(0)To address the liquid vs non-liquid layout debate, people who prefer a liquid layout for larger resolution screens and who don’t mind viewing long lines of text, can click on the “liquid” link down the left sidebar to change to said template. As usual, if there are bugs, let me know.
Looks like getting an undergrad law degree in different parts of the world is slightly different from others. I did a bit of research…
In England
Available as an undergraduate course as a Bachelor of Laws, abbreviated to LLB (Legum Baccalaureus, where LL signifies the plural form). In Oxford and Cambridge, it appears a BA in Law is awarded instead.
Postgraduate courses are not required to practise law. The typical postgraduate law degree is the Master of Laws, abbreviated to LLM (Legum Magister). Oxford awards a BCL (Bachelor of Civil Law), which, despite its title, is a postgraduate degree and covers Common Law.
In the US
Law is a graduate course, meaning for US residents, a four-year undergraduate degree (typically a BA or BS) must be obtained before entrance into a three year law school is granted. While an LLB is occasionally awarded to law school graduates, the more common degree awarded by US universities is a Doctor of Law, abbreviated to JD (Juris Doctor). It is a professional “doctorate” which is similar to the MD that medical doctors use. Lawyers do not use “Doctor” as a title, of course, but “Esq” is sometimes used by the pretentious.
Foreigners holding a Bachelor’s degree from a common law jurisdiction are usually required to study for an LLM degree in the US before they can practise law there.
In Australia
Law, like the US, is also a graduate course, meaning that all law students must hold another degree first. The slight difference is that enrolment to law school can be granted as long as a student also enrols in another degree (such as a BSc, BCom, BE, etc.) simultaneously. This is called a Combined Law course. The first three years are spent completing the first degree (or four years, if honours is undertaken). Interspersed among those three or four years are the first year’s worth of law courses. Once the first degree is obtained, the student then goes on to complete the law degree over the next two years. In effect, a combined law degree compresses the two degrees and reduces the total time for completion by a year. Like the US, graduate entry is also available for those already holding an undergraduate degree.
Monash University in Victoria has started to offer US-style JD degrees.
[Update: The ANU does have a standalone LLB program that takes four years to complete – see comments for more details. UTS also has one, so it looks like the entry requirements are set on a per university basis.]
In Civil Law countries
A Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) is given in civil law jurisdictions to university law graduates. It is a bachelor’s degree and it is not necessary for the candidate to have another degree before obtaining the BCL. This allows, with some extra training, someone to become a lawyer, or train to become a judge.
Law Doctorates
Normally either called a PhD (Doctorate of Philosophy) in Law, or an SJD (Doctor of Juridical Science).
Gunbound is similar to Worms and is played completely online. It’s been developed by a bunch of Koreans, so once you get past the badly phrased english, it’s pretty decent. Download it. If you have an account and play, leave me a note with your username (mine is inferno04) so I can add you to the buddy list and we’ll see if we can have a game. This includes you, ambrosis and your $30 clothes of doom.
(0)Over at Expect Nothing, Nebu featured a comment related to this incident reading:
Some people still have morals. I wanted to watch a football game, not see a woman half naked. Yes, you are free to look at nudity all you want. Its called porn!!! It takes up half of the internet. To me, it is the individuals own problem if he wants to see that. Just tell me when it is there so that I dont have to see it as well. As they say, your freedom ends where my nose(or eyes) begins.
It produced a large number of ascerbic responses mainly of the “get over it, it was only a tit” variety. Eg:
Sorry, aero, but Janet Jackson’s nipple piercing, while large, wasn’t large enough to poke you in the eye. The ‘your right to swing your arms ends where my nose begins’ paraphase from John Stuart Mill is quite specific in what it refers to–initiation of force (and not figurative ‘force’ you’re referring to). There is no such thing as a ‘right to not be offended.’
The latter type of people are missing the point. The point is not drawing subjective lines of morality, which is already a problem in today’s society (since we can’t figure out where to draw a line, we shouldn’t draw one at all and declare open slather! It’s never too young to be exposed to porn because hell, it’s inevitable anyway!) The issue in this case is that there are certain censorship guidelines which are there for a reason, and these should be adhered to. What happened was wrong (asssuming it was not accidental, and no one does think it was), and people have a right to be up in arms about it. Would it be any different if Timberlake ripped off her pants?
Another example – just because something as trivial as swearing is an integral part of society, it still doesn’t mean I would like walking around hearing profanity as every second word in the street. But in the same token, just because I don’t think they should have pulled that stunt on national TV doesn’t mean I don’t want to see a copy of the picture or video clip. There is a difference. When I walk into an R rated film (NC-17 is the US equivalent I believe) I have an idea of what to expect. Some people don’t like the graphicness of the violence or sex portrayed in those movies, so they avoid them – not because they haven’t been exposed to them before, or that it will “destroy their fragile minds”, but because they just don’t enjoy it. Censorship itself is getting laxer, and I don’t see a problem with this – society changes, so these guidelines should change with it. It’s not up to the performers to take matters into their own hands.
And of course the comment above that “there is no such thing as a ‘right to not be offended'” is utter crap. That’s why there are laws against “acts of indecency”.
The Empire Trilogy (Daughter of the Empire, Servant of the Empire, Mistress of the Empire) is a fantastic read. I really enjoyed it. Co-authored by Feist and Wurts, you can really see the impact a woman has had on Feist’s writing (and I’m sure vice versa, although I haven’t read any of Wurts’ novels). This is positive given the fact that the protagonist is a woman. The writing is much richer, more subtle and much more insightful from a character perspective than Feist’s other work. In my opinion, it stands on the same level as the classic Magician (indeed, the timeline of the Empire Trilogy runs concurrently with it).
The story is about a woman named Mara who lives in Tsurannuanni, a society with a long-established tradition of honour and strict social hierarchy. The trilogy examines how she discovers and overcomes the shackles of mindless adherence to tradition. The society portrayed is definitely inspired by Japan’s, with a figurehead Emperor and a Warlord presiding over several clans and houses (a Shogun essentially). Ultimately Mara begins, with some outside influence, to question the old ways. Traditions, without sound reasons to ground them, are a stagnating force. The justification that a break from tradition is undesirable because of the tumult that comes with change is not sufficient enough reason against it. Conversely, there must be also be a logical reason to break from the tradition which may be one as simple as that the tradition is illogical.
Freedom from authoritarian rule, emphasis on the Rule of Law and the abolition of the caste system are big social reforms that the authors think should exist in order for society to progress, and for fairness and equality. Through the three books, strong and reasonable ethical arguments are made for them. However, there are more subtle perspectives of the authors which show a Western mindset in a novel which is otherwise quite perceptive about cultural relativism. One of these is the tacit approval of the monogamy Hokanu practices with Mara.
But nonetheless, the book makes good comments. “Bad gut feelings” and “it doesn’t feel right” attitudes either spring from experience, tradition, or from experience derived from tradition. When those attitudes come from the latter two, that is when close-mindedness exists and reason falls by the wayside. Not to say that we should be all reason and logic like the Vulcans – intuition can be valuable thing – but that intuition always be tempered with reason.
One mundane, but relevant example, is the use of credit cards for payment. When younger, we are often taught that credit cards are an evil thing that will lead you to a lot of debt (and they do!). But, if used properly, credit cards come with benefits that outweigh paying in cash – interest free periods and frequent flyer points being the most obvious. However, once that first instinct of avoiding credit card use is overcome, a new instinct is formed. And that is to avoid paying cash where necessary, because you get points if you use the card. Especially for large purchases, and even if you have to pay a 2% fee for credit card usage. Points redeem at a rate of about 1%, and in a 45-day interest free period it is unlikely you will be able to earn 1% interest on money. That is, you actually lose out. Yet, somehow paying by cash is instinctually undesirable.
By popular demand, The List is back. Hit the “show whole list” to see it.
Found a few informative links related to digital photography. This first article explains why when you affix a standard lens to a DSLR the focal length (zoom) changes and is given as an “equivalent” millimetre rating.
The second article, which is fairly technical, attempts to compare relative image quality between digital media and traditional film media. Interestingly, an 11mp camera like the Canon 1Ds will output photos of a quality that marginally exceeds standard 35mm film. This means that all the benefits of film cameras are slowly being eroded away. Once the price for processing digital images falls to a level comparable to processing rolls of film (it’s still always nicer to have photos you can physically handle), film cameras will really start to wane.
DOFMaster is a program that prints out “circles of confusion”. The circles give you the range that will be in focus (the depth of field) given a certain aperture and focal length.
Was woken up this morning by a call from Monika telling me to look at p 15 of today’s SMH… it seems I have won a uni prize for Torts. She took out both the Crim Law prizes which is amazing (incidentally, I know who to go to now if I find myself being clapped in irons and having my rights read to me).
An e-mail from Shish directed me to Column 8 where there’s someone mentioned with almost the same name as me.
(1)| 8 days spent in current location | |
| Previously | San Diego, CA |
| » Currently | San Francisco, CA (6/1/26 7:43pm) |
| In 34 days | San Diego, CA |
| In 37 days | San Francisco, CA (End) |
| View full itinerary... | |
11:11am (GMT +11.00) tomorrow 
