Make a Musical Greeting Card to Annoy or Delight Your Friends and Family [DIY]

Make a Musical Greeting Card to Annoy or Delight Your Friends and FamilyLove them or hate them, musical greeting cards will almost always bring a smile to someone's face, but the smile might be widened a bit if you create your own music and card. Blogger Jarv shows his easy method to making the music happen.

Using an ATtiny85, a cheap speaker, battery holder, and battery, the build comes in under $5. The music is created in Musescore, a free composition and notation program. If you don't fancy yourself a composer, there's also a guide to importing MIDI tracks into the program and simplifying them for play in your card. You'll need to construct the card yourself, but if you've always wanted to blast a MIDI version of Warrant's "Cherry Pie" in a greeting card, this is probably your only chance. You can find the guide and codes over on Jarv's site.

Custom musical greeting card for less than $5 | Jarv.org via Hack a Day

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/B3VOxePlKVk/make-your-own-musical-greeting-card-to-annoy-or-delight-your-friends-and-family

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'Al-Qaida sympathizer' accused of NYC bomb plots (AP)

NEW YORK ? An "al-Qaida sympathizer" accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home remained in police custody after an arraignment on numerous terrorism-related charges.

Jose Pimentel of Manhattan was described by Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a Sunday news conference announcing Pimentel's arrest as "a 27-year-old al-Qaida sympathizer" who was motivated by terrorist propaganda and resentment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said police had to move quickly to arrest Pimentel on Saturday because he was ready to carry out his plan.

"He was in fact putting this bomb together," Kelly said. "He was drilling holes and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with that bomb."

Ten years after 9/11, New York remains a prime terrorism target. Bloomberg said at least 14 terrorist plots, including the latest alleged scheme, have targeted the city since the Sept. 11 attacks. No attack has been successful, however. Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad is serving a life sentence for trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010.

Kelly said Sunday that Pimentel was energized and motivated to carry out his plan by the Sept. 30 killing of al-Qaida's U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

"He decided to build the bomb August of this year, but clearly he jacked up his speed after the elimination of al-Awlaki," Kelly said.

An unemployed U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic, Pimentel was "plotting to bomb police patrol cars and also postal facilities as well as targeted members of our armed services returning from abroad," Bloomberg said.

New York police had him under surveillance for at least a year and were working with a confidential informant; no injury to anyone or damage to property is alleged, Kelly said. In addition, authorities have no evidence that Pimentel was working with anyone else, the mayor said.

"He appears to be a total lone wolf," the mayor said. "He was not part of a larger conspiracy emanating from abroad."

At Pimentel's arraignment, his lawyer Joseph Zablocki said his client's behavior leading up to the arrest was not that of a conspirator trying to conceal some violent scheme. Zablocki said Pimentel was public about his activities and was not trying to hide anything.

"I don't believe that this case is nearly as strong as the people believe," Zablocki said. "He (Pimentel) has this very public online profile. ... This is not the way you go about committing a terrorist attack."

Pimentel, also known as Muhammad Yusuf, was denied bail and remained in custody. The bearded, bespectacled man wore a black T-shirt and black drawstring pants and smiled at times during the proceeding. His mother and brother attended the arraignment, Zablocki said.

Pimentel is accused of having an explosive device Saturday when he was arrested, one he planned to use against others and property to terrorize the public. The charges accuse him of conspiracy going back at least to October 2010, and include first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act.

Bloomberg said at the news conference that Pimentel represents the type of threat FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned about as U.S. forces erode the ability of terrorists to carry out large scale attacks.

"This is just another example of New York City because we are an iconic city ... this is a city that people would want to take away our freedoms gravitate to and focus on," Bloomberg said.

Kelly said a confidential informant had numerous conversations with Pimentel on Sept. 7 in which he expressed interest in building small bombs and targeting banks, government and police buildings.

Pimentel also posted on his website trueislam1.com and on blogs his support of al-Qaida and belief in jihad, and promoted an online magazine article that described in detail how to make a bomb, Kelly said.

Among his Internet postings, the commissioner said, was an article that states: "People have to understand that America and its allies are all legitimate targets in warfare."

The New York Police Department's Intelligence Division was involved in the arrest. Kelly said Pimentel spent most of his years in Manhattan and lived about five years in Schenectady. He said police in the Albany area tipped New York City police off to Pimentel's activities.

Asked why federal authorities were not involved in the case, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said there was communication with them but his office felt that given the timeline "it was appropriate to proceed under state charges."

About 1,000 of the city's roughly 35,000 officers are assigned each day to counterterrorism operations. The NYPD also sends officers overseas to report on how other cities deal with terrorism. Through federal grants and city funding, the NYPD has spent millions of dollars on technology to outfit the department with the latest tools ? from portable radiation detectors to the network of hundreds of cameras that can track suspicious activity.

Alexis Smith, 22, who lives in an apartment in the same building as Pimentel, said she was shocked that he was a suspect in a terrorist plot. "He was always very courteous to us," she said, adding that Pimentel helped her carry groceries and luggage into the building.

"It's nice to know he was only working alone," she said.

___

Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz and Colleen Long and AP video journalist David R. Martin contributed to this report from New York. AP writer Samantha Gross also contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111121/ap_on_re_us/us_nyc_bomb_plot

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Penn State recovery gets boost from Freeh's hiring

Ken Frazier, right, chairman of the Penn State University special committee, speaks during a press availability to announce former FBI director Louis Freeh, left, will lead an independent investigation into allegations of child abuse by a former Penn State employee Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Ken Frazier, right, chairman of the Penn State University special committee, speaks during a press availability to announce former FBI director Louis Freeh, left, will lead an independent investigation into allegations of child abuse by a former Penn State employee Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Former FBI director Louis Freeh, speaks after it was announced by Ken Frazier, chairman of the Penn State University special committee, that Freeh will lead an independent investigation into allegations of child abuse by a former Penn State employee Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Former FBI director Louis Freeh, left, answers questions as Ron Tomalis, vice chairman of the Penn State special committee, center, and Ken Frazier, chairman of the Penn State University special committee, stand nearby during a press availability to announce Freeh will lead an independent investigation into allegations of child abuse by a former Penn State employee, on Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Former FBI director Louis Freeh, second from left, listens during a press availability to announce he will lead an independent investigation into allegations of child abuse by a former Penn State employee Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Former FBI director Louis Freeh, pauses while speaking after it was announced by Ken Frazier, chairman of the Penn State University special committee, that Freeh will lead an independent investigation into allegations of child abuse by a former Penn State employee, on Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

(AP) ? As a dyed-in-the-wool Penn State alumnus, Jeff Jubelirer watched helplessly as his beloved alma mater became engulfed in an explosive child sex-abuse scandal this month. As a crisis communications specialist, he cringed.

Jubelirer, based in Philadelphia, described the university's initial response to the allegations involving retired assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky as disastrous ? "like an ostrich who hides its head."

Still, he and other experts say Penn State's shattered reputation can be repaired. And perhaps the biggest step in that direction was the university's announcement Monday that it has hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh to oversee an internal investigation.

"A no-holds-barred assessment of what happened and what went wrong" is critical if the school is to restore the faith of students, staff and alumni, said Terry Hartle, senior vice president at the American Council on Education.

Hartle said the universities involved in the biggest crises of the past 15 years ? the massacre at Virginia Tech; false rape allegations at Duke; and a bonfire accident that killed 12 at Texas A&M ? have all rebounded, in part due to a "sincere willingness" to investigate and ensure catastrophe doesn't strike twice.

"The case of the other three institutions would suggest that Penn State will be able to recover from this terrible scandal," Hartle said. "Institutions have demonstrated the capacity to candidly address the problem and then to move beyond it."

The crisis in State College began Nov. 5, when authorities announced Sandusky had been charged with molesting eight boys over 15 years. According to a grand jury report, many of the sexual assaults took place on campus; at least one was reported to Penn State officials.

Sandusky maintains his innocence, as do two administrators ? Tim Curley and Gary Schultz ? charged with a cover-up.

But as media descended on Happy Valley, the days became a blur of closed-door meetings and hastily called ? and sometimes canceled ? news conferences. Iconic football coach Joe Paterno announced his retirement, only to be fired hours later. Student demonstrations turned violent. Longtime president Graham Spanier was ousted.

And the initial silence from Penn State trustees was deafening. It took days for the board to issue a simple statement acknowledging the allegations and the pain they had caused.

The delay was also inexplicable, considering administrators had testified before the grand jury and knew charges were possible, said Sean Darcy, who worked as a media liaison for three New Jersey governors.

"As a story, it's been mishandled from Day 1," said Darcy, now of Round World Consulting. Even worse, he later added, "all of the great work done at the university and by their alumni will be at risk of being viewed through tainted perspective because of the alleged actions of one man and the university's inability to handle it."

In the first few days after the accusations, the school's board of trustees hired a high-powered public relations firm and named two trustees to head an internal probe. But critics, including the university's faculty senate, called for outside investigators.

Penn State went a step further Monday in announcing Freeh would oversee the examination and gave him broad leeway to investigate anyone at the school, from department staffers to trustees themselves.

Considering the central players in the scandal were administrators who had spent decades at the university, and Penn State had already turned to insiders for its new president and athletic director, it had little choice but to turn the investigation over to somebody with no ties to the school.

"In crisis situations, one has to more than ever give the appearance that the person conducting the investigation is beyond reproach and is completely untainted by an affiliation with any element of the institution," said Sheldon Steinbach, a Washington D.C.-based attorney who has represented colleges and universities for 42 years

Steinbach said the decision the decision to stick with former Provost Rodney Erickson as Penn State's new president was "a judgment call only the board can make, but going outside to somebody of Freeh's knowledge, capacity and national respect will add credibility to everything that emerges from the investigation."

During a crisis, officials need to consider their school's long-term reputation, as well as the reaction of donors and prospective students, said Rae Goldsmith, a vice president at the Washington-based Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

"What all of these people are looking for is how the institution responds and what actions it takes," Goldsmith said. "While a crisis is deeply challenging ... it's also an opportunity for the institution to demonstrate its values as it responds."

Jubelirer said Penn State came up painfully short on that front. And he worries about the lasting impact on students, staff, alumni, donors, potential recruits and even state lawmakers, who allot the school an annual subsidy.

"Everything is affected by this scandal, not just the football program," Jubelirer said. "It's a nightmare."

A 1993 graduate and donor whose family had season football tickets for years, Jubelirer noted he was disappointed that it took several days to for his local alumni chapter to send emails acknowledging the crisis.

But he lauded the university for its actions in bringing in Freeh, and giving him the power to do his investigation.

It "was absolutely a constructive and positive step," Jubelirer said.

Officials have also sought to reassure donors. Peter Tombros, head of the university's $2 billion "For the Future" campaign, released a statement Nov. 9 saying that the goal of "keeping a world-class education within reach for students from every economic background remains as important today as it was before" the scandal broke.

Tombros added: "I also want to assure you that no private funds or philanthropic resources will be directed toward legal expenses for the university employees who have been charged in the case."

Jubelirer said Penn State needs to focus on its image among prospective students, as well. High school guidance counselors will be wondering how to answer questions from skittish students and parents, he said.

"They can make or break a kid applying," said Jubelirer, later adding, "I have no doubt that numbers are going to go down next year."

Patrick Lanciotti, a 21-year-old Penn State senior from Dix Hills, N.Y., said he saw plenty of prospective students touring the campus in the week after the allegations were made public.

But he said the school "might be a harder sell" now because of the scandal, even though it is also home to charitable endeavors like THON, an annual weekend dance marathon billed as the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. It raised $9.5 million last year for pediatric cancer patients.

"It is a shame," Lanciotti said. "This school is such a great institution and it does so much for the community and for the nation."

___

Kathy Matheson can be reached at www.twitter.com/kmatheson.

___

AP Education Writer Justin Pope in Ann Arbor, Mich., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-22-Penn%20State-Reputation/id-20038dac846a482692402922d12607e6

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Iran arrests President Ahmadinejad's press adviser: report (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's media adviser was arrested on Monday in his office by the judiciary, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported, without giving a reason for his arrest.

"A few minutes ago Ali Akbar Javanfekr was arrested after holding a news conference with local media," Mehr said.

Iranian media reported on Sunday that Javanfekr was sentenced to a year in jail and banned from journalism over a publication which was deemed to have offended public decency.

Javanfekr is also the head of Iran's state news agency IRNA.

Witnesses said "security forces fired tear gas inside the building of the state-run Iran newspaper," where Javanfekr was giving the news conference.

Iranian authorities shut down reformist Etemad newspaper on Sunday after it published a scathing attack by Javanfekr on the president's rival conservatives. The daily is banned from publishing for two months for "disseminating lies and insults to officials in the establishment."

Iran's conservatives accuse Ahmadinejad of being in the thrall of a "deviant current" of advisers seeking to undermine the authority of the clergy in the Islamic Republic's system of government.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111121/wl_nm/us_iran_arrest_aide

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GM continues Europe leadership shakeup (AP)

DETROIT ? A leadership shake-up at General Motors Co.'s money-losing European unit continued Monday as the company named Vice Chairman Stephen Girsky as head of the board that oversees the bulk of GM's operations on the continent.

Girsky replaces Nick Reilly, who resigned from the Opel supervisory board and announced his retirement as president of GM Europe earlier this month.

GM also appointed Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann and International Operations President Tim Lee to the 20-member Opel board, which governs Adam Opel AG, made up of GM's Opel brand and its British Vauxhall brand. Lee will take the post created with Girsky's promotion to chairman, while Ammann will take a seat vacated by Opel sales and marketing Chief Financial Officer Keith Ward.

In 2009, Girsky led a successful effort to shoot down plans to sell GM's European operations to a group of investors led by Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc. Girsky, a former financial analyst, has served on the Opel board since January of 2010. He has represented the United Auto Workers union's retiree health care trust fund on the GM board since July of 2009, when the company emerged from bankruptcy protection.

"GM is committed to Opel and wants the brand to grow in a profitable way," Girsky said in a statement. "To realize Opel's full potential, we will continue to optimize its cost structure, improve margins and better leverage GM's scale."

GM announced earlier this month that Reilly would retire as head of GM Europe in March of next year. Opel-Vauxhall CEO Karl Stracke, a former chief of engineering at GM, will replace him starting Jan. 1.

GM's European unit swung to a pretax loss of $292 million in the third quarter. The loss forced GM to back off of a forecast of breaking even in Europe this year.

Europe faces a financial crisis and could slip into recession. Growth is slow is several key nations. Italy, the region's third-biggest economy, is bucking under the weight of government debt, and the region is dealing with high unemployment, stingy bank lending and declining exports.

GM CEO Dan Akerson said earlier this month when the company announced its third-quarter results that the European performance is unacceptable and said GM must look for more ways to control costs. But he stopped short of giving specifics or talking about plant closures or layoffs.

Last week, Akerson also wouldn't give specifics, but he made reference to French competitor Peugeot Citroen SA's plan cut 6,000 jobs because of flat demand in Europe.

Sales in Europe are about 18 percent of GM's 2.2 million global total, but they are expected to weaken as the economy slows in the fourth quarter.

GM shares fell 53 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $21.15 as the broader market dropped in afternoon trading.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111121/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gm_europe_leadership

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Iran daily closed over Ahmadinejad aide interview (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iranian authorities shut down a reformist newspaper on Sunday after it published a scathing attack by an aide to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the president's rival conservatives, the latest sign of a split in the highest echelons of the Islamic Republic.

The aide, media adviser Ali Akbar Javanfekr, was also sentenced to a year in jail and banned from journalism over a separate publication which was deemed to have offended public decency, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Both incidents spotlighted a feud between Ahmadinejad's camp and others in the conservative establishment that runs the world's fifth biggest oil exporter and faces increasing international pressure over its nuclear activities.

Tehran's prosecutor's office ordered the daily Etemad to close for two months for "disseminating lies and insults to officials in the establishment," according to Fars.

In the interview in Saturday's edition, Javanfekr hit back at critics who accuse Ahmadinejad of being in the thrall of a "deviant" circle seeking to undermine the Islamic clergy, saying they had "poisoned" politics and implying many were corrupt.

"What have we 'deviated' from? Yes, we have deviated from those friends, from their beliefs, behavior and interpretations," Javanfekr, who also heads the official Iranian news agency IRNA, told Saturday's Etemad.

"If they meant the deviant current is a deviation from their beliefs, we confirm it."

The counter-attack, published verbatim over three pages, signaled the determination of Ahmadinejad's camp to fight back as Iran gears up for parliamentary elections in March.

Javanfekr's lawyer told Reuters he had not been notified of the jail sentence and three-year ban from journalism imposed by the prosecutor's office following a guilty verdict pronounced by the Press Supervisory Board earlier this month.

Abdollah Nakhaie said he would appeal the sentence which, according to the ISNA news agency, he has 20 days to do.

Javanfekr was convicted over an article published earlier this year on the historical origins of women's Islamic dress.

The article, in a supplement to the Iran daily in August, contained an interview suggesting that chadors - the traditional black dress of devout Iranian women - had their origins in 19th-century Paris, rather than being prescribed by Islam.

The suggestion outraged traditional hardliners who had already accused Ahmadinejad's faction of putting secular nationalist values ahead of its Islamic identity.

STABILITY AT STAKE

With the opposition "Green" movement crushed after protesting Ahmadinejad's 2009 re-election, the battle for power in Iran is now between rival conservatives -- the traditional religious hardliners and the more populist Ahmadinejad camp.

That rift became more apparent after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei forced Ahmadinejad to reinstate the intelligence minister he sacked in April -- a move seen by the president's critics as a political maneuver.

Since then parliament and the judiciary have moved against the president, with lawmakers threatening impeachment and prosecutors arresting some people on the fringes of his faction.

Rebutting accusations that Ahmadinejad's faction sought to undermine Iran's clerical ruling system, Javanfekr said that the president had been endorsed by Khamenei.

"The great leader of the revolution called Ahmadinejad's government the government of work and effort. If they believe the government is not serving people it is better that they say they have a problem with the supreme leader," he said.

Analysts say that Khamenei prefers to keep Ahmadinejad in place rather that allow his rivals to unseat him and jeopardize stability at a time of economic difficulties and the risk of popular unrest spilling over from the nearby Arab world.

But Javanfekr said Ahmadinejad was far from a spent force and retained public support that meant he did not need the support of conservatives who backed him in 2009 as the best bet against a strong showing by reformists.

"It was not us who were ungrateful, they were the ones that did not acknowledge Ahmadinejad and his government...Ahmadinejad has popularity and does not owe them anything," he said.

Javanfekr criticized the treatment of Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh, an ally of Ahmadinejad's top aide, who was arrested in June, saying he had been held in solitary confinement and suffered mental and physical consequences.

Etemad was among the few reformist papers still publishing after the June 2009 election. It has suffered temporary bans since for alleged violation of media law -- something critics say is a catch-all offence used to suppress dissent.

(Additional reporting by Ramin Mostafavi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111120/wl_nm/us_iran_media_closure

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Robert Downey Jr. Takes Pregnant Wife on Romantic Hawaiian Vacation (omg!)

Robert Downey Jr. Takes Pregnant Wife on Romantic Hawaiian Vacation

Robert Downey Jr. is already on his way to becoming "Father of the Year."

The Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows star recently took his six-months-pregnant wife Susan Levin on a romantic Hawaiian getaway. The couple -- who went snorkeling on the island of Kauai -- will welcome their first child together in February.

PHOTOS: Other stars who've become proud papas

The spouses met on the set of Gothika in 2003 and married two years later. The Oscar-nominated actor has an 18-year-old son, Indio, with first wife Deborah Falconer. Downey, 46, credits his film producer wife with helping him stay sober after years of drug and alcohol abuse.

PHOTOS: Can you guess which abs belong to Robert?

"There's no understanding for me of the bigger picture in real time in a hands-on way without her," he told Esquire in 2009. "Because it was the perfect, perfect, perfect matching of personalities and gifts."

PHOTOS: See Robert kick ass in The Avengers

Rest assured, Downey will be a hand-on father when he and Levin become parents in 2012 -- diaper duty included.

"That's just poop," the actor told E! News in October. "That's no big deal."

Get more Us! Follow us on Twitter, Friend us on Facebook, Subscribe to Us Weekly

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_robert_downey_jr_takes_pregnant_wife_romantic_hawaiian213119643/43656955/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/robert-downey-jr-takes-pregnant-wife-romantic-hawaiian-213119643.html

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Lower birth rates for young women tied to economy (AP)

ATLANTA ? The economy may well be the best form of birth control.

U.S. births dropped for the third straight year ? especially for young mothers ? and experts think money worries are the reason.

A federal report released Thursday showed declines in the birth rate for all races and most age groups. Teens and women in their early 20s had the most dramatic dip, to the lowest rates since record-keeping began in the 1940s. Also, the rate of cesarean sections stopped going up for the first time since 1996.

Experts suspected the economy drove down birth rates in 2008 and 2009 as women put off having children. With the 2010 figures, suspicion has turned into certainty.

"I don't think there's any doubt now that it was the recession. It could not be anything else," said Carl Haub, a demographer with the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization. He was not involved in the new report.

U.S. births hit an all-time high in 2007, at more than 4.3 million. Over the next two years, the number dropped to about 4.2 million and then about 4.1 million.

Last year, it was down to just over 4 million, according to the new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For teens, birth rates dropped 9 percent from 2009. For women in their early 20s, they fell 6 percent. For unmarried mothers, the drop was 4 percent.

Experts believe the downward trend is tied to the economy, which officially was in a recession from December 2007 until June 2009 and remains weak. The theory is that women with money worries ? especially younger women ? feel they can't afford to start a family or add to it.

That's true of Mary Garrick, 27, an advertising executive in Columbus, Ohio. She and her husband, David, married in 2008 and hoped to start having children quickly, in part because men in his family have died in their 40s. But David, 33, was laid off that year from his nursing job and again last year.

He's working again, but worries about the economy linger. "It kind of made us cautious about life decisions, like having a family. It's definitely something that affected us," she said.

Kristi Elsberry, a married 27-year-old mother of two, had a tubal ligation in 2009 after she had trouble finding a job and she and her husband grew worried about the financial burden of any additional children. "Kids are so expensive, especially in this day and age. And neither of us think anything's going to get better," said Elsberry, of Leland, N.C.

Many of the report's findings are part of a trend and not surprising. There was a continued decline in the percentage of pre-mature births at less than 37 weeks gestation. And ? as in years past ? birth rates fell in younger women but rose a little in women 40 and older, who face a closing biological window for having children and may be more worried about that than the economy.

But a few of the findings did startle experts.

One involved a statistic called the total fertility rate. In essence, it tells how many children a woman can be expected to have if current birth rates continue. That figure was 1.9 children last year. In most years, it's more like 2.1.

More striking was the change in the fertility rate for Hispanic women. The rate plummeted to 2.4 from nearly 3 children just a few years ago.

"Whoa!" said Haub, in reaction to the statistic.

The economy is no doubt affecting Hispanic mothers, too, but some young women who immigrated to the United States for jobs or other opportunities may have left, Haub said.

Another shocker: the C-section rate. It rose steadily from nearly 21 percent in 1996 to 32.9 percent in 2009, but dropped slightly to 32.8 last year.

Cesarean deliveries are sometimes medically necessary. But health officials have worried that many C-sections are done out of convenience or unwarranted caution, and in the 1980s set a goal of keeping the national rate at 15 percent.

It's too soon to say the trend has reversed, said Joyce Martin, a CDC epidemiologist who co-authored the new report.

But the increase had slowed a bit in recent years, and assuming the decline was in elective C-sections, that's good news, some experts said.

"It is quite gratifying," said Carol Hogue, an Emory University professor of maternal and child health and epidemiology.

"There are strong winds pushing against C-sections," she said, including new policies and education initiatives that discourage elective C-sections in mothers who have not reached full-term.

Hogue agreed that the economy seems to be the main reason for the birth declines. But she noted that it's possible that having fewer children is now more accepted and expected.

"Having one child may be becoming more `normal,'" she said.

___

Online:

CDC report:http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111117/ap_on_he_me/us_med_birth_rates

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Acid pollution in rain decreased with emissions, long-term study shows

ScienceDaily (Nov. 16, 2011) ? Emissions regulations do have an environmental impact, according to a long-term study of acidic rainfall by researchers at the University of Illinois.

The National Atmospheric Deposition Program collects rainfall samples weekly from more than 250 stations across the United States and analyzes them for pollutants. The program recently released a report detailing trends in acidic rainfall frequency and concentration over 25 years, from 1984 to 2009.

"This is the longest-term, widest-scale precipitation pollution study in the U.S. In particular, we wanted to see how the trends in the pollution and the rain correlated back to emissions regulations," said Christopher Lehmann, a researcher in the program, which is part of the Illinois State Water Survey at the U. of I. "We're seeing regulations on emissions sources having direct and positive impact to reduce pollutants in rain."

The phenomenon commonly known as "acid rain" has widespread effects not only on the ecosystem, but also on infrastructure and the economy. Polluted precipitation adversely affects forestry, fishing, agriculture and other industries. Acid also erodes structures, damaging buildings, roads and bridges.

According to the report, acidic precipitation -- rain or snowfall with a pH value of 5.0 or less -- decreased in both frequency and concentration over the 25-year span.

The researchers largely attribute the decrease to the amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990 regulating emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, the gases that become sulfuric and nitric acid when mixed with rain water.

"What goes up does come down," Lehmann said. "Rainfall chemistry directly correlates with air pollution. When we looked at the magnitude of the trend, we found it compared very well to the magnitude of the decrease in emissions reported by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)."

According to EPA data, sulfate emissions dropped more than 50 percent during the period covered by the study and nitrate emissions dropped more than 30 percent. The National Atmospheric Deposition Program report found that concentrations of corresponding acid ions in rainwater have dropped by similar magnitudes. In addition, frequency of acidic precipitation has decreased across the U.S.

"You want to make sure that the regulations you put in place are effective, that they do what they were designed to do," said David Gay, the coordinator of the deposition program. "That's why we're here. We spend a lot of money to promulgate regulations. There's a lot of concern about their impact on industry. This study shows clear, significant evidence of the direct impact of regulation."

The deposition program continues to monitor sulfur and nitrogen compounds in rain. Although acidic precipitation has decreased, it has not disappeared, particularly remaining prevalent across the eastern U.S. In addition, the program has expanded its screening and monitoring other problematic pollutants such as ammonia and mercury.

"We still have acid rain," Lehmann said. "Yes, the trend is down, and we should celebrate that, but it's still a problem. There is still progress to be made, and there are new regulations coming along to continue to reduce emissions of sulfur and nitrogen compounds."

The Illinois State Water Survey is a unit within the Prairie Research Institute at the U. of I.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Christopher M. B. Lehmann, David A. Gay. Monitoring Long-Term Trends of Acidic Wet Deposition in US Precipitation: Results from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program. PowerPlant Chemistry, 2011; 7 [link]

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/UMT_IVTbZZw/111116162244.htm

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