Legal Ramblings (and Other Musings)Thoughts on law and law school, by Steven C. Wu (YLS '05)A Fresh Start- (Found June 29, 2008 ) I've finally cleaned out my archives, a task that I probably should have completed before I clerked for a federal judge. I've left untouched a somewhat random collection of posts, mostly for sentimental reasons, but I may even prune that selection further in the near future.I'm not entirely sure what to do with this space now. I know I won't talk too much about my personal life; I won't talk about work; and I will probably not opine on legal or even policy issues. Maybe I'll just write about...http://www.scwu.com/news/static/115723254444204.shtml Swiss-German- (Found June 29, 2008 ) According to somebody I spoke to this weekend, you cannot learn Swiss-German simply by learning the vocabulary and grammar of the language. That's because Swiss-German invests non- or extra-denotative meanings in highly ritualistic phrases, sentences, and even multi-party exchanges. Of course, every language does this (metaphor and allusion are the two most obvious examples), but supposedly this phenomenon is unusually strong in Swiss-German. We chanced upon this discussion when some people...http://www.scwu.com/news/static/114041720882466.shtml Iraq- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Another interesting pair of articles. The New York Times today has an article about the growth of radical Islam in the Middle East. Saith the article:The horrible Egyptian ferry disaster speaks directly to the slow burn that consumes many Egyptians &8212; and many other Arabs &8212; who live under governments that rule with virtual impunity no matter how bumbling, incompetent or abusive they are. Similar frustrations, if over other issues, play out around the region, in places like Syria,...http://www.scwu.com/news/static/113977760914947.shtml Radical multiculturalism- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Here's another odd collision of two very different articles.In Does Liberalism Need Multiculturalism, Anke Schuster criticizes liberal multiculturalism in fairly strong terms. Here's how she describes the theory:For liberalism, the central assumption about human beings is that they differ in their aims and values, or, more generally, in their conceptions of the good. This kind of difference is first and foremost an individual one because it is related to human autonomy and the capacity to form..http://www.scwu.com/news/static/113833266761266.shtml The most beautiful equation ever- (Found June 29, 2008 ) e (π i) = -1Explanations: short, long. Knowledge of trigonometry and calculus required, but well worth it.http://www.scwu.com/news/static/113816752163674.shtml |