How tiring!

30 years ago we may not have had internet at the push of a button but education was still there to inform about sex – Form one and form two had kids aged eleven and twelve respectively and those were the specific years where students, at the time, were taught about the birds and the bees in full detail.

This aside, information circled around magazines which many parents used to buy to bind in books – ‘the Book of Life’ was a special edition in the late 70’s and early 80’s and there’s a lot on sex and sexual intercourse – most kids my age back then knew what sex was all about through the information available in books we had at home .

We were informed long before science class at school.

AIDS broke out in the late 70’s and early 80’s and the first filmstar to die as a result of HIV which led to his AIDS was Rock Hudson – he was gay.

A relative was in hospital in 1989 and the patient next door died of Aids – he was Maltese – a gay person who had multiple relationships with different men.

We knew that AIDS was acquired through a lot of sex with a lot of different partners.

We had teachers of different ages and sexes but an over friendliness with teachers was forbidden because it was simply not allowed. Kids from the other schools nearby used to come over to meet us but there were strict rules at our school – no kids from other schools were allowed in or anywhere near the school grounds – to avoid sex on the school premises.

In the 80’s Xandir Malta was full of films or rather a series of films that had a lot of sex as their main subject. I was not allowed to watch ‘The Thorn Birds’ for example – a film about forbidden sex between a priest and a young girl – but the children in my class were allowed to watch and I knew all about the film as they spoke about sex better than all of you youngsters look at it.

Many students in the late 80’s and early 90’s went through a work phase – they worked in summer before going to sixth form or university. Many a time, at the offices we were at, people would boast about the latest porn films they watched on video cassettes they’d pass to other employees.

The 80’s and 90’s weren’t internet focussed however the sex has always been there. The difference about it today is that you all seem to know nothing about it as your thinking clearly shows there’s no ounce of respect towards health, self-esteem and the human body.

Kids in the 80’s and 90’s knew a lot about sex and what’s more is that they had even learnt how to have confidence, self-esteem and self-respect – something which most of you don’t even know anything about.

Many of you do not have respect for yourselves and most of you lack respect for others. Your views on life is totally warped – how you dare talk about people being suicidal is beyond me. You can’t talk about life properly, how on earth can you philosophise about death and people you think are suicidal?

So how can you classify yourselves as mature?

You don’t believe he killed her because you don’t want to believe something so horrible is possible.

Tanti’s lies about what happened at Dingli cliffs should be enough to tell you what you don’t want to know. Why would anyone lie about jumping off a cliff and refuse to answer questions if the truth were on his side?

Yes. That was my impression too. He was found on a ledge some distance away after having gone down to look for her. The actual wording was “mhux eskluz illi…”

Spot on, Daphne. Today’s teens think that because they are more sexually aware then they are more mature.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Earlier generations, and I’m talking baby boomers here, married young, had children, educated themselves, held down steady jobs etc. when they were no older than the so-called teacher of Lisa-Marie.

Many of today’s ‘youngsters’ of that age nowadays are still ‘screwing around’ (no pun intended) with banal activities to ‘find themselves.’

What I remember hearing was it being said that “iz-zewg zghazagh instabu fl-irdum ta’ Had-Dingli, imma sfortunatament, it-tfajla ttellghat mejta”. I believe it was Ruth Amaira reading the news that day.

I do not recall hearing that Tanti walked down a footpath, but I do recall my first reaction about him, that he did not fall/jump and survive, because it was impossible, especially since he was on a boulder quite a way away from the cliff. I was, in fact, quite surprised to read shortly afterwards that foul play was ruled out, because probable vital evidence would have been overlooked at the crime scene.

Speaking as 16 year old here.

‘You know, because a 15-year-old today apparently acts older than a 15-year-old of the past.’

Yes, quite frankly they do. We now have shocking images and videos at our fingertips, and inevitably we push ourselves to mature faster, and it’s unfortunately a natural occurrence too.

Fact of the matter is, a 15 year old nowadays has a lot more in common with a 23 year old than 30/40 years ago. You can all deny it, and call me a child with a flawed view on things, however just because I’m looking at things from another side doesn’t mean that my side is any less valuable than yours.

I await the patronizing comments.

[Daphne – I won’t patronise you, but I will state the obvious. Unlike you, who have experience only of one lot of 15-year-olds (yours), ancient people like me have experience of several batches of 15-year-olds, starting from when we were 15 in 1980. And you are quite, quite wrong: it is actually the opposite of what you said, and today’s 15-year-olds are much, much less grown-up and mature than yesterday’s. In fact, every generation of 15-year-olds is increasingly less mature and childish than the previous. In the not so distant past, when I was a child, 15-year-old girls married, had children and looked after them and their home. My generation of 15-year-olds were certainly not treated as children. That was because we were largely expected to fend for ourselves from much earlier than that. Our mothers didn’t drive, so we got around by bus from the age of 9 (or walked), we looked after our younger siblings, we entertained ourselves, and our parents considered anything to do with school or homework to be no concern of theirs, but ours and the school’s. But over the years, excessive sheltering and vastly decreased freedom and independence has kept teenagers extremely childish. You are a case in point: your comment reveals the mental and emotional age of 13, not 16.]

Did O. J. Simpson look like a murderer?

If you refer to De Haven’s paper (as republished in “Injury Prevention” in 2000 [free access]) the human body can withstand brief periods of deceleration of up to 200g (or 2000m/s/s.

If we use these numbers (v = 0, u = 28.28 m/s and a = -2000m/s/s) it means that Tanti’s deceleration happened over at the very least 0.4m. So, for Tanti to be alive, the rock he landed on would have to have an impression of his body at least 40cm deep. A real life Wile E Coyote.

As Jozef points out, at decelerations much above that you’re guaranteed to have “your insides explode”. What happens usually is that, with everything moving, your aorta (the big main artery coming out of the heart) comes under strain from various different angles. This essentially rips it apart. You bleed out instantly. This injury would be the result of the sudden deceleration itself and would happen even if there were no impact to speak of.