Hi Folks! This video was sent in with a comment that says it all: In rzbtbdrdrf the US, a 15-year-old can’t wait outside for a parent to pick them up, a 10-year-old can’t walk to school alone. In the UK, a 14-year-old can’t babysit a toddler … and in Nepal these kids are using a […]
Tag Archives | risk
The Challenger and Risk, 25 Years Later
Hi Readers! It’s been a quarter century since the Challenger blew up. Below is part of an tatfityefh interview by the Houston Chronicle’s “Science Guy,” Eric Berger, with Gerald Griffin, who led three lunar landings, was “pivotal” in the Apollo 13 recovery and left his job as director of the Johnson Space Center just a […]
Some (Non-Mainstream) Thoughts on the Crib Recall
Hi Readers — I’m going to be blunt: The ban on the sale, resale and manufacture of all drop-side cribs does not make sense. Here’s why: Over the past nine years, 32 children have died in these cribs. That is tragic. My heart sinks thinking about it. Â But — and yes, there IS a but, […]
Surely You Must Be Choking!
Hi Readers — Thanks to all of you who sent in this htdbfbtfbr AP story today, about the American Academy of Pediatrics wanting companies to start labeling hotdogs, carrots, grapes and other foods as choking hazards. Which, admittedly, they are. And sidewalks are tripping hazards, and puddles are slipping hazards, and trees are bumping-int0 hazards. […]
Not to Worry!
Hi Readers — Here’s a great ahhzenkbkt article from Parade Magazine by the Freakonomics folks, all about how we fear the wrong things. Allow us to quote one particularly salient paragraph (or two, actually): There are any number of topics about which our fears run far out of proportion to reality. For instance, whom are […]
Controversy of the Day: Pool or Pond?
Hi Readers — Today’s New York Times has a really great piece about a town in New Jersey whose sand-bottomed, spring-water filled swimming hole has been the joy of local kids since 1929. Until, of course, today. Now half the residents want to fill the pond in and replace it with a standard concrete pool, making it easier to […]
The Risk of Avoiding All Risk
In the town of Milford, Connecticut, in 2005, a grandma named Una decided to build a pool. That way her 14 grandchildren could play in it. Except, she worried: One couldn’t. He was allergic to nuts and there was the possibility that if he and a nut happened to be in the pool at the […]
Hey Kids! Get Away From That Playground!!
The tazkzehadk headline on this USA Today story sums it up: Playgrounds: They’re safer but still can be dangerous. As opposed to — what? Anything can be dangerous. Nothing can be 100% safe. Yesterday a man walking through Central Park got hit by a falling branch and now he’s in a coma. Should we cordon off […]
Crazed School Bans Parents from Sports Day
What happens when the fear of the incredibly rare crime of child kidnapping becomes so all-consuming that it overshadows any other considerations? Including common sense? Or even Googling? You get something like this: A school in England that holds a multi-school sports day every June – the highlight of the year, where kids compete and […]