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Mr. Gates is finally leaving Microsoft to dedicate the majority of his remaining years curing malaria and doling out charitable grants through the Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation, the wealthiest foundation in the world.

Thanks to illegal, backroom dealings and extortion, Mr. Gates built from a small software company into a full-fledged monopoly in just 20 short years.

During that time, Microsoft made workers pull 80-hour weeks, categorized workers as "temporary" and "freelance" to avoid paying medical benefits, and threatened critical employees with lawsuits if they tried to leave.

I have a thing for small cars. I can't explain it (least of all to my wife), I just do.

Naturally, the Smart Car—built as a joint venture by Mercedes and Swatch—is my favorite. But until now, I lamented the fact that it was still gas powered, and only gets 40mph. But now, I found out that a Smart ForTwo electric drive is being tested as we speak in the UK. Oh, joy!

Here's a nice write-up by The Nation about the untimely demise of comedian, George Carlin.

Famous for, among others, the classic "Seven words" bit, George's passing won't be lamented by many priests, rabbis, clerics or ministers, because (like Bill Hicks) Carlin wasn't really a fan of religion. Nor was George a big fan of censorship.

Yet, despite a dry period in the late 1970s—due, I just found out, to three heart attacks—George did a lot of good in the world by pointing out life's inconsistencies and stupidities.

You will be missed, Mr. Carlin.

As long-time readers know (are there any of those?), I hate paying AT&T any more than I absolutely have to. (Especially now that the company jacked up my DSL bill just "because it can...")

Still not bringing a reusable canvas bag with you when you shop at the grocery store? Well, now you don't have to feel like your laziness is helping to destroy Earth as much.

In response to my earlier blog post about the dangers of Diet Coke—or more realistically, recent charges that Sodium Benzoate is altering the DNA of children—the Coca-Cola Company has finally decided to remove this "taste-protecting" substance from all their sodas, including Fanta, Dr. Pepper, Sprite and Diet Coke (although not regular Coke). Turns out that E211, as it's known, turns off certain genes in developing children, potentially leading to Parkinson's and cirrhosis of the liver.

Recently, I set up a nifty GoogleAlert to notify me by email, anytime my name appeared on The Interwebs—seemed like a good idea at the time. But then, so did inventing the internal-combustion engine and look at how well that turned out.