Mr. Wizard
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Children's Books older than 1985 to be banned
Big brother here in the US has decreed that to save us from ourselves we must throw away old books.
http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon0212wo.html
I collect old books and have noticed many classic books at swap meets, yard sales and other second hand sources that were removed from school
libraries. It always disappointed me to see this, but now they won't even be available to collected. Can test tubes and other items be far behind.
The termites are eating the framework of our civilization.
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Sedit
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Holy hell man its the inquisition all over again.
When will parents learn its not the lead or the old chemicals thats making there kids dumb its the fact that they wont pick up the books and read them
to there kids.
I got three children and the one thats in school is highly impressing his teachers, he was walking and talking full sentances before he was 8 months.
Reason for that is because I didnt have cable to waste my kids neurons, I read to him and taught him all I knew before I was sure he could even
understand it. I didnt read kids books to him I read him my collage chemistry books out loud as I learned it and stuff like that. I think people would
be suprised what a young mind can absorb.
This to me is just sad and is a display of the degradation of society as a whole.
~Sad Sedit
[Edited on 18-2-2009 by Sedit]
Knowledge is useless to useless people...
"I see a lot of patterns in our behavior as a nation that parallel a lot of other historical processes. The fall of Rome, the fall of Germany — the
fall of the ruling country, the people who think they can do whatever they want without anybody else's consent. I've seen this story
before."~Maynard James Keenan
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starman
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I'd be sticking to the collectible angle.Who is invested with the power to determine whether a book is 'genuinely' collectible or is to be used for
clandestine reading purposes? Collectibility is a highly subjective choice.Astute collectors look for what will become rare and valuable not what
already is.They have just created a collectors demand for these children's books pre 1985 by greatly reducing the numbers available.
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iHME
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I'm pretty sure that they deliberately used the 1985, so close to 1984.
I find this sad and amusing at the same time.
But look! The Big Brother cares about you and you children.
The Big Brother protects you form evil and toxic lead (not the mention the anti-american ideologies presented in those books!), he protects your
children too!
Big Brother cares about you!
Remember!
War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength
It\'s a catastrophic success.
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Mr. Wizard
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"Holy hell man its the inquisition all over again."
Well not yet, but more like "The Great Leap Forward". I too suspect it has more to do with the ideological content than the Lead content. It's so
inconvenient when the teachers have to argue with "Little Johny" who read some inconvenient fact in the school library. It is ironic the book 1984
would fall into that 'remove now' category, was written in 1949; and is no doubt heavy with toxic reactionary ideas. While checking for the
publication date I found they actually referenced lack of knowledge about "Big Brother".
[At one point in the year 1984, the protagonist of Orwell's novel tries "to remember in what year he had first heard mention of Big Brother. He
thought it must have been at some time in the sixties, but it was impossible to be certain. In the Party histories, of course, Big Brother figured as
the leader and guardian of the Revolution since its very earliest days. His exploits had been gradually pushed backwards in time until already they
extended into the fabulous world of the forties and the thirties, when the capitalists in their strange cylindrical hats still rode through the
streets of London in great gleaming motor-cars or horse carriages with glass sides. There was no knowing how much of this legend was true and how much
invented."]
My advice is to acquire and keep old books and scanned books as computer files. Maybe a quick visit to the library while they still have some books?
It is all very disturbing.
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chemkid
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I must disagree with some of the opinions here. If you read the article you'll find that the ban has to do with items because of their lead content
not because of what they say. Its not an attempt to bias information, but a an attempt (an idiotic one at that) to make things safer. I agree the lead
threat is blown out of proportion, but certainly don't think this is an attempt to pull "un-American" books from the shelves. 1984 by George Orwell is
still in print! The ban doesn't ban books WRITTEN before 1985 but PRODUCED before 1985.
I totally agree that the lead poisoning is paranoid and foolish, but this is not an attempt to bias the literature!
Chemkid
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unionised
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Mr. Wizard
Big brother here in the US has decreed that to save us from ourselves we must throw away old books.
http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon0212wo.html
I collect old books and have noticed many classic books at swap meets, yard sales and other second hand sources that were removed from school
libraries. It always disappointed me to see this, but now they won't even be available to collected. Can test tubes and other items be far behind.
The termites are eating the framework of our civilization. |
You owe termites an apology.
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sparkgap
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Well, burning or burying these unsafe things would mobilize the lead they speak of that is in the books, so... 
sparky (~_~)
"What's UTFSE? I keep hearing about it, but I can't be arsed to search for the answer..."
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IrC
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I take it that 1985 was chosen to hide the thought of 1984 and George Orwell? And I thought that F451 was all we had to worry about.
"I must disagree with some of the opinions here. If you read the article you'll find that the ban has to do with items because of their lead content
not because of what they say. Its not an attempt to bias information, but a an attempt (an idiotic one at that) to make things safer."
Finally I realize that many actually believe their shallow cover story!
Anyone care to download one, have it reprinted and see if the schools still allow it?
[Edited on 2-19-2009 by IrC]
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chemrox
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My wife and I were talking about toys. We had simple toys that called on our imagination. She had blocks. I used sticks as guns, spears, swords,
bats, hocky sticks ... I had building sets and when I was a little older, chemicals and glassware. Then a microscope.... now they have computer
games and ultra specific elctrical toys.. no imagination involved. We had the run of the hills .. made dams in the streams... found bugs and tadpoles
... got poison oak .. now they have to carry cell phones if they're allowed out. No wonder they fawn to authority. Or go the extreme opposite.
"When you let the dumbasses vote you end up with populism followed by autocracy and getting back is a bitch." Plato (sort of)
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chemkid
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The government may be foolish, but their not idiots. Barnes and Noble still sells 1984 and the outsiders:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/1984/George-Orwell/p/978045...
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/used/product.asp?EAN=269322...
This is a stupid attempt to "protect" people from lead poisoining, not bias the books they read.
Chemkid
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IrC
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Moot point I think as they ban sales at bookstores which sell mainly to adults and broadly define what a childrens book is. These books are handled
more by adults than children and most who have read such classics as "Moby Dick" did so when they were young. So who defines what a childrens book is?
Are they going to burn the Library of Congress to protect us from all those old books? Come to think of it they would have to burn all libraries in
the world wouldn't they? But wait, for only 19.99 you can see proof that most visitors to most libraries are the younger crowd, since most adults are
too busy doing other things. I think the point is whenever they try to "protect" us they end up screwing us out of our freedoms, so few we have left
today.
[Edited on 3-2-2009 by IrC]
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Sauron
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The book publishers are probably all for it because they prefer to sell new children's books rather than have to compete with older, used books on any
basis.
The booksellers have a lobby but I suspect that it is overwhelmingly geared to bookstores selling new books only and thus is an arm of the publishing
industry.
Used bookstores are mostly Mom and Pop small businesses and have a tough time organizing to mount any sort of defense against this crap.
Book collectors? Even worse.
The nanny state continues to run amok.
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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JohnWW
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| Quote: | Originally posted by chemkid
This is a stupid attempt to "protect" people from lead poisoining, not bias the books they read. |
"Lead poisoning" is also underworld slang for death by being shot (with lead bullets)!.
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everythingischemistry
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If that's true and you really are worried about it being because they don't want the CONTENT of the books just scan the ones which are legally able to
be re-printed before disposing of them then re-print them. Maybe it also counts as "fair use" too if you make a personal duplication of a lead
containing book and then pass that onto a thrift store. Try e-mailing the EFF and civil liberties groups about it, if their argument is it's the lead
then you shouldn't be left out of pocket by a government error which allowed the books to be sold in the first place, surely printing your own ONE
SINGLE duplicate copy to then sell on counts as fair use... and those organisations have the pockets and the influence to argue for such things.
Does putting them in the refuse count as "passing them on" to the refuse workers? I do so love the way they leave questions unanswered in the apparent
hope that it can be resolved by "being sensible", especially since the whole law isn't sensible. We have lead water pipes in the UK, perhaps you
should ban foreigners from the US too, we will have lead in our systems and we're definitely dangerous for your children, we will infect them with
atheism and binge drinking 
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