The purpose of a diaper is to absorb moisture and contain mess so that the wearer can remain dry and comfortable after wetting or soiling themselves. When diapers become full and can no longer hold any more waste, they require changing; this process is often performed by a secondary person such as a parent or caregiver. Failure to change a diaper on a regular enough basis can result in diaper rash.

Presented to Fred Wells as project p-57 (this was the plane Wells had taught American pilots to fly during WWII), Mills stated "This one will fly." Although Pampers were conceptualized in 1959, the diapers themselves were not launched into the market until 1961.

Adult Diapers

COPENHAGEN – A historic U.N. climate conference ended Saturday with only a nonbinding "Copenhagen Accord" to show for two weeks of debate and frustration. It was a deal short on concrete steps against global warming, but signaling a new start for rich-poor cooperation on climate change.
The agreement brokered by President Barack Obama with China and others in fast-paced hours of diplomacy on Friday sets up the first significant program of climate aid to poorer nations. But although it urges deeper cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming, it does nothing to demand them. That will now be subject to continuing talks next year.
As delegates wrapped up an exhausting overnight negotiating marathon Saturday afternoon, to end the 193-nation conference, U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer assessed the results for reporters.
It's "an impressive accord," he said of the three-page document. "But it's not an accord that is legally binding, not an accord that pins down industrialized countries to targets."
A legally binding international agreement — a treaty — requiring further emissions cuts by richer nations was the goal in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007 when the annual U.N. conference set a two-year timetable leading to Copenhagen.
A new pact would succeed the first phase of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, whose relatively modest emissions cuts by 37 nations expire in 2012. It was hoped a new regime would encompass the U.S., which rejected Kyoto.
But the hopes for Copenhagen faded as 2009 wore on and the first U.S. legislation to cap carbon emissions worked its way only slowly through Congress. Without a U.S. commitment, others were wary of submitting to a new legally binding deal.
Big polluters, nonetheless, submitted plans for reductions ahead of the U.N. talks.
The European Union has committed to cutting emissions by 20 percent by 2020, compared with 1990 levels; Japan to 25 percent, if others take similar steps, and the U.S. provisionally to a weak 3 to 4 percent.
For the first time, China also offered to rein in its greenhouse gas output, pledging to reduce its "carbon intensity" — that is, its use of fossil fuels per unit of economic output — by 40 to 45 percent. India, Brazil and South Africa followed suit with their own voluntary targets.
But scientists say that's too small a rollback in gases from fossil-fuel burning, emissions that have increased an average of 2 to 3 percent a year in the past decade.
Some U.S. experts are predicting a big enough rise in temperatures to lead to serious damage from coastal flooding, droughts, species die-offs and other impacts of climate change.
The U.N. climate summit this past week in the snowy Danish capital brought more than 110 leaders. The Copenhagen Accord emerged principally from Obama's meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and the leaders of India, Brazil and South Africa.
The compromise document indicated richer and poorer nations are ready for closer cooperation on climate. Its key elements, with no legal obligation, were:
_Nations agreed to cooperate in reducing emissions, "with a view" to scientists' warnings to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees F) above preindustrial levels.
_Developing nations will report every two years on their voluntary actions to reduce emissions. Those reports would be subject to "international consultations and analysis" — a concession to the U.S. by China, which had seen this as an intrusion on its sovereignty.
_Richer nations will finance a $10 billion-a-year, three-year program to fund poorer nations' projects to deal with drought and other climate-change impacts, and to develop clean energy.
_They also set a "goal" of mobilizing $100 billion-a-year by 2020 for the same adaptation and mitigation purposes.

In a U.S. concession to China and other developing nations, text was dropped from the declaration that would have set a goal of reducing global emissions by 50 percent by 2050. Developing nations thought that would hamper efforts to raise their people from poverty.

In a news conference here Friday, Obama deflected criticism that Copenhagen had failed to achieve a strong agreement. If the world waited to reach a binding deal, "then we wouldn't make any progress," he said, warning that could produce "such frustration and cynicism that rather than taking one step forward, we ended up taking two steps back."

Environmentalists and a handful of developing countries were unconvinced.

"The deal is a triumph of spin over substance. It recognizes the need to keep warming below 2 degrees but does not commit to do so. It kicks back the big decisions on emissions cuts," said Jeremy Hobbs of Oxfam International, a group that works with developing countries.

The full U.N. conference, in its long overnight session that finally ended Saturday, approved by consensus a compromise decision to "take note" of the accord, instead of formally approving it.

"We have a deal in Copenhagen," said a visibly relieved U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has made climate change his No. 1 priority. He said "this is just the beginning" of a process to craft a binding pact on emissions.

The next deadline for a treaty will be the 2010 U.N. climate conference in Mexico City.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Associated Press writers John Heilprin, Seth Borenstein, Michael Casey, Arthur Max and Karl Ritter contributed to this report

DETROIT (Reuters) –
The board of General Motors Co (GM.UL) will get an update on the search for a new chief executive by next month as a recruiting firm compiles a short list of candidates, a person familiar with the process said.

The automaker has also identified a candidate to hire as a new chief financial officer and could have an announcement on that key position by the end of the year, GM Chairman and acting Chief Executive Ed Whitacre said.

Taken together, the steps demonstrate how GM's board under the oversight of Whitacre has nearly completed the process of replacing or reassigning the senior leadership team that steered the automaker through bankruptcy five months ago.

Whitacre, 68, has moved to put his own stamp on GM's management and strategy since becoming chairman in July. Since taking over as GM's acting CEO last week, he has also driven home a message that the automaker must move faster to win back customers, pay back taxpayers and return to profitability.

GM has tapped search firm Spencer Stuart to find a permanent chief executive in a process that will consider candidates outside the auto industry, said the person who asked not to be named because the hiring process is private.

Spencer Stuart also handled the search for Whitacre, who became acting chief executive after the board broke with former CEO Fritz Henderson.

A spokesman for the recruiting company could not be immediately reached for comment. GM had no comment on the search firm's identity.

Whitacre did not address the CEO search or how long he will be acting chief executive during a 38-minute Web chat with reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

He said GM was close to hiring a replacement for CFO Ray Young.

"We're close and have narrowed it down and have a real good candidate," Whitacre said, adding that GM "could have some news in two or three weeks."

Young has been in discussions about moving to GM's international operations based in Shanghai, people familiar with those talks have said. GM has declined to comment.

With the replacement of Young, GM's entire top management team will have changed over this year. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, 77, who had been charged with heading GM's marketing efforts, has been made an adviser to Whitacre.

"His role has changed a bit. He is senior adviser to me and top management," Whitacre said. "We look forward to learning a lot from him."

Corporate search executives expect GM to stay within the ranks of the U.S. executive class for a new CEO, but say it will face challenges because of a government-imposed limit on executive pay and the strong presence of Whitacre.

'FOCUSED ON RESULTS'

A former AT&T chief executive, Whitacre has pushed GM's sales organization to bring down its industry-leading spending on incentives even as the automaker struggles to defend its share of the U.S. market, executives say.

"He's pretty clear that he wants results," Susan Docherty, GM's recently appointed head of U.S. sales and marketing, told reporters on Tuesday. "If he sees things that he thinks are off track, he's going to hold me and the team accountable."

When asked how long GM's new executive team, including Docherty, have to show results, Whitacre said "not long."

Henderson, 51, had taken over as GM CEO in March at the time that his predecessor, Rick Wagoner, was dismissed by the Obama administration.

GM emerged from a government-funded bankruptcy in July under the nearly 61 percent ownership of the U.S. Treasury, after accepting more than $50 billion in government aid.

Corporate talent experts said a new CEO of GM would have to be able to work beside a strong chairman in the form of Whitacre. Some also believe it is possible that Whitacre would opt to keep the CEO job.

"Ed has been acting more like a CEO than he has chairman and as a result of that, somebody coming into this role is going to have a very high opinion, high velocity, high visibility chairman who has already shown that he is the leader of the board and is making pretty quick decisions," said Brian Sullivan, CEO of executive search firm CTPartners.

"What you do need almost is more of a chief operating officer than a chief executive officer because this certainly looks to be Ed's show, but he needs someone to implement the day-to-day," Sullivan said.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management, said he also expected that a new CEO would have a "muted role" at GM under Whitacre after the unexpectedly swift move by the board to break with Henderson.

"The ego issues here are very considerable," he said.

(Reporting by David Bailey and Bernie Woodall; Editing by Tim Dobbyn and Matthew Lewis)

Natural Baby

In England too, dummies were seen as something the "poorer classes" would use, and associated with poor hygiene. In 1914 a London doctor complained about "the dummy teat": "If it falls on the floor it is rubbed momentarily on the mother's blouse or apron, lipped by the mother and replaced in the baby's mouth."

Pacifiers have been shown to interfere with breastfeeding, especially if introduced within the first 6 weeks of life.