Blog Archives
New Evidence for the Necessity of Loneliness
June 19, 2016
According to John Cacioppo, the director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, the reason humans developed such powerful social groups is because the pain of being alone motivates individuals to seek companionship. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology think they may have found the source of that motivation in a group of little-studied neurons in part of the brain called the dorsal raphe nucleus, best known for its link to depression....
June 19, 2016
According to John Cacioppo, the director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, the reason humans developed such powerful social groups is because the pain of being alone motivates individuals to seek companionship. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology think they may have found the source of that motivation in a group of little-studied neurons in part of the brain called the dorsal raphe nucleus, best known for its link to depression....
Overcoming Fear And Self-Doubt
June 19, 2016
This morning, I received a Facebook message from a friend. It read, “My book has shipped — I can’t wait to read it!” Apparently, Amazon decided to start shipping my book, The Anxious Lawyer (affiliate link), before the release date and didn’t let me know! If I’m being honest about it, I’m both extremely excited and nervous. This mixture of excitement, nervousness, and fear is a familiar cocktail. When I stumbled into mindfulness, I didn’t know where the journey would lead. All I knew...
June 19, 2016
This morning, I received a Facebook message from a friend. It read, “My book has shipped — I can’t wait to read it!” Apparently, Amazon decided to start shipping my book, The Anxious Lawyer (affiliate link), before the release date and didn’t let me know! If I’m being honest about it, I’m both extremely excited and nervous. This mixture of excitement, nervousness, and fear is a familiar cocktail. When I stumbled into mindfulness, I didn’t know where the journey would lead. All I knew...
Busy People Have Improved Cognitive Function in Old Age
June 18, 2016
Busy people may have better-functioning brains in old age than those who are less busy, scientists have suggested. A healthily busy lifestyle is associated with improved cognitive function, the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study found, particularly when it comes to working memory, reasoning and vocabulary. However, the scientists were not able to say if the heightened brain function is caused by being busy, or vice versa.
June 18, 2016
Busy people may have better-functioning brains in old age than those who are less busy, scientists have suggested. A healthily busy lifestyle is associated with improved cognitive function, the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study found, particularly when it comes to working memory, reasoning and vocabulary. However, the scientists were not able to say if the heightened brain function is caused by being busy, or vice versa.
Liberty Mutual Rolls Out Venture Capital Arm
June 18, 2016
Liberty Mutual’s personal insurance unit has launched a venture capital arm, with its first investment a home-security technology company. Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, as the initiative is known, oversees a $150 million fund that invests in technologies related in some way to insurance and the programs offered by the Boston-based Fortune 100 company. The fund will focus on three areas: smart products to use in the home, car technology, and the sharing economy. LMSV is aiming for investments...
June 18, 2016
Liberty Mutual’s personal insurance unit has launched a venture capital arm, with its first investment a home-security technology company. Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, as the initiative is known, oversees a $150 million fund that invests in technologies related in some way to insurance and the programs offered by the Boston-based Fortune 100 company. The fund will focus on three areas: smart products to use in the home, car technology, and the sharing economy. LMSV is aiming for investments...
When It Comes To The Future, Google Doesn’t Need To Be First
June 18, 2016
The search giant’s annual developer conference revealed that Google is playing catch-up to its Big Tech competitors and it doesn’t seem to care one bit. Today, Google convened 7,000 developers and journalists at a popular outdoor concert venue in Silicon Valley and gave a two-hour state of the union on the future of arguably the most powerful and ambitious company in the world. In front of a packed crowd and tens of thousands watching via live stream, the company brought its best...
June 18, 2016
The search giant’s annual developer conference revealed that Google is playing catch-up to its Big Tech competitors and it doesn’t seem to care one bit. Today, Google convened 7,000 developers and journalists at a popular outdoor concert venue in Silicon Valley and gave a two-hour state of the union on the future of arguably the most powerful and ambitious company in the world. In front of a packed crowd and tens of thousands watching via live stream, the company brought its best...
Self-Driving Taxis are Becoming a Reality with MIT Startup
June 17, 2016
The prospect of a world with self-driving taxis might be about two years away, with a recently-closed venture capital deal for an MIT-born startup. Cambridge's nuTonomy Inc. has landed $16 million in venture funding to invest in testing software for self-driving passenger vehicles, mostly in Singapore to start. Investors include Highland Capital Partners, Fontinalis Partners and Signal Ventures. Total funding to date for the three-year-old startup is now about $20 million. "This field has been...
June 17, 2016
The prospect of a world with self-driving taxis might be about two years away, with a recently-closed venture capital deal for an MIT-born startup. Cambridge's nuTonomy Inc. has landed $16 million in venture funding to invest in testing software for self-driving passenger vehicles, mostly in Singapore to start. Investors include Highland Capital Partners, Fontinalis Partners and Signal Ventures. Total funding to date for the three-year-old startup is now about $20 million. "This field has been...
Meta-Mindfulness: A New Hope by Peter H. Huang
June 17, 2016
"This Essay starts by tracing its origins to an earlier Article, Tiger Cub Strikes Back: Memoirs of an Ex-Child Prodigy About Legal Education and Parenting. This Essay then analyzes mindfulness about mindfulness. This Essay discusses how mindfulness can facilitate and foster positivity in the personal and professional transformative journeys that law students embark on in law school and law practice. Part of that discussion includes an email from a student in Torts I, an email from a student in Economic...
June 17, 2016
"This Essay starts by tracing its origins to an earlier Article, Tiger Cub Strikes Back: Memoirs of an Ex-Child Prodigy About Legal Education and Parenting. This Essay then analyzes mindfulness about mindfulness. This Essay discusses how mindfulness can facilitate and foster positivity in the personal and professional transformative journeys that law students embark on in law school and law practice. Part of that discussion includes an email from a student in Torts I, an email from a student in Economic...
Moneyball 2.0: What a Minor League Moneyball Reveals About Predictive Analytics
June 17, 2016
The book The Only Rule Is It Has To Work is the true story of how a couple of clever quants, Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller, tried to bring sabermetric superiority to the Sonoma Stompers, a minor league baseball team nestled in California’s wine country. The self-described “statheads” have the chance-of-a-lifetime opportunity to test out their own Moneyball-style theories when the management team and owners of the Stompers invited them to run operations as part of a learning experience and team...
June 17, 2016
The book The Only Rule Is It Has To Work is the true story of how a couple of clever quants, Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller, tried to bring sabermetric superiority to the Sonoma Stompers, a minor league baseball team nestled in California’s wine country. The self-described “statheads” have the chance-of-a-lifetime opportunity to test out their own Moneyball-style theories when the management team and owners of the Stompers invited them to run operations as part of a learning experience and team...
Oyez Project Finds a New Home at Cornell
June 16, 2016
The Oyez Project is a free, online repository containing more than 10,000 audio tapes of U.S. Supreme Court arguments going back 60 years. According to this story in the National Law Journal, the Oyez Project is about to get a new home, moving from its present host the Chicago-Kent College of Law to Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute in co-sponsorship with Justia, the online publisher of legal information. The National Law Journal hints that the continuing financial viability of the Oyez...
June 16, 2016
The Oyez Project is a free, online repository containing more than 10,000 audio tapes of U.S. Supreme Court arguments going back 60 years. According to this story in the National Law Journal, the Oyez Project is about to get a new home, moving from its present host the Chicago-Kent College of Law to Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute in co-sponsorship with Justia, the online publisher of legal information. The National Law Journal hints that the continuing financial viability of the Oyez...
Mueller on MDL Products Settlements
June 16, 2016
Christopher Mueller (Colorado), who has a terrific Evidence casebook, has posted to SSRN Taking Another Look at MDL Product Liability Settlements: Somebody Needs to Do it. The abstract provides: This Article examines the forces that lead to the settlement of product liability cases gathered under the MDL statute for pretrial. The MDL procedure is ill-suited to this use, does not envision the gathering of the underlying cases as a means of finally resolving them. Motivational factors affecting...
June 16, 2016
Christopher Mueller (Colorado), who has a terrific Evidence casebook, has posted to SSRN Taking Another Look at MDL Product Liability Settlements: Somebody Needs to Do it. The abstract provides: This Article examines the forces that lead to the settlement of product liability cases gathered under the MDL statute for pretrial. The MDL procedure is ill-suited to this use, does not envision the gathering of the underlying cases as a means of finally resolving them. Motivational factors affecting...
