After reading Olivia Joe’s blog post, “3D Printing- Moving from Industry to Consumer,” though I was already somewhat familiar with 3D printers, I am now more learnt on the limitations of today’s 3D printers- which is quite an important aspect to be versed on regarding a device that claims to create three-dimensional product from effectively raw material. Because current commercial 3D printers can only create products from plastic, have a relatively small object-size limitation, and cannot print particularly fast, the printers are severely limited in their usefulness, and are more intriguing that anything else at this point. Which got me thinking, how beneficial is it to gain widespread exposure during the infancy and research years of what will surely be a tremendously useful and widely-used tool in the future? Are companies selling these devices really looking to maximize sales, or are they just trying to reach less-than-optimal numbers at this point to have the product consumer-tested, in order to help along progression and improvement of the machine? On the one hand, with early public exposure, there builds anticipation and want, but if the incredible future of this product isn’t even yet on the horizon, introducing it now, in its current and fairly useless form, may only lead to frustration of purchasers, and impatience and disappointment of the potential consumer base waiting for a more apt rendition, consequently leading to rushed research to deliver a newer product faster, and because of the haste, less efficient development of the product, and therefore a slower and less effective product progression overall, which begs the question, when is the right time to introduce a new product? Clearly the answer is relative to the product- chip flavors, right away to get consumer feedback; a new vehicle, perhaps not after strenuous testing and tweaking if reputation is of particular importance, which it usually is. But a 3D printer… who knows? Guess we’ll have to wait and see if now was the right time, and just how far this product will really go.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/oliviajoe/

If you live in B.C., or anywhere else in Canada for that matter, you have likely heard of the plan to build an Enbridge “Northern Gateway” Pipeline, and the large amount of public resistance that comes with it. As a project that would cut through 1000 streams and rivers, many of which are critical Salmon-spawning and vital-habitat waterways, the unceded traditional territory of dozens of B.C. First Nations, and the last intact temperate rainforest in the world, the Great Bear forest, and is a means of oil transportation quite susceptible to destructively toxic spillages (Enbridge’s average record is one spill a week),(1) there is no question why such large opposition exists. It is unfortunate, then, that Harper’s government is so keen on pushing the project forward: “The Harper government is spending more than $100 million on infrastructure to support the proposed Enbridge pipeline, before it’s even been approved.” (2) It is precisely because the government seems so unwavering in its dedication to build the pipeline despite the damage it can and will cause that I believe recent events, namely the devastating Lac-Megantic oil spill, and the more recent Lemon Creek jet fuel spill, are merely acts something among the likes of propaganda. In the midst of the push towards the Enbridge Pipeline, all of the sudden we find ourselves with two new and very large spills, caused by two alternate means of oil transportation- train and truck. And both come at a very convenient time in the proposed pipeline’s approval process, showcasing just how a pipeline might be better than these two alternate, “clearly unsafe” means of transporting oil. I can’t surely say whether these two incidences are the results of government opinion-manipulation, or merely stories blown up in the media because there was little else going on at the time, but I do know it all seems pretty helpful for those trying to convince others that a pipeline is the way to go.

(1)http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/Energy/tarsands/Get-involved/stop-the-pipeline/

(2) http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/elizabeth-may-shocked-latest-revelation-about-harper-government-and-enbridge