EMU 2012 Baseball Schedule Released

Baseball practice begins next week, which means Opening Day is just around the corner.

Eastern Mennonite University released its 2012 schedule today, with the season opening with a doubleheader at North Carolina Wesleyan on February 11. The Royals then return to Harrisonburg three days later for a home opener against Mary Washington on February 14.

There are 16 home contests on the 40-game slate, including four doubleheaders. Home highlights include ODAC regular season champ Bridgewater on April 3 and Shenandoah on February 22. The Hornets were ranked No. 1 in the nation for a few weeks last spring and finished No. 8 in the final poll. SU will host a game on April 9 in Winchester.

EMU will play three games against Southern Vermont over February 25-26. The Royals also have a six-game homestand from March 10-17, including a pair of conference twinbills. Washington & Lee comes to town on April 18 for the final home game.

Randolph-Macon, winners of the ODAC Tournament, hosts the men on March 3. Virginia Wesleyan hosts a doubleheader on April 21 to wrap up the regular season.

All ODAC games will be nine-inning affairs. The conference tournament is April 26-29 in Lynchburg.

The team will also make a trip to Florida over Spring Break, playing five games at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational in Winter Haven from March 5-7.

Eastern Mennonite returns 17 players from an 11-25 season, including All-ODAC performers Dylan Smith (Sterling, VA/Park View) and Beau Banglesdorf (Stafford, VA/Mountain View). The Royals upset then-unbeaten and No. 1 Shenandoah during the season, but finished 4-14 in the ODAC and missed the six-team conference tourney.

Jason Stuhlmiller, an assistant last spring, is the interim head coach this year.

Full schedule:
http://emuroyals.com/sports/bsb/2011-12/schedule
http://emuroyals.com/sports/bsb/2011-12/releases/20120105qvorth

Write-up courtesy of EMU Sports Information Department.

Source: http://www.whsv.com/sports/headlines/EMU_2012_Baseball_Schedule_Released_136758068.html

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Experts Endorse Lower Lead-Poisoning Threshold (HealthDay)

THURSDAY, Jan. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Pediatric health experts are applauding a U.S. advisory panel's recommendation to lower the threshold for toxic lead exposure in children.

Lead, a metal once common in gasoline and house paint, can permanently damage developing brains.

On Wednesday, the Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention voted to recommend that the federal government change the standard for lead poisoning from 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood to 5 micrograms. This was the first time in two decades that the panel recommended lowering the levels.

"We are delighted that we have finally moved forward," said Ruth Ann Norton, executive director of the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning. "It's long overdue. This is science that's been out there."

Existing guidelines have given parents and doctors a false sense of security that children are safe from harm, Norton said.

If the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopts the panel's recommendation, as many as 1 million children could be diagnosed with lead poisoning, up from the current 250,000, according to Dr. John Rosen, a professor of pediatrics and head of the division of environmental sciences at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

"It's about time for CDC to move from its definition of childhood lead poisoning of 10 [micrograms per deciliter of blood] to 5," Rosen said. "Ten was established 20 years ago and there are at least 20 articles which demonstrate unequivocally that there are adverse effects of lead on IQ and intellectual and cognitive development at blood levels between 5 and 9."

Although banned from house paints in 1978, lead-based paint in deteriorating housing remains the major source of childhood lead poisoning today, Rosen said.

Lead is also found in some art supplies and imported toys, old painted toys, household pipes and faucets, certain hobby equipment and miniature lead figures. The metal can enter children's bodies if they touch these items and put their fingers in their mouths, or swallow the items.

Damage from lead exposure is irreversible. "It affects memory, learning, being able to sit, listen and learn in school, abstract thinking, planning, organization, communication skills and fine motor skills," Rosen said.

Dr. Vikas Kapil, chief medical officer of the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, said it will be several months before the CDC decides to accept or reject the committee's recommendation.

"We have been looking at the issue of lead levels in kids for some time," Kapil said. In 2005, the CDC asked the committee to see if a change was needed, but at that time there wasn't sufficient evidence to recommend a change, he said.

"We asked the committee to look again at the evidence in late 2010, and this most recent recommendation is the outcome," he added. "There is a growing body of evidence about blood lead levels below 10 that are associated with adverse health impacts in kids. We don't want clinicians to see 10 as a safe level."

The U.S. National Institutes of Health recently endorsed similar recommendations about blood lead levels, Kapil said.

If adopted by the CDC, the new standard would push health departments and housing departments around the country to improve code enforcement and focus on the only cure for lead poisoning, which is primary prevention, Norton said. "There is no drug, no treatment that reverses the impact of lead poisoning," she added.

The problem with lead paint has lingered for decades, these experts said.

"There will not be an end until there is a federal mandate to totally de-lead all pre-1960 housing," Rosen said. He emphasized that de-leading of a home should only be done by a licensed lead-removal contractor, as is required by law.

The current strategy for protecting children from leaded paint is ineffective, Rosen said. "At present, the approach is to paint over lead-based paint and modify the home so there are no obvious paint chips or lead paint in household dust," he explained. "I refer to this as a Band-Aid approach."

More information

For more information on lead poisoning, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120106/hl_hsn/expertsendorselowerleadpoisoningthreshold

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AP source: Marlins acquire Zambrano from Cubs (AP)

MIAMI ? Carlos Zambrano will get a much-needed fresh start with the Miami Marlins.

The Chicago Cubs traded their former ace Wednesday for Marlins right-hander Chris Volstad, pending physicals and approval by Major League Baseball, a person familiar with the negotiations said. The person confirmed the deal to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the teams hadn't announced a deal.

Zambrano wore out his welcome in Chicago because of repeated meltdowns and tantrums. The most recent came when he cleaned out his locker and talked about retiring after giving up five homers and being ejected during a loss to Atlanta on Aug. 12. He was suspended without pay and then it was decided he would sit out the rest of the season.

In Miami he'll be joining another former Chicagoan, Ozzie Guillen, who expressed interest in acquiring Zambrano when he was hired as the Marlins' manager in October after stepping down as the White Sox's skipper. Zambrano joins a franchise on the upswing after a winter spending spree resulted in the signings of All-Stars Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell.

Zambrano finished last year 9-7 with a 4.82 ERA. The Cubs expected more when he signed a $91.5 million deal over five seasons through 2012, including a $17,875,000 million salary last season and $18 million in 2012. As part of the trade, they'll likely pay much of his salary.

Volstad went 5-13 last year with an ERA of 4.89, and his career record is 32-39. He has given up 69 homers over the past three seasons, which could mean trouble for him at Wrigley Field.

Zambrano is 125-81 with a 3.60 ERA after breaking in with the Cubs in 2001, and he threw a no-hitter against the Astros. But he had difficulty controlling his temper.

In 2007, he got into a fight with teammate Michael Barrett, first in the dugout and then in the locker room. Barrett ended up with a bruise under his eye and a cut lip.

In 2009, he went on tirade against an umpire, throwing a baseball into the outfield, pretending to eject the umpire and slamming his glove against the dugout fence, a tantrum that led to a suspension.

In 2010, Zambrano was placed on the restricted list for six weeks and sent to anger management after a verbal altercation with then-teammate Derrek Lee.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120105/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbn_cubs_marlins_trade

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'Zero-G' Fruit Flies Aid Human Space Travel Studies (SPACE.com)

A new study that examines the way magnetic fields that simulate weightlessness on Earth affect how fruit flies walk could help scientists understand microgravity's influence on humans and other animals in space, researchers say.

In November 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first living voyager into orbit, the dog Laika, aboard Sputnik 2. The U.S. space program followed this with flights carrying chimps, such as Enos and Ham, in the early 1960s.

Scientists continue to launch animals into the heavens to learn more about how microgravity and other properties of space might affect biology.

Previous studies have shown that the common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) walks more quickly and frequently in space compared with flies on Earth. However, it was unclear if aspects of space travel other than microgravity might have been responsible for these changes, such as the G-forces felt during launch.

Now, using powerful magnetic fields that simulate microgravity, researchers find that weightlessness does seem to alter fruit fly walking patterns. [6 Everyday Things that Happen Strangely In Space]

Simulating microgravity

Most biological materials are "diamagnetic," Richard Hill, the study's lead author, said.

"This is a different type of magnetism from what we're familiar with," explained Hill, who is a physicist at the University of Nottingham in England. "What we ordinarily think of as 'magnetic materials' are ferromagnetic materials such as iron ? these are strongly attracted by magnetic fields. A diamagnetic material on the other hand is weakly repelled from magnetic fields. This is a very weak force compared to ferromagnetic attraction, so that if you hold a refrigerator magnet up to your hand, for example, you don't notice the repulsive force."

Using superconducting magnets to create very strong magnetic fields of about 16 tesla ? about 350,000 times stronger than the strength of the Earth's field, or about 16 times as strong as the most powerful permanent magnets ? "then the diamagnetic force can be large enough to just balance the force of gravity so that the object levitates with no support," Hill told SPACE.com.

The advantage of simulating weightlessness on the ground instead of experiments in space, "is that it's a lot cheaper, and we don't have to worry about any effects of the high G-forces launching the flies into space on a rocket," Hill said. "Diamagnetic levitation doesn't balance gravity as perfectly as 'real' weightlessness does in space, but diamagnetic levitation can be used to see which experiments are suitable and interesting to perform in space before spending the money launching them into space."

The investigators saw the fruit flies in simulated microgravity display accelerated walking patterns much like those seen in actual microgravity.

Walk this way

This faster pace "may be because the flies just find moving around in weightlessness easier, or it could be that it's some kind of response to confusion about which way is up and down," Hill said.

"We have to be a bit careful because we are using a strong magnetic field which can have other effects on living organisms," Hill cautioned. "However, we can control for these effects by examining how the flies behave in different parts of the magnet ? at the center of our solenoid magnet, there is a strong magnetic field but no diamagnetic force, so the flies experience normal gravity.

"By comparing how flies in the center of the magnet behave with flies outside the magnet, we can isolate the different effects of the strong magnetic field," he said. "We don't see any other effect of the magnetic field on their walking behavior, so our experiment is very similar to the one that was performed on the space station."

Although it's not feasible to use this technique to directly investigate the effects of weightlessness on humans, "by studying the effects on 'model' organisms, such as the fruit fly, we can hope to obtain information about the effects of weightlessness on particular biological mechanisms," Hill said.

"It's also important to remember that, in our endeavors to explore space ? setting up permanent bases on Mars, for example, or other planets ? it will be crucial to understand the effects of weightlessness on all living organisms," Hill added. "Our survival on permanent off-world settlements will of course require us to take with us many different biological organisms."

The detailed findings of the study were to be published online Dec. 4 in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120103/sc_space/zerogfruitfliesaidhumanspacetravelstudies

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Your home's age important for child lead exposure (AP)

WASHINGTON ? If you've been putting off repairing a peeling windowsill, or you're thinking of knocking out a wall, listen up: Check how old your house is. You may need to take steps to protect your kids from dangerous lead.

The risk of lead-based paint from older homes is back in the news, as the government considers tightening the definition of lead poisoning in babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Lower levels than previously thought may harm their developing brains.

That's a scary-sounding message. But from a practical standpoint, it's not clear how much would change if the government follows that advice. Already there's been a big drop in childhood lead poisoning in the U.S. over the past few decades. Public health programs have targeted the youngsters most at risk ? poor children living in crumbling housing, mostly in cities ? to try to get them tested and their homes cleaned up.

But specialists say it can be a risk in more affluent areas, too, as do-it-yourselfers embark on fix-ups without knowing anything about an environmental hazard that long ago faded from the headlines.

The main value of the proposed change may be in increasing awareness of how to avoid lead in everyday life.

"What we need to do is prevent the exposure in the first place," said Dr. Nicholas Newman, who directs the environmental health and lead clinic at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

There are lots of ways people can be exposed to lead: Soil polluted from the leaded gasoline of yesteryear. Old plumbing with lead solder. Improperly using lead-glazed pottery or leaded crystal with food. Certain jobs that expose workers to the metal. Hobbies like refinishing old painted furniture.

Sometimes even imported toys or children's jewelry can have illegal lead levels, prompting recalls if they're caught on the U.S. market.

But the main way that U.S. children are exposed is from layers of old paint in buildings built before 1978, when lead was banned from residential paint.

Sure, the walls might have been painted over recently, and there may be no obvious paint chips to attract a tot crawling around on the floor. But friction from opening and closing windows and doors allows tiny leaded particles to make their way into household dust ? and youngsters then get it on their hands that go into their mouths, explained Dr. John Rosen, a lead poisoning specialist at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in New York City.

Very high lead levels can cause coma, convulsions, even death, fortunately a rarity today. But lower levels, especially in children under 6, can harm a child's brain, can reduce IQ and cause other learning, attention and behavioral problems ? without any obvious symptoms to alert the parent.

How much is too much? Until now, the definition of lead poisoning in young children was 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. But in a draft report last fall, the National Toxicology Program analyzed recent scientific research to conclude there's good evidence that levels lower than 10 are a risk. Now advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are urging that agency to lower the definition to 5 micrograms for now, periodically reassessing.

If the CDC agrees, its advisers estimated that could classify about 450,000 children with lead poisoning, up from roughly 250,000 today.

At these levels, there's no treatment for the child other than to end the ongoing exposure ? clean up the house, Newman stressed. That's why prevention is so important. And while the youngest children are the most vulnerable, lead's not good for anyone's brain, so he advises taking common-sense precautions before potential exposures like renovating an old home.

What should families do? Here's advice from the Environmental Protection Agency and public health agencies:

_Check the age of your house. At checkups for babies through age 5, pediatricians are supposed to ask if you live in a home built before 1960, or one built before 1978 that's recently undergone renovation. The answers help guide who may need a blood test to check lead levels. Some states require testing of toddlers on Medicaid.

_Wash kids' hands before they eat, good advice no matter where you live or how old your house.

_Clean up paint chips immediately, and regularly wash toys that tots put in their mouths.

_Regularly wash windowsills and floors where paint dust can collect.

_If you're planning repairs or renovation in an old building, use lead-certified contractors who must follow EPA rules to minimize exposure from the work and can perform quality tests to see if your old paint really contains lead.

_If you rent and have peeling paint, notify your landlord. Many cities and states have lead-abatement rules, and programs to contact for help.

_Aside from paint, take off shoes at the door, to minimize tracking in lead-tainted soil.

_Use only cold water for drinking, cooking and making baby formula, and run it for 15 to 30 seconds. Hot tap water can pick up more lead from older plumbing than cold water.

___

Online:

EPA lead information: http://www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/leadinfo.htm#hazard

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120105/ap_on_he_me/us_med_lead_poisoning_advice

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Rick Perry: Punting New Hampshire, Posing With Puppy, Possibly Wearing Spandex

The Rick Perry presidential campaign, summed up in one Tweet:

You're welcome.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/rick-perry-punting-new-hampshire-posing-with-puppy-possibly-wear/

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Baseball notebook | Center fielder Coco Crisp agrees to deal with A?s

A person with knowledge of the negotiations says free agent center fielder Coco Crisp has agreed to a two-year deal to return to the Oakland Athletics.

The 32-year-old Crisp has batted .269 with 16 home runs, 92 RBIs, nine triples and 81 stolen bases in his two seasons with Oakland, which is in rebuilding mode in hopes of being able to relocate to San Jose and build a new ballpark. General manager Billy Beane has unloaded several star players in recent weeks, including starting pitchers Gio Gonzalez and Trevor Cahill.

CUBS -- Chicago and outfielder Reed Johnson have agreed to a $1.15 million, one-year contract. The 35-year-old batted .309 with five homers and 28 RBIs in 111 games for Chicago last season, his second stint with the team. He also played for the Cubs from 2008-09, batting .287 with 10 homers and 72 RBIs in 174 games.

RANGERS -- Yu Darvish has arrived in Texas during the middle of a 30-day window to negotiate with the star Japanese pitcher. The Rangers, who have won consecutive AL pennants, put in a record bid of about $51.7 million for the right to negotiate with Japan?s best pitcher. A 30-day negotiating window began when their bid was accepted Dec. 20 by the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan?s Pacific League.

MARLINS -- Infielder Greg Dobbs has agreed to a two-year contract to remain with Miami, sources say, and the deal will be completed pending a physical. Dobbs, an eight-year veteran, hit .275 in 134 games for the Marlins last season. He started 84 games at third base and had a career-high 411 at-bats. The left-handed hitter batted .370 as a pinch hitter.

ORIOLES-ATHLETICS TRADE -- Baltimore has obtained outfielder Jai Miller from Oakland, who parted with the part-time player for cash considerations. Miller was designated for assignment by Oakland on Dec. 23 after the A?s received four players for pitcher Gio Gonzalez. The 26-year-old Miller went 3-for-12 with a homer and two RBIs for Oakland last season after being called up in September. He played in 110 games with Triple A Sacramento, battiing .276.

ORIOLES-RANGERS TRADE -- Baltimore traded infielder Brandon Snyder to Texas for cash. Snyder played in six games with the Orioles last year.

INDIANS -- Cleveland has signed free agent reliever Robinson Tejeda to a minor league contract. Tejeda spent the past four seasons in Kansas City?s organization. He has a 23-27 career record with a 4.42 ERA.

Source: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/01/04/3762760/center-fielder-coco-crisp-agrees.html

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