A whole lot of people (830,000 to be exact) would be forced to find another way to line their birdcages, train their puppies, and wrap their fish if the New York Times takes seriously this observation by Nicholas Carlson of the Silicon Alley Insider: Why not just buy every subscriber a Kindle? It’s half the cost of printing your newspaper!

While Carlson may not be entirely serious, he’s certainly timely. Amazon unveiled Kindle 2 today, a lighter, slimmer, faster version of the original with more storage and longer battery life. Combine the arrival of this sleek new gadget with an interesting company statement (“Kindle 2 will also sync with a range of mobile devices in the future,”) and Google’s announcement (1.5 public-domain books for free on your iPhone), and you’ve got to wonder: how are my old-school habits benefiting me?

Why am I still having one source of news printed on wood pulp slurry and tossed into my driveway every morning, when I will spend the first hours of the day accessing far more information at my desk or on my mobile device (while the paper sits unread)? Isn’t that kind of like forgoing cable service, and hiring actors from the local theatre troupe to come to the house every evening to act out my favorite shows? Or turning off the nav system in my car, and stopping to ask directions from the moody loner on the street corner dressed in camouflage and talking to himself? It’s completely irrational – as are people – most of whom will keep one foot on the low-tech side of the fence and one on the side of cutting-edge improvements for the foreseeable future.