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Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who just created this official, binding policy that the government is above the law, is a fascist judge. She might be familiar to Slashdotters as the judge who the incoming Bush "Justice" Department got to run the Microsoft monopoly verdict's appeal and toothless "remedy phase.

You might not know that Kollar-Kotelly ruled in the execution trial of Saddam Hussein that "the United States has no right to interfere with the judicial processes of another nation's courts", when such interference might mean Hussein might live to tell more of what he knows about US interference in Iraq, or rather its lengthy cooperation with his murderous regime.

And you might not realize that Kollar-Kotelly is the presiding judge of the Bush-packed FISA Court, that has rubberstamped Bush's regime's tens of thousands of "exceptional" wiretap requests that violate the 4th Amendment (which artificial loophole is the entire purpose of that court). Which is why today's Congressional Republicans are doing everything they can to put telco amnesty for violating FISA under the FISA Court's jurisdiction, instead of a regular court that actually obeys the Constitution.

Kollar-Kotelly is the go-to judge for Unitary Executive fantasy privileges, whenever they can squeak some out. After all, she kicked off her legal career as a lawyer for Nixon's "Justice" Department.

Play ball!

All Linux browsers
Firefox (Macintosh)
Safari (all platforms)
Firefox 3 (all platforms)
Opera (all platforms)... ... and so on

They should approve the M$ format OOXML under one condition and one condition alone. M$ must place GPL all of their source code and file formats. Hold on, M$ doesn't want to do that, then all of ther assets need to be seized by the governments of the world and given to the open-sorce community. M$ should cease to exist.
--
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Friends help friends end the tyranny from
corporations who distribute non-free $oftware.

It's not an embarrassment for the DoE, it's an embarrassment for the Bush Administration and the Republican party in general- despite driving this country's yearly deficit deeper and deeper and pushing our total debt to record levels, they can't even fund worthwhile projects with it.

Of course, the Republican party's low appraisal of science probably has a lot to do with it- after all, what good is science that might change peoples' minds about something (FLIP FLOP FLIP FLOP) when there's Muslims to kill?

BOfH writes "The BBC is reporting that following a 14-year rebuild project, the Colossus computer is once again cracking codes at Bletchley Park." They will crack WWII-era encrypted messages, and compete against modern PCs. Fun stuff for crypto nerds and history buffs.

$RANDOMLUSER writes "Walter M. Schirra Jr., one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the only man to fly in NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, died Thursday. He was 84. Schirra's death leaves John Glenn and Scott Carpenter as the only Mercury 7 still living. Few who were not alive at the time can understand how astoundingly dangerous going into space was, (even more so than today) or how celebrated these seven men were."

Warning: Trees falling on your house can kill

The pro-smoking lobby got a small boost on Monday after a South Carolina woman cheated death by nipping outside the house for a cigarette.

http://go.theregister.com/feed/http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/19/smoking_saves_lives/

holy_calamity writes "A caterpillar-like robot that can crawl over the surface of a beating heart using two suckers for feet has been developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon. By clinging to the outside of the heart it is stationary relative to the moving surface. Inserted through a small hole below the ribcage and piloted with a joystick, tests in live pigs have seen it fit pacemaker leads and deliver injections."