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CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) Republican front-runner Mitt Romney emerged on Sunday from back-to-back debates in New Hampshire a bit dinged but not seriously dented as rivals stepped up attacks to slow his march toward the presidential nomination.

Two days before voters in the small New England state head to the polls for the first 2012 primary election, Romney took heat on a number of topics: his record as governor of neighboring Massachusetts, the attack ads run by an outside group on his behalf and a suggestion he would wither in the face of attacks from Democratic President Barack Obama.

One by one, the contenders lined up to fire on the former venture capitalist in a surprisingly heated debate after they largely left Romney alone Saturday night. But there was little to suggest he had suffered any setback in New Hampshire, where he is heavily favored to win.

“Romney was dinged in the second debate, but not seriously wounded,” said Larry Sabato, political analyst at the University of Virginia. “Basically, the candidates firmed up their own individual base but I don’t think they took much away from Romney either in terms of Republicans or independents.”

Slowing Romney’s momentum has taken on new urgency in the face of polls showing he is also favored in the South Carolina primary on January 21, despite being seen as less socially conservative as his competitors in the church-going southern state.

Although Romney’s win in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday was an eight-vote squeaker over Rick Santorum, backing it up with a win in New Hampshire would be a feat never achieved by a Republican candidate who is not an incumbent, adding to a sense of inevitability about his candidacy.

The online exchange InTrade, which takes bets on the outcomes of events such as elections, now shows Romney with an 83 percent chance of winning the Republican nomination to run against Obama in the fall.

ROMNEY PAINTED AS MODERATE

And yet, the race for second continued to hold the Republican field in suspense, with Santorum, libertarian congressman Ron Paul, former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Governor Rick Perry and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman all vying for the spot.

Santorum, whose lackluster campaign caught fire in Iowa and who has pinned hopes more on the next contest in South Carolina, came out punching at Romney, even though he endorsed Romney in his 2008 run for the party’s nomination.

“If his record was so great as governor of Massachusetts, why didn’t he run for re-election,” said Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.

Criticism of Romney zeroed in on whether the former governor of a moderate New England state would be the strongest candidate to fly the conservative flag against Obama in the November election.

Gingrich, hurt by a spate of negative ads organized by former Romney staffers, said Romney would “have a very hard time getting elected” and had policy positions that are not sufficiently different from Obama.

“There’s a huge difference between a Reagan conservative and somebody who comes out of the Massachusetts culture who essentially has a moderate record,” Gingrich said during the NBC/Facebook debate in Concord, New Hampshire.

But Romney defended himself as “a solid conservative” who was in politics on a detour from his business career as a venture capitalist. Acting like a front-runner, he kept his focus more on Obama than on his Republican rivals.

“I happen to believe that if we want to replace a lifetime politician like Barack Obama … we’ve got to choose someone who is not a lifetime politician, who has not spent his entire career in Washington.”

Gingrich bristled at Romney’s attempts to paint himself as a reluctant politician.

“Can we drop a little bit of the pious baloney?” he quipped. “You were running for president while you were governor.”

HARD CHOICES OVER CANDIDATES

In the most tumultuous nominating process in the Republican camp in decades, it is hard to know what voters want – a flagbearer of conservative values or a serious challenge to a vulnerable incumbent trying to revive the sagging U.S. economy.

Sue Grant, 49,wholesale Ed hardy jeans, was one of those torn New Hampshire voters, “on my knees praying,” as she struggled to make a decision on her candidate. Romney appeared to be off her list.

“He does not make me warm and fuzzy,” Grant said. “I want somebody that is separate from the same old get along and go along wishy-washy.”

Santorum is running hard on his socially conservative credentials and used the spotlight again on Sunday to reinforce that message. He also emerged unscathed from an exchange about gay rights.

Santorum “has accepted the fact that he’s going to lose New Hampshire, maybe badly. He spoke more to South Carolina than to New Hampshire,” Sabato said.

Santorum has been riding a wave of popularity after a narrow second-place finish to Romney in the first Republican presidential nominating contest in Iowa last week.

Often in the news for negative comments about gays, Santorum managed to strike a conciliatory tone, saying “every person in America, gay or straight” should be treated with respect and that he would still love a gay son.

One of the biggest applause lines came from Jon Huntsman, who responded to a comment Romney had made about him in Saturday night’s debate in Goffstown, New Hampshire.

Romney had slapped Huntsman for “implementing” Obama’s agenda as U.S. ambassador to China, a post he held until April.

Addressing debate moderator David Gregory, Huntsman said: “This country is divided, David, because of attitudes like that. … The American people are tired of partisan divisions.”

“There are five candidates (with) a shot at getting double digits in New Hampshire and I think they all helped themselves today,” said Fergus Cullen, former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party.

(Additional reporting by Sam Youngman and Jason McLure; Editing by Mary Milliken and Cynthia Osterman)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) And the year’s first Oscars go to …

Micro-voxels, the Pictorvision Eclipse electronically stabilized aerial camera platform, Stab-C Classic stabilizing heads and the ARRILASER Film Recorder.

Once again the Academy has announced the winners of its Scientific and Technical Awards, and once again the list of achievements being recognized by the Academy will sail right over the heads of those who aren’t attuned to the Sciences part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

But for those in the know, the eight achievements chosen by the Academy have, in the words of the AMPAS press release, “a proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures.”

The Sci-Tech Awards, as they’re dubbed, some in three versions. One awards the recipient with a certificate, one awards a plaque, and one, which isn’t given out every year, awards an Oscar statuette.

This year’s 27 honorees include three men who will receive Oscar statuettes for the design and development of the ARRILASER Film Recorder.

The Sci-Tech Awards will be presented at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Saturday, February 11 — and, if history is any indication, will be hosted by an actress who has appeared in at least one special-effects-heavy movie.

From the AMPAS press release, here are this year’s honorees:

Technical Achievement Award (Academy Certificate)

To Andrew Clinton and Mark Elendt for the invention and integration of micro-voxels in the Mantra software.

This work allowed, for the first time, unified and efficient rendering of volumetric effects such as smoke and clouds, together with other computer graphics objects, in a micro-polygon imaging pipeline.

Scientific and Engineering Award (Academy Plaque)

To Radu Corlan, Andy Jantzen, Petru Pop and Richard Toftness for the design and engineering of the Phantom family of high-speed cameras for motion picture production.

The Phantom family of high-speed digital cameras, including the Phantom Flex and HD Gold, provide imagery at speeds and efficacy surpassing photochemical technology, while seamlessly intercutting with conventional film production.

To Dr. Jurgen Noffke for the optical design and Uwe Weber for the mechanical design of the ARRI Zeiss Master Prime Lenses for motion picture photography.

The Master Primes have achieved a full stop advance in speed over existing lenses, while maintaining state-of-the-art optical quality. This lens family was also the first to eliminate the magnification change that accompanied extreme focus shifts.

To Michael Lewis, Greg Marsden, Raigo Alas and Michael Vellekoop for the concept, design and implementation of the Pictorvision Eclipse, an electronically stabilized aerial camera platform.

The Pictorvision Eclipse system allows cinematographers to capture aerial footage at faster flying speeds with aggressive platform maneuvering.

To E.F. “Bob” Nettmann for the concept and system architecture, Michael Sayovitz for the electronic packaging and integration, Brad Fritzel for the electronic engineering, and Fred Miller for the mechanical engineering of the Stab-C Classic, Super-G and Stab-C Compact stabilizing heads.

This versatile family of 5-axis camera and lens stabilizers allows any standard motion picture camera to be fitted into the open architecture of the structure. The system can be quickly balanced and made ready for shooting platforms such as helicopters, boats, camera cars or cranes.

To John D. Lowry, Ian Cavon, Ian Godin, Kimball Thurston and Tim Connolly for the development of a unique and efficient system for the reduction of noise and other artifacts, thereby providing high-quality images required by the filmmaking process.

The “Lowry Process” uses advanced GPU-accelerated, motion estimation-based image processing tools to enhance image quality.

To FUJIFILM Corporation, Hideyuki Shirai, Dr. Katsuhisa Oozeki and Hiroshi Hirano for the design and development of the FUJIFILM black and white recording film ETERNA-RDS 4791 for use in the archival preservation of film and digital images.

Specifically designed for laser film recording and widely used in the industry today, the high-resolution FUJIFILM ETERNA-RDS 4791 film stock is an important step in protecting the heritage of the motion picture industry.

Academy Award of Merit (Oscar Statuette)

To Franz Kraus, Johannes Steurer and Wolfgang Riedel for the design and development of the ARRILASER Film Recorder.

The ARRILASER film recorder demonstrates a high level of engineering resulting in a compact,wholesale Ed hardy belts, user-friendly, low-maintenance device, while at the same time maintaining outstanding speed, exposure ratings and image quality.

Photo: Courtesy of Jaeger LeCoultre

As 80th birthday parties work, few we’ve heard of were better heeded than the Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso’s. Clever staging, involving exhibits of 50 actions accustomed for the watch, a gallery of exceptional timepieces, and artisans demonstrating their craft, were entire on view for visitors, merely they were slightly overshadowed whatever by the appearance of megawatt fans like Clive Owen, Adrien Brody, Catherine Deneuve, and brand ambassadress Diane Kruger.

For the shape audience, the evening offered a destroy from Couture arrangements. What apt anticipate from the haute week? The hints they catered point to a sassy revision of the classics. Maxime Simoens, as one, is tackling vampires—Nosferatu, to be precise. Alexis Mabille said he was polishing a sartorial take aboard darling French verses and compiling a accumulation of ten L.B.D.s’ for Guerlain’s rollout of La Petite Robe Noire scent this fall.

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—Tina Isaac

Gomez also talks approximately her unwavering support of lifelong friend Demi Lovato, who recently opened up about her skirmish with bipolar disarray, mowing and bulimia. "There’s an value of love namely tin not — no matter what — be taken away alternatively torn apart, not matter the position. There are definite folk who you ambition always, forever love, so if everything, this equitable cautioned me of how much I truly love [Demi]."

"I’m eighteen, and I’m working to fall in love," she says in reference to Bieber, 17. "I’m working to hang out with people, and I’m going to explore myself, and I’m OK with that."

The 2 teenage stars claimed apt be just nice friends because the 1st several months of their relationship; then they were smudged holding hands by Vanity Fair’s Oscars’ after-party in February. Afterwards, in an outward above The Ellen DeGeneres Show in March, Gomez finally admitted she was dating the teen idol.

PHOTOS: Stars pack on the PDA

Spill it, Selena!

VIDEO: Behind the scenes with the Biebs

PHOTOS: Celebs with Bieber fever

In an interview with Seventeen.com, Selena Gomez opens up about her relationship with Justin Bieber and why she’ll always love Demi Lovato.