# court reporting (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 2 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover court reporting. Page: Feed: --- ## [‘I Had No Involvement. Zero’: Fenech Takes The Stand And Denies Ordering Daphne Caruana Galizia’s Murder](https://www.amphora.media/2026/08/yorgen-fenech-testimony-daphne-caruana-galizia-trial) _2026-08-21 · Julian · Amphora Media_ Yorgen Fenech, the man accused of murdering Daphne Caruana Galizia, took the stand as the defence opened its case in the trial against the businessman. He told jurors he had no part in ordering the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Still, he admitted handing €50,000 to the middleman who arranged her murder and later passing \[…\] ## [Prosecution Closes Witness List With Testimony From Daphne’s Son](https://www.amphora.media/2026/08/prosecution-closes-witness-list-with-testimony-from-daphnes-son) _2026-08-20 · Julian · Amphora Media_ The prosecution closed its list of witnesses in the trial against Yorgen Fenech with the testimony of Andrew Caruana Galizia, one of Daphne’s sons. Tomorrow, the defence will begin to present its witnesses. Andrew Caruana Galizia told jurors that his mother had established that Yorgen Fenech was the owner of 17 Black about a year \[…\] ## [Police Searched Keith Schembri’s Castille Office And Left With One Sheet Of Paper, Jurors Told](https://www.amphora.media/2026/08/police-searched-keith-schembris-castille-office-and-left-with-one-sheet-of-paper-jurors-told) _2026-08-19 · Julian · Amphora Media_ Police who searched Keith Schembri’s Castille office as part of the investigation into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder left with a single sheet of paper, jurors in Yorgen Fenech’s trial were told – and that the three-hour search of his home yielded nothing. Inspector Kurt Zahra continued his testimony, building on Yorgen Fenech’s police statement shown \[…\] ## [‘I Was Commissioned By Keith Schembri’: Fenech Admits Paying Theuma Hundreds Of Thousands But Denies Ordering The Murder](https://www.amphora.media/2026/08/yorgen-fenech-police-statement-daphne-keith-schembri-muscat) _2026-08-18 · Julian · Amphora Media_ Yorgen Fenech’s statement to police was played to jurors, in which he admitted passing hundreds of thousands of euros to the middleman Melvin Theuma, but insisted it was extortion and that it was Keith Schembri who orchestrated the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia The recordings cover two days of questioning by Superintendent Kurt Zahra at \[…\] ## [Yorgen Fenech Told Police He Was Involved In Daphne’s Murder But Insisted Keith Schembri Ordered It](https://www.amphora.media/2026/08/yorgen-fenech-police-statement-keith-schembri-daphne) _2026-08-17 · Julian · Amphora Media_ Inspector Kurt Zahra walked jurors through Yorgen Fenech’s four-hour statement to police, where he admitted being involved and providing money for Daphne’s murder and the hitmen after their arrest – but painted Keith Schembri as the one who ordered the hit and Theuma as the man who organised it. On 29th November, Fenech’s lawyers asked \[…\] ## [Melvin Theuma’s Cross-Examination: Schembri, Messages And The Assistant Police Commissioner](https://www.amphora.media/2026/08/melvin-theumas-cross-examination-schembri-messages-and-the-assistant-police-commissioner) _2026-08-13 · Julian · Amphora Media_ Melvin Theuma faced an intense line of questioning under cross-examination by Yorgen Fenech’s defence team, who raised questions over his credibility, namely over the involvement of Keith Schembri in the murder. This included Theuma naming Schembri as one of the masterminds in a handwritten note to Fenech. Theuma repeatedly said that he had only assumed \[…\] ## [‘It Will Happen On Saturday’: Messages Show Fenech Warned Theuma Of Arrests And Coached Him Past The Security Service](https://www.amphora.media/2026/08/melvin-theuma-yorgen-fenech-messages-recordings) _2026-08-12 · Julian · Amphora Media_ The prosecution closed its examination of Melvin Theuma on Tuesday afternoon, ending several days in the witness box with a series of chat exchanges in which the self-confessed middleman and Yorgen Fenech discussed arrests and how to throw investigators off their trail. Fenech’s defence team will begin its cross-examination when the trial resumes on Wednesday. \[…\] ## [Session Management, Message Authentication, and the Tragedy of the SECRET\_KEY](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2026/Aug/session-management-message-authentication-and-the-tragedy-of-the-secret-key/) _2026-08-11 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ (Script for a talk given at App Academy on 11 August 2014, belatedly blogged twelve years later in a fit of nostalgia for the world of mid-2010s web security) Hi, my name is Zack M. Davis. I'm a software engineer at SwiftStack, and App Academy class of December 2013. Today … ## [Melvin Theuma’s Recordings Of Yorgen Fenech: Daphne’s Laptop, The Hitmen, Money And Malta’s Politicians](https://www.amphora.media/2026/08/melvin-theuma-tapes-yorgen-fenech-daphne-laptop-hitmen-payments) _2026-08-10 · Julian · Amphora Media_ Yorgen Fenech privately backed the public campaign to have Daphne Caruana Galizia’s laptops returned from Germany, because their contents would throw suspicion onto everyone she had written about, jurors heard on Monday. “It’s disgraceful that they didn’t bring them,” Fenech is heard saying on a covert recording made by Melvin Theuma, the middleman who arranged \[…\] ## [‘When I Told Keith, He Froze’: Yorgen Fenech’s Recorded Conversations With Melvin Theuma Played In Court](https://www.amphora.media/2026/08/melvin-theuma-yorgen-fenech-recordings-keith-schembri) _2026-08-08 · Julian · Amphora Media_ Jurors heard Melvin Theuma’s secret recordings for the first time on Saturday, as prosecutors played tapes in which Yorgen Fenech is heard discussing Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, the money that reached the men who carried it out, and the involvement of Keith Schembri. “When I told him \[about the murder\], he froze. I told him, \[…\] ## [Your 24/7 AI Media Buyer (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/KVoVNiXRVcmb) _2026-08-08 · **Sponsored**_ Finds placement, geo, and funnel leaks and proposes fixes you approve ## [‘We Killed Her’: Melvin Theuma Details How Yorgen Fenech Ordered Daphne’s Murder](https://www.amphora.media/2026/08/melvin-theuma-middleman-testimony-yorgen-fenech-daphne) _2026-08-07 · Julian · Amphora Media_ Melvin Theuma, the self-confessed middleman who was granted a presidential pardon in exchange for his evidence, took the stand on the 33rd day of the trial against Yorgen Fenech. Over several hours, he set out a timeline of Caruana Galizia’s assassination as he describes it: the conversation in which he says Fenech first raised her \[…\] ## [Yorgen Fenech’s Doctor: Escape Plans, Cocaine Addiction, Notes And A Selective Memory](https://www.amphora.media/2026/08/yorgen-fenechs-doctor-escape-plans-cocaine-addiction-notes-and-a-selective-memory) _2026-08-06 · Julian · Amphora Media_ Doctor Adrian Vella walked jurors through a series of episodes with Yorgen Fenech before and after his arrest in connection with the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, describing Fenech’s cocaine use, the plans he and his brother made to leave Malta, and the notes Vella carried to him from Keith Schembri. Vella, a doctor from \[…\] ## [Charles Goodhart Elementary School](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2026/Aug/charles-goodhart-elementary-school/) _2026-08-05 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ I heard a story (second- or third-hand, which surely lost or gained some details on the telephone path from reality to this telling if it even happened at all) about a boy, age 7 or so, who goes to a very highly-acclaimed school. A piece of recurring homework they give … ## [Dispatch from Anthropic v. Department of War Summary Judgment Motion Hearing](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2026/Aug/dispatch-from-anthropic-v-department-of-war-summary-judgment-hearing/) _2026-08-02 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ Dateline SAN FRANCISCO, 30 July 2026— A hearing was held on a motion for summary judgment in the case of Anthropic PBC v. U.S. Department of War et al. in Courtroom 4 on the 17th floor of the Phillip Burton Federal Building, the Hon. Rita F. Lin presiding. The … ## [Blogging Technology Interlude](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2026/Jul/blogging-technology-interlude/) _2026-07-21 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ When I started An Algorithmic Lucidity back in 2011 when I didn't know anything about computers, I used WordPress—briefly on wordpress.com , but then on my own site on Namecheap's true-to-its-brandname shared hosting service. Even early on, the technical limitations of WordPress were chafing. In my first post, "The … ## [Contra Pace on When to Apologize](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2026/Jun/contra-pace-on-when-to-apologize/) _2026-06-18 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ BOJACK: Hey, I wanted to talk to you about—you know—I feel bad about what happened. HERB: So, you're apologizing. BOJACK: Yes. I'm sorry. HERB: Okay. I don't forgive you. BOJACK: Herb, I said I'm sorry. HERB: Yeah. And I do not forgive you. BOJACK: Uh, not sure you … ## [Dispatch from Anthropic v. Department of War Preliminary Injunction Motion Hearing](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2026/Mar/dispatch-from-anthropic-v-department-of-war-preliminary-injunction-motion-hearing/) _2026-03-26 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ Dateline SAN FRANCISCO, 24 March 2026— A hearing was held on a motion for a preliminary injunction in the case of Anthropic PBC v. U.S. Department of War et al. in Courtroom 12 on the 19th floor of the Phillip Burton Federal Building, the Hon. Judge Rita F. Lin … ## [Terrified Comments on Corrigibility in Claude's Constitution](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2026/Mar/terrified-comments-on-corrigibility-in-claudes-constitution/) _2026-03-16 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ (Previously: Prologue .) Corrigibility as a term of art in AI alignment was coined as a word to refer to a property of an AI being willing to let its preferences be modified by its creator. Corrigibility in this sense was believed to be a desirable but unnatural property that would … ## [Prologue to Terrified Comments on Claude's Constitution](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2026/Mar/prologue-to-terrified-comments-on-claudes-constitution/) _2026-03-09 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ What Even Is This Timeline The striking thing about reading what is potentially the most important document in human history is how impossible it is to take seriously. The entire premise seems like science fiction. Not bad science fiction, but—crucially—not hard science fiction. Ted Chiang, not Greg Egan … ## [Hazards of Selection Effects on Approved Information](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2026/Feb/hazards-of-selection-effects-on-approved-information/) _2026-02-13 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ In a busy, busy world, there's so much to read that no one could possibly keep up with it all. You can't not prioritize what you pay attention to and (even more so) what you respond to. Everyone and her dog tells herself a story that she wants to pay … ## [Countdown to Getting Paid (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/oyaYXANiFs6Z) _2026-02-13 · **Sponsored**_ Create a shareable wallet timer — deposits buy back time and pay debt down ## [Disagreement Comes From the Dark World](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2026/Jan/disagreement-comes-from-the-dark-world/) _2026-01-27 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ In "Truth or Dare" , Duncan Sabien articulates a phenomenon in which expectations of good or bad behavior can become self-fulfilling: people who expect to be exploited and feel the need to put up defenses both elicit and get sorted into a Dark World where exploitation is likely and defenses are … ## [College Was Not That Terrible Now That I'm Not That Crazy](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2026/Jan/college-was-not-that-terrible-now-that-im-not-that-crazy/) _2026-01-01 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ Previously, I wrote about how I was considering going back to San Francisco State University for two semesters to finish up my Bachelor's degree in math. So, I did that. I think it was a good decision! I got more out of it than I expected. To be clear, "better … ## [The Best Lack All Conviction: A Confusing Day in the AI Village](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2025/Nov/the-best-lack-all-conviction-a-confusing-day-in-the-ai-village/) _2025-11-28 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ The AI Village is an ongoing experiment (currently running on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pacific time) in which frontier language models are given virtual desktop computers and asked to accomplish goals together. Since Day 230 of the Village (17 November 2025), the agents' goal has … ## ["Yes, and—" Requires the Possibility of "No, Because—"](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2025/Oct/yes-and-requires-the-possibility-of-no-because/) _2025-10-09 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ Scott Garrabrant gives a number of examples to illustrate that "Yes Requires the Possibility of No" . We can understand the principle in terms of information theory. Consider the answer to a yes-or-no question as a binary random variable. The "amount of information" associated with a random variable is quantified by … ## [The Relationship Between Social Punishment and Shared Maps](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2025/Oct/the-relationship-between-social-punishment-and-shared-maps/) _2025-10-08 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ A punishment is when one agent (the punisher) imposes costs on another (the punished) in order to affect the punished's behavior. In a Society where thieves are predictably imprisoned and lashed, people will predictably steal less than they otherwise would, for fear of being imprisoned and lashed. Punishment is often … ## [Just Make a New Rule!](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2025/Jul/just-make-a-new-rule/) _2025-07-21 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ (originally published at Less Wrong ) "Rules" are a critical social technology for helping people live and work together in peace. From the laws passed by legislatures to govern a whole nation, to the bylaws of a neighborhood homeowner association, to the informal household rules of a single family, explicit rules … ## [Comment on “Four Layers of Intellectual Conversation”](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2025/Jul/comment-on-four-layers-of-intellectual-conversation/) _2025-07-17 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ (originally published at Less Wrong ) One of the most underrated essays in the post-Sequences era of Eliezer Yudkowsky's corpus is "Four Layers of Intellectual Conversation" . The degree to which this piece of wisdom has fallen into tragic neglect in these dark ages of the 2020s may be related to its … ## [Critic Contributions Are Logically Irrelevant](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2025/Jul/critic-contributions-are-logically-irrelevant/) _2025-07-15 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ (originally published at Less Wrong ) The Value of a Comment Is Determined by Its Text, Not Its Authorship I sometimes see people express disapproval of critical blog comments by commenters who don't write many blog posts of their own. Such meta-criticism is not infrequently couched in terms of metaphors to … ## [Discontinuous Linear Functions?!](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2025/Jun/discontinuous-linear-functions/) _2025-06-05 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ We know what linear functions are. A function f is linear iff it satisfies additivity f ( x + y ) = f ( x ) + f ( y ) and homogeneity f ( ax ) = af ( x ). We know what continuity is. A function f is continuous iff for all ε there exists a δ such that if | x … ## [The End of the Movie: SF State's 2024 Putnam Competition Team, A Retrospective](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2025/Jan/the-end-of-the-movie-sf-state-2024-putnam-competition-team-a-retrospective/) _2025-01-12 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ From : Zack M Davis \< zmd@sfsu.edu \> Sent : Sunday, January 12, 2025 11:52 AM To : math\_majors@lists.sfsu.edu \< math\_majors@lists.sfsu.edu \>, math\_graduate@lists.sfsu.edu \< math\_graduate@lists.sfsu.edu \>, math\_lecturers@lists.sfsu.edu \< math\_lecturers@lists.sfsu.edu \>, math\_tenure@lists.sfsu.edu \< math\_tenure@lists.sfsu.edu \> Subject : the … ## [Code Faster with Clear Tutorials (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/CwrWNyIScXKT) _2025-01-12 · **Sponsored**_ Short, step-by-step coding videos you can follow along ## [Recruitment Advertisements for the 2024 Putnam Competition at San Francisco State University](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2025/Jan/recruitment-advertisements-for-the-2024-putnam-competition-at-san-francisco-state-university/) _2025-01-09 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ From : Zack M Davis \< zmd@sfsu.edu \> Sent : Wednesday, September 11, 2024 5:02 PM To : math\_majors@lists.sfsu.edu \< math\_majors@lists.sfsu.edu \> Subject : Putnam prep session for eternal mathematical glory, 4 p.m. Thu 19 September One must make a distinction however: when dragged into prominence by half-poets … ## [Comment on “Death and the Gorgon”](https://zackmdavis.net/blog/2024/Dec/comment-on-death-and-the-gorgon/) _2025-01-01 · Zack M. Davis · An Algorithmic Lucidity_ (originally published at Less Wrong ) (some plot spoilers) There's something distinctly uncomfortable about reading Greg Egan in the 2020s. Besides telling gripping tales with insightful commentary on the true nature of mind and existence, Egan stories written in the 1990s and set in the twenty-first century excelled at speculative worldbuilding …