Disney Law

From the Guardian:

Lawyers for a child in Pennsylvania who was 11 when he allegedly shot and killed his father's pregnant fiancee attempted today to persuade an appeals court not to try him as an adult under America's harsh system of juvenile justice.

Unless the lawyers for Jordan Brown who is now aged 13, can convince the judges to change tack, he will be tried in adult court and if convicted will serve an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole. He would become the youngest child in US history to be sentenced to be incarcerated forever.

Pennsylvania, where all juveniles are automatically treated as adults unless a judge decides otherwise, heads the league table of 44 states that hand out the sentence, with about 450 cases.

I don't know how I can respond to such a ruling, other than to say that the judge appears to be using what I class as the "Disney Guidelines":

If you can't read the table, when it comes to buying tickets for Walt Disney World, anyone aged over 10 is classed as an adult... Tweet

... has a Pod Delusion

I've done a report for the science-y podcast The Pod Delusion.

It's about this week's European Court of Human Rights judgment on libel success fees.

It goes into a bit more detail than my Liberal Conspiracy article, which was published yesterday.

Please listen to it and I recommend subscribing to the Pod Delusion as they cover a lot of interesting subjects. Tweet

... elsewhere

I've written an article for Liberal Conspiracy.

It's about the European Court of Human Rights' judgment this week regarding legal costs in libel cases.

Please read it! Tweet

Boris v ASLEF

This appeared on the Mayor of London's Twitter feed this morning:

Can't have a strike ruining the royal wedding. Please tell ASLEF what you think. Bombard their website now! aslef.org.uk/info...less than a minute ago via txtBoris Johnson
MayorOfLondon

Yes, he appears to be advocating a Denial of Service attack on their website. This appears to break s. 36 Police and Justice Act 2006.

For the avoidance of doubt ASLEF have never mentioned nor suggested any such strike.

UPDATE: Boriswatch goes into more detail. Tweet

Album of the Year Award 2010

In spite of my on-going apathy, I've come to a decision about the "D-Notice Album of the Year Award", the only music award that counts.

It was a close-run thing between Hot Chip and FourTet, but the winner - based on their live performances - is Hot Chip.

Well done Hot Chip!

You join the previous winners: Arcade Fire; The Knife; Von Sudenfed and Battles (joint winners); The Bug and Hercules & Love Affair (joint winners) and The Horrors. Tweet

Footballers and Twitter

A footballer's view of today's Man Utd v Liverpool game:

#hey http://plixi.com/p/68909575less than a minute ago via ÜberTwitterRyan Babel
RyanBabel

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