ABCNEWS.com : Australian Plans Highest Skydive Ever March 5 — Breaking the sound barrier — going past the speed of sound — shouldn't be a big deal anymore. After all, military aircraft go supersonic all the time. But try it without any sort of vehicle around you, and it just might put you in the record books. That's what Australian Rodd Millner is hoping to do when he rides a balloon to the edge of outer space, 25 miles up, and jumps.

Seattle Earthquake HUMOR Thousands were spilled and hundreds were injured as a giant tremor rocked the Seattle area Wednesday morning. Neither café lattes, cappuccinos, steamed chai, nor even the tiny espressos were spared from the force of the 6.8-magnitude quake. As Senior Investigative Baristas survey the damage, leaked reports suggest that as many as 10,000 hot drinks were spilled - many causing injury.

Howstuffworks "How Printable Computers Will Work" - Manufacturing computers is a costly and time-consuming undertaking. A microprocessor fabrication plant costs $2 billion and takes two full weeks to produce one silicon-based microprocessor. Few computer enthusiasts have the resources to make their own computer chips. However, researchers are developing ways to allow anyone to become their own microprocessor fabricator. Users will simply download microchip designs from the Internet and print out a working ink-based, plastic processor on a desktop fabrication machine, similar to an ink jet printer.

Boston Globe Online: Van Gogh was keen observer of starry nights - Vincent Van Gogh. The very name evokes the struggle between art and madness. The legendary 19th-century post-impressionist created some of his best-known paintings while confined to a mental asylum, and later killed himself at the age of 37. Yet, for many astronomers, Van Gogh cuts a very different figure. To them, he was a pretty darned good observer of the stars. ''Starry Night'' isn't merely beautiful; it depicts an unusually bright planet Venus in a rare alignment with a thin crescent moon.

Who Would Buy That? (auction oddities from all over the web) How often have you found an item on eBay that was so hideous you couldn't help but ask, "Who would buy that?"

TrekToday - Exclusive: Full Series V Character List Since before the end of 'Deep Space Nine', fandom has been speculating about the next Star Trek series, dubbed Series V by many. Over the past year the first rumours began appearing, suggesting the series would be set on a pre-TOS Enterprise, and in the past month Paramount officially announced it had begone pre-production. However, actual details of the next series' backstory were unavailable. That is, until now, as we present you what we believe is the full cast list for the next Star Trek series.

A Bit of Perspective on the Dot-Com Backlash (NY Times - free subscription required) - The faulty premise to the anti-Net backlash is that the Internet's transforming power is negated by some investors' failure to profit from it. One forgets how many railroads and radio manufacturers failed in their day. Moreover, the Internet by its very nature was never going to provide an easy venue for people to make money, once you set aside the Ciscos and others who sell the materials to build the network, and the AOL's and others who charge for access to it. The Internet is all about democratizing access to information and breaking down geographic barriers — two threatening developments for any seller's profit margins.

InternetWeek: PGP's Vulnerabilities Reveal The Truth About In this incident, the victim was an alleged mobster, Nicodemo S. Scarfo, who was using PGP to encrypt his e-mail messages. The eavesdropper was the FBI, who ran a black-bag operation against Scarfo and installed the keyboard sniffer. While it may sound like a great plot for a detective story, the principles surrounding this case could have profound effects on IT managers.