The Archives
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A Day in the Life
Only Wikipedia
It’s not the world’s most accurate resource on lots of things, I’ll concede. But do you know how much a subscription to Helicopter Prison Escape Quarterly costs? It’s not worth the expense, in my expert opinion. Just go read the Wikipedia article. My favorite on the list is Pascal Payet, who has apparently escaped from prison in a helicopter three(!) times.
Just think of the Wikipedia articles in fifty years: the List of Jetpack Prison Escapes is waiting for us, in the future.
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The News
Who’s the Man? Wu’s the Man.
07.08.09 | Permalink | 2 CommentsA while back, I wrote about Lori Drew. She’s the woman who was indicted for violating a federal anti-hacking statute prohibiting the “unauthorized access” of MySpace’s computers by lying about her age and gender when she signed up for an account. Of course, tons of people do that on a daily basis; Ms. Drew was indicted not primarily on the basis of her dishonesty, but on what she did with her account. Under the guise of a teenage boy, Ms. Drew harassed 13 year old Megan Meier until the teenager committed suicide.
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The News
A Magical Wonderland
The internet is a funny place. In the very first days, when it included computers at all of four universities, the internet was very clearly an extension of the “real world.” For a great number of years, people just used their actual names on the internet: see the 1982 Usenet discussion of the creation of the emoticon. (This discussion quickly deteriorated into arch-nerdery, because the guys on the internet in 1982 were arch-nerds.)
At some point, (perhaps the Eternal September?) the internet took a turn for the anonymous.
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The News
The Old Saying
The news story “rapist who acted as his own lawyer gets maximum sentence” may do a lot of things for an average reader. It can highlight the importance of effective legal representation. It can also highlight the importance of not raping people. For me, it’s an opportunity for jokes.
Because you know what they say…
“He who represents himself has a rapist for a lawyer!” No, wait. ”He who rapes his lawyer has to represent himself.” Wait, wait, I’ve got it. ”He who has no lawyer has raped himself.” No, the second one was better. How about “he who is raped by his lawyer has to represent?”
Yes, that was inappropriate. But he has 156 years to write me a letter about how out of line I was.
Almost Legally
Life does not imitate Night Court
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Just got my first email addressing me as Professor Mauro. Oh, I don't think I'll be correcting this person just yet.
