REAL PROPERTY-VALIDITY OF REGULATIONS OR CONDITIONS IMPOSED UPON SUBDIVISION PLANNING

The plaintiff, wishing to subdivide its land fronting on Long Island Sound, submitted its plan to the town planning and zoning board whose approval was required by ordinance before land could be subdivided and sold. The board rejected plaintiff\u27s plan as not in conformance with a preliminary town plan, adopted in 1936 pursuant to a state statute, providing for the prospective construction of a road along the shore of the sound. The plaintiff appealed to the board of zoning appeals, which affirmed the decision of the town planning and zoning board. On appeal to the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, held, reversed. A preliminary town plan, adopted without notice to affected property owners and without opportunity for them to be heard, cannot curtail the rights of such owners or limit them in the use of their land. Lordship Park Assn. v. Board of Zoning Appeals of Town of Stratford, (Conn. 1950) 75 A. (2d) 379

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT-DISCRIMINATION IN SELECTION OF GRAND JURORS

Defendant\u27s conviction of murder was affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which rejected defendant\u27s claim that discrimination in selection of the indicting grand jury had violated his constitutional rights. Defendant pointed out that the Negro proportion of grand jurors had uniformly been less than the ratio of Negroes to the total population of the county, and that on the past twenty-one lists the commissioners had consistently limited the number of Negroes to not more than one on each grand jury. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, held, reversed. Limitation of the number of Negroes on a grand jury to the approximate proportion of Negroes in the county eligible for grand jury service would constitute unconstitutional discrimination in violation of the rights of a member of that race against whom an indictment was returned by the grand jury so selected, since the accused is entitled to have charges against him considered by a grand jury in the selection of which there is neither inclusion nor exclusion because of race. Intentional exclusion proved by the statements of the commissioners that they chose for service only those whom they knew and that they knew no eligible Negroes was the actual discrimination on which the unconstitutionality was based. Cassell v. Texas, 339 U.S. 282, 70 S.Ct. 629 (1950)

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Defendant addressed a crowd of people, white and Negro, on a public sidewalk for the purpose of urging them to attend a certain meeting. During the course of his speech he \u27called Mayor Costello [of Syracuse] a champaign [sic] sipping bum and President Truman a bum. He referred to the American Legion as Nazi Gestapo agents-he also said the fifteenth Ward was run by corrupt politicians and that horse rooms were operating.\u27 He also appealed to the Negroes to rise up and fight for equal rights. The police were called but at first merely observed the gathering. Angry mutterings were heard as the crowd became divided in its sentiments toward the speaker. Pedestrians were unable to pass without going out into the street. Finally, after the police gave defendant several ineffective warnings to stop talking, he was arrested and convicted of disorderly conduct in violation of a state statute, over his objection that his freedom of speech had been unconstitutionally denied. On appeal to the New York Court of Appeals, held, affirmed. The constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech does not make this right absolute. Conviction for disorderly conduct does not infringe upon this right where the speaker on a public street encourages his audience to become divided into hostile camps, interferes with traffic, and deliberately agitates and goads the crowd and police officers into action. People v. Feiner, 300 N.Y. 391, 91 N.E. (2d) 316 (1950)

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Defendant addressed a crowd of people, white and Negro, on a public sidewalk for the purpose of urging them to attend a certain meeting. During the course of his speech he \u27called Mayor Costello [of Syracuse] a champaign [sic] sipping bum and President Truman a bum. He referred to the American Legion as Nazi Gestapo agents-he also said the fifteenth Ward was run by corrupt politicians and that horse rooms were operating.\u27 He also appealed to the Negroes to rise up and fight for equal rights. The police were called but at first merely observed the gathering. Angry mutterings were heard as the crowd became divided in its sentiments toward the speaker. Pedestrians were unable to pass without going out into the street. Finally, after the police gave defendant several ineffective warnings to stop talking, he was arrested and convicted of disorderly conduct in violation of a state statute, over his objection that his freedom of speech had been unconstitutionally denied. On appeal to the New York Court of Appeals, held, affirmed. The constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech does not make this right absolute. Conviction for disorderly conduct does not infringe upon this right where the speaker on a public street encourages his audience to become divided into hostile camps, interferes with traffic, and deliberately agitates and goads the crowd and police officers into action. People v. Feiner, 300 N.Y. 391, 91 N.E. (2d) 316 (1950)

REAL PROPERTY-VALIDITY OF REGULATIONS OR CONDITIONS IMPOSED UPON SUBDIVISION PLANNING

The plaintiff, wishing to subdivide its land fronting on Long Island Sound, submitted its plan to the town planning and zoning board whose approval was required by ordinance before land could be subdivided and sold. The board rejected plaintiff\u27s plan as not in conformance with a preliminary town plan, adopted in 1936 pursuant to a state statute, providing for the prospective construction of a road along the shore of the sound. The plaintiff appealed to the board of zoning appeals, which affirmed the decision of the town planning and zoning board. On appeal to the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, held, reversed. A preliminary town plan, adopted without notice to affected property owners and without opportunity for them to be heard, cannot curtail the rights of such owners or limit them in the use of their land. Lordship Park Assn. v. Board of Zoning Appeals of Town of Stratford, (Conn. 1950) 75 A. (2d) 379

TAXATION-FEDERAL INCOME TAX-SALE OF UNMATURED CROP AS CAPITAL GAIN OR ORDINARY INCOME

Petitioner sold a farm owned over six months upon which was a growing but unmatured wheat crop. When taxed upon the amount of sale price apportionable to the crop as ordinary income, he contended that under state law the land was a capital asset and that the growing crop was an inseparable part thereof. He concluded, therefore, that the entire amount should have been taxed as a capital gain. The purchaser testified that he had considered the crop to be worth about $8,500 and that he had deducted this amount in his own tax return as cost of the crop. The commissioner held that a growing crop is not necessarily a capital asset and that the part of the payment apportionable to the crop was ordinary income. On appeal to the Tax Court of the United States, held, affirmed. The amount of gain from the sale of the growing crop was properly treated as ordinary income, not capital gain, since the crop was property held primarily for sale to customers. McCoy v. Commissioner, 15 T.C. 828 (1950)

AGENCY-ELECTION TO SUE UNDISCLOSED PRINCIPAL OR AGENT

Plaintiff brought action against a principal and his agent to foreclose a mechanic\u27s lien on the principal\u27s real property, alleging that he had expended labor and materials in the improvement of the principal\u27s land pursuant to a contract between himself and the agent. Though plaintiff joined the agent as a party defendant, he did not pray for relief against him. Both defendants moved to dismiss the action. Held, action dismissed as to the agent. Whether or not the principal was disclosed at the time the contract arose, the action was properly dismissed as against the agent. If the principal was disclosed, the agent was not liable on the contract; and if the principal was undisclosed, the creditor had to elect whether to proceed against the agent or the principal. Failure to seek relief against the agent constituted an election to sue the principal. Campbell v. Murdock, (D.C. Ohio 1950) 90 F. Supp. 297

Big Data and the Internet of Things

Advances in sensing and computing capabilities are making it possible to embed increasing computing power in small devices. This has enabled the sensing devices not just to passively capture data at very high resolution but also to take sophisticated actions in response. Combined with advances in communication, this is resulting in an ecosystem of highly interconnected devices referred to as the Internet of Things - IoT. In conjunction, the advances in machine learning have allowed building models on this ever increasing amounts of data. Consequently, devices all the way from heavy assets such as aircraft engines to wearables such as health monitors can all now not only generate massive amounts of data but can draw back on aggregate analytics to "improve" their performance over time. Big data analytics has been identified as a key enabler for the IoT. In this chapter, we discuss various avenues of the IoT where big data analytics either is already making a significant impact or is on the cusp of doing so. We also discuss social implications and areas of concern.Comment: 33 pages. draft of upcoming book chapter in Japkowicz and Stefanowski (eds.) Big Data Analysis: New algorithms for a new society, Springer Series on Studies in Big Data, to appea

Cancelling the Queers: Activism in Art Education Conference Planning

This paper examines how individual and collective strategies and interventions countered homophobia and censorship in a public venue, in this particular case at a state art education association annual conference. We reveal our personal actions and reactions to hysteria, institutional homophobia, and find solutions. Our individual and collective responses demonstrate how layers of emotional, intellectual and activist energy co-exist and that harmony and quick solutions to such complex social problems involve sustained and dedicated efforts

Opportunities and barriers in paediatric pulse oximetry for pneumonia in low-resource clinical settings: a qualitative evaluation from Malawi and Bangladesh

OBJECTIVE: To gain an understanding of what challenges pulse oximetry for paediatric pneumonia management poses, how it has changed service provision and what would improve this device for use across paediatric clinical settings in low-income countries. DESIGN: Focus group discussions (FGDs), with purposive sampling and thematic analysis using a framework approach. SETTING: Community, front-line outpatient, and hospital outpatient and inpatient settings in Malawi and Bangladesh, which provide paediatric pneumonia care. PARTICIPANTS: Healthcare providers (HCPs) from Malawi and Bangladesh who had received training in pulse oximetry and had been using oximeters in routine paediatric care, including community healthcare workers, non-physician clinicians or medical assistants, and hospital-based nurses and doctors. RESULTS: We conducted six FGDs, with 23 participants from Bangladesh and 26 from Malawi. We identified five emergent themes: trust, value, user-related experience, sustainability and design. HCPs discussed the confidence gained through the use of oximeters, resulting in improved trust from caregivers and valuing the device, although there were conflicts between the weight given to clinical judgement versus oximeter results. HCPs reported the ease of using oximeters, but identified movement and physically smaller children as measurement challenges. Challenges in sustainability related to battery durability and replacement parts, however many HCPs had used the same device longer than 4 years, demonstrating robustness within these settings. Desirable features included back-up power banks and integrated respiratory rate and thermometer capability. CONCLUSIONS: Pulse oximetry was generally deemed valuable by HCPs for use as a spot-check device in a range of paediatric low-income clinical settings. Areas highlighted as challenges by HCPs, and therefore opportunities for redesign, included battery charging and durability, probe fit and sensitivity in paediatric populations. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02941237