I totally advocate for renewable energy. However, the idea that those sources can't be price/availability manipulated is wholly wrong. Wind Trubines/Geothermal Plants/Solar Farms are expensive to make and maintain, and are therefore owned by corporations. Those corps can easily decide they need to put the whole portion of a specific regional grid into "maintenance" and lower production to control price. The transmission and balancing of that power can also be played with before it gets onto the grid to play games with pricing.

Think of this analogy: you can 3D print keyboard keycaps, but you can't make a 3D printed keyboard. At the very least, there are necessary components that are currently made out of non-3D printed materials (metal, rubber, some plastics) that would need to be made by some other method. And then, a good deal of the design complexity is customizing all the parts to work together, like getting the traces on the keyboard PCB to line up with the buttons while still having spots for mounting holes, connectors, etc. Printing one simple part out of an entire ventilator is not even close to the same thing as making a DIY or 3D printed ventilator. Source: I am a medical device engineer for the last 8 years.

I AM a medical device engineer (for the past 8 years), and though I've not worked on breathing assist devices, I do know about the complexities of designing a safe and effective device AND THEN getting accurate and reliable prototypes and production parts made. The naive belief is that you just need an air pump, some buttons, and tubes and your good to go. Peoples' lungs are delicate and can easily be overinflated and damaged (potentially fatally) with incorrect air pressures. One of the very important aspects of a device like a ventilator is the software and sensors. Algorithms for monitoring breathing, dealing with sensor noise, calibration for different patients, fail-safe scenarios, usability and interfaces, etc. There are also logistical challenges like sourcing the tubing, getting things sterilized, having replacement parts on-hand, the list goes on and on. The idea of a DIY ventilator is cool but not anything that will be useful in the next 6 weeks or probably even 6 months.

I started watching Ninja stream Fortnite after Penny Arcade made mention of him and how amazing it was to watch him play. I don't particularly care for him as a person, and his commentary is mostly vapid. However, watching his game play is quite impressive. In Fortnite, the game is equal parts building in 3D and running/hiding/shooting in 3D. Watching a very skilled player literally build the world around them as they and their opponents position and shoot in that world is an exciting and fascinating thing to behold. I have no skill in playing such games, but that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate the skills of others as they develop real time strategies in 3D. That's the draw for me, seeing someone do something impressive and interesting at a much higher skill level than I could ever obtain.

Wow. I haven't seen the hot grit meme around here in quite a while. Bravo, good sir!

Having grown up in Ohio, I believe we were firmly midwesterners. Certainly not eastern.