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How fitting that a festival exploring a theme as vast as "America" should be playing stages across Chicago next month.
For no art form reflects the fundamentals of the American experiment more urgently than jazz, and no city has contributed more to the music than Chicago, which roughly a century ago transformed a New Orleans sound into a global phenomenon — and has been reinventing it ever since.
So although the 23rd annual Chicago Humanities Festival will, as always, present a broad array of cultural attractions, its jazz offerings uniquely address the meaning of "America."
When aficionados call jazz "the only original American art form," they're not referring to chronology. All manner of music and letters, most of it imported from Europe, flourished on this continent long before Buddy Bolden picked up his horn in New Orleans in the late 19th century. But unlike the Lutheran hymns that rang out in our churches and the Anglo-Saxon drinking songs that enlivened our saloons, jazz emerged as a radical, distinctly American new way of creating music.
Rather than reading from an already written score or delivering a melody as written in the European manner, jazz players at the turn of the previous century created the music on the spot and freely improvised on it en masse. They weren't even called jazz musicians yet — the early artists titled their work simply "New Orleans music" — but they were the ones who hit upon a fresh, fiercely democratic way of expressing ideas in sound.
They did so not out of whimsy but necessity, the cheek-by-jowl living conditions of old New Orleans forcing formally trained Creole artists such as Jelly Roll Morton to collaborate with self-taught, play-it-by-ear black counterparts such as the young Louis Armstrong (though Morton and Armstrong didn't swap ideas until they both were in Chicago).
Various social classes and African-American bloodlines converged when musicians played the street parades, social halls and brothels of the Crescent City and mingled there. To make music together, they had to concoct a new way of forging sound, a rough-and-ready, loosely improvised music that would welcome all comers.
This was a Declaration of Independence from the European symphonic and operatic models, and jazz explosively developed along its own revolutionary path, just like America itself.
No longer would an authoritarian figure in white tie and tails stand above the musicians on a podium, baton in hand, instructing his charges to follow his beat, his tempo, his pauses — his will. No longer would musicians bury their noses in the score, playing what was written for them, down to the 32nd note.
Instead, each musician would have a say. Though a basic set of chord changes or a particular melody would be shared by all, each player would riff freely, each getting a chance to solo, much like citizens rising up to be heard in an all-American town hall meeting.
Here was freewheeling democracy in sound, rooted in African cultural ritual and conceivable only in an egalitarian young country not beholden to aristocratic tradition. Even its central rhythmic concepts, ragtime and nascent swing, were looser, more airborne than their four-square European counterparts, the early jazz musicians liberating themselves from its earthbound downbeats.
Morton arrived in Chicago around 1910, Armstrong in 1922, and they and their New Orleans expat brethren launched the music for all the world to hear through their breakout recordings. If Armstrong raised the art of improvisation to unprecedented (and still unmatched) heights with his Hot Five and Hot Seven releases, Morton made a comparably huge leap forward, proving with his Red Hot Peppers records that the elusive, outspoken new art form indeed could be written down, while maintaining the free spirit of New Orleans music (and leaving plenty room for improv).
But the seismic effects of the emergence of jazz, which by the 1930s had become a popular phenomenon in the U.S., Europe and beyond, rumbled far outside the music itself. Considering the democratic essence of jazz, perhaps it should come as no surprise that the music stood at the forefront of integration in America.
Chicago clarinetist Benny Goodman dared to feature the black vibraphonist Lionel Hampton in a mixed-race band in the late 1930s, shattering racial barriers before throngs of screaming fans. Bandleader Artie Shaw similarly confronted racism head-on by touring the South with Billie Holiday as his featured singer in the same era, in outright defiance of Jim Crow laws and customs.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the U.S. Navy to "make a beginning" toward desegregation by encouraging a black band to be formed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, near Waukegan, in 1942, its future stars including saxophonist Von Freeman, trumpeter Clark Terry, composer Gerald Wilson and others. Though it's true that black musicians were segregated on the naval station, their very presence, previously not allowed, began opening up the Navy through jazz.
When the U.S. wanted to sell democracy around the globe in the Cold War 1950s, whom did it turn to? Jazz trumpeters Armstrong, who famously toured West Africa and Europe, and Dizzy Gillespie, who stormed the Middle East and Europe, both under the auspices of the U.S. State Department.
Yet if jazz is so deeply rooted in the meaning and history of American democracy, one might ask, why is it marginalized in our popular culture, relegated to small clubs and concerts halls, all but banished from commercial radio and TV? Why is it seemingly loved more abroad than here at home?
Those questions are open to debate, but I believe this state of affairs says more about the nature of today's popular culture than it does about jazz itself or its position in the national psyche. In an era when commercially driven, mass appeal entertainment aims at an ever-larger market, a music as sophisticated and intricate as jazz clearly will not reach a broad, uninitiated audience. That's the case, too, of course, with classical music, PBS documentaries, high-toned novels and other intellectually demanding fare.
Even so, jazz, as ever, thrives at the cutting edge of our culture, which is why you'll see young fans (and old), black and white and every other shade of listener crowding jazz clubs such as the Green Mill and Jazz Showcase in Chicago, the Village Vanguard and Blue Note in New York and elsewhere. Why every decent high school or better has a robust jazz band. Why it's virtually impossible to count all the colleges and universities with a jazz curriculum. The music long ago became integrally bound up with education and, therefore, with youth in America.
That jazz continues to flourish in these settings despite its absence from commercial TV, where American culture occupies its biggest stage, says a great deal about the vitality of the music and its importance to the intellectual identity of this country. Thus jazz always has been a central pillar of the Chicago Humanities Festival, the event this year exploring the origins of the music in "A Musical Tour of New Orleans With Victor Goines" (4 p.m. Nov. 10 at Francis Parker School).
That audiences around the globe celebrate jazz even more than we do — with festivals, clubs, concerts, broadcasts, record labels and whatnot — reflects the world's fascination not only with jazz but also with the American life it signifies.
It's not difficult, in other words, for foreign audiences to see the connection between jazz and freedom. That's why during the height of the Cold War in the 1950s, millions behind the Iron Curtain tuned in to Willis Conover's "Voice of America" jazz broadcasts, many taking great risks to smuggle illicit jazz records into their homes. The "decadent music," as the Soviet Union called it, represented everything the Eastern bloc citizens yearned for but were denied under the weight of Moscow's anti-Americanism.
Jazz always has appealed to "foreigners" and immigrants, and that helps explain why some of the most dramatic and exciting forms of the music being created today originate with global artists, such as Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez, Puerto Rican saxophonists Miguel Zenon and David Sanchez, Indian-heritage American musicians Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa, and others. They've woven the music of their cultures into American jazz, just as immigrants long have brought their customs and dreams here with them, redefining this country in the process.
So the next time you attend a jazz show or hear the music pulsing in the background of a chic restaurant or an elegant radio spot, realize that you're not merely being entertained.
You're hearing America's original art form, but also something more: American democracy, expressed in rhythm and tone.
Twitter @howardreich


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A. Standard Jaw Sets These have serrated internal and external surfaces for firm grip.
B. Dovetail Jaw Sets For lighter-duty application, these have smooth, non-marring internal and external gripping surfaces.
C. Spigot Jaw Sets Available with standard (serrated) or smooth faces, these are for use on small workpieces.
D. Flat Jaw Sets Ideal for awkward or difficult-to-hold workpieces. Screw wooden blocks to the face of these jaws and shape them on the lathe to develop a custom jaw set.
Made in Canada. The products marked with are not stocked at our retail stores, but can be ordered for pick-up at our stores.


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Introducing the Friday Tech Fix
I will wager that most of you don't have a lot of time to keep up with the latest tech gadgets, apps, sites, and services. While I probably don't have a lot of time for that either, I have come to recognize my tech addiction for what it is, and have accepted my need to be an early adopter and tryer of new tech thingies. Recently I've been looking for a better, or different, way to share what I find with you – I will start to post shorter, bite-sized blog posts with helpful information, and that's a start. But recently I've been doing a lot of speaking on podcasting, and I was intrigued by the possibility of starting up another, shorter podcast for those of you who would rather listen than read.
So welcome to your first Friday Tech Fix. Each Friday I'll share with you what for me are the most interesting tech stories of the week, as well as some of the tech podcasts I think are worth a listen. Most weeks I'll do a quick, 10-minute podcast that you can download to your smartphone or listen to right on your computer. But this week it will be just a plain old blog post.
This is a work in progress – if I (or you) have a better idea for a title, or for the content, I'll be making changes. I'd love to hear your suggestions for the content you want to see. So without further ado….
The Friday Tech Fix for April 8, 2016
WhatsApp Encrypts the World. Do you use WhatsApp? You may not even be aware of this messaging app that has 1 billion users around the world. And on Monday, it became the biggest protector of worldwide communications by enabling end-to-end encryption for all of its users. WhatsApp uses the Signal protocol, the same technology recommended by Edward Snowden, the noted encryption enthusiast. (If you don't want to use WhatsApp, download the Signal app – it also provides end-to-end encryption). Of course, WhatsApp's encryption is only secure as long as you're not storing copies of messages on your phone, you don't back up messages to a cloud service, or the person you're chatting with is using the same precautions. That's the traditional knock for these messaging apps – to use it, your friends (and colleagues, and family, and others) will need to use it as well. Well, with 1 billion users, WhatsApp is well on its way to having all of us as a user.
The Echo Dot Advances the Alexa Invasion. If you don't have an Amazon Echo yet, I'll wait here while you pull up another browser page, go to Amazon, and buy one. The Echo is an amazing device that operates by voice command – it can play music for you, set timers and alarms, play the latest news, add items to your shopping list, and even control your "smart home" thermostats and light bulbs. The original Echo is a cylinder about the size of two soup cans on top of each other – and at the beginning of April Amazon started shipping the Echo's little sister – the Echo Dot. The Dot is much smaller than the Echo, mostly because it doesn't have a speaker included. I keep my Echo in the kitchen where I use it most, but I bought an Echo Dot (at half the price) to keep in my office, so I can get information and set reminders from there as well. Early reviews of the Echo Dot are good. Unfortunately, the default way of ordering an Echo Dot was through your Echo ("Alexa, order an Echo Dot"), but there are ways around that.
Facebook introduces AI and livestreaming options. It was a busy week for everyone's favorite social network. Starting this week, visually impaired readers will be able to "listen" to descriptions of photos. Facebook built an artificial intelligence system to recognize places, people and things represented in a photo, and to describe them to people who have screen readers enabled.
While impressive, Facebook's new AI did not make near the splash Facebook Live made when it was rolled out to the general public this week. Facebook Live essentially allows you to livestream from the Facebook app on your mobile device (iOS and Android apps only). Just click on the box to post a status update, and you'll see an option to Share a Live Video – press that button, and you'll be streaming live to anybody who wants to watch you. I can imagine there will be whole lot of boring livestreaming going on in the near future. But think about it – you arguably now have the ability to stream a live broadcast to more than 1 billion people. How can lawyers take advantage of that in a way that's actually useful?
A Phone with 2 Cameras? Crazy! Anyone who knows me well is aware that I tend to switch phones more than the average person; I am always looking for the next must-have, "best" phone out there. For me, however, that means Android, so you iPhone users out there can skip ahead to the next story. I currently use the Huawei Nexus 6P, and think it's the best phone I've ever owned. So I was intrigued this week when the manufacturer unveiled the Huawei P9, which is primarily designed for people who love to take pictures with their phone. The P9 comes with not one but two 12-megapixel cameras, co-engineered with German camera-maker Leica. One camera has a black-and-white sensor, the other traditional color. Huawei says this combination will allow for pictures with more than three times the light and 50 percent more contrast. The phone will launch later this month. I've generally observed that people use their phones far more for taking pictures than answering calls, so I'm thinking this could be a popular phone.
Outlook for Mobile is Getting Even More Awesome. Last year, Microsoft purchased a little app called Sunrise, an extremely popular calendar app for both iOS and Android. Microsoft promised it would be incorporating the Sunrise features into its Outlook mobile app, which in the past had a fairly stodgy reputation as an email and calendaring program. Well, Microsoft continued to make good on its promise this week, by launching Calendar Apps for Outlook. You can now connect your Evernote, Facebook, and Wunderlist apps to Outlook (to start), and see all of your tasks, events and notes in one place. I'm still not sure I want to see all of that information in one place, but I love the fact that Microsoft is incorporating useful tools from companies other than Microsoft.
It's a Great Night for Football on…..Twitter? Beating out tech companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google, Twitter won a deal to stream NFL Thursday Night Football games online starting later this year. And Twitter wasn't even the top bidder – it's only paying $10 million to stream 10 games, which seems dirt cheap when you consider CBS and NBC paid a combined $450 million for broadcast rights. This appears to be part of Twitter's move to take a more active role in live events – Twitter recognized that Twitter is most effective when people are commenting in the moment on something that's going on. This is a great way to take advantage of that.
That's your Fix for the week. Be sure to tune in next Friday!
Back to Blogging, and a Pivot
From the looks of it, this is my first official blog post in over 6 months, and only the second post in more than a year. From the days when I used to track law bloggers, I definitely qualify as an "inactive." I've been trying to get back into the blogging swing of things during that time, with an obvious lack of success.
It's certainly not for lack of content – I am constantly thinking of great blog posts I could be sharing with you. It's more a lack of time, but I think that's a cop-out to some extent. I do have the time to write, I just choose to spend it doing other things. I recently realized a major reason for my extended silence: this is a legal technology blog, and I am not truly a legal technology blogger – so much – anymore. The past few years as an information governance consultant have been fantastic, but it continues to take me away from the legal technology field, so I am less in that world these days. On the other hand, I continue to be deeply interested and involved in all forms of technology. How to best represent that on this blog?
Starting today, Inter Alia is back, and with a slight change of focus. While I will continue to discuss legal technology issues, I'm going to spend a lot more time talking about the "non-legal" technologies lawyers need to understand – the best consumer technology tools, apps, and services that may not be designed just for lawyers, but can still help you be more efficient in the way you practice. Those of you who listen to Dennis and me on The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast know that we are always talking about the newest technologies and devices for lawyers, even though they might not be grounded in the world of legal technology. You can expect to see more of that here, as well in a couple of other places – on Twitter, Facebook, and maybe one other outlet – you'll have to wait until the next post to find out about that.
For my past readers, thanks for sticking with me – let's get back to work.
The iPad Pro vs. Windows Surface Pro 3: An Early Look
If you happened to be sleeping or otherwise absent last week, you may have missed that Apple announced a few products. Being an iPad fan, I was of course interested to see the much-rumored announcement of the iPad Pro, a much larger tablet that Apple says "lets you be more creative and productive – at a whole new scale." Of course, the pundits immediately began to call the iPad Pro a "Surface Pro Killer," leading some to say that it is terrible news for Microsoft. Is it?
I'm a Surface Pro user myself, and I love it – it combines the best of a tablet with the functionality of a Windows computer. So I wanted to take a look at what we know so far about the iPad Pro, and try to make some early predictions about whether it will pose serious competition for Microsoft. Here are some of the specs compared side by side (the ones that matter to me, anyway):
|iPad Pro
|Surface Pro 3
|2,732 x 2,048 pixels
|2,160 x 1,440 pixels
|Lightning and Smart Connector
|USB, Micro SD Card Reader, Mini Display Port, Cover Port, Charging Port
As you can see, the iPad Pro is a little thinner and lighter than the Surface Pro, and the resolution is much better. None of that is really unexpected – Apple excels at making thin, light devices that look beautiful. In the areas of storage and of ports, the Surface Pro seems to have the advantage in terms of options. To iPad users who store their documents in the cloud, the capacity and number of ports might not be a big deal. But it really depends on whether you are looking for a tablet as a laptop replacement. With these features, it seems to me the Surface Pro offers more opportunities to be a true replacement for a laptop.
Then there's the matter of software. It was truly amazing to see Microsoft on stage at an Apple event, demoing a new version of Office for iPad. With Apple's new iOS 9, you can multitask and put two apps side by side, which makes it really nice to put Word and Excel, or two Word Documents, or Excel and PowerPoint, side by side and make it easier to work. I believe that Microsoft Office offers the best office suite for the iPad (with the exception of Keynote), but even so, Word and Excel for iPad are vastly slimmed-down versions of their Windows brethren. There's just no competition between the iOS version of Office and the Windows version, in terms of feature set. Then there's the fact that most legal-specific software tools either aren't available on iOS, or also lack all of the features of their Windows counterparts.
For litigators, the iPad Pro may be a terrific option. As I have discussed before, I believe the iPad is the best tablet for use in the courtroom, because the apps are simple enough for a lawyer to use without being distracted from actually trying a case. The new multi-tasking features of iOS 9 will make it really easy to use tools like TrialPad side by side with other apps to make evidence presentation even easier. I still believe, though, that for lawyers, the iPad – Pro or otherwise – is still better as a supplemental device, rather than a replacement for the laptop or other computer.
Of course, this is an early assessment, without having the chance to actually try out and use the iPad Pro – but for now I think I am going to stick with my Surface Pro as my official work device. Let's meet back in November and see whether my opinions change any.
Do Lawyers Use Technology To Collaborate?
Way back in 2008, Dennis Kennedy and I wrote The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together – hard to believe it has been 7 years since we wrote that book! We recently decided to revisit the topic on our podcast, so in our latest episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, we survey the 2015 collaboration landscape in The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies. Check out the show notes for links to the different things we talked about.
I must confess to some frustration on this subject, because I'm just not convinced that lawyers use collaboration tools as much as they could, or should. Sure, we are using instant messaging, text messages, and social media more these days – if you can call social media a collaboration tool. But I tend to think of those tools as more communication than collaboration. When I think of true collaboration, I think of using tools that help lawyers get stuff done – whether it's a legal document, a project, or a simple brainstorming exercise.
Let's take document collaboration as an example. Google Docs has been around for nearly 10 years now, and has continued to improve itself over the years. It's a great way to collaboration on a document – any number of people can review the document at the same time and edit it together. Having the document in a central location where a single version can be edited by everyone at once is much more efficient than creating multiple versions of a document, having many people creating documents with different revisions at the same time, and having email flying back and forth carrying different revisions of the same document. Yet, other than those lawyers who are regular Google Apps users, I'd wager that very few lawyers use tools like this to collaborate on documents.
You may say that you don't use Google Docs because you use Microsoft Office for your documents. But Google Docs can handle Word, Excel and PowerPoint files just fine. Even better, Microsoft has rolled out its own online collaboration platform, Office Online, which is a nice tool that handles online document collaboration with relative ease.
Am I wrong about lawyer use of document collaboration tools? Here's your chance to tell me. I created a Document Collaboration Tools survey with Google Forms, and I'd love for you to let me know what tool(s), if any, you use to collaboration on documents. If you want to continue the conversation, leave a comment below – let's discuss the types of collaboration tools you use with your clients or other lawyers. I'd love to know more about what you are all doing out there.
Are Technology Resolutions Important for Lawyers?
At this time of year, every year, you can count on a regular deluge of articles on New Year's Resolutions, "getting a fresh start," and all types of advice to suggest that everything you did last year was a failure, and to make sure this year is not a similar disaster, you'd better get started now. Interestingly, this year I have seen many more "anti-resolution" articles, along the lines of "I don't believe in resolutions" or even "I believe in evolution, not resolution." And the anti-resolutionists have a point. I would guess that most people's resolutions don't make it past the first quarter of the year, let alone the first month.
Pessimism aside, I do think there is value to setting goals for the year, particularly in the area of technology. I would wager that for most of you lawyers, technology is not your day job. Instead, it's a cost center – something that costs your practice money, with little opportunity for boosting your bottom line. And technology doesn't make you a better lawyer – sure, it can improve the service you provide to clients, but it doesn't help with essential skills of lawyering. So why bother keeping up with technology at all?
For one thing, it's sort of an ethical requirement, at least according to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Comment 8, at the bottom). As I interpret the comment, to "keep abreast [of]…the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology" includes not just the technology you currently use in service of your clients, but technologies you don't use, but which might elevate or improve the services you provide to them. For lawyers, that last part is tough – see the above statement about technology not being your day job.
That's why I think it's important to at least try to set a few goals each year where technology is concerned – reasonable goals, goals that don't cut into your law practice or require you to sacrifice too much of your personal life. In the latest edition of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis and I talked about how that might be accomplished. In Making Your 2015 Technology Resolutions, we discuss how to go about setting technology goals for the year, and we give some examples of the types of goals we have both set for ourselves this year. For most lawyers, my advice on selecting a goal would be to smart small, with one goal – either 1) learn a completely new tool that can help your practice – document assembly, project management, time and billing, whatever is most relevant to you; OR 2) learn more about a tool you already use, but probably aren't using as well as you would like. Tools like Word, Excel, or Acrobat. As I mention in the podcast, Lynda.com is a great site for learning how to use just about any software program out there.
Check out the show notes for links to the things we mentioned in the podcast, as well as my and Dennis's goals for 2015 – to hold us accountable when we take a look back about a year from now.
Review: Logitech Keys-to-Go Bluetooth Keyboard
For years, I have used (and recommended) two Bluetooth keyboards, primarily when I am using my iPad. I tend to use Apple's Wireless Keyboard more; it's reasonably thin and light, and I like that it's a full-size keyboard, which is not the case with most of the other portable keyboards for the iPad. If I have a complaint, it's that it is too big and clunky – of course it's all relative, but if I could find a Bluetooth keyboard that was smaller, I'd jump at it in a heartbeat.
The Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover is a thinner, smaller keyboard, and I do like it a lot, but I could never get into using it with my iPad – I prefer to keep a cover on my iPad, and you can't have a cover and use the Ultrathin Keyboard Cover. It's either one or the other. That means if you happen to drop it, you might be more like to suffer real damage, especially if the case comes open during the fall.
But Logitech recently released a Bluetooth keyboard that has the potential to replace both the Apple and Ultrathin keyboards – for me, anyway. Its new Keys-To-Go keyboard is a significant departure from what you might think of in a mobile keyboard – but it also may be just what you've been waiting for. Keys-To-Go is a flat, rectangular board, measuring 5.39″ tall by 9.53″ wide, and weighing a mere 6.35 ounces. It's not a full-size keyboard; by comparison, the Apple Wireless Keyboard is 5.12″ tall by 11.06″ wide, and weighs almost 12 ounces.
It doesn't feel exactly like a "mini" keyboard, however – it was relatively easy for me to type without my fingers stumbling over each other. More on that later.
The keyboard is made of FabricSkin, a material Logitech has used on other iPad keyboard folios. The material is water resistant and easy to clean – it feels very sturdy to the touch. Some reviewers have complained that the FabricSkin feels cheap to the touch – it doesn't feel that way to me, but I'm also not looking for luxury in a portable keyboard.
The keys are almost flush with the keyboard itself; just enough is raised so that your fingers can move from key to key. And although the keyboard itself is very thin (1/4 inch), when you type on it, you can very clearly feel the keys being depressed. This has been an issue I have experienced with other "flat" keyboards, and Keys-To-Go is definitely the most successful at maintaining a true typing experience. That said, some of the keys – most notably the spacebar – would not always work when I pressed down. This is very much the exception and not the rule, and I think that it will go away the more I use it – but it's what I noticed most with the keyboard out of the box. Not a dealbreaker for me, however – I would still use this keyboard.
Keys-to-Go is designed for iOS devices – iPads, iPhones, and Apple TV. That's why the top row is full of great shortcuts for your i-Device. With a press of the right button, you can:
- Go to the Home Screen
- Open a preview of currently running apps
- Open Spotlight Search
- Bring up the virtual keyboard
- Take a screenshot of the current screen
- Music/video controls – Stop/Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind, and Volume Controls
The keyboard is rechargeable, and boasts a three-month battery life. A USB cable comes with the keyboard so you can charge it.
Other reviewers have said that there are better, more responsive keyboards out there for the iPad and other iOS devices, and they are probably right. The main reason I'll be using Keys-to-Go as my primary portable keyboard is its size – it is so thin and light, it is much easier to store and carry than any other Bluetooth keyboard I have owned. I'm used to a smaller keyboard, and I'm also not a snob about the feel of the FabricSkin. It's priced at $70, which is the same as Apple's Wireless Keyboard – a cheaper price point might have been nice, but in all I'm satisfied with this keyboard.
Logitech Keys-to-Go Keyboard | $69.99 | Available in Black, Red and Teal
iPads and "The Art of Being Solo"
I am a firm believer that there can never be too many practice management resources for solo lawyers. As the name implies, solo lawyers don't have the colleagues to help them when it comes to technology, marketing, finance, and overall management of a law practice. That's why I was pleased and flattered to participate in The Art of Being Solo, a summit hosted by attorney Sarah Poriss. It's a free online interview series designed to explore the issues and challenges faced by solos and small firm attorneys to answer the question "How can we all build a law practice that we love and that inspires us?"
She already has twenty interviews posted, with many of them dealing with marketing-related issues. You'll also find some technology and finance interviews, including the interview I gave on the benefits of incorporating a tablet into a law practice. I enjoyed our discussion, and hope you will too – click the link above to access the interviews!
Why are Passwords So Hard for Lawyers?
The subject of passwords is one that is both fascinating and frustrating to me. We know that it's getting easier and easier for hackers to crack our passwords; just three years ago, a nine-digit password would take 44,530 years to crack, but today that same password can be cracked in less than a day, according to Passfault. And yet, when I mention this in speeches that I give, lawyers invariably give a heavy sigh, roll their eyes, and promptly tune out. I know what they're thinking: "12 digit password? It's hard enough for me to remember the name of my dog and the numbers 123!" The idea of coming up with a different, really complicated password for every site we visit is just too overwhelming for most people – so they continue to use the same short, repetitive, simple passwords they have used for years.
So we shouldn't be surprised to find out that the retailers where we set up our passwords are acting as enablers, allowing us to continue this practice of weak password-setting. In a new report out from password manager service Dashlane, the company found some pretty amazing practices among the Top 100 online retailers. Among the findings:
- 55% of the stores still accept notoriously weak passwords like "password" and "123456" (seems like if the other 45% don't allow it, this should be a simple problem to fix)
- 51% still allow you to keep trying out password after password even after 10 unsuccessful attempts. What this means is that the "brute force" hacker can keep beating away on the lock, until it finally finds a password that will unlock the door.
- 61% do not provide any guidance when setting a password, and 93% do not provide a password strength assessment. I would guess that those Password Strength meters are able to shame at least some people into setting a stronger password.
Interestingly, most of the sites mask your password as you enter it, which actually does very little to secure it – as a general rule, the password blank on a website is not unsecure, unless someone is looking over your shoulder as you enter it.
Security Expert Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation took the data and put it into this great spreadsheet. Take a look and see how your favorite online retailer fared. Spoiler alert: it doesn't look too good for Amazon, Walmart, or Dick's Sporting Goods.
There's no good solution to this problem yet, but it's not for lack of trying. Google declared last year that "Passwords are Dead," and companies are already using fingerprints, pictures, and even winking to avoid password-based access, with mixed results. Google talks about eventually moving to hardware token-based authentication, but we're not there yet. Two-factor authentication is also a good way to secure access to websites – but try telling that to a lawyer who already has to remember a complex password. "Now you want me to use a 6-digit number on top of a password?"
So what do lawyers do now? I'll come back to the best, easiest way to create and manage secure, complex passwords: the password manager. There are several password managers out there, including:
I'm not going to spend time comparing these tools with one another – although I'm partial to LastPass and 1Password, all of them will do a good job helping you to select and manage passwords. Just pick one and start using it.
In the next post, I'll show how I use LastPass, so you can see how the workflow is easy and fast once you get the hang of it. In the meantime, let me know what you think – is this an issue that's being blown out of proportion? If you don't use a password manager, why not? Share your thoughts in the comments.
The Increasing Automation of Technology: A Good or Bad Thing?
The latest episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report is called Automation or Control: Why Attorneys Must Choose (I didn't choose the title) – in it, we discuss the fact that technology services are increasingly connecting to each other, automating things that we used to have to do ourselves. For example, my Fitbit now talks to my scale, my fitness app, and the app I use to track the food I eat. It's a great convenience that all of these services talk to each other – I don't have to worry about entering information into each service. It just all works. Is that a good or a bad thing? For me, anyway, in most cases it's a good thing; technology should be about making your life easier, not harder – and if you can find ways to automate the things you do now, then why not give it a try?
That is, however, until the technology decides it knows what you want better than you know what you want. An example of that happened to me this morning. I routinely use both Spotify and Songza to listen to music, when I'm working out or just plain working. Being apps in this age of social media, both services allow me to tweet or post to Facebook the songs that I'm listening to at any given moment. My sharing philosophy is not that granular; most people don't really care about my taste in music – besides, why give people an extra reason to make fun of me? When I installed both of these apps, I specifically instructed them that I did not want them to post my music-listening habits to Facebook. That worked well, for awhile. Then I changed computers and reinstalled Spotify on the new computer. The default setting in Spotify is to "share everything," so my Facebook friends were instantly treated to hours worth of my music listening. When an aggravated friend pointed out that "I love you, but I really don't care about what music you listen to," I finally became aware of the problem and (mortified) immediately corrected it by changing my settings in the Spotify desktop app. Problem solved…..right?
Not so fast. Spotify updated itself on the iPhone just this morning. Either the settings for the iPhone app are separate from the desktop app, or it just decided to ignore my earlier instructions. Anyway, Facebook friends were once again subjected to a steady stream of workout hits and country music. The net result is that I have disabled both Spotify and Songza within Facebook, so neither of those services can post to my Facebook page ever again.
I could have done this from the beginning – after all, I am under no obligation to connect any app I use to a particular social media service. But I always like to have the option of sharing something, whether it's a song, my location, or a book I'm reading. But we are now in an age where "Share Everything" is the default setting – which can be very hard to monitor if you're not the "share everything" kind of person. Tools could help us with this – they could remember our preferences on an account level, so that those settings could be applied no matter whether we change computers or get an updated version of the app. But not many apps do this – which puts the burden on us to keep track of all the relevant settings. I now understand why so many people choose not to share with most social services – it's just too big a hassle to keep up with it.
I would seriously consider investing in a company that came up with the "social media dashboard" concept – one place where we could store all of our preferences on what/how we want to share information on the Internet. Each app we use would be required to connect to that dashboard to gather our preferences, then communicate them to whatever social media site we want to use. I doubt this kind of standardization is coming along anytime soon – but it's nice to dream about it.
What are your thoughts? Is automation getting out of hand?
Blawg of the Day – Blawgletter
We'll end the week with a fun blog – Blawgletter is published by Dallas lawyer Barry Barnett, and it features "legal bits you can hold onto." He talks about a number of legal topics – recent posts have discussed Peer-to-Peer movie sharing opinions, the Supreme Court's "first sale" decision, and other recent decisions of interest to lawyers.
Subscribe to Inter Alia by Email
The Latest from Twitter
- RT @LegalTalkNet: Over half the world's population is now online. Tune in to hear about 2019's notable trends in internet use in this #Kenn… 11:58:10 AM July 08, 2019
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Recently Read BooksOperation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory


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Ed Murray, Mayor
SUBJECT: City of Seattle to conduct emergency shelter exercise
Christina Hirsch (206) 684-7241
City of Seattle to conduct emergency shelter exercise
Exercise includes first-time-ever pet sheltering
Seattle Parks and Recreation, Seattle Human Services Department and the Seattle Animal Shelter will conduct an emergency shelter exercise on Tuesday, Oct. 16, from 9:30 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. at Yesler Community Center, 917 E Yesler Way.
As part of the City's ongoing preparedness for disaster events, these departments, along with Public Health – Seattle & King County's Medical Reserve Corps, are integrating their plans to activate a human shelter. Community members will test the shelter, including those with the Seattle Commission for People with Disabilities. And for the first time ever, there will also be a pet sheltering site.
This exercise will include the unveiling of the City's Pet Emergency Trailer-Seattle (PETS) unit. This unit, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, contains supplies to accommodate 40 animals in a shelter.
Photo Opportunity: Players will be setting up cots, testing the shelter for people with a variety of access and functional needs, and bringing pets for sheltering at the event. The PETS unit will also be on-site for photo opportunities. The best time to arrive for the photo opportunity is between 10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
"Pet sheltering has not previously been part of the services we could provide residents in the case of an emergency," said Don Jordan, director of the Seattle Animal Shelter. "As we know from Hurricane Katrina, pets are part of the family and should be cared for as such."
The Full Scale Integrated Shelter Exercise follows the guidelines of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and allows players to practice emergency response plans, policies and procedures for sheltering humans and pets.
The purpose of the exercise is to put employees and players in as a real a situation as possible to test how well prepared the City is for an emergency event that would displace people and pets. City of Seattle employees receive ongoing emergency management training, and this exercise will give them a chance to use those skills. At the end of the training, the participants and exercise team will evaluate what worked, what didn't, and how to improve in case of a real emergency.
Partners in this exercise include Public Health – Seattle & King County, Seattle Commission for People with Disabilities, American Red Cross of King and Kitsap Counties and the Hearing, Speech and Deafness Center. American Sign Language interpretation will be provided.
The City of Seattle has several emergency preparedness programs, including SNAP -- or Seattle Neighborhoods Actively Prepare. It is the City's program to assist residents in their efforts to Get Ready, Get Connected and Get Strong for any potential emergency. To learn more how to get you and your family prepared in case of a disaster, visit the Office of Emergency Management's Personal Preparedness web page.
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pla·gia·rism11. an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author: It is said that he plagiarized Thoreau's plagiarism of a line written by Montaigne. Synonyms: appropriation, infringement, piracy, counterfeiting; theft, borrowing, cribbing, passing off.
2. a piece of writing or other work reflecting such unauthorized use or imitation: "These two manuscripts are clearly plagiarisms," the editor said, tossing them angrily on the floor. Only you can stop blog plagiarism in it's tracks by not supporting the blogs that practice it.
Sign the petition, let everyone know that you will not stand for it.
By signing the digital petition you agree to:
- If you currently follow a site that has knowingly participated in plagiarism, to withdraw your follow from their site and all social networks attached to their sites:
- Facebook (unlike, unfriend)
- Tumblr
- Digg -- etc.
- Do not support their advertisers, because by paying the site to advertise they are supporting the act of plagiarism
- Do not click on any affiliate links that are on their site
- Do not participate in any memes, group functions, or events hosted by blogs that participated in plagiarism
- And finally try to not visit or have any affiliation with the site in question
1"plagiarism." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 24 Apr. 2012. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plagiarism>.


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Views: 527
I think it's kind of sad that this is an issue, or has to be an issue. But a gay partner frequently isn't given visitor status in a hospital, isn't given the same inheritance rights as a hetero spouse, so this is a valid legal issue even if you don't believe in marriage.
Of course. Pragmatically I have no issue with it.
I believe marriage is strictly for procreation, so anyone who isn't fertile shouldn't be allowed to marry. (wink)
Would this include our elders? Viagra must be unchristian by some mental contortion. Post-menopausal women ought to seek divorces too!
There is no coherent reason to prohibit any two people from being married. And please don't ask me if I also think it's all right for a man to marry a donkey; that's okay by me also - no skin off my nose; and if the donkey community doesn't object, why should mine?
I would personally object to same sex marriages for heterosexuals. I know this is discrimination based on sexual preference, but it just doesn't seem right ;)
Of course that's the inverse of a favorite argument the anti-gays make. "Despite your claims to the contrary, the law doesn't discriminate against you, you, Mr. Gayman, can marry any woman you want so log as she is agreeable."
I am completely for same sex marriage, everyone deserves equal rights no matter their preference of attraction!! The simple thing is, people are ignorant assholes, just a fact of life. Once this stupid discrimination is gotten over, another will replace it, like what about children of same sex marriage or another equally trivial and prehistoric idea.
Did someone say it's okay for any couple to marry including if a person wants to marry a donkey? Sorry but marriage is for 'consenting adults' in my humble opinion and until we can be sure the donkey is giving consent I can't bring myself to agree with that one... yet, needs a bit more research me thinks lol
What happened to separation of church and state - equality for all, and all of that. It should be a given, not personal bias one way or the other.
People run out of excuses, so bring in donkeys!!! It is beyond me how anybody thinks these things up :(
People who are against same sex marriage, should find out, just like religion, where did it come from.
The giving away of a daughter to unite families, still happens by the way in some cultures. Where does the concept of Best Man, Groomsmen, Bridesmaids come from, why is it the father who gives away the daughter, why, even twenty years ago, the wife was called Mrs. Fred Flange, with her identity completely obscured by the husband, why do western women carry flowers, why do brides wear white.
When did religion get involved on something that was tribal and why.
It all has evolved into the marriage ceremony of today - take away plush weddings with all the accoutrements - marriage would all but disappear.
Tell a would be bride, nope, no big wedding, you would hear her weeping and wailing. It is all just fashion of the day - and it will now include same sex weddings.
I would like to be adopted by Ricky Martin :) or Penny Wong, an Australian Finance Minister and Senator.


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Laura Maynard and Panache—February 17, 2012
From: Judge Carol Dean-Porter
Laura, your horse is a bit frisky but I never mind a bit of playfulness. They are not machines! He has a wonderful natural rhythm and jumps in nice form. For the show ring, a few minutes on the lunge line might let him blow off some steam and smooth out.
In general, your posture is good and your leg is in the proper position most of the time although lacking some depth in your heel.
On the approach to the little gymnastic, you are too upright with your body and carrying your hands too low. This forces you to make a big move in your break over and then snap back up on the landing side. You are late with your release and it is quite short, so you are breaking over on top of your hands. The hands should release prior to the upper body and he needs another couple inches. Keep your elbows, forearms and hands along the top of the neck with your hands about even with your face. This will also help with your control on the landing side.
On your halt after the grid, you dropped your hands to the neck, let your foot slide all the way into the stirrup, dropped your hips back to the cantle and hunched your back. Then when he looked off into the distance, you see-sawed on his mouth.
Collection comes from the back to the front: leg onto hand. For a halt: straighten your spine, sink down into your saddle with your seat bones and open your hip angle, apply leg pressure (which also keeps him straight), lift your hands so you are not pulling down on the mouth and keep him between both hands and both legs.
When you ask for the canter depart from the halt, your foot is flat against his side with heel pulled up and you move your foot back and up nearly 12 inches. He has spur marks up his ribs where you have used your leg ineffectively above where leg aid should be applied.
Your position on the approach to the vertical is better. Your distance is pretty good and he jumps it well. As he leaves the ground, you brace your leg forward. This is a defensive posture and shoves your hips back to the cantle, forcing you to break over to the neck in order to try to stay over his center of balance. Your elbows drop down to his shoulders and your heel comes up also bracing your hips up off the saddle.
Step down into your heel and flex your ankle in. Wrap your leg down around the barrel for a secure base of support. Hold your position and let your horse jump up to you. Control your body in the air to keep a gap of about 6 inches between your chest and his neck.
Because you snap back up too quickly, you lose connection with your horse. He plays, throwing his head around and swapping off the lead back and forth and cross cantering. If you have control of your body in the air, you land balanced and can close your leg to send him forward onto your hand. Once he is collected between hand and leg, you can control the lead changing and erratic pace. Again, lift your hands and carry them above and in front of the withers, about even with your belt buckle.
Your last line is better, slightly too upright jumping in, but smoother on the out part. Remember when he wants to play put your leg on him! Distract him by bending him around that inside leg and control the tendency to bulge by being active with your outside leg aid. When you do that, he drops down into a very nice frame.
From: Judge Rob Gage
I really like your leg position and how well you hold your heels down.
You carry your hands and arms between the jumps beautifully. Your posture is good.
However, there were a couple of things I think need some adjusting for your equitation and medal classes.
When your horse jumped, you had almost NO release. Therefore, your body moved into your fixed hands at the top of the jumps. Your arms had nowhere to fit into, so your elbows would stick straight out.
Try to remember, that your release should start into motion first, and your body should follow. At the very top of the jumps, you need to maintain several inches of open space between the front of your shirt and his mane. That is where your arms are supposed to fit into. As your horse begins to jump, your release needs to start into motion the moment your horse BEGINS to jump. That means as soon as he starts to lift his front feet off of the ground. Your hands should continue moving forward along his mane, until they get to about underneath your chin. Remember release first….break over second.
Finally, I noticed your horse would get a little playful after some of the jumps. He was never "nasty" about it…just playful. Still…..in a show, a judge would have to count down for that. Just pick up his head a little earlier & keep him moving forward at the same time. Hope that is of some help to you.<
Follow up question from Laura:
Carol, thank you for your extensive remarks – they are very helpful to read while watching and pausing the video. I have one question about the snapping up too quickly concern. This has been one of several bad habits to fix from years of riding eventer/steeplechase/fox-hunting types, and certainly a struggle. There are many opinions on how long to keep the hip angle closed during and after landing, what is your preference especially on a horse who wants to be a bit playful on the landing side? Thank you for the reminder about closing the leg and moving forward into the halt.
From: Judge Carol Dean-Porter
Laura, you are most welcome!
I believe that your snapping up problem occurs because you are too vertical on the approach. This forces you to break over more quickly and more deeply, so in order to keep your balance you snap back up. Bottom line: you have too many moving parts.
Hold your 30 degree two point position on the approach (yes I know this will feel "too forward"). Let your horse jump up to you and hold that "with the motion" position until your horse lands. This way you literally are with the motion all the way to the ground. The key is to have control of your body throughout all phases of the jump, which comes from your secure base of support. Once the horse lands, you can smoothly open the hip angle back to 30 degrees OR if you are preparing for halt: stretch your spine, close both legs, sink down into your saddle and close both hands. Remember to bend your elbows and carry your hands above and in front of the withers, not on the neck.
It is always a bit of an adventure with one who bucks on landing, but the more defensive you get the more tense your horse becomes. It is counter productive and a self-fulfilling prophecy to treat him like you "know" he is going to play. Relax, stay with the motion and keep riding your horse forward: leg onto hand. You will be amazed at how your horse relaxes!
Follow up question from Laura:
Rob, I really appreciate your comments. Regarding the release, my concern in reaching further forward would be loss of connection over top of the fence. My mare (not the horse in this video) very much dislikes lack on contact, thus the shorter release habit, if you will. Would it be best to practice and use an automatic release for these horses? If I pause at 1:02 over top of the final fence, my upper arms are perpendicular to the ground, there is a gentle connection to Rex's mouth, but with my hand on the crest there is a broken line from elbow to bit. In such a case is it best to drop the hand a few inches to maintain a straight line contact?
From: Judge Robert Gage
I'm trying to picture what you are saying. Your forearms are pointing upwards? From your elbows to your wrists should aim forward kind of towards your horse's head. It doesn't really matter if the line of your release is slightly broken. Don't be afraid to give your own horse plenty of release. You may say that she likes to feel your hands in the air…but I don't think she would care if you gave her some extra freedom. Most horses like LOTS of freedom over the jumps.


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Five Projects Among 255 in 48 States, DC and Puerto Rico
BALTIMORE – U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced $45 million in federal funding for Maryland to replace aging buses and transit facilities that will improve service for thousands of people who take public transit every day. The five projects are among 255 projects in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico selected to receive a share of $787 million in funding.
"President Obama's support for an America built to last is putting people back to work across the country, including here in Maryland, modernizing our nation's roads, rails, bridges, and public transit systems," said Secretary LaHood. "By investing in the transit infrastructure people depend on to get where they need to go each day, we will keep our economy moving forward well into the future."
Secretary LaHood was in Baltimore today to announce one of the projects, a $40 million grant to replace Baltimore's 65-year-old Kirk Bus Facility. The new, environmentally sustainable facilities will be better equipped to repair and maintain a growing fleet of clean-fuel buses which will help reduce operating costs. The Secretary was joined at the event by Maryland Senator Ben Cardin and Congressman Elijah Cummings and other state and local officials.
"This project will create good local construction jobs in Northeast Baltimore and help more than 350 local transit employees do an even better job maintaining a growing fleet of new, energy-efficient buses that are currently serviced elsewhere," said Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff.
A map of this year's projects, along with a searchable table, can be found here: http://www.fta.dot.gov/about/12322_14741.html
FTA also announced funding for four additional projects in Maryland:
- Maryland Transit Administration: $1.65 million for safety and accessibility improvements, including an expanded waiting area at Baltimore's Cherry Hill transit hub which connects city bus and light rail service.
- Allegheny County Transit: $528,222 to Allegheny County in western Maryland to replace aging buses with new vehicles equipped with wheelchair lifts to serve seniors, people with disabilities, and other transit-dependent riders.
- Town of Ocean City: $2 million to help replace aging buses with new fuel-efficient vehicles that will reduce emissions, save on fuel, and meet the needs of eight million summer tourists.
- Maryland Department of Transportation: An $800,000 transit asset management grant to help the state develop and implement new and improved ways to manage and maintain the condition of transit facilities and equipment statewide.
Generally, a transit authority with a fleet of about 20 buses that upgrades from standard diesel to hybrid-electric power can expect to save roughly $200,000 in fuel costs over a year.
The funds are provided through FTA's FY2012 State of Good Repair and Bus Livability programs. The selection process was highly competitive, with FTA receiving 836 project applications representing $4 billion in funding requests from transit providers. In FY2010 and FY2011, FTA awarded a total of more than $1.8 billion in grants for hundreds of state of good repair projects, primarily involving buses and bus facilities.


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- Social workers establish the Hawaii Medical Service Association on Oahu in 1938.
- The not-for-profit organization starts serving 671 members.
- HMSA joins the national Blue Shield Association and opens offices on Kauai, Hawaii Island, and Maui.
- It grows to 30,000 members.
- Members gain protection from the high cost of serious, devastating illness when HMSA introduces the Major Medical Plan.
- Membership increases to 155,000.
- To help unemployed people, senior citizens and college students, HMSA creates affordable health plans for them.
- Enrollment multiplies to 350,000 residents.
- Residents face rising medical costs and HMSA offers its first health maintenance organization (HMO), a cost-cutting plan to have one doctor manage all of a member's health care.
- More than half of Hawaii's population joins HMSA, totaling 500,000 subscribers.
- HMSA's Health Plan Hawaii earns the status of a federally qualified HMO after meeting government standards that benefit consumers.
New plans and programs:
- 65C Plus, the USA's first federally approved Competitive Medical Plan, qualifies to participate in Medicare
- Flexible Spending Service
- Dental Network HMO
- Employee Retirement Income
- Security Act (ERISA) Reporting Service to help employers meet government standards
- Subscribers number about 558,000.
- HMSA joins the Blue Cross Association, becoming Hawaii's Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) plan.
- HMSA contracts with Hawaii QUEST, a state program with health benefits for people receiving Medicaid or on the State Health Insurance Program.
- Membership grows to 600,000.
- Uninsured children ages 31 days to 18 years old benefit from the new children's plan HMO with affordable medical, dental and drug coverage.
- HMSA's Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans and HMOs keep earning the nation's highest approval from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
Added plans and programs:
- expanded student plans for individuals, two people and families
- lower-cost plans CompMED and Catastrophic Care for individuals and employer groups
- Membership rises to 692,000.
- HMSA works extensively to implement the Affordable Care Act and help employers, members, and providers understand the law's many complex provisions.
- New contracts reward hospitals in HMSA's network for the quality, safety, and efficiency of the care they provide instead of a traditional system based on the number of procedures performed.
- Technological advances include online health plan enrollment and administration, online prescription drug tools, the switch to electronic Report to Member statements, and HMSA's first mobile app.
New plans and programs:
- HMSA Akamai Advantage, new Medicare Advantage plans.
- Well-Being Connection, a comprehensive, integrated approach to health and well-being, offers support, online tools, and coaching to help members work with their doctor to stay on top of all aspects of their health.
- Health Care: Plain & Simple campaign helps people learn about health plans and health care in plain and simple language.


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Virginia Tech's Erick Green was part of a trade-crazed NBA draft Thursday night and landed with the Denver Nuggets.
The Utah Jazz selected Green with the 46th overall pick, midway through the second round, but sent Green to Denver for cash and Rudy Gobert, a 7-foot-2 center from France, whom the Nuggets chose late in the first round.
"So happy right now dreams come true. Glad to be heading to Denver," Green tweeted shortly after midnight and less than an hour after his selection.
Green worked out in Denver June 19, according to the Nuggets' website. That was the last of...


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Professional Development Collection (education)
- Coverage Dates: 1940 - present (full text); 1940 - present (abstracting and indexing)
- Update Frequency: Daily
- Audience: Educators
Professional Development Collection is a specialized collection of journal articles and pamphlets especially for professional educators that includes abstract and index coverage for 800 professional development titles and searchable full text for over 500 journals covering the most current topics in the field of education. This database also provides full text for more than 160 education pamphlets. Although many of the titles are also included in Academic Search Complete, there are several titles unique to Professional Development Collection.
- Journals in this Database: EBSCO Title Lists
- Database Provider: EBSCO Publishing, Inc.
- Database Tutorial: EBSCO Tutorials
Express Link (bookmark): http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zbpd


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I am looking for a hitting partner. I have no preference in age, gender, etc. If you can rally at least 20-30 times back and forth, and control where you are hitting, then we'll have fun.
I have no interest in sets unless it's playing doubles. I find that to be fun.
I am free in the early morning and in the late afternoons. The place on Riverside Drive by Griffith Park is where I'd like to play before 5 p.m. to avoid getting charged for the courts. : )
Views: 406
Replies to This Discussion
I always play there with my buddy Dash who is training to go pro. Let me know if your down soon man!
I'm down. I'm off on Mondays before noon. I'm also free on Wednesdays and Fridays.
310-779-046 nine
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Gionta, Pacioretty to miss Game 2
Montreal, QC – Already trailing in their first-round playoff series with the Ottawa Senators, the Montreal Canadiens' task of evening this Eastern Conference quarterfinal set has become an even greater challenge.
Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien announced that forwards Max Pacioretty and Brian Gionta will miss Friday's Game 2 with what is believed to be upper- body injuries.
During the regular season, Pacioretty tied for the team lead in goals (15) and paced the Canadiens in points (39), while Gionta, the Montreal captain, finished with 14 goals and 12 assists and didn't miss a game.
The Canadiens will also be without forward Lars Eller, who was released from a hospital Friday morning. He suffered a concussion as well as facial and dental fractures as a result of a hit from Senators defenseman Eric Gryba during Ottawa's 4-2 win on Thursday.


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MrStPierre.com 3.0
Homework Blog
Homeroom (207)
Rules and Expectations
Ancient Civ
Prehistory / Timelines
Geography & Culture
Early Humans
Ancient Egypt
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Fishburne Reloaded
Laurence Fishburne kicks back in a plush leather chair in Manhattan's Grand Havana Room, overlooking a northward view of the city encompassing Central Park and the Upper East Side. He lights a Cuban Quai d'Orsay ("A nice little Churchill," he says with satisfaction) and surveys his surroundings like visiting royalty, though it's really just one stop in a busy day. He's wearing an unstructured suit from Moshood ("Stevie Wonder wears their clothes, too," Fishburne notes), an Afrocentric boutique in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood. Loose-fitting, rough-woven and comfortable-looking, it's an eye-catching ivory with pinstripes in crimson and black crisscrossing to make a subtle windowpane plaid.
At the moment, Fishburne is that happiest of all thespians: a working actor. And not just working, but working every day, thanks to the rigors of a new TV series, "Hannibal," which joined NBC's primetime lineup in April.
Oh, and he's got a movie coming out in June, a little something you may have heard of called Man of Steel. He's playing Perry White, editor of the Daily Planet, where Clark Kent (a.k.a. Superman) works as a reporter. Fishburne is more than pleased to be part of what he and Warner Bros. hopes will be the first of a new series of Superman movies, kicked off by this summer's relaunch. He's got the fervor of a true fan.
"I'm a comic collector," Fishburne says. "I've got over 10,000 comics. I was mostly a Marvel guy growing up. But after Frank Miller's Dark Knight books, you can't ignore the Bat. And you can't ignore Superman either."
Man of Steel stars British newcomer Henry Cavill as Superman, with an all-star cast that also includes Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane and Amy Adams. "It's an incredibly gifted cast," Fishburne says. He also has high praise for the film's director, Zack Snyder, the man behind the blockbuster hit 300 and Watchmen.
"Did you see his film Sucker Punch?" Fishburne says. "It was so awesome. A lot of people didn't get it, but I loved that film."
For his part, Snyder was excited to meet Fishburne, remembering the 1979 Christmas treat his father gave him: taking him to see Apocalypse Now on Christmas morning.
"He's amazing to work with," Snyder says. "I can't say enough awesome things about him. When you meet an actor that you admire, there's always that level of tension, like, will he be what I thought or will it be an illusion created by a role? But the meeting was better than I hoped. He's incredibly collaborative and smart. He's the professional's professional on the set—but he also has fun with it."
The Superman story has been transplanted from comic books to movie and television screens practically since the first Superman comic appeared in 1938. George Reeves wore the cape in the 1950s TV series, then Christopher Reeve embodied the transplant from the planet Krypton in the big-budget films of the 1970s and 1980s. But none of the subsequent Superman efforts, especially 2006's Superman Returns, have caught on with the type of impact delivered by films built around Batman and Spider-Man.
Man of Steel, Fishburne notes, offers a script and story by Christopher Nolan and David Goyer, who combined for the Batman trilogy that concluded last year with The Dark Knight Rises. Fishburne expects their effort to resonate with fans. "It's their treatment of this material. It will be quite different from that last one. It's a combination of the Superman origin story and the plot of the Richard Donner Superman [from 1978]."
Snyder cast Fishburne because "he has that cool guru quality. For Perry White I wanted, not necessarily a father figure, but someone who, when he told you something, that was it. And that's what Laurence is all about."
Fishburne's Perry White is "full of dimension, and not just barking at Lois Lane," Snyder says. "He's definitely a leader, he's physical. It's a cool evolution." Notes Fishburne's friend, filmmaker John Singleton, "Fish is a real geek. I think that, privately, he really loves playing Perry White."
As a collector, Fishburne is a connoisseur of comic-book movies. Even as he's hopeful as an actor that Man of Steel will spawn sequels, he's eager—as a fan—for a movie about the Justice League of America, the superhero team that includes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and a host of other heroes. Imagine the Justice League as the DC Comics answer to Marvel's The Avengers, the movie about Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk and other heroes that ranks as one of the top grossers of all time.
"They'd do well to make a Justice League movie," says Fishburne. "The Avengers was really good. I liked it better than all the movies that were leading up to it. The first Iron Man I really liked; Thor I wish I liked more."
Though he obviously fits the demographic, Fishburne has never made a trek to Comic-Con, the annual gathering in San Diego that's like Mecca for fans of fantasy, sci-fi, action, horror and comic books. Even before he was cast as Perry White, Fishburne was a legend among the sci-fi cognoscenti, having played the essential character Morpheus in The Matrix trilogy. He wouldn't get 10 feet on the convention-hall floor without being mobbed.
"I can't go and just walk around, I'm afraid," he says, sounding a bit wistful. "I have yet to go to Comic-Con, though I'm sure that, in the future, there will be a moment in time when I would go as the guy who played Morpheus."
Though he's been working in Toronto, Fishburne is in Manhattan to check in on his ailing father. He keeps a place in New York and is a member of the Grand Havana Room, where cigars are always welcome.
"I recently put down cigarettes," Fishburne says, "so I'm smoking more cigars. My go-to cigar is probably any kind of maduro. I like a dark, rich, sweet, mature cigar. I can't rattle off the names of brands I like. I do like that in Toronto I can get Cubans without having to go through 'channels.'
"It's very easy to smoke a cigar every day. When I said that to my doctor, he frowned. But my wife and my daughter don't give me a hard time. I take the cigars outside."
The Brooklyn native has lived in Los Angeles for a number of years, but now spends most of his time in Toronto, where he's been living with his wife, actress Gina Torres, and their young daughter since he finished his run on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" in 2011. The same year, Torres started production in Toronto on her USA Network series, "Suits," which recently finished airing its third season.
As Torres finished production of the latest season of her show, Fishburne began shooting his new one: "Hannibal," a new crime thriller for NBC, which debuted April 4. The series is a prequel to the Hannibal Lecter story, which began with Thomas Harris's 1981 novel Red Dragon. In that book Lecter, an imprisoned psychiatrist known as "Hannibal the Cannibal" for killing and eating several victims, played a large role in support of an FBI criminal profiler named Will Graham, who had come out of retirement to help find a serial killer known as the Tooth Fairy. One of the reasons for Graham's retirement? Just before he captured Lecter, he was nearly killed by the cannibal psychiatrist.
The new TV series starts before Lecter has been identified as a serial killer. In the show a young Will Graham (played by Hugh Dancy) is hired by the FBI due to his talents as a criminal profiler. But his new boss, Jack Crawford—played by Fishburne—has his doubts, worrying that Graham will need therapy to maintain his equilibrium given the intense nature of the work. So he hires a psychiatrist to help him—Dr. Hannibal Lecter, played by Danish star Mads Mikkelsen.
"My character heads the Behavioral Science section of the FBI who recruits Graham, because he has this incredible empathy," Fishburne says. "He's been recruited to catch serial killers because he can enter the emotional state of the killer. He can enter their minds; that's not a healthy thing to do. That makes him fragile—so my character enlists Lecter to counsel him, to be his therapist.
"It's actually very clever. You watch these three guys playing mind games. There are some horrifying images along the way, not all of them produced by Lecter. It's quite smart—very interesting. It's not a procedural —it's very much character-driven."
Bryan Fuller, executive producer of "Hannibal," says, "We were talking about who could play Jack Crawford. When Laurence's name came up, I wondered if we even dared to dream that we could get him. He's an iconic actor; you look at his résumé and there's one classic, distinctive film after another. And yet he'll do something quirky like play Cowboy Curtis on 'Pee-wee's Playhouse.' After the mere mention of his name, we couldn't think of anyone else being that character."
The Hannibal Lecter novels have all been adapted as films; the first one, Red Dragon, was made by Michael Mann as Manhunter in 1986, then as Red Dragon by Brett Ratner in 2002. Hannibal, the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, was made in 2001 and Hannibal Rising followed in 2007. The most successful of all the film adaptations, The Silence of the Lambs swept the Academy Awards in 1992, winning Oscars for best picture, director, adapted screenplay, actor and actress.
So Fishburne is taking TV viewers into a familiar world, filled with characters that previously have been played by other actors. Will Graham was played by William Petersen in Manhunter and Edward Norton in Red Dragon, prior to Dancy's characterization on the TV series. Jack Crawford has been played by Dennis Farina, Scott Glenn and Harvey Keitel in various films. The connection to Glenn, with whom Fishburne worked as a teenager in Apocalypse Now, was particularly meaningful.
"I was talking to him about what we wanted to do, beyond what you normally see with this role in this kind of crime story," Fuller says. "We started talking about Scott Glenn. Laurence is a great raconteur telling stories about his career. He started telling me about working with Scott and how he looked on him as one of his 'uncles' on Apocalypse Now. His love of Scott and his affection for him was one of the things that impressed me, along with his passion for playing a role one of his 'uncles' had played. He wanted to make it his own and yet still honor what Scott—and Harvey and Dennis—had done."
The continuing public appetite for Harris' characters—especially Hannibal Lecter—is a cultural phenomenon that never seems to diminish. What is it about Hannibal Lecter in particular, and serial killers in general, that seems to appeal to the darker instincts of an audience?
"Everybody's dirty little secret is that we all, at some moment, fantasize about killing someone else," Fishburne says. "So Hannibal is the living embodiment of that fantasy. But it's meant as purely fantasy.
"Look at a show like 'Dexter.' I'm a huge 'Dexter' fan. Obviously, his being a serial killer is a metaphor for being different. But I wonder what it says that we've got this serial killer as our hero."
Fishburne can even tease out a connection between the world of Hannibal Lecter and that of "CSI," one of television's most popular long-running shows.
"Billy Petersen [who played Gil Grissom for almost 200 episodes of "CSI"] played Will Graham in Manhunter—and without that performance, I don't think there would have been 'CSI' as we knew it," says Fishburne. "That character was the prototype for what would become Grissom." And, of course, Fishburne, who is playing Will Graham's mentor in "Hannibal," replaced Petersen in "CSI" as Dr. Raymond Langston, an experience Fishburne says convinced him that a role in a quality TV series may be the best gig around.
"First of all, 'CSI' was incredibly convenient—five minutes from my house," he says. "And I got there nine seasons in, after all the heavy lifting had been done. They'd worked hard and built this well-oiled machine. All I had to do was enter and sit where the foundation had been laid. The best way for me to service the show was to fill the space. Because Billy was leaving a big hole."
So Fishburne is happy to return to the demands of a weekly hour-long crime drama. After three seasons on "CSI," Fishburne sees TV as the kind of job actors like best: one that requires them to be at the top of their craft on a daily basis. "TV gives me the opportunity to work every day," Fishburne says with barely contained joy. "There's an immediacy with television. You don't have to wait for it. I shot the Superman movie in, what, 2011? And it's not out yet.
"I just enjoy acting. I don't make a distinction between TV and film and theater. I enjoy them all. Really, the most interesting things being made, aside from documentaries, is the TV that's being done on cable. It's more interesting, really, than mainstream movies. Everything is remakes and sequels and tentpoles. And now reboots. And zombie movies."
Notes Fuller, "He's such a smart actor. He's that guy who's always thinking about where his character is at any given moment in that world. He's a storyteller as a human being; so he's an intuitive actor who is aware of the story being told."
Adds Singleton, "Fish is a self-made actor who didn't have any formal training. But he's always challenged himself to go further. Anything he does, he just gives it a voice of authority. People take something seriously if they know he's involved. When he joined the cast of 'CSI,' people's ears perked up."
It's been more than 40 years since the 10-year-old Fishburne started auditioning for—and winning—movie and TV roles. It has been a rollercoaster career, one that began with roles on a TV soap opera ("One Life to Live") and a starring role in a 1975 film, Cornbread, Earl and Me, opposite UCLA basketball star Jamaal (then Keith) Wilkes. Early success can lead to early disappointment, something that Fishburne experienced in spectacular fashion when he was cast in one of the biggest films of the 1970s, Apocalypse Now. The film was Francis Ford Coppola's first movie after The Godfather, Part II, and adapted Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness to the Vietnam War. Coppola famously went far over schedule and over budget, shooting in the Philippines for two years, mortgaging much of his personal fortune to finish the film.
Fishburne had auditioned to play one of the crew of the boat that took Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen) up the river in search of the renegade Col. Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando. The character was meant to be 17; Fishburne told Coppola he was 16 when he auditioned. In fact, he was 14.
"I don't think anyone was fooled," he recalls with a chuckle. But he still got the part.
Accompanied by his mother, Fishburne spent the next two years filming in the Philippines with Coppola. Actors were fired and hired, weather destroyed sets, money ran out—but Fishburne just kept working, happily, watched over by his mother. "She had some stage mother to her," Fishburne says with a laugh. "And I couldn't have gone without her. I don't know many mothers who would do that. I'm grateful she did, that she recognized the opportunity for what it was. We made the best of an unpredictable situation. And we had fun."
Though the film was a hit—and is ranked in the Top 100 films of all time by the American Film Institute—it received mixed reviews when it opened. While it was a box-office success, it was not a blockbuster in the way The Godfather films had been.
"That movie is an American masterpiece—but that's not how it was received when it came out in 1979," Fishburne says. "I remember being disappointed that people didn't get it at the time. I was aware that it wasn't a hit, that it wasn't doing the kind of business that Godfather had done. It was just a few years after the end of the Vietnam War and that was too close. It was a very divisive war.
"Out of the whole experience, what I learned is that sometimes you get disappointed in life. You've got to figure it out and get over it, then move on. It's not the disappointment that matters; it's how you deal with it. As it is, I think of that movie as a kind of home movie. That movie is like my high-school yearbook."
Singleton puts it another way: "He told me one time that he went into the jungle a boy, but he came out a man."
Still a teenager when Apocalypse Now was released, Fishburne focused on acting, working through his 20s in TV and films. He made three more films with Coppola in the 1980s: The Cotton Club, Rumble Fish and Gardens of Stone.
"Francis was my godfather, for certain—like an uncle or a father figure," Fishburne says. "That experience—me working with him on that movie and three more—he's the reason I turned out to be the kind of actor I am."
Fishburne really hit his stride around the time he turned 30. Roles in Spike Lee's School Daze (1988) and Abel Ferrara's King of New York (1990) led to a crucial role in John Singleton's Oscar-nominated 1991 debut, Boyz n the Hood. Playing the stern but patient father of a teen, portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr., in a troubled South Central Los Angeles neighborhood, Fishburne tapped into his inner authority figure. It changed his career.
"I had expectations at 18 and 19 that were completely unrealistic," Fishburne recalls. "So by the time I was 30, I had left those behind. That period—my 20s—helped me gain a considerable amount of humility. They say it takes 10 years to make an actor and, by the time I was 20, I'd been acting for 10 years. But there weren't that many roles for people of color that were front and center. So, in my 20s, like most young people, I was aggressively trying to create myself and define myself.
"By the time I was 30, I'd been an actor for 20 years, which sort of gave me an edge. I had a perspective that was very helpful to me. It wasn't until 30 that I became a name. I got a Tony Award when I was 30 (for August Wilson's Two Trains Running) and Oscar nomination at 32 (for playing Ike Turner in What's Love Got to Do With It). And I won two Emmy Awards around the same time. Things changed. There were more roles for people of color, roles that were more than cardboard cutouts in the background, relegated to fourth or fifth banana in the story."
Singleton remembers meeting Fishburne when the actor was playing Cowboy Curtis on "Pee-wee's Playhouse," and Singleton was a college student working as a security guard/production assistant.
"I was in awe of him," Singleton recalled. "I told him my story: how I was going to film school and was going to write a movie. He said, 'How old are you?' I told him I was 19, and he smiled and said, 'Go ahead, brother.' Three years later I sent him the script for Boyz. I wrote the role for him. And he did the film.
"He was the anchor of that film. What's interesting is that, when we did it, he was, like, 28. He was playing Cuba's father—and Cuba was 22. I mean, I was 22 when I made that and the rest of the cast was younger than me. And he was very generous to me and to that young cast."
Says Fishburne, "The message of Boyz was powerful and, for whatever reason, that performance affected people. That was important to my career, both artistically and commercially."
That film led Fishburne to a run of leading roles, including becoming the first African-American actor to play the title role of Othello in a feature film of the Shakespearean tragedy. He ended the decade by costarring in what became one of the most successful, and influential films, of the time: The Matrix, followed by its two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, which combined for more than $1.6 billion worldwide at the box office.
While he was making the first of that trilogy, Fishburne had no sense of how deeply The Matrix would embed itself into popular culture.
"I knew it would be great," he says. "But I didn't know if anybody would watch it. I knew we were making something amazing. But how people would respond to it was something else."
Observes Singleton, "He was The Man in that movie—the baddest dude around. Here was this multiethnic sci-fi world that became this huge pop-culture phenomenon. And Fish was a huge part of that."
Snyder adds, "He's like the ultimate Yoda in those movies—that take on the teacher/guru/father figure is so amazing. But he is a living, breathing Yoda. He's kind and cool and wants to be in good work. When it's time to work, he gets to work. But he's also fun to be around."
Fishburne has had no shortage of roles since the turn of the century, working steadily on the Matrix films, "CSI" and a one-man show, Thurgood. The play is based on the life of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice on the Court, as well as the attorney who argued (and won) Brown vs. the Board of Education, which ended state-supported school segregation. Thurgood earned him his second Tony Award; he played it on Broadway for four months, as well as taking it on the road. He also received an Emmy nomination for a filmed version that aired on HBO.
He remembers specifically the 2010 performance in Washington, D.C., when President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were in attendance: "That was the thrill of a lifetime—to perform for President Obama and the First Lady. It's command-performance time. I have no words to describe how proud and humble I was," Fishburne says.
"Apparently, many White House staffers had come to see the show, although I wasn't aware of it until the president came. The first thing he told me backstage was, 'You're the talk of the East Wing. We came because so many people on our staff have seen it and insisted that we do.' "
While he was pleased to play the first black justice before the first black president, Fishburne apparently didn't get the chance to perform for the Supreme Court's second black justice. To Fishburne's knowledge, Justice Clarence Thomas, who replaced Marshall on the Supreme Court, never came to see Thurgood.
"I went to the Supreme Court and watched him work, but he never returned the favor," Fishburne says with a laugh.
If performing for the Obamas was exciting, Fishburne says, he was even more satisfied with the response from Marshall's family. "The most gratifying thing has been how much his family enjoyed it," he says. "His wife, his sons and their children were all in attendance many times. I heard from people who clerked for Justice Marshall. His widow came and sat front row center with her girlfriends, all wearing their best clothes, on her birthday. It was extraordinary.
"I'm not done with it, not by a long shot. I'd love to go back to D.C. and do an extended run. Look at Hal Holbrook; he's still out there doing Mark Twain. I'll be doing Thurgood as long as I'm able to."
With more than four decades of experience, Fishburne says the satisfaction he gets from acting "has only gotten better. The satisfaction from creativity is very rewarding."
There's also the fulfillment of becoming a father again in his 40s. Now 51, he and Torres have a daughter, Delilah, who will be 6 in June. (Fishburne has two grown children from his first marriage.)
"Being a mature father, as it were, is much better," he says. "I feel like I have the resources to provide for my children and family at this point. I'm not scared or worried about that. I'm just more confident; I've been a dad for a long time. Every kid is different; it's about recognizing who they are. I'm a lot more patient with myself, so I can be more patient with her."
Meanwhile, Fishburne will wait to see how far "Hannibal" can go, to see if there's further life to be had as Perry White, to continue to embody Thurgood Marshall on the theatrical stage—in other words, to keep working as an actor. That, Fishburne says, is always the goal.
"I don't think of myself as a celebrity or a movie star—I think of myself as an artist," Fishburne says, studying his cigar, just before he's ready to head out into a late-winter New York afternoon. "My artistic discipline is my acting. That may make me sound like I take myself too seriously, but I don't, as you can see from my fanciful clown outfit," he says, indicating his baggy suit.
"People make the mistake of thinking that what I do is who I am," he says. "Hopefully that's because I do what I do successfully."
Contributing editor Marshall Fine writes about film and entertainment at his website, www.hollywoodandfine.com.


text:
|"Are you a wizard or not?"
The title of this article is conjectural. Although it is based on canonical information, the actual name is a conjecture and may be supplanted at any time by additional information released from canonical sources. If this occurs, please move this page to the appropriate title.
- "A large black and silver volume caught his eye. He pulled it out with difficulty, because it was very heavy, and, balancing it on his knee, let it fall open. A piercing, bloodcurdling shriek split the silence — the book was screaming! Harry snapped it shut, but the shriek went on and on, one high, unbroken, earsplitting note."
- —Description[src]
This book was large and bound in black and silver. A copy was kept at the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts Library. Whenever opened, this book would shriek in one high and unbroken note.[1] It appeared to be a collection of Christian sermons.[2]
Behind the scenes
- In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in the split-second in which the text is shown, one can identify the left-hand page as a transcription of a Christian sermon called "Of sincerity toward God and man", which was delivered by John Tillotson on 29 July, 1694. The right page contains another sermon called "The excellency of Abraham's faith and obedience", preached at Whitehall, in 1686, before Princess Anne. Thus, the book that appears in the film is presumably The Works of the Most Reverend Dr John Tillotson.
- An Easter Egg, it seems someone in the special effects department digitally replaced some of the book's original text with names: "Laura and Chas" (left page, bottom paragraph), "Terry Michelle Chloe and Aimee" (middle right page), "Debbie Amy and Leon" (right page, bottom paragraph).
- J.K. Rowling commented in the DVD extras for the films that this was the image which, as an inveterate reader herself, probably scared her the most.
- In the film adaptation, the shrieking book appears to spawn a human face from its pages, though in the book, the shrieking book wasn't said to have spawned a face and just vaguely made a screaming sound.
- It's possible that all the books in the restricted section will scream if opened by an intruder.
- It is possible this book is Magick Moste Evile.
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
Notes and references
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 12 (The Mirror of Erised)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film) - Chapter 22 (Cloaked in Darkness)
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