A little off topic but last weekend I had the privileged of watching an FLL (First Lego League) event. This is a robotics competition for kids ages 9-16. And it's AMAZING. The energy from the kids and parents was exhilarating. Details are here http://firstlegoleague.org/. There are also a lot of videos from the competitions posted on YouTube (search First Lego League). If you have children I definitely encourage you to introduce them to FLL. And if you don't have kids consider volunteering to coach one of the teams.
And if you are an adult and want to get involved volunteer! I've volunteered at several levels ranging from helping a local team all the way up to judging at their World Festival and it's probably the best reminder of why I went into engineering. Plus, hearing a student be excited to explain the concepts of torque is just awe inspiring.
