Some more stories from Wired, our favourite magazine and news service. Some of Wired's writers, like those in most US publications, sometimes have a tendency not to acknowledge the world beyond the 50 states. But thankfully, it's usually fairly balanced.
From Wired News:
"It's another blow to our delusions that we are the yardstick." Anne Druyan, science writer, producer and widow of Carl Sagan, in a panel discussion about a collection of photographs from inter-planetary space machines, Beyond: Visions of Interplanetary Probes, by filmmaker Michael Benson. Read the report here. (And you can see those stunning images on Planetary Image Atlas and Planetary Photojournal.)
A cause we gleefully endorse: The Bush in 30 Seconds competition at MoveOn.Org has got more than a thousand entries, and has "given rise to a somewhat bizarre phenomenon -- political ads as viral media. The website offers the option of e-mailing favorite films to friends... Political ads, at least these do-it-yourself ones, are suddenly hip." So i'm just getting with the programme by passing the link on to you.
Also, a story on the latest cyber-blackmail schemes. And the world's biggest bank, Cyros, will soon go global. But meanwhile, only Danes can make, er, deposits. Yes, it's that kind of bank.
And from Wired Magazine:
The Stradivarius of guitars just went digital: The 100-Megabit Guitar. Also, 101 Ways to Save the Internet (a largely US-centric piece, but forgivable, i think, since that's where most of the Net-shaping action still takes place). And could you write, cast, shoot, score, and edit an entire movie in a day? A report on the New York City Midnight Moviemaking Madness.
Um, we get a little carried away when we visit Wired. Must stop now.