Interesting Links for 27-04-2023

[andrewducker]

1. Transgender woman and gay man targeted in Whitechapel arson attack hate crime

(tags:lgbt transgender bigotry london uk )

2. UK secretly deported 100 Nepali guards who protected staff in Kabul

(tags:uk immigration nepal OhForFucksSake )

3. Not proven verdict to be scrapped in Scottish courts

(tags:scotland law )

4. EU names 19 large tech platforms that must follow Europe's new Internet rules

(tags:europe internet regulation )

5. 45% of people with concussion show brain injury symptoms six months later

(tags:brain injury )

6. The world's most dangerous golf courses

(tags:golf sports dangerous safety )

7. Every hobby is actually 4 hobbies.

(tags:fun activity behaviour )

8. Dragon scale: Why it's impossible to size up Tolkien's Middle-earth

(tags:lotr mythology storytelling )

Comments

[cmcmck]

1 And we'll be seeing more and more of this as this government stokes the fires of hate. Nor does Starmer get off Scot free. :o(

[movingfinger]

(Lower-case "s" in scot, please! It's a cognate with "shot," meaning payment or reckoning. Scotland an innocent bystander in the linguistics, afaik.)

Anti-trans activity feels very ginned-up in a Gamergate way, as though having its source in similar disinformation campaigns. Something most people care absolutely nothing about has been blown up into a bogey. Singling out a small group as scapegoats to distract from something else is (nearly---hedging) always manipulative. I recall reading a piece years ago that traced the development of a disinformation campaign and I do not recall the details of which (very likely Gamergate, as that is big and studied).

[cmcmck]

The term was connected to Scotland in as far as a Scot who made it back to the border (there are Scott border reivers in my own ancestry) got off free as English law couldn't follow so it can actually be either.

It does feel very much that way and being a trans woman of a generation old enough to know what it was like before the law changed, this is really scary stuff!

[mtbc]

(3) Interesting about the perceptions of not proven. I wish I could remember the juror guidance I received. Though it wasn't made this clear, as not-a-Scot it made sense to me in terms of: (a) the Crown needed sufficient evidence that the crime happened and the accused did it, (b) the defence could introduce further evidence that raises reasonable doubt. So, I figured, call it not proven if (a) fails, or not guilty if (a) and (b) succeed. But that seems more like how I'd imagine I'd like to organize it rather than necessarily what anybody else thought, though I'd remember if the guidance we received was clearly contrary to my notions.

[andrewducker]

Legally it just means "Not Guilty", and was the original verdict in Scotland for that purpose. Socially, I think it's used more the way you say.

[mtbc]

Thank you, I hadn't known anything of its history. It was at least made clear to us that the two are identical in effect. (I had wondered previously about double jeopardy, etc., so that was appreciated.)

[danieldwilliam]

The description I was given of the Not Proven verdict by my criminal law prof was, which I think was taken from an actual jury direction was "when the Crown has failed to make their case to the necessary standard but the words `not guilty' stick in your throat, then the proper verdict is Not Proven.

For what it's worth I think the reform I would make of the Not Proven verdict would be to allow one re-trial for an indictment that was Not Proven but I am not Justice Secretary. Alas.

[mtbc]

Interesting that your mind also went to re-trial. But, ha, that's quite striking wording, pretty sure we didn't receive that direction! Also helps explain some of the public perception of the verdict, thank you.

[dewline]

1. Organized bigotry crime...

3. Wondering if we ever had that option in Canadian trials...?

4. Probably be a good idea if Canada adopts this.

5. Yeah, we absolutely need this. No joke.

6. Good thing I never picked up my father's interest in golf, maybe?

[danieldwilliam]

I think Not Proven is unique to Scotland whilst Canadian common law is largely drawn from English law.

Although I've never known how differently Provicial laws vary from each other and it is possible Quebec has some roots in pre-Revolutionary French Law???

[ninetydegrees]

4. Wow these sound amazing. Let's see which company is not gonna comply with them... or lie about it.

[anna_wing]

7 Kit for hobbies: I spent several years, some decades ago, taking classes in Russian icon-painting. Our teacher told us that when we had achieved mastery, we would be able to paint an icon using a toothbrush if we had to, but as novices, we should get the best tools available e.g. brushes made with real sable hairs, and boards prepared with real gesso using real rabbit-skin glue, and real mineral pigments (including real orpiment, cinnabar and lead paints, unfortunately) made with real organic egg-yolks...