I bought this original Boy Scout Handbook, and another, two years ago. The one in better condition I gave to my father as a Christmas present and a reminder of all the great times we shared in the Scouting program. I’ve been flipping through mine recently and noticing some things.
Boy Scouts have been around for a long time. Here, in the United States they were incorporated on February 8, 1910. The oldest Scouting organization, in the United Kingdom, was founded in 1907. I ‘m somewhat surprised how much of Scouting has been retained over the past 1oo hundred years. The Boy Scout oath, law, and motto have not changed since that time but many other things have, from rank requirements to merit badges. I thought I’d share a some of the ones I found just flipping through the book. (I wish I had my old Boy Scout Handbook from when I was in the program, as well as a current edition just to compare, I’m doing this from memory… If you want a good, cheap resource for outdoor and first aid skills a Boy Scout Handbook isn’t a bad choice, by the way.)
Some of the Merit Badges one could earn then but no longer:
A few requirements that didn’t make it into this millennium, They probably didn’t make it through the ’70s: make a round trip alone (or with a fellow scout) to a point at least seven miles away going on foot, or rowing boat. Or, construct a raft which will carry two people and their duffle safely, and demonstrate his ability to make practical use of it.
I convinced my wife to get my birthday present two months early this year. Why? Because I couldn’t wait any longer for an Amazon Kindle. The Kindle had been on my wishlist for over half-a-year and we had already discussed getting it for my birthday. I didn’t see the point in waiting until then, though. To tell the truth the wait was slowly driving me crazy!
When we got our tax return I set aside some of it and in late February ordered a Kindle. Three days later it arrived. They do this neat trick with the packaging where they put a protective sheet of plastic over the Kindle’s screen with text on it, except when you peel it off you discover that the text is on the actual screen of the Kindle.
Why do I need an ebook reader? I don’t really. Why did I want one? Several reasons, here are the big ones:
Space
I want to take books with me on vacation but am tired of how much room they take up in luggage. I know, you’re thinking one paper or hardback book isn’t that bulky. That is true. I don’t take one book, in general, I bring along four to six books ranging in size from 150 to 1,000+ pages. That many books take up a lot of space. Now those books take up less space than a single paperback.
I have three floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in my house and three more that go up half as high. All of them are overflowing with books. I have a box of books in my garage, two more at my parent’s house and I gave away five or six boxes of books last time I was visiting my parents. I get anywhere from three to ten books (free) each month. I no longer have the space (real or mental) for so many books. The Kindle can hold hundreds of books (thousands if the advertising is to be believed) on its hard drive and an infinite amount more on Amazon’s servers with out me ever having to wonder where I’m going to find room for all of them.
Portability
I’m reading the collected works of Josephus right now. This is a book that is 6″ x 10″ x 3,” weighs nearly three pounds, has tiny text, and is printed in double column. It is not an easy book to read sitting down in a chair. It is impossible to read on the go, or in little snatches. The complete works of Josephus on the Kindle is single column, print as large as I want, and never weighs more than 8.7 ounces.
I can also put pdfs onto the Kindle which is a nice feature to have when I attend game nights or sessions with friends. I have all the rule books at my fingertips on the Kindle without carrying around numerous rule books, print-outs, and FAQs.
Free Wireless
D got me the more expensive version of the Kindle that comes with free wireless for life. The Kindle doesn’t have a full featured web browser or a touch interface but it’s UI works well enough when you need to connect to the Internet in a hurry. Not just for purchasing books but for checking or sending emails, reference work, or reading the news. I’ve found Instapaper to be a wonderful application for the Kindle. As I see stories on-line through out the day that interest me I click a single button on my browser and when I get home at night I have a nice digest of them waiting for me on the Kindle.
Price
This isn’t the most important point, I should be borrowing more books from my library as opposed to purchasing them. I can’t deny that the reduced price of ebooks makes justifying a purchase easier. The two to five dollars off an ebook is the difference between an impulse purchase and a “maybe I’ll look into it later.” Compulsive and impulse buying isn’t a plus if it’s done merely to consume. But, it does make me willing to take a risk on unknown authors and books and I see anything that exposes me to more writing as a good thing.
I don’t see the Kindle as a replacement for my books and I will certainly always love a nice worn hardback book with dog-eared pages and notes in the margins. Nor, will I tire of discovering these in used books. The written word will always be an important part of my life and I am too much of a Luddite to ever fully give up material objects.
But, it will be nice to sit in the hammock in the backyard with a 2,000+ page book without having to worry about throwing my back out.
The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet and our visions go rather further than that and our opportunities are unlimited. ~Neil Armstong
February 24, 2011, was the last flight of the Shuttle Discovery. Endeavor’s last flight is scheduled for April 19, and Atlantis has a tentative final launch for the summer. After that the Nation and People who once broke the bonds of gravity and went into the stars will be again tethered to their blue planet.
There is hope that private space programs will be able to pick up where the Shuttle program ended. Mostly, the ferrying of people and materials from Earth into space and to the International Space Station. NASA has plans for a program to replace the shuttle program but, as of now, it remains unfunded. In the current political climate in Washington, D.C. I do not see that changing anytime soon.
In a climate where such helpful programs as WIC and funding to public radio and television are being gutted, yet funds for two disastrous, decade long foreign wars has remained steady I have little hope for NASA.
I find this terribly depressing without being able to explain why…
