Tyler Cowen (cited by Travis) quotes a NYT article:

. . . participants [at a retreat for autistics] . . . can wear color-coded badges that indicate whether they are willing to be approached for conversation.

and remarks:

I will be very happy if this ever becomes socially acceptable practice for non-autistics . . . 

When I had a cubicle to call my own, I would sometimes put up a little sign:

CAUTION
TEMPORARY ACUTE SURLINESS ZONE

No one ever gave me grief about it, and I can’t recall that anyone even asked what it meant; I guess they assumed I was busy.

How did the medical marijuana case now before the Supreme Court come to be called Ashcroft v Raich? I gather that it began life as a criminal case, which would normally be titled US v Raich. Or it could be a civil suit seeking an injunction against certain practices of the DoJ, in which case it might be titled Raich v Ashcroft.

Are appeals often renamed? Is there a rule?

Dec.23: Todd Larason comes through, citing the Raich camp’s website:

It began as Raich et al. vs Ashcroft et al. — Raich is suing Ashcroft, seeking an injuction preventing Ashcroft & others from doing certain things; it isn’t an appeal of a criminal case as US v. Lopez was.

Ashcroft filed the petition for certiorari, so at the supreme court level he’s the petitioner, and it turned from Raich v. Ashcroft to Ashcroft v. Raich.

Among the Bourgeoisophobes

another Strange Bedfellows story about Ashcroft v Raich

Assault Weapon Watch

toward a Psychiatric State

My One True Ex hears from her mother a rumor of an effort to “put the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress and the British Library on line”, and commands me to ask my Vast Network of Contacts what substance there is to it.

Mike Linksvayer promptly responds:

. . . you probably heard indirectly of [press release] which includes the NYPL and several universities, but not the LoC or British Library AFAIK. The Internet Archive also has several scanning projects involving various universities and grants from the LoC and British National Archives among others, see [press release]. Perhaps a news story mentioned both archive.org and Google.

Mail through yahoo.com.ar yesterday carried the tag Ahora podés usar Yahoo! Messenger en tu Unifón . . . . Shouldn’t podés be puedes?

Acton:

Many men have compressed their entire wisdom into portable aphorisms. Others have had it done for them.

Epigraph to — what else? — a collection of excerpts from the writings of Lord Acton.

I became curious as to when Acton was enlorded. Having no luck in two of the dead-tree books within reach, I turn to Wikipedia (thanks to Mike for leading me by example to acquire that habit), which mentions that our Acton’s maternal grandmother was created duc de Dalberg. Hm, I thought, what was Dalberg’s coat of arms? I open Rietstap’s Armorial and my eye soon falls on

Dalberg-Acton baron Acton — Shropshire (Baronet, 17 janv. 1643/44; baron, 11 déc. 1869.) . . . .

Now I need not finish reading the Wikipedia piece, ha ha. Acton’s arms, by the way, are given thus (my free translation):

Quarterly: I and IV Acton: gules semy of crosses crosslet fitchy or, two lions passant in pale argent; II and III subquarterly: 1 and 4 Kämmerer von Worms: azure, six fleurs-de-lis argent and a chief indented or; 2 and 3 Dalberg: or, a cross ancry sable; and over the subquarters an inescutcheon, azure, a tower argent. Crest: within a torse argent and gules, a human leg in armor, couped at the thigh and dripping blood. Supporters: two lions gardant proper, each collared of a chain or, and hanging therefrom a cross ancry gules.

No motto given here.

Robin Hanson: Is Fairness About Clear Fitness Signals?

Ryan Sager: The Killing of Peter McWilliams

Linda Schrock Taylor: Great Ideas of Homeschooling

. . By the way, I recently tried to post a comment on an old entry, and ran into a bug. If you yearn to express yourself and are similarly frustrated, there’s always mail.