Legal Research

Entry to the Bar Interim Report

Posted on April 05, 2007
The interim report of Lord Neuberger's working party concerned with widening access to the Bar is published today. The final report is expected at the end of 2007. Entry to the Bar Working Party Interim Report- April 2007 Bookmark to:

It's Coming &

Posted on April 03, 2007
Bookmark to:

National Policing Improvement Agency

Posted on April 02, 2007
It's all about the agencies today. Another new one for you, the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA): 'A non-departmental public body, the NPIA combines the resources of several, smallerunits with some Home Office functions to form one, streamlined organisation that will focus its attention on operational matters affecting police officers, special constables and community support [...

Border and Immigration Agency Goes Live

Posted on April 02, 2007
It's all change today! The responsibilities of theImmigration and Nationality Directoratearenow assumed byThe Border and Immigration Agency. Lin Homer, Chief Executive, explains: Our vision for the new Agency is that it will be more responsive to the communities it serves...

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UK-IPO

Posted on April 02, 2007
The UK Patent Office changes its nameto the UK Intellectual Property Office today, asrecommended by the Gower Report. Ron Marchant, Chief Executive of the Patent Office: I believe that the new name UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) truly reflects the wide range of intellectual property services offered and dispels confusion and uncertainty for our customers...

This Week's Useful Tools

Posted on April 01, 2007
Not too many this week: Stripe Generator 2.0 - create stripes, simple. HiTask - web based task management application. Desktop on demand - online version of your personal computer, access your desktop and content securely from just about anywhere. Tubes - share photos, music, videos and documents with people you know...

DirectgovKids

Posted on March 31, 2007
Sentence children for committingcrimes such asnot doing their homework and pushing in the dinner queue. DirectgovKids includes lots of weird games, informational videos and quizzes.I was not impressed (but then I am not the target audience) nonetheless I stayed to play all the games just becuase they were a bit freaky, check out the UN [...

I Guess That Proves It Then

Posted on March 31, 2007
GodTube is & well you can imagine.Check out the Athiestin which the design of the banana is shown toprove the existence of God, as well as being a little bit rude. Not sure if this is a spoof, but it is worth checking out, as are the comments. Bookmark to:

Typography on the Web

Posted on March 31, 2007
.net magazine has a super article about typograpghy on the web, highlighting the differences between print and online type and some of the problems encountered. Stephen Coles of Typographica explains: Type on theweb is different from print because typeface choice is limited, people read (or scan) web text much quicker than printed text, type on [...

LexisNexis Webinar

Posted on March 29, 2007
LexisNexis will host a live webinar to coincide with the launch of the 2007 edition of the Green Book, The Orange Rag reports. The webinar will be held on Tuesday 17th April at 12.30 p.m. and will include a presentation from The Rt Hon The Lord Neuberger and live lectures by Green Book editors...

FOI & OMG!

Posted on March 27, 2007
Request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000: Q. The estimated costs so far incurred of the inquests into the deaths of Diana, P of W and Dodi Fayed. A. The total costs of the inquests incurred to 13 July 2006 was 98,862. DCA: Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed inquest costs Bookmark to:

This Week's Useful Tools

Posted on March 25, 2007
Sqillions this week, including lots of collaborative work spaces: Kayuda - is a 'web based visual wiki, a mindmapping tool and a non-linear writing tool that allows you to track ideas and the relationship between them'. Thinking Rock - a Getting Things done (GTD) downloadable software application 'for collecting and processing your thoughts following the GTD methodology'...

Web2.0-ified

Posted on March 24, 2007
Familiar logos given the Web 2.0 treatment courtesy of a logo contest at Yah Hooray forum (found via haha.nu). My absolute favourite is the Quaker Oats one, I would buy Quaker Oats if this was their logo. Bookmark to:

Alternative News Round-Up

Posted on March 23, 2007
A few of the stranger news storiesI've readthis week: Taunting farmers for fun not funny - 'A new form of rural 'happy slapping' in which young drivers taunt farmers and film their reaction on mobile phones has been condemned by a judge as 'reprehensible''...

Toddler Tennis and the Embryonic Brain (or 2 Cool Vidz)

Posted on March 23, 2007
I want a Wii and a clevertoddler, then I could make cool videos like this one (found via Wikinomics), which features one very smart2 year oldplaying Wii tennis.Once you're done with that then watch this news feature on 'the growing phenomenon of internet' from 1993 (found over at Law Librarian blog)...

In the Dock? Then Pretty Up

Posted on March 22, 2007
Juries are more likely to find less attractive defendents guilty than they are theprettier ones, according to research carried out by psychologists at Bath Spa University. 96 Student volunteers were given a fictitious account of an old lady being mugged, they were then presented with a picture of one of four defendents who had been [...

Reasons to be Cheerful # 3: Pimp your Google Homepage

Posted on March 21, 2007
Add themes to your personalised Google homepage. The recently added 'select theme' feature currently offers seven themes to choose from: classic (or plain old Google), beach, city scape, sweet dreams (all pretty plain), seasonal scape (a snowman at the moment), tea house (cute characters), and bus stop (people standing at a bus stop, yes really)...

Parliament's Secret Feeds

Posted on March 21, 2007
Ok, so I made that sound more exciting than it really is. But if you regularly attend RSS Anon meetings then this is set to get your pulse racing. Parliament.uknow offers RSS feeds for a number of their pages, but they are strangely hidden. If you sign up for the email alerts that are offered [...

If They Rapped About DRM ...

Posted on March 21, 2007
Convince the kids of the importance of copyright lawusing the medium of bad rap. Don't copy that floppy(foundat Zeropaid via Digg) is an uncomfortably long public service announcement come educational video from 1992. One guy raps his way through the many reasons why you shouldn't copy floppies, while the geekiest of geeks explain the thrill [...

New on Globalex

Posted on March 21, 2007
Globalex has added a new category of articles and research guides entitled Tools for building foreign, comparative and international collections. At the moment this is fledgling and includes only a couple of guides, but it should be interesting to monitor...

E-Government Rankings

Posted on March 19, 2007
Waseda University, Tokyo, has produced its third annual World E-Government Ranking, with the UK coming in at number 9.Thirty-twocountries were evaluated by a multidisciplinary team of researchers: 'A set of comprehensive indicators and parameters were defined and used by the Institute to measure E-Government development in those countries...

Can I Have a P Please Bob?

Posted on March 18, 2007
Something fun for the weekend: We Dig TV hastaken classic gameshows/quizzesand made them interactive, so you can play Blockbusters with Bob Holness! I used to watch this after school, it's a lot easier now I must say. Other games available are Catchphrase, Family Fortunes and Countdown...

This Week's Useful Tools

Posted on March 18, 2007
A small selection this week: wiki.is create wikis. SNiPiTRONsocial bookmarking for your research. Jimdo and Noovo allow you to create web pages. Show yourselfgather together your web identities and create a widget for your blogs and MySpaces. Guerrilla Mail disposable email address, lasts for 15 minutes...

Reasons to be Cheerful # 2: Leading Case Law by Subject

Posted on March 17, 2007
BAILII, working in collaboration with members of the legal academic community, has identified and compiled lists of leading case law by subject. If you have a suggestion for addition then you can email openlaw@bailii.org Bookmark to:

A Twitter Reader

Posted on March 17, 2007
So many blog posts and I have to admit I still don't really get it. The divide between card carrying Twitterers and those that see it as a time waster is vast. In the valley between the two live the confused. A selection of Twitter related posts (all mixed up, because that's how I feel [...

Snack-o-tainment

Posted on March 17, 2007
'Music, television, games, movies, fashion: We now devour our pop culture the same way we enjoy candy and chips [or sweets and crisps to you and me] - in conveniently packaged bite-size nuggets made to be munched easily with increased frequency and maximum speed'...

You, Google and the Server

Posted on March 16, 2007
Yesterday it was revealed that Google willanonymise personal data related to userssearchesafter 18-24 months. A statment from Google explains: 'By anonymising our server logs after 18 to 24 months, we think were striking the right balance between two goals: continuing to improve Google's services for you, while providing more transparency and certainty about our retention [...

Courtesy of the FOI Act

Posted on March 15, 2007
I missed this before (it's over a week old now, which is ancient in blogosphere terms), but I thought I'd post as it is rather good. The Times has a list of 59 things that would have stayed secret were it not for the Freedom of Information Act. A few of stranger ones: The Thatcher Government [...

The Blooker Prize

Posted on March 14, 2007
Blogs being made into books is not a new idea, apparently they are known as blooks. Examples of successful blooks: Seth Godin's Small is the new big, Anonymous Lawyer, and any number of Belle de Jour types. However, what is new is the Blooker Prize, organised by Lulu, the print on demand publisher...

Books as Decoration

Posted on March 13, 2007
I spotted an odd enquiryin 'your questions answered' inthe Guardian magazine on Saturday. Someone had written in to ask where they could get hold of wallpaper 'with a pattern that looks like books on shelves'. Apparently this is 'very hip'. A3.3m drop costs 150 here, or 30 per metre here...

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