http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/09/16/129910351/how-your-brain-figures-out-what-it-doesn-t-know

OK. from http://dictionary.reference.com/ : 1. all human beings collectively; the human race; humankind. 2. the quality or condition of being human; human nature. 3. the quality of being humane; kindness; benevolence.

It clearly benefits humanity in the 2nd & 3rd meaning of the word. As for the 1st, that's a subjective call as to how many people need to benefit, and by how much, before it's a collective benefit.

Exactly how many individuals does something have to benefit before you consider it beneficial to humanity?

I'd say rivet popping thriller.

The positive spin on this story seems to me that although there were exploited vulnerabilities (but there always will be, that's why security is an ongoing process) it was effectively dealt with before any significant damages occurred. As long as lessons are learned, and remedies implemented this seems to be a good thing as far as I can tell.

DIY and commercial aren't mutually exclusive. Nearly all DIY projects incorporate commercial components. Like buying a new alternator for your car to install yourself instead of taking it to the garage, installing an OS yourself even though you didn't write it, or building your own airplane, say.

And by 'DIY' the article means as opposed to buying pre-packaged algae grown in a commercial farm.

When I was a teenager my girlfriends mother commented on my long dyed green hair (which was much less common 20 years ago - now I dye my lawn green; so stay off it!) I tried to convince her that it was green on account of my culturing a symbiotic edible algae in it for convenient snacking, which I don't think helped my cause at all.

And yes, I was under the influence of something else that was green when I thought that'd be a good idea.

No, it's really not. Whether people are noticing what your doing or not is the most important factor in getting away with a crime. Casing a joint in person remains the only real way to determine this, AFAIK, and all the other things you mention are much better evaluated by a visit as well. Street View isn't really going to show you that the neighbor typically sits looking out on where you want to enter, and it's much less a big deal being caught acting suspiciously than it is red handed in a criminal act.

IANAB (I Am Not A Burglar), but if I was I'd like to think I'd be good one.

It's no different from people letting their mail / newspapers stack up, leaving conspicuously vacant garages / parking spots, all the house lights off or any number of obvious "I'm not home! Good time to rob me!" signs.

Headline might as well be 'Bad Things Happen To Those Who Make Dumb Choices'

Didn't we all learn the importance of tactile response in a keyboard around the time of the Timex Sinclair?

of course I meant to type 'threats' above, but I kind of like the humor of my mistake seeing it now

there was no direct causation mentioned specifically in the article, but if you apply Occam's razor to the problem the simplest and most likely solution seems: no one had heard from him (probably even about him) and had no way of knowing who he was with or where. Given that specific information it's easy to make the treats or promises to obtain his release.

And yeah, I know what they say about assumptions but there is such a thing as a safe one.

May I suggest the movie 'Brainstorm'? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)

Seems like a fairly logical outcome to recording death / near death experiences.