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Comment It's just the kids... (Score 4, Insightful) 235

by krswan (#26514703) Attached to: Gaming Netflix Ratings?

I teach 5th grade, and many of my students have read and enjoyed these books. I'll bet most of the reviews are kids who liked the books, and don't really think or care yet about whether the book does justice to the movie, if the movie is any good, if Slashdotters think that their rating is fair. They're ten... and they know how to use a mouse.

And really, do you take any kind of online polling seriously?
Television

Tim Russert Dies At 58 196

Posted by Soulskill from the never-stop-asking dept.
SputnikPanic writes "Tim Russert, NBC News' Washington bureau chief and moderator of the popular Sunday talk program Meet the Press, has died of an apparent heart attack. He was 58. Russert was known as an even-handed journalist who did not shy away from asking direct and often difficult questions of politicians regardless of their political persuasion. Earlier this year, Russert had been named by Time Magazine as one of the '100 most influential people in the world.'"
Education

Journal Journal: Teaching Programming to Kids? 2

Journal by PresidentEnder
I'm an undergrad Math/CS student. One of my cousins, an exceptionally bright 11-year-old, is interested in learning to program. I'd like to give him some kind of direction; at least, more than I got: to teach him to avoid bad habits, use design patterns (OO vs procedural, especially) properly, and make sure that he stays interested. I'd like to see what Slashdot thinks: what are appropriate resources to use? Which language should I try to teach him? Are there any good books out there?
Software

Submission + - Best community-blogging software?

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "I've recently moved overseas and it's come to my attention that my friends and I are horrible about staying in touch. I've decided I'd like to set up some kind of community/multi-user blog since I have some spare space and bandwidth on my current host. I first wanted to try a customized LiveJournal install, as it has the ease-of-use and default community aspects that would make it ideal, but sadly that only works on a dedicated host, which I don't have. Basically I just want to clone the Friends page or Community page that LiveJournal has: a simple, clean interface that shows X number of the most recent posts at full length plus an avatar for the user who posted them, with easy posting capabilities. It seems like there should be something out there which would accomplish this, yet my searches have come up nil. Aside from having to heavily modify an existing program or creating one myself, is there a solution available for my needs? Thanks."
Space

Submission + - U.S. space shuttle rolls back to hangar for repair

Submitted by
mikesd81
mikesd81 writes: "China View has an article about the American space shuttle being taken in for repairs after a bad hail storm. FTA: "he shuttle was removed from its seaside launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning at 8:47 a.m. The trip back took approximately seven hours and was hard down inside the Vehicle Assembly Building around 4 p.m."

The hail apparently caused between 1000 and 2000 divots in the shuttle and minor damage to the heat shields. The flight mission of Atlantis to the International Space Station will be scheduled sometime after a Russian Soyuz spacecraft returns from the station. The Soyuz is delivering new station crew members and returning others to Earth in late April. Adequate time is needed between the Soyuz undocking and the shuttle's arrival to the station.
The six-man crew of Atlantis will continue training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston as they await a new target launch date."
Space

Cassini Returns Amazing New Imagery from Saturn 118

Posted by Zonk from the extremely-attractive-planet dept.
SeaDour writes "The Cassini spacecraft has recently entered a highly-inclined orbit around Saturn, revealing some never-before-seen images of the planet's ring system as seen from above and below the planet. 'Sailing high above Saturn and seeing the rings spread out beneath us like a giant, copper medallion is like exploring an alien world we've never seen before. It just doesn't look like the same place. It's so utterly breath-taking, it almost gives you vertigo.' The spacecraft will eventually return to its standard orbit parallel to the ring plane in late June."
Space

Submission + - NASA, Virgin Galactic sign co-op agreement

Submitted by Nefarious Wheel
Nefarious Wheel writes: MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — NASA officials signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday with a U.S. company, Virgin Galactic, LLC, to explore the potential for collaborations on the development of space suits, heat shields for spaceships, hybrid rocket motors and hypersonic vehicles capable of traveling five or more times the speed of sound.

Full text follows:



Michael Mewhinney Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. 650-604-3937/9000 Stephen Attenborough Virgin Galactic, LLC, New York +44 207-664-6030 RELEASE: 07-49 NASA, VIRGIN GALACTIC TO EXPLORE FUTURE COOPERATION MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — NASA officials signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday with a U.S. company, Virgin Galactic, LLC, to explore the potential for collaborations on the development of space suits, heat shields for spaceships, hybrid rocket motors and hypersonic vehicles capable of traveling five or more times the speed of sound. Under the terms of the memorandum, NASA Ames Research Center, located in California's Silicon Valley, and Virgin Galactic LLC, a U.S.-based subsidiary of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, will explore possible collaborations in several technical areas employing capabilities and facilities of NASA's Ames Research Center. "As we constantly seek to build upon the advances made by explorers who have come before us, we now embark upon an exciting time in space exploration history that realizes the unlimited opportunities presented by a commercial space economy," said Shana Dale, NASA's deputy administrator. "By encouraging such potential collaborations, NASA supports the development of greater commercial collaboration and applications that will serve to strengthen and enhance the future benefits of space exploration for all of mankind." Dale is a longtime supporter of commercial space development. As the former staff director of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, she was instrumental in the passage of the Commercial Space Act of 1998. This legislation encourages commercial space development in a variety of areas, including launch vehicles, the International Space Station and the acquisition of space and Earth science data. "This understanding with Virgin Galactic affords NASA an opportunity to work with an emerging company in the commercial human space transportation industry to support the agency's exploration, science and aeronautics mission goals," said S. Pete Worden, director of NASA Ames Research Center. "Our location in California's Silicon Valley provides a dynamic research and development platform for future potential collaborations with other such companies in support of a robust commercial space industry." "We are excited to be working with NASA and look forward to future collaborations in exploration and space travel," said Alex Tai, vice president of operations for Virgin Galactic. The agreement with Virgin Galactic was negotiated through NASA's Space Portal, a newly formed organization in the NASA Research Park at Ames, which seeks to engage new opportunities for NASA to promote the development of the commercial space economy. "This new type of private-public partnership can benefit the agency while helping to foster a new industry," said Dan Coughlin, NASA's lead for the Virgin Galactic agreement. The memorandum of understanding will be in effect for two years and stipulates that neither NASA nor Virgin Galactic will be required to pay any fees or provide funds to support the areas of possible collaboration. For information about NASA and agency programs, please visit: http://www.nasa.gov/
Software

Submission + - Information Technology Jobs in the Great Outdoors

Submitted by BobbyBinLaden
BobbyBinLaden writes: After spending twenty years in the corporate realm and inside an office, it is time to answer the Call of the Wild. Web sites like Dice.com for tech jobs and Idealist.org for non-profit jobs exist. Are there any web sites for jobs with companies like Greenpeace, The Nature Conservancy or Sierra Club all in one place, or an equivalent of Monster.com for outdoor IT professionals? My hiking boots are ready.
Censorship

Submission + - Scientology critic arrested after 6 years

Submitted by
destinyland
destinyland writes: "Friday police arrested 64-year-old Keith Henson. In 2000 after picketing a Scientology complex, he was arrested as a threat because of a joke Usenet post about "Tom Cruise Missiles." He fled to Canada after being found guilty of "interfering" with a religion, and spent the next 6 years living as a fugitive. Besides being a digital encryption and free speech advocate, he's one of the original Burr-Brown/Texas Instruments researchers and a co-founder of the Space Colony movement."
OS X

Submission + - Apple Special event on February 20

Submitted by Sabathius
Sabathius writes: According to Apple Recon a special event is coming up to announce (among other things) Apple's latest bid for operating system supremacy, Leopard.

If this rumor is to be believed, it would seem to confirm that Apple was waiting for Vista to be released before letting the big cat pounce.

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