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Kids’ lack of bias makes them better than college students at learning new gizmos. Could it work in the law?

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Kids’ lack of bias makes them better than college students at learning new gizmos:

Could it work in the law?

I honestly wonder if this would work for lawmaking as well. I have thought about it before. Can children reach conclusions better than, or at least similar to, those adults reach about which normative values should undergird new law and how those norms should be implemented?

After all, adults bring so much baggage to lawmaking. Personal, political and economic biases undoubtedly inform and even degrade even the most earnest approaches to legislation. Of course, children will would likely bring to bear on their legislative efforts some of the biases instilled in them, whether inadvertently or deliberately, by their parents.

But the effect of a child’s lack of personally researched and passionately held practical and philosophical positions on lawmaking is still worth exploring, even if as nothing more than a thought experiment.

If you’re interested in this line of thought, watch this video of kids reacting to gay marriage. The reactions vary, and some clearly stem from parental influence, but it’s extraordinary to watch, if for nothing else than their candor. Congress, ever burdened by political posturing and face-saving, could use an infusion of candor.

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What is musical anhedonia?

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What is musical anhedonia?:

The authors of a recently reported study on the enjoyment of music said:

Importantly, what our findings reveal is not a particular preference for one class of stimuli over another (one person may enjoy opera, while another may find it boring), but an inability to derive pleasure from an entire domain, music, which the vast majority of human populations do find pleasurable.

I can’t even imagine a life without appreciation for music. Sometimes it’s classical and sometimes it’s dubstep, but I almost always have music going. And while I prefer Rdio over other apps, it usually doesn’t matter how I’m getting the music, as long as I’m getting it.

I’ve met people who may qualify for a musical anhedonia diagnosis though. My father is one of them. Despite having seen bands like Led Zepplin live in his younger days, I don’t think I’ve ever known him to listen to anything other than sports radio. He just isn’t interested.

Music has always fascinated me on two levels. First, I’m easily captivated by the sheer artistry of a moving or motivating song. Second, I like to write music myself sometimes, so there’s a technical aspect to my listening, a sort of criticism of the craft of a song, that’s always playing out when I listen to something.

The coexistence of those two perspectives, as fan and as (wannabe) artist, make music more engaging to me than any other hobby except writing.

Which brings to mind a parallel to musical anhedonia: literary anhedonia. I know people far more intelligent and successful than I who have absolutely no interest whatsoever in literature of any kind. They may read news or blogs, but take no pleasure in a novel or a poem. It’s another state of being to which I simply cannot relate.

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Court: Immigrant brought by parents can’t get Florida law license

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Court: Immigrant brought by parents can’t get Florida law license:

Until Florida changes its state law on the issue, Jose Godinez-Samperio won’t get the law license he earned.

Unfortunately, the decision appears to follow the law, which is all a judge can (or at least should) do.

But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

If a nine-year-old’s parents took them along on a drug run and were arrested, would the child be punished for the crime with his parents?

Of course not. So then why can’t an accomplished individual who has fulfilled all the requirements get a license to practice law?

An immigrant brought to the United States by parents who broke the law to do it should not be held liable for his parents’ crime unless we’re prepared to use the same logic to convict the children of drug-runners who were along for the ride.

Are we?

I’m not.

But it’s a state-by-state issue, and the federal government won’t oppose the granting of a law license in to immigrants without citizenship if the state in question has authorized the move. California passed a law in January allowing immigrants who have not yet been granted citizenship to obtain a law license.

The plaintiff in that case, Sergio Garcia, who was brought to the United States while in high school, will therefore be able to practice law.

So, if Mr. Godinez-Samperio is willing to move from Florida to California, and pass a very different bar exam, he will presumably be allowed to obtain a law license and practice the law there.

No, you’re right, it doesn’t make sense. And welcome to the law.

If you’re interested in thinking more on the topic, consider having a listen to a recent interview my former immigration professor Peter Spiro gave recently to WHYY. You can also read Professor Spiro’s blog posts at Opinio Juris.

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Why I moved back to WordPress

I moved my main site at from Tumblr to WordPress today because I need the latter’s more robust control. I turned to Tumblr for my main site some time ago because it was simpler and more elegant, and those things still hold true.

But much of what I do here is going to be more in-depth and professional in nature, and I just need a better solution for managing that than Tumblr can provide. I’m also considering offering WordPress site builds and hosting as part of my freelance work, so having my own WordPress site is a good way to stay up-to-date on the latest developments with the platform.

I still maintain Geekeries at Tumblr for fun images and quotes, and this site’s original Tumblr-built archives are always available at constantandendless.tumblr.com, they just aren’t indexed by search engines and won’t be updated unless I can find a way to mirror this site over there.

If I did everything right, all the old links should point to the proper page over here, leaving Google none the wiser and preserving my SEO rankings.

Enough about me though, (re)commence the writing!

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Reading list: Hari Kondabolu, Tim Cook, and magazine covers

My favorites among today’s reads are the Hari Kondabolu piece, which is actually a video of few minutes of his hilarious standup, and the Tim Cook article, which I posted about earlier.

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Tim Cook and the same question

Tim Cook and the same question:

When Cook turned the spotlight on someone, he hammered them with questions until he was satisfied. “Why is that?” “What do you mean?” “I don’t understand. Why are you not making it clear?” He was known to ask the same exact question 10 times in a row.

Once upon a time I had a boss who was verbally abusive of everyone he met, loose with the law and prone to what can only be called temper tantrums.

He was also a genius.

And one of his staples in a meeting was the same thing that quote above explains about Tim Cook. Eventually I was ready for it every time, and it’s a valuable lesson.

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Introducing ‘Reading List’

I’m a huge fan of apps and services like Instapaper and Pocket, which allow you to save web pages, articles and even videos for later. Whether I’m in line at a coffee shop or sitting in a waiting room, I often turn to tools like Twitter and Feedly to see what’s worth reading on any given day. The combination of all of those apps leaves me with far more content than I can read in a day, but I’m going to start sharing what I get to in a daily post over here.

This will serve two purposes. First, it will give you a sense of what I look at every day. Second, it will give me a convenient way to look for patterns in what I’m actually choosing to read versus the much larger bucket of things I’m saving. In other words, some of the stuff I save I will never, ever read. And maybe I’m repetitive or restricting myself to an echo-chamber of similar perspectives. This exercise will help me look for those things and then change them.

Most will be far shorter than this one, but in the spirit of getting off to a good start, here’s a list from the last couple of days:

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Disgraced Scientist Granted U.S. Patent for Work Found to be Fraudulent

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Disgraced Scientist Granted U.S. Patent for Work Found to be Fraudulent:

It’s hard to believe this patent should ever have been approved by a patent examiner acting in good faith, especially considering the criminal convictions standing in stark contradiction of the purported “inventor’s” affidavit of lies, but let’s assume the USPTO did, as they claim, handle this one by the book.

Even the appearance of such ridiculous impropriety as granting a patent for fake research is enough to signal the extent to which the system is flawed.

Joe Ross writes on law, tech and more.