Dr Keith Walker @SteelFolk@qoto.org

This by the chair of the Commons justice committee is important and persuasive on why IPP sentences are wrong in principle and bad in practice.

Once telling passage jumped out:

“IPP sentences were introduced in 2003 as a new form of custodial sentence. Designed to appear tough on crime…”

How many stupid law and policy things have been done for that reason.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/series/the-ipp-scandal

“'Have you no sense of decency?'

It’s a question as urgent today and one that should be asked of every person who cravenly, cynically, or ignorantly supports a far greater threat to the United States than even McCarthy ever was.

Make no mistake, decency is on the ballot in November. And the press should cover this race accordingly."

~ Elliot Kirschner

#Trump #decency #leadership #democracy

https://elliotkirschner.substack.com/p/decency-is-on-the-ballot

Such an approach is not unhelpful in pre-trial shenanigans, where it is one party dealing with another party. Pre-trial litigation is often deal-making by another name. But when a dispute gets to court (and most Trump-related litigation does not get to a courtroom) then such bilateral game-playing becomes far less important. A third party - the judge (and sometimes jury) takes power. Trump’s blustering and bargaining is not well suited for this. Bullying will now not be enough.

And there will also be another thing he now cannot control: evidence. And this evidence will feed into the media mainstream, with the added credibility of being on oath. For somebody who is a deft manipulator of the media and his public image this los of information control will also be painful for him.

I have no idea if Trump will be convicted. I suspect it will be hard to get a conviction.

But he is now a fish out of water, at least for a while.

Everyone should listen to this. It explains so much

Origin Story | 10 Downing Street – The makeshift mansion on Podbean
https://www.podbean.com/ea/dir-7jjb2-1e5b3d2b

Given the awful news, I can only keep posting this. xx

#rwanda #rwandabill #compassion

you may all refer to me as "five time Webby Award-winner Aaron Reynolds" from now on, thank you very much

https://winners.webbyawards.com/2024/social/general-social/animals/275547/effin-birds

Rwanda

The Prime Minister must have bullish internal government legal advice saying that all appeals can be easily dealt with within 10-12 weeks, including to court of appeal and supreme court.

Or perhaps he does not.

An An Ancient Greek Philosopher Was Exiled for Claiming the Moon Was a Rock, Not a God
2,500 years ago, Anaxagoras correctly determined that the rocky moon reflects light from the sun, allowing him to explain lunar phases and eclipses

By David Warmflash via @SmithsonianMag

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-greek-philosopher-was-exiled-claiming-moon-was-rock-not-god-180972447/

#books #science #astronomy #philosophy

Really big news, folks.

I will be going to see Taylor Swift give one of her last performances in the #TaylorSwift Eras Tour !! 💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼

I have now become a ticket-holding #swiftie ! (And a lot poorer for it, too, but what's life for, anyway?)

Vancouver, British Columbia is the place; early December the time.

Next, I have to divine the whole Friendship Bracelet thing.

Any instructions would be greatly appreciated.

If you're going, maybe we can trade bracelets? ;-) ❤️

Hugh Grant has been priced out of his ‘phone hacking’ lawsuit against The Sun, after learning it would cost him more money to win than it would cost Rupert Murdoch.

"At the right moment and at the right amount, a skilled litigator can bring a civil claim to a speedy halt": https://davidallengreen.com/2024/04/how-the-civil-justice-system-forced-hugh-grant-to-settle-and-why-an-alternative-to-that-system-is-difficult-to-conceive/ writes @davidallengreen

#Part36 #civilJustice #settling #litigation #HughGrant #UK #England #liability #accountability #press #impunity #RupertMurdoch #Murdoch #damages

New from @STAT's Casey Ross and me:

#Microsoft has helped organize at least 4 efforts to set standards in #healthcare #AI. Is that problematic?

also: did I sneak a history of the EPA's TSCA into a story about AI? ✨click to find out✨

https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/18/microsoft-health-care-artificial-intelligence-regulatory-capture/

#health #healthcare #healthtech #medicine #healthpolicy #regulatorycapture

News media yet again full of threats by governing party politicians to leave the ECHR.

And yet again nothing at all about how this would breach the Good Friday Agreement.

1. We, Ukrainians, want to live.
2. We want to live in our sovereign independent state. Not russia.
3. We want to have our cultural identity and language. Not russian.
4. We want to decide our own future.

And russia has no legal or moral right to deny us any of this.

#UkrainianView

Last year, I walked 26 miles in a day to raise money for Alzheimer's Research, in memory of my mother Joy Cooke, who died of dementia in 2017.

On 1st June this year, I'm doing it again. This time, I will be accompanied by my daughter Nadz.
.
I raised over £2,000 last year. Let's see if we can do even better this year! Here's our Just Giving page. Please give generously!

https://www.justgiving.com/team/FrancesandNadz

Also! If you've never heard of #PFAS / "forever chemicals" before and want to learn more, I recently revamped the PFAS FAQs on my website

(because I kept getting the same questions over and over!)

There's stuff there for both the public & for academics

https://brittanytrang.com/pfas/

Are there any #scientists studying #extremophiles here avaliable for some short talk?

Here's my piece at The Mint magazine on instability economics. Most Western economists think the natural state of an economy is stability. though shocks can temporarily force it out of its normal stable orbit and it evolves over time. But I argue that when you take into account the storms constantly experienced by developing countries, economic history shows the natural state of the global economy is instability, not stability.
https://www.themintmagazine.com/the-illusion-of-stability/