Once we all were young, innocent, clueless, small und without any real knowledge. Dreaming comes easy. Fun seems to be everywhere. Angst is also everywhere. But we get help and we get protected. People ask us what we want to be when we grow up.

Then we get educated, civilized and grow up. Fun gets more complicated. Angst gets more complicated. We get less help and are supposed to help ourselves. Nobody asks us now what we want from life. We are supposed to know it already.

Where is the time to find out about our goals and what we want from life - before it gets too serious and before it is too late?!

The crazyness about modern life that it is already stressful, but people crave even more excitement. The solutions are extreme sports like Parkour - were you make your home town your racing track and play ground.

It’s bloody dangerous and you don’t see all the failed attempts in this video. But if this help to trim the herd - so be it.

*thanks to Edosan for sending in that video*

This little girl is a typical scavenger. She and her family sift thru the stuff "normal people" throw away. In a sad way she at least has not to starve - but feeding on garbage is not the kind of life anyone should have.

But rich people trash has become an important resource for the poor beside the industrial and modern societies.

You can only get as smart as the programs you decide to watch on the telly. Most people chose crap - so they stay stupid. But also most so called educational broadcasters like Discovery or History Channel are pretty dumb. Fancy computer graphics are no substitute for excellent researchers and writers.

I know this image is from a child bride in Afghanistan … still terrible … 

BBC News: Egypt bans 92-year-old’s marriage (with a 17 year old)

The ministry of justice invoked a law which says the age gap between spouses should not exceed 25 years.

Egypt brought in the law prohibiting the marriage of elderly men to very young girls during the Gulf oil boom.

It was an effort to prevent wealthy men from the Gulf states seeking young poor brides from the Egyptian countryside.

The Middle East is still one of the worst places to be a woman. Unless they work harder on the issue and work on their own chauvinistic egos I can’t take any talk about Arab or Muslim high level of culture seriously. The same applies of course for many Turks - who still enjoy their honor killings …

Sometimes Sink-or-Swim is not the best way "to get your feet wet". Harsh and unforeseen "learning moments" are often unavoidable, but they should be avoided.

But sometimes "fear" needs  to be overcome as well, so a little push is oke … but not an emotional execution!

The meat on the mass media gets younger and younger - and sluttier and sluttier. The Clique Girls are all born between 1994 and 1996 - and they already marketed like professional music whores.

Call me old fashioned, but I think a 12 year old should neither watch or make such videos. But I guess it sells - and every layer of society is allowed to have it’s dreams of fame and richness. No matter how much it twists their minds …

This is the real thing! From the product description:

Plays "SpongeBob SquarePants Theme" at the end of temperature taking.

So when you hear music in your ass Spongebob is ready to tell you your temperature. Isn’t merchandise a wonderful thing!

Pat Robertson would have loved this - Spongebob is for the Gays.

YouTube knows the truth!

Click image for a bigger party.

Huge LAN-Parties are a new form of event - which evolved from small gaming sessions at a friends house. Usually a couple a friends gather, bring their computers, loads of cables and food and game for several hours or even days straight. A lot of soda and pizza is consumed - and electricity.

But these big ass public LAN-Parties are amazing and eerie. There you have HUGE halls or convention centers filled with thousands of young nerds and gamer - and you hardly hear a thing - apart from computers humming.

Why? Because almost everybody is wearing a headset / headphones and they are all fully concentrated on killing each other. You hear the occasional cry of victory or defeat - but that’s it - the rest is silence.

Normally when huge crowds of young males gather they are loud, obnoxious, often on the verge of misbehaving or serious violence (football games etc.). LAN-Parties are very silent, orderly and very odd.

The real action happens in many virtual battlefield and servers.

When I watch some young parents playing with their kids I often wonder: did they want a kid or simply a talking doll?

That phrase “they grow up so fast” especially sounds very stupid in that context. What did you expect what was going to happen: your baby would stay forever tiny, vulnerable and totally dependable on you - so you can play and dominate that little human?

Just because one species thinks you are cute doesn’t mean you can’t be lunch for another one. There is safety in numbers, but not in cuteness …

Image by Koert van Mensvoort 

Annoyed by cell phones all over the place? People talking all the time? Too bad. But we humans need to communicate for our social and individual survival. Communication is an essential part of our existence to reflect ourselves and connect to the group consciousness.

It really starts in the womb and ends with death. In between we are busy communicating, exchanging ideas, learning, archiving, expanding and revising knowledge.

It’s about time that fairies join the equal rights movement. Most male fairy creatures are rather means and grumpy (Leprechaun, Rumpelstilzchen, etc.).

Why are all these good jobs mostly reserved for yummy and charming woman?

We old farts also want to appear in children’s bedrooms in a cloud of pink fairy dust - and wipe the tears of little faces.

But I am pretty sure someone will sue male fairies for sexual harassment as soon as the first wish was granted!

*Thanks Judefa for that lovely picture*

We all know phrases like “inner child” or “being playful like a kid”. The adult mind obviously is jealous of the fun and simplicity the young mind seems to enjoy.

But it is important to understand that the young mind / brain simply doesn’t understand many things and simply hasn’t learnt them yet. So these simple minds can only understand simple fun and obvious entertainment.

Adults have the pleasure of understanding more complex ‘fun’ or entertaining ‘constructions’ of art, entertainment and meanings.

So when it comes to ‘fun’ adults have a broader scope of possibilities - it’s up to them to enjoy them.

Another excellent documentation from Frontline (which you can view online). This time about the first generation (of Americans) who grew up with the Internet, cell phones and computer games.

It covers all important topics: the ‘Always-on’ generation, ego surfing with MySpace and other sites, the new global ‘we’, web slutism, stalking and cyber bullying.

Highly recommended - even if you don’t have kids - because it gives you a better understanding in the psyche of the coming generation and the impact of technology on our society.

Even positive stress can be pretty exhausting. Even happiness and excitement can burn you out. So take a break and recharge your batteries once in a while.

As a big SciFi fan I always wanted to have a robot as a kid. I also wanted to have a giant space gorilla who could launch missiles and teleport me to mars.

Modern parents are already using machines to babysit their offspring: they are called TVs and PlayStations. These are semi-intelligent entertainment robots to keep your kids busy.

But do we really want even more complex machines to educate, relate and raise our kids? I don’t think so. Raising humans should be a human job. People should rely less on machines and get proper nannies or tutors to get their kids a better start.

Even animals will do a better job teaching little humans about (organic) life. No matter how intelligent Robots will be some day, they are not organic beings, they are not the perfect example how to grow up and what it means to deal with the human condition.

General it’s a shame that most parents no longer care or have the time to play with their kids - they themselves are either too busy working or entertaining themselves. So in some way, we are getting addicted and distracted by digital slaves providing easy leisure …

We yourselves dehumanize our societies by being perfect consumers or too cocooned individuals.

The is something square in the state of Denmark - and it’s called LEGO. This fantastic invention celebrates it’s 50th Birthday today. There must be billions of bricks and also billions of happy kids out there who grew up with this inspiring toy.

I also loved to play with LEGO - it was an universal toy - only limited by your imagination and your parents wallet. Most of all it inspired you to do something yourself and literally ‘built’ upon your imagination - and improve your dreams with your growing skills. It’s one of the few toys that grows with your understanding of the world and your own capabilities. You may start as a toddler with the huge bricks, because you are yet too unskilled to handle the smaller ones. Then you get into ‘normal’ mechanical LEGO - and later into electrical or even electronic LEGO.

Meet your giant LEGO overlord …

LEGO appeals stronger to boys than girls - but since LEGO introduced it’s small figures, themes and TV & movie merchandise it has a stronger social component - that its more for the little ladies.

Today I feel a bit that LEGO has lost it’s way a bit - because there is too much based on ‘themes‘ licensed from Movies and TV shows. There are too many ‘fixed’ or ‘limited’ parts that are no longer universally usable. Also programmable LEGO and now LEGO computer games are heading into a totally different direction. But the good old bricks are still there and won’t disappear any day.

One of the oldest and best known LEGO images.

I have one more complaint: LEGO is still bloody expensive. Buying a small city sets you back a fortune (like 149 Euros!!!). Very pricey for a few pieces of plastic - even for today’s high oil prices. So LEGO made itself a rich kids toys - because you only parents with a lot of money could afford big or more rare sets for their offspring.

Sooner or later LEGO’s copyright will diminish - and other companies are allowed to produce the bricks much cheaper and bring new ideas into the game.

One thing I also like to mention are Brickfilms or LEGO movies. There are many LEGO stop motion movies on YouTube and other sites.

Adult LEGO fans have produced an entire subculture of videos, nasty imagery and other crazy stuff for us grownups.

Is that a brick in your pants - or are you just happy to play with me?

Groups on Flickr show that LEGO has developed into a new symbolic language and tool to create scenes and messages that range from funny to absurd and totally extreme.

So LEGO has evolved into a cultural vehicle that allows adults to use them like hand puppets to tell their stories that are understood by the whole LEGO generation. Like Sesame Street or Star Trek LEGO has become a cultural icon and language that can be easily used and understood by almost everyone. These are our modern caveman drawings and stick figures. The LEGO figures are primitive and simple representations of ourselves - but extremely flexible and potent as actors.

LEGO as an universal image language for nasty social and political messages. A cultural icon to comment on other icons.

I am pretty sure that back in 1958 Ole Kirk Christiansen never expect such a global and cultural impact of his little bricks.

More? LEGO @ Wikipedia, Psycho Lego clip and Spiderman Lego clip

Once again the people of PBS / Frontline have produced a breath taking documentary: the medicated child (you can watch the whole thing online). America seems not only obsessed with it’s War on Drug - to protect children - but is also totally paranoid kids behaving differently. Compared to any other industrial countries huge amount of small kids and teenagers are heavily medicated.

Plus the pharma industry and doctors have invented many new illnesses and syndromes. It’s a HUGE business and scared / dumb parents willing to force extremely dangerous drugs down their children’s throats.

The documentary has just one serious flaw (maybe because of the time limits) - it really didn’t try to answer why so many kids are diagnosed with these serious psychiatric disorders compared to other countries AND if this is really true: why are American kids so much more ‘damaged’ than for example Swedish or Canadian ones?

I don’t envy these kids - and the is a whole new Prozac generation coming to the world stage. This is really a ‘Brave New World‘ coming true …

The feminist movement certainly has blessed woman with many new role models. I just wonder if the CEO really appeals to little girls and their natural breeding instinct?

Will CEO Barbie be is overstretched as modern moms or can she afford an immigrant brown Barbie to do her shopping, feeding the kids and blowing Ken, when she is at work making money?

CEO Barbie - preparing girls for the stressful lifestyle of a successful woman - who is able to still look like slut after working all day.

Many great scientists and artists started their dreams and passions as kids - being inspired or challenged by their environments, families, teachers and toys.

Today’s digital gimmicks are killers - they kill the imagination of kids, because they create PERFECT fantasy worlds. Our minds needs a vacuum too fill it with our own ideas. If we get overwhelmed with ’stuff’ we stay lazy and just consume …

Didn’t know that the Yoyo was such an old toy.

Afghanistan - he is 40, she is 11. She was sold by her parents, because they needed the money. Still girls are treated like a commodity in many countries or simply sold as sex slaves. (Photo by Stephanie Sinclair)

Chechnya - the world seems to have forgotten Putin’s terrible war on these people? War is terrible for adults, for kids is sheer hell. (Ohoto by Musa Sadulayev)

America - even living in a rich country can’t save you from serious illness. Still most kids all over the world don’t have universal health care. This little guy is already dead - he died 2006. (Photo by Renée C. Bayer)

Bangladesh - many kids have to work hard to survive. Although child labor has decreased in recent years it’s still there and needs to be abolished. It my sound cynical: but I think it’s  better when kids have work and can feed themselves - instead of starving to death. (Photo by Akash)

Philippines - every place can be a playground, even this landfill outside Manilla where the poorest of the poor scavenge for food. Hunger and starvation are still with us - even in developing nations or economic superstars like China or the USA. (Photo by Hartmut Schwarzbach)

Rich Nations - while kids in poor countries struggle to get education, food and healthcare in high-tech nations they are slowly turned into brain washed zombies. This is the typical brain dead TV stare. (Photo by Wolfram Hahn)

All the images are taken from here: unicef.org. Go there and read more in detail about the stories behind each kid.

After watching all that pain porn you should be ready to give some money and not just a sentimental sigh in front of your computer. Do something!

I highly recommend SPONSORING a kid all year long - and not just for that special Christmas feel good moment. How about five Euros or Dollars each month? That’s not much - but already some REAL money in many poor countries. Have a look at the video on this page for some insight or more motivation: www.plan-uk.org

There are many charities for kids out there: www.children.org, www.sos-childrensvillages.org, www.worldvision.org and www.unicef.org.

Thank you!

Hot summer nights on xmas eve, hanging out with sharks and kangaroos on the beach, even more exotic animals in the outback, no snow and no freezing your ass off, a new socialist government … some people have all the luck!

Damn you Australia!

Giving your kids a pet will make them happy and teach them lesson for life. Anyone ever asked those dogs, cats, hamsters, mice or whatever if they want to be abused by ignorant kids so they learn how to treat humans? It is highly unfair to train humans on animals how to behave with other humans.