Still More Noted Things

by Cliopatria

Immigration: Richard Rodriguez,"Mexicans in America," Cato Unbound, 14 August, vs. Victor Davis Hanson,"Richard Rodriguez's Stream of Consciousness," Cato Unbound, 16 August. Rodriguez is one of my favorite contemporary nonfiction writers. Thanks to Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit for the tip.

Measuring Time: In case you missed it, The Athanasius Kircher Society featured"Time and Its Measurement Week" earlier this month, including"The World's Largest Sundial,""Longest Running Scientific Experiment,""The Astronomical Clock of Besançon,""The 28-Hour Day," and"Su Song's Water Clock." Thanks to David Davisson at Patahistory for the tip.

POWs: Günter Grass is claiming that he knew Joseph Ratzinger, i.e., Pope Benedict XVI, when they spent the last months of World War II together as prisoners of war in an American camp at Bad Aibling. Thanks to Ben Brumfield at Horizon for the tip.

Speech Codes: Both Georgia Tech and Penn State have recently been forced to admit that restrictions on freedom of speech in public institutions of higher education are, essentially, unconstitutional. FIRE features a"speech code of the month." Macalester's code, its choice in July, may have some staying power, but August's feature, Colorado State, needs to give it up now. The struggle against speech codes in private institutions may be a long one, fought out in every academic ditch, but public institutions have no case for denying rights that the constitution guarantees.

Video Riches: Do YouTube or Google Video? I compared their offerings of some artists I like. Here are the results:

Mahalia Jackson: YouTube – 7; Google Video – 8
Odetta: YouTube – 3; Google Video – 0
Paul Robeson: YouTube – 8; Google Video – 1
Sister Rosetta Tharpe: YouTube – 4; Google Video – 0
Josh White: YouTube -- 0; Google Video – 1

It looks like YouTube offers me more, for the time being, at least. How long will it be before we will be charged for access to either of them?

comments powered by Disqus

More Comments:

Jonathan Dresner - 8/18/2006

He was using it in reference to a proposed guest worker program in which citizenship would be excluded as an option.

Ralph E. Luker - 8/17/2006

Are you serious? You can expect Big Brother State to try to impose restrictions on free speech, but it is disgraceful for academic people to embrace them with the enthusiasm that we have.

Oscar Chamberlain - 8/17/2006

" All the free speech zones were in areas with only a fraction of the number of passers-by."

I wonder if the Secret Service borrowed the same concept of free speech zones for where they allow demonstrators against the President?

Ralph E. Luker - 8/17/2006

Thanks, Ben. I've corrected the note.

Kurt Niehaus - 8/17/2006

The Speech codes at PSU were pretty terrible as written. When I was there from '99 to '03 they were largely un-enforced, however. The main reason for writing them seemed to be to limit the activities of one person who preached to passing crowds outside a classroom building. There were complaints of not being able to hear teachers because of him (a problem I never had, even when in a class whose windows faced his direction). He picked his location due to the fact there was a large and divers population going through the area. All the free speech zones were in areas with only a fraction of the number of passers-by.

Ben W. Brumfield - 8/17/2006

I actually spotted the Grass/Ratzinger discussion over at Amy Welborn's excellent weblog, Open Book.

I've updated my post at Horizon to reflect that.

David Lion Salmanson - 8/17/2006

Yeah, but he used it incorrectly, or rather misleadingly. Helots could never become citizens, Mexican-Americans, even those here, illegally can.

Jonathan Dresner - 8/17/2006

Neither of them get great points for coherence, though both have interesting points to make. Rodriguez definitely wins on points for style, but I have to give Hanson credit: nobody else can use "helotage" without even blinking.