Ready to get your Bard on (briefly)?

Finally we move away from the very long (but excellent value) Forensics course and I’ll be starting on Social Deviance next. But for the next week or so it’s a catch-up period with a couple of Learn Something New Every Day (s) taken from The Great Course’s Shakespeare: The Word and the Action that I did […]

If you want to commit Identity Theft, move to Ohio.

The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 33: Crimes – Nobody’s Supposed to Get Hurt)  Identity theft of deceased persons is much bigger business than living. US authorities run a program called Operation Death Match which is the […]

How to work out your blood alcohol content

The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 33: Crimes – Nobody’s Supposed to Get Hurt) Blood alcohol content (BAC) can be determined using the Widmark Formulat, thusly:  (oz x %) x 5.14 lbs x .73 That is, multiply […]

Four things you didn’t know about crime

The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 32: Comparing Crimes and Crime Labs) Adding the phrase ‘aggravated’ to any charge means there’s something about the case that takes the crime to a more heinous level (age of victim, […]

Six types of murder and three types of manslaughter

The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 32: Comparing Crimes and Crime Labs) With six types of murder and three types of manslaughter in the mix it can be hard to know what each one means. Here’s a […]

There are no new crimes

The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 32: Comparing Crimes and Crime Labs) Motives are as old as humanity itself. The most common motives – greed, hatred, lust, jealousy, desperation, depravity. But many things widely considered to be […]

Expert witnesses

The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 31: Forensic Scientists and Expert Testimony) Revolving door of court appearances Testifying as an expert witness can be quite lucrative but it can create ‘rock stars’ and showponies. At its worst, […]

Wonder Woman, the Lasso of Truth and Polygraphs

The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 30: When forensics are on trial) William Marston (a psychologist, inventor & feminist) developed early lie detection technology based on blood pressure and breathing (and that led to the polygraphs of […]

Evidence (and the people that gather it) Must be ‘Competent’

The latest in my ‘Learn Something New Every Day’ series – taken from The Great Courses’ “Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works” (Lecture 30: When forensics are on trial) As well as probative and relevant (see yesterday’s post), evidence must be deemed competent (ie: not prejudiced, not un-constitutional, not privileged, not hearsay) in order […]