California still hasn't bought land for bullet train route

Construction of California's high-speed rail network is supposed to start in just six months, but the state hasn't acquired a single acre along the route and faces what officials are calling a challenging schedule to assemble hundreds of parcels needed in the Central Valley.

The complexity of getting federal, state and local regulatory approvals for the massive $68-billion project has already pushed back the start of construction to July from late last year. Even with that additional time, however, the state is facing a risk of not having the property to start major construction work near Fresno as now planned.

It hopes to begin making purchase offers for land in the next several weeks. But that's only the first step in a convoluted legal process that will give farmers, businesses and homeowners leverage to delay the project by weeks, if not months, and drive up sales prices, legal experts say.

One major stumbling block could be valuing agricultural land in a region where prices have been soaring, raising property owners' expectations far above what the state expects to pay.

"The reality is that they are not going to start in July," said Anthony Leones, a Bay Area attorney who has represented government agencies as well as property owners in eminent domain cases.

State high-speed rail officials say it won't be easy, but they can acquire needed property and begin the project on time.

"It is a challenge," said Jeff Morales, the rail agency's chief executive. "It is not unlike virtually any project. The difference is the scale of it."

Quickly acquiring a new rail corridor is crucial to the project, which Gov. Jerry Brown touted last week as the latest symbol of California's tradition of dreaming big and making major investments in its future.

Delays in starting construction could set in motion a chain reaction of problems that would jeopardize the politically and financially sensitive timetable for building the $6-billion first leg of the system. Under its deal with the Obama administration, which is pushing the project as an integral part of its economic and transportation agenda, the state must complete the first 130 miles of rail in the Central Valley by 2018, an aggressive schedule that would require spending about $3.6 million every day.

California voters in 2008 approved plans for a 220-mph bullet train system that would initially link the Bay Area and Southern California at a cost of $32 billion, less than half the estimated cost of the project.

If the construction schedule slips, costs could grow and leave the state without enough money to complete the entire first segment. Rail agency documents acknowledge initial construction may not get as close to Bakersfield in the southern Central Valley as planned.

In addition to property, the rail authority still needs permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and approval by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, two more potential choke points that Morales says can be navigated.

The land purchases are waiting on the hiring of a team of specialized contractors, but they cannot start their work until the rail agency gets approval from another branch of the state bureaucracy. About 400 parcels are needed for the first construction segment, a 29-mile stretch from Madera to Fresno.

The formal offers will start an eminent domain action, the legal process for seizing land from private owners. The owners have 30 days to consider the offer, and then the state must go through a series of steps that can add 100 more days of appeals and hearings, assuming the state can get on the court calendar, according to Robert Wilkinson, an eminent domain litigator in Fresno. If the state fails to convince a judge that a quick takeover of property is justified, formal trials could stretch on for 18 months, he added.

"I would think a lot of these are going to end up in litigation," he said. "It is a tight schedule, no question about it."

Indeed, the rail authority's formal right-of-way plan indicates it does not expect to acquire the first properties until Sept. 15, despite other documents that indicate construction would start in July. Rail officials said they padded the schedule to avoid claims for additional payments by construction contractors should land not be available by July.

Last month, the federal Government Accountability Office reported that about 100 parcels were at risk of not being available in time for construction.

That assessment was based on information the office collected last August. Susan Fleming, a GAO investigator, testified at a House hearing last month: "Not having the needed right of way could cause delays as well as add to project costs."

Morales said in a recent interview that he would not argue with the warning in the GAO report but still sees nothing that would delay the start of construction. Technically, the rail authority could meet the July target date by beginning demolition or other construction on a single piece of property, he said.

Anja Raudabaugh, executive director of the Madera County Farm Bureau, which is suing to halt the project under the California Environmental Quality Act, said the rail authority will face strong opposition to condemnation proceedings in the Central Valley. The bureau has hired a condemnation expert to help battle the land seizures.

"It is a harried mess," she said.

She noted that agricultural land prices rose rapidly last year across the nation. In the Central Valley, the average price of farmland is $28,000 per acre, while the rail authority's budget anticipates an average price of $8,000 per acre, she said.

Kole Upton, an almond farmer who leads the rail watchdog group Preserve Our Heritage, questioned the rail agency's expertise in conducting complex appraisals of agricultural land that has orchards, irrigation systems and processing facilities.

"I am not sure this thing has been well thought out by people who have a deep understanding of agriculture," Upton said. "I live on my farm, and my son lives on my farm. My dad started it after World War II. This is our heritage and our future."

Morales said he believes the agency's budget for property acquisitions is adequate and he did not want to negotiate prices publicly.

"We don't think we are wildly off," he said.

ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/v_ZEBwRHTMc/la-me-bullet-land-20130127,0,3717130.story

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Internet Marketing: What Does it Really Mean? | Business Tips ...

Jan 27, 2013 by Victorino Abrugar at Online Marketing

What is Internet marketing or online marketing? When we hear the word ?Internet?, the usual words that suddenly pop up in our mind are email, website, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. And when we are asked about marketing, we begin thinking about business, brand, product, advertising, and customers.

So if we are to be asked what Internet marketing is, our basic answer could be the process of using the Internet which is composed of websites, search engines, and social media to promote a business, brand or product in order to attract more customers and increase revenue. And if you want to make its definition even shorter, Internet marketing could be the process of marketing a product or service over the Internet.

However, the Internet is not just all about emails and websites or about search engines and social media. The Internet is a huge online world that every business owner, entrepreneur or marketer should explore further in a consistent manner. Moreover, marketing is not all about advertising your products to attract more customers and increase your revenue. Marketing also includes ensuring your product, price, distribution, processes, and extra services to be satisfying and useful to customers.

The people on the Internet

The Internet cannot exist without people. The online world cannot exist without the people who are using it or even living on it. For example, search engines like Google are useless without the people who are using them to search information. Moreover, social media like Facebook and Twitter are dead without the people who are using them and interacting with each other every day.

Thus, when you are marketing your product or service on the Internet, you are not actually promoting it to the search engines or the social networking sites, but you are promoting it to the people who are the primary users of search engines and social media. Hence, if a person is destroying the usefulness of emails, search engines, and social media by spamming and annoying people? can we say that he is doing Internet marketing? And even if a person is using the Internet the right way through legitimate online advertising schemes but not providing the quality of the product he promised? can we call him a real Internet marketer?

The real Internet marketer

Being a real Internet marketer is not only measured by his technical expertise in website development, link building, content writing, making a web page rank higher in the search engines, and getting many likes on Facebook or retweets on Twitter. A real online marketer is not also measured by the instant profit he can generate out of his online marketing efforts. But a genuine Internet marketer is someone who can make people smile and thank him for the solution he brought to them, causing this to reward him long-lasting profits.

As you will realize, Internet marketing is for the people on the Internet. Whether it is online or offline marketing, marketing should be focused on people. And when we use Internet marketing, it only means we are targeting the people who are using the Internet. If we want to use online marketing to achieve business success, we have to focus not only on how we can use the Internet to promote our business, but we also have to concentrate on how people use the Internet to satisfy their needs.

The meaning of Internet marketing

Internet marketing is the process of using the Internet (website, search engines, social media, email, blogs, etc.,) and analyzing how people use the Internet to satisfy target customers by providing them the product or solution they need.

Internet + marketing = Internet marketing

Internet is everything on the Internet, including websites, emails, search engines, social media, online processes, web applications, and the people who are using it.

Marketing is your product, price, place (distribution), promotion (advertising), process, people (marketing team) + other elements that will satisfy customers and help you achieve your marketing goals.

Therefore, whatever type of Internet marketing you are using, whether it is social media marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing or anything else, make sure to satisfy and wow your target users or customers.

Victorino Abrugar is the founder and chief writer of BusinessTips.Ph. Vic is a social media enthusiast who loves to share his knowledge and insights through blogging. He provides business coaching to aspiring small business owners and entrepreneurs to help them reach their business and life's goals. Follow him on Twitter at @viclogic or interact with him on Facebook.

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Source: http://businesstips.ph/internet-marketing-what-does-it-really-mean/

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GPS Guide: Brian Penny Shares More Wisdom

The stress and strain of constantly being connected can sometimes take your life -- and your well-being -- off course. GPS For The Soul can help you find your way back to balance.

GPS Guides are our way of showing you what has relieved others' stress in the hopes that you will be able to identify solutions that work for you. We all have de-stressing "secret weapons" that we pull out in times of tension or anxiety, whether they be photos that relax us or make us smile, songs that bring us back to our heart, quotes or poems that create a feeling of harmony, or meditative exercises that help us find a sense of silence and calm. We encourage you to look at the GPS Guide below, visit our other GPS Guides here, and share with us your own personal tips for finding peace, balance and tranquility.

In the GPS Guide below, Brian Penny shares more inspirational life tips (see his "Five Rules To Live By," here). Are there certain mantras and quotes that help to guide your life's journey? Let us know in the comments below.

• When times get really tough, it helps to remember I chose this life. I chose the battles I fight. I chose the path I walk. Remembering I?m in control of my situation gives me the confidence to take another step toward my destiny. I like to look at it as the destiny existed in the path. I just happened to be the guy who chose to walk it.

• This quote always makes me smile. While I happen to share Hunter?s outlook on many of the finer pleasures in life, what?s most important is to remember that what works for you works for you, even if it?s not one of Oprah?s favorite things?

• I spend a lot of time alone in a room figuring things out. Part of getting in touch with yourself is discovering your own opinions. Sitting alone in your room is your time to sort through all your thoughts and experiences for the day. If something happens during the day that you don?t like, just jot it down on a post it or make a note on your phone to go through it during your alone time. Once it?s done, it?s done, and you can move on with taking care of yourself, getting a healthy amount of sleep, and wake up refreshed for the next day.

Brian Penny is a former business analyst at Bank of America turned whistleblower who spent the last 2 years helping regulators and attorneys uncover the largest bank and insurance fraud in history. He documents his experiences working with Anonymous and fighting the banks on his blog . He?s currently in the Tampa Bay area preparing to live in a van and training to be a yogi under Ally Ford .

For more GPS Guides, click here.

To see Penny's "Rules To Live By," click here.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/25/brian-penny-gps-guide_n_2546588.html

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Fairfax County Public Schools Opening 2 Hours Late - Centreville ...

Fairfax County Public Schools are opening on a two-hour delay this morning due to snow that fell overnight.

According to the FCPS website this morning:?

• Morning preschool (special education) classes are canceled.?
• Afternoon preschool (special education) classes start on their regular schedule.
• Full-day preschool (special education) and Family and Early Childhood Education Program/Head Start classes start two hours later than the regular schedule.
• Morning field trips are canceled.
• SACC centers will be open by 7:15 a.m.?
• Morning transportation for high school academy classes is canceled.
• Adult and community education classes will start on time.

Federal employees have the option for unscheduled telework or unscheduled leave today.

Falls Church City Public Schools are operating on a normal schedule, according to the school district's twitter account.?

Snow showers began after midnight Thursday and continued on and off throughout the night. The sun is expected to peek out by 10 a.m. with temperatures rising to 29 this afternoon. Winds will come from the northwest, bringing the wind chill down into the teens all day.

Check here for?winter weather driving tips?before you hit the roads this morning.

Source: http://centreville.patch.com/articles/fairfax-county-public-schools-opening-2-hours-late

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Kim Kardashian's Family to Throw Baby Shower

Kim Kardashian?s Family to Throw Baby Shower

Posted by Adam

Thursday January 24, 2013

KIM Kardashian will get a lavish baby shower from her family.

The reality TV star is expecting her first child with boyfriend Kanye West and her mother Kris Jenner is working to throw a huge bash to celebrate despite her daughter?s protestations that she doesn?t want any fuss and would rather charity donations be made instead of people buying her expensive gifts..

?The shower is going to happen this spring, outdoors, under a tent in Kris? backyard,? a source said.

?The colors have already been chosen: silver, white, cream and pale yellow.

?She doesn?t want a big party. She has told friends she would prefer if they made a donation to the Dream Foundation in her name instead of physical gifts.

?This is their first child. Kanye is really close to his family, he will fly them in. He will probably put them up at the Bel Air Hotel and shuttle them over for the party.?

Tags: kanye west, kim kardashian

Source: http://www.showbizspy.com/article/256491/kim-kardashians-family-to-thrown-baby-shower.html

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Adventures in home improvement: water repipe | Daniel Hoang

When we first bought our home, we upgraded to a new 200 amp electrical service and rewired much of the home. With that project done, we installed a hydronic?furnace? a tankless water heater hooked up to an air handler that pumps warm air to the ducts throughout the house. Unfortunately, our home had old galvanized steel water pipes which were too rusty to hook up to the water heat. We finally planned and started the water repipe project.

One lesson I learned right away is that any infrastructure work impacts the rest of the home. We took this opportunity to shift the garage wall five feet in to gain some space in the basement. We worked with my neighbor to frame out a 2?4 wall. I got a chance to play with a framing nailer and a powder-actuated nail gun. It uses a .22 caliber shell to shoot a nail into the concrete floor. Before any of this could happen, my friends and I pulled down lathe and plaster and some blown in insulation.

Here?s a view of the basement side of the wall. At this point, I demoed most of the old wall. The old 2?4 are rock hard. They don?t make framing lumber like they used to.

After the old wall went down, the cat boxes were temporarily housed there. We also found that the walls weren?t insulated and some of the plumbing was slowly leaking over the years. Fortunately moving the wall back opened up access to the plumbing upstairs. The old tank water heater was unsafely sitting in the middle of the basement floor.

To level out the floor, I borrowed my neighbors rotary hammer to creak up some of the concrete and remove the old footings. I learned that concrete work is heavy, back-breaking, and very dirty.

Here I got a clean slab removed, the old footing came up in one piece. I ended up expanding that hole almost to the drain line to lower it to the point where I could roughly level the floor.

The plumber suggested that while we were doing the repipe project that I consider replacing the line to the water main. That meant bribing two amazing friends over to help me dig up a 2 feet deep trench from the sidewalk to the house. It didn?t sound like much until we started digging up rocks and tree roots. We broke sweat pretty quickly and no hidden treasures were found.

We worked with a local independent plumber based out of West Seattle. He came over for three days to run the water lines and replace all the connections. I enjoyed working with an?independent?than a large company. There?s a lot more pride in craftsmanship and ownership in the project. I tagged along with him for a few hours a day to learn the technique and most importantly, to have an understanding and confidence in my new system. Hopefully I didn?t annoy him too much along the way.

Here?s the new 1? pex line that runs to the house. I insulated the line while we had access to it before I filled the dirt back in.

Although it was a hard project, it was well worth it to replace this old steel line that went to my house. The rust is to be expected. That coupling is a patch job from a long time ago. Many homeowners forgo the process of replacing the supply line to the home because of the cost of trenching. One big benefit was that I was able to move the water shutoff into my mechanical room and build out the water lines in a more planned fashion than try to retrofit to an existing supply.

Here?s a in progress shot of our new mechanical room. The tankless is to the left with new copper piping thanks to my plumber. That is hooked up to Pex lines that supply the air handler and provides cold and hot water for the house. The tankless is rated to cost me $200 a year vs. $650 for the tank heater. We?ll have to do some more benchmarking to figure out the actual operational cost.

The tankless provides both hot water for the furnace and hot water for home use.

The wall we built earlier provided new spacing for the revamped plumbing. We got rid of most of the steel drain lines that never drained the tub well. The old washer drained into a utility sink. We now have a drain built into our new 2?6 wall. Once the wallboard goes up, it?ll be a clean look. You can?t tell from the picture but we also got hot and cold running into an outside spigot.

A lesson I learned was that plumbers specialize in plumbing. He roughed in the lines to the bathroom but had to leave copper stubs until the wall was patched. This way, the person doing the patch could cut the pipe to the right length to flush mount the shut off valve. I took a stab at it and rough cut some 1/2 inch dry wall. It was hard finding solid structure to screw the drywall onto. Using a pipe cutter, I cut the copper stubs, attached the valve and hooked up the water lines and drains.

I applied drywall mud in the joints, put a layer of mesh tape and added the first layer of mud. After it dried, I lightly sanded and added a second layer of mud with a larger knife. After that dried, I added the finish layer of mud and smoothed it out with my largest knife. A lot of sanding later, I have a smooth wall that?s ready for texturing, priming, and painting. Now I know why these guys charge so much. It?s not hard, it just takes a lot of time.

Up next, I have a lot of finish work to do to clean up the mechanical room, dress up the laundry room, and finish out the garage so I have a place to store my tools.

Source: http://www.danielhoang.com/2013/01/21/adventures-in-home-improvement-water-repipe/

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Cancer survivor George Karl has mixed feelings on Lance ...

George Karl was diagnosed with cancer during the 2009-10 NBA season.

Lance Armstrong admitted to doping during his professional cycling career last week, but that still makes Denver coach George Karl hesitant to judge or detach himself from the cyclist's efforts to raise awareness about cancer.

Karl is the founder of the George Karl Foundation, which has worked with Livestrong to raise awareness and funds for cancer research.

Karl told Benjamin Hockman of the Denver Post that he supports Armstrong as a person "who's done a tremendous job for cancer research and cancer navigation" while saying that he wants Livestrong to survive. Karl described Livestrong as the "No. 1 cancer navigation system for patients in cancer care right now."

Even after Armstrong's admission of using performance-enhancing drugs, Karl welcomed him to be a part of anything that he's involved with regarding cancer care.

Karl said he wouldn't be "judge and jury" about Armstrong's use of banned substances while complementing his training regiment and feat of winning seven Tour de France titles.

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Source: http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2013/1/20/3896408/george-karl-lance-armstrong-cancer-livestrong

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Wind turbines supercharged with superconductors

WIND turbines may soon get a supercharge. Turbines wound with superconducting wire instead of regular copper could turn today's 2 to 3-megawatt generators into 10-megawatt powerhouses, say teams in Europe and the US that are racing to produce the machines.

At heart, a wind turbine is simple - a series of wire coils attached to the rotor blade spin in the presence of strong magnetic fields, provided by stationary magnets. This generates a current, but the resistance in copper wire limits the amount of current that can flow through the coils. Making the coils from a resistance-free superconductor would cut down on weight and boost power generation.

Using superconductors will not be easy, though, partly due to the ultra-low temperatures they require. Developing a coil that can be cooled while simultaneously rotating with the turbine blades is a big challenge. A research project dubbed Suprapower, funded by the European Union, kicked off in December to address this problem.

Holger Neumann at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and other members of the Suprapower consortium are betting on a new "high temperature" superconductor, magnesium diboride, which works at 20 kelvin. "It's light, easily made into wires and is really cheap compared with the old niobium-titanium superconductors, which needed cooling way down to 4 kelvin," Neumann says. That temperature difference might not sound much but it means, crucially, that cooling the magnesium diboride superconductor requires just one-seventh of the power.

The team will also have to build a casing, called a cryostat, in which the superconducting coil will be kept chilled by gaseous helium. This is tricky as its supporting structure will act as a "heat bridge" to the warmer world outside. Neumann thinks they have cracked the problem with a novel arrangement of an outer vacuum vessel and insulating inner layers of plastic and titanium.

But however good their technology, they have to contend with an unusual property of superconductors - when the wires sweep through a magnetic field, their ability to generate current is reduced. That means more coil turns would be needed to make up for the current loss, which would negate some of the weight savings and make the turbines more expensive to construct.

"Magnetic flux lines interfere with the wires' ability to transport electricity, lowering its performance," says Venkat Selvamanickam at the University of Houston, Texas, where the US government is funding work via its Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy. Selvamanickam's team thinks they have found a way to solve this problem - adding 5-nanometre-wide particles of barium zirconate to the wire. The team found that this "pins" the magnetic flux lines in place as the wires sweep through the field, preventing the formation of swirling magnetic vortices that reduce current flow. So far they have eliminated 65 per cent of this current-limiting problem.

The US team claims to be within a few years of building their own 10-megawatt wind turbine, and says that their techniques could make superconducting wires attractive for distributing electricity as well as generation.

"If we can demonstrate this superconducting-wire technology in a wind turbine, we think it's more likely that it will make its way into the power cables of the electricity grid," says Selvamanickam.

Merrily spins as laser looks on

Lasers could slash wind-turbine power outages, say engineers at Chonbuk National University in South Korea. If the bolts securing turbine blades to a rotor begin to loosen, or blade mass is lost due to a lightning strike, a blade can strike the turbine tower and fall off. But monitoring for when a blade starts to go out of alignment is expensive as it involves peppering each blade with strain sensors.

A cheaper answer is to place a laser on the tower and instead measure the reflection time from every blade as it passes by. This way, deviation of all the blades is measured using just one low-cost sensor (Smart Materials and Structures, doi.org/j62).

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/27a5c72b/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cmg217290A0A50B60A0A0Ewind0Eturbines0Esupercharged0Ewith0Esuperconductors0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Steps to get customers on Internet - SEO Content Online

The task of getting customers with the help of internet is not easy. It can confuse you and put up several questions which you will find extremely difficult to answer. Some of the questions are: What should be my first step? Is there any payment required for ads?? How to choose best social media network for my business promotion? How online customers can find me?

How to start?

Time is very important so you should run for your business instead of surfing the world of internet. You can follow the below mentioned steps to get online customer without paying any money for the ads. The main purpose is to assist the clients in finding you so that you can develop a great bonding with them and when they agree to buy then you are top of mind. Check out the following steps to know more:

Step 1: How can you find a blog for promotion of your business?

-????????? Register and then set up a blog or website. Make sure that it is optimized for the mobile devices.

Step 2: Use SEO so that people can find you

-????????? ?Help your future customers and Google to find you online.

Step 3: Importance of Keyword Research in small scale business

-????????? Look out for the words which can help you in attracting people with good search engine ranking.

Step 4: Go for business blog to find online customers

-????????? Great content is very important as people find it easy to interact with it and thus it seems appealing to them.

Step 5a: Importance of Internal links in business growth

-????????? Use your website to guide Google so that it can find what you do and pages important for you.

Step 5b: How Inbound links are useful in business growth?

-????????? Try to use links which are inbound and can promote your page ranking.? In this way search engine can give you more authority.

Step 6: Introduction to best methods of using social media for small scale business.

-????????? Social media is very important these days. These three networks are mainly recommended for business promotion.

Step 7: ?Use Facebook account for business promotion.

-????????? Create a Facebook account so that you can catch the attention of online customers.

Step 8: Know the importance of Twitter in your business

-????????? ?Know how to create a Twitter account and then start using it for online customers.

Step 9: Pinterest to create more business opportunities

-????????? Get information about creating a Pinterest account and use it to find potential customers.

Step 10: Develop the Wow factor: Email strategy for business

-????????? Learn the basics of developing relationships with other people and use the email campaign to convert them into customers.

Step 11: Record your progress at regular level with Analytics.

-????????? Check if you are going on the right path and try to improve so that more and more customers can be attracted to you.

Step 12: Look for online customers.

-????????? Implement everything you know with best effect and start.

Author info: If you are looking for promoting your business online then all you need to do is to avail Internet Marketing services from seocontentonline.com and let your website be promoted through SMO.

Source: http://www.seocontentonline.com/blog/steps-to-get-customers-on-internet/

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PROMISES, PROMISES: Obama curbs ambition this time

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Despite a relentless workload ahead, President Barack Obama is lighter on his feet in one sense as he opens his second term. Gone are the hundreds of promises of the past. He's toting carry-ons instead of heavy cargo this time.

Obama's first presidential campaign and the years that followed were distinguished by an overflowing ambition, converted into a checklist of things he swore to do. The list was striking not only for its length but its breadth, ranging from tidbits in forgotten corners of public policy to grand ? even grandiose ? pronouncements worthy of Moses.

He made a sweeping vow to calm the rise of the seas. And a literally down-in-the-weeds pledge to aid the sage grouse and its grassy habitat.

Obama worked his way through that stockpile, breaking dozens of his promises along the way and keeping many more of them.

Thanks to the messy business of governing, the president's record on promises is not cut and dried. Some of his most notable flops, for example, contained seeds of future success.

Failing to achieve a promised first-term overhaul of immigration law, Obama took stopgap executive action to help as many as 1.7 million younger illegal immigrants stay in the country. Now, after an election marked by Hispanic clout, he finds the political landscape more amenable to trying again.

Climate change legislation was another prominent broken pledge, but he came at the issue piecemeal, imposing the first-ever regulations on heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming, setting tough controls on coal-fired power plants and greatly increasing fuel efficiency for cars and trucks.

Likewise, not all of his successes are all they were cracked up to be.

Yes, he achieved the transformational health care law, putting the U.S. on a path to universal coverage. But it remains in question whether costs will come under control as he said they would ? and as the name of the Affordable Care Act implies. Obama swore a typical family's premium would drop by up to $2,500 a year by the end of his first term, but they've continued to rise. That's a broken promise tucked inside a kept one.

Yes, Obama is extricating the U.S. from wars as he promised before and after he became president, but what instabilities does he leave behind? And how many troops? His vow that, in 2014, "our longest war will be over" is on track to be true in the main, yet thousands of troops might stay indefinitely in Afghanistan as a residual force once the bulk of the 66,000 now there are gone.

His promise to raise taxes on the rich finally came to be at the bitter end of the last Congress, during the debate to avoid going off the "fiscal cliff" of severe spending cuts and steep tax increases that would have started automatically absent an agreement. He also made good on his vow to hold rates steady for everyone else. (The fine print: Households making $250,000 to $400,000 are off the hook from the higher rates. Obama had said he'd tax them more, too.)

As for falling sensationally short, the bitterness in Congress on display in that debate, and so many others, was to be swept away as part of the change Obama promised to bring to Washington's ways and manners. Candidate Obama vowed to turn the page from "ugly partisanship," only to concede recently that such a transformation was beyond his reach because "you can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside."

If Obama can't be held responsible for cantankerous lawmakers, though, it's worth remembering that not all of the change he promised to bring to governance was centered on Congress. He also vowed to restrain the power of Washington's special interests by barring lobbyists from serving in his administration, only to backtrack by issuing waivers and other exceptions to those new rules. That was strictly an "inside" job.

On another key promise, deficits have shot up, not dropped by half as he pledged in his 2008 campaign and again as president when the recession was raging. That inherited recession, the halting recovery and his heavy spending to spur growth yielded four straight years of trillion-dollar deficits.

Ahead? A far leaner list, but still a tough one to achieve.

In the 2012 campaign, Obama counted "comprehensive immigration reform" as the first thing he would do this year after the fiscal-cliff deal. Dormant for years, gun control is back as an issue because of the deadly rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary, and took top priority outside fiscal matters. But a push on immigration is coming.

Among other promises from the campaign:

?Make higher education affordable for everyone. Obama said he'll ensure by the end of the decade that the U.S. has more people with college degrees than any other country, recruit 100,000 math and science teachers in 10 years, help 2 million workers attend community college and seek to restrain the growth in college tuition by half over 10 years.

?Put government on a path to cutting deficits by $4 trillion over 10 years. That's off to a rocky start. The fiscal-cliff deal represented a failure to settle on a plan to reduce the national debt, instead increasing both spending and taxes while putting off decisions on the big budget cuts that will be essential to bringing down trillion-dollar deficits.

?Cut imports of foreign oil by half by 2020. Once a pipe dream of a succession of presidents, a path toward energy self-sufficiency has become more conceivable thanks to a boom in domestic production.

?End subsidies to the oil industry. A failed promise from the first term, it's given low odds of succeeding this time.

?Prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Obama has left open the possibility of military action if that's what it takes to stop Iranian nuclear development. Meantime, he's imposed stiff economic penalties on Iran to persuade it to cease uranium enrichment activity, so far without apparent success.

?"Continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet ? because climate change is not a hoax." When Obama secured the primary victories needed for the 2008 Democratic nomination, he pledged that future generations would look back on that very night as "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." At the heart of that was a pledge for strong action on climate change in his first term.

But legislation to cap emissions failed, without Obama leading a charge to pass it, and he all but stopped talking about the issue afterward.

Still, his administration began treating carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the law and steered billions of dollars into cleaner energy. The initiative could be revived in his new term, as an "obligation to ourselves and to future generations," as he now puts it.

?Help factories double their exports, creating 1 million manufacturing jobs. It's a tall order because manufacturing jobs have been declining steadily for nearly two decades.

?Consolidate a "whole bunch" of federal agencies dealing with business issues into one new department led by a secretary of business.

Altogether, it's a more restrained to-do list than Obama produced for his first four years, when PolitiFact.com counted more than 500 Obama promises and found that 46 percent were kept, 23 percent broken and 25 percent ended in a compromise, with a smattering still in the works or stalled.

The sage grouse lucked out, gaining a Sage Grouse Initiative to give the species more grass cover for nesting. As promised.

EDITOR'S NOTE _ An occasional look at government promises and how well they are kept

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/promises-promises-obama-curbs-ambition-time-075112535--politics.html

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Web Designing: Ecommerce Design - the common hoster

If you are seeking to expand your business, an ecommerce shop can be a really excellent expense. Nevertheless, just constructing a web site on your own will not entice the customers you need. In buy for your site to be successful, it requirements to be designed effectively. One of the most essential aspects associated to ecommerce design is search motor optimization. For your website to be seen by possible buyers, they have to truly be capable to identify it online.
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An crucial stage connected to ecommerce design is to truthfully describe your item or services. For case in point, if you are [...] More..

Originally posted 2012-06-25 03:07:58.

Source: http://thecommonhoster.com/2013/01/15/web-designing-ecommerce-design/

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British Playwright Michael Lesslie to Pen 'Assassin's Creed' | Movies ...

Posted 7:20 PM January 14th, 2013 by Binh Ngo

Michael Fassbender is that much closer to playing an assassin in the videogame adaptation Assassin's Creed, a joint collaboration between New Regency and videogame maker Ubisoft.

The two companies have set British playwright Michael Lesslie to work on the screenplay, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Lesslie has written a couple of shorts, but Assassin's Creed will be his first feature.

Fassbender came onboard to star and co-produce the movie with Conor McCaughan last year after talks between Ubisoft and Sony broke down, which might have been caused by Ubisoft's unwillingness to cede creative control over to Sony.

Ubisoft found a willing partner in New Regency though, and, last we've heard, they hoped to have the movie in production sometime this summer. We're not sure if that's still the plan.

If the plot of the movie follows that of the videogame, then Fassbender will play a bartender named Desmond Miles, who is a descendant from a long line of assassins. Captured by a secret organization, he is forced to relive the memories of his ancestors in an effort to discover the location of some sought-after artifacts. Luckily for him, by experiencing those memories, he is able to acquire the skills of his ancestors.

As of yet, no director is attached.

Source: http://www.movieswithbutter.com/blogs/british-playwright-michael-lesslie-pen-assassins-creed-429889

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Microsoft to give free TV ad to top-voted Windows Phone 8 app

App dev deathmatch offers thousands in prizes Microsoft wants to convince more developers to build apps for its Windows Phone 8 smartphone platform, and to do so, it has taken its cue from none?

See the rest here: Microsoft to give free TV ad to top-voted Windows Phone 8 app

This entry was posted in Windows Phone and tagged developers, microsoft, motion, offers, platform, prizes, research, smartphone, thousands by Admin. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://technutscomputer.com/2013/01/15/microsoft-to-give-free-tv-ad-to-top-voted-windows-phone-8-app/

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Jurassic Park IV Set for June 14, 2014

Last year, producer Frank Marshall said he expected the Jurassic Park IV movie to be in theaters within two years, and he was true to his word. Jurassic Park IV has been dated for June 14, 2014, Universal announced last Friday.

Why did it take nearly 13 years? The script, said producer Kathleen Kennedy.

"It's really hard to keep these things going when there's an expectation and a desire by the public and the audience to keep certain franchises going.

"As filmmakers, we often sit there going, 'Okay. We have to answer the question, 'Why do another one?' If you can't answer that question, you shouldn't be doing it. It's tough.

"We're trying to come up with a story that makes sense and isn't going to disappoint people and is, hopefully, going to get people excited and reinvigorate the franchise. We've got to start with a script and the story," Kennedy explained back in September.

Mark Protosevich did a pass on the script, but the most recent version is by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver.

No director is attached, but with Robopocalypse on hold, will Steven Spielberg take a crack at it?

Jurassic Park IV is expected to kick off a new trilogy for the franchise.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1926655/news/1926655/

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Sun, January 13, 2013 - Playing with Fire: Artists of the California Studio Glass Movement

The best of the Bay Area for KQED fans: discover events hand-picked by our editors, sponsored listings, and more.

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1. Select a shaded day 17 from the mini-cal.
2. Use the mini-cal to Navigate forward > or backward < a month.
3. Click here to view this week's events.

Source: http://events.kqed.org/events/index.php?com=detail&eID=24563

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Video: Is Lew the Right Choice For Treasury Secretary?

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50419812/

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As expected: Health care costs rise ? insurance rates going up ...

As we told you. When you start mandating coverage and benefits, the costs to provide care will increase. As such, health care insurance premiums go up. Remember, insurance companies in most cases?must go to the state?to request premium increases and they must prove why rates must increase. They states will soon be approving 20 percent-plus increases for some policies.

From the New York Times, who failed to tell readers this would happen before Congress set this boondoggle in motion. Conservatives bloggers told you this was coming.

Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration?s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers.

Particularly vulnerable to the high rates are small businesses and people who do not have employer-provided insurance and must buy it on their own.

In California, Aetna is proposing rate increases of as much as 22 percent, Anthem Blue Cross 26 percent and Blue Shield of California 20 percent for some of those policy holders, according to the insurers? filings with the state for 2013. These rate requests are all the more striking after a 39 percent rise sought by Anthem Blue Cross in 2010 helped give impetus to the law, known as the Affordable Care Act, which was passed the same year and will not be fully in effect until 2014.

In other states, like Florida and Ohio, insurers have been able to raise rates by at least 20 percent for some policy holders. The rate increases can amount to several hundred dollars a month.

The proposed increases compare with about 4 percent for families with employer-based policies.

But I thought the ?Affordable Health Care Act? was supposed to make health care affordable?

The double-digit requests in some states are being made despite evidence that overall health care costs appear to have slowed in recent years, increasing in the single digits annually as many people put off treatment because of the weak economy. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that costs may increase just 7.5 percent next year, well below the rate increases being sought by some insurers. But the companies counter that medical costs for some policy holders are rising much faster than the average, suggesting they are in a sicker population. Federal regulators contend that premiums would be higher still without the law, which also sets limits on profits and administrative costs and provides for rebates if insurers exceed those limits.

So the Times is trying to spin this, implying it could be a lot worse. Of course, health care costs ? just like any industry ? is effected by the economy of the country. Things are not going well, so therefore the price of goods and services could actually be going down in some sectors. Notice how the Times writes costs may increase just 7.5 percent next year. Oh, that?s awesome!

To be clear, insurance rates go up because the cost of care goes up. They are not just raising rates 20 percent and keeping the cash, the cost to provide the services you are demanding are going up for many reasons, and the government mandates are not helping one bit.

Source: http://radioviceonline.com/as-expected-health-care-costs-rise-insurance-rates-going-up/

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Seahawks top Redskins: Injury a warning sign for RG3's future?

The Seahawks-Redskins playoff game saw Robert Griffin III leave with an injury in the 24-14 loss. It raises questions about RG3's durability ? and whether he should have been taken off earlier.

By Mark Sappenfield,?Staff writer / January 6, 2013

Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III sits on the bench after a knee injury during an NFL wild card playoff football game against the Seattle Seahawks in Landover, Md., Sunday. The Seahawks defeated the Redskins 24-14.

Evan Vucci/AP

Enlarge

Just in case any of us were in doubt, Sunday provided irrefutable evidence that Robert Griffin III's right knee is a national treasure. President Obama should assign a Special Forces team to protect it. Congress should check the fine print to make sure it is not in the sequester. The Smithsonian should reserve a wing.

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Because without it, the most exciting player in pro football looked terrifyingly pedestrian.

For the best part of this National Football League season, the sporting world has stood slack-jawed at what the future held in store. However brilliant the present ? however awesome Griffin's talents, however inconceivable his speed ? it was merely the downpayment for a generation of greatness to come.

For years, Griffin would do battle with fellow rookies Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson. Over the course of a career, he would redefine the quarterback position with his loping grace, his pinpoint passing precision, his Indy-car acceleration. We salivated at the prospect that, delectably, the best was ahead.

That future still remains. But in the wake of the Washington Redskins' 24-14 loss to the Seattle Seahawks Sunday, it cannot help but feel a bit more fragile.

Two plays after Griffin appeared to reinjure an already tender knee in the first quarter, he threw a four-yard touchdown pass. To that point, the Redskins had 14 points and 135 yards of offense. Over the remaining 51:36 of the game, they would add only 69 yards and never again cross midfield.

After the game, Griffin said the knee did not affect his ability to throw. If that is true, it is an indictment in itself, suggesting that, without his mobility to fall back on, Griffin needs to make significant progress as a passer. More likely, he was taking one for the team ? playing when he should not have been on the field.

But that raises its own questions. Griffin tweaked his knee in the first quarter and then injured it further in the fourth ? to the point where he finally did come out ? without being touched by a defender either time. And this was three weeks after suffering what doctors called one of the milder knee strains possible.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/94obVsYo_pE/Seahawks-top-Redskins-Injury-a-warning-sign-for-RG3-s-future

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Reflecting on a quarter-century of growth in Portland&#39;s performing ...

Stephanie Mulligan, who has been with Artists Repertory Theatre since the mid 1980s, knew the Portland theater scene in its younger, wilder days. ?There were more trails of glitter than there are today -- I mean that literally,? she says. ?I like to think there was a lot more nudity, but that might just be a trick of memory.?
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These days, Portland theater, and the city?s arts scene in general, isn?t so stripped down. But it is much more glittery, if not literally than metaphorically. Look around and you?ll see it: the sparkle of widespread creative activity, the shine of technical and artistic quality.
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There?s an argument to be made that in theater, in music -- most definitely in food, if you want to extend the definition of the creative culture -- and perhaps in other areas as well, this is Portland?s golden age. Sure, the city?s artsy eccentricities can grow ripe for lampooning, as the TV spoof ?Portlandia? has proved. But such attention would be nonsensical (or at least much more embarrassing) if there wasn?t more going on here than adult kickball leagues and mustache-growing contests, if many of the eccentrics weren?t really artists.
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A certain shoestring flamboyance, as Mulligan?s recollections of leaner times suggest, is nothing new here. But the size, scope and solidity of the arts in Portland is something that?s grown over the past quarter century.

That progression is marked in a host of ongoing anniversaries: Several months ago, the Portland Center for the Performing Arts celebrated its 25th birthday. Portland Center Stage and Oregon Children?s Theatre both are in the midst of 25th-anniversary seasons. (Currently hitting the 15-year mark are the dance troupe BodyVox and the dance presenting company White Bird. The Time-Based Art Festival, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art?s annual extravaganza of experiments, turned 10 in Sept.)

That 1987 and ?88 marked a pivotal time in Portland arts was clear even then. More than a decade of planning and haggling was coming to fruition. The idea for a set of new performance spaces began taking place around 1976 due to dissatisfaction with Civic Auditorium (now called Keller Auditorium and still not a very satisfying venue). In 1981, voters passed a $19 million bond issue. Next came political squabbles, cost overruns (from $25 million to $41 million by the time it opened) and a scramble to find money for operating costs. But eventually the Civic was joined by the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (a refurbished 1928 movie palace) and a new multi-use building next door.

?Ten or 20 years from now, few will remember all the effort, dreaming, planning and yes, the bickering, mistakes and accusations that marked the creation of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts,? The Oregonian?s Joan Laatz wrote in August, 1987, when the multi-use New Theater Building (now named Antoinette Hatfield Hall) opened.

Meanwhile, city officials had been looking for an anchor tenant to take up residence in the center?s the 900-seat space now known as the Newmark Theatre. A study commissioned by the Fred Meyer Trust concluded that not even the city?s top existing theater company, Portland Rep, was up to the task, financially and organizationally. Cynthia Fuhrman, a veteran theater marketing exec, recalls that Portland was the largest city in the country that didn?t have a company in the League of Resident Theatres, the association of major regional theaters. After being courted on and off for years, Ashland?s Oregon Shakespeare Festival signed on, and its new satellite operation, dubbed Portland Center Stage, stepped into the lights in Nov. 1988.

After seeing the new company in the new building, Time magazine said that Portland at last could ``stake a claim to sophistication and social significance.''

More so than social stature, the goal was for the PCPA to both bring more touring talents to town and give local troupes a comfortable home that would help them grow their audiences, and for PCS to provide a model of quality, stability and professionalism that might lift the community as a whole. The fear was that higher production costs in the new facilities would make things tougher for most local arts companies, and that the venerable OSF brand would be more of a competitor than a complement.

?There was so much buzz about OSF coming up,? recalls Beth Harper, who?d soon launch what?s now called Portland Actors Conservatory. ?I was in a show at New Rose and everyone felt like, ?The big guys are coming and we?ve never got that kind of attention.??
?One of the things that still rings true,? Harper adds, ?is the big boys are still the big boys and the small ones are still the small ones.?

Though perhaps not. Yes, Center Stage, which split from OSF to become an independent company in 1994, remains atop the theatrical food chain. What were the largest or most active homegrown companies back in the late ?80s -- Portland Rep, New Rose, Storefront Portland Civic Theater -- long ago folded. (As Mulligan recalls, ?It took about five years for the dust to settle -- unfortunately the dust was some fine companies.?) And as it did then, the city now has numerous tiny companies, the kind that stage a few shows a year in rented or makeshift spaces.

Numerous factors are involved, not just the anchoring effects of PCPA and PCS, but the theater scene now has a broader range of companies. Artists Repertory Theatre, once a scrappy little operation in rented space at the downtown YWCA, grew to become the city?s No. 2 company, with a $2.4 million budget and its own twin-auditorium home. Down the scale in budget, but punching above their weight artistically, Third Rail Rep, Portland Playhouse and Profile Theatre form a strong middle tier.

However persistent the funding challenges of the dance world, a similar vertical growth, if you will, can be found. In the late ?80s, Portland had both Ballet Oregon and Pacific Ballet Theatre; for contemporary dance, Portland State University housed a concert series for touring groups and a top-notch resident company. Now, Oregon Ballet Theatre (the result of a merger of the aforementioned ballet troupes) survives, White Bird does concert presenting at a higher level, BodyVox, Northwest Dance Project and Polaris Dance Theatre each have performance spaces and expanding reputations.

?I think the arts scene was like a young teenager then and has grown up a lot,? says Regional Arts & Culture Council executive director Eloise Damrosch, who moved to Portland in ?87. ?Our reputation as a place to visit has really skyrocketed. I?m struck when I open up the A&E and see all the options. There?s a lot more happening, and such a range.?

Quantity isn?t the only thing that?s changed.

?Back then, there was this grittier, shoestring quality that imbued almost every company,? Mulligan says. ?The dedication to art was inspiring...But when I look back at that earlier renaissance of the ?80s, the truth was the talent pool of the city needed to step up.?

Jim Fullan, who has worked in marketing at Portland Opera and the Oregon Symphony, says the city has developed a ?radically different sense of our place.? Back then, he says, Portland had such an inferiority complex regarding Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles that it distrusted artistic ambition. ?The public would punish you for getting too big for your britches. The prevailing attitude was, ?It?s good enough for us. We like it.? Now, that?s totally gone. It?s almost the opposite. If you?re not aspiring to be world-class, you?re not on the boat. The arts -- in tandem with food, beer and wine -- have raised us up.?
?
The building of the PCPA hasn?t solved all of the performance-space issues for local companies (there?s a big, problematic gap between the 900-seat Newmark and the Schnitzer and Keller, which seat close to 3,000). And it?s notable that Center Stage had to move to a home of its own, a renovated 19th-century armory in the Pearl District, to begin fulfilling its potential as a truly vibrant hub for the theater scene. But those two big moves have, over time, proved transformative for the culture of the city.

Many other developments have helped shape the Portland of today. Some observers point to the fundraising success of John and Lucy Buchanan at the Portland Art Museum 1994 to 2005. ?They actually made a case that a great city needs great art,? says BodyVox co-founder Jamey Hampton. ?And that put a gauntlet down.?

Leadership changes in 2003 at Portland Opera, Oregon Ballet Theatre and the Oregon Symphony also marked a crucial transition. Hampton points to Tom Manley, president of Pacific Northwest College of Art as ?probably the best leader of an arts organization the city has. ?PNCA has grown to be a leading creative and economic force in the Pearl District...and it?s in the process of remaking how that neighborhood looks. It?s not splashy, like when Pink Martini plays New Year?s Eve at the Schnitz. It?s quiet, but it?s really foundational.?

Through it all, the essential challenges remain much the same: make good work, expand audiences, cultivate donors. Many arts leaders point to a change in the business model, away from a focus on big-money patrons and toward building long-term relationships with supporters of all sorts, nurturing them along the path from first-time ticket buyer to subscriber to contributor and so on. Others point out that the city is awash in heavily subsidized art -- but that the artists themselves provide the subsidy comes from the artists themselves, in the form of the second jobs, lack of health care, or multiple roommates that allow them to subsist as artists.

All together, what?s changed and what?s stayed the same add up to an arts scene that, while still facing major challenges, has grown bigger, wider and better integrated into the world around it.

?I don?t think it happens in isolation,? Fuhrman says. ?It?s about the growth of the city as a whole.?

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2013/01/reflecting_on_a_quarter-centur.html

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Nvidia announces Project Shield handheld gaming system with 5 ...

Nvidia has just unveiled a new handheld gaming system called Project Shield. Project Shield is powered by the Tegra 4 processor and can play console-quality games while still providing a mobile experience. The processor is capable of pushing 4K resolution video over HDMI to external displays. It includes advanced sound processing that Nvidia says rivals Beats Audio-equipped laptops, and a 33Wh battery that provides five to ten hours of play time or 24 hours of HD video playback. It features a 5-inch, 720p Retinal multitouch display with 294ppi pixel density, and has a slot for micro-SD card expansion. The Shield runs Android ? pure Android without a skin, as Nvidia insists ? and includes Google's apps for Gmail and the Play Store.

It should look familiar to anyone who has held an Xbox 360 controller

In addition to supporting all of the games available to Android devices and the games in the Tegra Zone, the Shield also has the ability to stream games from a home Windows PC equipped with a GeForce GTX 650 (or higher) graphics card to the handheld device over Wi-Fi, letting users access their library of PC games, including games in the Steam library, anywhere in their home. It access the games on the home PC and run them virtually on the Shield. In the future, Nvidia says that it will add support to stream content from the Shield to a television wirelessly, so you can watch video and play games on your TV display without being tethered by wires. Of course, with support for the standard Android platform, the Shield also has access to the hundreds of thousands of apps that are available in the Google Play Store.

Hardware-wise, the Shield has a clamshell design with a gaming controller attached below the device's display. The controller has dual control sticks, a D-pad, and multiple action buttons ? it should look familiar to anyone who has held an Xbox 360 controller.

Unfortunately, Nvidia did not announce a price for Project Shield, but it says that it will be coming to the US and Canada in the second quarter of this year. Either way, it seems that things just got a bit more interesting for both the mobile gaming space and the Android gaming world.

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/7/3845282/nvidia-announces-project-shield-handheld-gaming-system

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Photos: Winners of the 2012 NatGeo contest

In the new Oscar contender?Flight, Denzel Washington plays a pilot who, after a night of hard drinking and a morning breakfast of cocaine and flight attendants, mixes himself an onboard screwdriver or three after flying through some turbulence ? then inverts the entire fuselage in order to avoid a horrific plane crash. That's not what happened today in Minneapolis, but an Associated Press story today is certainly reminiscent of the film: a 48-year-old American Eagle pilot named Kolbjorn Jarle Kristiansen?was arrested during pre-flight procedures at Minneapolis-St. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/photos/2012-natgeo-photo-contest-winners-slideshow/

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Sierra Leone to clear vendors from streets in capital make-over

FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's president Ernest Bai Koroma said on Friday security forces will evict traders, street-garages and food vendors from the cramped streets of the capital Freetown in an effort to improve the city's image.

Parts of the crumbling seaside capital have become almost impassable to vehicles, with market stalls spilling over the pavements, and traders hawking goods of all sorts wandering through crowds of shoppers.

"We must all must say business must not continue how it has been continuing," he said at a news conference. "The play-play don don," he said in the local language, Krio, meaning playtime is over.

Sierra Leone is among the world's least developed nations after a 1991-2002 civil war left its infrastructure in tatters, but boasted one of the fastest growing economies in 2012 due to the restart of iron ore exports.

The project, known as Operation WID (Waste Improved Decongestion), is seen as a step towards improving the country's road safety record and is also hoped to improve Freetown's image in the eyes of investors and tourists.

It will come into effect on Saturday.

The head of a council of tribal leaders, who endorsed the project, spoke of "returning Freetown to its past glory", recalling the heady days in the main city of the former British colony in the 1950s.

Koroma, who was re-elected as president with almost 59 percent of the vote last November said the move was a turning point for Sierra Leone. He railed at length against a culture of public lawlessness, saying Sierra Leone needed to build a disciplined society.

"It's us who must take the driving seat. It's us who must take command and control and move this country forward," he said.

Representatives from various sectors of society endorsed the operation, including the unions for motorbike taxi drivers - whose operations would be restricted in parts of the central business district - and market traders.

But street vendors in central Freetown said that until the government provided them with alternative locations to carry out their business, Operation WID will leave them jobless and unable to support their families.

Fatima Sahid, 28, sells plastic jewellery and flip-flops on Sani Abacha Street. She is the sole breadwinner of her family, with two children and an unemployed husband. She said that without the income from street selling, many like her would end up turning to prostitution.

Her neighbour Isata runs a small stall selling cheap kitchen utensils. "I am not happy because they have not made any preparations for us," she said. "There is nowhere for us to go."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sierre-leone-clear-vendors-streets-capital-over-092151573--sector.html

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Rotoworld: Ready for some wild-card fun?

Saturday's 4:30PM ET Game

Cincinnati @ Houston

The Texans are playing at home as 4.5-point favorites in the Wild Card Round, but this is a club springing leaks. Houston has dropped three of its last four games and become a different team over the course of the year. The run game isn't nearly as dominant as it used to be. When Arian Foster hasn't faced the Colts' bottom-four run defense, he's managed 392 yards on his last 117 carries (3.35 YPC), wearing down on a league-most 391 touches. Houston's pass defense, another early-season strength, has been problematic since midyear. The Texans haven't so much as intercepted a pass since Dec. 2, over that span allowing Andrew Luck (twice), Christian Ponder, and Tom Brady to amass a 9:0 TD-to-INT ratio against them. Cincinnati is a much hotter team, having won seven of its last eight with the lone loss occurring in Week 14 versus Dallas, 20-19, in a game the Bengals controlled for three-plus quarters. Aside from the fact that the Texans are at home, it's hard to pinpoint reasons for confidence in Gary Kubiak's team. ... A.J. Green is the big name in Cincy's offensive corps, but complementary pass catchers Jermaine Gresham and Andrew Hawkins may give Wade Phillips' defense just as many issues. Having lost inside linebackers Brian Cushing (ACL) and Darryl Sharpton (hip) for the season, the Texans will trot out coverage-deficient veterans Bradie James and Tim Dobbins as starters. Houston slot corner Brice McCain is out with a broken foot. Feisty, elusive, and deceptively physical, Hawkins will be a tough cover for overmatched fill-in CB Brandon Harris. Gresham is a pedestrian talent, but he too will be a difficult assignment for the likes of James, Dobbins, and Barrett Ruud. The Bengals can win these matchups over the middle.

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Friday Update: The Texans lost their fourth?inside linebacker to a season-ending injury when Dobbins (ankle) was placed on injured reserve Friday. Ruud, an in-season street free agent pickup, will get the start next to James. Houston's defense remains vulnerable in pass coverage over the middle.

Green will square off with Johnathan Joseph and Kareem Jackson on the perimeter. Rather than shadowing No. 1 receivers, the Texans have generally played "sides" at corner this year, leaving Joseph on the right and Jackson on the left. Joseph had a disappointing season and at this point is arguably the weaker link. Houston's pass defense failings make this a plus matchup for Green and upstart rookie X receiver Marvin Jones, who sees far fewer targets than Green but flashes playmaking ability. ... For the second straight year, Andy Dalton has faded down the stretch. Over his last five games, he's accounted for six touchdowns compared to seven turnovers with a paltry 5.84 yards-per-attempt average. Dalton has talent limitations, and they become glaring when his pass protection experiences any hint of leakage, or when Green isn't consistently winning outside. Dalton and a run game that was down, then up, then down again over the course of the year are Cincinnati's biggest question marks. ... J.J. Watt is a literal one-man wrecking crew. He carried Houston's pass rush on his back this season, leading the NFL with 20.5 sacks. Watt moves all around the formation, playing tackle in dime packages and both end spots on base downs. Neutralizing Watt will be critical for Cincy's upset chances. The Bengals have a top-five offensive line, excelling in both pass and run blocking. ... Feature back BenJarvus Green-Ellis will start against the Texans, but missed Week 17 with a hamstring strain and whether he'll be at full strength Saturday is uncertain. The Texans' heavyweight front seven defends inside runners like Green-Ellis much better than perimeter threats ala Bengals pace-change back Cedric Peerman, so it might not be a bad idea for playcaller Jay Gruden to scale back Green-Ellis' snaps. If Gruden insists on feeding an ineffective Law Firm, the Cincy offense could render itself one dimensional.

Foster made fantasy football owners happy all year, but his on-field performance has increasingly become a major worry. And it's not all on him. Using rare offensive line committees at right tackle (Derek Newton, Ryan Harris) and right guard (rookies Brandon Brooks and Ben Jones), the Texans have struggled mightily on outside zone runs. The run game is the foundation of Houston's offense, and it's become decidedly mediocre. On Saturday, the right side of Houston's line will match up with Bengals All-Pro defensive tackle Geno Atkins and wickedly-talented left end Carlos Dunlap. Not only does Cincinnati rank third in the NFL in sacks (51), it creates run-game havoc via backfield penetration. This defense is good enough up front to thwart Houston's sagging ground attack, turning Matt Schaub from glorified game manager into the single biggest reason the Texans win or lose. ... Recent play suggests Schaub isn't the man for the job. Timid and too reliant on the checkdown, Schaub has completed 84-of-131 passes for 946 yards (7.22 YPA), one touchdown, and three interceptions over the last four games. He's also absorbed 12 sacks, the highest total during a four-game stretch of Schaub's career. As alluded to previously, Mike Zimmer's defense happens to be pretty good at rushing the passer. It's another big cause for concern for Houston.

Houston and Cincinnati met in last year's Wild Card Round, as well, and Andre Johnson whipped the Bengals for 90 yards and a touchdown on five receptions. It's debatable whether last year's playoff stats have any relevance whatsoever for the rematch, but Johnson could conceivably put up even bigger numbers should Zimmer's front seven control the Texans' rushing design, as is being predicted here. Johnson was an absolute monster in the 2012 regular season, setting a career high with 1,598 receiving yards at age 31. ... Houston uses a rotation of possession threat Kevin Walter and rookie DeVier Posey at Z receiver. Walter has topped 33 yards just once since mid-November, while Posey is attempting to battle through a recent spate of drops. Any production the Texans get from Walter or Posey should be considered a bonus. ... A big-time pass-catching weapon early in the season, injuries have pushed tight end Owen Daniels to the backburner for the past month and a half. Daniels has dealt with chest, knee, hamstring, and back ailments dating back to Week 12, failing to clear 50 receiving yards in any of the ensuing six games. Kubiak's offense was at its early- and midseason best when Daniels, X-factor Garrett Graham, and swiss-army-knife fullback James Casey were clicking in two- and three-tight end packages. But it hasn't been that way for awhile. The Texans will move the ball in the passing game if Daniels shows up healthy and Kubiak suddenly rediscovers some of that elusive magic.

Score Prediction: Bengals 23, Texans 21

Saturday's 8:00PM ET Game

Minnesota @ Green Bay

Aaron Rodgers opens the postseason with a full arsenal as slot man Randall Cobb returns from his ankle sprain and Jordy Nelson rejoined the lineup in Week 17, at the back end of an injury-plagued year. Greg Jennings caught fire late in the season, securing a team-high 15 passes for 165 yards and three touchdowns in Weeks 16-17. Include red-zone maven James Jones and talented if underachieving tight end Jermichael Finley, and Green Bay boasts the most lethal pass offense in this year's playoffs. The Packers have not had all five pass catchers play in the same game since the season opener. It's the one area in which they hold a commanding edge on Minnesota. ... The Vikings ranked 24th versus the pass this regular season, allowing opponents to compile a 28:10 TD-to-INT ratio, 63.9 completion rate, and 92.3 QB rating -- the league's eighth highest clip. During Leslie Frazier's six seasons overseeing Minnesota's defense, Rodgers has shredded the Vikings for 24 touchdown passes, only four picks, and 70.7-percent completions. Green Bay is a virtual lock for passing success Saturday night at Lambeau. Minnesota will simply hope to contain it by feeding Adrian Peterson in the offensive run game and playing assignment-sound defense to keep Rodgers off the field. ... One worrisome injury for Minnesota is slot corner Antoine Winfield's broken hand, which was aggravated in last week's home win over Green Bay and limited Winfield to 18-of-65 snaps. Rodgers attacked fill-in Marcus Sherels relentlessly after Winfield's departure, and go-to guy Cobb wasn't even playing. The Cobb matchup with whomever Minnesota uses to guard the slot could have a big impact on the outcome of this game.

The Vikings can rush the passer (fifth in sacks) and hold their own against the run (No. 11 rank), but the back end of Frazier's defense is reeling entering January. Right corner Chris Cook has struggled since returning from a broken arm two games ago. Winfield isn't himself, and rookie Josh Robinson's playing time has been cut. Top outside reserve A.J. Jefferson was never any good, and along with Sherels got eaten alive in the Week 17 game by Rodgers. Nelson, Cobb, Jennings, and Jones ought to have their way with this unit. And Rodgers doesn't play favorites in his progressions; he unfailingly throws to the open man. ... The Packers are committed to a hot-hand backfield approach, although the running game could be a bit of an afterthought in the Wild Card Round considering Minnesota's stoutness versus the run and susceptibility against the pass. 5-foot-8, 203-pound scatback type DuJuan Harris (14 carries, 70 yards) carried the mail in Week 17. In Week 16, late-season street free agent pickup Ryan Grant led the team in carries (20) and rush yards (80), scoring a pair of garbage-time touchdowns. Alex Green had been the lead back before that. Ultimately, Packers coach Mike McCarthy utilizes the running game as a change-of-pace element of offense; a complementary means of moving the ball. If the run game is not clicking early on, McCarthy will be more than willing to abandon it and give Rodgers the keys.

Although Christian Ponder has played better recently, the Vikings can confidently be expected to saddle up Peterson as their offensive centerpiece. Facing Packers coordinator Dom Capers' mixed fronts, Peterson gashed Green Bay for 409 yards on 55 carries (7.44 YPC) in these clubs' two regular season meetings, scoring three touchdowns. Capers used an eight-man box on 13 of the 55 runs. Peterson averaged an incredible 6.9 yards per tote versus the 13 crowded looks. ... An unsung hero behind Minnesota's rushing success has been lead blocker Jerome Felton, who had Packers inside linebacker A.J. Hawk's number in Week 17 and has quietly been a bulldozing force all season. Green Bay ranks 17th in run defense and allows the seventh most yards per carry in football (4.53), so Capers' group is very much vulnerable on the ground. ... Rock-solid line play is another reason for Vikings optimism. Tackles Matt Kalil and Phil Loadholt, guards Charlie Johnson and Brandon Fusco, and center John Sullivan have been a picture of continuity; not one of them has missed a start this year. Kalil limited All-World pass rusher Clay Matthews to three tackles, one sack, and one QB hit in the regular season finale. Ponder has absorbed just four sacks and committed one turnover in his last three games, while accounting for five all-purpose touchdowns.

Ponder made big-time throws late in the Week 17 upset and finished with a season-best 120.2 passer rating. While Ponder may prove in over his head if Minnesota falls behind, demanding that its quarterback engineers a comeback, he is playing well enough to effectively manage games and keep his team competitive. Overall, the passing game is still a weakness on the Vikings' side. They can't afford a big early-game deficit. ... Z receiver Michael Jenkins managed three catches for 37 yards and a touchdown in the two 2012 meetings with Green Bay. He's mostly a blocking receiver. ... X receiver Jerome Simpson was a major disappointment in his first -- and likely last -- regular season with Minnesota, catching 26 passes for 274 yards and zero touchdowns. He didn't exceed 50 yards in any of his 12 appearances. ... Rookie slot man Jarius Wright possesses big-play ability, but has been wildly inconsistent filling in for injured Percy Harvin. Wright did blow by Packers right corner Sam Shields for a 65-yard bomb off play-action to set up last week's game-winning touchdown. If the Vikings are to have any semblance of passing success in Green Bay, Wright and Kyle Rudolph are the likeliest means. ... Rudolph has been less of a receiving factor down the stretch, however, as his on-field impact is showing up more as a blocker in the running game. He still finished the regular season with nine touchdowns. All nine occurred in the red zone.

Score Prediction: Packers 30, Vikings 20

Saturday's 4:30PM ET Game

Cincinnati @ Houston

The Texans are playing at home as 4.5-point favorites in the Wild Card Round, but this is a club springing leaks. Houston has dropped three of its last four games and become a different team over the course of the year. The run game isn't nearly as dominant as it used to be. When Arian Foster hasn't faced the Colts' bottom-four run defense, he's managed 392 yards on his last 117 carries (3.35 YPC), wearing down on a league-most 391 touches. Houston's pass defense, another early-season strength, has been problematic since midyear. The Texans haven't so much as intercepted a pass since Dec. 2, over that span allowing Andrew Luck (twice), Christian Ponder, and Tom Brady to amass a 9:0 TD-to-INT ratio against them. Cincinnati is a much hotter team, having won seven of its last eight with the lone loss occurring in Week 14 versus Dallas, 20-19, in a game the Bengals controlled for three-plus quarters. Aside from the fact that the Texans are at home, it's hard to pinpoint reasons for confidence in Gary Kubiak's team. ... A.J. Green is the big name in Cincy's offensive corps, but complementary pass catchers Jermaine Gresham and Andrew Hawkins may give Wade Phillips' defense just as many issues. Having lost inside linebackers Brian Cushing (ACL) and Darryl Sharpton (hip) for the season, the Texans will trot out coverage-deficient veterans Bradie James and Tim Dobbins as starters. Houston slot corner Brice McCain is out with a broken foot. Feisty, elusive, and deceptively physical, Hawkins will be a tough cover for overmatched fill-in CB Brandon Harris. Gresham is a pedestrian talent, but he too will be a difficult assignment for the likes of James, Dobbins, and Barrett Ruud. The Bengals can win these matchups over the middle.

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Friday Update: The Texans lost their fourth?inside linebacker to a season-ending injury when Dobbins (ankle) was placed on injured reserve Friday. Ruud, an in-season street free agent pickup, will get the start next to James. Houston's defense remains vulnerable in pass coverage over the middle.

Green will square off with Johnathan Joseph and Kareem Jackson on the perimeter. Rather than shadowing No. 1 receivers, the Texans have generally played "sides" at corner this year, leaving Joseph on the right and Jackson on the left. Joseph had a disappointing season and at this point is arguably the weaker link. Houston's pass defense failings make this a plus matchup for Green and upstart rookie X receiver Marvin Jones, who sees far fewer targets than Green but flashes playmaking ability. ... For the second straight year, Andy Dalton has faded down the stretch. Over his last five games, he's accounted for six touchdowns compared to seven turnovers with a paltry 5.84 yards-per-attempt average. Dalton has talent limitations, and they become glaring when his pass protection experiences any hint of leakage, or when Green isn't consistently winning outside. Dalton and a run game that was down, then up, then down again over the course of the year are Cincinnati's biggest question marks. ... J.J. Watt is a literal one-man wrecking crew. He carried Houston's pass rush on his back this season, leading the NFL with 20.5 sacks. Watt moves all around the formation, playing tackle in dime packages and both end spots on base downs. Neutralizing Watt will be critical for Cincy's upset chances. The Bengals have a top-five offensive line, excelling in both pass and run blocking. ... Feature back BenJarvus Green-Ellis will start against the Texans, but missed Week 17 with a hamstring strain and whether he'll be at full strength Saturday is uncertain. The Texans' heavyweight front seven defends inside runners like Green-Ellis much better than perimeter threats ala Bengals pace-change back Cedric Peerman, so it might not be a bad idea for playcaller Jay Gruden to scale back Green-Ellis' snaps. If Gruden insists on feeding an ineffective Law Firm, the Cincy offense could render itself one dimensional.

Foster made fantasy football owners happy all year, but his on-field performance has increasingly become a major worry. And it's not all on him. Using rare offensive line committees at right tackle (Derek Newton, Ryan Harris) and right guard (rookies Brandon Brooks and Ben Jones), the Texans have struggled mightily on outside zone runs. The run game is the foundation of Houston's offense, and it's become decidedly mediocre. On Saturday, the right side of Houston's line will match up with Bengals All-Pro defensive tackle Geno Atkins and wickedly-talented left end Carlos Dunlap. Not only does Cincinnati rank third in the NFL in sacks (51), it creates run-game havoc via backfield penetration. This defense is good enough up front to thwart Houston's sagging ground attack, turning Matt Schaub from glorified game manager into the single biggest reason the Texans win or lose. ... Recent play suggests Schaub isn't the man for the job. Timid and too reliant on the checkdown, Schaub has completed 84-of-131 passes for 946 yards (7.22 YPA), one touchdown, and three interceptions over the last four games. He's also absorbed 12 sacks, the highest total during a four-game stretch of Schaub's career. As alluded to previously, Mike Zimmer's defense happens to be pretty good at rushing the passer. It's another big cause for concern for Houston.

Houston and Cincinnati met in last year's Wild Card Round, as well, and Andre Johnson whipped the Bengals for 90 yards and a touchdown on five receptions. It's debatable whether last year's playoff stats have any relevance whatsoever for the rematch, but Johnson could conceivably put up even bigger numbers should Zimmer's front seven control the Texans' rushing design, as is being predicted here. Johnson was an absolute monster in the 2012 regular season, setting a career high with 1,598 receiving yards at age 31. ... Houston uses a rotation of possession threat Kevin Walter and rookie DeVier Posey at Z receiver. Walter has topped 33 yards just once since mid-November, while Posey is attempting to battle through a recent spate of drops. Any production the Texans get from Walter or Posey should be considered a bonus. ... A big-time pass-catching weapon early in the season, injuries have pushed tight end Owen Daniels to the backburner for the past month and a half. Daniels has dealt with chest, knee, hamstring, and back ailments dating back to Week 12, failing to clear 50 receiving yards in any of the ensuing six games. Kubiak's offense was at its early- and midseason best when Daniels, X-factor Garrett Graham, and swiss-army-knife fullback James Casey were clicking in two- and three-tight end packages. But it hasn't been that way for awhile. The Texans will move the ball in the passing game if Daniels shows up healthy and Kubiak suddenly rediscovers some of that elusive magic.

Score Prediction: Bengals 23, Texans 21

Saturday's 8:00PM ET Game

Minnesota @ Green Bay

Aaron Rodgers opens the postseason with a full arsenal as slot man Randall Cobb returns from his ankle sprain and Jordy Nelson rejoined the lineup in Week 17, at the back end of an injury-plagued year. Greg Jennings caught fire late in the season, securing a team-high 15 passes for 165 yards and three touchdowns in Weeks 16-17. Include red-zone maven James Jones and talented if underachieving tight end Jermichael Finley, and Green Bay boasts the most lethal pass offense in this year's playoffs. The Packers have not had all five pass catchers play in the same game since the season opener. It's the one area in which they hold a commanding edge on Minnesota. ... The Vikings ranked 24th versus the pass this regular season, allowing opponents to compile a 28:10 TD-to-INT ratio, 63.9 completion rate, and 92.3 QB rating -- the league's eighth highest clip. During Leslie Frazier's six seasons overseeing Minnesota's defense, Rodgers has shredded the Vikings for 24 touchdown passes, only four picks, and 70.7-percent completions. Green Bay is a virtual lock for passing success Saturday night at Lambeau. Minnesota will simply hope to contain it by feeding Adrian Peterson in the offensive run game and playing assignment-sound defense to keep Rodgers off the field. ... One worrisome injury for Minnesota is slot corner Antoine Winfield's broken hand, which was aggravated in last week's home win over Green Bay and limited Winfield to 18-of-65 snaps. Rodgers attacked fill-in Marcus Sherels relentlessly after Winfield's departure, and go-to guy Cobb wasn't even playing. The Cobb matchup with whomever Minnesota uses to guard the slot could have a big impact on the outcome of this game.

The Vikings can rush the passer (fifth in sacks) and hold their own against the run (No. 11 rank), but the back end of Frazier's defense is reeling entering January. Right corner Chris Cook has struggled since returning from a broken arm two games ago. Winfield isn't himself, and rookie Josh Robinson's playing time has been cut. Top outside reserve A.J. Jefferson was never any good, and along with Sherels got eaten alive in the Week 17 game by Rodgers. Nelson, Cobb, Jennings, and Jones ought to have their way with this unit. And Rodgers doesn't play favorites in his progressions; he unfailingly throws to the open man. ... The Packers are committed to a hot-hand backfield approach, although the running game could be a bit of an afterthought in the Wild Card Round considering Minnesota's stoutness versus the run and susceptibility against the pass. 5-foot-8, 203-pound scatback type DuJuan Harris (14 carries, 70 yards) carried the mail in Week 17. In Week 16, late-season street free agent pickup Ryan Grant led the team in carries (20) and rush yards (80), scoring a pair of garbage-time touchdowns. Alex Green had been the lead back before that. Ultimately, Packers coach Mike McCarthy utilizes the running game as a change-of-pace element of offense; a complementary means of moving the ball. If the run game is not clicking early on, McCarthy will be more than willing to abandon it and give Rodgers the keys.

Although Christian Ponder has played better recently, the Vikings can confidently be expected to saddle up Peterson as their offensive centerpiece. Facing Packers coordinator Dom Capers' mixed fronts, Peterson gashed Green Bay for 409 yards on 55 carries (7.44 YPC) in these clubs' two regular season meetings, scoring three touchdowns. Capers used an eight-man box on 13 of the 55 runs. Peterson averaged an incredible 6.9 yards per tote versus the 13 crowded looks. ... An unsung hero behind Minnesota's rushing success has been lead blocker Jerome Felton, who had Packers inside linebacker A.J. Hawk's number in Week 17 and has quietly been a bulldozing force all season. Green Bay ranks 17th in run defense and allows the seventh most yards per carry in football (4.53), so Capers' group is very much vulnerable on the ground. ... Rock-solid line play is another reason for Vikings optimism. Tackles Matt Kalil and Phil Loadholt, guards Charlie Johnson and Brandon Fusco, and center John Sullivan have been a picture of continuity; not one of them has missed a start this year. Kalil limited All-World pass rusher Clay Matthews to three tackles, one sack, and one QB hit in the regular season finale. Ponder has absorbed just four sacks and committed one turnover in his last three games, while accounting for five all-purpose touchdowns.

Ponder made big-time throws late in the Week 17 upset and finished with a season-best 120.2 passer rating. While Ponder may prove in over his head if Minnesota falls behind, demanding that its quarterback engineers a comeback, he is playing well enough to effectively manage games and keep his team competitive. Overall, the passing game is still a weakness on the Vikings' side. They can't afford a big early-game deficit. ... Z receiver Michael Jenkins managed three catches for 37 yards and a touchdown in the two 2012 meetings with Green Bay. He's mostly a blocking receiver. ... X receiver Jerome Simpson was a major disappointment in his first -- and likely last -- regular season with Minnesota, catching 26 passes for 274 yards and zero touchdowns. He didn't exceed 50 yards in any of his 12 appearances. ... Rookie slot man Jarius Wright possesses big-play ability, but has been wildly inconsistent filling in for injured Percy Harvin. Wright did blow by Packers right corner Sam Shields for a 65-yard bomb off play-action to set up last week's game-winning touchdown. If the Vikings are to have any semblance of passing success in Green Bay, Wright and Kyle Rudolph are the likeliest means. ... Rudolph has been less of a receiving factor down the stretch, however, as his on-field impact is showing up more as a blocker in the running game. He still finished the regular season with nine touchdowns. All nine occurred in the red zone.

Score Prediction: Packers 30, Vikings 20

Sunday's 1:00PM ET Game

Indianapolis @ Baltimore

Popular sentiment may posit that the Ravens backed into the playoffs after dropping four of their last five games, but it's worth noting that they smoked the Giants 33-14 two weeks ago and rested starters in Week 17. And Baltimore is getting someone special back for the first round. While it's impossible to quantify the emotional boost from Wednesday's announcement of surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer Ray Lewis' impending retirement, his return is likely to have some effect on Sunday's game. Lewis will be on the field with his teammates -- back from an 11-week triceps injury -- and claims to be "100 percent" healthy. Lewis' skills appeared to be diminishing early in the year, but he should be a run-defense upgrade with fresh legs after the layoff. ... Schematically, Baltimore has an edge on Indianapolis from the standpoint that the Colts are a decidedly vertical-passing team and border on one dimensional in that respect. Playcaller Bruce Arians' system demands that Andrew Luck make a high volume of low-percentage downfield throws, which helps explain the still largely impressive rookie's unimpressive turnover count (23), completion rate (54.1), and QB rating (76.5). The Ravens happen to have a takeaway specialist in the back end of their defense in centerfield safety Ed Reed, who butters his bread by picking off vertical throws. Although 2012 was not Reed's best season, he still intercepted four passes and has a whopping eight picks in 11 career playoff games. Baltimore is a good bet to win Sunday's turnover battle.

Luck finished his first NFL season ranked fifth in pass attempts, and coach Chuck Pagano recently acknowledged that he's playing with a "tired arm." Both the national and local media have been protective of the Golden Boy, so little was made of the comment. The numbers bear it out. Luck has completed just 78 of his last 168 passes (46.4 percent) for 1,012 yards (6.02 YPA). While he's compensated with a 4-1 record and 8:5 TD-to-INT ratio across that span, the sustainability of the latter two statistics is worth questioning. Luck could be exposed a bit by a rested Ravens defense that's especially likely to be high on energy in Lewis' return. ... Donnie Avery and dynamic rookie T.Y. Hilton are Indianapolis' purest vertical weapons, but Reggie Wayne is the sustainer on offense. A short-to-intermediate receiver at this stage of his career, 34-year-old Wayne finished the regular season ranked sixth in receptions (106), seventh in receiving yards (1,355), and fourth in first-down catches (73). It would be safe to expect Wayne to have a Wild Card game voluminous on targets and grabs. The Ravens must limit Indy's big plays in the passing game, however, and Reed should have a lot to do with it. ... A grinding, workmanlike runner, fifth-round rookie Vick Ballard is the Colts' every-down back. While Ballard is a suitable fit for Arians' power-running offense, he managed just four runs of 20-plus yards during the regular season, handling 211 rushing attempts. Among backs with at least 200 carries, only three (Shonn Greene, Mikel Leshoure, banged-up Trent Richardson) had fewer 20-yard gains. Ballard is capable of moving the chains as a complement to the passing game, but he's not quite a difference maker.

Joe Flacco's contract year didn't live up to expectations, but he did deliver Baltimore a fifth playoff berth in five seasons while posting a career-high 3,817 passing yards. Flacco was particularly sharp at home, where Sunday's Wild Card game will conveniently take place. In eight games at M&T Bank Stadium, Flacco completed 176-of-283 throws (62.2 percent) for 2,363 yards (8.35 YPA), and a 15:5 TD-to-INT ratio, with three additional touchdowns on the ground. The Colts rank 21st in pass defense and 24th in sacks, so this is a favorable matchup. ... Like Flacco, Torrey Smith opened the regular season piping hot only to fade in late fall and winter. Also like Flacco, Smith was much more productive at home, where he scored seven of his eight touchdowns and racked up 59.3 percent of his yards. Flacco would be smart to aggressively target Smith when matched up with burnable Colts left cornerback Cassius Vaughn. Baltimore needs to stay away from right corner Vontae Davis. ... Ravens slot receiver Anquan Boldin sat out Week 17 to rest a shoulder injury and practiced fully this week. Physical, 6-foot-1, 223-pound Boldin will spend most of Sunday's game in 5-foot-10, 185-pound Colts slot CB Darius Butler's coverage. Boldin turned 32 in October, but still paced Baltimore in 2012 targets, catches (65), and receiving yards (921).

Three players handle Baltimore's pass-catching load. No. 3 is tight end Dennis Pitta, coming off a breakout third NFL season. Though he lacks flashy measurables, Pitta dropped just three passes all year, securing 61 and reaching pay dirt seven times. Pitta is a reliable underneath target for Flacco, often picking up the slack when aging Boldin has down games. ... The star of Baltimore's Wild Card Round offense still figures to be do-it-all tailback Ray Rice, who closed out the regular season with 441 yards on his final 89 carries (4.96 YPC) and will be fresh after playing single-digit snaps in the Ravens' Week 17 rest game. Indianapolis ranks 29th against the run, serving up an AFC-most 5.14 yards per carry. No team in the NFL has allowed more running plays of 20-plus yards. If Rice touches the football 20 times in this game -- and he ought to -- the Ravens will win.

Score Prediction: Ravens 27, Colts 21

Sunday's 4:30PM ET Game

Seattle @ Washington

The Seahawks and Redskins play a very similar brand of offense. Quarterbacked by dual-threat playmakers, both clubs flummox defenses in the read-option game and set up shot-play downfield throws off play-action. Seattle and Washington are run-based zone-blocking teams, each finishing the season in the bottom-three in pass attempts. Stretching defenses vertically, they also both ranked in the top-three in yards per throw. The big difference between the clubs lies on defense, where the Seahawks hold a significant edge. Seattle allowed the fewest regular season points in football, and the fourth fewest yards. Despite stretch-run improvement, the Skins served up the 11th most points and fifth most yards. Not his elusive, spectacular self playing with a bulky right-knee brace, Robert Griffin III has his work cut out to generate aerial success versus Seattle's top-six pass defense. With right corner Brandon Browner back from suspension and left cornerback Richard Sherman escaping punishment altogether, the Seahawks are capable of essentially eliminating perimeter pass catchers like Pierre Garcon with physical press-man coverage. ... Playcaller Kyle Shanahan and RG3 must get creative. Seattle's defense excels at disrupting pass routes and is not vulnerable in any particular area. Washington simply will not move the ball or score points without a brilliantly designed game plan from Shanahan. Seattle has not allowed more than 17 points to an opponent since November and arguably has the best defense in the NFL right now. They're a very difficult team to play against.

Alfred Morris may be the single biggest key to the Redskins' Wild Card Round offense. Ripping right past any notion of a Rookie Wall, Morris has actually gotten better as the season moves along, amassing 1,076 yards on his last 220 carries (4.89 YPC) after averaging 4.67 yards on his initial 115 pro runs. The zone scheme consistently springs Morris into space, and he attacks oncoming defenders with tackle-breaking violence. If Griffin is to connect with Garcon, Z receiver Leonard Hankerson, or slot man Santana Moss off play-action fakes, it will be because the Seahawks are more worried about Morris gashing them. ... Despite missing six games with a torn foot tendon, Garcon led Washington in 2012 receiving yards (633) and the Skins went 9-1 whenever he appeared for a game. Although this pass game had a spread-the-wealth look during its top receiver's missed time, Garcon is unfailingly the go-to guy when healthy. Shanahan keeps Garcon constantly moving around the formation to prevent against bracket coverage and double teams. The likes of Hankerson, Moss, Josh Morgan, and tight end Logan Paulsen are role players in the Shanahan system. Hank, Morgan, and Paulsen are also impact blockers in the run game.

The Skins rallied into the postseason by ripping off seven straight victories, but Seattle has just as good an argument for being the hottest team in the game. The Seahawks have one loss since October, along the way toppling Minnesota, Chicago, and San Francisco in 42-13 blowout fashion. While quarterback Russell Wilson deserves plenty of kudos, Marshawn Lynch is the offensive lynchpin after setting career highs in rush yards (1,590) and yards per carry (5.05). Washington?s defense ranked top-five versus the run during the regular season, but Lynch holds his own against stout units, amassing 342 yards and three all-purpose touchdowns on 79 carries (4.34 YPC) in four 2012 meetings with top-ten run defenses. Lynch caught fire as Seattle installed more zone-read plays in the second half of the year, ripping off eight 100-plus-yard performances over the final ten games. The zone-read freezes opposing front-seven members, literally keeping defenses on their heels. That's great news for running backs. ... Not only did Wilson match Peyton Manning's rookie touchdown pass record (26), he added four scores on the ground and became a dynamic, dual-phase weapon as playcaller Darrell Bevell diversified the late-season offense. Particularly notable for this matchup is Wilson's performance under duress, as Redskins defensive coordinator Jim Haslett relies heavily on blitzes to mask coverage deficiencies. According to Pro Football Focus, Wilson compiled an 11:4 TD-to-INT ratio and 96.7 passer rating when blitzed this season. For rookie comparison sake, Andrew Luck's TD-to-INT ratio when blitzed was 8:5 with a 77.6 rating.

Haslett's defense utilizes frequent single-high safety looks to support the run and bring an extra blitzer into the box. The gambling strategy paid dividends throughout Washington's win streak, but leaves the secondary vulnerable. It should be no surprise that the Redskins ranked third to last in the NFL in regular season pass defense. Seattle's best blitz beaters are Z receiver Sidney Rice, slot man Doug Baldwin, and No. 2 tight end Anthony McCoy, who quietly paces the Seahawks in yards-per-catch average. Just as he did with Dez Bryant in Washington's Week 17 play-in win over the Cowboys, Haslett figures to employ DeAngelo Hall in shadow coverage of opposing top receiver Rice. Hall played his best game of the season against Bryant, holding the red-hot wideout to an innocuous 71 yards on four catches. Hall has not always been so effective, though, and his matchup with Rice will be one to monitor as a potential difference-maker for the Seattle-Washington outcome. ... Seahawks X receiver Golden Tate will likely spend most of the Wild Card Round in Redskins right cornerback Josh Wilson's coverage, in another fierce one-on-one battle. Wilson is Washington's most consistent cover man. ... Seattle lacks game breakers at tight end, but it's notable that the position gives Haslett's defense fits. The Seahawks do make frequent use of two-tight end sets, and the Redskins allow league highs in receptions (105), yards (1,062), and touchdowns (10) to tight ends. McCoy and Zach Miller will be Seattle's X-factors in this game.

Score Prediction: Seahawks 24, Redskins 20

Source: http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/42254/179/matchups-wild-card-round

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