20050214-1026

Some lawyer was convicted of passing messages from imprisoned terrorists to unimpassioned ones. She claims that the attorney-client privilege protects her from prosecution for her actions in "Rights Lawyer Vows to Appeal Conviction."

"Officials: Woman Made Up Tossed Baby Story" is just weird. The woman apparently made up a story of someone throwing a baby out a car window so as to hide the fact that she had been pregnant from her family.

"Death Row Retardation Rules Questioned" documents that California is getting around to dealing with the USSC decision that doesn't allow you to execute someone with mental retardation.

"I was just following orders" as a defense in "Lawyer: Contractor Beat Afghan As His Duty." Given how well this worked at Nuremberg, part of me wonders if this is just being done to keep the story in the news.

NYTimes article "State Dept. Relaxes Visa Rules for Some Scientists and Students" talks about making clearances for foreign students and scientists last longer, so as to make it more possible for them to work and study here. Apparently they need clearances to do just about anything in "Fields like chemistry, engineering and pharmacology." Not sure what I think of this.

On a lighter note, perhaps, progress in nanotechnology is reported in "Scientists find flaw in quantum dot construction."