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Hal_Crawford

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Everything posted by Hal_Crawford

  1. I am a firm believer that every scout--actually every person--who can learn to swim should. I believe that every scout who can earn Swimmer MB should. Even though I am an Emergency Preparedness counselor I encourage every scout who can to earn Lifesaving instead. I feel strongly about this but I accept that not every scout can do these things and that does not make him less of a scout. There is so much more to scouting than swimming and other water activities. With a diagnosed phobia I think the scout would have a case as a "Scout with disabilities" and should have been able to comp
  2. "Some people said she cast a curse on the Rolling Stones and turned them all into dull, ugly, wizened, used-up old men" Nah... it was the drugs. If they don't kill you you first you end up looking like Mick and Keith. Now that is a cautionary tale. Hal
  3. OGE wrote: "How did the colonials ever survive without such required information?" Actually, in both the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies, roughly half the colonists perished the first winter. Maybe they needed the Action XX Weather Team to sort it out for them. They probably needed more than winter weather advice as they didn't fair much better in warm weather. Actually, I agree that the coverage was pretty over the top. One local station preempted all network programming Friday night to provide continuous coverage of the storm. Not much point to say don't go out--the dumb ones
  4. Great article. I just forwarded it to our troop's leaders. Don't think I would have expected an article about scouting in Wired. Thanks, Hal
  5. Whether this movie is pro or anti scouting; pro or anti Obama doesn't really matter. I doubt that this film will ever make it past You Tube or maybe a limited DVD release. Looking at the trailer and the film maker's credentials--or lack there of--I can't imagine that we will be seeing this on the marquee at the local multiplex. Nothing about it has the sort of commercial appeal that would make distributors or theater owners see dollar signs. It looks low budget, low quality, and it lacks any star power to make it marketable.
  6. We've never camped inert; we camp intense. Sorry. Hal
  7. We had a scout a few years back who came to summer camp each summer but after reaching 1st class he rarely ever camped with the troop or attended meetings. He served as a Den Chief (his dad was the DL) from the time he earned 1C until he aged out. Based on that and merit badges earned at camp he earned Star and (if I recall) Life but never finished Eagle. He probably showed up enough to meet these new requirements. At about the time he aged out he delivered a full den of cross overs (including his younger brother), most of whom have remained active scouts by any definition. That was a sur
  8. Voyageur: Among other things, I supervise a theatrical costume shop. Our costumer often orders period shirts and the like from Jas. Townsend and Son http://jas-townsend.com/ They show fringe (though perhaps not the fringe you're thinking of) on hunting frocks from 18th century through Mexican American War. Can't lay my hands on any of my costume history books at the moment but I think that is correct. Colonial Williamsburg shows a similar fringe on a hunting shirt but they acknowledge that the design is largely conjectural (http://www.history.org/History/clothing/men/mgl
  9. I agree that you should always know where you are and what a gesture means in that location. When I lived in Brazil I learned that the gesture that means A-OK in the US (tip of first finger to tip of thumb making a circle) means F-U down there. I knew a couple of guys who learned it the hard way. Hal
  10. I think I was about 10 or 11 when I read Thirty Seconds over Tokyo. As he gets a little older Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far are both good. Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers and Wild Blue are also great. The latter is about a B-24 crew commanded by George McGovern. I have read all these books more than once. Hal
  11. Check out Ken Burns, The War on PBS. http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=2784345 This may be available at your public library. I am not sure about the age appropriateness of this so you may want to preview it to make up your own mind. Listening to live vets is even better. Try putting the word out through your cub pack and school to see who has a grandfather who parachuted into Normandy or a great uncle that fought at Guadalcanal. Some of our scouts had the privilege of listening to a former Ranger who had scaled the cliffs at Point du Hoc on D-Day. Seems
  12. I mentioned this to some of our scouts tonight. There was a fair amount of excitement about Tracking and Signaling. I think we have some potential counselors so we might get a few takers. Hal
  13. Well that pretty much reduced the last year to a single post. Way to go! Hal
  14. So the logic is that pedestrians and automobile drivers do not wear helmets and yet there are more casualties from those activities than from cycling, hence cycling is safer? Expanding on this: pedestrians do not wear parachutes, drivers do not wear parachutes; since far more pedestrians and auto drivers suffer fatal accidents then why should skydivers wear parachutes? It's apples and oranges or maybe smashed pumpkins. Hal
  15. Here's a requirement for Pathfinding: 5. Give telephone number, if any, and directions for reaching the nearest police station, fire-fighting apparatus, Court House or Municipal Building, the nearest Country Farm Agent's office, doctor, veterinarian and hospital. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Imagine a day when a police station might not have a phone number. Living in Arlington County, Virginia which has 208 thousand folks in just over 26 square miles it is hard to imagine where the nearest Farm Agent's office is. In truth this whole merit b
  16. Good question. There is nothing in the Guide to Safe Scouting that specifically requires helmets for horseback riding. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Horsemanship Activities Horsemanship activities in Scouting include merit badge activities, arena rides, multi-day trips (including treks and cavalcades), and Cub Scouting familiarization rides. Each sponsoring council should take care to design age- and activity-appropriate procedures and guidelines for each particular equine activity. It is not possible or appropr
  17. "HiLo, maybe we should ship GaHillBilly to a penal colony" I can't resist pointing out that Georgia, like Australia started out as a penal colony.
  18. Since we are talking farb, Showtime is re-running The Tudors a steamy pot boiler that makes total hash of the history of Henry VIII (reign 1509-1547) and his 6 wives and numerous girlfriends. Some examples: A flint lock pistol (17th century invention but it looks like an 18th century model). Carriages with leaf spring suspension (19th century). Many of the costumes are Elizabethan, a later period with a different silhouette. (Tudor think squares, Elizabethan think triangles). A bishop wearing his hat (biretta) sideways. King Henry wearing his pumpkin pants to bed
  19. That's great! While not purely scientific jargon I would add: STATE OF THE ART EQUIPMENT It was when we specified it but now it's obsolete. Hal
  20. It was great; best piece of PR for scouting I have seen in a long time! I wonder how many million people were seeing that on the various channels. The announcers on HGTV all professed a current or past affiliation with Scouting (a former Cub, a former foreign scout and the mother of a Cub). One said "everyone should be a scout". Great start for the centennial year! Happy New Year. Hal
  21. The scouting.org list is a summary of changes, not the exact wording of the requirements. The requirements page has not been updated to the current requirements, probably because today is a holiday. I would hope that by Monday the 2010 requirements will be posted and they will hopefully match those in the Handbook. If it is an issue between now and Monday I would go with the Handbook. I am certain that the intent is that by the time he reaches FC the scout will have given examples of how he has lived each point of the scout law not twelve different ways in which he has been "clean".
  22. Don't forget that a scout needed to know how to stop a run-away team of horses and how to rescue people from a house full of gas or a burning building. Things were a lot different before phones were common place. Also, skip to the merit badge requirements and check the requirements for Inventor MB. It was discontinued by 1916 because only an handful of scouts had completed the two simple requirements to earn the badge. Requirement one was to invent something and secure a patent for the invention. Hal
  23. "HIV/AIDS was and is a disease primarily of IV drug abusers and homosexuals." True, those are the two largest catagories of infected individuals. Next in line is women who contract it through heterosexual contact (>102,000) and then men who fit into both of the first two categories followed by men who contract it through heterosexual contact (>60,000, still significant). http://aids.about.com/od/dataandstatistics/qt/exposure.htm So Vol, the largest number of new AIDS cases are African American men (49% for 2006). Would you say that this would justify barring Afric
  24. No matter how much attention is paid to period detail most reenactments leave you with the impression that the Civil War was fought by men in their forties and fifties (or even older). You see precious few of the teenagers who made up the bulk of the combat troops. Visit Colonial Williamsburg and ask yourself what the city and the people would look like if the streets were historically accurate (not paved), especially after a day or two of rain. A certain level of inaccuaracy is pretty much inevitable. Hal
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