Local Giving First – A look at Springfield, Illinois ... - Jarid's Log

By Jarid A. Brown, on December 30th, 2012

The Case Foundation,a leading national foundation working to expand giving, promote everyday philanthropy, deepen civic engagement, and broaden the use of new technologies to make giving more informed, efficient, and effective, recently published their ?Nonprofit partners that should make your giving list this year?. While the Case Foundation focuses upon their organizations national partners, I thought I would provide a list of local organizations working to make a difference in my hometown, Springfield, IL. Although there are dozens of local, nonprofit organizations operating within our community, I tried to provide a list of established charitable organizations covering a wide-range of issues.

With fewer than 48 hours left in 2012, today is the ideal time to push charitable giving and volunteering to the top of your list of New Year resolutions and if you act quickly, the ideal time to earn a valuable tax deduction for 2012.

1. The Hope Institute for Children and Families ? Since 1957, The Hope Institute for Children and Families has been creating hopeful futures for children with disabilities. Today, Hope provides the finest residential, educational and medical services for thousands of children and families battling autism and developmental disabilities. (Just a disclaimer, I am the Director of Online Interactions for Hope)
2. American Cancer Society ? Relay for Life? ? The journey to end cancer starts with a single step. The American Cancer Society invites you to take that step with us by joining the global Relay For Life movement. When you walk to end cancer at a Relay event, it?s your opportunity to not only honor cancer survivors and remember loved ones lost, but also to raise awareness about what we can do to stay well from cancer and raise money to help fuel the world?s largest walk to end cancer.
3. Animal Protective League ? For over 50 years, the Animal Protective League has been an advocate for animals in both Springfield and Sangamon County. APL operates a shelter for sick, injured, abused and abandoned dogs and cats as well as a low cost spay/neuter clinic.
4. Central Illinois FoodBank ? Established in 1982 by a coalition of churches, distributes over 8 million pounds of food annually to over 150 food pantries, soup kitchens, residential programs and after-school programs in a 21 county region. Central Illinois Foodbank is a member of Feeding America, the nation?s largest domestic hunger relief organization, and is a United Way certified agency.
5. Girls on the Run ? Girls on the Run is a program that helps girls (3rd-8th grade) take charge of their lives and define the future on their terms; teaching girls that there are no limits and no constraints to whom and what they can be ? and that there are so many opportunities to be remarkable. GotR incorporates running into their curriculum to inspire and motivate girls throughout the 10-week program, encourage lifelong health and fitness, and build confidence through accomplishment. To date, GotR has reached over 2,000 central Illinois girls.
6. Habitat for Humanity of Sangamon County ? Habitat for Humanity develops working partnerships with local businesses, churches, community organizations and other individuals to build simple, decent and affordable housing for all people in need. Since its founding in 1989, Habitat for Humanity of Sangamon County has built over 85 houses in the local community (including builds in Pawnee, Glenarm, and Grandview as well as in Springfield) while providing shelter for more than 300 individuals.
7. Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach ? Mission Outreach works with hospitals, clinics and medical manufacturers throughout the midwest to address the serious unmet medical needs of people in developing countries. The organization works to secure surplus medical equipment and supplies that are then shipped around to nations around the world.
8. AFSP Out of the Darkness (Springfield Outreach) ? The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has been at the forefront of a wide range of suicide prevention initiatives ? each designed to reduce loss of life from suicide. AFSP are investing in groundbreaking research, new educational campaigns, innovative demonstration projects and critical policy work. And expanding its assistance to people whose lives have been affected by suicide, reaching out to offer support and offering opportunities to become involved in prevention.
9. St. Johns Children?s Hospital ? Since 1985, St. John?s Children?s Hospital, in partnership with SIU School of Medicine, has been affiliated with Children?s Miracle Network Hospitals. St. John?s Children?s Hospital is a special place for children and their families, providing expert care, in a healing environment, designed to meet the unique needs of your child and family.
10. St. Patrick Catholic School ? St. Patrick is a nonprofit mission school providing a learning environment open to children and families of all races and creeds within the community. We seek to give our students a variety of faith based learning experiences.
11. Springfield Art Association (SAA) ? SAA promotes and supports the visual arts, provides art education opportunities for the greater Springfield area and preserves and interprets historic Edwards Place and the collections of the SAA. SAA provides the best experience for students of all ages to discover their creative side and develop an understanding of art.
12. United Way of Central Illinois ? United Way of Central Illinois is the largest private funder of social service programs in Sangamon County. We provide funding for local programs aligned around education, food, shelter, healthcare and victim services. Our goal is to create long-lasting positive change in the lives of individuals and families by addressing their short and long term needs.

Jarid Brown is the owner of HCM Brown, a digital marketing firm, and the Director of Online Interactions for The Hope Institute in Springfield, IL. Connect with Jarid Brown on LinkedIn, Twitter or Google+.

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Source: http://www.jaridslog.com/local-giving-first-a-look-at-springfield-illinois-charities

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2012's 'good news' stories

A volunteer signs on red ribbons during an AIDS awareness campaign in a college in Anshun city in southwest China's Guizhou province.

AP

By Jina Moore/Correspondent

One of the areas where incremental progress is easiest to miss is global health. It's hard even to say the word "progress" in the face of continued suffering, but this year has brought some significant achievements.

Not 15 years ago, an HIV diagnosis was medically considered a death sentence, and policymakers worried whether the world could contain the spread of AIDS. In that context, today's news is surprising: AIDS infections have dropped 50 percent or more in 25 countries, compared with a decade ago, reports the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

"For many years, we've been talking about the millions of people dying from AIDS, which is still the case in many countries, but for the first time we see the light at the end of the tunnel," says Christoph Benn, director of external relations and partnerships at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. "Treatment prices have come down, and you're now finding drugs not just in hospitals, but in rural clinics."

UNAIDS reports that the number of children newly infected with HIV is down by more than a quarter in the past two years. "This progress in reducing new infections among children is actually quite dramatic," says Peter Ghys, chief of Data for Action at UNAIDS. "We're seeing this in a large number of countries."

One place that might be lagging? The United States. A November report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that young people ages 13 to 24 make up fully a quarter of new HIV infections each year; and 60 percent of them don't know they are infected, making it impossible to medically treat them.

Antiretroviral therapy is credited with reducing the pace of HIV-related deaths and limiting the transmission of the virus. The UN Millennium Development Program put universal access on the global agenda. Though it failed to meet the objective by its 2010 deadline (now revised to 2015), this year for the first time the majority of people eligible for HIV treatment in low- and middle-income countries receive ART. Dr. Benn singles out Rwanda as an example of stunning progress: More than 90 percent of eligible Rwandans were receiving ART by the end of October.

"This is fantastic ... historical. That is beyond our expectations from a couple of years ago," Benn says.

Kazakhstan is the site of another moment of global public health progress this year. In March, it was certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization, joining only four other malaria-endemic countries with that designation.

Nigeria heads the pack of 17 countries poised to eliminate malaria. Their antimalaria agenda includes a $50 million bed-net program, underwritten by The Global Fund, which hopes the country will offer two bed nets per household.

The Republic of the Congo, meanwhile, has made massive strides in combating maternal mortality. The number of women dying in childbirth dropped 60 percent between 2010 and 2011, from 740 deaths per 100,000 live births to 300 deaths.

David Lawson, who heads the UN Population Fund's Congo Republic office, says a government strategy and increases in the health budget have been factors in the change. Starting in March, Caesarean sections were offered free of charge, reducing deaths from delivery complications.

More than 80 percent of Congolese women deliver babies in health centers, an unusually high rate in sub-Saharan Africa, which Mr. Lawson attributes to the Congo Republic's high degree of urbanization. But he did caution, in an e-mail interview, against too much optimism: "While such a significant drop is spectacular and certainly unusual in Africa [the maternal mortality rate nevertheless] remain[s] very high for a middle-income country where women deliver babies in health centers."

Sarah Kess contributed to this report.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/n9Ep8W97QY0/2012-s-good-news-stories

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AEC Q100 Qualified Automotive Pressure Sensor

Designed for 1 Bar (14.7 psi) automotive applications, Melexis MLX90809 pressure sensor meets Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) Q100 requirements.? The piezoresistive microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology sensor and its signal conditioning circuitry are fabricated in a standard CMOS process producing a completely monolithic sensor on the same wafer.

Signal conditioning includes a low-noise analog front end (AFE), and a 16-bit sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that provide the necessary amplification and offset compensation for the sensing element. The built-in 16-bit microcontroller unit (MCU) circuitry handles temperature compensation and supplies diagnostic mechanisms for safety critical applications.

For more information about Melexis MLX90809 MEMs pressure sensors, click here.

Source: http://www.sensortips.com/pressure/aec-q100-qualified-automotive-pressure-sensor/

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New method for collagen scaffolds: Slice, stack, roll

Dec. 27, 2012 ? Tufts University School of Engineering researchers have developed a novel method for fabricating collagen structures that maintains the collagen's natural strength and fiber structure, making it useful for a number of biomedical applications.

Collagen, the most abundant protein in the body, is widely used to build scaffolds for tissue engineering because it is biocompatible and biodegradable. Collagen is, however, hard to work with in its natural form because it is largely insoluble in water, and common processing techniques reduce its strength and disrupt its fibrous structure.

The Tufts engineers' new technique, called bioskiving, creates collagen structures from thin sheets of decellularized tendon stacked with alternating fiber directions that maintain much of collagen's natural strength.

Bioskiving does not dilute collagen's natural properties, says Qiaobing Xu, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and inventor of the new technique. "Our method leverages collagen's native attributes to take advantage of the well-organized micro/nanostructures that nature already provides," he says.

Xu and Kyle Alberti, a Ph.D. student in Xu's lab, describe their technology in a paper published online in Advanced Healthcare Materials on December 12, 2012.

Slice, Stack, and Roll

In their research, Xu and Albert cut small sections of collagen from bovine tendons. Using a specialized detergent, the researchers decellularized the sections, leaving intact only the extracellular collagen matrix made of bundles of aligned collagen nanofibers.

Xu and Alberti sliced the sections into ultra-thin sheets using a microtome, and then stacked 10 slices, crisscrossing the sheets so that the fibers in one ran perpendicular to those above and below it. This process produced a scaffold material with tensile strength stronger than constructs made using common processing techniques, Xu notes.

The researchers also created tubular scaffolding by rolling layers of collagen sheets around Teflon-coated glass rods. The sheets were layered so that fibers ran along the length and the circumference of the rods. This process yielded tubes that were found to be stronger than similar tubes made of reconstituted collagen. They also maintained their highly aligned fiber structure.

"Alignment gives the scaffold the ability to guide the direction and orientation of cell growth," says Xu, who also has a faculty appointment at Tufts School of Medicine, "This capability is beneficial for tissue engineering applications where biocompatibility and the ability to guide unidirectional nerve growth are both desired, such as prosthetic or tissue engineering-based blood vessels or nerve conduits."

The work was supported by funding from a Tufts Faculty Research Award, the Charlton Award from Tufts School of Medicine, and a Tufts Neuroscience Institute Pilot Grant. It utilized facilities at the Harvard University Center for Nanoscale Systems(CNS), a member of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), which is supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF award no. ECS-0335765.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Tufts University, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Kyle A. Alberti, Qiaobing Xu. Slicing, Stacking and Rolling: Fabrication of Nanostructured Collagen Constructs from Tendon Sections. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 2012; DOI: 10.1002/adhm.201200319

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/UP_IPNdeOLw/121227110724.htm

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Earn Extra Revenue With Online Sports Betting Affiliate Programs ...

The Internet is not simply a place for large businesses to obtain larger or for new suggestions to be rewarded with large bonuses. You?ll find so many ways in which the person could possibly get in on the work and make their own business. One of the absolute most tested and tried ideas on the net, in terms of making your own personal company is that of internet affiliate marketing. Thousands all over the world have or still are benefiting from this vastly profitable industry. But do not be put off by the amount of opposing sites, the market is not built like so many on developing a market share and then capitalising on it. Some extra revenue can be earned by personal website owners just simply by hosting affiliate-advertising banners. The more business focused and larger affiliate sites may go much further making an entire business from the. It may appear a far fetched, but it?s really a very powerful a successful business model, when you take into account that 1000s of folks are getting substantial amounts of income using this basic plan.

New affiliates can choose almost any online business to represent, many present bonuses and free start-ups due to their new partners. Nevertheless handful of these industries may rival the economic muscle and the amazing development of the sports betting business. Having an business that produces this type of big turnover each and every year, you know you?re basically representing one of many industry giants. Equally the sports betting market is continually increasing with hundreds of people looking to join daily, which often means more potential custom for them and the affiliates. The activities betting affiliate system gives new the chance to affiliates to experience a few of the earning power of the internet bookies. And never have to risk a dollar, internet marketers can make up to 35% of a player?s money generated due to their whole lifetime on the website, just by recommending them.

Affiliate plans do not cost a dollar to participate so there?s no financial risk to be viewed. The sports betting websites can provide their new affiliates with all the ads and links which they have to direct individuals to their site. Which means that even the advertising is made up, leaving the internet the relatively simple task of selecting the advertising and content of their site. The affiliates are primarily self employed and working wholly for themselves, they?ve no one and no bosses to produce effects for except themselves. For that reason they are free to try out site information around they wish, making anything that they want. Likewise the way where their own site is marketed by an affiliate is totally around them. The Net is swarming with excellent marketing tools, but based on an affiliates budget some could be easier than others. The primary problem a joint venture partner people, since it is for each site, may be the original problem of getting people into their own site. The internet looks a secondary problem, which can be begging their visitors to follow links to a secondary site and sign up. There is no easy solution for either of the issues, but there are a lot of possibilities to overcome them.

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Source: http://www.im-steps.com/earn-extra-revenue-with-online-sports-betting-affiliate-programs/

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Obama may cut vacation to deal with fiscal crisis in Washington

MOBILE, Alabama (Reuters) - A tornado hit downtown Mobile, Alabama at about 5 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. NWS observing program leader Gene Jacobi of the service's Mobile office said it had confirmed reports of a tornado, but did not yet know its size. Local media reports are describing property damage, downed trees and power lines, and widespread power outages. (Reporting By Mary Wisniewski and Kaija Wilkinson in Mobile; Editing by Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/president-obama-may-return-washington-soon-wednesday-aide-014403713.html

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Professional Tips For Your Commercial Real Estate ... - Maynas Eric

A compilation of tips and techniques, that beginners can use to start their investing in commercial properties, makes a great starting vantage. The tips that follow will help put any beginning real estate investor on the road to becoming a pro.

Before you make a large investment in real estate, take a look at local income levels, unemployment rates and the expansion or contraction of local employers. Properties that are near major employment centers, such as medical centers or universities, often sell more quickly and at a higher price.

Read the fine print about your real estate agent. Watch for possible dual agency. Dual agency in real estate is when the agency works for both parties. Dual agency occurs when the landlord and the tenant hire the same agent. If there is a dual agency, everyone should be honest about it and find an agreement.

TIP! When searching for a commercial real estate broker, ask about their primary source of income. They should likewise be honest if this creates a conflict of interest in their relations with you.

If you have the intention of offering your commercial real estate for rent, look for buildings that are simple and solid in construction. These properties are generally top sellers because prospective tenants can see how well-built and maintained they are. These properties are also more cost effective for you and your tenants due to the fact that they only require minimal upkeep and repairs.

When in the process of signing the lease for a commercial property, be leery if you are offered a form for a standard lease. Larger real estate companies can often put in extra requirements in your lease and it can be lengthy! Avoid involuntarily signing away your rights by reading any such lease forms slowly and thoroughly.

Make sure you know what kind of environment your property is located. It is your responsibility to ensure that your property is free from environmental waste or safety hazards. Is the area around your property prone to flooding? You may want to reconsider your choice. If you need information about potential environmental problems in an area, contact local environmental protection or assessment agencies.

TIP! Buying commercial properties requires plenty of perseverance and calmness. Never rush into an investment.

If you are new to investing, focus on one investment type at a time. Select the type of property upon which you wish to focus, and pay close attention to your dealings. You want to be an ace investor in one property type rather than just OK at many different types.

Buy property that has more units. You can spread your wealth that is obtained by each one, by having more units. It is advised that you should purchase at least ten units to get the maximum income from your commercial investment.

In the beginning, you may find it necessary to spend a great deal of time handling your investment. It can take a little time to find a property worth purchasing, and you also may have to make necessary repairs. Do not give up because this process takes too much of your time. The rewards you see will be much greater at a later time.

TIP! Your first step should be to find the best financing. Don?t make the mistake of thinking that commercial lending is the same as residential lending.

Create or purchase an inspection checklist before starting to evaluate properties. Tour each potential property, and check how well it meets the requirements on the list. Accept the proposal responses during the first round, but before going further, notify all the property owners involved. Do not be shy about mentioning that you?re also looking at other properties that day. This may ensure that you get a much more viable deal.

Make sure you are completely aware of the available square footage. There are two ways of measuring commercial real estate property. You can measure in usable square feet to determine the size of the area in which you will conduct business. You can also measure by total square feet for the complete size of the edifice, including areas that will not be in public use. Determine both square footages for smooth business transactions.

Both local and non-local advertising of your commercial real estate property will be beneficial to you. Many sellers mistakenly presume that their property will appeal only to local buyers. In many cases, a private investor will be interested in a property even if it?s not in their area, so long as its price is a good one.

TIP! Regarding commercial loans, it is the borrower?s responsibility to obtain an appraisal. Your bank will refuse the appraisal if you try to submit it.

Try to keep your properties occupied. Empty commercial properties mean a building that you are having to maintain without any income being received. If you have lost several tenants or can?t seem to attract them in the first place, there must be a reason. It is your job to figure out the problem and correct it.

It?s hoped that the information in the preceding paragraphs are more than plentiful in getting you started in your commercial real estate dealings. This collection of tips can help you better your selling or buying technique in commercial real estate.

TIP! Build an online presence before moving into the market. These days, a website is a must as are accounts on professional networking sites like LinkedIn.

Source: http://www.maynaseric.com/professional-tips-for-your-commercial-real-estate-deals-6

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He's not running, but Italy's Monti has a plan

Italian Premier Mario Monti gestures as he speaks during a news conference in Rome, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012. Italy's caretaker Premier Mario Monti said Sunday he won't run in February elections, but if political parties that back his anti-crisis agenda ask him to head the next government he would consider the offer. Monti ruled out heading any ticket himself, saying "I have no sympathy for 'personal' parties." At a news conference, Monti made clear he was spurning an offer from his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi to run on a center-right election ticket backed by the media mogul, citing Berlusconi's heavy criticism of his economic policies. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Italian Premier Mario Monti gestures as he speaks during a news conference in Rome, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012. Italy's caretaker Premier Mario Monti said Sunday he won't run in February elections, but if political parties that back his anti-crisis agenda ask him to head the next government he would consider the offer. Monti ruled out heading any ticket himself, saying "I have no sympathy for 'personal' parties." At a news conference, Monti made clear he was spurning an offer from his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi to run on a center-right election ticket backed by the media mogul, citing Berlusconi's heavy criticism of his economic policies. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi attends a TV show in Rome, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012. Italy's caretaker Premier Mario Monti on Sunday said is spurning he won't take up Silvio Berlusconi's offer to run on a center-right election ticket backed the by media mogul, citing Berlusconi's heavy criticism of his economic policies. (AP Photo/Roberto Monaldo, Lapresse)

ROME (AP) ? For someone not running for political office, Premier Mario Monti has an awfully detailed plan for how to fix Italy's financial woes and bring the country and the rest of Europe back to economic health. And by Monday, not only had centrist leaders who want him as premier endorsed it, but so did the head of the Catholic Church in Italy.

Monti issued a 25-page agenda to "Change Italy, Reform Europe" late Sunday after announcing he had ruled out campaigning for February elections but would consider leading the next government if politicians who share his focus on reform request it.

Monti outlined the steps Italy must take to finish the reforms launched by his 13-month-long technical government to reign in Italy's public debt, spur economic growth and bring Europe's No. 3 economy out of recession.

"In a word, he will be the non-candidate candidate," commentator Massimo Franco wrote in leading daily Corriere della Sera on Monday.

Some of Monti's priorities include attracting greater foreign investment, investing in research, capitalizing on Italy's cultural treasures and fighting tax evasion and corruption. He called for incentives to hire women and young workers to help reduce the 36.5 percent youth unemployment rate. He said Italy's public administration ? tarnished by recent embezzlement scandals ? needed to be more efficient and transparent.

In an open-letter to Italians introducing the agenda, Monti said he wanted to contribute some ideas for Italy's future to help orient Italy's political leaders as they embark in what is expected to be a bitter two-month campaign before Feb. 24-25 elections.

"To those forces who show a convinced and credible adhesion, I would give my appreciation, encouragement, and if asked, my guidance," Monti wrote.

Italy's centrist leaders, who had sought Monti as their candidate for premier, discussed the document Monday morning and enthusiastically endorsed it, according to the ANSA news agency, citing sources within the movement.

And Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian bishops' conference, also gave it a thumbs-up, praising Monti's "innovative" proposals. Support from the church is considered vitally important for a government in largely Roman Catholic Italy, and the Vatican has made clear its admiration for Monti, a practicing Catholic.

"Mario Monti has presented a path, a way forward that is being offered to the serious and honest reflection of all," Bagnasco told state-run RAI radio.

Monti, a respected economist, was tapped last year to head a technical government after Silvio Berlusconi was forced to resign as premier amid market turmoil over his inability to pass necessary reforms to save Italy from Europe's debt crisis.

Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, Parliament's largest, had supported Monti's reforms, which included painful tax hikes and an increase in the retirement age. But Berlusconi yanked his support earlier this month, prompting Monti to resign and force elections about two months early.

Monti remains premier of a caretaker government. In an end-of-the-year press conference Sunday, he made clear his distaste for Berlusconi's antics, refusing the scandal-tainted ex-premier's offer to run on a center-right ticket.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-24-Italy-Politics/id-c59ce73707ac4ebb8c7dcae9ced6e6f6

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Conn. town in mourning inundated with gifts, money

Volunteer Anthony Vessicchio of East Haven, Conn., helps to sort tables full of donated toys at the town hall in Newtown, Conn., Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Volunteer Anthony Vessicchio of East Haven, Conn., helps to sort tables full of donated toys at the town hall in Newtown, Conn., Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A message of support hangs over a table full of donated toys at the town hall in Newtown, Conn., Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Pictures of Newtown shooting victims are imprinted on fake roses at a memorial in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Conn., Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. The funerals for the victims of the school shooting are wrapping up after a wrenching week of farewells. Twenty children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14. Adam Lanza, the lone gunman, killed his mother before going on the rampage and then committed suicide. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Closter Police and 28 other police departments, including the Bergen County Sheriff's Department, deliver a truck full of toys for Newtown families, on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. (AP Photo/The Record of Bergen County, Marko Georgiev) ONLINE OUT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; NO ARCHIVING; MANDATORY CREDIT

A large sign is displayed across the street from crosses bearing the names of the Newtown shooting victims in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Conn., Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. The funerals for the victims of the school shooting are wrapping up after a wrenching week of farewells. Twenty children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14. Adam Lanza, the lone gunman, killed his mother before going on the rampage and then committed suicide. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) ? Peter Leone was busy making deli sandwiches and working the register at his Newtown General Store when he got a phone call from Alaska. It was a woman who wanted to give him her credit card number.

"She said, 'I'm paying for the next $500 of food that goes out your door,'" Leone said. "About a half hour later another gentleman called, I think from the West Coast, and he did the same thing for $2,000."

Money, toys, food and other gifts have poured in from around the world as Newtown mourns the loss of 20 children and six school employees at Sandy Hook Elementary School a little over a week ago. The 20-year-old shooter, Adam Lanza, killed his mother before attacking the school then killing himself. Police don't know what set off the massacre.

Saturday, all the town's children were invited to the Edmond Town Hall in Newtown to choose from among hundreds of toys donated by individuals, organizations and toy stores.

The giving is a way for people beyond Newtown to deal with their own grief over the shooting.

"It's their way if grieving," said Bobbi Veach, who was fielding donations at the town hall building. "They say, 'I feel so bad, I just want to do something to reach out.' That's why we accommodate everybody we can."

The basement of the building resembled a toy store, with piles of stuffed penguins, Barbie dolls, board games, soccer balls and other fun gifts. All the toys were inspected and examined by bomb-sniffing dogs before being sorted and put on card tables. The children could choose whatever they wanted.

"But we're not checking IDs at the door," said Tom Mahoney, the building administrator, who's in charge of handling gifts. "If there is a child from another town who comes in need of a toy, we're not going to turn them away."

The United Way of Western Connecticut said the official fund for donations had $2.6 million in it Saturday morning. Others sent envelopes stuffed with cash to pay for coffee at the general store, and a shipment of cupcakes arrived from a gourmet bakery in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The Postal Service reported a six-fold increase in mail in town and set up a unique post office box to handle it. The parcels come decorated with rainbows and hearts drawn by school children.

Some letters arrive in packs of 26 identical envelopes ? one for each family of the children and staff killed or addressed to the "First Responders" or just "The People of Newtown." One card arrived from Georgia addressed to "The families of 6 amazing women and 20 beloved angels." Many contain checks.

"This is just the proof of the love that's in this country," said Postmaster Cathy Zieff.

The funerals for the victims were wrapping up after a wrenching week of farewells in Newtown. Services were scheduled Saturday in Connecticut for Josephine Gay, 7, and Ana Marquez-Greene, 6. A service was also planned in Utah for 6-year-old Emilie Parker.

Many people have placed flowers, candles and stuffed animals at makeshift memorials that have popped up all over town. Others are stopping by the Edmond Town Hall on Main Street to drop off food, or toys, or cash. About 60,000 teddy bears have been donated, said Ann Benoure, a social services caseworker who was working at the town hall.

"There's so much stuff coming in," Mahoney, of Newtown, said. "To be honest, it's a bit overwhelming; you just want to close the doors and turn the phone off."

Mahoney said the town of some 27,000 with a median household income of more than $111,000 plans to donate whatever is left over to shelters or other charities.

Sean Gillespie of Colchester, who attended Sandy Hook Elementary, and Lauren Minor, who works at U.S. Foodservice in Norwich, came from Calvary Chapel in Uncasville with a car filled with food donated by U.S. Foodservice. But they were sent elsewhere because the refrigerators in Newtown were overflowing with donations.

"We'll find someplace," Gillespie said. "It won't go to waste."

In addition to the town's official fund, other private funds have been set up. Former Sandy Hook student Ryan Kraft, who once babysat Lanza, set up a fund with other alumni that has collected almost $150,000. It is earmarked for the Sandy Hook PTA.

Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel is raising money for a memorial to the victims. He said one man wrote a check for $52,000 for that project.

Several colleges, including the University of Connecticut, have set up scholarship funds to pay for the educations of students at Sandy Hook and the relatives of the victims.

Town officials have not decided yet what to do with all the money. A board of Newtown community leaders is being established to determine how it is most needed and will be best utilized, said Isabel Almeida with the local United Way, which has waived all its administrative fees related to the fund.

She said some have wondered about building a new school for Sandy Hook students if the town decides to tear the school down, but that decision has not been made.

And while the town is grateful for all the support, Almeida said, it has no more room for those gifts. Instead, she encouraged people to donate to others in memory of the Sandy Hook victims.

"Send those teddy bears to a school in your community or an organization that serves low income children, who are in need this holiday season, and do it in memory of our children," she said.

___

Associated Press writers Jesse Washington, Allen Breed, Chris Sullivan, Eileen Connelly, Susan Haigh and John Christoffersen contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-22-Connecticut%20School%20Shooting/id-a8d1f7d805f542808540ca8091611e0b

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First 2014 Chevrolet Corvette to be auctioned at Barrett-Jackson for ...

Something big is coming to the 2013 Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, AZ. You can already read the (mostly) complete roster of vehicles that will be up for grabs at the annual event, and each item on the docket offers complete information as to year, make, model and a full description of the item.

But then there's lot No. 3016: Not a single bit of information is given, except that the vehicle is a Chevrolet, and that it's a "piece of Chevy history." All proceeds from this "special Chevrolet model" will be donated to the Center for Creative Studies, and the auction takes place at 8:30 PM on Saturday, January 19.

This wouldn't be the first big model to be auctioned off at the Barrett-Jackson event. Back in June, the first production 2013 SRT Viper was sold for $300,000, and General Motors has historically used the event to auction off and even debut special edition Corvette models. Given the fact that the Viper auction netted just over $200,000 more than the car's list price, a similar auction with the highly anticipated C7 Corvette could bring in some seriously big bucks.

We'll be seeing the 2014 Corvette for the first time on January 13 ? the night before the first press day of the 2013 Detroit Auto Show, and the Barrett-Jackson auction takes place just six days later.

Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/12/21/first-2014-chevrolet-corvette-to-be-auctioned-at-barrett-jackson/

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Discovery could eventually help diagnose and treat chronic pain

Dec. 20, 2012 ? More than 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. But treating and studying chronic pain is complex and presents many challenges. Scientists have long searched for a method to objectively measure pain and a new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital advances that effort. The study appears in the January 2013 print edition of the journal Pain.

"While we need to be cautious in the interpretation of our results, this has the potential to be an exciting discovery for anyone who suffers from chronic pain," said Marco Loggia, PhD, the lead author of the study and a researcher in the Pain Management Center at BWH and the Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. "We showed that specific brain patterns appear to track the severity of pain reported by patients, and can predict who is more likely to experience a worsening of chronic back pain while performing maneuvers designed to induce pain. If further research shows this metric is reliable, this is a step toward developing an objective scale for measuring pain in humans."

Specifically, researchers studied 16 adults with chronic back pain and 16 adults without pain and used a brain imaging technique called arterial spin labeling to examine patterns of brain connectivity (that is, to examine how different brain regions interact, or "talk to each other"). They found that when a patient moved in a way that increased their back pain, a network of brain regions called Default Mode Network exhibited changes in its connections. Regions within the network (such as the medial prefrontal cortex) became less connected with the rest of the network, whereas regions outside network (such as the insula) became connected with this network. Some of these observations have been noted in previous studies of fibromyalgia patients, which suggests these changes in brain connectivity might reflect a general feature of chronic pain, possibly common to different patient populations.

"This is the first study using arterial spin labeling to show common networking properties of the brain are affected by chronic pain," said study author Ajay Wasan, MD, MSc, Director of the Section of Clinical Pain Research at BWH. "This novel research supports the use of arterial spin labeling as a tool to evaluate how the brain encodes and is affected by clinical pain, and the use of resting default mode network connectivity as a potential neuroimaging biomarker for chronic pain perception."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brigham and Women's Hospital, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Marco L. Loggia, Jieun Kim, Randy L. Gollub, Mark G. Vangel, Irving Kirsch, Jian Kong, Ajay D. Wasan, Vitaly Napadow. Default mode network connectivity encodes clinical pain: An arterial spin labeling study. PAIN, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.pain.2012.07.029

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/R_CPOe_nfE8/121220195752.htm

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Young-Hyman co-edits American Diabetes Association reference text

Public release date: 21-Dec-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Toni Baker
tbaker@georgiahealth.edu
706-721-4421
Georgia Health Sciences University

AUGUSTA, Ga. Dr. Deborah Young-Hyman, Professor of Pediatrics and a diabetes and obesity researcher at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University, is Co-Editor of the American Diabetes Association's first reference text covering the major psychosocial issues of diabetes.

Dr. Mark Peyrot, Professor of Sociology at Loyola College and a research faculty member at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, also is Co-Editor of Psychosocial Clinical Guidelines for the Treatment of Patients with Diabetes.

The comprehensive book gives practitioners guidelines to access and prescribe evidence-based treatment for psychosocial problems commonly associated with diabetes. Topics include adjustment to illness, adherence to treatment, depression, interpersonal relationships as well as ethics and safety.

"We wanted to put in the hands of clinicians and researchers the best information available about how living with diabetes affects not only the physical wellbeing of people but their total well-being across the lifespan," Young-Hyman said. "It can be a vicious cycle: having diabetes increases the risk of poor psychosocial outcomes such as depression and disordered eating behavior which can, in turn, adversely impact their diabetes treatment and disease outcome. Evidence-based strategies contained in this book provide guidelines for behavioral diabetes care and will help caregivers and their patients recognize and successfully cope with these significant issues in a chronic disease that is now pervasive in our society."

Young-Hyman chairs the ADA Behavioral Medicine Council's Psychosocial Clinical Guidelines Writing Committee and is a reviewer for the association's Book Division. She reviews abstracts for the ADA's scientific sessions and is a member of its Research Grant Review Panel and an American Association of Diabetes Educators-certified educator. She is a 30-year member of the ADA's Professional Section: Behavioral Medicine and Psychology. Young-Hyman served on the American Association of Diabetes Educators 2010 Expert Panel on Monitoring in Diabetes Management. In 2011, she chaired a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Review Panel reviewing funding requests for community-based childhood obesity research. She is a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and The Obesity Society.

Young-Hyman researches obesity and related metabolic disorders from infancy to adulthood. She also studies the interplay between psychosocial and physiologic factors effecting chronic disease outcomes development of obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cardiovascular risk. Her studies have helped elucidate the conundrum of how type 1 diabetes treatment can increase hunger in patients struggling to maintain a healthy weight and how the disease can produce a preoccupation with food. She has more than two decades of experience in the family-based treatment of psychosocial issues related to acute and chronic illness with a specialty in diabetes.

###

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 21-Dec-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Toni Baker
tbaker@georgiahealth.edu
706-721-4421
Georgia Health Sciences University

AUGUSTA, Ga. Dr. Deborah Young-Hyman, Professor of Pediatrics and a diabetes and obesity researcher at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University, is Co-Editor of the American Diabetes Association's first reference text covering the major psychosocial issues of diabetes.

Dr. Mark Peyrot, Professor of Sociology at Loyola College and a research faculty member at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, also is Co-Editor of Psychosocial Clinical Guidelines for the Treatment of Patients with Diabetes.

The comprehensive book gives practitioners guidelines to access and prescribe evidence-based treatment for psychosocial problems commonly associated with diabetes. Topics include adjustment to illness, adherence to treatment, depression, interpersonal relationships as well as ethics and safety.

"We wanted to put in the hands of clinicians and researchers the best information available about how living with diabetes affects not only the physical wellbeing of people but their total well-being across the lifespan," Young-Hyman said. "It can be a vicious cycle: having diabetes increases the risk of poor psychosocial outcomes such as depression and disordered eating behavior which can, in turn, adversely impact their diabetes treatment and disease outcome. Evidence-based strategies contained in this book provide guidelines for behavioral diabetes care and will help caregivers and their patients recognize and successfully cope with these significant issues in a chronic disease that is now pervasive in our society."

Young-Hyman chairs the ADA Behavioral Medicine Council's Psychosocial Clinical Guidelines Writing Committee and is a reviewer for the association's Book Division. She reviews abstracts for the ADA's scientific sessions and is a member of its Research Grant Review Panel and an American Association of Diabetes Educators-certified educator. She is a 30-year member of the ADA's Professional Section: Behavioral Medicine and Psychology. Young-Hyman served on the American Association of Diabetes Educators 2010 Expert Panel on Monitoring in Diabetes Management. In 2011, she chaired a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Review Panel reviewing funding requests for community-based childhood obesity research. She is a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and The Obesity Society.

Young-Hyman researches obesity and related metabolic disorders from infancy to adulthood. She also studies the interplay between psychosocial and physiologic factors effecting chronic disease outcomes development of obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cardiovascular risk. Her studies have helped elucidate the conundrum of how type 1 diabetes treatment can increase hunger in patients struggling to maintain a healthy weight and how the disease can produce a preoccupation with food. She has more than two decades of experience in the family-based treatment of psychosocial issues related to acute and chronic illness with a specialty in diabetes.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/ghsu-yca122112.php

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Long-lived bats offer clues on diseases, aging

By Tan Ee Lyn

HONG KONG | Fri Dec 21, 2012 5:17am EST

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The bat, a reservoir for viruses like Ebola, SARS and Nipah, has for decades stumped scientists trying to figure out how it is immune to many deadly bugs but a recent study into its genes may finally shed some light, scientists said on Friday.

Studying the DNA of two distant bat species, the scientists discovered how genes dealing with the bats' immune system had undergone the most rapid change.

This may explain why they are relatively free of disease and live exceptionally long lives compared with other mammals of similar size, such as the rat, said Professor Lin-Fa Wang, an infectious disease expert at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore who led the multi-centre study.

"We are not saying bats never get sick or never get infections. What we are saying is they handle infections a lot better," Wang said in a telephone interview.

What was missing from both species of bats was a gene segment known to trigger extreme, and potentially fatal, immune reactions to infections, called the cytokine storm.

Cytokine storms end up killing not only offending viruses in the body, but the host's own cells and tissues too.

"Viruses rarely kill the host. The killing comes from the host's immune response. So it looks like what bats are doing is depress the inflammation (cytokine storm). If we can learn that, we can design drugs to minimize the inflammation damage and control viral infection," Wang said.

The study, which saw the participation of researchers from China, Denmark, Australia and the United States, was published on Friday in the journal Science.

Compared with other mammals of similar size, bats live a long time, with lifespans of between 20 and 40 years. Rats live between 2 and 3 years, on average.

IMMUNE GENES LINKED TO FLIGHT

Interestingly, Wang and his colleagues found that the highly evolved genes that give bats their superior immune system also enable them to fly.

Out of more than 5,000 types of mammals on the planet, bats are the only one capable of sustained flight and some species can fly more than 1,000 km in a single night.

Such intense physical exertion is known to produce toxic "free radicals" that cause tissue damage and it is these same genes that give the bat the ability to repair itself, Wang said.

"What we found was the genes that evolved fastest were genes involved in repairing DNA damage. That makes sense ... because when you fly, metabolism goes up and it generates free radicals that are toxic to cells," Wang said.

"Because bats fly, they (would have had) to evolve and adapt ... to get genes that can repair DNA damage."

Wang said we have much to learn from the bat, which has evolved to avoid disease and live exceptionally long lives.

"Cancer, ageing and infectious disease, these are the three major areas of concern for people," he said.

"We have studied rats for 150 years to understand how to do better in these three areas. Now we have a system, the bat, that has done very well in evolution. We can learn from the bat. With modern techniques, we can design new drugs to slow down the ageing process, treat cancer, fight infections."

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/4x8_U-iFQSk/us-bats-immunity-flight-idUSBRE8BK0BV20121221

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Rhapsody Adds AT&T And Verizon Carrier Billing To Get A Beat On Spotify And MOG

Veteran music streaming service Rhapsody has been around for over a decade. It's managed to survive in a turbulent (and oftentimes) crowded market, even as it has been eclipsed in popularity by services like Rdio and Spotify. In fact, Rhapsody was the first on-demand service to offer unlimited access to a substantial catalog of music for a flat monthly subscription fee, paving the way for startups like Spotify.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/rR_y4g-8-HU/

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Will These 5 Solutions Really Solve the College Debt Crisis?

When the 113th Congress convenes in January, the student loan crisis could be front and center.

Wisconsin Republican Representative Tom Petri introduced the Earnings Contingent Education Loans (ExCEL) Act of 2012 on Monday. That bill would simplify and improve student loans for borrowers while saving significant taxpayer dollars.

?If you are earning a higher income after leaving school, you would repay your loan more quickly, although with no more than 15 percent of your income beyond an allowance for basic living expenses,? Petri said in a statement. ?If you lose your job, get sick, or can't find a good job, your loan payments would automatically be kept at affordable levels.?

Petri said that students would not face interest spiraling to unmanageable levels if they are unemployed temporarily. It protects borrows from financial ruin and taxpayers who have to cover default loans.

More: 8 Ways to Keep Your Student Loan Debt From Crushing You

Employers would be charged with withholding payments from wages in the same way they do federal and state taxes. Payments would be capped at 15 percent of borrowers? income after basic living expenses, and borrowers would pay a percentage of their income until the loan is repaid.

It?s a system that has worked successfully in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, where defaults seldom occur.

Since 2003, total student loan debt has increased every quarter. The Obama Administration has marked the trillion-dollar student loan crisis as one of the most serious financial issues facing this country. In July, he signed a bill that kept interest rates on federal student loans from doubling in 2012. Without that bill, nearly 7.5 million students would have had to pay $1,000 more on their loan payments.

Currently, there are several bills that deal with student loans in Congress.

New York Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat, introduced a bill earlier this year to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude from gross income amounts paid by an employer on an employee's student loan. So far, little action has occurred on it.

Rep. Hanson Clarke, a Democrat from Michigan, also introduced the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012. In a fact sheet about the act, it notes:

• If you make payments equal to 10% of your discretionary income for 10 years, your remaining federal student loan debt would be forgiven.
• If you have already been making payments on your student loans, your repayment period would likely be shorter than 10 years. The amount you have already paid on your student loans over the past decade would be credited toward meeting the requirement for forgiveness.

The last major action on Clarke?s bill occurred in late March when it was referred to the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training.

Another bill sitting in the House awaiting action was cosponsored by several members of Congress and would require financial literacy and economic education counseling for student borrowers. In the bill?s findings, it states: ?According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor Education Foundation, less than 1/3 of young adults (ages 18 to 29) set aside emergency savings to weather unexpected financial challenges.? It also states that 62 percent of high school students cannot pass a basic personal finance exam, and ?financial literacy scores among future higher education students are low.?

In the Senate, Democrats Dick Durbin of Illinois and Tom Harkin of Iowa introduced the Know Before You Owe Private Student Loan Act of 2012. It amends both the Higher Education Act and the Truth in Lending Act to strengthen requirements surrounding private student loans. Private lenders would have to obtain information before issuing a loan, including certification from the school that students have been fully informed of their financing options. Yes, that bill, too, awaits action in a committee.

Do you think any of these bills would help students get out of debt? Share your thoughts in comments.

Stay up-to-date on the issues from Waiting for 'Superman' and other education news weekly.

Related Stories on TakePart:

? No Income? No Problem! How the Gov't Is Saddling Parents with College Loans They Can't Afford

? Election 2012: How the Results Impact Your Child?s Education

? Depressed Yet? Student Loan Debt Nears $1 Trillion

---

Suzi Parker is an Arkansas-based?political and cultural journalist whose work frequently appears in?The Washington?Post?and?The Christian Science Monitor. She is the?author of two books. @SuziParker | TakePart.com?

Source: http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/12/18/will-these-five-solutions-solve-college-debt-crisis

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Source: http://forums.ferra.ru/index.php?showtopic=53598

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Flickr for iPhone updated with better Facebook sharing and more notifications

Just one week following its huge update that introduced filters, Flickr for iPhone has been updated again with a few more improvements including better Facebook sharing and more options for notifications.

This update to Flickr includes better visibility of photo upload status, easier sharing to Facebook, the option to receive instant notifications when a Facebook friend joins Flickr, the ability to easily find your Twitter contacts on Flickr, and notifications when someone comments on a photo that you've also commented on. Flickr has also fixed issues with Google sign-in and other bug fixes.

This isn't a hugely significant update to Flickr, but what is significant is that Yahoo seems to be dedicating time, energy, and resources in their mobile presence which is great. I recently gave reasons why I believe Flickr is better than Instagram, so it's great to see that development in the platform will continue to be a priority.

Any other Flickr users out there? Feel free to share your username below!

• Free - Download now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/_90amPiwGZs/story01.htm

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California senators propose tighter gun laws after Newtown deaths

SACRAMENTO ? A group of California lawmakers responded Tuesday to the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., with a series of proposals to further control access to weapons, including mandatory permits with fees and background checks for anyone who wants to buy bullets.

Tougher gun permit and safety measures, as well as a plan to close a loophole in the state's assault weapons ban, were also proposed.

California has been fighting in court for years with the National Rifle Assn. and other groups over an earlier, landmark law to restrict handgun ammunition sales. The state has been unable to enforce the law since 2010 because of the litigation.

"For too long, too much ground has been ceded in this debate about reasonable gun and ammunition control," said Sen. Kevin De Leon, chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus.

The Democrat from Los Angeles is leading the effort for new regulations on ammunition sales, which he said Tuesday would be dedicated to those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. "We must not capitulate any longer."

He said his new proposal addresses concerns raised by the courts that the existing law does not clearly define what constitutes handgun ammunition.

The rules proposed by De Leon would apply to ammunition for all guns.

California lawmakers have repeatedly implemented strict rules on gun ownership despite the state's large population of hunters and recreational shooters, and constant wrangling with the NRA.

The nonprofit Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which lobbies for restrictions on firearm ownership, ranks California No. 1 among states.

Bans on assault weapons and ammunition clips holding more than 10 rounds, as well as a strong background check requirement, retention of records on gun buyers and a 10-day waiting period for purchasing firearms helped earn California the distinction.

De Leon wants an annual permit fee of up to $50 to pay for felony and mental illness background checks. Those buying ammunition on the Internet would have to collect the bullets at a gun store, where the permit would be required.

C.D. Michel, the lawyer who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. Foundation ? the NRA's California affiliate ? said Tuesday that the senator's latest proposal might also be illegal.

"You can't tax the exercise of a fundamental constitutional right," he said.

Others questioned the effectiveness of the proposed law.

"Anybody who wants to can drive to Reno or Las Vegas or Oregon and buy all the ammunition they want and bring it back to California," said Sam Paredes, executive director of the advocacy group Gun Owners of California.

Gov. Jerry Brown has not always embraced anti-gun legislation. He vetoed a measure lawmakers passed last year aimed at addressing the legal issues bedeviling the existing restrictions on ammunition purchases.

"Let's keep our powder dry ? until the court case runs its course," Brown wrote in his veto message.

De Leon said the politics of such bills had changed with the Connecticut shooting.

"They were mowed down," he said of the Newtown children. "I think that viscerally it will give a lot of political officials around the country the political courage to do the right thing."

Los Angeles and Sacramento require fingerprinting of ammunition buyers. The Sacramento Police Department found that 349 felons and other prohibited buyers purchased ammunition in that city from 2008 to 2011. Officers were able to go after the violators.

State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) this week proposed three gun-control bills, including one prohibiting devices on semiautomatic weapons that allow them to be easily reloaded with multiple rounds of ammunition.

He also proposed requiring yearly registration and background checks for gun ownership, rather than just at the time of purchase. Yee also proposed that all guns have a locked trigger and be properly stored in a lock box when not in use.

Republican Sen. Ted Gaines of Roseville announced Tuesday his proposal to permanently ban from owning guns mentally ill people whom a court deems to be a danger to others.

Gaines said current law allowed those people to regain the right to possess firearms if they completed treatment.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/latimes/news/local/~3/jphSdC5wIxc/story01.htm

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Nielsen's top programs for Dec. 10-16

NEW YORK (AP) ? Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 10-16. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.

1. NFL Football: San Francisco at New England, NBC, 23.23 million.

2. "60 Minutes," CBS, 19.63 million.

3. "NCIS," CBS, 17.65 million.

4. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 16.74 million.

5. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 15.12 million.

6. "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 14.62 million.

7. "Person of Interest," CBS, 14.08 million.

8. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 13.34 million.

9. "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 12.33 million.

10. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 12.01 million.

11. "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 11.52 million.

12. "Survivor: Philippines" (Sunday), CBS, 11.46 million.

13. "2 Broke Girls," CBS, 11.04 million.

14. "Modern Family," ABC, 10.94 million.

15. "2 Broke Girls" (Monday, 9:30 p.m.), CBS, 10.78 million.

16. "Football Night in America," NBC, 10.47 million.

17. "Elementary," CBS, 10.46 million.

18. "Survivor: Philippines," CBS, 10.37 million.

19. "Vegas," CBS, 10.33 million.

20. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 9.84 million.

___

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.; CBS is a division of CBS Corp.; Fox is a unit of News Corp.; NBC is owned by NBC Universal.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-12-18-US-Nielsens-List/id-963ad948d9eb402eb35b01efd75577cd

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Online Gamers Plan Cease Fire Friday to Honor Newtown Shooting ...

Antwand Pearman(NEW YORK) -- Don't get Antwand Pearman wrong. He doesn't think video games are to blame for tragedies like the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. But he said he does think gamers have a place in mourning of the 20 children and 7 adults who were killed.

Pearman, who is the CEO and Founder of GamerFitNation, is organizing an online cease fire for this coming Friday, Dec. 21. He wants all gamers to put down the controllers and stop firing virtual bullets to honor those who were killed by real bullets last Friday.

"I wanted to make a statement. I wanted gamers to come together to say we don't accept this. This doesn't say we blame video games. We just believe this is for us to do to show respect to the victims. It's a small sacrifice for a day," Pearman told ABC News.

Pearman and his colleagues are promoting the cease-fire with the Twitter hashtag #osceasefire -- on the microblogging service and Facebook. Since putting up the Facebook page over the weekend, he has enlisted more than 600 attendees, all of whom have committed to not play online shooter games for the full day, including popular titles like Call of Duty.

In the aftermath of the tragedy in Connecticut, many have taken to focusing on the enthusiasm that the 20-year-old shooter, Adam Lanza, is reported to have had for violent video games. "The violence in the entertainment culture, particularly with the extraordinary realism to video games and movies now, does cause vulnerable young men, particularly, to be more violent," Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), said on Fox News on Sunday.

There are, of course, many sides to the gaming violence debate, but Pearman said he feels strongly that while gun laws need to change, games do not.

"You can't blame a video game for something like that -- the real reason is mental health and gun control. He shouldn't have been able to get the type of assault weapons he had."

The online cease fire will begin on Friday morning at midnight, local time, and last 24 hours.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Source: http://abcnewsradioonline.com/entertainment-news/online-gamers-plan-cease-fire-friday-to-honor-newtown-shooti.html

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