Checking my news feeds today and I came across something . . . well depending on your POV on various things it could either be amusing, pitiful, not surprising in the least. In fact it might be all those and more. I found it, at first amusing -- which you might have noticed is my immediate reaction to so many things. Then I did feel a bit of pity for the person involved, and when I thought things through I realized I wasn't surprised in the least. I guess I should tell you what this is all about. Take a look:
I guess the buyer found these 'texts' to be less than useful. I do have to wonder why they listed them under the 'Textbook' heading, I mean look at the picture. Do those look like any textbooks you used in school? They look more like pamphlets. although the seller does say CD's are included. But still, many of my textbooks came with CDs and those were still actual texts, not a few sheets of paper stapled together. Maybe the difference is they were stapled through the spine and not just up in the corner?
I don't know about you, but I was never one to part ways with good textbooks. They remained valuable reference material for years. Granted the Operating Systems text from 1990 is a bit dated by today's standard, it was still useful for nearly a decade after it was written -- well, the UNIX parts were more so than the DOS, and the less said about Windows 2.11 the better. But I still have a number of my textbooks and I still have all the electronic texts books from my Master's Program. I was never one to get rid of something still useful. While my wife sometimes teases me, telling me my office is one box away from an episode of Hoarders, the books I have are all still useful and used often. When I started my new job a couple of years ago I was able to being 10 books into office that all were current and applicable to the job at hand!
Plus, when I did get rid of them, there is always a college bookstore around looking for used books or other students who hope to get by with the previous edition instead of shelling out the serious bucks for the latest and greatest. I can't even imagine trying to sell them for $1 on a trading post website! If that's all they are worth, you might as well use them in your chimney starter.
The pity I did feel was realizing that someone fell for little kennie ham's excuse for science to the tune of $300. What was it PT Barnum said, there is a sucker born every minute? Whoever shelled out real money for these pamphlets must really feel more than a little foolish. If not, then I have this bridge in Brooklyn I really want to get off my hands! Just give me a call!
Like I said, once I thought about it I really wasn't very surprised. Back in 2009 my wife and I spent a few hours at his first abortion, the so-called Creation 'Museum'. I described it more of a carnival ride than a museum. You followed this prepared path that shows kennie's story until you get dumped out into the gift shop. The books and things I saw there were nothing more than reinforcement for kennie's tale of foolishness and would certainly be worth absolutely nothing when it comes to actual science. No, I didn't buy anything. I figured kennie got enough of my money with the admission fee.
As for this offering, if you are the market you might think about it because it seems a good deal. Over on eBay some of these same books are going for over $22 each.
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