[CQ-Contest] Re: QST Line Scores

[Zack Widup]

On Thu, 25 Jul 2002, Mark Beckwith wrote:

> I can't help thinking that kids today are more web-fluent than we were ever
> magazine-fluent.  All the kids I mentor (about 5 whiz-kids) do things with
> their hands on a keyboard and mouse that I can't even follow because it
> happens too fast, and every last one of them types faster than any of us
> ever did in High School.
> 

Yes, but can they string up a 40 meter dipole?  Solder parts onto a PC
poard? (I won't even say surface-mount IC's.)  Replace a water pump on an
Intrepid? (I replaced a water pump on a 1963 Chevy when I was 16, but
replacing one on an Intrepid may well be impossible :-)

It is true that computers have become an important part of many peoples'
lives, but there is still the real world out there and I still believe in
Robert Heinlein's long list of "things a man should be able to do" - to
quote him, "specialization is for insects." 

> 
> PS.  Tree, if you don't want to get too close to the lighter fluid with the
> match, you can do this really cool thing with a match and a can of WD-40.
> 

Someone showed me that trick once as a possible self-defense device.  I
guess as long as the spray is blowing the flame AWAY from the nozzle,
you're OK, but you have to watch it when you stop spraying.  :-)

73, Zack W9SZ