Palm, Inc. yesterday announced the closure of its retail locations. (Yes, Palm has retail stores, including one here in D.C. at Union Station.)

Thursday brought news that the company’s 34 stores–eight Palm-branded locations and 26 stores that were inside Airport Wireless outposts–will have to go by the end of the current quarter. “We continue to focus our company around core business initiatives and are consolidating more resources behind fewer programs in order to compete most effectively and build world-class, category-defining mobile solutions. We have therefore made the decision to close our retail stores,” the company said in a statement regarding the retail move.

For a while, I had thought about picking up a cheapo Palm device just to toy around with. After I got my iPhone last summer, it became less and less of a priority. With this announcement though, my interest in picking up a cheap Palm device got re-kindled, as I imagine that the stores will have clearance sales to liquidate their inventory.

It rather reminds me of Discovery Communications’ decision last fall to close their brick-and-mortar stores in favor of hawking their wares exclusively online. I managed to get a couple of nifty desk toys and DVDs on the cheap.

These are my links for 22 Jun through 25 Jun:

• pee and poo plush dolls * kiss & bajs | scandinavian details - The pee & poo set makes a fun, light-hearted tool for introducing your child to potty training (SSSH. It even makes a great gift for hard-to-please adults.)
• A Long Line for a Shorter Wait at the Supermarket (New York Times) - A relative newcomer to Manhattan is trying to teach the locals a new rule of living: the longer the line, the shorter the wait.
• Metroblogging DC: Maybe photography IS a crime - Wayan, Carl, myself and the rest of the DC Metblogs crew invite you out for a photo outing on what seems like the best day to do this: July 4th.
• Uncovering America: Fighting for Acceptance - Special Reports from CNN.com - From the basic desires for understanding to the complex issues of adoption and marriage, the LGBT community faces an array of challenges.
• If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers - Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion.
• Second Life Without Sex Would Be a Sad Life, Indeed - There’s nothing virtual about the anxiety felt by Second Life residents these days.
• How Dumb Can a “Wizard” Get? - How can setting up a cell phone get that complicated?
• Machinist: Tech Blog, Tech News, Technology Articles - Salon - “No drop of milk oozes from the Apple teat without a crowd of journalists gathering to swallow it up,” writes Jack Shafer, Slate’s ever-clever media critic, in a piece launching his pre-iPhone “Apple Suck-Up Watch.” Shafer is the sort who reaches for his

• The Secret of Apple Design - Apple, Inc. has made an art of not talking about its products. Fans, journalists, and rumormongers who love it or love to hate it have long had to practice a sort of Kremlinology to gather the merest hints as to what is coming next out of Cupertino.
• Cool business card designs
• Oral sex can cause throat cancer - People who have had more than five oral-sex partners in their lifetime are 250% more likely to have throat cancer than those who do not have oral sex, a new study suggests.