title: Django get_model() causing Error: cannot import name settings
body: <p><strong>Update:</strong></p>
  
  <p>I've tried modifying <code>from actstream import settings as actstream_settings</code> to <code>import actstream.settings as actstream_settings</code> and it's telling me:</p>
  
  <pre><code>AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'settings'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The <code>__init__.py</code> file in the <code>actstream</code> app is not empty, could this be why it cannot import <code>actstream/settings.py</code> as <code>actstream.settings</code>?</p>
  
  <p><strong>Original Problem:</strong></p>
  
  <p>I have a working django project.  I installed the following app <code>actstream</code> from trunk since the most recent release has errors: <a href="https://github.com/justquick/django-activity-stream" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/justquick/django-activity-stream</a></p>
  
  <p>When loading this app into my project it throws the following exception:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Error: cannot import name settings
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I have verified that the error occurs from the first command <code>get_model()</code> from <code>actstream/settings.py</code>, which looks like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>from django.conf import settings
  from django.db.models import get_model
  import sys
  
  MODELS = {}
  for model in getattr(settings, 'ACTSTREAM_ACTION_MODELS', ('auth.User',)):
      MODELS[model.lower()] = model = get_model(*model.split('.'))
  
  MANAGER_MODULE = getattr(settings, 'ACTSTREAM_MANAGER',
      'actstream.managers.ActionManager')
  a, j = MANAGER_MODULE.split('.'), lambda l: '.'.join(l)
  MANAGER_MODULE = getattr(__import__(j(a[:-1]), {}, {}, [a[-1]]), a[-1])
  
  USE_JSONFIELD = getattr(settings, 'ACTSTREAM_USE_JSONFIELD', False)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Why would <code>get_model()</code> be throwing an error about being unable to load <code>settings</code> in this instance?</p>
  
  <p><strong>Traceback:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>Traceback (most recent call last):
    File ".../actstream/settings.py", line 7, in &lt;module&gt;
      MODELS[model.lower()] = model = get_model(*model.split('.'))
    File ".../lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/loading.py", line 213, in get_model
      self._populate()
    File ".../lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/loading.py", line 67, in _populate
      self.load_app(app_name)
    File ".../lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/loading.py", line 88, in load_app
      models = import_module('.models', app_name)
    File ".../lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/importlib.py", line 35, in import_module
      __import__(name)
    File ".../libs/actstream/models.py", line 12, in &lt;module&gt;
      from actstream import managers, settings as actstream_settings
  ImportError: cannot import name settings
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I now notice that the import error is happening in models.py, but I still don't see how it cannot import the settings.py file as actstream.settings.</p>