Steelers stay hot, rout Bengals

Roethlisberger throws 2 TDs as Pittsburgh (9-3) sweeps season series with 35-7 win

Gregory Shamus / Getty Images

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger celebrates a touchdown against the Bengals.

By WILL GRAVES

updated 6:11 p.m. ET Dec. 4, 2011

PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Steelers needed just 15 minutes to provide the Cincinnati Bengals a refresher course on what it takes to win in December.

Run the ball. Create turnovers. A big play or two on special teams helps. So does having a quarterback who knows what he's doing when the games dwindle to a precious few.

It's a formula the defending AFC champions have used for years. It has rarely looked as effective as it did in a 35-7 win Sunday.

Ben Roethlisberger threw two touchdown passes to Mike Wallace, Rashard Mendenhall ran for two more and the Steelers used an explosive second quarter to crush error-prone Cincinnati.

"We're in it now," linebacker James Farrior said. "Right now is our time. ... We already started our playoffs."

It certainly looked like it as Pittsburgh (9-3) swept the season series from Cincinnati (7-5) for the second straight year to end any realistic hopes the Bengals have of winning the AFC North.

"It's tough," said Cincinnati wide receiver A.J. Green, who caught an 11-yard touchdown pass but also committed a false start penalty that wiped out another score. "We shot ourselves in the foot sometimes. Being the veteran team they are, they capitalized on everything we did."

It's what the Steelers do this time of year.

Pittsburgh has been a mixed bag at times this season, often playing to the level of the competition, regardless of who it is.

The same team that handled New England with ease six weeks ago is the same one that barely escaped woeful Kansas City with a win last Sunday night, raising concerns about Roethlisberger's fractured right thumb, the running game and a defense nursing injuries to safety Troy Polamalu (concussion) and LaMarr Woodley (hamstring).

There were no anxious final moments against the Bengals. Pittsburgh's best quarter of the season left little room for doubt, scoring four touchdowns in a span of less than 12 minutes to break it open.

"Finally," Wallace said. "We always make it harder than it has to be. Today, we came out with a lot of emotion and a lot of energy. The guys just wanted to win. We knew what we had to do. It's getting closer to the playoffs and it's time for us to get better."

While the Bengals appear to be getting worse.

Rookie quarterback Andy Dalton passed for just 135 yards, was sacked three times by Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison and spent the fourth quarter on the bench as a preventative measure with the game out of reach.

"We can't let this hurt us," Dalton said. "We can't let this affect the next four."

Blocking it out might be tough.

Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis did little to downplay the game's importance, practically admitting his team's hopes for an outside shot at a divisional title would all but disappear if his surprising team couldn't earn a split with the Steelers.

The Bengals hung tough in a 24-17 loss to Pittsburgh three weeks ago, the kind of gritty performance that gave them hope they could earn a split with their division rivals and stay alive in their quest for a second division title in three seasons.

No chance.

Thrust into the role of contender, the Bengals wilted in the spotlight, reverting back to the kind of mistakes they've avoided while rebuilding on the fly behind the tandem of Dalton and Green. Cincinnati committed 10 penalties for 109 yards and offered little resistance to lose for the third time in four games.

"They beat us in every area today ? beat us on offense, beat us on defense, beat us in special teams," Lewis said.

Roethlisberger, who aggravated his injured thumb in practice during the week, overcame a slow start to complete 15 of 23 passes for 176 yards and the two scores to Wallace. His final completion, a 9-yard toss to tight end David Johnson in the fourth quarter, was the 2,026th of his career, breaking Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw's club record.

"It's obviously an awesome honor," Roethlisberger said. "Anytime you break a guy like that's record, it's a great thing."

It was that kind of day for Pittsburgh. Wide receiver Hines Ward became the 19th player in NFL history to eclipse 12,000 career yards while Harrison joined Chad Brown and Mike Merriweather as the only players in team history to record at least two three-sack games in the same season.

"You have to start playing good, all-around football," Ward said. "Today, we displayed that."

The Bengals did not.

Cincinnati's miscues started early. Green flinched ever so slightly just before the snap to negate a 4-yard touchdown pass from Dalton to Jermaine Gresham on the Bengals' opening possession.

Mike Nugent came out to kick a short field goal only to have it called back after being flagged for delay of game. Nugent's kick never had a shot the second time around. Rookie Cam Heyward swatted it out of harm's way to record Pittsburgh's first blocked kick in more than two years.

It's as close as the Bengals would get to making it interesting.

Mendenhall, who has been erratic, gave the Steelers the lead with a 3-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter. He upped the lead to 14-0 with a nifty 5-yard cutback run.

The Bengals continued to self-destruct on the ensuing kickoff when Brandon Tate fumbled and the Steelers recovered at the Cincinnati 23. Roethlisberger needed just three plays to hit Wallace for a 12-yard score to make it 21-0.

Dalton found Green for an 11-yard score to briefly give the Bengals life, but Brown extinguished any momentum with a scintillating 60-yard punt return just before the half that gave the Steelers a 28-7 lead at the break.

The Bengals came in with an NFL-record three double-digit second half rallies, but not this time. Playing with a lead Pittsburgh's defense teed off on Dalton and sent fans sprinting to the exits early with victory in hand.

"It's just embarrassing," Cincinnati defensive back Chris Crocker said. "You don't feel good at all. When they're beating you so bad that their fans leave, that's just a bad feeling."

Notes: The Steelers have swept the Bengals seven times in the last 11 seasons. ... Woodley started for the first time since getting hurt against New England on Oct. 30, but left in the first half after "tweaking" his left hamstring according to Tomlin. ... Pittsburgh hosts Cleveland on Thursday night, while the Bengals host Houston on Sunday.

? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Packers still unbeaten, barely

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45543602/ns/sports-nfl/

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Local Kit Kats Japanese want to eat

By Ken Y-N ( December 5, 2011 at 01:37) ? Filed under Polls, Rankings

For snacks in particular in Japan, bringing out new flavours regularly is all-but-mandatory, it seems. Another related favoured marketing technique is local flavours only offered for sale in that particular region, which formed the basis of this survey from goo Ranking, what local edition Kit-Kats people would like to try.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 20th of October 2011 1,092 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 11.2% in their teens, 16.2% in their twenties, 25.7% in their thirties, 25.8% in their forties, 11.5% in their fifties, and 9.5% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Note that it is all but impossible to find a boring old red-packaged Kit Kat here; the standard currently seems to be an ?Adult Kit Kat? in a black wrapper, made less sweet and with bitter chocolate, which is rather nice, but I want my plain ones!

I?ve had ordinary melon Kit Kats before, and they were horrendously sweet, but blueberry cheese cake sounds nice. I keep meaning to try the Kobe Purin, but as it?s for tourists, they only sell them in largish multi-packs. I don?t know what to make of the savoury flavours towards the end of the list ? has anyone tried them?

Here?s a blog about Japanese Kit Kats, and here?s a video from a successful Greenpeace campaign to get Nestle to stop using palm oil in Kit Kats and other products:

Ranking result

Q: What local Kit Kat would you like to try? (Sample size=1,092)

Rank	?	Score
1	Yubari Melon	100
2	Strawberry Cheese Cake	88.1
3	Blueberry Cheese Cake	76.6
4	Tochi-Otome (Posh strawberry brand)	74.0
5	Kobe Purin (Creme Brule without the brule) Flavour	71.7
6	Ito Iemon Uji Maccha	62.9
7	Shinshu Apple	62.3
8	Beni Imo (Purple potato)	59.2
9	Yamanashi Cherry	59.0
10	Sweet Potato Flavour	43.4
11	Annin Dofu (Almond jelly) Flavour	37.7
12	Ito Iemon Uji Houjicha (Roasted tea)	33.5
13	Zunda Flavour	32.7
14	Yuzu Kosho (Citrus and black pepper)	28.3
15	Tamaruya Honten Wasabi	19.2
16	Kankitsu Ougon (?Citrus Gold?) Blend	17.9
17	Le Lectier (Pear)	16.1
18	Miso Flavour	13.0
19	Soy Sauce Flavour	12.7
20	Yawataya Isogoro Ichimi (Chilli pepper)	7.3

Read more on: goo ranking,kit kat

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WhatJapanThinks/~3/gVY3tnzUykI/

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Sony Increases Digital Sales With Early "Bad Teacher" Offer on iTunes - Peter Kafka - Media - AllThingsD

Hollywood is trying to figure out how to get people to buy more movies instead of renting them. Sony might have an answer: Sell the flicks on iTunes, Amazon and other digital outlets before viewers can buy or rent them anywhere else.

Sony tried doing this with ?Bad Teacher? last month, and the results sound encouraging for the studio. It says its ?windowing? experiment boosted digital unit sales by 60 percent, and overall digital revenue by 24 percent.

That is: Most people prefer to rent a movie than buy it outright. But when offered the chance to pay for a download or wait a couple weeks to rent the movie, some folks paid up.

Digital sales of ?Bad Teacher? make up a small percentage of the movie?s overall digital revenue (Sony won?t release actual sales numbers), but there?s a lot more profit in each transaction for the studio. Rentals via iTunes run from $3.99 to $4.99 for the Cameron Diaz vehicle, but sales run from $14.99 to $19.99 a pop.

More good news for Sony: It says demand for digital rentals didn?t seem to drop once they became available two weeks after digital sales started. And physical sales ? still the most important source of income for the studio ? don?t seem to have suffered, either.

That last point is crucial for Sony?s relationships with the retailers it counts on to move old-fashioned discs while stepping into digital at the same time. Retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy are selling Sony?s movies via digital outlets, like Wal-Mart?s Vudu, but they won?t do it at the expense of their brick-and-mortar business (yet.)

?The good news that encourages us is that the physical retailers, those are the guys that are playing well and getting good results out of this,? says John Calkins, who heads up digital for Sony?s home video unit. Calkins figures that the promotion for the early digital sales ended up working as marketing for all of the movie?s sales, and thinks that will work with other films, too.

Calkins just tried the experiment again, with ?30 Minutes Or Less,? and says that comedy saw similar results. Calkins says he?ll try it one more time in 2011, with a movie he won?t disclose.

Source: http://allthingsd.com/20111130/hot-for-bad-teacher-sony-spikes-sales-with-early-offers-on-itunes-amazon

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British soldier jailed for stabbing Afghan boy

LONDON?? A British soldier has been jailed for stabbing a 10-year-old Afghan boy with a bayonet for no reason, according to Britain's Ministry of Defense.

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Prosecutors said that Daniel Crook, a Grenadier Guardsman stationed in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, suffered from a hangover when he attacked the boy, who was on an errand. The boy survived the incident, which happened in March, 2010.

Crook admitted he stabbed the child, but could not explain why he did so when questioned by military police.

The Ministry of Defense confirmed Saturday that Crook was dismissed from the army, has faced court martial and is imprisoned for 18 months.

The boy's father, Haji Shah Zada told The Guardian newspaper that he didn't know why his son was attacked and received no apology from the British forces.

"Of course foreigners are the enemies of Afghans ? otherwise he wouldn't do that to innocent child who was just going by on his bike," the 72-year-old shopkeeper told the British newspaper.

He said his son still has difficulties walking to school, located nearly a mile away.

On the question of compensation, the father said: "We asked for $40,000 but they only gave us $800."

Reuters contributed to this report.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45534829/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

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85-year-old says she was strip searched at JFK

In this undated family photo provided by Bruce Zimmerman, Lenore Zimmerman is shown. Zimmerman, 85, who arrived in a wheelchair for a flight at New York?s Kennedy Airport on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011, said that she was required to go through a strip search after she asked to be patted down instead. She was concerned that passing through the airport?s body scanner would interfere with her defibrillator. (AP Photo/Zimmerman Family Photo)

In this undated family photo provided by Bruce Zimmerman, Lenore Zimmerman is shown. Zimmerman, 85, who arrived in a wheelchair for a flight at New York?s Kennedy Airport on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011, said that she was required to go through a strip search after she asked to be patted down instead. She was concerned that passing through the airport?s body scanner would interfere with her defibrillator. (AP Photo/Zimmerman Family Photo)

NEW YORK (AP) ? An 85-year-old woman said Saturday that she was injured and humiliated when she was strip searched at an airport after she asked to be patted down instead of going through a body scanner, allegations that transportation security officials denied.

Lenore Zimmerman said she was taken to a private room and made to take off her pants and other clothes after she asked to forgo the screening because she worried it would interfere with her defibrillator. She missed her flight and had to take one 2 1/2 hours later, she said.

"I'm hunched over. I'm in a wheelchair. I weigh under 110 pounds (50 kilograms)," she said from her winter home at a seniors community in Coconut Creek, Florida. "Do I look like a terrorist?"

But the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement Saturday that no strip search was conducted.

"While we regret that the passenger feels she had an unpleasant screening experience, TSA does not include strip searches as part of our security protocols and one was not conducted in this case," the statement read.

Zimmerman was dropped off by her son at Kennedy Airport for a 1 p.m. flight Tuesday to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on JetBlue, she said. She arrived at the ticket counter around 12:20 p.m. and headed for security in a wheelchair, her small, metal walker in her lap.

She's been traveling to Florida for at least a decade and has never had a problem being patted down until now, she said. "I worry about my heart, so I don't want to go through those things," she said, referring to the advanced image technology screening machines now in place at the airport.

As a result, she said, she was taken into the private screening room by a female agent and made to strip.

"Private screening was requested by the passenger, it was granted and lasted approximately 11 minutes," the TSA statement read. "TSA screening procedures are conducted in a manner designed to treat all passengers with dignity, respect and courtesy and that occurred in this instance."

The private screening was not recorded.

A review of closed-circuit television at the airport showed that proper procedures before and after the screening were followed, Jonathan Allen, a TSA spokesman, said in a statement.

Zimmerman, who spends half the year in Long Beach, New York, said she banged her shin during the process and it bled "like a pig," partly because she is on blood-thinning medication. She said an emergency medical technician patched her up, but she was told to see a doctor when she arrived in Florida to make sure the wound didn't get infected. There are no records indicating medical attention was called on her behalf.

"I don't know what triggered this. I don't know why they singled me out," she said.

Her son Bruce Zimmerman said he'd like to see someone fired and screeners re-trained after his mother's ordeal.

"My mother is a little old woman. She's not disruptive or uncooperative," he said Saturday. "I don't understand how this happened."

He said she's had an increasingly difficult time traveling, especially since her husband died a few years ago. She has two grandchildren, and her older son, a doctor, died in 2007.

Meanwhile, Lenore Zimmerman said she was healing, planned to go to the grocery store on Saturday and take it easy. She does not plan to head back to an airport until April when she returns to New York.

"Thank goodness," she said. "It will give me some time to brace myself for the return flight."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-03-Elderly%20Woman%20Strip%20Search/id-5cbeebdd464c4770a1cea283b2534a9f

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Cobra Starship, Jimmy Fallon, Other Celebs Pick Favorite Britney Videos

'The one when she's in the little schoolgirl clothes,' 'True Blood' star Joe Manganiello tells us.
By Vaughn Trudeau Schoonmaker

Britney Spears in her video for "Toxic"
Photo: Jive

During our Britney Spears Tournament: 30 Videos for 30 Years, we've been asking celebrities to tell us what their personal favorite Britney Spears videos are.

" 'Toxic'!" Gabe Saporta and Victoria Asher of Cobra Starship shouted in unison.

"I don't know if it's that the song was so amazing or what," Gabe said. " 'Womanizer' is amazing!" he added about director Joseph Khan's follow-up video, which features a similar series of Britney alter egos as a theme.

"I'm going to go with the 'Slave' joint," Nick Cannon said with certainty. "That track was crazy. It was probably my favorite Britney record but then the video ... It was all hot and they were sweating. Britney did that!"

"Is it '... Baby One More Time' when she was in the schoolgirl outfit?" "Jersey Shore" star Ronnie asked. "Yeah, that's it."

Head over to Britney30.MTV.com and vote for your favorite music video in MTV News' Britney Spears Tournament: 30 Videos for 30 Years.

When asked what he liked most about it, he laughed and said, "Her in the schoolgirl outfit!"

"The one when she's in the little schoolgirl clothes," agreed Joe Manganiello, who plays the big and burly werewolf Alcide Herveaux in HBO's "True Blood." "That's a good one."

Emily VanCamp from ABC's "Revenge" agreed with Ronnie and Joe. "That was the thing, you know?"

Comedian and talk-show host Jimmy Fallon also went with "... Baby One More Time," saying, "That one's just a classic!"

Unfortunately, "... Baby One More Time" fell out of the competition in the second round of voting to the newer video "Criminal," off of Spears' latest album, Femme Fatale.

Go vote for the finalists now at Britney30.mtv.com and let us know your thoughts on the tournament in the comments section below!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1675216/britney-spears-birthday-tournament-cobra-starship-fallon.jhtml

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Penn State officials say applications up despite scandal (Reuters)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa (Reuters) ? Penn State officials on Wednesday said applications to attend the university that has been rocked by a sex abuse scandal are ahead of last year and reassured students worried about the school's reputation.

"Prospective students are saying, 'I really want to come to Penn State. I understand this isn't something that represents the whole university,'" Penn State President Rodney Ericksontold more than 400 students in a packed university auditorium who gathered for an evening question and answer session.

Of the 40,000 undergraduate applications received, only eight have withdrawn their applications, Erickson said, adding that applications are about 4 percent ahead of "last year's record rate."

Student questions were polite but often anxious following the shock news on November 5 that Jerry Sandusky, longtime former assistant to legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, had been charged with sexually abusing eight boys over more than a decade.

The allegations forced the firing of Paterno and dismissal of university President Graham Spanier. Athletic Director Tim Curley and finance official Gary Schultz were also charged with perjury by the grand jury, with investigations continuing.

Paterno has not been charged and lawyers for all three accused have said they are innocent of the charges.

On Wednesday none of the students, who were joined by students watching via satellite at Penn State's many branch campuses, mentioned Sandusky, Curley or Schultz by name.

One student asked if there was a "rush to judgment" by the Penn State Board of Administrators in firing Paterno, while another student asked if the school was planning to take down the bronze Paterno statue outside of Beaver Stadium and to rename the library that now bears his name.

Erickson simply said "no" when a student asked if the university was bullied by national media into firing Paterno. There were no plans to remove the statue or change the library name, he said.

But students wondered how the scandal might affect tuition next school year and some worried that state lawmakers would punish Penn State by slashing its state aid.

"A lot of us are worried how the scandal is going to affect us after graduation," one student, a junior, asked Erickson and the seven other school administrators who joined him to answer questions during the two-hour forum.

Damon Sims, Penn State's vice president for student affairs, said students "don't have to worry about that" because many of the school's alumni are "re-emphasizing their commitment" for new graduates.

"Alumni want to open doors for you," Commonwealth Campuses Vice President Madlyn Hanes said. "Employers are still very, very interested in our students. I hope you have solace with that," she said.

"Perhaps this experience will make you a better person; a better employee," said Terrell Jones, PSU's vice provost for educational equity.

Henry Foley, Penn State's dean of graduate school, said the immediate task at hand for the university is to regain student trust and prepare them for the end of the fall semester.

"None of you are guilty," Foley told the students. "You may feel shame, but none of you are guilty of anything."

(Editing by Peter Bohan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111201/us_nm/us_crime_coach_students

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