Episode 117
Notes
Banter:
Hello and
welcome to Nordstrom. If I can help with
your shopping experience, please don’t hesitate to call on me. Sorry – probably a way-inside joke. This beautiful music I’m talking all over is
performed by Doug Boldt, and you can find it at the Podsafe music network –
that’s music.podshow.com.
Nordstrom,
for those of you in the audience that do not know, is a very upscale department
store, and if my economics folklore serves me right, it started off as a shoe
store in the Seattle area. When I first
shopped at Nordstrom, affectionately referred to as “nordy’s” by us snooty
yuppie-types, I was surprised to find a grand piano, positioned in the center
of the store, under the escalators so the sound could carry through the whole
store, with a guy actually playing it.
I thought
that was a really nice touch. Whenever I
went there, I always would listen for the guy playing the piano. It was about this time of year when I first
shopped there, the store was immaculate, decorated, humming with activity, the
staff were all eager to assist. And
there was the guy, playing every piece of Christmas music you could think of –
no sheet music, just from his memory. It
sounded so cool. It really put me in a
cheerful mood.
I was in a
Nordstrom recently, and the piano was gone.
So were the decorations and the cheerful mood. Its this whole “Happy Holidays” versus
“Christmas” thing, I guess. People are
afraid to say “Merry Christmas” for fear of offending someone. How do I offend by wishing someone well at
what is, in my reality, the happiest, most joyful, most significant holiday
there is? Does it matter that someone
may not celebrate Christmas? I don’t
celebrate my birthday, but I don’t get nasty when someone says “Happy
Birthday”. I’ve had people wish me
“Happy Chanukah” – I don’t celebrate Chanukah, but I whole-heartedly appreciate
the thought and the well-wishes. I think
its nice when someone offers good cheer during the holidays. The word – “
[Cue newstheme]
Headlines: Violent
Games Beget Violent Kids – Yet Another Study, Babies Having Strokes, Visions of
iPods Dance In Their Heads, IM As Teen Literature, Internet Safety Training
Coming to a School Near You
[Cue ELEMENT_2]
[Cue 1-848]
[Cue Important News]
[Cue Synth News Intro]
News:
Study:
Violence-rewarding video games increase aggressive behavior
Thousands
of Babies Have Strokes Annually
By LAURAN
NEERGAARD
AP Medical
Writer
It looked
like a seizure when little Alexzandra Gonzales jerked and then went limp,
barely breathing. A frantic race to the hospital led to a diagnosis her parents
found hard to believe: Just days before her first birthday, she had had a stroke.
'We never
knew that children could have strokes,' says her mother, Amanda Gonzales.
It's a
common misconception, yet several thousand
'It gets
short shrift,' complains Dr. Raymond Pitetti, assistant emergency medicine
chief at Children's
'There are
a lot of knowledge gaps,' agrees Dr. John Lynch of the National Institutes of
Health, whose research is pointing to possible unrecognized genetic culprits.
Strokes are
rare in children. Still, Lynch estimates that about 1,000 infants a year suffer
a stroke during the newborn period or before birth _ plus anywhere from 3,000
to 5,000 children from age 1 month to 18 years.
The age
difference is important, as newborn strokes appear to be distinctly different
from those in older babies and children, who are more at risk for repeat brain
attacks.
Between 10
and 25 percent of pediatric stroke sufferers die.
Specialists
once thought most survivors eventually would recover, because children's brains
are much more 'plastic' than adults' _ they're more likely to reroute
themselves around damage. But sobering research now shows more than half will
have permanent motor or cognitive disabilities.
'Kids in
the end still do better than adults,' cautions Dr. Amy Goldstein, a pediatric
neurologist at Children's
Worse,
there's very little research on how to treat child stroke. Neurologists cobble
together therapy based on what works in adults, although what causes most adult
strokes _ hardened, clogged arteries _ isn't the culprit for youngsters, and
few are diagnosed fast enough to try experimentally the drug tPA that can
restore their elders' blocked blood flow.
Efforts are
under way to change that. An international study, led by Toronto's Hospital for
Sick Children, is trying to pinpoint risk factors and patients' outcomes based
on how different hospitals care for them, knowledge necessary to device new
treatments.
While
cardiac birth defects, vascular abnormalities, sickle cell disease and certain
infections can trigger child strokes, doctors never find a cause for about
two-thirds of cases. A second study, led by NIH's Lynch, suggests many of them
harbor genetic mutations connected to blood clotting and metabolism, a possible
missing link.
And about
100 patients are enrolled in a study of whether Pitetti's stroke team improves
their outcomes by speeding diagnosis.
For now,
pediatric stroke treatment centers on preventing a repeat stroke and minimizing
damage from the first one.
Too often,
children face a significant delay, say Pitetti and Goldstein. Hospitals
frequently make stroke a diagnosis of last resort. Parents may not recognize
acute stroke symptoms _ such as one-sided weakness, loss of speech and, in
babies, seizures.
And if your
baby seems to favor one side, insist on a neurology exam _ it might be an
undetected newborn stroke that requires physical therapy, Goldstein adds.
'Moms need
to trust their gut instinct,' she says. 'Know this can happen.' HEY – what about dads! AT least say ‘parents’…
Visions of
iPods Dance in Their Heads
Newswise -
Ask a 9-year-old what she wants for Christmas and chances are a technology
gadget - an iPod, DVD player or video game - is on her list.
Electronics
are among the hot gifts for children this holiday season, says Ken Haller,
M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University School of
Medicine.
That's not
necessarily a bad thing if the gizmo contains content that is appropriate for a
child of that age. No PG-13 games for 9-year-olds, and keep tabs on what music
your child is downloading, he says.
"Electronic
devices help kids with hand-eye coordination," says Haller, who also is a
SLUCare pediatrician at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital. "And a
lot of video games are so inexpensive they're not necessarily a budget buster."
But a
little electronic exposure goes a long way, he warns.
"If a
kid is going to play with video games, they need to spend less time watching TV
and being on the Internet," Haller says. "Playing with a video game
counts as screen time, and the
Spending
too much time with video games can rob a child of the chance to socialize and
play with others. "They're very solitary activities. They generally don't
seem to promote social interactions among kids."
Traditional
toys - building blocks, art kits, matchbox cars, dolls and games - give a child
more opportunity to socialize and use his imagination.
"These
kinds of toys allow children to make up stories about the dolls and toys they
have rather than have a story forced upon them," Haller says. "It's
probably more creative to stick with dolls and toys and games that spark the
imagination."
IM as Teen
Literacy and Society
Newswise -
Led by youth, Instant Messaging (IM) is part of everyday life for 80 million
Americans. Two-thirds of teenagers IM, and a recent survey reveals that IMing
has edged out cell phones as the way teens keep in touch with friends on a
daily basis. Something that so engages the reading and writing energies of
teens is bound to raise interest among middle and high school teachers. Cynthia
Lewis, University of Iowa, and Bettina Fabos, Miami University, provide a
portrait of IMers in "Instant messaging, literacies, and social
identities," Reading Research Quarterly, October-December 2005, available
at http://www.reading.org/publications/journals/rrq/current/index.html.
As the
title suggests, Lewis and Fabos examined Instant Messaging to determine how it
functions in the lives of people for whom digital technology is a given, not
something to be understood and mastered. Their findings revolve around three
functions served by IM that are quite distinct from other forms of
communication, including e-mail, telephone, note-passing, and online chat rooms.
* Language
use. Although media coverage of IM discourse may find it inane or
incomprehensible, the teens in the study used language strategically and
creatively. In fact, the researchers suggest that educators might be encouraged
to find that teens use linguistic features to manipulate tone, word choice, and
subject matter, and they structure messages to sustain interesting
conversations and cut off those that aren't interesting. Even the use of
partial sentences -- a seeming affront to "proper English"-- is a
strategic tool to keep conversation buddies from moving on to other buddies
available online.
*
Socialization. IM is viewed as an enhancement to social status by its users,
who note that being "in the know" about what occurred during the
previous night's IM session is essential for social relations at school. Even
more subtle, though, is the way IMers control interactions to avoid looking
like losers to high-status buddies, sometimes delaying responses so that they
appear busy with other online conversations. Parents may be comforted to know
that IM users find it more fulfilling to communicate with people they already
know (and not cyber stalkers) and are willing to cut down on TV viewing to be
part of the ongoing IM story. Although IM blurs the line between the real and
virtual social world among its users, it is not a replacement for face-to-face
socializing: when teens have more time to be with friends, as they do in the
summer, IM use decreases.
*
Surveillance. IM permits users to sample experiences related to power and
identity. For example, surveillance features built into the IM system allow
users to monitor their buddies' online and offline activities and control how
they themselves are monitored. Many IMers utilize multiple user names, but not
all "identities" are shared with all buddies, so logging on with a
name recognized by a select few allows the IMer to monitor what's going on
without getting bombarded with messages. A similar control occurs when IMers
block people from the buddy list, making it harder to tell when they are
online. In short, IM users can get a good idea of who is active and receptive
anytime they are online. IM also permits experiments with identity through
posing, attempts to take on the identity of someone else, like another gender
or a specific person. Generally girls spend more time posing than boys, but
some dismiss the practice altogether.
Lewis and
Fabos urge a broad research agenda in digital literacy and culture. Perhaps
their most cogent message to the community of literacy educators and
researchers deals with generational anxiety: "If we mourn the loss of
print literacy as we think we once knew it, then we may find ourselves
schooling young people in literacy practices that disregard the vitality of
their literate lives and the needs they will have for their literate and social
futures at home, at work, and in their communities."
…Who’d-a-thunk
it? First, there was ‘Ebonics’ – a way
of legitimizing ghetto-talk, street-lingo, whatever you want to call it. All I heard was really horrible English. Now we have studies trying to legitimize IM
abbreviations and shorthand as some sort of literary achievement? Look, I use IM a LOT – but I don’t use
abbreviations, or shorthand, I type – pretty fast now after 25+ years at the
keyboard. Never took a single typing
lesson, and I have to type with the lights on, looking at the keyboard – but I
can type in complete sentences…and my kid will learn to do the same. I’ll buy the ‘strategic and creative’
arguments, but its still dreadful English.
So is this Leet-speak stuff. It’s
a form of typing that uses letters, figures and numbers creatively – but the
intent is simply to evade filters that pick up those ‘naughty words’ and also
keep prying adult eyes from understanding what’s being written. Microsoft actually has a good article on
‘Leet Speak’ called ‘A parents primer on computer slang’. I’ll post a link in the shownotes. You can search for ‘LEET SPEAK’ in
Google. Hopefully Uncle Bill won’t get
mad that I linked to their site…
Anthony
Wayne: Parents, children to get Internet safety coaching
…This story
is a bit of a local news blurb, but sometimes you find interesting stuff in the
local papers.
By ELIZABTH
A. SHACK
BLADE STAFF
WRITER
Adult
predators, viruses, and bullies are some of the potential threats children face
online, and the
"We
need to train our parents, and especially our children, to educate and protect
them and give them the power to recognize things on the internet that don't
look safe," school resource officer Ron Shellhammer said.
The
district plans to offer its students a curriculum from the nonprofit i-Safe,
and is scheduled to give parents a presentation about Internet safety at
The
presentation is targeted at, but not limited to, parents of students in grades
5 through 10, who are old enough to use the computer independently.
"Parents
are key to their child's Internet safety education," said Linda Hertzfeld,
director of technology for the district.
The
presentation is intended to address ways that they can help protect their
children, by understanding what their children are doing online and by knowing
how to recognize suspicious behavior and report it to someone's Internet
service provider.
Parents
will learn about antivirus, antispyware, and firewall software that can be
downloaded for free to protect computers.
Mrs.
Hertzfeld said one simple step parents can take is to put the computer in a
public room of the house.
Officer
Shellhammer said part of the presentation is letting people know that they can
contact law enforcement about something that happens on the Internet. He said
sometimes the threats and bullying that occur between students are made as a
joke, but sometimes they're serious.
Students
can learn how to block other students from contacting them online, he said.
The
district will use a free curriculum from i-Safe to teach its students about
cybercommunity citizenship.
"Sometimes
kids get into things on the Internet and don't know how to get out of it,"
Mrs. Hertzfeld said.
For younger
students, tips can be as simple as how to get out of a Web browser. Older
students may be advised about not giving away sensitive information that could
identify them, such as their number on the soccer team and the name of their
school.
The
curriculum also talks about intellectual property.
"We as
a nation are endorsing online research," Mrs. Hertzfeld said.
That means
students need to be shown a definitive line between plagiarism and
paraphrasing. They'll also discuss what music they can legally imbed in a
multimedia presentation, she said.
Safety
issues such as worms, viruses, and Trojan horses are other topics in the
curriculum, including defenses like deleting unsolicited e-mail attachments and
making purchases only from secure sites.
…I did a
Google search for “i-Safe”, and much to my surprise, they just had a meeting at
the local High School…but I never heard about it in my local paper…or PTA…so
check their website. They just might be
coming to a town near you.
Parents -
Not Just Peers - Still Matter in Teens' Choice to Use Drugs
Newswise -
Although most research into teen drug prevention emphasizes peer pressure, a
new study by a pair of
"Much
of the previous research in this area shows that adolescents make their
decisions about drugs based on influence from their friends," said Stephen
Bahr, professor of sociology at BYU and the study's lead author. "But
those studies neglect the notion we found here, that some of the family
characteristics help determine who teens associate with. We also found that
some steps taken by parents had a direct effect on lowering drug abuse, even in
the face of peer influences."
The
findings, to be published this week in the new issue of the "Journal of
Primary Prevention," held true across drug type - alcohol, cigarettes,
marijuana and "hard" drugs like heroin and ecstasy.
"The
fact that parents can make a difference in peer choices, or even after those
peer choices are made, is an important message to get out there," said
study co-author John Hoffmann, also a BYU professor of sociology.
"Parents, you shouldn't throw up your hands, even if you find out your
kids are starting to hang around with kids who use drugs."
The
researchers, assisted by Xiaoyan Yang, then a BYU graduate student, conducted
anonymous, random surveys of more than 4,000 seventh- through twelfth- graders.
The results showed that within the previous 30 days, 21 percent of the
respondents reported drinking alcohol, 12 percent had engaged in binge drinking,
9 percent had smoked marijuana and 12.5 percent took hard drugs.
Further
statistical analysis revealed that the influence of peers is strong, but it is
mediated by characteristics of parents, Bahr said.
"There
are some who have even argued that parents don't have influence on those
decisions, that kids are independent in deciding who they're going to be
friends with," Hoffmann said. "We're arguing that's not true. Parents
do have influence over who their kids are friends with, and they can directly
influence that by monitoring activity more closely."
The study
found other actions parents took that had significant effects on drug use in
addition to acting as gatekeepers over friends:
-- For each
degree of tolerance toward marijuana that teens perceive in their parents
(measured on a 5-point scale), there is a 33 percent increase in frequency of
marijuana use.
-- The
frequency of marijuana use drops 10 percent for each degree that teens perceive
their parents as monitoring their activities, even after accounting for
influence of peers.
-- The risk
of using an illicit drug drops by 14 percent for each degree that teens believe
parents are monitoring their activities.
"This
means even if your kids are hanging out with friends who are using marijuana or
hard drugs, if you are monitoring where they go and what they're doing, then
you can decrease the risk that your kids will be using these substances
also," Hoffmann said. "As long as kids are aware that their parents
know what they're doing, they're going to be less likely to use it."
The
researchers advocate asking teens questions like:
Who are
your friends?
Whose house
are you going to?
What will
you be doing?
Which
adults will be around?
When will
you be home?
Another
major finding of the study shows that siblings - who are, of course, both
family members and peers - wield a strong influence. Having an older sibling
who used marijuana increased the frequency of pot smoking 58 percent.
…Just goes
to show you that even when you THINK you’re not getting through to your kids,
you really do have an impact. So don’t
give up – just keep at it…your kids will – honestly – get a clue.
[Cue Christmas Without You –
Beatrice Ericsson]
[Cue Mailtime]
Mailbag:
Light week
in the mailbag – is anybody still listening?
I can talk to myself anytime, but recording it and putting it up on a
server takes some work…so help me out here, will ya? SUBMIT@101usesforbabywipes.com,
or post a comment, a suggestion, a question,
From Trey
in
Hey Dennis,
My wife found an interesting and
quite funny use for baby wipes the other day: Surrender Flag.
After hearing quite a commotion from
my son’s nursery for an extended period of time -- longer than the typical
diaper change that my son has now decided that he detests -- I walked in to
find my wife lying on the floor holding her head with one hand and waving a
baby wipe in the air with the other. I knew that was my call to duty and
my wife needed some time to regroup.
Glad you were there in the rear
flank to offer up logistical support, there Trey. Thanks for the e-mail.
[Cue Gift of Love – Chaz]
Time for the ToonTest!
[Cue ToonTest]
Answers:
#3 – Corniel and Bernie, the story of a talking dog and his owner who
can’t shut up,
#2 – Recess – sounds like the theme from Hogan’s Heroes, that sit-com
about life in a prison camp…guess the creator of the cartoon didn’t like school
#1 – Magic Schoolbus – this is a great show, which introduces kids to
science in a fun way. Its for 6th
graders and up, really, but my 5-year-old loves it. The teacher, Ms. Frizzle, is voiced by Lilly
Tomlin
[Cue Wipes Use Theme]
Wipes Use #33 – Tacky Tree Therapy
Yes, its
that sticky, sappy, aromatic time of year. Time to go on the quest for that perfect
Christmas Tree to adorn the center of the family living space.
Now I have
always loved Christmas trees…even though I am horribly allergic...my eyes get
puffy just thinking about ‘em.
As a kid, I
worked in a Christmas tree lot, so I have these sappy (pun intended) memories
of Christmas past, playing lumberjack in an artificial forest where trees of
all sorts were offered for sale. You
could get your tree coated with a foam insulating material – called flocking –
which can help you achieve the look of freshly fallen snow, and you can take
the illusion home and place it right there in your living room…just not too
close to the fireplace.
What I
could never figure out is who the heck wanted the pink ones? Or the orange ones? And that flocking stuff really sticks to your
skin. You have to wear a respirator to
apply the stuff…can’t imagine its too good to have in the house, to be real
honest. But hey – we’re putting a dead
tree in the living room…I guess a little insulation won’t hurt.
Except when the stuff is still a bit wet
when you hang those prized ornaments your great-grandmother brought over on the
steamship from the old country. Then
your heart sinks a bit when you see that goop stuck to those hand-blown pieces
of family history.
Of course I
haven’t mentioned the tree sap you get on your hands while you’re trimming the
tree, have I? There’s that to contend
with, too. But no fear – baby wipes are
here! They work great at removing tree
sap from delicate ornaments – or delicate me – the Aloe and vitamin-E flavor
seem to work best.
Y’know this
year, our annual tree quest was hampered by the fact that there was only ONE
tree lot in the entire city! We drove
around for almost an hour looking for one.
We had a favorite tree lot that we loved to visit. Every year they’d have a tent set-up with
crafts made by local seniors, they’d have a bonfire, they’d pass out hot
chocolate, and the trees! Wow, the
trees! This was a great tree lot…I’m a
bit of a connoisseur I must say…but the people were nice, and they’d sell the
trees to raise money for local charities.
It was run by the local Elks – um – not the big animals with antlers,
the benevolent order of Elks, a club. So
last night we get in the car, and we drive out to the edge of town - to where
we expected a tree lot to be, and in that vacant lot that transformed like
magic into a winter wonderland right after Thanksgiving every year, there now
stands a shiny new Elks lodge and an RV park.
Guess they raised enough money selling trees. We couldn’t even go inside the lodge and ask
where the tree lot went – we’re not members.
So rude…
So we
bought our tree out in front of the drugstore.
The ONE remaining tree lot in town had discovered the Elks were out of
the tree racket, and being good capitalists they were charging about 80 bucks
for rather un-spectacular trees. But hey
- they had one in
[Cue Element_1]
[Cue Alan Jay – time]
That’s the
show – we’re all wiped out. Thanks to
Chaz, Beatrice Ericsson. Find their
music at the podsafe music network, that’s music.podshow.com. Thanks to everybody for listening and
subscribing. Check the website,
101usesforbabywipes.com, leave your mark on the frappr map, buy some earbuds
for your friends this Christmas
[Cue Candy Butchers – Give me a
second chance for Christmas]
[Cue Evan-Xmas List]