If you are into small cars, or work for the circus, this is a great series of articles on the 26 different models out there, everything from the Ford Fusion to the Proton Satria Neo.  

Aside from the awkward bikini clad anime dolls, this is a pretty good article about using a navigation system to get around Tokyo.  As it turns out, there is more than what is on the shelf at Wal Mart. 

...Paris Hilton did buy a pink Bentley.  According to the article, the car and custom work totaled $200,000.  Of course I don't judge Paris Hilton.  Our versions of reality are showing in different theatres, at different release dates, in different languages, and in different countries.  This just helps me to understand the gaping chasm between Hollywood and the rest of us.  Yet they still set the pace for how our culture runs.  Interesting.  Read the article here.  

The Daily Gazette of Schenectady, NY has a great article on the staying power of certain toys.  If you have a son you are probably familiar with the ever present Hot Wheel.  If your son is like mine, you are also familiar with finding them lodged in between the couch cushions, buried in the ground, tied together with strings (for some reason), and of course, the obligatory impossible jump from the kitchen table to the couch on the other side of the house.  With a limited concept of physics and reality, my son can make his Hot Wheel do anything, including numerous right angle turns in mid air, and of course, as with all toys in his private world, carry on full conversations in robot voice.

It's encouraging to me that boys are still boys.  I didn't teach my son to play with Hot Wheels.  He just likes them.  Mattel is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and they estimate that "the average kid owns about 41 Hot Wheels cars."  I think my son lost 41 of them over the last few months.  What an ode to the staying power of the masculine identification with machinery and speed.  These numbers exist in the midst of a slew of available technology that would seem to be more attractive.  And while boys certainly have more options, Mattel's success with the Hot Wheel indicates that at the end of the day, some things will never change.  Read the article here.