Dr. R. Standler's personal homepage

Time 2021-10-25 15:06:08

Web Name: Dr. R. Standler's personal homepage

WebSite: http://www.rbs0.com

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description:Dr. R. Standler's personal website, including essays on education and history
Dr. Ronald B. Standler
personal website
c.v. my professional website my essays at my personal website Contact

Who is Dr. Standler?By way of introduction, here is a terse synopsis of my career:programmed computers since 1968 (mostly numerical models of physical phenomena, automatic collection of data from scientific instruments, statistical analysis of data, and design of numerical algorithms),earned a Ph.D. in physics in 1977,was a professor of electrical engineering for ten years,designed electronic circuits and instrumentation 1973-1989,wrote more than 35 archival technical papers and one book,consulted to litigators since 1981 on scientific evidence,and since December 1998 is an attorney in Massachusetts, who concentrates in copyright law and academic issues in higher-education law. Ialso consult nationwide with litigators on scientific evidence in torts involving technology.On a personal note, my principal hobbies are writing parodies or satires, andarranging baroque or classical keyboard music for small wind/string ensembles. Ialso spend hundreds of hours each year writing and revisingessays at my websites.

go to my professional websiteIf you are seeking either my essays on:Technology Law (e.g., litigation on electric power problems, damage by lightning, meteorology law),academic issues in Higher-Education Law, Copyright Law,other essays on law including constitutional law and privacy law,lightning or electrical surges,fire hazards of surge suppressors,or information on my services as an attorney or consultant, then please go to my professionalwebsite.

My curriculum vitae gives full details of my credentials,including a bibliography of my publications.

How to contact me.
My EssaysI have organized my essays at my personal website into sections:miscellaneous (e.g., favorite links, computer hardware and software, music)

education

politics and law

legal history

subhomepage: history and photographs of old buildings in northeastern USA

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terms of serviceI have posted my essays and webpages here for people to enjoy,but for neither copying nor distribution. It is a violation of copyright law to make copies or to distributecopies of any material here without my written permission. TermsofService

My disclaimer for errors and disclosurethat I have no financial interest in any suggestions or links that I make inthese pages.
1. Miscellaneous EssaysMy annotated list of my favorite bookstores,sources for sheet music, links to information about my favorite baroque and classical instrumental music, my collections of links to my favorite websites, and my comments and suggestions for computers and software that use Microsoft Windows.

My favorite software and hardware for the AppleMacOS9, with emphasis onwordprocessing, music notation software, and utilityprograms. Ihave a separate webpage on Apple OSX.

My hints for writing webpages in HTML.

Some personal recollections on thehistory of computers and computing since 1968.

My personal testimonial about Prof. Mario Iona, who greatly influenced me during 1967-71, and my memory of him continues to inspire me.

People who live in northern climates often complain about snow in winter. I posted a webpage about the snow in Concord, NewHampshire during Dec2007 to April2008.

My subhomepage with links to my webpages about history, especially for old buildings in the northeastern USA. I hope that my photographs preserve some history and that my webpages inform people of some historical details.
2. Essays/Handouts on EducationMy essay about creativityin science and engineering, with emphasis on personality attributesin highly creative people, and suggestions for education andmanagement of creative people.

In 1988, I wrote a discussion of essentialmathematicalskillsthat are needed by physics and electrical engineering students,as a guide to the development of curriculum in mathematics departmentsin highschools, two-yearcolleges, and four-yearcolleges.

My handout, Technical Writing,contains style that physicists and electrical engineersneed to know (e.g., use of numbers in sentences, scientific units,equations in text) for technical writing.This handout also includes general material that all writers need to know(e.g., common misuse of words in American English,use of hyphens). Iwrote the first draft of this handout in 1978,when my engineering students needed help with writing style. Ihave also postedMoreAboutWritingthat contains links to other websites on writing style,my recommendation of books about grammar and style,some comments on differences between American and British English,the use of the subjunctivemood in English, and other topics.

My essay onTechnical Babble discusses the misuseof scientific or engineering terms by laymen, with examples fromjudicial opinions in the USA.

My terse guide to legal research, format of citations, and style inlegalwriting in the USA.As a resource for students and professors, I have posted at my professional websitemy collection oflinks tolegal resources in the USA.

My brief essay on Why Attend College?in which I urge broader goals than merely acquiring vocational skills orincreasing one's earning potential. Earlier, I wrote a separate essayon the value of a liberalartseducationfor someone intending to earn a doctoral degree in science. Ihave also posted lessons that I learnedfrom experience, as advice for students.

My essay,Evaluating Credibility of Information on the Internet,discusses how readers can make their own evaluation of credibility ofsources of information, instead of blindly relying on peer review, orinstead of ignoring non-peer-reviewed sources.

As a resource for journalism students and law students,I have posted at my professional websiteexamples of prejudicial pretrial publicity in newspapers for both(1) the 1954 trial ofSamSheppard and(2) the arrest in 2004 ofJosephSmith,who kidnapped, raped, and murdered a girl in Florida.These two sets of examples support my long, technical legal essayPretrial Publicity Prevents a Fair Trial in the USA.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. Government gave generous financialsupport to physics professors for scientific research and encouraged youngpeople to become scientists and engineers. However, during the 1970s and1980s, the U.S. Government annihilated research funding in physics andelectrical engineering, leaving tens of thousands of doctoral-level scientists and engineers unemployed. I have posted an essay that sketches the historyoffundingforscience and suggests reasons for the drastic change in U.S.Government policy.

I have posted two provocative essays, one suggesting that the recessionof2009 is partly caused by the lack of funding for scientific research, the other explaining reasonsfor colleges'financialproblems in the USA.

In considering many examples of criminal or unethical conduct byeducated people and their subsequent specious excuses, I wondered ifmore education makes people less moral. Myessay on morality reviews some examples, discussesthe issues, and concludes that education has no effect on moral behavior. Inparticular, I am skeptical that teaching ethics will affect behavior.

My essay on propaganda and how to recognize it.

My terse essay on what is history and why history is important.

My tutorial on photography, including a comparisonof film and digital photography, and a list of links to other websites.

My collection of interesting meteorological surface pressuremaps, showing intense pressure gradients.

3. Essays on Politics and LawDuring the security hysteria after 11Sep2001, I wrote a brief essay on the Value of Dissent in a democracy.

In September 2005, during the confirmation of Chief Justice Robertsto the U.S. Supreme Court, I wrote an essay,Is"JudicialActivism"Bad?, that arguesthat interpreting the U.S. Constitution according to the original meaningof its authors in the year 1790 is undesirable.

My brief essay on How toSelect a Justice for the U.S. Supreme Courtreviews some history and gives my opinion.

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Syrian Civil War
War Against ISILThere has been a civil war in Syria since March2011 that diplomats have been unable to stop. On 8Sep2013, I decided to collect and preservesome of the historical details of the removal of chemical weapons from Syria andthe futile peace negotiations. See my separate annotatedlist of my essays on Syria, which also includes: list of links to many historical documents, a table of the number of people killed in the Syrian civil war, a table of dates of delivering chemical weapons, a table of major OPCW deadlines, and a table of dates of U.N.-sponsored negotiations in Geneva.During June2014 to July2018, my essays on Syria also chronicled the dysfunctional government in Iraq, U.S. military involvement in fighting ISIL, and some atrocities by ISIL in Iraq.

On 25 July 2018, my 48essays includemore than 14,850links to news articles and documents, and total 5407pages of facts, quotations, and mycommentary.

I have posted the full-text of communiqus from the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), which died in September2016.

I have also posted the full-text of ceasefire agreements for Syria, and the statements from Russia/Iran/Turkey at the Astana meetings.

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TrumpOn 22 January 2017, twodays after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the USA, Ibegan chronicling Trump's bizarre behavior, including his making many false statements of fact, and other evidence of Trump's unfitness to be president.My essay on Trump during 2017 has 239pages of quotations, facts, and mycommentary, with 1730links to newsarticles and documents.

My essay on Trump during 2018 has 243pages and more than 1930links to newsarticles and documents. I also include discussion of bills in the U.S. House of Representatives during 2017-2018 to remove Trump from the presidency.

My forthcoming essay on Trump during 2019 has 246pages and 1870links to newsarticles and documents. I also include a discussion of the impeachment of Trump by the U.S. House of Representatives.

My forthcoming essay on Trump during 2020 describes the history of the coronavirus epidemic in the USA and chronicles Trump's botched response to that epidemic. My essay for 2020 also tersely describes the sham trial of Trump in the U.S.Senate, and Democratic party candidates for president.My essays on Trump chronicle details with quotations and manylinks to sources that I hope will assist future historians in understanding Trump's unfitness to be president.

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North Korea During 2017 and 2018, I wrote an essay on Trump's failed policy of stopping NorthKorea from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. This essay on the North Korean problem has 356pages of quotations, facts, and mycommentary, with more than 1870links to newsarticles and documents.

My forthcoming essay during 2019 on Trump's failed policy of denuclearizing North Korea has 233pages of quotations, facts, and mycommentary, with 739links to newsarticles and documents.

My essays on the denuclearization of North Korea, include quotations from official North Korean sources, South Korean newspapers, as well as the U.S. White House and State Department, Trump's tweets, and commentary by experts.

I have also posted the full-text of some agreements with NorthKorea.
4. Essays on Legal HistoryAs a resource for students, and other people interested in legal history, as well ascitizens who want to understand how government really works,I have posted:Quotations from Judge Wright finding Bill Clinton in contempt in Jones v. Clinton, 36F.Supp.2d1118 (E.D.Ark. 1999), and Bill Clinton's subsequent suspension from the practice of law in Arkansas.

A collection of links to the Whitewater investigation, the Jones v. Clinton case, and the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

A history of the Oct2005 nomination of HarrietMiers to the U.S.Supreme Court, as a case study in how not to select a nominee.

A history of the confirmation of SamuelAlito to the U.S.Supreme Court.

HTML version of Alito's memorandum to the Solicitor General about Thornburgh, a case at the U.S. Supreme Court involving a state statute on restrictions on abortion.

My history of the nomination of SoniaSotomayor to the U.S.Supreme Court contains a detailed discussion of: the real requirement for every judge: impartiality quotes the judicial oath, federal statute, and U.S. Supreme Court cases that hold that an impartial judge is a constitutional requirement of due process, and quotes the federal judicial code of conduct; the selection process, which is purely political and not based on objective merit; her statements that a "wise Latina" would be a better judge than a white male; how and why she was nominated by President Obama; her membership in the Belizean Grove, an all-female organization; and collects quotations of contemporary commentary.

My discussion of Sotomayor'sconfirmation by the U.S.Senate (13July to 6August2009) is in a separate document. My confirmation essay incidentally includes an explanation of why judges are not charged with perjury for testimony at their confirmation hearings an explanation that is purely hypothetical and is not relevant to Sotomayor's conduct.

My twodocuments on Sotomayor total 280pages and have 320links to newspaper articles, blogs, government documents, and webpages.

Nicely formatted, printable Adobe PDF version of Ricci v. DeStefano, a case in which Judge Sotomayor was a member of a three-judge panel that wrote an inadequate appellate opinion. I have included the pagination from West's Reporters.

My history of the nomination of ElenaKagan to the U.S.Supreme Court.

My terse history of the refusal of the Republican majority in the U.S.Senate to hold confirmation hearings on MerrickGarland, who was nominated to the U.S.Supreme Court in 2016 by a president who is a liberal Democrat and who was in his final year as president.
Surveillance LawMy terse history of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, explaining why Congress hastily passed this unconstitutional Act in Oct2001, including quotations from senators and newspapers to capture the mood at that time, and including links to other websites.

My technical legal essay on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in the USA.

A history of attempts to modify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after July2007, including the hasty "Protect America Act of 2007" and the "FISA Amendments Act of 2008". This essay chronicles how Americans lost some privacy rights.

A history of the illegal Terrorist Surveillance Program in the USA during the years 2002-2006, including quotations and links.During August-September2007, I wrote my essays on FISA, the Terrorist Surveillance Program, the history of the PATRIOT Act, andbegan my essay on modifications to the FISA statute. In2007, I hoped these essays would attract paying work as an attorney. However, I have never had any paying work in either surveillance law or privacy law. As a self-employed attorney and consultant, I can not afford to do many hundredsof hours of legal research in areas of law that are not income producing. Consequently, I turned my attention to other areas of law where I have paying clients who appreciate my advocacy.That is why I have neither updated nor revised my essays on surveillance law.

In May2013, Edward Snowden disclosed classified information onillegal surveillance by the U.S.National Security Agency of telephone calls by U.S.citizens.While some people were outraged, both the U.S.Congress and the U.S.Attorney General failed to stop the unlawful surveillance by the Government.
My HumorNote: I have posted my essays and humor here for people to enjoy,but for neither copying nor distribution.It is a violation of copyright law to make, or to distribute,copies of any material here without my written permission. TermsofService

My annotation of Der Froschknig,a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, to show the underlyinglessoninlaw. There are both serious andhumorous points in my annotation. There is another fairy tale aboutThe Elves and the Shoemaker, to which I haveadded an algebra problem. giggle

Here is my parodyof the Millennium celebrations planned for 1Jan2000.

Thinking of attending school for a year to earn a MBA degree?Save your time and money instead, read my twopages ofRulesofManagement!

My favorite Christmas card was drawn bySandra Boynton in 1980.

My favorite comic strips in American newspapers.

Formal writing by attorneys is often pompous and pretentious, which makesan attractive target for parodies and satires. grinHere are some of my legal parodies:An agreement between the Easter Bunny and me for the distribution of candy to women in blighted areas, such as the law school.

The Statute of Trolls, which regulates the placement of Trolls beneath bridges, complete with annotations to court cases and a legislative history.

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Copyright 1997-2020 by Ronald B. Standler

This document is at http://www.rbs0.com/index.htm
first posted 5 Jan 1997, revised 9 June 2021

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How to contact Dr. Standler.

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Dr. R. Standler's personal website, including essays on education and history

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