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Cut through all of it, and what's really happening is that folks like these see SL as a means of getting grant funding for projects that has zero use, either in or out of the classroom... but it gets them the money and supposedly demonstrates that theyre staying ahead of the technological curve.

That sounds about right. Sort of like how every physics and meteorological/climatology prof can find themselves awash in cash if they use the words "Global Warming" in the grant proposal often enough. :)

/P