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The Neuroscience of Humor Investigated
March 13, 2017
A study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience takes a look inside the brains of professional comedians and compares them with less humorous humans. They attempt to home in on the seat of creative humor and ask what it can tell us about creativity. Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles recently undertook a rather ambitious project: they set out to spy on the neural correlates of creating a joke. Interestingly, the activation in these particular...
March 13, 2017
A study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience takes a look inside the brains of professional comedians and compares them with less humorous humans. They attempt to home in on the seat of creative humor and ask what it can tell us about creativity. Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles recently undertook a rather ambitious project: they set out to spy on the neural correlates of creating a joke. Interestingly, the activation in these particular...
Does the Show Stop For Appeal After a Court Compels Arbitration? The Federal Circuit Courts Are Split
March 13, 2017
Under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), 9 U.S.C. §§ 1 et seq., if a District Court compels arbitration of all of the claims that are before it, and thereupon dismisses the suit, its order compelling arbitration is final and appealable; but if the District Court stays the suit, its order compelling arbitration is “non-final” and not immediately appealable. So what’s a right and proper court to do? The Federal Courts of Appeal are divided on the question of whether the FAA requires...
March 13, 2017
Under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), 9 U.S.C. §§ 1 et seq., if a District Court compels arbitration of all of the claims that are before it, and thereupon dismisses the suit, its order compelling arbitration is final and appealable; but if the District Court stays the suit, its order compelling arbitration is “non-final” and not immediately appealable. So what’s a right and proper court to do? The Federal Courts of Appeal are divided on the question of whether the FAA requires...
The Private Ordering Solution to Multiforum Shareholder Litigation
March 13, 2017
This article analyzes a private ordering solution to multiforum shareholder litigation: exclusive forum provisions in corporate charters and bylaws. These provisions require that all corporate-law-related disputes be brought in a single forum, typically a court in the statutory domicile. Using hand-collected data on the 746 U.S. public corporations that have adopted the provision, we examine what drives the growth in these provisions and whether, as some critics contend, their adoption reflects managerial...
March 13, 2017
This article analyzes a private ordering solution to multiforum shareholder litigation: exclusive forum provisions in corporate charters and bylaws. These provisions require that all corporate-law-related disputes be brought in a single forum, typically a court in the statutory domicile. Using hand-collected data on the 746 U.S. public corporations that have adopted the provision, we examine what drives the growth in these provisions and whether, as some critics contend, their adoption reflects managerial...
3 Simple Ways to Make Yourself Happy Every Day, According to Neuroscience
March 12, 2017
Do you want to be happier? That's a pretty silly question--who doesn't want more happiness? Fortunately, there are simple...
March 12, 2017
Do you want to be happier? That's a pretty silly question--who doesn't want more happiness? Fortunately, there are simple...
The Google Assistant: More Android phones
March 12, 2017
Everyone needs a helping hand sometimes. Enter the Google Assistant, which is conversational, personal and helps you get things done—from telling you about your day to taking a selfie. The Assistant is already available on Pixel, Google Home, Google Allo and Android Wear. Now we're bringing it to even more people. Starting this week, the Google Assistant is coming to smartphones running Android 7.0 Nougat and Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Whether you need to know how to say “nice...
March 12, 2017
Everyone needs a helping hand sometimes. Enter the Google Assistant, which is conversational, personal and helps you get things done—from telling you about your day to taking a selfie. The Assistant is already available on Pixel, Google Home, Google Allo and Android Wear. Now we're bringing it to even more people. Starting this week, the Google Assistant is coming to smartphones running Android 7.0 Nougat and Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Whether you need to know how to say “nice...
What’s Mine Is Mine, What’s Yours Is Yours – Or Maybe Not
March 12, 2017
From The Huffington Post: You are going to get married. You have substantial net worth. You have a business that you have built up over the years and it is now doing well. You are excited about your upcoming marriage and you don’t want to do anything that might take the excitement out of the process. Since you already own the business and you already have accumulated your worth, there seems to be nothing to worry about. After all, community property, as you understand it, encompasses that...
March 12, 2017
From The Huffington Post: You are going to get married. You have substantial net worth. You have a business that you have built up over the years and it is now doing well. You are excited about your upcoming marriage and you don’t want to do anything that might take the excitement out of the process. Since you already own the business and you already have accumulated your worth, there seems to be nothing to worry about. After all, community property, as you understand it, encompasses that...
Mindfulness Meditation Training Lowers Biomarkers Of Stress Response In Anxiety Disorder
March 11, 2017
Mindfulness meditation is an increasingly popular treatment for anxiety, but testing its effectiveness in a convincing way has been difficult. Now a rigorously designed, NIH-sponsored clinical trial led by a Georgetown University Medical Center researcher has found objective physiological evidence that mindfulness meditation combats anxiety. The researchers found that anxiety disorder patients had sharply reduced stress-hormone and inflammatory responses to a stressful situation after taking a mindfulness...
March 11, 2017
Mindfulness meditation is an increasingly popular treatment for anxiety, but testing its effectiveness in a convincing way has been difficult. Now a rigorously designed, NIH-sponsored clinical trial led by a Georgetown University Medical Center researcher has found objective physiological evidence that mindfulness meditation combats anxiety. The researchers found that anxiety disorder patients had sharply reduced stress-hormone and inflammatory responses to a stressful situation after taking a mindfulness...
Clifford Chance and Neota Develop MiFID II Toolkit
March 11, 2017
Clifford Chance and Neota Logic have developed an automated client toolkit to help financial institutions assess and address the impact of MiFID II, which comes into force in January 2018 and is one of the most complex and wide-ranging pieces of legislation to come out of the European Union since the financial crisis of 2008. Using Neota Logic’s sophisticated decision tree software, the Clifford Chance application allows firms to filter thousands of pages of regulation and legislation by their...
March 11, 2017
Clifford Chance and Neota Logic have developed an automated client toolkit to help financial institutions assess and address the impact of MiFID II, which comes into force in January 2018 and is one of the most complex and wide-ranging pieces of legislation to come out of the European Union since the financial crisis of 2008. Using Neota Logic’s sophisticated decision tree software, the Clifford Chance application allows firms to filter thousands of pages of regulation and legislation by their...
Don’t Fear Superintelligent AI
March 11, 2017
New tech spawns new anxieties, says scientist and philosopher Grady Booch, but we don't need to be afraid an all-powerful, unfeeling AI. Booch allays our worst (sci-fi induced) fears about superintelligent computers by explaining how we'll teach, not program, them to share our human values. Rather than worry about an unlikely existential threat, he urges us to consider how artificial intelligence will enhance human life.
March 11, 2017
New tech spawns new anxieties, says scientist and philosopher Grady Booch, but we don't need to be afraid an all-powerful, unfeeling AI. Booch allays our worst (sci-fi induced) fears about superintelligent computers by explaining how we'll teach, not program, them to share our human values. Rather than worry about an unlikely existential threat, he urges us to consider how artificial intelligence will enhance human life.
This Week In Legal Tech: Rating Lawyers By Their Wins And Losses
March 10, 2017
Lawyers will give you any number of reasons why their win-loss rates in court are not accurate reflections of their legal skills. Yet a growing number of companies are evaluating lawyers by this standard – compiling and analyzing lawyers’ litigation track records to help consumers and businesses make more-informed hiring decisions. The latest to do this is Justice Toolbox, a startup that uses data mined from official state court records to compute and display how many cases a lawyer has won and lost...
March 10, 2017
Lawyers will give you any number of reasons why their win-loss rates in court are not accurate reflections of their legal skills. Yet a growing number of companies are evaluating lawyers by this standard – compiling and analyzing lawyers’ litigation track records to help consumers and businesses make more-informed hiring decisions. The latest to do this is Justice Toolbox, a startup that uses data mined from official state court records to compute and display how many cases a lawyer has won and lost...
