I find numbers fascinating and even better when they are put into context with digestible displays.  Data visualization is key and people with these skills will be in demand for my lifetime and well beyond.

Two recent experiences with large data sets has been satisfying to me.  Unfortunately, both are showing the continual deterioration of the U.S. economy, but from a consumption standpoint, they are very interesting.

1.  Heatmap over time of U.S. Unemployment.  This is outstanding work, if not completely depressing;

2. If you are interested in the major law firm layoffs, which measure an incredible 14,457 people since January 2008 (5,677 lawyers, 8,780 staff), then Law Shucks is the place to go.  Their layoff trackers are great for digesting exactly what is going on and I’ve been told that even better displays are on their way.

Enjoy.  Or at least respect the work behind the bad news.

It’s Friday and y’all know that you are itching for a little bit of time away from your significant other.  Sure, you care for them dearly, but every once in a while it’s great to get out with your friends and let loose.

In my efforts to improve the efficiency of our legal system and to aid in domestic harmony, I present to you the following:

1. An application  for a night out with the boys (away from wife, fiancée, girlfriend); and
2. An application for a night out with the girls (away from husband, fiancée, boyfriend).

Both forms are below and downloadable for your convenience.  Enjoy.

Husband’s Night Out

Wife’s Night Out

Some enterprising lawyer in San Francisco has decided to sell his law degree on Craigslist. 

Awesome stuff. 

From the sale description:

“After several years of practicing law I have come to the conclusion that my law degree is useless and I don’t want to be a lawyer anymore. Though I spent over $100,000 on it I am willing to sell it for the bargain basement price of $59,250, which is the current value of my remaining student loan balance.

This priceless collectible will permit you to be surrounded by hobby-less assholes whose entire life is dictated by billing by the hour and being anal dickheads. Additionally, this piece of paper has the amazing ability to keep you from doing what you really want to do in life, all in the name of purported prestige and financial success. Finally, girls in the Marina will swoon with retarded thoughts of sugar daddy when they hear you went to XXX prestigious law school and are a lawyer.”

I love bitter lawyers.  Nicely done. 

I’ve written about why lawyers frustrate me, why FAS 157 (Topic 820) sucks and why the current state of patent law stinks.  In each case, I’ve tried to not just be a critic, but be part of the solution.

Specifically, I wrote an entire series on how law firms could change their ways to not piss me (and their clients) off and have been very active within the NVCA and personally trying to change the way that software patents work. 

As for FAS 157 (Topic 820), if you can’t beat them, join them.  Today it was announced that I’ve been invited to a “blue ribbon panel” organized by the Financial Accounting Foundation (FASB) to help determine the proper valuation techniques of private companies.  Either I’ll have a positive effect, or I’ll have a ton of fodder to bitch about.

But enough of that – what’s next?  Well, I’ve decided my next target will be copyright law.  There are a ton of things wrong with the current state affairs, none greater than the fact that most of the doctrine was developed before electronic media and what has come since has been a knee-jerk reaction to lobbying efforts by large content owners.

I’ll whet your appetite with  specific cases that want to make me scream:

1. ASCAP has used copyright law to go after royalty fees from girl scouts who sung popular songs around campfires;

2. Book publishers claim that Google copying their works in order to search them is a copyright infringement.  If held true, all Internet search would be subject to copyright law and effectively banned;

3. There is no clearing house for performance rights meaning that I can own a piece of music, but am limited to where I can actually play it unless I negotiate individually with the content holder; and

4. Incidental uses of content subject the user to infringement claims.  A woman recorded her 13-month old son dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy.”  The video (all 29 seconds of it) was posted on YouTube and immediately was subject to a DMCA takedown notice.  Google complied.  The mother is now suing Universal (the entity that owns the song) for violation of fair use laws.  (Good for her). 

But these are old news and frankly, there are bigger fish to fry which I’ll get into during the series.  These are just tastes of how the archaic ways of copyright laws have not kept up with the times.  (And no, I’m not going argue that Napster was legal). 

If you are looking for a new opportunity, a new (but stealth) startup is looking for help.  I’ve promised not to “out’ the company, so if you re interested, email:

jlcardjsm@gmail.com

In their words:

A Denver-based online education start-up, with a founding team which played leadership roles in creating two of the Internet’s most iconic brands, is seeking a hands-on VP of Engineering. The ideal candidate will:

- Be enthusiastic about the opportunity to both architect and develop the company’s initial product as well as to build and lead the Engineering team for years to come;

- Have achieved stretch goals leading Engineering teams in architecting and building high-availability, scalable web applications within test-driven agile start-up environments; and

- Have a strong technical background including in-depth, hands-on knowledge of Java and open source web architectures.

Sorry, I can’t answer any questions, as I’m sworn to secrecy.

Seriously.  They are hiring engineers.  And you know that you love music, love working in an ultra-cool environment with great folks and want to get in on the ground floor and make a real difference.

They have VC funding from Foundry Group, Alsop Louie and SoftTechVC.  They have tons of plans, too, to make a world-class product.  What’s missing?  You are. 

The only potential downside is you’ll have to listen to me at meetings, but you’ll be able to tease me about my bad hip and receding hairline.  Also, Samir, their CTO is cuddly. 

Come on Boulder, respond!  And if you aren’t from Boulder and want to live in a great place and work for a kick-butt company, let us know!  We love transplants, as we are all from elsewhere ourselves.

The other day, Nick Cronin, CEO of Lawbidding.com emailed me for me to check out his site.  In short, allows folks to confidentially post their legal issues for free, and then allows attorneys to search through the cases and place bids on that work, also for free. 

The bids can be based on an hourly fee, flat fee, contingent basis or ‘other’ bid.  This allows attorneys and clients to easily create alternative fee arrangements.   The client can then select their attorney based on the bids and by looking at the profile the attorney has set up.  The selected attorney is then sent the clients contact info. The website has attracted thousands of users (attorneys and clients) from all over the U.S.

It’s a relatively new site (and I can’t vouch for it, as I haven’t used it), but it is yet another example of people thinking creatively about the legal profession business model.

Good luck Nick. 

Brad and I are thinking about updating our Venture Capital Term Sheet Series. We’ve heard over the years from folks that they’ve used our series to teach classes.  We are delighted by this and whenever we’ve been asked, we’ve always said (and will continue to always say) “with our blessing.”  However, we haven’t kept track of any of this over the year and have a few ideas for things we can do to update the material now that five years have passed.

So – I’m writing with a simple request.  If you’ve used, or encountered, our Term Sheet series in a college (undergraduate or graduate) course or any other teaching / seminar environment, can you leave a comment below with the information (school / program / year / professor) or email me the information?

For those of you concerned about nefarious plots on our part, I assure you that we are delighted this material is out there in the public and are happy to have it freely used and passed around for all eternity.  I promise we won’t send Jack Bauer your way.

When they say Farmhouse, they aren’t kidding! I’m not much for barns and farm animals, but if there was a good way to describe all of these aromas, they are in this beer. It’s a really nice and complex Saison Dupont offering, much more involved than their more standard “Brasserie” offering (also commonly called just Saison Dupont). Think a musty farmhouse, but yet still really attractive with a lighter body and a sharp front palette. It has some traditional Belgian bitterness, but is smooth with a dry finish. An excellently crafted beer this is a real treat. It’s light, but able to stand up to heartier dishes and is very unique.

Mendelson Rating: 9/10

Yesterday I posted about Young Startup Ventures trying to rip off Boston-based entrepreneurs.

Today, I’m pleased to report that after hearing of the pay-to-pitch requirements of Young Startup Ventures, Microsoft has done the right thing and no longer is allowing the group to use their facilities.  We should all congratulate them on doing the right thing. 

It appears that the event is no longer on their website, either.  Nice.

I’d also like to thank Dan Primack for the real estate on PEHub and all of you who supported my position via retweets. 

If any of you hear of other similar scams, let me know.  I’d like to weed out as many of these as possible.