October 2009

Natural Baby Products

http://www.ahealthybabynaturally.com/

The umbilical cord of a newborn is bluish-white in color. After birth, the umbilical cord is normally cut, leaving a 1–2 inch stub. The umbilical stub will dry out, shrivel, darken, and spontaneously fall off within about 3 weeks. Occasionally, hospitals may apply triple dye to the umbilical stub to prevent infection, which may temporarily color the stub and surrounding skin purple.

Babies cannot walk, although more mature infants may crawl or scoot; baby transport may be by [[perambulator (stroller or buggy), on the back or in front of an adult in a special carrier, cloth or cradle board, or simply by being carried in the arms. Most industrialized countries have laws requiring infants to be placed in special child safety seats when in motor vehicles.

Ultrasound Equipment

The human embryonic heart begins beating around 21 days after conception, or five weeks after the last normal menstrual period (LMP), which is the date normally used to date pregnancy. It is unknown how blood in the human embryo circulates for the first 21 days in the absence of a functioning heart. The human heart begins beating at a rate near the mother’s, about 75-80 beats per minute (BPM).

The structure of the heart varies among the different branches of the animal kingdom. (See Circulatory system.) Cephalopods have two "gill hearts" and one "systemic heart". Fish have a two-chambered heart that pumps the blood to the gills and from there it goes on to the rest of the body. In amphibians and most reptiles, a double circulatory system is used, but the heart is not always completely separated into two pumps. Amphibians have a three-chambered heart.

Ultrasound Equipment

Airline crew overshot Minn. airport by 150 miles

MINNEAPOLIS – Two Northwest Airlines pilots failed to make radio contact with ground controllers for more than an hour and overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles before discovering the mistake and turning around.
The plane landed safely Wednesday evening, apparently without passengers realizing that anything had been amiss. No one was hurt.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew told authorities they became distracted during a heated discussion over airline policy and lost track of their location, but federal officials are investigating whether pilot fatigue might also have played a role.
The National Transportation Safety Board does not yet know if the crew fell asleep, spokesman Keith Holloway said, calling that idea "speculative."
Flight 188, an Airbus A320, was flying from San Diego to Minneapolis with 144 passengers and five crew. The pilots dropped out of radio contact with controllers just before 7 p.m. CDT, when they were at 37,000 feet. The jet flew over the airport just before 8 p.m. and overshot it before communications were re-established at 8:14 p.m, the NTSB said.
The FAA notified the military, which put Air National Guard fighter jets on alert at two locations. As many as four planes could have been scrambled, but none took to the air.
"After FAA re-established communications, we pulled off," said Michael Kucharek, a North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman.
Andrea Allmon, who had been traveling from San Diego on business, said no one on the plane knew anything was amiss until the end of the flight.
"Everybody got up to get their luggage and the plane was swarmed by police as we were getting our bags down from the overhead bins," she said.
She said they were kept on the plane briefly while police talked to the crew, then allowed off. She said she was "horrified" to learn what had happened.
"When I do my job I do my job," she said. "These guys are supposed to be paying attention to the flight. The safety of the passengers should be first and foremost. (It's) unbelievable to me that they weren't paying attention. Just not paying attention."
As of Thursday afternoon, NTSB investigators had not yet examined the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, which were being sent to Washington for analysis. He said the agency was also seeking to interview the pilots, but had not scheduled a meeting.
One of the two pilots should have been paying attention to the radio, said Ronald Carr, a former Air Force and American Airlines pilot who teaches flight physiology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. But he added that "sometimes you can have such heated discussions and get so distracted that you lose situational awareness, and when you're traveling seven miles a minute, that can happen pretty quick."
The two pilots have been suspended from flying while Delta Air Lines Inc. conducts an internal investigation, said Anthony Black, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based airline, which acquired Northwest last year. He refused to name them or give further details on their background or what happened in the air.
Air traffic controllers in Denver had been in contact with the pilots as they flew over the Rockies, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. But as the plane got closer to Minneapolis, she said, "the Denver center tried to contact the flight but couldn't get anyone."
Denver controllers notified their counterparts in Minneapolis, who also tried to reach the crew without success, Brown said. Controllers and the pilots finally resumed communication when the plane was over Eau Claire, Wis.
"Radar controllers were the whole time trying to make audio contact with that plane," said Tony Molinaro, an FAA spokesman in Chicago. He said he was not aware of controllers diverting any other flights, which was unnecessary because the Northwest jet was flying high enough to safely avoid planes approaching Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
It was not clear who initiated communications when contact finally was made, Brown said.

After the plane landed, two airport police officers boarded the plane at the gate, which authorities said is standard procedure after a crew loses communication with air traffic controllers.

Kelly Regus, a spokeswoman for the Delta branch of the Air Line Pilots Association, declined to comment.

The Federal Aviation Administration is updating decades-old rules governing how long commercial pilots can fly and remain on duty. The NTSB also cautioned government agencies this week about the risks of sleep apnea contributing to transportation accidents.

The board cited an incident in January 2008 when two go! airlines pilots feel asleep for at least 18 minutes during a midmorning flight from Honolulu to Hilo, Hawaii. The plane passed its destination before controllers raised the pilots, who landed safely. The captain was later diagnosed with sleep apnea.

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Associated Press Airlines Reporter Joshua Freed in Minneapolis, AP writers Martiga Lohn and Brian Bakst in St. Paul, David Koenig in Dallas and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

FlightAware.com tracking of Northwest Flight 188: http://bit.ly/2QV9hX

Pigs may have tested positive for H1N1

WASHINGTON – Pigs in Minnesota may have tested positive for the H1N1 virus in a preliminary test, the first potential U.S. cases in swine, Agriculture Department officials said Friday.
The officials cautioned that further tests were needed to confirm that the pigs had been infected with H1N1, also known as swine flu virus. The pigs did not exhibit signs of sickness and may have been infected by a group of children with the virus, they said.
Samples from the pigs that may have tested positive were collected at the Minnesota State Fair between Aug. 26 and Sept. 1. USDA officials did not say how many pigs may have tested positive.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement that testing was under way and results should be available in a matter of days. He says the USDA was working with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vilsack said the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories would be conducting tests to confirm the results.
Vilsack asked for caution from consumers and said people should not react to the news by avoiding pork products.
"I want to remind people that people cannot get this flu from eating pork or pork products," he said.
Pigs regularly get influenza viruses and recover quickly. While the chance of a pig infecting a person is considered remote, they're a concern because they can act as mixing vessels if they happen to catch two different strains at the same time, allowing mutation of a new one. So agriculture officials already were working on a pig vaccine and would quarantine and monitor infected herds.
Still, the news was clearly unwelcome for the pork industry, which has worked assiduously to distance itself from the H1N1 virus.
Mike Wagner, a spokesman for the National Pork Board, stressed that there is no threat to public health. "Pigs get sick from the flu every winter just like humans get sick from the flu every winter," he said.
Duane Woebbeking, a hog producer outside of Gladbrook, Iowa, said Friday's news presented a potential "public relations risk" to pork producers.
"I'm more concerned with the public fear," he said. "How many thousands of people die a year from the flu? Most years nobody thinks about it, but now everyone is up in arms because of this H1N1 thing."
Minnesota is the country's No. 3 pork-producing state behind Iowa and North Carolina. Minnesota pork producers had 7.3 million hogs and pigs as of Sept. 1, according to USDA figures, while the national investory was 66.6 million head. The pork industry contributes nearly $1.5 billion and more than 21,000 jobs to the state's economy, according to the National Pork Producers Council.
Agriculture officials have said they expected H1N1 to reach domestic pigs this year. It has led pork producers to push for a hog vaccine for the virus. H1N1 infections of swine herds have previously been reported in Canada, Australia and Argentina but not previously the United States.
The potentially positive test was discovered by a CDC research project conducted by the University of Iowa and University of Minnesota, which is documenting instances of influenza viruses where humans and pigs regularly interact, such as state fairs.
A record crowd of nearly 1.8 million people attended the 2009 Minnesota State Fair, which is held annually in a St. Paul, Minn., suburb.
More than 100 students from two 4-H programs were sent home from the fair on Sept. 2 after health officials confirmed four students had come down with swine flu. Friday's USDA announcement said no link between the pigs and the children had been made and said current information suggests the children were not sickened by the pigs.
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Associated Press writers Michael J. Crumb in Des Moines, Iowa, Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis and Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed to this report.

Feds sign up locals to help enforce immigration

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration has signed up 55 state and local law enforcement agencies to help enforce immigration laws, including an Arizona county sheriff under investigation for racial profiling, the Homeland Security Department announced Friday.
Another 12 agreements have been approved and are awaiting local or state approval.
The administration had previously suspended the program, which critics say was mismanaged and allowed racial profiling and discrimination. Before it was suspended, there had been 66 local and state agencies participating.
Under the new agreement, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies will be able to check whether inmates in the Maricopa County jail are in the country legally. But they will not be given the power to arrest immigration violators as they had previously, said John Morton, the assistant homeland security secretary who oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
As the federal government moved to limit the sheriff's powers, he launched a crime and immigration sweep in the Phoenix area.
Morton said he would treat Arpaio's sheriff's office like any other law enforcement agency when the sheriff contacts ICE to turn over people he has rounded up and evaluate each case on its merits. Arpaio was allowed to continue in the program because it has been changed to add more accountability and oversight and focuses on the deportation of criminal offenders, Morton said.
"They identify and remove in partnership with us a very large number of serious criminal offenders that protect the public safety in Arizona," Morton said. "We determined his sweeps were not consistent with the priorities of the revised program."
Many immigration and civil rights advocates continue to criticize the program. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has asked Obama to end it. Others say it is needed to reduce illegal immigration.
Many lawmakers, including the chairman of the House panel that approves the Homeland Security Department's budget, have pressured ICE to deport more immigrant criminal offenders.
The continuation of the "287(g) program" with some changes is reflective of the administration's approach to immigration enforcement thus far. The Homeland Security Department has reworked some Bush administration policies and programs by adding more oversight and trying to prevent civil rights abuses. But they have tread carefully to avoid appearing to weaken or abandon enforcement.
"We are not trying to suggest if you are here unlawfully, or here unlawfully and committing minor crimes, you are not going to be subject to removal from the U.S.," Morton said.
Four local and state law enforcement agencies decided against renewing their 287(g) agreements and two withdrew their applications. They are the sheriff's offices of Brevard and Manatee counties in Florida; Framingham, Mass. police department; Cumberland County, N.C. sheriff's office; Mesquite, Nev. police department and Houston Police Department.
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Associated Press writer Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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On the Web: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: http://www.ice.gov/index.htm
(This version CORRECTS SUBS lead to correct spelling of county.)

Bank of America losses drag European markets down

LONDON – European stock markets fell modestly Friday and Wall Street futures turned negative following a set of downbeat U.S. earnings reports, most notably from Bank of America Corp.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 20.88 points, or 0.4 percent, at 5,202.07 while Germany's DAX fell 28.30 points, or 0.5 percent, at 5,802.47. The CAC-40 in France was 18.17 points, or 0.5 percent, lower at 3,865.66.
European shares had earlier been higher after Thursday's strong finish on Wall Street — despite early jitters the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 10,000 for the second day running.
However, disappointing results from Bank of America, in particular, reined in expectations that Wall Street would close the week strongly. Dow futures were 33 points, or 0.3 percent, lower at 9,931 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures fell 3.7 points, or 0.3 percent, at 1,086.10.
Results from Bank of America showed that it's still a long way from getting its finances into health. It reported a higher-than-expected third-quarter loss of $1 billion as the recession continued to cause loans to go sour.
Bank of America, along with Citigroup Inc. on Thursday, showed that the financial sector in the U.S. still has not recovered fully, despite the successes posted at JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. earlier this week.
Bank of America wasn't the only company disappointing investors Friday. General Electric Co. said its profit dropped 44 percent in the most recent quarter, largely because of weakness in its financial unit, GE Capital.
So far the earnings out of the U.S. have generally impressed — statements from Google Inc., IBM Corp. and chip makers Advanced Micro Devices and Intel Corp. have been strong — and that has helped stocks to rally strongly this week. Many of the world's major indexes have struck year highs as a result.
"The majority of Q3 earning announcements continue to come in broadly ahead of expectations, helping to support risk appetite," said Geoffrey Yu, an analyst at UBS.
"With this week's announcements having already set the tone, the market impact of further earnings reports is likely to be muted," he added.
The rally in stocks since March's lows has been predicated on hopes that the global economic recovery will be quicker and more substantial than valuations were implying.
Many now think that the valuations could be too optimistic, especially if governments and central banks think their job is done and start withdrawing some of the stimulus measures they have enacted over the last year or so.
For now though, most analysts doubt that there will be any near-term changes.
"Equity markets may already be seen as fully valued by some and at risk of retrenchment should the 'pump-priming' process begin to lose its traction, but in view of this status quo on the policy front, the moment of reckoning can arguably be postponed to another day," said Neil Mellor, an analyst at Bank of New York Mellon.
Earlier, stocks in Asia were mixed, though Thailand's market rebounded after falling 7 percent over two days amid panic about the health of 81-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average rose 18.91 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 10,257.56, while Taiwan gained 0.1 percent. China's Shanghai index fell 0.1 percent and Singapore's market also shed 0.1 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 69.18, or 0.3 percent, to close at 21,929.80. South Korea's Kospi dropped 1.1 percent and Australia's benchmark fell 0.5 percent.
Earlier, oil prices continued a weeklong rally, briefly jumping above $78 a barrel after U.S. gasoline inventories unexpectedly fell.

However, those gains were erased and benchmark crude for November delivery fell 44 cents to $77.14 a barrel. The contract rose $2.40 to settle at $77.58 on Thursday.

The euro fell 0.5 percent to $1.4877 while the dollar rose a further 0.7 percent to 91.15 yen.

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AP Business Writer Kelly Olsen in Seoul, South Korea contributed to this report.

Wireless Speakers

The basket or frame must be designed for rigidity to avoid deformation, which will change the magnetic conditions in the magnet gap, and could even cause the voice coil to rub against the walls of the magnetic gap. Baskets are typically cast or stamped metal, although molded plastic baskets are becoming common, especially for inexpensive drivers. The frame also plays a considerable role in conducting heat away from the coil.

Very few manufacturers use electrically powered field coils as was common in the earliest designs. The size and type of magnet and details of the magnetic circuit differ, depending on design goals. For instance, the shape of the pole piece affects the magnetic interaction between the voice coil and the magnetic field, and is sometimes used to modify a driver's behavior. As well, a 'shorting ring' or cap is sometimes used near the magnetic gap to reduce adverse distortion effects of high current in the voice coil.

http://www.gracedigitalaudio.com/wireless-audio-c-4.html

Soros says U.S. economy will be drag on world growth

NEW YORK (Reuters) –
Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros said on Thursday that the world's current "currency arrangements" are fraught with danger and that the world needs global regulation.

Soros, who runs hedge fund firm Soros Fund Management and has made his reputation with bold currency bets, said the U.S. dollar ought to be falling in value against the Chinese currency to allow the United States to contain its current account deficit.

However, Soros said because the renminbi is tied to the greenback, the Chinese currency is constantly undervalued leaving the dollar to sink against the world's other major currencies.

The dollar has lost about 7 percent this year against a basket of the world's major currencies.

Meanwhile, an undervalued yuan makes Chinese consumer goods cheaper in foreign markets. Beijing has powered the country's growth by targeting U.S. and other consumer markets with its exports, putting many producers in those markets out of business because they cannot compete.

Soros, who earned $1 billion in 1992 by betting against the British pound, said current currency arrangements are "fraught with danger."

He said that the globalization of financial markets was built on a "false pretense" that financial markets could be left to their own devices and said global regulation was needed.

"That is a tremendous challenge," he said at an event sponsored by the Economist magazine held at the New York Stock Exchange.

Soros spoke only hours after the U.S. Treasury Department said that China is not manipulating its currency but is piling up foreign exchange reserves at a rate that threatens progress in reducing global economic imbalances.

Turning to the world economy, Soros said "the world economy is going to have some growth, but we are bound to be flat."

He also said the U.S. is going to be a drag on world growth.

In China, Soros said he also believes there is a something of an asset bubble.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba and Svea Herbst in New York and Glenn Somerville in Washington; Editing by Carol Bishopric, Bernard Orr)

In New Orleans, Obama fires back at critics

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) –
U.S. President Barack Obama fired back on Thursday at critics who say he has few accomplishments of note in his nine months in office and declared he was just getting started.

In recent weeks, Obama has faced criticism both from liberals who want him to do more to advance causes such as gay rights, and conservatives who accuse him of taking too long to decide whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

A comedy skit on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" program a couple of weeks ago drew attention to the issue. An actor playing the president said, "When you look at my record, it's very clear what I've done so far, and that is: Nothing. Nada. Almost one year, and nothing to show for it."

The criticism was magnified after Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a week ago when even some commentators sympathetic to the president said it seemed premature.

Obama, making his first trip as president to see efforts to recover from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, opened a town-hall meeting by saying his work had led to some improvement in the U.S. economy and brought an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system within reach this year.

"Now, just in case any of you were wondering, I never thought any of this was going to be easy," he said. "You know, I listen to sometimes these reporters on the news (who say) 'Well, why haven't you solved world hunger yet?'"

As the crowd laughed, he said: "Why hasn't everybody done it? It's been nine months. Why? I never said it was going to be easy. What did I say during the campaign? I said change is hard. And big change is harder."

In what seemed a reference to Republicans opposed to Democratic healthcare proposals, Obama accused them of "trying to stand in the way of progress."

"Let me tell you: I'm just getting started," Obama said.

'WHY DO PEOPLE HATE YOU?'

The town-hall meeting showed evidence of the partisan divide in America.

When the Democratic Obama introduced Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a rising star in Republican politics, some in the crowd booed until Obama settled them down and hailed Jindal as a hard-working politician.

At the end of the event, a young schoolboy named Terence Scott asked Obama, "Why do people hate you?"

"Well, now, first of all, I did get elected president, so not everybody hates me now," Obama replied. "I got a whole lot of votes."

"But you know, what is true is if you were watching TV lately, it seems like everybody's just getting mad all the time," Obama said, blaming the climate in part on politics and on concerns among Americans about losing jobs or their healthcare.

"And when things are going tough, then, you know, you're going to get some of the blame, and that's part of the job. But you know, I'm a pretty tough guy," he said.

At a Democratic fundraiser in San Francisco later on Thursday, Obama pressed the counterattack against his conservative critics, saying he believed in having a "loyal opposition" but rejected it "when some folks decide to sit on the sidelines and root for failure."

He insisted that he and his Democratic allies in Congress were "busy with a mop cleaning up somebody else's mess," alluding to the litany of pressing problems he inherited from his Republican predecessor George W. Bush.

"We don't want somebody sitting back and saying 'you're not holding the mop the right way, you're not mopping fast enough, that's a socialist mop,'" Obama said to laughter from hundreds of party donors.

(Writing by Steve Holland and Caren Bohan; Editing by Peter Cooney and Eric Beech)