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I lived in Anchorage. There is a solstice party on top of Flat Top Mountain. As a young, single male - my Scouting skills in hiking up adult entertainment and my ability to get the fire going, plus wire the car batteries for the band to play made it all a very good time.

I have celebrated the winter solstice in Alaska and in the Bahamas - Alaska was more fun.

Our Troop runs higher - around 60 Scouts (more on the rolls right now though). We cut off new Scouts every year at a number based on what we can handle due to size, etc. I like 5 Patrols of 15 each, so that each has close to 8 on any given campout. Yes - 50% participation is our goal for campouts. We ebb and flow with soccer, football, basketball and swim seasons. Some boys take a POR in the Fall, because they play baseball. My football and soccer players step up in the Spring and summer, during THEIR off season. I HATE drawing a line, but it has to be done. I would split the Troop, but I don't know where the line would be and who would go where. One thing that IS happening is that our Crew is truly separating this year from the Troop, and a lot of older boys and parents are choosing NOT to re-Charter with the Troop. This is serving to be a type of split, and it is already causing some pain at the unit level (the adults leaving have been very important to the Troop, but they are done). Good job with keeping a strong Troop of a given size, and I hope you have a list of Troops to pass people onto when you don't have room. That is what we are doing now.

The joy of science is in the assumption of "all other things being equal." They never are. There are so many variables out there, and we are still just starting to get a feel for them. My wife works with some behavioral genetics datasets for her research - mainly to eliminate genetics from the question (a couple of her datasets focus on twins raised apart for example). We know that genetics has an impact, but that environment can influence genetic triggers. Socio-economic scale is very important, and can be more important than family structure. Ward and June might be the perfect scenario, but they are also made up. My Grandparents had years of happy marriage, but my father was raised by his mother - grandpa was off at WWII, Korea and then Vietnam. The questions asked by social science research can certainly be impacted by a bias, but by the time you get through the IRB and get peer reviewed and THEN see who else cites - it gets pretty clean. Or as clean as anything else can get.

We used cots when car camping in the late 70s / early 80s - mainly due to bottomless tents and lots of rain in Oklahoma. A cot helped ensure a dry sleeping bag in the rain, and was cooler in the summer months. I remember need help to stretch out the canvas on my cot to get it to work though (I was a scrawny little Scout). I don't see how they would work with a standard 7x7 or 8x8 footprint tent our Troop uses though - your face would be up against the nylon.

This video shows part of the problem with the current system - it highlights the issues in medical service pricing, and is an interview with a surgery center that actually publishes their pricing: While it is also based on anti-Obamacare message, in my opinion it also shows how the current system is broken.

Our Troop T-Shirt for adults has a flow chart on the back that the boys are to reference before they ask a question: Is it food? - try tabasco Is it gear? - try duct tape Is the answer in your handbook? Did you ask your Patrol leader? Did you ask the Senior Patrol Leader? Did you ask a member of the Venture Crew? Are you really sure you don't already know the answer? - Go ahead and wake-up the Scoutmaster

A few thoughts. 1) You have to look at #of available youth. Recent article here talked about fewer applying to college - these are the kids of Gen X - a smaller generation than Boomers. 2) Youth sports around here is only for the top players once you hit junior high. You CAN stay in the rec league, but most of the mediocre kids have dropped out. 3) Youth sports is STRICT about practices and games. I have an ASM setting us up for Philmont because he could never go if he wanted to keep his position as a starter in football. 4) I have boys taking 5 AP courses, spending weekends taking study courses for PSAT, SAT and ACT. In addition, they have school clubs with mandatory weekend activities if you want the letters of rec for college. Kids are busier than hell around here - so that is where my high schoolers are.

Packsaddle - the University of California System as of January 1st is smoke free, including e-cigs. http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_24452557/uc-pulls-plug-electronic-cigs-systemwide-smoking-ban

I like that Sentinel - sounds like the passage in Heinlein's Starship Troopers when the teach gives Rico a ribbon for first place, and Rico tears it up and throws it away - stating that he only earned 4th. Becomes a message about the value of something you have earned, vs just been given. $2 for a Eagle patch sounds like another message - offer to sell an Eagle patch, then ask if that makes them an Eagle. Needs work - but I think I can work something out.

I think this is interesting. We had a case locally a few years ago of a boy on graduation night from high school breaking into cars and stealing. Since the same paper had published his Eagle photo, the story became "Eagle arrested for breaking into cars". I used that as a Scoutmaster's minute topic - focusing on how earning Eagle, or any Scout rank, is only the beginning - that we have to live it for life, and that we will always be identified for it. That and the Mike Rowe letter help bring Eagle's back to the earth.

When my son was elected SPL, we made a pact that if I addressed him as SPL I was speaking as Scoutmaster. If I used his name, I was talking to him as his father.

Agreed (I say as a Cooking MB counselor). We created a couple of "cooking MB" teams on a recent campout so that there would not be any limitations on opportunities to cook. Best dutch oven enchiladas, dutch oven mac & cheese, and dutch oven chili - I was waddling by the evening. I do, though, have the backpackers have to hike in their stove and food - only to teach the concept of dried food plus water might or might not be that much lighter than "real" food depending on where you camp. We camp in the dessert a lot, and using a full water bottle to boil isn't always the best choice.

My favorite memory of wilderness survival was dinner. We built our shelters (not a problem in scrub oak Oklahoma - TONS of stuff on the ground). Cleared fire rings and got fire started. Then we heard an engine. Up drove a pickup, from the back the unmistakable sounds of chickens. Live chickens. Each team of 3 Scouts was handed a live bird, with the direction to kill, clean, and cook a bird for dinner. Final sign-off came after you ate dinner.

New York City is expected. Virginia is a more "purple" state, strong mix of both parties. It would have probably gone Republican if not for the Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis. [TABLE=width: 300] [TR] [/TR] [TR] Governor VOTES % WON [/TR] [TR=class: winner] [TD=class: office] Terry McAuliffe[/TD] [TD=class: number votes]1,065,205[/TD] [TD=class: number pct-won]48.0[/TD] [TD=class: pct-sign]%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: office] Ken Cuccinelli II[/TD] [TD=class: number votes]1,010,335[/TD] [TD=class: number pct-won]45.5[/TD] [TD=class: pct-sign] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: office] Robert Sarvis[/TD] [TD=class: number votes]145,560[/TD] [TD=class: number pct-won]6.6 [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

See if there is a slash pile from any logging in the area - great materials for a shelter.

I had a boy put a tan velcro patch on his uniform, and he kept a stash of PORs that he had held, each with the other side of the velcro. He would just attach whatever job he is currently doing. Quite funny really.

packsaddle nails it. We (the nation) looked around and started changing how healthcare is dealt with. The Kaiser medical operation in California is great history. Kaiser was building dams, etc. They found it easier to hire some company doctors and provide onsite medical care for their workers. The workers had families with them, so Kaiser added that. At one point, Kaiser was going to stop providing that service - the workers went on Strike. Kaiser became experts at delivering medical care - and turned that into a business. When Medicaid was launched in 1965, it RAISED the cost of medical care in many communities. While today it is known as a source of poor reimbursement rates (often barely at the cost of providing service), when launched the rates were HIGHER than what was charged in many communities. In response, physicians in those areas raised their prices to match Medicaid. Oops. Finally, it is a fallacy to think of medicine as a market. To get that free market packsaddle describes we would also need to kill the AMA monopoly which keeps the numbers of doctors down in the US by limiting the number of residencies and medical schools.

This article focuses on testimony on past events, that also has issues. False memories are easily implanted, as proven in Beth Loftus' work. There are ways to get information from people about the past, but it takes very careful questioning to ensure that you don't push the witness down a particular path. As for memories of the past, we also tend to remember the happier times (there is research on that too). We are good at blocking out the bad times, and remembering the good ones.

Since we file permits with the National Forest Service, I guess we always contact them in advance to warn them we are coming. We will also check the website, and postings on the boards at any trail heads. Around here there will be volunteers hiking the trails asking to see permits as well (I always make copies for each boy, so that any Scout can show a permit if asked).

JoeBob - you are absolutely correct on that as well. A client of mine is a radiologist, ends up in court (not personally, just represented by his malpractice firm) once a month. Every lawsuit has to name every doc involved, and since he reads a ton of films - he gets listed, and removed constantly. Total nightmare.

Except local governments have NOT done a good job. We as a nation built a health care system over time with small parts that work against each other, including but not limited to employer provided (as a response to wage controls in WWII), ERs forced to take anyone, bankruptcy laws, limited numbers of physicians due to the AMA monopoly on residencies, separating the people from the cost, capitation replacing fee for service, and every increasing costs of miracle cures that have a barely statistically significant effect. NONE of this has ever been reformed by either party. Both parties have sat on their hands, since their health plan was always fine and dandy. As for fiscal irresponsibility, blaming it on Obama and the last 5 years is as fallacious as blaming it all on Bush and his 8 years. We haven't balanced the budget except under Clinton thanks to high rates and a tech bubble. We stopped paying for things with LBJ and throwing a war and an increase in social services without paying for them. Reagan signed onto lower taxes and higher spending, further kicking the can down the street. The Tea Party screams, but I don't see real proposals from them, along with an acknowledgment of the costs - the same way the Democratic party did not want to talk about the need to force healthy people to pay for insurance to make the plan work. A pox (that is not covered by insurance) on both of their houses.

What is "the Darwinian attack on Christianity"? Are you talking about the teaching of the theory of evolution here?

I hate a score for growing a unit. We have two Troops in the area with more than 75 boys (one is the one I am associated with). They have both capped membership, and they both reach out to other units to refer boys. So because they don't want to grow any larger, they are bad?

Sentinel - I LOVE that infographic! I plan on handing it out at the next PLC. Many thanks for the link.