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I was reading excellent Dan Simmons’s “Summer of Night”. Even though this is a horror story set in 1960’s, he cites several different studies in the beginning of the book, about differences between kids today and back then. I am going to paraphrase some of the Dan’s text.
Among them was the study done by Sanford Gaster – “Urban Children’s Access to Their Neighborhood: Changes over three generations.” Study was published in Environment and Behavior on January 1991. Study talks about loss of “free roaming space” for American kids over three generations between 1915 and 1976. Study pretty much mirrors experiences in Europe and other parts of the world form the same era. It talks about how kids between eight and thirteen years of age in 21st century lost most of their freedoms that kids in the let’s say 40’s 50’s 60’s or even 70’s had. A freedom for kids to be active in their own physical universe, separate from their parents and other adults.

The change is dramatic as you suspect. Kids used to wave goodbye to their mothers after breakfast and were out of sight until dinner or even after dark. In the morning, the parents didn’t ask where the kids were headed and the kids did not tell. They would climb their bikes and explore pits, rocks, farms, free trails, swamps, mansions, construction debris, climb various towers and walls. It would all make a perfect play ground. They would climb the trees and go as high as they could go. No crime, traffic or environmental hazards could stop those kids from claiming their “free roaming rights”. And yet millions of kids today are deprived of that pleasure because their parents are nervous about exposing them to risk. By the time those kids got to be 10 years of age, they were already responsible young adults that could take care of their parents if needed.

Study shows that in early 20th century “roaming radius” of unsupervised play for kids was 6 miles!!! To explore, fish, ride bikes, go into heavily wooded areas etc… In the mid 20th century that got shrunk to couple of miles maybe. In 70’s kids of age 8 and up were allowed to go to the swimming pool by themselves. These days I’m afraid to say that radius is less than 300 yards if we are being generous. Some kids are not allowed to go unsupervised outside of their own yard until they’re twelve or so!!! Imagine a group of eleven-year olds today climbing their bikes and going out into the twilight. TV would flash amber alerts, helicopters called and parents would be interviewed on the evening news. A kid today climbing a bike, he did so in an armor like a medieval knight wearing everything from helmets, pads, specialised suits, anything but diapers. Kids in the mid and early 20th century never wore helmets or any other expensive equipment. Oddly enough there were no dead or paralyzed kids with brain injuries. Only scrapes and bruises. Everyone went over once in a while, but scrapes or broken bone is the worst outcome.

You might then ask what about kidnappers, pedophiles, crazy people and ax-murderers? Statistically, American kids today living in suburbs or rural areas, are about as safe as they were in 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and so on. It’s we, adults and parents who don’t believe that kids are safe outside of direct adult supervision. Because when we see few bad apples (out of 300 million people living in US now!!!) on TV once in a while, adults start to panic while their common sense is overridden. We then keep kids as prisoners in safety of our own homes tranquilized by drugs such as cell phones, iPads, computers, TV, video games and texting.

Kids in 60’s wore about $4.50 of clothing on them and took care of their own bikes and toys. Today, you’ll be lucky if your kid does not asks for designer jeans, shirts and fragrances. If their bike breaks, they will probably ask you for a brand new one.

Neil Postman wrote in 1999: “The point is that childhood, if it can be said to exists at all, is now an economic category. There is very little the culture wants to do for children except to make them into consumers.” So how come kids weren’t treated as consumers back then, you might ask? Well, moguls of marketing and advertising haven’t discovered them yet. They were still human beings.

I also could not help but notice that today’s kids are not allowed to even cross the street without crossing guard, squad car and stopping traffic in both directions.
Dan Simmon’s asks: “Why do kids of today’s age have so much to say (online chats, forums , social media), but have so little to do, like going out in the real world and play”? He claims that one possible answer is that we, adults, stole the real world from them.What happened to them? What happened to us?

Decided to translate legendary words of great Carl Sagan to Serbo-Croatian (or Bosnian if you like) language. Added some photos too. Too important not to be translated into as many languages as we can.

Here’s full text.

Serbo-Croatian

—– Blijeda plava tacka —–

Za nekoga koji gleda sa ove daljine, Zemlja ne izgleda nimalo intersentna. Ali za  nas, je to je vec drugacije. Razmotrimo ponovo ovu tacku. To je ovdje, to je dom, to smo mi. Na njoj, svi koje volimo, svi koje znamo, svi za koje smo ikad culi.Svako ljudsko bice koje je ikad postojalo, zivili su tu. Sve nase radosti i patnje, hiljade samouvjerenih religija, ideologija, i ekonomskih doktrina, svaki lovac i tragac, svaki heroj i kukavica, svaki tvorac i unistivac civilizacija, svaki kralj i seljak, svaki zaljubljeni par, svaka majka i otac, djete sa nadom, pronalazac i istrazivac, svaki ucitelj morala, svaki korumpirani politicar, svaka “super zvijezda”, svaki vrhovni vodja, svaki svetac i grijesnik u istoriji naseg svijeta zivio je ovdje – na truncici prasine suspendovane na suncevoj zraci.

Zemlja je vrlo mala pozornica u prostranoj kozmickoj areni. Razmislite samo o krvi koju su generali i imperatori prolili samo da bi u slavi i triumfu, mogli da postanu privremeni gospodari samo malog djela ove tacke. Razmislite samo o beskrajnim okrutnostima koje su stanovinici sa jednog krajicka ove tacke pocinili nad stanovnicima drugog, jedva prepoznatljivog, djela, kako su cesti njihovi nesporazumi, kako su zeljni da ubijaju jedni druge, kake su zestoke njihove mrznje.

Nasa usamljenost, nasa umisljena samovaznost, obmana da mi imamo specijalnu privilegiju u Svemiru, je dovedena u pitanje ovim trackom blijede svjetlosti. Nasa planeta je usamljeno zrnce u velikom omotacu kosmicke tame. U nasoj zavucenosti, u svom ovom prostranstvu, nema nagovjestaja da ce pomoc doci od nekle drugdje da nas spase od samih nas. Zemlja je jedini svijet za koji znamo da podrzava zivot. Ne postoji nigdje drugdje,  bar ne u bliskoj buducnosti, gdje ljudska rasa moze da migrira. Posjetiti, da. Nastaniti se, ne jos. Voljeli ili ne, Zemlja je gdje mi moramo opstati.

Receno je da je astronomoja iskustvo koje pravi covjeka skromnijim i gradi karakter. Mozda i nema bolje demonstracije gluposti ljudskog samozadovoljstva od ove dalake slike naseg malog svijeta. Za mene, naglasava odgovornost da tretiramo ljubazno jedni druge, i da sacuvamo i njegujemo nasu blijedu malu tacku,

jedini dom koji imamo.

English

—-The Pale Blue Dot—-

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Look again at that dot. That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people are so full of doubt.” —Bertrand Russell

Couldn’t be said better.

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Some people crave winning a lottery, spending a night with Angelina Jolie, while some of them go as far as wanting to become a rock star even though they have musical ear of a water bucket. I on the other hand have very simple requests. Here’s a short (but not complete) list:

I crave:

• working wheels on the Wal-Mart shopping carts.
• more than one register opened at Wal-Mart stores.
• “Origins Of Species” in hotel drawers instead of holy book.
• waiters not to interrupt my conversation every time they ask everything ok?
• working remote control in hotel rooms.

And that’s all.

Have you ever heard your dad telling you that his generation was the best there ever was and that every new generation of kids are getting more corrupted, disrespectful and unmannered.

He probably heard the same thing from his dad and so on. If you dad or someone older starts telling those stories again, just counter it with following quote:

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”

Plato, 2400 Years ago

For full article on subject go to the following NY Times link.

  Just thought I’d pay tribute to the God (no pun intended) himself since he turned 70 this year.
Here are some of the hand picked quotes from Carlin in no particular order.

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

“Swimming is not a sport. Swimming is a way to keep from drowning. That’s just common sense!”

“I wanna live. I don’t wanna die. That’s the whole meaning of life: Not dying! I figured that shit out by myself in the third grade.”

“If it’s true that our species is alone in the universe, then I’d have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.”

“You know the good part about all those executions in Texas? Fewer Texans.”

“Ever notice that anyone going slower than you is an idiot, but anyone going faster is a maniac?”

“Isn’t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do practice?”

“Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.”

“I don’t have a fear of heights. I do, however, have a fear of falling from heights.”

“I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don’t have as many people who believe it.”

“I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.”

“If God had intended us not to masturbate he would’ve made our arms shorter”

“”I am” is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that “I do” is the longest sentence?”

I just quit smoking so I thought I’d post the progress here, even if I’m the only one who cares. It will make me feel better.Officialy I quit on Friday 14th at 11:59pm so I am three full days nicotine free. Let me tell you first day was a pure hell. Waking up to the neighbors leaf blower and 100 degree hot ass day wasn’t exactly Mardi Gras, but I got through it. Second day wasn’t much better either, but it went without incidents. Now, today for me was a big day since it is my first day at work without cigarettes. Cravings were much lighter today and I got through the day pretty easily actually. It would be even easier if it wasn’t for false fire alarm that made us stand outside on the 100+ degree weather. Well, believe it or not cigarette was the first thing I thought of after they escorted us outside.Off to the next day.

Note: Advance appologies to my wife for everything I said and I will say to her during the Operation Cold Turkey

The other day I was flipping through channels and they were showing movie Casino on USA Network. I though “hmmm. I already watched it few times but I could watch this movie every day”. Bad mistake. Watching this movie on USA network (or on any other national channels) is like steel shaft being driven through my head.
Why? Censorship!
I’d say good 60% of dialogue was turned into annoying bleeps and changed to a “family friendly” dialogue. Read more »

I am sure that you all experienced traffic crankiness more then few times in your life.

One of the most annoying aspects of traffic to me is not the drivers itself (even though that’s debatable) but traffic lights.

Imagine a long and busy street with traffic stop light every 50 yards or so. (There are many of them in mid west). You are in your car and there are 50 cars in front of you, so before you reach that first traffic stop light all of those cars will have to go through that light. Finally after 10 agonizing minutes you’re the sixth car in a row and you have your pedal to the metal and then? RED! Read more »

True story.

My wife and I love sparkling water or mineral water, and we usually get few bottles every week from Meijer. They cost $0.69 per bottle, but the problem is they are always out, which means people are buying it.

Last couple of weeks we were sparkling waterless.

Anyway, few weeks ago I went to Meijer to get some mineral water and guess what? They were out again. I took a piece of paper and wrote down:

Dear Meijer management team, Read more »