What's On Your Mind?

[GrumpyMoriarty]

I get really annoyed when people bring up the charging issue (or anything related to gas vs electric cars). Really people? Our planet is quite literally dying around us. It might be at a slow enough rate that you can't directly perceive it, but it is definitely happening. We are already approaching the point of beyond environmental repair with no apparent sign of slowing down. Maybe we might be able to squeak by before devastating effects from this environmental change happen, but our children will almost certainly feel it.

 

So in the context of all that, is it really THAT much of an inconvenience to use a more environmentally friendly vehicle at the expense of charging for a few more hours? Or perhaps even walk/transit for shorter journeys?

 

Sorry about the ranting but after taking a few classes in environmental and sustainability sciences, I get really depressed every time I think about climate change.

[amichel]

I get really annoyed when people bring up the charging issue (or anything related to gas vs electric cars). Really people? Our planet is quite literally dying around us. It might be at a slow enough rate that you can't directly perceive it, but it is definitely happening. We are already approaching the point of beyond environmental repair with no apparent sign of slowing down. Maybe we might be able to squeak by before devastating effects from this environmental change happen, but our children will almost certainly feel it.

 

So in the context of all that, is it really THAT much of an inconvenience to use a more environmentally friendly vehicle at the expense of charging for a few more hours? Or perhaps even walk/transit for shorter journeys?

 

Sorry about the ranting but after taking a few classes in environmental and sustainability sciences, I get really depressed every time I think about climate change.

Fair enough. Good luck convincing the masses though!

[Organomegaly]

I get really annoyed when people bring up the charging issue (or anything related to gas vs electric cars). Really people? Our planet is quite literally dying around us. It might be at a slow enough rate that you can't directly perceive it, but it is definitely happening. We are already approaching the point of beyond environmental repair with no apparent sign of slowing down. Maybe we might be able to squeak by before devastating effects from this environmental change happen, but our children will almost certainly feel it.

 

So in the context of all that, is it really THAT much of an inconvenience to use a more environmentally friendly vehicle at the expense of charging for a few more hours? Or perhaps even walk/transit for shorter journeys?

 

Sorry about the ranting but after taking a few classes in environmental and sustainability sciences, I get really depressed every time I think about climate change.

 

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tncnWp67wQI

 

I don't entirely agree with this guy, but still pretty funny

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[thatonekid]

Personally I'm just waiting for self-driving cars. I bet they're here before I can aford a Tesla.

 

Google already has a self-driving car. It got into an accident the other day. It made the news.

[Falling]

I have so much respect for people who have written the MCAT. I can not remember anything related to the reproductive system, respiratory system or cardiovascular system. It is easily the most boring thing I have ever tried to remember. 

[makingfetchhappen]

I ended up cutting off about 18 inches of hair. I love it!

 

No one else seems to love it. People don't like change I guess, cause it looks super cute.

 

Oh well, next time, shorter!

[Birdy]

I have so much respect for people who have written the MCAT. I can not remember anything related to the reproductive system, respiratory system or cardiovascular system. It is easily the most boring thing I have ever tried to remember.

 

I think the only reason I remember any of these is my (and my family's) ridiculous medical history. I find that it's easier to remember how things should work by thinking about when they don't work. Diabetes is a fantastic disease for this because it has effects on so many systems, so understanding the pathophys of that one disorder helps understand a lot of the rest. As an example, anyway.

[Birdy]

My eight year old son has been playing Terraria on XBox live with random kids. We discovered that this morning when we found him voice chatting. So that option is now disabled and there is a full on revolt going on in our house. My son's life is over because none of his friends are on XBox live so his only option for playing online is random people.

 

I was online at his age (early to mid nineties!) but the internet was a very different place then. We're very, very slowly introducing our kids to social media, but XBox live is uniquely lawless so he won't be on there for a long while.

 

Gamer parent problems. :-/

[lisait'syourbirthday]

Google already has a self-driving car. It got into an accident the other day. It made the news.

It wasn't the Google car's fault! It was stopped at a red light when it was rear-ended by a human-driven car

[makingfetchhappen]

My eight year old son has been playing Terraria on XBox live with random kids. We discovered that this morning when we found him voice chatting. So that option is now disabled and there is a full on revolt going on in our house. My son's life is over because none of his friends are on XBox live so his only option for playing online is random people.

 

I was online at his age (early to mid nineties!) but the internet was a very different place then. We're very, very slowly introducing our kids to social media, but XBox live is uniquely lawless so he won't be on there for a long while.

 

Gamer parent problems. :-/

Don't get me started. 

 

When I did my undergrad and read Marshall McLuhan, I thought that he was silly and he went too far!

 

It's hard with kids and I cannot say I get it, but you are doing the right thing! It is probably a really good idea for your kid's intelligence and attention span to limit these things. When I was a kid, I had a limit on TV time. What is the difference right?

[Birdy]

Don't get me started. 

When I did my undergrad and read Marshall McLuhan, I thought that he was silly and he went too far!

It's hard with kids and I cannot say I get it, but you are doing the right thing! It is probably a really good idea for your kid's intelligence and attention span to limit these things. When I was a kid, I had a limit on TV time. What is the difference right?

We don't have strict time limits with gaming anymore. Not that we let him play constantly, but we approach it more as a balance thing relative to his overall activity level. We don't view video games the same way we do TV and movies. Gaming is a privilege and he will lose gaming privileges immediately (they're the first thing to go on misbehaviour) but video games have intellectual components that TV shows do not. TV is media you consume passively. Video games require problem solving, resource management, mathematics skills, reading comprehension, planning, patience, even fine motor practice.

 

My son is autistic, so computer stuff just sort of fits with how his brain works, so it's actually been a huge vector for therapeutic interventions for him. He primarily plays building/engineering games and some adventure games, which are more like being immersed in a story book than passively consuming a movie. Gaming is a very positive thing for our kids, it isn't pure recreation. But this necessitates that we be very cautious with the less positive sides of the gaming world, which is what we're encountering now.

[thatonekid]

Technology has come so far in such a short period of time, sometimes I can't understand the cultural shift. I had a young kid (less than age 10) tell me about their facebook the other day and when I asked about it, they said it was to talk to their friends...the same people they see every day in school. And all this stuff about being able to talk to random people online with gaming and social media sites, makes me wonder if younger people are given the message that the online world is just an extention of their own world and all the lessons about 'stranger danger' (for lack of a better term) still apply.

[Birdy]

Technology has come so far in such a short period of time, sometimes I can't understand the cultural shift. I had a young kid (less than age 10) tell me about their facebook the other day and when I asked about it, they said it was to talk to their friends...the same people they see every day in school. And all this stuff about being able to talk to random people online with gaming and social media sites, makes me wonder if younger people are given the message that the online world is just an extention of their own world and all the lessons about 'stranger danger' (for lack of a better term) still apply.

My son does very much view the online world as an extension of his own. The kids on XBL are, to him, no different than the kids at the park. He doesn't know the kids at the park either so to him, it's no different, and he does let his guard down. We've explained to him that there are people online who are not nice to kids but might try to seem like they are and he's just not old enough to be well equipped to be able to sort things out for himself and take appropriate precautions. As well, one's online presence leaves long-lasting footprints and I want him to understand the necessity of good "netizenship" and personal safety precautions before he's loosed on the internet.

 

And definitely no Facebook/Twitter until they're at least 13, hah. Both of my kids do have their own email addresses, though.

[thatonekid]

That seems like the lesson I think all kids should be getting.

 

Very unfortunate that some parents (for a wide variety of reasons. Not going to argue whether they're valid or not) do not teach their kids the same thing. I've heard arguments made that kids should learn this stuff in school, but there's only so much school can do.

[Birdy]

That seems like the lesson I think all kids should be getting.

 

Very unfortunate that some parents (for a wide variety of reasons. Not going to argue whether they're valid or not) do not teach their kids the same thing. I've heard arguments made that kids should learn this stuff in school, but there's only so much school can do.

I don't assume anything is only the school's responsibility to teach my kids, whereas many parents seem to assume they'll be taught life skills in school. That's not generally the case as far as I can tell.

[GrumpyMoriarty]

Personally I'm just waiting for self-driving cars. I bet they're here before I can aford a Tesla.

 

There are other electric cars out there that are not as expensive as a Tesla. Not to mention Hybrid and diesel vehicles.

 

I do have to admit that I am probably buying a gasoline 4WD SUV soon, but that's partially due to the fact that I am moving to a very snowy city from a very sunny city and have no clue how to drive during heavy snowfall conditions and don't want to start skiing across the road. Furthermore, I don't actually plan on driving that much either, other than the weekly grocery run and perhaps to certain hospitals during clinical electives.

 

Notice how I have not mentioned bicycles as an alternative form of transportation. Those archaic things are incredibly unsafe and usually any accidents invovling a car and a bicycle doesn't end well for the cyclist. As a car driver, I can't even begin to express my frustration with how some (read: most) cyclists I encounter cannot seem to obey basic traffic rules just because they perceive themselves as somehow more eco-friendly than motorists. Maybe its just cyclists in Vancouver, but that's just how I see it and why I would never recommend anyone to cycle to reduce their carbon footprint.

[Organomegaly]

^ lol I hope you don't run me over with that SUV, I cycle through Hamilton all the time

[Birdy]

There are other electric cars out there that are not as expensive as a Tesla. Not to mention Hybrid and diesel vehicles.

 

I do have to admit that I am probably buying a gasoline 4WD SUV soon, but that's partially due to the fact that I am moving to a very snowy city from a very sunny city and have no clue how to drive during heavy snowfall conditions and don't want to start skiing across the road. Furthermore, I don't actually plan on driving that much either, other than the weekly grocery run and perhaps to certain hospitals during clinical electives.

 

Notice how I have not mentioned bicycles as an alternative form of transportation. Those archaic things are incredibly unsafe and usually any accidents invovling a car and a bicycle doesn't end well for the cyclist. As a car driver, I can't even begin to express my frustration with how some (read: most) cyclists I encounter cannot seem to obey basic traffic rules just because they perceive themselves as somehow more eco-friendly than motorists. Maybe its just cyclists in Vancouver, but that's just how I see it and why I would never recommend anyone to cycle to reduce their carbon footprint.

 

I live in the land of 90cm snowstorms (seriously) and drive a 2014 Hyundai Accent hatchback. You definitely don't need an SUV to manage snowfall. I actually found it really weird at first to get use to driving an SUV in snowstorms; too tall. It's a bit awkward, IMO.

 

As to eco-friendliness, my car's real world fuel economy isn't much different than a Prius. We seriously considered buying a Prius, but it just wasn't worth the extra cost for saving almost nothing on gas. A fairly typical 'real world' usage on a Prius is 5-5.5L/100km. I get about 5.5 in my Accent (over 40 MPG) so it's pretty much as good as a Hybrid. My husband gets about 8-9 L/100km in his Rav 4 which is better than many regular cars. 

 

I don't get this near-rivalry that seems to exists between motorists and cyclists in larger centres. This is not a 'thing' here. 

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[makingfetchhappen]

My son does very much view the online world as an extension of his own. The kids on XBL are, to him, no different than the kids at the park. He doesn't know the kids at the park either so to him, it's no different, and he does let his guard down. We've explained to him that there are people online who are not nice to kids but might try to seem like they are and he's just not old enough to be well equipped to be able to sort things out for himself and take appropriate precautions. As well, one's online presence leaves long-lasting footprints and I want him to understand the necessity of good "netizenship" and personal safety precautions before he's loosed on the internet.

 

And definitely no Facebook/Twitter until they're at least 13, hah. Both of my kids do have their own email addresses, though.

Ya it's the social media sites that concern me the most. I think that 13 is a good age to start to allow that. That's around the time that you can't stop them from doing what they want anyways .

 

I feel a little sad for today's teenagers. Things were easier for us growing up without social media. We had a lot more privacy and less to worry about. We didn't need to worry about managing our online reputation. I saw this thing on the news the other day and these kids were talking about how when they don't get invited to a party, they also see all the pictures posted online the next day. Ouch! It's like all of the little struggles of being a teen get amplified and documented online. 

[Birdy]

Ya it's the social media sites that concern me the most. I think that 13 is a good age to start to allow that. That's around the time that you can't stop them from doing what they want anyways .

I feel a little sad for today's teenagers. Things were easier for us growing up without social media. We had a lot more privacy and less to worry about. We didn't need to worry about managing our online reputation. I saw this thing on the news the other day and these kids were talking about how when they don't get invited to a party, they also see all the pictures posted online the next day. Ouch! It's like all of the little struggles of being a teen get amplified and documented online.

 

I did have social media when I was a teen, hah. It was LiveJournal, MSN, ICQ, and then MySpace when I was in high school - graduated ten years ago - but we very much had it, though I think my cohort was pretty much the first to have really strongly adopted social media. And yeah, it was like that for us. My friends and I were largely the loners, the nerds/drama geeks/bohemians so we weren't big on parties, but the fact that you could never escape the drama at school because it followed you home made things really hard for us. It was in high school that I started managing my online presence, and I'm very glad for it now because I know people who regret not being so cautious.

[cleanup]

There are other electric cars out there that are not as expensive as a Tesla. Not to mention Hybrid and diesel vehicles.

 

I do have to admit that I am probably buying a gasoline 4WD SUV soon, but that's partially due to the fact that I am moving to a very snowy city from a very sunny city and have no clue how to drive during heavy snowfall conditions and don't want to start skiing across the road. Furthermore, I don't actually plan on driving that much either, other than the weekly grocery run and perhaps to certain hospitals during clinical electives.

 

Notice how I have not mentioned bicycles as an alternative form of transportation. Those archaic things are incredibly unsafe and usually any accidents invovling a car and a bicycle doesn't end well for the cyclist. As a car driver, I can't even begin to express my frustration with how some (read: most) cyclists I encounter cannot seem to obey basic traffic rules just because they perceive themselves as somehow more eco-friendly than motorists. Maybe its just cyclists in Vancouver, but that's just how I see it and why I would never recommend anyone to cycle to reduce their carbon footprint.

 

To be honest, if you're worried about the snow, I wouldn't necessarily be buying an SUV. Full-time AWD, yes. Good torque (could consider a diesel if you have access to it), yes. But not an SUV. The risk of adverse events as well as severity of an accident can go up since your stopping distance increases greatly with large, heavy cars, and your rollover risk increases greatly as well. Get an AWD car or crossover. Subaru is a great option for an affordable, hardy, reliable vehicle that can stand up to abuse, and their AWD system is great. They have plenty of crossovers/wagons if you're worried about capacity & utility. 

[Falling]

Another mass shooting in the States. 

[xcon2run]

Another mass shooting in the States. 

 

Saw that. Gun control...It has to be implemented.