I saw this and it brought a number of thoughts to mind.......... Before anyone thinks bringing these back is a good idea: I testified in a lawsuit by a mother against the State of Florida in Palm Beach in 1992. The girl, 4 years-old (older than the boy pictured), was standing in the front seat and was leaning on the dashboard.  A downburst stuck a construction site as the car was passing through it. It picked up a square road sign. The corner of the sign pierced the windshield and the child's skull. She died almost instantly. So, this type of 'restraint' is certainly insufficient.  Perhaps surprisingly given these facts, the jury found in favor of the mother. A downburst in 1991 was practically unforecastable and it would have been nearly impossible in the 70+mph winds for the crew to scurrying around gathering all of the signs (and the one that caused the injury was weighed down with sand bags).  Turns out that in Florida, and in many other states, there were  laws ...

From meteorologist Jan Null, who is an expert on the hot cars threat.  Put your phone, keys or purse in the back seat when you strap in your child. 

50 Days Ago: Hurricane Helene Develops in the Gulf of Mexico Helene's aftermath should be the lead story on each network's evening news for the foreseeable future.  Here's the latest on the horror in far east Tennessee, far northwest South Carolina, and western North Carolina: the situation is unbelievably bad and the people we pay to mitigate the effects of natural disasters are, at best, failing at their mission.  In the autumn of 2023, we had at least some reporting from the legacy media about the Maui "land grab" after the horrific fire that struck the City of Lahina. The historic city burned to the ground and the fire killed more than 100.  Serious questions remain unanswered about the Maui Wildfire, which is yet another reason why the United States must  create a National Disaster Review Board , see more below. But that is not the primary topic of this piece.  FEMA and insurance companies -- or people claiming to represent them -- have brought out that ...

We didn't have a required reading in May because I didn't come across anything particularly compelling. But, this article about children and farms in June's required reading ! It tells the story of families who go to a farm in Update New York to have their children experience manual labor and life on a farm. The article begins: Here are some things I have taught the kids who visit my farm: animals don’t care about your feelings, and sometimes we kill them to eat them. It doesn’t matter how desperately you want to find more eggs, the hens don’t lay on demand. Tomatoes aren’t ripe in June. The stalls aren’t going to clean themselves. Cuts, scrapes, and stings aren’t really a big deal. And there will always be poop.  The article is great. Hope you enjoy reading it.  Note: the link was bad. It has been fixed. 

So glad that he went back to bed easily after the tornado had passed.  During her first tornado warning, one of my granddaughters crawled into their dog's kennel . 

...your children should not  wear masks! In the words of the peer-reviewed article: A recent review  concluded that there was ample evidence for adverse effects of wearing such masks. We suggest that decision-makers weigh the hard evidence produced by these experimental measurements accordingly, which suggest that children should not be forced to wear face masks. The article is here .  Now, can we stop the nonsense? Children should not be wearing masks. 

Two postings below this, I asked what global warming lunacy would be next. This isn't just lunacy, it is extraordinarily dangerous. From the BBC , This constantly hyping of nearly impossible global warming scenarios isn't helping anyone except for the many scientists and their hangers-on who rely on government funding. To the U.S. Congress: Do you really want to keep funding this nonsense? After all, "The Science Is Settled." 

Distorting science is bad. Exploiting children for fundraising is terrible. Here's an article that does both. The article gives no evidence whatsoever the headline is factually correct . Read it for yourself. It talks about a terrible hurricane in 1970 (when world temperatures were inconveniently colder than today) that killed 300,000. They talk about another hurricane (called a cyclone in that part of the world) in 1991 that killed 138,000. The reason there hasn't been a similar disaster since is because they have put a storm warning system in place and have instituted rudimentary evacuations and other mitigating measures. Those are not mentioned. Their "proof" that children are being forced into sex trafficking? Around 12 million of the most affected children live in and around the powerful river systems which regularly burst their banks, UNICEF’s Dhaka spokesman, Jean-Jacques Simon, told the AP. “In the big cities…thousands of children arrive every day w...

Unfortunately, meteorologist Jan Null reports that two children died in hot cars this week. Texas, details .  North Carolina, details Never  leave a child unattended in a car. 

Wichita's Century II Convention Center was packed earlier today with the Great Train Expo 2013. The place was absolutely packed. It was good to see the next generation of model train fans having fun. While this photo happens to be of boys, it was good to see lots of young ladies there, as well. The show goes through 4pm this afternoon. Tomorrow, it is open from 10 to 4. Admission is $7 for adults and it is free for kids 11 and under.