Current Events in October 2014

KYMCO of Spartanburg, S.C., is recalling about 450 All-terrain vehicles (ATVs).

In hot environments or high elevations, the fuel cap can fail to vent properly, causing the fuel to heat up and pressure to build up in the tank. The pressure can cause the fuel tank to rupture or the fuel to boil out of the tank onto the operator or hot engine, resulting in burns to the operator or a fire.

No incidents or injuries have been reported.

The recall involves model year 2013, 2014 and 2015 KYMCO MXU 700 ATVs including standard, LE and Camo versions. The vehicles came in black, camouflage, gold, green, red and silver. The words KYMCO and MXU 700, MXU 700 LE or MXU 700 Camo are on the front of the hood and on each rear fender.

The vehicle identification number (VIN) in the format RFBLU45U*xBxxxxxx is located on the frame behind the right front wheel. The 10th digit of the VIN indicates the model year: D = 2013, E = 2014 and F = 2015.

ATVs with the last six VIN digits in the following ranges are being recalled:

* represents a check digit that varies in each VIN

The ATVs, manufactured in Taiwan, were sold at KYMCO dealers nationwide from April 2013, to August 2014, for about $9,000.

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled ATVs and contact an authorized KYMCO dealer for a free repair. The original gas caps must be collected by the dealer to confirm the repair.

Consumers may contact KYMCO USA toll-free at (888) 235-3417 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT Monday through Friday or by email at info@kymcousa.com.

General Motors is recalling 10,005 model year 2004-2007 Cadillac CTS-V vehicles manufactured October 6, 2003, to March 15, 2007, and 2006-2007 Cadillac STS-V vehicles manufactured June 23, 2005, to March 15, 2007.

The electrical terminals of the fuel pump module in the affected vehicles may overheat resulting in the melting of the flange material.If the flange melts, a hole may be created allowing the fuel pump to leak fuel, causing the vehicle to stall, increasing the risk of a vehicle crash. Additionally, leaking fuel in the presence of an ignition source increases the risk of a fire.

GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace the fuel module and fuel tank jumper harness, free of charge. The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule.

Owners may contact Cadillac customer service at 1-800-458-8006. GM's number for this recall is 14405.

It's a well-known fact that the U.S. government could not operate without a generous helping of credit. The national debt keeps rising each year.

It turns out a lot of consumers are living that way as well. When the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) conducted an online poll, 1 in 5 respondents said they would not be able to make ends meet each month without the help of a credit card.

“Credit should be used as a convenience, not to supplement income,” said Gail Cunningham, spokesperson for the NFCC. “It is a warning sign if a person is not able to manage his or her daily lifestyle without the use of credit cards, as this is a dangerous habit that could lead to serious financial distress.”

NFCC decided to dig more deeply into the living-on-credit issue when it pulled together records from last year's credit counseling activity. In 2013 the average consumer who turned to an NFCC member agency for guidance had between 5 and 6 credit cards with a total unsecured debt equal to half of their annual household income.

Danger signs

Cunningham says there are clear signs that appear when you are over-using your credit cards. One is when you find you are only paying the minimum payment on credit card bills each month. That means you are mostly paying interest, with very little going to principal.

Another is when your credit card balances keep growing. That means you aren't using your card as a convenience, but rather you are spending money you don't have.

When you find you are skipping payments, are late each month, or that your account has gone to collection your problem is getting deeper.

From bad to worse

You've moved from bad to worse when you find you are using balance transfers to keep moving debt around, but aren't paying it down. If you even think about taking out cash advances, payday loans, title loans or other non-traditional credit, warning klaxons should be sounding.

If you find yourself arguing with your significant other over money issues, it means it is long past time to get your finances in order.

Since the financial crisis of 2008 and the structural changes it brought to the economy, it's very easy to find yourself in a situation where you are unable to make ends meet. You might lose your job or have taken a job that pays less than in the past. The temptation is to use credit cards to get by.

Wealthy hand-to-mouth

A Brookings Institute study identified a group of consumers it calls the “wealthy hand-to-mouth.” They may have assets, like a house or a car, but not enough income to sustain them.

Both these groups no doubt make up the group of consumers who turn to credit cards out of desperation. While these groups may think they have no other option, Cunningham insists they do, though it may require some sacrifices and tough choices.

“People may feel as though they have no alternative to using credit to supplement their income, but that is a dangerous habit that can lead to financial ruin,” said Cunningham.

Cunningham's message is this: regardless of how you got in a deep financial hole, breaking one of the basic rules of personal finance – spending more than you make – is not likely to have a positive outcome.

There's a pretty common nostalgia trope which says that, compared to now, the Good Old Days were a simpler and more innocent time.

So let's reminisce about the Good Old Days of early 2012, when computer-security problems were simple and minor compared to now. Remember that February, when the Christian Science Monitor published a list of the “15 worst data security breaches of the 21st century”? Topping that circa-2012 list was the March 2008 breach at Heartland Payment Systems, which resulted in “134 million credit cards exposed through SQL injection to install spyware on Heartland's data systems.”

Only 134 million? Piffle: the security breach at credit-monitoring data broker Experian, first uncovered in October 2013, ultimately left the personal information of 200 million Americans – five out of every six American adults – at risk.

The Heartland breach was six and a half years ago. In an ideal world, the rest of the financial industry would've learned from Heartland's mistakes, and by now, such problems would be extremely rare, if not eradicated entirely.

Dozens of millions

Of course the exact opposite happened, and now you can barely go a week anymore without hearing of yet another massive security breach affecting dozens of millions of people: 40 million customers impacted in the Target breach. 56 million card numbers stolen in the Home Depot hacking. 76 million households compromised in the JPMorgan Chase hack — and remember, a single “household” can contain several individual “people.”

So, no, most companies did not learn from Heartland's mistake, though there's one company that did: Heartland itself. This week, the Dark Reading security blog asked Heartland's CEO Robert Carr why so many retailers (and their customers) keep suffering from security breaches, and Carr's answer was simple: because companies for whatever reason choose not to invest in security upgrades like tokenization, credit cards with EMV chips rather than magnetic strips (although MasterCard and Visa have supposedly set an October 2015 deadline for American retailers to accept EMV cards), and end-to-end encryption.

“What's happening in the meantime is, even though solutions are being introduced …. a lot of companies haven't implemented the basics, and they are paying the price for it,” Carr said. “The people responsible for spending the money necessary to be safe aren't spending the money. They don't take it seriously. What I've been saying for years is that it's going to continue to get worse, because the pool of victims not doing anything or doing enough is shrinking slowly.”

Too small to be hacked

But why haven't they spent the money to prevent these security breaches, which ultimately cost them exponentially more money than they would've spent? To make a rather obvious analogy: putting a strong, sturdy, lockable door on your house won't be cheap — but it's a lot cheaper than replacing everything in your house after a thief breaks in and steals it all.

Part of the problem, Carr suggests, is that some merchants might think they're small potatoes, too small for hacking thieves to bother with. Except two minutes' research on mainstream news media shows that's not true; from an identity thief's perspective, credit card numbers stolen from, say, a relatively obscure chain of New England car washes are just as valuable as cards stolen from Target, Home Depot and other famous big-time retailers.

"Today, if a merchant doesn't do the minimum work to avoid a breach, then they are going to get breached,” Carr said. “It's just a matter of when.”

Athletes who consume energy drinks to give them a competitive edge might in fact get a boost in energy, but could pay for it later.

Researchers at Camilo José Cela University (UCJC) say they found athletes who use energy beverages were more likely to report insomnia and nervousness in the hours after the competition.

In the 4-year study, athletes in a variety of vigorous sports consumed the equivalent of 3 cans of energy drink or an energy drink placebo before a sports competition. Sporting performance was measured with the use of GPS devices that determined the distance and the speed at which athletes moved.

The researchers also employed other sophisticated equipment to measure muscle performance. Published in the British Journal of Nutrition, the results show that athletes who used energy drinks increased their sporting performance by between 3% and 7%.

Juan Del Coso Garrigós, one of the study authors, says energy drinks do in fact make basketball players jump higher, increase muscle force and power for climbers and trained individuals, swimming speed for sprinter swimmers, hit force and accuracy for volleyball players and the number of points scored in tennis.

Insomnia and nervousness

That's the good news. But once the sport competition is over, it isn't exactly back to normal.

These studies asked athletes about their sensations after consuming the energy drink and measured the frequency of the side effects in comparison with the placebo drink.

"Athletes felt they had more strength, power and resistance with the energy drink than with the placebo drink," said Del Coso. "However, the energy drinks increased the frequency of insomnia, nervousness and the level of stimulation in the hours following the competition".

Maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise that the consumption of energy drinks produced an increase in the side effects typically found with other caffeinated drinks. The researchers said they found no significant differences between male and female athletes in the perception of positive sensations, nor in the apparition of side effects.

"Caffeinated energy drinks are a commercial product that can significantly increase sporting performance in many sports activities," said Del Coso. "The increase in their consumption is probably driven by the hard advertising campaigns of energy drink companies related to sports sponsorships."

Not that much energy

Energy drinks are made up of mostly carbohydrates, caffeine, taurine and B vitamins. From brand to brand, there is little difference in the quantities and ingredients.

Despite being labeled as energy drinks, the researchers say they don't really provide more energy than other soft drinks. Instead, they have an 'energizing' effect, due mainly to the caffeine they contain.

Del Coso maintains that none of the other ingredients in energy drinks actually produce a significant effect on physical or mental performance.

The average energy drink can contain from 75 to over 200 milligrams of caffeine per serving. Health experts at Brown University say this compares to 34 milligrams in Coke and 55 milligrams in Mountain Dew.

If the beverage is labeled “no caffeine,” the energy comes from guarana, which is the equivalent of caffeine. The Brown experts note that 5-hour energy advertises “no crash,” but says this claim is referring to no “sugar crash” because the drink has artificial sweetners.

Last weekend, MacRumors first noticed that Apple's most recent security update was designed to fight a massive botnet woven from Macs infected with iWorm malware.

That malware, in turn, apparently came from pirated software: TheSafeMac reported on Oct. 4 that PirateBay user “aceprog” had uploaded various copies of commercial software, including Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Office and Parallels, all of which contained the worm. Thus, anyone who installed copies of this software on their own Macs installed the malware right along with it.

So the easiest way to avoid this problem is “don't use pirated software,” and the second-easiest way to avoid it is “at least don't use pirated software from aceprog.”

Malware testing

SafeMac actually installed and tested some of this software on a special computer he uses only for malware testing (meaning: do not try this at home), and discovered something particularly odd about it:

I finally settled on installing a torrent client and using the torrent download link, which gave me a stolen copy of Photoshop CC 2014.

The item that got downloaded included some unsavory items that could be installed or opened to allow the stolen copy of Photoshop to run without a valid license, and although you couldn’t pay me to use any of these things on a real system, none of them turned out to be the problem. It turned out that the official-looking Photoshop installer had been modified.

That's what makes this worm particularly troubling: although it only appears to be on pirated copies of software, the worm itself is not in the “pirate-specific” code, but in the same software which might be found even in a legal copy.

That said: there's no evidence indicating that anyone with a legitimate copy of Photoshop CC 2014 or any of the other listed programs needs to worry. The reason “aceprog” and company slipped their malicious code-bits into software they put on the Pirate Bay is almost certainly because they couldn't get into, for example, the actual Adobe HQ (or wherever legitimate Photoshop software is produced).

A sweepstakes operator that took millions of dollars from consumers throughout the United States and dozens of other countries is banned from doing it again under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

Liam O. Moran of Ventura, Calif., also faces an $11 million judgment but under terms of the settlement, the judgment will be lifted when he turns over the proceeds from the sale of his home.

According to the FTC, consumers received personalized mail that falsely claimed they had won a cash prize, typically more than $2 million, and that to collect it they had to pay a fee, usually from $20 to $30.

Those who paid got nothing of value in return. The vast majority of the victims appeared to be seniors over the age of 65.

Last year, the FTC charged Moran and other defendants with violating federal law in connection with their deceptive prize promotion letters. The court subsequently halted the operation, froze the defendants’ assets, and appointed a receiver over the corporate defendants pending resolution of the case.

Besides Moran, other defendants are Applied Marketing Sciences LLC; Standard Registration Corporation, also doing business as Consolidated Research Authority and CRA; and Worldwide Information Systems Incorporated, also d/b/a Specific Monitoring Service, SMS, Specific Reporting Service, SRS, Universal Information Services, UIS, Compendium Sampler Services, and CSS.

Consumer advocates frown on psychics and others who claim to communicate with the dead. But since there's no proof about what happens after we die, anyone can claim just about anything and get by with it.

But now a four-year international study of 2,060 cardiac arrest cases across 15 hospitals sheds a glimmer of light on what has been described as near-death experiences and concludes, not surprisingly, that more research is needed.

Among their findings, the researchers said they found instances when so-called out-of-body experiences corresponded with actual events and suggested that a higher percentage of people may have vivid death experiences but fail to remember them because of the effects of brain damage and the drugs used during resuscitation.

The study began in 2008 and involved patients in the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia. The AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study, sponsored by the University of Southampton in the UK, examined the broad range of mental experiences in relation to death.

Objective markers

Researchers also tested the validity of conscious experiences using objective markers for the first time in a large study to determine whether claims of awareness compatible with out-of-body experiences correspond with real or hallucinatory events.

Results of the study have been published in the journal Resuscitation.

"In this study we wanted to go beyond the emotionally charged yet poorly defined term of NDEs to explore objectively what happens when we die," said Dr. Sam Parnia, Assistant Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Director of Resuscitation Research at The State University of New York at Stony Brook, and the study's lead author.

Thirty-nine percent of patients who survived cardiac arrest and were able to undergo structured interviews described a perception of awareness, but interestingly did not have any explicit recall of events.

"This suggests more people may have mental activity initially but then lose their memories after recovery, either due to the effects of brain injury or sedative drugs on memory recall," Parnia said.

Sometimes fearful

Among those who reported a perception of awareness and completed further interviews, 46% experienced a broad range of mental recollections in relation to death that were not compatible with the commonly used term of NDE's. These included fearful and persecutory experiences. Only 9% had experiences compatible with NDEs and 2% exhibited full awareness compatible with OBE's with explicit recall of 'seeing' and 'hearing' events.

One case was validated and timed using auditory stimuli during cardiac arrest.

"This is significant, since it has often been assumed that experiences in relation to death are likely hallucinations or illusions, occurring either before the heart stops or after the heart has been successfully restarted, but not an experience corresponding with 'real' events when the heart isn't beating," Parnia said.

"In this case, consciousness and awareness appeared to occur during a three-minute period when there was no heartbeat. This is paradoxical, since the brain typically ceases functioning within 20-30 seconds of the heart stopping and doesn't resume again until the heart has been restarted. Furthermore, the detailed recollections of visual awareness in this case were consistent with verified events," he said.

The full range of recalled mental and cognitive experiences included: 1) fear; 2) animals/plants; 3) a bright light; 4) violence/persecution; 5) deja-vu; 6) family; 7) recalling events after recovery from cardiac arrest.

Saying that some for-profit schools are just in it for the money, a group of 14 state attorneys general are supporting a Congressional measure that would tighten regulation of the for-profit college industry.

“There are some schools within the for-profit college industry that are more interested in getting their hands on federal student loan dollars than in educating students,” Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway said in a letter to the bill's sponsors.

“The unfair and unethical business tactics of those schools are leaving too many students drowning in debt with worthless degrees, while taxpayers are left footing the bill for debts that are never repaid," Conway said. "The for-profit college industry lacks real oversight and accountability at the federal level, and this legislation will help prevent future abuses of the student loan system and keep for-profit schools honest.”

The measure was introduced by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) and U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD). It would tighten coordination among the nine different federal agencies that now have a hand in overseeing for-profit schools. 

Additionally, the bill would require the interagency committee to hold quarterly meetings as a group and annual meetings with state attorneys general to coordinate federal and state activities related to for-profit school oversight.

Warning list

The legislation would also charge the committee with publishing a “For-Profit College Warning List” for parents and students, which would identify schools that have engaged in illegal practices or where there is evidence of widespread abuse.

“This bill will provide the federal government with a mechanism by which to hold for-profit colleges more accountable for accepting billions of dollars in taxpayer money and will not conflict with, nor pre-empt the important work of the States in enforcing state law,” the letter states. “Further, this bill will help prevent Title IV funds from continuing to line the pockets of some for-profit colleges that offer deficient educations in a deceptive manner.”

Conway leads a national bipartisan working group of 37 state attorneys general who are reviewing the questionable practices of some for-profit colleges. In Kentucky, Conway has filed suit against four proprietary colleges for allegedly misleading students about job placement rates.

In addition to Conway, attorneys general from Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee signed the letter supporting passage of the legislation.

Home prices -- including distressed sales -- posted a year-over-year gain of 6.4% in August.

Property information provider CoreLogic says it's the 30th month of consecutive year-over-year increases by its Home Price Index (HPI). On a month-over-month basis, home prices nationwide inched up 0.3%.

At the state level, all states showed year-over-year home price appreciation in August. In addition, the HPI reached new highs in a total of 9 states -- Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming -- plus the District of Columbia.

Excluding distressed sales, which include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions, home prices nationally increased 5.9% year-over-year and 0.3% month-over-month.

"The pace of year-over-year appreciation continues to slow down as real estate markets find more balance,”said Mark Fleming, chief economist at CoreLogic. “Home price appreciation reached a peak of almost 12% year-over-year in October 2013 and has since subsided to the current pace of 6%t. Continued moderation of home price appreciation is a welcomed sign of more balanced real estate markets and less pressure on affordability for potential home buyers in the near future."

August highlights

• Including distressed sales, the 5 states with the highest home price appreciation were: Michigan (+11.1%), California (+9.2%), Nevada (+9.2%), Maine (+9%) and West Virginia (+8.7%).
• Excluding distressed sales, the 5 states with the highest home price appreciation were: Massachusetts (+9.4%), Maine (+9.3%), West Virginia (+8.9%), Hawaii (+8.7%) and South Carolina (+8.1%).
• Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to August 2014) was -12.1%. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -8.6%.
• The 5 states with the largest peak-to-current declines, including distressed transactions, were: Nevada (-36.2%), Florida (-33.4%), Arizona (-28.9%), Rhode Island (-26.8%) and Maryland (-20.2%).
• Including distressed sales, the U.S. has experienced 30 consecutive months of year-over-year increases; however, the national average is no longer posting double-digit increases.
• Ninety-eight of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population showed year-over-year increases in August 2014. The two CBSAs that did not show an increase were Rochester, N.Y. and Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, Ark.

Looking ahead

The CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates home prices -- including distressed sales -- will increase 0.2 percent% over month from August 2014 to September 2014 and, on a year-over-year basis, by 5.2%.

Excluding distressed sales, home prices are expected to rise 0.2% month over month and by 4.7% year over year.  

Self-reports of spending by U.S. consumers dropped to an average of $87 in September -- a decline of $7 from both July and August. At the same time, though, the report by Gallup found spending last month was $3 higher than it was last year.

These findings are based on daily tracking interviews with more than 14,000 consumers, who were asked to report the total amount they spent "yesterday" in stores, gas stations, restaurants, or online -- not counting home and vehicle purchases, or normal monthly bills -- giving an indication of their discretionary spending.

Nothing to see here

The drop in spending Gallup found in September is not unusual. Since 2010, spending has dropped each year from August and September, although the size of the drop has varied. The consistent declines may be the result of increased spending in August on back-to-school purchases and summer vacations.

September's $7 drop in average spending is comparable with past August-to-September drops. Last year, the drop was $11 -- from $95 in August to $84 in September.

Monthly averages in self-reported spending so far in 2014 have generally exceeded average spending for the corresponding month in 2013, and especially so for 2009 to 2012, when averages were generally in the $60 to $70 range. However, this year's monthly averages are still lower than the nearly $100 averages seen in 2008.

Affluent consumers pull back

Daily self-reports of spending among upper-income consumers (those with annual household incomes of $90,000 a year or more) fell last month for the second month in a row -- to average $140 a day -- well below the 12-month high of $190 in July, and near February's 12-month low of $135.

Spending among middle- and lower-income consumers -- which tends to be much more stable -- dropped only slightly -- from $80 in August to an average of $77 in September. Reported spending among this group in the past 12 months has fallen into the narrow range of $84 (in December 2013) to $69 (in January 2014).

What’s it mean?

While consumers' average self-reported daily spending dropped in September, decreases from August to September are common, and average September spending this year exceeded September spending last year. With consumer spending a major driver of the U.S. economy, changes in average spending can reflect how the economy is doing.

Spending has generally increased since 2010, during the aftermath of the recession. And, compared with September 2013, spending increased this September. However, the consecutive two-month drop in spending among upper-income consumers could be a troubling sign, as this group generally has higher discretionary spending than those in the middle- and lower-income brackets.

The experts have been touting the significance of it for years. We are talking about the all important family dinner. It's a time to reconnect and talk about the day. It helps develop a sense of who we are as a family unit. Remember those?

Well, there is a new twist and yet another reason to pick up your fork and spoon or maybe put it down for a bit and listen. Having a family dinner especially during adolescence can help fight obesity. If kids are overweight in their teens they have a likelihood of being overweight as an adult.

There was a long-term study known as Project EAT (Eating and Activity among Teens) it examined weight-related variables among adolescents, including how much they ate, how much physical activity they did and their daily behaviors -- all of these influence weight control. The study is scheduled for publication in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Researchers from the University of Minnesota and Columbia University took a look at the data and what they found was that family meals had all the good stuff -- fruits, vegetables whole grains and calcium. They suggested that having those things in their diet can help teens lessen their chance of obesity as they become adults. Also parents eating healthy is a good role model and sets the tone of "eat this, not that."

10 years later

They followed up after 10 years and of the teens who said that they never ate family meals together, 60% were overweight and 29% were obese.

Researchers concluded that just having one or two family meals a week significantly reduced chances of being overweight or obese.

"It is important to identify modifiable factors in the home environment, such as family meals, that can protect against overweight/obesity through the transition to adulthood," said Minnesota researcher Jerica M. Berge.

You have probably heard the term an "emotional eater." Family meals may help fight that as sitting around the dinner table gives kids a chance to talk and deal with some of the issues they may be facing. The interaction and emotional connection becomes a release.

Some research in 2013 by Cornell University could be the second course for this study as it found that turning the TV off at dinner time while having dinner with the family and not turning it back on until everyone was finished was linked to a lower body mass.

"The positive socialization skills that family dinners tend to encourage possibly hold down the urge or need to overeat, a Cornell researcher said. 
"The ritual of where one eats and how long one eats seems to be the largest driver."

You might want to warm up the meatloaf and add a salad tonight.

Do you understand your cat's body language and what it really means?

According to The Cats Protection, a leading UK feline welfare charity, most cat owners don't really have a clue. They surveyed over 1,100 adult cat owners, and found a lack of knowledge in certain areas which prompted them to educate the public about cat behavior.

The survey revealed that:

• Two thirds (65%) of us think a cat only purrs when happy whereas it sometimes can occur when it is in pain.
• The majority of people (76%) failed to understand a cat’s upright tail is a greeting.
• One in 20 concluded that a cat rubs its cheeks on surfaces because it has an ‘itchy face’ rather than actually marking a territory.

Cats Protection’s Behavior Manager Nicky Trevorrow said that, "These findings show that we need to help people gain a better understanding of their cats which are sometimes misunderstood because they are complex creatures.”

However, she said, it's not all bad -- most people (69%) understand that cats slow-blink if they are relaxed in our company and over two thirds (68%) know a cat is greeting us when it is lying on its back.

Some ways to tell your cat is happy is by looking at its ears.Normally, a relaxed cat's ears will point slightly to the side and slightly forward. When you have piqued your cat's interest, you will see her ears go straight up.

Cat's ears moving from a forward posture to a backward posture indicates increased aggression. If you see a cat's ears moving from an upright position to a full horizontal position, that indicates increased fear, annoyance, or submissiveness -- a warning for you to leave her alone. If you notice that your cat's ear are maintaining a horizontal orientation on a regular basis, she could have an ear infection or ear mites, and a trip to the vet is warranted.

A cat on the attack will pin her ears all the way back in an aggressive manner.

Cats instinctively keep their ears flat against their head in attack mode to protect their ears from claws and teeth during a fight.

The tell tale signs of the tail

Your cat's tail can convey many things -- like affection, aggression, fear and happiness. One of the most primal tail movements is the violent back-and-forth swish, sometimes called a Sword Tail. Whether it's a wild cat stalking a zebra, or a house cat stalking a gopher, she'll swish her tail to prompt the prey to move, which allows the cat to zero in for the attack.

If the tail is in a position of defensive aggression it will be lowered, but the tip is curved upward. This indicates that something has attracted her attention, and she is very nervous, defensive, and unsure of her surroundings.

A happy cat holds her tail high, and if she greets you at the door with her tail quivering, she's happy to see you. That's the time you want to shower her with affection.

Often a cat will use several forms of body language to display feelings. The more time you spend together the more clear the signals will be. Like any relationship, you know how best to communicate and what things mean. 

Graco Children's Products recalling 1.910,000 rear-facing child restraints manufactured between July 2010 and May 2013.

The models subject to recall include:

• SnugRide
• SnugRide Classic Connect (including Classic Connect 30 and 35)
• SnugRide 30
• SnugRide 35
• SnugRide Click Connect 40
• Aprica A30.

The defect involves difficulty in unlatching the harness buckle. In some cases, the buckle becomes stuck in a latched condition so that it cannot be opened by depressing the buckle's release button.

It may be difficult to remove the child from the restraint, increasing the risk of injury in the event of a vehicle crash, fire, or other emergency, in which a prompt exit from the vehicle is required.

Graco will replace the buckle with a new design, free of charge. The recall began on August 5, 2014. Owners may contact Graco at 1-877-766-7470 or by email at consumerservices@gracobaby.com.  

General Motors LLC (GM) is recalling 46,873 model year 2011-2013 Chevrolet Caprice vehicles manufactured October 15, 2010, to December 6, 2013, and 2008-2009 Pontiac G8 vehicles manufactured July 25, 2007, to February 18, 2009.

The driver may accidentally hit the ignition key with his knee, unintentionally knocking the key out of the run position, turning off the engine. If the key is not in the run position, the air bags may not deploy when the vehicle is involved in a crash, increasing the risk of injury.

Additionally, a key knocked out of the run position could cause loss of engine power, power steering, and power braking, increasing the risk of a vehicle crash.

Until the recall has been performed, drivers should adjust their seats and steering columns to allow clearance between their knee and the ignition key.

GM will notify owners, and dealers will remove the key blade from the original flip key/RKE transmitter assemblies, and cut and fit a revised key blade and housing assembly, in which the blade has been indexed by 90 degrees, to the original RKE transmitter assembly. The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule.

Owners may contact Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020 and Pontiac customer service at 1-800-762-2737 . GM's number for this recall is 14445.

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing is recalling 1,787 model year 2014 FJ Cruiser vehicles equipped with an optional "Trail Teams Ultimate Edition" package, in which the front shock absorbers and springs were replaced at vehicle processing centers.

In some of these vehicles, the two bolts that secure the front lower ball joint to the steering knuckle might have been tightened with insufficient torque when the front shock absorbers and springs were replaced during the installation process.

The bolts could become loose during driving and fall out. If both bolts fall out, the front lower ball joint could detach from the steering knuckle, causing a loss of steering control, thereby increasing the risk of a crash.

Toyota will notify owners of vehicles with the optional package installed, and dealers will inspect the torque of the bolts. If the bolts are found to be loose, dealers will retighten them to the proper torque. For any missing bolts, dealers will install new ones. The recall began on September 30, 2014.

Owners may contact toyota at 1-800-331-4331.

While most of America's health concerns are focused on the Ebola case diagnosed in Dallas, a second virus that spread across the U.S. over the summer may be developing a scary complication.

Enterovirus D68, or EV-D68, is a respiratory virus that appears to affect children more than adults. On August 19 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was notified by Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., of an increase in patients examined and hospitalized with severe respiratory illness, including some admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit.

Four days later CDC got a report from the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital of an increase in patients similar to those seen in Kansas City. EV-D68 was identified in 19 of 22 specimens from Kansas City and in 11 of 14 specimens from Chicago.

Since then, nearly 550 reports of the disease have come from hospitals in at least 43 states, mostly clustered in the Midwest. Many of the children diagnosed with the disease have ended up in intensive care.

Though deaths are rare, they aren't unheard of. In New Jersey in late September, a 4-year old boy died from the virus – his only previous symptom was a case of pinkeye.

Paralysis

Now there are reports that some children who have suffered a mystery paralysis also had EV-D68. The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, at the University of Minnesota, says the role of the virus is unclear.

In one sample of paralysis patients, about half tested positive for the virus. According to a report from the CDC, the children were hospitalized with muscle weakness or paralysis, mostly in their arms or legs.

“We don’t know yet what caused this illness or whether it spreads from one person to another,” the CDC said in a bulletin. “If a parent sees a child isn’t walking correctly or develops sudden weakness in an arm or leg, the parent should contact a doctor right away.”

Parents and children should also follow basic steps to stay healthy and avoid infections: wash hands frequently with soap and water, stay away from sick people, and disinfect objects that a sick person has touched.

Colorado outbreak

According to the government health agency, 10 children from 1 to 18 years of age in Colorado were hospitalized with EV-D68 between August 9 and September 29. Although the CDC doesn't know what caused the illness, there were some unusual similarities.

Most of the patients had problems with their spinal cord that showed up on an MRI scan. All had a high fever with symptoms of a cold or flu about a week before the paralysis set in.

None of the children showed any signs of EV-D68 infection in their spinal fluid. But the CDC says that doesn't mean some other type of infection is responsible.

What to do

As a parent, you should make sure your children are up to date on all recommended vaccinations. The CDC says that is the best way to protect your family from serious diseases.

Although the CDC says it still hasn't nailed down the source of EV-D68, it suggests that everyone in the household wash hands frequently and stay away from people who are sick.

Some child safety hazards never seem to go away. Children get backed over by cars despite the growing popularity of backup cameras. Children suffocate in cedar chests despite numerous recalls. And children continue to strangle on window blind cords.

It's the latter that staffers at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and numerous parents and consumer organizations say can and should be stopped. They're pressing for the CPSC to approve a petition filed by consumer and safety groups in May of 2013.

“There are no words to describe what it is like to find your beloved child dangling, lifeless, with a window blind cord wrapped around their neck,” said Erica and Stephen Thomas, parents of two-year-old Cormac Thomas who died in March when he strangled on a window covering cord. “We have the opportunity to prevent this tragedy from striking any other family: CPSC must move forward with this petition.”

The CPSC has documented that an average of 11 children die and 6 suffer injuries, including serious injuries such as permanent brain damage, from strangling in loops formed from the cords on window coverings each year. The rate of injuries and deaths has not been significantly reduced since 1983, safety advocates say, despite six industry attempts at developing voluntary standards.

Earlier this year, 4 children died in 22 days from window covering strangulation. The CPSC has records of 285 deaths and serious injuries between 1996 and 2012. CPSC staff also estimates that from 1996 through 2012, 1,590 children received treatment for less serious injuries resulting from entanglements on window covering cords.

Kids and cords

“Kids and cords don’t mix. CPSC staff has now taken an important step to eliminate this hazard from our homes,” said Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids In Danger. “We urge all stakeholders to participate fully to move to a final standard as quickly as possible to prevent more deaths.”

The CPSC has long recognized window covering cords as a hidden strangulation and asphyxiation hazard to children and continues them as one of the “top five hidden hazards in the home.”

Products and technology already on the market can protect children, safety organizations say. Window coverings that eliminate accessible, hazardous cords are available, add minimum costs to the manufacturing of blinds, and can be used on the vast majority of blinds and shades.

In addition, designs that render the pull cords of window coverings inaccessible have been available since the 1990’s but were never sold in the marketplace because the CPSC allowed separated cord tassels to serve as a compliant design, proponents of tougher rules argue.

“A mandatory standard that prohibits the sale of window coverings that are designed with hazardous, accessible cords is the only way to stop children from strangling on window blind coverings," said Carol Pollack-Nelson, Ph.D., of Independent Safety Consulting.

In a briefing package released last week, the staff of the CPSC urged the commission to grant the 2013 petition and adopt stringent regulations rather than relying on voluntary industry standards.

The commission is made up of political appointees, who do not always see eye-to-eye with the commission's staff, who are Civil Service employees. Most staff members have professional training and academic credentials in safety- and engineering-related fields. 

Groups urging the commission to adopt the staff's recommendation include Parents for Window Blind Safety, Consumer Federation of America, Kids In Danger, Consumers Union, U.S. PIRG, Public Citizen, and Independent Safety Consulting.