Some less serious things from the Web for you to enjoy…

• Where do you want to go? Restaurant, of course! (.MOV via Salon)
  • This is odd. Pointless, puzzling, but somehow memorable
• Remember 1916? It went like this (Flash)
  • Langerland strikes again. Not as funny as some of the earlier stuff, and a bit off-colour in places, but probably necessary.
• Think Sligo isn’t scary? Google video gives a handy guide to the terrifying Áine Chambers phenomenon
  • Thanks to Damien Mulley’s blog for alerting me to this odd side of Sligo’s tourist industry, and for giving frequent updates on its spread across the world…). To give you warning before you click - this is basically a series of videos where ‘Áine’ (now a minor celebrity on Irish TV and radio as well as the Web) wanders in front of some Sligo landmark (in increasingly impractical outfits) and delivers roughly the same 30-second script. Hail, rain or shine.

Finally, the ‘quote’ section in the sidebar of this blog now deals with that wonderful pastime - abuse of lawyers (not just permissible under human rights law, but expected). To mark this wonderful day, I also gift you a link to the The World’s Greatest Law Review Article.

The More Loving One
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.

WH Auden’s poem, reproduced in full above, is quite gentle; but also quite evocative. What it’s not, though, is offensive, or so you would have thought. But no, apparently it’s too much for the sensitive souls at the Coral Academy of Science in Nevada, who could not condone the possibilities that the words ‘damn’ and ‘hell’ might pass the lips of a fourteen year old student. Jacob Beyhmer-Smith, the lad in question, successfully sought an injunction against his school, who had previously prevented him from reciting it in poetry competitions. The judge wrote that “when spoken in the context of a poem at a school-authorized, off-campus competition and written by a nationally recognized poet, the court finds that the language sought to be censured cannot even remotely cause a disruption of the educational mission”.

From the Reno Gazette-Journal and Findlaw. An excellent letter was written by the National Coalition Against Censorship, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, PEN, and the National Council of Teachers of English (all US). The judge was Brian Sandoval, a former (Republican) AG of Nevada.

I am giving a presentation on this topic as a part of the Dublin Legal Workshop on Tuesday 25th April 2006, in the (Beckett-inscribed) Law School, at 7pm. I’ll post the slides etc afterwards. All welcome!

Abstract:

This presentation will consider a current legal and technological problem - how to provide for linguistic diversity in the content and architecture of the Internet - in the light of past experiences and contemporary international law and regulation.

Three case studies of prior controversies involving legal, technological and other concerns will be reviewed:

* Irish: The virtual disappearance of the ‘Gaelic’ type (cló Gaelach) in favour of the Roman type (cló Romhánach) and the roles of the Departments of Education, the Department of Finance, and others.
* Japanese: Script reform in the 20th century, and the development of Japanese word processing and information technology
* French: Application of ‘linguistic laws’ in Québec and France to the Internet

The current controversy is primary based on the need to provide for ‘internationalised domain names’ (IDNs) - to enable the use of characters and scripts outside of the standard (English) roman alphabet in email and Web addresses. ICANN, the curious legal animal that has some responsibilities for Internet regulation, as well as older international legal actors such as the International Telecommunciations Union (ITU) and UNESCO, national governments (most notably in China), NGOs, and technical or standardisation bodies (official and ad hoc) have all influenced this debate. Some have also attempted to deal with substantive questions of online language use. However on the Internet, where ‘code is law’ (Lawrence Lessig, 1999), embedded values and standards are extremely significant. What role can legal instruments play in prescribing and providing for linguistic rights in the new century?

Samuel Beckett’s centenary/birthday is being celebrated this week. The Law School’s building in TCD is now graced with a plaque (or tablet, or memorial, or what you will) marking the fact that the man himself lived there as a student and as a staff member in the 1920s and 30s for some years. To my shame, despite having attended classes and tutorials in that building since 2000, I was unaware of this fact…

You, though, may be aware of a certain other contribution to the celebrations - that of Paul Hewson (aka Bono) of U2, who read a pastiche/tribute at the launch of the official events, “Un homage du Bono au maestro Samuel Beckett, starring un homage du Mannix Flynn à Barry McGovern - or a piece what I wrote called Waiting For Colgan“. Colgan is Michael Colgan, director of the Gate Theatre in Dublin, and one of the organiser of the centenary festival.

RTÉ has audio and video of the whole thing. Enjoy.

This is (more or less) a speech I gave as part of a panel on ‘The Academic Values of the European University and Its Contemporary Relevance’ last week. The conference was organised by the Holy See as part of a seminar within the Bologna Process in European higher education. A longer version will be published in Higher Education in Europe (forthcoming). I was there as a representative of ESIB, the association of students’ unions in Europe.

Introduction

The culture of the university is something that is ever-evolving, and is moulded by changing events inside and outside the institution. Every generation of students, every intake of staff, contributes to the affirmation and modernisation of the values of their own institution. Thus, through not just our local efforts but also our collective endeavours (academically and in terms of representation), we are simultaneously beneficiaries and contributing collaborative authors of academic values. My intention over the next few minutes is not to define those values in absolute agreed scientific terms – an impossibility, you might say - but to consider some prominent questions from the point of view of the student movement in Europe. I see the usefulness of this morning’s discussion as a chance to reflect on what aspects of university culture transcend the transient, and rise to the status of inter-institutional and transnational values.

Read the whole thing…