Distraction Device

More on One-Laptop-Per-Child with some academic research showing it's worse than a waste of time and money - it could actually harm the kids who get it!

Let me take this opportunity to pile on OLPC even more. One of their fund-raising mechanisms was called "Give one, get one" or "Get one, give one". Something like that, with the emphasis on "get one". The way it worked was If I paid for two, one would be sent to the poor kid with a bright shining smile in some far-away country. Then I would not only get the warm feeling inside from my own wonderful do-goodery, but I would also get my very own OLPC PC! This perfectly sums up everything that is wrong with America and American charity. I do something that someone tells me is charitable, noble, and self-sacrificial, and then I get a shiny new toy. The really funny thing about this is that I'm certain all the geeks and semi-geeks who participated in this program unboxed the thing, played with it for an hour, and then left it in a corner. Now it's covered with pizza delivery boxes, iPhone 2.0 packaging materials*, and a couple of issues of Computer Gaming World.

* Or will be, after July 11th.