A Makerbot In Every Classroom 152
Daniel_Stuckey writes "At the start of this year, President Obama nicely summed up the grandiose promise of 3D printing — or rather, the hype surrounding it. In his State of the Union address the president suggested the fledgling technology could save manufacturing by ushering in a second industrial revolution. That shout-out inspired a spate of buzzkill blog posts pointing out — rightly enough — that despite its potential, 3D printing is still in its infancy. It's not the panacea for the struggling economy we want it to be, at least not yet. Apparently the naysayers weren't enough to kill the 3D-printing dream, because, with support from the federal government, MakerBot announced its initiative to put a 3D printer in every school in America. The tech startup and the administration are betting big that teaching kids 3D printing is teaching them the skills they'll need as tomorrow's engineers, designers, and inventors."
Caveat: Makerbot no longer produces open hardware, and they are pushing proprietary Autodesk software and educational materials as part of the free 3D printer. Makerbot also launched a call for open models of math manipulatives on Thingiverse (you might remember them from elementary school) so that teachers have something useful to print immediately.
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A home computer in 1980 could do way more than any cheap piece of plastic one of these printers will ever produce. Those kids would be better off with VIC-20's and Sinclairs, and they would be a lot cheaper.
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A home computer in 1980 could do way more than any cheap piece of plastic one of these printers will ever produce. Those kids would be better off with VIC-20's and Sinclairs, and they would be a lot cheaper.
I have to agree with this one.
My youngest daughter is now in middle school, 7th grade. Her school did not get a Makerbot donated to them, but they did purchase one for the computer lab. I have issue with this, but not because they have a 3D printer. It's because they spend money like this constantly (this isn't the only purchase they've made that I have issue with) and yet they do not even have the proper course materials available for students.
She has a total of one textbook. And it's of the dead tree
I didn't know (Score:2)
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Re:I didn't know (Score:4, Interesting)
Welfare is bad... (Score:2)
Can you guys get over your Makerbot obsession (Score:4, Insightful)
Makerbot isn't open. They want to sell locked in 3D printers.
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The new SketchUp Make license is quite restrictive though --- no for-profit use, and any such usage requires payment of an annual license fee.
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As a mechanical engineer... (Score:5, Insightful)
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kids are the same every generation... (Score:4, Funny)
crap, I posted a obXKCD link. I feel dirty now.
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They learn little by pressing "print". However, if the school is teaching students how to create the models and all of the prerequisites leading up to that, then they learn a lot. Advanced classes can expand on that by allowing students to create new object solutions to problems they see.
Oh, and the schools can possibly increase the use of manipulative models in their classrooms by printing them instead of purchasing them from someone else. This also allows teachers to more innovative by modifying the manip
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The country is increasingly filled with parking lots laid out by people who 'know how to design.' That is: parking lots where it's a fricking nightmare to park your car because you have to navigate in and around all the islands and berms that probably looked so nice on the layout screen of the CAD program. The whole world is turning grotesquely baroque (please forgive the redundancy) because we have generations of empowered 'designers' who didn't have to do the low level work of implementing anything.
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Is that worse than the world where parts aren't interchangeable because they've all been hand-crafted?
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MakerBot is the bottom end of 3D printers. Like an EZ-Bake oven compared to a microwave oven. If such printers are the wave of the future then reasonable tools should be introduced instead, like printers that can create something that looks and feels like a real product that are at least within the ballpark of traditional shop tools.
Re:As a mechanical engineer... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Mod parent up!!!!
This is so true. I can't count the number of friends that I have that have no idea how to change a flat, check oil levels, check tire pressure or even add windshield washer fluid, or even change a burned out tail-light bulb."
Their response is always, "I'll call AAA, the tires don't look flat, that's what the oil changes are for..."
Like AAA vs dependent on AAA ... (Score:2)
I can't count the number of friends that I have that have no idea how to change a flat, check oil levels, check tire pressure or even add windshield washer fluid, or even change a burned out tail-light bulb." Their response is always, "I'll call AAA, the tires don't look flat, that's what the oil changes are for..."
When I asked my parents to sign an application for a learner's permit they told me they would be happy to do so after I demonstrated that I could check tire pressure, add air and change a tire; check and add oil, radiator fluid and wiper fluid. Later my Dad made me learn to drive a manual transmission. My regular car while learning was an automatic and I tested in this car but my Dad had me drive a manual a little bit too. He didn't recommend getting manual, he just thought I should know how to drive one ju
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I don't recall that baking a loaf of will get someone out of immediate danger given that baking a loaf of bread takes quite a few hours. Most of that is you standing around waiting for it to either a. rise of b. bake in the oven. If you are waiting for either, you are most likely NOT in danger and are probably sitting on your couch watching TV or doing something else that is not as important as changing a flat tire on the side of the road.
and yes I can bake a loaf of bread.
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How about auto repair? I think it's a good place to start with mechanical skills because everybody owns a car, and knowing some basics will save you money even if you don't choose to do much yourself, let alone be employed in the field. It exposes you to mechanical, electrical, and hydraulic systems, and some actual motivation to fabricate or recondition parts in a subsequent shop class.
I get the impression that that would be frowned up on as a deviation from the 'if something scary or unexpected happens, your dealer is your only hope' trajectory that vehicle manufacturers seem hellbent on going down.
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Q: "Do I really need to change my brake rotors with the pads? What's the allowable tolerance on the original thickness?"
A: "Are you crazy! Your brakes are there to save your live, now you're going to skimp to save a few bucks!? Just take it in and quit endangering everybody!"
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There is now a sensor with a wireless link in each wheel hub in every new automobile. It measures tire air pressure and sends the status wirelessly to the car chassis computer. It spins round and round in the wheels. And it adds a significant amount to the cost of the car, and an even more significant amount to replacing the air stem in your car if it fails.
Also, give me a fucking break.
Re:As a mechanical engineer... (Score:5, Insightful)
This entire initiative, as great as it is, ignores a small problem: We aren't raising our children to be builders, we're raising them to be consumers. Consumers have no initiative, and see no point in things like shop class, or building things... afterall, isn't that why we import indians and chinese?
Also, as soon as some high school student builds a gun with the 3D printer, that'll go away.
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Nah. I've heard this argument since I was a kid. Sure we are consumers, we are also producers. It is easier than ever to make things. There is a guide or place to ask how to make ANYTHING on the internet. If I am motivated to make or fix something on my own, I have the guidance to start at it immediately.
And in terms of building this online on our computers, there are more tools than ever out there. With unity I can make a game quite easily, and if I don't want that much detail I can get things like gamemak
Re:As a mechanical engineer... (Score:4, Insightful)
Nah. I've heard this argument since I was a kid.
The reason it has been around so long, perhaps is an indicator it has merit.
Sure we are consumers, we are also producers.
Find me something within arm's reach that has Made In America on it. Chances are, there isn't one; And odds are very, very good, it won't be one of the first five things you grab.
It is easier than ever to make things. There is a guide or place to ask how to make ANYTHING on the internet. If I am motivated to make or fix something on my own, I have the guidance to start at it immediately.
I think I see a flaw in your cunning plan; You aren't motivated. You're just saying that if you were, then yeah, shit could happen. But it ain't happening... because you, like hundreds of millions of others, don't want to.
Look, people are lazy, we have always been lazy, very few people are doing productive things with their time 24x7 outside of their jobs, if that. That is nothing new.
Okay, hold on to that for a minute and then consider again the statement you're upset about: We're consumers, not builders.
just because companies are trying to entice us with advertising doesn't mean we have guns to our head and have no choice in the matter.
"guns to our head", phrase: It means "I am deeply conservative". Because really, you types are the only ones that ever think there's a gun to your head... and perhaps only a miniscule amount of guns have ever been put to the heads of anyone uttering this line. Basically, if you utter this phrase, I put you in the moron category and move on, because your arguments will invariably be bullshit propaganda, with a side of cognitive distortion, served on the silver platter of self-importance.
Look... I just said we're creating a culture of consumers. That's why nobody wants to build anything; Instant gratification. Everybody's a winner. You can have it all! It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it. We're teaching our kids that you don't need to work hard to succeed -- you just need to open your mouth and let someone shove spoonfuls of product into it.
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"The reason it has been around so long, perhaps is an indicator it has merit."
No, that's an argumentum ad antiquitatem. Just because it is old does not mean it is good. The bible and its ideas are quite old and tenacious, but that does not necessarily mean they have any merit.
Just wanted to point that out, and would like to indicate that if you google "how to win every argument", you'll end up with a PDF of a quite nice book detailing the argumentative fallacies.
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I think it's more that we've spent all the years since WW2 telling kids that they should not do work that gets their hands dirty, that they need degrees and business suits, not tools and skills, that bluecollar jobs are beneath their dignity as a college graduate. So now we have two and three generations who have no idea how to build anything physical. *Naturally* they're consumers.
We can live without accountants and programmers and car salesmen. We cannot live without carpenters and plumbers and mechanics
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You have an interesting point and I've been feeling the same way for some time. I've been feeling less and less satisfied with just consuming content that others have made and have been taking steps towards creating my own stuff. Right now that's just some hobby coding for a new project, but I have to say it's INCREDIBLY satisfying once you get going.
But... as you said, you need to be motivated. The first step is finding out how to become motivated. Creating something requires far more effort than just cons
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So where does Minecraft fit into that? They are consuming entertainment by "building" virtual structures.
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Also, as soon as some high school student prints a gun with the 3D printer, that'll go away.
Yes, just like metal shop went away because students built zip guns (and some "real", if primitive, guns)? Oh, wait, that happened, but high school metal shop only (mostly) went away once, as a culture, we decided that being a pencil-pushing office drone is generally a desirable job, but the dirty work of manufacturing products is an undesirable job. Nobody in rich school districts wants the school to waste Johnny's time teaching him to work with his hands when he'll never need that (we know he'll have a be
Better in a shop department anyway (Score:2)
I worry about the fumes of a makerbot in the poorly ventilated classrooms in many schools.
At least if they put the 3D-printers in a shop class, they surely have better airflow.
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I'm not sure that is more useful. Don't you think we're moving towards additive machining rather than subtractive? The numbers of machinists have been dwindling steadily in the USA, both automotive and general. In the automotive case, centralized rebuilders have taken over most of the business. What would really be useful would be welding, but that's really fairly dangerous stuff and best kept in the colleges. I'm ambivalent about having machining in high schools for that reason as it is. Wood shop is a goo
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Amen to that. A Makerbot is a huge maintenance load. They need a lot of fiddling and constant maintenance and replacement parts that a school teacher isn't going to have time or money to do. These machines will sit in a corner collecting dust and frustration. Much like the one we have here, in an office full of engineers.
I'd be fine with a shop class full of nothing but hand tools. Cheaper for the school, lower liability costs, and the students will learn the same set of problem solving and building sk
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Exactly my thoughts. I was so envious of my brother who went through school years ahead of me. He was able to take metal shop, learn to run a mill, lathe and to weld. By the time I got to high school the metal shop had been shuttered. I was still able to take auto mechanics for a couple semesters and got good at fixing cars. But I'd really love to learn how to weld properly. Yeah...a 3D printer will allow you to build plastic crap that will break and you'll have to make a new one - which fits our disposable
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Your location and its culture had a lot to do with that. Many manual machine tools from the WWII era are still in use and making money, not least because they are irreplaceable nowadays in the larger sizes.
I had 10 math manipulatives in school (Score:2)
Makerbot Not For Kids (Score:3, Interesting)
If you think you can unpack a makerbot, press the button and start printing Eiffel towers, you need to get out more.
It's definitely a DIY machine and produces more failures than successes.
Re:Makerbot Not For Kids (Score:4, Insightful)
Here is one area where a 3D printer can encourage students to learn a skill. Suppose that you were reverse engineering some object with many pieces Each student would have to measure and design a piece in the CAD software. Now, most students do not understand why good measurement is necessary, or why they need to make an effort to draw the object exactly, or how many measurements are really needed. So each student draws and the pieces are put together in the software, and adjustments are made because the pieces are not going to fit exactly. Eventually the group of students gets something that fits together in the software and prints. Inevitably one or two pieces are not going to fit together in the physical prototype, debugging will have to happen, and much learning will go on.
The problem is that such a process is long, there are not many grades involved, and students who are not motivated and curios tend not to benefit very much. There has to be a reason to have a tool in the classroom, and a understanding of how it is going to be used. otherwise it will, like the laser printer, be used to print shoes.
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Some of my classmates were curios.
Sadly they got left on the shelf, except for one - he's in the cabinet.
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Do i think a kid can unpack a markerbot, download a design for Eiffel towers and start printing them immediately? yes.
I would expect kids to do this and see how easy and powerful a tool it will be. Then ease them into making modifications and then designing their own inventions from scratch.
It would be like woodshop 2.0, with less buzz saws.
Unfortunately... (Score:2)
I was shocked the first time I idly leafed through an educational supply catalog.
More things to break... (Score:3)
Film projectors that "stuttered"
Paper printers that jammed, ran out of ink etc...
Laptops that get dropped, crash etc..
Nothing like putting something even more complex into a teacher's classroom for them to troubleshoot.
Is 3D printing really going to help kids do math and read better? I don't recall PrintShop running on an Apple IIe making me a better reader, though I did crank out some banners...
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Another gizmo to be funded by taxpayers... (Score:5, Interesting)
Since 1962 the per-pupil costs of public schools has quadrupled [ed.gov] (inlation-adjusted — the nominal increase is 25-times!), while the results remain just as — if not even more — disappointing. Indeed, merely 30% of 8th-graders are deemed proficient in reading [mediamatters.org]. Will a "makerbot" help solve this fundamental problem? Somehow I doubt it...
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Agreed...but apparently throwing iPads at the problem will fix it...or that's what many seem to think.
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That increases in funding failed — for some reason — to improve education quality.
The per-pupil costs not tripled, but quadrupled — and not all of those monies are spent on (the more expensive) labor...
Come, come — is not it customary to exclude present company in a polite argument?
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I made no such assertions — my point was, adding more money did not help improve results.
My leg is in that we got — by your own admission — the same (at best) results despite paying more for
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The money is going to new buildings and facilities. The local building contractors have a lot of clout with the school board, and they don't get to do nearly enough 'full price top-of-the-line' construction jobs for the private sector.
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idiotic when we have hungry students with no books (Score:3)
Makerbot also launched a call for open models of math manipulatives on Thingiverse (you might remember them from elementary school) so that teachers have something useful to print immediately.
Why are we encouraging schools to buy thousands of dollars in equipment (the 3D printer, the computer to drive it, the materials, etc - nevermind the teacher getting sent off to training seminars and whatnot) when we don't have enough textbooks for students [google.com], teachers for decades have been paying out-of-pocket for school supplies [google.com], and students are not performing well because they're hungry [google.com]?
We don't need 3D printers. We need paper, chalk, textbooks, and sandwiches.
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We don't need 3D printers. We need paper, chalk, textbooks, and sandwiches.
What an awful slogan. How about, "Markerboards, not Makerbots!"
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Fix parenting and the basics first (Score:3, Insightful)
Feed your kids breakfast. Teach them respect for authority. Remove shiny attention-span robbers from the house. Teach them to learn first. A Makerbot just throws money at it, layers more crap on top of a rocky foundation, and kicks the can of responsibility down the road.
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Northen Venezuela ? (Score:1)
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Venezuela is collapsing faster than America.
This will end well... (Score:2)
Great idea. Record sales and profits for Makerbot, and a broken-down dust catcher in the corner of every classroom. Meanwhile, the teachers will still be sending notes home at the beginning of each school year asking for donations of paper, pens and pencils, and other basic supplies.
Makerspaces (Score:2)
I think a makerspace in every school makes more sense. No, fossils, a makerspace is not the same thing as shop class. Teaching kids to code, work with CAD programs, and see the result print out on printers not only teaches STEM more effectively to the kids who are wired to like STEM anyway, but makes the process more accessible to kids who are, say, arty or sporty. So putting 3D printers like Fab@Home's would make more sense than MakerBot because it's more versatile, and gene-sequencing machines, centrif
I'm impressed (Score:2)
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Tea, Earl Grey, hot (Score:2)
When that happens you can come back in your time machine and laugh at us. Maybe you could bring me a perpetuum mobile as gift to soften the blow. I'm sure they'll have them figured out by then.
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Step away from the CNC... (Score:1)
This won't last long... (Score:3)
Just wait until a kid prints a gun at school...
Kids and printers (Score:1)
Given my experiences with regular printers in High Schools, (tracking down some random student who had printed a few dozen pages of profanity to a shared printer), I'd imagine there will be a proliferation of many "interesting" phallic-shared objects coming through these printers...
Or a bong, or a dildo, or... (Score:2)
anything else that might offend somebody....
About as successful (Score:2)
Who will teach them? (Score:4, Interesting)
My high school had a 1 million dollar computer lab gifted to it. That was quite a bit in 1990s money considering that I had a graduating class of under 40! The problem was that the only teacher who knew anything about computers was the band teacher. He was good, don't get me wrong but his musical love/responsiblities came first and he didn't really have time to teach computer class. After he struggled to fit in a programming class for 1 semester he realized he couldn't do it. After that about the most advanced thing in the room was Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing!
Maybe school teachers are more techically proficient today? I doubt it! Even if they are.. with all the finiky settings that go into getting a 3d printer to work right, and all the failure prone parts that go into one... I don't see how this can possibly work!
The "hype" of 3D printing? (Score:1)
Look, scoff all you want, but here at the UW we can now use 3D printers to literally print compostable objects using the same "plastic" we use to make forks and spoons and plates from that are compostable - to grow more food.
Think about it.
Reusable chairs and tables that can be composted. Fashion footwear you can throw in the yard waste bin to be turned back into food when they're out of fashion.
You really don't get it, do you.
(follow the UW links for Sustainable products at green.washington.edu if you don'
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Tables and chairs should last just about forever. Creating a disposable version of what should be a durable item just because you can dispose of it "responsibly" is nonsense.
"Fashion" anything is part of the problem, and enabling it is not the solution.
See, this is where you let the Perfect be the enemy of the Good.
Should does not mean will.
People do certain things. They make stupid beer steins and telephones out of football helmets. They wear one use only dresses for weddings.
Making those easy to compost and use to grow more food means it doesn't go in a landfill to pollute more, it gets recycled into something useful when they finally clean house.
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Think about what I said.
It's reduce reuse recycle. This makes it reduce reuse recycle compost.
Again, the Perfect getting in the way of the Good. Most actual waste is pre-consumer, not post-consumer. The waste from making this is ... compostable ... for food.
(stares at person not getting chemical cycling, or distribution energy/material costs, or display space heat/cooling costs)
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Hate to say it, but composting 3d printed materials is every bit as likely as biodegrading biodegradable plastic bags. Not every home (or apartment complex) has a composing unit, nor a use for the final product.
This leaves two options: ship the 3d printed refuse where it can be used, or throw it in the general trash cycle. Until it becomes ubiquitous, it won't get shipped commercially (IE with "recyclable" items.
If you can't get folks to "properly dispose" of batteries or fluorescent bulbs or electronic
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Oh please, it's not hard to set up a composting bin. In fact, there are 3D printer plans if you can't figure it out yourself.
Although worms do help.
Again, you're just arguing because you don't like change that isn't "perfect".
The world is a messy place. Get used to it.
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why? because you're lazy.
Now go away. The world is changing whether you want it to or not.
A **teacher** in every classroom (Score:4, Insightful)
Let's start by getting proper pay for and hiring more teachers.
These fabricator things can be a great learning tool **For a quaified teacher to use**....it's not really on the radar for most schools right now.
Most schools are busy figuring out which teachers to lay off b/c of unnecessary budget cuts.
To the point above about "makerbots"
It is definitely hype. It's embarassing b/c essentially its the same thing as that plastic mold machine at tourist attractions that can make you a plastic souvenier of the Washington Monument.
Fabricator technology has improved greatly, but only in the commercial/industrial usage areas.
It **will** eventually reach the consumer level but now it is far,, far from it.
I **hate** tech hype! Wastes BILLIONS.
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It's embarassing b/c essentially its the same thing as that plastic mold machine at tourist attractions that can make you a plastic souvenier of the Washington Monument.
At least those "mold-a-rama" machines demonstrate real-world manufacturing techniques. There are a hell of a lot more injection molding machines out there cranking out parts than there are 3D printers, that's for sure.
proper = market (Score:2)
I don't know where the hell you are from, but here, in **America** its the FREE MARKET
If teachers were paid their true free market value, educators would be on the same level as doctors and lawyers.
More Makerbot/Thingiverse caveats (Score:2)
Makerbot/Thingiverse also deletes designs for products they don't like [slashdot.org], so they can go to hell. Of course, their behavior resulted in an all-too-predictable Streisand effect [defdist.org], so it was actually quite beneficial in a strange way, but that doesn't change my opinion of them.
Why waste time? (Score:1)
If Obama thinks it's a good idea then it's pretty clear from experience that it is *not* a good idea.
Why though... (Score:1)
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Guns.
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dildo gun bong.
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That'll get banned three times over!
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Plastic reflectors?
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I'd guess he got a plastic framework to establish correct parabolic figure and a correctly-positioned mounting point to locate the feed antenna at the focus, and then covered it with metal foil, mesh, or wires for reflectivity.
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Replace "google" with "encyclopedia" and you take me back to my middle school days. Teachers say the same thing, fact is kids don't take certain things seriously till they get older, cause they are kids. I didn't, but do now that I'm older, yet I don't expect my perceived wisdom to suddenly transpose onto the generation behind me. They will be saying the same things about the generations behind them though.
I do agree with you though, if there is one constant it is a teacher's inability to handle technology.