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.