I’ve just finished the second annual rocket launch last week with some of my students (science geeks). They had some input on the rockets, helped each other build them and finally launched them. Great fun. Lost some in the trees, scared some track athletes, had a few near misses with teachers’ cars… Yes, fun for all. But not why I’m posting…
We had made cute little fliers advertising the event for other students, and posted them in the hallways. The next day I was told they must be removed because they contained the words “boom,” “bang,” and “explosive.” :rolleyes: Something to the effect of “Join us for an explosive time,” and “Rockets go boom;” very benign IMHO. They had little cartoon pictures of rockets with smiley faces on them. And I posted all of them myself after they were made, so I know none of them contained anything “extra.”
Apparently, from what I have heard, someone thought it was somehow akin to a bomb threat…
Nope, he’s going to get off on a technicality. Rockets don’t explode, they deflagrate.
They’ve implemented a lot of safety programs at work lately. Sometimes, I think if a person’s going to cut off both their thumbs, maybe they shouldn’t have any thumbs. It’s so rediculous how administration over reacts sometimes.
Were these fireworks? Most of the rockets I’ve encountered go whoooosh, ssssssst, or wheeeeeeeeee. I really do not encounter hobby rockets that go bang.
Next year, use the appropriate sounds to attract your audience without scaring (or scarring) the overprotective administrators.
While watching a television show on the Tripoli Rocket Association, which is a group of people who launch large rockets, I noticed that the program had been rated “TV-MA”. Someone decided that a bunch of geeks launching rockets, and doing it very safely, was the equivalent of pornography. What a screwed up society we live in.
From one science geek to another: can I please be in your class?
So far, I’ve never been censored, but then again, I tend to fly under the radar when it comes to blowing things up in the classroom (i.e.: I don’t advertise and I bribe the custodian with coffee and cookies). I have had the odd neighbouring teacher come in after one such explosion and ask " what exactly are you doing here?"
Right. And all that chemical warfare stuff. Okay, so it’s “Common sense fall down go nomatopoeia for sound of object reacting in a structurally reductive manner to a rapid cascading reaction of certain common elements found on the periodic table loudly.”
You gotta understand that we are living in trying times here in America right now, okay?
We can’t have you rocketeers and your ilk scaring good American folks with all sorts of dangerous flying projectiles and stuff, you know? Now, I concede that your hobby might be RELATIVELY harmless, but you gotta be careful with words like BOOM and BANG. And also Lite-Brites you leave on the street.
Think about it.
(I miss model rocketry. It’s been a long, long time since I built or launched a rocket.)
