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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