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Submission + - The space jump -- in Lego! (hlntv.com)

Submitted by
mykepredko
mykepredko writes: "All this chatter about Felix Baumgartner and his remarkable space jump, but where's the love for this brave little Lego man. Just because he's physically incapable of suffering from ebullism, going into a flat spin, or bleeding out through his eyes doesn't make this guy's faithful recreation of the space jump any less remarkable. Two fearless pioneers — one, a person; the other, plastic — plummeting from amazing heights. In the case of the Lego Man, that means about 365 feet, according to the video's "Scale 1:350" note."
The Internet

Submission + - FAA to reevaluate inflight electronic device use – no cell phones though (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "If you have been on a commercial airline, the phrase “The use of any portable electronic equipment while the aircraft is taxiing, during takeoff and climb, or during approach and landing,” is as ubiquitous but not quite as tedious as “make sure your tray tables are in the secure locked upright position.” But the electronic equipment restrictions may change. The Federal Aviation Administration today said it was forming a government-industry group to study the current portable electronic device use policies commercial aviation use to determine when these devices can be used safely during flight."
Programming

Submission + - Programming for kids; Father-son bonding

Submitted by SteveDorries
SteveDorries writes: My 6 year old son has recently become very interested in programming, or as he calls it "Telling the computer what to do".
I've decided to use a basic variant to teach him procedural programming since it's simple and easy to grasp, but I'm having a difficult time thinking of fun projects to do with him. Does anyone have any favorite listings from old yellowed back issues of computer magazines that we could play with?

Submission + - AntiSec Strikes Back, Hacks GlobalCert (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: Hackers of the AntiSec group are at it again and GlobalCerts – a firm offering solutions such as certificate management, secure messaging is apparently their next victim. A member of the hacking collective, called Stun (57UN) and affiliated with the notorious hacktivist group Anonymous has claimed to have hacked his way through GlobalCert’s (http://GlobalCerts.net) network. The hacker has also posted a file containing 1,600 names, job titles, phone numbers, email addresses, company names and other information.
Biotech

Submission + - How Long is Enough?

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Since 1900, the life expectancy of Americans, driven by improved hygiene, nutrition, and new medical discoveries and interventions, has jumped from 47 years to almost 80 and now scientists studying the intricacies of DNA and other molecular bio-dynamics may be poised to offer even more dramatic boosts to longevity but there is one very basic question that is seldom asked according to David Ewing Duncan: How long do you want to live? "Over the past three years I have posed this query to nearly 30,000 people at the start of talks and lectures on future trends in bioscience, taking an informal poll as a show of hands," writes Duncan. "To make it easier to tabulate responses I provided four possible answers: 80 years, currently the average life span in the West; 120 years, close to the maximum anyone has lived; 150 years, which would require a biotech breakthrough; and forever, which rejects the idea that life span has to have any limit at all." The results: some 60 percent opted for a life span of 80 years. Another 30 percent chose 120 years, and almost 10 percent chose 150 years. Less than 1 percent embraced the idea that people might avoid death altogether (pdf). Overwhelmingly the reason given was that people didn’t want to be old and infirm any longer than they had to be, even if a pill allowed them to delay the inevitable. Others were concerned about issues like boredom, the cost of paying for a longer life, and the impact of so many extra people on planetary resources and on the environment. But wouldn't long life allow people like Albert Einstein to accomplish more and try new things? That’s assuming that Einstein would want to live that long. As he lay dying of an abdominal aortic aneurysm in 1955, Einstein refused surgery, saying: “It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.”"

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