The Duckbill Platypus is a mammal that lays eggs. It also plays a key role in the defence of Hans Reiser, an iconic programmer and software visionary on trial for murdering his wife.[Reiser's defence attorney] for the second day likened his client to a duckbill platypus, a strange-looking mammal -- a "genetic mistake" -- that was projected to jurors on a large monitor.
"I just know this is one of the great screw jobs of what happened to Hans Reiser," DuBois said. "It's easy to screw a platypus."
It is a tragic story (detailed in one of the best pieces ever to appear on Wired - well worth dedicating 20 minutes to go through the whole thing) and one of the most followed and discussed across geekland. Here's another interesting excerpt from the proceedings:
[Hans Reiser explained] to jurors that, as nonscientists, they may not understand his social ineptness.
"Scientists communicate by reference to data. I cannot communicate effectively. That's not how scientists talk. We cannot throw out assertions that cannot be supportive without data points," the 44-year-old defendant testified on his 10th day on the stand. "I have a compulsive tendency to say things that I know are true that people don't want to be true. I do this by reference to the data"
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