Another cup? Great article in the July 30 New Yorker by the inestimable Malcom Gladwell about America's favorite drug (outside of television, the drug of a nation, spreading ignorance...oh wait, where was I? Oh yeah): How Caffeine Created the Modern World. "Until the eighteenth century, it must be remembered, many Westerners drank beer almost continuously, even beginning their day with something called 'beer soup.' ... Now they begin their day with a strong cup of coffee. One way to explain the industrial revolution is as the inevitable consequence of a world where people suddenly preferred being jittery to being drunk." Much of the research for the article is from the book, The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World's Most Popular Drug, which sounds intriguing.