Journal entries in the "Random" category
A new literary favourite
In my life so far, I have read books in too great a number for me to judge, and over the years, my tastes have evolved (as with films, music, …). I have enjoyed many books, adored some, abhorred a couple (some of which I was forced to keep on reading for school), and it seemed to be firmly established that the books that most captured my imagination were Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials.
But today, something strange happened: I had tears in my eyes upon reading the ending of another book, a newly discovered gem of literature.
Tears in my eyes! When faced with writing, the only time this has happened to me was while writing certain sections of the Arpia novel.
I must conclude that this book, which I found hard to set aside, has conquered my heart.
Its title? Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini (an Italian gentleman who wrote in English).
Its content? The tale of a young man who goes from the robe (lawyer) to the buskin (actor) to the sword (maître d’armes) around the period of the Révolution française.
Go read it. Now.
A poem for womankind
Our world is like a garden,
Eternally in blossom
The saplings grow,
The flowers bloom,
And no plant can be forgottenThey come in all colours and sizes,
A feast upon the eyes
As I walk among them,
As if in paradise,
It is I that each one mesmerisesAt first glance all I see is beauty
Superficial and yet so true
I draw closer and see
What they shall live to be
And behold them in all their gloryIt is like being close to a phoenix
Or an angel whose heart is pure
When they shine like the sun with goodness,
With a smile any ill they will cureBetween passion and admiration,
Both in doubt and feeling too sure,
I cannot help respecting and loving them,
These beings with the power to lureWhat would the world be without them,
With no such treasure to discover?
If we live, if we die,
These words are no lie:
We exist to serve these women.
Cyberlaw – an area of law?
Short essay done for class – because it’s more opinion than anything, I thought I might share it. Warning: legal stuff.
What is cyberlaw? Cyberlaw is the law applicable in ‘cyberspace’, a seemingly ‘global-economic zone, borderless and unregulatable’ (John Perry Barlow in 1966, quoted in Reed, 2004). Yet, as Chris Reed argues, it is possible to proceed to a localisation in the ‘physical’ world of the constituent elements of any given activity in cyberspace, and national laws will therefore apply, in accordance with rules on applicable law (such as the Rome I and Rome II Regulations, at the level of the European Union).
Therefore, there are as many legal orders in cyberspace as there are national (or supranational) legal orders.
Having made these preliminary remarks, the original question, to which the introductory statement refers, remains: is cyberlaw an area of law?
Holidays!
Term is over, holidays begin, and just a quick word to wish all a few weeks of happy holidays.
I haven’t been writing a lot over here, but rest assured that it’s with good reason! One of these reasons is something that I might be unveiling soon-ish, on this very website, if I manage to tame Internet Explorer’s awful CSS support and if I force it to do my bidding: I’ve got something very nice lined up for which most of the theory works on all other browsers, and if I get this right for IE, arpia.be could be facing a redesign within the coming weeks.
In random news, I highly recommend that any and everyone go see Avatar, the new sci-fi/fantasy film, if possible in 3D (and if possible IMAX 3D), because seeing it a 3.40 a.m. in IMAX 3D was simply mind-blowing and awesome.
Now, off to do some more Christmas shopping‚ …
Filtering information on the internet
While the world discusses Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize (I’m on the “what has he done so far?” side), I wish to draw your attention to something entirely different: law and technology.
I am in the process of finding a topic for the 15,000-word dissertation that I shall write during this year, and therefore wish to lay out my current ideas, in the hope that one or two might give their opinion.
When using the internet, most of us feel free: we can type anything in Google, and find our way to a million different results. We can go to Amazon or eBay, search for anything, and probably find one or two things of interest to us. We can read a blog, click on a link, and find ourselves reading articles of diverging points of view. A seemingly infinite realm of information is available at our fingertips.
However, all is not golden in this world of apparent freedom. In many States (from China to the UK), users are limited in their use of the internet by “filters”, which are meant to block access to specific (categories of) websites. Certain items of information are blocked in a more specific manner at the level of websites, when the website owner/administrator/moderator applies censorship. All in all, these intermediaries control available information.
As such, when user tries to access content, such access may be denied. Sometimes, the user is fully unaware of the existence of the information in question, but not all the time. Does this hinder freedom of access to information? Does this hinder the information creator’s freedom of speech? Whence does the right to censor/block information come? Is the creator or intermediary liable to the user if illegal/offensive/… material isn’t blocked? Is the intermediary liable to the creator or to the user for information wrongfully blocked? Does the creator not have a right to access the information created by himself?
This is the kind of question that I believe I would ask and try to answer. Concerns of legitimacy and effectiveness must be addressed, though the focus would be the legal point of view.
Any thoughts on the matter?
Two weeks later, still intrigued
Something is in the air, one might say. Or perhaps something about it speaks directly to my inner self. Whatever the reason, London never ceases to surprise me in a positive way, and feelings of attachment have grown within the heart of a person otherwise indifferent to large cities.
Another poet’s soul captured by an immortal city, perhaps? I did write a poem about the Serpentine lake, a magnet pulling all visitors towards its shores in Hyde Park and the Kensington Gardens:
Serpentine Song
Glitter, glitter, Serpentine,
May your birdsong grow, may your surface shine
In the light of day, you have frozen time
With an air so sweet that it tastes sublimeWhisper, whisper, Serpentine,
Such a mystic view makes you seem divine
When you speak to the trees, to the rose and lime,
Nature bows to the sound of your glorious chimeRemember, remember, Serpentine,
I shall always cherish this memory of mine.
It is worth stating that the mere writing of a poem about a place is not enough for me to fall in love with the place. As such, we must dig deeper to understand my sudden appreciation of this metropolis.
Good-bye Brussels, Hello London!
It’s been just over 50 hours since I arrived in London, but I have already taken a liking to where I am, the Hampstead Residence, and to the inner parts of the city, where I’ll be studying.
On the one side of the Hampstead Residence, walking for one minute will land you amidst Aston Martins, Jaguars and even the odd Rolls Royce, in an area of architectural magnificence. Rich, peaceful and quiet are the adjectives one might attribute to this zone.
On the other side, around Finchley Road, a squirrel hides from the busy traffic, seeking refuge in the green areas. The architecture is no longer grand but more heterogeneous, and during the 15-minute walk separating the Hampstead Residence from Finchley Road Tube Station (10 if you keep a good pace), residential areas mingle with shops.
Supermarkets are generally also 15 minutes away at a “student” walking pace, which makes for good exercise if done regularly.
The joys of a multilingual environment
With less than three weeks to go before I leave for London on a one-year course at university, I’m starting to realise that there’s one thing I’ll definitely miss about Brussels: its multilingual aspect. Though in London I’ll have to tackle a wider array of English accents than I have ever encountered so far, which in itself will be quite a challenge, it’s not quite the same.
Come to think of it, compared to a multilingual environment, studying & working in a monolingual environment must be boring.
Have I become European (and/or Belgian) to the point of looking down upon “lesser people” such as the Brits and the Americans, who rarely have to venture outside their linguistic comfort zone?
Comments that make it all worthwhile
Though ARPIA2 is nearing its third birthday, every now and again I receive comments from people regarding the plug-in.
And just as the end of “draft 1″ of the Arpia novels enters in sight (“Operation Firestorm” is what I’m writing about right now), here’s a little comment posted on the Ambrosia Software webboards that made me smile:
I just finished the Regular string today. Very, very impressive.
I have to say: I was a bit shocked when the two “destroy the Hogun” missions came along. Up until that point, the Regular string was honestly feeling a bit too safe (pirate-kill missions tapered off, courier missions involved little to no blockade-running). And then suddenly, oof. I think it took at least a dozen attempts, plus several million credits worth of escorts and upgrades to them (n.b., I am about the worst starfighter in the known galaxy), to beat that one. (None of my escorts or manta fighters survived, even in victory.)
Which is pretty awesome, all in all: I put EVERYthing I had into beating back the enemy and it was just barely enough. Now that’s a feeling of accomplishment.
This plug-in really lived up to billing. I never expected to pull off missions like that, or even “go take out two pirate carriers” (yikes!), or to command a (now extinct) fleet that included an Enterprise and a Manticore.
And I can tell there’s still a ton of stuff that I haven’t done yet. Thanks for all of the effort that went into this.
- source
Thanks mattkuhns!
Droïdes launched!
There we go, the new webboard for the law students at the “Université Catholique de Louvain” (the UCL that isn’t “University College London”) has been launched, at www.arpia.be/droides.
It took probably around the whole free time I had during this last month (i.e. not all that much, what with all the time I spent doing my law internship), and is still not finished, but at least, the website is now accessible once more to students.
Hopefully, it’ll improve in the coming month, and hopefully people will like it!