by wildcherry on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 | News, World | No Comments

The government on Thursday announced a recall of some 1.2 million high chairs, saying they posed a fall hazard to children.

Potential Problem:

Injuries Reported: 24

Number of Units Affected: About 1.2 million in the United States and 35,000 in Canada

Dates Produced: November 2003 through December 2009

MSRP: $70 to $120

Models Affected: 3920BAN, 3920BAN2, 3920BEB, 3920BEBB, 3920COV, 3920DOH, 3920GEI, 3920GEIDSP, 3920GRN, 3920HMP, 3920IVY, 3920LAU, 3920PKR, 3930DDH, 3930DHO, 3935CAL, 3935OXB, 3935PKR, 3935PKRDSP, 3935SPM, 3935SPMDSP, 3935THR, 3935THR2, 3935THR3, 3940BIA, 3940BIADSP, 3940CAP, 3940CLE, 3940COT, 3940DRM, 3940HML, 3940MCH, 3940NGS, 3940SAV, 3940SLT, 3940SPT, 3940STA, 3940UNN, 3951CLO, 3951CLT, 3951COT, 3951ORC, 3951WLO, 3955WSR, 3960BGN, 3960CJG, 3960CNP, 3960GGG, 3980CNR, 3E00ABB, 3E00BAT, 3E00DCF, 3E00DCFDSP, 3E00DGP, 3E00DGPDSP, 3E00GPK, 3E01BDS, 3E01BDSCA, 3E01DNY, 3E01DNY1, 3E01ELP, 3E01ELPDSP, 1752404, 1755859, 1755860, 1757259, 1757412, 1760429

Solution:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the voluntary recall of the high chairs made by Graco Children’s Products, Inc., of Atlanta, Ga.

For a complete list of the recalled models and to order a repair kit, go to the Graco Baby site. Consumers can also called the CPSC recall hotline at 877-842-3206.

It’s the second recent recall of Graco products. In January, the company recalled about 1.5 million strollers after some children’s fingertips were amputated by hinges on the products.

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by bintangkecil on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 | News, Weird, World | No Comments

Pisco the alpaca rides on a surfboard with Peruvian surfer Domingo Pianezzi, at San Bartolo beach in Lima.

Pianezzi is something of a specialist in the - admittedly small - field of surfing with animals. He’s spent the best part of a decade training dogs to sit on his surfboard while he catches the waves, and has also trained a cat called Nicolasa to do the same. But now he’s moved up to an even bigger animal.

‘I’ve surfed with a dog, a parrot, a hamster and a cat, but when I was at a competition in Australia I saw people surfing with kangaroos and koalas,’ noted Mr Pianezzi.

Pisco is thought to be the first alpaca who has ever been taught to surf. Of course, if you know of any previous surfing alpaca incidents, please feel free to let us know.

Pisco wears a floatation jacket while on the board, given that alapacas - mountain animals bred for their warm, silky coats - are not natural swimmers.

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by wildcherry on Monday, March 15th, 2010 | News, World | No Comments

The world’s shortest man and also smallest man, He Pingping, who was just 2ft 5in (74.6cm) tall has died in Rome.He Pingping, was 21 years old when he died on Saturday in Rome, Italy.

Pingping was taking part in a television show, and immediately send to the hospital after he complain about chest pains.

He Pingping was born in Wulanchabu, in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region, with a form of primordial dwarfism, He officially became the world’s smallest man in 2008 when Guinness World Records measured him at 74.6cm.

Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of London-based Guinness World Records measured He in his hometown in China.

“For such a small man, he made a huge impact around the world,” he said. “From the moment I laid eyes on him I knew he was someone special – he had such a cheeky smile and mischievous personality, you couldn’t help but be charmed by him. He brightened up the lives of everyone he met and was an inspiration to anyone considered different or unusual.”

He, who at birth was no bigger than the palm of his father’s hand, was a chain-smoker and reportedly a ladies’ man despite his height.

Inner Mongolia is also home to Bao Xishun, the former world’s tallest man.

Guinness World Records said He’s successor will be announced at a later date. The front runner for the current World’s Shortest Man is Khagendra Thapa Magar, 18, from Nepal, who is reportedly 51cm tall.

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by bintangkecil on Monday, March 15th, 2010 | Health, News, World | No Comments

The 48 Laws of Power is the best-selling book offers a collection of 48 laws that show people how to gain power, preserve it, and defend themselves against those powerful people who make their lives miserable.

When Andrew Bynum walks into a room, people step aside.

At 7 feet tall and 285 pounds, Bynum is the starting center for the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers. He hurls his Mack-Truck-like shoulders against some of the biggest and baddest men on the planet every game night.

Bynum recently came across a book that was as ruthless as anyone he’s encountered in the NBA. “At first, I was shocked,” he says. “I thought it was cutthroat.”

Bynum started reading “The 48 Laws of Power.” The best-selling book offers a collection of 48 laws that show people how to gain power, preserve it, and defend themselves against those powerful people who make their lives miserable.

Unlike most self-help books, “The 48 Laws” offers advice that the author freely admits is, at times, cunning and amoral. It includes lessons like “Law 1: Never outshine the master” and “Law 14: Pose as a friend, work as a spy.”

The lessons are distilled from colorful anecdotes lifted from 4,000 years of history. They include insights into the scheming of powerful people such as Al Capone, P.T. Barnum and Henry Kissinger.

The book has proved to be so popular that it has spawned several sequels, rapper 50 Cent co-wrote the book “The 50th Law” after celebration of the mass “The 48 Laws of Power.”

Meet the man behind the laws of power

Robert Greene, author of “The 48 Laws,” says our fascination with power is rooted in our DNA.

“We want to believe we’re descended from angels when we’re descended from primates,” Greene says. “This is part of our nature and there’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Greene says the struggle for power affects even the most benign human relationships. Think of how babies threaten, badger and scheme to get their way, he says.

“Children can be incredibly manipulative,” Greene says.

Greene, whose laid-back, soft-spoken demeanor seems at odds with his books, has long been fascinated with power. At first, his interest was restricted to sports. Then he earned a degree in classical studies and saw how power shaped history.

Greene says he received his next lesson in power when he began working as a writer in Hollywood. Every transaction — business or personal — revolved around someone grasping for more power, he says.

Greene realized that Hollywood’s power elite didn’t act all that differently from the ancient Athenians and Chinese emperors he encountered in his classical studies.

He decided to share his insights in a book.

“I wanted to show that what was going on was not new,” Greene says. “No one wanted to talk about how these incredible manipulative games had been going on for thousands of years.”

One of Greene’s central claims is that everyone must learn the rules of power. He describes the world as a “giant scheming court,” and says we’re all courtiers, whether we like it or not.

“There is no use in trying to opt out of the game,” he writes in the introduction to the book. “… Instead of struggling against the inevitable, instead of arguing and whining and feeling guilty, it is far better to excel at power.”

Read more from CNN

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by wildcherry on Friday, March 12th, 2010 | News, World | No Comments

Today, USCIS site has informed that H1B petitions will start to be accepted from April 1st for the fiscal year of 2011. 65,000 applications will be entertained, a statement from USCIS site said.

“Cases will be considered accepted on the date that it takes possession of a properly filed petition with the correct fee; not the date that the petition is postmarked,” the statement also revealed.

Effective March 10, 2010, USCIS will no longer accept H-1B petitions filed without a certified LCA. All H-1Bs filed on or after March 10, 2010, must be accompanied by a certified LCA or will be rejected.

In case the petitioners will be working at areas of higher education or affiliated non-profit entities, they will be exempt from the annual cap. H-1B employment program is generally used by US companies in need of foreign employees having knowledge and expertise in specialized fields.

The first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of individuals who have earned a US master’s degree or higher are exempt from this 65,000 cap.

The cap on the visa was reached last year in as late as December. This happened especially because of the recession. This year, however, it is expected to reach the cap much earlier than that.

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by wildcherry on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 | News, World | No Comments

A series of strong aftershocks with the strongest aftershock measured at magnitude of 7.1 hit Chile on Thursday as a new president was sworn into office and immediately urged coastal residents to move to higher ground in case of a tsunami.

A 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit at 11:39 a.m. local time (9:39 a.m. ET), followed by a 6.7-magnitude quake 16 minutes later, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. A third, measured at magnitude 6.0, came 27 minutes later.

The 7.1 aftershock was nearly as strong as the quake that devastated Haiti’s capital on Jan. 12. There were no immediate reports of damages or injuries.

The Chilean Navy issued a tsunami warning while the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the aftershocks were too small to cause dangerous waves beyond Chile’s central coast.

Follow the latest development on CNN

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by wildcherry on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 | News, World | 1 Comment

This morning, there was a shooting at Ohio State University maintenance building. According to university officials, Ohio shooting left 1 dead and 2 wounded. The shooting occurred around 3:30 a.m.
The gunman was identified as Nathaniel Brown, 51, a custodial worker.

OSU’s director of public safety Vernon Baisden said that Ohio State University shooting is really a tragic event. He sends his thoughts to all of the families.

Here’s the video of the Ohio State University (OSU) shooting covered by the news media:

Nathaniel Brown, a new Ohio State University custodial employee who received a bad job evaluation shot two co-workers in a campus maintenance building, killing one of them, and then fatally shot himself, officials said Tuesday.

Nathaniel Brown, who had been hired in October, arrived for work at the nation’s largest university in dark clothing with two handguns in a backpack, campus Police Chief Paul Denton said. Denton described the shooting as work-related and said Brown recently received a poor performance evaluation, though he declined to say whether that was the motive.

The university’s emergency operators received a 911 call at about 3:30 a.m. Police arriving at the scene found one employee dead, while two others were taken to Ohio State Medical Center. One victim was in critical condition and the other in stable condition, according to reports.

Heavily armed campus officers searched buildings across campus, according to reports, and police said the person responsible was arrested.

The employees’ names were not released, nor was any information about whether they were working at the time of the shooting. None of the 55,000 students of the Columbus, Ohio, campus were injured.

Classes were resuming this morning. “We’re back to normal,” said Jim Lynch, the university’s director of media relations.

Lynch said he believed today was the first time the university issued a Buckeye Alert, which notified the campus of the shooting via text messages, e-mails and phone messages. Such campus alert systems became more common after a student gunman killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech in April 2007.

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by wildcherry on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 | News, World | No Comments

The quake, at 6.4 magnitude, took place around 45 miles from the southern Kaohsiung city at 8.18 a.m., the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
Buildings were reported to have swayed in the capital Taipei during the quake.

In the southern Tainan County, a fire broke out in a textile plant, causing an estimated $3 million in damages, the state-run Central News Agency reported.
A Kaohsiung county official told local television that some temporary housing in the town collapsed as a result of the quake.

Four years ago, a 6.7 magnitude quake in the same area severed undersea cables and disrupted telephone and Internet service throughout Asia.
Taiwan is especially prone to earthquakes, as it is located on a seismically active area in the Pacific basin. In 1999, some 2,400 people were killed and 50,000 buildings destroyed in a quake measuring 7.6 magnitude.

Tags: taiwan 2010, taiwan 2010 earthquake, taiwan 6.4 earthquake, taiwan earthquake

by wildcherry on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 | News, World | No Comments

Here’s an amateur video taken aboard a cruise ship shows a massive wave smashing windows and flooding parts of the vessel. Two passengers died and 14 were injured when the wave struck the ship which was sailing near Spain Wednesday.

The wave “smashed windows inside the lounge area” of the Maltese-flagged Louis Majesty, a spokesman to the service told AFP. He said the accident occurred Wednesday evening from the coast of Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region since the vessel, run with the Cypriot-based Louis Cruise Lines, was en route to the Italian port of Genoa.

After the accident the captain thought to take the vessel to the Spanish port of Barcelona to evacuate the victims.Police in Greece said among passengers killed was German and also the other was Italian. They said there were 1,350 passengers in the ship and 580 crew, including the Greek captain.Spanish news reports said only one in the six injured, a 62-year-old woman whose legs were broken, was in serious condition.

A spokeswoman to the Barcelona port authority said the vessel had set off from Cartagena in southeast Spain earlier Wednesday. She said it was expected in Barcelona Wednesday evening.

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by wildcherry on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 | News, World | No Comments

A strong 6.3 aftershock caused panic Wednesday among citizens in Chile five days after the massive 8.8 earthquake that killed more than 800 people. The 6.3-magnitude aftershock hits southern Chile, triggering a tsunami alert in town of Constitución. Some residents of the coastal town of Concepcion ran for higher ground Wednesday after feeling the aftershock.

Concepcion is Chile’s second-largest city and was closest to the epicenter of Saturday’s 8.8 magnitude quake that caused widespread damage and triggered a tsunami. Numerous aftershocks have jolted Chile since Saturday’s temblor.

Separately, an 18-hour curfew was implemented in Concepcion. 14,000 troops were dispatched to hard hit areas to keep order and oversee aid distribution efforts. Some residents there have taken steps to ensure their security, setting up roadblocks to keep track of everyone entering their neighborhoods.

President Michelle Bachelet has said looting and lawlessness will not be tolerated. She has instructed troops to act with what she called the “severity” necessary to prevent crime.

She has also urged residents to remain calm and work together to rebuild the country. The Chilean leader said more than 2 million buildings, including 500,000 homes, were damaged in the quake.

On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in the midst of a Latin American trip, met with President Bachelet at the airport in Santiago to discuss aid needs. Clinton brought with her 25 satellite phones as an initial contribution.

President Bachelet has described the quake as an emergency “unparalleled in the history of Chile.” The earthquake that struck the South American country is among the top eight strongest quakes ever measured.

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