EnlargeAstronaut | Photograph courtesy of NASA

Enlarge10th Gumball 3000 Rally. | Courtesy of Gumball 3000

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July

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tuesday, july 01
Log Off
Bill Gates relinquishes daily duties at Microsoft
Redmond, Washington

He led his company to global tech domination and made himself richer than any other person on the planet. If we were Bill Gates, we'd quit now, too. At this year's CES, Gates noted wistfully, "This will be the first time since I was 17 that I haven't had my full-time job at Microsoft." But it's not as if he is, at 52, really retiring. He'll still be MSFT's chairman. And he's taking on a bigger role at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The world's biggest charitable foundation is, you might say, the Microsoft of philanthropy -- and overseeing the distribution of $55 billion sounds like a full-time job to us. -- Ellen Gibson

tuesday, july 01
Idolize
KICKOFF OF THE AMERICAN IDOLS LIVE! TOUR 2008
Glendale, Arizona

Not even the spectacle of Sanjaya Malakar could save last year's A.I. concert tour from being a bomb (a bomb, Randy Jackson, not the bomb). And this season's TV ratings were soft. But America isn't quite ready to give up idolatry yet. Early ticket sales this year were nearly as strong as in record-setting 2006. One show in Utah -- home of runner-up and human squeeze toy David Archuleta -- sold out in 14 minutes. -- Jeff Chu

thursday, july 03
Read
DRINK: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF ALCOHOL
By Iain Gately

Iain Gately, the author of Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization, turns to another vice cum big business, decanting a meticulous, 560-page history of how alcohol has been made, consumed, vilified, and celebrated throughout the centuries. He traces the roots of the gin and tonic; visits ancient bacchanals and medieval alehouses; and weaves together Prohibition rumrunners, Spuds MacKenzie, and Bridget Jones. Gately even explains the alcoholic genesis of some popular phrases; for instance, quality bootlegged rum gave us "the real McCoy," which is not a bad way to describe this intoxicating book. -- Beth Adams