From the Yale Law School website:

The following statement was released Wednesday, November 7, 2007, by Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh, Simeon E. Baldwin Professor of Law Peter Schuck, Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fellow in Law Jeff Redding, and other members of the Yale Law School and legal communities.* If you would like to add your name to the list, please email your name and title to Carolyn Poole.

*Institutional affiliations are provided for identification purposes only.

We, the undersigned friends and members of the Yale Law School community—faculty, students, alumni, administration, and staff—denounce in the strongest terms General Pervez Musharraf’s recent assault on the rule of law in Pakistan. By suspending the Constitution; dissolving the Supreme Court and the provincial High Courts and replacing them with judges of his own choosing; engaging in arbitrary and unprovoked arrests of thousands of opposition leaders, journalists, and other law-abiding citizens; and violently suppressing protests by hundreds of lawyers (including graduates of our school) who were acting in the highest tradition of our profession, General Musharraf is trampling upon the very system of law that alone can justify a ruler’s power over his people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow lawyers and the democratic values that they represent, and we urge an early restoration of legality and legitimate authority in Pakistan.

View the petition and signatures here.

According to this site, on Saturday, 26 October 1968, Ireland defeated Australia (Wallabies) 10-3 in a rugby (union) match held at Lansdowne Road, Dublin.

That date is also the birthday of Canadian actor Tom Cavanagh, best know for his role in the almost unbearably cute but still strangely addictive 2000-2004 tv series Ed (wikipedia entry | fan site); (it’s still running on TV3 – listing here). Sample line:

I am a lawyer, I own a bowling alley. Two separate things.

Breithlá shona don Aontas Eorpach! Tá a lán ar siúl in Éireann mar cheiliúradh ar an breithlá.

Read all about it here.

As Daithí puts it: Going on a data? Use protection (with further links).

Rebecca MacKinnon on RConversation reports that Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Vodaphone display some cojones, referring to a press release from Business for Social Responsibiity which says that a

diverse group of companies, academics, investors, technology leaders and human rights organizations announced today its intention to seek solutions to the free expression and privacy challenges faced by technology and communications companies doing business internationally

As MacKinnon puts it, this “is not only the right thing to do, but these [companies] all recognize that in the long run ethical business is smart business”. More to the point, an agreed platform will not only make it more difficult for countries which fail to protect human rights to pick off companies one by one but it will also make it easier for companies to resist country-based censorship.

The great test will, of course, be China (wkipedia | Global Voices). Even the longest journey must begin with a single step; and this very important development is an excellent first step.

As a blogging neophyte, I’m always on the lookout for ways to improve my blog both for you (my reader, if there is one), and for me. So, I want to thank John Ryan for today’s entry on blogging tools and information.

I particular like the comment spam protector. Read the rest of this entry »

The 11th Cleraun Media Conference takes place this weekend. Highlights from today included the speech of the Minister for Communications opening the conference on “Ensuring Professional Integrity in a Crowded Media” and Dearbhail McDonald’s personal account of her experiences at the coal face. We need more conferences like this, bring together many facets of modern Irish journalism.

Update on 23 October 2006: There are some articles in today’s the Irish Times here and here.

I believe it to be the case that RTE used to broadcast Irish dancing on the radio, not just the sound of music for Irish dancing, but the sound of feet dancing. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but in retrospect it seems a bit surreal. I was reminded of that today, listening to a programme in BBC Radio 4’s ‘Meet the Bloggers‘ short series.

Blogging on the radio seems as surreal as dancing on the radio. Read the rest of this entry »