Wired.

Working at the NewsHour one of my responsibilities was to help come up with an idea for the Daily Buzz. The Buzz is a feature on the NewsHour Extra (a news website for students and teachers) that highlights current events that are soft-news, timely, and interesting to teens.

Part of my research ritual included daily visits to Reuter's Oddly Enough, Yahoo News, News.Google.Com, and Wired.com. While these sights were able to provide the Buzz from time to time they were more useful, for me, in rounding out the more 'serious' straight-news reading that work in the Capitol and for the NewsHour required.

Reading political and international coverage for hours a day can be a daunting and exhausting activity. The levity and diversity of the coverage provided by the above sites provided a well needed break.

Since leaving the NewsHour, I no longer visit most of those listed sites. The notable exception is Wired.com, the website for Wired Magazine.

I first started reading Wired Magazine a long time ago, in kid years. I remember picking up a copy of Wired that featured a photo of HAL back in 1997. The magazine was running a story on the 30th anniversary of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was impressed by the entire package: the glossy pages, the great photos, and the insightful yet accessible writing. My interest in science and technology kept me reading periodically throughout high school and college. Only after working at the NewsHour, and periodically thumbing through Rachael's classroom subscription to the magazine, did I become an avid reader.

Although we are already well into February I just finished reading the January 2007 issue. Within this magazine, themed 'Beyond the Body', I unexpectedly came across four really incredible articles.

[As a side: another great thing about Wired Magazine is that the whole thing, more or less, is published online. At the beginning of each month, Wired.com will feature a few pieces from the current issue. As the month progresses more and more of the Magazine's content is published online... so by the time the new month starts and the next Magazine is ready for sale the previous month's issue is available for online readers. And despite common sense -- this does not undermine the magazine. In fact it is doing quite well. The Chicago Tribune recently declared it the fourth best magazine of 2006 (behind the Economist and Dwell, and right before The New Yorker).]

Back to those four amazing articles. Each of the four appeared in the second half of the magazine, and all look at a particular use of technology or science as applied in the real world. I think the reason my reaction to them was so strong was because they all offered a glance at a person whose career has taken them in unexpected directions. In other words, it is really exciting for me to read about people who have found careers for themselves outside the beaten path.

Basically, as someone who is constantly being reminded by an empathy devoid job market, there are very few jobs out there for someone, like myself, who is excited, interested and qualified, yet desires to pave new ground. As such I take great comfort in reading about people who have accomplished a level of independence and the career control that I long for.

If you share similar feelings about your job future -- I hope that you too can take something from these articles, but you don't have to take my word for it...

The Righteous Fury of Dick Pound, about the man who create the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The Meteor Farmer, about a man who makes millions finding and selling ancient meteor's on farms in Kansas.

CSI: TCP/IP, about the man who invented cyber-forensics, works for the DOD, and hangs with hackers.

Untangling the Mystery of the Inca, about the search, through a series of knotted ropes, for clues about a possible Incan written language.