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Type one diabetes has been deadly for many years, but recently scientists have noticed that within diabetes there are many other diseases that can kill you. People with type 1 diabetes should take other medicine to try and fight the diseases within diabetes.

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People with type 1 diabetes often develop other autoimmune disorders, such as thyroid and gastrointestinal diseases, and a recent study yields new information about this link.

In type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks the pancreas and destroys its insulin-producing cells. Patients often develop other immune system diseases, too. Indeed, in the current study, 27 percent of patients had at least one other autoimmune disorder.

But the new study also held some surprises about how early and late in life these added health problems might surface, said lead author Dr. Jing Hughes of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

"The pattern that emerged was striking: autoimmune diseases begin early in childhood, where nearly 20 percent of those under age 6 already have additional diseases other than type 1 diabetes," Hughes said by email.

"Another surprise finding was that, while we had expected that autoimmune diseases may peak at a certain time of life, we found instead that the autoimmune burden continues to increase as patients age, to the extent that nearly 50 percent of those over age 65 have accumulated one or more additional autoimmune disease," Hughes added.

The findings are drawn from data on nearly 26,000 adults and children being treated for type 1 diabetes at 80 endocrinology practices in the U.S. between 2010 and 2016.

Of those with other autoimmune disorders in addition to diabetes, 20 percent had one additional problem and 5 percent had at least two additional diseases, researchers report in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Participants with one or more additional autoimmune disorders were more likely to be older, female and white, the study found. They also tended to have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at an older age, and to have lived with the condition for longer.

Thyroid diseases were the most common autoimmune disorders, affecting about 24 percent of the participants. In most of these cases, the thyroid gland was underactive, which can lead to constipation, weakness, weight gain, depression and a slowed heart rate.

Celiac disease was the second most common autoimmune problem, affecting about 6 percent of participants. Celiac disease damages the small intestine and interferes with the absorption of nutrients if patients consume gluten, a protein in wheat, rye and barley; it can lead to complications like malnutrition, low bone density, lactose intolerance and infertility.

Other diseases included Graves disease (overactive thyroid), rheumatoid arthritis and vitiligo.

One limitation of the study is that researchers lacked data on how old patients were when the autoimmune disorders developed, making it impossible to determine if participants gradually accumulated these diseases over time or if they were clustered around a certain age, the authors note.

Even so, the findings suggest that people with type 1 diabetes should get routine screening for other autoimmune diseases - particularly celiac disease and thyroid disorders - the authors conclude.

"The take home message is that kids with type 1 diabetes are at increased risk for developing other autoimmune diseases compared to kids who don't have type 1 diabetes," said Dr. Laurie Tsilianidis, an endocrinologist at Cleveland Clinic Children's in Ohio who wasn't involved in the study.

"This is particularly true once they become adults, and Caucasian women carry the greatest risk," Tsilianidis added by email.

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Type 1 diabetes often comes with other autoimmune diseases

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People with type 1 diabetes often develop other autoimmune disorders, such as thyroid and gastrointestinal diseases, and a recent study yields new information about this link. In type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks the pancreas and destroys its insulin-producing cells. Patients often develop other immune system diseases, too.

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The article I read was "It's for the future". Scientist are finding that old Sequia trees are on the verge of instiction. They are being cut down for experiments and just cut down for the fun of it. Scientist found a way to clone these trees. They are getting natural samples from the bark
and recreating these amazing trees.

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Some of the world's biggest and most ancient trees are in jeopardy.

Humans have cut down more than 90 percent of the planet's oldest trees, and forces like pollution and climate change threaten those that are left.

In the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California - home to the giant sequoias - scientists are trying to reverse this trend by essentially cloning the trees. Sequoias can grow up to 250 feet tall, with trunks as big as 30 feet in diameter, and they're known to live 3,000 years or more.

To preserve the species and create a thriving new generation of giant sequoias, the scientists are taking genetic material from the fresh growth of the top branches. For arborists like Jacob Milarch, that involves using rigging to climb into the branches up to 200 feet high.

They snip off small samples from the trees, which are then transported to a lab in Michigan. There, they are nurtured from sprouts until they're large enough to be planted all over the world.

So far, the team has produced and planted at least a quarter million trees, Milarch told CBS News. Milarch is with the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, the nonprofit group behind the tree cloning mission.

"It's not for us, it's for the future," Milarch said. "So it's a gift to the grandkids, to the kids."

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"It's for the future": Scientists are cloning the world's ancient trees

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Some of the world's biggest and most ancient trees are in jeopardy. Humans have cut down more than 90 percent of the planet's oldest trees, and forces like pollution and climate change threaten those that are left.

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Water transportation is revolutionizing, now you are able to rent yachts with a mothership and with a detachable beach house, also it contains a double suite, single cabin, lounge, Jacuzzi, a two-person drone, and two 80-foot tenders. These yachts will soon be taking over the water.

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Marking the tenth anniversary of its annual Future Concept series of superyacht designs, Netherlands-based firm Feadship has unveiled its latest notion, the aptly named Choice.

Described by the company as the "most audacious blueprint to date," the 244-foot-long concept boat comprises a mothership, a detachable beach house, a two-person drone, and two 80-foot tenders, offering guests plenty of ways to enjoy their time on the water.

"As well as the wealth of choices Feadship clients have before and during the building process, our aim with this new concept is to give even more options once they are on board," explains Feadship senior designer Ruud Bakker.

Adding to the self-sufficient scheme is the Choice's Feadship Independent Control System (FICS), which utilizes sensor technology and wave radar, weather forecasting, and traffic information to provide nearly autonomous sailing. "We haven't quite reached the autopilot stage yet, but the way this solution communicates with the environment is optimized to the highest degree," Bakker says.

"FICS supports captains and frees up their time for other things that make the guests' stay on a Feadship even more pleasant."

The sleek ship, which can reach speeds of almost 17 m.p.h., also features small details that really set it apart. Each tender can operate as an independent miniyacht, topping out around 29 m.p.h. and containing a double suite, single cabin, lounge, and Jacuzzi.

More from Architectural Digest
Go Inside a $53 Million Private Jet Inside Jennifer Aniston's Gorgeous Beverly Hills Home 10 Awesome Hotels in California's Wine Country 10 Hotels with Unbelievably High-End Amenities Sarah Jessica Parker's Epic East Village Townhouse
The hull, meanwhile, not only houses the drone and amphibious beach house but also features a deck lounge and motion-controlled pool and can cruise along at up to 12 m.p.h; its electric-propulsion system allows for quieter sailing and silent anchoring, and when docked can be charged by the tenders.

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This superyacht comes with a detachable beach house

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Marking the tenth anniversary of its annual Future Concept series of superyacht designs, Netherlands-based firm Feadship has unveiled its latest notion, the aptly named Choice. Described by the company as the "most audacious blueprint to date," the 244-foot-long concept boat comprises a mothership, a detachable beach house, a two-person drone, and two 80-foot tenders, offering guests plenty of ways to enjoy their time on the water.

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Transportation has been evolving since the Industrial Revolution.Things like cars, trains, boats,and airplanes are just some of the transportation improvements that were made.
Things like supercars are new improvements of the transportation.This is one of the supercars that Ford is planning on doubling the production rate on making this supercar.

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Transportation is changing in many ways. Small boats are soon to be a thing of the past as super-insane yachts are developing. The 244-foot yacht is not only the biggest of its kind, but it just so happens that it has a detachable beach house along with other entertainment. The super-yacht will soon have some others like it, and water transportation will be supremely changed.

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Marking the tenth anniversary of its annual Future Concept series of superyacht designs, Netherlands-based firm Feadship has unveiled its latest notion, the aptly named Choice.

Described by the company as the "most audacious blueprint to date," the 244-foot-long concept boat comprises a mothership, a detachable beach house, a two-person drone, and two 80-foot tenders, offering guests plenty of ways to enjoy their time on the water.

"As well as the wealth of choices Feadship clients have before and during the building process, our aim with this new concept is to give even more options once they are on board," explains Feadship senior designer Ruud Bakker.

Adding to the self-sufficient scheme is the Choice's Feadship Independent Control System (FICS), which utilizes sensor technology and wave radar, weather forecasting, and traffic information to provide nearly autonomous sailing. "We haven't quite reached the autopilot stage yet, but the way this solution communicates with the environment is optimized to the highest degree," Bakker says.

"FICS supports captains and frees up their time for other things that make the guests' stay on a Feadship even more pleasant."

The sleek ship, which can reach speeds of almost 17 m.p.h., also features small details that really set it apart. Each tender can operate as an independent miniyacht, topping out around 29 m.p.h. and containing a double suite, single cabin, lounge, and Jacuzzi.

More from Architectural Digest
Go Inside a $53 Million Private Jet Inside Jennifer Aniston's Gorgeous Beverly Hills Home 10 Awesome Hotels in California's Wine Country 10 Hotels with Unbelievably High-End Amenities Sarah Jessica Parker's Epic East Village Townhouse
The hull, meanwhile, not only houses the drone and amphibious beach house but also features a deck lounge and motion-controlled pool and can cruise along at up to 12 m.p.h; its electric-propulsion system allows for quieter sailing and silent anchoring, and when docked can be charged by the tenders.

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This superyacht comes with a detachable beach house

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Marking the tenth anniversary of its annual Future Concept series of superyacht designs, Netherlands-based firm Feadship has unveiled its latest notion, the aptly named Choice. Described by the company as the "most audacious blueprint to date," the 244-foot-long concept boat comprises a mothership, a detachable beach house, a two-person drone, and two 80-foot tenders, offering guests plenty of ways to enjoy their time on the water.

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Transportation has changed a lot since the industrial revolution. Boats are one of the important things that changed. They changed from small boats to super luxury yachts. This yacht is very big. It is one of the biggest yachts today. It also has a detachable beachhouse. Things from the industrial revolution has impacted us to improve, like yachts.

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Marking the tenth anniversary of its annual Future Concept series of superyacht designs, Netherlands-based firm Feadship has unveiled its latest notion, the aptly named Choice.

Described by the company as the "most audacious blueprint to date," the 244-foot-long concept boat comprises a mothership, a detachable beach house, a two-person drone, and two 80-foot tenders, offering guests plenty of ways to enjoy their time on the water.

"As well as the wealth of choices Feadship clients have before and during the building process, our aim with this new concept is to give even more options once they are on board," explains Feadship senior designer Ruud Bakker.

Adding to the self-sufficient scheme is the Choice's Feadship Independent Control System (FICS), which utilizes sensor technology and wave radar, weather forecasting, and traffic information to provide nearly autonomous sailing. "We haven't quite reached the autopilot stage yet, but the way this solution communicates with the environment is optimized to the highest degree," Bakker says.

"FICS supports captains and frees up their time for other things that make the guests' stay on a Feadship even more pleasant."

The sleek ship, which can reach speeds of almost 17 m.p.h., also features small details that really set it apart. Each tender can operate as an independent miniyacht, topping out around 29 m.p.h. and containing a double suite, single cabin, lounge, and Jacuzzi.

More from Architectural Digest
Go Inside a $53 Million Private Jet Inside Jennifer Aniston's Gorgeous Beverly Hills Home 10 Awesome Hotels in California's Wine Country 10 Hotels with Unbelievably High-End Amenities Sarah Jessica Parker's Epic East Village Townhouse
The hull, meanwhile, not only houses the drone and amphibious beach house but also features a deck lounge and motion-controlled pool and can cruise along at up to 12 m.p.h; its electric-propulsion system allows for quieter sailing and silent anchoring, and when docked can be charged by the tenders.

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This superyacht comes with a detachable beach house

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Marking the tenth anniversary of its annual Future Concept series of superyacht designs, Netherlands-based firm Feadship has unveiled its latest notion, the aptly named Choice. Described by the company as the "most audacious blueprint to date," the 244-foot-long concept boat comprises a mothership, a detachable beach house, a two-person drone, and two 80-foot tenders, offering guests plenty of ways to enjoy their time on the water.

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many jobs are being taken by robots and machines

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Cancer is a very bad disease that happens to alot of people. There are many different kinds of cancer that are caused by many different things. Since scientists always try and find ways to cure cancer but, other ways that cancer is caused also starts to appear in their research. Cancer is not something to mess with. Just like Cholera that was a disease that spread from person to person through the air and killed thousands, cancer can be deadly. Although cancer can not be spread through the air, the disease can be caught in some cells found in Cobalt, which is a naturally occurring rock. Now, that doesn't seem too bad until you realise that this rock can also be found in rechargeable batteries and blue pigmented glass, tiles and ceramics. These are just some on the everyday objects that this rock is in This is just like how Cholera could be spread everyday unknowingly through water, and through the air. We are very exposed to just this one cancer causing virus. The world hasn't changed a lot. Us, humans are still struggling with everyday things such as sickness.

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A 3D look at the HIV virus.

Credit: Sebastian Kaulitzki/Shutterstock

Seven new substances have been added to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' list of cancer-causing agents.

Six of these substances are listed as "known" to cause cancer, while one is "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen," according to a statement today (Nov. 3) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Five of the new substances on the list are viruses, and all of those are among the "known carcinogens," the NIH says. The viruses include human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1, Epstein-Barr virus, Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, Merkel cell polyomavirus and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). [ 10 Do's and Don'ts to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer]

Together, the viruses have been linked to more than 20 different types of cancer, according to the NIH. For example, HIV-1, which is the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, weakens the immune system and increases a person's risk of infection from other cancer-causing viruses, the NIH says. There is "sufficient evidence" that HIV-1 can lead to cervical cancer, conjunctival eye cancer and non-melanoma skin cancer, among others, according to the NIH.

"Approximately 12 percent of human cancers worldwide may be attributed to viruses," Linda Birnbaum, the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, said in the statement. However, there are currently no vaccines available for the five viruses that have been added to list, Birnbaum said. Because of this, prevention strategies to avoid these viruses are "even more critical," she said.

A chemical called trichloroethylene was also added to the list as a "known carcinogen," according to the NIH. Trichloroethylene is an industrial solvent used to make hydrofluorocarbons, which are in a number of appliances and products. It's also used by the military to degrease metal, the NIH says. Studies have shown a cause-and-effect link between the chemical and kidney cancer.

The other substance added to the list was the element cobalt. Cobalt is a naturally occurring metal, and can be found in rechargeable batteries and blue pigmented glass, tiles and ceramics, according to the NIH. It may also be used in some medical devices and solar panels.

Cobalt is "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen," the NIH says. This means that although studies have not shown a cause-and-effect link between cobalt and cancer in humans, the element has been shown to cause cancer in animals, and lab studies have demonstrated a possible mechanism for how this metal could cause cancer.

Cobalt is thought to be linked to cancer because it can release charged particles called ions in the body. These particles may damage a person's DNA and lead to cancer, the NIH says.

Cobalt is also found in vitamin B12; however, this form of cobalt does not release ions and is therefore not considered to be linked to cancer, according to the NIH.

The NIH noted in the statement that inclusion in the report "does not by itself mean that a substance or a virus will cause cancer." Many factors, including how susceptible a person is to the substance, how much of it they are exposed to and for how long also play a role, according to the statement.

The seven substances bring the total list of carcinogens on the list to 248, according to the NIH. This is the 14thtime the agency has issued its Report on Carcinogens.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Cancer-Causing List: 7 New Substances Added by US

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Seven new substances have been added to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' list of cancer-causing agents. Six of these substances are listed as "known" to cause cancer, while one is "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen," according to a statement today (Nov. 3) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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"Obama warns of the danger of AI wiping out jobs" is about how people are losing jobs to AI. Drivers are going to lose jobs to self driving cars and factory workers are being replaced by improved robots. This is the same as the Industrial Revolution when workers lost their jobs to machines like the spinning jenny and water frame.

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President Obama joined a chorus of those warning of the potential downsides of artificial intelligence.

In an interview with Wired Magazine, Obama spoke of redesigning the social compact and starting a conversation around fair wages. He cited teachers as being underpaid, and called for a reexamination of what we value, and what we'll pay for.

Obama addressed basic income, a proposal for all citizens to receive a government stipend in order to meet their costs of living. The idea has gained recent support among some futurists and economists, given concerns over how technology will eliminate jobs and impact salariesin coming years.

"Whether a universal income is the right model -- is it gonna be accepted by a broad base of people? -- that's a debate that we'll be having over the next 10 or 20 years," Obama said.

Related: Is Uber's push for self-driving cars a job killer?

A 2013 Oxford study concluded that 47% of U.S. jobs are at risk of being handled by machines over perhaps a decade or two. Some experts fear we're headed toward mass unemployment.

Truck drivers, cab drivers and deliveryman are the most prominent example of those at risk. The tech and car industries are currently pouring billions into self-driving vehicle technology.

Businesses have long embraced automation because it lowers their costs and improves profits. But advances in technology are expected to broadly expand the jobs that automated machines can handle.

Of course, most Americans once worked on farms. Our country has survived transitions before. Yet experts caution this revolution in how we work could unfold much quicker, making it more difficult and unpleasant.

"Oh, we survived the Industrial Revolution, sure we did. But millions of people suffered tremendous hardship," said Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, in a recent interview with CNNMoney. "This revolution could be faster and sharper and more devastating."

Related: Amazon only needs a minute of human labor to ship your next package

The tech industry has made rapid advances because for decades, computers have doubled in strength every two years, what's called Moore's Law. For example, the everyday smartphone is more powerful than the computers used to land on the moon. The graphics on today's video games are overwhelmingly better than 20 years ago.

There are signs that we're already seeing the impact of digital technologies on employment. The number of working U.S. men has been declining for more than 60 years, according to a recent White House report. In 1954, 98% of men between the ages of 25 and 54 were in the workforce. Today, that figure is 88%.

Median wages are no longer keeping pace with the U.S. GDP, thinning out the middle class. Wealth is increasingly held by the top 1% of the country.Money is concentrated in a smaller group of people in digital businesses, which are typically winner-take-all markets. MIT professors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee detailed this in their 2014 book, The Second Machine Age.

While there were multiple big winners in earlier times, think Coke and Pepsi coexisting, or Ford and GM -- in the digital world there's generally only one winner. Look at Google in the search engine space, Microsoft's dominance on desktop operating systems and Facebook's runway success in social networking.

While technology has for centuries generally improved the human condition, it always brings some negatives too. And it's up to us to figure out what to do about them.

CNNMoney (Washington) First published October 12, 2016: 4:17 PM ET

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Obama warns of the danger of AI wiping out jobs

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In an interview with Wired Magazine, Obama spoke of redesigning the social compact and starting a conversation around fair wages. He cited teachers as being underpaid, and called for a reexamination of what we value, and what we'll pay for.

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Now NASA is making new asteroid detectors, and they are working. They do this by scanning data from NASA's network of telescopes and assessing the likelihood of a Near Earth Object's slamming into Earth. It's then able to have other telescopes around the world confirm its findings.

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Earthlings, always trust a Scout to have your back.

NASA's new asteroid detector, a computer program aptly named Scout, is the celestial equivalent of the person who yells "heads up" as a baseball comes barreling toward the stands.

Scout is a computer program designed to detect Near Earth Objects that could be on track for impact with Earth in a matter of days or weeks.

Scout works by scanning data from NASA's network of telescopes and assessing the likelihood of a Near Earth Object's slamming into Earth. It's then able to have other telescopes around the world confirm its findings.

"We can get a heads-up immediately, within an hour of the data being reported," Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told NBC News. Cholas has been part of the team working on refining Scout over the past year.

A Near Earth Object is a comet or asteroid with an orbit that brings it within 30 million miles of Earth's orbit. NASA and its partners have a catalogue of around 15,000 Near Earth Objects that don't appear to pose threats to Earth any time soon.
Related: Elon Musk Makes His Case for Colonizing Mars
Scout has already proven to be useful spotting the smaller objects as they near Earth. Chodas compared them to "a dot moving in the sky."

A Scout report issued Tuesday shows that a tiny rock will whiz by Earth on Wednesday at a distance of 58,500 miles. When it looked like an asteroid would make a close pass with Earth last weekend, Scout was able to determine that it would pass 310,000 miles away, giving Earth a roomy buffer zone.

Finding Threats Early

Scout also has a big brother, Sentry, which is designed to keep track of objects over the course of the century.

Kelly Fast, program manager for Near Earth Objects Observations at NASA, told NBC News that tools like Sentry and Scout are part of the first line of defense, allowing the space agency and its partners to "find them and keep track of them."

"The goal would be to have decades of lead time if there is something that could be a problem in the future," she said.
Related: Month in Space Pictures: Jupiter's Sunny Side and More
Anything larger than 30 to 50 meters could survive entering Earth's atmosphere and have the potential to inflict damage around its impact site, according to NASA.

Rob Landis, program executive for the Planetary Defense Coordination Office, told NBC News there's a mantra that sums up the work they do detecting Near Earth Objects: "Find them early."

"There is probably no greater gift that the space agencies of the world can provide humanity than to know the time and place of an impact event and to plan a response to it," he said.

Managing the Risk of an Impact

Whether it's decades or days, NASA has conducted a few simulations with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Landis said, allowing them to outline how they would respond to a potential close call.

NASA has never needed to mitigate a threat from a Near Earth Object. However, the agency has a number of concepts in the works so it's ready if the need ever arises.

One of those is set to be demonstrated as part of the Asteroid Redirect Mission, which is slated for 2021. While the scope of the project is intended to test tech to be used on a future Mars mission, it will also demonstrate a key planetary defense method call the "gravity tractor."

After capturing a boulder from the surface of an asteroid, NASA hopes to use the spacecraft's gravitational force to slowly alter the rock's trajectory.

Another possibility is the kinetic impactor method, which would work by sending one or more large, high-speed spacecraft into the path of a Near Earth Object, with the goal of changing its path.

Still, NASA says decades or more may be needed to successfully deflect a potential thread from a large asteroid using the kinetic impactor method.

"It's like having a reasonable insurance policy," Landis said. "God forbid you ever have to use it, but you can plan ahead as best as one can."

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NASA has a new line of defense against Near Earth Objects

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Earthlings, always trust a Scout to have your back. NASA's new asteroid detector, a computer program aptly named Scout, is the celestial equivalent of the person who yells "heads up" as a baseball comes barreling toward the stands.

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The transportation such as, cars, trains and ect improved a lot throughout the years. Cars improved in many ways including self-driving cars and cars that sense when other cars are near. Since, the accident with a Tesla scientists and engineers wanted to improve the cars. They decided to make cars stop when you were too close to another object. Also, they  made cars turn more smoothly so if you were too close to a curb the car would automatically turn a little more for the driver.  Cars and other forms of transportation improved throughout the years.

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Newsela | Self-driving car technology still has a way to go

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Free leveled news, primary sources, and more, with standards-aligned formative assessments.

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The Zika Virus is a disease that spread through people from the bite of an infected mosquito. Florida is the first place in the United States where the virus is being seen. It is dangerous to women who are pregnant. Many areas have been sprayed and treated to prevent anymore mosquitoes from coming in that area.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/zika-virus-found-mosquitoes-time-continental-us/story?id=41801681

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Poverty is still affecting many americans today.

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Lyme disease might be able to reach Warren. Much like Cholera, this disease can be caught very easily.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/05/25/lyme-disease-debate-can-condition-be-chronic.html

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Using hydroponics technology a town near the Arctic Circle can farm. It uses an insulated shipping container with glowing LED lights. They harvest kale, lettuce, basil, and other greens.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/arctic-farming-town-turns-hydroponics-fresh-greens-43295072

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Ang Lee believes the new technology that made for hyper-realistic action is worth trying again. He said, "When you get on the bike, you fall, you don’t make conclusion that two wheels make you fall. You try again." This is showing he is willing to try again, even if it isn't going to work.

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A new device called the Argus 2 is bringing blind people's sight partly back. It uses electric pulses from a camera on a pair of glasses to send an image to the brain.

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(CBS News) On Friday, an FDA Panel recommended approval of a remarkable device that helps some blind people regain part of their sight.

It's called the Argus 2 and it may allow those who have gone totally blind to regain some of their vision.

Attorney, Dean Lloyd, went blind when he was 34-years old. He suffers from Retinitis Pigmentosa, a hereditary disease with no cure.

"I had no vision for at least 17 years until I had the Argus 2 implant placed in my eye in July 2007," Lloyd says.

Lloyd is one of only 30 people worldwide to test the device. It has allowed him to distinguish black from white and he can even see shapes.

"In the last week or two I actually left my cane at home and used [Argus 2] by itself to get to the office 2 or 3 blocks [away] but it takes training and it takes a lot of thought process to make it work," Lloyd says.

The Argus 2 doesn't use Lloyd's eyes to see, instead, a camera mounted on his glasses captures images that are transmitted as electrical impulses to 60 electrodes implanted at the back of his eye.

These electrodes bypass the damaged cells of the retina and stimulate nerve cells in the brain.

The 60 points of light produce a very crude image compared to the millions of points that would be used in a healthy eye.

Dr. Eugene de Juan helped to develop the device and has a financial interest in the company that will sell it.

However, de Juan says: "the device is meant for use in patients that have lost all of their vision, don't have any vision at all. To help walk, to see cars go by, people, windows, those kinds of things."

Lloyd has high hopes for the Argus 2 as he dreams of improved vision.

"I want it more useful and more useful because I am one of those persons that has great expectations and a lot of motivation," Llloyd says.

You know how sometimes you take a digital picture and it's out of focus but there's special software to sharpen it? They're developing similar software for this device. They're looking to increase the number of electrodes at the back of the retina, that should provide more pixels and hopefully a better picture.

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New technology may bring sight back to blind

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(CBS News) On Friday, an FDA Panel recommended approval of a remarkable device that helps some blind people regain part of their sight. It's called the Argus 2 and it may allow those who have gone totally blind to regain some of their vision. Attorney, Dean Lloyd, went blind when he was 34-years old.

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The U.S Navy created a robot fish to  explore underwater and not get detected by their enemies. The Industrial Revolution was very similar in in way that inventions were being created. Such as the Steam Engine, Flying Shuttle, and the Spinning Jenny.

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Much like in the Industrial Revolution,  Apples' manufacturers are getting minimum wage. Also the factories are crowded and the workers were not getting treated well.

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report: poor conditions continue at apple's china suppliers - cnn

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Report: Poor conditions continue at Apple's China suppliers - CNN

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The biggest manufacturer of iconic Apple products including the iPhone and the iPad has again come under fire for the alleged treatment of its workers -- this time by a Hong Kong-based rights group.

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Robots can now perform surgery on the eye. In my article a robotic surgeon can perform fine surgery on eyes such as slicing through contacts, and cataract surgery. To use the robotic surgeon a surgeon has to be in the room with two 3-D haptic joysticks to move it around while it does the surgery.

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Axsis / Cambridge Consultants

See what it can do. A new surgical robot can make the micro-scale movements needed for a particularly delicate procedure: cataract surgery.

Axsis, a system developed by Cambridge Consultants, is a small, teleoperated robot with two arms tipped with tiny pincers. It's designed to operate on the eye with greater accuracy than a human.

Globally, 20 million people have cataract surgery every year, making it one of the most common surgeries in the world. Although complications are very rare, they still affect tens of thousands of people.

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Cataracts happen when the natural lens of the eye gets cloudy and obscures vision. To restore a person's sight, a surgeon cuts a small hole in the lens, scoops out the bit that's gone cloudy, and replaces it with what's essentially a permanent plastic contact lens.

Axsis / Cambridge Consultants

The whole thing requires a steady hand, and the most common complication arises when a surgeon accidentally pierces the back of the lens, a thin membrane that is only a few millimetres off target, causing hazy vision.

Axsis aims to prevent this kind of human error. The device's articulating pincers are mounted on arms about the size of drinks cans, with extremely light, strong "tendons" made of the same material NASA uses for its solar sails. These pincers can sweep across a 10-millimetre space - the size of the lens of the eye. This is just a demonstrations model; in the final product, the pincers will be replaced with scalpels.

Robo halo

To control the robot, the surgeon sits at a station nearby and uses two 3D haptic joysticks to move the pincers while watching their work on a screen. The image on the screen is enlarged, so the surgeon can make more precise movements, with the pincers operating at a tiny scale not possible with the human hand.

One benefit of the system is that the software disables certain boundaries from being breached. "It won't let you make the mistake of punching through the back of the lens," says Chris Wagner, the lead roboticist on the project.

Axsis / Cambridge Consultants

We already use surgical robots, such as the Da Vinci system, for some other operations. But these robots are usually quite large, often completely enveloping the patient and using long, telescoping instruments.

"The attachments need to do huge sweeps outside the body to do minute movements inside the patient," says Wagner. Axsis is scaled down to a small halo around the head. In part thanks to its smaller size, the system will be cheaper than other robotic surgery techniques.

And while other robots have been designed to work at small scales - even on eyes - they have not done cataract surgery. Trials of a robotic system developed by Dutch firm Preceyes Medical Robotics are ongoing at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital and focus on the retina, rather than the lens.

First eyes, then guts

Ian Murdoch, an ophthalmologist at University College London, says he is interested in the idea that Axsis prevents piercing the back of the lens. "This happens in about 0.1 to 0.7 per cent of cases," he says. "If the complication rate is less then this would obviously be great."

However, Murdoch wonders if Axsis really offers much advantage over existing advanced cataract surgery techniques, such as laser cataract surgery.

Axsis / Cambridge Consultants

Peter Kim, a surgeon at the Children's National Health System in Washington DC who is working on a larger, autonomous surgical robot, says that microsurgical robots are already used in some clinical settings, such as the NeuroArm robot used in brain surgery. "I applaud the miniaturisation, but I am not clear on the unmet need and value proposition," he says.

But Axsis's creators say that cataract surgery is just the start. "I think it will quickly find more applications," says Wagner. It could, for example, be used in gastrointestinal operations. Put the pincer end of Axsis on an endoscope and it could solve any small problems - like removing polyps - then and there. "Nowadays, when you find something in the colon or in the stomach, you leave it there," says Wagner.

Wagner hopes the robot could one day enable operations surgeons can only dream of. "We just want to push forward what's possible."
Read more: Good looking: Super lens implants are going mainstream

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Robot surgeon can slice eyes finely enough to remove cataracts

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See what it can do. A new surgical robot can make the micro-scale movements needed for a particularly delicate procedure: cataract surgery. Axsis, a system developed by Cambridge Consultants, is a small, teleoperated robot with two arms tipped with tiny pincers. It's designed to operate on the eye with greater accuracy than a human.

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My article is about police using new technology to track people by their faces.

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Newsela | Surveillance technology raises concerns about privacy violations

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The zika virus can affect pregnant women leading to birth defects. It was first spread by a mosquito bite. It is very dangerous, because it can spread and it is not easy to get rid of. The first place where the zika virus was seen in America was Florida.

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A man infected with Zika virus in Puerto Rico has died from complications of the infection, health officials said Friday.

The man, in his 70s, died from internal bleeding caused by a rare immune reaction to the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

It's the first death in the United States from Zika virus.
Related: How Can Zika Kill You?
"This demonstrates that, as with Guillain Barre Syndrome cases, that there can be severe manifestations that result from Zika virus infection," the CDC's Tyler Sharp told NBC News.

The victim had a condition called thrombocytopenia - low platelet count that can result in bleeding. Sharp said it's a rare but known complication of Zika and not a sign that the virus is causing worse symptoms than expected.

Zika's spreading fast across Latin America and the Caribbean. The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico's been hit hard, too.

Sharp, an epidemiologist at the CDC Dengue Branch in San Juan, Puerto Rico, said the man who died developed the low platelet count as a severe side-effect of infection with Zika. It's called immune thrombocytopenic purpura.

"With immune thrombocytopenic purpura cases, our best understanding is those antibodies that normally would be directed against Zika are actually directed against platelets," Sharp said. "It's the immune system attacking the host."

Platelet counts fall, the blood doesn't clot well and a patients can develop bleeding - usually not severe, but sometimes severe enough to cause shock. It can be caused by a number of infections.

"Zika virus continuing to circulate in Puerto Rico," Sharp said.

"If people get an illness with fever and rash, and especially if they develop any bleeding manifestations, they need to seek immediate medical care."

Dengue and chikingunya virus, both relatives of Zika, are also circulating in Puerto Rico. Dengue infection can cause dengue hemorrhagic fever, which can be deadly, especially if not treated quickly.

The CDC and Puerto Rico health department reported the death in a regular update on Zika. Health officials said they tested more than 6,000 people for Zika infection. About 11 percent of them - 683 people - had Zika.

Of them, 65 are pregnant women. And 17 patients, or 2 percent of all, were sick enough to require hospitalization, the CDC team reported. Five had Guillan-Barre, a paralyzing syndrome that can follow many different infections and that's now being noted as Zika infects hundreds of thousands of people in the Americas.
Related: First Commercial Zika Test Gets U.S. Approval
Zika normally causes very mild symptoms. Doctors are not sure why it has started causing severe birth defects and immune system reactions like Guillain Barre as it spreads across Latin America. It could be the virus has changed somehow, or it could be that because so many people are being infected all at once, normally rare complications are being seen more commonly.

The most common symptoms in Puerto Rico were rash, muscle aches, headache and fever. In other outbreaks, up to 80 percent of those infected never even had symptoms, but it's not clear how many people in Puerto Rico have been infected and not known it.

Complications such as immune thrombocytopenic purpura have been reported in Zika cases before, but patients usually recover. Sharp said the man who died had other health conditions, too.

Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical medicine specialist at the Baylor College of Medicine, said the death in Puerto Rico does not set off alarm bells in his head.

"I don't think we are going to see a lot of mortality from Zika virus," Hotez told NBC News. The bigger worry, he said, is birth defects.

Zika causes severe brain damage in developing fetuses if the mother is actively infected while pregnant. Doctors do not yet know how many pregnant women will have children with birth defects as a result of Zika.

Sharp says it's a reminder that people need to do what they can to avoid mosquito bites where Zika is circulating. That includes using repellents, wearing long-sleeved clothing and staying inside behind screened windows when possible.

"Although Zika virus-associated deaths are rare, the first identified death in Puerto Rico highlights the possibility of severe cases, as well as the need for continued outreach to raise health care providers' awareness of complications that might lead to severe disease or death," Sharp and other health officials wrote in a CDC report.
This is a breaking news story. Please refresh for updates.

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U.S. Reports First Zika Virus Death, in Puerto Rico

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A man infected with Zika virus in Puerto Rico has died from complications of the infection, health officials said Friday. The man, in his 70s, died from internal bleeding caused by a rare immune reaction to the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

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My article is about Lyme Disease that we may even carry in Warren. We can easily get it hanging around the woods. Lyme disease is when you get bitten by a tick. Most of the time we have antibiotics for it, but there are some people who can severely be affected because of it. If the antibiotics don't help it causes a syndrome called PTLDS This can affect anyone including animals. People are still finding a stronger cure for this horrible disease.

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About my article:
The article I read was called," Secrets, Lies, and Sweatshops, Are the Chinese Factories Better For Workers or just Better at Hiding Abuse." The main idea of this article was about Chinese factories conditions. China is one of Americas main suppliers in many different fields.  Many large companies send out inspectors to check up on the factories there companies are partners with. There is a mock black market in china, one that factory owners can hire people to clean op there trail. Make the factory look like there was no abuse or find out about underpaid workers or any broken Chinese laws.

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Tang Yinghong was caught in an impossible squeeze. For years, his employer, Ningbo Beifa Group, had prospered as a top supplier of pens, mechanical pencils, and highlighters to Wal-Mart Stores and other major retailers. But late last year, Tang learned that auditors from Wal-Mart, Beifa's biggest customer, were about to inspect labor conditions at the factory in the Chinese coastal city of Ningbo where he worked as an administrator. Wal-Mart had already on three occasions caught Beifa paying its 3,000 workers less than China's minimum wage and violating overtime rules, Tang says. Under the U.S. chain's labor rules, a fourth offense would end the relationship.

Help arrived suddenly in the form of an unexpected phone call from a man calling himself Lai Mingwei. The caller said he was with Shanghai Corporate Responsibility Management & Consulting Co., and for a $5,000 fee, he'd take care of Tang's Wal-Mart problem. "He promised us he could definitely get us a pass for the audit," Tang says.

Lai provided advice on how to create fake but authentic-looking records and suggested that Beifa hustle any workers with grievances out of the factory on the day of the audit, Tang recounts. The consultant also coached Beifa managers on what questions they could expect from Wal-Mart's inspectors, says Tang. After following much of Lai's advice, the Beifa factory in Ningbo passed the audit earlier this year, Tang says, even though the company didn't change any of its practices.

For more than a decade, major American retailers and name brands have answered accusations that they exploit "sweatshop" labor with elaborate codes of conduct and on-site monitoring. But in China many factories have just gotten better at concealing abuses. Internal industry documents reviewed by BusinessWeek reveal that numerous Chinese factories keep double sets of books to fool auditors and distribute scripts for employees to recite if they are questioned. And a new breed of Chinese consultant has sprung up to assist companies like Beifa in evading audits. "Tutoring and helping factories deal with audits has become an industry in China," says Tang, 34, who recently left Beifa of his own volition to start a Web site for workers.

A lawyer for Beifa, Zhou Jie, confirms that the company employed the Shanghai consulting firm but denies any dishonesty related to wages, hours, or outside monitoring. Past audits had "disclosed some problems, and we took necessary measures correspondingly," he explains in a letter responding to questions. The lawyer adds that Beifa has "become the target of accusations" by former employees "whose unreasonable demands have not been satisfied." Reached by cell phone, a man identifying himself as Lai says that the Shanghai consulting firm helps suppliers pass audits, but he declines to comment on his work for Beifa.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Amy Wyatt says the giant retailer will investigate the allegations about Beifa brought to its attention by BusinessWeek. Wal-Mart has stepped up factory inspections, she adds, but it acknowledges that some suppliers are trying to undermine monitoring: "We recognize there is a problem. There are always improvements that need to be made, but we are confident that new procedures are improving conditions."

Chinese export manufacturing is rife with tales of deception. The largest single source of American imports, China's factories this year are expected to ship goods to the U.S. worth $280 billion. American companies continually demand lower prices from their Chinese suppliers, allowing American consumers to enjoy inexpensive clothes, sneakers, and electronics. But factory managers in China complain in interviews that U.S. price pressure creates a powerful incentive to cheat on labor standards that American companies promote as a badge of responsible capitalism. These standards generally incorporate the official minimum wage, which is set by local or provincial governments and ranges from $45 to $101 a month. American companies also typically say they hew to the government-mandated workweek of 40 to 44 hours, beyond which higher overtime pay is required. These figures can be misleading, however, as the Beijing government has had only limited success in pushing local authorities to enforce Chinese labor laws. That's another reason abuses persist and factory oversight frequently fails.

Some American companies now concede that the cheating is far more pervasive than they had imagined. "We've come to realize that, while monitoring is crucial to measuring the performance of our suppliers, it doesn't per se lead to sustainable improvements," says Hannah Jones, Nike Inc.'s vice-president for corporate responsibility. "We still have the same core problems."

This raises disturbing questions. Guarantees by multi-nationals that offshore suppliers are meeting widely accepted codes of conduct have been important to maintaining political support in the U.S. for growing trade ties with China, especially in the wake of protests by unions and antiglobalization activists. "For many retailers, audits are a way of covering themselves," says Auret van Heerden, chief executive of the Fair Labor Assn., a coalition of 20 apparel and sporting goods makers and retailers, including Nike, Adidas Group, Eddie Bauer, and Nordstrom. But can corporations successfully impose Western labor standards on a nation that lacks real unions and a meaningful rule of law?

Historically associated with sweatshop abuses but now trying to reform its suppliers, Nike says that one factory it caught falsifying records several years ago is the Zhi Qiao Garments Co. The dingy concrete-walled facility set near mango groves and rice paddies in the steamy southern city of Panyu employs 600 workers, most in their early 20s. They wear blue smocks and lean over stitching machines and large steam-blasting irons. Today the factory complies with labor-law requirements, Nike says, but Zhi Qiao's general manager, Peter Wang, says it's not easy. "Before, we all played the cat-and-mouse game," but that has ended, he claims. "Any improvement you make costs more money." Providing for overtime wages is his biggest challenge, he says. By law, he is supposed to provide time-and-a-half pay after eight hours on weekdays and between double and triple pay for Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. "The price [Nike pays] never increases one penny," Wang complains, "but compliance with labor codes definitely raises costs."

A Nike spokesman says in a written statement that the company, based in Beaverton, Ore., "believes wages are best set by the local marketplace in which a contract factory competes for its workforce." One way Nike and several other companies are seeking to improve labor conditions is teaching their suppliers more efficient production methods that reduce the need for overtime.

The problems in China aren't limited to garment factories, where labor activists have documented sweatshop conditions since the early 1990s. Widespread violations of Chinese labor laws are also surfacing in factories supplying everything from furniture and household appliances to electronics and computers. Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and other companies that rely heavily on contractors in China to supply notebook PCs, digital cameras, and handheld devices have formed an industry alliance to combat the abuses.

A compliance manager for a major multinational company who has overseen many factory audits says that the percentage of Chinese suppliers caught submitting false payroll records has risen from 46 percent to 75 percent in the past four years. This manager, who requested anonymity, estimates that only 20 percent of Chinese suppliers comply with wage rules, while just 5 percent obey hour limitations.

A recent visit by the compliance manager to a toy manufacturer in Shenzhen illustrated the crude ways that some suppliers conceal mistreatment. The manager recalls smelling strong paint fumes in the poorly ventilated and aging factory building. Young women employees were hunched over die-injection molds, using spray guns to paint storybook figurines. The compliance manager discovered a second workshop behind a locked door that a factory official initially refused to open but eventually did. In the back room, a young woman, who appeared to be under the legal working age of 16, tried to hide behind her co-workers on the production line, the visiting compliance manager says. The Chinese factory official admitted he was violating various work rules.

The situation in China is hard to keep in perspective. For all the shortcomings in factory conditions and oversight, even some critics say that workers' circumstances are improving overall. However compromised, pressure from multinationals has curbed some of the most egregious abuses by outside suppliers. Factories owned directly by such corporations as Motorola Inc. and General Electric Co. generally haven't been accused of mistreating their employees. And a booming economy and tightening labor supply in China have emboldened workers in some areas to demand better wages, frequently with success. Even so, many Chinese laborers, especially migrants from poor rural regions, still seek to work as many hours as possible, regardless of whether they are properly paid.

In this shifting, often murky environment, labor auditing has mushroomed into a multimillion-dollar industry. Internal corporate investigators and such global auditing agencies as Cal Safety Compliance, sgs of Switzerland, and Bureau Veritas of France operate a convoluted and uncoordinated oversight system. They follow varying corporate codes of conduct, resulting in some big Chinese factories having to post seven or eight different sets of rules. Some factories receive almost daily visits from inspection teams demanding payroll and production records, facility tours, and interviews with managers and workers. "McDonald's, Walt Disney, and Wal-Mart are doing thousands of audits a year that are not harmonized," says van Heerden of Fair Labor. Among factory managers, "audit fatigue sets in," he says.

Some companies that thought they were making dramatic progress are discovering otherwise. A study commissioned by Nike last year covered 569 factories it uses in China and around the world that employ more than 300,000 workers. It found labor-code violations in every single one. Some factories "hide their work practices by maintaining two or even three sets of books," by coaching workers to "mislead auditors about their work hours, and by sending portions of production to unauthorized contractors where we have no oversight," the Nike study found.

The Fair Labor Association released its own study last November based on unannounced audits of 88 of its members' supplier factories in 18 countries. It found an average of 18 violations per factory, including excessive hours, underpayment of wages, health and safety problems, and worker harassment. The actual violation rate is probably higher, the FLA said, because "factory personnel have become sophisticated in concealing noncompliance related to wages. They often hide original documents and show monitors falsified books."

While recently auditing an apparel manufacturer in Dongguan that supplies American importers, the corporate compliance manager says he discussed wage levels with the factory's Hong Kong-based owner. The 2,000 employees who operate sewing and stitching machines in the multi-story complex often put in overtime but earn an average of only $125 a month, an amount the owner grudgingly acknowledged to the compliance manager doesn't meet Chinese overtime-pay requirements or corporate labor codes. "These goals are a fantasy," the owner said. "Maybe in two or three decades we can meet them."

Pinning down what Chinese production workers are paid can be tricky. Based on Chinese government figures, the average manufacturing wage in China is 64 cents an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and demographer Judith Banister of Javelin Investments, a consulting firm in Beijing. That rate assumes a 40-hour week. In fact, 60- to 100-hour weeks are common in China, meaning that the real manufacturing wage is far less. Based on his own calculations from plant inspections, the veteran compliance manager estimates that employees at garment, electronics, and other export factories typically work more than 80 hours a week and make only 42 cents an hour.

BusinessWeek reviewed summaries of 28 recent industry audits of Chinese factories serving U.S. customers. A few factories supplying Black & Decker, Williams-Sonoma, and other well-known brands turned up clean, the summaries show. But these facilities were the exceptions.

At most of the factories, auditors discovered records apparently meant to falsify payrolls and time sheets. One typical report concerns Zhongshan Tat Shing Toys Factory, which employs 650 people in the southern city of Zhongshan. The factory's main customers are Wal-Mart and Target. When an American-sponsored inspection team showed up this spring, factory managers produced time sheets showing each worker put in eight hours a day, Monday through Friday, and was paid double the local minimum wage of 43 cents per hour for eight hours on Saturday, according to an audit report.

But when auditors interviewed workers in one section, some said that they were paid less than the minimum wage and that most of them were obliged to work an extra three to five hours a day, without overtime pay, the report shows. Most toiled an entire month without a day off. Workers told auditors that the factory had a different set of records showing actual overtime hours, the report says. Factory officials claimed that some of the papers had been destroyed by fire.

Wal-Mart's Wyatt doesn't dispute the discrepancies but stresses that the company is getting more aggressive overall in its monitoring. Wal-Mart says it does more audits than any other company - 13,600 reviews of 7,200 factories last year alone - and permanently banned 141 factories in 2005 as a result of serious infractions, such as using child labor. In a written statement, Target doesn't respond to the allegations but says that it "takes very seriously" the fair treatment of factory workers. It adds that it "is committed to taking corrective action - up to and including termination of the relationship for vendors" that violate local labor law or Target's code of conduct. The Zhongshan factory didn't respond to repeated requests for comment.

An audit late last year of Young Sun Lighting Co., a maker of lamps for Home Depot, Sears, and other retailers, highlighted similar inconsistencies. Every employee was on the job five days a week from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with a lunch break and no overtime hours, according to interviews with managers, as well as time sheets and payroll records provided by the 300-worker factory in Dongguan, an industrial city in Guangdong Province. But other records auditors found at the site and elsewhere - backed up by auditor interviews with workers - revealed that laborers worked an extra three to five hours a day with only one or two days a month off during peak production periods. Workers said they received overtime pay, but the "auditor strongly felt that these workers were coached," the audit report states.

Young Sun denies ever violating the rules set by its Western customers. In written answers to questions, the lighting manufacturer says that it doesn't coach employees on how to respond to auditors and that "at present, there are no" workers who are putting in three to five extra hours a day and getting only one or two days off each month. Young Sun says that it follows all local Chinese overtime rules.

Home Depot doesn't contest the inconsistencies in the audit reports about Young Sun and three other factories in China. "There is no perfect factory, I can guarantee you," a company spokeswoman says. Instead of cutting off wayward suppliers, Home Depot says that it works with factories on corrective actions. If the retailer becomes aware of severe offenses, such as the use of child labor, it terminates the supplier. A Sears spokesman declined to comment.

Coaching of workers and midlevel managers to mislead auditors is widespread, the auditing reports and BusinessWeek interviews show. A document obtained last year during an inspection at one Chinese fabric export factory in the southern city of Guangzhou instructed administrators to take these actions when faced with a surprise audit: "First notify underage trainees, underage full-time workers, and workers without identification to leave the manufacturing workshop through the back door. Order them not to loiter near the dormitory area. Secondly, immediately order the receptionist to gather all relevant documents and papers." Other pointers include instructing all workers to put on necessary protective equipment such as earplugs and face masks.

Some U.S. retailers this evidence isn't representative and that their auditing efforts are working. BusinessWeek asked J.C. Penney Co. about audit reports included among those the magazine reviewed that appear to show falsification of records to hide overtime and pay violations at two factories serving the large retailer. Penney spokeswoman Darcie M. Brossart says the company immediately investigated the factories, and its "auditors observed no evidence of any legal compliance issues."

In any case, the two factories are too small to be seen as typical, Penney executives argue. The chain has been consolidating its China supply base and says that 80 percent of its imports now come from factories with several thousand workers apiece, which are managed by large Hong Kong trading companies that employ their own auditors. Quality inspectors for Penney and other buyers are at their supplier sites constantly, so overtime violations are hard to hide, Brossart says.

Chinese factory officials say, however, that just because infractions are difficult to discern doesn't mean they're not occurring. "It's a challenge for us to meet these codes of conduct," says Ron Chang, the Taiwanese general manager of Nike supplier Shoetown Footwear Co., which employs 15,000 workers in Qingyuan, Guangdong. Given the fierce competition in China for foreign production work, "we can't ask Nike to increase our price," he says, so "how can we afford to pay the higher salary?" By reducing profit margins from 30 percent to 5 percent over the past 18 years, Shoetown has managed to stay in business and obey Nike's rules, he says.

But squeezing margins doesn't solve the larger social issue. Chang says he regularly loses skilled employees to rival factories that break the rules because many workers are eager to put in longer hours than he offers, regardless of whether they get paid overtime rates. Ultimately, the economics of global outsourcing may trump any system of oversight that Western companies attempt. And these harsh economic realities could make it exceedingly difficult to achieve both the low prices and the humane working conditions that U.S. consumers have been promised.

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Tang Yinghong was caught in an impossible squeeze. For years, his employer, Ningbo Beifa Group, had prospered as a top supplier of pens, mechanical pencils, and highlighters to Wal-Mart Stores and other major retailers.

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The H7N9 bird flu is a disease in the present time that is affecting many people's' lives. The bird flu is a contagious disease that infects all kinds of animals, as well as humans. For example, animals can infect each other just from direct contact in cages. The research team led by Yi Guan discovered this when a ferret was infected when in a separate cage. The mysterious bird flu is spreading in a way which the research team has not uncovered yet. The bird flu has infected 130 people and killed 30. They suspected that these infections must have some connections to infected poultry.

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The H7N9 bird flu can spread from one mammal to another - meaning it could also spread person to person, an international team of researchers reported Thursday.

Researchers haven't been exactly sure how H7N9 is spreading. They know it can infect people - it's infected more than 130 people and killed more than 30 of them - but they have suspected most of the victims had some sort of contact with infected poultry.

The research team, led by Yi Guan of the University of Hong Kong, tried infecting ferrets - the animals closest to humans when it comes to catching flu.

The animals could infect one another by direct contact in cages. And one ferret kept in a separate cage was infected as well, they report in this week's issue of the journal Science.

"Under appropriate conditions human-to-human transmission of the H7N9 virus may be possible," they wrote.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says he is not too worried by the findings. "We already know you can infect mammals," said Fauci, who was not involved in the research.

"That is what influenza does. We know that. You are talking about a handful of ferrets. You can't make major extrapolations."

Officials are keeping a close eye on H7N9 because it has the potential to cause a human pandemic. So far, it doesn't seem to infect people easily and people who are infected do not seem to spread it to others much, if at all. But influenza viruses change quickly and unpredictably and if one starts passing easily from one person to another, it could spread.

The experiment also showed that the ferrets could pass the infection before they started showing symptoms. Human flu does this too - that's why it spreads so quickly and easily every year, because people are out and about, touching others, before they know they are sick.

"If this virus acquires the ability to efficiently transmit from human-to-human, extensive spread of this virus may be inevitable, as quarantine measures will lag behind its spread," the researchers wrote in Science.

"Assuming that poultry is the source of the H7N9 virus, continued prevalence of this virus could lead to it becoming endemic in poultry as has occurred with the Asian highly pathogenic H5N1 and H9N2 virus lineages," they added. Endemic viruses are established and cause constant outbreaks.

"If so, the opportunities for the H7N9 virus to evolve to acquire human-to-human transmissibility, or to be introduced to pigs, would greatly increase. To prevent this happening, it may be advisable to reconsider the management of live poultry markets, especially in the urban areas."

New H7N9 infections appear to have trailed off in China. World Health Organization officials say it might be because officials are closing poultry markets and cleaning them. Or it could be because it's spring and influenza tends to die down in the spring.

Marc-Alain Widdowson of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the virus doesn't make poultry sick, so it could spread quietly and easily.

"One thing that we are particularly worried about is there is a tremendous amount of poultry that goes from China into Vietnam," said Widdowson, who visited China with a CDC team to investigate the outbreak.

"One of the things we are looking at is ramping up surveillance in bird markers and in the population."

People who buy an infected chicken won't know, because H7N9 doesn't make the birds sick they way H5N1 does, Widdowson says. "It worries me substantially," he said.

"There's absolutely no doubt it has got some very concerning mutations which suggest it may be adapting to human receptors. These make it closer to what we are all fearing, which is a virus that can spread sustainably humans to human and cause severe disease."

Related:
Mystery illness in Alabama mostly colds and flu H7N9 has cost billions US safe so far from two new viruses

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H7N9 bird flu spreads much like ordinary flu

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The H7N9 bird flu can spread from one mammal to another - meaning it could also spread person to person, an international team of researchers reported Thursday. Researchers haven't been exactly sure how H7N9 is spreading.