Saturday Night Card Game (Playing the race card in the Zimmerman ...

If you have been following Andrew Branca?s excellent coverage of the jury selection in the George Zimmerman case, you know that many of the prospective jurors were aware of race being injected into the case by the media and others.

Those initial media and activist narratives ? such as that Zimmerman suggested to the 911 operator that Martin was suspicious because black or that Zimmerman used the term ?coon? to describe Martin ? have been completely and thoroughly debunked.? Yet those narratives live on.

It is unlikely that the jurors will hear any of those discredited claims, but almost all of them have heard them outside the courtroom.

Now you can add another bit of irresponsible rhetoric from Benjamin Crump, one of the Martin family?s attorneys.? I previously have documented the irresponsible media conduct by Crump with regard to supposed evidence in the case,?From seeking justice to obstructing justice.

Now Crump has done it again, this time claiming that acquittal of Zimmerman may cause future shootings of black youth:

Here?s the full quote from The Root (emphasis added):

TR: Are there broader legal implications to the case that aren?t being discussed?

BC: Yes, absolutely. And it?s troubling. The larger issue is the precedent that a potential acquittal of George Zimmerman would set. It would show how far this country still has to go with respect to offering equal protection under the law regardless of race. If Zimmerman gets off, it will tell other deranged minds and trigger-happy police officers that they can kill black and brown boys with impunity.

It is very clear from this case ? and American history in general ? that if it had been a black man who had tracked and killed a white child, no defense would be sufficient. That man would be in jail and likely facing the death penalty. George Zimmerman is every parent?s worst nightmare. A self-proclaimed vigilante, on prescription drugs, taunting and tracking a child in the dark.

No, if Zimmerman is acquitted it will mean that the prosecution did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.? That?s the standard to which all prosecutions are held, regardless of the race of the defendant or the victim.

By injecting racial politics into the case, Crump is attempting to deprive Zimmerman of the right to a fair trial.

Having listened to much of the jury voir dire, and having read Andrew Branca?s coverage, I have my doubts whether George Zimmerman can get a fair trial.

Zimmerman?s attorneys will need to do a thorough job continuing to vet potential jurors. As the racial heat likely will be turned up by outside agitators, the Judge was wise to sequester the jury.

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Saturday Night Card Game (Playing the race card in the Zimmerman case to the bitter end)

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Source: http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/06/saturday-night-card-game-playing-the-race-card-in-the-zimmerman-case-to-the-bitter-end/

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Advances in genetic sequencing diagnose Paralympic hopeful's rare condition

June 16, 2013 ? National Paracycling Champion Tom Staniford has an extremely rare condition which, until now, has puzzled his doctors. He is unable to store fat under his skin -- yet has type 2 diabetes -- and suffered hearing loss as a child. Now, thanks to advances in genome sequencing, an international research team led by the University of Exeter Medical School has identified Tom's condition and pinpointed the single genetic mutation that causes it.

In addition to enabling a better understanding of Tom's condition, the discovery may have implications for his bid to participate in the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. He hopes this new diagnosis will allow him to be more accurately classified in Paracycling competitions; a more accurate classification could help him become a world champion.

In a study published in today's Nature Genetics, researchers funded in part by the Wellcome Trust and the National Institute for Health Research have identified the genetic mutation behind MDP syndrome -- a condition thought to affect as few as eight people in the world, including 23-year-old Tom.

"In some ways, identifying the syndrome behind my symptoms shouldn't be important -- a name is just a name, after all -- but it is reassuring to know that there are other people with the condition and that we can lead relatively normal lives," says Tom. "What could prove crucial, though, is enabling me to be properly classified in competitions so that I am not competing at an unfair disadvantage against others. I hope to be able to compete for Great Britain in the 2016 Paralympics and this finding could make a real difference to my chances."

Tom was born a normal weight, but throughout his childhood and teenage years lost all the fat around his face and limbs. His hearing deteriorated throughout his childhood, and he now wears hearing aids.

Tom's condition means he has no natural cushioning on his body, and he suffers from extremely sore feet and a higher risk of breaking bones if he falls from his bike. He has to take extra measures to protect himself from the cold, particularly when he races, and he boosts his energy levels through a special diet.

Unusually, Tom's body thinks he is obese because of the high fat levels in his blood, and he has type 2 diabetes; his diabetes is managed using metformin and a carefully controlled diet. However, when training, Tom is able to reduce his use of metformin as the intense exercise acts as form of self-medication, controlling his insulin levels.

Professor Andrew Hattersley, a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator at the University of Exeter Medical School, has been working with Tom for several years to help manage and understand his condition. He led an international team of researchers in a study of four unrelated patients in the UK, the USA and India, all with the same symptoms. None of the patients had any family history of a similar condition, suggesting that their condition may have been caused by individual genetic mutations -- spontaneous changes in their DNA, rather than inherited mutations.

By sequencing and comparing the entire genomes of the patients and their families, Professor Hattersley and colleagues were able to pinpoint the exact mutation responsible -- an abnormality in the POLD1 gene on chromosome 19. They found that a single amino acid was missing from an enzyme that is crucial to DNA replication. Recent studies have shown that a different type of mutation in the same gene is associated with a predisposition to colorectal and endometrial cancer.

Professor Hattersley says: "Tom's condition has been a puzzle to us for many years. We could see the symptoms, including the very unusual case of type 2 diabetes in someone with no obvious body fat, but did not know what was causing them.

"We had to look at 30 million base pairs in Tom's DNA, and similar numbers in his family members and the other patients, to identify the single mutation. This would not have been feasible even a couple of years ago, but new sequencing technology makes it possible for even patients with a rare genetic disorder to receive a diagnosis."

The diagnosis of MDP syndrome has been as important to Tom for identifying what the disease is not as to what it is: he had previously been told by a specialist that he may have progeria, a rare genetic disorder of extreme premature ageing, associated with high risk of dementia. The new diagnosis will reassure Tom that this is not the case.

Professor Hattersley and colleagues hope that the genetic discovery will help scientists identify therapies that could make a significant difference for people with this rare and complex syndrome. It could also have wider implications for understanding obesity and related conditions; knowing how the body works when no fat is stored in key places can provide meaningful clues about why and how too much fat is stored.

Dr Michael Dunn, Head of Genetic and Molecular Sciences at the Wellcome Trust, adds: "This is a great example of genome sequencing coming of age. Where previously sequencing a patient's entire genome was prohibitively expensive, it is now far more cost effective. As we've seen here, it is no longer just about identifying genes implicated in common diseases, but is about informing diagnoses and prognoses of rare diseases -- and, in Tom's case, helping inform his sporting performance."

The international team of researchers also included collaborators from the University of Washington, Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital and the KEM Hospital Research Center in India, Tor Vergata University in Italy, the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Glan Clwyd Hospital, and the University of Cambridge.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/KJxyrUebeHA/130616155200.htm

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House revises abortion bill after rape controversy

WASHINGTON (AP) ? House Republicans have modified a tough anti-abortion bill to include exceptions for rape and incest after the GOP sponsor of the legislation raised a firestorm by declaring that very few rapes result in pregnancies.

The legislation, which challenges the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision on a woman's right to abortion, would ban almost all abortions after a fetus reaches the age of 20 weeks. It is scheduled to come up for a vote in the full House next week.

On Wednesday, when the House Judiciary Committee considered the legislation, sponsor Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said that cases of "rape resulting in pregnancy are very low." He was speaking on a proposed Democratic amendment, defeated by Republicans, that would have made exceptions to the ban in cases involving rape and incest.

Franks later revised his remark, saying he meant to say that later-term abortions rarely are the result of rapes, but Democrats pounced on his statement, saying it was another example of Republicans showing their insensitivity toward women.

They compared it with the case of former Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., whose run for a Senate seat last year collapsed after he said the female body is capable of blocking pregnancies in the case of "legitimate rape."

The bill as approved by the Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote provides an exception to the ban only when an abortion is necessary to save a woman whose life is endangered by physical illnesses or injury.

But the legislation as posted Friday by the Rules Committee, which determines the procedures for next week's floor debate, included a new exception if "the pregnancy is the result of rape, or the result of incest against a minor," and the rape or incest has been reported to appropriate authorities prior to the abortion.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., asked about possible changes to the bill Friday during a floor discussion with Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, responded that "there's been a lot of discussion that I have been receiving, comments, input from members, and we're looking at weighing those suggestions and inputs."

Republicans determined to reverse their poor performance among women in recent elections have been quick to counter criticisms that they stand for anti-women policies.

The "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" is similar to laws in several states that have been ruled unconstitutional or face court challenges, but the vote in the House next week will give social conservatives a rare chance to express their views on one of their most important issues. The Democratic-led Senate will probably never take up the bill.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-14-US-Congress-Abortion/id-447b9b5616ef409db62ac666c46ef528

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Obama raises cybersecurity, economy in summit

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands as they meet for talks Friday, June 7, 2013, in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Seeking a fresh start to a complex relationship, the two leaders are retreating to the sprawling desert estate for two days of talks on high-stakes issues, including cybersecurity and North Korea's nuclear threats. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands as they meet for talks Friday, June 7, 2013, in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Seeking a fresh start to a complex relationship, the two leaders are retreating to the sprawling desert estate for two days of talks on high-stakes issues, including cybersecurity and North Korea's nuclear threats. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama sits across the table from Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands as they meet for talks Friday, June 7, 2013, in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Seeking a fresh start to a complex relationship, the two leaders are retreating to the sprawling desert estate for two days of talks on high-stakes issues, including cybersecurity and North Korea's nuclear threats. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama walks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands as they meet for talks Friday, June 7, 2013, in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Seeking a fresh start to a complex relationship, the two leaders are retreating to the sprawling desert estate for two days of talks on high-stakes issues, including cybersecurity and North Korea's nuclear threats. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands as they meet for talks Friday, June 7, 2013, in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Seeking a fresh start to a complex relationship, they are retreating to the sprawling desert estate for two days of talks on high-stakes issues, including cybersecurity and North Korea's nuclear threats. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) ? Opening a two-day summit, President Barack Obama drew attention to contentious economic and cybersecurity issues Friday night as he warmly received Chinese President Xi Jinping to a California desert estate for high-stakes talks.

Under a shaded walkway as temperatures surged above 100 degrees, the two leaders ? in white shirts and suit coats but no ties ? greeted each other and walked side by side to start their first in-person meetings since Xi took office in March.

"Our decision to meet so early (in Xi's term) signifies the importance of the U.S.-China relationship," Obama said. He noted the unusual setting and said he hoped for "more extended" and informal talks that will lead to a "new model of cooperation" between countries.

Previewing their talks, Obama said the United States is seeking an economic order "where nations are playing by the same rules, where trade is free and fair, and where the United States and China work together to address issues like cybersecurity and the protection of intellectual property."

Obama, seated next to Secretary of State John Kerry, said he would also stress the importance of human rights, another sensitive issue with the Chinese.

For his part, Xi did not mention cybersecurity, human rights or North Korea, another area of potential tensions between the two powers.

Speaking through a translator, Xi said both leaders were "meeting today to chart the future of U.S.-china relations." He added that the world has "reaped huge benefits" for the relationship between both countries.

While the summit was billed as an informal meeting, the first round of talks looked and felt like a standard diplomatic encounter. Obama and Xi sat on opposite sides of a long rectangular table, each flanked by about a dozen aides. Pairs of U.S. and Chinese flags were stationed at the head of the table and note-takers sat off to the side.

U.S. manufacturers have long contended that China is manipulating its currency to gain a trade advantage. The U.S. trade deficit with China is the largest with any single nation. The U.S. government, however, has declined to label China a currency manipulator in an effort to narrow the trade deficit through negotiation rather than confrontation.

On the issue of cybersecurity, the U.S. has started bringing its complaints about persistent Chinese computer-hacking into the open after years of quiet and largely unsuccessful diplomacy. It has accused Beijing's government and military of computer-based attacks against America. While there have been no actual admissions of guilt, Chinese leaders have started acknowledging there is a problem and U.S. officials say the Chinese seem more open to working with the U.S. to address it.

"Inevitably there are areas of tension between our countries," Obama said, adding that it's in the interest of both countries to work together.

But China has asserted they, too, are often the victim of cyberattacks, including those that could be emanating from the U.S. ? a line of argument that could be emboldened by new revelations that the U.S. extensively scours the Internet usage of foreign nationals overseas.

Obama, seeking to keep the issue from overshadowing the China meetings, addressed the surveillance programs for the first time hours earlier. "You can't have 100 percent security and then also have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We're going to have to make some choices as a society," he said during a health care event in Northern California.

The two leaders were meeting at the 200-acre Sunnylands estate just outside Palm Springs, Calif., where they were to take questions from reporters Friday evening after a bilateral meeting, then hold a working dinner Friday night and additional talks Saturday morning.

U.S. officials see Xi, who took office in March, as a potentially new kind of Chinese leader. He has deeper ties to the U.S. than many of his predecessors and appears more comfortable in public than the last president, Hu Jintao, with whom Obama never developed a strong personal rapport.

Obama will also be looking to build on Xi's apparent impatience with North Korea's nuclear provocations. The U.S. has welcomed Xi's recent calls for North Korea to return to nuclear talks, though it's unclear whether Pyongyang is ready to change its behavior.

Xi is likely to press China's claims of business discrimination in U.S. markets and to express concern over Obama's efforts to expand U.S. influence in the Asia-Pacific region, which China sees as an attempt to contain its growing power.

Obama and Xi first met before the Chinese leader took office in March. They weren't slated to meet again until September, on the margins of an international economic summit in Russia, but both countries saw a need to move up their first meeting of the year, given the myriad issues that define their relationship.

___

Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-07-US-China/id-fcdd4ed2112648c1a79020e303579f5e

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Stop Freaking Out About the NSA

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, explain the National Security Agency phone surveillance program on June 6, 2013

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

You don?t need a wiretap to hear what people are saying about the National Security Agency?s phone surveillance program. The program?s details, disclosed in a secret court order leaked to the Guardian, show that at least one major company, Verizon, has been legally required to give the government information about its subscribers? communications. ?An astounding assault on the Constitution,? says Rand Paul. ?Obscenely outrageous,? says Al Gore. ?Beyond Orwellian,? says the ACLU.

Chill. You can quarrel with this program, but it isn?t Orwellian. It?s limited, and it?s controlled by checks and balances.

The program?s purpose, according to administration officials and knowledgeable members of Congress, is to find out who?s been calling or receiving calls from phone numbers linked to known or suspected terrorists. If Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been in contact with somebody flagged as a possible jihadist operative, this is the kind of surveillance that would have brought him to the attention of counterterrorism investigators, even without Russian assistance.

The leaked order is certainly worth discussing. It confirms that previous lines have been crossed. It?s now clear that the surveillance program, which was known to have been conducted under President Bush, has continued under President Obama. Moreover, there?s no requirement that at least one party to the call must be foreign. The order includes calls ?wholly within the United States.? Nor is there any requirement that the government show probable cause to justify its demand for any particular record. It only has to offer ?reasonable grounds to believe? that the records being sought are ?relevant to an authorized investigation.?

But the program is also restrained in several ways. Here?s a list.

1. It isn?t wiretapping. The order authorizes the transfer of ?telephony metadata? such as the date and length of each call and which phone numbers were involved. It doesn?t include the content of calls?which is more tightly protected by the Fourth Amendment?or the identity of the callers. The targeted data are mathematical, not verbal. They?re the kind of information you?d request if you were mapping possible extensions of a terrorist or criminal network.

2. It?s judicially supervised. The leaked document is a court order. It was issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance [FISA] Court. To get the Verizon data, the FBI had to ask the court for permission. The Bush administration used to extract this kind of metadata unilaterally. The Obama administration has changed the rules to bring in the court as an overseer.

3. It?s congressionally supervised. Any senator who?s expressing shock about the program is a liar or a fool. The Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees have been briefed on it many times. Committee members have had access to the relevant FISA court orders and opinions. The intelligence committee has also informed all senators in writing about the program, twice, with invitations to review classified documents about it prior to reauthorization. If they didn?t know about it, they weren?t paying attention.

4. It expires quickly unless it?s reauthorized. The leaked order was issued on April 25 and expires on July 19. That?s the way these orders have worked for years: The court has to review and reapprove the surveillance request, or the authority to transfer the records expires.

5. Wiretaps would require further court orders. The reason the leaked order is so broad is that it applies only to metadata. If, after looking at its map of phone numbers, the government decides that yours might belong to a potential terrorist, it can seek further information, including the content of your calls. But in that case, it has to ask the court for a separate order, which in turn would require enough evidence to override your Fourth Amendment rights.

Is government surveillance worth worrying about? Sure. But even broad surveillance, per se, isn?t outrageous. What?s important is that the surveillance be warranted by real threats, appropriately limited, and supervised by competing branches of government. In this case, those standards have been met.

William Saletan's latest short takes on the news, via Twitter:

Watch Verizon's lost "Can you hear me now?" NSA ad:

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2013/06/stop_the_nsa_surveillance_hysteria_the_government_s_scrutiny_of_verizon.html

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New study rebuts increase in willingness to cooperate from intuitive thinking

June 5, 2013 ? A study that was presented in Nature last year attracted a great deal of attention when it asserted that intuition promotes cooperation. But a group of researchers in behavioural and neuroeconomics at Link?ping University say that this is not true, in a new study now being published in Nature.

The first study drew the conclusion that people cooperate more if they are forced to make decisions when pressed for time. The research group (Rand et al.) let the test subjects make decisions under pressure on social dilemmas. They found that the decisions made at the time were more oriented towards cooperation. The conclusion was that decisions under pressure that build on intuition promote cooperation. It has gotten a lot of attention and aroused a great deal of discussion.

But it is not true, argues a group of researchers at several universities, including Link?ping University. In a new study now being presented in Nature, they show that being forced to decide under pressure of time has no effect on the desire to cooperate.

"Our findings cast serious doubt over the idea of people as intuitively willing to cooperate," says Gustav Tingh?g, part of the group for behavioural and neuroeconomics.

How decisions are made is a major issue for research in this field. People have two decision-making systems in the brain: an intuitive one, and a more reflective analytical one. Both systems, however, can be rational, and they integrate with each other in various decision-making situations, Tingh?g emphasises.

"Humanity's survival here on Earth is built on rationally grounded intuition."

When and where we choose to cooperate is an issue that especially interests economists. Willingness to collaborate is often tested in what are known as "social dilemmas," where the choice is between making a decision that benefits the group but is costly for the one person, or one that helps only oneself. The classical theory of Homo economicus says that in every situation, people will choose what maximises their own benefit, even if that does not contribute to everyone's best interests.

In the study by the Link?ping researchers, conducted along with colleagues from the United States and Austria, 2,500 people in the three countries were asked to choose between keeping a given sum of money for themselves, or split a greater sum total among a group of four people, in which they themselves were included.

Half of the test subjects in the randomised study decided under pressure. The others were made to wait before they were allowed to respond. The study shows no difference between those who made decisions under pressure and those who were made to wait. The Link?ping researchers' conclusion is that it is not true that quick, intuitively grounded decisions promote cooperation.

The study also shows that the results from the earlier study can be explained through errors in the statistical analysis.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/cZlgiqrbDOI/130605133706.htm

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