Author: Lynn Dorman, Ph.D.

  • More toy recalls

    Again if you have young children around – or know of any with Mattel toys in the house – please read and take action if necessary…

    If this weren’t so serious, the saga of ongoing recalls of products made in China would be a running joke….. Today’s recalls are about toys – again…from Mattel – again…..


    One recall is due to lead; the other due to small magnets….

    The company, in a statement issued from its headquarters in El Segundo, Calif., said it was recalling a total of 436,000 Chinese-made toys, more than half of them marketed in the United States, that had “impermissible levels of lead.” The toys are die-cast vehicles featuring the Sarge character from the movie “Cars.”

    Mattel said the hazard in the products, made between May and July, was discovered as part of an investigation of all its toy manufacturing that began in July after it received a tip about lead-based paint. The latest move involves toys from a different Chinese contractor than the one that produced toys recalled earlier this month, it said.

    The separate action today involving a design flaw in 18.2 million magnetic toys, about half of them sold in the United States, expanded a recall initiated last year after reports of deaths and injuries to children who ingested magnets that had come loose. Mattel said the recall covered 63 varieties of toys, made since 2002 and sold before January of this year, including 44 Polly Pocket toys, 11 Doggie Day Care toys, 4 Batman toys, a One Piece toy, and two Barbie toys.

    Here is a link to the Consumer Product Safety Commission listing all recalls [so far] for this month

    http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerelaug07.html

  • Hoping for a clear sky tonight

    It never rains in Portland in the summer – that’s what I was told anyway. It only rains in the Winter – all Winter…and Fall and Spring…but that was before – and now we have had rain a few times this summer…like yesterday and it stayed clouded over til at least the time when I gave up looking at the sky.

    But today is a normal summer day and I am hoping the sky is clear tonight and I can see the meteor shower – and take some video footage and take some photos. If not- there’s always next summer…

  • Perseid Meteor Shower

    I love these “heavenly” phenomena – when one can see them it is not to be missed. Here is some brief info and a link for more ..

    The next meteor shower is the Perseids on August 12. This year there’s no moonlight to interfere. The best time to watch is from 11 p.m. August 12 until dawn the next morning. The best direction to watch is wherever your sky is darkest. If you have a dark sky, you may see a meteor once a minute on average. The shower is also active for several days before and after its peak.

    More info here from StarDate: http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors/

    Enjoy these showers….

  • Recent photo – Lynn at 67 1/2!!

    I told some of you that I’d post a full face – well I finally have a photo of moi

    This was taken in the same part of my house as the ones where I showed the mouth and eyes.

  • My mom

    Born on this date in 1906, my mother would have been 101 today. She died a few days after her 95th birthday back in August of 2001.

    I have often wondered how she would have dealt with September 11, 2001 had she stayed alive for a bit longer. She who was born before we had planes, cars, skyscrapers, and the Internet, etc. and did not take a flight until in her 50’s, 60’s or thereabouts when she flew to Boston to visit me.

    She was quite curious about the Internet and we had many conversations about what it was – but as she was legally blind by then, computers were never going to be part of her life.

    It is amazing to think about the progress we have made in technology and other matters in the last 100 years…. [and sadly – the messes we have made in that time as well ]

    [Photo from the 1930’s]