Obama To Clint Eastwood: This Seat's Taken In an apparent jab at Clint Eastwood's bizarre Republican National Convention speech, President Obama's reelection team tweeted out a photo of the president sitting in his designated Cabinet Room chair, declaring that "this seat's taken." This seat's taken. OFA.BO/c2gbfi, twitter.com/BarackObama/st…— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 31, 2012 On Thursday, actor Clint Eastwood made a surprise appearance at the Republican convention. Eastwood spent much of his odd turn on stage addressing an empty chair representing the president. Below, a look at some of Eastwood's most memorable lines from Thursday's speech: Loading Slideshow An Ecological Man"You are an -- an ecological man.
'Heart of Darkness' Gets an Animated Update on Instagram Heart of Darkness Official Trailer from Sascha Ciezata on Vimeo. From the Instagram account of animator Sascha Ciezata comes a modern reimagining of the Joseph Conrad classic, Heart of Darkness. Every night, Ciezata posts a 15-second chapter of his social media-based graphic novel using Instagram video, that follows the antics of Marley, his daring rodent cartographer modeled after Conrad’s protagonist, Charles Marlow. The series takes place amid the stormy saga that was Hurricane Sandy, throwing little Marley into the murky mayhem beneath the city’s abandoned streets. The quasi-realism of Ciezata’s adaptation is augmented with the multimedia style of his series. Related: [Premiere] Watch Inventions' Stormy New Video for 'Springworlds' A Gold-Making Machine Eats Memories in Short Film 'The Alchemist's Letter' PES Deconstructs His New Stop-Motion Masterpiece 'Submarine Sandwich'
Swingometer How to use the swingometer Move the pointer to the right for a swing to the Conservatives, or left for a swing to Labour. A swing into the red of Labour, for example, is a swing for the Conservatives and against Labour and vice-versa. As the pointer moves, the swing will change, with the seats changing colour to the party gaining them. The overall election result is shown above the swingometer, along with the predicted number of seats in the House of Commons won by each party. The names of seats predicted to fall with each swing are displayed on the right. Click on the highlighted numbers for more information about past elections with similar swings. There are three different swingometers to chose from. Things to remember The swingometer is not scientific, it just gives an indication of what may happen on particular swings to one party or another. Note that for a handful of seats on the wheel, a swing to the Liberal Democrats or Conservatives will mean a third party gains that seat. Feedback
The Electoral Map - Presidential Race Ratings and Swing States A New York Times assessment of how states may vote, based on polling, previous election results and the political geography in each state. States sized by number of electoral votesGeographic View Maine and Nebraska give two electoral votes to the statewide winner and allocate the rest by congressional district. Obama Electoral Votes Romney 185 Solid Obama 58 Leaning Obama 180 Solid Romney 26 Leaning Romney 270 needed to win Neb. Nebraska Statewide 2 electoral votes Neb. 1 Nebraska District 1 1 electoral vote Neb. 2 Nebraska District 2 Neb. 3 Nebraska District 3 Me. Maine Statewide Me. 1 Maine District 1 Me. 2 Maine District 2 Ariz. Arizona 11 electoral votes Ark. Arkansas 6 electoral votes Calif. California 55 electoral votes Colo. Colorado 9 electoral votes Conn. Connecticut 7 electoral votes Del. Delaware 3 electoral votes District of Columbia Fla. Florida 29 electoral votes Ga. Georgia 16 electoral votes Ill. Illinois 20 electoral votes Ind. Indiana Ky. Kentucky 8 electoral votes La. Louisiana Md. Maryland 10 electoral votes Mass. Massachusetts Mo.
Election Day 2012 on Facebook Today is Election Day in the United States and Facebook is committed to encouraging people who use our service to participate in the democratic process. As a result, Facebook is focused on ensuring that those who are eligible to vote know where they can cast their ballots and, if they wish, share the fact that they voted with their friends. Similar to 2008 and 2010, U.S. Facebook users over age 18 will see a message at the top of their News Feed reminding them that it is Election Day and to go vote. The Facebook message will also contain a link to the Facebook Polling Place Locator ( an application that lets users find out where they can vote. We also will employ several social features that let people on Facebook encourage their friends to participate in Election Day. Users over age 18 will be able to click an “I’m Voting” or “I’m a Voter” button and post a story to their Facebook Timeline telling their friends that they have voted.
Election seat calculator The seat calculator is a rough way of converting percentage support for political parties into numbers of seats in parliament. It allows you to get an idea of what the next parliament might look like, and what sort of percentage support a party will need to win a majority. How it works Party seat totals are calculated by applying a uniform national swing. This assumes that for every seat in the country, each party's vote share changes by the same amount. So this is a crude model - in reality every seat is unique. Because of boundary changes - where seats are created, abolished and merged - the total number of seats in the House of Commons has changed over time. In the past therefore, parties have required different numbers of seats to win a majority and form a government. To make comparison easier we have taken the % vote share from these historic elections and shown what would happen if that result occurred with today's 650-seat House of Commons. More interactive guides
Gifwich Romney - Obama : la guerre du net - Le Plus France Info - Monde Le premier débat télévisé entre Barack Obama et Mitt Romney a lieu cette nuit à Denver, dans le Colorado. Le président sortant a une longueur d'avance dans les sondages. Le candidat républicain peut-il renverser la tendance lors de ce débat, grand classique des élections américaines ? La réponse se trouve en partie sur internet et les stratégies mises en place par les candidats pour convaincre les électeurs à travers le web. 2008 n'est pas 2012. "Pour la première fois, la persuasion par le biais des medias numériques prend une part essentielle dans le processus électoral". La phrase est signée Zac Moffatt, le cerveau de la campagne numérique de Romney. "Il faut s'adapter à l'explosion des réseaux sociaux", explique Zac Moffatt, directeur numérique de Mitt Romney. Comment faire ? Les deux camps ont mis en ligne de véritables QG de campagne : le MyMitt pour Romney et le Dashboard d'Obama. Le Dashboard, QG démocrate en ligne. Les applications donnent aussi des éléments de langage.
Election Results Twitter se mue en institut de sondage pour la présidentielle américaine - Etats-Unis « Cette gaffe lui a coûté cher, il a perdu 4 points au Twindex ! ». On entendra peut-être cette phrase dans la bouche d’un commentateur politique dans les mois voire les années à venir. Le « Twindex », contraction de « Twitter Political Index », désigne l’application lancée par le site de micro-blogging hier, mercredi 1er août. Un algorithme capable de décoder les opinions politiques Le Twindex s’appuie sur une base de données de plusieurs milliers de mots pour définir la teneur positive ou négative des tweets, classés ensuite sur un index de 1 à 100. Après les récentes études sur la diplomatie numérique, cette nouvelle application démontre une fois encore l’influence grandissante du site de micro-blogging dans les médias et la politique. Aussi fiable que les instituts de sondage Le Twindex pourrait donc s’imposer durablement dans les campagnes politiques à venir, d’autant que la masse de données accumulées par Twitter est bien supérieure à celle de n’importe quel institut de sondage.
HAMBURGER WAHLBEOBACHTER Social media ad spending in 2012 expected to more than double compared to 2008 - The Hill's Twitter Room BIA Kelsey, a financial consulting firm in media and telecommunications, predicted in a study released Tuesday that social media ad spending will grow from $3.8 billion in 2011 to $9.8 billion by 2016, with the majority spent on display ads. Display ads target social media audiences on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Hulu and Pandora. With less than six months left until the election, Obama’s campaign ads are everywhere on these platforms, tapping into information provided by users to target demographics including age, location and sometimes gender.Online advertising is still a tiny fraction of what presidential campaigns spend on advertising overall, even though as a percentage of total campaign advertising, spending on social media has doubled since the last presidential cycle. "Comparing the Obama campaign — who haven't gone through a primary — with 750 staffers, versus Romney, with 87, is comparing apples and hamburgers," Moffatt told NPR on Monday.