Month: May 2016

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SCOTUScast - Bruce v. Samuels – Post-Decision SCOTUScast

On January 12, 2016, the Supreme Court decided Bruce v. Samuels. The Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides that those prisoners qualified to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP) must nonetheless pay an initial partial filing fee, set as “20 percent of the greater of” the average monthly deposits in the prisoner’s account or the average monthly balance of the account over the preceding six months. They must then pay the remainder of the fee in monthly installments of “20 percent of the preceding month’s income credited to the prisoner’s account.” The initial partial fee is assessed on a per-case basis, i.e., each time the prisoner files a lawsuit. This case involves a dispute over the calculation of subsequent monthly installment payments when more than one fee is owed. Petitioner Antoine Bruce, a federal inmate, contends that he should only have to pay 20 percent of his monthly income without regard to the number of cases filed for which fees are owed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit disagreed and adopted the per-case approach advocated by the government, in which a prisoner must pay 20 percent of his monthly income for each case he has filed. -- Granting certiorari to resolve a split in the Courts of Appeals on this issue, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the judgment of the D.C. Circuit. Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court, holding that monthly installment payments, like the initial partial fee, are to be assessed on a per-case basis. -- To discuss the case, we have Elbert Lin, who is the Solicitor General of West Virginia.
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Social Science Bites - Iris Bohnet on Discrimination and Design

While intentional bias generally is an ugly thing, it's also relatively easy to spot if the will exists to do so. But what about bias where individuals or institutions haven't set out to discriminate -- but the net effect is bias? "[M]uch of discrimination is in fact based on unconscious or implicit bias," says Iris Bohnet, a behavioral economist at Harvard Kennedy School, "where good people like you and me treat people differently based on their looks." At times, even the subjects of implicit bias in essence discriminate against themselves.

The Swiss born Bohnet, author of the new book What Works: Gender Equality by Design, studies implicit bias in organizations. In this Social Science Bites podcast, Bohnet tells interviewer David Edmonds that even good-faith efforts to address this bias has so far found little evidence that many of the structural remedies tried so far do in fact have an effect on the underlying bias. This doesn't mean she opposes them; instead, Bohnet works to design effective and proven solutions that work to "de-bias" the real world.

Bohnet received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Zurich in 1997 and joined the Harvard Kennedy School in 1998, where she has served as the academic dean of the Kennedy School, is the director of its Women and Public Policy Program, the co-chair (with Max Bazerman) of the Behavioral Insights Group, an associate director of the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory, and the faculty chair of the executive program “Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century” for the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders. She serves on the boards of directors of Credit Suisse Group and University of Lucerne.

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The Goods from the Woods - Episode #89 – “Prairie Dog Pete” with The Martin Duprass

In this episode, the Goods from the Woods Boys welcome their very special guests Lauren Thomas-Martin and Jeremy Martin aka The Martin Duprass! We talk about the Martins hilarious and bizarre projects including alternate audio track episodes of Star Trek Next Generation episodes, their remake of 'Smokey & The Bandit Part 2', and the puppet known as "Prairie Dog Pete". Side tangents include how to find free porn and how to cheat the sensors on the inside of a motel minibar. It's basically the Anarchist Cookbook for creeps. You're gonna love this episode! Follow The Martins on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheMartinDuprass. Song of the week this week: "Heartache Highway" by B.B. Palmer.  Follow the show @TheGoodsPod  Rivers is @RiversLangley  Dr. Pat is @PM_Reilly  Mr. Goodnight is @SepulvedaCowboy  Pick up a Goods from the Woods t-shirt at: http://prowrestlingtees.com/TheGoodsPod

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PHPUgly - 9:Talking About Nothing

Show notes: https://github.com/PHPUgly/podcast/blob/master/shows/ep9.md PHPUgly - Episode 9 recorded May 8, 2016 Topics Discuss Git, good and bad - Podcast that spurred this topic PHP Pipe Operator Why you should never use NULL Laravel New Valet Service New User Group Schedules for SDPHP The hosts Eric Van Johnson Twitter / Github / Blog / About.me Tom Rideout Twitter / Github / About.me John Congdon Twitter / Github Follow us on Twitter @PHPUgly Email us at Podacast@phpugly.com

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The Gist - He’s Not Pivoting

On The Gist, has conventional become synonymous with lame? Mike’s advice for Hillary Clinton. Then, Kembrew McLeod discusses the musical legacy of the Blondie album Parallel Lines, and offers connection between teen pop and punk in the 1970’s. He’s the author of Blondie's Parallel Lines (33 1/3). For the Spiel, we will not allow members of the media to get away with saying, “Donald Trump is executing a pivot.” Let’s begin the #contradictionnotpivot

movement. 

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SCOTUScast - Lockhart v. United States – Post-Decision SCOTUScast

On March 1, 2016, the Supreme Court decided Lockhart v. United States. Petitioner Avondale Lockhart pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography. Because Lockhart had a prior state-court conviction for first-degree sexual abuse involving his adult girlfriend, his presentence report concluded that he was subject to a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence enhancement, which is triggered by prior state convictions for crimes “relating to aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, or abusive sexual conduct involving a minor or ward.” Lockhart argued that the limiting phrase “involving a minor or ward” applied to all three state crimes, so his prior conviction did not trigger the enhancement. Disagreeing, the District Court applied the mandatory minimum. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed. -- By a vote of 6-2, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Second Circuit. Justice Sotomayor delivered the opinion of the Court, holding that the phrase “involving a minor or ward” in §2252(b)(2) modifies only “abusive sexual conduct.” Thus, Lockhart’s prior conviction for sexual abuse of an adult was encompassed by §2252(b)(2) and the 10-year mandatory minimum applied. -- Justice Sotomayor’s majority opinion was joined by the Chief Justice and Justices Kennedy, Thomas, Ginsburg, and Alito. Justice Kagan filed a dissenting opinion in which Justice Breyer joined. -- To discuss the case, we have Erin Sheley, who is Assistant Professor at University of Calgary Faculty of Law.
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Song Exploder - Carly Rae Jepsen – When I Needed You

Carly Rae Jepsen released her third album, Emotion, in 2015. The closing track on the record is When I Needed You. In this episode, Carly tells the story of how the song was made. You'll hear the first demo for the song, a version she co-wrote with her longtime collaborator Tavish Crowe. And you'll hear how that led to the album version. Plus, producer Ariel Rechtshaid breaks down some of the parts that he created for the recording.