Bet you thought hand-cranking was just for ice cream.

AP reports that the United Nations (your tax dollars at work elsewhere :) ) has agreed to purchase and ship 1 million laptops to governments for use in schools.

The cost of these small wonders is around $100 each. In unveiling the laptop, Kofi Annan broke the hand crank on one, reported Infoworld in November.

I wouldn’t mind a hand-cranked laptop. Or perhaps one powered by a recumbent bike. Lose weight while blogging? Sweet.

There’s a misunderstanding of motivation from the Infoworld article:

The computers will be free to schoolchildren. “Ownership of the computer is absolutely essential,” Negroponte said, pointing out that people generally take better care of things they own. “Have you ever washed a rental car?” he asked.

Are the kids paying for their computers? When you were a kid, did you take care of stuff better when you earned the money to pay for them, or rather when they were just given as a gift?