{"id":6023,"date":"2015-11-08T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2015-11-08T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/?p=6023"},"modified":"2015-11-08T08:44:43","modified_gmt":"2015-11-08T15:44:43","slug":"raking-leaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2015\/11\/08\/raking-leaves\/","title":{"rendered":"Raking Leaves"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.homehardware.ca\/en\/rec\/index.htm\/Outdoor-Living\/Yard-Maintenance\/Garden-Tools\/Rakes\/Lawn\/24-Poly-Fan-Rake\/_\/N-ntlk0\/Ne-lrsc\/No-24\/R-I5062344?Num=0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.homehardware.ca\/products\/300\/50623441.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"298\" height=\"298\" \/><\/a>The last few weeks I&#8217;ve been watching the groundskeepers at my university clearing leaves with big gas leaf-blowers. It is loud and stinky and they don&#8217;t seem to be very efficient. It seems to take several minutes to clear about 20 square feet, and even then there are still quite a lot of leaves left behind. It also isn&#8217;t very &#8216;green&#8217;. I wondered what things like this cost.<\/p>\n<p>I thought of the giant fan rakes I see at the hardware store and figure raking with one of these is\u00a0probably not much harder physically than hauling that big blower around. It would likely cost less. It would certainly be a lot quieter AND it doesn&#8217;t emit greenhouse gases. It might even do a better job.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Then I saw this on FaceBook:<\/p>\n<div id=\"fb-root\">\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/april.medlen\/videos\/1004776669563491\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6025 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/snap02104-175x300.png\" alt=\"snap02104\" width=\"175\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/snap02104-175x300.png 175w, http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/snap02104.png 402w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 175px) 100vw, 175px\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-video\" data-allowfullscreen=\"1\" data-href=\"\/april.medlen\/videos\/vb.100000935012234\/1004776669563491\/?type=3\">\n<div class=\"fb-xfbml-parse-ignore\">\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/april.medlen\/videos\/1004776669563491\/\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/april.medlen\/videos\/1004776669563491\/\">WP_20151103_001.mp4<\/a>Mr. Inventor !!!<\/p>\n<p>This is just the front yard Brian Shreves<\/p>\n<p>Posted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/april.medlen\">April Medlen<\/a> on Tuesday, November 3, 2015<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m pretty sure that with a couple of attachments, maybe even a lighter weight plastic scoop this could be turned into something that works WAY better than those noisy, smelly, gas-guzzling leaf-blowers.<\/p>\n<div class='wp_likes' id='wp_likes_post-6023'><a class='like' href=\"javascript:wp_likes.like(6023);\" title='' ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-likes\/images\/like.png\" alt='' border='0'\/><\/a><span class='text'>Be the first to like.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class='like' ><a href=\"javascript:wp_likes.like(6023);\">Like<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='unlike' ><a href=\"javascript:wp_likes.unlike(6023);\">Unlike<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span>The last few weeks I&#8217;ve been watching the groundskeepers at my university clearing leaves with big gas leaf-blowers. It is loud and stinky and they don&#8217;t seem to be very efficient. It seems to take several minutes to clear about &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2015\/11\/08\/raking-leaves\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,14,351],"tags":[406],"class_list":["post-6023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-general","category-nature-animals-urbanrural-life","tag-inventions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Hsb6-1z9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6236,"url":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2016\/05\/24\/worth-sharing-teaching-math-to-people-who-think-they-hate-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":6023,"position":0},"title":"Worth Sharing: Teaching Math to People Who Think They Hate It","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"May 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A popular Cornell professor tries to help language-arts types learn how to \"make math\" instead of just studying it. Twelve years of compulsory education in mathematics leaves us with a populace that is proud to announce they cannot balance their checkbook, when they would never share that they were illiterate.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2307,"url":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2012\/06\/16\/a-new-definition-for-stem\/","url_meta":{"origin":6023,"position":1},"title":"A New Definition for STEM?","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"June 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"There's a discussion going on on on of the LinkedIn forums. Someone is trying to come up with a definition for STEM. Here's the draft: STEM Education Defined: STEM Education is the integration of the interdependent educational disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math; with the aim of optimizing student\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":819,"url":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2010\/07\/10\/all-simulations-are-educational\/","url_meta":{"origin":6023,"position":2},"title":"All Simulations are Educational????","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"July 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've had more than one educator tell me that they thought all simulations were educational. If you are looking at simulations designed to be educational, then, sure - it's a tautology. But coming from CS and having some experience with computer simulations, I see a much bigger landscape when I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":186,"url":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2009\/06\/11\/be-professional-enough-to-do-a-decent-literature-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":6023,"position":3},"title":"Be professional enough to do a decent literature review&#8230;","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"June 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"SHEESH! I get a lot of papers to review in Game Studies; Serious Games; Educational Games., etc. I used to learn a lot from reading these papers. Not anymore. Not only is much of what I read \"old news\" (i.e. it's been done or discussed and mostly published before), but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":506,"url":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2010\/03\/12\/university-college-chart\/","url_meta":{"origin":6023,"position":4},"title":"What&#8217;s the Difference between a College and A University? (Part 2)","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"March 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Some time ago I did a bit on the differences (or some of them) between colleges and universities. I also did a comparison between them and high school. Somehow it disappeared, so here it is again. What are some of the cultural differences between a college and a university? Here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5311,"url":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2015\/08\/13\/educational-videogames-and-other-repeats\/","url_meta":{"origin":6023,"position":5},"title":"Educational Videogames and Other Repeats","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"August 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Far too many educational games out there are nothing more than template games skinned with educational content.\u00a0I wonder why people make these kinds of games. Is it because they are easy to design, or do they really not understand what it is about a game that makes it a valuable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ID-100184461","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/ID-100184461.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6023"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6026,"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023\/revisions\/6026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}