Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Flame retardant pollutants found at far-flung locations, including Indonesia, Nepal and Tasmania

Jan. 8, 2013 ? Chemicals used as flame retardants are present as environmental pollutants at locations around the globe, including remote sites in Indonesia, Nepal and Tasmania, according to a study by researchers from the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

The study, published this month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, makes use of a novel but highly effective sampling technique: measuring concentrations of the chemicals in the bark of trees, which absorbs compounds in both vapor and particle phases.

"These findings illustrate further that flame retardants are ubiquitous pollutants and are found all around the world, not only in biota and humans but also in plants," said Amina Salamova, a research associate in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU Bloomington and co-author of the study with Ronald A. Hites, Distinguished Professor in SPEA and in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The study measured concentrations of brominated and chlorinated flame retardants collected in tree bark samples at 12 locations around the globe: three sites in Canada and single sites in Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Czech Republic, South Africa, Nepal, Indonesia, Tasmania and American Samoa.

The highest concentrations were found at an urban site: Downsview, Ontario, Canada, near Toronto. However, the second-highest concentration of one type of flame retardant, Dechlorane Plus, was found at a remote site at Bukit Kototabang in Indonesia. Researchers don't know the cause of the relatively high concentrations at the site but suspect it may be near a source.

The study was carried out in cooperation with the Global Atmospheric Passive Sampling network, an international monitoring initiative established in 2004 on six continents.

Brominated and chlorinated flame retardants have been used for several decades in consumer products made of plastic, foam, wood and textiles to prevent combustion and slow the spread of fire. They persist in the environment and bio-accumulate in ecosystems and in human tissues. Exposure to the compounds has been associated with thyroid and other endocrine system disruption and with adverse neurological development. As a result, the production and use of certain flame retardants has been restricted in North America and the European Union.

Researchers measured a variety of flame retardants, including widely used polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDE, as well as nonregulated compounds such as Dechlorane Plus and "older" flame retardants that were used in the 1980s. Findings included:

  • Most of the compounds were detected at all the locations, with concentrations varying widely.
  • Concentrations were associated with population density, suggesting the compounds most likely entered the environment through their use in nearby homes and offices.
  • Concentrations found in tree bark are correlated with those measured in previous atmospheric sampling at the sites by the Global Atmospheric Passive Sampling network.

Higher concentrations of flame retardants in bark and the atmosphere have been found by Hites and others in previous studies of the Great Lakes region, especially urban areas near Chicago and Cleveland, and also at cities in China. Even higher concentrations were found in southern Arkansas and at Niagara Falls, N.Y., near the sites of manufacturing facilities for PBDE and Dechlorane Plus, respectively.

The study also confirms the effectiveness of using tree bark as a sampling medium, a technique that Hites and colleagues have used in previous studies of persistent organic pollutants such as flame retardants.

Bark makes an effective sampling medium because of its large surface area and high lipid content. The samples are easy and inexpensive to collect, an advantage in developing countries that lack funding for extensive environmental monitoring programs. Tree bark also collects both vapor and particle phase pollutants, while other samplers collect one or the other.

Support for the study came from the Great Lakes National Program Office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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

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Journal Reference:

  1. Amina Salamova, Ronald A. Hites. Brominated and Chlorinated Flame Retardants in Tree Bark from Around the Globe. Environmental Science & Technology, 2013; 47 (1): 349 DOI: 10.1021/es303393z

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/gcNjkTB7q74/130108083854.htm

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Monday, January 7, 2013

Real Estate Marketing Service Previsite America Appoints Todd J ...

Seasoned Industry Professional Expands Social Media Marketing and International Reach for Real Estate Agents and Brokers

Atlanta, Georgia (PRWEB) January 06, 2013

The Previsite America is proud to announce the promotion of Todd J. Walker to the position of Chief Operations Officer, effective immediately. Todd has served as the Vice President of Sales since September 2011 and has served the real estate industry since 1997, managing a $100 million real estate marketing brand in over 400 markets across the USA and Canada.

?Todd has been a valuable asset to our company and the growth in both revenue and product offerings,? stated Eric Calosci, Previsite CEO, from the Global headquarters in Paris, France. ?His experience has, and will continue to be, extremely valuable to our clients as we assist them in the growth of their businesses.?

Walker added, ?We are starting 2013 with the release of our new Social Media Agent Offering Dashboard. It?s an innovative offer that improves the agent?s productivity by managing all of the social and digital services such as Pinterest, Google Plus, Unique URL?s within one platform designed specifically for real estate.?

Walker has worked in the real estate marketing industry for 17 years and has been a featured speaker at national industry events. ?I?ve seen the evolution of real estate marketing during my career, both in the U.S. and internationally,? Walker said. ?Our new offerings incorporate the best practices with the most popular consumer resources into packages streamline the process for real estate professionals and remove the guesswork ? giving them more effective and efficient solutions for marketing their listings.?

In addition, Previsite announced the relocation of its North American headquarters to 5830 Bond Street, Suite 300 Cumming, GA 30040.

Previsite is the global leader in real estate marketing services. Products and services include;

Social Media Offering Broker/Company - a complete package of tools; Facebook ? YouTube ? Twitter ? Virtual Tour ? with options to add Pinterest ? Google Plus ? Unique URL and cascades these tools to each brokerage agent.

Social Media Agent Offering an agent specific package to create video tour and publish listings to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, the agent website and other social sites including LinkedIn, Dailymotion, Delicious, Digg, Stumble Upon, Craigslist and more. Agents create their own tours and with all the unlimited features and services of the Previsite solution such as floor plans, music and narration, local area maps, syndication to major portals, auto-posting to social media sites, lead capture, and statistics.

World Posting - General and Luxury distribution to over 70 million potential buyers and investors with a global network of real estate portals leading their country- a wide range of property portals around the world.

For information on Previsite or its products and services contact Haney Sweda or 904-325-9651.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2013/1/prweb10290970.htm

Source: http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2013/01/06/real-estate-marketing-service-previsite-america-appoints-todd-j-walker-new-coo-relocates-

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Global regulators agree on bank asset rules

(AP) ? International banking regulators agreed Sunday on global rules meant to ensure banks keep enough cash in hand to survive future market crises, and gave banks until 2019 to comply fully.

The rules will require banks in future to hold enough cash, and assets such as equities, corporate and government bonds that can easily be sold, to tide them over during an acute 30-day crisis.

The body that oversees the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which sets international rules, said Sunday that they will have to hold 60 percent of that amount when the rules start being phased in on Jan. 1, 2015; that will increase by 10 percentage points every year until the standards take full effect at the beginning of 2019.

The oversight body's head, Bank of England governor Mervyn King, said after regulators met in Basel, Switzerland, that the timeframe ensures the new standards "will in no way hinder the ability of the global banking system to finance the recovery." The hope is that it will prevent lenders from becoming over-reliant in future on help from central banks, which have stepped in over recent years to keep the financial system flush with cash.

King said that "the vast majority" of the world's biggest banks "already hold liquid assets well above the minimum required by this standard."

The rules are part of wider efforts to prevent another shock to the financial system like that prompted by Lehman Brothers' 2008 collapse, which led to taxpayer-funded bailouts of banks in the U.S. and Europe.

They are part of the so-called Basel III package of reforms. That package will require lenders to increase their highest-quality capital ? such as equity and cash reserves ? gradually from 2 percent of the risky assets they hold to 7 percent by 2019.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-07-EU-Bank-Assets/id-3802e6a4c50b47398ea34744e8209b26

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Texans beat Bengals in ugly wild card opener

Houston defense shuts down Dalton, Cincy to advance and play Patriots

By KRISTIE RIEKEN

Associated Press Sports

updated 7:37 p.m. ET Jan. 5, 2013

HOUSTON - J.J. Watt swatted away passes, Arian Foster ran away from tacklers and the Houston Texans did just enough to knock Cincinnati out of the playoffs for the second straight year.

Matt Schaub made his first postseason start a successful one when Foster's 1-yard touchdown in the third quarter helped the Texans to a 19-13 AFC wild-card win over the Bengals on Saturday.

"The whole stadium knew we had to line up and run the ball and boy, he was at his best there at the end," coach Gary Kubiak said. "He's become a fine, fine player, and it just seems like the bigger it gets, the better Arian gets."

Now comes the big test. The Texans (13-4) move on to the second round on Jan. 13, when they visit the New England Patriots, who beat them 42-14 in Week 14. This time they're 9 1/2-point underdogs.

"It's one step," Watt said of the win. "We know what it means, and we have bigger goals than that."

He's glad the team got back on track this week, but knows Houston will have to play better to beat the Patriots.

"They know what they're doing in the playoffs," Watt said. "They've been here many times before. They know what it takes, so it's going to take everything we have and we're really excited about the challenge."

Foster said he isn't planning to watch too much film of Houston's loss to the Patriots.

"They're a new team, we're a new team," Foster said. "Anytime you play a team twice in a season ... you have to attack it differently. It's a different mentality. Different things are at stake."

Shayne Graham kicked four field goals for the Texans, while Foster finished with 140 yards and became the first NFL player to have 100-yard games in each of his first three playoff games.

Watt finished with a sack and swatted away two of Andy Dalton's pass attempts, once wagging his finger at the Bengals quarterback after the play.

"I think it was a full defensive effort, everybody was flying around and we were getting off the field on third downs," Watt said.

The Texans defense smothered Dalton and the Bengals early. Their second drive ended when Connor Barwin tackled BenJarvus Green-Ellis for a 6-yard loss and Watt followed with a sack of Dalton.

Houston's offense had the ball for almost 39 minutes as it ate up the clock with a season-high 32 carries from Foster.

"We controlled the line of scrimmage, and any time we do that it's going to be hard to beat us," Foster said.

The Texans had trouble finishing drives and managed three field goals in the first half against the Bengals (10-7). Houston struck first after the break, with Foster scoring the game's only offensive touchdown to make it 16-7.

Schaub, who missed last year's playoffs with a foot injury, had an interception returned for a touchdown by Leon Hall before halftime.

"It was never easy," Schaub said. "Cincinnati is a great team. I made a turnover and gave them points. We just had to rally around each other and we did that."

Johnathan Joseph, a former Bengal, came up with an interception for the Texans, who kept Cincinnati without a playoff win since the 1990 season, the league's longest current streak.

Houston had struggled on third downs lately. This time, the Texans didn't let the Bengals convert a third down on nine tries.

The Texans rebounded from a terrible month where they lost three of four games and the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs. The win came in front of a record crowd of 71,738, including former Oilers great Earl Campbell.

The Bengals couldn't do anything offensively before the break, and were outgained 250-53 in the first half. Dalton was 4 of 10 for 3 yards in the first half.

Schaub shook off his first-half miscue to finish 29 of 38 for 262 yards, and Dalton finished 14 of 30 for 127 yards.

The Bengals had a chance for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, but Dalton's pass sailed just out of reach of a diving A.J. Green in the end zone.

"The offense didn't play as well as it could have," Dalton said. "You can always look back and say, `What if?"'

Dalton's 45-yard pass to Green got Cincinnati moving in the third quarter and set up Josh Brown's 34-yard field goal. When Dalton tried to go to Green again, Joseph intercepted and got the Texans in scoring range again as the quarter ended.

In last year's playoffs, the Texans routed the Bengals 31-10, with Dalton throwing three interceptions.

The main difference in this one: Schaub was back in charge for Houston. Rookie T.J. Yates filled in for Schaub, got the Texans a win in their first playoff game, but couldn't take them any further.

On their second possession, Schaub completed an 18-yard pass, Foster had a 17-yard run and Keshawn Martin went 16 yards on a reverse, setting up Graham's field goal.

It became a pattern - move the ball down the field, settle for three points. The fans started booing.

And then Schaub did the one thing he wanted to avoid - he let Cincinnati's defense get its hands on the ball. Hall anticipated Schaub's throw, stepped in front and returned it untouched, high-stepping the last few yards, for the defense's fourth touchdown in the last four games.

Hall also ran back an interception 17 yards for the only Bengals touchdown in a 13-10 win over Pittsburgh that clinched a playoff spot. It was the first interception return for a touchdown against the Texans this season.

Like the Texans, the Bengals ended the season by hitting a wall on offense - one touchdown in the last two games. The offensive woes continued on Saturday when the Bengals failed to score a touchdown on offense again.

NOTES: Houston's 420 yards were the most given up by the Bengals in their last 10 games. ... Houston receiver Andre Johnson had four receptions for 62 yards to extend his streak of consecutive games with a reception to 99. ... Texans' LB Cameron Collins made his NFL debut on Saturday after being signed from the practice squad a day earlier. ... R&B star Brian McKnight sang the national anthem.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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The Seahawks and Redskins meet in a wild-card playoff matchup marked by a battle of rookie quarterbacks in Russell Wilson and Robert Griffin III.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/50375219/ns/sports-nfl/

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Sunday, January 6, 2013

Least Stressful Job In America Is ... - Careers Articles

least most stressful jobs

With all the challenges facing today's working Americans, having a low-stress job can go a long way toward improving quality of life. What makes a job low stress? CareerCast.com says it's a combination of factors, including work environment, job competitiveness and risk.

The employment website recently examined more than 200 different professions to determine which jobs offer the least (and most) stress, and the results below may surprise you. Some of the jobs pay modestly -- under $30,000 a year -- but others pay more than $50,000 a year.

And contrary to what you might imagine, the least stressful job in the U.S. -- at least according to CareerCast.com -- is also the one that requires the most education and training.

Take a look, and then let us know: Which do you think is the least stressful job in America?

10 Least Stressful Jobs of 2013

  1. Drill Press Operator
    Median Annual Salary: $31,910

  2. Librarian
    Median Annual Salary: $54,500

  3. Hair Stylist
    Median Annual Salary: $22,500

  4. Dietician
    Median Annual Salary: $53,250

  5. Audiologist
    Median Annual Salary: $66,660

  6. Medical Laboratory Technician
    Median Annual Salary: $46,680

  7. Jeweler
    Median Annual Salary: $35,170

  8. Medical Records Technician
    Median Annual Salary: $32,350

  9. Seamstress or Tailor
    Median Annual Salary: $25,850

  10. University Professor
    Median Annual Salary: $62,050

Also, check out CareerCast's list of The Most Stressful Jobs of 2013.


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David Schepp

David Schepp

David Schepp has spent more than a dozen years covering business news for the electronic and print media, including Dow Jones Newswires, BBC News, Gannett Co., and most recently at AOL's DailyFinance. Nearly 10 years ago, he started writing a weekly People@Work column, looking in depth at issues facing workers in today's workplace. Follow David on Twitter. Email David at david.schepp@huffingtonpost.com.

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Source: http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/01/04/least-stressful-job-careercast-professor/

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Saturday, January 5, 2013

Minnesota Vikings QB Ponder inactive with elbow injury

(Getty Images)

The Minnesota Vikings will be without their starting quarterback when they hit the Lambeau Field turf this evening. Dan Wiederer, Vikings beat writer for the Star Tribune, reported early Saturday afternoon that it was looking "more and more likely" than Ponder's right elbow injury will prevent him from playing against the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round.

"Still no final word. But Vikings much closer to Plan B," Wiederer reported on Twitter early Saturday afternoon.

When the Vikings' inactives came out, it was confirmed: Ponder will not play.

"After looking at what he was able to do during the week, he tried to do everything he could to be prepared to play today," Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier told NBC's Michele Tafoya about Ponder. "He made a little progress, and we took him out earlier before the game, but after the workout, we just felt that it wouldn't be the wise thing to do."

"Plan B" is backup quarterback Joe Webb, who last threw a pass in the Vikings' 2011 regular-season finale against the Chicago Bears. Third-stringer McLeod Bethel-Thompson may also be active for the first time this season. Webb took more reps in practice this past week than he usually does. Selected in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL Draft out of Alabama-Birmingham, Webb has completed 88 passes in 152 attempts for 853 yards, three touchdowns, and five interceptions.

He will become the first quarterback in NFL history to start a playoff game without throwing a single pass in the regular season.

"Joe has prepared all season long, knowing that he was just one injury away." Frazier said. "Joe is a gamer, He's worked hard, and he done everything he can to prepare for this situation. Joe has a different mentality, and I don't think this game will be too big for him."

Frazier also said that he was resting Ponder "for next week."

[More NFL: Bears, Eagles, Chargers interested in Colts OC Bruce Arians]

Tom Pelissero of ESPN Twin Cities updated previous reports today indicating that Ponder is suffering from bursitis in his throwing elbow, and that while Ponder might be able to play with the injury, it may actually take weeks to heal. Pelissero reported that the Vikings would see how Ponder does in warmups this afternoon and make their final decision based on that. He threw a few passes of intermediate yardage, but no more than that.

After a season that was uneven at best, Ponder had a great game in last Sunday's 37-34 win over the Packers at the Metrodome. He completed 16 of 28 passes for 234 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions.

Related NFL video on Yahoo! Sports:

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/christian-ponder-might-not-able-vikings-214115675--nfl.html

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Pronunciation of 's' sounds impacts perception of gender, researcher finds

Jan. 4, 2013 ? A person's style of speech -- not just the pitch of his or her voice -- may help determine whether the listener perceives the speaker to be male or female, according to a University of Colorado Boulder researcher who studied transgender people transitioning from female to male.

The way people pronounce their "s" sounds and the amount of resonance they use when speaking contributes to the perception of gender, according to Lal Zimman, whose findings are based on research he completed while earning his doctoral degree from CU-Boulder's linguistics department.

Zimman, who graduated in August, is presenting his research Jan. 5 at the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America in Boston.

"In the past, gender differences in the voice have been understood, primarily, as a biological difference," Zimman said. "I really wanted to look at the potential for other factors, other than how testosterone lowers the voice, to affect how a person's voice is perceived."

As part of the process of transitioning from female to male, participants in Zimman's study were treated with the hormone testosterone, which causes a number of physical changes including the lowering of a person's voice. Zimman was interested in whether the style of a person's speech had any impact on how low a voice needed to drop before it was perceived as male.

What he found was that a voice could have a higher pitch and still be perceived as male if the speaker pronounced "s" sounds in a lower frequency, which is achieved by moving the tongue farther away from the teeth.

"A high-frequency 's' has long been stereotypically associated with women's speech, as well as gay men's speech, yet there is no biological correlate to this association," said CU-Boulder linguistics and anthropology Associate Professor Kira Hall, who served as Zimman's doctoral adviser. "The project illustrates the socio-biological complexity of pitch: the designation of a voice as more masculine or more feminine is importantly influenced by other ideologically charged speech traits that are socially, not biologically, driven."

Vocal resonance also affected the perception of gender in Zimman's study. A deeper resonance -- which can be thought of as a voice that seems to be emanating from the chest instead of from the head -- is the result of both biology and practice. Resonance is lower for people whose larynx is deeper in their throats, but people learn to manipulate the position of their larynx when they're young, with male children pulling their larynxes down a little bit and female children pushing them up, Zimman said.

For his study, Zimman recorded the voices of 15 transgender men, all of whom live in the San Francisco Bay area. To determine the frequency of the "s" sounds each participant made, Zimman used software developed by fellow linguists. Then, to see how the "s" sounds affected perception, Zimman digitally manipulated the recording of each participant's voice, sliding the pitch from higher to lower, and asked a group of 10 listeners to identify the gender of the speaker. Using the recordings, Zimman was able to pinpoint how low each individual's voice had to drop before the majority of the group perceived the speaker to be male.

Zimman's work was funded in large part by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and is now being reviewed for publication.

To hear audio clips of how the "s" sounds affect gender perception, visit http://www.colorado.edu/news/multimedia/gender-perception-and-pronunciation-s-sounds.

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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_health/~3/C3eEolk4xj4/130104143700.htm

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Wounded ex-Rep. Giffords meets with Conn. families

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) ? Just days before the second anniversary of a mass shooting that critically injured Gabrielle Giffords, the former congresswoman was in Newtown meeting privately with families of those killed during last month's massacre at an elementary school.

Giffords, a Democrat from Arizona, was accompanied Friday by her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

"As always, I was deeply impressed by the strength and courage and resolve of the families and the extraordinary caring and generosity of Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly in visiting with them," Blumenthal said.

A gunman fatally shot 26 people ? most of them children ? inside Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14. He also killed his mother and himself.

Giffords was left partially blind, with a paralyzed right arm and brain injury, when a gunman opened fire at a constituent meet-and-greet outside a Tucson grocery store on Jan. 8, 2011. Arizona's chief federal judge and five others were killed and 13 people, including Giffords, were injured.

She met earlier in the day Friday with officials including Connecticut Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman and Newtown's First Selectwoman Patricia Llodra. They talked about the need for changes in gun control laws and greater awareness of mental health issues, including identifying and treating people who have mental health problems, Llodra told USA Today.

They also discussed "concerns that our society has become desensitized to acts of violence, conflict and aggression," and the need for adults to examine their role in allowing societal values to become eroded," the newspaper reported.

Kelly has become a vocal advocate for gun control. He lashed out at politicians for avoiding a "meaningful debate" about gun laws and called out Arizona Republicans, including the governor, for taking a pro-gun stance in the months after the Arizona shooting.

"As a nation we have repeatedly passed up the opportunity to address the issue. After Columbine, after Virginia Tech, after Tucson and after Aurora, we have done nothing," he said in November when the Arizona gunman was sentenced.

He has issued strongly worded statements many times since the massacre in Connecticut, including a harsh response to the National Rifle Association's reaction to the shooting. He often begins statements with "Gabby and I" as he makes pointed comments about the direction of the gun debate in America.

Kelly said on the day of the Newtown shooting that it should lead to better gun control.

"This time our response must consist of more than regret, sorrow, and condolence," Kelly said on his Facebook page, calling for "a meaningful discussion about our gun laws and how they can be reformed and better enforced to prevent gun violence and death in America."

Blumenthal said he is eager to find allies as he pursues tougher gun control laws.

"I'm hopeful that everyone who cares about this issue or has a stake in it will be active in supporting our effort in gun violence prevention legislatively," he said.

Giffords' visit came one day after Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced the creation of an advisory commission that will review and recommend changes to state laws and policies on issues including gun control in the wake of the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Giffords has appeared in public a few times since the shooting. She came face-to-face with Loughner when he was sentenced and attended ceremonies for the anniversary of the shooting.

She received tributes and ovations when she returned to the House in January 2012 to say goodbye as she resigned her seat and she delivered the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democratic National Convention in September.

On Wednesday, two days before Giffords visited the Newtown families, she and Kelly met for an hour with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a longtime and vociferous gun control advocate. Bloomberg's office tweeted a photo of the meeting but wouldn't elaborate Friday on the discussion.

President Barack Obama invoked the Tucson and Newtown elementary school shootings when he spoke at Newtown shortly after the attack. He said four shootings, including those two plus the attacks at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., marked his first term in office.

A recent Pew Research Center report says gun policy accounted for almost 30 percent of discussions examined on blogs and Twitter in the three days after the school massacre. It compares the response to the Newtown rampage with the Arizona shooting, saying that in the three days after that, just 3 percent of social media conversation was about gun laws.

___

Associated Press writer Susan Haigh contributed to this report from Hartford, Conn.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wounded-ex-rep-giffords-meets-conn-families-231306569.html

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Serena wins Brisbane title, Murray into final

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) ? Serena Williams proved the break between seasons hasn't hurt her momentum, capturing her 47th career title with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Saturday in the Brisbane International final.

Williams has won 35 of her past 36 matches, including titles at Wimbledon, the Olympics, the U.S. Open, the season-ending WTA championships and now the first event of 2013.

She already has won the Australian Open five times, and with the season's first major a little more than a week away, she's in good shape to add another title in Melbourne.

The Brisbane final was all over in 50 minutes with Williams dictating terms from the first break of serve in the sixth game.

"I always feel like I don't know how to play tennis when I play against you," Pavlyuchenkova told Williams at the trophy presentation.

The pair had traveled together on a training trip to Mauritius in the offseason but didn't really hit against each other at the time.

"But this was true what I said," the No. 36-ranked Pavlyuchenkova, who has won three WTA titles and more than $2.8 million in prize money, later said of her post-match assessment. "When she's on fire, well, I feel like there is not much I can do. I mean, she's a great player and she deserves to win."

Williams said she's been concentrating on being calm and composed, and has started to feel "serene" when she's in her zone on court. She's been feeling that way a lot in her comeback since a first-round loss at the French Open, her earliest exit from a Grand Slam.

"I was looking at a lot of old matches on YouTube, and I feel like right now I'm playing some of my best tennis," the 15-time major winner said. "I feel like I want to do better and play better still."

Pavlyuchenkova's post-match comment, she said, was "a great compliment and a great honor for someone of her caliber to feel that way."

In a tournament featuring eight of the world's top 10 female players, not one match in Brisbane featured two seeded players due to a series of injuries and upsets. Second-ranked Maria Sharapova withdrew due to an injured collarbone, and Pavlyuchenkova ousted a pair of top-10 players: 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the second round and fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber in the quarterfinals.

Williams missed a chance to extend her 11-1 record against top-ranked Victoria Azarenka when the 23-year-old Belarusian withdrew a half hour before their scheduled semifinal Friday night due to an infected toe on her right foot. Azarenka was more concerned about being ready for the Australian Open.

The night off obviously didn't bother Williams, who went on a roll during a seven-game run from the middle of the first set until Pavlyuchenkova finally held serve in the fourth game of the second.

The 31-year-old Williams can regain the No. 1 ranking if she wins the Australian Open. If she does, she'll be the oldest woman to hold the top spot on the WTA tour. Chris Evert set the mark in November 1985, aged 30 years, 11 months and three days.

Williams' surge up the rankings started after the French Open, and also coincided with her starting to work with Patrick Mauratoglou's academy in Paris.

She attributes her comeback to "spending a lot more time on the tennis court, I think, and doing a lot of things I love."

"Everything just came together with the right timing with me wanting to do better, with me wanting to work hard, (Mauratoglou) being there and having everything to work hard, and having the same mind frame of playing matches for the way I like to play," Williams said. "So I think life is about timing, and it was just good timing."

In the men's draw, defending champion Andy Murray advanced to the final when fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori retired with an injured left knee while trailing 6-4, 2-0 in their semifinal earlier Saturday.

The Olympic and U.S. Open champion will next meet 21-year-old Grigor Dimitrov, who is starting to live up to his billing as a star-in-the-making by reaching his first ATP Tour final with a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (5) victory over Marcos Baghdatis.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/serena-wins-brisbane-title-murray-final-102640891--spt.html

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We Should All Wear This Medical Alert Bracelet That Makes Sure Your Browser's History Gets Deleted

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-pnsk_12cHE/we-should-all-wear-this-medical-alert-bracelet-that-makes-sure-your-browsing-history-gets-deleted

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