Defenders

Over at my friend Tom's blog, he's got a nice bit about the old video game, Defender. I'd like to see a regular feature on old arcade games. My favorite--one of the few I mastered--was Frogger. What distinguished Frogger was it featured more ways to die than any other. The idea was to hop your frog from the bottom of the screen to a slot on the top, across a road and a rushing stream. You could jump offscreen, get run over by a car, be eaten by a snake (on land or water), eaten by an otter, be carried offscreen by a log on rushing water, drown, jump in the wrong slot, and if that wasn't enough, if you took too long, your time ran out.

Also, our old pal Judge Posner has an short essay on eavesdropping for national defense. He asks an important question, too often lost amongst the ornate legal arguments--what if it works?

Columbus Guy says: "What if it works?" What the hell kind of test is that? What are you trying to do? Destroy the government altogether?