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(12.09.2009) There's been a distinct lack of Tiger Woods ads on TV lately

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12.09.2009 There's been a distinct lack of Tiger Woods ads on TV lately

Tired of the Tiger Woods story? Many are; it's dominating the news, the tabloids and certain allegedly golf-oriented websites. However, take heart -- there's a place where you won't find any Tiger Woods ... and it's not where you'd expect.

Bloomberg's Brett Pulley and Michael Buteau did a little digging into Nielsen's television records, and found an interesting statistic: advertisements featuring Tiger Woods have completely vanished from prime-time television since Woods' wreck.

Nielsen officials told Bloomberg that 15 different advertisements featuring Woods have appeared in prime time since June. The last one was a Gillette spot that aired on Nov. 29, according to Bloomberg.

Prior to Woods' troubles, he was a phenomenally popular and easily recognizable celebrity; Bloomberg notes that 86 percent of U.S. consumers over the age of six recognized Woods. The vast majority of his $110 million in annual earnings comes from endorsements. So, yeah, there's a lot at stake here, not just for Woods but for entire companies banking on his image.

The lack of Woods ads isn't entirely surprising; with the golf season over, there's no need to pitch Woods' golf connections, and EA Sports doesn't have a new Tiger Woods game on the horizon. So what we're left with is ads that promote the mystique of Tiger Woods -- cool under pressure, domination, excellence beyond compare. You can imagine what the reaction would be should any of those kinds of ads hit the airwaves right about now.

Still, Tiger's many endorsement deals trade heavily -- even primarily -- on his image, and that image has taken battleship-hull-busting hits in the last two weeks. Already, one sponsor -- the Pac-10 -- has yanked a Woods-involved ad specifically because of the current problems. Are there more to follow?

When Tiger does return to the airwaves -- and eventually, he will -- it's likely to be in a very different context than before. Let's run down some of the most famous Tiger-based ad campaigns, and consider how they may or may not hold up in light of current events.

Nike: "I am Tiger Woods." The classic slogan, and one which I don't foresee many people repeating any time soon.

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12.01.2009 Done with basic blogging features

I was learning django and wanted to do a real application. It took me three weekends to develop this.

1.) has an admin interface, not using the django's admin interface
2.) everything is in the views.py
3.) not using model/database
4.) can do html escaped, not escaped etc.
5.) ~300 lines of python code. ~200 lines of template/html code. Apache using mod_wsgi.

More things to explore, especially django's admin and model modules.

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11.30.2009 Test images

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11.28.2009 Test automation -- Police chief: Woods' wife helped after accident

Tiger Woods was injured early Friday when he lost control of his SUV outside his Florida mansion, and a local police chief said Woods' wife used a golf club to smash out the back window to help get him out.

The world's No. 1 golfer was treated and released from a hospital in good condition, his spokesman said. The Florida Highway Patrol said Woods' vehicle hit a fire hydrant and a tree in his neighbor's yard after he pulled out of his driveway at 2:25 a.m.

Windermere police chief Daniel Saylor told The Associated Press that officers found the 33-year-old PGA star lying in the street with his wife, Elin, hovering over him.

"She was frantic, upset," Saylor said in a briefing Friday night. "It was her husband laying on the ground."

She told officers she was in the house when she heard the accident and "came out and broke the back window with a golf club," he said, adding that the front-door windows were not broken and that "the door was probably locked."

"She supposedly got him out and laid him on the ground," he said. "He was in and out of consciousness when my guys got there."

Saylor said Woods had lacerations to his upper and lower lips, and blood in his mouth; officers treated Woods for about 10 minutes until an ambulance arrived. Woods was conscious enough to speak, he said.

"He was mumbling, but didn't say anything coherent," Saylor said.

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11.26.2009 Test again -- Donny Osmond Wins 'Dancing With the Stars'

NEW YORK — Donny Osmond is the new champion of "Dancing With the Stars."

Osmond took home the show's mirror ball trophy Tuesday in the season finale of the ABC contest reality program. Osmond, the former teen pop star of the singing Osmond family, says the show has been highlight in his career.

He bested the singer Mya, who some expected to win. She had the highest scores going into the finale.

Three celebrities remained heading into the finale of the show's ninth season. Kelly Osbourne, the daughter of Ozzy Osbourne, was the first eliminated.

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