April 15, 2013 – 11:18 pm
Over the weekend, I was a guest at this really rather splendid skeptical convention (responsible for the terrific animation above). I and my fellow panellists (three lawyers, one science writer) got to talk about libel and defamation law, and how it relates to social media. This is, I think it’s fair to say, controversial right now. [...]
December 17, 2012 – 6:16 am
Making sense of the world requires–nay, demands–that we find patterns in events. And, as part of modernity, we’ve become used to the clear-headed, formalised pattern-finding of law and science. There are ways to look for explanations, and things that ought properly to be discarded along the way. That’s why we have ‘legal method’ and ‘scientific [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Law, Skeptics, Tort
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Tagged 2DayFM, Bolam Test, Cardozo J, Charlie Brooker, Dom Joly, Jacintha Saldhana, legal method, Matt Rubinstein, Palsgraf v Long Island Railway Co, Sandy Hook Elementary, scientific method, The Fisher King, Westboro Baptist Church
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October 24, 2012 – 7:33 am
I was very interested to read that some scientists had been found guilty of manslaughter in relation to advice given about an earthquake: Six Italian scientists and a government official have been found guilty of multiple manslaughter for underestimating the risks of a killer earthquake in L’Aquila in 2009. They were sentenced to six years [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in Economics, Environment, Law, Public Policy, Society
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Tagged earthquake, expert predictions, experts, falsifiability, hypotheses, Italy, L'Aquila, manslaughter, philip tetlock, scientists, tim harford
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September 27, 2012 – 8:52 pm
Been a while since I did one of these, so I thought I might draw your attention to the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012 slideshow currently available on the BBC. Steven Christenson was ‘only’ a runner-up with his photo of hikers Lost In Yosemite national park (which gives you some idea of the standard [...]
September 22, 2012 – 8:47 pm
Have you seen this cat? Does it generate a sense of uncertainty? This is the Saturday chit-chat post.
August 16, 2012 – 4:47 am
As many of you know, I won the 2012 Law Society of Scotland Essay Award for a piece entitled ‘A Plea in Law for Equal Marriage’. The question to which my paper was a response was this: An MSP would like to bring forward a member’s bill in the Scottish Parliament. She would like it [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Human/Civil rights, Law, Marriage, Personal liberty, scotland, Sexuality, Skeptics
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Tagged #equalmarriage, Amanda Spalding, John Deighan, Law Society of Scotland, Parliamentary Officer for the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, Robert Gordon University, Scots law, Scots Law Commission, The Journal, The Journal Online, university of edinburgh
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August 16, 2012 – 4:47 am
As many of you know, I won the 2012 Law Society of Scotland Essay Award for a piece entitled ‘A Plea in Law for Equal Marriage’. The question to which my paper was a response was this: An MSP would like to bring forward a member’s bill in the Scottish Parliament. She would like it [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Human/Civil rights, Law, Marriage, Personal liberty, scotland, Sexuality, Skeptics
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Tagged #equalmarriage, Amanda Spalding, John Deighan, Law Society of Scotland, Parliamentary Officer for the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, Robert Gordon University, Scots law, Scots Law Commission, The Journal, The Journal Online, university of edinburgh
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August 13, 2012 – 10:30 am
A feature of the internet has been the growth of networked zealotry; where intensely held attitudes are expressed in overheated rhetoric and ad hominem abuse, not as solitary aberrations (though that also happens), but in self-reinforcing internet coteries. This has fed off, and possibly intensified, the bitter “culture wars” of the US; the intensification of [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Academia, Blogging, Britain, History, Media, Politics, Society
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Tagged David Henderson, Ian Castles, Jodie Foster, mel gibson, Scott Sumner
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Catholics and Orthodox are the Hindus of the Abrahamic world. The divine order is populated with many Personages–not merely the Trinity, but also Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, Star of the Sea, and a myriad of angels and saints. A supernatural prolixity that manifests in a certain approach to religious art and architecture. [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Art, Law, Religion
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Tagged Abrahamic, Baroque, catholicism, corruption, Eurozone, Hinduism, immanent, islam, Judaism, monarchy, monotheism, Sicily, Time, transcendent, Venezia
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… Marie Curie: the only person ever to win two Nobel prizes in two sciences. I am currently in examination hell, hence my diminished substantive contributions to the blog. I will be out of gaol on May 24 (last exam) and will then take a week or so off, but I’m afraid not much more than [...]
