11-year old "engineer" needs counseling
in [Design]
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From: Joel Koltner on 16 Jan 2010 19:28 <don> wrote in message news:HeGdne8ObvOX3M_WnZ2dnUVZ_jhi4p2d(a)forethought.net... > http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/15/students-evacuated-school-chollas-view/ That's sad. I wonder what "school policies" he supposedly violated? A guy I'm acquainted with was telling me the other day that he build a Xenon flash bulb driver circuit from Popular Electronics back in the '80s, took it to school, and tried to convince his "friends" to touch the output terminals while he hit the trigger button. :-) I suppose these days you'd get expelled for that sort of thing... When I was in high school I built various "photogate" sensors and timers... the photogates were made out of PVC piping (cheap, strong, and readily available); no doubt that'd get you in trouble today too. Make Magazine must be considered terrorist literature by now... ---Joel
From: Joel Koltner on 16 Jan 2010 19:38 Come to think of it... when I was in high school, my biology teacher -- who was into RC aircraft -- asked me to build him a little trigger (run off a servo output) for a "solar ignitor" so that he could outfit his aircraft with mock missiles made using model rocket engines. (Solar ignitors are two wires coated with something nicely flammable -- you shove them into the end of a model rocket engine, run a few amps through it, it starts burning -- very hot -- and ignites the rocket engine itself.) So I did. I delivered it to him at school. Although I was disappointed that he decided, in the interim, that there was a significant chance a missile firing off would destroy his plane in the process, so he never tried it out in the air. These days he'd undoubtedly be in jail and I'd be at court-mandated "counseling." Sheesh.
From: Archimedes' Lever on 16 Jan 2010 19:43 On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:53:54 GMT, Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >On a sunny day (Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:43:26 -0700) it happened don <don> wrote >in <HeGdne8ObvOX3M_WnZ2dnUVZ_jhi4p2d(a)forethought.net>: > >>http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/15/students-evacuated-school-chollas-view/ > >US has turned into a bunch of paranoid schizofrenics. If you could actually spell it, you MIGHT garner a small bit of credence. As it stands, you have yourself hovering at just over zero.
From: PeterD on 16 Jan 2010 20:50 On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:49:10 -0800 (PST), "J.A. Legris" <jalegris(a)sympatico.ca> wrote: >On Jan 16, 5:53�pm, Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealm...(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >> On a sunny day (Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:43:26 -0700) it happened don <don> wrote >> in <HeGdne8ObvOX3M_WnZ2dnUVZ_jhi4...(a)forethought.net>: >> >> >http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/15/students-evacuated-sch... >> >> US has turned into a bunch of paranoid schizofrenics. > >No, the U.S. has turned into a place where there's a reasonable chance >of being harmed by crazies using anything from handguns, to assault >rifles, to homemade bombs. When confronted in the classroom with an >unrequested homemade device about the size of a bomb, bearing wires, >what would you do - ask the kid to demonstrate its safeness? Did they ask? No... Funny how a bit of communication could resolve so many problems, but instead it full tilt towards the nearest windmill.
From: nuny on 16 Jan 2010 21:22
On Jan 16, 3:49 pm, "J.A. Legris" <jaleg...(a)sympatico.ca> wrote: > On Jan 16, 5:53 pm, Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealm...(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > > On a sunny day (Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:43:26 -0700) it happened don <don> wrote > > in <HeGdne8ObvOX3M_WnZ2dnUVZ_jhi4...(a)forethought.net>: > > > >http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/15/students-evacuated-sch.... > > > US has turned into a bunch of paranoid schizofrenics. > > No, the U.S. has turned into a place where there's a reasonable chance > of being harmed by crazies using anything from handguns, to assault > rifles, to homemade bombs. That's a fine example of bogus Liberal "thinking". The entire Earth has *always* been such a place. If it isn't other humans, it's a carnivore (or many herbivores), a quake/volcano/wet airmass with an attitude, insect, microbe, or just old age. Here's a shock for you- life is not safe; it's dangerous and ultimately fatal. Humans with dangerous machinery of any kind are only a threat when they're ignorant/stupid enough to believe and act on the bullshit that truly dangerous people like warlords and certain religious fanatics feed them. They are NOT a valid excuse to disarm everyone that ISN'T that ignorant/stupid. I live next door to a guy with enough weapons and ammo to arm the whole neighborhood for a really good firefight. I suppose you condone the BATF pre-emptively killing him and his family, right? > When confronted in the classroom with an > unrequested homemade device about the size of a bomb, bearing wires, > what would you do - ask the kid to demonstrate its safeness? No, I'd politely ask what it was, and assess any potential hazard on my own. Why, do you need Official Help to do so? Mark L. Fergerson |