WHO talks with China on sending bird flu team

A worker cleans empty cages used for transporting chickens, to prevent an outbreak of H7N9 infections at a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong Monday, April 8, 2013. The World Health Organization is talking with the Chinese government about sending international experts to China to help investigate a new bird flu strain that has sickened at least 21 people, killing six of them. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

A worker cleans empty cages used for transporting chickens, to prevent an outbreak of H7N9 infections at a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong Monday, April 8, 2013. The World Health Organization is talking with the Chinese government about sending international experts to China to help investigate a new bird flu strain that has sickened at least 21 people, killing six of them. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

A photographer takes a photo of a joint press conference by Chinese health officials and World Health Organization representatives, from left, Deng Haihua, spokesman for China's Commission of Health and Family Planning, Feng Zhijian, head of the emergency office of China's Disease Control and Prevention Center or CDC, Liang Wannian head of a Chinese government office in charge of H7N9 bird flu prevention control, Michael O'Leary, head of the WHO's office in China, and Sirenda Vong, the WHO's Emerging Infectious Diseases expert, in Beijing, China, Monday, April 8, 2013. The World Health Organization is talking with the Chinese government about sending international experts to China to help investigate a new bird flu strain that has killed six. Most of the 21 people stricken so far got severely ill. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Liang Wannian, head of a Chinese government office in charge of H7N9 bird flu prevention control, left, and Michael O'Leary, head of the World Health Organization's office in China, attend a joint press conference in Beijing, China, Monday, April 8, 2013. The World Health Organization is talking with the Chinese government about sending international experts to China to help investigate a new bird flu strain that has killed six. Most of the 21 people stricken so far got severely ill. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Shu Yuelong, a virologist with China's Disease Control and Prevention Center or CDC, right, answers a question from a journalist during a joint press conference between Chinese health officials and World Health Organization representatives, in Beijing, China, Monday, April 8, 2013. The World Health Organization is talking with the Chinese government about sending international experts to China to help investigate a new bird flu strain that has killed six. Most of the 21 people stricken so far got severely ill. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Chinese health workers, wearing masks, walk past a group of security guards blocking a petitioner outside China's Health Ministry where a joint press conference between Chinese health officials and World Health Organization representatives was held in Beijing, China, Monday, April 8, 2013. The World Health Organization is talking with the Chinese government about sending international experts to China to help investigate a new bird flu strain that has killed six. Most of the 21 people stricken so far got severely ill. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

BEIJING (AP) ? The World Health Organization is talking with the Chinese government about sending international experts to China to help investigate a new bird flu strain that has sickened at least 24 people, killing seven of them.

A 64-year-old retired man in Shanghai became the latest victim of the H7N9 bird flu virus that had previously not been known to infect humans, the city government said Monday.

The Shanghai government said the man died Sunday night, a week after first experiencing chills. He sought medical treatment last Wednesday for pneumonia-like conditions. By Sunday morning, his condition worsened, he was out of breath and was admitted to a ward for in-patient treatment. He died hours later.

Michael O'Leary, head of WHO's office in China, told reporters in Beijing on Monday that the international health organization had confidence in China's efforts to track and control the outbreak of H7N9 infections, but that growing interest in the virus globally has prompted WHO to consider sending a team.

The cases are of "great interest not only in the scientific community but in the world at large," O'Leary said at a joint press conference with China's national health agency. "WHO's responsibility in part is to make sure that we serve as liaison and linkage between China and the rest of the world."

The team would likely include epidemiological, laboratory and communications experts, but the matter was still being discussed by the two sides and it remained unclear if and when such a group would arrive, O'Leary said.

Aside from the latest fatality in Shanghai, China reported two more cases of human infection of the H7N9 bird flu virus on Monday, raising the total number of cases to 24 ? all in the eastern part of the country. Most of the patients have become severely ill, and seven of them have died, however milder infections may be going undetected.

There could be additional infections, both among animals and humans, in other regions and authorities have stepped up measures to monitor cases of pneumonia with unexplained causes, said Liang Wannian, director of the Chinese health agency's H7N9 flu prevention and control office.

Liang said Chinese experts also were in the early stages of researching a possible vaccine for the virus, though it might not be needed if the virus remains only sporadically reported and if it does not spread easily among people.

The H7N9 strain previously was known only to infect birds, and officials say they do not know why the virus is infecting humans now. The virus has been detected in live poultry in several food markets where human cases have been found, leading officials to think people are most likely contracting the virus through direct contact with infected fowl.

Authorities have halted live poultry trade in cities where cases have been reported, and slaughtered fowl in markets where the virus has been detected.

Further investigations are underway and, for now, there's no evidence the virus is spreading easily between people. However, scientists are watching closely to see if the flu poses a substantial risk to public health or could potentially spark a global pandemic.

In 2003, China allowed WHO to send a five-member team to help investigate an outbreak of the fatal flu-like illness, SARS, after its own experts could not trace the source of the disease.

China's response at the time was slow. The government stayed silent for months after the first cases of an unidentified disease were reported, a cover-up that contributed to the spread of the virus to many parts of China and to two dozen other countries, killing hundreds of people.

International observers say that over the past decade, China's public health agencies have become increasingly forthcoming with information.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-04-08-China-Bird%20Flu/id-68b8d566902746fc8e0699adba5a9e58

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Report: More Than 250M Domain Names Have Now Been Registered, Almost Half Are .Com And .Net

The total number of registered domain names passed 250 million in the last quarter of 2012, according to Verisign’s latest Domain Name Industry Brief. More than 6 million domain names were registered in the fourth quarter of 2012, bringing the total to 252 million worldwide. The basic .com domains, of course, make up the majority of registered domain names. By the end of December users had registered 106.2 million .com domains, as well as 14.9 million .net addresses. The .com and .net top-level domains (TLDs) also accounted for the majority of newly registered domain names. In total, 8 million .com and .net TLDs were registered during the fourth quarter of 2012, up slightly from the 7.9 million that were registered in the year-ago quarter. About 21 percent of .com and .net websites, by the way, are just one-page sites and 15 percent are registered but don’t point to a working site at all. Outside of those two TLDs, country code top-level domains grew another 5 percent quarter over quarter and 21.6 percent year-over-year to a total of 110.2 million domain names, with China driving quite a bit of this growth. Indeed, China is now the seventh-largest TLD, according to Verisign’s data. Top TLDs: .COM, .DE, .NET and .TK Here is the full running order of?the largest TLDs: The largest TLDs in order by zone size were .com, .de (Germany), .net, .tk (Tokelau), .uk (United Kingdom), .org, .cn (China), .info, .nl (Netherlands) and .ru (Russian Federation). The one domain that probably stands out here is .tk, the top-level domain of Tokelau. These .tk domain names, which are available for free through Freedom Registry,?have a bit of a reputation for hosting phishing sites, but chances are that the lure of a free domain name is driving most of these registrations.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/bpMxwurkYPk/

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Fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer dies at 81

MIAMI (AP) ? Lilly Pulitzer hosted parties in her bare feet and wasn't afraid to get a little messy ? just as long as she looked good and had fun, too.

In the late 1950s, the Palm Beach socialite had time to spare and a wealthy husband who owned citrus groves, so she opened an orange juice stand just off the island's main shopping street. Pulitzer needed to hide all the juice stains on her clothes, though. Instead of just putting on an apron, she asked her seamstress to make some sleeveless dresses in colorful fruit prints, and a fashion staple was born.

Pulitzer died at her home Sunday, according to Quattlebaum Funeral and Cremation Services. She was 81.

Pulitzer's tropical print dresses became a sensation in the 1960s when then-first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, who attended boarding school with Pulitzer, wore one of the sleeveless shifts in a Life magazine photo spread.

The colorful revolution came as fashion shed its reliance on neutrals, and Pulitzer's stuff was almost the housewife version of the more youthful mod look that was migrating from London.

To this day, the Lilly Pulitzer dress remains a popular, if not a necessary, addition to any woman's closet.

"I designed collections around whatever struck my fancy ... fruits, vegetables, politics, or peacocks! I entered in with no business sense. It was a total change of life for me, but it made people happy," Pulitzer, who married into the famous newspaper family, told The Associated Press in March 2009.

Pulitzer's dresses hung behind her juice stand and soon outsold her drinks. A boutique featuring the company's dresses ? developed with the help of partner Laura Robbins, a former fashion editor ? soon replaced the juice stand.

"Today we celebrate all that Lilly meant to us and come together as Lilly lovers to honor a true original who has brought together generations through her bright and happy mark on the world," James B. Bradbeer Jr. and Scott A. Beaumont, who bought the Lilly Pulitzer brand in 1992, said in a statement.

The signature Lilly palette features tongue-in-cheek jungle and floral prints in blues, pinks, light greens, yellow and orange ? the colors of a Florida vacation.

The line of dresses that bore her name was later expanded to swimsuits, country club attire, children's clothing, a home collection and a limited selection of menswear.

"Style isn't just about what you wear, it's about how you live," Pulitzer said in 2004.

"We focus on the best, fun and happy things, and people want that. Being happy never goes out of style," she said.

In 1966, The Washington Post reported that the dresses were "so popular that at the Southampton Lilly shop on Job's Lane they are proudly put in clear plastic bags tied gaily with ribbons so that all the world may see the Lilly of your choice. It's like carrying your own racing colors or flying a yacht flag for identification."

But changing taste brought trouble. Pulitzer closed her original company in the mid-1980s after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The label was revived about a decade later after being acquired by Pennsylvania-based Sugartown Worldwide Inc.; Pulitzer was only marginally involved in the new business but continued reviewing new prints from Florida.

"When Lilly started the business back in the '60s, she targeted a young customer because she was young," Bradbeer told the AP in 2003. "What we have done is target the daughter and granddaughter of that original customer."

Pulitzer herself retired from day-to-day operations in 1993, although she remained a consultant and a muse for the brand.

Sugartown Worldwide was bought by Atlanta-based Oxford Industries in 2010. Sales of the Lilly Pulitzer brand were strong in the earnings period that ended Feb. 2. The brand's revenue increased 26 percent to $29.1 million, according to Oxford Industries' earnings report. The company said last week it planned to add four to six new stores each year for its Lilly Pulitzer brand.

Pulitzer was born Lilly McKim on Nov. 10, 1931, to a wealthy family in Roslyn, N.Y.

In 1952, she married Pete Pulitzer, the grandson of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, whose bequest to Columbia University established the Pulitzer Prize.

Pulitzer had three children in quick succession. After the third was born, she had a nervous breakdown and ended up in a mental hospital that catered to upscale clientele in New York. A doctor there told her that she needed to find a job.

"The doctor there said, 'You're not happy because you're not doing anything,' and I said, 'I don't know how to do anything.' I'd always had everything done for me, always had my nanny and my mummy making up my mind. The doctor said, 'You've got to go out and find something to do,'" Pulitzer told The New Yorker in 2000.

Pulitzer gave the same prescription to her friends. If one of them needed something to do, Pulitzer would open a store in her town.

The Pulitzers divorced in 1969. Pulitzer's second husband, Enrique Rousseau, died in 1993.

"I don't know how to explain what it was like to run my business, the joy of every day," she told Vanity Fair magazine in a story in 2003. "I got a kick every time I went into the shipping department. ... I loved seeing (the dresses) going out the door. I loved them selling in the shop. I liked them on the body. Everything. There's no explaining the fun I had."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fashion-designer-lilly-pulitzer-dies-81-170631324.html

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Exploring The Various Types Of Guitars

Very few genres of music are complete without a guitar tuned up for play. Most music buffs will be pretty familiar with the fret-board, and will in turn know the kinds of guitars better than most. But you, as a beginner, might ponder over the complex terminology employed by most of the guitar shop owners around the world. Fear not, because help is at hand to help you pick the type of guitar that best suits your style.

- Acoustic Guitar: This is simply a type of guitar that uses nothing electronic to generate a sound. It uses pure acoustic techniques, where vibrational energy does the job. Amplification of the sound is achieved with the sound box. Additionally, acoustic guitars can be of two kinds - classical and steel-strung. The only difference between these two is that the classical ones have nylon strings, as opposed to the modern steel strings. Steel strings provide a louder sound along with better clarity. Acoustic guitars are a perfect buy for a novice in the trade.

- Electric Guitar: This guitar basically uses a pickup to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical impulses. It is a prime instrument for most genres of music, majorly rock, pop, jazz, and blues. It needs to be plugged in to an amplifier in order to be heard well; and that is not the only difference between the acoustic and the electric. The strings of the electric guitar are much thinner than those of the acoustic one. This makes it easier for you to bend the strings. It goes without saying that the electrical support brings about a better sound quality too.

- Bass Guitar: It is generally a type of guitar whose strings can be pulled or picked with the fingers or thumb. Bass is something that produces a low note, and a bass guitar does just that. It produces a note lower than that produced by normal electric guitars. Bass guitars usually consist of four or five strings, but may also have six or eight. This guitar is used in most of the genres in music, notably rock, jazz, metal, country, and pop.

- Twelve-String Guitar: Guitars normally come with six strings. The twelve-string guitar is their simple variation. It consists of the regular six strings followed by six other thinner strings. The six strings form pairs, so you essentially play the guitar the same way you play a six-strung one. The twelve-string guitar produces a distinct sound, slightly brighter than the six-string one. Admittedly, they are more expensive than regular guitars. Reputed guitarists will most certainly have one in their collection.

- Steel Guitar: This is more of a way of playing the instrument than a type of guitar. However, since it originated in Hawaii where the inventors developed a guitar just to suit their way of playing music, it might as well be considered a full-fledged guitar. You need to play the guitar by placing it horizontally across your knees. The name has got nothing to do with fret-board. It is wooden, as it should be for producing a sound in the first place. The name simply comes from the solid metal bar with which it is played.

Source: http://www.artipot.com/articles/1551399/exploring-the-various-types-of-guitars.htm

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Start a Parenting Co-Op to Save Money on Babysitting

Date nights can become prohibitively expensive once you require a babysitter, but starting a parenting co-op can eliminate the cost and even introduce you to some new friends.

Carrie Kirby at Wise Bread suggests organizing a group of fellow parents into a babysitting exchange. Families can earn points or credits for babysitting others' kids, then redeem them later to have their own kids looked after. The credits system is egalitarian and fair, and would be easy to organize with Google Docs or a dedicated service like sit4sit. If you recruit enough families to your group, you probably won't have much trouble finding a sitter for a specific time, and as long as you put in a little work beforehand, you won't have to pay a dime for it either.

While I imagine this is something that many parents do informally with friends, recruiting more members and establishing a points system can avoid hurt feelings and even expand your social circle.

How to Save on Babysitting Without Ending Up on the Local News | Wise Bread

Photo by jcjgphotography (Shutterstock)

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/DVvp950lzdQ/start-a-parenting-co+op-to-save-money-on-babysitting

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Fitness after 65 is no one-size-fits-all endeavor

By Dorene Internicola

NEW YORK (Reuters) - America's ageing population is posing special challenges, fitness experts say, because it is difficult to design effective workout routines for people with such a wide range of abilities.

For one 70-year-old, the goal may be to run a marathon, for another it's getting out of a chair.

"If you are teaching 10-year-olds, it's perfectly reasonable to do an activity that everybody would participate in," said Dr. Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, an expert on aging with the American College of Sports Medicine.

But 20 80-year-olds could be as different as chalk and cheese."

Some baby boomer could be athletic, he explained, while others would be unable to get out of bed.

There are now more Americans age 65 and older than at any other time in U.S. history, according to Census Bureau figures. Some 40 million people age 65 and over lived in the United States in 2010, accounting for 13 percent of the total population. The older population grew from 3 million in 1900 to 40 million in 2010.

Older adults should be doing aerobic activity to help maintain body weight, strengthening exercises to develop and maintain muscle mass and some type of flexibility training, according to Dr. James Graves, Dean of the College of Health at the University of Utah.

Physical activity can reduce the risk of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and osteoporosis, he said, as well as improve the quality of life by maintaining functional capacity, such as the ability to climb stairs, open doors, and carry groceries.

"A very healthy 70-year-old can safely participate in high-intensity activity while a frail 60-year-old needs to lower the intensity," said Graves. "My recommendation is to work with a personal trainer or group leader who has knowledge and qualifications to work with the elderly."

Mary Ann Wilson is the creator and host of the "Sit and Be Fit," a senior fitness program that has aired on U.S. public television since 1987.

The majority of her viewers are women over 65. For that population, she said, the goal of exercise is health and well-being, not physical prowess.

"Gravity has been working on them for 70 years," said Wilson, a registered nurse who specialized in geriatrics. "Gravity is not our friend after many years of pulling our heads, shoulders and upper torsos forward and down."

The 30-minute class includes warm-up, circulation and strength segments, a finger segment (for stiffness), standing for balance, and final relaxation.

Posture, breathing, balance, cognitive functioning and reaction time are among the most important?and neglected?components of elder fitness, she said.

"Focusing on gait is really important because as we age our gait changes," said Wilson.

Karen Peterson, author of "Move with Balance: Healthy Aging Activities for Brain and Body," stresses a mind-body approach in workouts with seniors.

"In our society it seems people don't really like to do things unless they're good at it already," said Peterson, a kinesiologist based in Maui. "But what the brain likes is to be challenged."

Her exercises include tossing a bean bag to improve reaction time, walking a figure-eight pattern for balance, as well as eye stretches, jaw relaxers, childhood games and cognitive challenges to keep body and mind alert.

"We take balance exercises and add conversation or math problems," she said. "The concept is to always progress, always get more challenging."

To tackle the isolation and diversity of the older population, Peterson initiated a mentoring program in which the fitter seniors work with the frailer.

"Some partners will become friends," she said. "They'll get really turned on."

Experts agree that it's never too late to do something. "Exercise is effective even in the most frail individual," Wilson said. "If they can wiggle their toes, they can exercise."

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Sandra Maler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fitness-65-no-one-size-fits-endeavor-103841481.html

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The Tech Spark: 5 Apps that Couples Can Use to Energize a ...

Technology has become a ubiquitous part of our daily existence. It?s hard to imagine a part of life that hasn?t seen the powerful influence of modern technology. This goes for relationships as well. If your relationship seems to have flatlined, here five awesome apps that you can use to reenergize their relationships and get that spark back.

1: Couple

Couple is a private communication endeavor for couples. They can instant message each other, send little doodles, pokes, even pictures. It allows for a sense of intimacy and closeness with your partner, even when they aren?t necessarily physically close.

2: Kindu

It?s an unavoidable fact that in order for a romantic relationship to work, there needs to be a certain physical chemistry between both partners. Even though this is well known and understood, many couples feel uncomfortable discussing their sexual preferences. Fortunately, Kindu helps. Through an anonymous quiz (you?re partner will never know what you liked directly), the app will dispense useful information, tips, and ideas for cardinal romance. Unsurprisingly, it comes highly recommended.

3: Fix a Fight

Couples occasionally fight. It?s a natural, often unavoidable aspect to any relationship. However, many couples don?t know how to act after a fight or when they feel one coming on. Download Fix a Fight with your mobile phone plans and start fixing the fight now. After all, they certainly don?t want to hurt the person they love or make matters worse. Fix a Fight dispenses information and relaxation techniques to help both parties keep everything in perspective.

4: Date Smart

No matter how creative the partner, eventually it becomes difficult to procure truly good ideas for dates. Date Smart offers randomized selections of dates to inspire both parties. Date Smart offers a number of date categories from normal/casual stuff to romantic Valentine?s events. What?s proposed may not be the final, official plan?but whatever happens will usually owe its inspiration to this app. Get Date Smart now on your Samsung Galaxy from Bell.ca.

5: The Ice Break

Most couples absolutely cherish the unknown aspects of their partners. It gives them things to discover over the course of the relationship. However, there?s hardly an opportunity for these things to come up. The Ice Break offers an excuse to ask your partner questions about themselves on a deeper level than when you first started dating. It?ll provide loads of entertainment and remind you of why you fell so deeply in love in the first place.

Source: http://www.couplesadvice.com/the-tech-spark-5-apps-that-couples-can-use-to-energize-a-relationship/

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