Monday, September 3, 2012

Roddick stays alive at US Open, beats Fognini

Andy Roddick reacts during his match against Italy's Fabio Fognini in the third round of play at the 2012 US Open tennis tournament, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Andy Roddick reacts during his match against Italy's Fabio Fognini in the third round of play at the 2012 US Open tennis tournament, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Andy Roddick celebrates after beating Italy's Fabio Fognini in the third round of play at the 2012 US Open tennis tournament, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Andy Roddick gestures during his match with Fabio Fogniniin the third round of play at the 2012 US Open tennis tournament, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Italy's Fabio Fognini returns a shot through his legs to Andy Roddick in the third round of play at the 2012 US Open tennis tournament, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Mel C. Evans)

Serbia's Novak Djokovic returns a shot to Julien Benneteau, of France, in the third round of play at the 2012 US Open tennis tournament, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Mel C. Evans)

(AP) ? Andy Roddick took up a new tradition in his final tournament.

His friend and opponent, Italian Fabio Fognini, asked to exchange shirts after their third-round match at the U.S. Open, a la soccer players and their jerseys.

It's a memento of the American's 7-5, 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-4 win Sunday at a pulsating Arthur Ashe Stadium.

"That was a cool gesture," Roddick said.

Asked if he handed over the sweaty top he wore during the 3-hour match, Roddick shot back: "Disgusting. No, I didn't. He got a washed one."

Roddick's career will last at least one more round ? but staving off retirement now gets far tougher. His next opponent is a fellow former U.S. Open champ: seventh-seeded Juan Martin del Potro, who won in 2009.

"We'll go out and we'll give it a go," Roddick said of preparing for the match. "I'm not really planning anything. I'm kind of winging this thing as I go."

Del Potro defeated fellow Argentine Leonardo Mayer 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (9).

"I know this is special, this day, for him, but I'm doing my job," del Potro said. "I will try to be focused on my match and doing my things, my shots. The match is going to be very tough. But if I play in high level, will be tough for both players."

The highest-seeded American man, No. 9 John Isner, exited a Grand Slam tournament with a five-set loss for the fourth time this year, defeated 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 by No. 19 Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany. The match ended at 2:26 a.m. Monday, tying the tournament record for latest finish.

Novak Djokovic, the defending champion, beat No. 31 Julien Benneteau in straight sets and will meet No. 18 Stanislas Wawrinka for a quarterfinal berth. No. 4 David Ferrer got past two-time major champion Lleyton Hewitt 7-6 (9), 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 and now meets No. 13 Richard Gasquet, who eliminated two-time NCAA champion Steve Johnson 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-3.

In women's action, top-seeded Victoria Azarenka beat 73rd-ranked Anna Tatishvili 6-2, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows for the first time. Azarenka has dropped only 10 games through four matches heading into a showdown against defending champion Sam Stosur, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over 18-year-old Laura Robson of Britain, whose breakthrough run included wins against past major champions Kim Clijsters and Li Na.

Maria Sharapova, a four-time Grand Slam title winner, rallied from a break down in the third set after a rain delay to beat No. 19 Nadia Petrova 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. She plays No. 11 Marion Bartoli, the 2007 Wimbledon runner-up, who came back to defeat 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 1-6, 6-2, 6-0.

Robson beat four-time major champion Clijsters in the second round Wednesday, sending the 29-year-old Belgian into retirement. It was the next day, Roddick's 30th birthday, that he surprisingly let the world know he had planned to walk away from the sport whenever this visit to Flushing Meadows ends.

The 59th-ranked Fognini told Roddick after the match that he had a request for the 2003 U.S. Open champ and would tell him more in the locker room. Fognini now owns an authentic Roddick shirt that will always remind him of the scintillating moments from their match.

One highlight included Fognini's full-sprint, back-to-the-net, between-the-legs shot. When Roddick returned it with a lunging volley winner into the open court to end the point, Fognini chucked his racket all the way to the service box.

"That's about as cleanly as you can hit a between-the-legs passing shot. He hit the thing from Jersey and almost won the point," Roddick said. "That was fun."

The key to the match came in the second-set tiebreaker, when Fognini took the first point, and Roddick the rest.

At 1-all, Roddick really came alive, as did the partisan group in the stands, when he smacked a winner and gestured vigorously.

"I played that point perfectly. It was so pretty, it should have been framed," Fognini said with a smile, "and he ruined it with a down-the-line passing shot that was crazy."

Roddick followed that with a pair of aces at 126 mph and 131 mph and pretty much was on his way.

Asked if he was pacing himself in the third set, which he lost, Roddick replied: "Man, I don't have time to pace myself."

The time between matches can be draining, too, the uncharted territory of readying himself for the end of his career while trying to postpone that moment a few more days.

"You're kind of smiling, humming, whistling, walking around, and you feel pretty good about it. All of a sudden, you have to say goodbye to someone. It's like this gut-check moment. It's these extreme emotions from five minutes to the next five minutes," Roddick said. "You think you know what's going on, but I don't think there's any way to prepare yourself for it."

___

Follow Rachel Cohen at https://twitter.com/rachelcohenap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-09-03-TEN-US-Open-/id-563eb439b51644f88b845b07ebfe725d

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Keep Your Business Thriving By Using These Article Marketing Tips ...

One of the most obvious problem with a business that isn?t taking off is the lack of consumer traffic being directed towards their domain. Something that you simply must try is article marketing. This article will provide you with several tips that will help you to use article marketing to increase the success of your business.

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Saturday, September 1, 2012

How do we evaluate the value of face-to-face contact? ? Computing ...

August 31, 2012 at 9:52 am

In the last few weeks, the focus of the MOOC debate seems to have shifted to an important question: Exactly what is the value of face-to-face contact? ?The President of Williams College, Adam F. Falk, published a piece in?WSJ claiming that contact hours with a professor is the most important factor in learning.

A recent article in the?Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine claims exactly the opposite (with no reference to support this dubious claim): ?In fact, one of the core tenets of traditional learning?that face-to-face interaction between teacher and student is critical?is actually of almost no value, according to meta-analysis of education studies.? ?The very next paragraph starts with: ?Meta-analysis shows that the other most effective educational tool is one-on-one tutoring.? ?So the tutoring is only valuable if it?s not face-to-face?

The below article by Walt Gardners raises a more reasoned critique of Falk?s WSJ piece. ?The question hasn?t been resolved one way or another for me, but it?s certainly one of the key questions in the debate over the value of MOOCs. ?What is lost when face-to-face contact is removed? ?How are on-line media forms best used for learning?

According to Falk, the curriculum, the choice of major, and the GPA do not predict self-reported gains in these critical outcomes nearly as well as ?how much time a student spent with professors.? In other words, a professor can be a dud in the classroom and yet still be effective in helping students achieve the stated goals. How is that possible? I don?t doubt that the relationship between professors and students is an important factor in learning. But that?s not what Falk argues. Instead, he asserts that it?s the number of hours a professor logs with students after the bell rings that counts the most. I fail to see what that has to do with instruction.

The rebuttal is that not all learning takes place in the classroom. Fair enough. But ?personal contact? can mean having coffee and talking about the latest fashions. ?Im sure thats a pleasant way to spend time, but how does that translate into, say, being able to write effectively? I assume that the time spent with students does not involve tutoring because Falk never uses the word. The irony, of course, is that when teachers in K-12 complain about the need for small classes so that they have a better chance to know students and design lessons in line with their needs and interests, they are seen as making excuses.

via A Strange Way to Evaluate Learning ? Walt Gardners Reality Check ? Education Week.

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Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: education research, educational psychology, learning sciences, MOOCs, teachers.

Source: http://computinged.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/how-do-we-evaluate-the-value-of-face-to-face-contact/

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Sr. Software Development Engineer (SDE) / Microsoft / Bellevue, WA

Location: Bellevue, WA, US
Job ID: 807829-91627
Division: Online Services Division

Online Advertising is one of the fastest growing businesses on the Internet today with $40 billion of a $600 billion advertising market already online today. Microsoft is rapidly innovating to grow its share of this market by providing the advertising industry with a world class advertising platform and service. The User Centric Advertising team is a strategic and growing team within Microsoft Advertising. We have the charter of building the next generation of marketer tools aimed at solving enterprise?s Omni-channel retailing needs across a wide variety of different channels ranging from the physical world to the digital world. The platform also provides built in analytics capabilities for marketers to track and make informed changes enabling faster reaction to market changes. This is an exciting one time opportunity to be part of a v1 team from the beginning and if you are ready for the challenge, come join us!

We are looking for an experienced, innovative and passionate senior SDE that can be a major contributor to help build and ship the Omni-channel marketing platform and service. Experience in Windows Azure and scalable, extensible software design and integration is required. Solid C/C++/C# development practices are a must. An advanced degree in computer science or electrical engineering or a related discipline is a plus. Experience in developing and shipping complex projects is also important.

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As a senior member of the team, contribute to the vision of the technology and lead the development of key applications.
Actively participate in reviews of specs, architecture, designs, and code, and help drive the direction of key features.
Contribute to the development of the overall architecture for the group.

Qualifications:
7+ years of commercial product development experience in C# and/or C++.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills with proven technical leadership skills.
Demonstrated experience shipping at least 3 products.
A B.S. degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience.

TO APPLY
Click here to apply - Please mention that you saw the job on The Tech Report

Source: http://jobs.techreport.com/job/sr-software-development-engineer-sde-bellevue-wa-microsoft-bc853d6603/?d=1&source=rss_page

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Mother of U.S. morning TV host Robin Roberts dies

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. morning television host Robin Roberts was mourning the death of her mother on Friday, just a day after she left the "Good Morning America" show to prepare for a bone marrow transplant to treat a rare blood disorder.

Roberts left the ABC news program on Thursday, a day earlier than scheduled, to see her ailing 88-year-old mother, Lucimarian Tolliver Roberts, in Mississippi. Jeffrey W. Schneider, senior vice president of ABC News, said Lucimarian died Thursday night.

"Robin did make it to say goodbye," her co-host George Stephanopoulos told viewers on Friday's show.

Lucimarian Roberts was the first African-American to head Mississippi's board of education, according to ABC.

Roberts, who is expected to be off the air for several months, revealed in June that she had been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome - a disorder triggered by her treatment for breast cancer five years ago. Her older sister, Sally-Ann, will be the bone marrow donor.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mother-u-morning-tv-host-robin-roberts-dies-152158650.html

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