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Currently on hiatus :-(
 S&W in German/auf DeutschGaia (my fantasy comic) Scarlet (my science fantasy comic) |
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![[0639] Roundabout I](/comics/2014-12-04-0639-roundabout-i.png "[0639] Roundabout I")
- Yuna: Faster, mommy, faster!
- Yuna: WHEEEEEEEEEE!!
- Girl: May I ride the roundabout?
- Woman: Absolutely not! That’s way too dangerous!
- Yuna: Mommy, why is the woman in the gray suit so evil?
- Ye Thuza: She’s one of those fun-hating lizardmen from Betelgeuse I’ve told you about.
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Sandra and Woo by Oliver Knörzer is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. See the About page for details.
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In a sci-fi series I once read, a VERY old woman talked with a slightly younger woman and the consensus was…
it is better to live 50 GOOD years than 200 boring.
*just now noticed the rating comment system has been removed* Eh?
Also I know those lizard-people well. They suck.
While I DID love playgrounds as a child…. You DO have to admit, it’s probably for the best they vanish, they aren’t safe, and dupervision is difficult to maintain. Especially on the nonexistan budfet most schools and parks have.
I remember the last playground I was at, back in my elementary school years. All the metal was rusting, very few parents were crazy enough to let their kids play there, half the ones that did made absolutely sure their kids were up to date with their tetanus shots and had first aid kits at the ready, the other half were absent minded babysitters or just parents that considered their children a burden they were obligated to deal with instead of actually caring about them.
It was also a place where I met my first friend, and I wouldn’t have another when she moved away for a long time..damn, I miss those days.
Bitshifter wrote:
And they flew Penetrators – awesome!
Man, reminds me of the time I got my leg caught in one of those while I was spinning, and ended up dragging face-first on the ground for several rotations. Still loved them, though!
This woman seems like the type that helps ban tag from the playground because “it’s violent”. Or the woman in Toronto who tried to ban street hockey in her neighborhood because “a child could get hurt”. What child doesn’t know what to do when they hear this: “car”? You ever notice how many “dangerous” things we used and WE turned out just fine.
@ Jon:
just about every way a kid can play outside is dangerous in some way. If your kid gets hurt playing outside or on a play ground that’s on you/if its at school the supervisor. all you really have to do is keep an eye on them and they should be fine .
I just have to say…I’ve been viewing this site for about a week now, and I caught up on all the comics last night. Now I’m sitting here waiting for this like the series premiere of Doctor Who. At least Steven Moffat doesn’t write this. Then Cloud and Larissa would die and then spontaneously live again.
Commander Clash wrote:
Except for the children who died or were permanently injured.
I like playgrounds with a certain level of hazard, including the possibility of death or permanent injury. But let’s be realistic.
The possibility of death or permanent injury is *real*, and if you are an administrator who makes decisions for playground safety, you need the guts to be able to say to a grief stricken parent who’s child is crippled for life – yes, the increased learning experiences of tens of thousands of children *was* worth the sacrifice of your child.
Let’s not pretend that the decisions to nerf playgrounds is totally baseless. It’s the decision to value the life of individual children above anything else. And this is a natural outcome of the fact that children aren’t dying of anything else nearly as often as they used to.
Lizardmen is a racist term. We prefer to be called Reptilian Americans.
I’ve only heard of stupid adults hurting themselves on those things, not kids. The first video I googled was some guys who had the idea to align a motorcycle wheel up to the lower rim, and gun it with two of their dumb buddies on… well, two for a minute or so. Then there was one. 😛
@ Jon:
You want to know how much removing these sorts of things from playgrounds has improved child injury statistics?
None. Zero. To no degree. Effectively the same proportion of children are injuring themselves on modern “safe” playground equipment as were injuring themselves on the dangerous stuff. A child today is just as likely to sustain a serious injury on a playground as a child thirty years ago.
We have attempted to make use of, nevertheless it does not is effective at all.
Ha! I knew if I searched through the comments I’d find people being offended about something!
You people are funny!
@Hinoron, @PlutoniumBoss
29,000 Canadian children were hospitalized for playground injuries in 2011. Changes in playground equipment have diminished hospital visits. Redesigning playgrounds (nerfing them) can reduce those injuries by between 24-75% depending on the type of injuries, etc. (Source: Canadian Pediatric Society, July 2012)
I have to say, the only thing I find more annoying than people who say that even 1 child injured or killed is too much are people who can’t accept that the trade-off for having the playgrounds of our youth is that more children are injured or killed.
If you’re too much of a coward to accept the cost of something, then you are unqualified to judge whether that something is worth the cost.
If you want something, then man-up and accept the costs for the benefits!
(Now I’m waiting for the next wave – if a young child gets injured doing something they can’t handle, it’s the parents fault!)
And yes, I am willing to have more children crippled or killed in order to more challenging playgrounds that help the vast majority of children better their physical skills. I’m willing to see more children injured or killed by encouraging more of them to bicycle to school.
@ Far:
I used to spin them with my bicycle, there were usually a few kids that slid off.
Onihikage wrote:
This! So much this!
I hate spam, but this link should be sent to any email adress there is in existence.
Brian wrote:
I’ll keep my eyes peeled for any turtles with messages forming on their shell.
@ Tom West:
Taking a look at playgrounds and using common sense and a calm mind to determine if things could be improved certainly isn’t a bad thing. I’ve seen good things happen to some of my own old playgrounds that way. Changing the ground from stone slabs or gravel to something better suited to cushion falls for example. Or rounding the edges of timbers that kids were prone to walk into, even adding a thin padding out of foam or rubber where hits were common. That’s sensible changes.
But when some people start mindlessly shouting for the removal of anything even slightly capable of injuring kids or even playgrounds as a whole as Jon above, it’s no wonder others will be annoyed by it and retaliate by going a bit overboard themselves.
I mean: I can easily name far more things that are just as or even more dangerous to a kid than anything on a playground. And you’ll find all of them in any average household. So what are we going to do now to save our children? Burn down all the houses?
You can’t keep kids completely safe any more than you can do it for anyone else. And if you go overboard with your “protection” of kids, the only thing you’ll get are half-baked teenagers and young adults who don’t know how to deal with life and the real world. And more often than not will already have health problems due to a lack of exercise. Certainly have worse than average body control, dexterity, stamina etcetera. And then you want these people to raise the next generation.
Let’s face it: The overprotective behaviour some people are showing is not only bad for kids. It also tends to be less about protecting kids and more about one’s own inflated ego, even if people showing it will not realise this themselves.
Is it possible to reduce the likelihood or severity of playground injuries? Absolutely.
Is it possible to eliminate playground injuries? Absolutely not.
When I was in elementary school, playgrounds had lots of galvanized or rusting metal things sitting on asphalt. Some of the metal things were broken and had sharp edges.
And even still, most of the injuries involved someone doing something that every kid present knew was a bad idea. I broke bones at least 3 times on playgrounds, and every time it was either due to me doing something I knew wasn’t safe, or someone else doing something I knew wasn’t safe.
Kids will find ways of pushing limits and taking risks. Wrap them in bubble wrap and they’ll just try harder. That said, fixing the obviously broken or dangerous things can prevent a lot of injuries or can make the injuries less severe. In those playgrounds I grew up on, falls onto the asphalt caused most of the minor scrapes, and knee-friendlier surfaces would have reduced the trips to the nurse’s office.
Personally, I think those minor injuries help those kids grow up to avoid more major injuries. Not to mention not letting kids run and play is probably contributing to the real public health issue of obesity.
AckAckAck wrote:
Sadly?
…They already have, basically.
It was one of the reasons I quit my elementary school to be home-schooled. The playground I was on had people thinking “for your protection” and “for the sake of fairness”, which created a tyrannical environment that suffocated my free spirit. (I had previously been spoiled to another school which didn’t fall victim to this, which made it all the more jarring.)
What parents don’t seem to realize is that children NEED to experience the little-ows, so they know how to avoid the big pains later.
@ roguebfl:
Having been a Science Fiction fan for many years, I can tell you that is the Exception, not the Rule.
Once people show up, they tend to give the dirtball it’s Own Name.
A planet would be Betelgeuse IV in the Star Catalog, but not in common usage.
Although a population with a Quirky sense of homor might name it “Beetlejuice”.
Best time ever: Some kid at my elementary school brought a couple family members who were in the Marines for “Show and Tell.” They joined him on the playground where they saw my little group doing our coordinated efforts to get decent speed on our playground’s massive merry-go-round / roundabout.
They promptly made us all get on and THEY pushed us.
I’m sure you could hear our screams of manic joy for a few miles. It. Was. Epic.
Ah, the things kids today will never experience.
@ Jon:
For the best? Before the suburban housing concept children already playing in the backyard or even the forest nearby. Children are children. They are adventurous, curious and can be reckless. Just because banning stuff from playground doesn’t mean children will be super safe. You simply put them on the street or other more dangerous areas.
Also you can’t bubblewrap children in your house. Children need to socialize, children need to move around to train their body and stamina. No wonder a lot of children are obese and lack social skills.
@ Tom West:
Injury and death can happened everywhere. The playground is better because we can contain it on one location. Regarding rusting equipments it’s not their fault. Blame the local officials that’s lazy or corrupt enough not to replace/fix them. You’re supposed to enable your children needs, not govt officials needs.
Like I said above, even when you ban all the stuff in the playground it’s not going to stop children injury or death. Complaining about gravel or cement ground? HYou guys are too afraid to use grass and dirt ground. Complaining about the monkey bar? Oh they will climb everything they can find (back then we climb trees!). Complaining about swing sets? We use old tires!
In the end, you’re not creating a save environment, you’re creating environment for obese and scared generation.
@ the Doctor:
Yea, everybody knows that… apes…
Okay, since I was overstating my case for emphasis, I will say that I do approve of substituting that weird rubber-ish stuff for concrete and replacing rusted crud.
But trying to claim kids will get injured elsewhere is again trying to downplay the risk. No, many, if not most, will just play video games instead since they’re not allowed outside without supervision.
Again, my point is that if it’s worth having playgrounds with a decent element of risk (anything where children can fall by > 1.5m according to the Canadian Pediatric Society), then we need to accept that there will be casualties, some serious and maybe even fatal. If you accept that protecting children from fatal or permanent injury is the number one priority, you *cannot* justify risky playgrounds.
You have to accept that the priority of millions of children increasing their physical mastery is more important than tens of thousands of children hospitalized and probably a hundred permanently injured or killed. Yet almost nobody will say so in simple clear language, which is why the playground nerfers are winning while the rest of us whine about it.
Everyone knows Betelguesians are more like catshttp://space-dandy.wikia.com/wiki/Betelgeusian
@ Onihikage:
The author of that article is deliberately conflating separate issues. Pulling playground equipment every time a child injures themselves is one thing, and it is an over reaction.
Leaving your baby in a parked car is completely different, and you just don’t do it.
@ Xezlec:
Inconsistent. Where I am, a “merrry-go-round” is the big, mechanical spinny thing, with the fake horses and such. I’ve always heard the small playground ones like in the comic called “carousels.” Only ever heard “roundabout” for the road loop, though.
Brian wrote:
Then call in Momo again.
(you thought no one would catch that?)
Oddly enough, the playground at my old Elementary school ADDED swings, a taller slide, and something similar to the [your name for the spinning thing] but instead suspended, more of frame than a platform, and with some extra frames for handles. Of course, these addition were made a few years after I left, but I have gotten to use them since the playground also acts as the nearest park. The suspended spinner is rather odd, you have only your grip to stop you from flying off, but since people will be swinging out from it, it is impossible to stand still while pushing it and get it up to speed. The new equipment may be do to A LOT of changes in the upper administration of the district.
Also I doubt that overprotective parents are the driving force. No school would PAY to remove equipment just to appease a couple of parents. Insurance is likely the real cause. People have been saying things like “Millions of well playgrounded kids outweigh the hundreds of casualties”, but the school doesn’t see it that way when a lawsuit(even if the school does not have to pay, lawsuits take a lot of time and money) can cost them dearly and well playgrounded kids add no easily observable benefits.
Far wrote:
That’s two of us then (see my turtle comment above).
Come on guys! Surely there’s gotta be more people who’ve read the book and/or watched the movie! It’s awesome!
Konrad wrote:
There remains the question if the risk of leaving a sleeping, secured 18 months old in a safely parked car for about five minutes is really higher (and because of what) than, say, leaving the same kid sleeping unsupervised for hours in its bed. So much in fact that it counts as child abuse and requires juridical action.
Especially considering that taking the kid out of the car and with in such a situation actually puts it in graver danger of injury and/or death.
(Mind you: The mentioned case would look entirely different if circumstances were changed. Like placing the car in one of the most crime-ridden wards of the city while the mother went to buy some drugs in a back alley or so. Or across the middle of a busy road. But with the given situation…)
Roundabout I? Must be more to follow… unless…
Roundabout I
ROUNDABOUT I
ROUNDABOUT
I
ROUNDABOUT
I
ROundaBOuT
I
ROBOT
I,
Robot
…it’s some sort of cryptic Asimov reference?
@ Gas Bandit:
I live in Australia and have herd both used in common parlance, I find whether they have a drivers license affects it somewhat as drivers tend to call them roundabouts more.
Tom West wrote:
Kinda ironic that happened after child mortality dropped after Industrial revolution+ stop forcing teenagers to have babies+ Sanitation.
I love Ye Thuza!
My kids and I do that at the park near our house! If my mother and stepfather are visiting, they join in!
hmmm…
Protected during childhood = helpless adult
not doing the child much of a favor
My father once build a similar contruct for us, with a fixed stern wheel in the middle for the passengers to speed it up. With a good ball-bearing, these suckers can go amazingly fast.
And this, kids, is what they call a “buzz-kill”. She was the type of person to make you feel bad at parties that she invited you to. Be wary of these kinds, folks.
I love the fact that he has Yuna dressed in Crocs. Totally in character.
I thought the lizardmen came from Alpha Draconis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwo9AvTA5xY
WHAT??? Betelgeuseans are incapable of things like disguises, as one rather famous one said “Lady, I’m a betelgeuean, we don’t do ‘underneath'”
*Sighs* I wish, but if anything reptilian is fun-hating i’m going to be depressed….I like anthro dragons.
lizardmen from Betelgeuse? Is this a Perry Rhodan reference?
Where’s that crazy devil Piper when you need hi- oh….
@ Switch Master:
Actually Betelgeusians are gorillas, look up Bucky O’Hare sometime 😉
I loved those rides as a kid. Though, I think my family called them something else. Around-and-arounds, I think?