Lincoln/Coverdale

The University of Michigan has an online product called CTools. Using this website, courses and groups can create websites to distribute files, maintain contact with members, and so on. Personally, I hate it. It feels like it was made in 1999. I’d rather that professors just email files to the class—thankfully, some of the profs still do.

In any case, one of the aspects of CTools that I find particularly annoying is the difficulty in customizing the view. For a while this semester, I was still a member of my classes from last semester. These classes were set to be some sort of priority, so I had to go through some gymnastics to view information for my current classes. See me (emphasis added). Today, when I sign in, I see this:

Discover the “Hidden” Features of CTools!

Ever wonder how to reorder your Resources? View announcements from all of your sites at once? Download multiple files at the same time?

Learn how and more! Read our new “Did you know…” document in the CTools Help Guide by clicking here now!

Hey, I have an idea: How about you don’t hide features in the first place? How about you set reasonable default configurations so that people don’t need to waste time with “features” like hiding current classes in a drop-down list while last semester’s classes are still displayed?

A justice of the peace in Louisiana refused to grant a interracial couple a marriage license. Fail Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967) (holding that race-based restrictions on marriage violate the fourteenth amendment’s guarantee of equal protection). At least this guy’s racism is explicit enough that we don’t need a national conversation about it. Cf. Professor Gates’s arrest.

Apparently this JP doesn’t have anything against interracial marriage, but he fears for the welfare of children born into such unions. Fail Palmore v. Sidoti, 466 U.S. 429 (1984). In Palmore, the Florida courts refused to grant custody of a child to the white mother because she was living with a black man, and that may create social stigma that would make life hard for the child. The Supreme Court declared equal protection fail. “Private biases may be outside the reach of the law, but the law cannot, directly or indirectly, give them effect.” Id. at 433.

Regarding interracial marriage in general, this paragraph in the CNN story caught my attention:

The number of interracial marriages have skyrocketed, nearly quadrupling between 1970 and 2005, the most recent year for which there is census data. As of 2005, nearly 8.5 million Americans are living in so-called mixed marriages.

My wife and I make up about 0.000024% of that statistic, and for what it’s worth, I’ve never so-called our marriage “mixed.” It makes us sound confused. Marriage may be confusing, but not in any interracial aspect.

EDIT: I forgot to include this comment from my wife regarding the JP’s desire to protect the children: “[S]ince when does a couple have to be married before having kids?”

Quicksilver is at least 17 kinds of badass. One of Quicksilver’s awesomest features is web searching. Basically, you search for “***” (three asterisks) and save the result as a bookmark. Below are the law-related searches I use on a regular basis. The URLs are pretty ugly, so I’ve hidden them as the hrefs to the links—just right-click on a link, copy, and paste the URL into your bookmarks.

• LexisNexis (search for case by reporter, e.g., 198 U.S. 45)
• Westlaw (search for case by reporter, e.g., 198 U.S. 45)
• USPTO (search by their advanced search, e.g., pn/<patent_number>)
• Legal Information Institute (general search)
• LII U.S. Code (<title>/<section>, e.g., 28/1441 for 28 U.S.C. § 1441)

My elderly neighbors are not having a good 2009. Their new red Ford sedan was stolen a couple months ago. Eventually, they got a replacement. This morning, there are no rims on their car, and it is being supported by a few bricks.

To whoever stole the rims: I hope you die in a fire.

To Ford: If you are going to bother putting nice factory rims on a car, include some wheel locks. If the car had wheel locks, well, then, stop selling the keys to thieves.