digital thoughts

My heart beats fast when I read these kinds of news stories. My blood pressure goes up in a millisecond. I just want to shoot the bastards that kidnap the young children. Just shoot these assholes. No enquiries. No court. Just kill these animals.

What kind of animal would kidnap 11 year old girl and keep her in dungeon for 18 years? Only human beings are capable of doing this. A bastard named Garrido and his pathetic wife Nancy kidnapped Jaycee outside her home in 1991. Eighteen years later, California police cracked this case accidentally.

This entire thing also shows how the modern society just doesn’t care about what is happening in own neighborhood. It’s hard to believe that how no one in Walnut Avenue, Antioch, California knows what is going on in Garrido’s house. His neighbor described him as “Good neighbor”. Go Figure.

Related Link: CNN

The internet is a treasure trove of information. As a matter of fact, the advent of the World Wide Web has made the world a much smaller place. But lurking in the shadows is a dark and sinister world of pedophiles, kidnappers and psychopaths.

Today’s kids are internet savvy and they use the internet for everything from preparing assignments to catching up with old friends and making new ones. In doing so, they also leave themselves vulnerable to online predators.

Online predators lurk in web sites that kids use, often posing as children themselves. The tactics they use do not necessarily fit into any stereotype. They manipulate children either by kindness and understanding or by rash, bullying behavior. Their tactics make it difficult for kids to distinguish them from genuine friends. Once a relationship is established, they move on to sexually explicit conversations, pictures and even try to meet up with their victim in person. As news of child abuse and abduction by so called “online friends” spread, parents worry about how they can ensure the safety of their children as they surf the internet.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind.

• First and foremost, familiarize yourself with the internet. This way, you will be able to recognize internet scams, spam, dangerous downloads and so on.
• Once you are aware of the possible threats to your children, your family, your privacy and your computer, explain the same to your children.
• Set guidelines which all computer users in your family should follow. For instance, do not click on pop ups, do not download anything without parent approval, do not forward e-mails to large groups etc.
• Teach your children never to post information such as age, address, and telephone number online.
• If your children use social networking sites, make sure that their profile does not offer too much personal information or pictures to strangers. Most social networking sites have the options that help you determine who gets access to your profile. Teach your kids to make use of these options.
• If your child wants to post a photo on any networking site, make it a rule that they should get it approved from you first. Backgrounds in photos can provide information about your location. This is valuable information for predators and stalkers. So, be careful of what is posted online.
• Help your children to choose login IDs for e-mails and gaming sites and make sure that the IDs do not reveal their name or date of birth. Ensure that their e-mails are protected by strong passwords.
• Tell your children never to meet an online friend in person. Online friends may not always be what they portray themselves to be. In fact, it would be best to avoid online friendships with strangers.
• Encourage your children to share their internet experience with you. Not only will this help you keep track of your child’s internet activities, it will also enhance parent-child bonding.
• Get anti-virus and anti-spy ware programs installed on your computer and always use a firewall.
• Make sure that your computer is protected with a strong password. Anyone who gains access to your computer can glean a whole lot of personal information from it.
• Keep your computer at a central location in your home. In this way, you will be able to monitor your children’s web usage. It is a much better option than allowing your children access to the internet in the privacy of their rooms. Children are naturally curious. Even a simple internet search they run can expose them to inappropriate content.
• You can also use web monitoring software and parental controls to filter out content and monitor your child’s online activities.

The internet is a vast and wonderful world but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a dangerous one. By keeping these tips in mind you can help your child to experience the internet in a safe and healthy manner.

Useful Links: Improve your family’s web security in 4 steps | How to protect your kids from Internet predators | Net Nanny 2.0 | Parental control for iPod Touch and iPhone

Happy New Year to all our readers!

When you feel stressed try watching the video below. You will feel smiling again. It will make you feel good, really. Next time, if you are anxious about job interview or exams or anything that’s unpredictable and causes pain to you, watch this video.

KidZui presents an interesting alternative to Net Nanny like software for parental control. If you are worried that your kids may accidentally land up in an inappropriate site, parental control software will come in handy.

Apart from the parental control software, browsers like Firefox has plugins for parental control. These plugins can help you to some extent. Older kids can easily bypass firefox plugin by using only Interner explorer.

If you own Mac or Wndows Vista, you can find effective build-in parental controls in the operating system. Read Walt Mossberg’s article to know more about this.

KidZui has different approach to the problem. It created its own web browser. It’s free for basic features, premium features would cost around $50 a year.

KidZui claims to encompass 500,000 safe sites, photos and videos, ranging from pop culture to science, comics and games to history. The sites, photos and videos included in KidZui are approved by a team of about 200 parents and teachers across the country. While a child can establish a list of friends in KidZui, and can share content with them, there is no instant-messaging or email function.

Annie and Doug Brown did sex every day… for 101 days straight. Just for the fun of it. The end result is intimacy, fatigue and a book. Apparently they did this to reinvigorate their marriage. If a husband asks his wife for 101 days of sex, probably many marriages will be broken. In this case, the wife initiated it, so it worked ok, I guess.

More about this adventure here. Check out the picture below, the husband looks really tired even after many weeks of sexy 101 days.

I never heard this one before. Servant poisons the entire family? Many families are cautious about recruiting servants mainly for the fear of theft. But, no one would have thought that a servant would be willing to kill the family. It’s a real tragedy. Thieves and crooks are all over the world. But, in India, the servant maids are generally considered as non-criminal. They may steal few vessels, some food, etc., But, killing the whole family is a new trend.

This disturbing trend shows the decelerating moral values in India. Cost of living is high everywhere, saving rates are plunging, inflation is lot more than what the politicians could admit, real estate prices are obscene… the list goes on and on. When people get desperate to make money, they become filthy animals.

The day started with a bad news. I just read this news in Yahoo. 2-year old girl was killed by her mother’s boyfriend in U.S. I have difficult time digesting these kind of news. What is wrong with these people? Kids use video game controller to play the games. The cruel man used that game controller to beat a child.

Girl’s mother didn’t try to stop the beating even after hearing the girl scream. The girl’s mother and her stupid boy friend should be tortured and killed. This world has to eliminate these kind of animals.

You can see lot of mismatched couples in India at least in terms of their height. Husband may be 6′2″; wife is 5′2″. I have seen ladies that are taller than their husbands. It’s difficult to even hug properly if there is a strong mismatch in the height. There is couple of options to increase the height or to decrease the discomfort having shorter spouse.

One simple option is to divorce the husband or wife. Well, it’s not that simple. It’s complicated

Another option is to increase the leg bone length. Some ortho doctors are doing this in Chennai and Mumbai. It’s a traumatic experience for the patients. Many doctors advise against it.

A cosmetic surgeon in Spain has developed a new way of adding up to two inches to a person’s height by inserting a silicone head implant. It seems to be a good stuff. But, it costs a fortune – 4000 pounds. I know many husbands that can tolerate shorter wives than doling out 4 lakh rupees! Click here to read more details about silicone head implant.

Falling asleep with a bottle may be comforting for your baby, but it could spell trouble later. Here’s why: Liquid from a baby bottle can build up in the mouth and cause a condition called baby-bottle tooth decay. Drinks such as milk and juice contain sugar. Germs in a baby’s mouth change this sugar to acid that attacks the teeth and can cause decay. Not only can baby-bottle tooth decay cause severe damage to baby teeth, it could also lead to dental problems that affect the permanent teeth.

Here are a few tips from National Dental Association to prevent baby-bottle tooth decay:

• Give your baby a bottle only during meals.
• Teach your child to drink from a cup as soon as possible. A cup keeps liquid from collecting around the teeth.
• Keep your child’s mouth clean. After feedings, gently brush the gums and any baby teeth with a soft infant toothbrush.

Related Link: Latest developments in health

Many people would be surprised when they take a look at the following items that they need to keep out of reach of children. Items that we normally don’t even think as dangerous are indeed dangerous to small children. If those items are swallowed or consumed in large quantity, then it is life threatening for small kids. Here are a few:

Choking Hazards:

1. Hair bands

2. Hair clips

3. Hair pins

4. Miniature toys

5. Safety pins

6. Balloons

7. Plants

8. Magnets

Poison:

1. Soap

2. Bubble solution

3. Nail polish

4. Eye lasher

5. Shampoo

6. Hair Spray

7. Alcohol

8. Products containing ethanol/alcohol, like sanitizer gel.

9. House cleaning supplies

10. Pesticides

15. Bleach

16. Dishwasher detergent

Choking Hazards/Poison:

1. Lipstick

2. Medicines

3. Vitamins

Burns:

1. Hot foods

2. Hot oils

3. Match Sticks

Suffocation:

1. Plastic bags

2. Jute bags

3. Big bucket full of water

Think about what might be dangerous to your little kids that you have in a location in the house and remove those items before letting them play in that location.

Recently, a 21 month old baby swallowed aspirin (blood thinner) and a blood pressure medication. Fortunately, his parents have discovered it and got an immediate medical attention. He could have gone into cardiac arrest if he was not treated immediately.

If you think of any other household item that poses danger, please add it in the comments.

Related Link: Mattel Toy Recall List