clickies (2)

[phinnia]

these clickies are brought to you by brewsternorth (who i would like to know better) and lana_ftw (who I would also like to know better, and soon will be able to because she's moving to seattle and that's FABULOUS.)

I heard this on As It Happens last night and just about exploded: mother lets her son walk to soccer practice, neighbors call 911. To be clear, we are talking about a small town, the boy is familiar with the route, it's almost entirely residential.)

just- WHAT. god i hate other parents sometimes.

scientists create laser gun to kill mosquitoes

ivestigation of murder in Antarctica.

new gluten free baking mixes from betty crocker. this is fantastic - the more gluten free stuff that goes mainstream, the better. there are also passover-safe cake mixes at our local store, also by betty crocker. just, you know, if anyone's looking. <3

baby tuatara (rare reptile) found in New Zealand. eee, it is descended from DINOSAURS and it is WEE AND CUTE! in a reptilian sort of way.

arctic diary: explorers' ice quest. this is the trip that went off recently - i think they're still there - to chart the pack ice up north? one of the guys has the same birthday as me. i find that squeeful in a kind of silly way. <3 it takes very little to amuse me.

have nonstandard headache that may be morphing into nonstandard migrane. great. good times. also joint pain. went to the library and the grocery store. came home. that's about it.

Comments

[dolphingirl.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, that story about the mom makes me livid. People complain that kids aren't physically fit, but they're not supposed to be allowed to walk down their own street?! I honestly don't want my kid to make it to adolescence (let alone adulthood) without knowing how to walk anywhere by themselves--or being afraid to.

And people go "times are different now" like we all grew up in this idyllic yesteryear where no one worried about anything. Did they completely forget the 80s? All you heard were stories about kids going missing and warnings about how not to get kidnapped. They had us all thinking we were going to get pulled into a car by a total stranger and absorbed into a Satanic cult (and then a nuclear bomb was going to go off, just for good measure). My class even made a missing kids PSA for the local cable access channel. And yet, we were still allowed to play outside out of our parents' sight, as long as we were home by dark.

It wasn't until I was older that I found out that the majority of kidnappings are by the child's own (non-custodial) parent, and that abuse is almost overwhelmingly perpetrated by people the child already knows. A little caution is a very good idea, but this is totally out of proportion. Not to mention, he probably wouldn't have been by himself if other kids were allowed to walk anywhere.

[bernie-laraemie.livejournal.com]

omg whut

[taiga13.livejournal.com]

That first story is insane. When I was younger than 10 I walked to school and back every day, and it was half a mile. When I was 12 I started at junior high and walked a mile to get to school. (Uphill both ways in snow up to my waist, of course!) And heck, when someone did try to abduct me I told my parents and they didn't care.
When you say this to people now they primly say "But it's a different world now". Yes, crime is LOWER now than it was then.
My nephews' grandmother won't let her grandchildren play in the driveway - the DRIVEWAY - because "someone could come and kidnap you and molest you". She tells her grandchildren this knowing full well that her own children were safer in the streets than in her home with their father. And she never protected them from that.

[thyroidstorm.livejournal.com]

yay mosquito killing laser!!!

[kengr]

The anti-mosquito laser? I've *met* Jordin Kare (he's a well known filker and has attended Orycon many times).

Last time I saw him he was wearing a t-shirt that said "As a matter of fact, I *am* a Rocket Scientist!"