Law School Papers and Law Review Articles

Instapundit says:

Like a lot of the Bush Administration's arguments, this is one that would make an interesting law school paper topic, or law review article, but that is politically idiotic and legally self-defeating.

Did he just call a bunch of law school paper topics and law review articles "politically idiotic and legally self-defeating"?

Famous Celebs I Never Herard Of

Forbes has put out a list of the The Celebrity 100. Others have have listed those they haven't heard. I've heard of 90 on the list, and here are the 10 that didn't ring a bell:

• Michael Schumacher
• Alex Rodriguez
• Ronaldinho
• Kimi Raikkonen
• Gore Verbinski
• Valentino Rossi
• J.J. Abrams
• Dane Cook
• Rhonda Byrne
• Hayden Panettiere

Links for Citation Plagiarism

• Bill Poser, Citation Plagiarism? (Jun. 15, 2007)
  
• Kerim Friedman, Citation Plagiarism (Jun. 15, 2007)
  
• MP Gururajan, Citation Plagiarism (Jun. 15, 2007)
  
• Little Professor [Miriam Burnstein], Is there a citation in this text? (Jun. 18, 2007)
  
• Jeremy Crampton, “Quoted in:” is it plagiarism? (Jun. 19, 2007)
  

Judge aims to have pants suit ironed out next week - CNN.com

Judge aims to have pants suit ironed out next week - CNN.com: The lawsuit is crazy, but the headline is cool.

The Whitespace Programming Language

What is Whitespace?

Most modern programming languages do not consider white space characters (spaces, tabs and newlines) syntax, ignoring them, as if they weren't there. We consider this to be a gross injustice to these perfectly friendly members of the character set. Should they be ignored, just because they are invisible? Whitespace is a language that seeks to redress the balance. Any non whitespace characters are ignored; only spaces, tabs and newlines are considered syntax.

Stealing Ideas

Robin Hanson, Overcoming Bias: Choose: Credit or Influence (Jun. 12, 2007) writes:

Some advise academics not to post working papers, as others might steal your ideas. Many fiction writers are afraid editors will steal their ideas. Many are afraid that venture capitalists will steal their business idea instead of funding their team.

Howard Aiken said 'Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats.' I don't think it is quite that simple - people can and do steal ideas. But if what you want is influence, instead of credit, the choice should easy: you should want people to steal your ideas. So think about it: how much do you or should you care about credit, versus influence?

Of the three examples in the first paragraph, I think the least to worry about are the academics posting their working papers. First, publishing on the net gives them a provable priority date for any plagiarism dispute. Second, it is already hard enough to persuade others to accept one's original ideas, even when fully argued--"you will have to ram it down their throats."

Quiz: True art, or a fake?

Is the distinction between true art and fakes bogus? Well, here is a quiz that tests your eye, Quiz: True art, or a fake?:

True art, or a fake?

by Mikhail Simkin

Some of the images displayed below are True Masterpieces of Abstract Art, created by Immortal Artists. They carry profound meanings, which are, however, beyond the apprehensions of the vulgar. The rest were produced by the author of the quiz. They mean nothing.

Click on the link to take the test.

For what it's worth, I got a 92% (one wrong), but not because of my eye for art. I used a different criterion.