new_contents: import os
  import re
  import urllib2
  import datetime
  import numpy
  
  alllinks = []
  timelist = []
  for filename in os.listdir(os.getcwd()):
      if filename.endswith(".rss"):
          f=open(filename, 'r')
          linktext = ''
          linkurl = ''
          for line in f:
              linktext = re.search('(<guid>)(.+?)(<\/guid>)', line)    
              
              if linktext:
                  linkurl= linktext.group(2)
                  alllinks.append(linkurl)
          f.close()
  
  mainmessage = ''
  reply = ''
  maindateobj = datetime.datetime.today()
  replydateobj = datetime.datetime.today()
  for item in alllinks:
      print "==="
      print "working on thread\n" + item
      response = urllib2.urlopen(item)
      html = response.read()    
      tuples = re.findall('lia-message-posted-on\">\s+<span class=\"local-date\">\\xe2\\x80\\x8e(.*?)<\/span>\s+<span class=\"local-time\">([\w:\sAM|PM]+)<\/span>', html)	
      mainmessage = tuples[0]
      if len(tuples) > 1:
          reply = tuples[1]
      if mainmessage:
          print "main: "
          #print mainmessage
          maindateasstr = mainmessage[0] + " " + mainmessage[1]
          print maindateasstr
          maindateobj = datetime.datetime.strptime(maindateasstr, '%m-%d-%Y %I:%M %p')
      if reply:
          print "reply: "
          #print reply
          replydateasstr = reply[0] + " " + reply[1]
          print replydateasstr
          replydateobj = datetime.datetime.strptime(replydateasstr, '%m-%d-%Y %I:%M %p')
  
          # only calculate difference if there was a reply 
          difference = replydateobj - maindateobj
          totalseconds = difference.total_seconds()
          timeinhours =  (difference.days*86400+difference.seconds)/3600
          # this is a hack to take care of negative times
          # I should probably handle this with timezones but alas
          if timeinhours > 1:
              print timeinhours
              timelist.append(timeinhours)
              
  print "when all is said and done, in hours:"
  print numpy.mean(timelist)
  print numpy.std(timelist)
  print numpy.median(timelist)
  
subject: Create docuSignForumScraper.py