Lex Ferenda

This week, we have the Dublin Writers Festival; a few paid events each day. I’m hoping to catch the “Ireland of the Welcomes” session on Friday night, as well as the Hitchens-Waters deathmatch on Sunday evening at the Gate.

Opening this week - but running until August - the Chester Beatty Library has a special presentation of the Codex Leicester (full details and booking info). The manuscript - the most expensive ‘book’ in the world, at over $30m (bought in the 90s by one William Gates) - is displayed in one city per year, and thus it is a genuine once-off for Irish audiences.

The Codex Leicester, an autograph manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) containing his observations on the nature and properties of water as well as other aspects of science and technology, is one of the most famous and important of Leonardo’s scientific notebooks. Composed circa 1508-1510 and consisting of eighteen loose double sheets in which Leonardo illustrated and wrote down ideas and observations in his distinctive mirror script, the manuscript is a lively record of the thoughts of the great Italian Renaissance artist and scientist.

Tickets are free but should be booked in advance - and a lot of the weekend tickets are gone already. I’m going next Monday.

Finally, The Dubliner (magazine) has organised a series of debates/talks/etc at the Dundrum Town Centre for the end of June. Again, tickets are free but must be reserved (it’s all here); I’ve picked out my three and will blog them when the time comes. They promise a free cocktail reception too - shurley shome mishtake?

With thanks to Colm for some of the links.

Ciarán Cuffe did not write about Fianna Fáil (”deal with the devil”) “on his Bebo“. He doesn’t have ‘a Bebo’, that I know of. He does have a (good) blog, though. Look, here’s the post in question.

I know it’s a silly point, and that Bebo includes significant blogging elements, but would someone please explain to the Minister for Education (who just talked about Cuffe’s Bebo on Questions & Answers) that there’s a difference between a blog and a Bebo page?

Thanks

(In other news, lawyers can be nitpicky and Apple fans hang on every word from Steve Jobs!)

The New York Times reports on attempts to prevent the publication of letters sent to the judge sentencing Scooter Libby. The line taken by Libby’s lawyers was that making the letters available to the media would mean they would end up on the Internet and bloggers would make fun of them. Like, duh. No shock that they failed and the letters were duly released, published, circulated and mocked.

Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford University, agreed that the letters had to be made public because of the serious issues involved, but said that the legal system must address the rapid spread of information online that, in the past, would be available only “in the dusty courthouse file.”

“The act of writing a letter in a much lower-profile case will be on the ‘permanent record’ of the Internet,” he said. “That is a difference, and it is totally sensible to think about if this is what we want.”

That is a point that recognises the difficulties without going over the top. (I should add that I have been wondering about this for a while - for example, in the context of the ‘fade factor’ and fair trials)

This is a loving 3am remake of this, the (unintentionally hilarious) campaign from the Financial Regulator in Ireland. With thanks to Blogorrah.

Real blogging back soon.