Research shows party leaders' 'social media reputation'

Even before official campaigning begins, one thing seems clear - this election is going to be fought in cyberspace as well as on the doorsteps.
Social media websites, like Twitter and Facebook, are now seen as crucial battlegrounds, as well as potential forums for political gaffes. The influence of bloggers too, free as they are to support or attack the various parties, also seems to be growing by the day.
Now one company, Yomego, says it can put some numbers on the effect of all this - with what it calls "social media reputation scores" (SMRs) for the parties and their leaders.
These give a rating for someone's online popularity by looking at both the "noise" surrounding them - just how much are they being talked about online - and "sentiment" - whether the talk is positive or negative. The higher your sentiment score, the nicer the things people are saying about you.
Out of the 100, Gordon Brown's popularity score is 68.20, David Cameron's is 58.98 and Nick Clegg's is the highest at 68.49.
Within that, Mr Brown's noise component is up at 87, but his sentiment is just 47 and slipping. A lot of people seem to be talking about him, but not very favourably.
Mr Cameron's sentiment score is better, about 58, but people seem to be talking about him much less - with noise down to 48.
Of the three, Mr Clegg appears to be talked about in the most positive terms, with a sentiment rating of 62.
'Air-brushed' poster
Steve Richards, managing director of Yomego, says: "The trend has been that Nick Clegg has been steadily rising, without doing anything particularly spectacular.
"David Cameron's personal score has gone down recently. He took a big knock around the whole airbrushed poster campaign. There were a lot of spoofs, particularly from influential bloggers, and that really seemed to hurt him.
"Finally, Gordon Brown's score has risen recently, but largely due to noise, not because of any growth in positive sentiment."
 Looking at the parties as a whole, however, the picture is quite different. Labour's score is 63.56, the Tories' is 73.12 and the Lib Dems' is 62.04.
The Tories are miles ahead in terms of noise, with a figure in the nineties, but are also doing better than the government in terms of sentiment.
The Lib Dems have the best sentiment but not much overall noise - according to Yomego, the main talking point is whether Vince Cable could become chancellor in a coalition government.

"The Tories have made more effort so far than the other parties to use social media and that shows. Things like their iphone app have gone down well," Mr Richards says.
Comments, good or bad, that are being made by so-called "influencers" - in the political context that tends to be certain bloggers, columnists or correspondents - have a bigger weighting than an average person.
"If someone with a million followers on Twitter is saying something negative then that could potentially have a big influence," he adds.
Younger voters
But does any of this really matter? Should the party leaders actually take it seriously ahead of the election?
"Well, Obama certainly did," says Mr Richards. "A huge part of his campaign was directed towards social media and influencing younger voters who might well take a steer from their peers rather than traditional media outlets.
"And it's very immediate. Just last week Labour took a hit over the lobbying stuff and David Cameron saw his sentiment ratings improve because of his wife's pregnancy."
Yomego also works with corporate clients - recently Mr Richards says he has seen the social media reputation of big brands like Toyota and Eurostar "fall off a cliff" thanks to a product recall and tunnel breakdowns respectively.
"If you look at Eurostar, they were getting a huge amount of negative chatter, but in the crucial first 48 hours of that there was nothing from them. There's a lesson there for politicians.
"If there's a particular detractor out there who is running a story and is generating a lot of traffic then it would be worth their while reacting to that."
This sort of cyber-space reaction could provide almost instant feedback to the leaders' performances during the televised head-to-head debates scheduled to take place during the campaign.
"They'll be able to see exactly how people are reacting. It's a sort of early warning system for negative sentiment."
Tories 'on message'
Other groups are using social media in other ways to test the political waters.
Mr Cameron might have made it clear last year that he is no fan of Twitter but nevertheless, a group of computer science students at Cambridge University has developed a programme that analyses the tweets of individual politicians.
It compares them with a 250,000-word database of material from their party's manifestos, speeches, and so on and can work out how on or off message any one person is.
All that is displayed on a website, tweetgov.co.uk, and one of its founder's, Oliver Lech, said: "The Conservatives have consistently come out a lot higher in terms of allegiance, with Labour quite a way behind and the Lib Dems even further."
He says about one politician a day is signing up to Twitter and the allegiance between them and the party line does seem to be affected by wider goings on.
"The Tories had a bit of dip earlier this month when their polls ratings started to drop, but they seem to be back on message now, particularly around the Budget."

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Sensors turn skin into gadget control pad

Tapping your forearm or hand with a finger could soon be the way you interact with gadgets.

US researchers have found a way to work out where the tap touches and use that to control phones and music players.
Coupled with a tiny projector the system can use the skin as a surface on which to display menu choices, a number pad or a screen.
Early work suggests the system, called Skinput, can be learned with about 20 minutes of training.
"The human body is the ultimate input device," Chris Harrison, Skinput's creator, told a news channel.
Sound solution
He came up with the skin-based input system to overcome the problems of interacting with the gadgets we increasingly tote around.
Gadgets cannot shrink much further, said Mr Harrison, and their miniaturisation was being held back by the way people are forced to interact with them.
The size of human fingers dictates, to a great degree, how small portable devices can get. "We are becoming the bottleneck," said Mr Harrison.
 To get around this Mr Harrison, a PhD student in computer science at Carnegie Mellon and colleagues Desney Tan and Dan Morris from Microsoft Research, use sensors on the arm to listen for input.
A tap with a finger on the skin scatters useful acoustic signals throughout the arm, he said. Some waves travel along the skin surface and others propagate through the body. Even better, he said, the physiology of the arm makes it straightforward to work out where the skin was touched.
Differences in bone density, arm mass as well as the "filtering" effects that occur when sound waves travel through soft tissue and joints make many of the locations on the arm distinct.
Software coupled with the sensors can be taught which sound means which location. Different functions, start, stop, louder, softer, can be bound to different locations. The system can even be used to pick up very subtle movements such as a pinch or muscle twitch.
"The wonderful thing about the human body is that we are familiar with it," said Mr Harrison. "Proprioception means that even if I spin you around in circles and tell you to touch your fingertips behind your back, you'll be able to do it."
"That gives people a lot more accuracy then we have ever had with a mouse," he said.
Early trials show that after a short amount of training the sensor/software system can pick up a five-location system with accuracy in excess of 95%.
Accuracy does drop when 10 or more locations are used, said Mr Harrison, but having 10 means being able to dial numbers and use the text prediction system that comes as standard on many mobile phones.
The prototype developed by the research team sees the sensors enclosed in a bulky cuff. However, said Mr Harrison, it would be easy to scale them down and put them in a gadget little bigger than a wrist watch.
Mr Harrison said he envisages the device being used in three distinct ways.
The sensors could be coupled with Bluetooth to control a gadget, such as a mobile phone, in a pocket. It could be used to control a music player strapped to the upper arm.
Finally, he said, the sensors could work with a pico-projector that uses the forearm or hand as a display surface. This could show buttons, a hierarchical menu, a number pad or a small screen. Skinput can even be used to play games such as Tetris by tapping on fingers to rotate blocks.
Mr Harrison would not be drawn on how long it might take Skinput to get from the lab to a commercial product. "But," he said, "in the future your hand could be your iPhone and your handset could be watch-sized on your wrist."

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Tiny cube to tackle space debris

UK researchers have developed a device to drag space debris out of orbit.

They plan to launch a demonstration of their "CubeSail" next year. It is a small satellite cube that deploys a thin, 25-sq-m plastic sheet.
Residual air molecules still present in the spacecraft's low-Earth orbit will catch the sheet and pull the object out of the sky much faster than is normal.
The Surrey Space Centre team says the concept could be fitted to larger satellites and even rocket stages.
The group also envisages that a mature system would even be sent to rendezvous and dock with redundant spacecraft to clean them from orbit.
"Our system is simple and very low cost; but we need to demonstrate that it can be done," said Dr Vaios Lappas, lead researcher on the project and senior lecturer in space vehicle control.
"It would help make space a sustainable business. We want to be able to keep on launching satellites to provide new services; but unless we do something, the amount of junk up there is going to grow exponentially."
Simplicity of approach
It is thought more than 5,500 tonnes of junk now clutters the region of space just a few hundred km above our heads.
Last year, two satellites even collided, showering their orbit with tiny fragments that now pose additional risk to operational spacecraft.
International agencies have agreed that retired hardware - old satellites or spent rocket stages - should be removed from space within 25 years of the end of service.
Using large deployable surfaces to increase the drag on these objects so they fall to Earth rapidly is one possible solution to the space litter problem.
CubeSail, unveiled on Friday, is a 3kg (6.6lb), 10cm x 10cm x 30cm (4in x 4in x 12in) nanosatellite.
It incorporates within its tiny frame a polymer sheet that is folded for launch to be unfurled once in space.
The simple deployment mechanism features four metal strips that are wound under tension and will snap into a straight line when let go, pulling the sheet flat in the process.
The team hopes to launch its demonstrator at the end of next year, riding piggy-back on another mission or as part of a cluster of small research satellites that are sometimes lofted en mass atop a single rocket.
Force of sunlight
The nanosat will then circle the Earth, going from pole to pole at an altitude of about 700km (435 miles), testing its systems and assessing the drag principle.
If successful, CubeSail could become a regular add-on system to satellites and rocket stages, opening up a new space business akin to the daily refuse services here on Earth.
"We would be looking to put it on our own satellites and to put it on other people's spacecraft as well," said Sir Martin Sweeting, the chairman of SSTL, the world-leading small-satellite manufacturer, which is supporting the research.
"We want this to be a standard, essential bolt-on item for a spacecraft; and that's why it's very important to make it small, because if it's too big it will interfere with the rest of the spacecraft," he told a News channel .
The researchers hope to develop the project as a propulsion system as well. The pressure of sunlight falling on such a large structure would also move it. The force is tiny but continuous.
This "solar sailing" technique has long been touted as a means of moving spacecraft around the Solar System, or even just helping conventional satellites to maintain their orbits more efficiently.
Indeed, some of the large geostationary satellites, for example, already use solar-sail flaps to maintain their attitude without firing their thrusters. This saves valuable chemical propellant and extends mission lifetime.
Delicate control
CubeSail will endeavour to demonstrate this "propellantless propulsion" by trying to shift the path it takes across the surface of the Earth by just a few degrees over the course of a year.
To do this though, the nanosatellite will have to carefully control the angle of the sail with respect to the Sun, just as an ocean vessel has to play with its sails to catch the wind.
"We're going to control our sail with a very novel geometric technique; we're not going to use any thrusters," explained Dr Lappas.
"We have developed a tilting mechanism that uses very tiny motors. It's able to move in two directions. This enables you to change the centre of mass of the sail. We're also going to be using small magnets to control the sail because they will interact with the Earth's magnetic field."
Once its mission is complete, CubeSail will be instructed to take itself out of orbit.
The project is a private venture within the Surrey Space Centre, which is based at the University of Surrey, Guildford.
It has been funded by Europe's largest space company, EADS Astrium, which is one of the world's biggest manufacturers of satellites. It also produces Europe's heavy-lift rocket, the Ariane 5, which launches about half of the world's commercial satellite platforms.
The entire cost of the project is expected to be no more than £1m ($1.5m).
Other groups around the world are expected to launch solar sail demonstrators soon. The US space agency has been working on a project with The Planetary Society, a long-time proponent of the technology.
The Japanese, too, have work in progress. And even Astrium is sponsoring other space junk mitigation strategies within its own division.

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Beta-blockers 'cut cancer spread'

Blood pressure drugs may be able to reduce the ability of breast cancer to spread around the body, researchers have told a European conference.

A joint UK and German study found that cancer patients taking beta-blockers had a lower risk of dying.
The drugs may block hormones that trigger the spread of cancer cells.
However, experts stressed that more evidence from bigger studies would be needed before the drug could be given as part of routine treatment.
Breast cancer, which affects more than 30,000 people in the UK each year, is most easily tackled when tumours are confined to the breast only.
When cancer cells migrate to other parts of the body, and start growing, a process known as metastasis, the likelihood of successful treatment begins to fall.
The biological processes which trigger metastasis are still not fully understood.
The latest research, presented at the European Breast Cancer Conference in Barcelona, builds on earlier laboratory studies which suggest that the ability of cancer cells to increase in number and spread is boosted by the presence of stress hormones.
Beta-blockers attach themselves to the same receptors on cancer cells used by these hormones, potentially reducing their ability to stimulate the cell and trigger spread.
They are already taken by approximately two million people in the UK.
To test this theoretical cancer-fighting ability, Dr Des Powe, from Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, in collaboration with Professor Frank Entschladen from Witten University in Germany, looked at three groups of breast cancer patients, a total of 466 people.
The first group had high blood pressure, also called hypertension, and were taking beta-blockers, the second had high blood pressure, but were taking something different for it, while the third had no blood pressure problems.
In the 43 who were taking beta-blockers, there was a significant reduction in both cancer metastasis, and new tumours within the breast. Overall they had a 71% lower chance of dying from breast cancer compared with the other groups.
Small-scale research
Dr Powe said: "It is reasonable to speculate, therefore, that some non-hypertensive women with breast cancer will respond favourably to beta-blocker treatment, though doses and side-effects would need to be investigated in clinical trials."
However, he said that the study was "relatively small" and its results would need to be reproduced in a larger group of patients.
"We are very encouraged by these first results which have already shown that by using a well-established, safe and cost effective drug, we can take another step on the road towards targeted therapy in breast cancer."
Meg McArthur, from Breakthrough Breast Cancer, welcomed the findings: "Although this is early stage research, these results show that beta blockers could play a role in reducing the risk of metastatic breast cancer. This is a positive step forward as it could potentially lead to survival improvements for people affected with this condition.
"However, as the study is quite small, we would like to see further research in this area."

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BA strike: Second walk-out by cabin crew begins

More British Airways flights have been cancelled as a second strike by the firm's cabin crew gets under way.

According to live departure boards, 29 scheduled flights due to depart London airports on Saturday morning have already been cancelled.
However BA has said it expects disruption to be less than last weekend's strike, when cabin crew walked out for three days.
The strike is due to run from Saturday until Tuesday 30 March.
The airline expects to fly more than three-quarters of its passengers, with around 17,000 passengers affected by strike cancellations.
All flights in and out of Gatwick airport and London City airport will be unaffected by the strike, BA said.
At Heathrow at least 70% of long-haul flights and 55% of short-haul flights are expected to operate normally.
In total, more than 75% of passengers are expected to fly, says the airline.
Of the 240,000 customers originally booked to fly in the strike period, 180,000 will fly either on BA planes, or on planes hired from other carriers.
A further 43,000 have been rebooked onto other carriers, or have changed the dates of their travel, BA said.
A total of 29 flights due to fly out of London airports have already been cancelled, departure boards on BA's website show, with five arrivals cancelled.
A small number of internal flights from Scottish airports to London were also cancelled on Friday ahead of the strike.
'Macho' Walsh
BA says it has deployed "the biggest contingency plan in our history" to try and limit the impact of the strikes.

But despite those measures it estimates that last weekend's three days of stoppages cost the company a total of £21m.
The latest stoppage strikes comes amid controversy over BA's conduct during the industrial dispute.
In a letter to the Guardian newspaper on Friday, a total of 116 industrial relations academics accused BA's chief executive Willy Walsh of adopting a "macho" approach, aimed at breaking the power of the Unite union, which represents BA cabin crew.
However BA rejected the accusations, pointing to the three days of negotiations with Unite attended by Mr Walsh in the run up to the first strike.
Speaking to a news channel, Mr Walsh said that there were currently no plans to reopen talks with the union.
He also said that travel perks withdrawn from striking staff would never be reinstated. At the company's discretion, BA staff are able to buy flights for 10% of the face value - a deal that can be extended to friends and family.
Unite called the withdrawal of the perks "unacceptable anti-union bullying".
BA and Unite are in dispute over the airline's cost cutting plans, which include reducing the numbers of cabin crew on long-haul flights.
The union says that the plans involve contractual changes for its members, which it says it was not consulted about.
Analysts say BA needs to bring down its costs significantly. It is expected to announce the biggest loss in its privatised history when it reports its annual results later this year.
Last year it reported an annual loss of more than £400m.

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Clash in Pakistan's Orakzai kills militants and troops

Five Pakistani soldiers and at least 21 suspected militants have been killed in clashes near the Afghan border, Pakistan's military has said.

The fighting occurred in the tribal district of Orakzai.
It came a day after military aircraft bombed areas in the district killing at least 11 people.
Militants led by Pakistani Taliban commander Hakimullah Meshud are thought to have moved to Orakzai following a troop offensive in South Waziristan.
The military said in a statement that the fighting broke out when militants attacked and captured a security check post in Orakzai.
"Security forces counter-attacked and recaptured that check post," the statement said.
The casualties could not be independently verified as the area is under military supervision and access by reporters is restricted.
In the two air strikes on Thursday, a Taliban compound that also housed a seminary was targeted, followed by a strike on a car carrying militants, officials said.

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Iraq election: Iyad Allawi's bloc wins most seats

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's bloc has achieved a surprise win in Iraq's parliamentary elections.

His coalition has two seats more than that of incumbent PM Nouri Maliki, who has vowed to challenge the results and said they were "not final".
Earlier, the UN's envoy to Iraq said the 7 March election was "credible" and urged Iraqis to accept the results.
Mr Allawi will need to form a coalition government as he lacks a majority, amid fears the results may spark violence.
Just hours before the results were announced, twin bomb blasts in the town of Khalis, in Diyala province, killed at least 40 people and left more than 60 injured.
Speaking directly after the figures released by the electoral commission, Mr Maliki challenged the result and repeated his call for the electoral commission to recount the vote.
He added that his bloc would press ahead with plans to form the new government.
Mr Allawi said his bloc would "work with all Iraqi parties, whether they won or not, to form the next government".
Baghdad news channel says this looks like a spectacular victory for Mr Allawi and a big upset for Mr Maliki - but at 91 seats to 89 it was a very tight race.
And with Mr Maliki's party making allegations of irregularities, there are still concerns over whether the result will be accepted, our correspondent says.
On Thursday the head of Iraq's election commission ruled out holding a manual recount of all the votes cast.
The US state department congratulated the country on carrying out "a successful election". Spokesman Philip Crowley said Iraqi and international observers had overseen the process and there was "no evidence of widespread or serious fraud".
"This marks a significant milestone in the ongoing democratic development of Iraq," he said.
A credible election is seen as crucial to US military plans to end combat operations this August, seven years after the invasion.

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Uganda mourners at Buganda tombs in deadly crush

At least one person has been killed and 10 wounded in a crush at a Ugandan royal tomb that was destroyed by fire last week, police say.

The incident came at the end of a week of official mourning for the mausoleum of the Buganda kingdom, which has attracted thousands of people.
The fire at the tombs sparked protests in which at least two people died.
Government supporters and Buganda's King Ronald Mutebi have been at loggerheads since riots last year.
Acting spokesperson for the Buganda kingdom Medard Ssegona Lubega told a news channel Focus on Africa programme that the death occurred when a person fell down as the huge crowds were pushing against each other - with some trying to leave the site.

"It was hot for many people who were in the royal tomb," he said.
The government has said it will help rebuild the site and Buganda ministers are discussing the plans.
It remains unclear what started the fire, although some suspect arson.
Buganda is the largest of Uganda's four ancient kingdoms, abolished in 1966 but reinstated by President Yoweri Museveni's government in 1993.
However, he restored them only as cultural institutions with no political power.
Supporters of King Ronald believe he should have more power and influence than Mr Museveni allows.

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US and Russia announce deal to cut nuclear weapons

US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have agreed a new nuclear arms reduction treaty after months of negotiations.

The treaty limits both sides to 1,550 warheads, about 30% less than currently allowed, the White House said.
The deal replaces the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The leaders will sign the pact in Prague on 8 April.
President Obama hailed the treaty as the most comprehensive weapons control agreement in nearly two decades.
"With this agreement, the United States and Russia - the two largest nuclear powers in the world - also send a clear signal that we intend to lead," he said at the White House.
"By upholding our own commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, we strengthen our global efforts to stop the spread of these weapons, and to ensure that other nations meet their own responsibilities," he said.
In Russia, President Medvedev's spokeswoman told the Interfax news agency: "This treaty reflects the balance of interests of both nations."
The treaty must be ratified by the US Senate and the Russian Duma.
New limits
In a speech in Prague last April, Mr Obama set out his vision of moving towards a world without nuclear weapons.
Both sides agreed to cut their arsenals last year, but disagreements on verification have held up a deal.

The US is said to have more than 2,000 deployed strategic nuclear weapons, while Russia is believed to have more than 2,500.
The new agreement - which came in a phone call between the two leaders - limits the US and Russia to a maximum of 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads each.
The cuts are substantial - well over 30% for the Russians and around 25% for the Americans, whose current arsenal is smaller, says a news channel diplomatic correspondent James Robbins.
Both sides would have seven years after the treaty's ratification to carry out the reduction in long-range nuclear warheads.
The agreement also calls for cutting by about half the missiles and bombers that carry the weapons to their targets.
It limits missile delivery vehicles to 800 deployed and non-deployed intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, submarine-launched ballistic missile launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear weapons.
The cap on deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine launched missiles is set at 700, the White House said.
The agreement includes a new verification mechanism that will ensure the "irreversibility, verifiability and transparency" of the reduction process, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency said.
Moral high ground
The pact establishes a "legally-binding" linkage between offensive weapons and missile defence systems, the Kremlin said in a statement, and "will demand the deployment of all strategic offensive weapons exclusively on national territories".

Moscow has strongly opposed US plans to set up missile defences in Europe, and has insisted on explicit recognition of the link between offensive and defensive systems in any new strategic arms reduction pact.
The timing and symbolism of the deal are crucial, enabling both countries to claim some moral high ground going into next month's Washington Summit on nuclear security, and the critical talks in May aimed at limiting the spread of nuclear weapons around the world, our correspondent says.
Presidents Obama and Medvedev hope the new deal will increase pressure on Iran, in particular, to abandon any ambition to develop nuclear weapons, he adds.
The agreement - called the Measures to Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms - replaces the Cold War-era Start treaty signed in 1991 and the Moscow Treaty signed in 2002.
Both US and Russian officials expressed confidence that lawmakers would ratify the treaty.

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