Whenever someone says that this or that government program is absolutely necessary, I always wonder, "What did people do and how did they survive before the program?"

If someone says food stamps are absolutely necessary for poor people's survival, I wonder how America's millions of poor immigrants made it. Unless I missed something, mass starvation is not a part of our history. Was there a stealth food stamp program during the 1700s and 1800s?

Nashville City Paper

] When I mentioned in last week's column that I would this
] week be writing about a legal way to do a successful
] music downloading business -- a business that would
] threaten the Recording Industry Association of America
] and its hegemony -- dozens of readers wrote to me trying
] to predict what I would write. Some readers came at the
] problem from a purely technical perspective, ignoring the
] fact that the real issues here aren't technical but
] legal. Some readers took a legal approach, but they
] tended to ignore the business model. Some were looking
] solely for the business model. Interestingly, nobody
] even came close to my idea, which makes me either a total
] loon or a diabolical genius. Truth be told, I'm probably
] more of a diabolical loon.
]
]
] The reason I am even writing this column is two-fold.
] The biggest reason is simply because I would like people
] to consider lateral solutions to problems. I am pushing
] the concept of problem solving in a new way. There is no
] particular methodology here, just the underlying concept
] that if things aren't working the way you like, think of
] something different. Too often, people restrict their
] thinking or they somehow expect the world to change just
] for them, which it won't. But taking a lateral approach
] often yields interesting results. And once you've found
] an approach, maybe it can be applied to a different
] problem. What I am abo

I, Cringely | The Pulpit

] The parents of Ghyslain Raza, the Quebec teenager who
] became a celebrity this spring after classmates posted on
] the Internet a video of him mimicking a Star Wars
] character, allege that their son was so humiliated by the
] experience that he had to get psychiatric care.
]
] The revelation is made in a lawsuit his parents have
] filed against the families of four classmates they accuse
] of maliciously turning their son into an object of
] mockery.
]
] The video of Ghyslain, a portly 15-year-old pretending he
] is wielding a double-bladed light sabre, has been
] downloaded millions of times from several Web sites,
] which dubbed him Star Wars Kid.

The Globe and Mail

] MADRID, Spain, July 22 %u2014 For a glimpse of
] Europe%u2019s young generation on the move and the future
] of the borderless continent, head to the late-partying
] Spanish capital, drink a strong shot of coffee and try to
] keep up with Stina Lunden, a 25-year-old Swedish
] transplant.

A generation on the move in Europe

] "MIT recently received a subpoena from the Recording
] Industry Association of America that was issued under the
] terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The
] subpoena requests the name and address of the individual
] whose computer was, according to the RIAA, sending out
] copyrighted songs on the Internet.
]
] "A different federal law, the Family Education Rights and
] Privacy Act, prohibits colleges and universities from
] disclosing information about students except in certain
] situations.

MIT responds to RIAA subpoena

] Drafted 98th overall in the 2001 draft, Tootoo has
] generated more attention than a first-round draft pick,
] and not just because of his cultural background. He
] scored 35 goals last season. When he skates up ice, he's
] like a lightning flash across an open sky.
]
] "He's been the most popular player on every team he plays
] on," Nashville GM David Poile says. "Fans were chanting
] his name when he played for Canada" at the world junior
] championships in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Expect Tootoo to be a huge star in the NHL.

Skating across cultural gap - Jordin Tootoo

] As devices get smarter, they can identify and adapt to
] individual users in a household, potentially making
] suggestions on everything from what to eat to how to
] dress. "Think of it as the electronic equivalent of an
] English butler," says Emile Aarts, vice-president and
] scientific program director at Philips Research
] Laboratories in Eindhoven. Those concepts may seem
] pie-in-the-sky now, but many are being tested in
] corporate labs -- and some are nearing commercialization.

Let's hope the telecom service providers don't screw this up.

Digital Homes

] Dockers recently came out with a new brand of pants, the
] Go Khakis, which promise to keep your legs stain-free
] using revolutionary nanotechnology.
]
] We couldn't help thinking that Dockers might be using the
] word "nanotechnology" more for marketing muscle than for
] true scientific purposes, so we called its customer
] service line to ask a few pointed questions. Here's a
] slice of the conversation.

Hilarious.

CNN.com - Little robots in your pants - Jul. 18, 2003

Bullshit Bingo strikes back.

Hipster Bingo

] The sci-fi classic gets a sequel and an upgrade.

FINALLY!!!

Tron Reloaded