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Im telling our people, if you have an opponent with a pulse, you need to run as if your political life depended on it. State Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, CTMirror.com, Oct. 8.

While the vast majority of media attention has been focused on the U.S. Senate race this year, and the prospects of Republicans gaining control of the upper chamber, there is an equally intense battle being fought locally with control of the General Assemblys Senate chambers at stake. Democrats hold 22 of the 36 Senate seats. Republicans need only to flip five seats to take control. Not an easy task, but not impossible given the current political climate. There are four open Senate seats in this years election as a result of incumbents choosing to retire three Democrats and one Republican. Probably no contest is being more fiercely fought than the 19th Senate District seat being vacated by Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, which could go either way. State Rep. Christopher Coutu, R-Norwich, and Sprague Democratic First Selectman Catherine Osten are engaged in a hotly contested battle fueled by a general dislike for each other. This ones personal. Another contest that should have Democrats concerned is the 33rd Senate District seat being vacated by Sen. Eileen Daily, D-Westbrook. Freshman state Rep. James Crawford, D-Westbrook, a retired teacher, is being challenged by Republican newcomer Art Linares, also of Westbrook and a former student of Crawfords. But theres an added twist in this contest a third party candidate, Melissa Schlag of Haddam. Schlag is the Green Party candidate and former executive director of the Citizens for Protection of Public Lands, the grassroots organization that successfully fought the controversial Haddam land swap. Crawford voted in favor of the swap last year, but has since changed his position. An open seat in Bridgeport is likely to remain in Democratic hands, meaning Republicans will have to oust two or three other Democratic incumbents to take control of the Senate a tall order. But the winds of change may favor the GOP if and its a big if Republicans can turn a handful of Senate races into a referendum on Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. Since taking office in January 2011, the governors approval ratings have not risen above 50 percent. His best showing was in a March Quinnipiac University poll where his popularity climbed to 44 percent with 45 percent disapproving of his job performance. If GOP challengers can tap into the anger of the electorate over high taxes and high unemployment by focusing on Malloys policies, and their Democratic opponents support of those policies, its possible. Williams advice to his fellow Democrats to run as if your political life depended on it shouldnt be ignored. Ray Hackett is The Bulletins editorial page editor. He has more than 20 years covering Connecticut politics. He can be reached at (860) 425-4225 or rhackett@norwichbulletin.com

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Hackett on Politics: Battle for Senate control isn’t just about Washington

THURSDAY, Oct. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Social media can be used to help convince young adults to use condoms to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, a new study finds.

Researchers enrolled online networks of friends who were randomly assigned to an intervention group or a "control" group.

The 942 participants in the intervention group signed up to "like" and receive news from Just/Us, a Facebook community created to promote sexual health. The site featured weekly discussions about topics such as condom use, talking with partners about sexual history, and how to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases. In addition, there were daily updates in the form of video links, quizzes, blogs and discussion threads.

The 636 people in the control group, called 18-24 News, shared general news of interest to 18- to 24-year-olds.

Two months after taking part in the social networking groups, 68 percent of those in the Just/Us group reported using a condom the last time they had sex, compared with 56 percent of those in the 18-24 News group. The rate of condom use during sex in the previous two months was 63 percent in the Just/Us group and 57 percent in the 18-24 News group, the investigators found.

However, the effects seen in the Just/Us group faded over time and there were no differences between the two groups at the six-month follow-up, according to the report published in the November issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"The use of social media to influence sexual risk behavior in the short term is novel. It is a first step in considering how to reach the overwhelming numbers of youth online, and how to maximize approaches to technology-based interventions," lead investigator Sheana Bull, of the Colorado School of Public Health's University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, said in a journal news release.

The author of an accompanying commentary, Dr. Nathan Cobb, from the Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at the American Legacy Foundation in Washington D.C., agreed that this use of social media was a step in the right direction. "For health-behavior change intervention designers, Facebook offers something unprecedented -- direct access to an individual's social network, in real time, and without the need for tedious network enumeration by participants," he wrote.

"However, such approaches require multidisciplinary teams that include social media specialists, marketers, and software developers as equal partners in design and intervention development. Building such teams will undoubtedly require changes to traditional funding and development models, but the potential is too large to be ignored or minimized," Cobb added.

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Social Media Could Boost Condom Use, Study Suggests

By Jamie Lendino

Not feeling the cord-cutting craze? From live sports and 24-hour news to a vast array of premium channels, most Americans are staying with cable or satellite TV for now. The problem is, aside from the lack of la carte channel options, TV providers also make it exceptionally difficult to watch the programming you pay for from computers and mobile devices. Enter the venerable Slingbox, which since 2005 has made it easy to "place-shift" live TV and recorded DVR content, letting you watch it on any device over the Internet when you're away from home.

Now, after a four-year hiatus, Sling Media is back with the Slingbox 500 ($299.99 direct), its first consumer product since the Slingbox Pro-HD and the somewhat misguided SlingCatcher. With the 500, the Slingbox finally includes features many fans have been clamoring for, such as full 1080p streaming and Wi-Fi support. In an age of direct Internet streaming services, parts of the way the Slingbox 500 works are beginning to feel quite dated. But if you want to get the most out of your cable or satellite TV subscription, the Slingbox 500 remains a great way to stream live TV and recorded DVR content to any of your computers or mobile devices, at home or on the go.

Design, Connections, and SetupWith its twisted design, the Slingbox 500 looks kind of like an inspired piece of modern art. It's made entirely of matte black plastic with a textured finish that feels durable and scratch resistant.As a coworker commented, it's no longer flat on top, so people won't be putting stuff on top and watching their Slingboxes overheat, which used to happen with the older models.

In the package, you get lots of goodies. Aside from the Slingbox itself, there's a small remote control, an AC adapter, an HDMI cable, component and composite video cables, a pair of stereo RCA audio cables, an Ethernet cable, and a printed instruction manual.The HDMI port seems like an exciting addition at first, but thanks to encryption issues from the TV providers, it only passes through regular TV and basic cable channels like USA HD. To get around this problem, Sling Media recommends a simultaneous HDMI and component audio and video cable setup; I ended up testing with the component connection.

The Slingbox 500 also includes an internal IR blaster for controlling your cable-company-issued set-top box. This means you don't have to fiddle with the little plastic external one on a wire, as you did with older models. Sling Media says the blaster is strong enough to bounce off the walls and hit the sensor on the set-top box. If that doesn't work in your setup, the company still includes the old IR blaster on a wire in case you need it.

I tested the Slingbox 500 with a Dish Network Hopper DVR and a Samsung HDTV. From the back of the Dish Hopper, I ran both HDMI and the five component A/V cables from the output jacks to the inputs on the Slingbox 500. Then out from the Slingbox 500, I connected the existing HDMI cable (from the Dish Hopper) to the back of the TV. The Slingbox 500 took about two minutes to boot for the first time; it installed a software update during this time, which I assume was already on the Slingbox, because I hadn't yet connected it to a network.

You can connect to 802.11b/g/n networks on either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz channel. I added the Slingbox 500 to our test WPA2-encrypted 5GHz network without issue, and then picked up the new remote to control the Slingbox's new TV interface. After inputting my location and zip code, the unit scanned the connected inputs and asked about our service provider, for which I selected Dish New York. It already had the Dish Hopper in its set-top box database and loaded the appropriate remote control layout. I tested the programmed remote buttons as directed, and everything worked properly from the Slingbox remote. I had no problem bringing up the menu and channel guide, switching channels, and powering the Hopper off or onand that was without using the external blaster cable, and while standing in front of both devices.

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Sling Media Slingbox 500

The refreshed 2013 Cadillac SRX will offer an entertainment package featuring a Blu-Ray DVD player that extends Cadillacs signature CUE system for connectivity to the rear seats along with a redesigned kid-tested gaming-style remote control that allows each of the 8 flip-up rear screens to play unique media.

With CUE, users can pair of up to 10 Bluetooth-enabled devices at once, including mobile phones, SD cards, USBs, and MP3 players. For the first time, rear-seat passengers can connect to and manage their own music players and playlists. A special connector cable sold separately allows watching movies stored in media players.

The addition of Blu-Ray allows families the same video quality on the road as theyre accustomed to at home. Front-seat passengers will be able to watch videos via the 8 touchscreen CUE display on the center-stack while the vehicle is in park. With audio playing throughout the vehicles speakers, the SRX becomes a home-theatre on wheels.

A dual-play capability feature allows one user to play a video game on one monitor while another user watches a movie or listens to the radio on the other.

Having multiple media connectivity options really gives owners flexibility with entertainment, especially families, said Charlene Goike, rear seat entertainment lead engineer. One can easily pop in their cameras SD cards on the way home from their kids sports games to let the young ones instantly relive the action.

The rear-seat entertainment package also gets an all-new cordless remote control, designed for familiarity and ease of use. Shaped like a video game remote control, it mimics the layout of buttons to help young users access their favorite media more easily. A quick-reference sheet will also be provided so users know what each button on the remote will do.

We actually invited a group of kids to test and interact with the new rear-seat entertainment features, said Shannon Chiarcos, human factors engineer responsible for gathering consumer feedback on entertainment options in the vehicle. The data we collected allowed us to go back and make several adjustments to the system, including simplifying the remote control so that kids could use it without the help of an adult.

The SRX gets a pair of updated wireless headphones designed to fit more comfortably than previous versions as well as the ability to toggle between what is being played on either back-seat monitor. Users can also adjust volume directly on the headphones themselves.

The rear-seat entertainment package will be available as an option on Luxury (with navigation,) Performance and Premium SRX trim models and will retail for $1,595.

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2013 SRX delivers home theatre-like tech

DANVILLE The media circus you've seen surrounding major political events this year has landed at Centre College for Thursday night's vice presidential debate between incumbent Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan.

A huge portable stage for MSNBC arose behind the statue of President Lincoln sporting his own, personalized debate credential and a line of TV broadcast locations was forming along the sidewalk outside of the Norton Center for the Arts, where the debate takes place at 9 p.m. Thursday.

Inside, the college's gymnasium has been converted into a massive media center complete with "spin alley," where, immediately after the contest, representatives of each campaign will try to convince reporters their guy won.

It's all in preparation for Danville's international media close up.

"It offers us a chance to get out and about and talk to folks about what's on their mind and where they're at in the election," says Fox News anchor Bret Baier, who will anchor the network's coverage from Danville Thursday night along with Megyn Kelly. "There's always a lot of energy at the event."

Baier and Kelly are two of numerous Fox News personalities slated to be in Danville Thursday including Shepard Smith and Neil Cavuto. But in addition to them are numerous producers and technicians behind the Fox operation.

"There are a lot of people who make it work and thousands of feet of cable," said Baier, who has taken over anchoring duties this year following the retirement of Brit Hume. "I don't know how many people we're bringing more than a hundred."

CBS News is sending only two on-air reporters to the debate Nancy Cordes covering the Barack Obama and Biden ticket and chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford covering the Mitt Romney and Ryan campaign. But supporting them is a crew of producers, technicians and off-air reporters for the broadcast that will be anchored by Scott Pelly in New York.

"We're setting up a mission control," said Tim Gaughan, CBS News director of digital news gathering and special events. "It's essentially a remote bureau ready to do anything we need."

At the MSNBC tent, approximately a dozen technicians were working to set up the broadcast stage where shows such as The Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd and Chris Matthews' Hardball will originate Thursday. The network is offering free coffee and network souvenirs to people who come watch from the lawn between the stage and the Lincoln statue.

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Media circus pitches its tent in Danville for Biden-Ryan debate