THANKSGIVING WEEKEND FOOTBALL PICKS!

Might as well do these now, as I don't know if I'll have time as Turkey Day gets closer.
So here they are--although based on last week's record (only 5-9) my cred is a little low right now.
I'm now 87-95-2 for the year.

COLLEGE PICKS

Ohio State at Michigan.  My pick:  BUCKEYES.  Though as a Michigan fan, it pains me to say it.  Still, I just don't see any way the messed-up Michigan offense can score enough to allow Michigan to hang with OSU.

Alabama at Auburn.  My pick:  CRIMSON TIDE.  Yes, Auburn has improved a lot.  But which team has pretty much passed every test for Lord knows how long?  'Bama.  Hard to see them dropping the ball here.

NFL PICKS

DETROIT 6 over Green Bay.  My pick:  PACKERS.  And as a Lions fan, it pains me to write that, too.  But the last 2 games show it--the Lions are having problems handling the pressure.  Meanwhile, Green Bay knows how to handle the drive to the playoffs.

DALLAS 9.5 over Oakland.  My pick:  RAIDERS.  Not to win.  But to beat the spread.  The Cowboys show it over and over--they tend to play down to the level of their competition.  Dallas won a big one last week in New York.  But look for a letdown here.

BALTIMORE 3 over Pittsburgh.  My pick:  RAVENS.  This will be a hard-fought battle.  But I like the way Baltimore's defense has been playing.

INDIANAPOLIS 4.5 over Tennessee.  My pick:  COLTS.  I know--the Colts have struggle mightily lately.  But they have too much talent not to bounce back.  I think they'll do it this week at home.

Denver 4 over KANSAS CITY.  My pick:  BRONCOS.  Because of KC's injuries on defense.

CLEVELAND 7 over Jacksonville.  My pick:  JAGUARS.  Cleveland seemed to have improved earlier in the season, but I sense they've lost their edge.  And, hello--Jacksonville is playing better.

CAROLINA 8.5 over Tampa Bay.  My pick:  PANTHERS.  Yes, the Bucs have won 3 straight.  But they probably wouldn't have come close last week at Detroit were it not for the many Lions turnovers.  Now the Bucs must go on the road again, against an even better team.

Chicago 1 over MINNESOTA.  My pick:  VIKINGS.  The main problem for the Bears right now is not their QB situation.  Instead, it's their defense, and especially their very poor run defense.  Not a good thing especially when you have to go and play Adrian Peterson.

PHILADELPHIA 3.5 over Arizona.  My pick:  EAGLES.  These appear to be 2 improving teams.  Arizona's performance last week against Indy was especially strong.  But remember--you don't want to overreact to one week.  The Cardinals tend to be a better team at home.  Historically, trips to the east coast have not been easy for them.  Go with the Eagles here.

NY JETS 1.5 over Miami.  Who can figure out either of these teams?  But--this season, seems like whenever one counts the Jets out, they rise again.  And they've been a better team at home.  I like the Jets to both win and thus tease their fans once again.

BUFFALO 3.5 over Atlanta.  My pick:  BILLS.  They've played tough at home all year.  The Falcons got up for their divisional foe, the Saints, last week...but they know their season is a goner.  You have to question how motivated they'll be in the cold of northern New York.

SAN FRANCISCO 9.5 over St. Louis.  My pick:  49ERS.  St. Louis is improved.  Tavon Austin is showing himself to be a real threat.  But this week he plays a 49er team that appears to be rolling, and...one that has a much better defense.

New England 7.5 over HOUSTON.  My pick:  PATRIOTS.  Houston has lost 9 in a row.  Now here comes Brady and the Patriots--and Tom won't allow a slip-up here.

SAN DIEGO 1 over Cincinnati.  My pick:  BENGALS.  Yes, Philip Rivers played brilliantly last week in KC and pulled off an upset over the Chiefs.  But a big problem for the Lightning Bolts has been their inability to showcase consistent play.  They have to come right back and play a tough Bengals team this week.  I think Cincy will win a close game here.

NY Giants 1 over WASHINGTON.  My pick:  GIANTS.  As last night's game showed--the Redskins have big problems offensively; RGIII just isn't what he was (yet).  The Giants have not quit; look for them to pull out a close one here.

SEATTLE 6 over New Orleans.  My pick:  SEAHAWKS.  Mainly because they're at home and will play outside--the Saints are much better at home indoors.

HEALTH UPDATE: 5 STUDIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

Which may give you insight into what's going on with your mind, health, and body.  But remember--you can't be sure until you see your doctor and have him/her check you out.  Read on:

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Here's a roundup of five medical studies published recently that might give you new insights into your health, mind and body. Remember, correlation is not causation – so if a study finds a connection between two things, it doesn't mean that one causes the other.

Breast milk + solid foods = allergy prevention?
Journal: Pediatrics
With up to 8% of children in the United States dealing with food allergies, many parents want to know how they can prevent this condition. A new study suggests that babies who receive solid food while they are breast-feeding may be protected from food allergies.
Researchers tended to find a lower incidence of food allergies among babies who were still breast-feeding when they started eating solid food. Why? Scientists say that if infants are ingesting both solid foods and breast milk, the immune system can learn that the food is safe.
"My theory was that if food allergens – those things that infants become allergic to – aren't there at the same time as the breast milk, the breast milk can't educate the immune system," lead researcher Kate Grimshaw, a research fellow and allergy specialist at the University of Southampton, told HealthDay.
Exercise may help pregnant women quit smoking
Journal: Addictive Behaviors
How to stop craving cigarettes is on the minds of many smokers who want to quit. Earlier studies have established that exercise may disrupt nicotine cravings, but it remained unclear if these findings were true for pregnant women.
Now a new Canadian study suggests that "15 to 20 minutes of walking at a mild to moderate pace is sufficient to ward off cravings," Reuters Health reports.
Researchers looked at 30 pregnant women in their second trimester who smoked more than five cigarettes daily and did not regularly exercise.
Helping males procreate - at least, mice
Journal: Science
Biologists have long considered the Y chromosome as a genetic marker for the male sex, but there's still more to learn about it. A new study suggests that there are only two genes on this chromosome necessary for males - at least, male mice - to fertilize an egg.
Since the research was done in mice, it's uncertain how applicable it will be to humans. But scientists said it could potentially help in the quest for male infertility treatments.
It also doesn't mean that the rest of the Y chromosome is useless. Researchers said the entire chromosome is probably needed for normal reproduction.
"We're not trying to eliminate Y chromosomes with our work – or men, for that matter," Monika Ward, a reproductive biologist at the University of Hawaii, told LiveScience. "We're just trying to understand how much of the Y chromosome is needed, and for what."
Waiting for pain is painful
Journal: PLOS Computational Biology
No one wants to be in pain. But if we know it's coming – say we have to get a cavity filled – we usually want to get it over with fast.
Scientists in London conducted two small experiments with 35 volunteers to find out how dreading pain affects our decisions. Each study participant was asked to choose when they would receive electric shocks of varying intensity.
Most people preferred to experience the shocks sooner rather than later and were even willing to experience stronger shocks if it meant speeding up the process.
"Anticipating pain is unpleasant or disadvantageous, rather like pain itself," the researchers concluded.
Skip the excuse: There's no such thing as being 'left-brained'
Journal: PLOS ONE
We can't tell you how many times we've used the "right-brained" excuse to explain why our math skills stink. Right-brained people are more creative and word-driven, while those who have stronger left brains are more analytical and detail-oriented. Right?
Wrong, say scientists at the University of Utah.
The neuroscientists scanned the brains of more than 1,000 people, ages 7 to 29, to determine if there were any truth to the better half hypothesis. They found no evidence to support the myth that people had a stronger side. While certain activities may require you to work one half of the brain more than the other, the two halves would be a good match in an arm-wrestling competition.
"The neuroscience community has never accepted the idea of 'left-dominant' or 'right-dominant' personality types," lead study author Jeff Anderson told The Guardian. "The truth is that it would be highly inefficient for one half of the brain to consistently be more active than the other."

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FRIDAY FOOTBALL PICKS!!

Hey, I had yet another winning week last week--I was 9-5.
I'm now 82-86-2 for the year.  Let's keep it going!

COLLEGE PICK

Baylor at Oklahoma State.  My pick:  BEARS.  Oklahoma State has looked good lately.  They beat up on Texas last week.  They're the trendy pick in this game, therefore.  But not for me--I think the Baylor offense--and their defense too--is that good.  Go with Baylor.

NFL Picks

Pittsburgh 2.5 over CLEVELAND.  My pick:  STEELERS.  Ben Roethlisberger and co. are finally getting it going, though it might be too late.

DETROIT 6 over Tampa Bay.  My pick:  LIONS.  Yes, Tampa Bay is an improved team, but...the Lions are tough at home, the Bucs not so good on the road.  I look for Detroit to bounce back here.

GREEN BAY 2 over Minnesota.  My pick:  PACKERS.  Huh?  How can one pick the Pack when Aaron Rodgers isn't playing?  But--Scott Tolzien isn't that bad.  And the Vikings continue to go with Christian Ponder at QB, who isn't that good.

KANSAS CITY 3 over San Diego.  My pick:  CHIEFS.  KC will bounce back.  The Chargers meanwhile suffered a tough loss last week and have to go on the road yet again, in a very tough environment.  The Chargers will wear down in this game.

Chicago 1.5 over ST. LOUIS.  My pick:  RAMS.  Josh McCown and the Bears somehow got by last week...but the Rams are an improved team, and again--there's a reason McCown has been a career backup.

Carolina 3 over MIAMI.  My pick:  DOLPHINS.  Look out here--yes, Carolina is much improved and could very well be a playoff game.  But this is a trap game--Carolina's coming off a tough, big, emotional Monday night game, and they have to go on the road against a Miami team that clearly has stuck together in the face of adversity and has something left.

BALTIMORE 1 over NY Jets.  My pick:  RAVENS.  Who knows with these 2 teams?  From week to week they change.  But the Ravens are at home, and the Jets last week showed that away from home, they are...well...undependable, to say the least.

HOUSTON 2.5 over Jacksonville.  My pick:  TEXANS.  Because Houston, which has lost close game after close game, is bound to win one.

Tennessee at Oakland.  Line:  pick 'em.  My pick:  RAIDERS.  Matt McGloin has given Oakland a spark.

Indianapolis 1 over ARIZONA.  My pick:  COLTS.  This is actually a very good game between 2 teams who are tough; of course, everyone knows the Colts are tough...but so are these Cardinals, whose defense is underrated.  But I think the Colts have the advantage here at QB.

Dallas at NY GIANTS.  Line:  pick 'em.  My pick:  GIANTS.  Again, with this game, and these two teams...who really knows?  But the Giants seem to have found an identity; the Cowboys haven't.

Denver 3.5 over NEW ENGLAND.  My pick:  PATRIOTS.  This is the kind of game--a big contest, at home, national TV--where so often, Tom Brady absolutely shines.  Peyton Manning of course will shine too; but at home, look for Brady to get the ball last and pull out a last-second win.

San Francisco 6.5 over WASHINGTON.  My pick:  49ERS.  The San Fran defense and run game will make a big difference here; one senses disarray and a lack of cohesion meanwhile in Washington.

FOR MOEBIUS MOMS AND DADS: STRESS-BUSTING TIPS

These are tips from a very busy wife, mother, and career woman--Cathy Reese, who created these tips, is the coach of the University of Maryland's lacrosse team.  And she has several children, and a husband.  How does she do it all?  And how can you parents of children with Moebius do it all?  You are very busy too.  Here are some ideas:

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Tips from Team Reese’s playbook
→ Get kid time where you can.It would be easier to make the trip to Wegmans for groceries by herself, but Reese often takes her children with her. She says it’s worth the stress of having all four children with her in the store to have some time together, even if they are begging for Jolly Rancher popsicles or tossing gum into the cart when mom isn’t looking.

“If that’s the time I get to spend with them, that’s what we do,” Reese says. “As much as it may make my hair turn gray or fall out, it’s still time with them.”

→ Outsource or delegate what you don’t like. Reese admits she is terrible at cleaning house, so she has a maid service take care of chores such as bathrooms and floors.
“That’s been the best money ever spent, because at least I know the toilets get cleaned,” Reese said. “It doesn’t last very long. Someone cleans your house and in two hours it doesn’t even look like they were there, but at least the counters are wiped down, the bathrooms have been cleaned, the sinks have been cleaned. It just makes me feel better.”
→ → → Share duties with your spouse. Cathy and Brian Reese split the cooking, homework help and chauffeur duties. Who does what largely depends on who is home when, she says. Cathy does most of the grocery shopping, and Brian usually handles the laundry.
Reese says he delivers a fresh pile of folded laundry to her side of the bed, the idea being that she has to put it away before climbing in to go to sleep. More often than not, she says, she moves the pile to the floor instead.
→ Surround yourself with good people. Reese has a supportive husband and family around to help. She is also able to lean on her staff at the University of Maryland. When son Riley was sick last winter, Reese never missed a game or practice, but assistant coaches Lauri Kenis and Caitlyn McFadden handled a lot of the day-to-day running of the program while she visited him in the hospital.
“I was out for a month and had people covering for me in all areas,” Reese says. “If you are surrounded with good people, anything is possible.”

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"Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do.  Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.  Try to be better than yourself."--William Faulkner

BRAIN TALK

Because Moebius Syndrome has, after all, something to do with your brain; and thus we are all about knowing as much as we can about brains, and how to improve them.  This particular item might interest moms and dads--your own exercise can help your unborn baby.  Read more about it:

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If a woman is physically active during pregnancy, she may boost the development of her unborn child’s brain, according to a heart-tugging new study of expectant mothers and their newborns. The findings bolster a growing scientific consensus that the benefits of exercise can begin to accumulate even before someone is born.
It has long been suspected that a mother-to-be’s activity — or lack of it — affects her unborn offspring, which is not surprising, given how their physiologies intertwine. Past studies have shown, for example, that a baby’s heart rate typically rises in unison with his or her exercising mother’s, as if the child were also working out. As a result, scientists believe, babies born to active mothers tend to have more robust cardiovascular systems from an early age than babies born to mothers who are more sedentary.
Whether gestational exercise similarly shapes an unborn child’s developing brain has been harder to quantify, although recent studies have been suggestive. An experiment presented this month at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting in San Diego, for instance, reported that pregnant rats allowed to run on wheels throughout their pregnancies birthed pups that performed more dexterously in early childhood on a tricky memory test — having to identify unfamiliar objects in a familiar environment — than pups born to sedentary moms. These clever rats retained their cognitive advantage into adulthood (meaning, for rats, weeks later).
But this and similar experiments have involved animals, rather than people. Many of these studies also began comparing the creatures’ cognitive abilities when they were old enough to move about and respond to their world, by which time they potentially might have been shaped as much by their environment as by their time in the womb.
So to minimize these concerns, researchers at the University of Montreal in Canada recently recruited a group of local women who were in their first trimester of pregnancy. At that point, the women were almost identical in terms of lifestyle. All were healthy, young adults. None were athletes. Few had exercised regularly in the past, and none had exercised more than a day or two per week in the past year.
Then the women were randomized either to begin an exercise program, commencing in their second trimester, or to remain sedentary. The women in the exercise group were asked to work out for at least 20 minutes, three times a week, at a moderate intensity, equivalent to about a six or so on a scale of exertion from one to 10. Most of the women walked or jogged.
Every month, for the remainder of each woman’s pregnancy, she would visit the university’s exercise lab, so researchers could monitor her fitness. All of the volunteers, including those in the nonexercise group, also maintained daily activity logs.
After about six months and following the dictates of nature, the women gave birth. All, thankfully, had healthy boys or girls — which the scientists gently requested that the mothers almost immediately bring in for testing.

Univesite de Montreal A baby who participated in the study.

Within 12 days of birth, in fact, each of the newborns accompanied his or her mother to the lab. There, each baby was fitted with an adorable little cap containing electrodes that monitor electrical activity in the brain, settled in his or her mother’s lap, and soothed to sleep. Researchers then started a sound loop featuring a variety of low, soft sounds that recurred frequently, interspersed occasionally with more jarring, unfamiliar noises, while the baby’s brain activity was recorded.
“We know that baby’s brains respond to these kinds of sounds with a spike” in certain types of brain activity, said Elise Labonte-LeMoyne, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Montreal, who led the study and also presented her findings at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. This spike is most pronounced in immature brains, she continued, and diminishes as a newborn’s brain develops and begins processing information more efficiently. “It usually disappears altogether by the time a baby is 4 months old,” she said,
In this case, the relevant brainwave activity soared in response to the novel sounds among the children born to mothers who had remained sedentary during pregnancy. But it was noticeably blunted in the babies whose mothers had exercised. In essence, “their brains were more mature,” Ms. Labonte-LeMoyne said.
How gestational exercise can remodel an unborn child’s brain is not clear, Ms. Labonte-LeMoyne admits, since, unlike circulatory systems, a mother’s brain is not hardwired directly to that of her child. “But we suspect that when mom exercises, she generates a variety of chemicals,” including many related to brain health, which can move into her bloodstream and eventually mingle with the blood of her baby.
But that possibility is only theoretical for now. It is also unclear whether the precocious brain development seen in newborns with active mothers will linger into their later lives. Ms. Labonte-LeMoyne and her colleagues plan to retest the children on various cognitive tests once they are a year old.
But for now, the lesson is clear. “If a woman can be physically active during her pregnancy, she may give her unborn child an advantage, in terms of brain development,” Ms. Labonte-LeMoyne said. And the commitment required can be slight. “We were surprised,” she said, “by how much of an effect we saw” from barely an hour of exercise per week.

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AUTISM UPDATE

Too much screen time in the bedroom can add to sleep issues.  Read more about it:

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Kids with autism and related disorders are prone to sleep disturbances but a new study finds that screen time, especially in the bedroom, may make their sleep problems worse.
When researchers compared boys with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to other boys, they found that all the kids with bedroom access to media slept fewer hours, but the relationship was twice as strong for the boys with autism.
"In-room media access was associated with about 1.5 fewer hours of sleep per night in the group with autism," said Christopher R. Engelhardt, who led the study at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
"This association can potentially be problematic, particularly if the reduction in sleep interferes with other daily activities, such as school, homework, interactions with other people, or driving," he told Reuters Health in an email.
Past studies suggest that up to 80 percent of kids with autism, and related conditions like Asperger syndrome, experience sleep troubles, including difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep through the night. Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also are known to have a high rate of sleep disturbances.
With both conditions, it's unclear why sleep is so difficult. Theories include a disruption in sleep-wake cycles that are regulated by the hormone melatonin, which is often deficient in kids with ASDs, Engelhardt and his colleagues write in Pediatrics.
Because kids with autism spectrum disorders, like those with ADHD, also tend to spend a lot of time watching TV and playing video or computer games, the researchers wondered whether that could be contributing to their sleep problems.
So they recruited the parents of 49 boys with autism spectrum disorders, 38 with ADHD and 41 comparison boys with typical development to fill out questionnaires about their children's bedroom screen access and sleep patterns. All the kids were between ages eight and 17.
Boys with autism who had TV, computers or video games in their bedrooms got less sleep than all the other boys, including boys with autism who didn't have media in their bedrooms.
Without a TV in their room, boys with autism spent an average of about nine hours sleeping, compared to less than eight hours among kids with an ASD and a bedroom TV.
In contrast, bedroom TVs didn't seem to make a difference for boys with ADHD or typical development.
Boys with autism with computers in their rooms slept nearly two hours less than boys with autism and no bedroom computer.
A lot of time spent playing video games, regardless of where they were located, was also linked to shorter sleep times among boys with ASDs.
Even for typical children, too much time with TV or video games has been linked to attention problems, hyperactivity, arguments and physical fights, Engelhardt said.
"We can't say that access to a TV causes less sleep," only that the two are linked for some kids, he said.
Last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics called for limiting screen time for all kids to one or two hours per day.
"This is a good recommendation for all children," Dr. Beth Marlow, Burry Chair in Cognitive Childhood Development and director of the Sleep Disorders Division at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
"Following this recommendation for kids with (autism spectrum) and ADHD is good, although children with (autism spectrum) or ADHD who are still having difficulty with sleep despite limiting electronics really deserve a sleep evaluation by their pediatrician or sleep specialist."
Sleep troubles can also stem from anxiety, sleep apnea, pain that the child might not be able to express, gastrointestinal problems or seizures, she said.
For typically developing kids, bedroom TV access doesn't usually seem to cut into sleep.
"However, (Engelhardt's) finding for teens with ASD concurs with our clinical impressions - that these teens have difficulty 'switching off' videogames," Michael Gradisar said.
Gradisar is a clinical psychologist who studies technology use and sleep, especially among teens, at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia.
"Many teens have a distorted sense of time passing when playing videogames, however, it may be that this time distortion is stronger for teens with ASD," he said.
Parents can have a tough time managing how much their children play games or watch TV, he said. "It may take quite some time to do, but one option is for parents to introduce other hobbies and activities into their teens lives, so that videogaming eventually occupies less time."
People with autism tend to spend more time with media outlets, researchers think, because the electronic worlds have engaging audio and visual features and their social interactions are easy relative to real life interactions.
This doesn't necessarily mean that parents should take TVs or video games out of their autistic children's rooms, but might consider limiting or monitoring media consumption, he said.
"Screen media can certainly be good for kids with autism," he said. "Scientists have long known that video games are great at teaching and reinforcing certain behaviors, so it's possible that these games can be used to adjust and shape the types of behaviors generally valued by society, such as behaviors intended to help others."

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AWARENESS UPDATE

Some good news:  a man working at a store, who has Asperger's, is just trying to do his best and help customers...but he is treated rudely by a shopper.  But his story gets told on Facebook, and what happens?  Read on:

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When a customer berated a supermarket employee with Asperger’s syndrome for working too slowly, the story quickly went viral with tens-of-thousands coming to the worker’s defense.
Jamie Virkler, 43, took to Facebook over the weekend after her brother, Chris Tuttle, 28, came home from his job at a Clay, N.Y. Wegmans store upset that a customer yelled at him.
Tuttle said he was helping out at the cash registers because the store was busy. When bagging a customer’s groceries, Tuttle said the woman yelled at him for working too slow. Tuttle told The (Syracuse, N.Y.) Post-Standard that he finished the job, smiled and thanked the woman for shopping at the store.
Still unhappy, however, the customer reportedly complained to the manager and yelled such that everyone could hear.
After hearing about her brother’s experience at work, Virkler wrote about the incident in a Facebook post asking others to help cheer him up.
“Part of Asperger’s is the inability to move on, to not be able to wrap his mind around the fact that this woman isn’t worth it. To hear him tell the story, your heart will break. He doesn’t understand why someone would be so nasty to him and for him, he takes it personal,” Virkler wrote.
Within days, her post has generated over 96,000 likes and more than 15,000 comments.
Tuttle and his family were amazed by the response.
“I’m overwhelmed by all the support and the love by the people I don’t know and I know. I just want to say thank you,” Tuttle told The Post-Standard, adding that he’s pressing forward. “I’m letting it go and moving on.”

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FRIDAY FOOTBALL PICKS

NFL PICKS
Hey, guess what?  I was 8-6 last week.  I'm 73-81-2 for the year.

Atlanta at Tampa Bay.  Line:  pick'em.  My pick:  FALCONS.  Yes, the Bucs finally won a game.  But don't overreact; it was a win over a Dolphins team in disarray.  I just think Matt Ryan and the Falcons have enough pride and talent left to get this one.

BUFFALO 1 over NY Jets. My pick:  BILLS.  I know, seems crazy.  But--E.J. Manuel will play for Buffalo.  They've been a tough home team this year.  When a team starts a rookie QB, like the Jets do, there are ups and downs...look for the "down" week to hit Geno Smith here.

Detroit 3 over PITTSBURGH.  My pick:  STEELERS.  I'd love to pick the Lions here, but they've been playing with fire the last couple of weeks, and you still have to fear the Steelers at home, especially coming off a win AND as a desperate team.

PHILADELPHIA 3.5 over Washington.  My pick:  EAGLES.  I know, I know, the Eagles have been terrible at home this year.  That's not going to last forever and Nick Foles has been playing well.  Philly finally breaks through at home.

San Diego 1 over MIAMI.  My pick:  CHARGERS.  Both teams with issues, obviously, but the Dolphins have more issues, not to mention lingering distractions.

CHICAGO 2.5 over Baltimore.  My pick:  RAVENS.  Josh McCown will play QB for the Bears; I know, he hasn't looked that bad...but look, he's been a backup his whole career for a reason.  The Ravens showed last week they haven't cashed it in and can't be taken for granted.  They remain a desperate team.

CINCINNATI 6 over Cleveland.  My pick:  BENGALS.  Yes, the Bengals looked so good 2 weeks ago...and then lost 2 straight OT games on the road.  But now they're back home, they are the better team here, and I look for a big bounce-back.

HOUSTON 7 over Oakland.  My pick:  TEXANS.  Case Keenum at QB for Houston hasn't looked bad; they've deserved better than they've gotten in some of the tough losses they've taken.  Look for the Texans to break through this week.

Arizona 6.5 over JACKSONVILLE.  My pick:  CARDINALS.  Arizona's defense is better than its given credit for; that D will carry the day here.

DENVER 7.5 over Kansas City.  My pick:  CHIEFS.  Not to win; I expect Denver to prevail here in a close game.   But look for the Chiefs' defense to keep this game closer than expected; the fact that Peyton Manning is kind of beat up will also contribute.

SEATTLE 13 over Minnesota.  My pick:  SEATTLE.  The Seahawks are rounding into shape, as last week's pounding of Atlanta showed.  Now this week they have another inferior team to pound on.

NEW ORLEANS 2.5 over San Francisco.  My pick:  SAINTS.  An excellent matchup between 2 good teams.  But as last week showed again, the Saints are one of the BEST teams in the NFL when they're at home.  They'll show that again this week.

NY GIANTS 7 over Green Bay.  My pick:  GIANTS.  The Packers are down to their 3rd QB--Scott Tolzien.  He actually did a creditable job last week.  But...he's their 3rd QB, and the Giants have a big edge here.

CAROLINA 2.5 over New England.  My pick:  PANTHERS.  Will Carolina be able to handle the pressure of a big game on a Monday night against the great Tom Brady?  This will be a tough battle.  But you know what will carry Carolina here?  That very, very tough defense they've developed.

HEALTH TIP OF THE DAY: OVERDOING NUTRIENTS

You don't want to overdo a good thing.  How so?  Read on:

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We’ve all been schooled about the unhealthy things we should limit, like sugar and sodium. But there are also some healthy things that, in excess, can do more harm than good. In other words, even when a nutrient is vital, more isn’t necessarily better. Here are the risks associated with going overboard on five key nutrients–some of them may take you by surprise.
Omega-3 fatty acids
These healthy fats help fight inflammation, a known trigger of aging and disease, and they’ve been tied to a host of health benefits, from reducing the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and depression, to maintaining healthy skin and supporting brain function. But new research has found that too much omega-3 may alter immune function, and disrupt the body’s ability to fend off viral or bacterial infections. Scientists are particularly concerned about a “layering” effect that occurs when people eat seafood, take fish oil supplements, and also consume foods fortified with omega-3s, like eggs, orange juice, and cereal. To avoid overload, talk to your physician and/or personal dietitian about your diet, so he or she can determine if you need to supplement or fortify your intake at all, and if so, exactly how much you should aim for.
Vitamin C
In addition to supporting immunity, vitamin C is needed to heal wounds, maintain healthy bones, teeth, blood vessels, and skin. It also acts as a major antioxidant, to stave off aging and chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer, and arthritis. For adults, the upper limit, or maximum advised intake, from both food and supplements combined, is 2,000 mg a day. While some people may be fine taking in this amount or more, megadoses of vitamin C supplements have been shown to trigger bloating and digestive upset, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, heartburn, headaches, insomnia, and kidney stones. To keep your intake in check, aim to get your fill from naturally vitamin C rich foods, which include red and green bell peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, citrus fruits, kiwi, papaya, strawberries, and pineapple.
Zinc
Zinc is found in every cell in your body. This important mineral supports immune function, as well as healthy vision, smell, taste, blood sugar regulation, metabolism, healing, and proper thyroid function. The upper limit, or daily maximum for zinc is 40 mg per day. Research has shown that less than this amount is safe to consume daily over time, but if too much zinc is taken long-term, side effects may include digestive upset, a metallic taste in the mouth, dizziness, headaches, fatigue, increased sweating, loss of muscle coordination, alcohol intolerance, and hallucinations.
In addition, very high doses of zinc may actually weaken immune function, lower “good” heart-protective HDL cholesterol, and raise “bad” LDL cholesterol, the type tied to an increased risk of heart disease. Like omega-3s, the chances of getting too much increase if several sources are consumed, like zinc-rich foods (red meat, shellfish), on top of a supplement, and products fortified with zinc, such as nasal sprays or throat lozenges. If you think you may be exceeding your needs, talk to your doc or dietitian. Sometimes when I ask my clients about their supplement regime, they have absolutely no idea how much they’re taking.
Iron
Much of the iron in your body is found in your red blood cells, where it helps to carry oxygen to every cell. This key mineral is also is involved in producing energy for cells, and is an integral part of many proteins and enzymes needed for optimal health. Premenopausal women lose iron from monthly blood loss, but men and postmenopausal women need to be more mindful of their iron intakes, because once iron is absorbed, very little is excreted. That means excess iron can build up in tissues and organs, including the liver and heart.
A genetic disorder called hemochromatosis, which affects one in 250 people of northern European descent, ups the risk of iron overload, because it causes iron to be easily absorbed. The daily maximum for iron is set at 45 mg for adults, but most premenopausal non-pregnant adult women generally need no more than 18 mg daily. The needs for men and women over 50 are less than half that amount, at 8 mg per day. To put that level in perspective, a 3-ounce serving of beef or a half cup of lentils each provide about 3 mg, but only about 3 percent to 35 percent of the iron from food is absorbed, depending on the type, as well as factors that either interfere with absorption (like tea) or enhance it (like vitamin C). If you’re taking supplements and you’re not sure if they contain iron, or if so, how much, be sure to check. Manufacturers don’t have to set doses below the advised daily caps.
Calcium
When you think of calcium, bones probably come to mind, and that’s where about 99 percent of the calcium in your body is found. But this mineral is also needed for proper heart, nerve, and muscle function, and it helps maintain your body’s acid/base balance. Women tend to be highly aware of calcium, due to campaigns about “boning up” to fight osteoporosis, so I sometimes worry about my clients getting too much. I’ve seen women who load up on dairy, in addition to popping calcium chews, taking a supplement, and choosing calcium-fortified foods, from OJ to energy bars.
The upper limit (again from both food and supplements combined) for adult non-pregnant women and men is 2,500 mg before age 50 and 2,000 from 51 on. Exceeding that amount may lead to high blood calcium, which can trigger kidney problems, kidney stones, and calcium deposits in soft tissues. High calcium intakes can also lead to constipation, and interfere with the absorption of iron and zinc. Getting too much calcium from food alone is rare, but if you think you may be racking up an excess amount from other sources, talk to your health care providers about the best ways to strike an ideal balance.
Cynthia Sass is a registered dietitian with master’s degrees in both nutrition science and public health. Frequently seen on national TV, she’s Health’s contributing nutrition editor, and privately counsels clients in New York, Los Angeles, and long distance. Cynthia is currently the sports nutrition consultant to the New York Rangers NHL team and the Tampa Bay Rays MLB team, and is board certified as a specialist in sports dietetics. Her latest New York Times best seller is S.A.S.S! Yourself Slim: Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds and Lose Inches.

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AUTISM UPDATE

This is cool:

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Seven-year-old Karl Gabriel has autism. But when his mother’s friend Justine Edward thinks of Karl, she doesn’t think about his challenges or disability. Instead, she thinks of his spirit, his love of Eric Carle’s book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and his winning smile.
So Edward, a teacher and mother of three in North Queensland, Australia, wrote a children’s book about letting your inner light shine. Then she asked Karl to illustrate it. The result is “Shine,” which Edward self-published in June. The text is written in verse form and the pictures are drawn in bold primary colors.

“I wanted everyone to see Karl the same way I saw him,” Edward said recently by phone. “I wanted them to see not just his disabilities, but the light within him.”
Edward has known Karl since before he was diagnosed with autism when he was three, and Karl’s mother, Sanya Gabriel, has always discussed his challenges and strengths openly, she said.
“I’ve been going on the entire journey with her,” Edward said. “He’s always been such a happy, joyful child, full of so much energy. Like a lot of kids on the spectrum, it can be hard to get him to focus. But when he smiles, he lights up the room. It’s so easy to be caught up by the challenges, to focus on what’s difficult, rather than just his incredible nature.”
Karl is particularly good with languages, Edward said, and can recite his favorite book in English, German, French and Italian. But drawing is more challenging for him, so it took him several weeks to complete the illustrations. The final product is peppered with specific references to Karl’s life. One illustration says “Ready, set, go,” which is a phrase Sanya Gabriel uses to get Karl to start his day.
Edward hopes the book will inspire all children who may be struggling with something, not just those with special needs.
“I wrote ‘Shine’ to encourage every reader to believe in themselves and reach for their dreams,” she said. “That would be my hope for every child.”

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Amen.

FOR MOEBIUS MOMS AND DADS: NEW BOOKS ON PARENTING

Including one that deals with autism.  But any books that help any parent with any aspect of parenting is helpful, especially for those of you with children who have special needs.  Read on:

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This installment of our round-up of recent parenting books includes more on achieving work/life balance, a treatment program for autism and a collection of essays about being a good mother. These titles were chosen from books we’ve recently received from publishers and cover a range of pressing parenting issues.
“Food Allergies: A Recipe for Success at School.” I don’t remember knowing anyone with a food allergy when I was a child (a long time ago, admittedly). But these days, you’re hard-pressed to find a classroom, soccer team or scout group that doesn’t have at least one child with nut, dairy or egg allergies.
It’s serious stuff. Exposure to the offending food can be life-threatening for these kids, and it can be scary to send your child off to school armed with an EpiPen, hoping that she doesn’t have any dangerous food encounters during the day. Jan Hanson’s book reviews common food allergies, including possible treatments and the most recent research. She gives parents a three-step plan for managing food allergies at school and goes over the laws that protect students with food allergies. She also suggests strategies for helping your child if she feels isolated from her peers because of her dietary restrictions.
“Getting to 50/50: How Working Parents Can Have It All.” Sharon Meers and Joanna Strober’s 2009 book was reissued last month, with a foreword by “Lean In” author Sheryl Sandberg.
In light of the ongoing debate over how and whether working mothers can have it all, the authors say women can have successful careers and be good moms, but only if their spouses are equal partners in the work at home.
“The most important career decision you make is whom you marry,” they write. They quote research that shows that couples who split the home responsibilities equally have a lower risk of getting divorced. They also cite a study of 1,250 fathers that indicated children do better academically when their fathers eat, play and do homework with them. So women should shed their guilt about wanting both career and family. They need to lobby for flexibility at work and help from their spouses at home.
By allowing sources to speak anonymously, the authors were able to get candid responses from couples and employers about why women struggle with this, but men don’t. The last third of the book is devoted to advice on how to get to 50/50 with your spouse.
“The Good Mother Myth. ” Avital Norman Nathman edited this collection of essays about motherhood. Rather than painting pictures of idyllic mothers, the pieces debunk the idea that there is one right way to parent a child.
The authors are refreshingly honest about parenting, from the opening essay about a mom dropping her daughter when she was a baby to another about learning how to say no to the volunteer recruiters at your child’s school. There is an essay about only wanting to have one child and another about how women compare themselves with other mothers.
The book also includes the voices of a mother who struggles with mental illness, a male-to-female transsexual parent, a teen mom and a mother who smokes marijuana to deal with the stress of raising her child.
The message: There’s no such thing as the perfect mother. And most of us are perfectly good mothers. Thank goodness.
“How to Be the Parent You Always Wanted to Be.” Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish revisit their 1992 guide to respectful parenting with this new release, a workbook accompanied by an audio guide.
The authors’ goal is to help parents communicate effectively with their children, particularly in today’s “time-starved times.” Chapters about feelings, cooperation, punishment, praise and anger include comic strips illustrating pertinent situations, followed by quizzes and exercises that allow readers to practice the approaches recommended by the authors.
The last part of the book is answers to questions they are frequently asked when they give parenting seminars.
“Spectacular Bond: Reaching the Child With Autism.” Marion Blank, Suzanne Goh and Susan Deland co-authored this guide to a program parents can use at home to help children with autism develop language skills and master appropriate behavior.
“Tremendous results are attainable for the great majority of children,” the authors say, when parents focus on improving the parent-child bond.
The method described in the book is primarily for children ages 2 to 6 but can be used for children up to 10 years old. It requires parents to change how they talk to their child, how they go about their daily routines and how they show affection.
The program has six parts: simplify the world; build self-control; manage meltdowns; sit quietly; organize daily life; and move on. They are all building toward “achieving inner calm and control,” the authors write.

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HEALTH TIP: BUYING PRESCRIPTION DRUGS ONLINE

I know many of you out there often need to buy prescription drugs; but it can be expensive.  Are there ways to cut costs?  Can you buy the medical drugs you need online?  Read more about it:

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Is it safe to order prescription drugs from online pharmacies in Canada?

Though technically illegal, millions of Americans buy prescription drugs from overseas pharmacies to save money. But the practice can be a huge gamble.
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, a professional group, reviewed over 10,000 Internet drug outlets and found that many sold fake or unapproved drugs. Some that claimed to be Canadian pharmacies actually sold medicines from developing countries where regulations are weak and counterfeit drugs are common.
Roger Bate, a pharmaceutical expert at the American Enterprise Institute, estimates that 2 to 3 percent of online pharmacies are legitimate. When buying Canadian, he said, look for outlets certified by the Canadian International Pharmacy Association, a trade group of Canadian pharmacies, or those certified by PharmacyChecker.com, a free website that verifies that the foreign sites it approves protect consumer information and meet quality standards.
Last year, Mr. Bate and his colleagues published a study analyzing 372 orders of five popular prescription drugs – Lipitor, Celebrex, Viagra, Nexium and Zoloft – that they purchased from 79 domestic and foreign online drug outlets. Products bought from Canadian or other foreign sites certified by C.I.P.A. or PharmacyChecker.com were of high quality. So were products ordered from American sites verified by either the N.A.B.P. or LegitScript.com, a certification agency founded by a former White House aide on drug policy issues.
But that was not the case for sites that were not certified by any of these four groups. Many of the drugs they sold were fakes, including about a quarter of the Viagra samples, which largely appeared to have originated in China.
“You can’t be 100 percent certain with any sites, frankly,” Mr. Bate said. “But you are running a much lower risk if you buy from a credentialed site.”

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Make yourself proud."--Peter W. Smith

 

FRIDAY FOOTBALL PICKS

NFL PICKS
I was only 5-8 last week; 65-75-2 for the year.  Ugh!

TENNESSEE 13.5 over Jacksonville.  My pick:  TITANS.  Tennessee seems to find ways to get it done in games like this.  The Jags--coming off a horrid trip to London--might just be tired and uninterested.

GREEN BAY 10 over Philadelphia.  My pick:  EAGLES.  The Pack may very well win this game.  But not by 10.  Seneca Wallace ain't no Aaron Rodgers, and Nick Foles is finding himself.

Buffalo at PITTSBURGH (no line).  My pick:  STEELERS.  Buffalo's QB situation remains muddled, hence the no line situation.  I just think Steeler pride and Big Ben will both work to get Pittsburgh a win here.

NY GIANTS 7 over Oakland.  My pick:  GIANTS.  New York and Eli Manning are slowly playing better; but a real key here is that for the Raiders, both Terrelle Pryor and Darren McFadden are banged up.  And Oakland must travel cross-country--usually not good for them.

INDIANAPOLIS 11 over St. Louis.  My pick:  COLTS.  St. Louis plays hard, but they just don't have the personnel.  Look for the Colts to control this game.

Seattle 6.5 over ATLANTA.  My pick:  SEAHAWKS.  I know, I know, Seattle has hard a hard time covering lately.  But the Falcons have just looked awful lately; I think they know the season is a lost one, and thus they can be overpowered in a game like this.  Look for Seattle to do that.

Cincinnat 2 over BALTIMORE.  My pick:  BENGALS.  Watch the Raven offense.  It just seems to have lost its rhythm, its ability to effectively run the ball, and to make big plays in the passing game.  Cincy is the best team in this division, and I think they'll show it here.

Detroit 2.5 over CHICAGO.  My pick: (holding my breath) LIONS.  This will be a very tough game.  It's a division game and a rivalry game.  But my sense is that Jay Cutler is kind of rushing back; he may not be ready.  Meanwhile the Lions are rested, coming off a bye week.  I think they have the weapons to take control here.

SAN FRANCISCO 6.5 over Carolina.  My pick:  49ERS.  I think Carolina is tough and much-improved.  But San Francisco is on a roll, too, and still appear to be a cut above the Panthers.

ARIZONA 2.5 over Houston.  My pick:  CARDINALS.  Houston is coming off a tough Sunday night loss; their head coach is out for a while; while the Cardinals tend to play better at home anyway.

Denver 7 over SAN DIEGO.  My pick:  BRONCOS.  Denver's lone loss of the season has been put behind them; even without John Fox, that offense can score, and one senses the team will be fine.  It's hard to pinpoint what is missing in San Diego; but something is.

NEW ORLEANS 7 over Dallas.  My pick:  SAINTS.  Too much firepower, especially in the passing game; and the Saints are really good at home.

Miami 3.5 over TAMPA BAY.  My pick:  BUCCANEERS.  I just have to believe the Dolphins are one distracted team, given all the Richi Incognito etc etc etc controversy.  And the Bucs are playing better, and have nothing to lose.

FOR MOEBIUS MOMS AND DADS: ON PARENTING

This guy--who's usually a rather partisan political columnist in the NY Times--today takes a step back and writes about parenting.  He has some good advice.  Read on:

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I’ve been a single dad for 13 years. As with most single parents — and indeed with most parents — it hasn’t always been easy.

People sometimes say that parenting is the toughest job you’ll ever love. But I believe that parenting is sometimes so tough — and exhausting — that you don’t always remember to slow down enough to love it. Sometimes the love is registered in retrospect.

We jockey to give our children the best without giving them so much that they can’t appreciate what they have. We try to encourage them without coddling them. We lavish gifts upon them while simultaneously trying to nurture grit within them.

Parents walk a thin line between oppositional forces, never knowing if we are truly getting it right, judging ourselves and being judged by others.

And we are inundated by studies and books and advice: do this or that if you want your child to succeed and not spend his or her 20s on your sofa.

I try to tune most of it out. When I feel overwhelmed, I call my mother. She always seems to know what to say. I guess that’s why they call it “mother’s wit.”

When my three children were younger, and the strain of taking care of them seemed as though it would overwhelm me, my mother would tell me what an elderly babysitter once told her when she too felt overwhelmed: “Baby, one day they’ll be able to get themselves a cup of water.”

It was a simple way of saying that children grow up and become more self-reliant and eventually they set out on their own to chart their own course. You won’t always have to wait on them hand and foot.

She told me to remember that the more people a child has who truly loves him or her, the happier that child will be. So I work hard to maintain and expand their circles of love.

She taught me that parenting was a lot like giving a hug: It’s all about love and pressure and there is no one way to do it.

She taught me that sometimes you have to make time for yourself so that you will have energy to give to your children. Allow them to have a pizza night every now and then. An occasional treat won’t hurt them, but working yourself to a frazzle will surely hurt you. Rest.

She taught me that you must allow yourself time to find stillness and so you can be moved by it. Sometimes we are so busy that we forget why we’re busy. We have so many things on our list of priorities that we lose sight of what’s really important.

And she taught me that my children are not truly mine. They don’t belong to me; they’ve simply been entrusted to me. They are a gift life gave to me, but one that I must one day give back to life. They must grow up and go away and that is as it should be.

But as the time with my children in my home draws to a close — my oldest is away at college and my twins are 16-year-old high school juniors — I’m beginning to feel the pains in my chest that all parents feel when their children move away.

I thought that this would be a celebratory time, a time when I would relish the idea of getting back to me, of working late without worry and taking last-minute weekend jaunts.

But I don’t. Letting go is hard for me to do. I must let go, but my heart feels hollow. I can’t imagine me without them.

Lately there are times that I find myself just staring at my children, that kind of look that says, “I see you, really see you, and I love you with an all-consuming love, the kind of love that envelops you and sustains me.” It’s the kind of look that invariably draws from my children a “What? What are you looking at?” They speak the words through the slightest smile, a barely registered one, the kind of smile a teenager manages when they know that they are loved, but feel that they are too old for hugs or tears.

Life gave them to me. I’m preparing myself, as best I can, to give them back to life. 

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HEALTH TIP OF THE DAY

To help motivate yourself to work out and exercise, just keep telling yourself--this exercise feels good!  Read on:

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Tell yourself during exercise that you’re not as tired as you think you are and you could make that statement true, a new study shows, reminding us that the body intertwines with the mind in ways that we are only starting to understand.
For the new experiment, which was published last month in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, and other institutions turned to a group of 24 healthy, physically active young men and women and asked if they would be willing to ride a bicycle to the point of limp exhaustion, repeatedly.
Physical fatigue is a surprisingly enigmatic condition. Scientists don’t fully understand how the body knows when it has had enough. Many of us might guess that activity ceases once our muscles have run out of fuel or fluids. But in studies with rodents, even after they are pushed to run until they drop, scientists have found reserves of fuel in the animals’ muscles. Physiologically, they remain capable of more exercise, although their bodies don’t seem to think so.
Such experiments have prompted some scientists recently to propose a different theory of exercise-related fatigue, in which the brain, rather than the muscles, initiates exhaustion after receiving and analyzing inputs from the body. An attractive element of this theory, often called the psychobiological model, is that it allows more wiggle room. If exhaustion is determined by the brain and is, to some degree, subjective, then theoretically the right tweaks during training could convince your brain that you can go farther or harder than it would otherwise allow.
That possibility motivated the new experiment, which was designed specifically to determine whether verbally encouraging yourself during a draining workout can affect your mind’s calculations and stave off fatigue.
To test that idea, the scientists first took a series of baseline physical measurements of their volunteers. Then, during a separate lab visit, the volunteers were asked to pedal a computerized stationary bicycle at about 80 percent of their predetermined maximum force until they felt that they could pedal no more and quit.
Throughout, the scientists measured each rider’s heart rate, pedaling power and pace. Having attached electrodes to the riders’ foreheads and cheeks, the researchers also monitored their facial muscular contractions — i.e., grimaces — an accepted physiological indicator of increasing physical exertion. And they asked the riders several times during and at the conclusion of the ride how hard the exercise had felt, on a scale of zero to 10.
Once each rider’s measurements had been recorded, they were randomly divided into two groups. One group was told to continue with their normal exercise routine for the next two weeks. Those in the other group were coached in “self-talk,” the kind of verbal banter that many athletes engage in during workouts, whether done aloud or silently.
For many of us, self-talk is haphazard and, if the banter turns berating, it can be demotivating. In this case, however, the chosen volunteers systematically learned how best to talk to themselves in an encouraging way. Provided with phrases that psychologists previously had found to be motivating, such as “You’re doing well,” the volunteers were asked also to jot down any expressions that they had used during exercise in the past. A popular choice was “feeling good.”
Each volunteer then chose four phrases that appealed to him or her, and was told to start repeating these frequently during subsequent, normal exercise sessions. The volunteers practiced this self-talk during exercise for the next two weeks.
Then each group returned to the lab and underwent another cycling test to exhaustion, during which the riders in the self-talk group studiously repeated their mantras; some aloud, some silently.
Afterward, it was obvious that self-talk had bolstered riders’ feelings and performance. The group that had talked to themselves had pedaled much longer before succumbing to exhaustion than in their first rides and reported that the pedaling had felt easier, even though, objectively, their heart rates and facial expressions had remained the same, indicating that the physical exertion had been just as great as in the initial ride.
The riders in the other group, meanwhile, generally repeated their performances from before, lasting about the same amount of time before quitting and feeling about the same degree of discomfort.
On one level, these findings indicate that “motivational self-talk improves endurance performance compared to not using it,” said Samuele Marcona, the director of exercise research at the University of Kent and senior author of the study.
But a deeper reading of the data, he continued, buttresses the idea that physical exhaustion develops, to a considerable degree, in your head. “If the point in time at which people stop exercising was determined solely biologically,” he said, self-talk would have no effect. But it did.
To be effective, though, self-talk probably has to be consistent and systematic, he said. Some of the riders in the control group muttered or silently exhorted themselves during the cycling — they weren’t told not to — but they tended to do this haphazardly, and without discernible benefit. Better, Dr. Marcora suggested, to deploy phrases that particularly encourage you and repeat them often, even on a schedule, especially as a workout or competition wears on. It is likely we all could stand to hear that, despite intimations to the contrary, we’re “feeling good.”

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INSPIRATIONAL STORY OF THE DAY

A man with Down's Syndrome completes the NY City Marathon.  Good for him:

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  In a first, a man with Down syndrome crossed the finish line at the New York City Marathon over the weekend and scored a spot in the record books.

Jimmy Jenson, 48, took a little more than eight hours to run the 26.2 miles of the course on Sunday. In doing so, the Los Angeles resident became the first with the chromosomal disorder to complete the famed run, reports TODAY.
Jenson ran alongside his longtime friend, Jennifer Davis. The two first met 12 years ago through Best Buddies, which connects people with and without disabilities in one-to-one friendships.
In addition to helping him lose weight, Davis said running has boosted Jenson’s confidence.
“He’s become so much more outgoing,” Davis told TODAY about her friend who helped cheer along fellow runners as they pushed toward the marathon’s finish line.

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 "Never give up on what you really want to do.  The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts."--Albert Einstein

BRAIN TALK: JUMPER CABLES FOR YOUR BRAIN?

We talk occasionally about the brain on this blog.  After all, as I never tire of reminding folks (because there might be new readers, you never know!), what causes Moebius Syndrome is that two of the nerves that go from our brain to our face--that help us move our face--don't work.  So MS is partly a brain thing.  But what makes our brain work, and what can help our brain?  It just makes sense to look into it.  So...jumper cables?  It's all explained here, in a long piece in the NY Times Magazine...read on:

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This couldn’t possibly be a good idea. On Friday the 13th of September, in an old brick building on 13th Street in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood, a pair of electrodes was attached to my forehead, one over my brain’s left prefrontal cortex, the other just above my right eye socket. I was about to undergo transcranial direct-current stimulation, or tDCS, an experimental technique for delivering extremely low dose electrical stimulation to the brain. Using less than 1 percent of the electrical energy necessary for electroconvulsive therapy, powered by an ordinary nine-volt battery, tDCS has been shown in hundreds of studies to enhance an astonishing, seemingly implausible variety of intellectual, emotional and movement-related brain functions. And its side effects appear limited to a mild tingling at the site of the electrode, sometimes a slight reddening of the skin, very rarely a headache and certainly no seizures or memory loss. Still, I felt more than a bit apprehensive as I prepared to find out if a little bit of juice could amp up my cognitive reserves and make me, in a word, smarter.

With the electrodes in place, J. León Morales-Quezada, senior research associate at Harvard’s Laboratory of Neuromodulation, pressed a button on his computer and I felt . . . absolutely nothing. No pain. No tingling. Not even a little muscle twitching.

“Is it on?” I asked.

Morales-Quezada assured me it was. For proof, he pointed to a flat-screen on the wall, displaying signals from six electroencephalogram (EEG) monitors also attached to my head.

After 10 minutes of charging my brain, he turned on a computerized exercise I was supposed to practice while the current continued flowing. Called an attention-switching task, it’s used by psychologists as a measure of “executive function” or “cognitive control”: the ability to overrule your urges, to ignore distractions and to quickly shift your focus. Young adults generally do better than older people; people with greater overall cognitive abilities generally perform better than those with less.

Scientific papers published in leading peer-reviewed journals since 2005 have shown that tDCS can improve the speed or accuracy with which people perform this attention-switching task. Other studies have found it can improve everything from working memory to long-term memory, math calculations, reading ability, solving difficult problems, piano playing, complex verbal thought, planning, visual memory, the ability to categorize, the capacity for insight, post-stroke paralysis and aphasia, chronic pain and even depression. Effects have been shown to last for weeks or months. 

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This is a long piece, so above is part of it; go to my link to read the rest.  It's interesting.  I wonder if this would be of any use to anyone in our community?  We'll see...

FRIDAY FOOTBALL PICKS!

Last week was much better--I went 10-5.  That puts me at 60-67-2 for the year.
Let's keep the momentum going!

COLLEGE PICKS

Michigan at Michigan State.  My pick:  WOLVERINES.  I may be picking with my heart here, not my head.  Who knows.  But--in what you read this week, EVERYBODY is picking MSU...saying they're tougher, they're more physical, etc etc.  So if you're Michigan, your manhood is being challenged.  But--Michigan has a good offense that can move the ball.  Michigan has had 2 weeks to prepare for this game.  I'm not sure the Spartans' offensive woes have been fixed.  I say, the Wolverines in an upset.

NFL PICKS

CAROLINA 7.5 over Atlanta.  My pick:  PANTHERS.  Just too many injuries for the Falcons to overcome.  And the Panthers are playing solidly lately.

DALLAS 10.5 over Minnesota.  My pick:  COWBOYS.  Since the beginning of the 2011 season, the Cowboys are 16-1 in games vs teams that end up the season with a losing record.  No reason to think that will change here.

New Orleans 6 over NY JETS.  My pick:  SAINTS.  Drew Brees will throw the ball, and do it effectively.  But also continue to take note of New Orleans' improved defense.

Tennessee 3 over ST. LOUIS.  My pick:  TITANS.  Two teams with injury problems at QB.  My guess:  the Titans will do just enough here to eke out a 4 or 6 pt victory.

Kansas City 3 over BUFFALO.  My pick:  CHIEFS.  They just keep finding ways to win.  Again, I think that will continue here--especially look for KC's defense to throttle Thad Lewis and the Buffalo offense.

San Diego at WASHINGTON  pick 'em.  My pick:  CHARGERS.  Something is still just a bit off for the 'Skins.  And their defense is weak.  Look for Philip Rivers to have a good day and find a way to win.

OAKLAND 2 over Philadelphia.  My pick:  RAIDERS.  Mainly because the Eagles' QB situation seems to be in flux and a mess.

SEATTLE 16.5 over Tampa Bay.  My pick:  SEAHAWKS.  And the Seahawks usually cover the spread in games like this at home.  Tampa is a mess.

Baltimore 2.5 over CLEVELAND.  My pick:  RAVENS.  The Browns with Brandon Weeden just can't seem to find ways to win.  I'm not sure either team is really going anywhere--but look for the Ravens to prevail here as they usually do.

NEW ENGLAND 6.5 over Pittsburgh.  My pick:  PATRIOTS.  The Steelers no longer have the playmakers on offense, or the offensive line, to hang with Tom Brady.

Indianapolis 2.5 over HOUSTON.  My pick:  COLTS.  I don't think it will be a total blowout, but you have to like Andrew Luck over an inexperienced Case Keenum.

GREEN BAY 10.5 over Chicago.  My pick:  PACKERS.  Aaron Rodgers just continues to impress with his accuracy and efficiency in execution; and the Bears will not have Jay Cutler.  Look for the Pack to roll again.