Personal experience In about 1956 this writer, then a small child, was lost in a local busy shopping area of the city. She had carried on walking whilst the others had stopped to look in a shop window. Looking around and realising the pickle she was in the tears soon began to flow. The street was heaving with people who all looked huge of course. A kindly man picked her up, put her on his shoulders and proceeded to walk back down the street, calling out has anyone lost this child. Mum and my brother were already racing toward us looking for me. A happy ending but it could have been so very different. Times change and one way to protect your children is for them to know what they should do in an emergency. Perhaps whilst you formulate your "lost in a shop plan" you could address these too. What sadly happened to one small boy in the UK - The murder of James Bulger.
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The target was believed to be the controversial Swedish artist Lars Vilks who had organised the event. He has faced many threats since his controversial cartoons became public and has bodyguards in place.
He and others hid in a cold store during the attack while the rest of the people in the cafe hit the floor. David Cameron has again gone on record to say “Free speech must always be protected” though many British people will call him a hypocrite for that. But free speech is currently under attack from the state and many other sources. The hunt is on Saturday night to catch the gunman. Police believe the shooting was carried out by a lone gunman though obviously he may not have worked entirely alone in the planning and execution of this attack. PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt said after the attack “We feel certain now that it’s a politically motivated attack, and thereby it is a terrorist attack. Our main priority at this stage is to catch the perpetrators and make sure that we find them as soon as possible.” Mail Online Guardian
Victor Gregg's story is available on Kindle You can also read Victor's story at the Independent "British rifleman Victor Gregg [25] was being held as a PoW by the Germans in Dresden when the Allies bombed the city in 1945. He witnessed unimaginable carnage that brought him decades of mental turmoil. This is his eyewitness account of the firestorm he left behind.....read on here
Leading figures behind the 50-year-old Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti), which uses radio telescopes to listen passively for unnatural signals from space, have now proposed an “active” form of search known as Meti – Messages to Extraterrestrial Intelligence. These signals will be aimed at the parts of the galaxy where Earth-like planets and life may exist, based on the growing number of “exoplanets” beyond our solar system identified by the Kepler space telescope, which include many in the so-called “habitable zone” of a star - The Independent Cosmologists who are critical pf the plans say that Seti was designed to listen for signs of life not transmit.
They believe that sending out signals could harm Earth and its occupants and ultimately could spell doom for humanity. That leaves me wondering if they already know 'something is out there'.
Perhaps he did not envisage the speed technology would move on or the way people would utilise the service but either way he and others unleashed a monster. Whether it will ultimately be a friendly monster or not remains to be seen. But with hard copy books being discarded in favour of Kindle reading, photograph albums becoming a thing of the past, newspapers struggling to survive offline, emails flying out each minute and authorities storing information on computers with no hard copy back up technology is mapping our lives in a way that could be problematic If the plug is pulled in old programs used to access information online, and doing so becomes impossible, how will future generations even glimpse life today? Prior the 20th century information and images were laboriously recorded by hand. That system had problems including time, cost and reliability but enough of the end product survived for future generations to view. The 21st Century could become a 'forgotten century'. Information may be stored but access could be impossible. Cerf pushed for the development of “digital vellum” to preserve old software and hardware so that out-of-date files could be recovered no matter how old they are.
'[My wife] said she wasn't prepared to give any names. She thought we were in trouble for selling them originally, but they said we weren't, and they just wanted to know who bought them. Apologies have followed and Wiltshire police say any information gathered has been securely and permanently disposed of. But what would have happened if the story had not been made public? Just how much information is stored about all of us? Is the UK a police state or not? "Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights organisation Liberty, said the officers 'may have had good intentions, but the road to oppression is paved that way'." And "Emma Carr, director of Big Brother Watch, said: 'The Charlie Hebdo attack brought millions of people worldwide together to condemn those who seek to silence free speech through threats of intimidation and violence. 'This move by the police is entirely unacceptable. This sort of investigation would be understandable if a crime was being committed, but the fact is that they have requested information about people who have purchased a perfectly legal publication." Guardian Mail Online
The UK, but currently Wales in particular, is looking at extending its smoking legislation to encompass people who smoke in their cars. Their own cars that is. It is particularly with children in mind. Look at the image above and you know that is wrong. Smoking in the close environment of a car with a young baby asleep. Wrong.
However many right-minded people do still smoke in an enclosed space with a child close at hand. The latest research has shown that opening a car window does not help. Researchers say that is because the smoke lingers. But is it also likely that the pollution from the air outside the car would be more harmful than the air inside? Is this proposed legislation a step too far? Initially the authorities are talking about cars which have children as passengers. Even if you do not smoke when the child is on board the effects of previous cigarettes could take their toll. However, it seems that we are isolating smokers to the extent that we may as well make the habit illegal. If we did smokers would get help and probably be treat more sympathetically. We tend to treat drug abusers better, in many ways, than we do smokers. Perhaps we could look at legislation to curb the air pollution we are all suffering, especially in cities. That seems a logical step too. In fact it is probably a vital step toward better health. Instead next we will no doubt ban a person holding their child's hand as they walk down the street. That is if they are smoking a cigarette at the same time. Yes passive smoking is harmful but is more legislation necessary? You decide. With Bristol becoming the first UK city to create smoking free zones outdoors this month also it looks like no-hiding place for smokers.
TYPE OF PHONE So much depends on the child and the child's age. For a child's first phone you do not want to buy one that is all singing and dancing. Firstly you will need to make sure that your child is responsible and will not instantly lose or mislay the phone. A cheaper more basic phone will attract less attention from possible thieves or jealous, nasty people or children so inclined. Also a more basic phone will be a good phone to learn the basics on. You never know you could be lucky and find out that mobile phones are not your child's thing after all, but I doubt it. If you have bought a cheap phone you will have lost little if it is soon discarded. This more basic phone, most probably, will not have Internet access and more. This may mean that you child is safer overall. The best way forward will be to discuss the matter with your child. Work out just what they see as a benefit in having a mobile phone and explain to them why you would like them to have one. If in doubt exercise caution. In these days of predators and more your child's safety is paramount. A mobile phone can add to the child's security but in the wrong hands can do the reverse and damage this security. Assess you personal circumstances, research the matter and make an informed choice. Do not be rushed into making a decision until you know that a mobile phone and your child are a good combination. |
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