FOOTBALL LEAGUE STUDY ABOUT BRAIN INJURY IN FOOTBALL PLAYERS COULD BE A GAME CHANGER

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What Does Ditka Think?

I've written about this before. Here's yet another report about football and possible brain damage. "A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population — including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49".



"A detailed summary of the N.F.L. study, which was conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, was distributed to league officials this month..“This is a game-changer — the whole debate, the ball’s now in the N.F.L.’s court,” said Dr. Julian Bailes, the chairman of the department of neurosurgery at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, and a former team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers whose research found similar links four years ago".











"Ditka, long a passionate advocate for the welfare of former NFL players suffering from injuries sustained on the field decades ago, recently read the news of a study commissioned by the NFL".

NFL dementia study worries Ditka























Vince Lombardi told the Green Bay Packers "Dancing is a contact sport, Football is a hitting sport"... In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to outlaw football after 19 college football players were killed or paralyzed from brain or spinal cord injuries. (Statistic from Maroon et al., Neurosurgery, 47:659-672, 2000.)"

Dementia Risk Seen in Players in N.F.L.

VINCE LOMBARDI Was Right FOOTBALL is a Hitting Sport

Dramatic Videos of Using the Brain and Brain Signals to Type on Computers Control Machinery and Surf the Internet

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Biofeedback is a way to monitor the working of the brain and possibly see the results on a computer screen or use that information to control a computer or machine or perform some activity.People are learning to use their brain waves recorded from the scalp to select letters or icons on a computer screen or to move a cursor. Unlike some of the other brain interfaces the Wadsworth Wolpaw device does NOT require surgery. It has been adopted for home use and is in use by people at this moment. These videos are a startling demonstration of the power of the Wadsworth Brain Computer Interface as seen here with Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw.








Click the arrow to start the video
(It has a commercial in front since it's from the news show 60 minutes)













Click the following link to hear and see Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw demonstrate the amazing Wadsworth Brain Computer Interface.

A Video Explanation of the Wadsworth Brain Computer Interface






"People learn to use their brain waves recorded from the scalp to select letters or icons on a computer screen or to move a cursor. We have begun to take our BCI system out of the lab and into the homes of people with severe disabilities. We are testing its capacity to restore communication and control to them in their daily lives".

Playing Games to Improve Working Memory


See also

# Wolpaw, J.R. Brain-computer interfaces as new brain output pathways. Journal of Physiology, 579:613-619, 2007.
# Wolpaw, J.R. and Chen, X.Y. Operant conditioning of spinal cord reflexes. In: New Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. (L. Squire, T. Albright, F. Bloom, F. Gage, N. Spitzer (Eds)., in press.
# Wolpaw, J. R. and Chen, X.Y. The cerebellum in maintenance of a motor skill: A hierarchy of brain and spinal cord plasticity underlies H-reflex conditioning. Learning & Memory 13:208-215, 2006.
# Chen, Y., Chen, X.Y., Jakeman L,B., Chen, L., Stokes B.T. and Wolpaw, J.R. Operant conditioning of H-reflex can correct a locomotor abnormality after spinal cord injury in rats. Journal of Neuroscience 26:12537-12543, 2006.
# Wolpaw, J.R.and McFarland, D.J. Control of a two-dimensional movement signal by a noninvasive brain-computer interface in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 101:17849-17854, 2004.

Exploring Space Earth as Seen from a Beer Cooler

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OK..this is really smart..and amazing! Students send a weather balloon along with a camera strapped to a beer cooler and a Motorola mobile phone with GPS and get pictures from space.. You can see the Earth's curvature. This is just plain brilliant.



"Displaying stunning ingenuity reminiscent of MacGyver, the MIT students filled a weather balloon with helium and strapped it to a styrofoam beer cooler containing a cheap Canon A470 camera that was programmed to take photos every five seconds".

1337 Arts Photographs from Near Space

GLOWING IN THE DARK HOW MUCH ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION DOES MY CELL PHONE GIVE OUT

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Ever wonder how much radiation your cellphone is radiating? If you turn off the room light and you glow in the dark your phone is probably giving off too much radiation! The next best thing may be this list of cell phone electromagnetic radiation levels. You can look up specific radiation measurements at the following web site.


The authors have created a list of cell phones and posted the electromagnetic radiation that they measured from these cell phones which are listed by model number and which cell phone carrier has them.

List of Cell Phone Electromagnetic Radiation Measurements












According to Wikipedia, "The World Health Organization, based upon the consensus view of the scientific and medical communities, states that cancer is unlikely to be caused by cellular phones or their base stations and that reviews have found no convincing evidence for other health effects. The WHO expects to make recommendations about mobile phones in October 2009. Some national radiation advisory authorities have recommended measures to minimize exposure to their citizens".

TREATMENTS AND PROCEDURES FOR SPIDER VEINS AND WHAT ABOUT CREAMS FOR SPIDER VEINS

TREATMENTS PROCEDURES AND EVEN CREAMS FOR SPIDER VEINS FACT OR FICTION

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Public Enemy Number 1 (or at least 3 or 4) in the never ending battle of things that interfere with the perception of beauty (at least if you are a model or model wannabe) are the so called spider veins. In an ideal world you wouldn't be judged for how you look but for your inner beauty. Sorry Dorothy, you're not in Kansas anymore. It looks like we have a ways to go to that ideal since many people can't seem to get to the inner beauty because they can't quite push themselves beyond the outer beauty or lack thereof. Spider veins are a kissing cousin of varicose veins.





Spider veins are similar to varicose veins, but they are smaller. They are often red or blue and are closer to the surface of the skin than varicose veins. They can look like tree branches or spider webs with their short jagged lines. Spider veins can be found on the legs and face.








Cosmetic surgeons and dermatologists apparently are determined to develop an endless stream of cures for spider veins and varicose veins. The NY Times had an excellent article about methods and treatments for spider veins. They talk with a model who had the laser assisted sclerotherapy treatment for spider veins.








There is some debate about how important a medical problem spider veins are but in a previous post I wrote about how a doctor said that not treating spider vein's cousin,varicose veins, was a bad idea. The Times article discusses the pluses and minuses of creams and salves for spider veins as well as the medical procedures for spider veins.

Removing the Web of Spider Veins

Videos that Explain Sclerotherapy

The Times discusses needle sclerotherapy as well as laser sclerotherapy. It also discusses the value( and whether there is any) of Ginko Bilboa, Marigold, Parsley and Horse Chestnut for the treatment of spider veins.

The ANC Youth League and Caster Semenya.

Beware of those basic principles of medical tests!

*ANC YL FULLY BEHIND SOUTH AFRICA¹S GOLDEN GIRL MOKGADI CASTER SEMENYA*
*11 September 2009*

The African National Congress Youth League is fully behind the International
Athletics Associations Federation (IAAF) World Championships Gold Medallist,
Caster Semenya amidst the malicious rumour of a medical report from the
IAAF. The ANC YL has interacted with Athletics South Africa and established
that there was never a legitimate test conducted on Caster Semenya and all
basic principles of medical tests are grossly violated.

The ANC YL calls on the IAAF to distance itself from the Australian Media
reports, and in line with basic medical ethics illegitimate any test done on
Caster Semenya without her concern. Even if a test is done, the ANC YL will
never accept the categorisation of Caster Semenya as a hermaphrodite,
because in South Africa and the entire world of sanity, such does not exist.
The basic, traditional and known method to determine gender has classified
Caster Semenya as female and to us she will remain a female.

The ANC YL is also very concerned by the fact that all the media reports
about Caster Semenya are generated in Australia, which is the most lucrative
destination for South Africa¹s racists and fascists, who refused to live
under a black democratic government. The maltreatment of Caster Semenya is
evidently a coordinated racist attack on Caster Semenya, an African woman
whom the racists never thought will represent South Africa will excellence.

Mokgadi Semenya is our girl and the ANC YL will be convening the prize money
handover ceremony to celebrate her before the end of September 2009. There
is no one who is going to take the Gold Medal and honour from Caster Semenya
for any reason.

*Issued by the African National Congress Youth League *
Contact Floyd Shivambu, ANC YL National Spokesperson



Crickey.

A CLEVER COOL COMPUTER SIMULATION WHICH WOULD BE GREAT IN BIOLOGY OR MEDICINE

Here is a clever, cool, (you fill in the adjective) computer simulation from engineering where you draw on a blackboard (whiteboard) and the drawing "comes to life". Seems like something similar would be great in biology and medicine.




A Computer Simulation Which Would Be Great for Medicine
Click the arrow

Using the Brain to Control Computers