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Academic

The Yin Blog

Random thoughts on law, politics, game theory, sports, books, television shows, and movies. - From Tung Yin, Associate Professor of Law at Iowa. \r\n

Post Frequency: 0.9/day

Last Entry: March 31, 2011 at 17:08:59

Faith healing parents convicted

Posted on February 02, 2010
The big local criminal trial here in the Portland area has been of the Neagley parents, who were charged with negligent homicide for letting their 16-year-old son die of an untreated blocked urinary tract without seeking any medical care. The...

Stupid things celebrities say, Mrs. Polanski edition

Posted on January 21, 2010
Roman Polanski's wife says: "My husband has never considered himself above the law." Huh? Hasn't he considered himself about the law for the past 33 years, when he's been a fugitive? And is it a little weird that his current...

Oregon's cellphone ban and its budget deficit

Posted on January 15, 2010
Oregon has a new ban on driving and talking on a handheld cellphone, which apparently has operated as a mini-stimulus for the hands-free accessory industry, judging by how my local Verizon store was sold out of said accessories recently. It's...

It's true, all business is local!

Posted on December 10, 2009
According to the Iowa City Press-Citizen, the Waldenbooks on the east side of Iowa City is closing. We used to visit that Waldenbooks semi-frequently, because it's at the same end of the Sycamore Mall as the Panera that we ate...

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I thought I left frigid weather behind. . . .

Posted on December 07, 2009
. . . but it's sub-freezing right now in Portland! Oh well, at least we're well stocked with winter clothing, and besides, at least we're not having blizzard conditions possible. UPDATE (12/8): Okay, I'm not going to complain. Cold is...

Has Huckabee now killed his 2012 ambitions?

Posted on December 02, 2009
As is now well-known, Maurice Clemmons, the alleged killer of four police officers in Washington state, was once serving a 90+ year sentence in Arkansas, when Governor Mike Huckabee commuted his sentence. Today, Huckabee had this to say: "I take...

The Civil War: who to root for?

Posted on November 23, 2009
Wow, this is pretty cool. My first year here, and Oregon and Oregon State are playing their annual rival match for the right to go to the Rose Bowl (and trash Ohio State)! Since I'm new to the area, though,...

How incompetent was Capt. Picard, anyway?

Posted on November 19, 2009
Last night, while watching the preposterous but nevertheless entertaining "Star Trek: Next Gen" episode where a rampant virus makes everyone on the Enterprise "devolve" into giant spiders, lemurs, and other creatures, I had an insight. This is yet another episode...

US to prosecute KSM in federal court

Posted on November 13, 2009
Not all Guantanamo detainees are going to face trial in an Article III (federal) court, but September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his key associate Ramzi Binalshibh will. President Obama's statement was: ?I?m absolutely convinced that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed...

A quick thought on ABC's "FlashForward"

Posted on November 06, 2009
Spoilers up to 11/5/09! I've been watching ABC's serial sci-fi drama "FlashForward" almost in real-time, meaning that it just sits on my TiVo for an hour or so. (To put it in context, I haven't gotten around to the "V"...

I moved to the right state!

Posted on November 02, 2009
Because of Halloween trick or treating, I didn't get to see all of the Oregon-USC football game, but what I saw, including the end, was plenty satisfying. It's hilarious to think that the USC football team has not won in...

Sleeplessness, state by state

Posted on October 29, 2009
This CDC study looks at sleeplessness rates by states. Oregon does pretty well, with only 8.8% of the population reporting insufficient sleep for 30 out of the past 30 days. (That's pretty severe, every night?!?) I don't know about other...

We're #3 (but we should be #1)!

Posted on October 29, 2009
Forbes has ranked the 40 biggest U.S. metropolitan areas in terms of safety, and Portland comes in at #3. The top five are Minneapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee, Portland, Boston, and Seattle. While MSP certainly has a good claim to the top...

How law schools are like cruise ships

Posted on October 22, 2009
Like the last cruise I went on, our law school facility here is full of stand-up dispensers of hand sanitizers!

That's some love!

Posted on October 19, 2009
Wow, this is some love that the husband has for his wife, enlisting in the Army so that he can make sure she has health coverage for her cancer treatment!

Why I didn't ask for a Blackberry during my last at a law firm

Posted on October 16, 2009
This story sums it all up.

Overweight at 5'10" and 120 lbs?

Posted on October 14, 2009
This is pretty weird -- the model who was picture in the supposedly Photoshopped Ralph Lauren ad is 5'10" and 120 lbs, and she says she was fired for being "too fat." Wha??? It just happens that when I started...

NBC, Desperation, and Jay Leno

Posted on October 12, 2009
TV Guide has an interesting column titled "Is Jay Leno Killing NBC?," that basically wonders whether NBC's decision to give the weeknight 10-11 pm time slot to Jay Leno has doomed the network. To recap -- a few years ago,...

Don't have Amazon.com teach geography to the kids!

Posted on October 12, 2009
Amazon sure has some weird ideas about geography. I mean, I live in Oregon, which isn't *that* far from Nevada. Yet, look at the route that my package is taking: October 12, 200912:24:00 PMLOUISVILLE KY USArrival ScanOctober 12, 200911:42:00 AMLOUISVILLE...

Oh my, I don't think I can resist tuning into this

Posted on October 07, 2009
This is not a joke, apparently. Have you ever wondered what "COPS" would be like if Steven Seagal was the officer? Now you don't have to. I don't think I'll be able to resist checking this out to see how...

Roman Polanski, a flight risk?

Posted on October 06, 2009
Hmm, the Swiss Justice Ministry has denied Roman Polanski's request for bail, apparently because he's a "high flight risk." Why, there's no reason to believe that he would ever flee a jurisdiction . . . oh wait. . . .

Winning by losing, Olympic bid edition

Posted on October 05, 2009
My good friend Nick Johnson has a funny and insightful post arguing that Chicago is better off for not having won the bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games, because cities that host the Olympics usually end up paying for...

Just when I thought the Polanski saga couldn't get more disgusting

Posted on October 03, 2009
It's bad enough that there are people -- including French government officials -- who are jumping to defend Roman Polanski the fugitive. It's bad enough that his underlying crime, to which he pled guilty, is pretty heinous. What's even worse...

Last one standing?

Posted on October 02, 2009
I'm the last one standing in the house. . . . Last Friday, my older son woke up with a fever and threw up four times that morning by the time he saw the doctor. He had pneumonia in one...

I have good taste in movies?

Posted on September 30, 2009
Wow, I have seen exactly *zero* of the 100 worst movies of the 2000s, per Rotten Tomatoes. Of course, my moviegoing has dropped to pretty much zero since 2004, but even so, I haven't even seen these on TV. Well,...

Is this a good idea?

Posted on September 28, 2009
President Obama is calling for more school for kids -- a longer calendar, and a longer school day. One can only assume that he is speaking aspirationally, as opposed to setting a new federal agenda. Then again, maybe the Commerce...

Democracy -- does it mean what the NY Times thinks it means?

Posted on September 28, 2009
The New York Times has an editorial today against the death penalty that reiterates what seems to me to be the best argument against capital punishment: its cost. As the Times notes: Perhaps the most extreme example is California, whose...

Living without a fridge

Posted on September 25, 2009
Around the time I was deciding whether to move to Oregon, I read a story about a trend among some Oregonians to give up their refrigerators(!). The theory is that a refrigerator is one of the biggest energy eaters in...

I will never subscribe to Money Magazine (I think)

Posted on September 18, 2009
I don't think I'll ever subscribe to Money Magazine if its "analysis" of the soundness of Social Security is an example of its journalism. In its discussion of why you should be counting on(!) Social Security as part of your...

But I thought he was just a "person of interest" and not a "suspect"!

Posted on September 17, 2009
Just a couple of days ago, the police arrested, er, took into custody a Yale lab technician as a "person of interest" in the murder of a female Yale grad student. The TV news accounts that I saw showed the...

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