No. 2 Alabama wins 41-14 over No. 8 Michigan

Alabama defensive back Dee Milliner (28) runs back a turnover as teammate Brandon Ivory (62) puts a block on Michigan running back Thomas Rawls (38) during the first half of an NCAA college football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Alabama defensive back Dee Milliner (28) runs back a turnover as teammate Brandon Ivory (62) puts a block on Michigan running back Thomas Rawls (38) during the first half of an NCAA college football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Michigan running back Vincent Smith (2) is stopped by Alabama linebacker Xzavier Dickson (47) and defensive lineman Ed Stinson (49) during the first half of an NCAA college football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Michigan fans in the stands react to a play during the first half of an NCAA college football game against the Alabama at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Alabama tight end Michael Williams (89) pulls in a touchdown pass in front of Michigan linebacker Jake Ryan (90) and safety Jordan Kovacs (32) during the first half of an NCAA college football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Alabama running back T.J. Yeldon (4) picks up yardage against Michigan safety Thomas Gordon (30) during the first half of an NCAA college football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) ? Alabama coach Nick Saban believes his latest talented and tenacious team took a step toward creating its own identity.

Though it felt a lot like the 2011 Crimson Tide never left on Saturday night at Cowboys Stadium.

Dee Milliner and Alabama defense pushed around Michigan and showed they can still dominate, manhandling the eighth-ranked Wolverines and pounding Denard Robinson in a season-opening 41-14 victory Saturday night.

Alabama had to replace most of its starters, including three first-round draft picks, from a defense that led the nation in just about everything last year and helped the Tide win its second national title in three seasons.

"I think we came out in the first game and established the kind of identity we're going to have on this team," Milliner said. "On defense, we were aggressive. On offense, we came out and attacked."

C.J. Mosley returned an interception 16 yards for a touchdown for the second-ranked Tide. AJ McCarron, no longer with third overall draft pick Trent Richardson to hand the ball off to, threw two touchdowns as Alabama won its 11th consecutive season opener.

"I personally don't think we were trying to send any type of message," McCarron said. "We're just trying to do what coach (Saban) preaches. And that's to go out and play our game. Do what we're supposed to do."

Milliner, the primary nickelback last season now in a starting role, deflected four passes in the first half, and had an interception after shoving intended receiver Roy Roundtree to the ground and into the Alabama sideline. That set up a touchdown for the Crimson Tide, which shot out to a 31-0 lead.

While Michigan still can recover to contend for a Big Ten title and possible Rose Bowl bid, this could be a confidence-shaking performance. The most lopsided season-opening loss certainly wasn't what Michigan expected coming off an 11-win season under first-year coach Brady Hoke that ended with the Wolverines' first BCS victory since the 1999 season.

"Obviously, we didn't play Michigan football, and that's something that bothers our team, bothers the coaches," Hoke said. "Win or lose your first game, you learn a lot."

They were without suspended running back Fitzgerald Toussaint and defensive end Frank Clark, but even with them probably weren't ready for the toughest of tests.

Unfortunately for Hoke and the Wolverines, this is Alabama ? still at its very best.

Even Saban was applauding the performance as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

"This team had a challenge of trying to create an identity for itself," Saban said. "That happens over time and happens with consistency in performance. It's a big win over a very good team."

McCarron was 11-of-21 passing for 199 yards. Freshman T.J. Yeldon ran for 111 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, while Eddie Lacy had a 9-yard TD run.

It was a tough night for Robinson, even though he accounted for both Michigan touchdowns. Most of his 200 yards passing (he was 11 of 26) came on two plays ? a 71-yard pass right before halftime that came before his 6-yard TD run and his 44-yard scoring pass to Devin Gardner in the third quarter.

"I didn't make the throws that I should have made today and I feel that I didn't play as the Michigan quarterback today," Robinson said. "I've got to step it up and be more accountable."

Robinson, held to 27 yards rushing on 10 carries, showed his toughness when he didn't miss a snap immediately after being hurt on a fourth-down run in the third quarter.

The Heisman hopeful got hurt when he stretched and landed awkwardly trying to lunge for a first down on fourth-and-3. He appeared to reach for his lower back while on the ground, where he remained for several minutes before being helped up and then walking gingerly off the field.

Officials first marked Robinson's run as first down. But while Robinson was being tended to, the play was reviewed and it was determined that his elbow came down short of the first down. But he was back in the Michigan huddle after Cade Foster kicked a 51-yard field goal.

After Alabama went three-and-out on the opening drive of the game, and its defense quickly set the tone with Milliner knocking down two passes on Michigan's first possession, the Crimson Tide got rolling.

McCarron faked a handoff to perfection, after Lacy and Yeldon had carried the ball down the field, and tossed a 2-yard TD pass to Michael Williams for a 7-0 lead.

Robinson overthrew two receivers before another Michigan punt, and McCarron hit DeAndrew White in stride streaking down the sideline for a 51-yard score. Cornerback Courtney Avery, in after starter Blake Countless sustained an early knee injury, slipped down on the play.

Then came Milliner's big shove that he got away with for a big play. With Roundtree on the ground and the ball in the air, Milliner caught the ball near midfield and returned it to the Michigan 17. Robinson helped make a touchdown-saving tackle, and appeared to grab his right shoulder then.

"I got a good jam," Milliner explained. "When I looked up, the ball was coming and I made a play on it."

Lacy, limited coming off an ankle sprain, broke two tackles on a hard-charging score that made it 21-0, still in the first quarter.

When Jeremy Shelley's 22-yard field goal made it 24-0 with 10 minutes left in the first half, the Crimson Tide had 233 total yards ? 199 more than Michigan. It was 31-0 after Robinson inexplicably threw a pass right into Mosley's chest.

Alabama finished with 431 total yards, and Michigan had 269.

The crowd of 90,413 was the largest ever to see a college game at Cowboys Stadium, where the crowd was distinctly split by fans in crimson and those in maize.

At the end, the Alabama fans were chanting "S-E-C!, S-E-C!" and "Roll Tide!"

"It's a deflating loss, it should sting," Michigan safety Jordan Kovacs said. "But at the end of the day, you can't let Alabama beat you twice."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-09-02-T25-Alabama-Michigan/id-7bc2971bd8fc4d3d9f36ba9420404a47

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University of Iowa re James Holmes: "Do NOT offer admission"

The University of Iowa rejected a 2011 application by suspected theater shooter James Holmes, saying ?Do NOT offer admission under any circumstances,? according to documents obtained Thursday by The Denver Post. Two of the Iowa officials looking through the applications agreed not to make an offer to Holmes, though their reasoning is unclear. On Jan. 30, 2011, Daniel Tranel, apparently on the admissions committee, sent an email about seven ?applicants from this past weekend.??

The names of the other students were blacked out. Of the seven, only Holmes was dismissed as an applicant. The others generated comments such as ?stellar? or ?solid, not spectacular.? Mark Blumberg, also apparently on the committee, returned an email, saying, ?James Holmes: I agree with Dan. Don?t admit.??

The documents were released after a formal records request included an essay that Holmes, a graduate of the University of California at Riverside, apparently wrote to explain why he sought a graduate degree in neuroscience.?

He wrote that he had chosen to pursue a life of learning, focusing on the way memory works. Holmes wrote that he has ?always been fascinated by the complexities of long lost thought seemingly arising out of nowhere into a stream of awareness.?

These fascinations likely stemmed from my interest in puzzles and paradoxes as an adolescent and continued through my curiosity in academic research.? He detailed a time that he was a camp counselor, working with kids ages 10 to 11. He noted that two of the 12 children had attention deficit disorder, and another child had schizophrenia.?

One night that child awoke at 3:30 a.m. and began vacuuming the ceiling of the cabin. ?These kids were heavily medicated, but this did not solve their problems,? he wrote. ?The medication changed them from being highly energetic creative kids to lax beings who slept through the activities.? In a letter of recommendation from an unidentified official at Riverside, Holmes was described as ?truly exceptional.? Other documents showed his grade point average from Riverside was 3.9.?

He also said that he was applying at Texas A&M, University of Michigan, University of Alabama, University of Colorado and Kansas University. He doesn?t mention the University of Illinois. Holmes did submit an application to the University of Illinois.?

In contrast to the response from Iowa, Illinois offered Holmes a position in their neuroscience program. Holmes rejected that offer to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder.?

Holmes, 24, is accused of killing 12 people and injuring 58 others in a midnight shooting on July 20 inside a movie theater in Aurora.

Source: http://www.paradisepost.com/ci_21435674/university-iowa-re-james-holmes-do-not-offer?source=rss_viewed

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Obama says Republican ideas from "last century'

URBANDALE, Iowa (Reuters) - President Barack Obama tried to bolster his re-election campaign on Saturday with a fierce critique of the Republicans' convention and a plea to supporters to cast their ballots as early as possible.

Speaking to a crowd of 10,000 in the battleground state of Iowa, Obama said rival Mitt Romney and his fellow Republicans had offered no new ideas when they held the national spotlight for three days during their convention in Tampa.

"What they offered over those three days was more often than not an agenda that was better-suited for the last century," Obama said. "We might as well have watched it on a black-and-white TV."

Obama criticized Romney for failing to mention the war in Afghanistan or his plans for veterans care in his speech, and said he had failed to outline a credible plan to boost the economy.

"There was a lot of talk about hard truths and bold choices ... but no one ever actually bothered to tell you what they were," Obama said.

Obama is gearing up for his own star turn next Thursday at the Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he will lay out his argument for re-election in a football stadium that can hold almost 75,000 people.

The speech is likely to offer few surprises: Obama has been arguing since June that the election is a choice between continuing the policies he enacted in his first term, such as keeping his health reforms in place and bolstering education spending, and returning to policies enacted under Republican President George W. Bush that hollowed out the middle class in order to cut taxes for the wealthy.

Romney appears to have gained little ground after his high-profile speech at the end of the national convention. Though his speech was seen by 30 million television viewers, much of the chatter afterward was devoted to the antics of Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood, who preceded Romney with a rambling, at times incoherent critique of Obama.

The modest bump in popularity that Romney enjoyed during the week appears have dissipated, according to a rolling Reuters/Ipsos poll, and Obama now leads 44 percent to 43 percent. The convention did improve Romney's image in the eyes of voters, but he still lags in several measures of favorability.

Obama, likewise, could see a minimal boost from his own convention speech. The overall dynamic of the race has changed little in recent months, and both sides say they expect the election to be close.

TIME FOR A NEW COACH?

Romney has sought to make the election a referendum on Obama's economic performance. He told a crowd of 3,000 in Cincinnati that Obama had failed to deliver on a promise to create jobs - a central theme of his economy-focused campaign.

"If you have a coach that's zero and 23 million, you say it's time to get a new coach," Romney told a rally in Cincinnati, referring to the number of Americans who his campaign are unemployed or underemployed. "It's time for America to see a winning season again, and we're going to bring it to them."

The convention did give Romney one tangible benefit: He is now free to unleash millions of dollars worth of television advertising that he had been prohibited from using until he officially captured his party's nomination.

The Obama campaign expects that they will be outspent by Romney and his allies on TV. They hope to neutralize that advantage with a strong get-out-the vote effort which has been more than a year in the making.

Early voting is a crucial part of that strategy.

Though the November 6 election is months away, voters begin casting ballots in a matter of weeks. Iowa opens its voting process on September 27, while Virginia, another crucial battleground state, begins voting on September 22.

Obama urged supporters in Iowa to cast their votes as soon as possible. The campaign hopes to focus more effort on persuading undecided voters if it can "bank" the votes of reliable supporters ahead of Election Day.

"You can be among the very first to vote in this election," Obama told a crowd of about 10,000.

Early voting was a big part of Obama's success in 2008. Nearly one quarter of the 133 million people who voted that year had already cast their ballots by the time election day rolled around, and polls show that Democratic voters in several swing states were far more likely than Republicans to vote ahead of time.

"Locking up those early voters, especially in a key swing state, can make the difference in the outcome of the election," said Brandon Lenoir, a political science professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Obama's Democrats are fighting Republican efforts to roll back early voting in several states. They scored a victory in Ohio on Friday when a judge struck down a Republican attempt to close early-voting stations the weekend before the election.

(Additional reporting by Sam Youngman in Ohio and Lisa Lambert, Alina Selyukh and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Alistair Bell and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-says-republican-ideas-last-century-230424785.html

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Democrats encounter bumps on the road to Charlotte (The Arizona Republic)

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Retailer research shows NBA arena is no slam dunk

By Mike Gruss
The Virginian-Pilot
? September 1, 2012

I don't think Virginia Beach is going to get an NBA team anytime soon, and here's why: from parts of the coastal city, it's more than 30 minutes to the nearest Apple store.

Apple is the world's most valuable company, worth more than $620 billion. Executives follow a careful strategy in selecting the best spots for its pristine and shiny retail shops.

The care they take in that part of the business is standard practice. Leaders at Ikea follow a similar philosophy. So do Crate & Barrel, the furniture and housewares chain, and Anthropologie, a women's clothing and home accessories store, and Brooks Brothers, a men's clothing store, and dozens of others of high-end retailers.

"They all have key demographics they're looking for," said H. Blount Hunter, a Norfolk-based retail consultant who specializes in retail real estate development.

Individually, each company has its own rubric for success in a given market, but collectively the choices these companies make about new stores build a narrative about an area, including Hampton Roads. The shopping opportunities display behaviors about the people who live in each market and how they can afford to spend money.

For the past two weeks, everyone who's ever laced up a pair of high-tops has speculated about an NBA team moving to Virginia Beach. It's an exciting possibility, one that would give a region with an identity crisis instant national recognition.

But before you tattoo a VB Kings logo on your calf, humor me for a minute and consider how shopping in this area compares to other NBA markets.

I put together a spreadsheet of stores from five sought-after chains within a 50-mile radius of every NBA arena. I found that the average NBA market has 1.25 Ikeas, three Crate & Barrels, 3.5 Brooks Brothers stores, almost five Anthropologies and at least five Apple retail stores.

If you're afraid the major media markets like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago skew the data toward big cities, we can deal with the median, too. The median NBA market has one Ikea, one Crate & Barrel, two Brooks Brothers, three Anthropologies and 4.5 Apple Retail Stores.

Compare that to Hampton Roads: zero Ikeas, zero Crate & Barrels, one Brooks Brothers, zero Anthropologies and one Apple Retail store.

Those numbers create, in basketball lingo, a matchup problem. Hampton Roads doesn't look like other NBA markets. Hampton Roads shoppers don't have the same choices as people in other NBA markets. Why? By their actions, high-end retailers have said they don't think we have the money.

And if we don't have the money for high-end shopping, how are we going to afford pricey NBA tickets and foam fingers? Most likely, we won't.

That is not to say the demographics here are impossible for an NBA market, just as it's not impossible for the Cleveland Cavaliers to beat the Miami Heat on any given night. But, to me, the chances for sustained success in drawing fans seem slim.

Virginia Beach's roster of high-end shopping options is similar to Oklahoma City, Memphis and New Orleans. Naturally, the Beach, like those cities, would be a small-market team.

With largely blue-collar jobs from the shipyards, a sizable Navy population and a lack of heavy corporate presence, the pockets of Hampton Roads' fans are most likely not deep enough to support 41 home games a year.

Tastes in the 757 generally have favored Ruby Tuesday and Hooters. (The region has more of both restaurants than the average NBA market.)

Salt Lake City and Milwaukee, two of the NBA's smaller metropolitan areas, are home to more of the higher-end retailers I looked at.

These stores matter. Teams in locations with fewer higher-end stores typically have less attendance than those with more options. Teams with an Ikea nearby averaged 7 percent more attendance during the 2010-2011 season than those with no warehouses of Scandinavian furnituremakers.

At Tuesday' presentation by developers in Virginia Beach, one speaker called Hampton Roads a big market that's under-served.

I believe that.

I'm just not sure it's under-served by the NBA.

Some of the most successful retailers and some of the smartest executives in the country, the ones who scout out where people with money shop, have passed on this region.

Maybe they misread us. Maybe the folks who want an NBA team see something I'm missing. Maybe the folks who believe an NBA team can succeed in Virginia Beach will run the numbers and discover something these retailers didn't.

But I can't help asking: What could possibly make the business sense of these retailers wrong and an NBA team right?

Mike Gruss, 757-446-2277, mike.gruss@pilotonline.com, PilotOnline.com/gruss

Source: http://hamptonroads.com/2012/08/retailer-research-shows-nba-arena-no-slam-dunk

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Genesys research finds big business still uneasy with Customer ...

Aug 30, 2012 ? Research conducted by Genesys, an expert in customer experience solutions, found that many consumer-facing Fortune 500 companies shy away from listing social media as a means for customers to contact them. More than half (55 percent) of consumer-facing Fortune 500 businesses do not provide their Twitter handles on the ?Contact Us? page of their websites. Additionally, despite the fact that Facebook has 900 million users across the world; half of these businesses (51 percent) do not provide a link to their Facebook profile on the ?Contact Us? page.

The research also uncovered that corporations suffer from e-mail aversion, with nine out of ten failing to list an e-mail address on their contact page. Instead, 83 percent of companies include a contact form, often off-putting to consumers and seen as a ?black-hole.?

Click here to join the UK Contact Centre Forum ? the no.1 LinkedIn group for UK customer management professionals

• More than half of consumer-facing Fortune 500 Corporations suffer from social shyness with 55 percent of consumer facing corporations failing to list a Twitter handle on their ?Contact Us? page, and 51 percent failing to list a Facebook page.
• 27 percent of consumer-facing Fortune 500 corporations do not list social media channels on their website homepage.
• 89 percent of those same companies do not list an e-mail address on their site.
• 13 percent of companies do not list a phone number on their ?Contact Us? page.

The findings are based on Genesys analysis of consumer-facing Fortune 500 companies? websites. Consumer-facing company websites were defined as those which a consumer would visit to obtain answers or assistance regarding a product or service.

?These findings are an indication that social media is still a very new phenomenon,? explained Tom Eggemeier, head of Global Sales at Genesys. ?Many large consumer-facing companies are still struggling and not confident in their ability to deal with customer queries and complaints via social media. Consumer-facing companies need to resolve this disconnect by developing a customer service strategy that understands and integrates social media channels across every customer touch point.?

Category:?Market Research

Added By: Sam Collins on 30th Aug 2012 - 12:22
Number of Views: 73

Source: http://www.callcentreclinic.com/news/market-research/genesys-research-find-big-business-still-uneasy-with-customer-service-conversation-over-social-media-47131.htm

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Regularly review - how to tackle fuzzy task management

Regularly for Android is a fresh take on the usual task management app. Instead of setting hard deadlines, Regularly is an attempt to organize tasks that simply have to be done within a certain window on a recurring basis. Users can set the interval for reminders throughout the task’s period, and tasks that are approaching or past due are appropriately color-coded and bubble up to the top for increased visibility.

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