Today’s odds and ends.

• George MacDonald Fraser died the other day. He was the author of the marvelous Flashman novels. I reviewed the last Flashman novel a year ago.

• Kiva seems like a really good idea, connecting people in the emerging world who need microloans with people who can afford to lend them $25.

  Last summer, we attended a house party for Marc Gold of the 100 Friends project. He’s a sort of one-man Santa Claus, personally handing out money to needy people and or­ga­ni­za­tions.

• Zane, whose superpower is knowing a Web 2.0 ap­pli­ca­tion for every problem, reminded me on Friday of Mint. I just signed up. Mint keeps track of your money across all your accounts and shows you your spending.

  I wanted to know how they make money, but it was hard to track down why it’s free. They offer you sug­ges­tions on al­ter­na­tives to your current banks, credit cards, phone companies, etc. If you switch, they get a little cut.

• Ian Welsh endorses Edwards and sums up why he thinks John Edwards is a better candidate than Clinton or Obama.