Tuesday, July 15, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Mother and daughter saved from carjacking by strangers
CBS NEWS July 15, 2014

A woman and her young daughter are safe this morning after strangers stopped a carjacking in San Diego, CBS News correspondent Bigad Shaban reports.

A carjacker broke into the driver's seat of their minivan and took the keys while the mother and daughter were still in the vehicle, but a group of bystanders jumped in to stop him.

Aaron Leaf shot it all on his cell phone.

"I see a guy in the backseat choking out the driver," Leaf said. "And there were a couple other people at the window that were grabbing the keys from him."

Seconds later, Ismael Hernandez was dragged from the vehicle and wrestled to the pavement.

"Get your ass down, get down," one of the good Samaritans yelled.

When Hernandez tried to get up, the men didn't hold back, stomping on him, repeatedly.

"I was really just trying to figure out what exactly was going on," Leaf said. "Once I realized, I didn't really feel sorry for the guy."

The men kept Hernandez on the ground until police arrived. But even they struggled to arrest him.

Once in handcuffs, Hernandez bragged that this wasn't his first attempt at grand theft auto.

"It's not the first time homie," Hernandez said.

Emergency responders examined the woman and her little girl, as Hernandez was placed in the back seat of the police car.

He faces multiple charges including carjacking, kidnapping, and drug use.




It's great to see bystanders stepping in to help a victim, especially at some risk to their own safety. From bullies on the playground to muggers and would-be murderers, this is how society should respond to assault, a crime that has become commonplace in our culture. We have good people and bad people, but the worst part of the problem is that the good guys too often either don't care enough to try to help or are too timid to lend a hand. These bystanders may have saved two lives, and in addition prevented Hernandez, who bragged that this was not his first time at car-jacking, from robbing the lady of what is probably her most expensive possession. This is a very good result of a bad situation.






Parents say boy committed suicide after embarrassing video went viral
CBS NEWS July 14, 2014

SAN DIEGO - A San Diego couple says their 14-year-old son committed suicide after an embarrassing video surreptitiously taken of him in a school bathroom went viral and led to him being "mercilessly bullied."

Timothy and Barbara Burdette filed a $1 million claim against the San Diego Unified School District. They say a teacher, an administrator and possibly other employees at University City High School knew their son Matthew, a Boy Scout who was studying for the Eagle rank, was being harassed but did nothing to stop it.

According to their claim, Matthew, who was on the water polo and wrestling teams, was kicked out of class on Nov. 15 for eating sunflower seeds. The teacher didn't give him anywhere to go, so he wandered the halls and ended up in a boys' bathroom, the claim said.

Another student peeked over a bathroom stall and videotaped Matthew, allegedly masturbating. That student posted the video on social media, including SnapChat and Vine, and it quickly went viral among students at schools through the district, the claim said.

"From the moment the video was posted, Matthew was mercilessly bullied, harassed and teased by students who had seen the video. This continued for the next two weeks," the claim said.

The parents said officials with the San Diego Unified School District were aware of the video and the bullying.

Two weeks after the video went public, on Nov. 29, Matthew committed suicide. His family said he left a note saying he could not "handle school" and had "no friends."

"Matthew took his life as a result of the embarrassment and humiliation caused by bullying related to the video and its distribution," the claim said.

The school district rejected the Burdettes' claim, giving the family six months to file a lawsuit, according to U-T San Diego and the Los Angeles Times.

The school district issued a statement Monday saying the safety of its students was "a top priority."

"The district also adheres to the privacy and confidentiality laws and regulations related to students, families and ongoing investigations. For this reason, the district cannot provide details about Matthew Burdette's death. Our hearts and thoughts continue to be with his family and loved ones," the statement said.

KGTV, Channel 10 in San Diego, which first reported on the claim, said the Burdettes believed the boy who took the video had been arrested. The San Diego district attorney's office declined to provide details on the case but said a hearing on the matter is set for July 23 in juvenile court.




“Timothy and Barbara Burdette filed a $1 million claim against the San Diego Unified School District. They say a teacher, an administrator and possibly other employees at University City High School knew their son Matthew, a Boy Scout who was studying for the Eagle rank, was being harassed but did nothing to stop it.” Again, the good guys failed to stop the assaults against a student. Parents reported the abuse, but the teacher and administrator didn't intervene. "'From the moment the video was posted, Matthew was mercilessly bullied, harassed and teased by students who had seen the video. This continued for the next two weeks,' the claim said.”

“The school district rejected the Burdettes' claim, giving the family six months to file a lawsuit, according to U-T San Diego and the Los Angeles Times. The school district issued a statement Monday saying the safety of its students was 'a top priority.'" Schools always say something like this when confronted, yet there is no record that they tried to do anything to protect the boy or punish his attackers. In many cases that I read about, the school seems to want to stand back and ignore the problem. They would have to police their hallways and investigate attacks when they occur, and I think they just don't have enough interest, manpower or time to dig into the matter.

Unfortunately, many large schools have become too much like the school in that movie from long ago called “Blackboard Jungle.” Some students are terrorized. I think if I had a kid in today's school systems, I would see to it that he or she take martial arts courses such as judo, which allows the victim to use the forward momentum of the attacker to throw him down on the ground, just by a movement of the body to shift their weight and unbalance the bully. It's not an aggressive fighting technique, but defensive, if the child's parents are trying to raise a pacifist.






Facial expressions could give doctors a life-saving clue
By JESSICA FIRGER CBS NEWS July 15, 2014

Emergency room doctors may be able to tell just how sick certain patients are by observing their facial expressions, according to new paper published in Emergency Medicine Journal.

The study found patients with serious -- and sometimes life-threatening -- heart or lung problems tend to have less than the normal range of facial expression, particularly when it comes to registering surprise in response to certain emotional cues.

For the study, researchers at Carolinas Medical Center assessed 50 adults with shortness of breath and chest pain. Each patient viewed three visual cues on a laptop, all of which were meant to evoke an emotional response: a humorous cartoon, a close-up of a surprised face and a picture of someone crying. A computer webcam recorded the patient's changing facial expression during the viewing.

The researchers then used the Facial Action Coding System -- a program that analyzes facial muscle activity when a person smiles, frowns or is surprised -- to evaluate the video of each patient.

Doctors also screened each patient for both chronic and acute heart and lung problems, including heart attack, unstable angina, pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung), cancer, pneumonia and problems of the aortic artery or gut. All study participants were monitored for 14 days after they were screened.

The researchers reported that during those two weeks, 16 percent -- 8 people -- developed serious heart or lung disease. Out of the remaining 42 study participants, two developed worsening chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, two presented with heart failure and one was found to have atrial fibrillation.

An analysis of the webcam footage determined that patients with chest pain and shortness of breath with potentially serious heart and lung conditions tended to have significantly less range in facial expression than those who were healthier. Overall patients who were seriously ill were much more likely to maintain neutral facial expressions in reaction to the visual cues viewed on the computer.

The authors speculate underlying serious illness makes it more challenging for the person to process emotions as a healthy person would.

In an emergency room setting, doctors make decisions about a patient's course of treatment by using both objective and subjective screening measures. Some of the most effective ways to assess a patient's condition don't involve a high-tech test or scan, but rather human interaction with the patient. This is why emergency room doctors normally take the time to interview patients to obtain a broader picture of their health condition.

The authors suggest facial expression analysis could be yet another tool to help ER doctors evaluate patients and prioritize treatment, though more research would need to be conducted on the topic.

"If these components could be made transparent and quantifiable, this could translate into important information in terms of education of emergency care providers, and development of more accurate and natural methods of pretest probability assessment for serious diseases," the authors write in their study.





Researchers at the Carolina Medical Center had 50 patients with shortness of breath or chest pain to look at several images which are meant to evoke an emotional response, recording their reactions. Then they used the Facial Action Coding System -- a program that analyzes facial muscle activity when a person smiles, frowns or is surprised in order to analyze their video. Then all 50 subjects were monitored for 14 days for symptoms of illness of the heart or lungs. “The researchers reported that during those two weeks, 16 percent -- 8 people -- developed serious heart or lung disease. Out of the remaining 42 study participants, two developed worsening chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, two presented with heart failure and one was found to have atrial fibrillation.”

Those patients were found to have less muscle movement in their videos, maintaining “neutral” facial expressions when they should have evidenced emotion. “The authors speculate underlying serious illness makes it more challenging for the person to process emotions as a healthy person would.” The article points up the fact that the doctor's subjective judgment of the patient's reactions are an important tool in the diagnosis of these diseases, and that ER workers should be trained in this form of observation.





Friends really are like family, according to genetics study
By ELIENE AUGENBRAUN CBS NEWS July 14, 2014

"Birds of a feather flock together," says social network researcher James Fowler. "And now we know why."

Compared to strangers living in the same area, people who are friends are much more likely to share a number of closely related genes, according to a new study co-authored by Fowler, a professor of medical genetics and political science at the University of California, San Diego, who studies the intersection of natural and social sciences.

Fowler and his colleague Nicholas Christakis, professor of sociology, evolutionary biology, and medicine at Yale, examined 1.5 million markers of genetic relatedness in more than 1,900 people.

Their study concluded that, overall, friends are about as genetically similar as fourth cousins. The genes that friends had most in common were olfactory genes connected to the sense of smell, while genes for disease immunity were least likely to be shared. The study is published today in Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.

Both olfactory and immune genes changed rapidly over evolutionary history, Fowler told CBS News. "The genes we share are the genes that evolved fastest. Human friendship has turbocharged evolution."

He cited an example of how some genes could create synergies to help friends survive over evolutionary history: "If you are the first person to get a mutation to speak language, it is worthless without friends who also have that mutation. You need friends to get the benefit of language. Many traits are built on this property."

Olfactory genes work together to allow you to detect and interpret odors. In a press release from UCSD Fowler explains why we might share the same smell genes between friends: "Our sense of smell draws us to similar environments. It is not hard to imagine that people who like the scent of coffee, for example, hang out at cafes more and so meet and befriend each other." Fowler says that the reason may be deeper than that, but it will take more research to figure it out.

Why aren't genes for immunity more likely to be shared? Researchers have previously found that spouses tend to have lots of genes in common, but very different collections of immune genes from each other, so the finding that friends have different - perhaps complementary - immune profiles does not surprise Fowler. He points out that "being surrounded by people who are immune to different pathogens protects you, and prevents the spread of diseases."

Scientists have examined several ways that people might detect immune genes in others, like face shape and body odor, but the mechanism remains unclear.

The researchers used data collected as part of The Framingham Heart Study, a long-term study involving thousands of residents in Massachusetts.

Fowler and Christakis have studied social networks for years and coauthored a best-selling book, "Connected."





“... People who are friends are much more likely to share a number of closely related genes,” according to a study of “1.5 million markers of genetic relatedness in more than 1,900 people.... Their study concluded that, overall, friends are about as genetically similar as fourth cousins. The genes that friends had most in common were olfactory genes connected to the sense of smell, while genes for disease immunity were least likely to be shared. The study is published today in Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.”

Co-author James Fowler said that the genes friends share are those which have evolved fastest over time. “He cited an example of how some genes could create synergies to help friends survive over evolutionary history: 'If you are the first person to get a mutation to speak language, it is worthless without friends who also have that mutation. You need friends to get the benefit of language. Many traits are built on this property.... Our sense of smell draws us to similar environments. It is not hard to imagine that people who like the scent of coffee, for example, hang out at cafes more and so meet and befriend each other.' Fowler says that the reason may be deeper than that, but it will take more research to figure it out.... He points out that 'being surrounded by people who are immune to different pathogens protects you, and prevents the spread of diseases.' …. Fowler and Christakis have studied social networks for years and coauthored a best-selling book, 'Connected.'”

This article reminds me of one from a number of years ago about how many of our personality traits are actually inherited, rather than being merely learned. Of course, if a mother is hard working or afraid of many things, her child will be likely not only to inherit any genes that may be involved in her traits, but also will tend to imitate her characteristics. Then, perhaps, her friends will share some of her traits and together they will form a cultural group around some of them. It makes a great deal of sense. Some personal traits are very difficult to suppress, and this connection could explain why.





Coins dating back to Iron Age found buried in British cave – CBS
By KELLY DICKERSON LIVESCIENCE.COM July 14, 2014

Digging through a cave in central Britain, archaeologists uncovered 26 ancient gold and silver coins belonging to the Corieltauvi tribe, a group of people that lived in Britain before the Roman conquest.

Archaeologists previously found collections of coins like these in other parts of Britain, but this is the first time they have ever been discovered buried in a cave. The discovery of the coins was a surprise, because they were found at a site called Reynard's Kitchen Cave, which is located outside the Corieltauvi's usual turf.

"It might be that we have a member of the tribe living beyond the boundary that is more usually associated with the territory," Rachael Hall, an archaeologist at the National Trust who led the excavation, told Live Science in an email. [The 7 Most Mysterious Archaeological Discoveries on Earth]

Back in 2000, a group of almost 5,000 Corieltauvi coins were discovered in Leicestershire. This more recent find at Reynard's Kitchen Cave might be additional evidence that members of the tribe once hoarded coins. Hall and the team speculate that the coins were hidden to ensure they weren't stolen, and whoever buried them may have planned on returning to the site to dig the coins up again.

The discovery included 20 Iron Age coins, three Roman coins and three coins from much later eras, according to a treasury report prepared by Ian Leins, curator of Iron Age and Roman coins at the British Museum. While the coins are not all from the same time period, Hall and the team of archaeologists said it's common to find collections of coins from different times, in the same way that, for example, U.S. coins from earlier decades are still circulating among newer coins.

Archaeologists are still unsure how Iron Age coins were used, but it is unlikely they were used as money to purchase items. They were more likely used as a means for storing wealth, given as gifts or offered as sacrifice. The three Roman coins discovered predate the Roman invasion, so archaeologists believe the coins may have been given as gifts.

A climber seeking shelter in the cave first discovered four of the coins, which prompted a full-scale excavation by the National Trust and Operation Nightingale, a group that helps injured military members recuperate by having them perform field archaeology.

The monetary value today of the coins discovered is around two thousand pounds (about $3,400 USD). The collection of coins officially qualifies as "treasure" under the United Kingdom's 1996 Treasure Act, which means it is valuable enough that it needs to be reported to authorities and offered up to museums.

Earlier excavation of Reynard's Kitchen Cave revealed animal bones and pieces of pottery. The coins will be put on display later this year at the Buxton Museum in Derbyshire.




“Digging through a cave in central Britain, archaeologists uncovered 26 ancient gold and silver coins belonging to the Corieltauvi tribe, a group of people that lived in Britain before the Roman conquest.... The discovery of the coins was a surprise, because they were found at a site called Reynard's Kitchen Cave, which is located outside the Corieltauvi's usual turf.... Archaeologists are still unsure how Iron Age coins were used, but it is unlikely they were used as money to purchase items. They were more likely used as a means for storing wealth, given as gifts or offered as sacrifice. The three Roman coins discovered predate the Roman invasion, so archaeologists believe the coins may have been given as gifts.”

The Celtic people from that time period were not living in caves, but probably viewed it as a safe place to hide the coins. They may also have considered caves as religious sites, such as a way to enter “the underworld.” Only a few Celtic tribes were organized enough and prosperous enough to mint coins. Apparently most business was conducted by barter rather than the use of money.


Coin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The first coins were developed independently in Iron Age Anatolia and Archaic Greece, India and China around 600-700 BC. Coins spread rapidly in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, throughout Greece and Persia, and further to the Balkans.[2]

Coins were an evolution of "currency" systems of the Late Bronze Age, where standard-sized ingots, and tokens such as knife money, were used to store and transfer value. In the late Chinese Bronze Age, standardized cast tokens were made, such as those discovered in a tomb near Anyang.[4][5] These were replicas in bronze of earlier Chinese currency, cowrie shells, so they were named Bronze Shell.[6]
The earliest coins are mostly associated with Iron Age Anatolia, especially with the kingdom of Lydia.[8] Early electrum coins were not standardized in weight, and in their earliest stage may have been ritual objects, such as badges or medals, issued by priests.[9] Many early Lydian and Greek coins were minted under the authority of private individuals and are thus more akin to tokens or badges than to modern coins,[10] though due to their numbers it is evident that some were official state issues, with King Alyattes of Lydia being a frequently mentioned originator of coinage.[11]

The first Roman coins, which were crude, heavy cast bronzes, were issued ca. 289 BC.[24]


Celtic coinage
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Celtic coinage was minted by the Celts from the late 4th century BC to the late 1st century BC. Celtic coins were influenced by trade with and the supply of mercenaries to the Greeks, and initially copied Greek designs, especially Macedonian coins from the time of Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great.[1][2][3] Thus Greek motifs and even letters can be found on various Celtic coins, especially those of southern France.[4] Celtic coin designs progressively became more abstract as exemplified by the coins of the Parisii.

Traditional historians have tended to overlook the role played by Celtic coinage in the early history of British money.[6] Over 45,000 of the ancient British and Gaulish coins discovered in Britain have been recorded at the Oxford Celtic Coin Index.[7][






Who Is Smuggling Immigrant Children Across The Border? – NPR
by JOHN BURNETT
July 15, 2014

"They call me the Wolf," said the 25-year-old human smuggler sitting in front of me, sipping a Coke and stepping away for frequent cellphone calls.

"Everybody says we're the problem, but it's the reverse. The gringos don't want to get their hands dirty. So I bring them the Mexicans and Central Americans to do the dirty work for them," he says, smiling.

U.S. authorities claim that human smugglers like El Lobo (the wolf) are at the heart of the current border crisis because they have facilitated the travels of the 57,000 unaccompanied immigrant children who've been apprehended in South Texas since October.

"We cross them in inner tubes. If they're 3 or 4 years old, I have to cross them myself. I can't let them drown," he says.

The Wolf wears Reeboks with pink soles, a black polo shirt and a thin mustache. He's handsome in a bad-boy sort of way. We sit in an open-air lunchroom on a back street in Matamoros, across the river from Brownsville, Texas. He's explaining his rates: $2,500 from Chetumal, Mexico, all the way to Matamoros — 1,200 miles. The actual river crossing is another $500 to $1,000, "depending on the size of the kid."

The Wolf says he used to smuggle adults, but now he specializes in children because it's easier and just as profitable. First, his organization can take a group of Central American children in a bus through Mexico and more easily evade Mexican authorities, who are looking for adult immigrants to deport.

Second, once he crosses the Rio Grande he doesn't have to continue with the group to San Antonio or Houston — the most perilous part of the journey. "Children just give themselves up [to the Border Patrol]," he explains. "Adults have to flee."

In low tones, he confides that he is not part of the Gulf Cartel or Los Zetas, which control all river access on the Mexican side of the lower Rio Grande Valley. Like all freelance smugglers, to use the river he has to pay the cartel un derecho de piso, a user's fee, of 10 percent of the contract

Federal border authorities demonize coyotes as ruthless criminals who kidnap, rape and abandon their clients. But it's more complicated than that. There are, to be sure, bad coyotes who do abuse their clients. But, as in any business, not everyone is the same.

Five years ago, I interviewed a petite, 29-year-old female coyote who worked out of Piedras Negras, Mexico, who was in high demand for her considerate treatment of her clients. This came to me from a local priest, who counted her among his congregation.
"Being known in the communities and having a good reputation matters," says David Spener, a sociologist at Trinity University in San Antonio, who has studied human smuggling networks along the U.S.-Mexico border. "I mean, would any parent in their right mind want to leave their child in the hands of Los Zetas?"

I ask El Lobo about the terrible reputation coyotes have in the media.

"We specialize in smuggling young kids — 13 and below," he explains. "The youngest we've smuggled was 2 years old. We have to make sure nothing happens to them, that they eat, that they're protected and they arrive well."

He continues, "We try to treat our clients well, and this helps to get us repeat business. If you have a good reputation, you get more work."





El Lobo, talking to John Burnett of NPR, says, “'Everybody says we're the problem, but it's the reverse. The gringos don't want to get their hands dirty. So I bring them the Mexicans and Central Americans to do the dirty work for them,' he says, smiling.... He's explaining his rates: $2,500 from Chetumal, Mexico, all the way to Matamoros — 1,200 miles. The actual river crossing is another $500 to $1,000, 'depending on the size of the kid.' …. Five years ago, I interviewed a petite, 29-year-old female coyote who worked out of Piedras Negras, Mexico, who was in high demand for her considerate treatment of her clients. This came to me from a local priest, who counted her among his congregation.” The article explains that while some coyotes are abusive and unscrupulous, some are not, and come to be known as reliable and benign. As El Lobo said, “'We try to treat our clients well, and this helps to get us repeat business. If you have a good reputation, you get more work.'"

Even if they are not all brutal, they are the reason for the flood of illegal immigrant children currently crossing the border, and should be arrested. In order for that to occur there must be laws in place against human smuggling in each country of Central America as well as in the US. The act of sending their children North with the coyotes should also be a criminal offense, so that such parents are fined heavily or jailed for doing so. A news article in the last several days said that the number of children coming has slowed down, perhaps as a result of Obama's speaking to the Central American public through the news media to warn them that all such children will be sent back home, and that the journey is very dangerous. I do hope this situation will come to a stop soon, and those who are already here are sent back.








For Most Kids, Nice Finishes Last – NPR
by TOVIA SMITH
July 14, 2014

A new study holds up a mirror to America's parents. A researcher at Harvard surveyed 10,000 middle and high school students in 33 different schools around the nation about what they thought their folks cared about most: that they achieve at a high level, that they are happy (defined as "feeling good most of the time"), or that they care for others. Almost 80 percent of youth picked high achievement or happiness as their top choice, while about 20 percent selected caring for others. The survey also shows that about 80 percent of kids themselves rank achievement or happiness as most important, paralleling what they believe their parents value most.

Mari Brennan Barerra and Joel Barrera are your quintessential do-gooders. They both work in the public sector, sit on multiple nonprofit boards, volunteer at a soup kitchen, and even picked their church because it was the one most committed to community service. Not surprisingly, they also say they have made it a priority to raise their kids to be caring and contributing.

If their daughter, Mila, 15, had to say whether her parents cared more about her being good to others or being successful, she says it'd be close, but she'd have to say "good," she hedges.

Her brother, James, 13, however, doesn't hesitate.

"Successful," he says.

How does he know? Because achievement in school is what his parents nag him about, and reward him for, the most. For example, they let him quit volunteering at the soup kitchen when he didn't like it, but he gets no such pass on schoolwork. Similarly, Mila says, her parents got really happy and took her out to a nice restaurant for dinner to reward her for getting a B instead of a C.

"It's one of those things people say, like, I really want you to be a good person, like that's my main thing," she says. "But deep inside, it's like, but I really want you to be successful."

Rhetoric Vs. Reality

Rick Weissbourd's Making Caring Common Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education published the study. Weissbourd says the results reveal a "rhetoric-reality gap" on the part of parents. In other research, parents have claimed that they value caring above all, but that's not what kids are internalizing.

"Kids are picking up on these mixed messages," he says. It could be little things, he says, like letting your son inflate his community-service commitment on a college application, or not asking your daughter to reach out to a friendless child on the playground.

"I don't think parents realize that these messages are drowning out other messages about caring and equality and fairness," Weissbourd says.

The study doesn't necessarily point to a decline in morality among young people. Still, Marvin Berkowitz, a professor of character education at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, says the results are troubling.

He references a Teddy Roosevelt quote: "To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society."

Character education is something of a trend in schools these days. Central Queens Academy, a public middle school in New York City, focuses on character and community. Kids there are rewarded for things like kindness and being a team player, not just for getting straight A's. But when students took part in the kindness survey, their answers were no different from anyone else's.

"It was eye-opening," says principal Jesse Tang. "Our school is trying to buck certain ways of thinking, and we are working against a lot of these influences."

One big influence is colleges, and what they value in the admissions process. They may pay lip service to community service but, Tang says, kids know what really counts.

Christoph Guttentag, dean of admissions at Duke University, says it makes sense that colleges should prioritize grades; they are, after all, academic institutions. And besides, he notes, it'd be hard to judge a kid's kindness from an application. But, he says, colleges could do a little more to incentivize good character.

"We have work to do in how we talk about what we value, and making decisions consistent with what we say," Guttentag says.

Small Gestures

Harvard's Weissbourd agrees that colleges could make a big difference with even small gestures. For example, he says, colleges could count hours that a student spent taking care of an elderly grandfather or baby sister as much as they count community service work in Costa Rica.

But ultimately, Weissbourd says, it comes down to parents walking the walk, not just talking the talk. It's a hard thing to do, even for the most committed humanitarians, like the Barreras, who like many are swayed by their economic anxieties. "Our main job as parents is to launch them into the world," says Joel Barrera. "You know, I just want her to be able to make her own way in the world." "I worry all the time," adds Mari. "I wonder what will happen down the road. ... I hope I'm not condemning my kids to a life of poverty."

But Weissbourd says the good news is that being caring and being a high achiever are not necessarily at odds with each other. Positive psychologists like Martin Seligman emphasize that "authentic happiness" comes from connection with other people, not just pursuing self-interest. Not only that, but empathy does tend to improve one's collaboration skills, which have made it onto the short list of "21st century literacies," suggesting that getting along with others is integral to achievement.

So the bottom line is, as Weissbourd points out, that teaching kids to be mindful of others could also make them more successful.

As well as, of course, just being the right thing to do.





“A researcher at Harvard surveyed 10,000 middle and high school students in 33 different schools around the nation about what they thought their folks cared about most: that they achieve at a high level, that they are happy (defined as "feeling good most of the time"), or that they care for others. Almost 80 percent of youth picked high achievement or happiness as their top choice, while about 20 percent selected caring for others. The survey also shows that about 80 percent of kids themselves rank achievement or happiness as most important, paralleling what they believe their parents value most.” Most Americans are Christian and bring their kids up in a church, but somehow they are missing the most central of Jesus' messages – the golden rule and Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Interestingly, this writer gives the Barerra family as “the quintessential do-gooders,” because they try very hard to give back to society and teach their children to be “caring and contributing.” The very term “do-gooder” is most often used sarcastically in describing people who try to follow the teachings of Jesus. “If their daughter, Mila, 15, had to say whether her parents cared more about her being good to others or being successful, she says it'd be close, but she'd have to say 'good,' she hedges.” Her brother, on the other hand, says that his parents most want him to be “successful.”

Rick Weissbourd who heads this study said, “"Kids are picking up on these mixed messages," he says. It could be little things, he says, like letting your son inflate his community-service commitment on a college application, or not asking your daughter to reach out to a friendless child on the playground.”.... “'I don't think parents realize that these messages are drowning out other messages about caring and equality and fairness," Weissbourd says.... Marvin Berkowitz, a professor of character education at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, says the results are troubling. He references a Teddy Roosevelt quote: "To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society." I am interested and pleased to see that such a subject as “character education” is being taught at a University. People are seriously studying this lack of character education.

The Barerra's reflected on their choice of priorities, “But ultimately, Weissbourd says, it comes down to parents walking the walk, not just talking the talk. It's a hard thing to do, even for the most committed humanitarians, like the Barreras, who like many are swayed by their economic anxieties. 'Our main job as parents is to launch them into the world,' says Joel Barrera. 'You know, I just want her to be able to make her own way in the world.' 'I worry all the time,' adds Mari. 'I wonder what will happen down the road. ... I hope I'm not condemning my kids to a life of poverty.'" To me, though, they don't need to worry, because the highly competitive child is not the only one who can succeed in school. Rather than saying to your kids that they should succeed and perhaps play the political game among their schoolmates, say that they should study to the best of their ability, but ALSO befriend the shy kid who can't talk in a group. If their parents think that will keep them from being elected class president, I think that's incorrect. It will make them even more popular, as they have befriended more of their classmates and will be warmly regarded by all. The top dog is not really the most popular, in most cases, but rather the most feared. I definitely wouldn't want any child of mine to go that route. I also believe in adult-involved groups for young people such as the boy and girl scout programs (if they allow the participation of gay kids, that is), and the church sponsored youth groups. This does involve parents working in the background to select the kinds of kids that our progeny associate with most.






Church Of England Will Allow Women To Serve As Bishops – NPR
by ALAN GREENBLATT
July 14, 2014

The Church of England voted Monday to ordain women as bishops.

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the church's spiritual leader, said before the vote that the public would find it "almost incomprehensible" if the church's General Synod did not approve the change.

A similar proposal was narrowly defeated in 2012. A revised proposal had been put to a vote and approved in 43 of the church's 44 dioceses, according to the BBC.

Under the revised plan, opponents can request male priests and bishops, but they are offered no guarantees.

Outside England, more than 20 women serve as Anglican bishops in countries such as the United States, India and New Zealand. The most recently ordained woman is Bishop Melissa Skelton, who took over the Canadian diocese that includes Vancouver in March.

David Banting, a lay member of the church, complained to The Telegraph newspaper that the decision could leave churchgoers confused about gender roles.

"We live in a world which wishes to remove or minimize or disregard gender," Banting said. "The government has done so in regards to marriage already, now the church appears to be doing so in regard to the orders of ministry."

But the change had widespread backing, including support from British Prime Minister David Cameron. It comes more than 20 years after the church first allowed women to serve as priests.

The proposal required two-thirds approval and passed in the House of Laity by a vote of 152 to 45, with five abstentions. The vote in the House of Bishops was nearly unanimous, with 37 in favor, two against and one abstaining.




Under the revised plan, opponents can request male priests and bishops, but they are offered no guarantees. “David Banting, a lay member of the church, complained to The Telegraph newspaper that the decision could leave churchgoers confused about gender roles. We live in a world which wishes to remove or minimize or disregard gender,' Banting said. 'The government has done so in regards to marriage already, now the church appears to be doing so in regard to the orders of ministry.'"

That, of course, is the voice of the “conservative” male view that women are properly subjugated to the will of men, and that if they aren't then they are unfeminine at best and a threat to men at worst. The votes in The House Of Laity and The House Of Bishops were heavily against this conservative view of the role of women. I was both surprised and pleased when, in response to the Southern Baptist Convention's pronouncement a number of years ago that women should be submissive to their husbands, President Jimmy Carter pointedly resigned his membership from the church. I think slowly but surely we're making some progress as human beings.





Why Are Obstetricians Top Billers For Group Therapy In Illinois? – NPR
by CHARLES ORNSTEIN
July 14, 2014

A few years ago, Illinois' Medicaid program for the poor noticed some odd trends in its billings for group psychotherapy sessions.

Nursing home residents were being taken several times a week to off-site locations, and Medicaid was picking up the tab for both the services and the transportation.

And then there was this: The sessions were often being performed by obstetrician-gynecologists, oncologists and urologists — "people who didn't have any training really in psychiatry," Illinois Medicaid director Theresa Eagleson recalled.

So Medicaid began cracking down, and spending plummeted after new rules were implemented. In July 2012, the programstopped paying for group psychotherapy altogether for residents of nursing homes.

Yet Illinois doctors are still billing the federal Medicare program for large numbers of the same services, a ProPublica analysis of federal data shows.

Medicare paid Illinois providers for more than 290,000 group psychotherapy sessions in 2012 — more than twice as many sessions as were reimbursed to providers in New York, the state with the second-highest total.

Among the highest billers for group psychotherapy in Illinois were three OB-GYNs and a thoracic surgeon. The four combined for 37,864 sessions that year, more than the total for all providers in the state of California. They were reimbursed more than $730,000 by Medicare in 2012 just for psychotherapy sessions, according to an analysis of a separate Medicare data set released in April.

"That's not good," Eagleson said when told of the Medicare numbers.

Medicare's recent data release has led to a string of analyses showing how waste and fraud is inflating the nation's bill for health care. This work has echoed the findings of ProPublica's investigation last year into Medicare's prescription drug program known as Part D, which had fewer barriers to waste and fraud than other government health care programs – and was making less effective use of its own data.

Of the Illinois OB-GYNs billing for group psychotherapy, Dr. Josephine Kamper had the highest number of sessions. She was paid for 10,400 sessions in 2012, at a cost to Medicare of $207,980.

In 2011, the state Department of Financial and Professional Regulation placed Kamper on two years' probation for failing to evaluate a patient undergoing an abortion prior to anesthesia and failing to collaborate with a certified registered nurse anesthetist. The terms of her probation didn't prohibit providing psychotherapy.

Efforts to reach Kamper for comment were unsuccessful.

A OB-GYN named Lofton Kennedy Jr. billed for 9,154 group psychotherapy services. He declined to comment.

The third-highest-billing OB-GYN, Philip Okwuje, charged Medicare for 8,584 group therapy sessions. In a brief interview, he said he doesn't do them anymore. Okwuje was barred from Medicare and Medicaid from 2002 to 2005, records show, though the reason wasn't immediately available.

Thoracic surgeon Mark Lubienski said he began working with a company that offered group psychotherapy because he had to go on disability and could no longer perform surgeries. He had been experiencing episodes in which he temporarily lost consciousness.

Medicare paid $194,540 for more than 9,700 of his sessions in 2012, though Lubienski shared a tax form showing he received only about $52,000 from the company, Unified Therapeutics.

"I basically supervise social workers who run therapy sessions in intermediate and long-term care facilities for people who have psychiatric diagnoses," Lubienski said. "I'm there, I pitch in, I discuss things with the residents and stuff. We have a calendar of Medicare-approved topics that we go by."

And for residents who can't participate in the group sessions, "we see them individually."

Lubienski also was paid for 96 psychiatric interviews to diagnose mental illness. Lubienski said he doesn't see a problem with doctors who are not psychiatrists performing these services. "In certain states, it's mandated that the facilities have to offer these services yet there's nowhere near enough psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors, social workers to do it," he said.

Unified Therapeutics chief executive Todd Occomy said his company stopped providing the service in 2012 after the Medicaid changes in Illinois and has essentially ceased operations. "We were just getting squeezed," he said. "It got to the point where we could barely pay our physicians."

Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in an email that Medicare has no policy regarding which physicians may perform group psychotherapy. During such sessions, "personal and group dynamics are discussed and explored in a therapeutic setting allowing emotional catharsis, instruction, insight, and support," according to rules set out by one of Medicare's contractors.

Group psychotherapy doesn't cover such activities as socialization, music therapy, art classes, excursions, sensory stimulation or eating together. Typically groups can be no larger than 12 people.

Albright said he couldn't comment on individual providers but added that "deterring improper payments is a top priority for CMS in order to protect beneficiaries and taxpayers."

The billings for group psychotherapy reveal other unusual patterns. A Queens, N.Y., primary care doctor, Mark Burke, was paid for more sessions than anyone else in the country — 20,841. He accounted for nearly 1 in every 6 sessions delivered in the entire state of New York in Medicare, separate data show. He didn't return messages left at his office.

Another large biller was Makeba Gordon, a social worker in Detroit. She was reimbursed for nearly 5,000 group therapy sessions for her 26 Medicare patients, an average of 190 each. She also billed for 2,820 individual psychotherapy visits for the same 26 patients, who allegedly would have received an average of 298 therapy sessions apiece in 2012. Gordon couldn't be reached for comment.

A Chicago internist named Amjad Zureikat, who billed for 6,983 sessions, said he served two nursing homes and used books to help guide his discussions with patients. "We take the subjects from those books and we discuss it," he said.

Zureikat said he no longer practices as an internist but works three or four hours a week providing the therapy sessions and also is president of a local managed care organization.
"It is not that I enjoy it, it is something to do and it is useful to the residents and their families and the nursing home," Zureikat said.

To limit group psychotherapy billings, Illinois Medicaid first implemented rules that limited patients to no more than two sessions in a seven-day period, with a maximum of one a day. It then began requiring that physicians who bill for group psychotherapy complete a psychiatry residency program or be part of one.

The rules brought immediate results. In the year before September 2009, when the first changes were instituted, the program paid $30.4 million for these services, including almost $3.7 million to a single urologist. In the year afterward, the spending dropped by more than two-thirds. Payments for nursing home residents were cut off entirely in 2012.

Asked why Medicare hadn't taken similar steps, Eagleson, the Illinois Medicaid director, said she couldn't explain it. "I'm sure we can always all learn from one another," she said. "Trying to get this more coordinated is certainly one of our goals."




This article is shocking. Now that mental health counseling has to be covered by Medicare and Medicaid, many – not just a sleazy few – MDs are taking fees for psychotherapy, though they almost always do not have the training to be doing it. Medicaid has begun “cracking down” on these claims with some success, but Medicare is still paying such claims without scrutiny. There should be rules stating that all therapists must have a degree as a psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker. The article says that there are not enough trained practitioners to serve the need for therapy, but that is no reason why ObGyns should be doing mental health work. Such “therapy” is useless or even harmful. Insurance companies when paid by the patient himself should also stop this practice. It actually prevents the patient from getting good care, and allows unscrupulous doctors to make a fortune. One MD said, in this article, that he had stopped working in his own profession to do group therapy, so it must be very lucrative indeed.

There is also at least one company involved that specializes in therapy, United Therapeutics, so I assume there are others as well. “Medicare paid $194,540 for more than 9,700 of his sessions in 2012, though Lubienski shared a tax form showing he received only about $52,000 from the company, Unified Therapeutics. "I basically supervise social workers who run therapy sessions in intermediate and long-term care facilities for people who have psychiatric diagnoses," Lubienski said. "I'm there, I pitch in, I discuss things with the residents and stuff. We have a calendar of Medicare-approved topics that we go by." Another MD reportedly said that he used “a book” of therapy discussion topics as a guide.

Medicare and Medicaid need to continue to serve mental health patients, of course, but only when under the care of professionals in the field. Many mental health patients don't really need group therapy. Drug therapy alone is often as effective, and group therapy without drug interaction is very likely useless. Chronic depression is best relieved with good anti-depressants. which are more available now than in the past, and a disease like schizophrenia is almost impossible to deal with by therapy alone. Some people are committed to institutions for life, but that is no reason to give them what amounts to palliative care while they are there.