"Because we all must do our part to keep our communities safe, the Administration is also calling on States and local governments to do all they can to keep guns out of the wrong hands and reduce gun violence. It is also calling on private-sector leaders to follow the lead of other businesses that have taken voluntary steps to make it harder for dangerous individuals to get their hands on a gun. In the coming weeks, the Administration will engage with manufacturers, retailers, and other private-sector leaders to explore what more they can do." 

Where it might go: Downton might go the way of so many of the era's grand houses: sold whole or piecemeal, requisitioned, or simply diminished into bleak oblivion. Or, in Lady Mary's capable hands, it might endure, survive, and remain one of England's great seats of heritage, aristocracy, and — of course — drama. After five seasons of secrets and scandals, love and heartbreak, witticisms and will-they-won't-theys, Downton Abbey: The Final Season is about to begin.

From the Federal Reserve: In this essay, we focus on changes in the age distribution of long-term unemployment (LTU), the component of unemployment that grew to prominence during the Great Recession and its aftermath. In particular, we consider the differences between unemployed male and female workers. We also compare years before and after the Great Recession.

Rose Madeline Mula writes: Am I glad I didn't live in Babylonia 4,000 years ago; the New Year celebration lasted eleven days. By the eleventh day, the Babylonians must have had prodigious hangovers. They probably weren't even fully conscious for the first month of the new year. That's not for me. It would mean missing all those great post-holiday sales.

Knitters of the web rejoice: TECHknitting can elevate your skills and answer your questions. In 1845, two ships left England to explore the Canadian Arctic, locate a northern route to China and gather geomagnetic data. Both ships and 129 men disappeared. Ars Technica will be interesting for technology news, policy analysis, scientific advancements, gadget reviews, software, hardware. Recent Neurologica posts examine the neural correlates of delayed gratification, the nature of irrational fears and thoughts on the possibly holographic nature of the universe. 15 chapters take readers from the advent of the American railroads in the 1820s, through the golden age of the 1880s and 1890s to the 1980s and onward.

Patients have an increased risk of heart attack and stroke up to three months after being diagnosed with shingles, according to a new study conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The research, published in PLOS Medicine, showed the risk is greatest during the early stages of shingles, with a 2.4 fold increase in the rate of stroke and a 1.7 fold increase in the rate of heart attacks in the first week after shingles, compared to time periods when the patient did not have recent shingles.

The wealth of US families plunged as home prices began a rapid descent in 2006. By 2013, overall median wealth had decreased to $82,756, a loss of 40% in the space of just six years. Almost all of this erasure took place from 2007 to 2010, but there was no sign of a recovery from 2010 to 2013. Over the entire span from 1983 to 2013, the median wealth of US families was up only 6%.

When it comes to licensing, the nursing profession works almost exactly the way it does with driving a car — at least in half the states. A nurse with a license from one of those 25 states can practice in any other state that has signed on to a reciprocal licensing compact. Contrast that with doctors. A doctor licensed in one state who wants to practice in another still needs a license from the other state but doctors are creating their own multistate compacts.   © The Associated Press Nursing graduates at the University of Texas. In half the states, one state license is all a nurse needs to practice in the others. Several medical professions are moving to license port…

Here are some images from the Institutes gallery that remind us of the winter holidays — and showcase important findings and innovations in biomedical research. Researchers made a snowflake pattern from DNA. They used a method called DNA origami that takes advantage of DNA's natural folding property.

When asked why they have not personally purchased health insurance this year, nearly half of the uninsured (46%) say they have tried to get coverage but that it was too expensive. Relatively few cite other reasons, including 9 percent who say they'd rather pay a fine than pay for insurance. Most of the uninsured (55%) say they plan to get health insurance in the next few months. Some may in fact be in the midst of a brief period without insurance; however, a majority (55%) say that they have been uninsured for at least two years.

Roberta McReynolds writes: I took my husband to a doctor's appointment only to discover they had no record of it. His appointment card was at home, so I couldn't convince the receptionist that we were supposed to be there. She initiated a long, pointless dialogue about the dates of Mike's previous visits. We were just wasting time, so we abandoned our mission. We had passed a stunning orchard on the way through the countryside, and again on our departure, but without a camera. I needed to salvage something from a day that was otherwise doomed by multiple blunders.

Julia Sneden wrote: So instead of over-indulging ourselves this year, we will pass along homemade things and/or family items that have interesting histories, and a book or two (gifts of books are sacrosanct at Christmas). We will also make donations to local organizations that feed the hungry, and fill some of the stockings that the local mall sets out for needy children, hoping that what is a small sacrifice for us will be a blessing to others.

"The Federal Open Market Committee judges that there has been considerable improvement in labor market conditions this year, and it is reasonably confident that inflation will rise, over the medium term, to its 2 percent objective. Given the economic outlook, and recognizing the time it takes for policy actions to affect future economic outcomes, the Committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 1/4 to 1/2 percent."

Masterpieces spanning nearly four hundred years from Jan Brueghel the Younger's series devoted to the five senses to Canaletto's celebrated views of Venice; landscapes by innovators ranging from Joseph Mallord William Turner, Paul Cézanne, and Gustav Klimt to David Hockney and Gerhard Richter. Paintings by Thomas Moran, Edward Hopper, and Georgia O'Keeffe, and others provide an American perspective on landscapes at home and abroad.

"Over the past 35 years, we've lost 2,500 to 3,000 feet of land to coastal erosion. To put this in perspective: I was born in 1997, and since then, Shishmaref has lost about 100 feet. In the past 15 years, we had to move 13 houses — including my dear grandma Edna's house — from one end of the island to the other because of this loss of land. Within the next two decades, the whole island will erode away completely."

This book reminds us how far we have come when there are more highly educated women everywhere than at any other time in history. Still unresolved is the question of friendships between women and men. The difficulty of engaging in this fashion is emphasized by the need repeatedly to declare to doubters that sex is not a component of such a relationship.

Stanford sociologist Robb Willer says terrorism generally serves to sharpen national boundaries and increase nationalist spirit. However, scholars are largely in uncharted territory in regard to how terrorism will affect the 2016 presidential campaign, as prior research has focused primarily on incumbent officeholders.

The exhibition, The Great N.C. Wyeth Caper: Paintings by America’s Storyteller, features six artworks that were the focus of the state's largest art heist and an 18-month criminal investigation. After the paintings were taken from a private collector’s home in Portland, Maine, four were removed from their frames and endured a perilous cross-country journey to a pawn shop in Beverly Hills, California, where they were identified and returned to authorities in December 2014. The remaining two paintings were recently recovered in the Greater Boston area, still in their original frames.

Hyunwoo Yuk says an immediate application of the technology may be as a stretchable, on-demand treatment for burns or other skin conditions. "The unique capability here is, when a sensor senses something different, like an abnormal increase in temperature, the device can on demand release drugs to that specific location and select a specific drug from one of the reservoirs."

The young and audacious artists who called themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood revolutionized the British art establishment of the nineteenth century with their medievalist aesthetic. This National Gallery of Canada exhibition illustrates how John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and their fellow Pre-Raphaelites strove to uproot the Royal Academy teachings. Don't overlook the shop!

According to information prepared by the Government Accountability Office, individuals on the consolidated terrorist watch list, which includes the no-fly list, cleared a background check for a gun transaction in 94 percent of attempted transactions in 2013 and 2014 (455 out of 486 times). Between February 2004 and December 2014, individuals on the consolidated terrorist watch list cleared a background check in 91 percent of attempted transactions (2,043 of 2,233 times), according to GAO data.

Jill Norgren writes: For young adults, Ali Benjamin's The Thing about Jelly Fish; and Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming. For folks of all ages, Betty Caroli's Lady Bird and Lyndon: The Hidden Story of a Marriage That Made a President. My teen granddaughters have asked for a gift certificate to a few sessions of jazzed up stationary bike classes." We can add one crafting book and an Easy Indigo Textile Kit. Cufflinks made from watch movements from the early to mid-20th century and a portable carafe, this pour-over coffee stand adjusts to accommodate your vessel of choice should pique your interest as well as items for birders.

New York and Nevada have banned the sites, labeling the games illegal gambling — rulings that the sites are challenging. But many more states are working on legislation for upcoming sessions that would subject the games to oversight or licensing. California law has a "predominant purpose test," which determines an activity to be gambling if greater than 50 percent of the outcome is derived from luck. In New York, the state has something called the "material element test," which determines that the activity is one of chance, as long as chance plays a "material role" in the outcome.