Tuesday, September 16, 2014


News Clips For The Day


New child abuse allegation against Adrian Peterson
CBS NEWS September 16, 2014, 7:03 AM

A second accusation of child abuse has surfaced against star Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, dating back more than a year.

The new allegation was first reported by CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV and, notes CBS News correspondent Vladimir Duthiers, there are several parallels to the first case.

Both alleged victims are Peterson's own sons. The abuse allegedly happened while they were visiting his home. And in both cases, text messages have been recovered.

There are purported photos of the vict
im -- a 4-year-old boy -- who was left scarred by the alleged incident last June.
In text messages obtained by KHOU, the mother reportedly asked Peterson, "What happened to his head?" Peterson responded, "Hit his head on the car seat."

But when the mother asked, "How does this happen? He got a whoopin' in the car?" Peterson allegedly answered, "Yep," adding that, while he felt bad, his son did it to himself.

According to KHOU, in other text messages, Peterson said he disciplined his son for cussing to a sibling. The mother is said to have reported the incident to Child Protective Services, but no charges were filed.

Monday night, the Vikings said they were aware of the other allegation and referred questions to Peterson's attorney, Rusty Hardin.

Hardin told CBS News, "The allegation of another investigation into Adrian Peterson is simply not true. The allegation is more than one year old and authorities took no action. An adult witness admittedly insists Adrian did nothing inappropriate with his son."

Hours before KHOU's broadcast, the Vikings said Peterson would practice this week and play on Sunday.

He had been deactivated following his indictment for allegedly whipping another 4-year-old son with a tree branch.

Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman said, "We have seen everything that's in the file. I will not get into any detail because I hope you respect that the legal process has to take its course. And everything, all the information that we have been able to gather as of today, this is the decision that we felt was best."

In a statement, Peterson expressed remorse for that incident, insisting he was not a child abuser. "No one can understand the hurt that I feel for my son and for the harm I caused him. My goal is always to teach my son right from wrong and that's what I tried to do that day ... I love my son very much and I will continue to try to become a better father and person."

Also on Monday, the whirlwind surrounding Peterson resulted in Radisson Hotels suspending its sponsorship of the Vikings. The chain said in a statement it "takes this matter very seriously, particularly in light of our long-standing commitment to the protection of children. We are closely following the situation and effective immediately, Radisson is suspending its limited sponsorship of the Minnesota Vikings while we evaluate the facts and circumstances."




I was prompted to look up a definition on "switch" because the football player named Adrian Peterson has recently been charged with child abuse for hitting his child with "a switch." That was his word. The news articles have taken to calling it "a tree branch." Only by a technicality is a "switch" a “tree branch.” It is a long, very thin shoot of a bush which is not capable of producing much injury. It has no weight and it is very flexible. If applied with force it could break the skin, and it will sting sharply, but it is more a shaming tool than a harmful or dangerous punishment. A "tree branch" on the other hand, implies something half an inch or more in thickness, and capable of leaving bruises. The press has gotten a little out of hand with their colorful reporting here, I feel.

Of course those who are against all forms of physical punishment feel that anything "violent" (slapping your child's hand for instance) "breaks the child's spirit." I certainly wouldn't want to see a child "broken," but he must accept parental authority long before he is four years old or you will have a very troublesome child, who may grow up to be a bully or other undesirable type of delinquent. Overdo the discipline and you may get a child who is too timid to get along in the world.

If you decide not to hit your children at all, that is trickier. You will have to use words strongly for punishment, using a stern voice and choosing words that explain clearly what the misdeed was, why it is wrong and how serious it is. If the child has merely made a mistake, use gentle words that the child will understand and help him to internalize gentleness and polite behavior. If he is as young as three or four and has already become a bully as some four year olds have, gentle but persistent words may lead him to have compassion with his little brother or sister instead of anger and jealousy. If he is already a very angry personality by the time he is four years old, he may be feeling insecure, and more "quality time" with him should help (along with appropriate discipline – try “time out” or “go to your room”).

The idea is to develop a conscience in the child, not merely chastise him or vent your anger on him. One parent in discussing this issue said that she “has had success in getting him to apologize, but it's still an uphill battle.” Some children are definitely more strong willed than others. A parent should work to avoid disliking the child because of this, as that deeply seated parental “hate-love” relationship will indeed harm the child emotionally – children can clearly feel a lack of love from a parent -- and it will not make him any more well-behaved – just under confident and perhaps even more rebellious than before, if he still has a little self-esteem in spite of you. He may indeed decide that you are a “bad person” and reject you, too. I personally think this does more harm to a child than light physical discipline which is not delivered with an under layer of hatred, and which is followed up with forgiveness.

One of the problems with the misbehavior of very small children is that they really don't understand "the rules" yet. They just want another cookie or they are having a problem learning to share. When I was growing up a "switch" would be used when words didn't work and the child was very stubborn or in the midst of a tantrum. In my opinion using a switch or spanking on the child's rump with the open hand and a mild level of force is not child abuse, and is barely definable as "domestic violence," as people are now saying of Peterson. Children do have to be disciplined in some fashion. He said his four year old swore at his sibling. That is a pretty bad thing for a four year old to be doing, but perhaps in addition to discipline, the parent should be more careful about swearing in front of his children. The child learned those words somewhere. Of course, maybe Peterson was more violent with his kids than this word "switch" implies, too. If so, yes, he should be sanctioned by the NFL in some fashion.





3,000 U.S. military members to fight Ebola in Africa
CBS/AP September 16, 2014, 4:33 AM

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration will assign 3,000 U.S. military personnel to West Africa "to combat and contain" what senior administration officials call an "extraordinarily serious epidemic."

This new assistance will supply medical and logistical support to overwhelmed local health care systems and increase the number of beds needed to isolate and treat victims of the Ebola crisis.

President Obama planned to announce the expanded effort Tuesday during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, amid alarm that the outbreak could spread. Officials fear the deadly virus could mutate into a more easily transmitted disease.

The new U.S. muscle comes after appeals from officials in the African region and from aid organizations for a heightened U.S. role in combating the outbreak, which has been blamed for more than 2,200 deaths so far.

Administration officials said Monday that the new initiatives aim to:
-- Train as many as 500 health care workers each week.
-- Erect 17 heath care facilities in the region each with 100 beds.
-- Set up a joint command headquartered in Monrovia, Liberia, to coordinate between U.S. and international relief efforts.
-- Provide home health care kits to hundreds of thousands of households, including 50,000 that the U.S. Agency for International Development will deliver to Liberia this week.
-- Carry out a home- and community-based campaign to train local populations on how to handle exposed patients.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plans ahead of Mr. Obama's announcement, said the cost of the effort would come from $500 million in overseas contingency operations. The Pentagon has asked Congress to redirect funds in order to carry out humanitarian efforts in Iraq and West Africa.

It would take about two weeks to get U.S. forces on the ground, the officials said.

Sen. Chris Coons, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations African Affairs subcommittee, applauded the new U.S. commitment. Coons had previously called for the Obama administration to step up its role in West Africa.

"This humanitarian intervention should serve as a firewall against a global security crisis that has the potential to reach American soil," Coons said.

Hardest hit by the outbreak are Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The virus also has reached Nigeria and Senegal.

Ebola is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of sick patients, making doctors and nurses especially vulnerable to contracting the virus that still has no vaccine or approved treatment.

Mr. Obama's trip to the CDC comes a day after the United States also demanded increased international response to the outbreak. On Monday, The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday. She warned that the potential risk of the virus could "set the countries of West Africa back a generation."

Power said the meeting Thursday would mark a rare occasion when the Security Council, which is responsible for threats to international peace and security, addresses a public health crisis.

In addition to addressing representatives from the affected countries, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was expected to brief the council along with World Health Organization chief Dr. Margaret Chan and Dr. David Nabarro, the recently named U.N. coordinator to tackle the disease.

On Monday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest responded to criticism that the U.S. needed a more forceful response to the outbreak.

Earnest said Mr. Obama has identified the outbreak "as a top national security priority," worried it could contribute to political instability in the region and that, left unchecked, the virus could transform and become more contagious.

He said the administration responded "pretty aggressively" when the outbreak was first reported in March.

"Since that time our assistance has steadily been ramping up," Earnest said.

The Senate was also to weigh in Tuesday with a hearing to examine the U.S. response. An American missionary doctor who survived the disease was among those scheduled to testify.

Four Americans have been or are being treated for Ebola in the U.S. after evacuation from Africa.

The U.S. has spent more than $100 million responding to the outbreak and has offered to operate treatment centers for patients so far.



What Obama Should Say And Do About Ebola – NPR
by MARC SILVER
September 15, 2014

Tomorrow, President Obama is scheduled to announce a new U.S. plan to help stop the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

We offer two perspectives on what the president should say. One is from Sophie Delaunay, executive director of Doctors Without Borders, which has been on the ground in Africa since the first cases were identified this year. The other is from Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center who studies how to prepare health care systems for pandemics.

Delaunay, who spoke to NPR last week, doesn't hold back. "I have to say that we are quite exhausted and angry about the situation," she says. "We believe that what an NGO [nongovernmental organization] like MSF [Medecins Sans Frontieres, her organization's name in French] does, a state can do at even larger scale. This is all we are asking. We really just want to stand in solidarity to the Liberians, the Sierra Leoneans and the Guineans. And in the face of this outbreak, we are really calling for additional capacity."

Speaking of the role that the United States could play, she says that "thousands of people [at U.S. laboratories] are trained in working in highly contaminated environments" — and could offer guidance to health workers in Africa.

"The most urgent need at the moment is to set up isolation units so that people who are sick do not contaminate the rest of the population," she says. "It is not technically complicated. It involves very basic organization to manage patient safety, to feed them, to provide them with water, to manage waste."

She favors military participation in the anti-Ebola efforts. "What is critical in order to make this care successful is to have a strict monitoring, a strict supervision, a good chain of command. This is key. And this is why we do value the role of the military in this intervention and we would actually wish that there would be much greater mobilization of military assets and personnel, because they are much better equipped than any non-governmental organizations to put in place those kind of very strict and solid supervision from A to Z."

From a practical standpoint, Dr. Adalja suggests that the U.S. provide the basics: portable hospitals, personal protective gear (gowns, gloves, masks, eye protection) and other scarce medical supplies like thermometers: "We know people are resorting to reusing thermometers."

He also believes the U.S. can help educate African health-care workers on the proper way to wear personal protective equipment to minimize the risk of exposure.

"The thing with Ebola is it's not a very complex disease to treat," Dr. Adalja notes. Basic measures such as controlling infection, isolating patients, tracing others with whom they may have had contact and promoting "hygienic burial" have brought past outbreaks to a halt. The same, he says, should be done this time.



OBAMA'S PLANNED ASSISTANCE:
“The Obama administration will assign 3,000 U.S. military personnel to West Africa 'to combat and contain' what senior administration officials call an 'extraordinarily serious epidemic.' This new assistance will supply medical and logistical support to overwhelmed local health care systems and increase the number of beds needed to isolate and treat victims of the Ebola crisis. President Obama planned to announce the expanded effort Tuesday during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, amid alarm that the outbreak could spread. Officials fear the deadly virus could mutate into a more easily transmitted disease.”... Administration officials said Monday that the new initiatives aim to:
-- Train as many as 500 health care workers each week.
-- Erect 17 heath care facilities in the region each with 100 beds.
-- Set up a joint command headquartered in Monrovia, Liberia, to coordinate between U.S. and international relief efforts.
-- Provide home health care kits to hundreds of thousands of households, including 50,000 that the U.S. Agency for International Development will deliver to Liberia this week.
-- Carry out a home- and community-based campaign to train local populations on how to handle exposed patients.”

“The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday. She warned that the potential risk of the virus could 'set the countries of West Africa back a generation.'”

FROM THE NPR ARTICLE: 'The most urgent need at the moment is to set up isolation units so that people who are sick do not contaminate the rest of the population,' she says. 'It is not technically complicated. It involves very basic organization to manage patient safety, to feed them, to provide them with water, to manage waste.' She favors military participation in the anti-Ebola efforts. 'What is critical in order to make this care successful is to have a strict monitoring, a strict supervision, a good chain of command. This is key. And this is why we do value the role of the military in this intervention and we would actually wish that there would be much greater mobilization of military assets and personnel, because they are much better equipped than any non-governmental organizations to put in place those kind of very strict and solid supervision from A to Z.' This quotation is from Sophie Delaunay, executive director of Doctors Without Borders,

"We know people are resorting to reusing thermometers." said Dr. Adalja and states that the US should provide more equipment and educate African workers on how to use them. He says that “basic measures” has in the past stopped outbreaks of Ebola, and those procedures should be followed this time. Reusing thermometers is such a bad idea that I'm surprised it is occurring if the African and WHO workers are trained at all. It would be better not to know the temperature of the patient than to do something which is known to spread the contagion. Reusing hypodermics has spread AIDS throughout the world as people inject themselves with opiates. Some organizations in the US began giving out clean needles to addicts when they couldn't be prevented from using. That was criticized, but it did slow down the spread of AIDS.

The problem in Africa at this time has more to do with human behavior and instincts than anything else. Our instinct tells us to trust only people we know personally and follow our traditional beliefs. In Africa those beliefs have to do with washing and touching the dead before burial, hugging when you meet a friend or family member, and eating “bushmeat” including fruit bats. They are considered a delicacy and have been found by DNA studies to be carrying Ebola, along with several other types of bats.

To make these things worse, many of the people don't trust their government, and have been running away rather than going to the isolation centers, where many Africans think that the healthcare workers are actually spreading the disease rather than working to heal the sick. There has been a need for a military intervention several times, both to close the borders and to protect the medical isolation centers.

According to Sophie Delaunay and Dr. Adalja the US is now doing exactly what they recommend, so Obama was well-advised in what means to use, plus he is correct in considering this epidemic a true world threat, as people who have been exposed but are not visibly ill yet have already been flying to other countries. A woman recently flew into Saudi Arabia and died of Ebola. It is not science fiction this time. I applaud Obama's move, and another article on the net is about moves in progress among the international community to step up to the plate. I think things are looking up.





Ukraine boldly goes where it tried to go before – CBS
AP September 16, 2014, 8:03 AM

DONETSK, Ukraine -- Ukraine's parliament ratified an agreement to deepen economic and political ties with the European Union on Tuesday, and passed legislation to grant autonomy to the rebellious east as part of a peace deal.

The ratification vote draws a line under the issue that last year sparked Ukraine's crisis, which resulted in the ousting of the president, the annexation of Crimea by Russia and a war with the Russia-backed separatists that has killed more than 2,600 people.

Earlier in the day, the parliament in closed session approved two bills on granting greater autonomy to the rebellious regions in the east as well as amnesty for most of those involved in the fighting. The bills are part of a tenuous peace process that saw a cease-fire called on Sept. 5 but that has been repeatedly violated.

The city council in Donetsk says three people were killed in shelling overnight.

The EU association agreement was long sought by Ukrainians who want their country to turn westward and out of Russia's sphere of influence. After then-President Viktor Yanukovych shelved the deal last year, protests broke out that eventually spiraled into violence and led to Yanukovych fleeing the country.

In the wake of that, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and a pro-Russia rebellion broke out in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces in April launched a military operation to put down the rebellion, which it claims gets substantial support including troops and equipment from Russia.

Just before the ratification vote, President Petro Poroshenko told the parliament that Ukrainians who died in the protests and in the eastern fighting "have died not only for their motherland. They gave up their lives for us to take a dignified place among the European family."




“Ukraine's parliament ratified an agreement to deepen economic and political ties with the European Union on Tuesday, and passed legislation to grant autonomy to the rebellious east as part of a peace deal.... Ukraine's parliament ratified an agreement to deepen economic and political ties with the European Union on Tuesday, and passed legislation to grant autonomy to the rebellious east as part of a peace deal.... Just before the ratification vote, President Petro Poroshenko told the parliament that Ukrainians who died in the protests and in the eastern fighting 'have died not only for their motherland. They gave up their lives for us to take a dignified place among the European family.'”

Poroshenko has turned out to be a good leader in battle and now in working toward peace. Giving minorities the means to a life free from persecution and indignities is an important step in a nation that would live peacefully. Whether the Russian speaking population was actually treated badly before or not, they think they were, and given the many cultural groups that make up Europe, perhaps they were. Religion and language sit on the surface of deeper rivalries, distrust and lack of understanding in too many cases. The plight of the Jews in Europe has always been of that nature.

Ukraine is now hopefully on its way to making peace with Russia, while at the same time strengthening its ties to more Western, more democratic nations. Russia, of course, doesn't want Ukraine to join NATO or the EU, but rather to remain “neutral,” like Switzerland. For its economic and societal development, however, joining the EU at the very least is exactly what it should do. Otherwise it can't have that “dignified place” that it desires. Hopefully the agreement with the EU will not be threatened by warlike moves on the part of Russia, and the European landscape will not return to the bad old days of the Cold War.






"Forced switch" maneuver spurs lawsuit against drugmaker
By JONATHAN LAPOOK CBS NEWS September 15, 2014, 7:23 PM

The New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman Monday filed suit against the makers of the Alzheimer's drug Namenda, accusing the company of violating anti-trust laws. The suit follows a CBS News investigation in August into why a version of the drug was being taken off the market.

The Namenda IR version of the medication is due to go generic next year. But before that less expensive generic product becomes available, Namenda IR is scheduled to be withdrawn from the market.

Instead, doctors are being asked to transition patients to Namenda XR, a once daily pill which has additional patent protection and is unlikely to go generic for years.

It's a strategy called "forced switch."

One of the patients affected by the maneuver is Mike Hitch, 54, who has early onset dementia and takes Namenda IR twice a day.

"I may have dementia and Alzheimer's and all that, but they're gonna make millions, billions of dollars off of it and get everybody switched to their XR version before they can even get hold of a generic," Hitch said.

Namenda generates about $1.5 billion in annual sales. So loss of Namenda's patent protection could translate to more than a billion dollars in lost revenue a year.

Attorney General Schneiderman's lawsuit seeks to block Namenda's maker, Forest Laboratories, and its parent company, Actavis, from withdrawing the drug, calling the strategy illegal and charging: "forced switch is an effort to game the regulatory system and manipulate patients and physicians through business practices that...impede competition from cheaper generic drugs and perpetuate Defendants' monopoly profits."

"This is hundreds of millions of dollars that will either be paid by Alzheimer's patients or by all of us because 70 percent of these patients rely on Medicare or Medicaid," Schneiderman said in an interview with CBS News.

CBS News reached out to Actavis late Monday. The company said it does not comment on pending litigation.

Forest Laboratories CEO Brent Saunders, who is now CEO of Actavis, discussed Namenda during a Forest Laboratories conference call in January. CBS News obtained a recording of the call.

In the recording, Saunders says: "...we believe that by potentially doing a forced switch, we will hold on to a large share of our base users."

He also addressed the challenges generic companies face following a forced switch.

Saunders says: "It's very difficult for the generics, then, to reverse commute back, at least with the existing RXs. They don't have the sales force, they don't have the capabilities... (to go do that. Doesn't mean that it can't happen, it just becomes very difficult) and is an obstacle that will allow us to, I think, again, go into a slow decline versus a complete cliff."

When generic companies compete, the price of a drug usually drops 70 to 80 percent. Attorney General Schneiderman says the tactics of the company threaten access to a cheaper medication for this especially vulnerable population.




“The New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman Monday filed suit against the makers of the Alzheimer's drug Namenda, accusing the company of violating anti-trust laws. The suit follows a CBS News investigation in August into why a version of the drug was being taken off the market. Attorney General Schneiderman's lawsuit seeks to block Namenda's maker, Forest Laboratories, and its parent company, Actavis, from withdrawing the drug, calling the strategy illegal and charging: 'forced switch is an effort to game the regulatory system and manipulate patients and physicians through business practices that...impede competition from cheaper generic drugs and perpetuate Defendants' monopoly profits. This is hundreds of millions of dollars that will either be paid by Alzheimer's patients or by all of us because 70 percent of these patients rely on Medicare or Medicaid,' Schneiderman said in an interview with CBS News.”

I am glad to see the state of NY going to bat for the consumer rather than for big business. That's the way patent laws work. The company gets a time period – usually 20 years – during which no other drug company can compete with them on that particular drug. From Wikipedia comes the following: “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_of_patent – Significant international harmonization of patent term across national laws was provided in the 1990s by the implementation of the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs Agreement). Article 33 of the TRIPs Agreement provides that 'The term of protection available [for patents] shall not end before the expiration of a period of twenty years counted from the filing date.' Consequently, in most patent laws nowadays, the term of patent is 20 years from the filing date of the application. 

To me, twenty years is a long time for a company to make up for their research and development costs and should be sufficient. After that, turn about is fair play. This “forced switch” is really a very dirty trick, and many people who have little money are faced with huge medical billsas a result of it. Maybe a Supreme Court decision should be reached to reinforce the Patent Laws. Forest Laboratories is only one of the companies that has been doing this. They should all be prohibited from the practice. And, as this article states, it is causing Medicare and Medicaid costs to go up, which surely the Republicans must hate to see. We can't have waste, after all!






Should parents snoop on their kids online?
By ELIENE AUGENBRAUN CBS NEWS
September 16, 2014, 5:00 AM

Now that American kids have greater access than ever to the Internet -- not just at home, but on mobile devices wherever they go -- parents are facing a new set of dilemmas: should you monitor where your kids go, what websites they visit and what they say and see on social media? Or should teens be allowed a realm of privacy away from the prying eyes of parents?

According to the Pew Internet Project, more than three-quarters of American children ages 12 to 17 had cellphones as of 2012; almost half of those devices were smartphones with Internet, social media and email access. The age at which children get their first mobile device is getting younger, too; one survey found nearly 40 percent of fifth graders have their own cellphones.

For parents who want to track their children's activities on their home computers and mobile devices, there are a number of free or inexpensive options available.

Parental control features available through many operating systems and Internet service providers let parents block inappropriate websites. Paid, feature-rich apps like NetNanny and Safe Eyes offer additional options for site blocking and time limits, and send parents notifications about which sites their children visited.

Location-tracking apps like Find My Kids and GPS Tracker Pro send data to a parent's phone or computer letting them know where their child's mobile device is and and how fast it's moving at any given moment.

Then there are services like Uknowkids, Qustodio, AVG Family Safety andMamaBear that go even further by combining location tracking and parental controls with another dimension of surveillance: monitoring who kids are texting or connecting with on social media and in some cases what they are posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more.

Rachel Blakeman, a New York-based psychoanalyst/psychotherapist, gave smartphones to her two daughters, ages 8 and 11. She downloaded MamaBear for them when her older girl started to go to school by herself. On the child's phone, MamaBear makes it quick and easy to send parents status updates. "She would text me as she got to the bus stop and then she would text me when she got to school," Blakeman said.

MamaBear also has GPS tracking and automatically alerts her when her child leaves and arrives at set destinations, giving Blakeman peace of mind even if her daughter forgets to check in. Rather than worrying about being too intrusive, Blakeman says she thinks the digital monitoring actually allows her daughters "more freedom" because she can always tell that they are "where they are supposed to be."

MamaBear founder and president Robyn Spoto told CBS News via email, "A little more than half of the notifications we send are location." But she noted that parents who use the app seem increasingly concerned about what kids are doing online with their phones. Spoto reported that "30 percent [of notifications] are social media notifications but that gap is narrowing as more families are using our social monitoring feature."

At least 75 percent of teens age 13 to 17 have at least one social media account, according to Common Sense Media. More than two-thirds say they text every day. Parents worried about how their kids interact online can receive notifications from MamaBear or similar apps when their kids send or receive friend requests, use certain words, or are tagged in photos.

Spoto considers her app part of the evolving "village" it takes to raise kids. "MamaBear and other digital parenting resources are part of the village. If parents attempted to stay up with how to use it all and be adept enough to be purposeful, we'd get nothing else done. What doesn't change is our concern to protect our children from strangers, bullies, themselves. Their digital footprint just changes the potentially harmful longevity of choices made when stretching boundaries as first time social users."

But not everyone agrees that tracking everything children do online is a good idea.

Caroline Knorr, parenting editor at Common Sense Media, worries that child monitoring apps "may prey on parents' fears. Most kids use media safely. Stranger danger is not the biggest risk for kids."

She considers cyber-bullying to be a far more common and greater risk. But she thinks social media monitoring technology is unlikely to catch that problem. "Kids know technology better than their parents do. If you rely on technology to monitor your kids or prevent them from engaging in online risks you are getting a false sense of security. Any determined kid can defeat any technology you put out there. Even if the company says they can't, they can."

Furthermore, Knorr says parents need to recognize that kids "believe that their phones are sacred and private." To her, parents who try to intrude on that are setting up a "parent versus kid situation, even for good kids who are not doing anything wrong."

Instead of using technology to snoop on kids' digital activities, she urges parents to discuss boundaries and appropriate online behavior with their children and to "parent around the device" by "doling out features sparingly" when the phone is new. She suggests opening up more features as the child demonstrates the ability to "follow the rules and meet expectations and understand consequences."

Jen Nessel, a communications coordinator for The Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and mother of an 8-year-old boy, agrees that fear drives a lot of parenting decisions. She thinks parents these days need to "relax a little," observing that "the world is far less dangerous now than it was in the 'paleolithic' pre-digital age, by any measurable standards."

To a certain extent, she believes that kids need to be free to make their own mistakes: "There's a lot of stuff out there we would rather they not be exposed to until they're ready, if ever. It's perfectly normal to put on the parental controls on the computer, on your phone, on your television." But to her, monitoring a child's personal media use is different. "I think we're in a very different world now where it is possible to surveil our children constantly, which doesn't mean that we should. There's ways in which we want to keep our children safe, of course, but at the same time we have to respect them as whole human beings who deserve privacy."

Nessel -- who outlined her parenting philosophy in a Huffington Post article titled "A Beta Parent Manifesto" and also co-authored the book "Goodnight Nanny-Cam: A Parody for Modern Parents" -- says it's a lesson she learned from an earlier generation. When Nessel's mom was a girl, she'd been horrified that her mother insisted on reading her diary; "She was very clear she would never do that with me and I would never do that with my child either," Nessel recalled.

Nessel is working now to prepare her son for his inevitable social media life. "There's a lot of conversations we're having that I hope will prepare him... I'll warn him against saying stupid things that could come back to haunt him, against being mean to people, because it's too tempting in an anonymous space sometimes," she says. "But I think the parenting has to happen before that and outside of that."

Even parents who feel comfortable with monitoring technology recognize it must be used carefully or turned off in certain situations. Tracking a child's cellphone can put whomever they're with -- their other parent, grandparents, family friends -- under surveillance as well.

Blakeman is divorced, and says she discussed use of the MamaBear app with her ex-husband as well as her daughters. She disabled features on the app that could monitor her ex-husband's driving habits when he is with the girls. MamaBear's Spoto says the company is working on features to allow divorced families and non-parent caretakers to turn on and off sets of features.




“According to the Pew Internet Project, more than three-quarters of American children ages 12 to 17 had cellphones as of 2012; almost half of those devices were smartphones with Internet, social media and email access. The age at which children get their first mobile device is getting younger, too; one survey found nearly 40 percent of fifth graders have their own cellphones.... Spoto considers her app part of the evolving "village" it takes to raise kids. "MamaBear and other digital parenting resources are part of the village. If parents attempted to stay up with how to use it all and be adept enough to be purposeful, we'd get nothing else done. What doesn't change is our concern to protect our children from strangers, bullies, themselves. … 'If you rely on technology to monitor your kids or prevent them from engaging in online risks you are getting a false sense of security. Any determined kid can defeat any technology you put out there. Even if the company says they can't, they can.'... Furthermore, Knorr says parents need to recognize that kids "believe that their phones are sacred and private." To her, parents who try to intrude on that are setting up a 'parent versus kid situation, even for good kids who are not doing anything wrong.'Instead of using technology to snoop on kids' digital activities, she urges parents to discuss boundaries and appropriate online behavior with their children and to parent around the device' by 'doling out features sparingly' when the phone is new.”

I'm reminded of the wonderful theme song of the Monk television show – Monk is a great detective with a heavy duty obsessive-compulsive problem – the title and lyrics go “It's a jungle out there!” When I was young there were smug bullies who weren't punished unless you successfully ignored them, told them off soundly or even fought them, and there were sexual predators – maybe not as many as today, but the occasional child still disappeared or was found dead. We were blissfully unaware of the dangers in those days, and walked house to house to play with friends within the neighborhood. Our parents did not supervise our every waking moment, and they did rely on “the village” of neighbors to help keep track of us. It was possible to be punished when you got home for something done while you were out due to that network of eyes. By and large, however, I encountered and solved or rationalized my own problems and dilemmas successfully. I wasn't subject to the “helicopter parent” and I'm not sorry for that. In one case I did get into a car with a strange man who I feel sure had in mind something dastardly, but I told him I was on my way to work and that they would call my parents if I didn't show up. He let me out of the car at my job with no more threatening behavior. I still am not sorry I had the freedom that I did, even if there are some dangers.

I do think parents need to talk extensively with their children about sexual predators and how they can go on the Internet pretending to be a cute and desirable teenaged boy, only to abduct, rape, beat and kill a child. Kids need to know how many such people are out there. As for cyber bullying, a kid needs the loving, warm communication with his parent that will allow the child to be secure enough to confide in parents when real problems come up. I believe in asking your kid every day when they come in, over a snack of milk and a sandwich, “How was school?” If they are evasive, won't meet the parent's eye, the Mom can talk about her own day a little bit and then pursue the matter further, saying “You seem a little out of sorts. Are you sure nothing is wrong?” Hopefully they will tell what the problem is, and then the parent can offer to go to the principal of the school to intervene, and be sure to show acceptance of the child. A child who has been bullied may be afraid to go back to school, or just feel ashamed of himself for not being able to fight the bully off. Maybe he needs a martial arts course, and maybe even the intervention of the police if there is a severe problem.

I think the parent might firmly explain to the child that she will spot-check their email, Facebook, and all other social media sources periodically, or they won't be allowed to have the device – especially at 12 years old or younger. After all, those things aren't cheap. They need a cell phone for safety's sake, but the parent can get the kind that don't do other things than making calls, for something in the range of $20.00, like taking nude pictures of themselves for “sexting” or downloading anything off the Internet. Again, talk with the kids about what is wrong with “sexting” and cyberbullying and by all means explain ALL about the facts of life. One of the problems with kids of 12 years old is that they have sometimes already begun active sexual activity. A kid is old enough to understand by 12, and if he is developing a healthy, strong conscience, he should refrain from doing those things on his own. I think that is much better than for the parent to be constantly supervising his child. That style of parenting gives kids little chance to develop a mature and logical behavior pattern when they aren't being scrutinized. After all, they are supposed to be learning to grow up.





NASA asteroid tracking program takes a hit
CBS/AP September 15, 2014, 5:27 PM

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's effort to identify potentially dangerous space rocks has taken a hit.

On Monday, the space agency's inspector general released a report blasting NASA's Near Earth Objects program, which is meant to hunt and catalog comets, asteroids and relatively large fragments of these objects that pass within 28 million miles of Earth. The purpose is to protect the planet against their potential dangers.

Near Earth Objects, or NEOs, in a range of sizes pepper our planet frequently, though most harmlessly disintegrate in the atmosphere before reaching Earth's surface. But there are exceptions, like the nearly 60-foot meteor that exploded over Russia in February 2013, causing considerable damage. From 2000 to 2013, the B612 Foundation, an organization of former NASA astronauts who want to build a comprehensive asteroid detection system, says 26 meteorites big enough to equal the impact of an atomic bomb struck the Earth. Fortunately, most landed far from humans.

In the 44-page report released Monday, Inspector General Paul Martin said the NASA Near Earth Objects program needs to be better organized and managed, with a bigger staff.

For nearly a decade, the report noted, NASA has been tracking Near Earth Objects bigger than 140 meters (about 460 feet) across. The goal was to catalog 90 percent of them by 2020.

The space agency has discovered and plotted the orbits of more than 11,000 NEOs since 1998, an estimated 10 percent of the total number of objects. It does not expect to meet the 2020 deadline.

The program has insufficient oversight, Martin's office concluded, and no established milestones to track progress. In addition, NASA needs to do a better job of overseeing the various observatories searching for NEOs and teaming up with other U.S. and international agencies, the report said.

NASA's science mission chief, former astronaut John Grunsfeld, agreed and promised the problems will be addressed. The Agency noted in its written response to the report that it would institute a "formal NASA NEO Program" with a strategic planning process, milestones, and reviews.





“From 2000 to 2013, the B612 Foundation, an organization of former NASA astronauts who want to build a comprehensive asteroid detection system, says 26 meteorites big enough to equal the impact of an atomic bomb struck the Earth. Fortunately, most landed far from humans.... Inspector General Paul Martin said the NASA Near Earth Objects program needs to be better organized and managed, with a bigger staff.... The space agency has discovered and plotted the orbits of more than 11,000 NEOs since 1998, an estimated 10 percent of the total number of objects. It does not expect to meet the 2020 deadline.... NASA's science mission chief, former astronaut John Grunsfeld, agreed and promised the problems will be addressed. The Agency noted in its written response to the report that it would institute a "formal NASA NEO Program" with a strategic planning process, milestones, and reviews.”

I read somewhere within the last couple of years that NASA's money has been cut. Even if we aren't pursuing a trip to Mars any time soon, they do have this one important function. They are supposed to be working out practical ways to nudge an oncoming asteroid off its course so it misses the earth, or blow it up perhaps. This subject is discussed every so often in news articles, and it becomes clear that there is potentially a very big problem with these asteroids, but that the science is mainly science fiction so far. It does make me uncomfortable. NASA needs to get more money pumped into its budget. Maybe then they can keep up with these NEOs better. Of course, that sounds like something the Republicans won't want to pay for in Congress.