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Tony Stark Delivers Real 3D-Printed Bionic Arm To 7-Year Old Iron Man Fan
MojoKid writes "Here's your feel-good story for Thursday afternoon. Albert Manero, who has a degree in Aerospace engineering from the University of Central Florida and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, has made it a point to serve others. He helped found Limbitless Solutions, a volunteer foundation that uses 3D printer technology to build bionic arms for children that have either lost a limb, or were born with partially developed limbs. Seven-year-old Alex fits into the latter category and Manero, with the help of the Microsoft OneNote Collective Project, has been hard at work to develop a new 3D-printed bionic arm for him. And once the project was finished, Microsoft and Manero were able to find the most "qualified" person on the planet to deliver the arm to Alex: Tony Stark AKA Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. Awesomeness ensues, of course.
Robert Downey Jr. is far less of a jerk than he plays on screen. Way to go, to make this kid's dream come true.
Albert Manero; kudos for a good job.
Robert Downey Jr. : SuperHero is just a job. Being way cool is the real deal.
You are misusing the word "luddite". A luddite is extreme. A luddite doesn't use a typewriter, a luddite smashes your typewriter with a rock, then feels guilty for having used a rock as a tool.
Great story, great guys, but what about that glitch?
The super-hero's robotic arm was faulty.
That's... irony, I guess.
Someone has beef with 3D printers I see.
You are misusing the word "luddite". A luddite is extreme. A luddite doesn't use a typewriter, a luddite smashes your typewriter with a rock, then feels guilty for having used a rock as a tool.
The Luddites weren't Amish. Even that would be a caricature of Amish beliefs. What the Luddites were against were -new- technologies taking over jobs. They were fine with the technology they already had, not so fine with shifting tides making them obsolete.
Albert Manero at his team at UCF are doing a great job. One bit I want to add: the community that he's working in is e-NABLE ( http://www.enablingthefuture.o... ). The "one note" stuff is just a Microsoft sponsorship deal, done after-the-fact, and while their financial and marketing sponsorship of Albert's work is awesome (his work takes time and money, even if he gives the results away for free), it would be better to credit the actual community that contributed to the design, not the made up community that MS created for marketing spin. In particular, the hand used in the Limitless design is Flexy Hand (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:242639) by Gyrobot, who's a very cool guy who deserves some credit for his work.
Enable 3D printed prosthetics!
The Luddites weren't Amish. Even that would be a caricature of Amish beliefs. What the Luddites were against were -new- technologies taking over jobs. They were fine with the technology they already had, not so fine with shifting tides making them obsolete.
That's not so different from the Amish then, after all.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm not missing any limbs, and I am thankful for that, however, when I saw this post, the first thing I thought of was how cool it would be if.
Said it all. I"m 49 years old, and if RDJ had stopped by to reprise his role as Tony Stark to bring ME a prosthetic limb, I doubt I coulda stayed still. :) Giving a little kid with a birth defect a working arm like that... well you accumulate karma points pretty damn fast doing stuff like that.
If I sound stupid, it's not me talking....
Only Americans will become president of the united states.
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
A Luddite was a worker in Victorian England who saw his livelihood and life being destroyed by industrialists who themselves became so wealthy the entire era became eventually known as the Guilded Age, as in gold.
Luddites didn't want to stop history, nor did they hate technology, or its benefits. What they WANTED was a piece of the pie that was taken from them - they wanted some relief from the horror that awaited anyone in England/Ireland/Scotland/Wales who no longer had an income. They were right; the era was a grinding hell for those whose centuries-old existence was eradicated by the industrialists. Charles Dickens was on the ground fighting for those people, for one; he immortalized their suffering and death in his stories, as well as agitating for their care.
The only relief for those whose lives were destroyed was death, eventually. London became a crowded hell for those fleeing the countryside. Crime went up, pollution was a horror (clouds of it causing mass deaths in the city on occasion).
What stopped it? The very thing that destroyed agrarian existence, industry, created the capability of much more active destruction - world war. Part one and two, really the same damned war, fought over foreign resources to fuel home economies. That war caused enough hell that the people actually fought for, and got, tax-funded relief from job destruction and industrial changes. Of course, they're reversing all that now - and it's working out very well for a tiny number of people. The rest are kinda going back to the way it useta be...
That is exactly what a Luddite was. Someone who wanted a piece of the new wealth as his job was taken from him to make others wealthy. Especially when that "someone" is most of the population and the "others" are a fraction of one percent of that population.
If you lost your job and were not a Luddite, you're either inheriting a piece of your forebearers' wealth created in boom times, or you're suicidal.
Amish will use new technology if it is required. The main aspect of their culture isn't specifically the avoidance of technology, but avoiding the accoutrements of pride and vanity.
If a technology is necessary and can be incorporated without disruption (or requiring a connectedness to the 'English' world) it quite often is. Refrigeration technologies powered by propane is one of the more obvious examples. Obviously it varies from sect to sect and some are more restrictive than others.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
Amish don't avoid technology. They avoid any -use- of technology that they suspect will degrade the family and community units, so high tech might be fine for one situation but not for another. Therefore, a phone for socializing is no good. But a phone for emergency doctor calls is not contrary to their beliefs.