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Reviews (3)
Jan 26, 2018
An awesome member of the Moto family...
My old Moto Z died. I could have had any other phone, but I saw this Moto Play. Camera is great! I'm a realtor, and this is PERFECT for work. You can add a micro SD car (In the slot next to the SIM card.). Battery holds a good charge. I am thinking of buying a Moto Mod battery to put on the back of the phone.
Aug 10, 2009
Compelling story of determined young man...
Ken Silverstein did a really good job of telling the story of David Hahn attempting to build a nuclear reactor. If I were telling the story, it would have probably been about 20 pages. When you think about it, the kid was interested in science, got caught up in nuclear physics, blew his money on radioactive stuff commonly available, and at worst, irradiated himself causing yet unknown damage.
That's the story, but the author does a good job on background of Hahn's life, and also does some background on the history of the nuclear industry. Now, you can tell that the author is anti-nuke, perhaps almost to a fault. But considering the danger and fear brought on by past disasters like TMI and Chernobyl, you really can't blame him. At times it seems that he might be just "stretching" the story a bit, but the stretches I found informative and enjoyable.
Personally, I think the use of nukes should be revisited as a viable non-carbon "green" energy source, and that the current plants in operation are getting old and rundown. And at that, they are the nuke versions of 1961 Chevy Corvairs. (Ok, maybe 1970 Plymouth Fury's) Even so, I agree with quite a bit of the author's comments regarding the nuclear industry.
One thing that left me uncomfortable was his characterization of The Boy Scouts. In an attempt to get into the mind of David Hahn, Silverstein described the history of the Scouting movement, elaborating on some comments of founder, Lord Baden Powell. Comments something to the effect that "we need to keep the youth of our world strong or somesuch by keeping them from masturbating, etc, etc." He goes on to say that the group is conservative, right ring, (although, according to him, they don't admit it) and they somehow propagate these ideas in their members. (Forgive me, I am paraphrasing here.)
Having been a member of the Boy Scouts, and having achieved the rank of Eagle Scout myself, I can honestly say there was never any such doctrine applied from any national level. To me, my brother and cousins, it was a wonderful way to get in touch with nature. And having been a scout in the 1970's, getting my Eagle award in 1979, I'll go so far to say scouting was teaching environmental consciousness decades before anyone ever saw the first recycle bin. Scouting transcends all cultures and political leanings. Although I grew up in Scranton, PA which is a very blue-collar, Democratic, yet religiously conservative area, my nephew in Bethesda, MD just got his Eagle award. And I would almost bet that the parents and members of that troop, (my brother-in-law included) are the biggest Obama votin' liberals you could ever meet!
The fact that Silverstein somehow worked anti-masturbation into the story of the Boy Scouts says more about him than the Scouts. In those days of Lord Baden Powell (1910), that, indeed was a big bug-a-boo. Few people know, for example, that the straight jacket was invented to specifically keep mental patients from engaging in it.
As an Eagle Scout, I feel compelled to add my thoughts and feelings about scouting, and perhaps David Hahn to a degree, since the title of the book is "The Radioactive Boy Scout". Aside from this, the book has no major faults. But because of this, you kind of get the sense that Silverstein is an outsider when it comes to the BSA, and this apparent lack of knowledge betrays a sense of being out of touch with a major topic of his book.
May 08, 2007
A specific study of war, a broad study in crime also...
1 of 1 found this helpful David Grossman's credentials served him well when he wrote this book. A lieutenant colonel and psychologist, Grossman dissects the mental attitudes of soldiers not wanting to kill as far back as the American Civil War. As a psychologist he makes a good case for a new category in the population called "The Shepherd." For years it was thought that most people were "normal" and it was the psychopaths who found it easy to kill in war. He goes on to say that the third, new category are The Shepherds; noble, normal people who rise above the typical human desire not to kill, in order to protect the rest of "the flock". (How else can you describe our all volunteer military?)
After WW2, the military had a study to see how behavior occurred on the battlefield. And they discovered that in a natural setting there was the minimum of "shepherds" who did most of the shooting, not even to mention their kill rate. Before reading this book, I did know that in WW2 fighter squadrons, 2% of the pilots did 50% of the shootdowns. But I attributed that more to the rarity of superb flying skills. That stat applies somewhat in a ground war setting as well.
So from this WW2 study, the military used operant conditioning to make sure the firing rate was maximized during combat. For example, in basic training, instead of shooting at white round targets, troops would shoot at human type targets. By the time of the Vietnam War, this type of training was perfected, so much so that the weapons the Military sent out into the field weren't just the M-16's and M-60's, but the soldiers themselves were formed into killing machines, in the absolute true sense of the word. But no one thought to "disarm" these weapons once they were done. Add to that an environment where soldiers were afraid to even show themselves as such in society, and well, I will agree with the one gentleman writing a review here that Vietnam vets did, indeed suffer.
I was in possession of this book in 1998 when I myself was a victim of a violent crime. Fortunately, I escaped with my life, physically unharmed. But that was the longest 10 minutes of my life. And even 9 years later, it's a bit painful to recall. But I will say having this book was one of the best things to help me deal with it. As I said in the title of this review, David Grossman also dissects how modern media, and violent video games specifically de-sensitize young people in the exact manner the military and police agencies work their professional members to do serious, grim tasks. I had seen Mr. Grossman on a few TV shows after Columbine. He made some excellent points you can read about in this book. Whenever there is a violent incident such as Columbine, there is always a cry to pass laws, etc. I am not debating that. But too bad there isn't a way to make a book such as this part of the required curriculum in high school and junior high.