http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2012/01/two-teens-send-a-lego-man-into-near-space.html
This is pretty cool! I wonder if they’re on a robotics team. 
Next year’s FLL game perhaps?
LEGO… it is LEGO. And the plural is LEGO Bricks not LEGOs. What sort of newspaper can’t get that right? /curmudgeon
Careful. Curmudgeon is Dave’s role.
We don’t want anyone thinking thier job is being taken away and getting grieved now…
80,000 feet is not space. It isn’t even really near space, space starts at roughly 330,000 feet (100 km) by today’s definition. The Russian Mig-25 can cruise at 80,000 feet and we’ve flown drones that are powered by propellers to nearly 100,000 feet! Furthermore, balloons lift by buoyancy, and it is awful hard to be less dense than the nothingness of space!
I think it is awesome that these kids launched this balloon – don’t get me wrong. I just think these kinds of distinctions are important, and I think the people that cover technical things like this should get it right. Even the BBC originally reported this balloon as going all the way to space. If a couple of kids could do it for $400, NASA could get a lot more bang for the $20 billion bucks they spend every year.
Sometimes I wonder if members of the media actually do any research on their subjects (it would go a long way to explaining why they always get so many facts wrong when they talk about FIRST). Either they don’t have the time, the manpower or the resources to dedicate actually knowledge to their story or they are just aiming for sensationalism to get people to click the link.
No, they don’t. Or they assume Wikipedia is correct. They rarely even understand what they are reporting (aside from the most obvious issues like a flood). To a journalism major, science was a class they suffered greatly through, never really did understand, and hope they get close enough so no readers/viewers complain.
Headlines are written by editors, THEY need people to click the link.
I have it on good authority that one of the boys, Matthew Ho, was on FRC 1246 when he was in grade 9.
Was it “space”, well… yes. Not “outer space”, but technically, the balloon occupied “space”.
They captured some pretty cool photos, and accoplished something kind of neat. The difficulty and innovation inherent in their accomplishment is out of proportion to the attention that it received, but that is a good thing. I just wish the media would pick up on more stories like this. As someone once said, “You get what you celebrate.”
More important, however, is the “don’t try this at home” article](http://www.thestar.com/article/1123187--aviation-experts-worry-about-lego-man-copycats), reminding people to check with aviation authorities to ensure a safe ride for any future Legos occupying “space”.
Jason
P.S. While the plural of one Lego brick is, indeed, two Lego bricks, when we refer to Lego people, it may well be appropriate to use the plural… compare… One Canadian brick, two Canadian bricks. One Canadian, two Canadians… 
Reminded me of this:
I’m not sure that’s a fair characterization. No doubt there are some writers who are lazy and hate science, just like there are engineers who don’t like designing things, they just heard that engineering was a well paying field. I’d like to think that there are reporters out their who actually care about getting it right. The people who write for the aviation and space publications are pretty good at getting the details right, I’m sure many industries and just general science and technology interests have people like that.
I don’t know if it varies by industry, but in talking to local TV reporters it seems that a lack of manpower is typically their Achilles’ heal. They don’t really have time to research a story, just enough to go out and shoot the footage and then splice it together for the newsreel.
SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
All generalizations are false to some degree. Those are called Exceptions to the Rule.
I know their school does or at least at one point did robotics because I remember team 854 collaborated with them a number of years ago. I remember we traded some pneumatic cylinders with them one year for some motors.
A friend from Barn2 Robotics and I did something similar over the summer. Like the Canadians, we mounted some cameras and electronics (a GoPro, another camera, a SPOT tracker, and a prepaid cell phone) in a styrafoam box and flew it.
We ended up with some pretty cool video, and estimated that we made it to about 100,000 feet before the balloon poped. Take that, Canadians! We estimated our height based on the size of objects on the ground, as GPS is disabled over a certain altitude.