Wearable computers have gone from geek speculation to specialized usage to the next fashion wave in an amazingly short period. A company called Info Charms recently held a fashion show contrasting existing wearable computers and prototypes with hollywood’s images of clothing of the future. The piece is done very much like a spread in a fashion magazine.

On a more "practical level" an inventor has developed a paper computer. In essence it's three sheets: two of circuits seperated by a kind of mask. The inventor believes they could be produced for less than $5.00 each and used in place of things like dedicated voting booths and census forms. Considering the much higher cost of absentee balloting and tabulating forms, this could result in serious cost savings. On a more day-to-day level, it holds the possiblity of replacing AOL CD Roms with paper computers. Someday the lightest thing in your mail might be that new computer. Tired of the old one? Throw it in the shredder. You can visit The Paper Computer Company and read a nice analysis over at Slashdot.

And another year is done, the odometer rolled over and we all seem to still be here, which means it's time for our Hopelessly Complete Waste of Time. Politics are definately strange, at least here in the US. Later in the year you might want to take it seriously. Til then, we’ve got several places that do something much more useful with politics. On the left, we've got the Pansexual Peace Party Pages home of bad web design, an unmarketable platform, heavy consonance and killer –if no longer available– t-shirts… AND, on the right, we’ve got the Chimp; he’s small, he’s hairy, he may have out acted ez-prez Ronnie, and he’s already got a video crew reporting his every move.