The caffeine won't kill you...

but the water will. That's why it's safer to stick with espressos.

This many cups of coffee will kill you:

[...]an oral lethal dose for an 80kg human would extrapolate to 15,360mg of total caffeine. This technically is equivalent to the amount of caffeine absorbed from drinking 113 cups of coffee really really really quickly. However, the reality is that this figure would instead result in a fatality due to water intoxication since 113 cups is close to 30 litres of water.

TOMORROW: GRIPP year-end conference: "The Bouchard-Taylor report, one year later: international perspectives/ Le rapport Taylor-Bouchard, un an plus tard: perspectives internationales

* This conference will provide an opportunity to critically reflect on the Commissioners' report, their analysis and recommendations, as well as the broader lessons we might draw from the process. Drawing on their diverse national experiences of multiculturalism, the invited speakers will extend the Québec debate on "reasonable accommodation."

* May 1st and 2nd, 2009
* Université de Montréal (Salle 1035, Pavillon J-Armand Bombardier)

Participants include:

* Tariq Modood, Bristol University
* Jeff Spinner-Halev, University of North Carolina
* Avigail Eisenberg, University of Victoria
* Monique Deveaux, Williams College
* Will Kymlicka, Queen's University
* Éléonore Lepinard, Université de Montréal
* Manuel Toscano Méndez, Universidad de Malaga and CRÉUM
* Jacob Levy, McGill University
* Dominique Leydet, Université du Québec à Montréal

Tentative Program:

Friday MAY 1

8.45-9 Registration, Coffee

9-9.30 Welcome
Daniel Weinstock

9.30-12 Perspectives from English Canada
Avigail Eisenberg
Will Kymlicka
Commentator: Dominique Leydet

12-1.30 Lunch (catered)

1.30-5 Perspectives from Europe
Tariq Modood
Éléonore Lepinard
Jean Bauberot
Commentator: Jacob Levy


Saturday MAY 2

8.45-9 Coffee

9-11 Perspectives from the U.S.
Monique Deveaux
Jeff Spinner-Helev
Commentator: Manuel Toscano Méndez

11-11.30 Break

11.30-12.30 Synthesis
Anna Carastathis


* Please note: Although most presentations will be made in English, we encourage passive bilingualism, and individuals may request simultaneous translation as needed.



Please RSVP!

* Admission is free and open to all, but advance registration is required. Please register by Monday, April 20 at the latest by e-mailing Will at willcolish@gmail.com.


* For more information, please contact Anna by e-mail at acarastathis@gmail.com or by telephone at 514-343-6111 extension 2932.


* Note: To access the Bouchard-Taylor report, which can be downloaded in French or in English, visit http://www.accommodements.qc.ca/index-en.html


* Organized by Daniel Weinstock and Anna Carastathis, with assistance from Will Colish and Martin Blanchard, Centre de recherche en éthique de l'Université de Montréal.

Elsewhere

Julian Sanchez on the lies being told about Cass Sunstein

a terrific Crooked Timber seminar on Steven Teles' The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement

My colleague Steve Saideman has taken up blogging, starting with an entry into the growing field of Joseph-Nye-on-political-science studies.

That insane Mark Taylor NYT op-ed on abolishing departments, tenure, disciplines, and in-person teaching gets ably dismantled in very different ways by Michael Bérubé and David Bell.

My colleague Will Roberts has a series of posts responding to Brad DeLong's recently-posted paper on Marx.

Dan Nexon calls for a referee boycott of journals that don't send ultimate decision letters to the referees.

The reading list: "Justice Ginsburg's Common Law Federalism"

David L. Franklin, "Justice Ginsburg's Common Law Federalism

Abstract:
This essay examines an often-overlooked facet of the federalism debate in which Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has pursued a distinctive approach: the role of the state-court common law judge in our federal system. In a series of majority and dissenting opinions, Justice Ginsburg has made clear that she places an exceptionally high value on the capacity of common law judges to render justice and to provide effective remedies to injured parties on a case-by-case basis. Although she acknowledges that Congress has virtually unlimited power to supplant or override this traditional judicial function, she insists upon a clear and unambiguous statement of congressional intent before countenancing such a result. Justice Ginsburg's vision of the common law judge as a guarantor of individualized justice informs and reflects her view of the law more generally. She draws a relatively sharp divide between the realms of common law and positive law and, more than any other justice on the current Court, conceptualizes common law regimes such as contract and tort as serving primarily remedial rather than regulatory purposes.

It's a cheap line, but someone had to say it.

NYT: To Save Money, M.I.T. Drops 8 Sports Teams

Me: MIT has 8 sports teams?