Children

As long as two years ago I stopped paying for YouTube Premium because I was disgusted by the crap that it was recommending to me. Within the last week the United Kingdom has requested that websites age verify their users in order to allow them to use a site.

At first this was for porn sites but now this has expanded to all sites. This is a good thing, although it is unenforceable. Parents, and teachers are better stewards of ensuring that children and teenagers do not watch the crap that YouTubers generate.

When I got the electric scooter I was curious about whether it could be used when looking after children while they ride their bikes and the answer is “yes”. You can stop reading now.

Yesterday I was near the Lac de Divonne and since the children wanted to race it was a good opportunity to see whether I was faster than them on their bikes.

Due to the electric scooter being limited to 20 kilometres per hour I thought that it might be too slow. In fact it’s too fast, so you can modulate looking after children while riding an electric scooter. They can ride to their limit and you can ride beside them, without having to run to keep up.

School children in the Chinese Sichuan province need to climb up a via ferrata of sorts to get to school. As I watch this footage it makes me think of the Ladders of Death Via Ferrata between France and Switzerland where smugglers would transport contraband between these countries. When I watch this footage I believe that it would be relatively easy for the Chinese government to get some European Via ferrata equipment specialists to create a via ferrata and safety gear adapted for young children. In Europe Via ferrata are equipped with “pig’s tail” metal loops through which safety ropes can be threaded. These make it possible to do via ferrata with younger children. The drawback to via ferrata equipment is that it has certain weight requirements. They are designed for people who weigh between 50-110 kg so if you are too light the “parachute” will not be activated and this can lead to injury. I like this video from an ethnographic and historical context because it shows us a glimpse of what the infancy of via ferrata was like. It shows us the improvised ladders, agile people climbing on exposed rock and more. We see that the youngest person is kept relatively safe by his father and a rope in case of a slip or fall. In the news item they speak about developing tourism. The parents live in this remote village of 72 people because the farmland is arable. With the development of tourism the path to school could be improved and made safer. If they develop via ferrata tourism as we see in Europe, the Americas, Asia and New Zealand they could have an additional form of income. I know that I could be tempted to try this as a via ferrata if and when they re-equip it. It’s a nice way to see the landscape and a good reason to visit new places.

  Learning judo is important. Some people choose to learn this martial art as soon as they can stand on two legs.