The graduate students of the Orthopaedic Biomechanics Laboratory set out to explore it in their own special way… With cartoons of course.

The debate went on for several days, so I will spare you passage through all the stages of grief by simply presenting the conclusion to the matter in pictorial form, see Figure 1.

Figure 1. The Laboratory White Board/Devastated Area Post Debate [click to enlarge]

And now, the age-old question puzzling philosophers the world over is raised once again: “Do graduate students do anything useful?”

This idea came to me while I was peddling in the Track Town Power Station at the US Track & Field Olympic trials. In the Power Station, exercise bikes generated power which was stored in a large bank of batteries. Supposedly the setup was powering lights and TV’s in both the Power Station pavilion and on the main stage. It’s a really neat example of what’s possible, but will such a system become a practical household reality? Perhaps… But my question is: would, or could, the average American actually use such a system?