Where is balance? -- Re: Academic priorities
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From: Morten Reistad on 6 May 2005 13:00 I article <d5d5hc$ds6$1(a)gemini.csx.cam.ac.uk>, Nick Maclaren <nmm1(a)cus.cam.ac.uk> wrote: >In article <d5d3fh$rp7$1(a)nwrdmz03.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com>, >Andrew Swallow <am.swallow(a)btopenworld.com> wrote: >> >>Screwdrivers are a different matter. The woodwork room should be >>equipped with screwdrivers and the children made to return them at the >>end of the lesson. So there is no honest reason for children to be >>carrying one during the day. Bad reasons include using sharpened >>screwdrivers as weapons and sabotaging school desks. > >Good reasons include being able to fix things that work loose on >their bicycle so that they don't have the choice of being late for >school or riding illegally/dangerously. > >Or are you assuming that they are driven to school in a Hummer, as >God intended? > >On this newsgroup, please do not even DREAM of claiming that a well >designed and maintained bicycle will never have anything work loose >unexpectedly. Any real engineer knows that such failures will always >happen. That is what differentiates the engineer from the consumer. The engineer asks for a few decades worth of spare parts together with the initial purchase. I must admit I was impressed with Blake ship's equipment though, when they shipped spare parts for a 1926 loo pumb same day delivery. But I am digressing. I see authorities striking down on creativity and the very people that is going to make the stuff we need the next century. These are the last people you want as an enemy. It goes all the way from the people that lead the boy scouts, the perpetual tinkerers. They do not come from rich backgrounds, and are very vulnerable until they are well out of college. One example is the foreign college students going to the US. Around half of these (around 250.000 in total) were grounded after 9/11 and didn't get to their promised and paid for education. This very group is an essential part of US grad students, nobel laureates, and around 1/4th of all cabinet members in the word have been part of this group, as they have their first years of higher education from the US. All the last "velvet/orange/pink revolutions" have been led by people from this group. You should think these were the last people on earth the US wanted to alienate. Think again. Malaysia, India and China immediatly opened their doors to them. -- mrr
From: Morten Reistad on 6 May 2005 13:00 In article <mZ6dnQryba79yebfRVn-pg(a)rcn.net>, <jmfbahciv(a)aol.com> wrote: >In article <d5d3fh$rp7$1(a)nwrdmz03.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com>, > Andrew Swallow <am.swallow(a)btopenworld.com> wrote: >>jmfbahciv(a)aol.com wrote: >>[snip] >> >>> >>> >>> <clap, clap> I talked about this with Mom last night. I >>> apparently lied when I told the story about my nephew. It >>> wasn't a butter knife but a screwdriver which he had >>> put into his pocket after fixing the lawn mower and then >>> went to school. By all means, let us teach kids not to >>> fix anything. >> >>Screwdrivers are a different matter. The woodwork room should be >>equipped with screwdrivers and the children made to return them at the >>end of the lesson. > >What lesson? The kid was fixing his mother's lawn mower before >he left for school. I can't tell you how many times I've find >various tools in my back pocket because I'd finished using them >and went on to other things. > >> .. So there is no honest reason for children to be >>carrying one during the day. > >There sure is if he was working before he left for school. > >> ..Bad reasons include using sharpened >>screwdrivers as weapons and sabotaging school desks. > >We seem to have a culture clash. On farms, kids get up at dawn >and work for a couple of hours before going to school. :-) If the US has gone so far as not regarding fixing things as a honest reason for needing tools, then the lawyers have taken over; and you can wave permanently goodbye to US leadership in technology. This will be a huge loss for 90% of the US population. Those kids with oiled hands and screwdrivers will be the ones that make the jobs for 2030 and afterwards. Discourage them at your own peril. -- mrr
From: Brian Inglis on 6 May 2005 13:34 On 06 May 2005 07:45:53 -0600 in alt.folklore.computers, Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer(a)cs.nmsu.edu> wrote: >Brian Inglis <Brian.Inglis(a)SystematicSW.Invalid> writes: > >> On 05 May 2005 20:38:07 GMT in alt.folklore.computers, Casper H.S. Dik >> <Casper.Dik(a)Sun.COM> wrote: >> >> >Norman Yarvin <norman.yarvin(a)snet.net> writes: >> > >> >>In article <d5a5rr$tms$1(a)osl016lin.hda.hydro.com>, >> >>Terje Mathisen <terje.mathisen(a)hda.hydro.com> wrote: >> > >> >>>Besides, who needs a sharp knife when a broken whiskey bottle is handy? >> > >> >>Me. Bottles are not as easy to break as the movies show; and once broken >> >>they're liable to break further, likely shattering in the wielder's hand. >> > >> >And which part of a plane can you hit with a bottle that wouldn't >> >break before the bottle breaks? >> >> Crew hostages? > >What airline do you fly that has large glass bottles? ISTR wine poured from regular bottles (cheaper and more compact than "miniatures", which are not so miniature for wine). -- Thanks. Take care, Brian Inglis Calgary, Alberta, Canada Brian.Inglis(a)CSi.com (Brian[dot]Inglis{at}SystematicSW[dot]ab[dot]ca) fake address use address above to reply
From: Brian Inglis on 6 May 2005 13:44 On Thu, 5 May 2005 12:27:29 +0000 (UTC) in alt.folklore.computers, Andrew Swallow <am.swallow(a)btopenworld.com> wrote: >jmfbahciv(a)aol.com wrote: >[snip] > >> >> >> <clap, clap> I talked about this with Mom last night. I >> apparently lied when I told the story about my nephew. It >> wasn't a butter knife but a screwdriver which he had >> put into his pocket after fixing the lawn mower and then >> went to school. By all means, let us teach kids not to >> fix anything. > >Screwdrivers are a different matter. The woodwork room should be >equipped with screwdrivers and the children made to return them at the >end of the lesson. So there is no honest reason for children to be >carrying one during the day. Bad reasons include using sharpened >screwdrivers as weapons and sabotaging school desks. Did you ever do woodwork? You forgot about chisels, plane blades, scribers, and other tools with sharp edges and pointy bits. Metal combs, esp. with handles, were a favourite at my school: essential personal grooming accessory; could also be used for memorial inscriptions, and self defense/offense. -- Thanks. Take care, Brian Inglis Calgary, Alberta, Canada Brian.Inglis(a)CSi.com (Brian[dot]Inglis{at}SystematicSW[dot]ab[dot]ca) fake address use address above to reply
From: Morten Reistad on 6 May 2005 14:00
In article <20050506173854.11813113.steveo(a)eircom.net>, Steve O'Hara-Smith <steveo(a)eircom.net> wrote: >On Fri, 06 May 2005 16:30:02 GMT >Morten Reistad <firstname(a)lastname.pr1v.n0> wrote: > >> So you wrap something around the nect of the bottle that will protect you. >> thick leather, canvas, linen will do pretty well. > > OK I can take that on board ... > >> The you make a small incision >> in the glass, and try to hit it right there. > > I was about to comment on the difficulty of carrying a suitable >implement for the purpose through security when my brain popped up with >diamond rings. Confiscating those at the security check would be very >unpopular :) Not with the security staff. -- mrr |