Jack Ayer is right about (among other things) cell phones and cats.

See here.

Shameless groveling for free dance competition entries.

The folks who own the Vegas Open Dance Challenge are having a photo contest, and the pic with the most likes on it gets some free entries.

So I'm shamelessly asking all of my friends (and their friends) to please click on this link here and "like" my picture.  Thanks so much!

Enron in retrospective.

BBC Radio 5 Live's Wake Up To Money asked me a bit about Enron, 10 years later (interview starts around minute 27:30), or click here.

My Dad and my buddy Gus Schill pointed me to the Houston Chronicle's Enron retrospective:  see here, here, and Fuel Fix's compilation, here.  Some of my takes are here, here (Colin Marks and I wrote this one), here, and here.  And the books that Bala Dharan, Jeff (yep, my Jeff) Van Niel, and I did:  here and here.

Short version of my take on things, 10 years later?  Two things:  those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and humans don't seem to be able to learn from history, at least where their own cognition is concerned.

*SNORK* (the sound of snorting laughter)

See here. Hat tips to Brazen and Tenured and The Faculty Lounge.

Why giving up my Droid X was worth over a thousand dollars to me.

I thought I was smart. I thought I was a rebel. I thought that I could avoid going all-in on Apple products. I thought that having a phone that linked to my Gmail account and all of its contacts would be cool and convenient.


Nope.


I had a Droid X for all of six months before I had a hissy fit yesterday. The Droid had just gotten on my last nerve.


Oh, there were signs. Like any bad relationship, there were signs. Lotus Notes didn't like Droids. Installing Lotus Notes took over an hour, and after I updated my Droid OS, Lotus Notes went on the fritz. Not even the best minds at UNLV's Office of Information Technology (and trust me, there are very smart people working at OIT) could figure out what was wrong. I almost gave up right there, but I stuck with my Droid.


I stuck with my Droid even though its autocorrect feature would go haywire from time to time. I stuck with my Droid even though its browser was slow. I stuck with my Droid even though Android Market didn't have as many cool apps.


I was stubborn.  So what changed my mind? Sheer, boundless stupidity.


I don't know why the Droid X stopped getting Gmail (its raison d'être, after all, right?) and started giving me messages telling me that Google (yes, Google) didn't have a trusted security certificate. I did a Google search (on my iMac) to find out what the various Gmail errors meant, and I saw page after page listing the newest Gmail/Droid X errors. 


Strike one.


When I called Verizon Wireless, the tech rep told me that there were no such problems.


Strike two.


Then he told me that I'd have to do a hard reset, which would mean having to reinstall everything, including Lotus Notes.


Strike three.


So I called around and found one Apple store that had a few iPhone 4s models remaining. I hightailed it over there and got the phone. 


Because I'd had the Droid for under a year, I had to pay full price (gasp!) for a 64GB iPhone 4s, but here's the thing:  the in-store setup, including a humongous contact list transfer, took around 15 minutes, and the OIT Lotus Notes setup (including downloading the Lotus Notes app) took around 10 minutes. Canceling my second phone line at Verizon took about 10 minutes and cost me $280, but I'll save $40/month by not having a second phone line.


And let's face it: the iPhone's just better. Its keyboard is easier to use. Its autocorrect feature is pretty smart. The phone feels better in my hand. And Siri? Ah, Siri has the right amount of competence and whimsy.



So what will I do with the Droid X now? Let's just say that there's a 230-gr. hollow-point with the Droid's name on it, and one happy husband who's been trying to find a way to lure me to the shooting range.

We found it. Wait for the video.

Newest "guilty pleasure" blog--update.

See here.  Hat tip to Brian Leiter.

UPDATE:  From my buddy George Connelly:  In my humble opinion, the "feel good" aspects of lower and higher education have created at least 2 generations of students who do not know how to spell, punctuate, or write.  And so long as grade inflation exists in the schools, that will continue.

From the sharp eyes of my buddy Bruce Quinn.

Bruce forwarded this article on cat agility (here) to me today. Am now reading the article to Grace and Shadow, who don't seem to have any competitive bones in their bodies.

Congress gave medals to four of my heroes.

See here.  Then read Homer Hickam's op-ed (here). 

Why I love Steve Lubben's work, part n.

See his two recent Dealbook columns, linked in this post at Credit Slips.

Why military veterans make great students.

See today's New York Times story here.

A very smart bit of advice for college football fans.

See here.  Hat tip to Scott Unger.

GoDaddy's 236th birthday tribute to the Marines, and a list of a few of my favorite former Marines.

GoDaddy (which I use) has just impressed me even more (here).  And here's a listing of some of my favorite former Marines (in addition to Jeff Van Niel, Jon Van Niel, and George Van Niel):

• Racehorse Haynes
• Joe Reynolds
• Harold Hyman
• David Polyansky
• Joe Jamail

Thank you all for your amazing service to our country, and for all the ways that you bring honor to everything that you do.

Poignant articles on the housing crisis.

In today's New York Times (here).

Happy birthday to my beloved Marine Corps!

What can I say?  I have friends in pretty much every branch of the service (although I have no Coast Guard friends yet), and I'm in awe of how they put themselves on the line every single day, without even asking us for simple thanks.

And I love, absolutely love, the Marine Corps.  The Corps was founded on 10 November 1775.  My husband's a former Marine.  My father-in-law is a former Marine.  My brother-in-law is a former Marine.*

Every single day, I read about someone who's fairly young and who has stepped up to the plate, either on foreign soil or here at home.  I marvel at their ability to lead by example.  So:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARINES! 


* My sister-in-law retired not terribly long ago from the Air Force, and Jeff's late mother was in the Army.  I married into a wonderful military family.

Giving kudos (and buying ice cream) for 'fessing up to mistakes.

I've been meaning to post a link to this New York Times story about how to encourage learning from mistakes (here) for a while.  The gist is that it's better to bring mistakes out into the open and treat them as a learning opportunity (by having the mistake-maker buy ice cream for everyone) than it is to yell at the mistake-maker in private.  I love that idea.  It lessens the angst from having made a mistake and acknowledges the mistake in a positive way.

Dear Ulta.com:

If you're going to send me a $15 gift card to make up for messing up a prior order, perhaps that gift card should actually work on a subsequent order.  Epic (mini)fail.

Here's to contractions.

Loved John Kang's post over at The Faculty Lounge (here).  I've been known to yank (invited) pieces from journals when they mess too much with my writing style.  We seem to have been giving law students the notion that only stuffy writing is good writing.  We need to remind them that clear writing is good writing, and that one doesn't have to be overly formal to be a good writer.  My point when I yank an article is that the editors' names aren't going on the author byline, and that I've earned the right to write in my own voice.*

So here's to John Kang's piece!

* Am I a diva?  Yes.  Yes, I am.  But at least I'm a self-aware diva.

Let's keep watching the Gupta insider trading case.

Today's Wall Street Journal describes the nuanced issues in this case (here).

My take?  As long as boards are composed of people who frequently work with each other and who have more similarities than differences, there's no one there equipped to ask "why are we doing this?"  Without someone asking the questions, there's no reason for boards to change behavior.

Welcome back, Jack the Norwegian Forest Cat!

See here.

Enron rap--a new classic.

Hat tip to Jackie Benson (who happens to be exceptionally smart, talented, and fun to know) and Above the Law.  You can listen to it here.  Click on Daniel Sokol's blog (here) for the text of the full rap.

Thank you, LexisNexis (and voters)!

Here's the full announcement and list of honorees.  I love a lot of the blogs on this list (and on the original list), and I'm very grateful to be included.

To vote for the Top Business Law Blog of the Year, click here.  You've got to be registered to vote.  If you haven't previously registered, follow this link to create a new registration or use your sign in credentials from your favorite social media site.   Once you are logged in, you can then VOTE by checking the box next to your favorite Business Law blog then submitting the results. Voting ends on November 5, 2011.

Thanks again!

Brian Leiter has it exactly right when it comes to faculty credentials.

See here.

Newest guilty pleasure: Draw a Stickman.

See here.  Stay with it a while.

Yes, sometimes I stay awake worrying about this issue.

See today's WSJ (here).

An amazing experience.

Thank you for this once-in-a-lifetime experience (here), Georgia Aquarium!

A don't-miss read over at The Faculty Lounge.

My buddy Bernie Burk's take (here) on the latest job news in yesterday's WSJ (here).  Given that I've just filed a court document bemoaning law firms' decisions to try to bill summer associate time in bankruptcy cases w/o a good explanation, and given that I'm going to talk about fees in bankruptcy this coming Thursday, this topic is near and dear to my heart.

Joe Nocera, Starbucks, Kickstarter, and us.

This morning's New York Times brought another great Joe Nocera column (here).  Starbucks's chairman is trying to develop a microfinance option for Starbucks customers, much like the Kickstarter site does for artists.  It's a great idea.  Count me in.

Great way to start the morning.

Hilarious.

Protests only make sense when they stand for something specific.

The current "occupy" protests remind me a lot of that great line in Network:  "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!"  But I find myself increasingly frustrated by the tenor of the protests, and not just because some of them have an anti-Semitic tenor.  (Financial protests that blame the Jews?  Shocker.) 

Of course, we're frustrated about the current economic climate.  We have friends and neighbors who are suffering from unemployment or, if they have jobs, they're facing reduced benefits and the risk of layoffs.  We have friends and neighbors who have lost homes or who are at risk of losing their homes.  We have friends and neighbors who can't afford their prescription medicines.  We see the pain in their eyes.

But where are the specific solutions in those "occupy" protests?  The great protests of the past involved specifics:  desegregation, an end to discrimination, equal rights. 

One of my favorite movies (yep, written by Aaron Sorkin) has this line:  "We've got serious problems, and we need serious people."  Hanging out in a group without having some notion of what action that group wants to take (or whether any of the proposals make sense) isn't a serious solution to a serious problem.  I'm with David Brooks on this one:  oversimplying the problem as 99 vs. 1 gets us nowhere (here).

Story of (former) lawyer's chutzpah.

See here.  I couldn't make up behavior like this if I tried.

See? I'm not the only one with a double life.

Here.  But how does she find dresses for $1,800? 

As if there weren't already a million reasons to read The Faculty Lounge.

Here's another one--Bernie Burk's going to blog there!

Shameless plug.

Each year, LexisNexis honors a select group of blogs that set the online standard for a given industry. I’ve just been told that this blog is one of the nominated candidates for the Top 25 Business Law Blogs of 2011, featured on the LexisNexis Corporate & Securities Community. (YAY!) If you're comfortable commenting about my blog (and there are TONS of great blogs on the site, so you could comment on a lot of 'em), then please click here.  Thanks! 

Congrats to my buddy Jennifer Carr!

Jennifer's paper, Providing Effective Feedback, was recently listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list for Law Educator: Courses, Materials & Teaching eJournal.  Yay, Jennifer! 

Failure can be a very, very good thing.

See here.

Hey, two of my Kickstarter projects are in the New York Times.

See here.  Special shout-outs to CheyAnna and the jellyfish tank.

Good job, Marines!

Today's New York Times reports that the Marines are now actively recruiting gays and lesbians (here).  My favorite paragraph of the story:

The Marines were the service most opposed to ending the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, but they were the only one of five invited branches of the military to turn up with their recruiting table and chin-up bar at the center Tuesday morning. Although Marines pride themselves on being the most testosterone-fueled of the services, they also ferociously promote their view of themselves as the best. With the law now changed, the Marines appear determined to prove that they will be better than the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard in recruiting gay, lesbian and bisexual service members. 

Way to go, USMC!

The Noble-Martello family ROCKS.

See here.  We've been lucky enough to know them for a long time (but refuse to say how MANY years), and each of them is talent personified--and nice.  Yay in particular to Amelia!

Great post by Steve Lubben over at Credit Slips on venue & fees.

See here.

This blog tickles me.

Profanity alert, but see here.  Hat-tip to Above the Law.

I figured out this picture on Target's website.

The "(wink)" is for

• We don't have anything in stock.
• We've lost one of your orders.
• We're not going to send you your other order.
• Our customer service won't help.
• We don't freaking care if you're angry.

Seriously, what were the odds?

So I'm reading the Sunday paper (having gotten up early to drop a friend off at the airport), and I see this title in the local paper's Business section:  Deep in the Heart of Nevada.  (Online, the title is Jobs, weather have some Texans coming to Las Vegas--see here.)

I read this paragraph and then mopped up my spit-take:

"The town where we're from has a Walmart, a McDonald's and a couple of Mexican restaurants. It has a little shopping center with a Big Lots and a Dollar General. That's it," said Shannon Fleming, 28, who moved here with husband, Kevin, 33, and 7-year-old daughter, Amaya, from Orange, Texas, in early 2010.

Orange, Texas?  Um, that's where I'm from.  Hey, Flemings?  Welcome to Las Vegas!  We totally understand your point.

But just to be fair:  Houston is still a wonderful city.

The perfect juxtaposition of two articles today on the death penalty.

See here and here.  There are few things in life of which I'm unshakably sure.  The love of certain family members and friends is one such thing; the belief that there is such a thing as right and wrong (although I'm not always sure that it's possible to figure out which is which) is another; and the concept that humans make mistakes in judgment is a third.  So the idea that no one has ever been wrongfully executed is just plain foreign to me.

Personally, I like my leaders with a little more self-doubt and humility.

I've started a second blog (well, a third one, really).

Jeff and I have a blog for our Law School Survival Manual (here), and today, I started a blog called Corporate Scandal Watch (here).  (We've also reserved a blog for Law Firm Survival Manual for when it comes out, but that's a while away.)

Corporate Scandal Watch has a whopping single post for now, but thanks to our economy and human nature, there will be more.

Thank you, Cpl. Meyer.

See here.  Thanks, to, go to Sgt. Rodriguez-Chavez and Capt. Swenson, among many others.

On this day in 1962.

When and where did JFK say this?  "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." 

Rice University, 9/12/62.

Ralston on 9/11.

I really liked Jon Ralston's column today (here).

What I want in a President (or a Senator, or a Congressperson).

One of the op-eds that I read this morning (here) got me thinking about what I want in a candidate for national office.*  I'm part of that vast center, neither too liberal nor too conservative.  I've toyed with both parties over the years, but the parties I knew growing up bear no relationship to the acrimonious and sanctimonious parties of today.  If politicians were still in kindergarten, they'd all be given "doesn't play well with others" grades.  But at least if they were in kindergarten, we could hope that they'd grow out of that problem.

So what do I want?  Here are the markers for my ideal candidate:

1. They're smart.  Smart people can learn things, and they're open to questioning their assumptions.  People with high IQs who aren't open to questioning their assumptions aren't smart.
2. They know their limitations.  Dirty Harry was right:  "A man's got to know his limitations."**  Not only should they know their limitations, they should surround themselves with people whose strengths fit precisely where the candidate's limitations are.  I worked for a Republican 9th Circuit judge.  We had very few things in common.  (Let's see:  we both went to law school.  We were both carbon-based life forms.  Later in life, I was a dean; he'd been a dean before working for the federal government.  That's about it.)  He liked choosing at least one law clerk whose ideas differed markedly from his, so that, as he put it, he could make sure that his decisions made sense.  He wanted me to poke holes in his analysis, and he rewarded me for doing so.  He was willing to buck his own predilections to get the law right.  Given that many of the more liberal judges back then weren't nearly as intellectually honest as he was, I was impressed by his dedication to justice.  
3. They don't believe their own hype.  People in power are surrounded by lackeys.  The level of kissing-up to which they're subjected is almost unlimited.  Being told that one is brilliant, handsome/beautiful, and wise every minute will tend to affect one's self-image.  It takes strength to realize that, like everyone else, they're humans with no superpowers.  I want my public servants to have some humility.
4. They're willing to walk away from the job rather than pander.  This one's tough.  I know that it's impossible to govern without being elected.  But with the extremists in both parties pushing for candidates and politicians to move farther left or farther right, as the case may be, at some point, the candidate or politician has to say, "enough."  Spending too much time campaigning at the cost of investing that time in governing doesn't impress me.

I don't know if we'll get candidates that meet my criteria.  I'd love to see them, but I doubt that the people who really could fit even this list of four qualities are going to take time from their productive lives to run.  We sure could use them, though.
_______________
* Of course, I'd like to see these same things in candidates for state and local offices, too.
**http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070355/quotes. 

Want good reporting on bankruptcy news? You want Bill Rochelle.

Here's a perfect example (today's column, here).  Full disclosure:  I've known Bill for several years now and have enjoyed talking with him about developing news, and I've gotten to know other great Bloomberg folks as well.

Update:  to get the podcasts, click here.

David Brooks and "haimishness."

In today's New York Times (here).  Nice.

Why tax law matters.

See here.  Hat tip to TaxProf Blog, of course.

Well, thanks!

See here.  Thanks, Inter Alia!

Jon Macey on the Buffett-B of A investment

As always, a fascinating take on things:  here.

One of my new heroes.

See here.  Leadership always, always must come by example.  Thanks, Dr. Powell!

And when Joe Nocera writes, I pay attention.

Here's his latest piece--a great column about Steve Jobs (here). 

When Tom Campbell talks, I listen.

See here.  Couple this idea with the Van Niel mortgage proposal, and you can see how an economic recovery might work.

Kvelling about Mike Frisch.

See Alan Childress's post on the Legal Profession Blog here.  For a partial listing of why Mike is cool, see here.  To look up what "kvelling" means, click here or here.

Two good Wall Street Journal op-eds about Steve Jobs.

See here and here.

Rice's 100th entering class.

See here.  Go, Owls! 

My dad was ahead of his time when he taught me math.

Today's op-ed in the New York Times, "How to Fix Our Math Education" (here), argues that students should learn math in context--that teaching them practical applications of math will make the concepts of math stick.  I'm proof of that. 

When I was in high school, my dad realized that, even though I was getting all As, I knew nothing about algebra.  (I went to high school in Texas.  Aside from a very few wonderful teachers, the only real education that I received was the education that Mom and Dad gave me at home.  I still have only the concept of geography that I learned in school:  "Texas" and "other"--and "other" meant "Dallas on up.")  He gave me homework in algebra and more advanced math subjects, as well as science homework.  That homework, which I'm sure frustrated the heck out of Dad, got me into Rice, and Rice got me into my various careers.

So the op-ed is smart.  As is Dad.

Great post over at Credit Slips.

See here.  Adam Levitin's post is worth reading.  Hat tip to my buddy Eric Van Horn for pointing it out to me.

Caused a spit-take when I read it.

Here.  Hat tip to my buddy Marc Stern.

The older I get, the more I like straightforward things, like the West Point Honor Code.

See here for a good discussion about the difference between codes that force community members to turn in their colleagues and those that don't.

Quelle surprise! Law firms manage their profits per partner for the rankings.

See here.  At what point do we stop measuring things that don't really matter, rather than chase the tail of the rankings dog?

I would say this even if I didn't hang out with Bloomberg folks.

People who think that they can have it all (a wonderful, engaging job; full participation in family life; time for themselves) are too optimistic.  It's totally possible to have all of these things, but not all of them 100% of the time.  Priorities have to shift; things have to give.  So I wasn't surprised by this story (here) in the New York Times.

A chance to hang out with Randy Cohen, of "The Ethicist" fame.

See here.  Well, not literally hang out with him, unless you scroll down to the bottom right-hand side of his Kickstarter page--but he is funny and it is a good project.

Best foreclosure story ever.

See here.  Hat tips to Marc Stern, Chicago's Real Law Blog, and The Daily Show.  Students lucky enough to get Professor Porter for a course should discuss it with her.

Freaking brilliant.

See here.  Hat tip to Jack Ayer.

A good column about NASA.

My dad sent me this P.J. O'Rourke column, and I really appreciated it (here).

A story that will break your heart and inspire you.

Read "Rachel's Last Fund-Raiser," by Nicholas Kristof, in today's New York Times or here.  To donate in Rachel's memory, see here.

Rest in peace, Bernadine Healy.

Just saw the news about her death (here).  We overlapped at The Ohio State University, and I remember her as being quite gracious.  She never seemed to shy away from tough decisions. 

A class act.

(update) WONDERFUL column on Enron's former directors.

See the Deal Professor's column in today's New York Times (here).

UPDATE (or why I shouldn't monitor my blog before 6:15 a.m.)--my buddy George posted a great comment, which I accidentally deleted, so here it is:

While I do not think all of the folks mentioned in the article are as pure as the driven snow, there is a thinly veiled assumption that they knew what was going on when bad things were happening and turned a blind eye. I think it is premature to indict them in the media when they were probably lied to like the unlucky investors in those companies (or would any of you like some of our Lehman Brothers stock?).

Me:  George, I'm sure that they were lied to.  There's no way that they weren't.  The question that I have (and one that I don't know how to answer) is how boards can pierce through any lies that their managers throw their way, especially when they assume that their managers are the good guys.  If you post another comment, I promise to have had coffee and won't accidentally delete it!

I didn't think that Elizabeth Warren could get any cooler. I was wrong.

See today's Doonesbury strip here.  Based on this strip, her appearances on The Daily Show, and Joe Nocera's columns about her (like this one, here), she has officially become the coolest law professor ever.  If I were a Massachusetts resident, I would be delighted to campaign for her Senate run (should she choose to run).

Best prep for becoming a first-year law student.

See here.  One of our new first-years has been helping people who can't afford lawyers to understand the system.  Here's what the story says about him:

Berchtold is particularly enthusiastic about a staff assistant designated to handle customers who have received home mortgage default notices and are thinking about opting for the Foreclosure Mediation Program run by the Nevada Supreme Court. That position is filled by Adam Tully, who will enter UNLV’s Boyd Law School this fall.

 Welcome, Adam--I can't wait to see the kind of good you'll do when you get your J.D., pass the bar, and can help people parse the system in your role as a lawyer.  BRAVO!

Welcome home, STS-135!

Here's the landing.  Thank you, NASA, for all you've done.  Here's to giving you the funding and the vision to continue letting us explore and discover.

And speaking of Apollo....

Happy Moon Landing Day (see here).  And yes, we did TOO land on the moon.  Here's to our nation coming up with more ways of getting kids excited about math and science....

Kickstarter's Apollo film--let's get it funded.

I'm captivated by Kickstarter, a micro-finance engine for a variety of projects, and I particularly care about this project:  Last of the Apollo Astronauts (here).  There are 12 days left to fund this project.  Let's do it!

Happy birthday to John Glenn!

My buddy Scott Unger reminded me that it's John Glenn's birthday today.  Wishing a happy birthday to a very, very brave person.  Want to see how brave?  See here.  Godspeed, John Glenn.

My thoughts about the recent New York Times article on law school economics.

Posted at our Law School Survival Manual blog (here).

Elton John and the space shuttle

Watch here.  Hat tip to Ed Fein, my IP guru at NASA.  Also a hat tip to our friend Randy, who is a rocket scientist--for real.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Read Alexandra Petri's "Space, a place we used to go" here.

Godspeed, STS-135.

Here.  I still cry at every launch.

Not just a good New York Times article about bankruptcy filings.

But a good New York Times article with a nice picture of, and good quotes from, Bob Lawless (here).

In memoriam: David Getches.

Brian Leiter posted the news here.  I'd known David Getches from our intersecting times as dean, and more recently on a personal level.  My heart goes out to his family.  He was a very nice, very kind person.  I'll miss him.

A salute to Robert Gates and a diatribe against the U.S. Postal Service--and why the two are linked.

Kevin Ferris wrote a lovely piece about departing defense secretary Robert Gates (here), who has served honorably in his position, putting the troops' needs first.

And speaking of our troops, I was hoping to be able to send paperbacks to them via Operation Paperback, but our postal service decided to send them back to me instead.

I'm starting to wonder why we still have a United States Postal Service, when it's staffed by too many people with too little initiative.  Yes, there are many good workers at the USPS.  But there are also too many who don't seem to want to do a good job.  Is there a way to repurpose the USPS people who are good (maybe ask them to get the TSA's house in order?), and give up on the idea that we still need a government run postal service?

In any event, thank you, Dr. Gates, for watching over our troops so well, and thanks, Operation Paperback, for trying.

Why I need to get a speaking gig in Belfast.

See here.

Fun with professional responsibility.

One of my favorite students at Boyd, Jason Lather, has alerted me to this story about a newbie lawyer who took on way, way too much:  here.  Fascinating.  Thanks, Jason!

Sports trivia question.

Can you name any of the 17 schools with ZERO major NCAA violations in any sport since 1953, when the NCAA started keeping track?

Any of them?

Here's a hint (here), courtesy of yesterday's WSJ.

Stanford's one.
Air Force is one.
Penn State is one.
So's Northwestern.

and...

Rice University is one.

GO, OWLS!

For those of you who want some LexisNexis materials....

LexisNexis has graciously offered to give my readers a 20% discount if they order by clicking through my blog.  I don't get a dime for this--I traded "not getting a dime" for "my readers get a discount," which I liked a lot better.  Just scroll down the right-hand side of my blog to look for the link.  Enjoy!

USNWR likely to change its rankings methodology for placement.

Hat tip to TaxProf Blog, with this post (here).

I'm obviously no fan of the rankings or how law schools use them as a measure of quality, but I'm even more disappointed in schools that "manage" their employment numbers by, well, lying about them.  What else could USNWR do but find a workaround for the gaming that's been going on?

An incredibly sensible post about billable hours and the reason(s) behind billing clients that way.

See here.

Why I love bankruptcy judges, part n.

See here.

Joe Nocera's right about the opposition to Elizabeth Warren.

See here.

Watching STS-134 still brings tears to my eyes.

See here and here, with the links provided by our buddy Randy Morgan (that'd be our friend who is a real rocket scientist).

Watching the end of the shuttle program makes me grateful for all of the hard work and sacrifice that the good folks at NASA have provided, decade after decade.  I think about the last few lines in the movie Apollo 13,* spoken by Tom Hanks, who played Capt. Lovell:

Gene Kranz retired as Director of Flight Operations just not long ago.  And many other members of Mission Control have gone on to other things, but some are still there.  And as for me, the seven extraordinary days of Apollo 13 ... were my last in space.  I watched other men walk on the moon and return safely ... all from the confines of Mission Control and our house in Houston.  I sometimes catch myself looking up at the moon ... remembering the changes of fortune in our long voyage thinking of the thousands of people who worked to bring the three of us home.  I look up at the moon and wonder, when will we be going back?  And who will that be?

With NASA's budget in jeopardy, I wonder where that great unifying cry for scientists will come from, and whether it will be loud enough for the next generation to hear it.

Thank you, NASA, for all you've done for us--and all that you continue to do.

* Ron Howard directed Apollo 13, based on the book Lost Moon (written by Capt. Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger), and with a script written by Bill Broyles and Al Reinert.

Why boards need me (or someone like me).

See here.

In memoriam: two of our favorite people.

Both served our country with honor:  Ron Bliss and Joe Reynolds.  Always in our hearts.

Few things in life are as satisfying as watching a former student soar.

Scott Unger (former student and a long-time friend) just published this (here).  Scott's a wonderful litigator and, just as important, a person who cares deeply about ethics and professionalism.

Way to go, Scott!

I love NASA.

I still remember when we went to see the shuttle liftoff with our friends Randy and Cathleen.  So when I read this essay (here) in the Wall Street Journal, it triggered those memories. 

Chicken, meet egg.

The ABA Journal is reporting (here) USNWR's reaction to being blamed, at least in part, for the frenzy to buy high UGPA and LSAT scores with merit scholarships.  Last Sunday, the New York Times reported (here) that many of the students who received merit scholarships didn't retain those scholarships after the first year.  The consequences of losing a merit scholarship at an expensive school can be dire. 

It's true that the USNWR rankings don't cause students to lose their scholarships.  (The cause is a combination of a scholarship's requirements, the grading curve, and the individual student's abilities--as well as any particular personal crisis that the student might be having during the first year.) 

It's equally true that schools are buying "high-numbers" students as a way to improve their rankings, given how much UGPA and LSAT figures can drive the rankings (here) and how few other ways there are to game the system.   It's really difficult to affect the peer and lawyers/judges rankings (notwithstanding all of the glossy brochures that we all get in the fall); in this economic environment, placing students in real jobs at graduation is also really difficult.  Bar passage isn't a large enough factor in the rankings.  What does that leave?  Ah, yes:  "the numbers."

I can't remember a time before the rankings.  (I can't remember a lot of things, though, so I'm not worried about this particular lapse in my memory.)  At some earlier point, didn't we select our students based on our predictions of the applicants' success in our schools?  We used UGPAs and LSATs for those predictions, but we also used non-numerical predictors of academic success.  Schools may still use those, but they sure do pay attention to how "the numbers" are going to look at matriculation.

No matter how we admitted students before, "the numbers" and the USNWR rankings are now officially a chicken-egg problem.

A very happy mention of my buddy David Polyansky in the L.A. Times

See here, especially the last few lines.