My Doll Blog

noreply@blogger.com (mahmodrahman) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:17:00 +0000

China continues to be the world's largest supplier of baby toys with exports still achieving double-digit annual growth. New product standards and more stringent enforcement of existing regulations, however, will shake up the industry in 2008.

In response to the series of high-profile toy recalls in 2007, new domestic and foreign policies have been implemented to improve toy safety and quality. Many mainland suppliers, particularly small and midsize companies, report that meeting these standards are their biggest challenge.

Baby toy prices are expected to increase, mainly due to compliance with these measures and to higher material and labor costs. According to the Supplier Survey conducted for this report, 82 percent of respondents plan to increase prices during the next six months.

With the help of this report, you too can profit from this rapidly changing industry.

This report will answer questions such as:

•	Which suppliers are capable of meeting new toy standards?
•	How are suppliers changing sourcing strategies, manufacturing techniques and QC tests to comply with new regulations?
•	How can you determine which suppliers will survive the industry's restructuring and consolidation period?
•	How will rising production costs affect pricing in the next 12 months?
•	What kind of multifunctional baby toys will be released in 2008?
•	And much more...

With profiles of 45 suppliers, a comprehensive industry overview, detailed product and pricing information as well as a special quality and safety section, this report will help you qualify suppliers before your next sourcing trip to China.

noreply@blogger.com (mahmodrahman) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:16:00 +0000

An explosion in the mountain pine beetle population means these tiny insects are invading many more trees than usual, and that’s killing forests.

Winter is coming, and in the western Canadian province of British Columbia that means that hungry larvae, or immature beetles, are busily feasting. In recent years, the larvae of the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) have chomped their way through huge forests, killing a third of the oldest trees in British Columbia.

The current population hatched beneath the bark of pine trees from eggs laid in early summer, and must now eat constantly to grow into adulthood.

“We’ve lost the equivalent of 11 million logging trucks worth,” says Rodney DeBoice, coordinator of beetle control efforts for the province.

DeBoice says one reason so many trees are dying is that the beetles find it easier to chew into older trees—and more trees are living longer thanks to modern fire prevention.

Not only are there more old trees, there are a lot more beetles. A few years ago, colder winters helped control beetle numbers by killing many of them. Warmer winters mean more survivors.

“Temperatures need to stay lower than 40 degrees below zero to put a large dent in the population,” explains DeBoice. So a lot more beetles are surviving—and eating.

The mountain pine beetle finds shelter and food in the pine trees where it spends most of its life. In early summer females no larger than the head of a match lay tiny eggs that develop into larvae in the fall.

The hungry larvae eat away at the tree’s life system through the winter. Once they chew a ring all the way around the tree, water and nutrients can no longer flow throughout the tree and it dies.

Experts say by the year 2013, 80 percent of British Columbia’s mature pines will be dead. DeBoice says that isn’t as bad as it sounds: “Keep in mind, we have a lot more young pine forests growing up than we have old pine trees.”

noreply@blogger.com (mahmodrahman) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:13:00 +0000

Green invaders are taking over America. Nope, not invaders from space. Plants. You might not think of plants as dangerous, but in this case they are threatening nature's delicate food web.

The invaders are plants from other countries brought here to make gardens and yards look pretty. Ever since people started to arrive on America's shores, they've carried along trees, flowers, and vegetables from other places.

Now there are so many of those plants, they are crowding out the native plants that have lived here since before human settlers arrived.

And that's a problem, says Dr. Doug Tallamy. He's an entomologist (an insect expert) at the University of Delaware. He explains that almost all the plant-eating insects in the United States—90% of them—are specialized. That means they eat only certain plants.

Pretty orange and black monarch butterflies, for example, can only dine on one plant: milkweed. If people cut down milkweed and replace it with something else, the butterflies starve, because their bodies cannot accept any other food.

But the trouble doesn't stop there, it goes right across the food web. When insects can't get the right plants to eat and they die off, then the birds don't have enough bugs for their meals. Tallamy points out that almost all migrating birds depend on insects to feed their young.

noreply@blogger.com (mahmodrahman) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:10:00 +0000

When insects can't get the right plants to eat and they die off, then the birds don't have enough bugs for their meals.

Photograph courtesy Dr. Doug Tallamy

noreply@blogger.com (mahmodrahman) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:08:00 +0000

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noreply@blogger.com (mahmodrahman) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:55:00 +0000

A doll is an object that represents a baby or other human being, but includes likenesses of animals and imaginary creatures. Dolls have been around since the dawn of human civilization, and have been fashioned from a vast array of materials, ranging from stone, clay, wood, bone, cloth and paper, to porcelain, china, rubber and plastic.

While dolls have traditionally been toys for children, they are also collected by adults, for their nostalgic value, beauty, historical importance or financial value. In ancient times, dolls were used as representations of a deity, and played a central role in religious ceremonies and rituals. Lifelike or anatomically correct dolls are used by health professionals, medical schools and social workers to train doctors and nurses in various health procedures or investigate cases of sexual abuse of children. Artists sometimes use jointed wooden mannequins in drawing the human figure. Action figures representing superheroes and their predecessors, action dolls, are particularly popular among boys. Baby dolls, paper dolls, talking dolls, fashion dolls - the list is almost endless.

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