Cornell Blog: An unofficial blog about Cornell University

A coworker sent me a photo today of a printed sign for a restaurant in Halifax that had, as its subtitle, the infamous lorem ipsum dolorem placeholder text. If you don’t know what it is, check out the lipsum.com generator, which will produce on demand a paragraph like so:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum bibendum. Nulla rutrum commodo ante. Phasellus sed eros a quam adipiscing interdum. Nullam malesuada suscipit diam. Mauris condimentum, augue vitae ullamcorper tincidunt, mauris tellus volutpat quam, eget ullamcorper ligula pede vel nunc. Donec molestie placerat lectus. Nunc lacinia malesuada elit. Ut quis risus. Phasellus elementum ullamcorper erat. Morbi cursus, velit in malesuada mollis, leo justo porttitor lorem, eu tempor nisl orci eu leo. Cras congue lacus a lectus.

This got me wondering what the Ivy League latin mottos were, so here they are:

Harvard University

Harvard’s motto is the latin “Veritas” or in English, “Truth.” Simple, but elegant, it’s represented in their university logo.

University of Pennsylvania

Upenn’s latin motto has had an interesting history. It was first “Sine Moribus Vanae” but a troublesome student translated it as “Loose women without morals,” so it was changed to its current “Leges sine moribus vanae” which means in English, “Laws–without moral character–are in vain.”

Princeton University

I don’t like their latin, “Dei sub numine viget” which indicates that “Under the power of God, She flourishes.” I’d hoped for something grander.

Yale University

“Lux et veritas” which means “Light and truth” is my favorite latin motto in the Ivy League. It’s glorious and beautiful, without invoking religious ideals. It should be the motto of intellectuals and educators everywhere.

Brown University

With “In deo speramus” or “In God we Hope” Brown continues the religious downward spiral.

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth’s latin motto is “Vox clamantis in deserto” a biblical reference to the prophet of god as “A voice crying out in the wilderness.”

Columbia University

Sounding a bit like a cult, “In lumine tuo videbimus lumen” is often translated “In Thy light shall we see the light.”

Cornell University

Last but not least, our motto used to be the lame, non-latin “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study” but recently it’s been abbreviated to “Any person … Any study.” In latin, that would be “Quisquam qui ars.”

The University of Kansas has a new no-tolerance policy for file sharing and other forms of copyright infringement. On its Resnet website there is the following notice, in prominent red text:

Violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is against the law. If you are caught downloading copyrighted material, you will lose your ResNet privileges forever. No second notices, no excuses, no refunds. One violation and your ResNet internet access is gone for as long as you reside on campus.

Ars Technica, as usual, is quick to point out that “there is plenty of copyrighted material that can be downloaded legally.” They also note that with regular file sharing on the rise, college students are moving to on-campus darknets run with programs like DC++ to share their materials. While I attended Cornell, the on campus DC++ hub had over 19 TB of shared files.

Why the sudden action? The RIAA is playing hardball, filing twice as many takedown complaints in 2005 as 2004, and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) of the House Judiciary Committee appears to have taken up the position as well, saying that “Universities have a moral and legal obligation to ensure students do not use campus computers for illegal downloading.”

It’s a new world we have, where information can be exchanged regardless of borders, copyright, or protection. For media companies to continue to make money, they need to find way to embrace open sharing, rather than trying to litigate it to death. When it’s our generation that controls the country, obviously the viewpoint on file sharing will change, and I believe the media conglomerates won’t be ready.

This is a cute post about the best unknown places on campus. Although I already knew about all of them, I’m linking it.