Posts Tagged ‘Australia’

Lowering the Bar “Best of 2008”

The legal humor site has nominated its favorite stories of 2008. Among them:

Australia: “Gambler sues casino over $900 million binge”

Gambling addict and wealthy property developer Harry Kakavas had the presence of mind to don a hidden recorder to build his case against Melbourne’s Crown Casino for luring him back to its tables despite an order banning him from every casino in Australia. He just didn’t have the presence of mind to avoid “a mammoth 14-month baccarat binge in which he lost A$37 million”. (Reuters, Dec. 12).

Microblog 2008-11-25

  • Why real estate agents make you sign 1,000 silly forms [Christopher Fountain] Michigan requires acknowledgment that nearby farms “may generate noise, dust, odors” [Land Division Act h/t Sean Fosmire]
  • Albuquerque police take out want ad seeking snitches [AP]
  • “A prez must know S of S has no agenda other than his own” Chris Hitchens flays the Hillary pick [Slate]
  • Not all British nannies are charming: U.K. regulators may ban “happy hour” in bars [AP h/t Jeff Nolan]
  • As Georgia “sex offender” horror stories go, Wendy Whitaker case may outdo Genarlow Wilson’s [Below the Beltway; more on Wilson case]
  • U.K. juror polls her Facebook friends to help decide on case [AllFacebook h/t @lilyhill and @Rex7; Greenfield]
  • Looking for political conservatives on Twitter? Here’s a long list [Duane Lester, All American Blogger; and I have a comment on ways to use Twitter]
  • New page of auto-feeds from leading Canada & U.S. law & politics blogs [Wise Law Reader]
  • Bailout’s a lot bigger than you think, try $7.8 trillion with a “t” [John Carney]. Claim: with $ sunk since ’80, GM and Ford could have closed own plants and bought all shares of Honda, Toyota, Nissan and VW [David Yermack, WSJ via Cowen]. What if Citi gives up Mets naming rights? Gary’s Bail Bonds Stadium just doesn’t quite have the same ring to it [Ray Lehmann]
  • Australian class action could derail because overseas funders didn’t register as investment managers [The Australian h/t @SecuritiesD]

Microblog 2008-11-21

  • “Forensic Experts Aren’t Team Players. Nor Should They Be.” [Balko, Reason “Hit and Run”]
  • Australia high court reverses 2 crim convictions, judge snored loudly a lot (not just your innocent-error naplet) [Lowering the Bar]
  • Hear that V-3 hum: preview of 2012 post-bailout car from Congressional Motors [Iowahawk satire]
  • California Supreme Court gets a Prop 8 amicus brief from “Divine Queen of the Almighty Eternal Creator” [Box Turtle Bulletin]
  • Bristol, CT mulls ban on smoking on public streets [Connecticut Employment Law Blog]
  • “Singers Sue Label For Failing To Sue Others For Infringement” [TechDirt; Hall & Oates, Warner/Chappell; h/t @tamerabennett]
  • Lawyer must spend half her time deflecting jokes about her name [Sullivan & Cromwell]

Bogus Olympic ticket scam

The (genuine) International Olympic Committee and other defendants should be made to pay, according to Texas-based class-action lawyer, Jim Moriarty, who wants “millions of dollars” for 400 victims worldwide. “The lawyer alleges the IOC was aware beijingticketing.com was operating with trademarked Olympic symbols emblazoned on the site,” but failed to act speedily enough or effectively in getting the impostor site shut down. (“Olympic ticket scam: class action”, Sydney Morning Herald, Sept. 23).

October 2 roundup

  • Cameras in the Neiman Marcus “loss security” (anti-theft operations) room? So unfair when they catch two employees making whoopee [Chicago Tribune via Feral Child]
  • Flipping their wigs: after three centuries judges in British civil and family courts today end tradition of horsehair wigs [Times Online]
  • The right number? $28 million to Boston victim of negligent Big Dig construction [Globe]
  • White collar advice: “Always commit crimes with people more important than you are, so you can turn them in” [Dershowitz, Forbes]
  • Injured while skylarking on freight trains, now want Oz taxpayers to pay for their injuries [The Australian]
  • That’ll spoil the fun: New Jersey high court bars judges from discussing future employment with lawyers who have pending cases before them [NJLJ]
  • Compromise on Capitol Hill lets Pandora survive a little longer to negotiate with music rights owners [ReadWriteWeb; earlier here, here]
  • Rapists with leverage over the adoption of a resultant child? [four years ago on Overlawyered]

Locked-out Overlawyered readers, in Australia and elsewhere

For quite a while I’ve been getting complaints that readers in other countries — Australia, in particular — are locked out of Overlawyered with a “403 — you don’t have permission to access the server” error message. (Similarly, see these bulletin board discussions from New Zealand and Germany). Reader Stephen Mepham from Australia wrote to alert me when he encountered this problem on switching to a new cable provider, and helpfully included his IP number (the 777.77.7.777 thing). That allowed me to track down what had happened: in response to a series of spam and denial-of-service attacks, our hosting providers over the years have taken aggressive measures to exclude various large blocks of IP numbers (as well as country domains associated with spam and DOS attacks). I’ve now taken a few gingerly steps to relax these controls, which I hope should let more Australian readers access the site in particular. Should the attacks resume, of course, we’ll need to go back to tougher blocking.

If you’re a reader who’s encountered this problem or knows someone who has, give it a try again, and feel free to email me with a message along the lines of “Yes, now it works again” or “No, I still get blocked” — and try to include your IP address if convenient, which you can identify here.

September 17 roundup