Wood Smoke: Wood Badge Website Recommended

The WB Scribbler recommends an excellent site on the history of Wood Badge, Colin "Johnny" Walker's Scouting Milestones. The Wood Badge section includes information on early Wood Badge regalia, including a picture of Baden-Powell's original beads. The origins of the beads, the woggle and scarf is covered, and detailed information on the first Training Course for Scoutmasters held at Gilwell Park in 1919 is included.

Go to: http://www.scoutingmilestones.btinternet.uk/woodbadge.htm. Go check it out, sign his guestbook and leave a comment or two.

The Weather Rock Exposed!

The Weather Rock is a prop used to make fun of the intricate technology used to create modern weather forecasts, as well as the fact that their accuracy is still not perfect, or even good, in the eyes of some. Often there is a great deal of fanfare pertaining to the proliferation of the notion that the pilfering of the "weather rock" will result in the insurance of terrible consequences. The joke varies, but in all cases there is a large noticeable rock or similar object, often suspended from a tripod, particularly within scout camps or with related activities. A sign next to it states something like:

• If rock is wet, it is raining.
• If rock is green, it rained a while ago.
• If rock is white, it is snowing.
• If rock is shaking, there is an earthquake.
• If rock is dry, the weather is fair.
• If rock is swinging, it's windy.
• If rock is warm, the sun is out.
• If rock is not visible, it's dark outside.
• If rock is under water, there is a flood.
• If rock is gone, there is a tornado (Run!!)

The Wood Badge for the 21st Century curriculum makes good weather for the course a direct responsibility of the Weather Patrol. The Weather Patrol uses many different scientific instruments to interpret atmospheric conditions, such as insect chirps, the sweat off a duck's back, divining rods, weather socks from a nearby aerodrome, and of course, the weather rock described above. The Weather Patrol sometimes has to resort to importing canned sunshine from Florida in times of prolonged cold, wet and rainy weather. In times of extreme drought, on the other hand, case loads of Bernard's Dehydrated Water have to be reconstituted.

NASA Sent the Weather Rock to Mars

The WB Scribbler recently learned that NASA sent the weather rock, or at least a version of it, to Mars. The 2007 Phoenix Mars Lander included in its meteorological package a low-tech device called a Telltale. The Telltale is a passive wind indicator developed for the Mars lander and constructed at the Mars Simulation Laboratory at Aarhus University. Here's how NASA describes it: "The Telltale consists of a gallows arm that is mounted on the Meteorological Mast of the Lander. The active element of the instrument is an extremely lightweight Kapton tube hanging on woven Kevlar fiber. A mirror is mounted below the active part to enable better direction information. Images of the instrument will show the deflection of the Telltale due to the wind."









--WB Scribbler thanks Wiki, the Internet Encyclopedia and the NASA Mars Laboratory for the above information and pictures. We promise not to get them wet. The Scribbler wonders where the weather forecasting plaque is mounted on the Lander...

Wood Smoke: 1st Gilwell Park Newsletter #2

The 1st Gilwell Park Group recently released its second newsletter, now called The Kudu Horn. Their first newsletter called for suggestions for naming the new Gilwell Park Group's newsletter (your WB Scribbler submitted "The Gilwell Park Scrib Sheet" or "The Gilwell Park Gazetteer") but they failed to win out over "The Kudu Horn" suggested by several Wood Badgers from other parts of the world. Whatever it's named, the newsletter is a great read for those interested in the "home" of worldwide Scouting.

American Wood Badgers who have earned their beads are automatically eligible for free membership in the British 1st Gilwell Park Group. All you have to do is go to their website, enter your particulars and the number of the course you completed, and you're signed up! "Kudos" for The Kudu Horn! (Sorry, the WB Scribbler couldn't help himself!) Go to:

http://1stgilwellpark.org.

--WB Scribbler

Cape Gilwell-On-The-Lea

Official photos from WB Photographer John Morgenstern made available to the WB Scribbler provide a rare window into a little-understood Wood Badge frivolity—the Rocket Competition (Inter-patrol Activity). Before you scroll down, gentle readers, you are warned that some photographs below may not be suitable for way younger, more mature audiences. Despite appearances, no critters were harmed in any launches.

Dihydrogen oxide-fueled rocketry advanced rapidly after the Shuttle Columbia tragedy caused the loss of several of our finest citizen-astronauts. New research into 360-degree recycling of PVC plastics, fluid hydraulics and social implications of critter-labeled inter-group activities, has now brought us to the Wood Badge for the 21^st Century Rocket Competition. Borrowing out-gassing and o-ring bottle-cap technology from the soft-drink industry and applied adhesive research provided by the Duct Tape Institute of America, Wood Badge engineers and erstwhile rocketeers everywhere began rapidly ramping up to launch their streaming two-liters toward the stars.... Oh, Happy Land!

Your WB Scribbler was privileged to be invited to participate in NE-3-188’s launch at Gilwell Field but he almost aborted the mission when it was pointed out he wasn’t suited [up] for the job. Seventy-nine square yards of Tyvek and two rolls of duct tape later, he celebrated the complicated suiting up process by doing a bad imitation of a Smithfield ham-in-a-hardhat in front of Gilwell Hall.

WB Scribbler Suiting Up: "Let's see, one leg goes in this side, the other in the other side... dang, now the zipper's on the back side, ok, the hard hat goes on the top. 10,9...3,2,1. Let'er rip!"

Launch Inspectors Rick Bamberger and the WB Scribbler check the rear exit hole of Tyvek Minnie's (Owl Patrol ? ) rocket for any carbonated waxy buildup before her date with destiny on the launchpad. Two follicle-challenged Launch Controllers (Bud Dorr and Randy Gibbon), throwing caution to the wind, appear in the background without their sun-blocking headgear.

Tom Davis, Emeritus Course Director (NE-3-176), presents the Staffers entry for inspection. (Don't look now, Tom, but I think your substage launch balloon just fizzled!) Members of the Owl Patrol offer up one of their own as a kind of "good luck" token for a successful launch.

Radio telemetry failed to track the Staffers' rocket as it circled the backside of the moon. Upon reentry into the atmosphere, misguided Launch Controllers attempted splashdown in Crumhorn Lake. Unfortunately, their altitude protractor-thingy malfunctioned at the last minute and the rocket came to rest at a higher elevation west of the lake. The Wood Badge Launchtime Band struck up a rousing rendition of The Drifters' 1962 hit "Up On The Roof"...

When this old world starts getting me down,

And people are just too much for me to face—

I climb way up to the top of the stairs

And all my cares just drift right into space ...

WB-NASA Crack Observer Team Conferencing Before Lunch, er, Launch.

Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius

Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, of cable, cartoon and movie fame, made a brief personal appearance at Cape Gilwell's-on-the-Lea's Self-Congratulatory Staff Dinner, thanks to Gifted Awards Chairman Tom Davis. Before rocketing off on another adventure, the WB Scribbler was able to get a short interview with the carrot-topped character. Look for our exclusive interview coming to a favorite blog near you soon!

Wood Badge Staff, NE-3-188

Gilwell Field, Henderson S.R., Sept. 20,2009
[left to right] Bill McDonald, Gloria Gibbon, Nancy Langenegger, Patti Dibble, Ralph [Trey] Miller, Jr., Ed Dibble [(seated], Harry [Bud] Dorr, Rick Bamberger, Tom Davis, Randy Gibbon, Nadine Harrison, Lois Love, Patt Svoboda [proud Scribe], Bill Babbage, Amy White, Steve DeHart, Wayne Christensen,
Jane Bamberger,
Donald Tuttle [WB Scribbler]

Wood Smoke: Wood Badge in the News

The WB Scribbler notes that nearly 1,200 registered Wood Badgers will be receiving their first e-newsletter from 1st Gilwell Park this week. With the new website now ready, there is now one central place for Wood Badgers from all corners of the world to join together and be members of the largest Scout Group in the world - the 1st Gilwell Park Scout Group. The group is open to anyone who has earned Wood Badge beads, though I gotta warn you, every Wood Badger who joins is challanged to find another 10 and encourage them to register on the website. Go sign up and stop getting your Gilwell Park news secondhand from the WB Scribbler!

Check out their new site at: www.1stgilwellpark.org.

World Friendship Fund

Through the World Friendship Fund, voluntary contributions of Scouts and leaders are transformed into cooperative projects that help Scouting associations in other countries to strengthen and extend their Scouting programs. The World Friendship Fund gives the youth members of the Boy Scouts of America an opportunity to help fellow Scouts who are in need of their support. It teaches Scouts that Scouting is global. Since the inception of the World Friendship Fund, American Scouts and leaders have voluntarily donated more than $1 million to these self-help activities.

The World Friendship Fund was developed during the closing days of World War II. At that time, there was a great need to rebuild Scouting in those nations that had been wracked by war and were just emerging from the shadows of totalitarianism.

Over the years, this fund has provided Scouts from around the world with Scouting literature, uniforms, summer camp equipment, computers, and other Scouting-related supplies.

Through the World Friendship Fund, voluntary contributions of Scouts and leaders are transformed into cooperative projects that help Scouting associations in other countries to strengthen and extend their Scouting programs.

Types of projects include providing adult leader training for Scout leaders to attend a Scouting seminar in Geneva, supporting community development projects in Uruguay and Bolivia, providing funds for eastern European nations to help reorganize Scouting, and funding the production of the Russian Scout handbook.

Collections for the World Friendship Fund can be organized during camporees, roundtable meetings, den and pack meetings, summer camping programs, blue and gold banquets, Wood Badge or other leader training, or any other Scout activity.

World Friendship Fund kits and brochures are available through the International Department of the BSA.

The Magic of the Campfire

"Oh, the magic of the campfire! No unkind feeling long withstands its glow. For men to meet at the same campfire is to come closer, to have better understanding of each other, and to lay the foundations of lasting friendship. "He and I camped together once!" is enough to explain all cordiality between the men most wide apart, and Woodcraft days are days of memories happy, bright and lifelong."

--Two Little Savages, Ernest Thompson Seton

On Perserverance

It Couldn't Be Done

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But he with a chuckle replied,
That maybe it couldn't, but he would be one,
Who wouldn't say so till he tried.
So he buckled right in with a trace of a grin,
On his face; if he worried he hid it.
He started to sing, he tackled the thing,
That couldn't be done, and did it.

Somebody scoffed: "Oh you'll never do that;
At least, no one ever has done it."
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing he knew, he'd begun it.
With the lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or 'quiddit',
He started to sing as he tackled the thing,
That couldn't be done ... and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing,
That cannot be done and you'll do it.

--Edgar A. Guest

--borrowed from Terrie's Roundtable Resources, Gilwell Spirit Webring.
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Edgar Albert Guest, the People's Poet

Edgar Albert Guest (August 20, 1881, Biringham, England to August 5, 1959, Detroit, Michigan) (aka Eddie Guest) was a prolific American poet who was popular in the first half of the 20th Century and became known as the People’s Poet.

In 1891, Guest came with his family to the United States from England. After he began at the Detroit Free Press as a copy boy and then a reporter, his first poem appeared December 11, 1898. He became a naturalized citizen in 1902. For 40 years, Guest was widely read throughout North America, and his sentimental, optimistic poems were in the same vein as the light verse of Nick Kennedy, who wrote syndicated columns during the same decades.

From his first published work in the Detroit Free Press until his death in 1959, Guest penned some 11,000 poems which were syndicated in some 300 newspapers and collected in more than 20 books, including A Heap o' Livin' (1916) and Just Folks (1917). Guest was made Poet Laureate of Michigan, the only poet to have been awarded the title.

--more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Guest; the WB Scribbler says a book of Guest's poems is the perfect tonic for a cold, gray winter day; his poetry lets you savor a really bad mood in front of a warm fire and come out smilin'!

--WB Scribbler

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Original Wood Badge Bead on Ebay?

Patcheller Bruce McCrea spotted a four bead set closing today (Sunday, November 1, 2009) for over $1000. Go to http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110448720844, scroll down to the large photo and look at the bead that is much smaller than the other three. Bruce says "This could very well be an original Wood Badge bead. The final price certainly reflects that possibility."

Color the WB Scribbler green with envy...