Cool Keyboards, More Hot Words

Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. Build a better computer keyboard, and you'll be Optimus, the most popularly shared link among bloggers today. From the Russian Art Lebedev Design Studio, the patent-pending keyboard features stand-alone display keys that enable easy, intuitive switching between programs and languages. "It's a concept I really really dig," says Laurie Duncan at The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Seconding the motion is Fosfor Gadgets..."brilliant idea."

Hot seat warms up
In the nation's capital, coolness is not in abundance. Hot words, in fact, continue on several fronts, including the Karl Rove brouhaha. Former ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose CIA wife was outed, thinks Rove should be fired (Link No. 32), generating plenty of blog spin; Republicans are ganging up on Wilson (No. 27 link), generating even more blog spin. Buzz about some of the key players shows the following:



War and terror
Politicians and the public are getting conflicting information about U.S. treatment of prisoners/detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, while the Warrior Class Blog finds that continued terrorist attacks may be changing Islamic attitudes for good...and toward freedom.

More hot stuff
Sen. Hillary Clinton is taking on the video game industry for a recently discovered porn module that can be downloaded into Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video games. Tongue firmly in cheek, Good Morning Silicon Valley suggests alternative motives for Ms. Clinton's indignation?

Just plain sad
Speaking of indigation, there's plenty over the Florida murder trial of today's burstiest person, Ronnie Paris Jr., charged with boxing his 3-year-old son to death as a way of teaching him to be manly. I have to ask: is there something in the water in Florida? Have too many hurricanes muddled the collective mentality of the entire state?