Shared posts

11 Mar 22:48

10 Items in the IKEA Kids Section You'll Want for Yourself

by Carrie McBride

Before I had kids, I would typically hightail it through the children's section of IKEA watching to be sure my toes didn't get squashed by a rocking moose. But with two kids at home, I now know my DUKTIGs from my LATTJOs and my FLISATS from my MAMMUTs. And, I can tell you, there are some good grownup finds in there that you might be overlooking. Let me show you a few...

READ MORE »

10 Jan 19:52

Already ‘Moderately Severe,’ Flu Season in U.S. Could Get Worse

by DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Fears of “Killer Aussie Flu” may be exaggerated, but this year’s predominant strain is the most dangerous, and the vaccine is a poor match for it.
10 Jan 19:10

2016 Election Map

I like the idea of cartograms (distorted population maps), but I feel like in practice they often end up being the worst of both worlds—not great for showing geography OR counting people. And on top of that, they have all the problems of a chloro... chorophl... chloropet... map with areas colored in.
06 Jan 15:30

House!

Ericka Clouther

Jeff's new house.



House!

06 Jan 15:22

Sold 1 copy on Amazon.com - Friday, January 3rd at 4pm

by admin@novelrank.com (Mario Lurig)
"We Were Flying to Chicago" by Kevin Clouther (Paperback) has sold 1 book on Amazon.com, Friday, Jan 3, 2014 at 4pm Pacific Time.
19 Dec 17:32

A brutally honest NYC tourism ad

by Joanna Goddard

I love New York, but it can be loud, dirty and gross. This NYC tourism ad written by comedian Daniel Hubbard made me laugh out loud.

P.S. 9 crazy things about NYC.

(Via Mashable)
19 Dec 14:22

Sold 1 copy on Amazon.com - Tuesday, December 17th at 5pm

by admin@novelrank.com (Mario Lurig)
"We Were Flying to Chicago" by Kevin Clouther (Paperback) has sold 1 book on Amazon.com, Tuesday, Dec 17, 2013 at 5pm Pacific Time.
19 Dec 14:22

Sold 1 copy on Amazon.com - Wednesday, December 11th at 5pm

by admin@novelrank.com (Mario Lurig)
"We Were Flying to Chicago" by Kevin Clouther (Paperback) has sold 1 book on Amazon.com, Wednesday, Dec 11, 2013 at 5pm Pacific Time.
19 Dec 14:22

Sold 1 copy on Amazon.com - Wednesday, December 4th at 5am

by admin@novelrank.com (Mario Lurig)
"We Were Flying to Chicago" by Kevin Clouther (Paperback) has sold 1 book on Amazon.com, Wednesday, Dec 4, 2013 at 5am Pacific Time.
25 Nov 22:35

Sales Rank of 116,833 on Amazon.com - Sunday, November 24th at 5pm

by admin@novelrank.com (Mario Lurig)
"We Were Flying to Chicago" by Kevin Clouther (Paperback) has a Sales Rank of 116,833 on Amazon.com, Sunday, Nov 24, 2013 at 5pm Pacific Time.
25 Nov 22:34

Sold 1 copy on Amazon.com - Sunday, November 24th at 5pm

by admin@novelrank.com (Mario Lurig)
"We Were Flying to Chicago" by Kevin Clouther (Paperback) has sold 1 book on Amazon.com, Sunday, Nov 24, 2013 at 5pm Pacific Time.
20 Nov 00:12

Mama’s Remedy

by SilhouettEtiquette
Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup

It’s flu season and the season for the debate about the effectiveness and safety of the annually changing flu vaccination, prescribed antiviral drugs and over-the-counter pain relievers. Unless you’re at a high risk of developing a flu complication (young children, pregnant women, older adults and people with chronic illness and weakened immune system), hominess is the best and safest way to let your flu fly away without subjecting yourself to any potential side effects.

So take your flu as an excuse to get cozy and snuggle in your blanket for a day or so in the cold weather and try to recharge body and mind generally! While fluid drinking is important to keep you well hydrated, there’s nothing that could replace mama’s go-to sick-day-food: the one and only magic chicken soup! It might not kill your virus right away but it surely comes with the best remedies that help your body fight the virus away: nourishment and love!

My mama’s chicken soup recipe

Ingredients (for 6 portions):

  • 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
  • 4 medium carrots cut in thin rounds
  • ½ cup of sushi or Egyptian rice
  • Spices for flavoring the chicken: 2-4 bay leaves, 1-2 cinnamon stick, ginger root, whole peppercorns, whole cloves and whole cardamoms
  • Water
  • Salt (optional)

Preparation Steps:

  1. Place chicken in saucepan. Add water to cover chicken.
  2. Bring to boil on medium-high heat or cook for 15-20 minutes until the chicken is no longer pink.
  3. Remove chicken form saucepan and wash it with cold water. Disregard boiling water.
  4. Add chicken, spices and cold water in saucepan and bring to boil again or cook for 15-20 minutes.
  5. Drain broth and keep it to be used as the soup fluid.
  6. Disregard spices and shred chicken into small pieces.
  7. Add broth and carrot to saucepan and bring to boil. Add shredded chicken and rice and let it cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy the warmth and the soothing flavors of this hearty soup…and get well soon!


06 Nov 22:31

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth

by Ericka
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy ChildHealthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If your baby is not a baby that just automatically sleeps wonderfully on its own, buy this book. It's a reference book that will last you until your child is 6 and take you through all different developmental stages in a child's sleep. If you're a new parent, you might want to consider buying it before you do everything wrong like I did.

View all my reviews
02 Nov 15:28

Kiernan Shipka, smiling like she knows she’s outdoing...



Kiernan Shipka, smiling like she knows she’s outdoing January Jones by like 500 points.

02 Nov 15:24

Friday Playlist: Hanging Out With Rory Gilmore

by Hazel

Who doesn’t want to hang with Rory Gilmore? She’s got everything: a rad mom, cool friends, dreamy boyfriends, and straight A’s. Here are 10 songs to help you Gilmore up your life.

Illustration by Minna.

Illustration by Minna.

02 Nov 00:25

Sold 1 copy on Amazon.com - Wednesday, October 30th at 2am

by admin@novelrank.com (Mario Lurig)
"We Were Flying to Chicago" by Kevin Clouther (Paperback) has sold 1 book on Amazon.com, Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 at 2am Pacific Time.
01 Nov 21:14

Winnie Fallon was a chicken for Halloween, and it was cute. The...



Winnie Fallon was a chicken for Halloween, and it was cute. The end. Babies are boring, but at least you can dress them up like chickens and take pictures of them.

01 Nov 21:09

Halloween 2013!

by Ericka
James didn't understand Halloween (or much of anything) the last two years. This year, however, thanks to some very Halloween-themed Disney cartoons, he was talking non-stop about bats, spiders, ghosts, and witches. He wished me a "Happy Halloween," on an almost daily basis. He talked about his pirate costume, and other costumes the cartoons were wearing. He heard "Trick-or-treat" a few times, but had no real sense of what that meant. Kevin played Halloween music for him to dance around to.

Costume Test 2013
James trying out his pirate costume before Halloween

It is November 1st now, and even though we have told him several times that Halloween is over, he continues to wish us a Happy Halloween, ask us to wear his costume, and ask to go trick-or-treating. It's going to be a long November.

Adding to his confusion is that he was lucky enough to get to celebrate Halloween twice this year. First, he spent Saturday afternoon in Arlington, Virginia with Jaime, Janice, Darren, and Fudgie, wearing his costume at a local kids' Halloween festival.

Halloween in Arlington 2013
Walking over with godmama Janice in Arlington, VA

Halloween in Arlington 2013
I just love him so much.

I didn't want to be creepy and photograph kids I didn't know, but here's James and his favorite dog Fudgie.

Halloween in Arlington 2013
Fudgie as a spider- James is showing him his parrot

We let him enjoy the playground in costume too, which resulted in some wear-and-tear on the costume. But whatever, pirates often look a little castaway.

Halloween in Arlington 2013
Pirate on the swing

Halloween in Arlington 2013
Digging for treasure in the sand pit

Halloween in Arlington 2013
Enjoying Janice's candy stash with Darren, Janice, and Jaime

Then on the actual day of Halloween, James got to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood for the first time ever! We had a little practice run before we left the house, asking him to say "Trick-or-treat!", take only one piece of candy, and say "Thank you," but that's a lot of steps and he didn't get the whole system correct at any of the houses we went to in our neighborhood. We ended up saying it for him mostly.

He loved every minute of it though, and he had no complaints about the number of houses we visited. His main issue was that he was able to take the candy himself and put it in his bag without assistance. This sometimes took forever, but he had a little fit if we tried to help.

Halloween 2013
Practice run at our place

Halloween 2013
The careful art of putting candy in your bag

Halloween 2013
Heading out

Halloween 2013
James really enjoyed the decorations.

We lost his hat from Saturday, but since I used to be huge into Halloween myself, I had another hat from my costume in 2006. Kevin said, "It's a little disorienting that last time I saw this hat it was on a sexy pirate girl."

Halloween 2013
James leading the charge.

Halloween 2013
So cute, his bag hardly has anything in it but it's "too heavy"

He still didn't totally "get" candy. While he was pleased checking out and counting his little stash when he got home, he seemed to think the pieces of candy were actually toys. He understood the popcorn, pretzels, and the lollipop from past experience, but the chocolate was mostly a mystery, and his favorite item was a Halloween-themed Ziplock baggie.

Halloween 2013
Checking out his candy haul

Halloween 2013
Fell asleep early but didn't want to give up his lollipop before bed!

Happy Halloween from the 3.5 Clous!

See James's first Halloween 2011 and the Hurricane Sandy Halloween 2012.




25 Oct 23:23

Protect Infants from Whooping Cough by Vaccinating Older Kids

Whooping cough, also called pertussis, can cause fatal respiratory failure in infants. Now a study finds that one way to help protect the very young from this disease is vaccination--of kids a few years older than the babies.  

[More]
25 Oct 01:10

Pumpkin Patch









Pumpkin Patch

13 Oct 20:20

Photo



13 Oct 20:20

The Texas scramble

by Jody Brady
Between the closed national parks and a wet cold front heading straight for Santa Fe and Taos, we dropped our planned itinerary and headed south to the sun. While we didn't fall in love with El Paso, we found something wonderful down the road...
In the middle of the Chiuahuan Desert east of El Paso, four massive piles of rock rise from the desert floor, the legacy of a lava flow some 35,000 years ago. The pock-mocked rocks collect what water falls in the dessert and for centuries, the basins (or huecos) have drawn animals and people to the site.

The largest basin lies at the base of the rocks in what is now Hueco Tanks State Park.
But all along the rocks, you find smaller pools like this one...
...that quench the thirst of critters large and small:
Signs of of the people who used live among the rocks can still be seen in graphics drawn under ledges of the granite.

Here's Bill hunts for one of the pictograph sites:
And here's one we came across under another ledge:
Besides offering primo pictograph hunting, Hueco Tanks is a rock scrambling paradise. While much of the park is open only to guided tours, one section is a boulder free-for-all beloved by skilled rock climbers, plus people like us. Here, I'm climbing up to where the real fun starts.
We climbed on the rocks, under the rocks, around the rocks....
Harder than any of the bouldering, though, was tearing ourselves away to keep moving on down the road.


08 Oct 13:01

Cruising through California

by Jody Brady
Ericka Clouther

Jodie is copying me.

Reluctantly leaving the redwoods behind, we headed for the coast. Our cliffside campsite (at Westport Union Landing State Beach) had a lovely view:
We drove down the coast to Mendocino for a hike through the narrow state park that wraps around the town on three sides.
Heading inland from Mendocino, we stopped to hydrate at Anderson Valley Brewing Company -- recommended to us by Mr. Matt Brady. We recommend the Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout.
A drive through wine country included a stop at Maple Creek Winery, where gregarious vintner-artist Thomas Rodrigues entertained us as he poured his vintages. (The labels feature his work.)
A day of driving (and camping at a KOA in Middle-of-Nowhere, California) brought us to Pasadena, where we visited with Bill's brother Pat. We recovered from an unintended bike ride up a mountain (Pat kept claiming he knew where we were going) at a fine brew pub in "Old Pas." 
Then it was back to the coast for some beach time and a visit with our dear friend Erika. We made some other friends while in town:
It was time to start the journey east--but not before we stopped in to get inspired by the homes competing in the Solar Decathlon outside Irvine. We've seen the Decathlon in Washington, DC, where it had been held biennially until this year, so it seemed only right that they decided to host it this year right where and when we could visit while in California. Some day, maybe we'll have a house like this:
Another Matt Brady recommendation was much appreciated when we knew to stop next in Palm Springs, where Marilyn greeted us:
We took a spin around town on the Bromptons to see some of the mid-century modern architectural gems. Then it was time to ride the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, a 2-mile journey in a rotating (!) tram car up 6,000 feet to Mount San Jacinto State Park, where we climbed even higher as we hiked the Round Valley trail.
Blythe is supposedly a town at the eastern edge of California (maybe we missed something?) and that is where the sun set on our last night in California.

08 Oct 12:57

Is NFL’s Change Of Heart On Concussions Genuine Or Just Brand-Protection?

by Chris Morran

13 years of research by the NFL resulted in this 2007 pamphlet that said multiple concussions may not be bad for you.

13 years of research by the NFL resulted in this 2007 pamphlet that said multiple concussions may not be bad for you.

In 1994, then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue responded to growing concerns about concussions and brain injury by saying it was a case of mass hysteria resulting from “pack journalism.” What’s followed is two decades of the country’s most popular professional sports league saying it was researching the topic while being accused by some in the medical community of trying to quash evidence of a correlation between playing football and degenerative brain disease.

This ever-evolving battle is the subject of a new Frontline episode that premieres tonight on PBS called League of Denial: The NFL’S Concussion Crisis, which had originally been a co-venture with ESPN before the sports network pulled its support of the documentary back in August.

ONSIDE KICK
In an effort to demonstrate that the league wanted to resolve the question of the relationship between concussions and long-term health issues for players, Tagliabue created the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee, headed by rheumatologist Dr. Elliot Pellman, a team physician for the NY Jets, who shared the Commissioner’s belief that concussions were not a serious problem, but who was also not an expert in neurology nor had any background in brain research.

“If you’re going to put together a blue-ribbon committee to study brain trauma, it should have as its chair somebody who has that as a background,” contends neurosurgeon Dr. Robert Cantu of Boston University, who was the Sports Medicine section editor of the journal Neurosurgery when MTBI first began publishing the results of its research.

He tells Frontline that, at the time, he objected to publishing these papers, but that his boss — who also happened to work for the NY Giants — insisted the research be published in the journal.

Some choice conclusions from those papers…
On the safety of going back into a game after a concussion:

“Players who are concussed and return to the same game have fewer initial signs and symptoms than those removed from play. Return to play does not involve a significant risk of a second injury either in the same game or during the season.”

On the long-term effects (or lack thereof) from concussions:

“[T]he results of this present study support the authors’ previous work, which indicated that there was no evidence of worsening injury or chronic cumulative effects of MTBIs in NFL players.”

Advice for dealing with younger athletes, even though MTBI had not studied effects of concussion on players below the pro level:

[I]t might be safe for college/high school football players to be cleared to return to play on the same day as their injury. The authors suggest that, rather than blindly adhering to arbitrary, rigid guidelines, physicians keep an open mind to the possibility that the present analysis of professional football players may have some relevance to college and high school players.”

“They were making comments that were greatly at odds with prospective, double-blind studies done at the college and the high-school level,” says Cantu. “They just weren’t’ finding the same things, and that just didn’t make sense to anyone that’s a scientist.”

THE AUTOPSY HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD
While MTBI was ramping up its work, Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steeler center Mike Webster was sinking into a morass of bizarre behavior and early onset dementia.

“He was supergluing teeth back into his head,” one of Webster’s sons tells Frontline. “I think dad’s the only person who could have a medical problem like that and decide to fix it with superglue.”

Despite nearly two decades in the NFL, nine Pro Bowl appearances, and an astounding four Super Bowl rings, Webster eventually ended up living in his truck and behaving erratically.

While he could still manage, Webster sought out legal assistance in 2000 to file a 100-page disability claim with the NFL. He was ultimately successful, even though the NFL insisted on hiring an outside physician to verify the claims made by the four doctors who had signed Webster’s claim. Sadly, Webster died not long afterward, in Sept. 2002, at the age of 50.

Medical examiner Dr. Bennet Omalu took one look Webster’s beaten, ravaged body and assumed that he’d find equally visible damage when he looked at the football great’s brain.

“I was expecting to see a brain with Alzheimer’s Disease features,” recalls Omalu. “But upon opening his skull, Mike’s brain looked… normal.”

Omalu felt compelled to figure out how on Earth this man could exhibit Alzheimer’s-like symptoms but have a brain that ostensibly looked okay.

“I saw changes that shouldn’t be in a 50-year-old man’s brain, and also changes that shouldn’t be in a brain that looks normal,” says the doctor. “I was convinced this was something.”

A peek under the microscope showed results that would shake the NFL for years to come: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a disease that had previously not been identified in the brains of NFL players.

SACKING THE PATHOLOGIST
CTE is a progressive, degenerative brain disease, resulting from repetitive trauma to the brain, that can have disastrous effects on a person’s memory, mood, and behavior. It can be diagnosed post-mortem by staining sections of the brain and identifying distinctive clustering of tau proteins.

Dr. Omalu consulted with several colleagues to confirm his finding. The doctors then published a paper on the case in Neurosurgery, the same journal where MTBI had published its research.

The implication, even from this one case of CTE found in a former football player was potentially damning to the NFL’s stance that concussions posed no long-term threat to players. But rather than just let this one paper about one player be published and forgotten about, the MTBI fired back with a vicious letter published in the pages of Neurosurgery.

Dr. Pellman and other members of the MTBI committee wrote that Omalu’s claims of finding of CTE in Webster’s brain tissue “are based on a complete misunderstanding of the relevant medical literature on [CTE] in boxers,” and that “there is inadequate clinical evidence that [Mike Webster] had a chronic neurological condition, a traumatically induced brain condition, or, in fact, a clinical encephalopathy.”

“They went after Dr. Omalu with a vengeance,” says ESPN’s Peter Keating. “They publicly said he should retract his findings… They basically told him to go away and never come back.”

Adds Pulitzer-winning journalist Steve Fainaru, “You don’t try to get a paper retracted unless there’s evidence of fraud or plagiarism or something like that.”

“The NFL has had this strategy of going nuclear every time it goes to court,” says Keating, “because the first time you ever lose, you open up the floodgates to potential billions of dollars of damage.”

GOING FOR TWO
In 2005, Terry Long, another former Steelers offensive lineman committed suicide by drinking antifreeze. He was only 45. Omalu tested Long’s brain for CTE and it also came up positive.

“When I saw Terry Long’s case, I became convinced that this was not just a statistical anomaly,” says the doctor.

Another paper in Neurosurgery followed, with more nasty pushback from the NFL MTBI committee.

“They insisted I was not practicing medicine, I was practicing voodoo,” recalls Omalu, who says that MTBI refused to meet with him, but that he did meet privately with one NFL team doctor to review slides of the two brains.

“Do you know the implications of what you are doing?” Omalu says the team doctor asked him. “He said ‘If ten percent of mothers in this country would begin to perceive football as a dangerous sport, that is the end of football.’”

Former Steelers neurosurgeon Dr. Julian Bailes says he was eventually won over by Omalu’s research.

“I didn’t want to believe it myself,” Bailes admits. “It was a hard message, a bad message, but it appeared to be true.”

THE REPLACEMENT
In 2006, Tagliabue handed the Commissioner’s chair over to current commish Roger Goodell, who soon removed Dr. Pellman as head of MTBI and promoted an actual neurologist, Dr. Ira Casson, to head MTBI. But Dr. Casson was, at least publicly, even more staunch than Pellman in his denial of a link between head trauma and long-term health problems.

Casson’s most infamous appearance came during an interview on HBO’s Real Sports:

PASS INTERFERENCE
In the summer of 2007, Goodell and Casson hosted a summit in Chicago on the topic of CTE and its possible link to football. And while not everyone in attendance was of the same mind as the league, the Commissioner had deliberately omitted Dr. Omalu — the one who lit this fire — from the invite list.

However, former Steelers doctor Bailes was invited, and he’d since joined forces with Omalu to work together on CTE research.

By this point, Omalu and Bailes had found CTE in the brains of another former Steelers offensive lineman, Justin Strzelczyk, who was only 36 when he died in a car crash while in the throes of what he believed was bipolar disorder; and former Eagle Andre Waters, who had committed suicide in 2006 at the age of 44.

“It wasn’t met with any broad acceptance, to say the least,” says Bailes of his presentation to the group. “There was skepticism, there was dismissiveness on [Casson's] part. There was great doubt.”

NY Times reporter Alan Schwarz was on hand for the summit.

“There was clearly, among the NFL committee, a steadfast belief that this is not a problem, you guys don’t know how to do research the way we do, and thank you for coming.”

“Anecdotes do not make scientifically valid evidence,” Casson explained to reporters at the time. “I’m a man of science; I believe in empirically determined scientifically valid data and that is not scientifically valid data… In my opinion, the only scientifically valid evidence of a chronic encephalopathy in athletes is in boxers and in some steeplechase jockeys.”

So what came out of all of this? A pamphlet, titled “What Is a Concussion?”, that was handed out to players before the start of the 2007 season.

It included the following gem:
Q: If I have had more than one concussion, am I at increased risk for another injury?
A: Current research with professional athletes has not shown that having more than one or two concussions leads to permanent problems if each injury is managed properly.

BRAINS AND BRAWN
Chris Nowinski played football at Harvard and then went on to wrestle professionally, getting his bell rung on more than one occasion. He’s now concerned that he might have CTE and is doing what he can to help the research cause — wrangling brains for Boston University researcher Dr. Ann McKee and her team.

One of the brains gathered by Nowinski was that of another Ivy League bruiser, Tom McHale.

McHale had gone to Cornell then played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In retirement, he began exhibiting new, erratic behaviors and spiraled down into drug addiction, ultimately dying of an overdose in 2008 at the age of 45.

Like other players with similar post-career symptoms, tests on McHale’s brain showed the tell-tale signs of CTE.

At the Super Bowl festivities in January 2009, Nowinski, Dr. McKee, and McHale’s widow Lisa held a press conference to present their evidence linking CTE to football.

“He is now the sixth confirmed case of CTE among former NFL players,” said Ms. McHale. “And bearing in mind that only six former NFL players have been examined for CTE, I find these results to be not only incredibly significant but profoundly disturbing.”

While the press conference was sparsely attended — certainly in comparison to the press-fest going on across the street at the actual Super Bowl — it did result in an invite for McKee to present her research to the NFL.

THROWING THE CHALLENGE FLAG
“I’m up against a lot of doubters,” says Dr. McKee of her trip to NFL HQ, “a lot of people who don’t think any of this holds any water.”

Objections to her research basically fell into two categories.
1. Causation — While every NFL player brain tested for CTE had thus far tested positive, researchers had not proven a causal link between football and the disease.
2. Prevalence — Given that nearly 1,700 players are active in the NFL at any given time and that researchers had only tested a very small sample of former players’ brains, it was impossible to extrapolate these results to the entire NFL population.

“We’ve seen only those that are having trouble, and we know there are thousands out there roaming around that are not having problems,” explains Henry Feuer, doctor for the Indianapolis Colts and a former MTBI committee member.

Others siding with the NFL on this issue point out that many of the players shown to have had CTE also had other health concerns like steroid and substance abuse, which may or many not have factored into the cause of the disease.

DISPUTABLE PROOF
In 2009, the NFL commissioned a survey of former NFL players’ health issues. It wasn’t supposed to be made public, but someone leaked it to the Times’ Schwarz.

The survey asks respondents — who could also be a former players’ loved one — if the player had ever been diagnosed with “dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, or other memory-related disease.”

“What it showed was that former NFL players seem to have memory-related disorders at a much-much higher rate than people in the regular community,” says neuropsychologist Robert Stern.

The NFL publicly dismissed the very study it commissioned, saying that there were no formal diagnoses of dementia in the survey and that the scientific validity of the results was subject to the shortcomings of a telephone survey.

UNDER REVIEW
Later that year, Goodell was hauled before Congress to answer questions on the link between football-related trauma and brain disease. In a misguided attempt at deflection, the Commissioner chose to not give his personal opinion on the matter, instead repeatedly stating that the scientists were better equipped to respond.

The similarity between his empty responses and those given by tobacco executives more than a decade earlier was not lost on members of Congress or the media.

Following the fumble in Washington, Goodell did his best to brush off the stink by removing Casson as MTBI head, forming a new committee with actual brain experts in charge, instituting new safety guidelines, oh — and donating $1 million to the Boston University CTE Center where Dr. McKee works.

The NFL also made the BU Center the “preferred brain bank of the NFL, giving the researchers there even more access to the brains of deceased former players.

YOUTH LEAGUES
In 2010, McKee investigated the brain of Owen Thomas, a 21-year-old U.Penn football player who had unexpectedly committed suicide. But consiering Thomas had no history of diagnosed concussions, McKee wasn’t expecting to find any indication of CTE.

The concern with the Thomas case isn’t just that he was so young, but that perhaps his CTE was a result of the everyday, non-concussion collisions that are just part of playing football.

“Most people are keyed in on the big hit, but the little mini-concussions are just as dangerous because you might be sustaining six to ten, a dozen, of these hits during the course of a game,” says former NY Giant Harry Carson. “If you’re going up against top-flight players who are able to perfect those skills of hitting you upside the head… it’s one of those things, at some point you’re gonna pay for it down the line.”

Nowinski believes the NFL’s apparent inability to admit a link between football and CTE is having an impact on players of all ages.

“As long as the NFL dismissed this, that meant that parents were signing their kids up believing that there was no risk,” he explains. “That wasn’t fair to those kids or those parents, but especially those kids.”

SEAU’S FINAL IMPACT
When former San Diego Charger Junior Seau committed suicide in 2012, Dr. Omalu says he made a verbal agreement with the late player’s son to collect and research the brain.

But then the NFL told the son about its misgivings regarding the doctor and the son chose instead to donate his late father’s brain to the National Institutes of Health. The NIH later confirmed CTE in Seau’s brain, while also receiving a $30 million donation from the NFL.

One can easily look at this end result and say that it doesn’t matter who got to test Seau’s brain since the result still came back positive for CTE, but some believe this was a deliberate move on the part of the NFL to A) keep the brain out of the hands of vocal critics like Omalu and McKee, and B) give the NFL an opportunity to forge a high-profile relationship with NIH that may be friendlier to the organization’s brand-protection concerns.

“The NFL wants to come off as forward-looking,” says Keating. “The NFL wants to keep pushing these questions into the future… Make it seem like these questions that still need to be resolved are things the league is working with doctors and researchers on.”

Meanwhile, Omalu says the entire experience of the last decade has made him regret trying to bring CTE to the public’s attention.

“I wish I never met Mike Webster,” he admits. “CTE has dragged me into the politics of science, the politics of the NFL. You can’t go against the NFL, they’ll squash you.”

VICTORY FORMATION
Finally, the NFL recently settled with thousands of former NFL players over allegations that it deliberately hid the dangers of long-term damage to players. The plaintiffs had originally asked for around $2 billion, but the proposed settlement is $765 million, about one-third of what ESPN pays the league to run Monday Night Football each season.

On the one hand, it does provide the plaintiffs with some money and the public may feel like the league has atoned for past sins. But at the same time, the NFL admits no wrongdoing in the settlement and it avoids having to go to trial, where league executives, coaches, doctors, and owners would have had to testify under oath.

“I don’t think we needed a trial to know the NFL conducted a lot of shoddy research,” says Keating. “What the trial would have done was bring out that evidence.”

The Frontline episode begins airing tonight, Oct. 8, on PBS. It will also be available for streaming on PBS.org, which also has a lot of supplemental material.


07 Oct 20:15

Foods toxins that can cause cervical, liver cancer

Mexican scientists identified and quantified the amount of aflatoxins (carcinogenic) in food such as corn tortilla, rice, chili pepper, processed sauces, chicken breast and eggs, and revealed its relationship with cervical and liver cancer in humans.
07 Oct 11:52

Sales Rank of 26,612 on Amazon.com - Sunday, October 6th at 5pm

by admin@novelrank.com (Mario Lurig)
"We Were Flying to Chicago" by Kevin Clouther (Paperback) has a Sales Rank of 26,612 on Amazon.com, Sunday, Oct 6, 2013 at 5pm Pacific Time.
03 Oct 20:06

Adventures in babysitting

by Jody Brady
 It's not as though we didn't see some rather amazing sights on our drive west, but nothing tops what we saw in Seattle: the Smith family, plus Matt! Our arrival in town coincided with the end of Matt's visit.
On the same day that Matt headed back to Pennsylvania, Dan and Kelly followed him to the airport to attend a wedding in North Carolina.

Henry and Eloise were the consummate host and hostess in their parents' absence. Eloise taught her "kids" (that would be us) how to dance at the many weddings she staged. We tried to follow her fashion cues, but who can match her wedding style?
Henry showed us his best moves as he worked on learning to roll over (here sporting his fine Peter Rabbit suit):
We saw the best of Seattle's playgrounds:
We shared Henry's zen-like state of being.
(Though random appearances of Eloise's "baby" appeared to shake up his world a bit...)
We had our vitals monitored by the junior doctor in residence:
We got art lessons from a master: 
We enjoyed the last days of summer with someone who knows how to rock a bikini:
Then Mommy and Daddy returned and convinced us they wanted us to stay on a few more days. Even with that, two weeks in Seattle were not enough.
03 Oct 20:05

Living in a van down by the river

by Jody Brady
We left Seattle in a mist and drove to Oregon in a torrent. So, we skipped the slow road down the coast and hoped to drive out of the weather. It didn't happen. We gave up on the idea by the time we reached Eugene, a.k.a. "Brew-gene", where we knew we could drown our soggy sorrows. 

Needing a place to stay near the breweries, we consulted AirBnB and came up with...a van very nearly down by the Willamette river. (If you're not familiar with this Chris Farley SNL classic....) Yep, we squeezed into this VW for a sleep in someone's driveway. (Now we want one!)
Our favorite of the local breweries: Oakshire. But Hop Valley was pretty pleasing, as well:

And the waiter at Ninkasi was frightfully good.
Best suds of the night, though, were at a warm (!), friendly hangout, Sam Bond's Garage. We lingered over stouts and dinner with a Celtic jam session to entertain us. If you go to Eugene, go there!

Didn't get away from the Oregon rain till we got away from Oregon. But at least we got this farewell rainbow just before crossing to California.




15 Sep 17:16

The Old Are Working, but Not the Young

by By FLOYD NORRIS
People over 60 are more likely to have jobs than at any time in at least three decades. But younger workers are still having trouble finding jobs.
15 Sep 17:14

The Rich Get Richer Through the Recovery

by By ANNIE LOWREY
A study shows that the top 1 percent of earners took more than one-fifth of the country’s total income in 2012, one of the highest levels recorded.