Amazing news stories that don't quite deserve a thread

[Matt_W]

Holy Sh*t! Honnold and Caldwell Go Sub-2 on El Cap's Nose

[somini]

Florine himself fell 100 feet on the route a couple of months ago and broke both of his legs

30 meters fall leads to two broken legs? I think this is more impressive than climbing 1 km in 2 hours.

[Matt_W]

30 meters fall leads to two broken legs? I think this is more impressive than climbing 1 km in 2 hours.

Actually this was a mixup on my part. Florine only fell about 5 meters to break his legs. It was Quinn Brett who fell 30 meters last year, and she is paralyzed from the waist down. Honnold and Caldwell climbed 3 km in 2 hours, not 1 km:) That said, multiple groups are on this climb every day. Hundreds of ascents per year, mostly without incident. It’s dangerous, but with care probably no more so than other extreme sports: skiing, racecar driving, etc. Note: what Honnold, Caldwell and other speed climbers are doing is not what I’d call “taking care”. They’re simulclimbing, placing minimal protection, setting up ruthlessly efficient anchor/belays only when required, aiding on sketchy fixed gear, etc.

[somini]

Quinn Brett who fell 30 meters last year, and she is paralyzed from the waist down.

But survived! That’s 10 floors. I live on the 7th and get vertigo if look down a window

Honnold and Caldwell climbed 3 km in 2 hours, not 1 km:)

Damn imperial lengths!

[BillButNotBen]

But survived! That’s 10 floors. I live on the 7th and get vertigo if look down a window

If you think that’s impressive, you should try 10,160m. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulović
I was watching a bit of a tv show on parachute accidents last week and there was at least one other incident where someone’s parachute didn’t open and their either walked away or just broke their legs.

Falling on El Capitan is likely to result in landing on a very hard surface though.

[LexW]

There was an attempted murder case in the UK were the victim fell 1200m (her parachutes had been tampered with) and just broke some bones (nothing permanent, as it were), but that was on to very soft, spring-y ground, apparently.

[Matt_W]

Damn imperial lengths!

You know what? You were right; I was the one who got the imperial lengths wrong.

[somini]

I was the one who got the imperial lengths wrong

Don’t sweat it, even literal rocket scientists get is wrong. It’s just too damn confusing.

[BillButNotBen]

Yeah, that was one of the ones.
The so called “soft and springy ground” didn’t look that soft and springy to me though… especially not after 1200m. 10m perhaps…

[LordBolton86]

I don’t know how to put up a news story here. So, here it is

Dad's Fortnite warning after discovering son, 12, spent almost £700 in just...

[Thermal_Ions]

I guess he’ll just have to own his mistake. Seems fair.

[LexW]

Yeah maybe don’t give your kid your credit card details and then totally not monitor his usage of it? You can’t expect “anti-fraud software” to stop that. If it stopped that, you’d basically never be able to spend money online, and the same dad would be whinging about how the “anti-fraud software” keeps wasting his time and locking his card.

Plus the kid is 12 not 10 or 8. He knew perfectly well what he was doing. Just make sure he gets no birthday or Xmas presents from his parents for the next year and he’ll remember.

[EPICTHEFAIL]

Yeah maybe don’t give your kid your credit card details and then totally not monitor his usage of it? You can’t expect “anti-fraud software” to stop that. If it stopped that, you’d basically never be able to spend money online, and the same dad would be whinging about how the “anti-fraud software” keeps wasting his time and locking his card.

This is why I cannot sympathise with anyone in these sorts of “my kid spent exty bazillion dollars in a game” stories. Like, this could all have been avoided if you had just had some personal responsibility and maybe hadn’t entrusted your money to someone you knew for a fact was incapable of having the impulse control to use it responsibly. You should be eating a complete concrete mixer full of humble pie, not issuing these moronic “warnings”.

[LexW]

Yeah, I mean I think there are limits, to be honest. What used to happen on iOS, but I believe they’ve corrected, was clearly crossing a line where being responsible wasn’t quite enough, because games had ways to basically trigger spending without making it clear that it was going on, and without real permission, and were aimed at kids too young to understand. But that stuff has mostly been locked down in various ways.

This, however, is an adult giving an older kid his credit card, to a play a game that’s just barely acceptable for his age rating (PEGI 12), where you can play the game completely without spending a single penny, which the kid knows and the adult should know - so either his kid lied to him, or he just didn’t bother to check the “Hey dad I want to spend pocket money on this game but I need a credit card” angle.

Again this kid is fucking 12. This isn’t even a P2W game. The only things you can buy are cosmetics and the Battle Pass/Premium Battle Pass - but literally the physically most you can spend on the Premium Battle Pass is $25, once per season. So this kid spend basically £680+ quid on cosmetics. So he’s a real little bastard, because that’s not a “couple of cool outfits and a bunch emotes”, that’s like “a very large fraction of all the things you can even buy”.

So this is purely in “You’re an idiot.” territory.

[EPICTHEFAIL]

So this is purely in “You’re an idiot.” territory.

Not to mention “you might want to engage with your kid so he doesn’t grow up to be a complete wanker” territory. Spending 700 pounds of your father’s money on clothes, virtual or otherwise, is a very clear indicator that your conscience and sense of ethics might need a course correction.

[LordBolton86]

Kids these days are uncontrollable, I mean there’s no end to what they can do to you and if you stop them then they go ahead and bully their parents by telling them that they are going to call in and tell the cops. On the other hand, this case is a prime example of how irresponsible the parents can be. I mean gaming is good, but these kind of cases are the thing which have made the case of “gaming is addiction”.

[Matt_W]

Kids these days

are not substantially different than they have been for many decades. Parenting is somewhat different (i.e. more protective and involved, not less), but there have always been bad parents, and there have always been parents who make dumb mistakes (like all of them.) As a parent of a pre-teen, I’m far more willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the parent than it appears most of you are. Normally well-behaved kids can behave badly in public sometimes. And they can do things that are uncharacteristic and ill-advised, particularly on impulse. (I supposed none of you tried illegal drugs or had unprotected sex or roamed around town at 2 am getting into shit when you were teenagers.)

[theclockworkrat]

Kids these days are uncontrollable

Is the 86 your year of birth or your age?

[Matt_W]

Finally, some good news:

Missing Thai boys found alive in caves

[Sarfrin]

As a parent of a pre-teen, I’m far more willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the parent than it appears most of you are. Normally well-behaved kids can behave badly in public sometimes. And they can do things that are uncharacteristic and ill-advised, particularly on impulse.

Sure. That’s not the issue. The issue is that he’s trying to blame the bank for not stopping legitimate spending on a card not reported lost or stolen. rather than himself for leaving the details in a position where his impulsive son could abuse them. If my child was roaming round at 2am getting into shit I’d be looking at my parenting, not blaming bedroom window manufacturers for making them too easy to get out of.