Texas A&M Hushes the Heisman Hype Over Johnny Manziel

Over the years, as Heisman Trophy campaigns came to resemble political campaigns, universities took a more active role in extolling the virtues of their contenders. Tactics included mailing neckties to voters (Brigham Young for Ty Detmer), paying for a towering billboard in Times Square (Oregon for Joey Harrington) and sending binoculars (Rutgers for Ray Rice) that urged voters to ?See Ray Run.?

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Quarterback Johnny Manziel is not allowed to speak to reporters, and Texas A&M keeps tight limits on the merchandising of his name and image.

Interviews, insight and analysis from The Times on the competition and culture of college football.

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Johnny Manziel has impressed John David Crow, Texas A&M?s only Heisman Trophy winner, who also received little hype.

This season, Texas A&M and Johnny Manziel took a subtler approach, in part because Manziel surged only recently into contention. Texas A&M?s method lacks what would seem to be an essential element: an actual campaign. In this era of advertisement, where universities build platforms and solicit votes for players, this is a rare strategy. Less ?look at me.? More ?look at me ? if you feel like it.?

Manziel?s Heisman noncampaign also lacks what would seem to be an essential voice: Manziel?s. Because he is a freshman, Texas A&M does not allow him to speak to the news media. He speaks to the public only in person or on Twitter. No interviews. Only mystery, wrapped in a homespun narrative.

?There?s a tremendous appetite among this fan base to see billboards and blimps,? said Jason Cook, Texas A&M?s vice president of marketing and communications. ?But if you watch ESPN, if you look at Twitter, if you read what the media is writing about, the buzz is already there.?

After Manziel led the Aggies to an upset of top-ranked Alabama last weekend, and his popularity skyrocketed, Texas A&M faced a decision it never expected to confront this season. It could carry out the wishes of Coach Kevin Sumlin and largely protect Manziel from an adoring football public. Or it could go with the more typical late push.

Ultimately, Texas A&M decided the best campaign was no formal campaign at all. Cook described the situation as uncharted territory. ?Part of it is the exposure that college athletics has these days,? he said. ?It?s wall-to-wall, 24/7. Our approach is somewhat old-school.?

Heisman promotions have become more prevalent, more over-the-top and more creative in recent years. This week, Southern California started a campaign for its electric receiver, Marqise Lee, that included a highlight video with music from the Beatles and clips from opposing coaches extolling Lee?s talents.

A&M took the opposite approach. In most cases, Cook said, the more gimmicky promotions came from smaller universities, or bigger universities in conferences that received less exposure, like those on the West Coast.

The Aggies are banking on the visibility of the Southeastern Conference, college football?s pre-eminent conference, which Texas A&M joined this season. The Aggies? win over Alabama garnered a 6.6 overnight TV rating, the second-highest this season, behind only Alabama?s last-minute triumph over Louisiana State on Nov. 3. In addition to that built-in exposure, university officials planned to note other points to voters, like the number of blowout victories during which Manziel played only part of the game. But nothing beyond that.

More important to Texas A&M, at least in the short term, is protecting Manziel?s image and his nickname, Johnny Football. That process is rather complicated in an age when most anybody can sell most anything on the Internet.

In the past week, Cook said, the university sent at least 10 cease-and-desist orders to various entities. He e-mailed a photo of one action figure that included both ?Manziel? on the back of the jersey and A&M?s logo. It looked, but was not, authentic.

Manziel is not allowed to profit off his nickname, not if he wants to remain eligible, but he can prevent others from doing so. The Manziel family hired lawyers who began working with the university about two weeks ago, Cook said. Texas A&M?s marketing and license group, its compliance office and attorneys on both sides are involved.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/sports/ncaafootball/texas-am-hushes-the-heisman-hype-over-johnny-manziel.html

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Why Steve Jobs was wrong about the iPad Mini

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An interesting thing has happened in the days since Apple (AAPL) released its new smaller iPad:

Many Apple devotees have said it will become THE iPad, at least in their own personal use.

Why?

Mainly because of weight and size.

Once you've held the new iPad Mini, the full-size iPad feels like a brick.

Related: Apple's New iPad Mini Is Pricey But That Won't Deter Fans: TechCrunch's John Biggs

Apple analyst John Gruber says the Mini has become his main iPad. Apple analyst Dan Frommer thinks Mini sales will soon surpass full-size iPad sales and become Apple's second-best selling gadget after the iPhone. Seamus Bellamy and Brian Lam at Wirecutter say the iPad Mini is "the best tablet and way better than the full-sized iPad for nearly everyone."

All this despite a relatively low-resolution screen that has disappointed most Apple fans.

(I'm a happy Apple customer, if not a fanatic, and I think the screen looks great. But I'm still using an older iPhone, so I haven't been spoiled by the "retina" resolution screen that Apple uses on its new iPads and iPhones yet. And the weight and size of the new iPad really is great.)

Related: Forget The iPhone 5 ? Apple Is About To Start Production Of The iPhone 5S

Given the lower price-point of the new iPad Mini, which should get considerably cheaper over the next couple of years, it seems likely that the Mini might, in fact, fulfill the initial promise of the iPad, which was to have low-priced tablets all over the house. A tablet for each person in the family. Tablets for guests. Tablets in the kitchen. A tablet in the bathroom. Apple's Mini is still too expensive for that to happen, but the prices of other tablets are now hitting levels where it could quickly become a reality.

Related: Here's A New Report On Why Apple Decided To Overcharge For The iPad Mini

And all this is ironic, given the initial appraisal of Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs of smaller tablets.

Back in 2010, Jobs famously dissed smaller tablets and said that Apple would not make one. He pronounced the smaller tablets "DOA--dead on arrival," and explained that the screen-size was just too small to create a good app experience.

(Apple recently said that Jobs was just dissing 7-inch tablets, while the iPad Mini is slightly larger, but as the transcript shows, the slam was aimed at all tablets smaller than 10 inches).

Jobs' rant about smaller tablets was a classic (read it here), and he was certainly right that the first "avalanche" of competitors to the iPad would flop.

But it's becoming clear that Jobs was dead wrong about the potential for smaller tablets, as the reactions of Apple fans who have bought the Mini make clear.

In fact, if normal folks view the Mini the way early adopters do, it seems possible that the full-sized iPad could soon come to seem like a huge, lumbering dinosaur--the same way the MacBook Pros and iMacs of several years ago seem relative to the versions that have just been released.

Of course, Steve Jobs was known to change his mind from time to time. And he was also known to go on awesome hyperbolic rants about the pathetic lameness of the competition. So his famous 2010 dissing of smaller tablets may have been driven primarily by the latter desire rather than an actual belief that all smaller tablets would be DOA.

Either way, if the early read is clear, Apple's next mega-hit product may be one that Jobs publicly bodyslammed two years ago.

By the way, if the iPad Mini does become "The iPad," what wlll that mean for Apple's business?

Related: iPad Mini: Will It Cannibalize Apple's Regular iPad Sales?

Initially, anyway, it might mean a modest hit to revenue growth.

Apple's full-sized iPad is now a $40 billion business. It seems unlikely that normal Apple users are likely to buy BOTH a full-sized iPad AND an iPad Mini. Rather, they'll likely choose one of the two. And based on the initial reaction, the choice for most is likely to be the iPad Mini. iPad Minis will likely have an average price-point that is about $200 less than the full-sized iPad. So, on a per unit basis, Apple's revenue will take a hit.

But this loss of revenue on a unit basis will likely be at least partially offset by some additional sales--especially next year, if Apple releases an upgraded version of the Mini and the current version gets cheaper. This could help increase the velocity of iPad sales, even though revenue per-unit decreases.

Related: Nothing Lasts Forever: Apple Is Showing Its Age

The iPad Mini will also likely have a smaller gross profit contribution margin than the full-sized iPad. So, especially initially, Mini cannibalization could put pressure on Apple's profit margin. As with revenue, this margin pressure should be offset by additional margin dollars.

But if the iPad Mini becomes the main iPad, it seems reasonable to conclude that this will put more pressure on Apple's overall profit margin.

Another irony here is that, two years after the launch of the original iPad, Microsoft (MSFT) has finally scrambled to produce a well-reviewed tablet of its own--the Surface. But the Surface is a bigger tablet. It will be frustrating for Microsoft, to say the least, if the company has finally made a strong entrance into the tablet market only to have bigger tablets quickly rendered obsolete.

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Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/why-steve-jobs-dead-wrong-ipad-mini-blodget-134812403.html

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Health Care Insurance Needing! ? Medical insurance for health

?Basing on the healthy conditions of applicants of insurance, the health care insurance provides the payments as the compensations in order to pay the bills of medical costs of applicants.
The health care insurance has three divisions,
1. The critical illness insurance. As long as the applicants has the illness which is included in the clause of contract, no matter what the costs are on the medical care, the applicant of the health insurance can have the compensation.
?? 2. The hospital to submit an expense account model. The eligibility for benefits is the applicant of health insurance has happened the accident and lead to be in hospital, and the costs in hospital can be paid some by the insurance company. This insurance completes the social insurance and business insurance. The sort of insurance can be got on premise that the applicant is sent to the hospital by an accident and then the insurance company pay the compensation according to the requirements of contract, which has no relations with the social insurance and business insurance with the final payment when the applicant leave the hospital. There are the detailed instructions post on our homepage online, if the clients need, they can browse anytime and anywhere.

Source: http://www.xspwn.com/2012/11/health-care-insurance-needing/

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Military discipline for ?soldiers? on Korea exam?s front line

A North Korean soldier walks past from behind a fence on an island located in the middle of the Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju and the Chinese border city of Dandong. ? Reuters pic

GWANGJU, Nov 5 ? Conversations between men and women are forbidden at the school on the outskirts of Seoul, where security cameras watch the students? every move.

There is no access to television, the Internet, mobile phones or MP3 players.

Welcome to the monastic life of a boarding school for students dedicated to spending nine months preparing to retake South Korea?s college entrance exams, in the hopes of a place at the best college and a job for life at a top corporation.

?During study hours it?s difficult to go to the bathroom even if I want to. Waking up early in the morning is also hard,? said Um Hee-joon, 20, over a spartan lunch of pork cutlet.

This year, the life-defining tests are on Thursday.

South Korea?s exam hell is an annual event so full of pressure that many students are driven to despair, with some even taking their own lives.

More than 50 per cent of those between the ages of 15 and 19 who are suicidal have given ?academic performance and college entrance? as a reason, says the national Statistics Korea.

Pity even more the hundreds of thousands of students, around 20 per cent of the total, who take the exams twice or more.

They aren?t delinquents, but simply failed to meet their own or their parents? expectations the first time around and are living through another year of hell.

Some 140,000 of the test takers signed up for this year?s entrance exam, 21 per cent of the total, have already graduated from high school, according to government data.

But in some Seoul districts where middle-class parents drive their offspring even harder, such graduates account for more than 50 per cent of test takers, education experts say.

Those who are really determined, or desperate, may decide to spend nine months at one of 40 private boarding schools like the Deung Yong Moon in Gwangju, on the outskirts of Seoul, to dedicate all of their waking hours to preparing for the test.

While male and female students study in the same classroom they are forbidden to go to the snack shop at the same time, stand in separate lines for lunch and eat at separate tables. Dating is definitely off the menu.

Wake-up calls at the schools, which can cost 2 million Korean won (RM5,512) a month, come at 6.30am.

Apart from group exercises, meals and short breaks it is study, study and more study until midnight.

Not one of the five hundred students in the boarding school has access to television, the Internet, mobile phones or an MP3 player. Men wear regulation blue tracksuits, women red.

?I feel really suffocated here. I wrote down 100 things I want to do after the exam. I want to travel most,? said Cho Hwan, 20.

?I thought if I studied for the exam another year again, I would be able to get higher scores. But not that much,? added Cho, frustrated over practice tests.

To make sure that Cho and his classmates don?t waste their time, there are more than 80 closed-circuit TV cameras. Supervisors monitor the students? every move to catch anyone dozing off during study hours.

If they break rules, the students, of whom 80 per cent are male, get ?yellow cards?.

At worst, they could be expelled.

The study regimen gets more intense from a month before exam day. The school takes down pay phones and bans leaves. Even parental visits are strictly limited.

?Students grew up with a lot of freedom and have been pampered,? said Han Sang-hee, head of the school, whose name translates to ?Gateway To Success?.

?We (the school and students) agreed with each other that the school would help bring out their best abilities through strict discipline and control like a military training academy. So the students can bear with it,? he said.

?Army reservists sometimes escort them to the exam site.?

Some students even resort to the service of a school-provided therapist, who hypnotises students and then intones in a low voice, ?You have the strongest confidence in your entire life,? as if it was exam day.

?I?ve spent a whole year to retake this exam.

?I really hope I will get a good score so I won?t regret this,? Cho said. ? Reuters?

Source: http://allnews.rss.themalaysianinsider.com/c/33362/f/567634/s/253be7ee/l/0L0Sthemalaysianinsider0N0Cfeatures0Carticle0Cmilitary0Ediscipline0Efor0Esoldiers0Eon0Ekorea0Eexams0Efront0Eline0C/story01.htm

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Promising treatment for inherited form of kidney disease

ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2012) ? A drug therapy shows promise for treating an inherited form of kidney disease called autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), Mayo Clinic researchers say. The medication, tolvaptan, slowed the pace of kidney cyst growth over the three years of the study.

The phase three clinical trial results were being presented November 3 at the American Society of Nephrology annual meeting and published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The multicenter study found tolvaptan demonstrated a nearly 50 percent reduction in the rate of increase in total kidney volume (a measurement of kidney cyst growth) in ADPKD patients over the study period, compared to placebo.

"ADPKD is the most common inherited and the fourth most common overall cause of kidney failure worldwide," says lead author Vicente Torres, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic nephrologist.

"In most patients with this disease, relentless cyst growth within the kidneys destroys the tissue, causes hypertension and painful complications, and negatively impacts the quality of life," Dr. Torres says. "The results of this study reveal a potential treatment that blunts kidney growth, lessens associated symptoms and slows kidney function decline when given over three years."

While the trial findings are encouraging, tolvaptan has not yet been approved for this indication, Dr. Torres notes.

The study was funded by Otsuka Pharmaceuticals.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Mayo Clinic.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Vicente E. Torres, Arlene B. Chapman, Olivier Devuyst, Ron T. Gansevoort, Jared J. Grantham, Eiji Higashihara, Ronald D. Perrone, Holly B. Krasa, John Ouyang, Frank S. Czerwiec. Tolvaptan in Patients with Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease. New England Journal of Medicine, 2012; : 121103123025000 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1205511

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/otTxr4XRfbI/121104082203.htm

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Secret Service agent found dead, apparent suicide: source

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Youth And Social Media

The Royal Gazette:

You tell your children that they can go on Facebook if you can monitor, but later you find out you?ve only been allowed to see a dummy account.

You set the password and they change it. You ban them from Facebook so they spend all their time on Tumblr, and once you finally figure out what Tumblr is they switch to another social media site. Keeping up with your child?s internet use can feel as futile as chasing the elusive White Rabbit across Wonderland -- curiouser and curiouser, but a youth communications expert says keep trying.

Read the whole story at The Royal Gazette

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/31/youth-and-social-media_n_2049641.html

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