UPDATE, well it appears that even if my sons wanted to circumnavigate the globe if they learned how to sail...they won't be able to...my wife spoke.  ;)

Interesting debate on the validity of allowing a 16 year old to circumnavigate the globe.  I am erring on the side of 'more power to her'.  Renee, Fastyellow and a few others have great points that I am in agreement with. There were a few good points on the other side of the argument though. I am a parent and can only hope that my child has half of her zeal for adventure/hobby as those are usually good indicators of how they will do as adults in life. Teenagers these days are losing a lot of that passion and becoming social-tethered zombies.  Though I'm sure my parents were saying the same thing when I was a teenager.  Pretty much all of them are tied to cell phones, TV or video games.  Those things were tightly regulated in my house as a kid so I had the 'time' to put a lot of heart into a few hobbies which I think has contributed greatly to the person I am today.  I actually had time to think!

There is so much focus on cell phones and social networking stuff today for middle schoolers and highschoolers (not to mention TV and video games) that many of them are caught up into this time warp that they can't get out of.  That's not life.  It's a kind of like living in suspended animation. Focused on keeping up with everyone else except yourself. One can't really get immersed in any passions with the constant distraction of texting, phones, etc.  Middleschool and highschool are formative years.  In retrospect highschool is the time to fall in love with a few hobbies and pursue them to the ends of the earth as when it's time to become an adult, those pursuits will bring a lot more to the table contributing to you as an individual.  Today's society allows this less and less.  There is no benefit to an individual to follow every update, tweet and text of all of your friends.  If anything it negatively impacts your life as it's taking time away from doing things that will really help you become what you want to be.  You just can't really get immersed in something if you phone is bleeping every 5 or 10 minutes.

It's transitioning to a lot of adults too that I see - where the parents should just stop the texting, shut the phone off and play with their kids.  People don't have time to just 'think' anymore without the endless need for electronic social diversions.

I am not an anti-futurist, I embrace technology and realize that 'things change'.  But I do have a strong 'Walden' side to me - self reliance and eliminating societal distractions that don't contribute.  So when this 16 year old does this, I applaud her as a lot of great traits can come out of being an accomplished sailor at that age. It sounds as if she was more prepared than even most sailors.  I would love to teach my kids sailing...if we lived near water.  It teaches a very independent spirit.

Off day.  On another note, if we happened to 'lose' the oceans, human civilization would die.  Oceans are the primary producer of oxygen....and since we are cutting down everything that stands on land...the oceans are all that is left to produce oxygen, something that we all understand that we need.  So why isn't the cleanup/containment treated for the oil spill treated more aggressively...like the 2 wars we are dumping $$$ into?  Not only is oil coming out by the millions of gallons but also possibly toxic, untested dispersant INTO THE ONLY RESOURCE THAT ENABLES US TO LIVE!  The outcome of our current two wars will pale to any outcome of limiting the ocean of the animals (algea/planktons) that produce life-sustaining O2.

My wife has noted that there is no environmental outcry from various groups begin reported on the major networks...and AC360 would definitely have them on if so.  How come?  Do we really take the oceans for granted?