the Zealous

In his book, Authentic Happiness (Free Press, 2002), Dr. Seligman reviewed his research on whether any personality attributes were consistently correlated to success in any of 104 careers he studied. Interestingly enough, the only career he found consistent correlations for was lawyering. And the attribute? Pessimism. Pessimism was so highly correlated with success in lawyers that the higher the pessimism in law students, the higher their grades.

read more

I can't keep up with what's been going down
I think my heart must just be slowing down
Among the human beings
In their designer jeans
Am I the only one who hears the screams
And the strangled cries of lawyers in love

80 years ago this month, the US District Court for China was abolished by Congress, after being in existence since 1906. Established by virtue of treaties between the US and China and by various acts of Congress, the court had civil and criminal jurisdiction over US citizens living in China and, later, in the Philippines, Guam and other US "possessions." Appeals went to the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals in San Francisco.