How Gaga and Bieber could win the White House (Reuters)

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) ? With Twitter becoming indispensable for news and politics, the Washington Post has climbed aboard the speeding train, launching a new metric for tracking presidential candidates -- @MentionMachine.

@MentionMachine monitors Twitter and other media outlets for the number of times a candidate is mentioned, thus tracking his or her position in the national conversation. In other words, forget about the antiquated metrics like polling or endorsements and go straight to the source.

And if Twitter endorses a Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber ticket? So be it.

In introducing the new app, the Post showcases all the ways it can be used to evaluate how engaged readers are with certain candidates.

"Growth in number of legitimate followers or a high recurrence of retweets are both indicative of growing grass-roots support," the Post notes. "A spike in the number of times a candidate is mentioned on Twitter might signal an event that could alter a campaign."

How can the reader see whether a candidates is experiencing a surge of support? There's a toolbar on its campaign coverage page to show "scores" for each candidate, with each score representing the number of times that candidate was mentioned on Twitter in the past week.

One can also go in depth on a specific candidate, looking at the progression of mentions over different time periods. And what good would it be without the ability to compare candidates?

This is not the first time the Post has put some of its eggs in the social media basket. It launched the "Social Reader" for the revamped Facebook, enabling users to read their post stories from their profile rather than having to hop over to the Post's site.

With its parent company coming off a ghastly fiscal year and an "uneasy" newsroom, these forward-looking measures have to help, right?

At the very least, they could signal progress. With eight out of the top 10 most followed on Twitter being women, the era of a female president may be just around the corner.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120103/music_nm/us_twitter_campaign

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New Year's Holiday (for University Staff, Staff in Academic Medical and Research Units)

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Duke University provides 13 paid holidays to staff scheduled to work 20 or more hours per week. These holidays include both designated and discretionary holidays. The holiday schedules are different depending on which unit of the university staff work. Please see the schedule that applies to you.

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Source: http://calendar.duke.edu/events/show.html?fq=id:CAL-8a08708a-33faa107-0134-41e92eb1-0000120ddemobedework@mysite.edu

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Indian TV grows edgy ? without the edge (AP)

NEW DELHI ? Would the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll fueled TV show "Californication" be worth watching without the sex, drugs and rock-n- roll? What about serial killer series "Dexter" without the gore?

In an effort to attract younger viewers without offending the older ones, Indian TV is now showing some of America's edgiest shows ? but cutting out the edge.

As India urbanizes and its middle class grows, a delicate dilemma has hit a media culture long dominated by local TV shows aimed at rural audiences, such as the soap opera "Baalika Vadhu" or "Child Bride," about a girl married off at age 10. While the young and hip audiences that attract advertising dollars want foreign imports, no broadcaster wants to upset conservative viewers or attract government ire.

"This is a very sensitive time for the media in India," said TV critic Shailaja Bajpai. "Many stations are afraid of government banning orders," but at the same time, output needs refreshing to bring in audiences."

So TV channels resort to inconsistent and clumsy self-censorship, snipping scenes that are central to a show's plot with abandon. While they bleep out profanities, they will also cut a reference to the drug "crack" from one part of a show, while letting it slide a few minutes later.

Even more absurd are the imports that have English subtitles to assist those with a shaky grasp of the language. Censors often let the spoken word slide through, but change it or strike it completely from the subtitles. So while a character on "The Big Bang Theory" is allowed to say the word "intimate," the subtitles only showed "int ------."

One incident turned an episode of "Friends" into a legend of unwatchable TV. The show hinged on the gag that two pages in a cookbook got stuck together and the character Rachel mistakenly made a fruit pastry with beef. The station bleeped out the word "beef," a show of sensitivity for Hindus' reverence for cows, leaving viewers to guess why her diners were so disgusted.

It's just as perplexing for the suddenly chaste vampires of HBO's lusty "True Blood" and for the serial killer star of "Dexter," who is constantly changing blood-splattered clothes for no apparent reason on Indian TV. Or for David Duchovny's "Californication" lech Hank Moody, who disappears into a bedroom with a beautiful women and then suddenly appears in a disjointed scene from later in the episode.

Nevertheless, young Indians, who have embraced Levis, McDonalds and MTV, are hungering for Western television.

"I no longer want to watch the stupid shows I watched with my family growing up, I want entertainment and there is very little on Hindi-language television," said Abhinav Mohan, a 22-year-old mass-communication student, who watches the disjointed imports instead. "Though heavily censored, I can still follow them."

Broadcasting the shows, while editing them into confusion, underscores the fine line entertainment companies like the NewsCorp-owned Star and FX are trying to walk to attract urban youth while not angering their more traditional parents.

Bollywood actors only began kissing onscreen in the last decade. As recently as 2007, an arrest warrant was briefly issued for Hollywood star Richard Gere after he kissed the cheek of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS awareness rally.

"Indian produced movies and TV are very formulaic, you always know what you are going to get," said Rahul Gupta, a media company owner in New Delhi. "Today's youth are more likely to get what they want from Hollywood than Bollywood and TV companies are starting to realize it and hope to cash in."

In an effort to head off government interference, the industry created its own regulatory body in June to deal with complaints. Now, in addition to the odd censoring, viewers must also suffer a banner that repeatedly scrolls across the screen, advising viewers how to complain to the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council. More than 3,000 have.

The complaints range from "scantily and vulgarly dressed women" on MTV's "Grind" to a scene "misguiding children to kill," on the southern Indian family melodrama "Muddu Bidda," or "Cute Girl."

So far, only six channels have been called in for a hearing. Their apologies have been enough to satisfy the council and prevent it from referring the cases to the government, which has the power to ban shows.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120102/ap_on_re_as/as_india_soft_core_censoring

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HistoryChannel: After 450 years as a republic, Rome became an empire in the wake of Julius Caesar's rise & fall in the 1st century B.C. http://t.co/CMx2hBjS

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Magnitude 7.0 quake hits eastern Japan, felt at Fukushima

January 1, 2012 by legitgov

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Breaking: HAARP is a busy little bee! Magnitude 7.0 quake hits eastern Japan, felt at Fukushima 01 Jan 2012 An earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale on Sunday rocked eastern part of Japan and its vicinity in Honshu Island of Japan, said the Japan Meteorological Agency. The epicenter of the quake, which occurred at 14:28 local time (0528 GMT), was off Torishima Island, south of Tokyo, at a depth of 370 kilometers. Strong tremors were felt in Tokyo where Xinhua's office building swayed for a while. The jolt was also felt in northeastern prefectures including Miyagi and Fukushima.

Source: http://www.legitgov.org/Magnitude-70-quake-hits-eastern-Japan-felt-Fukushima

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9 literate writers needed for fast paced roleplay!

A new fast paced role-play is about to begin! We are looking for 9 literate role-players to partake on this well written adventure! This is a great opportunity to get involved in a long lived game to write with other compatible story tellers.

There is a minimum of 2 paragraph postings, in-depth detail is expected, and strong character development is available.

Basic story line:
The Department of Occult Warfare was created in the 1930's to combat the supernatural and unexplained. Another purpose was to meet Nazi Germany's own research into the paranormal. The department is in need for a new squad to take up the torch and fulfill the duties of dealing with the unknown - to combat those who seem a threat to our state of existence.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/It_1QXdEIFQ/viewtopic.php

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Lovers' pipe dreams emerge from excavation

An archaeological excavation in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem has uncovered a centuries-old clay pipe inscribed with the phrase "Love is the language for lovers."

Literally translated, the inscription reads "Heart is language for the lover." And, not surprisingly, it was most likely a gift to a lover, according to Shahar Puni, of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

"Clay pipes of this kind were very common in the Ottoman period, were mostly used for smoking tobacco, and some were even used to smoke hashish," Puni said in a statement. Hashish comes from the cannabis plant, like marijuana.

During this period, from the 16th to the 19th century, Jerusalem was part of the vast Ottoman Empire, a Turkish state that reached into Asia, Africa and Europe.

"The Ottoman authorities tried to combat this practice [smoking] but failed when it became clear that smoking was firmly entrenched in all levels of society. Pipes were also used as a piece of jewelry that could be worn on a garment, and smoking itself was popular amongst both men and women," Puni said.

Jerusalemite women are shown smoking clay pipes similar to this one in 19th-century drawings. Smoking was often done in cafes and with groups of friends, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority.

You can follow LiveScience writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45819301/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Tanier: Front 4 gives Giants chance vs. anyone

Tuck, Pierre-Paul and Umenyiora help New York compensate for its myriad failings

Image: Tuck sacks RodgersGetty Images

Giants defensive end Justin Tuck sacks Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers on Dec. 4.

ANALYSIS

updated 3:05 p.m. ET Dec. 28, 2011

Mike Tanier

The Giants' front four is their great equalizer.

Eli Manning can go from elite to inept and back again, but if the front four is playing well, the Giants can win. The wide receivers can play hacky-sack with the football, and the running backs can battle injuries and mood swings, but if the front four is playing well, the Giants can win. The rest of the defense can be lined up at the MRI machine, but if the front four ? you get the idea.

Justin Tuck. Jason Pierre-Paul. Injured Osi Umenyiora. Interior linemen and role players Chris Canty, Dave Tollefson, Linval Joseph. Honorary lineman Mathias Kiwanuka. There are more than four of them, and they don?t always line up as a foursome, as the diagrams to come will show.

But we think of them as the Giants front four, and not only have they accounted for 40 of the team?s 42 sacks, but they have compensated for injuries at other positions by dropping into coverage and acting as decoy defenders.

In a season of injuries and uncertainty, the Giants linemen have a good chance to drag their not-always-cooperative teammates into the playoffs.

The Sacking Wounded
Every team must deal with injuries, but few teams in history have had to deal with the number of injuries the Giants suffered on defense this year.

At Football Outsiders, we use a metric called Adjusted Games Lost (AGL) to determine how severe a team?s injury situation has been. AGL separates starters and key reserves from subs, so an injury to Umenyiora or another starter gets more weight than one to some seldom-used backup.

It also accounts for weeks when a player is listed as ?questionable? or ?probable? but still takes the field, so when someone like Tuck shakes off a toe injury and takes the field in a limited role, it counts as a partial injury.

AGL is a great argument settler, because it takes conversations past the ?who cares about your whole linebacker corps, we lost our punt returner? stage.

The Giants are on pace to finish the season with the third-highest defensive AGL of the last decade, behind only the 2008 Lions (who went 0-16) and the 2009 Bills (who went 6-10 and got their coach fired). Through Week 14, they lost the equivalent of 58.9 games by starters to injuries. That means the Giants go into the average game missing four defensive starters and key reserves.

They have entered some games in far worse shape. Cornerback Corey Webster and safety Antrel Rolle are the only defenders to start all 15 games. The Giants lost top cornerback Terrell Thomas to an ACL injury in the middle of training camp. The mix-and-match job at linebacker has forced special teams ace Chase Blackburn to start a handful of games, and undrafted rookie Mark Herzlich climbed all the way to the starting middle linebacker job before suffering an injury of his own.

The front four has been hit as hard as any other unit. Rookie tackle Marvin Austin was lost in training camp. Tuck and Umenyiora have only taken a handful of snaps together. The front four has been able to maintain its high standard of play because Perry Fewell has found creative ways to use his best players, creating confusion and applying pass pressure without resorting to rampant blitzing.

Masters of disguise
Let?s look at how Pierre-Paul and Tuck can create havoc without going near the quarterback. Figure 1 (right) shows the Giants on third down, near midfield, late in the first quarter against the Jets in their game Saturday.

The Giants start with Jason Pierre-Paul (90), Dave Tollefson (71), Chris Canty (99), and Justin Tuck (91) on the defensive line, with Michael Boley (59) and Jacquian Williams (57) at linebacker. There is nothing unusual about this defensive front ? yet.

Those squiggly lines on the diagram mean the Giants will start shifting in an attempt to create chaos among the Jets pass protectors.

Figure 2 (left) shows where the Giants end up after all that shifting. Boley and Williams are now defensive ends. Tuck is right over the center, leaning back and forth, threatening the A-gap. Pierre-Paul is just beside Tuck. The two pass rushers appear poised to execute a double A-gap blitz, sometimes called a Fire or Fire-X blitz.

That?s a lot of pass-rushing beef stacked up in the middle, and when the television camera closes up on Mark Sanchez, he has ?that look? in his eyes as he calls out some adjustments.

Tuck and Pierre-Paul do not blitz. They drop into zone coverage when the ball is snapped. But Sanchez and the Jets cannot take a chance. They pinch their protection, meaning that left tackle D?Brickashaw Ferguson blocks Canty so the interior linemen are available to stop Tuck and Pierre-Paul.

That leaves Boley unblocked, and he gets into the backfield in a hurry. Sanchez rushes his pass before tight end Dustin Keller can turn to look for it, and the ball bounces off his helmet.

Officially, this play is not even a blitz: the Giants rushed just four defenders. Tuck and Pierre-Paul created pressure, not as rushers, but as decoys. A defensive call like this allows the Giants to rattle the opposing quarterback while still keeping seven defenders back in pass protection.

Tucked into coverage
You may be looking at those diagrams and thinking: ?boy, using Tuck in zone coverage is a crazy idea.? It is so crazy it has worked throughout the season when Tuck has been healthy. In fact, Tuck dropped into coverage numerous times against the Packers, causing confusion that led to the rushed throws and sacks to keep the Giants in the game against the league?s toughest offense.

Figure 3 (right) shows the Giants trailing 28-27 midway through the fourth quarter. It is first and 10, and with the Packers in a spread formation (the player in the backfield is actually receiver Randall Cobb), the Giants counter with a three-man front.

Kiwanuka (94), nominally a linebacker, is at right end, while Tuck is one yard behind the line of scrimmage, standing up, and threatening the A-Gap. This is the middle of a long, late-game drive, so Pierre-Paul and Joseph are getting a breather.

The Giants hope to create pressure using backup personnel and Tuck as a decoy, but it is a dangerous gambit: on paper, Tuck against tight end Jermichael Finley (88) is a big mismatch.

Tuck drops into coverage at the snap, but his presence in the middle has the exact same effect it had against the Jets. The center and left guard double-team Canty, while the right guard stands and waits to make sure Tuck does not blitz. That wastes three blockers on one player, creating one-on-one matchups for Tollefson and Kiwanuka.

Tollefson, who has been subbing along the Giants line since the 2007 Super Bowl season, is facing an inexperienced right tackle. He has no trouble turning the corner, and with Kiwanuka collapsing the other side, Tollefson makes an important sack.

The most interesting thing about the play in Figure 3 is Finley?s response to Tuck. Finley is supposed to run a quick hitch in the middle of the field, but when he sees Tuck, he appears to get flummoxed. Finley collides with Tuck, then jostles with him as he tries to provide Rodgers with a target. Finley is Rodgers? second option on this pass, but because the tight end does not anticipate Tuck?s presence, Rodgers has nowhere to throw and must eat the football.

If Fewell had a healthy stable of linebackers, he probably would not send Tuck, Pierre-Paul, and others into zone coverage quite so much. But by using his best players as all-purpose threats, Fewell is creating the illusion that the Giants have more manpower than they actually posess.

It?s a smoke-and-mirrors game, but Tuck?s experience, Pierre-Paul?s uncanny athleticism, and Fewell?s creativity make it viable. And if the Giants can create pressure when Pierre-Paul is resting and Tuck is dropping, imagine what can happen when everyone is doing what they do best.

Healing up
The Giants are not as banged up as they were a few weeks ago. Boley is back after missing a few games with a hamstring injury. Rookie Prince Amukamara has returned from a foot injury to provide some depth in the secondary. Tuck?s toe does not appear to be bothering him. Umenyiora even plans to test his injured ankle this week, though that sounds more like a tease than a ray of hope.

Tom Coughlin?s leg is healing after a sideline collision, and you know the injury report has gotten out of control when the coach is on it.

The Giants recorded three sacks the last time they faced the Cowboys, one of them by Pierre-Paul for a safety. Pierre-Paul later blocked what would have been a game-tying field goal.

If the Giants had not beaten the Cowboys in that game, we would not be writing about them now. That win halted a four-game losing streak and made this week?s do-or-die game possible.

It came on a night when the Giants secondary could not stop anyone, running back Ahmad Bradshaw was suspended for the first half, and Manning was scattershot until midway through the fourth quarter.

The Giants beat the Cowboys because Pierre-Paul, Tuck, and the front four gave them a chance, and that chance is now a chance to reach the playoffs. For the Giants, that?s the way it always goes.

Mike Tanier writes for NBCSports.com and Rotoworld.com and is a senior writer for Football Outsiders.


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Tanier: Oakland didn't fall apart like other teams did after losing their starting QB to injury.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45807356/ns/sports-nfl/

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Lukoil, Bashneft Form JV to Develop Trebs, Titov Oil Fields

OAO LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov and OAO ANK Bashneft President Alexander Korsik signed agreements in LUKOIL's Central Offices in Moscow Tuesday.

Under one of the agreements, LUKOIL acquires a 25.1% share in OOO Bashneft-Polus who holds the license for Roman Trebs and Anatoly Titov oil fields. The other document signed is a joint venture partner agreement.

The amount of the transaction is $151 million (4.768 billion rubles).

At the same time, Bashneft-Polus signed an agreement to purchase 29 exploration wells at the aforesaid fields from OOO LUKOIL-Komi for USD $60 million.

Bashneft and LUKOIL, having completed the establishment of the joint venture to develop R. Trebs and A. Titov oil fields, proceed to active deployment of the project.

The OOO Bashneft-Polus partner agreement concluded under the Russian law establishes, without limitation, the managerial rights of the parties, their liabilities as regards the financing of the JV proportional to their stakes and also the JV planning and operation procedures, including the use of the parties' technologies, infrastructure facilities and product-sale policies in compliance with the license.

The partner agreement regulates transportation under market conditions: oil from R. Trebs and A. Titov fields will be transferred to oil tankers at LUKOIL's Varandey loading terminal in the Barents Sea. The agreement also provides for potential delivery of associated petroleum gas to the energy centre of the Yuzhnoye Khylchuyu field, developed by OOO Naryanmarneftegaz (a joint venture of OAO LUKOIL and ConocoPhillips), to generate power for production processes at R. Trebs and A. Titov fields.

The Board of Directors of the joint venture consists of 8 members, 6 of whom shall be nominated by Bashneft, 2 by LUKOIL. According to the partner agreement, while OAO ANK Bashneft shall hold the exclusive right to nominate general director of the joint venture for the approval by Bashneft-Polus Board of Directors, OAO LUKOIL shall, also exclusively, nominate deputy financial and economy general director, subject to approval by the venture's Board of Directors.

"Joint efforts of the oilmen of the two companies will undoubtedly result in successful development of the Trebs and Titov fields, ensuring ramp-up of hydrocarbons production in Russia's strategic region of Timan-Pechora. We are pleased to see that the infrastructure LUKOIL has built in the adverse terrains will redound to the advantage of the partners", Vagit Alekperov commented.

"We are pleased to express content with the constructive cooperation with LUKOIL on the development of Trebs and Titov fields, which will serve as a foothold for the company's growth in the midterm. I am sure that the expertise of our teams, innovations and mutual understanding between the parties will be a guarantee of the project's success", Alexander Korsik added.

In February of 2011, ANK Bashneft obtained a license for a federal-level site of subsurface resources, including R.Trebs and A.Titov oil fields, for a term of 25 years.

April 15, 2011, Bashneft and LUKOIL signed an agreement to establish a joint venture to develop the fields. December 14, 2011, the license was reissued to Bashneft-Polus.

The 830.5 square miles (2,151 squarekilometers) license area is located in the Nenets Autonomous District. The total recoverable oil reserves of commercial categories ( 1+ 2) located within the license areas of R.Trebs and A.Titov fields, as booked in the state balance sheet, reach 140.1 million tons.

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