CRAZY BIKE PEOPLE

I love this guy's videos. Crazy, as in not concerned about loss of life or limb crazy.

THE CALCULUS

Sometimes it is hard to believe that things like the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus are still so relatively new. The modern proof of which was published in about 1823 by Cauchy.

Now, Newton and Leibniz both pretty well had it in the early 1700's, and are credited with putting the first and second parts of the theorem together. Even though it was disputed (by Newton and others) whether or not Lebiniz had discovered it independently of Newton, or just invented another notation for Newton's ideas. We don't care much about this anymore, we're just glad to have it.

Also, Lebiniz's called it calculus, if we listened to Newton it would be "the science of fluxions." Lebiniz was also a lawyer. Lawyers do have a way with words.

THIS IS WRONG

But, you probably laughed. I did too. God bless the Boys on Wheels - the new wheels on the block.

APPELLATE BRIEF

You may be curious about the motivation behind the post on pre-arrest silence. Here is the story. The work product of a second semester Legal Research and writing class is an appellate brief. Following that we will be arguing our case in a mock trial. Awards are given to the best brief and the best student team in the mock trail contest. (Argument is a requirement, but competition is optional.) The case we are taking sides on is a fictitious version of a few things that could possibly hit the Supreme Court. The big issues are, you guessed it, pre-arrest silence, and non-concurrent sentencing.

I'll be working on the first for now.

GRADES ARE IN

My grades are in. They were not as good as I wanted them to be, but they are not bad. I'm right around a B- overall. The hope was to be on the other side of the B, but that's something to work on for next semester.

PRE-ARREST SILENCE

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.

That is of course the Miranda warning. Now, a prosecutor may not comment on anything that you haven't said after being Mirandized. You are also protected by the Fifth Amendment, which of course protects you from self-incrimination. The problem is this: what if you are accused of a crime, arrested, and did not say anything to the police at all before your arrest? You haven't said anything that can be used against you. When you go to trial for the crime you have committed, should it then be okay for the prosecution to mention this fact? May they ask if an innocent person would say nothing in this same circumstance? It depends on where you are. The federal circuit courts are divided on this issue. If you live in Texas silence is admissible as substantive evidence of guilt.

STATUS UPDATE

So, I'm just a little past halfway through the first week back. (I have class today, but I have Friday off.) This semester seems to be off to a bit of a slow start, maybe because everyone is still so concerned about grades. That and the university changed the email service and even though everybody was sent a letter to explain this they didn't pay attention. Because of this about 30% of my classmates aren't getting email updates. It may also have to do with how short the brake felt - it only felt like a week and a few days. I plan on reading ahead a little this weekend and getting my outlines started (early, I know, but they really suck to put together).

ON LAW SCHOOL...

It is oft said that in law school "we will teach you to think like lawyers," but they never mention law school is also where lawyers develop their bad habits. First, the grading brake down inspires such intense competition the temptation to back-stab, or withhold information is hard to resist. Second, the stress that is placed on the class with things like starting the next semester without your grades from the last and the risk of a browbeating in front of your peers tends to promote the sorts of vices that dull that kind pain. I now realize the most important course is the one that is worth the least amount of credit - legal research and writing. The rest of the 90 hours are to teach you how to be crafty (read: think like a lawyer). In short, I don't think I would want it to be anything else.

ALMOST BACK

Holidays are over, and school starts again in 5 days. I'm looking forward to getting back to it, even though I don't know what my grades are yet (and I get a little nervous every time I think about that). This semester we will complete Torts and Contracts. Our legal research component will entail the drafting of an appellate brief, which we will argue in mock trial at the end of the semester. Since we completed Civil Procedure last semester we will have Property this semester. The best part of this semester seems that we have already become familiar with Torts and Contracts, so the start on Property will not be competing with two other starts. And from what I remember on our place at the end of the semester Torts should start off with Proximate Cause, and Contracts with Promissory Estoppel. It's good to know what you're up against before you're up against it I think. Maybe I don't even bother checking my grades.