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This will not go over well in Huntsville. In fact, it already hasn't.

"Republican Senator Richard Shelby launched a preemptive strike on President Barack Obama's blue ribbon space panel ther day before its due to release its final report, calling the committee's findings "worthless." Shelby, a staunch defender of NASA's Marshal Space Flight Center In Huntsville, Alabama, said in a Senate floor speech that the committee failed to consider safety when it ranked various rocket options for the White House to consider. "Without an honest and thorough examination of the safety and reliability aspects of the various designs and options for manned space flight, the findings of this report are worthless," said Shelby."

Senator Shelby, obviously a noted rocket expert, contradicts former Shuttle astronauts Sally Ride and Leroy Chiao. Undoubtedly he astronaut safety at every step of the process with little regard to politics while they as former astronauts were completely unconcerned with it.

Speaking of unconcerned, apparently President Obama is exactly that in regards to NASA. New NASA Administrator Charles Bolden hopes to meet with Obama before end of year on agency future.

On top of all of that, it seems that Altair, the lunar lander from the Constellation project has been defunded.

I can't help but wonder if it was related to this:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/orl-bk-walmart-safe-heist-100909,0,3026268.story

In this case, it's more of an expected savings in the future. Considering that the "conventional" approach NASA uses has resulted in a rocket program expected to cost well over $45 billion, while the commercial contractors are expected to be able to produce similar capabilities for a couple of billion, I'd say that anything that promotes the commercial companies is a great investment. This should have been done a long time ago, but as it is, NASA needs to put more effort into switching from cost-plus contracts towards commercial fixed-price competitive contracts.

Also, this was originally supposed to be $150 million, but Sen. Shelby (R-AL) blocked NASA's funding until they diverted $100 million more towards the multi-billion dollar Ares project developed at NASA Marshall (coincidentally, in his state). I'm not sure how NASA will be splitting up the reduced amount of money, but when they had asked for the larger amount they were planning on spending it as follows:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2009/04/cots-d-commericial-human-spaceflight-to-get-150m.html

According to industry insiders, about $80 million of the $150 million is specifically for a "crewed launch demo." The rest was broken down into $42 million for a docking system to the international space station, $20 million for a cargo transportation demo and $8 million for miscellaneous aspects of the COTS program, including human rating. The remaining $250 million of the stimulus money for human exploration will go to the Constellation program.

Obama wants to combine efforts with the the Air Force, which has a MUCH larger space program and a proven launch capability (Delta IV, Atlas V) already in hand.

Strictly speaking, the EELV rockets are more commercial boosters than the Air Force, and NASA would be dealing with Boeing and Lockheed-Martin rather than the Air Force. I do have a lot of hope for the EELV-based approach though, and it's also likely that a capsule adapted to the EELVs could also adapt later on to commercial vehicles from companies like SpaceX or Orbital.

As things currently stand, NASA's Ares I has been running into major problems, many believe it to have fundamental design flaws, and projected development costs are running into the $30-$50 billion range. Meanwhile, a couple weeks ago a NASA-commissioned independent study confirmed that the commercial EELVs would be able to fulfill NASA's needs of transporting NASA's orbital and lunar spacecraft, with estimated costs of a few billion dollars (about an order of magnitude less than the Ares program). There's also SpaceX and COTS-D, which could do the job for around $1.5 billion dollars of development costs. The independent study contradicts a previous flawed NASA study which concluded that the the EELVs would be incapable of doing the job.

The path that NASA was heading down with previous administrator Michael Griffin was really bizarre and backwards, and I have my fingers crossed that Charles Bolden will be able to turn things around.

(adapted slightly from a comment I made a few weeks ago)

IMAX recently started selling out and allowing theaters with smaller screens to use the IMAX brand. Be careful when you choose an IMAX theater... it may not be what you expect.

"The NASA budget for 2010 has been announced, up 5% on 2009. Human space flight plans to be reviewed."

I'm quite glad to hear that this review of NASA's spaceflight plans is occurring, and from what I've read seems to be quite good at minimizing outside/political/industry influence and making sure that the recommendations will truly be the best ones possible. The only problem is that NASA and/or the administration might end up ignoring those recommendations for political reasons (e.g. making sure jobs remain in particular congressional districts).

Evidence has recently been leaked that the NASA's ESAS study which settled on the homebuilt Ares I (based on then-Administrator Mike Griffin's pet design) over the already-existing commercial EELV rockets was deeply flawed. Basically, the flawed 60-day ESAS study (often relied on by certain NASA officials to defend their plans) had a number of major problems:

(from Selenian Boondocks, with parts of the leaked study available on Wikileaks )

• Exceptions given in the ground rules and assumptions on maximum dynamic pressures to In-line SRM based crew launch concepts that weren't given to any other vehicles (without the exception, all of the five-segment Stick concepts would've been ruled out from the start).
• Unrealistically assuming a fixed LAS mass regardless of first stage characteristics (like T/W, max-Q, and whether you can shut them down or not).
• Inaccurate dry mass numbers for existing EELV upper stages (just as some of the guys on NASASpaceflight.com had been saying for years now).

As things currently stand, the Ares I has been running into major problems, many believe it to have fundamental design flaws, and projected development costs are running into the $30-$50 billion range. Meanwhile, a couple weeks ago a NASA-commissioned independent study confirmed that the commercial EELVs would be able to fulfill NASA's needs of transporting NASA's orbital and lunar spacecraft, with estimated costs of a few billion dollars (about an order of magnitude less than the Ares program). That's to say nothing of SpaceX and COTS-D, which could do the job for around $1.5 billion dollars of development costs.

Well, now you're just factually wrong: officials HAVE come out and said that such information has thwarted attacks.

And every single time they've done so, the details have not panned out. The point is that we get all the backslapping and public self-congratulation for the bullshit terrorists, but never for any real ones.

Like this - which oops turned out not to be about blowing up the plane (after all, he only had SOME parts of a bomb, not all parts, no detonator, and nothing to mix with the nitro in order to make it volatile) but about seeking revenge on some people at his destination. So, while the guy probably belongs in jail, his jailing was not part of the purview of stopping terrorist attacks on airplanes.

For some reason the submission goes to a site that mentions the original articles appeared at the Orlando sentinel, but doesn't link to the articles. So here they are:

December 11: NASA chief Griffin bucks Obama's transition team

and

December 12: NASA chief insists he's cooperating with Obama's team

For some reason the submission goes to a site that mentions the original articles appeared at the Orlando sentinel, but doesn't link to the articles. So here they are:

December 11: NASA chief Griffin bucks Obama's transition team

and

December 12: NASA chief insists he's cooperating with Obama's team

I hope it doesn't apply to Steven Chu, but another thing to keep in mind is that as scientists and engineers we often have a tendency to have favored pet projects, which we'll often obsess over and pound away at even after it's apparent that the project is a poor use of resources. For a recent big example, there's NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, who had designed the Ares rocket pet project before he became head of NASA. He's now pouring tons of NASA resources into the project, killing off the good science and technology projects which had previously had those resources. Even though it's now looking the like the Ares is an inherently bad design, instead of admitting it he's instead commanding his subordinates to do everything they can to defend his project from members of Obama's transition team who think Ares resources may be better used on other NASA projects.

Again, hopefully David Chu will turn out better than Griffin, but we'll have to be watchful.

Maybe that's because if they asked actual questions their access would be cut off.

NASA has invested hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars as part of a partnership with SpaceX to develop the first commercially-operated rocket designed to take cargo to the international space station. NASA has also invested in a second company, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Virginia.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2008/08/spacex-strikes.html

Corporate welfare FTW. You've been suckered again...

I'm usually pretty skeptical about these types of stories too, but then I remembered a story about a cat being sealed inside a wall during a bathroom renovation, so I went to Google. Apparently, it's happened more than once.

Speaking of lackluster performance, here's the missing link to the actual leaked email. and the source article from the Orlando Sentinel

Speaking of lackluster performance, here's the missing link to the actual leaked email. and the source article from the Orlando Sentinel

From some of the view pages:

Bat Bike in use

View from the back

Video preview

This picture was also thought to be the Bat-Bike
The new bat-bike?

Some super-big pictures:

Front
Back

A light review
CHRISTIAN BALE was banned from riding Batman's hi-tech motorbike on the set of The Dark Knight - because the producers considered it too dangerous.

The actor said: "Embarrassingly, I didn't get to ride it. There are other motorbikes in the film that I got to burn about on, but not the Batpod - it was deemed too dangerous; they needed me in one piece to finish the damn movie."

Bale says a stunt rider took his place in scenes involving the Batpod in case the actor came off it and injured himself. The machine - described as a steamroller combined with a motorbike and atomic missile - is the caped crusader's latest gadget.

He said the machine was so hard to handle that only one stuntman on the set could ride it without falling off. But he is determined to master the Batpod before the film has its world premiere in New York on July 14.

"I've asked the producers if I can have a go on it before the premiere, so that I really can ride it before I get asked any more of these questions - you can't be Batman and not have been on the bloody Bat bike!"

The Dark Knight is released in the US on July 18 and in the UK on July 25.

First, dear NASA: Permitting whatever mission creep that has led to this embiggining of Ares V is a fatal mistake. Driving up the cost only provides a larger surface on which to paint a bullseye.

Ares V is a pipe dream. Learn why by reading this.

US citizens generally elect the young shiny guy in any given election. McJowls doesn't stand a chance against Obama by that criteria. That means Ares V will whither on the vine after it's defunded to pay off Obama's NEA campaign support (a.k.a 'education').

Yes, I know Obama's current (dramatically revised) position only threatens 'later stages' of the Constellation program. Ares V is the later stage, because no Moon and no Mars means no need for heavy lift. He'll let NASA build Ares I to replace some fraction of the Shuttle's capability and send the rest of the money off to whichever interest group will deliver the most votes in 2012.

Should be noted these increases are not expected to go through. The media

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-nasa1908jun19,0,253051.story

has stated they're what would get passed if the next president supported increased spending, but under the current tightwad, voters should expect everything except defense to be held at current levels.

Heaven forbid another penny pinching tightwad get elected.

It is interesting that the GAO has concerns about the ability of Soyuz to take the shuttle's place. And anything else with capabilities that approach the shuttle's are basically vaporware at this point. I think that it is not out of line to ask if the ISS is going to make it. I'm not saying that because I think it wont, I just don't think it is to difficult to imagine very realistic scenarios where it does not.

A few weeks ago while I was eating lunch at Top Cat's on Stevenson, I saw something that unnerved me a little bit.
Four middle aged men wearing suits were sitting at a nearby table. One of them wore a pistol in a holster, as if he were a character in a TV western, only without the hat.

Nobody seemed to notice or mind. Of course, I noticed and I minded, but there would have been no way for anybody to notice that I noticed, either. My assumption was that these were cops; they looked like cops.

But I had a nagging worry. What if they weren't cops? What if they were here to rob and kill the restaraunt's workers and patrons?

What if they were cops and another Secret Policeman from another jurisdiction (say, the county or state) mistook them for thugs and bullets started flying?

I didn't even finish my beer that day. As soon as my lunch was done I was out of there. I'm uncomfortable around firearms, having been taught firearm safety and hunting at a young age. I mean, shit happens, you know?

The Secret Police are more commonly referred to in the mainstream media as "undercover agents" or "undercover police," and their sole function is to enforce laws that should never been passed, such as alcohol prohibition in the 1920s or anti-prostitution laws today. Laws that nobody is going to call the police for because nobody is victimized by those crimes that should not be criminal.

"The prostitute is the pimp's victim," the authoritarian anti-freedom busybodies whine. If so, why does this victim wind up in jail? These laws make little sense to me.

Besides, if prostitution were legal I could get laid. But that is beside this post's point. And trying to stick to the point I'm not going to mince words and use euphamisms like "undercover" but call them what they really are: the Secret Police, not at all unlike Soviet Russia's Secret Police or Hitler's Facist Secret Police, or the Secret Police in Communist China.

They're not "undercover agents" dammit, they're Secret Police. 1984 may have been a little late, but Orwell was wrong about one thing- when the city council voted to put the spy cameras on 5th street last week (sorry, I can't find a link) they neglected to vote for any money for the "Big Brother is watching!" posters.

Cameras everywhere and Secret Police. Our freedom has been gone for quite some time now. The 9-11 terrorists only speeded up a process that was already underway.

But back to the Secret Police.

Today I heard on the news that what I feared at Top Cat's happened at the Citrus Bowl yesterday. At the inevitable tailgate party, the Secret Police were (of course) sneakily wandering through the crowd pretending to be football fans when a drunken brawl broke out.

A Secret Policeman intervened, and while trying to break up the fight, drew his weapon and fired into the air. Another cop saw this, assumed logically and rationally that this was an armed drunken brawler and shot him dead, in the back.

He died slowly, coughing up blood. The news reports I saw didn't say whether the cop killer was a uniformed police officer or another Secret Policeman.

Here are a few links to mainstream news about it: The Orlando Sentinal, the Tampa Bay C

What about hiring a prostitute from an escort/dating service listed in the phonebook? Can the publishers of the phonebook be charged as accomplices to the crime?

Every time the Wii shortage comes up on the dot, there are people who say they are easy to get. And maybe in certain locales that is true. But when even my local paper notices people hanging out at stores, following the UPS guy and such - I think it is safe to say that these little suckers are difficult to attain in many places. Reggie Fils Aimes has publicly said they wont meet demand through the holidays. And I don't think he'd be saying that if there were any chance of them ramping up production any further.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/orl-shuttle0607dec06,0,25309.story?page=1

I can't tell if the interest is Pork or Science from the newspaper article, but I find it strange that practically ALL of the Texas Congressional delegation wrote a letter to Bush. Also, some of the members 'talked' with the head of NASA.

Space X has their Falcon 1 pretty much done, and ESA has their quite reliable Ariane rockets. NASA has not invested much in their replacement to the shuttle yet, but Congress is making up its mind.

If there's a time to get the NASA out of the space launch business, now or the near future is it.

One more Hubble servicing mission... but the 1.5 billion dollar AMS (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) won't be launched to ISS because there aren't enough remaining Shuttle launches.

Hubble's been fantastic and all, but all the furor, angst and money could have been spent on launching an entirely new telescope into space by now.

"Another idea is launching the spectrometer aboard an expendable rocket, at a cost estimated last year at $254 million to $564 million. That would also require a redesign of the spectrometer, which was custom-designed by NASA to fit the shuttle's payload bay at a cost so far of about $65 million.

Ting dismissed the idea.

"It's a bit late to put it on a rocket," he said."

If so, why was he surrounded by American soldiers?

Photo-op. Duh.

Not to mention this isn't really news. The article is from october of last year.

Here's a more recent article about the same thing. They've moved past just Batman.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-disney dolphin3106may31,0,890126.story

Whoops, I gave the wrong link. It is still useful information about the APU problem, but here is the correct link (from which I quoted).

An example of the syndrome which led to them tolerating foam strikes, right up to the point where they lost an orbiter.

I can't see in TFA what the primary indication is. It can't be a loss of pressure because this would tell them what is leaking.

"The APU 1 fuel pressure is decaying differently than the other two tanks which is indicative of a small N2 [nitrogen] or hydrazine leak. The data is very subtle so it has taken eight days to detect this change in slope between the three APU fuel tank plots. APU 2 and APU 3 shows a normal pressure decay of 6 psi over the eight days of the mission. This is due to the temperature change in the tanks which is caused by a 9-10 degrees Fahrenheit decrease in the tank temperatures as the aft structure cools. It takes some time to see this change because ascent does a good job of warming up this part of the vehicle. APU 1 Tank pressure has dropped a total of 22 psi over these eight days which is indicative of a leak which is most likely N2."

The important thing about all this is the changes in cable franchising law. If other companies can get a single franchise from a state, rather than each and every municipality, it becomes far easier to start providing alternative television services. This is what we call competition. Competition breeds lower prices, better service, and technological innovation in order to differentiate competing services and win more customers.

Right now Adelphia is going bankrupt and being gobbled up by Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Before that, I've seen merger after merger just in my area. There's less competition than before, and the sooner and easier it is for additional companies like AT&T and Verizon to roll out competing services, the better.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewri testuff/2006/07/foam_falls_from.html

Disney denies the rumors that DisneyQuest is scheduled to close.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/business_tourism_ aviation/2006/04/walt_disney_wor.html

They're all a bunch of sleazy, greedy bastards, on both sides.

Now it's being used in child porn cases as well. This should come as no surprise to anybody that lived through the 80's. Back then the politicians promised us that RECO legislation was only aimed at the Drug King-Pins and international cartels.......

I could point you to our illustrious Seminole County (Florida) Judge John Sloop, who one day last year put 11 people in jail for failure to appear. Problem was, those 11 people were actually at the courthouse and had simply been directed to the wrong courtroom, and most were appearing for traffic cases. Two other judges and the arresting officers told that asshole that he shouldn't have had them jailed, and yet it still took several hours before he signed the release orders and longer still until the people were let free.

Does this count as a judge that doesn't care? Better yet, this judge is now trying to defend his actions by saying he was recently diagnosed with ADHD, and as such wasn't responsible for his behavior that day. Best of all, no one with the authority to do so is calling for his resignation and/or revocation of his bar certification, even though the community clearly has wanted him out of that seat for some time.

• Jobs
• Liberty (Big Brother discovers GPS)
• Punishing the appropriate people. (Another take. Oh, maybe we can find a home for people with allergies who illegally obtain Sudafed)

from: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/ orl-locporno13081305aug13,0,5165967.story?coll=orl -news-headlines-volusia (google news,librarian) VALPARAISO -- A Florida Panhandle librarian has been suspended and may be fired by officials upset that a registered sex offender and three boys allegedly used the city library's computers to access pornographic Internet sites. Sue Martin, head librarian at the Valparaiso Community Library, was suspended with pay and will receive a hearing within 60 days, City Attorney Doug Wyckoff said Thursday. City Commissioner Robert Billingsley said he would ask the commission to dismiss Martin. Hard drives have been removed from the computers, and the public has been prohibited from using them until further notice. Martin does not have a telephone listing under her name, but she wrote to Billingsley, who oversees library matters for the commission, after the sex offender allegedly viewed a pornographic site July 25. "We continually enforce our policy by monitoring all computers," she wrote. "Any suspicious use is immediately checked by accessing the history of the patrons' Web use." So... they're watching... and fireing anyone who doesn't play along?

Well, here's the reference. They took the FREON out of the formula.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/space/o rl-asecssfoam03020303feb03,0,3465452.story
According to Katnik, Columbia's onboard cameras "revealed massive material loss" on the side of the tank that is attached to the orbiter. Once in space, the tank falls away from the orbiter and burns up on re-entry.

"It was determined that, during the ascent, the foam separation from the external tank was carried by the aerodynamic flow and pelted the nose of the orbiter and cascaded aft from that point," Katnik wrote. "Once again, this foam was carried in a relative airstream between Mach 2 and Mach 4!"

Katnik speculated that the problem with the foam was caused by a new formula, which eliminated Freon from the mix in an effort to be "environmentally friendly." He said an earlier 1997 shuttle flight -- the first to use the new-formula foam -- had experienced similar, though less-dramatic problems.

So there you go. The foam without the Freon just doesn't work as well. Why do you think the chemical engineers who made that foam put the Freon in there? They must have thought they needed it. Then they were told Freon was too much of an environmental problem. Not as much a problem as burning up spaceships, I think.

There were always foam pieces that fell off, sure. But not like THIS.

In one presentation last year at Tulane University, a Lockheed Martin external tank researcher wrote that a change in the foam formula led to "unanticipated program impacts, such as foam loss during flight." The change was prompted by environmental concerns over using freon to spray on the foam.

[...] Hundreds of the heat-resistant tiles were damaged during a Columbia flight in 1997 when chunks of the foam broke off and hit the spacecraft. Some of the gouges were 15 inches long.

During that event and in the incident from October that Dittemore cited Monday, the foam came loose from a ridged part where the tank's liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen sections are joined together.

Technicians traced at least part of the problem to a chemical called HCFC 141b, which Lockheed Martin began using in the mid-1990s as a replacement for the freon gas used to help spray on the foam.

The new chemical may have contributed to "popcorning," which happens when the tiny cells within the tank's foam start to expand and break loose from the rest of the material.

The cells expand as the outside pressure decreases during the shuttle's ascent and the temperature rises from air friction and hot exhaust gases. The chemicals in the foam may also vaporize, increasing the pressure.

So apparently this photo was taken after they cancelled the launch. They seem pretty happy about it lol.. "Phewwwf..we dodged that one"

Try to take a look here

Long story short: there's a five minute window everyday until July 31. After this the only window avaiable will be in September.

Next window will be tomorrow around 3:30 pm

According to this orlando article, they are discontinuuing this particular service, and are possibly going to go to a different type of wireless service, using private contractors and using different APs, etc. They still like the idea in general, just not the way they were doing it.

Ack! that'll teach me not to preview. (It's Slashdot's fault, really--it timed out on my preview.) And now, here's the link.

A more in-depth article on this subject is here: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-asecdrunk010601 05jun01,0,3404397,print.story

And the court case that that article references can be found here: http://www.5dca.org/Opinions/Opin2004/022304/5D02- 4035.op.pdf

Yeah! Yeah! Let's make them answer for their behavior !

This tribune story only reports on the Orlando Sentinel story found here which has some more details. The text of it is as follows (emph. mine):

-----

SANFORD -- In the past five months, Seminole County judges have thrown out hundreds of breath-alcohol tests that show drivers were legally drunk.

The reason: The state won't disclose how the test machines work -- not because it doesn't want to, but because it doesn't have the information, and the manufacturer won't give it up.

Seminole judges have tossed out more than 500 breath tests. As a consequence, prosecutors say, drunken drivers are getting off.

One is Pieter Johannes Wesselius, 32, of Altamonte Springs. He was acquitted May 17 by a Seminole County jury that did not know his breath-alcohol measured 0.20, or 21/2 times the legal limit.

Wesselius was driving a black Harley-Davidson on State Road 436 in Altamonte Springs on Sept. 18 when he was pulled over, according to a police report. He told officers he'd had six beers.

Two years earlier, he had pleaded no contest to drunken driving in Seminole, according to court records.

Wesselius, who is in jail after pleading no contest to driving a motorcycle without a license, could not be reached for comment.

What's going on in Seminole is unusual. Nowhere else are judges throwing out virtually every breath test that comes before them.

That's because all four Seminole County criminal judges now use the same standard: If a DUI defendant asks for a key piece of information about how the machine works -- its software source code -- and the state can't provide it, the breath test is rejected.

Prosecutors say they don't know how many drunken drivers have been acquitted as a result. But Gino Feliciani, the misdemeanor division chief in Seminole's State Attorney's Office, said the conviction rate has dropped to 50 percent or less.

Seminole judges are all following the lead of Seminole County Judge Donald Marblestone, who in January ruled, though the information may be a trade secret and controlled by a private contractor, defendants are entitled to it.

"Florida cannot contract away the statutory rights of its citizens," the judge wrote. Marblestone would not discuss his decision, citing pending cases.

Judges in other counties have said the opposite. The state can't turn over something it does not possess, and the manufacturer shouldn't have to turn over trade secrets, they've said.

Three weeks ago, all eight of Brevard's county judges signed an opinion saying defendants were not entitled to the machine's source code. Three weeks before that, judges in Volusia and Bay counties also sided with the state.

The demand for the machine's source code has popped up in Orange County but with less-dramatic results. Some judges have ordered the state to turn it over, but others have not, said Michael Saunders, the county court bureau chief for State Attorney Lawson Lamar.

In Orange, defense attorneys also are demanding access to another Intoxilyzer trade secret: the machine's memory system.

The machine at the center of all this is the Intoxilyzer 5000, the only breath-alcohol machine used by Florida law-enforcement agencies.

When a drunken-driving suspect is hauled into a police station or jail, he must blow into it or lose his drivers license.

The machine determines how much alcohol is in his blood by measuring the amount of alcohol he exhales. It does that by shining an infrared light through a puff of his air.

The $5,000 machine is made by CMI Inc. of Owensboro, Ky. Company officials would not comment.

The Intoxilyzer 5000 is perfectly reliable if properly maintained and operated, said Laura Barfield, manager of alcohol testing for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the agency that oversees all breath-alcohol testing in Florida.

But FDLE's word is not good enough for defense attorneys.

Microsoft is just another company. The EU, even without its Constitution, has taken on the cosmetics and electronics industry, and won. Don't forget that the EU constitutes a larger market than the US.

As for the EU's inability to get their member states to vote favorably on the Constitution, many believe this has more to do with Europeans' sentiments about their national leaders which are pushing the Constitution through.