I do not know about the veracity of the blog in question.  But they seem to shine light on the types of things that I think about in these cases.  From the story:

the neurologist who examined her when she presented concluded that there was a strong psychogenic component to whatever it was that was wrong with her

The write-up then goes on to link the on-going publicity of the woman, and the treatments that have "cured" her, with an anti-vaccination group.  

Who knows what happened?  But knowing who is taking sides on an issue is a good first step to figuring things out.  You know, if anyone really wanted to change their minds on the safety of a flu vaccine. 

Are they going to do the dance from "Thriller"?  I can see how they might want to do their own coreography.  But on a show like this, they can't NOT do the scene, right?  I mean, when they had Partick Swayze week, they did the final dance from "Dirty Dancing" didn't they?"

Give you one guess...

From my feed today:

Liked what, exactly?  The fact that a press conference-in which no information will be imparted-is to be held?  What would possibly make you want to click the "like" button in response to this item?

Just who is the woman on the right?

I'll bet you remember her!

Sports Guy had a great non-sequitor in his lone column of the week. It was:  Pick the Most Messed Up Celebrity Kid of 2025.  (Go to Paragraph 15, which discussed the Dallas Cowboys).   Some of his introductory comments:

In fact, after I thought of it, I decided that Britney's two kids would have to be the Adrian Peterson/Drew Brees of the draft -- get one of them and it almost doesn't matter whom else you draft. Your team is already loaded.

The Draft portion of the article:

First round: Sean Preston Federline (my first pick and first overall); Shiloh Jolie-Pitt; Heath Ledger's kid; Tripp Johnston-Palin; the Baskett/Kendra baby; Prince Jackson.

Second round: Justin Brown Simpson; John Edwards' love child; Alexis Faith Gosselin; Bronx Ritchie; Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead; Jayden James Federline (me again, I handcuffed the Federline/Spears kids).

Third round: Lola Rose Sheen (very good value for me there); Lourdes Leon; Suri Cruise; Frances Bean Cobain; Jamie-Lynn Spears' daughter; Elijah Solomon (the eldest of Octomom's 14 kids).

Fourth round: Miguel Tyson (these were back-to-back picks from House and much funnier in e-mail just because I will never get another e-mail that simply says "Elijah Solomon and Miguel Tyson"); Maddox Jolie-Pitt; Ireland Baldwin; Jaden Smith (Will Smith's kid); the Brady-Bundchen baby (note: this pick made me unhappy); and rounding things out, Zahara Jolie-Pitt (my final pick, and a total sleeper in my opinion).

we all agreed that Anna Nicole Smith's kid went way too late; it's almost unfathomable that Al Pacino and Beverly D'Angelo's twins weren't taken; we left seven Jon and Kate kids and all eight Octomom octuplets on the board, which means this draft could have gone 10 rounds easy;

In my mind, the Spears-Federlines are like Adrian Peterson and Mike Turner.  You have to take them early because everyone else would.  But Anna Nicole's kid is the Chris Johnson of the draft.  You just know that they are going to lead the league, and have some huge games/scandals in the process.

Also, I think the Jolie-Pitt kids are way overrated here.  I forgot that Al Pacino had young kids.  There is no way, I mean NO WAY that the Jackson kids grow up normal, is there?  The best we can hope for is that they have enough money to live safely out of society.  Because can you imagine them trying to make a living?  "Tonight's Guest Judge on The Biggest Loser: Conjoined Twin Edition, Blanket Jackson!"

Overheard on Saturday morning in State College, PA:

Yum:  FS, where are you going with that giant sheet of posterboard?

FS: (closes "good" versus "well" section of style manual) Nowhere.  Do we have a sharpie somewhere?

Verbatim text from Yum Friday evening:

Upod us is oinn mu bay xpin trhe cupdoiayd close to the. Bed

I had a mini-dicsussion on Facebook with a friend about the potential of injuries, specifically brain and spinal cord injuries, while playing football.  My final word was that Facebook is not really a forum to deliver any sort of analysis deeper than "LOL."  As you know, I do not limit my word count here, so I want to talk about the subject a little.

Here is a link to a small study done by the Mayo Clinic.  As they point out, it is very difficult to make a comparison between youth sports, because the conditions are so different, including a determination of the actual participation rates and the variances in the definitions of "injury" that will naturally be found in different sports.  With these limitations in mind, the study gave some opinions:

-  Youth football injuries are uncommon

-  Most injuries that do occur are mild.  Most of these injuries are contusions or injuries to the ankle and lower extremities.

-  The risk of injury increases with increasing age and size.  An 8th grader is four times as likely to be injured as a 4th grader.

-  The risk of injury in youth football does not appear greater than other recreational or competitive sports.

I have seen a couple of places cite to studies on head and spinal cord injuries.  Again, trying to define what is an injury, especially a head injury, is very difficult.  In these studies, the researchers look at injuries that are quantifiable.  They examine spinal cord or severe head injuries for which the injured player does not make a full recovery.  The numbers I have seen consistently put the occurence of these injuries at less than 1 per 100,000 players.  Also, this combines high school and youth players. Based on the Mayo study, I'd expect the actual occcurance of these injuries to be a fraction of this number in youth leagues.

From my own subjective experience, these findings make sense.  First, I have coached soccer and flag football before coaching tackle this year.  It seems to me that the chances for injury are not much greater in football than soccer.  I believe that I saw more injuries on a per player basis in both flag football and soccer than my tackle football team.  At this age, the players just do not usually generate enough speed and momentum to inflict injury.  Those that do happen are usually from piles of players or twisted ankles.  Those occur in all youth team sports.  Also, I believe the most serious injuries that I have witnessed firsthand have all been a small kid getting nailed with a soccer ball off the foot of a big kid.  (Ben was responsible for one of these, too).  Subjectively, there seems to be fewer of these mismatched confrontations in youth football.  Of course, that is controlled, precisely for this reason.

This really gets to the point of it. Without safeguards, I am willing to admit that football probably has a greater number and severity of injuries.  But in the last twenty years (i.e., since I stopped playing) football has taken active steps to minimize these risks.   I know that every drill we run, we do in a way to minimize the risk of injury.  As a result, as practiced, I do not believe that youth football carries any greater risk of injury than the playground at school. 

By now, the Elimination Theory of “admit that you know your dish was bad, and let the judges think you know why it was bad” as being far more advisable to “keep defending a dish that the judges actually spit out” should be gospel, right?  Because I think elimination has played out that way practically every week in this season. 

I would like to be a Top Chef contestant advisor.  You know, like the beauty pagent coaches, but more butch.  I could coach up chefs before they went on the show.  Things like:  make sure you have a good amuse bouche, a good pastry/cake/dessert recipe in your pocket; taste your food before you give it to the judges; do not, under any circumstances, make a pasta salad; don’t make an extra dish just because you have time, or extra stuff; if you don’t have to make a dessert, don’t; don’t cook something that you think the contrived audience (the band, convention, bachelorette party, whatever) wants – let someone else make that mistake; make sure everything on the plate has a reason for being there – I’m looking at you foams, smears, purees; if you are roasting something, give yourself time to make sure it is done, or better yet, try real hard not to roast things; never tell the judges that you liked a dish that they very obviously did not; do not try to shave or screw your fellow contestants; if Padma is the sole judge of a dish, put some booze into it; neckerchefs belong only on border collies in those Frisbee-catching contests; if you make the finals, have some dishes planned out in detail; crème brulees, panna cottas, ice creams take too long to set – unless you have overnight to refridgerate, pass; if you have a catering challenge, make something that can sit for hours.  Make braises, stews, or assemble on site stuff.  No frying, no pasta, nothing that is going to get soggy; go easy on the tattoos, facial piercings, odd hats, or other things that might make a judge hesitant to eat food that your hands have touched.

That last one might just be a personal view.