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North Carolina Judge John O. Craig doesnt believe its his job to make policy about guns thats a job for the legislature. But he told The Washington Post hell probably sleep a little better at night knowing Daniel Ray Brown isnt toting a gun around.

Craig found Browns armed, bad-Samaritan response to a minor altercation so extreme that he immediately revoked the Winston-Salem, N.C., mans concealed-carry permit, even though he met the states requirements.

I dont think its a good idea for this gentleman to have a concealed-carry permit, so Im going to revoke that, Craig said in court, according to the Winston-Salem Journals Scott Sexton. This is just not the kind of thing we like to see from people with concealed-carry permits.

The gun incident happened last March. Brown and his mother were eating near Hanes Mall inWinston-Salem when he saw a white man, screaming for help, being chased by two black men.

[Florida could flip burden of proving stand your ground]

Brown, who did not return messages seeking comment, would later tell authorities that he thought the pursuers were drug dealers, or possibly loan sharks, and that the white man was in trouble. According to the Winston-Salem Journal, an officer testified that Brown told him he saw two black guys ganging up on the white dude, and Ive been told if I saw anything going on, I could use lethal force.

But Brown was wrong and Craig said he was about to make a bad situation worse.

He was under the mistaken impression that if he came across a situation like this he could use lethal force to break it up, an incredulous Craig told The Post. I think he had a stand-your-ground-type defense confused and thought that he could just be a vigilante.

According to Winston-Salem police, Brown attempted to stop the struggle by pointing a handgun.

One of the black men, Fredrick Morgan, testified that Brown pointed his gun at the group and demanded that the scuffling trio show ID.

Im like, Whoa, whoa, whoa. You need to put that gun up, Morgan testified, according to the Journal.

When the three men wouldnt listen, Brown fired a bullet into the ground a few feet in front of Morgan.

It wasnt until after Brown had made a new hole in the asphalt that he learned the truth. The white man was mentally ill and had fledfrom two care workers. The chase was their attempt to corral him near Hanes Mall.

[A good Samaritan helped a woman who was being beaten in a parking lot. Now hes dead.]

The gunfire near a crowded mall spooked everyone, and sent police officers scrambling to the scene. They arrested Brown, and had harsh words for him at his appeal.

Officer J.R. Huffman, a 17-year veteran of the Winston-Salem police and the first officer on the scene, testified that Browns gunfire amped it up another level, according to the Journal.

When the officer demanded to know who fired the gun, Brownanswered that the gun was his and that he had a concealed-carry permit.

Huffman responded: Whered you get a concealed-carry license from? Kmart? . . . Warning shots? We dont fire warning shots.

Brown was arrested and convicted of assault by pointing a gun and discharging a firearm within city limits both misdemeanors. Unsatisfied with the verdict, he appealed to a jury trial, which brought him to Craigs courtroom last week.

Although Craig said the misdemeanor case was fairly bizarre, he said the incident seemed indicative of greater confusion over stand your ground laws.

Defense of your ground or your car or other people such as your family is a totally different thing from what [Brown] thought, he said.

The case of an armed civilian had echoes of George Zimmerman, the Florida man accused in 2012 of killing Trayvon Martin.

Trayvon, 17, was unarmed, carrying a pack of Skittles candy and a can of iced tea and wandering through a neighborhood in Sanford, Fla., when he got into aconfrontation with Zimmerman.

Like the Winston-Salem case, Zimmermans had racial overtones.

Trayvon was black. Zimmerman, who told dispatchers that he was a neighborhood watch volunteer, identified himself as Hispanic. The shooting of the teen sparked protests across the country and a nationwide conversation about stand your ground laws.

Zimmerman claimed that Trayvon attacked him and that he fired in self-defense. He was acquitted a year after the shooting.

Opponents of "stand your ground" gun laws teamed up in Florida to protest new similar measures under consideration in the state capital. (Reuters)

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A man claimed he stood his ground with a warning shot. A judge revoked his carry permit. - Washington Post

Mark Ralston/Getty Images

Explaining racism is hard. When youre illustrating the complexities of racial prejudice in America, it is difficult to bridge the gap between understanding and skepticism in a populace pretending to listen with its arms folded, ready to dismiss any reasonable, salient point that demonstrates the existence of privilege and bigotry. Sometimes its not that people dont believe racism exists; rather, its difficult to provide examples that are clear-cut and easy to understand.

But not today.

Last week, after President Don Puffy Comb-Over claimed on Twitter that his predecessor had wiretapped his phones, Republican lawmakers, having seen no evidence or proof, vowed to investigate. On Monday they began seeking proof of his charges. Even though Donald Trump offered no substance to his charges, they still promised to examine them, understanding that if they were true, it meant one of two things:

Either Barack Obama slithered into his Magical Negro Spider-Man suit, slithered out of the White House, slipped unnoticed into midtown Manhattan and scaled Trump Tower to personally plant listening devices, or the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court determined that there was sufficient evidence to listen in on Trump and issued a warrant to intelligence or law-enforcement agents. If the federal government was listening to Trumps calls, one of those two things had to happen.

Yet the entire House of Representatives and the Senate, along with federal investigators, the Justice Department, the intelligence community and every other person in the executive branch of the U.S. government, sat on their hands and zipped their lips while Trump accused the former president of the United States of a felony. Lawmakers didnt just look the other way; they promised to look into the claimeven though they knew it was a lie. By taking this stance, even though they are quite aware that it is impossible to prove a negativethat Obama didnt tap Trumps gold rotary desktop telephonethey all tacitly acknowledged that Obama might be a criminal.

But Obama is black, and black people are used to this.

Trumps claims do not just exist in the over-the-shoulder reminiscences of yesteryear. They are the latest example, in a number of recent reminders, of how offhand, unsubstantiated accusations against black people in America are so easily accepted, resulting in character assassination and sometimes death.

Example: This weekend, two and-a-half years after Michael Brown was gunned down in Ferguson, Mo., surveillance footage emerged that seemed to show Brown exchanging what appears to be marijuana with store clerks minutes before now-former Police Officer Darren Wilson killed him.

This is significant because the narrative of this case was always that Brown went to a corner store and stole a pack of cigarillos. Minutes later, according to the narrative, Wilson encountered Browna hulk of a man whose adrenaline was pumping after he supposedly committed a forceful, brazen robberywho grabbed the officers gun.

It was easy for prosecutors, a grand jury, conservative voices and the media as a whole to rationalize Browns death given the facts. It was believable that a young man who would strong-arm cashiers and loot a business in broad daylight would also be reckless enough to grab a cops gun. A policeman should rightfully fear for his life in the presence of such a menace.

Except that none of it appears to be true. Even without sound, the new video shows what appears to be an illegal but reciprocal exchange. Brown lays a baggie on the counter, and the store clerks pick it up, examines it and holds up a pack of cigars in exchange. Brown never retrieves the bag but gives back the cigarillos. Investigators had this evidence but never presented it, now saying that it is irrelevant to our investigation. Even with this new footage, it is unlikely that anyone will ever pay for Browns death.

Example: Feb. 26 marked the fifth anniversary of the death of Trayvon Martin, the fifth anniversary of when George Zimmerman shot an unarmed 17-year-old who had committed no crime. Police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman because he told investigators that he shot Trayvon in self-defense after Trayvon fought with him and grabbed his gun. A jury acquitted Zimmerman, even though 911 operators asked him not to follow Trayvon; even after analysis found none of Zimmermans DNA under Trayvons fingernails following a supposed fight; and despite the fact that Zimmermans gun did not have Trayvons fingerprints on it.

But Zimmerman said that Trayvon was the aggressor, so he wasnt arrested until 44 days after he shot the teenager. A jury found Zimmerman not guilty because his shooting of Trayvon in the chest was necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm. Zimmerman said it; therefore it was true. Trayvon is dead because of one person, but no one will ever pay for his death.

Example: Carolyn Bryant, the woman who accused 13-year-old Emmett Till of whistling at her, resulting in his gruesome 1955 death, recently admitted that she made the whole thing up. Bryant chose to wait 62 years after Emmetts family laid him to rest, and a lifetime after her husband and his accomplice confessed to the murder in Look magazine for $3,000. She outwaited a 2004 Justice Department reinvestigation of the crime. No one ever paid for the murder of Emmett Till because of one person. Emmett is dead because of one persons statement.

Media outlets, congress members and senators for weeks have discussed Trumps bromance with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is no longer speculation; it is fact. Trumps campaign managers, now-former national security adviser, secretary of state and attorney general, as well as other members of his staff, all have verifiable ties to the Russian government, but to date, there hasnt been a single real investigation. But as soon as the dimwitted despot tweeted that the black president had violated the rules, everyone was quick to say, Lets take a look at this.

Thats the way this country has always worked. Demonizing black men is as American as strange fruit-flavored pie. It is easy to condemn the long history of lynchings while pardoning and turning a blind eye to the people who point the fingers that led to nooses around necks. The way Republican lawmakers grabbed their Sherlock Holmes hats after Trump offhandedly accused the only scandal-free president of our lifetime of a federal crime is indicative of the fact that only some people are innocent until proved guilty.

Thats why a man 50 pounds heavier and 11 years older than a teenager with a pocket full of candy could shoot the boy in the chest and claim that he did it in self-defense. Its how the Ferguson police, prosecutors and news outlets convinced us that 6-foot-4 Mike Brown was terrorizing his neighborhood like a rabid dog, intimidating and grabbing the weapon of the mild-mannered, elfin, 6-foot-4 Darren Wilson. Its why the world disregarded Carolyn Bryants bloodstained hands for a half a century while Emmett Tills family still screams for justice.

This is what it means to be black in America.

Pure innocence is not enough to keep your head from being smashed with an anvil and your body wrapped in barbed wire. Do not talk to strangers is an inadequate safety message when a man can stalk your son and shoot him in the chest, and people will eagerly bid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the gun that did it. Even a heralded black man with a reputation so spotless that he somehow becomes the leader of the free world is still lesser than a white, imbecilic, dishonest dictator-in-training. Imagine how scary it must be to live in a world where you can be undone by any words uttered from a white moutheven if they arent true.

Maybe we shouldnt point out the effects of unfounded white accusations against black bodies. Instead, we will make a universal blanket proclamation that encompasses all of these incidents, hoping that our inclusive statement will cause some people to hear the words we have been too long shouting at our dear America:

All lies matter.

More here:
What Trump's Tweets Teach Us About Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown and Emmett Till - The Root

Even if white and black men are the same heights and weights, people tend to perceive black men as taller, more muscular and heavier. So said a psychological survey, published Monday in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, exploring stereotypes about perceptions of male bodies.

What's more, the study found, nonblack participants believed black men to be more capable of physical harm than white men of the same size. The results also indicated that nonblack observers believed that police would be more justified to use force on these black men, even if they were unarmed, than white male counterparts.

"Unarmed black men are disproportionately more likely to be shot and killed by police, and often these killings are accompanied by explanations that cite the physical size of the person shot," John Paul Wilson, an author of the study and a psychologist at New Jersey's Montclair State University, said in a statement Monday.

The psychologists noted that, in the wake of police shootings, the physical size of those killed frequently becomes a focal point. Tamir Rice, who was shot and killed on a Cleveland playground in 2014 while holding a replica gun, was described as "menacing" after his death.

"He's 5-feet-7, 191 pounds. He wasn't that little kid you're seeing in pictures. He's a 12-year-old in an adult body," Steve Loomis, president of Cleveland's Police Patrolman's Association, told Politico magazine in 2015. "Tamir Rice is in the wrong."

And in 2012, after George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin, "images circulated depicting Martin as older and larger than he was," the authors of the new study wrote. "In one notorious example, people widely shared a photograph of a man with facial tattoos in what was purported to be an up-to-date representation of Martin. In fact, it was a rap musician known as the Game who was in his 30s in the photograph."

Wilson and his colleagues at the Miami University of Ohio and the University of Toronto conducted a series of seven experiments, asking 950 online participants to gauge the physical and threatening characteristics of men, based on male faces and bodies.

In one of the studies, for instance, survey participants gauged men's height and weights given only photographs of male faces. Of the 90 male faces, half of the men were black and the other half were white. The researchers used images of high school football quarterbacks being recruited to play college ball (therefore their height and weight data were publicly available to the scientists).

Those surveyed rated black men to be consistently larger - even though that was not, in reality, the case. Based on just the faces, they estimated that the black men were slightly taller (an average of 72 inches vs. 71 inches tall) and a bit heavier, at an average of 181 pounds for black men but 177 pounds for white men.

Another study asked participants to match the athlete's faces to a series of illustrated bodies. These illustrations ranged from the depiction of a slender male body to a shredded physique, not unlike that of former NFL player, actor and deodorant pitchman Terry Crews. As in the cases of height and weight, participants rated black men as more muscular.

To gauge people's perceptions of strength, the study authors created a pool of athlete profile photos from a group of black and white men who could bench-press the same weights, on average. Participants judged the black men (from "Not at all strong" to "Very strong") as stronger.

"We found that these estimates were consistently biased," Wilson said. "Participants judged the black men to be larger, stronger and more muscular than the white men, even though they were actually the same size."

The psychologists asked participants to gauge the men's capability of causing physical harm. The researchers also wanted to know, if the men in the photos were acting aggressively, whether participants thought police would be justified in using force while making an arrest. Black observers did not rate black men as more likely to cause harm.

But nonblack participants did. These participants also indicated that, if police were to use force to subdue the men, it was more likely to be justified in the cases where the men were black. That is, although black and white participants equally overestimated the strength of black men, only nonblack observers considered the black men to be more dangerous.

"Participants also believed that the black men were more capable of causing harm in a hypothetical altercation and, troublingly, that police would be more justified in using force to subdue them, even if the men were unarmed," Wilson said. "Our research suggests that these descriptions may reflect stereotypes of black males that do not seem to comport with reality."

The psychologists pointed out that limiting the photos to faces of football players - a sport that puts a premium on strong, large bodies - could skew the results, but they said they would expect similar trends in a broader sample pool of black and white faces.

The study authors also noted that these hypothetical scenarios and results do not necessarily translate into the real world.

"It would be valuable for future research to investigate whether the biases that we have observed here manifest in face-to-face interactions outside of the laboratory," they wrote in the study. "Despite this limitation, we believe that the consistency of the effects that we have observed from multiple sets of face and body photographs is quite striking on its own."

Across the United States, the average black man and the average white man are roughly the same height and weight. According to what data are available, such as information taken from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveys, the average white man older than 20 weighs 199 pounds. So does the average black man. Height averages for black and white men are within a centimeter of each other, with the average white man being slightly taller at 5-foot-10.

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Black men seen as larger, stronger than white men - even when they're not: study - Chicago Tribune

We all know that good information is the requisite ingredient for effective analysis and investment decision-making. The ability to gather analytical inputs or tradable information about a company or security in advance of the market can enhance investment returns.

In the past, when information moved slowly and was difficult to come by, analysts who could find and incorporate relevant and usable data about companies, securities, or the capital markets had a distinct edge.

Mining Reputable Data in the Social Media Revolution

Today with the democratization of data and the social media revolution, access is no longer such an advantage. Countless information sources for investments are available online, and data can be easily accessed and shared across social networks with the click of a mouse.

According to a survey conducted by The Pew Research Center, 62% of U.S. adults now get their news from social media. The reasons are simple: By the time a news organization gets hold of a story for us to read on their traditional platforms, its already old news. And thanks to fancy algorithms, our social networks know what news we want and feed it to us in a more timely fashion.

For better or worse, social media can yield investment information just as it can disseminate the news. But harnessing the gathering power of social media is a daunting task. For most individual investors, even following a single social media platform, like Twitter, for a sense of user sentiment or to form an investment outlook can be like drinking from a fire hose.

When information is so readily found, access has little value. In fact, we have access to too much data. What has become more valuable today is being able to distinguish and differentiate usable and reputable signals from all the noise.

With new technologies that pair Big Data and Machine Learning, there may be ways to channel the deluge.

During the Super Bowl for example, LikeFolio used its social data technology to collect and process millions of tweets to measure the effectiveness of the ad campaigns and rate how well the sponsoring company leveraged its advertising spend, Forbes reported.

Similar technology can transform social data into analytical inputs or investment decisions, and create practical insights from massive amounts of social data. Though these tools are not yet readily accessible or available at a reasonable price point for individual investors, given the demand, it wont be long before they are.

Fake News vs. Trusted Networks

Sifting through social media data is only one factor.

What about the trust issue?

How do we know whether the data shared across social media is reputable? Unfortunately, fake news and other misinformation proliferate online, and people looking to influence the pricing of assets or securities may resort to it.

Social networks designed specifically for traders and investors have the potential to mitigate much of this trust problem.

Those interested in trading the market can join eToro, ZuluTrade, Collective2, and Scutify to access and emulate numerous traders and their trades. Members can follow individual traders and make investment decisions based on those transactions, and some of these networks even feature high performers or rate traders according to their investment track record. Although pricing varies by platform, these sites offer similar services and are organized along similar lines.

Other social networks -- TradingView, for example -- are forums where investors can exchange trading ideas, information and place live orders.

These platforms offer a variety of content articles, commentary, investment information, etc. that are developed and shared just like on other social networks, and can feature analytical input and education on investment topics.

There are two traditional ways that people learn the principles and best practices of investment management. One is to emulate the strategies and tactics of successful investors. The other is to identity common investor mistakes and avoid them.

The power of investor-focused social networks is that they help investors do both.

These platforms are moving in the right direction and already provide value for short-term traders. That said, they have yet to fully harness the power of social communities for all investors.

As more longer-term investors grow comfortable sharing their profiles, investment ideas, and performance histories, these networks will generate usable statistics not only about investors, but about what strategies and tactics work and dont work in various market scenarios.

Just as consumer products are evaluated today, new investment ideas will be discussed, tested over time, and then subjected to peer review through economic cycles. To all that, add new tools that can compile sentiment and other usable data from the output of other social networks. The combination of those inputs could be the catalyst for a comprehensive, expert, and market driven approach to investment analysis.

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Investing in the Age of Social Networking - Huffington Post

Youths aged between 13 and 17 were given tips on how they should behave online in order to have a positive experience on Facebook and Instagram.

Malta ranks in at second place across all EU countries in terms of the number of internet users that engage is social media activity.

The BeSmartOnline! project is implemented by the Malta Communications Authority, the Foundation for Social Welfare Services and the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education.

Representatives from Facebooks safety team and BeSmartOnline! visited students at St Michaels Church School, Higher Secondary in Naxxar and the Youth Caf group in Cottonera, which is managed by Aenzija gaag.

Youths aged between 13 and 17 were given tips on how they should behave online in order to have a positive experience on Facebook and Instagram. A number of resources were distributed, including a booklet specifically designed and developed by Facebook, which was also translated to Maltese.

On the second day, over 140 educators from various schools across Malta and Gozo were given an explanation of the measures Facebook takes to contribute to the well-being of youth.

They were introduced to Facebook's internal mechanism that deals with reports received and the difficulties and restrictions they encounter; the difficulties brought about by the complex nature of some of the reports received, either by ethical and/or legislative restrictions; and the sheer number of reports and data exchanged.

Moreover, they were given a thorough explanation of the resources Facebook produce specifically for educators and how these can be adapted in schools.

The rise of social media has sparked numerous discussions on the impact it is having on personal and social relationships. Regardless of the potential negative perceptions, one cannot ignore the opportunities offered through the positive use of social media tools.

Facebook has undertaken various initiatives to exploit its unique position of having such an extensive and complex networked community and has been very active in the field of missing children through initiatives such as Child Rescue Alert and Amber Alert recently launched in Malta.

Most recently Facebook has introduced suicide prevention tools, which exploit the intricacies of friends in order to connect a person in distress with people who can support them. These, and other initiatives, are undertaken as part of Facebook's drive to help build a safe community both online and offline.

Laura Bononcini, Head of Public Policy for Italy, Greece and Malta, said that Facebook believes safety is the shared responsibility of all social media user.

This is why we provide tools that help you stay safe while using Facebook, we want to educate people on Facebook and encourage them to use our safety features, she said.

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Facebook and BeSmartOnline! highlight safety concerns of social networking - MaltaToday