Will Craigslist Drop Adult Ads After Plea From 17 State Attorney Generals?

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Posted on 31st August 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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After a murder, a suicide, two girls saying they had prostituted themselves via the site, and a plea by 17 state attorney generals, I am eager to see if Craigslist backs down. The issue is whether or not Craigslist will stop running “adult services” classified ads.

With much fanfare, the attorney generals in 17 states recently called for Craigslist to pull the adult ads. The state prosecutors ran their own ad in The Washington Post that included a letter from two girls who said that they sold sexual services on Craigslist.

 http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/25/craigslist.adult.content/index.html

The AGs also wrote their own letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark.

“The increasingly sharp public criticism of Craigslist’s Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution — including ads trafficking children — are rampant on it,” they wrote.

“We recognize that Craigslist may lose the considerable revenue generated by the Adult Services ads,” the letter said. “No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist.”

According to CNN,  Buckmaster blogged about the girl prostitutes, writing, “Craigslist is anxious to know that the perpetrators in these girls’ cases are behind bars.”

The AGs also cited a report CNN’s Amber Lyon, who posted a fake ad in the adult section and got 5 calls soliciting sex in three hours.

The AGs who wrote the letter to Craigslist are from Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

They made their plea days after accused “Craigslist killer” Philip Markoff committed suicide in jail. He was charged with the 2009 murder of Julissa Brisman. A model, Brisman ran an ad as a masseuse on Craigslist. Police believe that’s how  Markoff might her. 

In its defense, Craigslist has made changes to its adult services ads. In 2008, under the gun from prosecutors, the site increased its rate for running adult services ads. And in another gesture, in 2009, Craigslist began donating part of its revenue from adult ads to charity.

After the warning letter from the state AGs, Craigslist offered some platitudes about cooperating with authorities.

“We hope to work closely with them, as we are with experts at nonprofits and in law enforcement, to prevent misuse of our site in facilitation of trafficking, and to combat such crimes wherever they appear, online or offline,” a Craigslist spokeswoman told CNN. 

Craigslist also said that as a precaution it began manually screening adult services ads in May 2009, and that each individual ad is reviewed by an attorney. Those lawyers enforce Craigslist’s posting guidelines, “which are stricter than those typically used by yellow pages, newspapers, or any other company that we are aware of,” according to Buckmaster.

 It doesn’t sound like Craigslist is willing to pull the plug on its adult services ads yet. I think it should.

If a murder, a suicide, girl prostitutes and a plea from more than a dozen AGs can’t convince Craigslist to discontinue its adult ads, maybe some lawsuits from slain Brisman’s family, or the prosituted girls’ relatives, will make the website do the right thing. 

Children Sustaining More Sports-Related Concussions, Revised Kids’ Concussion Guidelines

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Posted on 30th August 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Young athletes are sustaining more sports-related c0ncussions, according to studies released Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/peds.2010-2005v1

The AAP found that emergency room visits for concussions for children eight to 13 had doubled from 1997 to 2007, and that concussions soared 200 percent among youths 14 to 19 during that same timeframe. 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/30/earlyshow/living/parenting/main6819078.shtml

 “The number of sport-related concussions is highest in high-school aged athletes, but the number in younger athletes is significant and on the rise,” the AAP said on its website.

http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/aug3010studies.htm#concussions“

In its study, “Emergency Department Visits for Concussion in Young Child Athletes,” in the September 2010 issue of Pediatrics, concussion-related emergency department (ED) visits were analyzed for patients between the ages of 8 and 19 years from 1997 to 2007.

From 2001 to 2005, U.S. children aged 8 to 19 years had an estimated 502,000 ED visits for concussion.

“Approximately half of all ED visits were sport-related concussions, and the 8- to 13-year-old age group accounted for 40 percent of these,” the AAP said. “ED visits for concussions in organized team sports were highest in ice hockey and football, and the most ED visits for concussion in individual and recreation sports were in snow skiing, bicycling, and playground activities.”

Even though organized team sport participation declined from 1997 to 2007, “ED visits for concussions in 8- to 13-year-olds doubled, and they more than doubled in the 14- to 19-year-old group,” the AAP said. “Study authors suggest that additional research and injury prevention strategies are needed in order to protect young athletes.”

On “The Early Show” on CBS Monday, medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said the concussion rate has jumped because more kids are involved in organized sports, the games are more intense and awareness of brain injury has increased.

The AAP also updated its guidelines on concussions in a new clinical report, “Sport-Related Concussion in Children and Adolescents,” in the September 2010 print issue of Pediatrics, published online today, Aug. 30.

“Young athletes are more susceptible to the effects of a concussion because their brains are still developing, and appropriate management is essential for reducing the risk of long-term complications,” the AAP said.

“Although preventing all concussions is unlikely, there are several ways to reduce the risk, including protective gear (such as helmets and mouth guards), adhering to the rules of the sport, identifying athletes at risk, and educating parents, teachers, athletes, school administrators and trainers about the dangers of concussions. Football has the highest incidence of concussion, but girls have higher concussion rates than boys in similar sports.”

Better understanding of the symptoms and risk of long-term complications have prompted the following recommendations from the AAP:

  • Children or adolescents who sustain a concussion should always be evaluated by a physician and receive medical clearance before returning to play.
  • After a concussion, all athletes should be restricted from physical activity until they are asymptomatic at rest and with exertion. Physical and cognitive exertion, such as homework, playing video games, using a computer or watching TV may worsen symptoms.
  • Symptoms of a concussion usually resolve in 7 to 10 days, but some athletes may take weeks or months to fully recover.
  • Neuropsychological testing can provide objective data to athletes and their families, but testing is just one step in the complete management of a sport-related concussion.
  • There is no evidence proving the safety or efficacy of any medication in the treatment of a concussion.
  • Retirement from contact sports should be considered for an athlete who has sustained multiple concussions, or who has suffered post-concussive symptoms for more than three months.

Task Force Recommends Creation of Military Suicide Office

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Posted on 27th August 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Even though the military has almost 900 suicide prevention programs at 400 installations around the globe, that system isn’t working to stop suicides by soldiers, according to a congressional report released this week.   

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/24/AR2010082406361.html

As suicides in the service are reaching an all-time high, the military needs better strategic planning at its suicide prevention programs, a task force created last year by Congress reported.

The report made 76 recommendations to Defense Secretary David Gates, with one of the main ones being that the Pentagon start an office to develop strategy and coordinate all the programs that the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps have, according to the Associated Press.

The repeated tours that the Army and Marines have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have token a high toll on our troops, with high suicide rates in those outfits. From 2005 to 2009 more than 1,100 members of the services habve taken their own lives.

The report was done by a panel of 14 civilian and military doctors and civilians who have been involved in suicide.

“The task force commends the armed forces for the suicide prevention initiatives it has undertaken and knows of no other employer that has focused as much attention and resources on suicide prevention,” the report said.

But it added that even with that effort, the disparate suicide prevention programs ”could benefit from re-engineering” and coordination.  

   

Give Your Brain A Rest While You’re Working Out: No iPods Or Cellphones

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Posted on 25th August 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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 As part of its series on “Your Brain on Computers,” The New York Times Wednesday did a story about why it’s not a good idea to bring an iPod to the gym while you’re running on the treadmill.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/technology/25brain.html?_r=1&ref=business

The story suggests that the brain needs downtime, and listening to music, watching a TV or talking on your cellphone is not downtime. And downtime is necessary, because it allows our minds to process information and remember it, according to The Times.

“You prevent this learning process” if your brain is constantly plugged in, asssistant professor Loren Frank of the department of physiology at the University of California in San Francisco told The Times.  

Multitasking, like using your Blackberry, while exercising taxes your brain, according to the experts — including Marc Berman, a neuroscientist at the University of Michigan – quoted in the article.

But please don’t use not being able to listen to your iPod or watch the TV on the elliptical machine as an excuse not to exercise.

Some experts said despite the drawbacks, one of technology’s benefits is that it can motivate people to exercise, The Times reported. 

 

 

Another NFL Vet, Philadelphia Eagles Kevin Turner, Has Lou Gehrig’s Disease

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Posted on 24th August 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Here’s another man’s life that’s about to be ruined as his reward for a career in pro-football: that of former Philadelphia Eagles fullback Kevin Turner. 

Turner, who retired from pro football when he was 31 in 2000, has been diagnosed as having ALS, so-called Lou Gehrig’s  disease.

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/sports/nfl/eagles/Kevin_Turner_ALS_Lou_Gehrigs_Disease_082310

Turner left football because of problems he had with his spinal column.  When Turner retired his doctors told him that he had the spinal column of a 65-year-old — at age 31!

But now Turner faces another health issue, the problem that the National Football League has been called on the carpet to address: permanent brain injury and disease that players sustain from repeated concussions.  

In terms of developing ALS, Turner has a lot of company. He is the 14th former National Football League player found to have ALS since 1960,  according to The Boston Globe, which is a higher rate than the disease occurs in most men.

Retired NFL players have also been developing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia at far higher rates than the general population. There is research going on right now on the issue, studies that include autopsies being performed on the bodies of ex-NFL players.

In light of a recent study, I wonder if  Turner was diagnosed correctly. Research released last week found that athletes that have been diagnosed as having Lou Gehrig’s disease, including Lou Gehrig, may actually have had a condition that is very similar to that malady but is in fact different. 

http://www.subtlebraininjury.com/blog/2010/08/study-links-brain-injury-to-condition-that-apes-lou-gehrigs-disease.html?preview=true&preview_id=521&preview_nonce=567261fa9a

In any event, Turner has serious brain-related problems, whether they are actually Lou Gehrig’s disease or something similar.

Using Neuroscience To Explain A Linebacker’s Subtle Brain Injury

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Posted on 23rd August 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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In a well-done story, Discover Magazine describes in clear, concise detail the consequences of  our brains getting repeatedly banged around. The article is headlined “The Brain: What Happens To A Linebackers Neurons?”

http://discovermagazine.com/2010/jul-aug/18-brain-what-happens-to-a-linebackers-neurons

The piece opens by describing the new battery of cognitive tests that the National Football League gives to players in the college draft, brainteasers such as trying to remember where different “Xs” and “Os” were positioned a page. 

The idea is to have a baseline to compare to a player’s answers after they sustain a head injury. If a player gets a concussion in a future game, he can be retested to compare his pre-concussion answers to his post-concussion ones, to gauge how badly his brain was injured. 

As our brains float around in the cerebrospinal fluid in our skulls, they get knocked around quite a bit. So how do our brains usually escape getting damaged?   

Discover Magazine illustrates that by citing research by Douglas Smith, director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania. We won’t go into all the detail, but Smith set up rat neurons on a stretchable membrane, and they developed axons, appendages that connect one neuron to another, transmitting electric signals.

When Smith directed a “controlled puff of air’” at  his “brain,” the axons were elastic and stretched, then went back to their old position.  But if he subjected his “brain” to a quick, big shot of air, the axons developed “kinks,” according to Discover Magazine. They wind up permanently damaged.

This type of damage can lead to diffuse axonal injury, which is when proteins “pile up”  on an axon, and can even burst it, Discover Magazine said. Diffuse axonal injury happens when a person’s brain is suddenly acclerated, as when someone gets whiplash.

This is apparently what happened to New York Mets outfielder Jason Bay recently. He crashed into a wall to catch a fly ball, and hurt his back and legs. He never hit his head, so a concussion was ruled out. But two days later Bay came down with a nagging headache. Team doctors now believe that Bay sustained a concussion from whiplash, from his head snapping back when he hit the wall. 

The type of mild brain injury that football players sustain again and again over the years has a cumulative effect, and the repeated stretching that axons undergo can essentially kill them “like a shorted-out circuit,” according to Discover Magazine.

There is some hope of finding drugs that can stop brain damage on the molecular level.

But at the present time, “Once a person does sustain a brain injury, there is not a lot doctors can do,” the magazine article says.  And that is the sad truth at the moment.  

Study Links Brain Injury To Condition That Apes Lou Gehrig’s Disease

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Posted on 18th August 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Here’s a vexing question raised by a study released this week: Did Lou Gehrig really have Lou Gehrig’s Disease?

The research essentially links brain injuries — concussions and brain trauma — to a disease than can be mistaken for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

The report by the Journal of Neuropatholgy and Experimental Neurology  got widespread press coverage Wednesday, including a lengthy Page One story, ”Study Says Brain Trauma Can Mimic ALS,” in The New York Times and an article in The Wall Street Journal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/sports/18gehrig.html?src=me&ref=general

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704554104575435850832715586.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5

According to The Times, physicians at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Massachusetts and the Boston University School of Medicine doing autopsies on athletes found that two football players and a boxer who’d been diagnosed with ALS didn’t actually have it.

Exams on the three men’s brains and spinal cords determined that they had a fatal malady similar to ALS, “caused by concussionlike trauma, that erodes the central nervous system in similar ways,” The Times reported.

New York Yankee Lou Gehrig solidified his standing as a sports legend when he declared himself  “the luckiest man on the face of the earth,” even though he’d been diagnosed with the fatal disease that would come to have his name. ALS causes a person to lose muscle control, and for their muscle tissue to atrophy.

Gehrig sustained many concussions over the years, according to The Times, and he insisted on playing when he had them. That could have cumulatively added to the initial brain damage casued by his concussion, and resulted in the condition that ended his life.

The study released this week could, and I think it should, lead to more careful diagnosis of both athletes and soldiers who suffer head trauma. As The Times points out, athletes and the military could be more effectively treated if they were diagnosed correctly, let’s say as suffering from a motor-neuron disease rather than ALS.

The new study offers firm some evidence that brain injury causes motor-neuron degeneration, and that this can lead to a disease that is not ALS. Rather, the disorder that resulted is marked by two proteins, tau and TDP-43, in the spinal cord that negatively affect nerve function.       

 

Researchers Probe How Separation From Technology, And Cellphones, Impacts The Mind

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Posted on 16th August 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

Can a few days in the wild, going back to nature, reverse the impact that technology has on how we think, and our behavior? 

That’s what several academics, led by psychology professor David Strayer of the University of Utah, were trying to discover when they headed out to southern Utah for a week in late May. In this wilderness, there were no cellphones, Blackberries or e-mail.

The New York Times wrote a Page One story, headlined ”Outdoors and Out of Reach: Studying the Brain,” on this fascinating research Monday. The idea was to see how our brains function when we take a holiday from technology.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/technology/16brain.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Probing how memory, attention and learning are impacted when we’re away from digital devices could provide answers that will help treat depression and attention deficit disorder, Strayer told The Times.  

There were five academics on the trip, including Todd Braver, a psychology professor and brain imaging expert at Washington University in St. Louis and Art Kramer, a University of Illinois professor who has gotten press for his studies of the neurological benefits of exercise. 

“The men drink Tecate beer and talk about the brain,” The Times wrote. “They are thinking about a seminal study from the University of Michigan that showed people can better learn after walking in the woods than after walking a busy street. The study indicates that learning centers in the brain become taxed when asked to process information, even during the relatively passive experience of taking in an urban setting. By extension, some scientists believe heavy multitasking fatigues the brain, draining it of the ability to focus.”

Strayer maintains that nature refreshes the brain.

 “Our senses change,” The Times quotes Strayer. “They kind of recalibrate — you notice sounds, like these crickets chirping; you hear the river, the sounds, the smells, you become more connected to the physical environment, the earth, rather than the artificial environment…That’s why they call it vacation. It’s restorative.”

Researchers have wondered how new media impact attention, “but the modern study of attention emerged in the early 1980s with the spread of machines that allowed researchers to see changes in blood flow and electrical activity in the brain. Newer machines have let them pinpoint the parts of the brain that light up when people switch from one task to another, or when they are paying attention to music or a movie,” according to The Times.

Two years ago the National Institutes of Health established a unit to study the parts of the brain involved with focus.

The men on the Utah trip do become more relaxed and less worried about missing work and e-mail while they are in seclusion. 

But for me, the story is more interesting because of the questions it raises than the answers it provides.

Pentagon Says Military Health Care Won’t Be Spared In Budget Cuts

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Posted on 11th August 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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The Pentagon’s plans to cut billions of dollars from its budget likely means that military health care costs won’t be spared, but will also come under the knife.

 http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/pentagons-real-budget-battle-cutting-military-health-care/19587704

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Monday that he was making major cuts in his budget, including shutting one military command center as well as firing thousands of contractors.

Gates also specifically made reference to health care for the military, and was quoted on the matter.

“There are no sacred cows,” he said. “Everybody knows that we are being eaten alive by health care.”

Gates, pointing out that military health care will hit $50 billion next year and $65 billion by 2015, added, “It’s unsustainable, and therefore it has to be part of our effort.”

The Defense Department’s announcement comes at a time when the military is trying to stem a dramatic rise in soldier suicides, and to deal with the brain damage and emotional problems that troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from. 

The Pentagon’s plans have already prompted comptaints and warnings, according to AOL News. For example, the American Legion and the Heritage Foundation, a conservative group, both said that veterans and troops overseas shouldn’t have their health care benefits reduced.

A Heritage Foundation analyst said that Congress should have addressed the issue of rising military health costs during the bitter debate about national health care reform.   

 

Army Report Blames Skyrocketing Soldier Suicides On Drug And Alcohol Abuse, Lax Oversight

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Posted on 29th July 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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In the case of the U.S. military, tragically the enemy is often ourselves, according to an Army report released Thursday. 

http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/07/28/42934-army-health-promotion-risk-reduction-and-suicide-prevention-report/index.html

The startling report found that increased drug and alcohol abuse among soldiers is contributing to a skyrocketing suicide rate for service members, as well as leading to accidental deaths caused by risky behavior by the drunk and stoned.

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/army-report-finds-alarming-rise-in-suicides-risky-behavior/19573590

In fact, the report says that more soldiers die from their own actions rather than being killed by the enemy in combat.

“Simply stated, we are often more dangerous to ourselves than the enemy,” according to the Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention Report.

The report found that during the last fiscal year, 239 soldiers committed suicide, with more than 1,700 attempting to take their lives during that same period.  So-called high-risk behavior, like drinking and drug abuse, are contributing to the increased suicide numbers. 

But the report also said that a breakdown in leadership, in oversight over soldiers, can also be blamed for the deaths.

The report is based on a 15-month study, prompted by the rise in soldier suicides. At one time, the military had a lower suicide rate than the overall U.S. population. But that trend started to change in 2004, according to the report, and in 2008 the Army’s suicide rate was higher than Americans overall.

I have written about the mental and physical impact of repeated deployments of our troops in Iraq and Afganistan. I have written  how the military seems to be putting its head in the sand about the brain injury that these soldiers sustain, by not doing the mandated testing when soldiers have completed their tours.

Brain injury, mild or severe, often leads to depression. And clinical depression, if not treated properly, often leads to self-medication, with illegal drugs or alchohol. And clinical depression can lead to suicide. That is part of the big picture here.

Ike Skelton, D-Mo., is chairman of the House Armed Service Committee. He issued a statement about the Army’s report — or should be.

“It’s clear that the Army feels the same heartache that all Americans feel when even one service member takes his or her life, and the Army deserves praise for its honest and comprehensive study on suicide prevention,” Skelton said.

The military had its own comment, from Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey, in its press release on the report.

http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=13756

“This comprehensive review exposes gaps in how we identify, engage and mitigate high-risk behavior among our soldiers,” Casey said. “After nearly a decade of war, we must keep pace with the expanding needs of our strained Army, and continuously identify and address the gaps that exist in our policies, programs and services.”

Now let’s see what the Army does about it.

        

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