Kids And Sports Injuries

The Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has released a list of the top eight activities that cause injury to children each year. Bicycling was the #1 activity related to injury followed by basketball, football, roller sports (skateboarding/inline skating), playground equipment, soccer, baseball/softball and trampolines -- in that order.

The CPSC reports these eight activities cause some 2.2 million muscle and bone injuries in children ages 5 to 14 at a staggering cost of about $33 billion annually. The good news, according to study coauthor Dr. John Purvis, is that the majority of these accidents can be prevented.

Good Parenting Action Points:

1) Educate yourselves about the most common injuries associated with each sporting activity your child participates in. 2) Educate your child regarding the steps s/he can take to lessen the likelyhood of injury. 3) Require your child to take proper safety steps if s/he is going to participate in the activity. Example: "If you are going to ride a bike you must wear a helmet -- no exceptions to this rule."

- Dr. William Walker, Jr., Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist

ONobody thinks about his back until it demands attention. Like now. Four out of five guys experience back pain at some point in their lives, according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. "Back pain can be caused by weight problems, old athletic injuries, poor flexibility, and poor musculature," says Bruce McMillan, a physical therapist in Ronan, Montana. But here's some relief: Research has shown that if you bend backward, you'll reduce compressive stress on your spinal disks by up to 40 percent. Try this: Get into a modified pushup position, with hands, knees, and feet resting on the floor. Push your hips into the floor, arch your back, and hold for 15 to 20 seconds. If your back pain extends down through your legs, however, don't stretch your back. See a doctor. ne way to raise testosterone is to feel like a winner. Unless you were an elite-level athlete in your youth, you can set a personal record in almost any physical endeavor you choose, says Dave Pearson, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., an exercise scientist at Ball State University. Here's something you can set a record in today: strict curls. This is a barbell biceps curl performed while you lean your back and arms against a wall. The beauty of it is that almost nobody knows how much weight they can curl once, so whatever you lift today is a personal record. Try this : PicAccording to recent news reports, some Germans are paying big bucks to spend a couple of minutes like Thanksgiving turkeys: sitting in a freezer -- naked. Wearing only gloves, slippers, and bandages to cover frostbite-prone spots (the wimps), they chill out for 1 to 3 minutes in a freezer -- and claim that reduces their stress. Turns out their idea isn't all that far-fetched, says Kathy Birkner, Ph.D., of the Pain and Stress Center in San Antonio. Cold temperatures increase the level of serotonin in the brain, making you feel calmer. A simpler way to cool down: Put an ice pack wrapped in a towel on the back of your neck for 15 minutes. k a weight you think is the most you can curl -- 100 pounds, say. Warm up by doing eight repetitions with 50 pounds, four with 75, two with 90, and then one with 100. A week later, add 5 pounds to each of your sets, and do it again. Keep going for 4 to 6 weeks, or until you stop breaking your own record each week. Take a break from record-setting for 5 months, then start in again. You can shatter your own records twice a year New Testament verse for the day:

1 Chronicles 16:10-11

Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Teen Slaps Prince Charles in Latvia

A 16-year-old girl slapped Prince Charles' face with a red carnation Thursday as he stopped during a tour of downtown Riga to talk with a group of children.

"I'm against the Afghan war," the teen-ager said in Russian to reporters as police took her away.

The girl, who gave only her first name, Alina, was still in police custody late Thursday afternoon. Police spokeswoman Krists Leiskalns would not say whether she would be charged.

Prince Charles, who is on a five-day tour of the Baltics, had stopped to talk with schoolchildren waving British flags when the teen-ager leaned over from behind them and struck him across the face with a flower.

The heir to the British throne flinched and looked startled, but then continued on, chatting with some of the several hundred people who turned out to see him.

The girl calmly turned and walked away, saying, "Britain's the enemy of the world," as armed guards escorted her to a police van.

Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have been strong supporters of the U.S.-led war effort in Afghanistan in the wake of the Sept. 11 airborne terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

President Vaira Vike-Freiberga apologized Thursday. "There are mentally unstable and ill people who wish to stick out at such occasions in all countries," she said, according to the Baltic News Service.

Prince Charles arrived in Latvia from Lithuania on Thursday for the tour commemorating Britain's recognition of Baltic independence from Moscow a decade ago. He started the week in Estonia and leaves the region Friday.

Moments before the encounter with the young protester, Charles placed a wreath at Latvia's Freedom Monument.

The Baltic states, with combined populations of just over 7 million people, had close economic ties with Britain before World War II. British investment now lags far behind that of the nearby Nordic nations.

Advance 'Potter' Tickets Sell Quickly

Tickets to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" already are vanishing a week before the movie debuts.

Although most box-office outlets decline to disclose totals, they said the tickets were selling faster than any other film this year. In London, theaters have already sold nearly 500,000 advance tickets.

Kim Holt, spokeswoman for Movietickets.com, said the Potter sales were already five times higher than the company's previous recordholder, "Pearl Harbor."

"It's at a historic level," she said.

The $125 million movie, about a mistreated orphan who embarks on an adventure after learning he has magical powers, is set to open Nov. 16. Theaters began selling advance opening-weekend tickets on Nov. 2.

All of the scheduled viewings are filling up fast, according to Rich King, spokesman for AMC Theatres, which has 2,792 screens in the United States.

"Most advance tickets are bought in pairs, and in this case every time somebody buys tickets it's four to five tickets. That tells us that a whole lot of families are planning to attend the first weekend together," King said.

Sales this early are unusual, he added.

"Most advance ticket sales usually peak two to three days before the show," he said. "It's never anything like this."

Fandango.com, another online ticket distributor, has been swamped with requests since announcing it has seats available. Fandango spokesman John Singh said "Harry Potter" had already sold far more advance tickets than either "The Mummy Returns" or "Pearl Harbor," but he would not discuss specific numbers.

Intertops, the Internet sports betting site, set 11-to-25 odds that "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" will break the $72.1 million three-day, opening-weekend box-office record set by "Jurassic Park: The Lost World" in 1997. It also set 1-to-2 odds that the film will break or tie the record for fastest to earn $100 million (five days, set by "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" in 1999).

Kline Loses 25 Pounds for 'House'

In his new film, "Life as a House," Kevin Kline's character bravely faces impending death, spending his final months building his dream home and patching things up with his estranged family.

But in real life, Kline says, "I live in mortal fear every day. I think we all do. You know, our culture is built around denial of death. It's something that's there, like taxes. It's going to happen to all of us, and we tend not to think of it. Unlike other religions and other cultures that dwell on it."

Kline has said he lost 25 pounds to play the part.

His secrets to losing weight for the role?

"Ate less. Exercised more," the 54-year-old actor told reporters recently. "I had a wonderful nutritionist-trainer who had also worked with Tom Hanks on `Philadelphia' and `Cast Away.' And he knew just what I could eat to still be nourished and healthy and knew how to train me three or four times a week to burn up what few calories I ingested."

As for playing a guy who's dying, Kline says, "It's an imaginative leap that actors make. ... You magnify your own life experience if necessary."

"Life as a House," already in theaters in limited release, opens nationwide on Friday.

Reports: Harrison Treated for Cancer

Ex-Beatle George Harrison reportedly has received experimental cancer treatment at Staten Island University Hospital.

The 58-year-old Harrison was treated by Dr. Gil Lederman, the hospital's director of radiation oncology, according to published reports.

Calls to Harrison's manager, Jeff Kramer, were not immediately returned. The hospital, citing patient confidentiality policies, would not say whether Harrison was a patient.

But the Daily News on Friday, citing unidentified sources, reported that Harrison was in a private suite. The New York Post said he checked out on Sunday in the company of his wife and three bodyguards. The Post, citing an unidentified source, said Ringo Starr had been seen visiting Harrison.

Harrison checked in under the name George Arrias, The Staten Island Advance reported. Arrias is the maiden name of Harrison's wife, Olivia.

Lederman offers a technique known as fractionated sterotactic radiosurgery, which attacks tumors with high doses of radiation while leaving surrounding healthy tissues intact. It is for patients with large and advanced tumors.

Harrison, the youngest of the four Beatles, was diagnosed with lung cancer and a brain tumor earlier this year.

Lederman, in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, declined to say if he was treating Harrison. But he said the treatment's success rate is 90 percent, and that it is usually performed as an outpatient procedure.

"People get up and go back to work," he said.

Stories of Harrison's failing health have circulated for months. Some news outlets reported in July that he was close to death. Harrison called the reports "unsubstantiated, untrue, insensitive and uncalled for," according to the London Free Press.

Once a heavy smoker, Harrison overcame throat cancer in 1997. He developed lung cancer earlier this year and had a cancerous growth removed from his lung in March, according to published reports. Harrison first sought treatment in Switzerland but moved to University Hospital about two weeks ago.

CBS Airs Twice-Postponed Anthrax Drama

CBS on Thursday aired a fictional story about a CIA effort to thwart a potential anthrax attack, a show that had been postponed twice among concerns that it was hitting too close to home.

In the episode of "The Agency," the CIA intercepts a terrorist tied to Iraq who planned to rent a small plane and spread anthrax over Washington.

Unlike the real-life anthrax attacks, the case was solved within one hour of television. "We got the anthrax," a fictional agent says to another. "It's done."

The new drama was broadcast two hours after President Bush delivered a prime-time speech about the domestic terrorism threat, an address CBS chose not to telecast.

"The Agency" episode was originally scheduled to air Sept. 27 but was pulled after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Rescheduled for Oct. 11, it was bumped for President Bush's prime-time news conference.

CBS debated whether to shelve it entirely - then scheduled it for the November ratings "sweeps," where it aired opposite "ER" on NBC.

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