Packers overtaking Dallas Cowboys as 'America's Team'

On game day at the Points After North bar and restaurant in Flower Mound, Texas, manager Shannon Johnson knows the drill.
As many as 75 Green Bay Packers fans will show up to watch the Green and Gold play on the big screen inside the joint.
The fans will stream in, decked out in their Packers gear, and begin to plaster the bar walls with Packers pennants, flags and posters.
"They all know each other. They come every week and they've been coming for years. And they always get the biggest TV screen in our place," Johnson said.
"We have a much better Packers following here than a Dallas Cowboys following," said Johnson, whose bar is just outside Dallas.
That's just one bar full of Packers fans, but it happens every weekend in thousands of places around the country. The Packers even have a website, www.PackersEverywhere.com, which helps fans find a place anywhere in the country to cheer on their favorite team.
For years, the Cowboys have been called America's Team, as if they were the most popular team in the most popular sport. The moniker has stuck even though the Cowboys' record since 2000 is 88-88 and they've been to the playoffs during that period only four times.
Which raises this question: Are the Packers really America's Team?
"I think so," said Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy. He said the team's publicly owned status and its cultivation of the small town vs. big market image combine to make
the Packers the team America loves.
"For a lot of fans around the country, we are their second favorite team," Murphy said.
And Packers fans love to hit the road.
During the Packers-San Diego Chargers game Nov. 6 in San Diego, a Chargers spokesman estimated that 40% to 50% of the fans inside Qualcomm Stadium were Packers fans. It was so loud the Chargers had to go to a silent count to run a play.
"It was an unbelievable crowd," Murphy said. "At every stop we make, there are fans at the hotel, fans at the stadium, fans at the pep rallies."
In Los Angeles and New York, the TV network bosses' eyes glisten when the Packers are on national TV, and especially when it snows at Lambeau Field. It seems snowbirds down south, even ones who don't much care about pro football, will tune in to see the Packers play.
Halfway through the season, the defending Super Bowl champions are undefeated with an 8-0 record. Tonight, they will be on national television again when they meet the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau Field.
The Packers have been more successful since 2000. They've been 105-71 in that period, with seven playoff appearances and a Super Bowl. The team is hopeful they'll be playing in this season's Super Bowl in Indianapolis.
It's fruitless to ask fans who follow the Packers, Cowboys, New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers or New England Patriots which team is America's Team. Subjectivity and blind loyalty get in the way.
In interviews with NFL officials, sports-business experts, pollsters, network executives and public relations consultants, the consensus is the Packers at the very least can call themselves contenders to the throne.
"There is no doubt the small-town, community-owned Green Bay Packers are the new darlings of the NFL," said Michael Neuman, managing partner of Scout Sports and Entertainment in New York. "In the ever-growing disparity between small-market and big-market teams across professional sports, the Packers are becoming the team America is rooting for."
On a strictly financial basis, there is no comparison between the Packers and the Cowboys. The Cowboys are tops in the league in terms of team revenue, at $406 million last year, according to Forbes magazine. The Cowboys are valued at $1.75 billion.
The Packers were ranked ninth in team revenue, according to Forbes, with $259 million. Although the franchise is publicly owned, the Packers are valued at $1.02 billion.
But there's a difference. The Cowboys operate in the fifth largest media market in the country. Green Bay-Appleton is the 69th largest media market.
The Cowboys also operate in a metropolitan area of nearly 6.5 million people. The Packers' market is just over 300,000. Throw in Milwaukee and it still doesn't come close to the Cowboys' reach.
A recent Harris Interactive Poll said the Cowboys were the favorite NFL team. It was the fifth straight year the Cowboys ranked first.
The Packers were third behind the Steelers and the Cowboys, although they have been trending higher since 2008.
In terms of merchandise, the Packers rule.
From April through October, the Packers led the league in team merchandise sold on NFLShop.com. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has the top-selling jersey on the site; Clay Matthews has the third-most selling jersey.
That is convincing evidence, said Shawn McBride, a vice president at Ketchum Sports & Entertainment, a major sports marketing firm in New York.
"Relative to the size of their respective markets, coupled with the momentum the Packers have enjoyed on the field as well as glowing television ratings and league-leading merchandise sales, Green Bay is supplanting the Cowboys, especially for a new generation of football fans, as America's Team," McBride said.
Patrick Stiegman, a former Wisconsin journalist and now vice president and editor-in-chief of ESPN.com, agrees that both the Cowboys and the Packers have a tremendous number of followers.
"Over the past year, in fact, Dallas and Green Bay are 1-2 in terms of the most trafficked teams on ESPN.com, not including ESPNDallas.com, which obviously has significant reach with Cowboys fans," Stiegman said. "Both drive tens of millions of page views to our national site, and stories on the two teams consistently rank among the most commented upon pieces across all of our NFL coverage."
Stiegman used to cover games at Lambeau, so he knows the fan base well.
"It is clear Green Bay's remarkable success over the past two seasons has vaulted the Packers into a premier position in the battle of mindshare among national fans," he said.
On television, the networks love the Packers. So far this season, NFL games account for 13 of television's 15 most-watched shows.
At the top of the heap was the Oct. 16 game between the Cowboys and Patriots, which drew an average of 28.4 million viewers, the most watched sporting event since Super Bowl XLV.
But the Packers are a huge draw, too. Beginning with the season-opening game against the Saints (27.1 million), the Packers also drew huge audiences in three other games - Packers-Minnesota Vikings, 24.3 million; Packers-Chicago Bears, 24 million; and Packers-Denver Broncos, 23 million.
A better means of comparison might be the two games both the Packers and the Cowboys have each played on NBC. Of the two games the Cowboys played on Sunday night, against the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Jets, the average combined viewership was 24.5 million.
In the two games the Packers played on NBC, against the Saints and the Falcons, the average combined viewership was 24.7 million.
As successful franchises, the Packers and Cowboys enjoy the luxury of landing major corporate partners. Both have long-term deals with MillerCoors. And both have major deals with soft-drink companies (Cowboys and PepsiCo and the Packers with Coca-Cola) and wireless carriers (Cowboys with AT&T and the Packers with Verizon).
"We're obviously huge fans of both teams," MillerCoors spokesman Pete Marino said diplomatically. "We think they are two of the power franchises, not just in football, but in all of sports."

Co-founder of social network site Diaspora, Ilya Zhitomirskiy, dies at 22

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Ilya Zhitomirskiy, a co-founder of the startup social networking site Diaspora that put an emphasis on privacy and user-control, has died, a company spokesman said Monday. He was 22.
The cause of Zhitomirskiy’s death in San Francisco wasn’t immediately known, and neither the company nor the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office would release details.

“Ilya was a great guy. He was a visionary, he was a co-founder of a company that hopes to bring a better social networking experience,” said Peter Schurman, a Diaspora spokesman. “We are all very sad that he is gone. It is a huge loss for all of us, including his family.”
Zhitomirskiy was one of four students who started Diaspora in a computer lab at New York University.

As an anti-Facebook of sorts, the group raised more than $200,000 by collecting contributions through the website Kickstarter.
Last month, it posted a blog on its website asking for more contributions.
The site champions the idea of sharing while keeping control. On its website, the company promotes itself as a “fun and creative community that puts you in control.”
In a video posted on Vimeo in April 2010, when Diaspora first went looking for funds, Zhitomirskiy describes his vision.
“No longer will you be at the whims of those large corporate networks who want to tell you that sharing and privacy are mutually exclusive,” Zhitomirskiy said alongside co-founders Raphael Sofaer, Dan Grippi, and Max Salzber.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is listed as a supporter. He told Wired.com in May 2010 after Facebook announced new privacy controls that he liked the open source project. “I think it is cool people are trying to do it. I see a little of myself in them,” he said.
According to Zhitomirskiy’s profile on Diaspora, he’s “super passionate about building a world of hacker spaces, maker culture, sharing, cycling, and life satisfaction.”
In a September 2010 interview with New York Magazine, Zhitomirskiy said he wanted social network users to migrate to websites that were more transparent about privacy policies.
Zhitomirskiy said he and his co-founders didn’t set out to make money when they created Diaspora but to instead provide an “open platform” for users.
“There’s something deeper than making money off stuff,” Zhitomirskiy said. “Being a part of creating stuff for the universe is awesome.”

Does the New ‘Hunger Games’ Trailer Live Up to the Book?

The trailer for ‘The Hunger Games” has hit the web.
Movie adaptations of beloved books are a weird thing. The first time you see real images created of a novel that had previously only existed in your head, it’s hard not to want to reject them. Especially with a book like “The Hunger Games,” which feels like a personal discovery when you read it, it almost seems like a violation to see scenes torn from the pages and transformed into images–and even more so when those pictures don’t quite match what we imagined.
The new movie has a great cast–the stars include Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci and Lenny Kravitz–but I wonder if some of the boys in the film (Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson) seem a bit too mature and studly for their roles. The horror of the book in part came because the Hunger Games forced kids to battle to the death. It feels a little different when the participants look like superheroes. If Hemsworth and Hutcherson were in MMA, nobody would be outraged. Those lads can take care of themselves.
Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” and the Harry Potter series got it right–what was on the screen seemed to represent what was on the page. In the case of “The Lord of the Rings,” some liberties were taken–there was no Tom Bombadil, no scouring of the Shire, etc.–but everything seemed defensible.
“The Golden Compass,” “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” and “The Cat in the Hat” (the 2003 version with Mike Myers) are examples of book adaptations that were, as my 9-year-old son might put it, “epic fails.” It’s hard to watch any of those films without the antibodies created from when we first read the books continually rejecting what’s on screen.
Perhaps this is all part of the reason J. D. Salinger never let Hollywood phonies mess with “The Catcher in the Rye.” Because it remains unadapated, unconquered, it stays in our heads, unsullied by outside interpretation. “Catcher’s” Holden Caulfield has nothing but contempt for the screenwriting profession. As he says about his brother, once a promising writer, “Now he’s out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute.”
Still, watching the final scenes of “The Hunger Games” trailer, and seeing the Hunger Games contestants sprinting towards their weapons, it’s hard not to feel some of the thrill of the original book. And it’s hard not to hope that the finished film fully delivers on its promise. “The Hunger Games” is due out March 23. To paraphrase the movie’s tagline, may the odds be ever in its favor.
Take a look–what do you think?

Source: Matt Schaub out for season

Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub will miss the rest of the season with a Lisfranc injury, a league source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.
Coach Gary Kubiak said earlier Monday that Schaub was injured on a quarterback sneak coming out of the end zone late in the second quarter of Houston's 37-9 win over Tampa Bay on Sunday. Schaub stayed in the game, but threw only three passes.

Kuharsky: Schaub Joins Texans' Wounded

Matt Schaub's injury is just the latest test for Houston in a season full of setbacks and sidesteps, writes Paul Kuharsky. Blog

Kubiak said the team was bringing in a specialist from Indianapolis to evaluate Schaub, and the quarterback would fly to Charlotte, N.C., later this week to undergo further examination.
Joby Branion, Schaub's agent, did not immediately return a phone message or e-mail from The Associated Press.
The Texans (7-3) have won four in a row and share the AFC's best record with Pittsburgh heading into their bye week. Kubiak said sixth-year veteran Matt Leinart will start at Jacksonville on Nov. 27.
"It's just something we'll have to deal with," star receiver Andre Johnson said Monday night. "Hopefully, Matt won't miss the whole season. We're not sure exactly what it is, but we do know he'll have to miss some time. We're just going to rally around Matt Leinart, and I think he'll go out and do a great job."
Johnson has missed six games with a right hamstring injury, but expects to return for the Jacksonville game. He was on the sideline Sunday and said Schaub was "limping a little bit," but said he was OK.
"To come in and here that today," Johnson said, "it was kind of like, 'Wow.' Now you're hearing rumors that it's possible he could miss the rest of the season and things like that. So it's kind of like, where did all of that come from?"
Leinart, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner for Southern California, re-signed with the Texans in the offseason after not taking a snap in 2010. He turned down other offers to return to Houston because he was comfortable with Kubiak and his offensive system.
Houston rank eighth in total offense this season (396.2 yards per game).
"Your time's going to come, and you've got to be accountable for when that opportunity comes," Leinart said. "They know that I work hard and I study hard and I'm prepared very well. We'll going to take this and go game-by-game and I don't think much is going to change."

 

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Leinart guided Southern Cal to national championship games after the 2004 and `05 seasons, and went 37-2 as a starter in college.
He was drafted 10th overall by Arizona in 2006 and appeared in 12 games as a rookie under coach Dennis Green, throwing 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He broke his collarbone in the fifth game of the next season, Kurt Warner took over and Leinart was mostly a spectator over the next 2½ seasons.
Leinart talked openly during training camp about earning another starting job. Now he'll get it, just not under the circumstances he wanted.
"I'm bummed. My heart goes out for him," Leinart said. "But he knows and everyone knows that in this profession, things happen, and the next guy has to step up. That's my job and my responsibility.
"That's what I've wanted for a long time, and that's what I've worked hard for every day and prepared for every day," he said. "It's a great opportunity. I'm just excited about the chance."
Kubiak has been increasing Leinart's repetitions in practice, and he's confident Leinart is ready.
"He's played in big football games in this league, he's played in big football games in college," Kubiak said. "Matt's been around it. The key is the whole team rallying around him, and playing well as a team. Matt doesn't have to go win a game, the team has to go win a game. We'll rally around him and get him ready to go."
Schaub, acquired in a trade with Atlanta in March 2007, has started every game for Houston since the start of the 2009 season. Kubiak would not say if Schaub would miss the rest of this year.
"There's a lot of things reported," Kubiak said. "He's going to be in a boot throughout this week, and then the evaluation process will continue."
Schaub joins the growing list of Houston stars sidelined with injuries this season.
In addition to Johnson, sacks leader Mario Williams was lost for the season with a torn chest muscle in a loss to Oakland on Oct. 9, running back Arian Foster missed two of the first three games with a strained left hamstring, and starting safety Danieal Manning has missed three games after breaking his left fibula.
Somehow, the Texans have managed to stay on course for their first playoff berth. Houston hasn't trailed in a game in four weeks and won by an average of 22.5 points across that span.
Johnson says the Texans have experienced so much adversity in past seasons, they understand how to cope with it now.
"In the past, when we had injuries, it always hurt us," Johnson said. "Everything we've been through as a team, you learn from those things and all the obstacles we've been through.
"Losing our quarterback, I still feel very comfortable, I still feel very positive about it. We'll pick up the slack, man. Everyone will step their game up and we'll keep going in the right direction."
The Texans have the NFL's No. 1 defense (269.7 yards per game) and the third-best rushing offense (158.1 yards per game), with Foster and Tate both ranking among the top 10.
"We're going to get tested even more now, so we'll have to call on everybody to do that," Kubiak said. "We do have a lot of confidence right now in what we're doing and we just got to keep our chin up and move forward."

India vs West Indies cricket live score: Umesh Yadav claims opener Barath early

After posting mammoth total of 631/7 in first innings, Indian bowler Umesh Yadav provided first jolt to West Indies in his very first over as he dismissed Adrian Barath for just one.

West Indies were struggling for 3/1 at this moment.

Skipper MS Dhoni has declared India's first innings for 631/7 on the day-2 of second Test against West Indies here at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Earlier, it was believed that Dhoni would declare the innings after Laxman's double ton. Laxman was unbeaten for 176 runs.

Before the declaring the innings, it was feast for the spectators as Dhoni smashed quickfire 144 runs to take India mammoth total of 631 runs along with Laxman. Dhoni's run feast came to an end soon after the Tea break. Dhoni just added six runs to his total before dismissed by Kemar Roach for 144 runs. It was Dhoni's highest Test total.


Powered by fiery hundred from Skipper MS Dhoni, India made 613/6 at Tea break on Day-2 in the first innings of second Test against West Indies.

It seems that Dhoni has been waiting for Laxman's double hundred to declare the first innings. Indian skipper MS Dhoni smashed 5th Test hundred of his career here at Eden Gardens on Day-2. Dhoni completed his hundred in just 147 balls.

India took full command over the second Test against West Indies on Day-2. VVS Laxman smashed 150 as India cruised to cross 600 mark.

Indian skipper MS Dhoni also smashed half century to take India past 500 in the second session of Day-2 of second Test.

Dhoni was in aggressive mood when he came out to bat after dismissal of Yuvraj Singh.

Earlier, Laxman continued his run feast at the favourable ground at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.


Resuming from overnight score of 346/6, Laxman and Yuvraj Singh provided cautious start to home side. However, Yuvraja once again failed to cash the oppertunity and departed for just 25.


On the other hand, Laxman continue run feast at his favourite ground and took India past 400 along with skipper MS Dhoni.

Windies skipper Darren Sammy took the second new ball to use the moisture in the atmosphere. However, Laxman and Yuvraj didn’t allow any damage and put India towards mammoth target.


With the help of Rahul Dravid’s 36th Test hundred, India ended the opening day with 346/5 on board.


However, Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar disappointed Kolkata fans as he missed the elusive 100th hundred after getting solid start. He was dismissed by Devender Bishoo for 38.


Stay tuned with us to get the live score of Ind vs WI 2nd Test from Kolkata.
 

UPTET 2011: Candidates duped with fake question papers

LUCKNOW: Sleuths of crime branch arrested two persons allegedly found duping aspirants in the name of providing question papers for the Uttar Pradesh Teacher Eligibility Test, held on Sunday. However, the credibility of the entire operation has come under scanner.
Acting on a tip-off, cops nabbed two men late on Saturday night. They were later identified as Satya Bahadur Singh, a native of Pratapgarh, residing at Shalimar Apartment on Cantt Road in Kaiserbagh police station area and Ajay Kumar Singh alias Mintoo, a native of Ghazipur, residing at Rajeevnagar, Kalyanpur in Gudamba police station area.
Satya Bahadur is a primary school teacher, while Ajay is a contractor with Nirman Nigam.
Police claim that till now four persons; Manoj Singh from Ballia, Vinay Singh from Allahabad, Ishtiyaaq from Pratapgarh and Irfaan from Allahabad have been identified to have given money for the question paper.
"The names have come up on the basis of the same being mentioned in the diary recovered from Satya Bahadur Singh," the DIG said and added that the same has not been cross-checked from the persons, whose names have been mentioned in the diary.
A FIR in this regard has been registered on behalf of the Lucknow police, the DIG confirmed. However, so far no complaint has been registered by any of the 'gullible' victims, sources said.
According to the police, the two were nabbed with guess question papers of seven subjects along with their answers.
"They were selling the guess papers in the name of question papers, which they claimed would be given at UPTET exams on Sunday. However, the guess paper allegedly sold by them and the question paper distributed to the candidates at UPTET exams did not match," DIG DK Thakur said.Cash worth Rs 16 lakh and a photocopy machine were recovered from their possession, the DIG further stated.
"The money in their possession was the collection amount in exchange of the guess papers from several gullible targets. They had sold the guess papers to several persons in amount ranging anything between Rs 2 and Rs 5 lakh," Thakur said.
One of the accused Satya Bahadur, who is also said to be the kingpin of the racket, talking to reporters, said that the amount which was recovered by the police from his house was meant for the expansion of his father-in-law Lal Sheetla Sharan Singh's Siddheshwar Das Inter College, Hargaun in Sultanpur district.
Singh said that he got LIC policy maturity amount worth Rs eight lakh about a month back through HDFC bank and rest of the amount he had borrowed from his friends. Singh claimed that he had the receipt of the matured amount with him.
About the recovery of guess papers, Singh said that since he was a primary teacher and academically bright, some of his friends and acquaintances wanted him to prepare a TET examination guess paper for them. It was in this regard that he prepared a guess paper, which the police was claiming to be a bid to befool the gullible targets.

Replying to the accused claim, the DIG questioned the utility of a photocopy machine, which was also kept with them. The photocopy machine was recovered from the contractor Ajay Kumar Singh.

Download IBPS Common Written Examination (CWE) Call Letter for Probationary Officer 2011

A Common Written Examination (CWE) will be conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) on 18 September 2011 for selection of personnel as Probationary Officers/ Management Trainees in the 19 Public Sector Banks.
CLICK HERE to download Call Letter and Information Handout by entering details of registration Number and Password/ Date of Birth for Probationary Officer/ Management Trainee CWE exam.
No hard copy of the call letter/ Information Handout will be sent by post.
This call letter along with Original Fee Payment Receipt, (e-receipt/ fee payment challan/ NEFT payment Receipt) and their photo identity proof in original as well as a photocopy will be required while attending the written examination.

breast enlargement exercise

Although natural breast enhancement can work for many, there are other things you can do to enhance your appearance! Posture is so incredibly important. Look around you. Watch how people carry themselves. There is constant research about how human posture conveys personal traits. If you see a woman walking with her shoulders concave or slouched over, you see a weak, tired person with a lack of self-esteem and purpose. You are here because you are looking for ways to strengthen your appearance as well as your inner core. Observe people during your day, every day. Choose to walk around in your life with your shoulders back, chest out and abdominal's held strongly tight to your core. This one suggestion may be the strongest and personally passionate in the entire site. When I ever feel down or less than I wish to be.. I take a strong breath, throw my shoulders back, and suck in my abdominals and walk with strength and purpose. That one thing can change your entire attitude about your day, about your life.
CHECK IT: Try stretching your arms up as far as you can, standing up on tiptoes and then let your arms fall gently back by your sides. This will normally show how much straighter and taller you can be. It’s all about confidence; the way a woman presents, and more importantly carries herself can speak volumes. Bad posture can result because of feelings of low self worth. Low self worth can manifest itself in different ways, such as refusing to join in or go out with friends or maybe just hiding away behind big baggy clothes.

The Nano Breast Serum is in fact a wondrous concoction to liven up your wilting and flaccid breasts. The Nano Breast Serum formulation here combines the Nanosomes (the minute oxidation compounds created by advanced modern science that called nanotechnology).