BlogPost - Hot Topics, Trends and Conversation from The Washington Post - September 12, 2010

TwitChange: A charity that gets celebrities to follow you for a price

Buy a celebrity follower by donating to A Home in Haiti on eBay.

By Melissa Bell | September 17, 2010; 5:10 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Stewart/Colbert seek sanity, Adrian Fenty's ouster, unemployment woes: This week's top news tweets

When it comes to the news cycle, this week was a churning whirlwind of tornadoes and hurricanes, housewives and elections. On social networks, we watched readers snatch up and share everything from the shockers from Tuesday's primary election to the failed promises of hand sanitizer.

By Katie Rogers | September 17, 2010; 2:59 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Your Take
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DNA dance: Amazing science lesson of the day

Maureen McKeague dances her PhD thesis. The video is her submission to the third annual Dance Your PhD competition put on by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

By Melissa Bell | September 17, 2010; 1:31 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Constitution Day: Gear up for nationwide celebrations

Across the nation, schools and universities are gearing up for Constitution and Citizenship Day celebrations. If you do not recall celebrating this storied day in your youth, it's because the law designating the day as a National holiday only went into effect in 2007.

By Melissa Bell | September 17, 2010; 11:40 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)

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Car fights start after 22 minutes; never drive longer than that

(AP Photo/Al Goldis) It takes about 22 minutes until people lose their cool in the car. A new study conducted by S.E.A.T., a Spanish automobile maker, interviewed 3,000 drivers about their fighting habits. The most common causes for fights are...

By Melissa Bell | September 17, 2010; 10:00 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
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William Carlos Williams eats plums

(Markus Botzek/zefa/Corbis) A little meditation on plums this morning. It's the 127th anniversary of William Carlos Williams's birthday. His sparse poetry inspired the Beats and won him a Pulitzer Prize. The following poem was originally a note to his wife....

By Melissa Bell | September 17, 2010; 8:51 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)
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'Rally to Restore Sanity' to meet 'March to Keep Fear Alive;' Reddit users talk about starting the online campaign

Comedians and talk show hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will march on the Mall with rival rallies Oct. 30. Colbert will lead the "March to Keep Fear Alive," while Stewart will head the "Rally to Restore Sanity."

By Melissa Bell | September 17, 2010; 6:11 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (171)
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'McDonald's death ad' airs tonight in D.C. (Video)

In a TV ad that could kill your appetite, an overweight, middle-aged man is seen dead in a morgue holding a half-eaten hamburger as a woman weeps over his linen-clad body. McDonald's ubiquitous golden arches then trace the dead man's feet with the text "I was lovin' it," a stinging pun on the fast-food chain's long-running slogan "I'm lovin' it." A voiceover says, "High cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart attacks. Tonight, make it vegetarian." Produced by health lobby Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, the commercial is set to air tonight in Washington during "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart."

By Melissa Bell | September 16, 2010; 4:00 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (39)
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Falling in love means losing two friends

A new study reveals that falling in love will cost you two close friendships.

By Melissa Bell | September 16, 2010; 1:40 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Animated Werner Herzog saves Joaquin Phoenix's life

Joaquin Phoenix, the disheveled actor-cum-rapper-cum-documentary film star crashed a car and Werner Herzog saved his life. The story is retold in animation.

By Melissa Bell | September 16, 2010; 1:00 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Diaspora, Facebook's potential rival, offers a peek; Tyler Winklevoss, Zuckerberg's rival, talks

Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg come under attack from Diaspora, Tyler Winklevoss and Greenpeace.

By Melissa Bell | September 16, 2010; 12:30 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
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Jane Austen gets digital: Manuscripts will be scanned online

Jane Austen's fictional manuscripts will be scanned online and available to the public.

By Melissa Bell | September 16, 2010; 8:47 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
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Mexico celebrates 200th year of independence with 'El grito de la Independencia' (Video)

El Grito de la Independencia de Mexio was celebrated last night in Mexico City.

By Melissa Bell | September 16, 2010; 7:57 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Picture Shows, The Daily Catch
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B.B. King plays the blues

B.B. King turns 85 today.

By Melissa Bell | September 16, 2010; 7:35 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Picture Shows
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Ines Sainz and a short history of female reporters in locker rooms

(Bill Kostroun/AP) Updated, Thursday, 9 a.m. Sports columnist Sally Jenkins questions the need for locker room interviews. "In what other profession does one set of people do business with another while they're partially or wholly unclothed?" Read her thoughts here....

By Melissa Bell | September 15, 2010; 4:00 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (11)
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Monster bike would dominate your 10-speed

This monster wheel bike with a truck tire for a front wheel is tough.

By Melissa Bell | September 15, 2010; 2:00 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Golden Girls Day: 25 years of being a friend

(AP Photo/NBC, File) Lunch break! Twenty-five years ago, Betty White was just a spry 63-year-old starting a new sitcom about four friends living together in Florida. Along with Beatrice Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty the show, "Golden Girls," ran...

By Melissa Bell | September 15, 2010; 1:30 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Lucas Cruikshank (a.k.a. Fred), Soulja Boy and, yes, Justin Bieber: The videos that started their YouTube rise

"Fred: The Movie" made the leap from YouTube to Nickelodeon with the launch of his television series this September. The 16-year-old Lucas Cruikshank's rise from Internet celebrity to television show star made us start thinking about our favorite YouTube sensations. From Justin Bieber to Marié Digby.

By Melissa Bell | September 15, 2010; 11:06 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
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Christine O'Donnell thinks masturbation not the 'answer' (Video)

Christine O'Donnell made a video for MTV in 1996 saying that masturbation was not the answer and teenagers needed to learn about other ways to satisfy each other.

By Melissa Bell | September 15, 2010; 10:56 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
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Christine O'Donnell calls Karl Rove 'unfactual' (Video)

In a major coup for the tea party and for Sarah Palin, Christine O'Donnell won the the Republican nomination for the Delaware senate seat. The Republican Party did not take the win happily.

By Melissa Bell | September 15, 2010; 8:47 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (31)
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New Twitter unveiled: Read the reviews and send us your own

Twitter rolled out a new redesign of its Web interface, making it a more destination site by adding photographs and video to its stream.

By Melissa Bell | September 15, 2010; 8:18 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Roy Acuff sings America (Music)

We need a happy little tune to get us through the middle of the week. King of Country Roy Acuff was born today in 1903. His catchy country makes me want to skip work for a barn hoedown:...

By Melissa Bell | September 15, 2010; 8:16 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Picture Shows
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Twitterverse links France burqa ban and Eiffel Tower bomb threat

Eiffel Tower was evacuated after a bomb threat. The French senate passed a ban on burqas. The Twitterverse linked the events.

By Melissa Bell | September 14, 2010; 4:55 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
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Irish hand dance: Look, Ma, no feet! (Video)

Get ready for another Irish dance takeover of the world. Suzanne Cleary and Peter Harding, alumni from Riverdance, decided to take to the interwebs to spread their gleeful take on Irish Dancing with their two-person dance troupe Up & Over It.

By Melissa Bell | September 14, 2010; 12:00 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
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John Mayer quits Twitter. Where do Twitter accounts go when they die?

John Mayer quits Twitter.

By Melissa Bell | September 14, 2010; 11:10 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
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U.S. hiker released from Iran; President Obama, world reacts to news

Sarah Shourd, one of three American hikers detained for a year in Iran, has been released from prison, according to Iranian news accounts. Her attorney Massoud Shafii said she would be released after the payment of a $500,000 bail.

By Melissa Bell | September 14, 2010; 8:27 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
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Amy Winehouse was wrong about rehab (Music)

Singer Amy Winehouse turns 27 today. She will be releasing a new song, her first since the 2006 album "Back to Black."

By Melissa Bell | September 14, 2010; 8:23 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Picture Shows
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Auto-Tune everything, please (Video)

Auto-Tune the News is now on its 13th video, and getting help from singer Weezer to make President Obama and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) musical virtuosos.

By Melissa Bell | September 13, 2010; 5:53 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Ant death spiral (Video)

A circle of army ants, each one following the ant in front, becomes locked into a circular mill. They will continue to circle one another until they all die.

By Melissa Bell | September 13, 2010; 12:39 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
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White space unleashes dreams of new wireless possibilities

On September 23, 2010, the Federal Communication Commission will vote to release unused television channels, or "white spaces," to create better-quality airwaves. The Post's Cecilia Kang writes the move could enable "engineers to turn those frequencies into WiFi networks on steroids."

By Melissa Bell | September 13, 2010; 12:12 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
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BlogPost: September 12, 2010 - September 18, 2010