Writes 11-year-old Audrey Zhang who won the 7th annual Doodle 4 Google competition, which had 100,000 entries from K-12, all trying to "draw an invention that would make the world a better place."
At the link, if you scroll down, you'll see her winning drawing, and if you watch the video, you'll see that she worked with the Google people to add lots of little animations to the drawing to produce the version that you see at the top of the page. It's really very cute and the issue choice — clean water — is nicely sound and sane. You can see some of the other finalists in the video, and some of them have more creative, kidstyle ideas about how the world could be improved.
IN THE COMMENTS: I said: "I can't believe people are being cranky about a child winning a drawing contest! I need to draw a invention that will make the world a better place that is some kind of device that uncranks Monday morning cranks." Ah, forget drawing. I'm going to do the invention. Here it is, a crank to uncrank cranks:
AND: Already invented, with crank, The Twittering Machine:
.jpg/640px-Die_Zwitscher-Maschine_(Twittering_Machine).jpg)
Posts
33 comments:
The clever kid has invented a water treatment plant. If only it treated sewage, then she'd really have something.
Talk about a good idea being quickly and widely adopted. I read this story this morning, do a bit of googling and it turns out we already have hundreds if not thousands of facilities across this great land that take in dirty water (like raw sewage even) and clean it up to make water so clean you can drink it. Of course they don't have this kids genius. Usually they call the plants something like Old Guy's Name Water Treatment Plant, not the original and totally cool "Transformative Water Purifier". It really sucks when people rip of the work of a genius and don't even bother to keep the cool name.
Drinks His Own Urine man says:
"Clean, safe and sanitary water" is all well and good but the world would be better served if everyone drank their own urine, or the urine of others. When we all have to rely on each other's urine for survival Mankind will know Peace: race is meaningless when we all drink from the same urinal. And please: use only reusable or recyclable containers for your urine -- styrofoam cups makes the Urine sad.
I invented a transformative water purifier
What 11 yr old talks like that?
Drinks His Own Urine Man says:
Few things in this world provide the raw delight that is a fresh cup of urine in the morning after an evening of eating asparagus: it is fragrant with the Cycle of Life.
It's a drawing, not an actual invention. It's an extremely charming drawing, and that's why I clicked through to find out what it was. Impressive coming from an 11-year-old.
What's so impressive? You mean the art? Oh yes, it's a wonderful drawing, nice colors and so on.
But her "invention that would make the world a better place" already exists. Isn't this competition supposed to be based primarily on the idea, not the drawing? Or am I misunderstanding? I thought Google prided itself as being an ideas place.
Drinks His Own Urine Man says:
I used to work at a Drug testing facility but was fired for drinking the samples. Some people do not see the Big Picture.
Drinks His Own Urine Man says:
When I see a beautiful woman I can't help but imagine what her urine tastes like. It is best to wait for the Third Date before broaching the subject. I love a woman with strong kidneys.
Left bank,
All flowing water is dilute sewage.
There's that tranny word again.
C'mon kid. PC, ya know.
Drinks His Own Urine Man says:
A kidney stone at the bottom of a cup is Good Luck: take advantage of the Joy.
An award for an idealized image of a concept not grounded in anything real.
This is the Obama age, just look at his Nobel Peace Prize.
Out of context it just sounds so insufferable.
"What 11 yr old talks like that?"
An 11 year old smart enough to invent a transformative water filter.
That said, Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, as well as of the iBot Mobility System, a wheelchair than can climb stairs or can rise up on its back two wheels, allowing paraplegics to be able to reach things for themselves in cupboards and closets, invented his own "transformative" water filter, called the Slingshot. I saw him demonstrate it on tv a few years ago and was wondering just recently what was happening with it.
I can't believe people are being cranky about a child winning a drawing contest!
I need to draw a invention that will make the world a better place that is some kind of device that uncranks Monday morning cranks.
RecChief,
"What 11 yr old talks like that?"
The one with NewAge parents,...
It is a charming doodle although some of the others were quite good too. I wonder if they had the idea to do the animation and chose hers because of the intricacy.
I suppose the point of choosing her the winner was to emphasize to all are little gullible children how we adults are just a bunch of irresponsible polluters.
One of the most interesting startups I am looking into right now produces emergency kits with water filter, sanitation chemicals, and storage bags. Primarily for use in disaster relief situations, but also being sold to forest fire fighter teams, etc. I'm a big fan of such companies, but their economics are usually, as you might suppose, marginal.
Not sure what this has to do with the actual topic. Like the kid and Google, perhaps, I get more excited than I should when I see creative solutions to basic problems that so many first worlders forget even exist.
I'm in the cranky camp. I'm having trouble answering the "who cares?" question. She didn't invent a better water purifier, she made a colorful cartoon.
With a lot of help.
Sounds like cheating.
So a child seems pointless and boring to you. What's the best approach?
1. Move on to something else that does interest you.
2. Attack the child.
It's cute and imaginative.
But I feel like Google is celebrating creativity over scientific and historical knowledge.
Adults have been working on systems to clean water ever since an epidemiologist noticed that cholera clustered around places where the drinking water source was near a sewage pit.
Filtering water is not cheap when done on a large scale. Most end-users see the cost in their city water bill. Which is why it looks relatively cheap to most Westerners.
Perhaps the 'crank' is coming out against the child, but I don't think that's what's being got at.
Google has who knows how many entries to choose from, and the one they chose:
1. Uses words that do not sound like what a kid would come up with on his own.
2. Describe an already existing thing.
3. JHapp's point rings true.
I suppose we *could* assume that google just went with it because it was cute and sane and nominally non-divisive (no one's against clean water!) but that would mean pretty much ignoring everything google does. We skeptical peasants see that google is promoting X, and when X - ESPECIALLY when X - comes in the form of a cute children's drawing, you'll have to forgive our first reaction of 'what's the catch'.
Secret answer 3: Criticize the people making a big deal out of it instead of leaving it between the pages of her "My Little Pony" notebook like they should have.
A can't promise to have read every word of every comment, but I don't see a single criticism of the child.
I have a drawing that solves the climate change problem and really, really works. No additional money need ever be spent or another word written on the subject.
I'd like a device that produces liquid hydrocarbon fuels (gasoline, diesel) from water and atmospheric CO2, using energy obtained from cold fusion.
So a child seems pointless and boring to you. What's the best approach?
1. Move on to something else that does interest you.
2. Attack the child.
The two approaches are not mutually exclusive.
Just sayin'
I don't think anyone's really attacking the child. People are mainly attacking Google and maybe the child's parents. But in any case I think "attack" is too strong a word.
I drew a picture of an invention that keeps children from being seen and heard until they reach 21.
But I feel like Google is celebrating creativity over scientific and historical knowledge.
Well, yeah. It's the Google doodle contest, not the Google science fair.
I saw this this morning and thought it was cute. I especially liked all the little character details.
RecChief: "What 11 yr old talks like that?"
Crack: "The one with NewAge parents."
Crack is correct.
It's perfectly "new agey" to draw a picture of some fictional thing that supposedly does some transformational thing but isn't actually a thing that really exists.
I'm perfectly cool with kids conjuring up images of things that "do things", because "fun".
But that's all it is.
It ain't exactly a Siemens-Westinghouse Math/Science/Technology Award though.
Do you see anyone being cranky about the 11-year-old specifically, rather than being cranky about symbolism-over-nonsense of Google's entire premise in the contest? "Draw a picture of a world-changing invention"? Gag me. It's right up their with Lennon's Imagine, and awful for all the same reasons.
Post a Comment