Here is why you always get a second opinion.

NY Times: Mr. Bush's Miscalculation -- "By a decisive three-to-one ratio..., mainstream Republicans favor energy conservation over the production strategies that lie at the heart of Mr. Bush's energy plan. Meantime, moderate Republicans in Congress have delivered a series of stinging rebukes to his efforts to roll back important environmental regulations enacted in the last eight years." (Free registration required)

AP: Ashcroft seeks limits on gun records -- "Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, Ashcroft said he was trying to balance privacy concerns and the need to maintain the records for auditing purposes - both are required by the landmark Brady gun law that requires background checks for gun buyers."

Reuters: Defying Bush, Senate passes sweeping HMO bill -- "...The Democrat-led Senate on Friday approved a landmark bill giving Americans sweeping new health care rights and the power to sue health insurance groups if treatment is denied." The bill now goes to the Republican-controlled House, where resolution may not occur until the 2002 congressional election.

Dan Gillmor: Microsoft's Ballmer: Ruling Won't Stop Us -- The SJ Mercury News has received what is apparently a copy of an e-mail that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent to all employees and affiliates. Dan's take: "Full speed ahead, and the hell with the law."

Jim Ellis, one of the co-developers of Usenet, has died at 45. [Nando Times]

Daniel Ellsberg: Lying about Vietnam -- "...The papers revealed a policy of concealment and quite deliberate deception from the Truman administration onward." (NY Times, free registration required)

Reason: Making Medical Progress a Crime -- H.R. 1644 proposes to make therapeutic cloning punishable by 10 years in prison and a million-dollar fine. Translation: If I need a new heart or kidney, doctors would not be allowed to "grow" a new one for me from my own cells. We're not talking about embryos or fetuses here, just cells from yours truly. Granted, this technology is not ready for prime-time, but it's nearly there. The Bush administration's public comments on stem cells from frozen embryos are "a great trick of policy misdirection."

Jennifer Foote Sweeney -- "Indeed, our bearded and bespectacled hero is at this moment locked into the crosshairs of conservative bayonets. He has rejected their sacred belief that appropriate sex education must not mention sex."

Reuters: Scientist says mind continues after brain dies -- "Since the initial experiment, Parnia and his colleagues have found more than 3,500 people with lucid memories that apparently occurred at times they were thought to be clinically dead. Many of the patients, he said, were reluctant to share their experiences fearing they would be thought crazy." (Parnia is Clinical Research Fellow and Honorary Registrar in Medicine at Southampton University.) See Peter McCarthy's review of a lecture given by Dr. Sam Parnia and Dr. Peter Fenwick in May, 2001. Also see the Southampton University news release.

News.com -- A federal appeals court has vacated a lower court's ruling calling for the breakup of Microsoft into separate companies.

Dan Gillmor: "The court may have overturned the breakup order. But by the same unanimous ruling it accepted Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's findings of fact and ruling that Microsoft a) has a monopoly in the relevant market; b) used unfair business practices to maintain its dominance; and c) has to be restrained from further abuses."

Reuters: Microsoft to drop Smart Tags from Windows software -- Microsoft confirmed Thursday that "it would drop its controversial Smart Tag technology, which directs users to Microsoft Web pages from other Internet sites, from the next version of its Windows operating system." This is not to say that the technology will not appear in future versions, just not in the Oct. 25 release.

John Rhodes points out that all the flack about open-source software or smart tags is merely an intentional diversion by Microsoft, which has a much larger agenda.

CNN: Actor Jack Lemmon dead at 76

BBC -- "Allergy-proof cats could be the next genetically modified animals to be born."

News.com: New IBM monitor is detail oriented -- Nine million pixels, 22.2" screen, only $22,000. This puppy handles so much data that it will not work on your average PC, but is targeted more towards medical imaging or meteorology.

Paul Krugman: Turning California On -- "Generators deliberately withheld electricity from the market in order to drive high prices even higher. Until recently the evidence for this market manipulation was purely circumstantial; but it has now been reinforced by direct testimony by former employees of one generator." (NY Times, free registration required)

eWeek: .Net to support Linux? -- "...There is growing evidence that the Redmond-based software giant may well ship a smaller version of its .Net common language runtime on operating systems other than Windows, including Linux and Unix."

Eastside Journal: Microsoft drops the ball on 'smart tags'

Scott Rosenberg: Assimilating the web -- Like "Star Trek's" all-powerful Borg, AOL and Microsoft are determined to crush the spirit of online independance. Is resistance futile?

Larry Blasko: Staving Off Internet Ads -- "A recent column about Internet pop-up and pop-under ads brought a wave of responses from readers. There seems to be a consensus that the ads are at an annoyance level somewhere between mosquitos and body lice." Several third-party ad-blocking programs are suggested. Gee, how about just turning off javascript? That pretty much nukes "pop-ups." Or you could run iCab, if you're a Mac user. iCab filters ads based on URLs and/or size.

New York state has banned hand-held cell phones while driving. So has South Korea.

North Dakota is once again considering changing its name.

Walt Crowley: Serfs on the Web -- "The dot-com meltdown has a safety net: the dot-orgs, dot-govs, and dot-edus that happily provide free data without having to post losses on the Nasdaq." (NY Times, free registration required)

Newsbytes: Adobe to protect PDF files from viruses -- "Adobe and anti-virus researchers said they have received no reports from customers of virus-infected PDF files. But the company confirmed that infected documents or malicious programs could be embedded within a PDF file using a Microsoft-developed technology called object linking and embedding (OLE), introduced in Acrobat version 4."

BBC: Exxon 'helped torture in Indonesia' -- "This is the first time we actually have evidence that the oil company has supported the instrumentality for the human rights violations."

Reuters: Supreme Court rules for free-lancers in online case --- "The high court, by a 7-2 vote, upheld a ruling that the publishers must pay free-lance writers, photographers and artists extra for work included in online and CD-ROM databases or must remove the material."

Nando Times: Survey finds Internet vital to many teens

China Daily: Internet-crazed teenager jumps to death -- After his father locked him in his room for frequenting an Internet cafe, the 17-year-old tried escaping out the fourth-story window, only to suffer a fatal injury. (Talk about pandering headlines...)

Salon: Can Riordan replace Reagan? -- L.A.'s outgoing mayor might revive California's stumbling GOP

BBC: Fungus 'eats' CDs -- "The fungus had attacked the outer edge of the disc, consuming plastic and even aluminium. It rendered the CD unplayable." On the bright side, "the ability of micro-organisms to degrade manmade products could help in waste disposal."

Washington Post: Sibling nuns will go to prison for protesting at U.S. military school -- "Sister Dorothy Marie Hennessey, who is 88, and Sister Gwen L. Hennessey, who is 68, have been sentenced to six months each in a federal prison -- the maximum penalty -- for trespassing at a United States military school that trains Latin American soldiers."

KOAT, the Albuquerque ABC affiliate, reported last night on a tsunami watch for the entire west coast, flashing arrival times on the screen for various coastal locations. While they qualified their statement with the word "possible" about a dozen times, there is no mention of this on the wire services, at NOAA, or elsewhere. Local officials in Peru had initially been concerned about the possibility of tidal wave, but that was ruled out.

CNN: 7.9 quake rumbles coastal Peru. The local TV news on ABC reports a tsunami watch for the entire west coast tomorrow morning, at varying times, depending on latitude. Seismographs in Albuquerque "pegged," although nothing was felt here.

NY Times: The House Rebukes the President -- "The votes followed closely on a New York Times/CBS News poll that showed the administration alarmingly out of touch with the public on energy and environmental issues. In legislative terms, it was Mr. Bush's darkest hour. In every case, moderates from the president's own party provided the margin of difference." (Free registration required)

Washington Post: Firm's Iraq Deals Greater Than Cheney Has Said -- Halliburton Co., which Vice President Cheney formerly headed, apparently has had more extensive business dealings with Iraq than he has acknowledged.

Time: How the Universe Will End -- Scientists suggest that T.S. Eliot may have been correct.

Reuters: Ukraine orthodox will pray to keep pope away

AP: -- "Carroll O'Connor, whose gruff charm as the cranky bigot Archie Bunker on 'All in the Family' pioneered a new era of TV comedies that brought race relations into America's living rooms, has died of a heart attack. He was 76." (Also see the NY Times obit.)

I've been looking at alternatives to using Internet Explorer, since Microsoft has stirred up a veritable jihad with its upcoming "smart tags." (Note: Navigator 4.08 is the browser-only module of Netscape Communicator 4.7x.) Here's a quick look at what I ran into on a G4 Mac:

Bob Herbert: The Confession -- "Most Americans do not believe the criminal justice system functions this ludicrously. But it does. Frequently." (NY Times, free registration required)

Nicholas Petreley: MS masters NC mind-set -- Network computing, once loudly reviled, has been "re-invented" as Micorosoft's new, palatable .NET. While Microsoft sends up smoke screens, shrieking about the evils of open-source software, the "battle is primarily about who will control user-authentication services."

About ten days ago, ZDNet ran a parody by Connie Guiglielmo, which gives an idea what a page with "smart links" might look like.

Reuters: A new poll shows Dubya's approval rating has dropped.

Washington Post: Conservation program reductions draw fire -- "The president kept his campaign promise to propose 'full funding' for the land and water fund, which helps federal agencies and states buy open space and build recreational facilities, but he did so while cutting or eliminating an array of related conservation programs."

SJ Mercury News: 45 percent of customers to avoid PG&E outages -- Controversy rages over who gets to be in the coveted "Block 50," immune from outages.

It's hot! It's humid! Where is the rain?

Today is fix-crappy-code day. ;-)

Anthony Lewis: The Closed Mind -- "What President Bush has been telling European leaders this week can be readily summed up: I am not going to do anything about global warming because it needs more scientific study. But I am going to act urgently to develop a missile defense system although none have any proven scientific basis and every test so far has failed." (NY Times, free registration required)

Salon: The anguish of the drug war judges -- "Stripped of their traditional authority, trial judges have been forced to impose sentences that leave some of them feeling that their black robe is more like a butcher's smock."

Reuters: U.S. executes Mexican-American drug kingpin -- "Garza, leader of a huge Texas-based marijuana smuggling ring, was sentenced to die for committing a drug-related murder and ordering two other people killed."

AP: Ex-nuclear official sues government over suppressed book-- A retired security official from the Los Alamos National Laboratory has been waiting eighteen months for the government to finish "reviewing" his book on the Chinese nuclear weapons program. The Pentagon says that the entire book should not be published, citing "national security" concerns. The author, Danny Stillman, denies that classified material was used in the manuscript, and states that information was given to him freely by the Chinese. Stillman contends that the Chinese did not steal nuclear secrets from the U.S., but developed the technology on their own; perhaps that is why publication is being blocked.

Reuters: Bush denies clemency to Garza on eve of execution -- The U.S. gears up for the second federal execution in eight days. Do we have a new trend? Of note, there has been an interesting legal discussion going on in the ultra-conservative community, namely that the crime of "murder" is strictly a matter for individual States (with a very few exceptions).

Just finished installing Netscape 6.1 PR (preview release). Other than being an absolute memory hog, it looks faintly promising. Much more excited about the next release of Opera 5, although maybe we won't have to have Microsoft-free Fridays now. ;-)

Wall Street Journal: Microsoft uses open-source code despite denying use of such software -- This is just too rich! While execs at Redmond refer to open source software as a "cancer," they're running the same stuff on some of their servers. What a pack of hypocrites.

The MSNBC editor at the Journal says the Register got it wrong (see below).

The Register: MSNBC doctors anti-MS WSJ story -- "MSNBC has been caught doctoring copy originating from the Wall Street Journal to make it more favourable to the news channel's co-owner Microsoft. The changes introduced by MSNBC also had the effect of removing references to Microsoft competitors."

Salon: Nowhere left to hide -- Whether you're in jail or at the supermarket, your image might be shown on the Net, and there's not a thing you can do about it.

Reuters: Sex and money occupy envoys at major UN AIDS meet -- "The AIDS conference, from June 25-27, the first of its kind, is to close with a declaration that sets measurable goals for each nation and guidelines for the myriad of U.N. agencies and programs dealing with the issue." However, groups from different countries can't reach agreement over what things are acceptable to mention explicity.

A new congressional report shows that Feds do a poor job following their own privacy rules. [CNN]

Fortune: The Man Who Bought the Internet -- No, his name is not Bill Gates.

I almost bought one of these -- glad I didn't.

The Economist: Free Jenna! -- "Most other countries allow people to buy alcohol at the age of 18. Americans can marry, breed, abort their unborn children, pay taxes, appear in pornographic films, fight for their country and even vote at that age. But buy a margarita with your Mexican mush, and you could end up in the slammer."

Washington Post: At High Court, a Retirement Watch -- "In such an uncertain climate, the administration, Congress and advocacy groups are keenly sensitive to the opportunity President Bush will have to shape the court -- one of the presidency's most enduring powers."

AP: Doctors debate ban on drugs ads -- "The American Medical Association would urge the government to ban prescription drug ads from television, newspapers and magazines under a proposal many doctors say is needed to keep patients from being misinformed." Many patients are apparently demanding inappropriate prescriptions from their doctors merely because they saw an advertisement on TV.

Reuters: Alaska drilling supporters get key Interior posts -- Gail Norton, Secretary of the Interior, is quoted as saying "We want to involve local people in the decision-making. We want to use a consensus-building approach, involving environmentalists and industry and business people and farmers and ranchers and everybody who will be affected by our decisions." We achieve consensus by appointing pro-oil guns to key posts?

'Smart tags' may not be legal outside the U.S. -- Interesting discussion by Michael Fraase. Does U.S. intellectual property law conform to the Berne Convention? Not necessarily.

AP: Alaska may get data storage center -- Plans call for a million-square-foot building housing as many as a half-million servers, kept cool by the local climate and powered by a gas-fired electrical plant. A high-capacity fiber-optic line is already available to tap into.

Reuters: Texas governor vetoes ban on executing retarded killers -- Gov. Rick Perry pointed out that this is not solely about executing retarded killers but rather whether jurors should continue to be the entity deciding the defendant's mental status. The proposed bill would have allowed judges to make that determination.

Microsoft may be backing down on its "smart tag" plan.

Dan Gillmor: Microsoft's Smart Tags threaten Web

Gail Collins: Sisyphus in D.C. (NY Times, free registration required)

AP: DNA evidence frees retarded man -- "A retarded man who spent 22 years behind bars for six murders was ordered freed Friday after DNA evidence indicated the eager-to-please defendant confessed to crimes he didn't commit. . . . During his taped confessions, police helped Townsend remember details and corrected him when his story was inconsistent."

Reuters: Ohio executes schizophrenic inmate despite outcry -- "Scott was taken to the state prison at Lucasville, Ohio, where for the third time in less than two months he underwent a pre-execution routine, including eating his last meal."

The State of Idaho has decided not to prosecute the FBI sharpshooter involved in the infamous Ruby Ridge raid, citing the length of time that has passed and the slim chances of obtaining a conviction.

Stewart Alsop: My Old Flame: The Macintosh -- "I'm rethinking the Mac as a factor in computing. One simple reason: The Macintosh seems to work."

Reuters: Vitamin C found to promote cancer-causing agents -- Test-tube studies indicate that Vitamin C can trigger production of agents which damage human DNA and are known to cause some cancers. "The key finding is that vitamin C can do good things and bad things. And we've figured out what the bad ones are. In terms of the impact, I think it just redirects people's attention to the fact that you can't replace a good diet with magic bullets such as vitamin C."

Washington Post: Dietary supplement makers to stop false claims on Internet

Reuters: Bush announces end to U.S. bombing on Vieques

NY Times: Treated like trash -- "The United States Navy's harsh treatment of protesters arrested on the island of Vieques in April came to light last week in hearings held by members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus." (Free registration required)

Salon: Censorship High -- A 17-year-old takes a stand against a school Web-filtering system that screens out Planned Parenthood but not the Christian Coalition

CNN: Doctor liable for not giving enough pain medication

BBC: Flickering lights foretell glowing networks -- Researchers have figured out how to use the flicker of fluorescent lights to transmit data. "If widely adopted, the technology could be used to set up cheap data networks inside buildings, or could be used to help the disabled and the blind or deaf cope with unfamiliar surroundings."

Dan Gillmor: Smart Tags a Surveillance Tool? No, Microsoft Says -- Those squiggly lines that may start appearing on web sites visited by users of Windows XP can theoretically be used to track users, which Microsoft hotly denies intending to do. Also see CRM News, Microsoft 'Smart Tags' - Are They Legal?, which explores intellectual property rights and copyright implications if Microsoft starts indirectly altering others' web sites.

Salon: Travel tips for President Bush

Reuters: Dental groups sued over mercury in fillings

NY Times: Proselytizing in the Schools -- ". . . It would not be surprising to see a rapid proliferation of frankly religious after-school programming in public school classrooms across the country, blurring the line between regular classroom instruction and religious indoctrination — exactly the meld of government and religion that the Establishment Clause is supposed to prevent.." (Free registration required)

Boston Globe -- "Bud Welch, whose 23-year-old daughter was among those killed in the Oklahoma City bombing, said many of the family members of the 168 victims do not support McVeigh's execution. It is an act of vengeance and rage that only equates the victims with the killer, he said. Many believe the death penalty is not a fitting memorial to their loved ones; others believe to execute McVeigh would only give his demented cause a new martyr. Few believe there is any kind of comfort or closure in the act."

McVeigh's final statement was Invictus, by Victorian poet William Ernest Henley.

A clock stopped - not the mantel's;
	Geneva's farthest skill
Can't put the puppet bowing
	That just now dangled still.

- Emily Dickinson

Dan Gillmor: We are all killers today.

"I'm glad I live in a country which has made an example of this man." (Mother of a bombing victim)

Perhaps rather than "making an example of this man," we need to set an example to the rest of the world regarding enlightenment.

Dave Winer: "Happy Monday to all who are still alive. If you happen to be dead this morning, let us know what the afterlife is like. Send an email, if possible."

"There is nothing reasonable or moral about what we have done today. We have made killing a part of the healing process." (Mc Veigh's lawyer, Robert Nigh)

"The victims of the Oklahoma City bombing have been given not vengeance but justice." (President George W. Bush)

"By executing the first federal death row prisoner in nearly four decades, the USA has allowed vengeance to triumph over justice and distanced itself yet further from the aspirations of the international community." (Statement by Amnesty International)

Tod Gitlin: Pictures from an execution and their irrelevance -- "The easy assumption will be that, once McVeigh is gone, we will be purged of the evil he did. But assurance of his physical demise will be no assurance of anything more than that this man is gone, period, and we are freed of him, though not of the results of his actions."

Reuters: Supreme Court rules thermal imaging is a search -- ". . .Drug-searching police officers violate constitutional privacy rights by scanning a home with a heat-detecting device unless they first obtain a warrant." Justice Stevens, in the dissenting opinion, stated that the majority was "fashioning a rule intended to provide guidance when more sophisticated technology allows the police to see through walls and other barriers. "[Emphasis added]

In other Supreme Court news, religious clubs can meet at public schools.

Just when we thought Macs were safe, a 'Simpsons worm' is spreading via e-mail, activated by clicking on an attachment promising recipients never-before-seen episodes of the popular program. As usual, Microsoft's Outlook Express e-mail program (Mac version, in this case) is the conduit.

Why have all the Air Force photos of the OKC bombing been removed from this USAF web site? Why even leave the index page up?

NY Times: McVeigh's legacy remains death and pain --". . .It was the federal government that gave Mr. McVeigh — ultimately — the greatest means by which to justify his antipathy, with its own mistakes, said experts on the law and hate groups, and some of the people he hurt with his bomb."

Mitch Albom -- "What separates him from us is that we consider human life too precious to touch. All human life. And he doesn't. Once we kill him, we can no longer say that; we can only justify it. And justifying killing - something he tried to do in a recent book - also makes us more like him."

Another reason to stay out of Texas -- When a man is threatened with life imprisonment for having consensual sex, one might wonder if the judge is out of control. [ABC]

AP: Executions vary around the world

Human Rights Watch letter to President Bush -- ". . .The United States thus far remains wedded to a practice that its democratic allies rightly consider unworthy of modern societies."

Washington Post: 'Last-Minute' Spin on Regulatory Rite -- The Bush administration has consistently claimed that former president Clinton rushed through a slew of hasty regulations in the last moments of his term. In reality, many of these measures were the culmination of several years' work and study.

David Neiwert: The mystery of John Doe No. 2 -- The FBI contends that all leads relating to unknown accomplice(s) of Timothy McVeigh were dead-ends with no substance; yet the agency chose to ignore potentially productive evidence and witness accounts. McVeigh's trial lawyer seriously doubts his client's contention that he acted alone (aside from Terry Nichols). And Nichols has not been in a position to name names or say much, with pending state murder charges in Oklahoma.

AP: Hackers threaten California power -- "The limited success of the hackers exposed security weaknesses in the system used by the California Independent System Operator, which oversees most of the state's electricity transmission grid. . . ."

Rochelle Riley: Execution won't balance the scales -- ". . . When we turn to hate, do we become what we hate? By becoming killers, do we become like the homegrown terrorist who changed our world? Do we really change anything, ensure future safety, achieve true vengeance?"

The Times (UK): Andreas Strassmeir: 'I didn't help McVeigh' -- The German white supremacist, subject of countless speculation and rumor as the brains behind the OKC bombing, denies any involvement.

Reuters: Lawsuit seeks to expose invisible ink documents -- The CIA refuses to declassify World War I-era documents pertaining to the use of invisible ink. "The James Madison Project, a public interest group that aims to reduce secrecy in government, has waged a three-year campaign to obtain the oldest classified documents to show that the government is keeping information secret for no good reason. . . ."

The Register: Reader rebuts MS XP Net instability rebuttal -- Microsoft says Windows XP will not bring down the Internet; a computer technician with hands-on experience begs to differ.

NY Times: Jury awards $6.4 million in killings tied to drug -- "A Wyoming jury has awarded $6.4 million to the family of a man who killed three relatives and himself after taking the antidepressant Paxil." In Germany, Paxil and Prozac packages contain warnings that the drugs could lead to suicide attempts; no such labeling is in effect in the US.

New study shows bad diets may breed deadlier viruses

Motley Fool: Big Brother Microsoft -- More on Windows XP and the controversial "smart tags."

Reuters: British Prime Minister Tony Blair wins in landslide -- Blair is the first Labour prime minister in that party's history to secure a second full term.

ABC: Alleged FBI tampering in cyanide case -- Attorneys for a woman convicted in 1986 of poisoning her husband, then spiking store-shelf pain relievers as a cover, allege the FBI withheld evidence and tampered with two witnesses.

Washington Post: McVeigh halts appeals -- "The attorneys excoriated U.S. district and appeals court judges for creating what Nigh called 'the Tim McVeigh exception to the rule of law' . . . 'We believe the rule of law has been brushed aside because of the nature of the case.'"

ABC: World wakes up to use of dead babies in nuclear tests in 1950s -- "Project Sunshine, which was conducted under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, attempted to study the absorption of strontium-90 in human tissue, primarily bone."

10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejects McVeigh petition for stay

A very interesting RealAudio stream of initial news reports immediately following the OKC blast. Several of the newscaster voices are very recognizable.

Andrew Cohen: The yin and yang of Matsch -- "The last, best chance any of us will have to find out why these documents weren't produced on time, and what else may be going wrong with our best-known investigators, will die with McVeigh." Cohen does not excuse or pretend to understand McVeigh's actions, nor do I. But "sweeping his lawyers' allegations under the rug . . . doesn't make McVeigh any better or worse."

Christian Science Monitor: A world shift from execution -- "...Outside of the US and China, political leaders are increasingly rejecting such punishment on ethical grounds."

Bush signs tax cut into law -- It's official, all $1.35 trillion.

AP: Davidian prosecutor gets probation -- "A former federal prosecutor was sentenced to two years' probation Thursday for withholding information that the government used explosive tear gas canisters during the deadly siege at Waco."

Wall Street Journal: New Windows XP feature can re-edit others' sites -- This piece picks up on the "smart tags" mentioned the other day regarding Office XP. If Microsoft follows through on this, their WinXP browser will essentially be generating links to Microsoft websites on other people's web pages. This really totally sucks. "Microsoft's Internet Explorer Smart Tags are something new and dangerous. They mean that the company that controls the Web browser is using that power to actually alter others' Web sites to its own advantage. Microsoft has a perfect right to sell services. But by using its dominant software to do so, it will be tilting the playing field and threatening editorial integrity."

NY Times: Panel tells Bush global warming is getting worse -- The report "may lead President Bush to change his stand on the issue as he heads next week to Europe, where the United States is seen as a major source of the air pollution held responsible for climate change."

Salon: My own private space station -- " Bigelow Aerospace recently filed an application to open up space to commercial interests with the creation of a space station -- a privilege currently restricted to NASA and the Russian aerospace program -- and, eventually, 'cruise ships' for tourists."

St. Petersburg Times: Student removed from class because of drawings -- "A fifth-grader was taken from Oldsmar Elementary School in handcuffs Wednesday after a teacher found drawings he had made of weapons, school officials said." The student was charged with no crime, but will probably not return to school for the rest of the year and will likely be transferred to another school. "We just need to get it through kids' heads that there are certain things you don't say and there are certain things you don't draw," the school's principal said. OK, it's official, we have gone over the edge. Thought monitors will be coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

Update on D.I.R.T -- "Codex's D.I.R.T. is a remote administration tool that functions in large part just like the free Trojans SubSeven and BO2K, which is being sold by a disgraced former cop, current felon and self-confessed lunatic for thousands of dollars a pop to creepy Feds in countries where the sort of abuse it invites is routine and impossible for a victim to challenge in court." However, its capabilities, as originally reported, are overblown.[The Register]

The Independent: Rare American satire found on Web

Reuters: Judge refuses to stop McVeigh execution -- U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch, who had presided over McVeigh's 1997 trial, ruled that there was no cause to further delay the execution over the matter of 4,000 pages of withheld FBI documents. Attorneys for McVeigh have appealed the ruling.

Attorney General John Ashcroft was jubilant: "...The ruling of the court in Denver makes unmistakably clear that we not only have a guilty defendant but that the fairness and innocence of the system is sufficient and is complete and that it merits the trust and confidence of the American people." A system that withholds thousands of pages of documents, accidentally or otherwise, is one to merit trust and inspire confidence?

As Mr. Ashcroft himself noted, the question in all of this is not McVeigh's guilt. However, the issue has been raised that Terry Nichols was spared the death penalty because evidence suggested to a jury that unknown others were involved in the bombing, and that potential similar evidence relating to McVeigh should be considered.

Judge Matsch, in his ruling, basically said that whatever else emerges relating to other parties' involvement in the bombing is irrelevant to McVeigh's sentence. Assuming the appeal is lost and the execution proceeds next week, will we ever learn what really happened? There are unanswered questions that many would like to conveniently ignore.

CNN has a more precise explanation of the story below regarding Ruby Ridge. The issue is that there are "material questions of fact" in dispute and that federal immunity has limits. The disputed issues are:

• The position of an FBI helicopter at the time of the incident.
• Risk to the helicopter from those holding out at Ruby Ridge.
• The danger of giving a warning to the victim before firing.
• The sniper's belief that the man he was firing at was the same man who had made threatening gestures to the helicopter.
• Horiuchi's knowledge of Mrs. Weaver's whereabouts.
• The danger that Weaver and another armed man outside his cabin might escape.

"In remanding the case to the district court, the appeals court indicated that, should that court's finding of fact show that Horiuchi acted in a reasonable manner, his immunity would be reinstated, meaning he would not have to stand trial."

Reuters: Court OKs trial for FBI Ruby Ridge shooter -- The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the actions of FBI agent Lon Horiuchi exceeded the limits of immunity normally applied to federal agents. Dissenting justices argued that the majority ruling "could set a dangerous precedent for other law enforcement officers making decisions in the line of duty." That is all well and good, but it is necessary to remember that the Ruby Ridge incident was not a normal law-enforcement situation. It is regrettable if a "dangerous precedent" is now being set by the Appeals Court ruling; but it is also regrettable that federal authorities sometimes operate beyond the law.

Wired: Say Ahh, Then Remain Silent -- "Cops may someday be searching private medical records in search of criminals, according to some medical privacy experts who cite increasing automation of medical records combined with broad exemptions for law enforcement in new medical privacy regulations."

Boston Globe: A descent into isolation -- Troubling turn by close-knit Idaho family becomes a cautionary tale

MSNBC: FBI sharpshooter may be tried -- "A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that an FBI sharpshooter can be tried for manslaughter in the slaying of the wife of white separatist Randy Weaver during the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff in Idaho."

Reuters: Jeffords, Democrats prepare for historic power shift -- "Republicans have demanded assurances and possibly some type of mechanism to prevent Bush's nominees and legislation from being be bottled up in Democratic-led committees without a chance to be voted on by the full Senate." Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) noted, "We already have a mechanism.... It's called a majority vote."

Joe Conason: Bush's double standard -- "In the situational ethics that now define conservatism, cracking down on kids who drink was a great national imperative, until that policy meant political trouble for a Republican in the White House."

Washington Post: Florida vote rife with disparities, study says -- "Florida's conduct of the 2000 presidential election was marked by 'injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency' that unfairly penalized minority voters, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has concluded...." The Florida attorney general's office is investigating "possible civil rights violations" related to the election.

Washington Post: Poll finds support for Bush declining -- "...The survey found that most Americans say Bush should stop aggressively promoting his legislative agenda and instead should compromise with Democratic lawmakers on energy policy, patients' rights, Social Security and other top issues." One negative that emerges from the poll is the public perception that we are in, or moving rapidly towards, an energy crisis. Ironically, much of that perception has been generated by the administration (particularly by citing California's crunch) in an effort to garner support for increased oil drilling and power-plant construction.

Anthony Lewis: The Price of Occupation -- "That Jews should be indifferent to the mistreatment of another people — that they should invent justifications for inhumanity — seems to me the bitterest of ironies." (NY Times, free registration required)

Reuters: Mother of kids in Idaho standoff refuses release -- "Powell said his client would prefer to stay in jail until authorities give her an apology, drop the criminal charges against her, and release her children from protective custody."

Here's a great screenshot of what the Web looked like in 1994, as it was being developed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN (Switzerland). If the windows look funny, they're not from Microsoft (or Intel); all this stuff was developed on NeXT, the Unix-like operating system and computer developed by Steve Jobs' company after he originally left Apple.

The Register: New Trojan lets cyber-cops plant bogus evidence -- Codex Data Systems has allegedly written a program, aptly name "D.I.R.T." (Data Interception by Remote Transmission) which can be planted on computers by law-enforcement agencies, to purportedly capture keystrokes, read files, plant illegal files, thwart firewalls and encryption, etc. More technical details are posted at cryptome.org. Is this for real? If so, it makes the FBI's 'Carnivore' look like a church picnic.

Reuters: Supreme Court overturns retarded man's death sentence -- "The opinion by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the jury instruction was 'ineffective and illogical' and did not allow jurors to consider mitigating evidence of Penry's mental retardation and childhood abuse." Prosecutors have contended that the defendant pretended to be retarded.

NY Times: The mirage of a growing fuel supply -- A math professor explains in simple terms why the "solution" of increasing oil supply is a doomed long-term strategy.

Washington Post: FAA to outline 10-year plan to modernize -- The often-beleaguered Federal Aviation Administration has outlined a 10-year plan to cram 30 percent more traffic into the present system, at the same time reducing delays and increasing safety. That's a tall order.

Reuters: New Nepali king crowned; curfew ordered to end riots -- "Rioting broke out in Nepal's capital Monday just hours after a new king was crowned following the massacre of almost the entire royal family."

CNN: New Mexico wildfires still imperil residents -- The resort town of Ruidoso (Lincoln County), about 200 miles southeast of Albuquerque, faces evacuation. Arson is suspected.

Over 700 acres have burned near Ruidoso in southern NM.

Reuters: Body of Pope John XXIII moved in surreal ceremony -- "In a surreal ceremony, the exhumed and restored body of Pope John XXIII, who died in 1963, was carried Sunday in a glass coffin to a new resting place in St. Peter's Basilica where it will be visible to the faithful."

Reuters: Idaho children surrender, ending standoff

Washington Post: After massacre, Nepal mourns -- The latest bizarre twist in the deaths yesterday of virtually the entire royal family is the official statement that the gunfire was "accidental."

From the world-domination department...

It's a known fact that bashing Microsoft is entertaining sport. However, things are going too far in the wrong direction with the Redmond behemouth.

USA Today: Microsoft aims to conquer the Net -- With the coming release of the new Windows operating system, "Gates and his cohorts aim to use XP to begin herding computer users and software developers toward Microsoft's notion of what life on the Internet ought to be."

A trivial example cited is a user who types the word "Chicago" into a Word document, then finds a "smart link" hovering over the word, linking to Microsoft's Expedia website -- annyoing but not the end of the world. More serious is users being forced to use "Passport" (and cough up their personal data) in order for the operating system to even work.

Microsoft wants to be the gatekeeper (or toll collector) on the so-called Information Superhighway and create a single world brand. This is faintly ironic, in that they ignored the Net for several years, working on "plug and play," while other companies worked to hook into the burgeoning network phenomenon. Redmond's strategy is also completely counter to the philsophy of the Internet, which was built on the foundations of choice and openness.

Cartoonist Hank Ketcham dead at 81. The creator of "Dennis the Menace" will be missed.

The Register: Windows XP will make Internet unstable - top security expert -- "According to top security expert Steve Gibson, Windows XP threatens to make the Internet unstable as it will allow large numbers of people to launch uncontrollable denial-of-service attacks to whichever IP address they see fit." The issue is not Windows users, per se, but users' machines being hijacked by hackers who have planted "bots" (a software robot) on vulnerable systems. Windows XP has more power to wreak havoc than Windows 95/98/ME. For the technically inclined, see Steve Gibson's lengthy piece detailing his organization's travails with a recent denial-of-service attack.

What not to type in your e-mail -- a list of words and phrases that may trigger Echelon [The Register]

Washington Post: Fiasco blamed on humans -- The 2000 election mess in Florida not all the fault of the machines.

The "standoff" in Idaho continues. "Attorney Edgar Steele, who recently represented Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler in a lawsuit and has taken on the McGuckin family interests pro bono, had been working to keep the youngsters together." Steele claims the children's mother is perfectly capable of taking care of them and that many of the rumors surrounding the case are overblown. [NY Times]

If the six minor children (living at home) are taken into custody of the State, and if the State deems their mother not fit, the logical outcome is that the kids go into the foster care system, which would likely mean their being split apart. Children's welfare is an important issue, but it's a pity that their lives could be torn apart because the family is poor.