October 2012

Seismologists Convicted of Not Predicting Earthquake

Well, I was just wondering the other day what if anything had ever happened with that ridiculous case in Italy where seismologists were charged with manslaughter—manslaughter!— for telling people not to worry too much about an earthquake (which then happened). See…


There She Blows! ‘Tis the Contract for Moby Dick!

Agreement made between Harper and Brothers of the city of New York, Publishers, of the one part and Herman Melville of Pittsfield Massachusets [sic] of the other part, witnesseth— That the said Harper and Brothers have agreed to publish and…


Bad Disguise #6: Amateurishly Bandaged Accident Victim

According to KOMO in Des Moines (via Boing Boing), Joshua Pinney walked into a Bank of America branch there on June 26, said he needed a new debit card and explained his utter lack of resemblance to the picture on his ID…



No Calaboose Here

An arrest report reportedly filed by the sheriff of Yuma County, Arizona Territory, in 1873: Received the within process Arizona City, Jan. 1873 and served same by arresting defendant at Ehrenberg, A.T., Jan. 31, 1873, but as defendant had no…


Good Reason to Kill #28: Alanis Morrisette

"That's all the motherf*cker listens to," Allen Casey, 24, told sheriff's deputies Sunday night in the Jacksonville home he shares with Todd Fletcher, 33. According to the police report, available at The Smoking Gun, the excess of Morrisette prompted Casey to…



City Pays Protection Money to Stop Serial Litigant

Like California's "Unfair Competition Law," a favorite of consumers outraged by such things as sailors fraudulently marketing crunchberry-flavored cereal and soap that did not attract women as allegedly promised, disability-access laws are also frequently misused. Access for the disabled is a…


It Was the Curb’s Fault [Updated]

From a Courthouse News summary of a case recently filed in San Francisco, including a sentence presumably taken from the complaint: Paulina H. v. Flyers Energy LLC et al., CGC-12-525132 (S.F. Superior Ct. filed Oct. 15, 2012) Trip and fall. The unmarked raised…


Berkeley Boys Busted for Bird Beheading [Updated]

This: We are one of the most selective law schools in the nation. Of the more than 7,000 prospective J.D. students who apply annually, Berkeley Law enrolls about 270. In choosing our students, we don’t stop at brilliance. We drill…