Good Reads (Warning: Political Stuff)

Good reading all the way around. (And no, not all these folks are tofu-eating liberals.) (Frankly, I doubt any of them eat tofu.) Frank Rich in last Sunday's New York Times. Stanley Fish, also in the Times. Christopher Hitchens in Slate. Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post.

Another Beer Social Network Site: The Aleuminati

And speaking of social networks and beer, I got an email from Shawn Connelly about another beer social site, The Aleuminati. Shawn is the founder of Aleuminati. He also blogs at beerphilosopher and writes about beer for helium.com. (He also, by the way, shares two-thirds of a name with my brother: Shawn Patrick.)

Aleuminati is gearing up to celebrate its first anniversary (November 12) -- members are celebrating that event by sponsoring a fund-raising drive for Pints for Prostates. PfP was founded by Solid Good Guy Rick Lyke, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier this year. Rick came through the ordeal (just saw him in Denver; he looks great!) -- but he realized that he did so in part because of early diagnosis.

So he launched Pints for Prostates as a way to encourage men over forty to make regular PSA testing a part of their lives. You can donate money, too, by clicking on the "chipin" button at Aleuminati's website, or by visiting the Pints for Prostates site.

Anyway, cheers for the great folks at Aleuminati for celebrating their own good news by giving back to others -- and for providing an online forum where beer folks can gather and talk, ya know, beer stuff.

Thanks and a tip o' the mug to Shawn.

Cast Your Ballot For Character-In-Chief

Who is your choice for Comic Character-in-Chief? Cast your vote here, at the Comics Blog at washingtonpost.com. I'm still dithering -- Calvin? Cow? Pogo? Hmmmmm.......... PS: While you're there, click on the link to the "New Adventures of Queen Victoria." And for more info on Joe the Plumber, take a look at this.

Whoa Again. Amazing Font Of Info About Computer Shortcuts

I've been using a PC for 28 years, and about half of these shortcuts are new to me. (Although, hmmm, 28 years ago Windows and e-mice didn't exist. So, okay, now I don't feel quite so dumb.) Make sure to read past Pogue's blog entry to the reader comments. There are hundreds of them, all of them useful. Yes, okay, who has time? But maybe he will write the book!

Detour From Beer: An Amazing Photograph

There's an amazing photo on the "front page" of the New York Times website. Leave your politics behind and enjoy the wonders of the internet age. The image (it's actually a series of images taken rapid-fire) is from last night's convention, just after McCain finished speaking. This link should take you to the large version. Then click on "full screen" and roll your mouse.

Almost enough to induce vertigo! And truly truly cool. And in case that link doesn't work, just go to the Times website; it's the image right there front and center.

Tech Stuff Worth Noting

In today's Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg test drives Google's new browser and compares it to the new version of Internet Explorer. For the time being, I think I'll stick with Firefox.

Unrelated to browsers and several degrees up the "wow" scale is many-eyes.com, a website with software that allows people to create visual comparisons and analyses of, well, just about anything. Someone could use the software to construct a visual that compares the number of times Obama used the word "tax" in his acceptance speech to the number of times McCain used the same word.

Warning: I've had only sporadic success getting into the website the past few days. My guess is that its owners, a group at IBM's Watson Research Center, weren't prepared for the traffic generated by this New York Times article about the website and software. The article is worth reading because it provides a short, coherent explanation of what the software can do, complete with an image mapping the occurrence of names in the New Testament (no surprise, "Jesus" gets the biggest bubble).