Daily Archives: October 16, 2006

Samuel Alito: Rockin’ Steady?

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Michael Giberson

From the musical section of the “who’da thunk it” department comes this little footnote (from a law journal article [PDF] on the uses of popular music in legal writing), attached to a remark that Justice Samuel Alito “once attended a ska music festival”:

State%20theatre%20image%20-%20small.jpg[15] Becker & Russakoff, supra note 13, available at 2006 WLNR 475058. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, ska is “Popular music originating in Jamaica in the 1960s, having elements of rhythm and blues, jazz, and calypso and marked by a fast tempo and a strongly accented offbeat.� Ska enjoyed a renaissance in the U.K. during the late 1970s and early 1980s. For a representative sample, see THE SPECIALS, A Message To You Rudy, on SPECIALS (Two-Tone Records 1979); THE ENGLISH BEAT, Mirror In The Bathroom, on I JUST CAN’T STOP IT (Go Feet/London 1980); MADNESS, One Step Beyond, on ONE STEP BEYOND (Stiff 1979).

The “Becker and Russakoff” citation is to a Washington Post profile of Alito “In His Wife’s Words.”

Just last Friday night I caught the original ska band, the Skatalites, at the State Theater. (Well, only about 2/7ths of the original band, but what do you expect for a group that first organized 40 years ago.) I didn’t notice any Supreme Court Justices in the house, but maybe quietly in the back…?

Cellphone Gives India’s Traditional Sardine Fishermen Bargaining Power

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Michael Giberson

Kevin Sullivan, writing in the Washington Post, delivers a fantastic story about how the spread of cellphones among traditional fishermen in India has reshaped the industry:

Rajan said that before he got his first cellphone a few years ago, he used to arrive at port with a load of fish and hope for the best. The wholesaler on the dock knew that Rajan’s un-iced catch wouldn’t last long in the fiery Indian sun. So, Rajan said, he was forced to take whatever price was offered — without having any idea whether dealers in the next port were offering twice as much.

Now he calls several ports while he’s still at sea ….

Rajan said the dealers don’t necessarily like the new balance of power, but they are paying better prices….

The story also mentions how farmers in remote areas can snap photos of diseased crops using their camera phones and get advice from distant specialists on how to cure the problems. Farmers also use cellphones to access internet-based price services telling them how much is being paid for their products in world commodity markets. In the cities, housepainters and plumbers — and the homeowners who need their services — have found it easier to connect because of cellphones.