A group of retired NFL players says in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the league supplied them with risky narcotics and other painkillers that led to medical complications down the road. Also, what is the future of the electric car? Then, Thai army declares martial law in Thailand, and the author of "Sensation: The New Science of Physical Intelligence" discusses the correlation between the senses and the unconscious mind.
Former NFL players allege league illegally used painkillers to mask injuries:
by Ben Nuckols
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - A group of retired NFL players says in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the league, thirsty for profits, illegally supplied them with risky narcotics and other painkillers that numbed their injuries for games and led to medical complications down the road.
The league obtained and administered the drugs illegally, without prescriptions and without warning players of their potential side effects, to speed the return of injured players to the field and maximize profits, the lawsuit alleges. Players say they were never told about broken legs and ankles and instead were fed pills to mask the pain. One says that instead of surgery, he was given anti-inflammatories and skipped practices so he could play in money-making games. And others say that after years of free pills from the NFL, they retired from the league addicted to the painkillers.
Steven Silverman, attorney for the players, said the complaint was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, and a copy was shared with The Associated Press ahead of the filing.
The complaint names eight players, including three members of the Super Bowl champion 1985 Chicago Bears: Hall of Fame defensive end Richard Dent, offensive lineman Keith Van Horne, and quarterback Jim McMahon. Lawyers seek class-action status, and they say in the filing that more than 400 other former players have signed
Do NFL doctors have a conflict of interest in serving the interests of the teams and the players? How do you view this case in light of the settlement over concussions? What will be the reaction from the NFL? Will this go to a trial? How do other professional sports handle serious injuries suffered by athletes?on to the lawsuit.
Guest:
Sam Farmer, NFL columnist for the Los Angeles Times
Howard Wasserman, writer for Sports Law Blog, Law Professor, Florida International University
David Orentlicher, Samuel R. Rosen Professor of Law; Co-director of the William S. and Christine S. Hall Center for Law and Health, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law
What is the Future of the Electric Car?
Electric car trends point to carmakers building a more affordable car.
BMW just released its i3. It’s a (mostly) electrical vehicle with a range of upto 110 miles, that comes with an optional range extending gas engine which adds on another 300 miles. It’s selling for about $42K.
Tesla is seeking to create a model that will have a 200 mile range and sell for about $35K. In fact, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk says he’ll begin building a “gigafactory” in the next few weeks to help expedite the creation of a more affordable battery. (Expensive batteries tend to be the obstacle to making a more affordable electric car.)
To that end, Japan Power Plus recently announced it has a new battery technology that allows for charging at 20 times the rate of current lithium ion batteries, that will sell at a cheaper cost than what we’ve seen.
What’s in store for the electric car? Will it go mainstream? Are the technical obstacles it faces surmountable? How affordable might the car be in the future? Will the car be relegated to the wealthy elite, or might innovations create a more affordable car for the masses?
Guest:
Wayne Cunningham, Senior Editor of reviews and car technology at CNET
Thai army declares martial law in country
Thailand's army declared martial law on Tuesday, capping months of anti-government street protests that started in November. The army has denied that they are trying to stage a coup d'etat.
The pronouncement comes a day after Thailand's interim prime minister refused to step down. The AP reports that armed troops took over multiple private television stations in Bangkok to get the message out, and surrounded the national police headquarters.
Nevertheless, an army official maintained that this is not a military ouster. "[T]his is definitely not a coup. This is only to provide safety to the people and the people can still carry on their lives as normal," the official told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Eleven successful coups have been staged by Thailand’s army since 1932. It last happened in 2006, when former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted by a military coup. This latest period of unrest began in November and targeted then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister.
Guest:
Tan Srippat, Editor, Siam Media Newspaper, the oldest Thai newspaper in the U.S. established in 1981
Can psychedelic drugs help treat addiction?
Hallucinogenic drugs aren’t part of a typical recovery program for alcoholism, but new research on the effects of psilocybin, the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms,” might bring psychedelic drugs into addiction treatment programs.
Doctors at the University of New Mexico are using the ingredient in combination with therapy. The three-month pilot study of psilocybin was inspired by the medical use of LSD in alcohol treatment during the 1960s.
Psychedelics were previously used to achieve spiritual awareness during addiction treatment -- the stigma of using psychedelic drugs is fading, and renewed interest in this kind of therapy has prompted new studies across the country.
Lead researchers say that the drugs aren’t intended as a cure or treatment in and of themselves, and aren’t to be taken as a prescribed pill. Instead, patients use non-addictive hallucinogens as a catalyst to make more traditional addiction therapy more effective.
Critics of the research argue that giving addicts drugs is an ineffective way to approach alcohol-related therapy and rehabilitation. Can psychedelic drugs effectively treat addiction?
Guest:
Dr. John Kelly, Ph.D. Associate Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, the founder and Director of the Recovery Research Institute at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the Program Director of the Addiction Recovery Management Service (ARMS) and the Associate Director of the Center for Addiction Medicine at MGH.
Marc Mahoney, director of operations at SOBA Recovery Center in Malibu, a treatment center rooted in the 12-step philosophy
Baseball analytics 2.0: It’s all about the team
Baseball is a team sport, after all. Once, sabermetrics (the art of analyzing baseball using statistics made popular by the Oakland A's Billy Beane) focused mainly on the performance of individual players. But today, some baseball teams are going further, by analyzing the dynamics of entire teams--the intangibles, so to speak. How is a player impacted by his teammates, for example? Or by his training staff? Or by a given ballpark?
So which MLB teams are converts of this latest sabermetrics innovation? How is this shift changing professional baseball?
Guests:
Hayden Higgins, Fellow, Atlantic Media who is the author of the piece, “Moneyball 2.0: The New, Team-Oriented Study of Baseball”
Andrew Zimbalist, Author, “The Sabremetric Revolution: Assessing The Growth of Analytics in Baseball” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014); Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College, a frequent sports industry consultant and media commentator
Sensations: Playing a role in your decision-making process
Heading out on that first date? Spending the evening with your significant other? You might want to consider donning the color red, which according to research in the new book “Sensation: The New Science of Physical Intelligence” could make you seem more attractive.
Author Thalma Lobel dissects how our physical senses unconsciously influence our thoughts and decisions. Lobel’s book is one of the first comprehensive accounts of the embodied nature of intelligence.
Which senses are most prone to influencing behavior? How much do sensory influences determine life-changing decisions?
Guest:
Thalma Lobel, author of Sensation: The New Science of Physical Intelligence, professor at the School of Psychological Science at Tel Aviv University