The Dark Side

Whatever long grandiose name Iran uses for itself v. Google, Inc.

Iran has announced yesterday that it is considering legal action against Google for not labeling the gulf that forms its southern boundary "the Persian Gulf" in Google Maps. Google, though silent as to whether the decision involves the longstanding regional feud as to whether the body is the Arabian Gulf or the Persian Gulf, has not provided any label for the water. Anyone who has looked for names of bodies of water on Maps can sympathize with not seeing a geographic feature denominated, but I am a little curious as to which judicial body Iran intends to turn to for justice and why a sovereign country will subject itself to that body's jurisdiction. Not to mention the source of legal duty to provide names for things. And why they would pursue Google without also filing the international equivalent to a quiet title action regarding the name, so as to actually establish some right as against more than just one American corporation. Perhaps we should split the baby by using a more functional description, and call the gulf the Great U.S. Aircraft Carrier Holding Tank.

Downton Playlist

With the recent close of Season 2 of Downton Abbey on PBS, while eagerly awaiting Season 3, some of us have to fill our withdrawal with something. With some help from Spotify, I present my solution, the Downton Contemporary (more or less) Music Playlist.  Some of these are so on point you have to wonder if Julian Fellows was just listening to the radio and wrote down whatever he heard.  Sorry for any spoilers, but if you haven't seen it at this point, you are likely either categorically against it and shouldn't care or are being talked into it by friends who have probably already given away all the major plot points already.

1. Violet Hill - by Coldplay
2. Mr. Crowley - by Ozzy Osbourne
3. Mary, Mary - by Chumbawamba
4. Edith - by Rachael Yamagata
5. Sybil - by State Radio
6. Lavinia - by The Veils
7. Saint Anthony - by Senses Fail
8. Come Downstairs and Say Hello - by Guster
9. Carson City - by Chet Baker
10. Thomas - by A Perfect Circle
11. Anna Sun - by Walk the Moon
12. Daisy - by Switchfoot
13. Mosley - by Wayne Krantz et al.
14. Typrwriter Girl - by The Lisps
15. If I Had a Son - by Bad Astronaut
16. Young Lawyer - by French Kicks 
17. Lady Turk - by Tritonus
18. Take Me to the Riot - by Stars
19. A Little Bit of Soap - by The Jarmels
20. I'm Too Old for You - by Jack Oblivian
21. Hotel Hospital - by Damian Jurado
22. A Single Shot in One Hand - by Blue Tales
23. Behind Enemy Lines - by Saving Grace
24. Driver, Suprise Me - by The National
25. How Stupid Mr. Bates - by The Police
26. Carlisle Wheeling - by The Monkees
27. William, It Was Really Nothing - by The Smiths
28. Walk Like a Man - by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
29. Missing Dogs - by Saintseneca
30. The Convict And The Rose - by Willie Nelson
31. Goodbye Earl - by Dixie Chicks
32. The House that Built Me - by Miranda Lambert

 

UPDATE: Thanks to The Heart for discovering that Rachael Yamagata has, in fact written a song to an Edith. And with lyrics like "Oh Edith / you murder me / you murder me," the song could almost be sung by Mary. Well, not really. But we'll stick with it anyway.

 

Pizza

You know you live in L- County when the pizza delivery vehicle in front of you is an Escalade.

Fighting Enemies

"I start to crack at about four hundred to one."

~Ripred
Rat Warrior


Gregor and the Code of Claw
By Suzanne Collins

One way to start the day...

Working with the Youth Group

Solicitors

Thank you for all you've done, it can't have been easy.
~Mr. Bellamy

My dear boy, that's precisely why we solicitors charge exorbitant fees.
~Sir Geoffrey Dillon

Upstairs Downstairs
Season 3

Chivalry

Brilliant

Virginia presidential primary

So with only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul (absent a legal decision otherwise) having qualified for the Virginia Republican primary for president, does this mean that Paul has a decent chance at winning the Commonwealth just to keep the delegates out of Romney's hands if the race for convention delegates is looking close at that point?

(I suppose it depends to some extent on the degree to which the party establishment can GOTV with moderates, compared with Paul's ability to convince those supporting other candidates that this is the only way to keep Romney off the ballot in November.)

EDIT: See discussion of legal options here and here

Tell us what you really think, Ken

Cuccinelli on Dulles Rail:

After mishandling Phase I of the Dulles Metrorail/Silver Line extension, allowing Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority to oversee Phase II is like “buying your 16-year-old a new sports car, they go out, get drunk, crash into a tree, and you go out and buy them another one. And then buy them a six-pack.”

(And this despite the finding of MWAA, when pressured by Fairfax and Loudoun Counties, that they could actually probably complete the construction of Phase II for a billion bucks less than they said. A billion is about $1,000 per resident of Fairfax County.)

Federal Case of the Week

Doran v. 7-Eleven, Inc., 524 F.3d1034 (9th Cir. 2008) - District Court erred in dismissing wheelchair-bound plaintiff's Americans with Disabilities Act case for lack of standing.

(So is that irony or just a bad pun?)

Until Next Season...

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

--Rogers Hornsby (St. Louis Cardinals from 1915-1926, 1933)

Math and engineers

A logician, a physicist, a statistician, and an engineer enter a mathematics contest, the first task of which is to prove that all odd integers are prime.

The logician argues: "3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime. Therefore, by induction, all odd numbers are prime."

It's the physicist's turn: "3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is not a prime, 11 is a prime, 13 is a prime. Within experimental error, all odd numbers are prime."

The statistician states: "Let's try several randomly chosen numbers: 17 is a prime, 23 is a prime, 11 is a prime... our sample shows that all odd numbers are prime."

The engineer responds: "We just need to run a test, starting with the largest odd number and working backwards..."


(A lawyer puts forward that it is impossible to determine whether 1 is a prime or not, therefore we need not reach a result on 3, 5, 7, or 9)