Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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    How Reliable Are the Early Presidential Polls?

    As the number of declared presidential candidates grows, followers of early poll readings should bear in mind some caveats. Early frontrunners for the Republican nomination in most of the past seven open contests have gone on to win the nomination, but this year there are two GOP frontrunners instead of one clear leader. On the Democratic side, even when there is a clear frontrunner as there is this year with Sen. Hillary Clinton, the early polls have been less reliable in predicting who will capture the nomination.

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    How Reliable Are the Early Presidential Polls?

    The flurry of candidate announcements in an open race has spurred media attention to the 2008 presidential contest even earlier in the electoral cycle than usual. But followers of early poll readings on the relative viability of declared candidates should bear in mind some caveats. Early frontrunners for the Republican nomination in most of the […]

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    Where’s technorati?

    How a reported 30,000 internet police affect online and offline life in China

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    Primary Scramble Prompts Calls to Slow Down

    The scramble among states to move up their presidential primaries next year has renewed calls from a number of the nation’s chief election officers to end the helter-skelter and move to a slower nominating process, such as by staging four regional primaries.

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    Hostility Among Asian Neighbors

    As the Chinese New Year approaches, China and its longtime rival Japan are in no mood to celebrate together. A Pew Global Attitudes survey found that 71% of Japanese express an unfavorable view of China and an equal number of Chinese dislike Japan.

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    Anna and the Astronaut Trigger a Week of Tabloid News

    Presidential politics and Iraq managed to attract their fair share of coverage last week. But an allegedly homicidal astronaut and a troubled pinup girl really commandeered the media’s attention. The coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith was cast as sociology but it had the intensity of voyeurism.

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    States Tax Food Sales

    That’s the number of states that tax groceries; with stable budget conditions prevailing across most of the country, several states are considering scrapping their food tax.

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    The “News and Schmooze” Explosion

    A new study finds a proliferation of “citizen media” web sites that fit somewhere on the media spectrum between the street-corner soapbox and the local daily newspaper. While concluding that these grassroots outlets are successful at creating community conversations, the report on this emerging landscape also reveals that many are tenuous, shoestring operations.

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    The Talk is All About War, Politics, and Pet Topics

    The nation’s radio and cable talk shows can’t resist talking about the blockbuster hot button issues like Iraq and the presidential campaign. But on subjects ranging from global warming and tensions with Iran to the Scooter Libby trial and the death of Molly Ivins, the talk conversation is very much shaped by the hosts’ own agendas.