Sony never acknowledged this problem as a systematic design or manufacturing failure.

These blobs frequently represent optical targets for machining, robotic capture, or manufacturing failure.

To the Editor: It is astonishing that the United States has achieved such a severe influenza vaccine shortage, because of a last-minute single-point manufacturing failure that has now cut the vaccine supply in half, just as we enter influenza season ("Shortage Was Predicted," news analysis, Oct. 7).