Gizmodo: High School

High School Student Builds 100% Wooden Bike

Kit Eaton — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:24:25 EST

16 year-old Marco Facciola built this completely wooden bike for a school project, managing to avoid using any metal at all. Yes, this wooden wheeled wonder even has a chain and gearing made of wood, held together with wooden joints and glue. The detail in the free-wheeling ratchet and spacers between the chain links, pinned with tiny dowels, is amazing. Marco had to complete this as a non-academic project for his International Baccalaureate, and inspiration came from his grandfather, forced to make wooden wheels for his bike during the war due to rubber shortages. [LeeValley via Neatorama]

Student Catches Principal Fighting With Student on Cellphone Camera, School Responds By Banning Cellphones

Jason Chen — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:32:36 EST

Way to go, Caddo School Board. You've won yourself the Gizmodo luddite of the week award. See, when a student films the principal of your Huntington High School fighting another student, the correct response isn't to ban cellphones, it's to make sure principals don't fight with students. It was only after the student showed the clip to local media that you actually did something about the situation, putting the principal on paid administrative leave. As a side note, we would also have accepted "resigning and putting people not completely retarded onto the school board" as a correct response. [Shreveport Times via Techdirt - Image courtesy Chicspeare]

High Schooler Gets Detention for Using Firefox? UPDATE: Nope

Mark Wilson — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 13:35:21 EST

Now this is a sad story...if it's true. According to this alleged school report, one student received a detention for using Firefox—as opposed to IE or Safari, we assume. And while there could be plenty of explanations for why the school would want to control student browsers, we loved the teacher's write-up of the event:

Today in class [name] had a program launched called Foxfire.exe. I had told [name] to close the program and to resume work but he told me that is was just a different browser and that he was doing his work. I had given him two warnings but he insisted that it was just a "better" browser and he wasn't doing anything wrong. I had then issued his detention.

Either this is the funniest detention we've ever seen or the best viral marketing in history. But the school, phone number and names on the report seem to be legit.

It's OK, faceless teenager. High school is tougher for the smart kids, if only because it's the last chance the world has to kick you in the balls before you take it over. [image via digg]

UPDATE: This was a prank. From the school's website:

Recently, a file was uploaded to the Internet purporting to be a copy of a letter from Big Spring High School to a student regarding a two hour detention. The uploaded letter was an altered version of a detention letter sent to a student. Unfortunately, privacy concerns prevent the School District from giving a full explanation of the nature and source of the letter's alteration at this time. The Big Spring School District does have confirmation that the discipline letter was altered.
The reports, blogs and other sources on the Internet indicating that a Big Spring student was assigned detention for using the Firefox internet browser instead of Internet Explorer are untrue and were based on the fake letter. Detention is assigned in our schools after appropriate warnings are given, if students continue to engage in non-academic activities or fail to follow a teacher's directive during class time discipline can and will be assigned.

Sincerely yours,

John C. Scudder

High School Principal

High School Musical iPod Clock/Radio and LCD TV Make You Jealous of Little Kids

Wilson Rothman — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 08:56:55 EDT

The smartest way to produce cool-looking electronics is to hire someone who already knows how, someone from frog design, for instance. Disney's electronics team is helmed by two former froggers, Chris Heatherly and John Guerra, and they've started turning some wild designs into hardware realities. The High School Musical Clock Radio above probably won't outblast other iPod docks on the market, but has a totally original look, and only costs $60. It should be hitting Toys"R"Us stores in October, in case you want to go in and buy one—I mean you know, for your kid sister. There's a matching LCD TV that may actually be even cooler than the iPod dock. Take a look...

This is one of several $300 TVs that Disney will be rolling out this fall. (This one should be available in September at Toys"R"Us and Wal-Mart.)
All of the Disney LCDs are 15" and use Sharp panels. And anyone worried about the digital switchover can rest assured, these TVs include ATSC tuners. Stay tuned for a gallery of Disney products from the ex-frog team.

From fact sheet: High School Musical 15" LCD TV Features: • 15" LCD Screen • Cable-Ready Digital Tuner • Resolution: 1024 x 768 • Full-Function Remote Control (2 "AAA" batteries required - not included) • Headphone output • Composite A/V input/output • Component video input
High School Musical Clock Radio
for iPod & Disney Mix Stick
Features:
• Digital AM /FM Stereo
• Wake up to the sounds of your radio, music player or alarm
• Charges iPod with AC Power
• Back-lit LCD display
• Compatible with most iPod versions
• Video output supports iPod content on TV