Global warming and/or climate change are not the staple of this blog. That is not about to change but I have to say that what others call the extremes of climate (and we in the UK just call “the weather”) has been much in my mind recently.
I suppose it all started with what by any standards has been the almost continuously poor weather throughout what passes for summer in these islands, made all the worse by the spectacular spring when the sun shone almost unceasingly and the temperature over Easter was in the 80s, with the promise of more to come. It was around then that people started saying they feared for the harvest because of the lack of rain. As I was not trying to grow anything organic, I felt that the doomsayers ought to be careful what they wished for and sure enough once the rain and cool weather arrived no one seemed to know how to turn it off! And, surprise, surprise, the harvest has not been all that bad overall. We have just had yet another disappointing summer.
My recent visit to the US provided a snapshot of extremes of weather, with an unscheduled stay in Chicago because of storms. It was lovely to see that wonderfully located city again with its Millenium Park and the Bean, its waterfront and fountains and its strangely excitingly shaped skyscrapers. Then belatedly to a scorchingly hot Nashville, where there were no real storm clouds to be seen but where the warmth (outside) enveloped you at every turn and the music and the hospitality of the locals (and the efficient air conditioning inside) was so special and then home via New York just ahead of Hurricane Irene.
My travelling companion, Naj Bueno, remarked as we left Chicago’s O’Hare airport in a taxi in a light drizzle after our onward flight to Nashville had been cancelled, that if Heathrow cancelled flights for the same kind of weather, the place would never be open! True it had rained a bit and I gather there had been a thunder storm but within an hour it was bright warm sunshine which made for a jolly Saturday afternoon wandering around downtown Chicago followed by dinner with Andrew Sieja, founder and CEO of Relativity developer, KCura but it did not explain cancellation of the onward flight which could surely have departed during the afternoon or early evening, thus getting us to our destination on the right day and saving the airline money spent in putting up stranded passengers.
Still it is good to know that some things never change (and that includes our miserable weather!)
On my return two (familiar kinds of) headlines caught my eye:
- “NY man suing Facebook has to allow email access”
Not a surprise really as the judge refused the claimant’s request to delay Facebook’s access to his emails so that he could object on privacy grounds. I have said it before that what happens in the US will happen over here sooner or later and here is yet another example of influences which will be felt in our courts before too long. Some will say that this is no more than common sense and that the courts here are already making orders for disclosure of documents which are likely to be relevant to the dispute and there is nothing strange about the contents of emails being disclosed. What is interesting is the privacy aspect or rather the lack of it. The judge refused to allow Paul Ceglia, the claimant against Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook (where he is claiming part ownership of the company) time to argue the issue that his Facebook account and his emails were private. This is all of a piece with decisions such as the one in the Hummingbird case and means that parties to disputes need to think very carefully about these so called private repositories of data. It seems that their likely relevance to the issues in a dispute will trump any arguments on privacy. Beware! - “BP accuses drilling partner of lack of disclosure over Deepwater accident”
BP (remember Deepwater?) is locked in a series of pieces of litigation about the costs of and the responsibility for the Gulf of Mexico spill. One of the spats involves the rig operator Transocean and BP has recently filed a complaint with a Louisiana court that hundreds of documents have not been disclosed. Since the discovery process started it is reported [Rowena Mason, Sunday Telegraph, 28th August, 2011] that Transocean has handed over at least 247,000 documents and 3.36 million pages relating to its internal investigation into the causes of the accident. BP alleges that a number of other documents should be disclosed such as drafts of Transocean’s internal investigation report and details of those who received emails on Deepwater Horizon mailing lists. Transocean is apparently claiming privilege on the grounds that most of the documents are confidential “client-attorney communications”. A typical lawyer led dispute you may think but underlying the dispute is the relentless effect of the technology which now enables so much of this material not only to be discovered but also to be analysed and reviewed in a cost effective manner in ways which would have been inconceivable only a few years ago. Beware! It may happen to you and your client too in the not too distant future.
Storm clouds? Possibly, but as with most dramatic developments in the weather just as in technology, the storm tends to pass with time. We must hope it does not leave too many victims in its wake and that those who survive, thrive.
Photo credit: Storm Clouds by Richard North (Creative Commons CC BY 2.0)