Toyota found to keep tight lid on potential safety problems

A Times investigation shows the world’s largest automaker has delayed recalls and attempted to blame human error in cases where owners claimed vehicle defects. During a routine test on its Sienna minivan in April 2003, Toyota Motor Corp. engineers discovered that a plastic panel could come loose and cause the gas pedal to stick, potentially making the vehicle accelerate out of control.

The automaker redesigned the part and by that June every 2004 model year Sienna off the assembly line came with the new panel. Toyota did not notify tens of thousands of people who had already bought vans with the old panel, however.

It wasn’t until U.S. safety officials opened an investigation last year that Toyota acknowledged in a letter to regulators that the part could come loose and “lead to unwanted or sudden acceleration.”

In January, nearly six years after discovering the potential hazard, the automaker recalled 26,501 vans made with the old panel.

In a statement to The Times, Toyota said that there was no defect in the Sienna and that “a safety recall was not deemed necessary” when it discovered the problem in 2003. The company called the replacement part “an additional safety measure.”

A peerless reputation for quality and safety has helped Toyota become the world’s largest automaker. But even as its sales have soared, the company has delayed recalls, kept a tight lid on disclosure of potential problems and attempted to blame human error in cases where owners claimed vehicle defects.

via Toyota found to keep tight lid on potential safety problems — latimes.com.

One case I blogged about previously said a Prius accelerated out of control during a test drive and the dealer’s explanation was that sometimes people install non-factory floor mats.

FBI files on Michael Jackson published online

The FBI released files it collected over the past 17 years on Michael Jackson on Tuesday, most of them from the federal agency’s support of the California investigations of child molestation allegations against the entertainer.

Journalists began scouring the 333 heavily redacted pages — published on the FBI’s Web site — for any new insight into Jackson’s life and the investigations of him.

The FBI, noting that Jackson was acquitted of all charges, said the case files were made public after Freedom of Information Act requests filed after the pop star’s June 25 death.

Los Angeles Police, who were investigating child molestation allegations against Jackson, called the FBI’s Los Angeles office in September 1993 to suggest the agency look into a “possible federal violation against Jackson concerning transportation of a minor across state lines for immoral purposes (Mann Act)”, one document said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Donahue “advised that she checked with her front office and they had made the decision that the United States attorney was not interested in prosecuting Michael Jackson for a violation of the Mann Act,” the report said.

via FBI files on Michael Jackson published online – CNN.com.

60 Million in U.S. Vaccinated Against Swine Flu

Image: Black areas = confirmed deaths from swine flu. Red = confirmed cases.

But CDC Says Only 2 Million Children Have Received Their Second Dose of Vaccine

At least 60 million people in the U.S. have rolled up their sleeves or taken the nasal spray version of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, according a briefing at the CDC today.

Twice as many doses have gone to children than adults, but only about 2 million children had received the second dose of the swine flu vaccine, according to a CDC telephone survey ending Dec. 12.

“There are a lot of children in need of second doses in the weeks ahead,” Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the National Center of Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said at the briefing.

Schuchat dismissed a recent Australian study that suggested that a single dose of vaccine could be enough for children under 10. “We strongly believe that two doses are needed in children.”

The CDC recommends that children under age 10 get the two doses at least four weeks apart — though a longer gap of five to six weeks is fine.

via 60 Million in U.S. Vaccinated Against Swine Flu.

Baby seal found in garden

A family who found a baby seal in their back garden in Kent 18 miles from the sea named her Rudolph, saying she was a “brilliant Christmas present”.

The pup, which the RSPCA said was less than a year old, was in the Dwyer family’s garden in Benenden on Monday morning when they let out pet dog Jack.

“We could see it came from the stream at the end of the garden from tracks in the snow,” said Harriet Dwyer.

“I heard Jack barking and went over to see what looked like a huge slimy cat.”

It is thought the seal got into the stream from the River Rother, which meets the English Channel at Rye.

Storms or floods

“It got in our pond and I think it ate some of my parents’ goldfish,” said Miss Dwyer.

“Jack is a collie and rounded it up a bit and it eventually settled in the herb garden by the corner of the house.”

The RSPCA is now caring for the seal, which has been renamed Gulliver, at Mallydams Wood Wildlife Centre near Hastings in East Sussex.

Keeper Elaine Crouch said baby seals often became separated from their mothers in bad weather such as storms or floods.

“This one is a really good weight, and not starving but has been completely lost,” she said.

“She has a a tag from Belgium, probably put on by the rehabilitation centre at Ostend, then she got into the River Rother and ended up in the stream.”

via BBC News – Baby seal in garden named Rudolph.

NZ policewoman allows naked cycling – with helmet

Two young men caught cycling with no clothes on have escaped charges of offensive behaviour, but received a warning to wear protective headgear.

Local policewoman Cathy Duder was unfazed when she came across the two nude men, both in their early 20s.

“They were more shocked than I was, trying to cover up their bits and pieces with their hands,” she said.

The men were riding around the Coromandel seaside resort of Whangamata on the north-east coast of New Zealand.

When asked for an explanation, the pair replied that “they wanted to experience total freedom”.

Strangely sober

“And I said to them ‘the way you’re heading, you’re going to experience total confinement’,” the officer said, laughing.

She said the men appeared decidedly sober.

“They didn’t seem drunk at all. That’s what worried me,” she joked.

Ms Duder issued them with a stern warning for not wearing helmets and then sent them directly home.

She told the Associated Press news agency that she did not see them again during her shift, and it was not known if they donned helmets and resumed their ride.

Public nudity can attract a charge of offensive behaviour in New Zealand, but Ms Duder said she let the two men go free.

“It was dark and there was no-one else around. They were jovial young men who had not intended to cause offence,” she said.

via BBC News – NZ policewoman allows naked cycling – with helmet.

Donor’s heart goes on with Burger Rings craving

IT seemed too real to be mere coincidence – and it brought joy to Kaden Delaney’s family.

Kaden’s parents Greg and Shelley spent two years finding David Waters, whose life was saved when he received their son’s heart after he died in a car crash. But in an exchange of emails they learned Mr Waters amazingly had developed a taste for Burger Rings – which was Kaden’s favourite snack treat.

The Delaney’s second eldest son was left brain dead after rolling his brother’s car into an embankment near their home in Orange, in central west NSW, in April 2006. In line with his wishes, they donated the 17-year-old’s heart, lungs, liver, pancreas and kidneys.

Two years and countless internet searches later, Mrs Delaney tracked down Mr Waters, the recipient of Kaden’s heart.

The 24-year-old from Adelaide suffered a stiffening of the heart ventricles and had months to live.

When they began email contact Mr Waters asked: “Did Kaden like Burger Rings? That’s all I seemed to want to eat after my surgery.”

Mrs Delaney responded: “I have been informed by a reliable source – Talby, (Kaden’s brother) that Kaden loved Burger Rings.”

Mr Waters replied: “I certainly think I have got some traits from him, Burger Rings right after the op, I never used to eat them before.”

The theory the brain is not the only organ to store memories or personality traits and memory as a process can form in other parts of the body such as the heart has been coined “cellular memory”.

The most famous reported case was American Claire Sylvia, a heart-lung transplant recipient, who documented her sudden craving for beer, chicken nuggets and green peppers in a best-selling memoir after discovering her donor was an 18-year-old male who died in a motorcycle accident.

Westmead Millennium Institute professor and president of the International Transplantation Society Jeremy Chapman said the phenomenon had not been proven.

“There is no scientific basis of such a claim,” he said. “There’s so much fiction around transplants.” …

via Donor’s heart goes on with Burger Rings craving | News.com.au.

What the heck are “burger rings?” Do they mean an onion rings?

Burger Rings are a hamburger flavoured Australian snack food distributed by the Twisties corporation but owned by its parent company The Smith’s Snackfood Company. The iconic salty snack emerged in 1974. The rings are available in 30 gram, 50 gram, 90 gram, 100 gram, 200 gram, and 15-pack multipack packs. Burger rings are a corn based snack food formed in to small inch round circles with a savory but sharp barbecue taste. – wikipedia

Man Killed Neighbor For Playing Same Song One Too Many Times

A Bulgarian man has been sentenced to 16 years prison for the murder of his neighbor, who he says played the same song, at top volume, constantly, for more than a week.

Croatian Times reports that 45-year-old Alexander Alexandrov snapped after hearing Robbie Williams sing Angels constantly played by neighbor Martin Kromov.

Alexandrov told the court:

I was in constant terror of his music. I could no longer think about anything but making him turn it off.

Alexandrov was apprehended when he ran out of gas as he drove to dump the body of his 27-year-old victim.

Kromov played this song more than 2,000 times

via Man Killed Neighbor For Playing Same Song One Too Many Times | We Interrupt.

Brain on the Sistine Chapel?

Brain on the Sistine Chapel?

Comment:  “So what he’s saying is, God is all in our heads? Pretty subversive thing to put on the roof of a chapel Michaelangelo, you sly dog.”

via Brain on the Sistine Chapel? Boing Boing.

Bionic Eye? Flexible solar cell implant could restore vision

The first flexible retinal implant could restore some vision to people with certain forms of visual impairment.

Conditions such as age-related macular degeneration occur when some of the photoreceptors in the eye stop functioning properly. But as other parts of the eye still work, it should be possible to restore vision using an implant that mimics the photoreceptor layer, says Rostam Dinyari at Stanford University in California.

To achieve this, an implant needs to convert a light signal into an electrical pulse – in other words, perform like a solar cell.

But most solar cells are rigid, which makes them far from ideal for use inside the eye. “If you have a lens, the focal plane is always curved and the best picture forms on a spherical surface,” Dinyari says. This is why the retina is curved.

Using rigid chips, a large number of small implants must be fitted in order to approximate the curve of the retina. A flexible implant would simplify matters.

“You would need a lot of surgery to implant a large enough number [of rigid implants] to cover the retina,” says Dinyari. A flexible implant “would use just one surgical procedure”.

While several companies are developing rigid implants, Dinyari and colleagues have designed a flexible silicon implant. They did so by carving deep grooves into the silicon between adjacent solar cell pixels that are each just 115 micrometres across.

The implant would be inserted over the most damaged part of the retina. A glasses-mounted camera would capture video, convert it to near-infrared signals and project it directly onto the implant.

When hit by the light, the solar cells inject current patterns corresponding to the projected images into neural tissue, which ultimately arrive at the visual cortex via the optic nerve. Near-infrared signals are used as they do not interfere with the surrounding intact photoreceptor cells, which send signals to the brain as normal.

Initial trials using retinas extracted from pigs showed that the implant could be inserted without damaging the fragile solar cell array. The team hope to implant the device into a live pig soon, before testing it in humans.

via Flexible solar cell implant could restore vision – tech – 14 December 2009 – New Scientist.

Two-legged dog Faith learns to walk

The 7-year-old labrador-chow mix was born without front legs.

The puppy and her siblings, also deformed, were rejected by their mother. But Reuben Stringfellow, then 17, came across the tiny animal and brought it home.

He and his mother Jude, an English professor, had to carry the puppy, which they named Faith, for the first few months of her life. But eventually, with patience, and lots of peanut butter as a lure, Faith learned to walk on her two hind legs.

Seven years after her birth, the little yellow dog zips around crowded shops, bustling along with confidence.

Since her first steps in March, 2003, Faith has been a regular guest on US talk shows. She has also become a symbol of hope for injured soldiers.

Ms Stringfellow, who has become a motivational speaker and runs a website devoted to her tiny dog, gets more than 200 letters and emails a day.

Fans of the little dog say she provides inspiration.

“Faith has shown me that different is beautiful, that it is not the body you are in but the soul that you have,” Jill Salomon of Montreal, Canada, wrote on the website.

Ms Stringfellow regularly brings Faith to veterans’ hospitals across the US to provide hope to disabled soldiers, a mission inspired by her son’s service in the US army in Iraq.

Ms Stringfellow told AP that during a recent visit to McChord Air Force Base and Fort Lewis in Washington, the dog brought cheer to soldiers heading off to war, and to those recently returned.

via Two-legged dog Faith learns to walk – Telegraph.