[1]
Drinking = Dumb
USA Today reports that recent research reveals just how detrimental alcohol abuse could be for the three million American teenagers who abuse alcohol regularly. The research indicates that regular drinking by teens and young adults can permanently damage brain cells involved in learning and memory. Several independent studies have reached alarmingly similar co nclusions:
• One study shows that on average, teenagers who abused alcohol had a 10 percent smaller hippocampus (the region of the brain involved in learning and memory) than their peers.
• A separate study shows that teens who drink heavily perform noticeably more poorly on memory tests than their non-drinking peers.
[2]• Brain scans of young women who drank heavily as teens but have since abstained from alcohol still showed regions of sluggish activity in the brain.
"We have a massive alcohol problem among youth," says Enoch Gordis, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Gordis warns that new studies represent a warning that alcohol may target the young brain. She says, "Teens who drink heavily may not realize their maximum potential."
USA Today, October 17, 2000
You've Got Porn!
"Did management think it could start an independent (pornographic) web site funded by AOL and nobody would know about it?" — An anonymous America Online (AOL) director of Internet programming commenting on AOL's intentions to market pornography.
A recent book by Wall Street Journal reporter Kara Swisher indicates that AOL is exploring the possibility of creating new independent web sites to market pornography. Currently, AOL is the world's largest on-ramp to pornographic material, grossing nearly 18 billion dollars this year from subscribers accessing Internet pornography.
The Village Voice, October 18-24, 2000
Dirty Business
Religion Today reports that some of the most recognizable names in mainstream corporate America are entering the pornography business.
• General Motors, the world's largest company, now sells more graphic sex films through its DirecTV subsidiary than does Hustler pornographer Larry Flynt, according to The New York Times.
• EchoStar Communications Corporation, the number 2 satellite provider, derives more profit from selling pornographic films than Playboy does with its magazines, cable, and Internet businesses combined.
• The AT&T Corporation, the nation's frontrunner in telecommunications, offers a channel called Hot Network to subscribers of its broadband cable service. Hot Network provides sexually explicit material to nearly one million hotel rooms.
• The New York Times reveals that although it is not commonly advertised, other companies offering pornographic material include Time Warner, Liberty Media, Marriott International, On Command, LodgeNet Entertainment, and the News Corporation.
Religion Today News, October 24, 2000