Sidelights.(Internet fraud, population in metropolitan areas)

If you do not have mirth you will certainly have madness--G. K. Chesterton

New York City accounts for 7 percent of the U.S. population, and is home to 23 percent of the nation's psychiatrists. * The Census Bureau reported that 18 of America's 25 largest metropolitan areas have decreased in population since 2000. The greatest losses were in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. * Speaking at an out-doorsmen's event in Nashville, Antonin Scalia recalled how, as a boy, he "used to travel on the subway from Queens to Manhattan with a rifle.... Could you imagine doing that today in New York City?" * "Whenever I'm at a restaurant and spot somebody in a military uniform, I pick up their check to show them my appreciation for what they're doing for my country," says former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, quoted in the Washington Times. * Crimes committed by the elderly are on the rise in Japan, reports Tokyo's National Police Agency. Since 1990, the number of those over the age of 65 involved in crimes such as theft, arson, and murder has quadrupled, and senior citizens now account for 10 percent of all arrests. ... Venezuela's murder rate has nearly tripled since leftist Hugo Chavez became president in 1999. * Zainol Abidin Abdul Rashid, a professor at the National University of Malaysia, generated a computer program to calculate prayer times and the direction of Mecca for Muslim astronauts. * Hannelore Schmidt, wife of former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, will not speak on television if she is not allowed to smoke. "It keeps my brain ticking, otherwise I can't work," said 84-year-old Schmidt. "If we stopped smoking at our age, the resulting stress for our systems would be more dangerous than a whiff of nicotine...." * Due to improved nutrition and exercise, China's bra makers are having to greatly increase production of C, D, and E cups. * The Web address Sex.com recently ...