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BANGKOK - Thailand's acts of a television producer who was already married lover died and then loads the wedding photos and video through social websites Facebook and YouTube invite different reactions from around the world.
Chadil Deffy or better known as Deff Yingyuen Sarinya married "Anne" Kamsook, who became his lover for 10 years, at a temple in Amphur Muang, Surin.
According to Thai and foreign media reports, two of them had been planning to get married.
Deffy reported to have asked her boyfriend to settle the patient as first class, but are also quite busy with their activities.
The couple fell in love while both studied at the University of Eastern Asia a decade ago.
Unfortunately, Kamsook has died in a traffic accident on 3 January. He was 29 years old.
In a ceremony held on 9 January, Deffy, 28, wearing all-black wedding dress while the bride was dressed Kamsook white wedding dresses complete with sock hands.
We’ve had a fair share of robot babies in the past, and this weekend we’ve got one more to add to the list. Chris Clarke, professional animatronic creature designer managed to come up with robot that behaves just like a human baby. If you’re wondering why on earth would anybody do that – it’s so that real human babies can be replaced in movies (so they won’t have to work long hours under bright studio lights) and also because robot babies can be more obedient when it comes to acting.
While babies aren’t creepy, the fact that this robot is un-skinned and moving like a real one is pretty disturbing. I can only imagine the horror it would cause if some sound effects were added. Check out the video demonstration for yourself.
--UberGizmo
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| BOEING 747 belonging to El Al landing at Ben Gurion Airport when the report of the company's website hacked. |
Tel Aviv: Cyber war against Israel increased after another group of Saudi Arabia hackers attacked the website of Tel Aviv stock exchange and the national airline, El Al cause it closed for a while.
The ruling Hamas movement Gaza Strip, described the attack as a blow to the Jewish state.
"This new field of resistance to the invaders, and we urge the Arab youth in developing their electronic war crimes in the face of Israel," Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, in Gaza.
The website does not contain sensitive news, while the flight is not affected by the attacks but reported harassment occurred in the three banks.
El Al airline closed its website after a previous attack warned the two websites targeted by pro-Palestinian hackers, according to company sources it.
It is said they take precautions to protect the website and harassment is to be expected.
Spokeswoman said the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, the website being bombarded electronic application that slows it but still operational. The stock market is not affected. Cyber security experts said the common target of hackers Israel online.
There are no authentic reports of confidential government website hacked.
A few weeks ago, the Israeli spy service's website and other official website closed but the government denied that it acts described hackers and technical problems.
Israel is a world leader in cyber security and domestic security agency, Shin Beth, providing advisory services to businesses such as banks and public utilities.
Online harassment also occurs in three banks of the First National Bank of Israel (FIBI) and two subsidiaries, Bank Massad and Bank Otzar Hahayal. The bank spokeswoman said, their marketing site hacked, but customer service area is not affected. - Agency
"It is human error here," Costa chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi told reporters dialed into a conference call Monday morning. "The captain did not follow the authorized route that is used by Costa ships very frequently."
Rescue operations were halted Monday after the Costa Concordia shifted in rough seas and fears mounted that any further shifts could cause some of the 500,000 gallons of fuel on board to leak into the pristine waters off the island of Giglio that are a protected dolphin sanctuary.
The confirmed death toll rose to six after searchers found the body of a male passenger wearing a life vest in the corridor of the above-water portion of the ship. Sixteen people are unaccounted for, including two American passengers.
Chances that they would be found alive three days after the ship was speared by the reef and toppled to one side grew slimmer.
The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, was arrested and jailed early Saturday, a few hours after Friday's night shipwreck a few yards off Giglio, a tiny island of fishermen and tourist hotels near the Tuscan coast in west central Italy.
Prosecutors who are investigating the captain for manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing a shipwreck stepped up their scathing criticism of his conduct.
--usa today
Kids will be fun to decorate the room was based on ideas and their creativity without adult intervention.
As such, a talented artist, Yayoi Kusama, 82, using different creative ideas the children in his latest work of art can be considered interesting and unique, is called the 'Look Now, See Forever'.
Since the 1950s, influential artists have produced stunning works of art using small spots carving, sticker pictures and drawings that are used as the main object of the room decorator white.
Kusama revealed he began showing his art talent at the age of 10 years. The art of attracting elderly woman is now on display at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art until March 12 next year.
"Museum will also be the world's largest conservation centers," according to a statement by News Agency Qatar.
Construction of architecture-general of Egypt will be developed in the plains area of 47 hectares on the outskirts of Cairo near the complex pyramids of Giza.
Museum of the main Egypt before this is also a building iconic square-Tahrir since 1902.
Construction of the museum and worth U.S.$828 million are currently in the process of construction has been on stage at the end to be complete by 2015.
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| This stunning black-and-yellow viper with horn-like scales above its eyes, was discovered from a remote area of Tanzania two years ago and was introduced recently as the world's newest known snake species in an issue of Zootaxa. The reptile has been named after the 7-year old daughter of Tim Davenport, the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Tanzania. Matilda’s Horned Viper is one of the three new vipers to have been discovered across Africa the last three decades, thus making the find rare and important. Fearing poaching, the WCS is keeping the exact location of the new species a secret.Photo courtesy zmescience.com |
The video, which was posted on YouTube and other websites, shows four men in camouflage Marine combat uniforms urinating on the bodies of three dead Taliban.
One of them jokes: "Have a nice day, buddy." Another makes a lewd joke about a shower.
A copy of the video can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TMq3m_Oli4
"While we have not yet verified the origin or authenticity of this video, the actions portrayed are not consistent with our core values and are not indicative of the character of the Marines in our Corps," the Marines said in a statement.
"This matter will be fully investigated."
Two U.S. military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the video appeared to be authentic at first look but Reuters could not independently verify the video or its source.
A Muslim civil rights group in the United States condemned the alleged desecration of corpses in a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
"Any guilty parties must be punished to the full extent allowed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice and by relevant American laws," the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in the letter, a copy of which was sent to media organizations including Reuters.
The video could aggravate anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan after a decade of a war that seen other cases of abuse. The U.S. military has been prosecuting soldiers from the Army's 5th Stryker Brigade on charges of murdering unarmed Afghan civilians while deployed in 2010 in Kandahar province.
In that case, photographs published last March by two magazines - Der Spiegel and Rolling Stone - showed soldiers posing with the bloodied corpse of an Afghan boy they had just killed. The images can be seen here: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/the-kill-team-photos-20110327/0232760
The Marine video release comes at a sensitive moment, with Washington trying to promote Afghan reconciliation as U.S. troops gradually withdraw from the country.
U.S. Ambassador Marc Grossman is due to visit Afghanistan and Qatar next week for talks with the Afghan and Qatar governments.
At the Pentagon, Captain John Kirby said the defense department was "deeply troubled" by the video.
"Whoever it is, and whatever the circumstances - which we know is under investigation - it is egregious behaviour and unacceptable for a member of the military," Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said.
--Bernama
Now, it is possible with the emergence of various forms of a coffin like a shark, pineapple, mobile phones and luxury cars work hands carpenter from Ghana.
Paa Joe , 66, an expert make the coffin of western Africa, has attracted the attention of thousands of visitors with strange coffin designs in an art exhibition at Gallery Jack Bell, Britain last year.
Joe is now working in a carpentry shop in Accra Kane Kwei. Founder, Kane Wei first began in the 1950s and was created to create a coffin-like form of the plane for her late grandmother. The business is now growing and increasingly in demand in Britain after the art exhibition was held. Joe is busy preparing the coffin of online forms such as bananas , robots and locomotives.
"Justice has been done. I am vindicated," Anwar told thousands of supporters outside Kuala Lumpur's High Court at the end of the two-year trial that captivated the Muslim-majority nation since a former aide made the accusations in 2008. Some shouted "God is Great" and "reformasi" (reform).
The decision, based on the possible contamination of DNA samples, gives the opposition a firebrand leader in time for elections expected this year.
But it could also undermine one of his main arguments against the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak: that the judiciary is corrupt and biased.
"Najib can come out right now and say the government is reforming. He can point to this and say, things are changing. Now you're seeing an independent judiciary," said Shaun Levine, an Asia analyst with political risk consultancy Eurasia Group in Washington.
Judge Zabidin Mohamad Diah found Anwar not guilty due to doubts over whether DNA samples tendered as evidence were contaminated.
"And because it was a sexual offence, the court is reluctant to convict on uncorroborated evidence. Therefore the accused is acquitted and discharged," Zabidin told a packed courtroom in the Malaysian capital.
Sex between males is a criminal offence in the country of 28 million people. It was the second time Anwar, a 64-year-old father of six, was charged under the law.
FORMER POLITICAL STAR
In the 1990s, Anwar was Malaysia's political star, heir-apparent to then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, his goateed, bespectacled face appearing on the cover of Time magazine in 1997 next to words "The Future of Asia."
But he was sacked a year later as deputy prime minister and finance minister after campaigning against corruption and nepotism in politics, and then jailed on sodomy and corruption charges that Anwar and rights groups said were trumped up.
He spent six years in prison until his sodomy conviction was overturned in 2004, and then swiftly returned to politics as the head of a revitalized, multi-ethnic opposition whose strong showing in 2008's elections deprived the ruling National Front of its traditional two-thirds majority in parliament.
Within weeks of that victory, and with his three-party Pakatan coalition close to a parliamentary majority, a former aide, Saiful Bukhari Azlan, filed a criminal complaint accusing Anwar of sodomizing him.
Anwar called the charges a "vile and despicable attempt at character assassination" by the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition ahead of elections due in 2013 but likely to be held this year. A large majority of Malaysians surveyed in opinion polls also doubted the merit of the charges.
"The (verdict) will be more wind in the sails of the opposition Pakatan's camp than in Barisan Nasional's camp," said Ooi Kee Beng, a deputy director at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies of Singapore.
"Najib can of course say that the judiciary is not as corrupt as Pakatan says but so what? If the judiciary is not very corrupt, it doesn't mean that the government is good."
Najib, the son of a former prime minister, has slowly introduced social and political reforms while struggling to reverse a decline in opinion polls as leader of the United Malays National Organization, the Muslim ethnic-Malay dominated party that has ruled since independence from Britain in 1957.
His approval ratings have fallen over the year due to a growing religious divide that has alienated minority non-Muslims and fanned middle-class anger over the slow pace of promised political reforms.
"Malaysia has an independent judiciary and this verdict proves that the government does not hold sway over judges' decisions," his government said in a statement that also praised Najib's "bold democratic reforms."
But Najib is wary of moving too aggressively and provoking a backlash by conservatives in his Muslim ethnic-Malay dominated government. The election will be a test of whether he can assert a reformist agenda within his own party, Malaysia's biggest.
A conviction would have meant a jail term of up to 20 years, effectively ending Anwar's leadership of the opposition.
Anwar has promoted a rival vision for Malaysia that would abolish or scale back its most authoritarian laws and scrap a system of ethnic preferences for Malays that ethnic-Chinese and ethnic-Indian Malaysians say is unfair and has been cited by even some prominent Malays for holding Malaysia back.
Three explosions were heard in the parking area outside the courthouse around the time of the verdict, causing minor injuries to five people and damaging half a dozen cars and motorbikes. A police spokesman said three home-made explosives were detonated but it was unclear who was responsible.
(Additional reporting by Emily Kaiser, Writing by Liau Y-Sing and Jason Szep, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
-- Reuters
Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien has agreed to become Penn State's next head coach, CBSSports.com's Mike Freeman confirmed Thursday night.
This comes after a week of rumors had O'Brien taking the job, not taking the job, then interviewing for the job in that order on consecutive days. But now that his employment status is set, what does this mean for the Patriots?
It's not the first time the organization has lost an offensive coordinator (or even one to a high-profile college job). Notre Dame hired Charlie Weis in December 2004 and he coached the Fighting Irish through five mostly disappointing seasons before he was fired.
Weis was Bill Belichick's first offensive coordinator in New England, arriving in 2000, the same year the Patriots used the 199th on (wait for it…) Tom Brady. The Pats won three Super Bowls from '00-'04; when Weis headed for South Bend, he was replaced by then-29-year-old quarterbacks coach Josh McDaniels. (McDaniels didn't officially have the title of offensive coordinator until 2006, but according to a 2008 New York Times, story he called the plays during the 2005 season.)
McDaniels was there in 2007, too, when the Patriots went 18-0 and set countless offensive records on their way to the Super Bowl. They lost to the Giants in one of the biggest upsets in championship history, and following the 2008 season, McDaniels was hired by the Broncos to replace Mike Shanahan. He lasted a season and a half before poor personnel decisions and a string of losses led to his dismissal 12 games into the 2010 campaign.
Both Weis and McDaniels reemerged as NFL coordinators; the former with the Chiefs in 2010 (Weis later returned to college, first as Florida's OC this fall before accepting the Kansas head-coaching gig in December), the latter with the Rams in 2011.
O'Brien's NFL journey began in February 2007, when the Patriots hired him after two seasons as Duke's offensive coordinator. After a year, he was promoted from offensive assistant to wide receivers coach. And like McDaniels before him, O'Brien called plays "unofficially" before eventually being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2011.
So how have New England offense's fared the year after losing their coordinator? Unsurprisingly, as long as Tom Brady's upright, it's pretty much all systems go.
In 2004, the Pats' offense ranked third, according to Football Outsiders metrics. In 2005, after Weis left for Notre Dame, the Pats ranked seventh. In 2008, they were eighth; in '09, with McDaniels in Denver, they were first.
Next question: with O'Brien off to State College, who replaces him in New England? CNNSE.com's Tom Curran has a list of names -- some familiar, others less so.
* Chad O'Shea, Pats wide receivers coach
* Josh McDaniels, Rams offensive coordinator
* Jeff Davidson, Vikings offensive line coach
But again, the most critical element to New England's success isn't the guy calling the plays, it's the guy under center. The Patriots go as far as Brady goes. But we already knew that.
Source : http://www.cbssports.com
The Quadrantids meteors should start to appear late tonight, but will only be visible for about six hours. The peak is predicted to be somewhere around 2:30 to 3 a.m., though io9 reports that the Quadrantids meteors are “notoriously unpredictable” in terms of intensity. NASA says it will be a “brief, beautiful” show.
The best place to view the meteors live is the East Coast of North America, since the Quadrantids is best seen from the Northern Hemisphere and it happens to be the middle of the night in that region when they’re due to hit. Sky & Telescope says you should be able to see about one or two meteors per minute at peak intensity. NASA has a tool, called the Fluxtimator, that can estimate the ideal time to watch in your area.
But what if you live in Australia? Or a passing cloud ruins your view? Or you just don’t want to go outside at 3 a.m. in sub-freezing temperatures? The Web has you covered.
NASA has set up a live video feed, via Ustream, at the organization’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL:
Besides the live stream, you can follow the shower via social media. On Twitter, NASA’s Marshall Center (@NASA_Marshall) is posting live updates, and you can also search for the hashtag #MeteorWatch to find like-minded stargazers. There’s also Virtual Astronomer (@virtualastro) for retweets from amateur astronomers.
The Marshall Center is also on Facebook, which is probably the best place to comment. And be sure to keep an eye on the recent uploads of Quadrantids on Flickr to see some great photos of the show.
Feel like skipping this one? You can see a list of the big star-gazing events of 2012 at Space.com, and Sky & Telescope gives its take on which ones will be worth checking out.
Are you watching the Quadrantids meteors tonight? Post links to any photos and videos you take in the comments.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Navicore
Source : http://mashable.com
The best diet of 2012 is the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, according to new rankings released by U.S. News & World Report.
This is the second year in a row the DASH diet, which aims to prevent and lower high blood pressure, has won the category of "best diet overall."
"While it may have started as a [blood pressure] lowering diet, it really has incredible nutritional value," said Deborah Enos, a certified nutritionist in Seattle and a MyHealthNewsDaily contributor.
Second place was won by the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diet, which aims to lower cholesterol, and third place went to the Mayo Clinic diet, which focuses on weight loss.
"TLC is another example of a wonderful 'medical' type of diet that has gone mainstream," Enos said. But while it's low sodium requirement means it boosts heart health, it may be difficult for some to follow.
The U.S. News & World Report description of the diet's strengths and weaknesses noted that "The TLC diet takes work and a certain aptitude for reading nutrition labels."
"The easy-to-follow aspect is almost more important than the weight lost on a program," Enos said. Her clients, she said, have a difficult time sticking with diets that are hard to follow. "Now, for my clients who need to lower their cholesterol levels, this is an amazing and necessary diet for them to consider."
The rankings were decided by a panel of 22 experts in diet, nutrition, obesity, food psychology, diabetes and heart disease, according to the magazine's website. The experts rated the 25 diets in seven categories: how easy the diets are to follow, their ability to produce short-term and long-term weight loss, nutritional completeness, safety and potential for preventing and managing diabetes and heart disease. The full rankings were published online today (Jan. 4).
Best diets for weight loss
The top three diets for weight loss are the Weight Watchers diet, the Biggest Loser diet and the Jenny Craig diet, according to the rankings.
"The data show that dieters had the best luck with Weight Watchers for both short and long term weight loss," and the diet ranked highly in terms of how easy it was to follow, Enos said. "The Weight Watchers plan is also the diet that people most often return to — it appears in the article, and in my own experience, to be the diet that people really refer back to over their lifetime."
The experts rated the Weight Watchers diet as a 3.7 out of 5 in the category of easy to follow, whereas the Biggest Loser diet scored a 2.9 in this category, according to the rankings. The Jenny Craig diet scored a 3.6, but fared less well than Weight Watchers in terms of its ability to produce weight loss.
"Let’s face the facts of our busy lives, if a program isn’t easy to follow, we probably won’t," Enos said.
Weight Watchers won the category of best commercial diet plan, edging out the Jenny Craig diet, which relied too heavily on packaged meals and came with a high cost, according to the rankings.
However, when Consumer Reports released its ratings of commercial diet plans in May, Jenny Craig ranked as the winner. Those raters acknowledged criticisms that the diet is hard to follow, but cited a two-year study of 332 people showing that 92 percent of participants stuck with the diet. That study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2010.
Best diets for healthy eating
The DASH and TLC diets topped the category of best diets for healthy eating, which emphasized nutrional completeness and safety. The Mediterranean diet ranked third.
The data show that the DASH diet offers the best overall nutrition, Enos said. "It has one of the highest levels of B-12 and potassium," she noted, whereas the Weight Watchers plan is low in those nutrients, and recommends that its followers take a multivitamin.
The DASH diet prescribes the number of servings of grains, vegetables, dairy and other food types that a person should eat daily, based on their calorie needs. It suggests high amounts of fiber, potassium and magnesium, and keeps sweets to a minimum.
The diet caps salt intake to the recommended daily values —1,500 milligrams for people who are age 51 or older, African-American, or have hypertension, diabetes or chronic kidney disease; 2,300 milligrams for everyone else.
The DASH diet also won in the category of best diabetes diets, while the Ornish diet, which focuses on low fat intake and emphasizes exercise and stress management, won for best heart-healthy diet.
Pass it on: One panel has decided the best diet of 2012 is the DASH diet, which emphasizes consuming lean protein, fruits and vegetables.
Source : http://www.livescience.com
DES MOINES, Iowa — Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney waged a seesaw battle for supremacy in Iowa's Republican presidential caucuses late Tuesday night, a dramatic opening round for the campaign to pick a challenger to President Barack Obama.
Texas Congressman Ron Paul finished in third place.
As of 1:15 a.m., returns from 99 percent of the state's precincts showed Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, and Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, in a near dead heat, a fitting conclusion to a race as jumbled as any since Iowa gained the lead-off position in presidential campaigns four decades ago.
Santorum and Romney each won 24.6 percent of the vote, with Santorum holding a razor-thin lead over Romney — 19 votes — 29,945 to 29,926.
Regardless of the outcome, there was room for both to claim victory — Romney as the man to beat for the party's nomination and Santorum as the leader among those struggling to emerge as the former governor's unvarnished conservative rival in the primaries yet to come.
"Game on," Santorum said, jaw clenched, in a late-night appearance before supporters in the Iowa capital city.
New Hampshire votes next, and Romney is heavily favored in the first-in-the-nation primary on Jan. 10. South Carolina on Jan. 21 figures to be a tougher test, the first contest in the South and a state that is part of the Republican political base.
Preliminary results of Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses
(with 99 percent of the precincts reporting)
(with 99 percent of the precincts reporting)
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich finished in fourth place and vowed to fight on.
He was followed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who somberly told supporters he was headed back home to Texas to reassess a candidacy that bloomed early, then faded.
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann was far behind. Her campaign manager, Keith Nahigian, suggested she might drop out, but she seemed to signal otherwise a short while later. "I believe that I am the true conservative who can and who will defeat Barack Obama in 2012," she declared.
No matter how close the final results turn out to be in Iowa, there were no plans for a recount.
Doug Heye, a spokesman for the state party, said the ballots were counted under the supervision of campaign representatives who certified the totals. He said the numbers were double-checked when they were reported to state officials and there was no reason to check them again.
"On to New Hampshire," Gingrich said to the cheers of his supporters, vowing to carry on his campaign no matter the Iowa outcome.
The former speaker led in the pre-caucus polls as recently as a few weeks ago, only to fall under the weight of attack ads run by a super PAC run by allies of Romney.
Paul, too, said he was looking forward to the nation's first primary in a week's time, telling supporters his was one of two campaigns with the resources to do the distance. "There's going to be an election up in New Hampshire, and believe me this momentum is going to continue and this movement is going to continue and we are going to keep scoring," he told supporters.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum was in a virtual dead heat Tuesday night with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses before the final votes were counted.The Texas lawmaker didn't say so, but the other campaign already built for a long campaign was Romney's. The former Massachusetts governor was closeted with aides and his family as he sweated out the caucus count in a state that humbled him four years ago.
This time, win or lose, he appeared destined to draw a smaller share of the vote than the 25.2 percent he did then.
Each of the three in the top tier strove to create a distinct identity and brought a different style to the race.
Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, ran the old-fashioned way, spending parts or all of 250 days campaigning in the state in hopes of emerging as the preferred conservative alternative to Romney.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, brought organization and money to the table, and was aided by deep-pocketed allies who ran television commercials attacking former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and others. That allowed Romney to take the high road in person, running as a former businessman who knew how to create jobs and defeat Obama.
Paul, the Texas congressman, was something of a blend of the two approaches, with money and organization. He drew on the support of younger caucus-goers with a libertarian-leaning approach that included a call to legalize marijuana and bring home U.S. troops from overseas.
Whichever among the three eventually finished ahead, it appeared likely the winner's share of the vote would be a record low for GOP caucuses in the state. Former Sen. Bob Dole had 26.3 percent support in 1996, when he won.
This time, the economy and the federal budget deficit were top issues, judged more important than abortion or health care, according to a survey of early caucus-goers.
Nearly a third of those surveyed said they most wanted a candidate who could defeat Obama, and those favored Romney as a group. Paul and Santorum split the votes of the one in four who called the selection of a true conservative their top priority, and the former Pennsylvania senator also made a strong showing among those who said their top priority was a candidate with a strong moral character as well as among late deciders.
Paul had an edge among younger and first-time caucus goers.
Texas Congressman Ron Paul speaks at the Rock the Caucus Assembly at Valley High School in West Des Moines, Iowa, Tuesday.The survey by Edison Media Research for The Associated Press and television networks was based on interviews with 1,737 people arriving at 40 precinct caucuses across the state.
Obama was unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Even so, his re-election campaign set up eight offices across Iowa, made hundreds of thousands of calls to voters and arranged a video conference with caucus night supporters.
"This time out is going to be in some ways more important than the first time," the president told Democrats across the state. "Change is never easy."
The Iowa caucuses' outsized importance was underscored by the estimated $13 million in television advertising by the candidates and so-called super PACs as well as thousands of campaign stops designed to sway 100,000 or so voters.
Ironically, the weak economy that has made Obama appear vulnerable nationally was muted as an issue here. Despite areas of economic distress, the farm economy is strong. Iowa's unemployment in November was 5.7 percent, sixth lowest in the country and well below the national reading of 8.6 percent.
Despite its importance as the lead-off state, Iowa has a decidedly uneven record when it comes to predicting national winners. It sent Obama on his way in 2008, but eventual Republican nominee John McCain finished a distant fourth here to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Even before Tuesday night's results were known, this year's Republican hopefuls were turning their attention to the next contests. Romney's campaign purchased time to run television ads in Florida, where balloting is three weeks distant, while Perry put down money in South Carolina.
Aides said the Gingrich campaign had purchased a full-page newspaper ad in New Hampshire for Wednesday morning calling Romney a "Timid Massachusetts Moderate."
Romney, who finished second in Iowa in 2008 despite a costly effort, initially campaigned cautiously this time around.
But he barnstormed extensively across the state in the race's final days in pursuit of a first-place finish, running as a conservative businessman with the skills to fix the economy and as the challenger with the best chance to defeat Obama.
Santorum, Gingrich, Perry and Bachmann argued that Romney wasn't nearly conservative enough on the economy and social issues such as abortion. They vied for months to emerge as the alternative to the former Massachusetts governor.
Paul's libertarian-leaning views set him apart, and he hoped that might be enough to claim victory in a six-way race where no one broke away from the pack.
Unlike in a primary, in which voting occurs over hours, the 809 Iowa caucuses were meetings in which Republicans gathered for an evening of politics. Each presidential candidate was entitled to have a supporter deliver a speech on his or her behalf before straw ballots were taken.
Under party rules, caucus results have no control over the allocation of Iowa's 25 delegates to the Republican National Convention. The Associated Press uses the caucus outcome to calculate the number each candidate would win if his support remained unchanged in the pre-convention months.
The race in Iowa came to be defined by its unpredictability as the months rolled by and nationally televised candidate debates piled up.
Bachmann gained early momentum on the strength of a victory in a summertime straw poll and a feisty debate performance.
But she quickly faltered when Perry joined the race and overshadowed her as the 10-year governor of Texas with deep-pocketed supporters and an unbroken record of electoral success at home.
Perry's rise lasted only as long as a couple of debates including one where he memorably was unable to recall the third of three federal agencies he wanted to abolish.
Next up was Herman Cain, a black former businessman who improbably shot to the top of the polls in a party that draws its support chiefly from white voters. He suspended his candidacy a few weeks later, after a woman said she and he had carried on a long-term extra-marital affair.
Gingrich rode the next surge in the polls, a remarkable comeback for a man whose campaign had imploded earlier in 2011 when most of his aides quit in frustration. But his rise lasted only until a super PAC that supports Romney began attacking him on television.
Democrats watched carefully in a state that has swung between the two parties in recent presidential elections.
It was Iowa that launched Obama on the way to the White House four years ago when he won a convincing victory in the caucuses.
It was Iowa that launched Obama on the way to the White House four years ago when he won a convincing victory in the caucuses.
Source : http://www.nj.com
ABC has resurrected their cancelled Wife Swap reality series with a new twist — celebrity spouses change places with one another. The seventh season of Wife Swap, akaCelebrity Wife Swap, typically airs Monday nights on the ABC network.
Here are the TV show’s ratings for the 2011-12 season, the best way to tell if Wife Swap is going to be cancelled or renewed for season eight. These figures will be updated as the weeks progress so be sure to bookmark and return to this page:
Episode 07-01: Monday, 01/02/12
2.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic demographic with 6.3 million total viewers.
2.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic demographic with 6.3 million total viewers.
All things considered, it was a positive debut for Celebrity Wife Swap. It was in second place for its 10pm timeslot and out-performed the previous two original episodes of Castle (on November 21st and December 5th). It also retained 100% of The Bachelor’s lead-in audience ratings. The fifth season premiere of Wife Swap, which aired on a Friday night in April 2010, registered just a 1.2 in the demo and 3.48 million.
Reference point: The 2009-10 season averaged a 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 3.58 million viewers.
Note: These ratings are collected by the Nielsen company and are the final national numbers. These are different from the fast affiliate numbers which are just estimates of the actual ratings and are reported on by most other outlets. The final nationals are typically released within 24 hours of the programming or, in the case of weekends and holidays, a couple days later.
What do you think? Do you like the new Celebrity Wife Swap TV series? Do you think it should be cancelled or renewed for another season?
Source : http://tvseriesfinale.com
The 2012 Sugar Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an Xs and Os breakdown, check out George Schroeder’s game preview.)
• What’s all this, then? Not the national title game, but near the national title game! The 78th annual Allstate Sugar Bowl will prime the city of New Orleans for the BCS National Championship Game six days later.
• Where will this game be played? The Mercedes-Benz Superdome, home field of the New Orleans Saints and Tulane Green Wave.
• When is it on television? Kickoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 3. The game will be televised on ESPN.
• Whom does it feature? Traditionally, the first pick from available SEC teams plus a BCS at-large selection, but not this year.
• What about this year? Thanks to next week’s all-SEC West lineup in the title game, two at-large picks were given to the Sugar Bowl, and the results, on paper, were less than thrilling: 10-2 Michigan will face 11-2 Virginia Tech, a matchup that inspired waves of hostile bewilderment from onlookers who expected the Sugar Bowl to maybe pick at least one top 10 team.
• Who will call the game? Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe.
• Who sponsors the game? Allstate, purveyor of insurance and employer of Dennis “President Palmer” Haysbert and Dean “Dennis the Beeper King” Winters.
• Enough about the football. What about the loot? Ready to stand and declare your love for the BCS?This hat is your ticket to doing that!
• What mild indignities/wacky activities will visiting teams be subjected to while in town? This is New Orleans; is anything the teams get up to not going to be delightfully off-kilter in some crucial aspect?
• Please impart any miscellaneous knowledge you might have concerning the 2012 Sugar Bowl. Though you’ll hear more from him about his game week restaurant selections than his playing history, please note Todd Blackledge, as quarterback for the Penn State Nittany Lions, was Sugar Bowl MVP in PSU’s 27-23 victory over Georgia in 1983. Also, the turf in the Superdome used to be called “Mardi Grass”; how is that not still a thing?
Stay tuned for more postseason FAQ sheets, and stay on top of a hectic postseason slate with our complete 2011-2012 College Football Bowl Schedule.
Source : http://college-football.si.com
Source : http://college-football.si.com