Sexuality, Technology and Student Life
By Tracy Mitrano October 1, 2010 8:54 amHow is the young man who was in the room with Mr. Clementi doing? Thankfully, for him, we don't know his name and nor am I curious. Only concerned. If Mr. Clementi felt profoundly rattled by events, one can only imagine how he feels. The media, having gotten ahold of this story, has expanded the scope and amplification of the private act between him and Mr. Clementi many orders of magnitude beyond the original publication on the Internet.
Scope and amplification are the reasons we revisit concepts of privacy originally prompted by technology and now transformed by this particular phenomenon of the Internet.
Photography is what motivated Brandeis and Warren to write their famous law review article in which they set the legal stage for four civil actions related to a "right of privacy," invasion of privacy being the most prominent today.
There are violations of privacy and violations of privacy. A man gossiping about his roommate's sexuality is nothing new. Yet it is still a violation of privacy. Surreptitiously pointing cameras operated by remote control on sexual activity and then posting that activity on the
Whale Snot and Mixing of Oil and Water Bring Ig Nobel Honors
Researchers who used a remote control helicopter to collect samples of whale snot and demonstrated that, "on icy footpaths in wintertime, people slip and fall less often if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes" were among those honored last night with Ig Nobel Prizes, the annual recognition granted to scholarly work that "first makes people laugh, then makes them think." The awards, made by the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, come out just before -- but hardly presage -- the Nobel prizes. In one other award -- and this was almost too easy, wasn't it? -- the group honored BP (and three researchers who wrote a paper on the subject) "for disproving the old myth that oil and water don't mix." A full list of the winners is available here.