Not having your elbows on the table while youre eating. Being polite to people, you know just not being rude. As you can see, most of us know what good manners are. But listen to this when it comes to using digital devices, like cellphones, three out of four people believe good manners today are as out of date as myspace. So, is social media encouraging bad behavior . Daniel post senning is the author of manners in a digital world. Hi. Hi. Its good to be with you. Daniel, were all brought up to believe in having good manners. Has technology changed that . Absolutely not. Good manners are as important today as theyve ever been. Treating people with consideration, with respect, with honesty are really the cores for all good behavior, and those stay the same, no matter what time or age we live in. So, what are some examples of things teens are doing or not doing that would be considered inappropriate . Well, one of the things that i hear the most about is people using their cellphones inappropriately. Sometimes thats texting at the dinner table. Sometimes thats talking on the phone when they really shouldnt be talking on the phone when youve got a captive audience. Maybe its in the checkout line or an elevator or even in a bathroom. Using a cellphone in a public bathroom . Yeah, i could see how that could be disturbing. Anyway, in your book, you explain where the word etiquette comes from. Can you share that story with us . Sure. Well, the word etiquette is a french word, and it means little signs, and it comes from the age of king louis, the sun king, and he invented an elaborate system to keep his nobles busy at court. And in order to keep track of all of the expected behaviors, they developed these little signs, these little tickets, that they would exchange with each other so they would know what to do in a certain situation. And they called these cues, these social cues, about how to behave etiquette, and its come to mean what is appropriate in a certain situation. Okay. So, lets talk about some of these little signs. When it comes to cellphones, what are some suggestions for proper etiquette . Well, if you think about it, there are etiquettes all around us in todays modern world. Maybe one coffee shop allows you to use your computer or cellphone but another really wants to keep a social environment where people interact facetoface. And they might put up a little sign that says, no cellphones, please. Its really important that we observe the etiquettes of today, whether its a Movie Theater asking you not to text during a movie or a restaurant asking you to please keep your cellphone put away. So, is this just a teen problem, or are adults guilty, as well . Oh, this is absolutely not just a teen problem. In fact, Something Like 6 out of every 10 teens will tell you theyve witnessed their parent using really rude behavior on a cellphone maybe using it at a movie or even while driving something thats really inappropriate. So, oftentimes, its the digital natives, the people whove grown up with these technologies, that really understand, on a deep level, the best practices, but its something we all need to keep thinking about. You know, i never thought of my generation as being digital natives, but it makes sense. Any final words of advice . Absolutely. I like to really remind all the audiences that i talk to to think about how they take pictures and how they share pictures. With everybody having these cameras attached to their phones, learning how to respect privacy and figure out when youre in a private situation, where its really not appropriate to take and post pictures, is an important skill for us all to develop. If youre with a group of friends and you think its gonna be okay, just ask first, and then you know its okay. Thank you for speaking with us today. Oh, youre most welcome. Its good to be here. By the way, daniel is the greatgreatgrandson of emily post. For decades, emily post was the recognized American Authority on etiquette. Long before the smartphone was invented, heres how she defined good manners. If she were still around today, i guess shed add, no matter what digital device you use. Coming up, im going to tell you how one kids sports blog is a home run. While a lot of kids play sports, not too many write about them, let alone professionally. Scott reports on a teen who does both. When he was 12 years old, matt nadel decided to start a blog about baseball. The reason i started that is because a lot of people in my school, when i talked about baseball history, they didnt really know about it. So, i decided to teach them baseball history with a blog. At the age of 15, matts blog not only has over 125,000 followers, but he is also one of ever. Matt thinks this success is due to one thing history. I guess sports bloggers usually talk about current stuff, and i think what makes me unique is that i talk a lot about history and i have my own spinoff of it, which is just giving my opinion and talking about what i like to talk about. Not content with his success, matt has also started a videoblog channel on youtube under his name, matt nadel. Hey, baseball fans matt nadel here with baseball with matt, live form springfield, new jersey, at the newly renovated baseball with matt studio. Its basically just me just giving information maybe about baseball history. Its usually stuff about current baseball. Prediction number 1b masahiro tanaka, the newly acquired pitcher from japan by the new york yankees, will have a very good 2014 pitching season. Now. Through his blog, matt has actually been able to interview some of baseballs greatest players, as well as some people who are just as big baseball fans as he is. Red sox allstar fred lynn, pitching hall of Famer Jim Palmer for the baltimore orioles, hank aaron, bob gibson, goose gossage, rickey henderson. I also got to to interview phil niekro and rollie fingers. Why do you think the, uh, statistic of the save was added to the mlb in 1967 . I think just something to give relief pitchers a statistic to, you know. If that isnt enough, matt has also gotten to interview movie star Billy Crystal and former president george w. Bush. Of course, their former or current jobs werent necessarily about baseball, but george bush used to own the texas rangers, Billy Crystal was a huge yankee fan, and so both of which were great conversations to have. Along with his blog and video blog, matt wrote a book titled amazing aaron to zero zippers about the as to zs of baseball history. And, basically, its an alphabet book, so its 26 chapters i mean, basically, theyre letters of just any aspect of baseball history, whether it be a player, a team, uh, a moment, a stadium, an era. With the help of summer games books, matt plans to donate all of the proceeds to baseball. Those four charities are the Jackie Robinson foundation, the Lou Gehrig Foundation for als patients, the hall of fames charity, and then derek jeters turn 2 foundation. Although he might be a yankee fan at heart, matt is really just a fan of baseball. [ uptempo music playing ] clearly a kid with a Bright Future ahead of him. If you want to check out matts blog, you can go to. Or, for his video blog, search. Its no secret teens today are more stressed than ever. While we cant avoid things like grades, tests, and social pressures, we can learn to deal with the stress they cause. As emily reports, one technique is yoga. [ mellow music playing ] with me is brenda schnable. Shes a yoga therapist. Hi. How are you . Hi, emily. So, what exactly is yoga . Yoga is a mindbody practice that was crated about 8,000 years ago in ancient india. And how can yoga help us deal with stress . Yoga helps you on a physical, mental, and emotional level, builds your selfconfidence, and when you feel more confident physically and mentally, you dont get stressed out as easy. And it also helps you build awareness of whats important to you and what triggers your stress so that when you see yourself in that situation, you can walk away from the drama and not react to it. Interesting. So, when i get stress, i feel it in my neck and in my shoulders. How can yoga help us deal with that tightness . Thats very common, cause we all get stressed and our shoulders start to creep up, and especially when were looking over at a computer and our eyes are getting all strained. The first thing you need to do is just relax those shoulders down. Thats yeah. And then you want to stretch all sides of your neck. So, take your chin to your chest and just gently roll side to side to stretch the side of the neck. And then to stretch the front and back as well as the shoulders, bring the chin to the chest and the back of the hands together. Take a deep inhale and open the arms out to the sides. Squeeze the shoulder blades together, lift the chin, and exhale, and youre gonna stretch the back of the neck again. And when you open up, you stretch the front of the throat. And how does that feel . Very good. Stressed. Awesome youre welcome. With yoga and you, im emily. Dont go away. Weve got lots more still to come on teen kids news. Well be right back. Many teens may be doing something thats actually putting their teeth at risk. Jacelyn tells us more. We see them on tv and the shelves of the local drug store those little strips that you put on your teeth to whiten them. But is that a good idea . Dr. Gerry curatola teaches dentists. Hi, doc. Hi thanks for having me again. Its great to have you. We all want a smile with nice, white teeth. Should we use those whitening strips . First let me say anyone younger than 16 years of age should not be using any whitening products at all because these products make the enamel of your teeth porous and your teeth are still developing younger than 16 years of age. And they have large nerves some are even still forming the roots of the teeth so damage could be done. All right. So, if youre over 16, what can you do . Well, if youre older than 16, there are a number of different options. I would recommend that you visit your dentist and consult with your parents, as well, for two types of systems that are the most effective. Your dentist can whiten you while youre in the dental office safely by isolating the gums and putting a white gel on your teeth. Sometimes we use a light to activate this gel which whitens the teeth. Another system which is very popular is your dentist can take a mold of your teeth and make this clear tray, which a gel can be placed and it can be worn at night while youre sleeping. So, i have a question. Why are some peoples teeth not as white as other peoples teeth . Is it because theyre not brushing properly . No. It has nothing to do with brushing at all. Most people that have yellower teeth actually may have a thinner layer of enamel on their teeth, allowing the dentin, which is the layer underneath the enamel, to shine through, and thats yellower in color. Other people may have taken antibiotics when they were younger which can cause a discoloration. So, there are lots of reasons why teeth are yellower that have nothing to do with brushing. Well, you know, brushing is important because you remove surface stains of the teeth, but the natural color of your teeth could be due to a variety of different things. Fascinating. Dr. Curatola, once again, thank you so much. My pleasure. Now you know the truth about what not to put on you tooth. I should have said, teeth, but that doesnt rhyme as well. Human brains tend to be bigger among people who live closer to the north or south pole. Scientists now say its not about intelligence its about the brain power needed to see well in the dark. So, those folks have a little easier time getting around during the long, long nights. It was the most tragic war in american history. Ill take you to where it all started. Its one thing to read about the american civil war, but as alexa reports, its far more exciting when you can actually touch it. These people are getting ready to take a trip back into history. Were in charleston harbor, along the east coast of South Carolina. From here, ferries carry tourists out to visit one of our nations most important civil war sites fort sumter. Southern states are becoming very dissatisfied with the federal union. South carolina is the first state to secede, and this is a direct response to Abraham Lincolns election in 1860. One of the confederacys first acts is to seize all the federal forts in the south. In charleston, union troops under major anderson are stationed at fort moultrie. Fort moultrie was in pretty bad shape. That fort had been built in 1809. It was only one level high. In the middle of the night, the soldiers secretly rowed out to fort sumter, which was still under construction. Anderson and his men moved over here to fort sumter because this was the newest fort in charleston harbor. Its three stories tall. It is going to be a stateoftheart structure by the time its complete, and its defensible most defensible because it has a mile of water on all sides. So, South Carolina militia units, should they want to attack the u. S. Army, are going to have to cross a mile of water first. Right now we are standing outside of the sally port, or the entrance, to fort sumter, and what we are standing on is the granite wharf. And this is where anderson and his men would have landed on the night of december 26, 1860. For more than three months, anderson and his men peaceably held the fort. Then on april 12th, the confederate general beauregard gave the command to open fire. [ cannons firing, mortars exploding ] this is one of the weapons the rebs would have used to bomb the fort. This is a 10inch mortar, which is a small cannon. Its usually used it has a high trajectory, so it can be used to shoot over the walls of a fortification like fort sumter. And this is the same type of model that would have fired the first shot of the civil war. [ cannon fires, mortar explodes ] so, were standing inside of a casemate here at fort sumter. A casemate is a gun room, so it just would have had one gun inside of it, and, as you can see here today, we do have one gun inside of this casemate. This is a 42pounder. It fired off a 42pound cannonball, and it is likely that this cannon was here during the first bombardment of the civil war, so it may have participated in that first bombardment. It might have been active from april 12 to april 13, 1861, and it might have been firing back at confederate forts in charleston harbor. To give the huge cannons a wider range of fire, theyre mounted on wheels. Each cannon runs on whats called a traverse rail, and thats just how you move the guns side to side. Anderson and his men held out for 34 grueling hours. People in charleston watched the fighting from rooftops and along the harbor. A ceasefire was finally arranged. Lowering the u. S. Flag, the Union Soldiers were allowed to leave with honor. But the story of fort sumter didnt end there. It becomes the target of another, even more devastating attack. Ill tell you about that when teen kids news returns. Alexa continues her report on the battle that started americas most tragic war. After the rebs forced the union to abandon fort sumter, the Confederate Flag flew over the fort. But as the tide turned in favor of the north, charleston came under siege. Time and again, the union tried to capture the fort, but the defenders wouldnt give up. The turning point finally came on july 18, 1863, when union forces attacked fort wagner on nearby morris island. And the 54th massachusetts regiment leads this attack. Now, the 54th massachusetts was untried in battle. Theyre an allblack regiment that was raised up in boston. It takes seven attempts, but the union finally dislodges the defenders. From fort wagner, they battered the rebs into submission. They bombarded fort sumter for 22 months, beginning in 1863 and ending in february 1865, so its the longest siege during the civil war, the longest siege in u. S. Military history, and they bombarded fort sumter so heavily from that point that they completely shot away the top two levels of the fort during that time. And this is all the damage that was inflicted on the walls between 1863 and 1865 by the u. S. Army while the Confederate Army was here. Wherever you see pockmarks in the wall, thats where projectiles would have bounced off the walls. Youll see some huge, gaping holes there. Thats where projectiles would have become embedded in the walls and then blown up, and then there are still projectiles stuck in the walls of the fort which we can go and check out. We fly six flags over fort sumter, and the first one, the big one that we have up there, is the 50star United States flag, our current flag. We fly five additional flags, and these are historic ones that would have flown over the fort during the civil war. Thats the same flag that flew here during the first bombardment of the civil war, from april 12 to april 13, 1861. There are 33 stars on that. Seven states had already withdrawn from the union in 1861, but they were kept on the u. S. Flag that entire time, and that was the policy of Abraham Lincoln because secession was not recognized. To the right of that u. S. Flag is the stars and bars. That is the First National flag of the confederacy. In the middle is a South Carolina state flag. Now, to the right of that, you have the second National Flag of the confederacy, also known as the stainless banner, and that one became the National Flag in 1863. The First National flag look too close to a u. S. Flag, so this one is not gonna be mistaken for a u. S. Flag. February 18, 1865, is when charleston was reclaimed by the u. S. Army. That is when the civil war ended in charleston harbor, and when that flag goes up, it signifies the end of the war. Flag. Actually, two more states were added to the union, or to the flag, during the civil war, which include west virginia, which had seceded from virginia to join the union, and then there was also kansas. Although the u. S. Army made repairs, the fort never saw action again. In 1948, it became a National Monument and is managed by the National Park service. Theres a museum with lots of interesting exhibits to tell you more about the history of fort sumter. And if youre interested in the history of baseball, heres an interesting piece of trivia. Abner doubleday, who has long been credited as the inventor of baseball, was stationed here in 1861. He was part of one of the 85 men who participated in the first bombardment. However, historians do not have any evidence that baseball was ever play inside of the fort. What is suspicious is that fort sumter is 5sided. Its shaped like home plate is in baseball, and there have always been kind of rumors or legends that home plate was designed after fort sumters shape. Sounds pretty convincing to me. Heres another bit of trivia. After the north recaptured fort sumter, major anderson returned. He was given the honor of once again raising the flag over the fort. The flag he used was the same one he had been forced to lower when he surrendered the fort four years earlier. Well see you next time on teen kids news. Thanks for watching. Have a great week. Heres a shoutout to pr newswire for including teen kids news on their big