A border collie takes command of sentence rules

Dog sniffs out grammar

I don't think this is particularly new but it is a nice piece of canine interpretation.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/350585/description/Dog_sniffs_out_grammar

A border collie named Chaser participates in an experiment testing her ability to understand commands given before she can see any of the objects named in those directives. After hearing a four-word command, Chaser consistently turned around and carried the correct item from the head of the bed to the living room, where she placed it next the appropriate object.

 

 

Courtesy of J. Pilley

Fun (?) with statistics?

What to do if your p-value is just over the arbitrary threshold for ‘significance’ of p=0.05?

http://mchankins.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/still-not-significant-2/

"You don’t need to play the significance testing game – there are better methods, like quoting the effect size with a confidence interval – but if you do, the rules are simple: the result is either significant or it is not.
So if your p-value remains stubbornly higher than 0.05, you should call it ‘non-significant’ and write it up as such. The problem for many authors is that this just isn’t the answer they were looking for: publishing so-called ‘negative results’ is harder than ‘positive results’.
The solution is to apply the time-honoured tactic of circumlocution to disguise the non-significant result as something more interesting. The following list is culled from peer-reviewed journal articles in which (a) the authors set themselves the threshold of 0.05 for significance, (b) failed to achieve that threshold value for p and (c) described it in such a way as to make it seem more interesting.
As well as being statistically flawed (results are either significant or not and can’t be qualified), the wording is linguistically interesting, often describing an aspect of the result that just doesn’t exist. For example, “a trend towards significance” expresses non-significance as some sort of motion towards significance, which it isn’t: there is no ‘trend’, in any direction, and nowhere for the trend to be ‘towards’."

More on Interpreting ...

from http://rbth.ru/articles/2012/10/02/interpreters_to_soviet_and_russian_leaders_share_their_experiences_18743.html

Interpreters to Soviet and Russian leaders share their experiences

Former interpreters for Soviet and Russian leaders returned to the Kremlin ahead of International Translation Day celebrations.

Posing in front of the “History in Translation” photo exhibition– which depicted the interpreters accompanying various heads of state – they shared the highlights of their careers with obvious enjoyment.

During the course of a round table, Andrei Tsybenko, the latest interpreter to work with Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, recalled the most difficult episode of his career: the time he had to translate Putin’s reply to the question about the fate of the Kursk submarine. Putin famously answered: “It sank.”

Related: these are literary rather than court or political but there's a lot of useful information and experience here:

Translators interpret more than just words
Telling Russian stories in English
Don't shoot the translator
The Difficulties of Translation
 

 

SELECTED VIDEO / FILMS on JUDICIAL INTERPRETING

This a brilliant collection of links from my colleague Margaret van Naerssen:

 

SELECTED VIDEO / FILMS Re:  JUDICIAL INTERPRETING

May 25, 2013, Collected by Margaret van Naerssen

 

Interpreter Training (mostly designed for training)

Margaret's Comments

Below is a set of training videos sent to me by an interpreting expert/ trainer, Neri Sevenier. This is a really interesting collection of videos:  Canadian videos on courtroom ethics, US State Courts videos, and even a talk by the remaining survivor of the Nuremberg Trials (interpreter, simultaneous interpreting). I've sampled some from each group. They tend to be short--good for training.I think the one on the Nuremberg trial is the longest, 40+ minutes. 

 

 

URLs on Court Interpreting

Neri Sevenier

 neris@netvision.net.il

 

 1. Court interpreting - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5g_XglSivs&list=PL243D4E48A68853AC

(California courts)

2.  Getting started (2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE9HEU5DAjU

3.  Ethical Challenges (Canadian)

part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Da4q91V8E

 part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgiofAJ-9FA

 part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JqIf1YAaqA

 Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSzZpGcKLGI

 part 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCqDVJuLkz4

 Part 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_UhNAtSyto

 part 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Era_x7XRrt4

 part 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK3Vw68yfDA

 3. Court Interpreting Demonstration:  (US) Consecutive & Simultaneous

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJsQjVHe6AQ

 4. Nuremberg Interpreter--on simultaneous interpreting, by one of the actual interpreters during the Nuremberg Trial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvY_1bMAZWY

 5. Video Court Interpreting, distance  (Florida)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cant8yRw0Bg

 6. Linguist Lounge (court interpreting in England and the fiasco)

http://linguistlounge.org/

Commercial films

1. Red Corner

From: Neri Sevenier

I often use an excerpt from Red Corner http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsftwcuwJ2g. From 0:22:48 till 0:28:10.

It does not really concern problems with interpreting, but helps demonstrate the importance of an interpreter for the accused (his panic when there is a communication breakdown) and the difficulty of understanding standard behavior and making decisions in a foreign court with a different culture.

 

Margaret's Comments:  I initially requested ideas on videos films on interpreting issues/ errors for possible use in a state judges conference. Due to time constraints we've decided to use part of the above excerpt from Red Corner. We had to purchase the DVD:  23:23 to 27:47. The Supreme Court education office technology expert is going to "plug it into" my power point presentation.  I introduce the video clip with a ppt. slide with a picture of the DVD cover along with a few phrases about the video: title, stars, and a one-line summary.  I plan to also talk very briefly about the reason for using this clip and a few legal context notes to prepare the audience. 

Strangely enough, not really all that unusual!

http://www.gadailynews.com/news/crime/159115-florida-man-scott-simon-accidentally-pocket-dialled-911-while-talking-about-his-murder-plans.html

Florida man Scott Simon has charged with first-degree murder after he pocket dialled 911 and was recorded saying he would kill a man who was shot dead soon after. Picture: Broward Sheriff's Office.

AN ALLEGED US murderer accidentally "pocket dialled" 911 while talking about his plan to kill a man, police say.
Florida man Scott Simon called the US emergency number after getting into a fight with a man at a Waffle House eatery. The 911 line recorded Simon, 24, saying he's going to follow victim Nicholas Walker home and kill him. Just minutes later, Walker was shot and killed while driving.

And the process to be updated? ...

Woolwich attack: Calls for government to revive ‘snoopers’ charter’

http://metro.co.uk/2013/05/23/woolwich-attack-calls-for-government-to-revive-snoopers-charter-3805867/

Flowers left outside the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich (Picture: EPA)

The killing of a British solider in Woolwich has sparked calls for the government to revive the controversial ‘snoopers’ charter’.
Full-scale legislation to force internet companies to store details of all Britons’ online activity was dropped from the Queen’s Speech last month after opposition from Liberal Democrats.
But the government has now been urged to rethink its approach after a soldier was hacked to death in broad daylight in a suspected terrorist attack.
Former independent reviewer of terror laws Lord Carlisle told BBC’s Newsnight the Woolwich attack should provoke a ‘pause for thought’ on the decision to drop the bill and ‘proportionate lessons’ should be learned.
He cautioned against a ‘rush to judgement’ but said: ‘We must ensure that the police and the security services have for the future the tools they need which will enable them to prevent this kind of attack taking place.
‘I hope that this will give the government pause for thought about their abandonment for example of the communcations data bill and possibly pause for thought about converting control orders into what are now called Tpims, with a diluted set of powers.’
Former Labour home secretary Lord Reid said mobile phone data was crucial in foiling a 2006 plot to blow up airlines using liquid explosives.

An older process than we might think ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/may/23/ministers-ordered-bugging-king-edward

Previously secret note from Home Office refers to order to intercept communications at height of 1936 abdication crisis

Ministers ordered the bugging of Edward VIII's telephones in Buckingham Palace and in his Windsor retreat at the height of the 1936 abdication crisis, hitherto secret papers reveal.

The extraordinary move, reflecting a growing and deep distrust between the king and his ministers, is disclosed in a unique cache of intelligence files hidden until now in a basement at the Cabinet Office in the heart of Whitehall.

Among the files is a scribbled note, dated 5 December 1936 and marked "most secret", from the Home Office to the head of the General Post Office, Sir Thomas Gardiner, referring to an order from the home secretary, Sir John Simon.

It states: "The home secretary asks me to confirm the information conveyed to you orally … that you will arrange for the interception of telephone communications between Fort Belvedere and Buckingham Palace on the one hand and the continent of Europe on the other."

When not at the palace, Edward stayed at Fort Belvedere, his bolthole in Windsor Great Park. Edward's mistress, the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, was staying with friends in the south of France at the time.

The panic in the British establishment provoked by Edward's affair with Simpson and his apparent belief that he could get away with marrying her and remain king has been widely reported.

What has not been disclosed until now is how the lack of trust in the monarch was such that ministers went to the lengths of recording his personal conversations.

The Queen's advisers at Buckingham Palace were consulted about the decision to release the file, the Guardian understands.

Deep anxiety in Whitehall and the government's fear of losing control of the situation led to a close watch of outgoing telegrams. One that was intercepted and blocked was from Neil Forbes Grant, London editor of the Cape Times.

Summoned to see the home secretary, Grant was told there was no truth to his report that the king was about to abdicate and that if the news had reached South Africa and then been telegraphed back to Britain, the reaction might have been "of a most serious character".

Simon wrote: "I reminded him that in 1815 a false rumour that we had lost the Battle of Waterloo produced a financial crisis and ruined many people. I asked him if he did not realise that his responsibilities as a journalist and an Englishman made the sending of such a message without definite authority as to its truth very improper and reckless."

Grant insisted he had got his information from "a very highly placed source", but seemed suitably chastened. According to Simon, the journalist said "this had been a lesson to him and that he would always have this experience in mind in discharging his responsibilities in future".

Edward abdicated on 10 December 1936, four days after Grant sent his intercepted telegram.

The newly released files, all highly classified, have been gathering dust for decades in a Cabinet Office basement. Lord Wilson, a former cabinet secretary, described how he visited what he called a strongroom beneath his old office where he found "heaps of paper … my eyes swivelled".

He said he decided to "grasp the nettle" and set up a review to look into the possible release of the papers. It was carried out by Gill Bennett, a former Foreign Office official historian. She said the papers had been treated as "too difficult" to categorise. Officials were "not sure what to do with them", she said.

Other files among the tranche, which records events up to 1951, reveal how a male MI6 officer was arrested in Madrid wearing women's clothes, how MI6 paid huge amounts of money to agents to keep Spain out of the second world war, and how MI6 was prepared to "liquidate" selected individuals after the war.

Amid tales of bribery, smuggling, dirty tricks, and intrigue – some of which, missing files suggest, are still being carried out – the papers also include a first-hand account of how Churchill spent a night drinking with Stalin in Moscow in August 1942. Sir Alexander Cadogan, top official at the Foreign Office, wrote of being summoned to Stalin's room. "There I found Winston and Stalin … sitting with a heavily laden board between them: food of all kinds crowned by a suckling pig, and unnumberable bottles.

"What Stalin made me drink seemed pretty savage: Winston, who by that time was complaining of a slight headache, seemed wisely to be confining himself to a comparatively innocuous effervescent Caucasian red wine."

" Everything seemed to be as merry as a marriage-bell", added Cadogan, as Stalin went on about the benefits of the Soviet system. The party broke up at 3am.

Lie Detection and Professional Ethics

This article from the BBC "The curious story of how the lie detector came to be" provides an interesting history of the device and some of its mythology:

The science behind the lie detector test has been disputed since its creation 90 years ago, so is there any reliable way to tell if someone is lying, asks Dr Geoff Bunn, author of The Truth Machine: A Social History of the Lie Detector.

"If I was guilty and wanted to beat that machine, it wouldn't be hard," says Sharon Stone's psychopathic character in Basic Instinct.
And the history of the polygraph - better known as the lie detector test - is littered with people who have been able to trick it.
The polygraph machine was invented in 1921 in Berkeley, California.
"Berkeley was a town with a very famous police chief, August Vollmer, and he was in charge of police reform and a leader of police professionalisation in the United States," says Ken Alder, professor of history at Northwestern University in Chicago.
"He actually wanted to use the science to make the cops more law-abiding themselves, to substitute this new scientific interrogation for what was formerly known as the third degree, which was a way of getting information from people by beating them up."

Find out more

The Truth And Nothing But The Truth is on Tuesday 21 May on 11:00 BST on BBC Radio 4 or catch it later on the BBC iPlayer.

• The Truth And Nothing But The Truth

Berkeley police officer John Larson created the first machine, basing it on the systolic blood pressure test pioneered by psychologist William Moulton Marston, who would later become a comic book writer and create Wonder Woman.

Marston believed blood pressure changes could show whether someone was lying.
The modern polygraph measures a range of physical changes such as pulse and breathing as well as blood-pressure.
But the credibility of the polygraph was challenged almost as soon as it was invented

Alone in a Sea of Voices

(thanks to my friend and colleague Ruth Morris for alerting me to this paper.)

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2208749&nbsp

Alone in a Sea of Voices: Recognizing a New Form of Isolation By Language Barriers, or Linguistic Isolation

Peter Jan Honigsberg

University of San Francisco - School of Law

April 29, 2013

Univ. of San Francisco Law Research Paper No. 2013-11

Abstract:     
Sixteen-year old Uzbek, Sunnat (not his real name), was seized in Afghanistan following the attacks on September 11, 2001. He was transported to the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2002. Despite being cleared for release, Sunnat waited eight years to find a country that would take him.

Sunnat was placed in a cell among other detainees in the general prison population. He spoke neither Arabic nor English, the lingua francas of the prison and the only languages spoken by the detainees in neighboring cells. Consequently, for much of his time in Guantanamo he talked to no one. He awoke each morning and cried. Sunnat could, of course, reach out and communicate through eye contact, hand signs and facial expressions. However, Sunnat never meaningfully communicated with his neighbors. Absence of meaningful human contact is a characteristic of isolation and a source of suffering caused by isolation. Sunnat suffered a new and unique form of isolation, known as "Isolation by language barriers."

In this article, I use Sunnat's story as a lens through which to see how isolation by language barriers is a form of isolation that warrants special attention in the detention context. Similar to other forms of isolation, isolation by language barriers may rise to the level of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or CID. Academic literature on isolation, including literature in the social sciences and international fields, has only cursorily acknowledged the experience of being isolated by language in detention, and has not identified the experience as a distinct type of isolation. Consequently, this essay is original work.

In comparing isolation by language barriers to other forms of isolation, this article will also create a framework where isolation by language barriers is recognized as a distinct form of isolation similar to solitary confinement, incommunicado detention and administrative segregation. In addition, the article will identify circumstances outside Guantanamo where isolation by language barriers also exists, such as in immigration and asylum detention centers. The article concludes with suggestions for remedying situations of isolation by language barriers.

Dialects of Canada and the US

http://io9.com/an-interactive-map-of-regional-american-accents-with-a-506349445

Great site - and the comments are very interesting too!

Interviewing child witnesses / victims

Article from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130409091054.htm

Interviewers' Gestures Mislead Child-Witnesses

Apr. 9, 2013 — Children can easily be led to remember incorrect information through misleading gestures from adults, according to researchers from the University of Hertfordshire.

---

These findings are being presented this week at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference.
Psychologists from the University played children a video and then asked them to recount what they had seen. The children were then questioned about what they remembered.
After showing children a film of a woman wearing a hat, the researcher asked them "What was the lady wearing?" while performing an action similar to putting on a hat. When the questions were accompanied by gestures that mimicked the correct answer, children got the answer correct.
But when the researcher asked the same question and pretended to put on a pair of glasses, ninety-three per cent of children ignored what they'd seen in the video and insisted the woman had been wearing glasses instead.
University of Hertfordshire psychologist Dr Liz Kirk said: "We wanted to explore the differences in gesture misinformation by comparing younger and older children and how they incorporated this non-verbal information into their account of what they saw.
"All the children were highly susceptible to gesture and spoke about extra information fraudulently planted by the interviewer. But what most surprised us was the fact that the children even incorporated the adult's misleading gestures into their stories of what they'd seen on the video.
"This study demonstrates the extent to which the gestures were included into the children's accounts of what they saw.
"This has serious implications for forensic interview of child witnesses, particularly where they may have witnessed a traumatic event which they may have to confront again during questioning. Interviewers need to think very carefully not just about what they say, but how they say it."

 

UK Case Law on Threats to Kill

Threats to kill

Date Produced: 8 March 2013
Title: Offences against the person
Offence: Threats to kill
Legislation: Offences Against the Person Act 1861 section 16
Mode of Trial: Either Way
Statutory Limitations & Maximum Penalty: 10 years imprisonment
Sentencing Range: Serious specified violent offence

Aggravating & Mitigating Factors

• Any use of violence or imminent threat
• Written or oral threat
• Premeditated or spontaneous
• Whether series of offences
• More than one offender or victim

Relevant Sentencing Guidelines

The SGC definitive guideline 'Assault and Other Offences Against the Person' does not cover this offence

Relevant Sentencing Case Law

R v Tucknott [2001] 1 Cr.App.R.(S.) 93.
The Court of Appeal noted that it seemed not to have approved sentences in excess of 5 years on a plea of guilty, whilst recognising that a higher sentence could be justified in a special case.
R v Fletcher [2002] Crim. L. R. 591
Consecutive sentences were imposed for indecent assault and threats to kill arising out of the same incident. The imposition of consecutive sentences was upheld by the Court of Appeal on the basis that the gravamen of the former was indecency whereas the gravamen of the latter offence was the extreme terror which such threats engendered.
R. v Smith [2004] 2 Cr.App.R.(S.) 92
Appellant pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, threats to kill, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm involving his mother.  Previous decisions of the Court of Appeal considered.  Sentence reduced to five years imprisonment.
R. v Pringle [2004] 2 Cr.App.R.(S.) 36
Appellant, who was serving a 15 year sentence, pleaded guilty.  He shouted a prison officer's name and threatened to shoot him, his wife and children after his release. The victim believed that he intended to carry out the threat. Sentence reduced to three years imprisonment consecutive.
R v Fuller [2011] 2 Cr.App.R.(S.) 59
Appellant and victim were former friends who had fallen out years previously.  Victim threatened by associate of appellant, victim went to his car, appellant arrived and said that he would come to the victim's house and shoot him or pay someone else to do so.  Appellant referred to a local shooting some years before, saying that he had paid for it to be done.  Appellant's hand in pocket suggesting to victim that he might have a gun.  Victim feared for his life and for that of his family.  Appellant then drove away.  Previous convictions.  Guilty plea 13 days after the PCMH.  Sentence reduced to 2 years imprisonment.

Women in India

In the light of the recent appalling reports of crimes against women in India, and the unsavory comments made by certain figures in authority, this section from the Nashik Police Website makes encouraging reading:

http://www.nashikpolice.com/

Women : Special Privilages

Every policeman is duty bound to ensure that women are treated with due respect. There is no exception to this rule. In cases, where a woman is the complainant, police will make enquiries and investigations expeditiously. When an occasion to arrest a woman or to interrogate a woman witness arises, it is binding upon the police to keep woman police personnel present. If a woman is accused, she shall be treated with dignity, irrespective of the nature of the crime committed. Normally, neither shall women be arrested, nor called to a police station between sunset and sunrise. However, under exceptional circumstances, if it is necessary to arrest them or call them to a police station, it is binding upon the police to allow their relatives to stay with them. Accused women are to be kept in the cells specially reserved for them. A rape victim may ask for her medical examination to be conducted by a female doctor. She can also choose to give her statement to lady police personnel. As far as practicable, lady police officer shall be deputed for this job. If it is not possible, it shall be ensured that some local women must be present at the time of registration of FIR and recording of statement. Nashik Police is committed to provide decent treatment to all the citizens, especially women. Any aberrations must be brought to the notice of senior officers.

A lot of this about ...

http://www.languageinsight.com/blog/2013/05/02/health-service-interpreting-line-routed-to-dominican-republic/

Are you wired for sound?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/nyregion/secret-recording-grows-safer-as-the-wire-grows-tinier.html?

"Just before accepting a $25,000 bribe, he patted down the agent, ostensibly to check for a recording device, federal prosecutors allege in the complaint.

The moment was reminiscent of the 1970s and ’80s, when undercover agents recorded conversations with mobsters using a bulky tape recorder strapped around their waists, and wires — connected to a microphone — secured to their chests with an adhesive. Today, in an age when technology has gone wireless, the phrase “wearing a wire” is a largely allegorical term of art.

“In the old days, they would say, ‘Let me pat you down for a wire’ and boom, everybody would just open their shirt and say, ‘I’m not wearing a wire,’ ” a retired undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, Joaquin Garcia, said in a telephone interview on Friday. “Now there is no need to wear a wire. It’s become extinct. It’s all gone digital. But what are you going to say, ‘I’m wearing digital,’ instead of ‘I’m wearing a wire’? It’s just become part of the parlance of law enforcement.”"

Forensic Science competition

http://worldskillsuk.apprenticeships.org.uk/competitions/national-competitions/social-and-professional-services/forensic-science

This competition is open

The Forensic Science Competition consists of three stages designed to assess your understanding and knowledge of Forensic Science and its use within the criminal justice system.

Stage 1) Design a poster campaign to educate staff, visitors and guests to the dangers and implications of cross contamination.

Stage 2) Attend a mock crime scene designed by the judging team to assess, identify, recover and package any and all evidence relevant to the crime(s) that are alleged to have taken place.

Stage 3) Provide a written review of the actions taken at the crime scene within a set time period.

Competition brief
Download the competition brief from the website. For more information please email ghoward@c-pdms.com

The competition is organised by C.P.D.M.S. Ltd - (Complete Policing, Defence and Medical Solutions).

Michael Jackson: the difficulty of disproving 'impersonator' theories

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/michael-jackson/10025889/Michael-Jackson-the-difficulty-of-disproving-impersonator-theories.html

"Members of Michael Jackson's family are expected to claim concert promoters AEG used a body double in place of the King of Pop for promotional duties before his death in 2009, but definitively identifying an individual on video footage is fraught with difficulty, according to a forensic video analyst. 

"In the UK, forensic analysts use a scale to determine the likelihood that video images depict a particular individual, ranging from 'limited support' to 'powerful support', rather than providing 100% certainly.

Jurors in Los Angeles will doubtless be bombarded by lawyers with competing evidence as to whether the Michael Jackson who appeared for rehearsals and promotional events really was the King of Pop himself."

No mention of voice identification - is this being done as well?

Yet another article on the propensity of forensic experts to show bias:

"Forensic psychologists and psychiatrists are ethically bound to be impartial, to look only at the evidence before them, when performing evaluations or providing expert opinions in court. But new research suggests that the paycheck some courtroom experts receive influences their evaluations:

http://www.futurity.org/society-culture/impartial-experts-not-so-impartial/? "

The plethora of papers and articles dealing with this matter seems to suggest that it is a problem of epidemic proportions - which as far as I can see, it most definitely is not.