Pitt Crushes Rutgers 27-6: No. 21 Scarlet Knights Get Shut Down By Panthers

PITTSBURGH -- Rutgers officially isn't swapping the Big East for the Big Ten for another two years.

The 21st-ranked Scarlet Knights sure looked ready to check out early, though, in a lifeless 27-6 loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Though Rutgers (9-2, 5-1 Big East) still managed to clinch a share of its first conference title after No. 19 Louisville was stunned at home by Connecticut, the Scarlet Knights head into a showdown with the Cardinals next Thursday reeling.

"It (stinks) to lose, but we still have something to play for," Rutgers quarterback Gary Nova said.

Even if it was the Panthers (5-6, 2-4) who performed like the team with everything on the line.

Pitt's defense swarmed the Scarlet Knights all afternoon. Nova completed just 18 of 37 passes for 157 yards with a touchdown and an interception and left briefly in first half after getting slammed to the ground on his right (throwing) shoulder.

"Their defensive linemen are really good," Nova said. "They put a lot of pressure on me, and we really didn't execute well enough in protection on their pass rush to make a difference."

The Scarlet Knights came in the Big East's biggest surprise, rising to the cusp of the school's first Bowl Championship Series berth despite losing program architect Greg Schiano to the NFL last winter.

First-year coach Kyle Flood stressed his team would not be distracted by an eventful week in which the program announced it was heading to the Big Ten in 2014, though the Scarlet Knights appeared to have their minds on other things while falling into an early 21-0 deficit.

"I didn't hear any of the talk about anything (other than the game)," Flood said. "To me, we had a focused football team coming in here, but we just didn't execute on the football field."

There were no such issues for the Panthers, who continued their maddening inconsistency while keeping their hopes for a fifth straight bowl appearance alive.

Tino Sunseri passed for 227 yards and two touchdowns in his last home game and fellow senior Ray Graham ran for 113 yards and a score as the Panthers beat a ranked opponent for the second time this season thanks to some words of inspiration from the 18 players taking their final bow at Heinz Field.

"We just told (the underclassmen) to leave it out on the field," said Graham, who moved into third on the school's all-time rushing list. "If you're not ready to play, stay inside this locker room. That's one of those attitudes that we have."

The Panthers have alternated two-game losing streaks and two-game winning streaks all fall, leading first-year coach Paul Chryst to joke he hoped the pattern would continue over the final two weeks, allowing the Panthers to play beyond Dec. 1.

It shouldn't be an issue if Pitt can take the intensity it showed during an emotional Senior Day to South Florida next week.

Chryst began the afternoon hugging each of the seniors during pregame introductions, a sign how of hard he's worked to restore a sense of trust between the players and the program after Pitt went through four coaches in a span of 14 months, culminating with Chryst's hiring in January.

The seniors believe Pitt is heading in the right direction, and then went out and showed it by having little trouble with the Scarlet Knights in the final game between the two teams for the foreseeable future with Pitt heading to the ACC next fall.

Pitt outgained Rutgers 365-207, won the field position battle and controlled both sides of the line of scrimmage after finding its footing in the second quarter.

"We put it together today," wide receiver Mike Shanahan said. "I don't think we've played 60 minutes like that all season."

Certainly not on defense.

The Scarlet Knights had the ball eight times in the first half, and punted eight times. Nova never got comfortable in the blustery conditions and Pitt smothered whichever Rutgers back happened to carry the ball.

"If you watched Pitt over the course of the year, you saw that they were capable of playing really good on offense and defense," Rutgers safety Duron Harmon said. "They beat up on Virginia Tech and should have beat Notre Dame, so we knew it wasn't going to be easy coming in here."

It wasn't.

Sunseri hit Shanahan for a 16-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter to put the Panthers up and Graham made it 14-0 on a 1-yard touchdown plunge before the Panthers showed just how far they've come under Chryst's direction during a flawless 2-minute drill late in the half.

Taking over at the Pitt 45 with 1:19 to go, Sunseri directed the Panthers 55 yards in nine plays, the final one a perfect strike to Ed Tinker from 13 yards out that put the Panthers up 21-0 at the break.

Kevin Harper tacked on a 39-yard field goal early in the third quarter to make it 24-0. Rutgers finally got on board on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Nova to Brandon Coleman late in the third quarter but the 2-point conversion failed and Rutgers never threatened to make it interesting.

The blowout left the Scarlet Knights plenty of time to ponder how things went wrong while getting a headstart on what will be a de facto Big East championship game at home on Thursday night.

"All the marbles are out there for us, and it's a short week," defensive tackle Scott Vallone said. "So, this is for everything. This is why you play football. Sure, we're disappointed, but we still have everything to play for Thursday night. And that has to be our focus."

___

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/24/pitt-crushes-no-21-rutger_n_2185620.html

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NHL cancels games through Dec. 14, All-Star game

More than a third of the NHL regular season and two of its marquee events have now been called off.

The league announced its latest round of cancellations on Friday ? Day 69 of its labor lockout. All games through Dec. 14 were wiped out, and this time All-Star Weekend, scheduled for Jan. 26-27 in Columbus, Ohio, was lost, too. The New Year's Day outdoor Winter Classic already was scratched.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said losing the All-Star festivities is "extremely disappointing."

"We feel badly for NHL fans and particularly those in Columbus, and we intend to work closely with the Blue Jackets organization to return the NHL All-Star events to Columbus and their fans as quickly as possible," Daly said in a statement Friday.

The Blue Jackets said fans holding tickets to the game, the skills competition, and other events during that weekend could receive refunds.

Brian Jack, a 35-year-old IT director who grew up in Pittsburgh, moved to Columbus 17 years ago and converted from a Penguins fan to a Blue Jackets supporter after the expansion team hit the ice.

"We knew the All-Star Game, the longer it went, was probably going to be one of the first special events they cancelled," said Jack, a season-ticket holder for all of the Blue Jackets' 12 seasons.

"You knew it was coming, but I hoped that they would get together and fix it (labor problems) up. For season-ticket holders who have watched the Blue Jackets struggle for a number of years with the product on the ice, the All-Star game was supposed to be a bright spot. Now that's gone."

A lockout in the 1994-95 season shortened that campaign to 48 games. A similar scenario could play out this time if the sides can find some common ground. Or the whole season could be lost, as it was in 2004-05.

The new cancellations come as little surprise. Owners and players had an unproductive negotiating session on Wednesday that produced no movement to break an impasse over splitting more than $3 billion in revenue and also player contracts.

"All players felt that this week would lead to something," Detroit Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall wrote in an email to The Associated Press. "However as of today unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. It's very disappointing."

Daly said he spoke to union officials on Friday, advising them about the cancellations, but at this point no face-to-face talks are scheduled. The possibility exists that Daly will speak to union special counsel Steve Fehr by telephone this weekend, but even that isn't certain.

The sides had stayed apart for eight days before reconvening on Monday night and then again on Wednesday when the union presented a comprehensive proposal the NHL requested. Players' association executive director Donald Fehr said Wednesday that the sides were closer financially than the NHL has claimed. The further cancellations Friday will cause significantly greater losses for the league.

"On Wednesday, the players presented a comprehensive proposal, once again moving in the owners' direction in order to get the game back on the ice," Donald Fehr said in a new statement. "The gap that remains on the core economic issues is $182 million. On Wednesday, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said that the league is losing $18-20 million per day during the lockout, therefore two more weeks of cancelled games far exceeds the current economic gap.

"It makes the NHL's announcement of further game cancellations, including the 2013 All-Star Weekend, all the more unnecessary, and disappointing for all hockey fans ? especially those in Columbus. The players remain ready to negotiate but we require a willing negotiating partner."

The union made its offer that was based on a framework the NHL had given, which included a 50-50 split of hockey-related revenue and a $393 million in deferred payments for the players, who earned 57 percent of revenues in the collective bargaining agreement that expired in September. The NHL offered only $211 million to the players in a proposed deal that took into account that a full 82-game schedule would be played this season.

Players previously had proposed they receive a guaranteed amount of income each year.

Management wants a seven-year deal, which the union says is too long because fewer than half the current players will be active by the last season.

___

AP Sports Writers Rusty Miller and Larry Lage contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nhl-cancels-games-dec-14-star-game-193356731--nhl.html

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Not a lot of income but a 'remarkable' rate of saving | Family Finance ...

Can I afford to live in my own home when I stop working?

In British Columbia, a woman we?ll call Edna, 58, is trying to rebuild her financial life after a divorce that, though amicable, stripped her investments nearly bare. Her two children, both in their early twenties, live with her while attending university.

Edna?s issue is how she can translate her $50,400 current annual take-home income into retirement in nine years at age 67. After large costs incurred in divorce, she has just $131,000 in financial assets. Her home, with an estimated value of $500,000, is mortgage-free. Her present cost of living is low. Her job, selling industrial products to numerous accounts throughout British Columbia, provides a car, covers car expenses, cellphone bills and many meals on the road. In retirement, however, she will have to start paying those bills.

?Can I afford to live in my own home when I stop working? Will I have to sell it to get capital for retirement?? Edna asks. ?I am at a loss as to what I should do.?

Family Finance asked Adrian Mastracci, a portfolio manager and financial planner who heads KCM Wealth Management Inc. in Vancouver, to assist Edna.

?There is not a lot of income to work with in this case, but we can boost her retirement savings and help her move toward her goals,? he says.

Cash management

Edna already has a plan for increasing cash flow. She intends to refinish her basement into two small suites for international students, who will pay $800 rent each for 10 months of the year, adding $16,000 to total income. She plans to begin renting the suites next fall.

Out of her $4,200 monthly take-home income, Edna pays $750 a month to help each of her children. She is able to save $700, or 17% of take-home income. That is a remarkable rate of saving for a middle-income single person. It is, of course, due to her ability to support some of her household and personal expenses with her job?s expense account, car and other perks.

Recently, she has held this surplus in cash. If she maintains this rate of saving for nine years and gets a 3.0% return after inflation, she would have $251,000, including $125,000 of current financial assets. That capital would generate $7,530 a year at 3.0% before tax. She should receive full Canada Pension Plan benefits of $11,840 a year at 65 and $6,540 in annual Old Age Security benefits at age 65. She would still be renting her basement suites at $16,000 a year, pushing total income before tax up to almost $42,000. After an average 10% tax rate with B.C. and federal tax credits and accounting for her rentals, her monthly income would be $3,143. All figures are in 2012 dollars.

Retirement plans

If Edna adds $18,000 a year, which she spends helping her children with university costs, for seven years after her younger child has finished the first degree in two years, these savings would add $126,000 to her total savings on the eve of retirement. If this capital earns 3% before tax, or $3,780, her total income in retirement would be $45,780 before tax or about $3,434 a month after 10% average tax.

She would be able to cover present monthly expenses without university costs but not future expenses when, without a job, she would have to pay many costs now covered by her employer. However, her two-year income boost from government pensions when she works from 65 to 67 could create a contingency fund of about $16,000 after tax to defer some of these costs, Mr. Mastracci notes.

Her supplemental medical and dental insurance premiums, now covered by her company, will become her responsibility at retirement. In retirement, she may want to replace the term insurance now provided by her company. Her car, currently provided by her employer, would have to be replaced by one that she owns. On top of that cost, she would have to spend perhaps $200 a month for gas, repairs and insurance.

Travel expenses, which she now covers with free nights at resorts owned by hotel chains whose rooms she uses on business trips, would be hers to pay. If the sum of these costs adds $1,000 to $1,500 a month to her cost of living, her retirement budget could be in the red. The car and travel might have to be sacrificed. She will have the option of downsizing her house in a pinch.

Edna is not even making full use of potential tax savings. She has not made contributions to her registered retirement savings plan or to her tax-free savings account for several years, though both have balances from prior contributions. Adding to them now is among the things Edna can do to improve her rate of return on her savings.

Mr. Mastracci suggests she take an active interest in her portfolio. At present, she does not know what mutual funds or other assets are in her RRSPs.

?What makes this case salvageable is Edna?s high current rate of savings,? Mr. Mastracci says. ?She has nine years to go to her planned retirement and there is a likelihood of salary increases in the meantime. She has ample time to get her finances in order. Whether she does it is, of course, a question of motivation.?

Need help getting out of a financial fix? Email andrewallentuck@mts.net for a free Family Finance analysis.

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Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/11/23/can-this-middle-income-single-breadwinner-rebuild-her-financial-life/

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Who Needs Web Hosting Companies Lead Generation For Internet ...

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Source: http://hajotoborao.blogspot.com/2012/11/who-needs-web-hosting-companies-lead.html

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96% Sister

All Critics (46) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (44) | Rotten (2)

Seydoux perfectly captures the anger and self-defeat of ill-educated, hedonistic, man-chasing young women who live on the fringes.

L?a Seydoux fulfills Louise, and Kacey Mottet Klein, as Simon, is one more to join the pantheon of film's excellent child actors.

Haunting and sad. And absolutely worth seeing.

The chemistry between the two leads is a razor's-edge dance: feral, childish, tender and always complex.

Movies about wayward kids are a European specialty. The new film "Sister" deepens the specialty.

The influence of Belgian masters Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's documentary eye for youth on the margins is evident in Ursula Meier's calmly heartbreaking drama.

Emotionally engaging and impeccably crafted

Klein and Seydoux give such naturalistic performances that they're never overwhelmed by the spectacle.

"Sister" is loose and episodic, but held together with nicely sketched characters.

[A]voids bathos. . .reveals unexpected depth in a heartbreaking bond. . . Different classes conflict [in] adjacent spaces . . .in spare, realistic Dardennes' style.

Meier draws out wonderfully naturalistic performances from her young stars, with Mottet Klein particularly good as the young roustabout Simon ...

It comes over like a subtle short story and is well acted.

Meier's portrait of Simon ... is richly atmospheric and never sentimental.

An enigmatic, heartfelt account of a vulnerable young boy's yearning for a better life.

Most intriguing is how the writers and director have transformed what's essentially a rather dark, bleak story into something involving and emotionally resonant, all without ever turning sentimental.

It is an interesting and well-made movie, though with an uncertain ending.

Sister gradually reveals pattern in its tapestry of everyday life.

An expert piece of storytelling with a host of strong character turns and thematic depth to burn.

A healthy seam of mischief helps cut through the occasionally rote social comment.

An emotionally engaging, beautifully shot and impressively directed Dardennes-esque French drama with a superb script and excellent performances from Kacey Mottet Klein and L?a Seydoux.

An unusual, involving, slightly strained character study from Ursula Meier, the French director of 2008's satirical dystopia, 'Home'.

'Sister' often recalls the recent work of the Dardenne brothers of Belgium and that landmark of the French new wave, Francois Truffaut's 'The 400 Blows' (1959).

Psychologically complex. You may be shocked, you may be moved, but you won't easily forget "Sister."

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lenfant_den_haut/

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Shopping and Product Reviews: Will Traditional Shopping Die ...

The popularity of online shopping has been seen by many as a threat to the existence of traditional shopping. Their argument is based on the recent widespread closure of established brands like Sears and Best Buy. But can we really say that traditional shopping is dying?

In 2011, even though the U.S economy was sluggish, shopping grew by 15% over the previous year. In addition, about 35% of Americans now have smartphones which enable them to purchase goods and services over the internet and this figure is expected to rise significantly in subsequent years. In actual fact, about half of smartphone users have used their phones for one purchase or the other. On Christmas day of 2011 alone, about 6.8 million iOs and Android smartphones were activated. Top internet retailer, Amazon, recorded a whooping net sale of $48.08 billion in 2011 which represents 40.6% increase over $32.20 billion recorded in 2010. This figure is expected to rise in 2012 and subsequent years. What then is the implication of all these to physical retailing?

Since many people now decide to shop over the internet due to the benefits derivable in doing so like convenience, easy access to market, price comparison, avoidance of crowd, better prices and so on, can we really say that that the traditional way of shopping is being threatened? In my own opinion, technology will enhance the traditional method and not kill it. The popularity of video cassette recorder (VCR) in the 80's was seen by many as a threat to movie theaters then, but today, the film industry has been strengthened by the new technology and the demand for films has increased.

Moreover, when the email became very popular, a lot people thought that the traditional postal service would die, but today, it is waxing stronger. The point I'm driving at here is that, if traditional shop owners can embrace new technology, shopping on the internet would not be a threat to them but a blessing.

If physical retailers can monitor shopping behavior through the use of Wi-Fi signals from smartphones, they would be able to compete favorably in a fast-changing world. They can use technology to measure loyalty, make better staffing decisions, improve store layouts, reduce wait times in checkout lines and so on. Online shopping has come to stay but it is not a threat to traditional shopping because many consumers still value some of its features like quality of customer service, the experience of trying and buying products, how products are displayed and so on.

Olushola Otenaike is an online shopping expert.

Source: http://mysoupbaby.blogspot.com/2012/11/will-traditional-shopping-die-because.html

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UK's Cameron pledges to lower hurdles to growth

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron promised on Monday to slash legal and regulatory obstacles to economic growth, seeking to ward off criticism that the government is doing too little to help companies and revive an ailing economy.

Cameron said he was determined to cut through officialdom and change a risk-averse government culture of consultation, review and audit that hindered enterprise.

"When this country was at war in the 1940s, Whitehall underwent a revolution," he said, referring to the British government. "Normal rules were circumvented. Convention was thrown out," Cameron said in advance extracts of a speech to business leaders.

"As one historian put it, everything was thrown at 'the overriding purpose' of beating Hitler. Well, this country is in the economic equivalent of war today - and we need the same spirit," he added.

Cameron's Conservative-led government has pledged to tackle its budget deficit and has little room to boost Britain's stagnant growth with extra state spending.

It has instead been seeking to promote a private-sector-led recovery, identifying a series of job-creating infrastructure projects, but has since been frustrated by the slow pace of progress.

Cameron said the government would impose restrictions on the use of a legal process known as judicial review, used increasingly by opponents to delay big infrastructure schemes.

A planned high-speed rail line from London to Birmingham faces five such reviews in court hearings next month from residents and others affected by its construction.

In addition, officials would be barred from introducing costly business regulations unless they withdrew two other bureaucratic rules at the same time, in a doubling of an existing "one-in, one-out" procedure.

Cameron was due to make the remarks to the country's main business lobby group, the Confederation of British Industry, which has demanded more action to boost the economy.

CBI head John Cridland called on Sunday for finance minister George Osborne to inject a further 1.5 billion pounds ($2.38 billion) into the economy to stimulate growth when he makes a budget statement in December.

Cridland said London's successful 2012 Olympics were a model for an infrastructure-led recovery.

"I'd like to see the government bottle what worked with the Olympics, which is we did something on time, on spec - a fabulous construction project," he told Sky News.

"And do that with a motorway, a big power station, a big offshore wind farm, maybe a tunnel under the Thames (River) for our waste sewerage. Let's get these things happening," Cridland added.

($1 = 0.6311 British pounds)

(Reporting by Tim Castle, editing by Gary Crosse)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uks-cameron-pledges-lower-hurdles-growth-000543292--business.html

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