The enthusiasms of Silicon Valley's elite become ever more baroque. Chris Anderson, geeky editor of Wired Magazine, roamed the TED conference in Monterey pitching a competition for fighting flying machines. One of the people he's tapping for support is Steve Jurvetson, another high-tech hobbyist. But, one suspects, the DFJ partner would rather just blow away Anderson's delicate contraptions with one of the rockets he's been building.

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