Another game for the ages looms in Tuscaloosa

FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2008, file photo, Alabama coach Nick Saban, right front, looks on during an NCAA college football game against LSU in Baton Rouge, La. Second-ranked Alabama are slated to host No. 1 LSU on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2008, file photo, Alabama coach Nick Saban, right front, looks on during an NCAA college football game against LSU in Baton Rouge, La. Second-ranked Alabama are slated to host No. 1 LSU on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2011, file photo, Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron (10) looks for a receiver as offensive linesman Anthony Steen (61) blocks in the first half of an NCAA college football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Second-ranked Alabama are slated to host No. 1 LSU on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2010, file photo, LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson (9) passes in the second half of an NCAA college football game against Alabama in Baton Rouge, La. Second-ranked Alabama are slated to host No. 1 LSU on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, un Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2008, file photo, Alabama coach Nick Saban, center left, and LSU coach Les Miles, right, shake hands following Alabama's 27-21 overtime win in an NCAA college football game in Baton Rouge, La. The Two schools meet on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2010, file photo, LSU head coach Les Miles cheers his team on during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Alabama in Baton Rouge, La. Second-ranked Alabama are slated to host No. 1 LSU on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Johnny Rodgers remembers a day when the two best teams in the land played a game for the ages. Forty years later, he can go over the winning drive as if it happened yesterday.

Gino Torretta can still feel the hits he took in a different game. They were harder than most, and didn't necessarily end when the whistle blew.

For Ara Parseghian, the most vivid memories are of Super Bowl-like hype before there was even such thing as a Super Bowl, leading to a showdown that demonstrated the enormous potential of No. 1 vs. No. 2.

All were key figures in a so-called Game of the Century, those landmark contests that helped define the sport. And all will be tuned in Saturday night to catch the latest chapter in this ongoing saga: top-ranked LSU vs. second-ranked Alabama.

"Absolutely," said the 88-year-old Parseghian, who guided Notre Dame to a pair of national championships during his coaching career. "That's exactly what you want to see."

While 1-2 matchups have become commonplace in the Bowl Championship Series, they're a rarity in the regular season. This will be the first scheduled matchup of the top-ranked teams in The Associated Press poll since 2006, when No. 1 Ohio State defeated No. 2 Michigan 42-39 in their traditional season finale.

In fact, since the AP poll was launched in 1936, there have been only 22 regular-season games pitting the two best teams as determined by a panel of media voters. If history is any indication, the 23rd could very well be a classic.

More often not, the game lives up to the hype, from a banged-up Torretta leading Miami to a 17-16 victory over Florida State that became known as "Wide Right," to Parseghian's must-debated call to settle for a 10-10 tie with Michigan State, to perhaps the greatest 1-2 showdown of all ? Nebraska's 35-31 victory over Oklahoma that will forever be remembered for Rodgers' thrilling 72-yard punt return.

"We played pretty much a flawless game," Rodgers recalled, "and it still went right down to the wire. We didn't make mistakes in those days."

LSU and Alabama will try to heed that example, because Saturday's game could very well come down to which team makes the fewest errors. "Pressure," Rodgers said with a chuckle, "makes you dumber."

Rodgers certainly looked as cool as that crisp Thanksgiving Day in 1971 when he hauled in a punt at his own 28, bounced off Oklahoma star Greg Pruitt and took off for the game's opening touchdown.

Still, Oklahoma fought back for a 31-28 lead in the fourth quarter. The Cornhuskers never blinked, moving it methodically down the field on a 12-play, 74-yard drive that required only one completed pass. Jeff Kinney won it on a 2-yard touchdown run with 1:38 remaining.

"You have to want it, but you don't worry about it. You just go get it," said Rodgers, a star flanker for the Cornhuskers who would win the Heisman Trophy the following year. "That's what I take pride in about our team. We didn't make mistakes. We didn't get nervous."

Even though there were still two games to go, Nebraska felt like a champion when it left the field in Norman, Okla. The Cornhuskers routed Hawaii in a regular-season finale that was little more than a vacation, then blew out Alabama 38-6 in the Orange Bowl, a much less dramatic 1-2 matchup against the team that moved up after the Sooners lost.

"We knew Alabama wasn't the team that Oklahoma was," Rodgers said. "The real championship game had already been played."

In 1966, Notre Dame claimed a national title by playing it safe. Rallying from a 10-0 deficit against a Michigan State team that featured Bubba Smith and three teammates who would go in the top eight picks of the next NFL draft, the Fighting Irish were happy to settle for a 10-10 tie ? even when they got the ball back with just over a minute remaining.

Parseghian has steadfastly defended his decision to run out the clock, saying he didn't want to take a chance against Michigan State's fearsome defense when his injury depleted team was missing its starting quarterback and top runner. It worked out just fine for the Irish, who routed USC the following week and were voted No. 1. The Spartans finished No. 2.

The significance of the game was undeniable, starting with the buildup. Incredibly, it wasn't even supposed to be nationally televised, but ABC made sure everyone at least got a chance to see the game on tape delay after receiving tens of thousands of angry letters.

"It was exhausting getting ready for it," Parseghian said. "It was like the Super Bowl, it was incredible. We had press conferences after every practice and by the end of the week, I didn't know what to say."

For all the debate and disappointment over the outcome, he points to that game as planting the seed that eventually resulted in the BCS, which is designed to ensure the top two teams meet for the national championship at the end of the season.

"It encouraged people to look at being able to put 1 and 2 together," Parseghian said. "The emphasis that's placed on it and the amount of attention from the press, the present Bowl Championship Series came from that."

A quarter-century later, there was no lack of hype when No. 2 Miami traveled to Tallahassee to take on top-ranked Florida State. The Seminoles were 10-0 and averaging more than 40 points a game, but the Hurricanes held on for a 17-16 victory when Gerry Thomas missed a 34-yard field goal in the final minute.

Wide right, of course.

Torretta, who was Miami's quarterback, remembers the brutal hits more than he does the missed kick.

"I was running out of bounds toward their side of the field and I got hit significantly out of bounds and jacked my ankle up pretty good," the 1992 Heisman Trophy winner said. "I realized then that it was a little different game. They were going to hit harder, and it might be a touch after the whistle."

While coaches preach over and over about keeping everything the same, no matter who they're playing, it's only natural to take a different mindset when so much is on the line. Even the trainers get hyped up.

"I came to the sideline and my ankle was pretty bad," Torretta said. "So they retaped around my shoes, then said, 'Give me your other shoe, we're going to tape that.' I asked them why, and they were like, 'We don't want them to know which ankle it is.'"

While the winner Saturday night will have the inside track to the national title game, there's no guarantee that a Game of the Century will actually settle things.

In 1993, top-ranked Florida State lost to No. 2 Notre Dame late in the season, but the Fighting Irish were upset the following week by Boston College. The Seminoles got a second chance to claim coach Bobby Bowden's first national title.

Even so, that lone defeat stings a bit.

"We've still got our rings," said William Floyd, who was a fullback at Florida State. "But we have that one blemish we'd like to wash off."

Top-ranked Florida also got a do-over after losing to the second-ranked Seminoles in 1996. Due to a fortunate turn of events, they got a rematch in the Sugar Bowl and romped to a 52-20 victory over then-No. 1 Florida State to claim their first national title.

With that in mind, former Gators coach Steve Spurrier isn't so sure the LSU-Alabama loser will necessarily be out of the picture.

"I keep reading there's going to be no rematch for these two teams," said Spurrier, who now coaches at South Carolina. "I'm not sure if that's the truth or not. I'm not so sure there won't be a rematch if they both win out the rest of the way through. And there's nothing wrong with that."

But Rodgers said the winner Saturday will likely walk off the field feeling the same way Nebraska did 40 years ago.

"We've got the two best teams already playing in the regular season," he said. "They know if they win this one, it will be their toughest game."

___

AP Sports Writers Nancy Armour in Chicago, Eric Olson in Omaha, Neb., Larry Lage in Detroit, and Rusty Miller in Columbus, Ohio, and Associated Press writer Brent Kallestad in Tallahassee, Fla., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-11-04-T25-Game%20of%20the%20Century/id-f382234bcf9c4f15a6193c4411a40e4b

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Bachmann to protesters: Stop blaming free market (AP)

AMES, Iowa ? Casting the Wall Street protestors as misguided, Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann on Thursday said their frustrations should instead be directed at Washington politicians who protect their allies and put unfriendly companies out of business.

Bachmann said politicians have far too much power and unfairly pick winners and losers. The Minnesota congresswoman, trying to recapture her once surging poll numbers, said she has watched lawmakers enact laws that intentionally shut businesses down.

"For your sake and for your future, America ? and Occupy Wall Street in particular ? needs to wake up and stop blaming the free market, stop blaming capitalism, stop blaming job creators for the failures created by selfish politicians," Bachmann told students at Iowa State University. "The problem is politicians who wink at their political donors and through the force of law put their competitors out of business."

Bachmann used her appearance in Ames to outline an economic proposal that would require all Americans to pay taxes. The Tax Policy Center estimates that some 46 percent of households this year will not pay federal income taxes.

"They need to be invested in the country," she said. "Even if they can only afford $10, they need to pay something."

Her position was a direct challenge to rivals Rick Perry and Herman Cain, who are advocating separate flat tax plans. Cain is also promoting for a national sales tax as part of his 9-9-9 plan.

Bachmann said she would not propose an absolute flat tax, but told reporters after that she would have at most three tax brackets, which she declined define.

Polls show Bachmann trailing behind other contenders in Iowa, which holds the first presidential caucuses in January. She won an early test vote in Ames in August. But her standing slipped as the GOP electorate rallied first around Perry, who had several weak debate performances, and then Cain, who has spent the last four days trying to redirect media attention away from allegations of sexual harassment filed by at least two women during his tenure at the National Restaurant Association.

With jobs and the economy as the top issues on voters' minds, Bachmann hopes her tough talk will help her regain her footing in a state that her advisers see as a linchpin in their strategy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111103/ap_on_bi_ge/us_bachmann_economy

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A biologically inspired tape uses some of nature's tricks to stick

Public release date: 4-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Catherine Meyers
cmeyers@aip.org
301-209-3088
American Institute of Physics

Insects can run up walls, hang from ceilings, and perform other amazing feats that have for centuries fascinated human observers. Now scientists from the Zoological Institute at the University of Kiel, in Germany, who have been studying these able acrobats, have borrowed some of the insects' tricks to make a dry tape that can be repeatedly peeled off without losing its adhesive properties. The researchers presented their work at the AVS Symposium, held Oct. 30 Nov. 4, in Nashville, Tenn.

The key to many insects' wall-scaling ability lies in the thousands of tiny hairs that cover their feet and legs. The hairs have flattened tips that can splay out to maximize contact on even rough surfaces. "The main issue for good adhesion is intimate contact with the substrate," explains Stanislav Gorb, a lead researcher on the project. "Due to multiple contacts points (hairs), they can build proper contact with almost any surface." Using the same idea, the researchers manufactured a silicone tape patterned with similar tiny hairs. They found the patterned tape was at least two times harder to pull off of a surface than a flat tape of the same material. The insect inspired tape can also work under water, leaves behind no sticky residues, and can be attached and detached for thousands of cycles without losing its ability to grip. One team member even succeeded in dangling himself from the ceiling using a 20 x 20 centimeter square piece of the new tape.

Bioinspired adhesives have many potential commercial applications, from wall-climbing search robots to industrial pick-and-place machines. And the research group hasn't stopped looking to nature for new inspirations. The team is currently investigating a number of other natural surfaces, including beetle coverwings, snake skin, and anti-adhesive plants. "From nature we can get rather unconventional ideas," says Gorb. "Not all solutions from nature are doable and not all of them are cheap. But they are numerous."

###

The AVS 58th International Symposium & Exhibition is held Oct. 30 Nov. 4 at the Nashville Convention Center.

PresentationNS-ThA2, "Biologically-Inspired Reversible Adhesives: Where Are We Now?," was at 2:20 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 3.

USEFUL LINKS:

Main meeting website: http://www2.avs.org/symposium/AVS58/pages/greetings.html

Technical Program: http://www2.avs.org/symposium

Gorb's website: http://www.uni-kiel.de/zoologie/gorb/topics.html

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 4-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Catherine Meyers
cmeyers@aip.org
301-209-3088
American Institute of Physics

Insects can run up walls, hang from ceilings, and perform other amazing feats that have for centuries fascinated human observers. Now scientists from the Zoological Institute at the University of Kiel, in Germany, who have been studying these able acrobats, have borrowed some of the insects' tricks to make a dry tape that can be repeatedly peeled off without losing its adhesive properties. The researchers presented their work at the AVS Symposium, held Oct. 30 Nov. 4, in Nashville, Tenn.

The key to many insects' wall-scaling ability lies in the thousands of tiny hairs that cover their feet and legs. The hairs have flattened tips that can splay out to maximize contact on even rough surfaces. "The main issue for good adhesion is intimate contact with the substrate," explains Stanislav Gorb, a lead researcher on the project. "Due to multiple contacts points (hairs), they can build proper contact with almost any surface." Using the same idea, the researchers manufactured a silicone tape patterned with similar tiny hairs. They found the patterned tape was at least two times harder to pull off of a surface than a flat tape of the same material. The insect inspired tape can also work under water, leaves behind no sticky residues, and can be attached and detached for thousands of cycles without losing its ability to grip. One team member even succeeded in dangling himself from the ceiling using a 20 x 20 centimeter square piece of the new tape.

Bioinspired adhesives have many potential commercial applications, from wall-climbing search robots to industrial pick-and-place machines. And the research group hasn't stopped looking to nature for new inspirations. The team is currently investigating a number of other natural surfaces, including beetle coverwings, snake skin, and anti-adhesive plants. "From nature we can get rather unconventional ideas," says Gorb. "Not all solutions from nature are doable and not all of them are cheap. But they are numerous."

###

The AVS 58th International Symposium & Exhibition is held Oct. 30 Nov. 4 at the Nashville Convention Center.

PresentationNS-ThA2, "Biologically-Inspired Reversible Adhesives: Where Are We Now?," was at 2:20 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 3.

USEFUL LINKS:

Main meeting website: http://www2.avs.org/symposium/AVS58/pages/greetings.html

Technical Program: http://www2.avs.org/symposium

Gorb's website: http://www.uni-kiel.de/zoologie/gorb/topics.html

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/aiop-abi110411.php

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Indian oil firms to raise gasoline prices from Friday (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? India's state-run fuel retailers will raise gasoline prices by about 2.7 percent from Friday, a company executive said, a move that will help them cut revenue losses but adds pressure to stubbornly high inflation in Asia's third-largest economy.

Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the biggest fuel retailer in the country, will raise gasoline prices by 1.82 rupees a litre from Friday, its head of finance P.K. Goyal said on Thursday.

R.K. Singh, chairman of Bharat Petroleum Corp, said his firm will raise gasoline prices by the same amount, while a source at Hindustan Petroleum Corp said they will also follow suit.

This will be the fourth increase in gasoline prices this year. The three state firms, who tend to move their prices in tandem, last raised gasoline prices by about 5 percent in September.

After the price increase, a litre of gasoline will cost 68.66 rupees ($1.4) in Delhi, while prices in other places vary depending on local taxes.

India's headline inflation in September stood at 9.72 percent and has topped 9 percent for nearly a year, prompting the central bank to lift its policy lending rate last month for the 13th time since March 2010.

India granted autonomy to state-run firms last year to fix retail prices for gasoline, but the government continues to control prices of diesel, cooking gas and kerosene. The government last allowed a diesel price increase in June.

HPCL's finance director said on Tuesday the company was considering a further increase in gasoline prices as it struggles to cut down on retailing losses and that they would need to increase the prices by 1.82 rupees a litre to cover losses.

(Additional reporting by Prashant Mehra in MUMBAI; Writing by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111103/india_nm/india603028

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The Global 99 Percent

On one level, today?s protesters are asking for little: a chance to use their skills, the right to decent work at decent pay, a fairer economy and society. Their hope is evolutionary, not revolutionary. But, on another level, they are asking for a great deal: a democracy where people, not dollars, matter, and a market economy that delivers on what it is supposed to do.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=0f3d88e8482762ef74b6ff8d5b86472a

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Mortgage applications barely up last week: MBA (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Applications for U.S. home mortgages were little changed last week as purchase demand improved but refinancing activity stagnated, an industry group said on Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, edged up 0.2 percent in the week ended Oct 28.

The MBA's seasonally adjusted gauge of loan requests for home purchases rose 1.8 percent, while the index of refinancing applications was off 0.2 percent.

The refinance share of total mortgage activity dipped to 77.1 percent of applications from 77.3 percent the week before, the fourth straight week of declines.

Fixed 30-year mortgage rates averaged 4.31 percent, down 2 basis points from 4.33 percent.

The survey covers over 75 percent of U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, according to MBA.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111102/bs_nm/us_usa_economy_mortgages2

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Apple Admits Battery Problems: It's iOS 5's Fault [Apple]

All those problems with evaporating iPhone batteries? Looks like it's not the hardware's fault—Apple's 'fessing up to a buggy iOS 5 release that's sucking more juice than it should, The Loop reports. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/i3Jhbwn4YJY/apple-admits-battery-problems-its-ios-5s-fault

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