Nick Kam

Via Deadbeat Hero (2004).

Radiolab did a fantastic story on the 2003 decision which “legally” settled the debate as to whether mutants are humans, featured here previously. Kudos to Abumrad and Krulwich for giving this story the context of the meddling lawyers who started this whole fracas and Brian Singer, director of X-Men, who elucidates on the birth of the X-Men franchise during the Civil Rights Movement.

Via WNYC.

Using computer simulations, a Google software engineer (Iman Sadeghi) and a professor of computer science at UCSD (Henrik Wann Jensen) have explained the rare phenomenon of twinned rainbows where the primary bow of a rainbow splits into two. The repercussions of their findings:

We ended up pushing the edge of rainbow science.

Via CNN.

“[T]he Mercator projection has fostered European imperalist attitudes for centuries and created an ethnic bias against the third world.”

See? Maps really do matter. Click through for more.

Via xkcd.

All-around stand-up guy, Jesse Dimmick

Two years ago, fugitive murder suspect Jesse Dimmick kidnapped newlyweds Jared and Lindsay Rowley after bursting into their home on a Saturday morning.

Now, he’s suing them for $235,000.

Dimmick contends in the breach of contract suit that after he entered the couple’s home in September 2009, they reached a legally binding, oral contract that they would hide him for an unspecified amount of money.

“Later, the Rowleys reneged on said oral contract, resulting in my being shot in the back by authorities,” Dimmick wrote in a notarized legal document, which said he was filing the counterclaim in response to a suit the Rowleys filed against him in September.

Ironclad reasoning, right? Not exactly, wrote the Rowleys’ attorney in their motion to dimiss. Kevin Underhill summarizes:

First, there was no agreement. Second, if there was an agreement, there was no meeting of the minds on the amount of money (Dimmick admitted the “offer” was for “an unspecified amount”), and so no binding contract. Third, agreements made at knifepoint are, you may be surprised to learn, not enforceable as they are made “under duress.” Finally, a contract to do something illegal (e.g. hide a fugitive) is also not enforceable.

Read the pleadings here.

Via Lowering The Bar.

A traffic officer observed Carl Nelson using his wireless telephone with his hands as he paused his car at a red traffic light. The officer cited Mr. Nelson for infraction of Veh. Code §23123(a). Mr. Nelson contested the citation on the basis that he had only been using the phone while he was stopped at the signal to check his e-mail. Mr. Nelson contended that he was not “driving” as required by §23123(a) pursuant to Mercer v. Department of Motor Vehicles (1991) 53 Cal.3d 753. The trial court found Mr. Nelson guilty.

The court of appeal affirmed, holding that Mr. Nelson was “driving” within the intended meaning of §23123(a).

The court acknowledged that the §23123(a) terms “drive” and “while driving” are ambiguous as to a driver’s fleeting pauses as he drove on public roadways. However, the court continued, §23123(a) includes such stops because “drive” and “while driving” commonly refer to a person driving along the public roadways, regardless of whether he stops fleetingly for a red traffic light or other impediments to movement that are beyond his control.

Further, the court found that Mr. Nelson’s narrow volitional-movement interpretation of “drive” and “while driving” in §23123(a) would likely result in numerous significant public-safety hazards on public roadways. Were Mr. Nelson’s interpretation adopted, it would open the door to the picking-up of phones to place calls and check voice-mail while driving but paused momentarily in traffic, with a car in gear and only braked, however short that pause in movement. This could include fleeting pauses at traffic signals and signs in stop-and-go traffic as pedestrians crossed, as vehicles ahead navigated around double-parked vehicles, and many other circumstances.

People v. Nelson via Law.com

Under California law, the practice of law includes the preparation of contracts and other documents that secure legal rights, whether the matter is pending in court or not. Preparation of stipulations and releases constitutes the practice of law.

As the term is generally understood, the practice of the law is the doing or performing services in a court of justice, in any matter depending therein, throughout its various stages, and in conformity to the adopted rules of procedure. But in a larger sense it includes legal advice and counsel, and the preparation of legal instruments and contracts by which legal rights are secured although such matter may or may not be depending in a court.

Who’s the next John Yoo?

Via the NY Times.

“Their brains are recording signals from the other twin’s visual field,” [Dr. Douglas Cochrane] cautiously concluded. “One might be seeing what the other one is seeing.”

A twin may be the instigator, but singling out one for punishment often doesn’t work. “When one gets in trouble and you try to discipline her, the other one kicks in and starts defending her sister,” says [their mother, Felicia] Simms. “I’ve just gotten to the point where if they don’t change their attitude when you talk to them the first time they both go into time out. How do you not?” she asks. “It’s just come down to . . . you can’t discipline one without disciplining the other. It’s just impossible.”

From Macleans.

Additional coverage at the NY Times.