“The voice” Shakira and Usher debut strong in ratings

How did NBC’s The Voice perform for Monday night’s big return premiere with Usher and Shakira in the red chairs?

It depends on which comparison you use. Last night’s TheVoice spring kickoff had 13.4 million viewers and a 4.7 rating among adults 18-49, easily winning the night.

Normally you would stack those numbers against the show’s Monday premiere on the same night last year. But that episode was a day after NBC aired the Super Bowl and had a giant 6.7 adult demo rating. So it’s down 30 percent from that. Another comparison (and in this case, NBC would argue, the more fair one) is the show’s season 3 premiere last fall, which had a 4.2 rating. So it’s up 12 percent from that round.

Overall, I say this is a good number for the show — especially since the series swapped out half its judging panel, with Xtina and Cee Lo expected to rerun in the fall. How often do you see a judges panel shakeup without a ratings drop from the show’s previous cycle? And given NBC’s recent severe ratings woes, some wondered if TheVoice return would suffer. But clearly fans are fully capable of turning on NBC again when the broadcast network has a show they actually want to see.

And since some of you below are debating these Voice numbers vs. Fox’s AmericanIdol this season, here’s some help: Last night’s Voice is down 22 percent from Idol‘s January premiere. But it’s higher than every Idol episode since January.

The return of Revolution, however, is bit less sunny. After a four-month break, the freshman adventure-drama returned to 7.2 million viewers and a 2.7 rating. That’s down 13 percent from the show’s prior average, yet was still easily enough to win 10 p.m.

Meanwhile Fox’s The Following continued its decline to a season low — down 8 percent this week. The Voice put the hurt on ABC’s DancingWith the Stars, which dropped 28 percent this week. On CBS, The Voice seemed to pressure the network’s 8 p.m. hour, with HowI Met Your Mother dipping 10 percent to a season low.

Source: ew

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North Korea threatens Guam, Hawaii, US mainland

SEOUL, South Korea (UPDATE) - North Korea put its military on combat ready status Tuesday, March 26, with "strategic" rocket units ordered to prepare for possible strikes against the US mainland, Hawaii and Guam, state media reported.

"The Korea People's Army top command declares that all artillery troops including strategic rocket units and long-range artillery units are to be placed under class-A combat readiness," the Korean CentralNews Agency said. - Rappler.com

Source: rappler

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NCAA Tournament LIVE SCORES, UPDATES

On most days, the Great Danes are a team out of the America East Conference. On the second full day of action in the 2013 NCAA Tournament, they are the team playing against Duke. In other words, they are suddenly very popular.

The Blue Devils were upset as a No. 2 seed last year by No. 15 Lehigh in their tourney opener. . Back in the tournament yet again, Duke is again a No. 2 seed. The Albany Great Danes are a No. 15.

"We were shocked that it really happened," Duke sophomore Quinn Cook said earlier this week of last year's loss to Lehigh. "We don't want it to happen again."

Will Coach K and Duke avoid another early upset? Either way, the MarshallHenderson show will begin at 12:40 p.m. EST in Kansas City. Will the defense

Will Friday's slate of games deliver even more surprises than Thursday? Can another low seed duplicate No. 14 Harvard's shocking upset of No. 3 New Mexico? Will we get a buzzer beater?

Scroll down for live updates throughout the second full day of March Madness.

Source: huffingtonpost

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Best Qoutes and Tweets of Marshall Henderson in 2012-13

Marshall Henderson has officially excited the NCAA tournament spotlight. He's the first became a polarizing figure when he taunted Auburn fans by flashing his jersey in their face during an Ole Miss win earlier this season. Along the way, henderson's opinion on social media and to the news media were well documented. Here's the list of his best qoutes..

"I'm trying to get paid here soon because I'm tired of doing all this stuff for free. And this is where you make your money, the NCAA tournament."

"I've been a Duke fan since my dad ever told me anything about basketball. It was all about Duke, Duke, Duke. I love the way they play."

"I really just wanted to go out and socialize with all the people here and just enjoy the experience."

"If it's all the same, it's Saturday night. I'm out."

Johnny Manziel (@JManziel2): "@NativeFlash22 Keep hoopin and don't listen all the BS. Keep the green light green!"

Henderson (@NativeFlash22): "@JManziel2 preciate ya big dog!!! ima be in college station for chili fest if we dont make the final 4, gonna have ta link up"

LeBron James (@KingJames): Man that dude Henderson from Ol Miss got the greenest light in basketball history!! Hahaha.

(@NativeFlash22) "I SUCK AND GET A LEBRON TWEET!!! HAHAHAHA I DONT WANNA HEAR NOBODY SAY NOTHIN, IVE MADE IT!!!"

Fake Ryan Harrow (@12harrow): "If you don't win the tournament be quiet @NativeFlash22"

(@NativeFlash22) "Got @12harrow talkin (expletive) … please tell him to take that NIT (expletive) to the back of the bus LOL, you bout to get cut #bum"

(@NativeFlash22) just interviewed with chuck n the fellas!!! comes on @ halftime of VCU and Michigan!! #sweetdreams

Source:usatoday

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Bioshock's Latest: Civil War in a City in the Sky

The first release by the Massachusetts studio Irrational Games since the original Bioshocks transfixed players more than five years ago there were open fears on blogs, in discussion forums and in conversations among video game journalists that the new BioShock game just wouldn't be any good.

Surely that was why it was taking so long to make it, why its release was twice delayed, why the studio seemed to be bleeding personnel. Some people even asked themselves if the impeccable reputation of Ken Levine, the mercurial creative director at Irrational, was perhaps undeserved, given that it was largely dependent on only two games, System Shock 2 (1999) and BioShock (2007), made almost a decade apart.

Everyone can stop worrying. With BioShock Infinite, which goes on sale on Tuesday, Mr. Levine and his colleagues at Irrational have produced yet another video game that is a model of what the medium can achieve. This world — an alternate history with a dollop of science fiction that is set in the United States of 1912 — is dense, fascinating and inventive. The combat is exhilarating. The ending manages to be both mind-bending and moving.

The game begins at a lighthouse off the coast of Maine but quickly moves to Columbia, a utopian — or dystopian — city in the sky built by Zachary Hale Comstock, who calls himself an American prophet. Comstock has transformed this country’s secular religion of Constitutionalism into a theocratic system of white supremacy that worships the founders as gods.

Booker DeWitt, the playable character, is a former Pinkerton agent turned private investigator who was sent to Columbia to find a girl named Elizabeth and bring her to New York City. Booker and Elizabeth are caught in the middle of a civil war between Comstock and the Vox Populi, a violent leftist group modeled partly on the socialists and anarchists of the period.

Source: nytimes

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Italian Supreme Court ruling on Amanda Knox retrial expected within hours

Italian Supreme Court judges have heard the arguments , now they must decide whether to order American Amanda Knox to stand trial for a second time in the death of her former roommate.

The judges concluded a hearing into the question early Monday afternoon and were expected to announce their decision within hours.

Knox spent years in jail before an appellate court overturned her murder conviction in the 2007 death of Meredith Kercher. She returned to the United States in 2011.

Prosecutors say they still believe Knox and her former boyfriend, RaffaeleSollecito are responsible for the death, despite the appellate decision.

"We are still convinced that they are the co-authors of Meredith's homicide," Italian news agency ANSA quoted Perugia, Italy, prosecutor Giovanni Galati as saying.

Knox, who is not in Italy for the hearing, is confident in the Italian legal system and hopes one day to return to Italy as a free woman, her lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, said Monday.

If the acquittal is overturned, the case will go back to an appellate court and Knox might have to return to Italy.

If she refuses, the Italian government could appeal to the U.S. government for her extradition.

But even if it does, Knox still not might end up before an Italian court.

U.S. officials might reject such a request because it violates the U.S. legal principle that a criminal defendant can't be tried twice on the same allegation, said Joey Jackson, a contributor for HLN's "In Session."

Italy lacks the absolute prohibition present in U.S. law preventing authorities from retying a criminal defendant who has been acquitted of a charge.

"We have principles that are well-founded within our Constitution, one of which is double jeopardy," he said. "So as a result of that, I think it would be highly objectionable for the United States to surrender someone to another country for which justice has already been administered and meted out. So I don't think or anticipate that that would happen."

Source: cnn

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Chinua Achebe Died at 82

ChinuaAchebe ia a Nigerian novelist, poet , professor and critic.  He rewite the story of the continent that had long been told by Western voices, died on Thursday in Boston. 

He was 82-years-old. His agent in London said he died after a brief illness. Mr. Achebe has been using wheelchair since a car accident in Nigeria in 1990 left him paralyzed from the waist down.

Mr.Achebe caught the world’s attention with his first novel, “Things Fall Apart.” Published in 1958, when he was 28, the story would become a classic of world literature and required reading in university courses, selling more than 10 million copies in 45 languages.

The story, a brisk 215 pages, was inspired by his own family history as part of the Igbo nation of southeastern Nigeria, a people victimized by the racism of British colonial administrators and then by the brutality of military dictators from other Nigerian ethnic groups.

Source: nytimes

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