Menu
Blog Archives
IBM Watson Personality Insights From Writing
September 5, 2015
The IBM Watson Personality Insights service uses linguistic analytics to extract a spectrum of cognitive and social characteristics from the text data that a person generates through blogs, tweets, forum posts, and more.
September 5, 2015
The IBM Watson Personality Insights service uses linguistic analytics to extract a spectrum of cognitive and social characteristics from the text data that a person generates through blogs, tweets, forum posts, and more.
Senators Start Asking Questions About Hedge Funds Betting on Lawsuits
September 4, 2015
The "litigation finance" industry provokes a skeptical look from two powerful Republican lawmakers Hedge funds have been...
September 4, 2015
The "litigation finance" industry provokes a skeptical look from two powerful Republican lawmakers Hedge funds have been...
Fifth Circuit Allows $46M Energy Contract Dispute to Continue
September 4, 2015
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a Houston trial judge and allowed Houston-based International Energy Ventures Management to continue to pursue a $46.5 million breach-of-contract dispute against Hong Kong-based United Energy Group. In the litigation, International Energy Ventures alleges that it agreed to help United Energy evaluate and buy in 2011 British Petroleum's Pakistani oil and gas assets. In exchange, International Energy Ventures alleges that it expected to receive...
September 4, 2015
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a Houston trial judge and allowed Houston-based International Energy Ventures Management to continue to pursue a $46.5 million breach-of-contract dispute against Hong Kong-based United Energy Group. In the litigation, International Energy Ventures alleges that it agreed to help United Energy evaluate and buy in 2011 British Petroleum's Pakistani oil and gas assets. In exchange, International Energy Ventures alleges that it expected to receive...
Brain Imaging Research is Often Wrong
September 4, 2015
When researchers conduct brain imaging, they collect data from 200,000 little spots in the brain, which creates a lot of leeway for false positives, bias, and false negatives. If researchers do not do the proper corrections—to address the fact that they are doing a statistical test in each of those places—it is very easy to find a highly significant result that is not actually real. A few years ago, a group of researchers tried to illustrate this problem by putting a dead salmon in an MRI scanner....
September 4, 2015
When researchers conduct brain imaging, they collect data from 200,000 little spots in the brain, which creates a lot of leeway for false positives, bias, and false negatives. If researchers do not do the proper corrections—to address the fact that they are doing a statistical test in each of those places—it is very easy to find a highly significant result that is not actually real. A few years ago, a group of researchers tried to illustrate this problem by putting a dead salmon in an MRI scanner....
Law Firms’ Grueling Hours Are Turning Defectors into Competitors
September 3, 2015
So here’s the real story. Big Law attorneys are notably unhappier than most other lawyers, for a variety of reasons. Far and away the most common one given by the Big Law refugees who have founded New Law companies is the desire for work-life balance. Recent research suggests that what Big Law offers—one-off individual accommodation policies—are not effective. Typically, the people who use them suffer the worst of both worlds – they’re stigmatized, but find themselves working full time...
September 3, 2015
So here’s the real story. Big Law attorneys are notably unhappier than most other lawyers, for a variety of reasons. Far and away the most common one given by the Big Law refugees who have founded New Law companies is the desire for work-life balance. Recent research suggests that what Big Law offers—one-off individual accommodation policies—are not effective. Typically, the people who use them suffer the worst of both worlds – they’re stigmatized, but find themselves working full time...
Delaware Rapid Arbitration Act Rules Now Effective
September 3, 2015
The Delaware Rapid Arbitration Act (DRAA) now has rules. Enacted earlier this year, the intent of the DRAA is to serve as an alternative, confidential, and cost-effective forum for binding arbitrations involving Delaware corporations, LLCs, and other business entities. 10 Del. C. § 5801. Key provisions include limited discovery, default confidentiality rules, a 90-day time frame for a hearing, and, perhaps most notably, docking of the arbitrator’s fee if a decision is not rendered within 120 days...
September 3, 2015
The Delaware Rapid Arbitration Act (DRAA) now has rules. Enacted earlier this year, the intent of the DRAA is to serve as an alternative, confidential, and cost-effective forum for binding arbitrations involving Delaware corporations, LLCs, and other business entities. 10 Del. C. § 5801. Key provisions include limited discovery, default confidentiality rules, a 90-day time frame for a hearing, and, perhaps most notably, docking of the arbitrator’s fee if a decision is not rendered within 120 days...
Arrested Memory – ‘Justice Is Mind’
September 3, 2015
In the 2013 feature film Justice Is Mind, a defendant is put on trial for an alleged double murder he does not remember committing. The evidence? His own memory obtained from a new MRI procedure called fvMRI (functional video magnetic resonance imaging). It may be science fiction today, but it's looking more and more likely that it will be science fact tomorrow. The movie focuses on 'thought identification' using advanced fMRI techniques which are currently being developed at Carnegie Mellon University....
September 3, 2015
In the 2013 feature film Justice Is Mind, a defendant is put on trial for an alleged double murder he does not remember committing. The evidence? His own memory obtained from a new MRI procedure called fvMRI (functional video magnetic resonance imaging). It may be science fiction today, but it's looking more and more likely that it will be science fact tomorrow. The movie focuses on 'thought identification' using advanced fMRI techniques which are currently being developed at Carnegie Mellon University....
Stress Is Your Brain Trying to Avoid Something
September 2, 2015
Stress is an emotional response; like all emotional responses, it emerges from the functioning of the motivational system. Your motivational system engages goals and gives them energy so that you can pursue them. Simply put, when you succeed at your goals, you feel good, and when you don’t succeed you feel bad. Stress is a negative emotion, so the first thing we can see about stress is that it reflects a goal you are not currently achieving. Learn to calm yourself. Another key element of stress...
September 2, 2015
Stress is an emotional response; like all emotional responses, it emerges from the functioning of the motivational system. Your motivational system engages goals and gives them energy so that you can pursue them. Simply put, when you succeed at your goals, you feel good, and when you don’t succeed you feel bad. Stress is a negative emotion, so the first thing we can see about stress is that it reflects a goal you are not currently achieving. Learn to calm yourself. Another key element of stress...
Continued Employment: Lawful Consideration in Non-Competes?
September 2, 2015
The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently held that continued employment constitutes lawful consideration to support a non-compete agreement signed by an existing at-will employee. Runzheimer Int’l, Ltd. v. Friedlen, 2015 WI 45, 362 Wis. 2d 100, 862 N.W.2d 879 (Apr. 30, 2015). Settling an issue raised but not decided in the court’s prior decision in Star Direct, Inc. v. Dal Pra, 2009 WI 76, 319 Wis. 2d 274, 767 N.W.2d 898 (2009), the Runzheimer decision makes Wisconsin the thirtieth state to conclude...
September 2, 2015
The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently held that continued employment constitutes lawful consideration to support a non-compete agreement signed by an existing at-will employee. Runzheimer Int’l, Ltd. v. Friedlen, 2015 WI 45, 362 Wis. 2d 100, 862 N.W.2d 879 (Apr. 30, 2015). Settling an issue raised but not decided in the court’s prior decision in Star Direct, Inc. v. Dal Pra, 2009 WI 76, 319 Wis. 2d 274, 767 N.W.2d 898 (2009), the Runzheimer decision makes Wisconsin the thirtieth state to conclude...
The Neuroscience of Being a Selfish Jerk
September 2, 2015
People high in Machiavellianism are more likely to agree with statements such as, “It is wise to flatter important people” and “The best way to handle people is to tell them what they want to hear.” A team of Hungarian researchers has scanned the brains of high scorers on Machiavellianism while the test subjects played a simple game of trust. While all participants punished unfair play, the Machiavellians, unlike the nonMachiavellians, failed to respond in kind to fair returns or investments...
September 2, 2015
People high in Machiavellianism are more likely to agree with statements such as, “It is wise to flatter important people” and “The best way to handle people is to tell them what they want to hear.” A team of Hungarian researchers has scanned the brains of high scorers on Machiavellianism while the test subjects played a simple game of trust. While all participants punished unfair play, the Machiavellians, unlike the nonMachiavellians, failed to respond in kind to fair returns or investments...
