Random Questions Thread

So it should be "saith" instead of the oft-used "sayeth", or are they interchangeable?

Interchangable as far as the spelling goes, as far as I know. The important thing is that an -eth ending replaces an -es or -s ending: goes = goeth, knows = knoweth, brings = bringeth. Which means -eth is pretty much limited to third-person singular: he, she, <name>, <title>, and so on.

edited 11th Mar '13 6:42:48 AM by Madrugada

It's not a need specifically. It's more something that I'm not sure whether to take into account or not. Thank you.

With respect to pre-modern English, just about any spelling goes so long as the pronunciation it produces is about right. Standardised spelling in English is something that's only been around for the last hundred years or so. The closest before that would be Samuel Johnson's dictionary. But even then, the spelling there wasn't universally adopted - as evident by Webster's later dictionary having different spellings for certain words than Johnson's.

As such, Medieval English was pretty much a case of Funetik Aksent.

edited 11th Mar '13 7:56:36 AM by peasant

Yeah, that's why I said "interchangable" on the spelling.

Back onto the subject of music as I was asking about before, what singers/groups would a Cool Loner listen to on her headphones?

edited 12th Mar '13 9:26:53 AM by peasant

Doesn't have to be anything in particular. Give 'em classical musical if you're so inclined; someone's musical list doesn't necessarily reflect the most obvious aspect of their personality, and it'd give them more depth if it didn't.

Jazz. I'd go with Jazz. People in books seem to only ever listen to emo-pop-rock or, in aversions, to classical music. And Jazz/Soul has the advantage that you can have just as many sappy lyrics.

Law thing: What would you accuse a person of if they participated in a murder directly, but had no idea they were committing a murder?

For context, a kid plays a game that is Assassin's Creed-esque, only to find out later he generated a real person, in a real town, and murdered actual people. He is horrified by this, but a few people still think he should pay, legally speaking. Obviously magic stuff doesn't really fly in real life, but ignore that fact for this moment, since it makes sense in context.

Under existing laws, perhaps manslaughter. Otherwise, if it has legal precedent, the laws of the land would have adapted to that situation.

Not a legal expert, but I suspect that would fall under manslaughter (unpremeditated killing).

edited 12th Mar '13 10:57:42 AM by Nocturna

Ah cool. Thanks :)

Negligent Genocide.

Possibly involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide (as an extension of vehicular homicide), or proxy murder.

Hm, ok. So now I just need to figure out what'd that charge, and I'll be good. —starts reading links—

<deleted, as beaten to the punch by >

edited 12th Mar '13 11:02:51 AM by peasant

AHR, it depends on the circumstance. In Britain there is 'Joint Enterprise'.

You and your mate Mad Dave are out, when he is approached by a rival.

After some 'fronting up' Mad Dave draws a knife and stabs the guy, who dies. You can be convicted of Murder by joint enterprise.

1) You knew Dave had a reputation, so you knew this was a possibility
2) You had a chance to disassociate your self/try to calm the situation
3) You did nothing
The following is a REAL case.
'A', a teen, was with his brother in his brother's car. The brother was a known drug dealer. The brother received a phone call informing him of the location of someone who owned him money. He drove to the flat. Taking a baseball bat from the boot of the car, the brother went into the flat. 'A' followed him.

The Brother beat the victim to death.

'A' was not in the room at the time. He did not take any part in the attack. BUT

because he followed the brother in, despite seeing the baseball bat, and knowing a beating was about to happen.

In the States it goes by "accessory" in most jurisdictions, but the law isn't really written with such events in mind for obvious reasons. An ambitious prosecutor could argue for premeditated murder as orders were given that resulted in the deaths of people. (Though the lack of criminal intent makes it likely that a judge would cut them off at the knees.)

edited 12th Mar '13 1:37:39 PM by Night

From cases I've seen its not always obvious where the boundary is. Even if the person didn't mean to kill, only wound, I've seen guilty of murder.

The best prosecution I ever saw was the guy who beat up a prostitute to steal the money back afterwards. Most prosecutors would have gone for Aggravated Robbery. However someone in the CPS managed to get a Rape charge to stick- consent only existed because of promise of payment. No payment=no consent.

Though in the case AHR is talking about, it sounds like no harm was intended at all.

(Side note: that's impressive!)

You can't commit murder, at least in the States, without intent to do harm, or callous indifference to human life. Neither of those seems to apply in this situation.

Probably a stupid question, but if a person is shot in the head, the head travels back a bit the same way as the bullet, right? It's not some weird momentum thing where it goes the other way?

(I do know that the other thing that happens from getting shot in the head is brain juice and blood spilling everywhere.)

On the contrary, momentum guarantees that a head in a reference frame will accelerate at least a little in the same direction as the bullet.

edited 12th Mar '13 7:56:33 PM by Noaqiyeum

Sweet.

Well, thanks guys. It is true, the person had no intent to do harm. HOWEVER, characters will feel differently depending on how the guy personally harmed them (hey check it out, I can remove this guys eyes on the game! Awesome!), so at the very least, I know what the pro-punishment people would be arguing.

I'll ask a couple of people about the UK law, just to compare and contrast.

Bear in mind I work within a legal system that has as a crime 'Penetration by penis or part of body'.

OR part of body? The penis is no longer a part of my body?

"Your honour - I am innocent. I was in bed at the time, my penis is a dirty stop out."