A clever new blog MoreUs from the UVA Law Library.

Flying squirrel alert

Terrific blog post from the Smithsonian Libraries on making animated gifs - check out the squirrel!

Highlighted Recent Acquisitions blog

Highlighted Recent Acquisitions showcases monographs in the collection of this law library that would be appealing to a wide variety (as opposed to, say, a Civil Procedure casebook). Included are books that cover unique topics, books that take an interdisciplinary approach to a topic, and books that are just plain topical.

More on Congress.gov

Advanced Search, Browse, and Appropriations Tables have been added to Congress.gov.

This seems neat - World Science.com classes. Endorsed by Colbert, so, of course.

Time and Date tools

Set timers and more here.

Annals of Law, Holder v. Roberts

Need to check out this Feb. 17 New Yorker article - Annals of Law, Holder v. Roberts. The Attorney General makes voting rights the test case of his tenure, by Jeffrey Toobin.

John Oliver yells at tech people - Yay, JO!

Oyez Oyez

Supreme Court oral arguments back to 1955 are found on Oyez. Search by legal issue or alphabetically by plaintiff name (you must choose a year first).

Canon law

More from ICL (In Custodia Legis)- this one on Canon law.

American Indian Constitutions

Old post from ICL, but I'm still cleaning up my email and found it again- info on American Indian Constitutions.

I discovered the Beatles Bible!

Says it all Beatles Bible.

Editing day

Going back over recent posts to add a better subject line.

The Emancipation Proclamation

From GPO Booktalk,The Emancipation Proclamation and its Role in GPO and African American History.

Spam Alert!

Watch out for this junk. I've gotten several emails like this but thank goodness was smart enough not to click on any links! From librarian Chris in Menlo Park: I have seen a surge in court-related phishing schemes and malware delivery attempts via email and have personally received variants of emails informing me that my case in Florida (or wherever) is on hold pending a service of process and wouldn’t I mind just clicking on the attachment to help expedite the process, etc., etc. Given that we work in the legal realm, it’s very tempting to click on these sort of things, but the zip attachments or links usually mask an exe package. Fake FedEx failed delivery notices, claims, lawsuits, notice of insufficient funds, bank statements are all common modes of delivery. One of the more insidious viruses that these emails deliver is Cryptolocker which is a new class of malware termed “ransomware.” Once launched (usually by clicking on one of the aforementioned attachments), Cryptolocker secretly encrypts all your files as well as any attached network files, including linked DropBox or other cloud storage drives. Once the encryption is complete, the user is informed that they have three days to wire $300-1,200 dollars to obtain the decryption key and once the three days expire, the files are no longer accessible unless the user purchased the key. Particularly nasty stuff. Be careful out there.

Songs of America

Not law related but I love this kind of stuff - From the Library of Congress "More than two years in the making, Songs of America brings forward 80,000 digitized, curated items including maps, recordings, videos, sheet music, essays, biographies, curator talks and more to explore America’s history through the prism of song."

UW research

From my alma mater, University of Wisconsin-Madison:

• The reach of presidential executive power
• How political scientists informed the president about electoral reform. Professor Barry Burden reports
• Gridlock, polarization, and budget politics. Professor David Canon examines (video, ~1 hour)
• The effect of early voting on voter turnout. Research conducted by UW Poli Sci faculty

Legal writing

I like this one too - Lady (Legal) Writer gives tips on legal writing.

Law comics, sure why not?

Because there needs to be a law comic - The Illustrated Guide to Law. Description sez: Imagine reading a comic book hidden inside your textbook during Crim Law I class. Now imagine that the comic book is your criminal law textbook. New York City criminal defense lawyer Nathaniel Burney is methodically working his way through all the courses a 1L would take and illustrating the legal concepts with cartoon characters. His first volume, the Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law, was published last year, and you can follow along as he creates the next volume, covering criminal procedure.

Cool LOC photos

Here is a Stereo view of the Madison building closed stacks - Law Library of Congress.

Email cleanup

More cleaning of my overflowing mail inbox. File this one under Read (eventually) - Data models for post-passage Federal legislation. The author sez "Ordinarily, it would not pass the who-cares? test for any but hardened, bitter legislation geeks and Linked Data roustabouts, but it does have a couple of things about the more commonly used US Code finding aids that folks who spend time rummaging in the Code may find interesting."

Presidential Bios

File under Presidential Bios - Great piece by John Dickerson recounting an Andrew Jackson story Executive Action.