sam Crane's The Useless Tree, Ancient Chinese Thought in Modern American Life, see Modernization and Family Breakdown in Korea. "Why have Confucian family values declined in Korea?"
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)
August 01, 2008
Fabulous in Minya, Egypt
Our peripatetic writer-photographer friend, Maryam of My Marrakesh, is now in Egypt.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)
July 30, 2008
Radio Free Paris, Part 2 of 2: The ICC's International Court of Arbitration
On July 18, in-house GE lawyer Mike McIlwrath completed his interview with Senior Case Worker Francesca Mazza at the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce’s International Court of Arbitration in his weekly radio show for CPR, The International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution. Hear Part II. Since 1999, the ICC's Court of Arbitration has handled about 500 cases a year. Part I of the interview with Francesca, which you can find here, covered the initial stages of ICC arbitration proceedings. Part II completes the ICC process. It resumes with “terms of reference,” and concludes with the Court's award.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)
July 29, 2008
Spence: Law education is a fraud.
We were both intrigued and happy to see this Legal Blog Watch piece by Robert Ambrogi and links to Gerry Spence's blog. My take (with a nod to to Laura Nyro): law schools all over the globe have always attracted or produced their share of semi-literate robots with no guts, no gospel and no soul. They always will. But it's gotten worse. And the best part of many law students' undergraduate education--being steeped in old verities and enduring ideas--is ripped from him or her during the law school process. By age 35, most lawyers I know of any generation are disappointed, burned-out or bored. Reason: their work lives are not enriched by ideals or principles beyond the workaday nuts
and bolts of their job. It is the entire profession's fault (mine included) and problem. From Spence's post:
One need not write poetry or paint pictures to be a successful human being. But some intimacy with the arts and the language and its use and with right brain functions of feeling and creativity are essential to the development of the whole person. Little wonder that lawyers, disabled by all of the stifling, mostly useless mental exercises they have suffered, have trouble relating to jurors much less to the rest of mankind.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:52 PM | Comments (6)
July 28, 2008
Rainwater Harvesting
Yes, that's right. As the water supply becomes an issue, American states are considering requiring or policing it--and not just in Western states. See "Box of Rain: States Take a Closer Look at Rainwater Harvesting" by Jeff Kray at Seattle-based Marten Law Group.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:06 AM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2008
Exciting global news: French inching toward actually working again.
The French, uh, work ethic, so to speak. We've written about this subject before--and this news has us in a tizzy. Sixty-three years is a damn long holiday, even for Europeans. Bloomberg News: "French Lawmakers Pass Bill to Increase Work Hours":
July 24 (Bloomberg) -- French lawmakers passed a bill to increase work hours, eroding the 35-hour weekly limit and handing President Nicolas Sarkozy his sixth legislative victory this week before the summer recess.
The law allows companies freedom to negotiate the workweek, triples the annual ceiling of overtime, and lets white-collar workers swap days off for more pay. Sarkozy was elected in May 2007 after campaigning on the slogan "work more to earn more", saying the decade-old 35-hour workweek reduced French competitiveness and set back economic growth. [more]
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Obama in Berlin, Paris.
Photo: Matthew Rose
WAC? thinks America is still uncomfortable about the idea of a young charismatic black man with an insider's golden resume being president. We are embarrassed about that inner conflict. Unfortunately, we haven't come that far. As with public figures from Jerry Lewis to Bill Clinton, Europe may like Obama more than we do. From The Paris Blog in a post by Matthew Rose, the UK's The Independent, and the New York Times.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:51 AM | Comments (1)