Newsflash! Repeated, Severe Blunt Trauma to the Head Causes Brain Damage!

In a June 15 article appearing in the New York Times, doctors at the University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University have added their consensus to the growing “theory” that NFL players – especially linemen – can experience extensive, irreversible brain injuries as a result of their professional career.

After the death of 36 year old Justin Strzelczyk in 2004 – a Steelers offensive lineman, doctors were able to examine his brain for possible damage sustained during his years in the NFL. Damage was indeed discovered, at levels rivaling boxers and 80 year olds suffering from Alzheimer’s-like dementia. The findings were not unique, however, and were eerily similar to the studied brains of other NFL players.

Such brain damage is presumed responsible for the deaths of some NFL players, like Justin Strzelczyk. He died when his pickup hit a tanker truck and exploded, following a 40-mile long high-speed police chase. Andre Waters, a defensive back with the Philadelphia Eagles, committed suicide at the age of 44 after a long bout with depression. Mike Webster, age 50, killed himself after a long bout of mental illness, and Terry Long, a Steelers lineman, ended his life by drinking antifreeze.

Some players have even come forward to discuss their problems, as did New England Patriots Ted Johnson, and Dallas Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman in his 2006 book Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis. Although some players are well aware of the dangers of the sport, apparently the NFL commission is not.

The findings by the University doctors will be presented along with other similar studies today in Chicago during the NFL’s first meeting on concussion management. Such a meeting is surprising, and perhaps signals a reversal of the NFL’s positions of brain damage in its players. Historically, the NFL has downplayed and even dismissed similar findings of brain damage. NFL medical advisor Elliot Pellman went so far as to call some findings “speculative and unscientific.”

Perhaps the NFL will finally wake up and realize the havoc their sport causes to their players. The solution to such serious problems may still be unknown, but the NFL commission is surely not opposed to bettering the lives of their players. Once the brain-damage theory is more widely accepted, football and the NFL will surely be subject to bad publicity. However, the NFL commission must embrace a search more a safer game, favoring the safety of their players over their personal profits from the success of their game.

Imagine – repeated contusions to the head can actually be harmful!

The "Bionic Hornet" - Israel's Newest Weapon

Note: Although the "Bionic Hornet" was announced to news media many months ago, it was not covered by much of the mainstream U.S. media, and is still a newsworthy item.

As if straight from Frank Herbert's Dune, the Israeli military (surely in conjunction with the Pentagon) has announced plans to create what they are calling a "bionic hornet." A robotic device the size of a normal flying, stinging insect, the device will be capable of chasing, photographing, and killing its "target." Similar to the flying darts in sci-fi books and movies (such as the hunter-seeker in Dune), the futuristic weapon is estimated to be created as soon as 2009.

The device is heralded by some as the new "super weapon" that will increase efficiency and efficacy of military actions and spy agencies, as well as tremendously reduce the "collateral damage" created through rocket attacks and stray bullets. The "bionic bug" will be especially useful in fighting in urban combat zones, similar to terrorist situations, hostage situation, and (not stated but nonetheless implied) assassination attempts.

Israel especially will have great use for the little "insects;" they claim the device will greatly aid them in countering terrorism attacks. However, to many, the concept of human- or AI-controlled lethal bugs is little more than completely terrifying.

What is concerning, however, are the choice words stated by Shimon Peres, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, when talking about the bug:

"The research integrates nanotechnology into Israel's security department and will find creative solutions to problems the army has been unable to address."

The stressed ambiguity is particularly curious. Just what kind of "creative solutions" are available to the Jewish state, backed by the world's only hyper-power? And just what can be classified as a "problem," to be dealt with the 'creative solutions?" Answers to such questions go, needless to say, answered insufficiently by either Israel or the United States.

Such disturbing information is topped by the terrifying thoughts of events should any number of "bionic hornets" fall into the hands of a terrorist or rouge nation-state; the events could be catastrophic. Is it even possible to shield oneself or others from a "smart weapon" that looks, sounds, and acts like a bug, and is guided by human or artificial intelligence?

Inevitably, as with all other weapons and weapon systems throughout history, confining such advanced and powerful tools to those persons and countries "responsible" enough to control them will prove to be impossible; military-technology proliferation is unstoppable. Complicating the situation is the argument that even Israel and the United States themselves are too irresponsible to wield such a weapon.

Original news item printed November 17, 2006; Reuters.

Global Warming -- The Environmental Defense Fund's Take

While the topic of global warming is on the table, I thought that I would post (via YouTube) one of the more impressive ad campaigns that I've seen.

The below ad was created by the Environmental Defense Fund in conjunction with the Ad Council, and is my favorite of several. The ads are all based on hard scientific data, to which links are available on their website.



About the environmental Defense Fund:

"Environmental Defense, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 500,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. We have a strong history of finding solutions, from our pioneering efforts to eradicate DDT to cutting-edge hybrid truck work with FedEx (see highlights of our work and visit our main Web site).

We've launched this campaign as a wake-up call. Global warming is the most serious environmental challenge of our time. It is more urgent and its dangers are more fundamental than most Americans realize. This campaign seeks to educate Americans about how quickly we must act, and give concrete steps that people can incorporate into their lives to fight global warming."

Learn more about the EDF here: http://fightglobalwarming.com

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Personally, I consider the EDF worthy of support, and as important as the Sierra Club in the fight against those that consider the environment there to be taken advantage of, those that are too ignorant to realize the impact of their actions, and those that simply don't give a damn.

What Global Warming?

Although Global Warming is commonly considered fact and no longer a theory, there are still some people who obstinately consider it completely untrue. Well, below are some satellite photos of Greenland from NASA, taken over a span of 20 years.

The first was taken in 1985, the second in 2002, and the third (in which a new strait is visable - at the bottom left corner of the claw-like island) in 2006.







































Still don't believe in Global Warming?

Most of Ohio’s Seniors FAIL Graduation Test

Having just graduated high school myself, I was shocked when I noticed this story floating around the internet. Living in Michigan, I am used to the poor socio-economic conditions of the ailing state exacerbated by the struggling auto industry, upon which Michigan's economy is largely based – and the subsequent suffering of our schools. And Detroit's public schools aren't exactly a very good role model. But what's with Ohio?!

Let me quote a part of the article:

Nearly three-quarters of the public high school seniors who took the high-stakes Ohio Graduation Test in March failed at least one part of the test and will be denied a diploma next month, according to state data released yesterday.

Statewide, 12,387 high school seniors took the Ohio Graduation Test in March. It was the last chance for the class of 2007 to pass all five sections of the high school exit exam before the traditional commencement this year.

Of those who took the test, 8,956 - more than 72 percent - failed one or more sections they took.

It goes on to mention that these same students have been retaking the same test since they were sophomores - at least those that didn't pass the first time. I would like to know how exactly Ohio's school system can't pass their own students through their own tests – after "teaching" them for four years.

I'll post more information and commentary later – for now, you can read the whole article for yourself here: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070523/NEWS04/705230397 .

I can't imagine spending four years of my life trusting the state to educate me and then being told that I can't graduate – due to their poor tutelage (C'mon! 70% of Ohio's students can't be slack offs!).

Comments, anyone?

Remembering the Holocaust

"Arbeit Macht Frei." The words, formed in wrought iron, graced the gated entrance. Translated into English, they state: "Work makes you free." Such tragically ironic words were often among the first to greet the Jewish exiting the train cars, newly arrived at the Nazi concentration camps. Shielding their eyes from the bright light of the daytime sun or the nighttime spotlight, the huddled masses welcomed the fresh air, yearning to exit their stifling, soiled, and dark cattle cars.

Those arriving at the death camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Chelmno, Majdanek, et al. would meet their fate within days, often within hours. The Nazi machine moved with efficiency; at Birkenau, 8,000 people were murdered each day. Those "fortunate" enough to arrive at camps like Ravensbrüeck, Stutthof, Bergen-Belsen, et al. could look forward to a few more weeks of life, tortured though it was, as such camps simply worked their victims to death, refraining from killing them outright. (1)

There exist photos and videos of the extermination camps; of bodies, piled naked, rotting in the sun; bulldozers, plowing through fields of tormented dead, their skinny arms and legs jutting out helplessly towards the sky; the newly dead, with bullet holes marring their faces. Even a lampshade, made from human skin, sits on display, exemplifying the disgusting "ingenuity" of the Germans. (7)

It is easy enough to reject such horrible images as distant, from the past, or obsolete. It is easy enough to blame the infamous "they" with the crime, and to remove our proud nation from guilt. But the Holocaust occurred within the lifetimes of those still living, with America and the world as its witnesses. One must realize, for the sake of mankind, that we who are alive today are as human, as vulnerable, and as corruptible as those Nazis who committed such crimes and the Jews who fell victim to them.

And then, horrifyingly, we realize that the Holocaust was not the first, nor even the last genocide to occur. In the 1970s, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge autogenocide brutally claimed 4 million lives, and in 1994, the Rwandan genocide between the Tutsis and the Hutus claimed almost 1,000,000. (3) Just last year the death toll of the ongoing violence in Darfur reached 200,000. (4)

Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel once wrote, "It is the other's humanity that shapes my own." (2) Believing this, I recently visited the Zekelmen Family Holocaust Memorial Center, and had the privilege and honor of personally meeting Bill Weiss, a Holocaust survivor. A short, elderly man, losing what white hair he had left, he spoke in tentative English of his large family and how of over 40, only he and his father survived the Nazis. He told of cramped sleeping quarters in his concentration camp, measly food, and threadbare clothing. But his expression changed as he began to describe his work detail. No longer the kindly, innocent old gentleman whom I first met, his words became more forceful, his sentences more crisp. I looked into his eyes and saw not the sorrow or sadness I expected, but a hardened look, one searching his audience for a sense of realization, understanding, and vicarious pain.

At the age of 15, he was forced to witness the horror of the killing fields, as men, women, and children were brought to the edge of mass graves, forced to kneel, and shot at the base of their skull. As the limp bodies tumbled into the grave, the young boy was tasked with ensuring that the bodies rested properly, covering them with a thin layer of dirt. And then the killing would start anew. Mr. Weiss described the sounds of his workday: the shots of pistols punctuating the cries of confusion and terror of those awaiting their fate.

He told us of his growing thin and weak, of his near-starvation, and of his liberation at long last by American troops. He described how the battle-hardened GI's wept at the sight of the camp: decimated bodies lining the streets, some alive, some not. Tortured with feelings of helplessness, the young American soldiers gave what food they had to the starved inmates, unintentionally, tragically, and ironically killing them; the starving bodies were simply incapable of handling such things as candies and bread.

Stopping his chronicle abruptly, he paused, looking for questions. After a moment's hesitation, I raised my hand and asked of his emotional response to hearing that some, even government leaders, were denying the occurrence of the Holocaust. In his response, I expected biting criticism, disdain, or simple revulsion. Instead, his curt response was empty and flat: "I have no…no emotion of it." I waited for him to continue, studying his wrinkled face, searching for an unspoken meaning. But he said nothing more, and I found none.

Weeks later, I am still unsure as to why he said what he did, or left unspoken any words he might have wished to say. I can only hypothesize that the physical and psychological trauma he experienced, coupled with decades of reflection and numerous interviews, had flattened his emotions. Unable to conceive of someone denying his torture, he simply and honestly had "no emotion." Truly, his was the most appropriate yet tragic response that could be given.

It is said that one must remember the days of old and learn the lessons of those that came before us. So too may it be said that one must actively teach those who are to learn, that they learn the lesson well. And so we must pass down the memories of the Holocaust to the next generation of human souls, lest such atrocities be forgotten and history repeat itself again. It is our duty as members of the Human Race to pay the debt we owe to the dead and the yet unborn: to learn, to remember, to teach, and to act. We must each break down negative stereotypes, standing against and stopping the prejudice, discrimination, and violence that exists throughout our world.

Terrible is the guilt felt when learning of human atrocities that could have been prevented. As such, it is essential that we keep abreast of world affairs and keep alive our knowledge of history and the Holocaust. We must not let bigotry and hate rule our future, but work to prevent and eliminate the institutionalized prejudice extant in countries throughout the world.

Remembrance, however, is not enough; action is required. Our youth must be educated by example and we ourselves must take the first step, for those who remain silent amidst such wrongs are as guilty as the perpetrators themselves. And act we must, for the future generations of our world, indeed human civilization itself, is at stake.

REFERENCES

1. Botwinick, Rita. A History of the Holocaust: From Ideology to Annihilation. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004.
   
2. Franck, Frederick. What Does It Mean To Be Human? New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2001.
   
3. Hewitt, William. Defining the horrific: Readings on Genocide and Holocaust in the Twentieth Century. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004.
   
4. "Sudan's Darfur Conflict." BBC News. 19 Apr. 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3496731.stm >
   
5. Zekelman Family Holocaust Memorial Center. 17 Apr. 2007.
   
6. Weiss, William. Personal Interview. 17 Apr. 2007.
   
   
   

The Threshold – (Re)Launched!

Welcome to The Threshold!

This blog will cover just about anything under the sun, from intriguing photographs, editorials, excerpts from articles, links to pertinent news articles, and more. If you readers sense that something is missing, poorly addressed, or dwelt upon too much, please, post a comment or let me (the editor) know at thethresh@gmail.com. I hope that everyone finds this blog as interesting to read as it is for me to write!

I should be posting new articles at least once a week, so check back often. The Threshold was previously hosted on http://the-world-in-view.blogspot.com . Visit there for older articles.

By the way, notice those news links on the right-hand side of the screen? Those are LIVE RSS feeds from various news agencies: ABC News – a well known and trusted American news source; Al Jazeera – the Middle East's "CNN," which often provides a different point of view than that from here in the U.S. ; National Public Radio – a non-mainstream news source; and the BBC – England's world-famous and respected news source. These headlines are updated as they happen, so read the story now, before it changes!

Until my next post, happy reading!

Editor
The Threshold