Jason Whong: Renaissance Man-in-Training

Grand jury service is done

Filed under: General — jbwhong @ 5:18 pm

Today marked the end of my service on a federal grand jury. I was seated on the jury November 1, 2007, and served through today, when I was dismissed. It was a truly educational experience.

Grand juries are different than trial juries. Instead of deciding guilt or innocence, the grand jury decides whether a serious case ought to be tried in the first place. If no grand jury will indict the person or corporation being investigated, there can be no trial.

The purpose of the grand jury is to make sure no unwarranted prosecution occurs, and (though it rarely happens) to investigate and indict on its own when no prosecution has been suggested by an attorney. The check against unwarranted prosecution is an important fifth amendment protection: no felony is prosecuted without the agreement of a majority of a grand jury.

I enjoyed my time on the grand jury, and my advice to anyone that receives a summons to appear at a federal courthouse for grand jury selection is to go, especially if you are someone that cares enough to ask hard questions of powerful people.

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ERIS QUOD SUM

Filed under: General — jbwhong @ 9:38 am

The name of the seventh episode of Heroes this season is called “ERIS QUOD SUM.” I’ve been wanting to write about NBC’s Monday night lineup all morning, since I noticed that people were looking up the hummingbird position on Google after last night’s episode of My Own Worst Enemy, appropriately titled “Hummingbird”. But I’d rather be opportunist at something new.

So, what does ERIS QUOD SUM actually mean? First of all, it’s in Latin, which explains why it is in all capital letters. (The Romans used what we call capital letters for formal things, like titles of show episodes.) Here’s the rest of what I can get from the rest of my reading:

ERIS - second person singular, future tense of “to be”: You will be
QUOD - neuter singular nominative or accusative pronoun (in this case, I think the accusative): which or that
SUM - most people who have taken latin at least recall the first person singular, present tense form of to be: I am

That gives us a transliteration of “You will be that I am,” which translates a bit better as “You will be that which I am.”

My gut is telling me that there’s a mistake here; I think there is probably some word other than SUM to be used in this sentence, because now there are two verbs wrestling for control of the sentence, as they’re both in indicative mood. I think SUM needs to take a subjunctive mood to balance things out.

The first person singular, present tense form of “to be” (in subjunctive mood) is SIM. Plugging it in to the sentence, we get “ERIS QUOD SIM” as a better rendering of the Latin.

But I think I’ve at least discerned the writer’s intent in translating it to English. Now the mystery remains: Who is saying “You will be that which I am” to whom? Future Peter to Peter? Future Hiro to Hiro? Sylar to Peter? Peter to Sylar? Papa Petrelli to Nathan? The possibilities are endless.

Technorati Tags: ERIS QUOD SUM, hummingbird position, Hummingbird, Future Peter, Peter, Future Hiro, Hiro, Heroes, Latin, NBC, My Own Worst Enemy

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Various goings-on

Filed under: General, journalism — jbwhong @ 7:32 pm

I haven’t updated in a while. Today is the four year anniversary for Erin and I. So, happy anniversary to us! We celebrated on Monday, since that was the day I don’t work.

I haven’t subbed yet this year; I have been called three times, but I had a good excuse each time for not going. I forget what was happening the first time. The second time, I was already scheduled to speak to a journalism class at Ithaca College. And this morning, I had a dentist appointment that I totally forgot about. Doh.

Speaking of speaking at Ithaca College: I spoke to a journalism class taught by friend and coworker Ed Bond. I have a feeling that if we didn’t work together, we would find something to geek out on. So, he let me talk to his class Monday, and it was fun. I told them a bit about the kinds of videos I did for the Star-Gazette.

One of his students blogged about me, and it was pleasant to read what she wrote. So, thanks Julia! it was fun, and I am glad you enjoyed it.

That is all for now. Go see “The Express”.

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October 28, 2008

Grand jury service is done

October 21, 2008

ERIS QUOD SUM

October 9, 2008

Various goings-on