There’s a fascinating article in the NY Times on Asberger’s Syndrome, a disorder related to autism. It is best described, perhaps, as the “geek disorder” because of the particular traits that those who have it seem to suffer: inability to interact socially, usually combined with high mental capabilities, particularly with engineering, mathematics, computer science, etc.. Those who have Asberger’s may have a range of symptoms in the spectrum — anywhere from complete inability to read social situations to slight akwardness or making innappropriate comments in social situations, and obsessive interest in certain kinds of information. While certainly not all geeks have Asberger’s, nor are all that have Asberger’s “geeks,” it certainly goes a long way to explaining the difficulties many have who are afflicted with this condition, and the tendency for “geeks” to be drawn to computer science and similar fields
Incidently, a classic case of someone likely suffering from Asberger’s is the character Toby Radloff from American Splendor.
There’s a lot of attention being paid to the youth market for cars these days. Companies are coming up with a lot more strange designs centered around the “lifestyle” and tastes of younger people, as evidenced by Honda’s 
Other cars should follow though, and there are some pretty interesting looking ones, including a coupe (pictured, top) with a customizable two-tone color scheme that will probably make it over, and a strange variation of the ultra-tiny ForTwo two seater that looks like it could be popular in southern climes (pictured, bottom). 
British cellular provider 
They’ve been lying dormant for 17 years, but this summer is supposed to be one of the largest invasions of the cicada – an insect described best as the demonspawn of a cricket, a butterfly, and a cockroach. According to scientists (I love prefacing my remarks that way, especially without citing the source) billions of these little critters are waiting underground for the opportunity to spit themselves out into the air and fly around causing havoc and mating like….well, like something that hasn’t had sex in 17 years. While occasional eruptions of cicadas happen in off-years from different groups of the 13 or 17 year buggers, “Brood X” is the largest and most widespread, and will soon spill upon the earth on a biblical scale. Get those porches screened-in today!
When the EyeToy came out the only games one could play with it were the included mini-games which are fun, but get old quickly unless you’re playing with other folks. But a few new games are on the horizon that break from the dancing game trend that seemed like it would eat the EyeToy up. One is Saru Eye, scheduled to be released this summer in Japan. It seems to involve controlling an on-screen character rather than being the character in the game, which opens up a whole new genre for the EyeToy.