Run away from the gaming console

With all the advantages of modern life come some major downsides. One problem suspected for years is now officially confirmed, and on a global scale: Today’s kids are less fit than the previous generation.

An analysis of research conducted among 25 million children in 28 countries from 1964 to 2010 found that today’s children could run neither as far nor as fast as their counterparts 30 years ago.

With entertainment that keeps American kids glued to the TV, computer screen, gaming device or smart phone, this is the most sedentary generation of children in U.S. history. But it’s not too late for Generation Couch Potato: Step away from the screen and go outside to play.

Council lets sleeping half-measures lie

Well-intentioned though it might have been, another toothless law claiming to not target homelessness is not what Oahu needs.

So mercifully, the Honolulu City Council has shelved a bill that would have banned people from lying down on sidewalks. Councilman Stanley Chang repeatedly insisted that his bill was not targeting the homeless and would apply to anyone who lies on the sidewalk. His colleagues, though, called that claim disingenuous because, as Councilman Breene Harimoto pointedly said, “Who else is lying down on the sidewalks? I just think we need to be honest.”

And really, how effective would such a measure be, given that the city is barely making headway despite a sidewalk-clearing stored-property law? It’s futile creating laws if the will to enforce them lags.