And in a more uplifting note, here's a news story on four UC Santa Cruz students who won a student robotics by constructing a 20-foot long solar-powered prototype for a "space elevator". The contest was sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineer's Aerospace Division and the prize awarded at a recent conference in Long Beach. Granted, the students aren't the only ones out there pursuing the concept--SF fans may be familiar with The LiftPort Group, who've made presentations at Balticon--but as with the race for commercial manned space flight (XCor, Scaled Composites, etc.) it certainly can't hurt to have multiple teams pursuing the goal.