CHICAGO – Jordin Sparks is living a high-decibel life.
She's traveling across the country as a special guest on the Jonas Brothers tour, performing at arenas packed with girls who, as Sparks puts it, "scream way up here, and they just hold it for four-hours straight."
And even away from the stage, resting in her downtown hotel room on a weekend afternoon, the 2007 American Idol winner is met with the shrill yelps of yet another fan. This time, it's her dog Maggie.
"Oh, now you want to play," says Sparks as she gives the tiny white dog a hug.
These days, Maggie serves as Sparks' main companion on the road. While her family traveled with her when she put out her platinum-selling, self-titled debut at age 17, these days, they join her when they can.
Now 19, Sparks has grown up a bit, and she says you can tell from listening to her sophomore CD, "Battlefield."
AP: How do you compare "Battlefield" with your 2007 debut?
Sparks: There's a lot more growth so my voice sounds a little bit more mature. I wanted to pick songs that I related to on some sort of level and that I wouldn't mind singing for the rest of my life. ... Then there's four songs that I actually wrote and I'm really, really excited about.
AP: If you could choose one song from the album for someone to listen to, which would it be?
Sparks: One of the songs that is really, really important to me — and it's one that I wrote — it's called "Faith." We wrote that four days before the (presidential) inauguration and it was one of those things. And we were thinking about everything going on in the world and our economy and how there's a sense of hopelessness around for a lot of people. And I was thinking about one of my best friends who passed away two years ago — thinking, (what) if I was the person to tell her, 'It's going to be OK,' and keep her head up, and that she's got people that love her, if she would still be here?
AP: With everything going on around you in the music world, how do you stay connected with what's happening in the real world?
Sparks: It's when you detach from the real world that your head starts to get bigger and you're like, "Hey, the world revolves around me." So I definitely try to keep my inner-circle really tight and I keep my friends really close. I need people who are going to tell me exactly how it is — tell me if my outfit looks bad or if a song sucks, if my performance is horrible.
AP: You're a big fan of Michael Jackson. How did you take the news of his death?
Sparks: The crazy thing is, the day before — literally, the day before — I sang "P.Y.T." in my set. And I've been doing that a lot. I love singing his (songs). So I did "P.Y.T." and "The Way You Make Me Feel" last year on tour and all these different things. Then all of a sudden he passed away, and (I said), "I totally did his song yesterday." And we were doing "A-B-C, as easy as ..." and doing the dance and everything and all of a sudden he was gone. And we were just like, "This is insane."
AP: Michael was always in the public eye. How do you deal with protecting yourself when it comes to the media?
Sparks: I'm open to an extent. I give them just enough to where they're satisfied, but I don't go too in-depth. ... Because of "American Idol," you get to know people a lot. There's a lot of people who think I'm like their best friend. And they'll come up and want to hug me ... I don't think I'll ever get used to it. But it's still really cool I have that kind of relationship with my fans.
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On the Net:

http://www.jordinsparks.com

(This version CORRECTS Corrects title to "Battlefield" sted "Battlefield Earth.".)

LONDON – Stock markets slipped in Europe on Wednesday and rose only modestly in Asia, as investors stepped back from a week-long rally fueled by upbeat earnings to assess the outlook for corporate profits amid a still-weak global economy.
By midday in Europe, Germany's DAX was down 29.96 points, or 0.6 percent, at 5,064.01, while Britain's FTSE 100 slide 21.65 points, or 0.5 percent, to 4,459.52. France's CAC 40 was down 28.81 points, or 0.9 percent, at 3,274.08.
The indexes had rallied for the past week on strong U.S. corporate earnings reports, with the latest from Caterpillar Inc., Apple Inc. and Coca Cola Inc. suggesting that the worst of the economic crisis is past.
That view was echoed by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who said Tuesday that the world's largest economy was seeing some improvement.
However, while the news has bolstered risk appetite — with many Asian indexes eking out gains at the close Wednesday — investors seemed to believe that the good news has been mostly priced into the share values.
"We keep the view that the multi-quarter outlook for developed economies does not look as bright as the current equity rally would suggest," said Sebastien Barbe, analyst at Calyon.
In fact, Bernanke accompanied his forecast for an economic recovery with the warning that it would be slow due to rising unemployment. The Fed chairman will be watched for more comments in his testimony to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee today.
More and more investors are tiptoeing as they try to determine the actual shape of the rebound, said Thomas Lam, senior treasury economist at the United Overseas Bank in Singapore.
"The U.S. economy either has stabilized or is stabilizing, there's no doubt about that," Lam said. "We have transitioned from thinking it's the end of the world to trying to see what the new world will look like."
In the U.K., the Bank of England said was still considering whether to pump another 25 billion pounds into the financial system. In the minutes to its latest policy meeting, the bank's rate-setters suggested they would wait until August to assess the need to create more money.
Like Bernanke, the Bank of England said that while the economy has stabilized somewhat, a quick recovery was unlikely as balance sheet constraints within the banks would continue to limit demand growth.
In Asia, markets closed mostly higher, although gains were limited.
Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average rose 71.14, or 0.7 percent, to 9,723.16. South Korea's Kospi was up 0.3 percent. Shanghai's index gained 1.9 percent, Australia's benchmark advanced 0.4 percent and Taiwan's market edged up 0.5 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 253.56, or 1.3 percent, to 19,248.47. India's Sensex shed 1.3 percent.
Wall Street added to its gains overnight, but like Europe was expected to slide Wednesday.
Dow futures were off 71 points, or 0.8 percent, at 8,815 and Standard & Poor's 500 futures declined 5.9, or 0.6 percent, at 947.50.
On Tuesday, the Dow rose 67.79, or 0.8 percent, to 8,915.94, its highest level since January.
The S&P 500 rose 3.45, or 0.4 percent, to 954.58, its highest close since November. And the Nasdaq rose 6.91, or 0.4 percent, to 1,916.20, its 10th straight gain. The last time the index rose 10 straight days was in July 1997.

Oil prices fell in European trade, with the September contract down $1.10 to $64.51 a barrel. On Tuesday, the August contract expired, rising 74 cents to settle at $64.72.

The dollar fell to 93.45 yen from 93.64 yen. The euro fell to $1.4185 from $1.4217.

___

Associated Press Writer Jeremiah Marquez contributed to this report from Hong Kong.

Four years later, a Westport housewife named Marion Donovan developed a waterproof diaper cover known as the "Boater" using a sheet of plastic from a shower curtain; she was granted four patents for her invention, including the use of plastic snaps as opposed to safety pins. In 1947, a man named George M. Schroder invented the first ever diaper with disposable nonwoven fabric. Disposable diapers were introduced to the US in 1949 by Johnson & Johnson.

During the 1950s, companies such as Kendall, Parke-Davis, Playtex, and Molnlycke entered the disposable diaper market. In 1956, Procter & Gamble began researching disposable diapers. Vic Mills, along with his project group including William Dehaas, both men who worked for the company, invented "Pampers" while searching for a better product to use.

Adult Diaper

VARANASI, India/WUHAN, China (Reuters) –
A total solar eclipse began its flight on Wednesday across a narrow swathe of Asia, where hundreds of millions of people watched the skies darken despite thick summer clouds.

The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century was visible along a roughly 250 km-wide (155 miles) corridor, according to the U.S. space agency NASA, as it traveled half the globe and passed through the world's two most populous nations, India and China.

Thousands of people snaked through the narrow lanes of the ancient Hindu holy city of Varanasi and gathered for a dip in the Ganges, an act considered as leading to salvation from the cycle of life and death.

Amid chanting of Hindu hymns, men, women and children waded into the river with folded hands and prayed to the sun as it emerged in an overcast sky.

"We have come here because our elders told us this is the best time to improve our after-life," said Bhailal Sharma, a villager from central India who came to Varanasi with a group of about 100 people.

The eclipse then swept through Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and over the crowded cities along China's Yangtze River, before heading to the Pacific.

Crowds gathered along the high dykes of Wuhan, an industrial city in central China, roared and waved goodbye as the last sliver of sun disappeared, plunging the city into darkness.

"As soon as the totality happened, the clouds closed in so we couldn't see the corona. That's a pity," said Zhen Jun, a man whose work unit had given the day off for the spectacle.

But eclipse viewers in central China was luckier than those in the coastal cities near Shanghai, where overcast skies and rain in some places blocked the view of the sun entirely.

LONGEST THIS CENTURY

Eclipses allow earth-bound scientists a rare glimpse at the sun's corona, the gases surrounding the sun.

"In the 21st century this is the longest," said Harish Bhatt, dean at the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

"This is indeed quite an important event for scientific experiments. Its long duration provides you an opportunity to make very complicated, complex experiments."

Scientists in China planned to snap two-dimensional images of the sun's corona -- up to 2 million degrees Celsius (3.6 million F) hot -- at roughly one image per second, Bhatt said.

The eclipse lasted up to a maximum of 6 minutes, 39 seconds over the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA.

The eclipse is seen as a mixed blessing for millions of Indians. Those who considered it auspicious bathed in holy rivers and ponds for good fortune during the solar blackout.

But astrologers predicted the eclipse spelled bad luck for others. Expectant mothers asked doctors to advance or postpone births to avoid complications or a miserable future for their children.

Parents in several schools in India's capital, New Delhi, kept their children home from classes since the eclipse coincided with breakfast. According to Hindu custom, it is inauspicious to prepare food during an eclipse.

In ancient Chinese culture, an eclipse was an omen linked to natural disasters or deaths in the imperial family. Chinese officials and state media were at pains to reassure the public that city services would run normally.

"We heard about it on television last night," said Qian Qiangguo, speaking in a thick Wuhan accent.

In modern China, people who wished to see the astronomical rarity clearly tried to escape thick pollution caused by the rapid industrial growth, avoiding cities where smog smudges the horizon, even on clear days.

"The majority of people decided to go to Tongning, in Anhui, because they're worried about the serious air pollution from industrial areas in Shanghai," said Bill Yeung, the president of the Hong Kong Astronomical Society, who organized 120 eclipse chasers from Hong Kong.

Those who chose Shanghai ended up fleeing to inland cities to escape the clouds, he added.

(Additional reporting by Matthias Williams, Bappa Majumdar and James Pomfret; Writing by Matthias Williams and Lucy Hornby; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Los Angeles (E! Online) –
The choice of a new generation is...voyeurism?

In the wake of footage surfacing online showing the filming of the infamous 1984 Pepsi commercial in which Michael Jackson's hair caught fire, the bottling company released a statement wondering aloud what the fascination about it is other than morbid curiosity.

"We don't know how the footage became available. Twenty-five years later, we'd question why anyone would want to share such frightening images. It was a terrifying event that we'll never forget," spokeswoman Nicole Bradley said.

And undoubtedly akin to something out of his Thriller video.
In the video promoting the soft drink, Jackson performs a retooled version of "Billy Jean" before 3,000 screaming fans (among the extras were comedians Kathy Griffin and Jon Lovitz—before they were famous) at L.A.'s Shrine Auditorium.

But on the sixth take, as Jackson struts down a staircase onto a stage, the background fireworks explode early. The singer starts making his way down the steps, but doesn't realize his hair has suddenly caught fire until he reaches the bottom and goes into his spin. Only then did he touch his head and realize his scalp was burning.

Stagehands gathered around Jackson and quickly doused the flames. But the Moonwalker was taken to a hospital with second- and third-degree burns on his head and face, an injury that required skin grafts.

It's now being speculated that the incident may have led to his dependence on prescription pain medication, an addiction he allegedly battled for the rest of his life. Pepsi later aired a version of the ad without the hair-raising moment and paid Jackson $1.4 million for his pain and suffering, but the music legend ended up donating the money to a burn victim center.

Since Jackson's fiery performance bubbled up over the Internet and cable news two days ago, Pepsi initially declined to catch the wave and comment on it. But the company chose to speak out now not only to criticize the release of such imagery (and incidentally the public's grotesque obsession with it), but also to pay tribute to the late King of Pop, with whom it had the good fortune of working during his 1980s peak.

"We were grateful for Michael's recovery and for the chance to continue working with him on a number of successful projects," Bradley added. "As for Michael as an artist, his music helped us define a generation and, like everyone else, we're deeply saddened by his passing."

The rep also said Pepsi has no intention of pursuing legal action to stop the burn footage from airing and, in fact, isn't even sure who owns the rights.
________

Check out the King of Pop in happier, seemingly healthier times in our Michael Jackson: A Life gallery.

··· THEY SAID WHAT? Get today's most commented stories now at www.eonline.com

BILLINGS, Mont. – A Colorado man used a chain saw to fight off an apparently starving mountain lion that attacked him during a camping trip in northwestern Wyoming with his wife and two toddlers.
Dustin Britton, a 32-year-old mechanic and ex-Marine from Windsor, Colo., said he was alone cutting firewood about 100 feet from his campsite in the Shoshone National Forest when he saw the 100-pound lion staring at him from some bushes.
The 6-foot-tall, 170-pound Britton said he raised his 18-inch chain saw and met the lion head-on as it pounced — a collision he described as feeling like a grown man running directly into him.
"It batted me three or four times with its front paws and as quick as I hit it with that saw it just turned away," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Wildlife officials said Sunday evening's attack about 27 miles west of Cody was highly unusual because mountain lions are reclusive by nature. Only eight cases of mountain lions acting aggressively toward humans have been documented in Wyoming over the last decade.
"It's very, very rare" for lions to attack, said Wyoming Game and Fish spokesman Warren Mischke. "We're still trying to investigate why this lion would behave this way."
The wounded animal retreated after Britton inflicted a six- to eight-inch gash on the lion's shoulder, leaving him with only a small puncture wound on his forearm.
"You would think if you hit an animal with a chain saw it would dig right in," he said. "I might as well have hit it with a hockey stick."
The mountain lion was shot and killed Monday after it attacked a dog brought in to track the animal, which was 4 to 5 years old. Authorities say it was in poor physical condition and appeared to be starving.
After Britton's confrontation, he and his wife, Kirsta, decided to spend the night in their pop-up camper with their two children rather than risk packing up with the lion still on the loose.
Wildlife agents were called the next morning after Britton told a passing U.S. Forest Service employee about the incident.
Tests for rabies and other diseases came up negative, but officials said they were continuing to analyze the animal for other potential diseases.

WASHINGTON (AFP) –
US officials may seek to expand and widen agreements that demand that airlines supply sensitive data on passengers arriving from Europe, according to a senior Homeland Security official.

The plan, if pursued, could go beyond an existing deal with the European Union that allows trans-Atlantic airlines transfer credit card, e-mail addresses, passport, travel itineraries and other data belonging to European passengers to US officials.

Rand Beers, who heads the Department of Homeland Security's protection division, said preliminary discussions had begun with the Spanish government to gauge the possibilities of a fresh pan-European deal.

"Obviously one of the things that we are looking at is whether or not it might be more appropriate to have a overarching or umbrella agreement with the European Union," Beers said.

"We still have a considerable way to go in terms of the exchange of data between ourselves and our European allies."

Beers is a key adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whom he recently accompanied on a visit to Ireland, Britain, Portugal and Spain.

In Madrid, Napolitano formalized a pilot program that identifies high-risk travelers before they board aircraft bound for the United States.

The project has stopped 10 terrorist suspects in just over a year, according to DHS figures.

In Lisbon a deal was signed on exchanging biometric and biographic data, which is also seen as a possible prototype for future Europe-wide deals.

However any move to transfer more information is likely to be met by stiff resistance in Europe, which only narrowly passed the current agreement amid bitter opposition.

Members of the European Parliament and some EU member states objected to having to provide information such as requests for kosher or halal meals, which, they argued, promoted religious profiling.

Beers defended the system, saying that it warns US authorities if there are individuals preparing to enter the country that need further examination.

He also indicated that future agreements could look beyond Europe. "That is another area that we are looking at," he told AFP.

LOS ANGELES – When cult cable series "Flight of the Conchords" snags a best series Emmy nomination and the most-watched comedy in America, CBS' "Two and Half Men," loses out, TV academy voters are willfully thumbing their noses at mass appeal.
It seems the Emmys have adopted the TV equivalent of the Academy Awards' smaller-film fixation that has lifted critical darlings to Oscar glory over such box-office hits as "The Dark Knight."
Still, there were bright spots for the big four: This year's leading nominee was NBC's "30 Rock," which received 22 bids to break the record for a comedy series it set last year when it reaped 17.
HBO's "Flight of the Conchords" was just one of the offbeat shows and performers that emerged Thursday as nominees for the 61st prime-time awards ceremony in September. Bad-girl comedian Sarah Silverman received an acting nod for her Comedy Central series "The Sarah Silverman Program," and edgy HBO series "Big Love," about polygamous families, and AMC's "Breaking Bad," about a meth-making schoolteacher, broke into the best drama series ranks.
The dividing line falls neatly between the adventurous shows fielded by niche cable networks and the largely mainstream, predictable offerings from broadcasters.
"It couldn't be on any broadcast network," said "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston, a best-actor nominee. "Ten, 15 years ago you'd say that was a downfall. Now it's one of the positive points of television. If you can be a show that's on cable instead of broadcast, more than likely, you have a much greater chance of producing quality television."
A shake-up in the nominations approach didn't benefit networks. This year, the field of nominees in major categories was expanded and the selection process for those categories switched from a combination of academy popular vote and blue-ribbon panels to popular vote alone.
Besides "30 Rock," NBC also enjoyed good showings by "Saturday Night Live," which got a record 13 bids in the variety program category, and "The Office," which pulled in nine nominations.
But the prestige drama series category was largely the turf of cable channels.
Among the seven nominated series, the only two network shows to make the cut were Fox's "House" and ABC's "Lost." The other contenders were either from basic or premium cable, including "Breaking Bad," HBO's "Big Love," FX's "Damages," Showtime's "Dexter" and last year's winner, AMC's "Mad Men.
CBS' "How I Met Your Mother" claimed a best comedy series spot, joining "30 Rock," "The Office" and Fox's "Family Guy" to raise the network flag. "Family Guy" boasted a rare showing in the category by an animated series. Besides "Flight of the Conchords," other cable contenders are HBO's "Entourage" and Showtime's "Weeds."
Jim Parsons of CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" scored a nomination for lead actor in a comedy.
"No! ... This is some sort of trick fest," said Parsons, when his bid was revealed during a brief announcement ceremony at the TV academy. "I feel a little dreamlike right now," he said later about his first-time Emmy nomination.
More than honor is at stake for broadcasters, who air the Emmy ceremony on a rotating basis and would like to use it to promote their wares, not those of cable. There's also the expectation that nominees with bigger followings might boost the Emmy audience, which last year sunk to a low of 12.3 million viewers.
HBO dominated with the most number of nominations, 99. Among the networks, NBC led with 67, followed by ABC with 55, CBS with 49 and Fox with 42. Showtime earned 29 nods and PBS had 26.
The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, with Neil Patrick Harris as host, is scheduled to air live Sept. 20 from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. Harris is also a nominee, for best supporting actor in a comedy series, "How I Met Your Mother."
In a sad tribute, "Farrah's Story," a documentary account of Farrah Fawcett's battle against cancer, was nominated in the nonfiction special category. The former "Charlie's Angels" star died June 25.
"It's very bittersweet. Farrah passed away three weeks ago today," said Alana Stewart, who helped film her longtime friend. "I know that she would be so, so happy. This was so important to her, this project. She's been nominated before, and I just know that this would be the most important one of all."

Affection was scarce for series that ended last season, including long-running medical drama "ER," "Boston Legal" and "Battlestar Galactica." There was a scattering of nominations among them, but nothing in the marquee categories of acting or best series. Another just-concluded series, "The Shield," was shut out.

Also snubbed for major awards were "Desperate Housewives" and "Jon & Kate Plus 8," left out of the reality series category. Top-rated TV show "American Idol" is a contender in the reality-competition category.

NBC found little glory in its late-night lineup, with Jay Leno's final season with "Tonight" and Conan O'Brien's farewell season of "Late Night" missing from the variety, music or comedy series category. O'Brien took over as "Tonight" host this year.

___

On the Net:

http://www.emmys.tv/

NEW YORK – Since arriving in March, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" has proved itself a worthy player in the world of TV comedy-talk.
It has also given birth to an unexpected world within a world — a dandy little miniseries planted within "Late Night" that spoofs reality soap TV like "The Hills" in a bizarro backstage version of "Late Night."
"7th Floor West" was introduced during Fallon's first week hosting "Late Night" (which airs weeknights at 12:35 a.m. EDT on NBC). But recent installments have premiered dependably on "Late Night" each Monday, making "7th Floor West" its own five minutes of micro-must-see TV.
The title hints at a Central Park West brand of loftiness, while literally addressing the office space in Rockefeller Center's G.E. Building that houses the "Late Night" staff. It is here that the high-drama, brashly vacuous action (not that there's really much going on) takes place.
Jimmy Fallon plays Jimmy, the good-guy host of a late-night talk show who is constantly undermined by his sneaky head writer, Miles (real-life "Late Night" head writer A.D. Miles) in cahoots with Jimmy's turncoat former assistant Lauren (actually, his current assistant Lauren Cave), with the rest of the show's writers caught, rather unconcernedly, in between.
Bottom line: "7th Floor West" is very much like the real "Late Night," without being anything like it. What it mostly resembles is "The Hills" blended with the shallowest elements of high school. It's letter-perfect, down to the mewling theme song and Jimmy's voiced-over recap of previous episodes (like when he threw an office pizza party that Miles sabotaged, and, before that, agonized over which color tie, red or blue, he should wear on opening night).
A few days ago, with taping wrapped on that evening's "Late Night" hour, a scene from this upcoming Monday's "7th Floor West" (its ninth installment) was being shot in the real-life writers' room. (You can catch up with past episodes on the miniseries' own Web site.)
For the scene, Miles gathers Amy Ozols (who writes the "7th Floor West" scripts), Wayne Federman, Bashir Salahuddin, Morgan Murphy and Tim McAuliffe at the conference table, strewn with newspapers and Chinese food cartons.
Jimmy enters with a cheery, "Great show, tonight!" Then he stops short, noticing the fliers Miles has handed out to everyone else.
The photocopied fliers describe how to cough into your shirt sleeve so as not to spread germs. But Jimmy is rightly suspicious of Miles' power play. He knows Miles is up to something.
In take after take, Fallon reacts with varying combinations of ire, sadness, bewilderment, dismay and bottled-up rage.
"I need to talk to you," he seethes/whispers/erupts at Miles.
"Let me guess," Miles fires back mockingly — "out in the hallway."
"NO! NOT out in the hallway," says Jimmy in desperate defiance, then helplessly backs down. "Actually. yeah, there's much more privacy in the hallway." They exit.
"I cranked the weird up too much," Fallon chortles after one take, where he did some exasperated flapping noises with his lips. "But I like the last few before that."
"Yeah," says Michael Blieden, yet another "Late Night" writer, who serves as "7th Floor West" director — "the ones where it's awkward and you're struggling internally with what to do."
With a few minutes to kill before the next setup, Fallon marvels how "7th Floor West" has caught on with his audience.
"We didn't think it was going to be recurring," he says. "We first thought it would be a one-off."

Now, as it builds toward its "season conclusion" in a few weeks, many questions remain — like, what will happen at the much-awaited In-Office Beach Party?

But is there any danger that the audience will be confused about what's real and what isn't in the corridors of 7th Floor West?

Fallon chuckles, "People ask me, 'Who's that girl who plays your assistant?' I say, 'That's my assistant!'"

Fine, but the individual who gets on-screen credit for creating "7th Floor West" (Paulson Grickrod) doesn't exist.

Give the credit instead to Ozols, the "Late Night" writer whose unapologetic love of reality soap has helped her transform "Late Night" beyond the pale — with a rich, silly puzzle no one has an answer for.

"Why does Jimmy let all of these people work for him, when they're so mean to him?" she wonders with a laugh. "It's HIS show!"

___

On the Net:

http://www.seventhfloorwest.com

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org

Diabetic Supplies

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is characterized differently due to insulin resistance or reduced insulin sensitivity, combined with relatively reduced, and sometimes absolute, insulin secretion. The defective responsiveness of body tissues to insulin almost certainly involves the insulin receptor in cell membranes. However, the specific defects are not known. Diabetes mellitus due to a known specific defect are classified separately.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) resembles type 2 diabetes in several respects, involving a combination of relatively inadequate insulin secretion and responsiveness. It occurs in about 2%–5% of all pregnancies and may improve or disappear after delivery. Gestational diabetes is fully treatable but requires careful medical supervision throughout the pregnancy. About 20%–50% of affected women develop type 2 diabetes later in life.

Wallets

Bi-fold wallet: a type of wallet in which the bills are folded over once. This has become the "standard" wallet. Credit cards and identification cards may be stored horizontally or vertically.

Some wallets, particularly in Europe (where larger denominated coins are more prevalent) contain a coin purse compartment. Some wallets have built-in clasps or bands to keep them closed. As European bills (pounds, euros) are larger than American bills in one dimension, they don't fit in some smaller American wallets.

Sotomayor says she wants to be a Supreme Court justice because "I can't think of a greater service to give to the country."
Seemingly fresh out of questions, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., started to wind down the morning session by asking simply: "Why do you want to be a Supreme Court justice?"Sotomayor answered with a story about her rise to the federal bench, a move Sotomayor said was inspired by her dedication to public service."It really has always been the answer, given who I am, my love of the law," she said. "My sense of importance about the rule of law, how central it is to the function of our society, how it sets us apart as many senators have noted, from the rest of the world, have always created a passion in me," she said. "I can't think of a greater service to give the country than to be given the privilege of being a justice of the Supreme Court."-Ron Fournier, AP Washington bureau chief

GRANTS PASS, Ore. – The Obama administration is withdrawing the Bush administration's last attempt at increasing logging in Northwest forests occupied by northern spotted owls and salmon.
Assistant Interior Secretary Ned Farquhar told a conference call of attorneys Thursday that they had determined the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's decision not to consult federal biologists over the logging's effects on spotted owls and salmon violated the Endangered Species Act.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was scheduled to discuss the decision in a teleconference with reporters.
BLM had sought to increase timber production in Western Oregon and increase revenues for rural Oregon counties still hurting from logging cutbacks in the 1990s to protect fish and wildlife.
The plan depended on scaled-back protections for the spotted owl. Interior lawyers told a federal judge last April they will not defend the Bush administration's plan for taking the owl off the threatened species list.
The BLM plan called for logging five times the timber it sold last year, which amounts to about half of what was logged before the previous Northwest Forest Plan dramatically cut logging.
The Northwest Forest Plan came after lawsuits from conservation groups shut down logging in old growth forests of Oregon, Washington and Northern California to protect habitat for the spotted owl.
The Bush administration agreed to produce a new spotted owl recovery plan and review the critical habitat designation under terms of the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the timber industry.
Andy Stahl, director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, said Thursday's decision reverses President George W. Bush's "backward step in protection of Oregon fish and wildlife habitat." Stahl is a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits challenging the BLM's Western Oregon Plan Revision.
"This restores the situation before Bush embarked upon this silly exercise," he said.
Parties to the conference call said the Department of Interior will seek dismissal of the four lawsuits challenging the BLM's Western Oregon Plan Revision.

Long Wigs

Wigs have seemingly been worn throughout history, even on the genitals (see merkin); the ancient Egyptians, for instance, wore them to shield their hairless heads from the sun. Other ancient peoples, including the Assyrians, Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans, also used wigs. Curiously, they are principally a Western form of dress — in the Far East they have rarely been used except in the traditional theatre of China and Japan. Some East Asian entertainers (Japanese Geisha, Korean Kisaeng) wore wigs (Katsura and gache respectively) as part of their traditional costumes.

Common hair-pieces found in the work place are none more so seen than on the barnet of a certain Mikey Picking. His "nouveau cuisine" style as it is called is reminiscent of Celtic managers of the 80's -namely Gordon Strachan. This style can only really work on head shapes that are over sized and smaller ear types.

WASHINGTON – House Democrats are preparing to advance legislation that would deliver on President Barack Obama's promise to remake the nation's costly health care system and cover some 50 million uninsured.
On the heels of the Senate health committee's approval Wednesday of a plan to revamp U.S. health care, three House committees with jurisdiction over the issue were shifting into action.
Votes were planned Thursday in the Education and Labor and Ways and Means committees on a $1.5 trillion plan that majority House Democrats presented this week. The legislation seeks to provide coverage to nearly all Americans by subsidizing the poor and penalizing individuals and employers who don't purchase health insurance.
A third House committee, Energy and Commerce, also was considering the measure Thursday, but the road was expected to be rougher there. A group of fiscally conservative House Democrats called the Blue Dogs holds more than half-a-dozen seats on the committee — enough to block approval — and is opposing the bill over costs and other issues.
Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., who chairs the Blue Dogs' health care task force, said the group would need to see significant changes to protect small businesses and rural providers and contain costs before it could sign on. "We cannot support the current bill," he said.
The Energy and Commerce Blue Dogs met Wednesday to consider what amendments they would offer, and the panel scheduled vote sessions daily through next Wednesday in what promised to be an arduous process to reach consensus.
Obama was doing all he could to encourage Congress to act. He scheduled White House meetings for Thursday morning with two potential Senate swing votes, Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. On Wednesday he met with a group of Senate Republicans in the White House in search of a bipartisan compromise and appeared in the Rose Garden for the latest in a daily series of public appeals to Congress to "step up and meet our responsibilities" and move legislation this summer.
Obama also pushed his message in network television interviews, and his political organization launched a series of 30-second television ads on health care.
In an interview on NBC, the president declared "there is no free lunch" and said again that the country cannot afford to postpone dealing with the health care problem.
"I think the best way to fund it is for people like myself who have been very lucky, to pay a little bit more," he said on CBS.
Wednesday's Senate health committee vote "should make us hopeful — but it can't make us complacent," Obama said. "It should instead provide the urgency for both the House and the Senate to finish their critical work on health reform before the August (congressional) recess."
The health panel's $615 billion measure would require individuals to get health insurance and employers to contribute to the cost. The bill calls for the government to provide financial assistance with premiums for individuals and families making up to four times the federal poverty level, or about $88,000 for a family of four, a broad cross-section of the middle class.
But the 13-10 party-line vote on the bill signaled a rift in Congress — including between Democrats. Some liberal-leaning Senate Democrats are eager to move forward with or without Republican support, while some moderates want to hold out for a bipartisan deal.
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who presided over the health committee vote, said it was more important to get a good bill than to get GOP votes.
"There is a value in achieving bipartisanship but I will not sacrifice a good bill for that. That's not the goal here," Dodd said, noting that Democrats plus two independents add up to 60 seats in the 100-member Senate — the number needed to advance legislation.
But a core group on the Senate Finance Committee — which, unlike the health committee, must come up with a payment mechanism for the bill — continued to labor toward bipartisan agreement. Because it might be difficult to secure support from all Democrats, Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., insisted after daylong meetings Wednesday that a bipartisan bill was needed.
"Nothing's 100 percent but I think it's virtually impossible to get 60 votes on a partisan bill," Baucus said. He praised the health committee's work but said of their legislation, "That's a partisan bill."
Obama has made clear that he wants the Finance Committee to produce legislation by week's end but Baucus couldn't say whether that would happen.

Finance Committee members are considering a new proposal from Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., that would raise $100 billion over 10 years by imposing new fees on health insurance companies.

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Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Ben Feller and Alan Fram contributed to this report.