Thursday, July 16, 2009

WEB BOHEMIAN (Thursday, July 16, 2009)
(1)- PRETEND WINE EXPERTISE -- Enter your friend, The Faker, who called on Tribune wine critic Bill Daley for his cheat sheet on pro-style ordering. Follow his script, look like you know your way around a pinot.

(2)- SECOND PLACE WINS -- The second man on the moon, at 79, says his life is 'busier than it's ever been.' He has a new book, 'Magnificent Desolation,' is Twittering and advocates the colonization of Mars.

(3)- ELECT THE I-BOSS -- since the Internet has become an ad-hoc nation of its own with over a billion citizens, it’s time to have a little fun and speculate about who the people of the Internet would choose if they could elect a leader.

(4)- BEST BEACHES -- Even the most committed urbanite, the one who stays at the hottest boutique hotels, gets the choicest tables and hits the most exclusive night spots—has nothing on the raw, primal sexiness of world-class beachs.

(5)- WINE WOES -- The price collapse and overplanting has forced Australia's biggest winemaker, Foster's, owner of prestigious labels such as Lindemans and Penfolds, to sell 31 vineyards across the country, including 16 in South Australia.

(6)- PUBLISHING ISSUES -- University presses are grappling with the economic and technological challenges affecting how we publish our books. It's the subject of conference sessions, e-mail debates, and news articles.

(7)- ALL DONE -- Is a magnificent run. From the end of the Second World War to the mid-1960s, California became an economic and technological colossus and emerged as the country’s dominant political, social, and cultural trendsetter. No more.

(8)- CONSIDERED THOUGHT -- Darwin only became committed to the idea of transmutation in the middle of March 1837, some five months after the Beagle had docked in England. The customary image of Darwin is something of a cinematic fantasy.

(9)- CODE SOLVED -- In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson received a taunting message written in secret code. Its author bragged the message would "defy the united ingenuity of the whole human race." The code has been solved.

POLITICAL COMMENTARY

ENDIT