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What Is The Story Behind The Burglar Who Sued The Homeowner?

Katko v. Briney, was a court case decided by the Iowa Supreme Court, in which two homeowners (Edward and Bertha Briney) were held liable for battery for injuries caused to a trespasser (Marvin Katko) who set off a spring gun set as a mantrap in an abandoned house on the homeowners’ property. The case thereafter received wide attention in legal circles, becoming a staple of tort law casebooks and law school courses.

Bertha Briney inherited an old farmhouse in Mahaska County, Iowa, which the Brineys had left vacant for the last ten years prior to the incident. They had the farmhouse boarded up and placed “No Trespassing” signs around the property. The farmhouse was in poor condition and was subject to frequent burglaries and break-ins.

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What Happens When A Country Doesn’t Pay Its Debts?

Most sovereign governments can, in theory, ignore their debts and default. The repercussions will depend on who lent the government the money.

It is extremely likely that no private investor or enterprise will consider lending more money (in the short term). They might go so far as to cease or curtail lending to private enterprises in that country due to perceived instability and unreliability of the government.

It is also likely the currency will devalue and there will be little incoming investment.

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What Was it Like Living in Occupied France During WWII For the Average Person?

In France, the Nazis split France into an occupied and unoccupied zone – occupied being the north, unoccupied, or Vichy, being the south. Nazis would have been living in the occupied zone – you would have had to board one for several days at a time – from 1940, and into the unoccupied zones from 1942.

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Who Are The MS-13?

ms-13 rivals

The Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13 is one of the most notorious and prolific street gangs in America and perhaps the Western world. To know the gang, their status and their rivals you need to know a bit more about their history and what made them who they are today. 

Who Are MS-13? 

While the average mostly thinks that MS-13 is simply a loosely organized street gang that deals in murder and drug trafficking, in actuality they are a multinational criminal organization that spans much of North and Central America as well as having reach as far as Europe. 

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Did Some Southerners Immigrate to Brazil after the Civil War?

Meet the Confederados

Defeated in the Civil War, some Southerners refused to live in a land without slavery. They also hated the idea of being part of the Union, so they left the United States.

Where did they go? Some 10,000 – 20,000 packed up and headed further south to Brazil, where they would be known as the Confederados. Some returned during the reconstruction, but most stayed and built new lives in their new country.

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What is the Turing Test?

In 1950, Alan Turing wrote his landmark paper COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE , where he probes the question “Can machines think?”

At the time, it was widely believed that there was something special about human intelligence and that computers would never be able to perform certain tasks, like understand language or play chess at a high level. Part of the paper was a point by point takedown of all the common objections to machine intelligence.

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What Exactly Is A Sociopath?

what is a sociopath

It is generally a term used to refer to people who are incapable of empathy. Someone without empathy can’t share the emotions of others, or imagine another persons emotional perspective.

By this definition if Bob is a sociopath, then seeing Laura in pain, or sad, or grieving will either make Bob feel good, or it won’t make Bob feel anything at all.

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What is Seppuku?

Seppuku is a ritualized and institutionalized form of suicide among the Samurai in Feudal Japan, performed by plunging a sword into your stomach and disemboweling yourself.

It was fundamentally an “honorable” way to commit suicide when you would otherwise be killed, not some random act done based on minor embarrassment.

Samurai would do it rather than be captured by a hostile force or after being convicted of very serious crimes. Sometimes it would be a requirement for a peace treaty and basically replaced killing the leader of the losing faction.

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