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The New York Times provides a compelling piece about high school football players who don't report getting knocked out. The Brain Injury Resource Center in Seattle says about 300,000 people a year suffer sports concussions, and nobody even knows how many repeat injuries there are. Repeat injuries are said to be the most dangerous type of injuries.

And still, players told The New York Times that they wouldn't tell their coach about the concussion because if they did, their coach would take them out of a game.

The Times reports:

Many of the 1.2 million teenagers who play high school football are chanting similar war whoops as they strap on their helmets. They either do not know what a concussion is or they simply do not care. Their code of silence, bred by football’s gladiator culture, allows them to play on and sometimes be hurt much worse — sometimes fatally.

The National Football League has recently faced questions about its handling of concussions after four former players were found to have significant brain damage as early as their mid-30s. But teenagers are more susceptible to immediate harm from such injuries because, studies show, their brain tissue is less developed than adults’ and more easily damaged. High school players also typically receive less capable medical care, or none at all.

At least 50 high school or younger football players in more than 20 states since 1997 have been killed or have sustained serious head injuries on the field, according to research by The New York Times. [Click here to see an interactive map]

Experts say many of these accidents could have been prevented by simple awareness of and respect for their gravity.

Poor management of high school players’ concussions “isn’t just a football issue,” said Robert Sallis, president of the American College of Sports Medicine.“It’s a matter of public health.”

Interviews with players indicate that even those aware of the dangers of concussions ignore them. Coaches, trainers and parents can detect a gimpy knee or a separated shoulder, and act. But a concussion is often the player’s secret.

See the results of a questionnaire given to 1,500 Wisconsin high school varsity football players about reporting sports-related concussions. There are reasons to suspect that even in pro football, concussions are widely underreported. Listen to this related NPR story.

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Kids, Crocs and Escalators May not Mix

The Associated Press says there have been several incidents worldwide involving kids who get their toes stuck in escalators while wearing those cute little rubber shoes called Crocs:

According to reports appearing across the United States and as far away as Singapore and Japan, entrapments occur because of two of the biggest selling points of shoes like Crocs: their flexibility and grip. Some report the shoes get caught in the "teeth" at the bottom or top of the escalator, or in the crack between the steps and the side of the escalator.

The reports of serious injuries have all involved young children. Crocs are commonly worn by children as young as 2. The company introduced shoes in its smallest size, 4/5, this past spring.

Niwot, Colo.-based Crocs Inc. said it does not keep records of the reasons for customer-service calls. But the company said it is aware of "very few" problems relating to accidents involving the shoes, which are made of a soft, synthetic resin.

The story continues:

In Japan, the government warned consumers last week that it has received 39 reports of sandals — mostly Crocs or similar products — getting stuck in escalators from late August through early September. Most of the reports appear to have involved small children, some as young as two years old.

Kazuo Motoya of Japan's National Institute of Technology and Evaluation said children may have more escalator accidents in part because they "bounce around when they stand on escalators, instead of watching where they place their feet."

In June, the Atlanta airport reported seven shoe entrapments in escalators. Five of those cases involved Crocs, according to Roy Springer, operations manager for the company that runs the airport terminal.

ABC News caught on to this story last year after parenting blogs started addressing the issue.

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Al's Morning Multimedia: Measuring Your Environmental Footprint

American Public Media, distributor of public radio programs such as "A Prairie Home Companion" and "Marketplace," unveiled a free online game called "Consumer Consequences." The interactive game let's you see the "environmental consequences" of our lifestyles on Earth. Click here to play.

American Public Media says it worked with video game developer Realtime Associates to create a “serious” game that would help Americans redesign their lifestyle to try to live within the world’s resources. As people play -- answering questions about whether they drive or ride public transportation, how often they replace things like TVs and computers and what foods they eat -- Consumer Consequences calculates what would happen if all of the planet’s 6.6 billion people lived the same way.
 
Players' scores are equivalent to the number of “Earths” it would take to support their lifestyles. Anything more than one Earth is unsustainable. I used about seven earths. I also was confused by the question about how much my electric bill would cost each month. I could not figure out if I should have pro-rated it by family members.

It seems to me that unless you take the bus and never fly in a plane, you are pretty much doomed to lose the game. I have played several of these carbon footprint games online now, and something tells me they are programmed to always produce the same outcome: to make us all feel guilty for living in houses that are too big, driving cars to work and not recycling every cotton-picking thing we throw out. I wish somebody who had the knowledge of such things could show us whether these "environmental" games are useful or just propaganda.

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Come on Guys -- Wash Those Hands

The AP reports:

The story goes on to list these 'dirty details':

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The Pitch for a Big Idea

The Society of Environmental Journalists' Web site has the back-story to how Los Angeles Times reporter Ken Weiss pitched his bosses on the idea that became a Pulitzer Prize-winning series called "Altered Oceans."

He offers lots of advice about multimedia and the need for newsrooms to dedicate significant resources to worthwhile projects.

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Sunday Banking

Some Canadian banks are planning to open on Sundays beginning soon. You have to wonder if this plan will cross over the border.

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Pets Mope When School Starts

MSNBC ran an interesting piece about how pets, especially cats and dogs, sometimes mope around when their favorite humans start back to school or go off to college.  My dog goes into a funk when I roll out the suitcase.

 

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