I've been away for a couple of days so I don't know if this has come up already, but... The Economist has proven yet again my firm belief that it's the most wired magazine around. In a special report on e-cash in the latest issue, it presents a lucid description of the pros and cons of different digicash, including Chaum. It then goes on to discuss in detail how e-cash could work, how it would be backed by real money and therefore not earn interest, how governments might get worried by the development of implicit currency markets beyond their control, how eventually e-cash might become an independent currency with no 'real' value, hinting at my outline of 'cooking-pot' markets in Electric Dreams #37. ObHeeHee: an article on the anti-DWEM backlash against Shakespeare quotes Gary Taylor, editor of the Oxford Shakespeare, as saying that "Shakespeare helped murder" Nicole Simpson. Why? The play Othello "makes a wife-murderer not only tragic but also, pervesely, heroic." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rishab Aiyer Ghosh "Clean the air! clean the sky! wash the wind! rishab@dxm.ernet.in take stone from stone and wash them..." rishab@arbornet.org Voice/Fax/Data +91 11 6853410 Voicemail +91 11 3760335 H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA