Engadget Podcast 274: CES 2012 Day 4 - 01.12.2012


Another day in the jungle. This one features an editor-in-chief on a motorized jungle-ready skateboard and a revolving cast of some of the jungle's best explorers. We're starting to think we're going to miss this jungle when we have to go back into civilization.

Hosts: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater, Darren Murph
Guests: Scott Steinberg (TechSavvy Global), Mat Smith, Amar Toor
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Baby

00:00:20 - Scott Steinberg, CEO of TechSavvy Global
00:01:15 - NVIDIA and ASUS tease 7-inch Tegra 3 tablet with ICS and $249 price tag
00:02:28 - Microsoft tops Yahoo in US search results for first time, according to ComScore
00:08:45 - A behind the scenes look at the Engadget CES stage!
00:09:35 - Live from the Engadget CES Stage: taking the PlayStation Vita for a spin (update: video embedded)
00:14:45 - Chaotic Moon shows Xbox Kinect / Windows 8-powered electric skateboard (video)
00:15:35 - Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with RIM (update: video embedded)
00:16:05 - BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 hands-on (video)
00:23:30 - NVIDIA Windows 8 developer tablet eyes-on
00:29:55 - HTC Titan II coming to AT&T, finally delivers LTE to Mango lovers
00:30:00 - AT&T Galaxy Note with LTE hands-on at CES 2012 (video)
00:34:55 - The Engadget Interview: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop at CES 2012 (video)
00:36:15 - Live from Las Vegas, it's Engadget Distro's CES Special Edition
00:38:35 - Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with NXP's Jeff Miles (update: video embedded)
00:39:00 - Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with TransferJet
00:42:15 - TOSY and Justin Bieber announce mRobo: we go hands-on, dance-off (video)
00:49:45 - Qualcomm shows off new Hanvon Mirasol e-reader, juggles video and tex
00:51:50 - Crapgadget CES 2012, round two: Mugtuk's child-scaring hugging iPhone case
00:53:25 - Fujifilm X-Pro1 interchangeable lens camera preview (video)
00:55:05 - Microsoft's CES 2013 floor space sells in record time
01:03:00 - Aurasma Virtual Browser and virtual world hands-on
01:04:05 - Hands-on with NVIDIA-powered Audi Connect
01:04:30 - Transformer Prime gets a fresh serving of Ice Cream Sandwich, we go hands-on
01:07:50 - Sprint Samsung Galaxy Nexus with LTE hands-on (video)


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Engadget Podcast 274: CES 2012 Day 4 - 01.12.2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/13/engadget-podcast-274-ces-2012-day-4-01-12-2012/

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Why Are We Giving Away Billions in Foreign Aid? (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | According to a Reuters report, the U.S. has announced it wants to give close to $1 billion to Bangladesh over the next five years to alleviate poverty and malnutrition, help with family planning and infectious diseases, research farm productivity and address climate change. We've already given that country $5.7 billion as of 2011, the report states.

It always shocks me when I hear -- amid all the noise about how broke our government is -- that we're giving billions to help other countries. It's not that I'm against helping, mind you. I tend to think charitable giving is something better left in the hands of private organizations, with private dollars, however. But it isn't. What's more, according to a June Fox News report, we're giving hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to countries we're borrowing billions of dollars from, including China, Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico and Egypt. As a side note, I did not realize we were borrowing money from Mexico, but according to the report, it holds $28.1 billion of U.S. Treasury bonds.

The Fox News article states much of this money is going to preventing tuberculosis and AIDS/HIV, combating weapons of mass destruction and counterterrorism. But that's not all. The Census Bureau compiles foreign aid information, with reports that can be found in PDF format on its website. According to the 2012 statistical data, in 2009, the U.S. provided almost $45 billion in foreign aid, including about $34 billion in economic aid and a little over 11 billion in military aid.

Of the U.S. economic aid in 2009, the largest recipients were Afghanistan and Iraq, followed by Pakistan and Sudan. The West Bank/ Gaza tops of the list of the five countries receiving the most economic aid from the U.S., with a little over $1 billion worth. In military aid, more than $5.7 billion went to Afghanistan. Over $2 billion went to Israel. Egypt received more than $1 billion. Did you know we were sending military aid to Egypt?

The list of countries we send our money to is daunting. The amount of money we send to them is crazy. According to the figures, since 2001, that amount has increased from $16,836,000,000 to $44,957,000,000. And we don't have enough to pay our own bills. And we listen to our Congress talk about cutting our spending. I think we need to cut down on the high-priced gifts and loans we're giving to everyone else.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120114/pl_ac/10835455_why_are_we_giving_away_billions_in_foreign_aid

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'Extinct' tortoises may still be roaming a Galapagos island

A giant tortoise species studied by Charles Darwin and believed to be extinct for more than 150 years may be alive and well, an ambitious genetic survey has revealed.

Blood sampling of more than 1,600 tortoises on the largest Galapagos island, Isabela, has revealed that about 84 of them had at least one purebred parent from a supposedly extinct species that once lived at the other end of the archipelago.

Researchers hope they can find these tortoises in the flesh on Isabela Island, breed them in captivity and then release them back onto Floreana Island, their native home.

The study, published in Tuesday's edition of the journal Current Biology, may be the first rediscovery of an "extinct" species ever made through looking for genetic markers in hybrid offspring.

The giant tortoise, among the largest living reptiles on Earth, is an icon of the Galapagos Islands, which take their very name from the Spanish word for tortoise, gal?pago. The creatures are thought to have arrived on the volcanic islands about 2 million to 3 million years ago from the South American mainland.

Each tortoise species ? some larger, with domed shells, and others smaller, with saddleback shells ? was unique to a particular island or volcano, living and evolving in isolation from the others. The diversity of tortoise species Darwin saw during his 1835 visit to the Galapagos Islands partly inspired his theory of evolution.

"I never dreamed that islands, about 50 or 60 miles apart, and most of them in sight of each other, formed of precisely the same rocks, placed under a quite similar climate, rising to a nearly equal height, would have been differently tenanted," Darwin wrote in "The Voyage of the Beagle," first published in 1839.

But within just a few years of Darwin's voyage, one of the tortoises ? the saddleback Chelonoidis elephantopus, living on the southern Floreana Island ? had already vanished.

Darwin himself never saw one alive. Whaling ships and pirates had long hunted the animals for food and oil; tortoises were handy supplies to keep on board, as they could be stowed in the hull for months ? flipped on their backs so they couldn't escape ? without receiving food or water.

And humans introduced new threats on the islands. Rats from the ships preyed upon tortoise eggs; goats trampled them and devoured the islands' vegetation. All tortoise species around the Galapagos Islands suffered from the onslaught; but perhaps none more than Chelonoidis elephantopus. By 1850, it was gone.

In recent years, however, scientists sampling a different species, Chelonoidis becki, came across a surprising discovery. Within this population of tortoises native to Wolf Volcano on Isabela Island, there were a handful bearing traces of Floreana tortoise DNA in their genomes. At some time in the past, it appeared, the Floreana tortoise had made it to ? and mated on ? Isabela.

Spurred on by this suggestion that the Floreana tortoise might still exist on Isabela, the researchers, led by population geneticist Ryan Garrick, who is now at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, decided to look more closely.

Garrick and colleagues took blood samples from 1,669 tortoises living on Wolf Volcano ? about one-fifth of the tortoise population there ? and ran them against a database of tortoise DNA.

The analysis showed that 84 of the tortoises had more than just traces of C. elephantopus within them: One of their parents was purebred C. elephantopus, a creature supposedly extinct for more than a century and a half.

Based on genetic analysis, the scientists estimate that about 38 C. elephantopus tortoises had parented these offspring on Wolf Volcano. And though many of those parents may not be alive today, some probably are. Thirty of the 84 hybrids Garrick and his co-workers found were less than 15 years old, and the creatures are thought to live for more than 100 years. Purebred parents are very likely still roaming the volcano.

It's just a matter of finding them.

George Amato, director of the genomics program at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, called the results "very exciting."

"To be honest with you, I can't think of another example of this kind of work on endangered species that's done such a detailed job of reconstructing this very interesting history," Amato said.

The researchers have some thoughts on how the tortoises managed to get from one of the southernmost islands to the archipelago's northwestern edge. Fast-moving whalers, or pirates looking to reduce their load while fighting or fleeing, may have hurriedly dumped the animals, taken along for food, at sea.

"These guys don't swim, but they float like a wine cork in a bathtub," Garrick said. "The prevailing current goes northwest in the ocean, making [Isabela] island the last place they would catch land before getting swept into the north Pacific."

The search is now on for live, purebred C. elephantopus tortoises on Isabela. If they're found, the researchers hope to start a breeding program in captivity to raise more of them and then bring them back to their native Floreana.

Tortoises are a very important part of an island's ecosystem, Garrick said. They keep the prickly pear cactus in check by grazing on it and, by relieving themselves around other parts of the island, also act as the plant's primary seed-dispersal method.

Even if the purebred tortoises don't turn up, intensively breeding the most promising hybrids could be useful as well, Garrick added.

"This really comes down to not giving up on biodiversity conservation, even when things look grim," he said.

amina.khan@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/U17kCH1TZMA/la-sci-galapagos-tortoise-20120114,0,5901791.story

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Acer Aspire S5 hands-on, revisited (now with video)

The last time we reported on the Aspire S5, Acer's sophomore Ultrabook, your favorite reviews editor was throwing elbows to get a first look. The company's press conference here at CES was packed to the gills with journalists and industry analysts, dozens of whom were jostling for some hands-on time after the event wrapped. It didn't help that there were two S5s on display, and that the demo area was tricked out with green mood lighting.

So when we had a chance to play with the S5 again, this time in a quiet, sunny room, we knew a second look was in order. For the most part, our early impressions haven't changed. Its all-metal chassis still feels solid, and we continue to be wary of that shallow keyboard. That 15mm-thick chassis is as impressive as ever -- maybe even more so, now that we know half of this year's Ultrabooks are likely to be larger. But man, is this thing even more beautiful in the light. We already concluded it had a more uniformly premium design than the older Aspire S3, but in a brightly lit room it's easier to appreciate the slightly brushed texture on the lid and palm rest, the seamless, spartan design and how well that black paint job complements the thin chassis. Below, find a few extra hands-on shots added in with the old, and continue on past the break for a video tour, complete with a demo of that motorized drop-down port cover -- something we didn't get to show you the first time around.

Billy Steele contributed to this report.

Continue reading Acer Aspire S5 hands-on, revisited (now with video)

Acer Aspire S5 hands-on, revisited (now with video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/12/acer-aspire-s5-hands-on-revisited-now-with-video/

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Lyric Hughes Hale: Interest Rates Are Too Low!

After the U.S. experience during the Great Depression, and after inflation and rising interest rates in the 1970s and disinflation and falling interest rates in the 1980s, I thought the fallacy of identifying tight money with high interest rates and easy money with low interest rates was dead. Apparently, old fallacies never die.


-Milton Friedman in the Wall Street Journal, December 17, 1997, "Rx for Japan: Back to the Future."

I recently attended the 3-day annual meeting of the American Economic Association here in Chicago. The numbers were staggering: thousands of economists all at once, all in one place, talking about the world's money. One pundit called it "the poor man's Davos." Wandering through the corridors, it was like visiting a country whose arcane language you spoke, but did not hear that often and in such abundance. It was great fun, and very stimulating. With over 500 panel presentations it was almost impossible to choose which to attend.

A lot of the content was descriptive and analytical, rather than prescriptive. The academic practice of economics necessarily falls behind the sweep of current events. The starring country was China, but I could not find a single presentation on Iran, whose actions might actually affect world economic conditions more negatively than any other in 2012. The China analysis was however quite measured and realistic -- World Bank president Robert Zoellick and Harvard professor Larry Summers agreed that nothing lasts forever, not even Chinese growth. I did find it interesting that the panel on US-China economic relations did not include a single Chinese speaker -- where was Zhu Min of the IMF when we needed him?

The other star topic was, of course, the euro. On hand for the conference was Columbia professor Robert Mundell, known as a key proponent of the adoption of the euro, who discussed taking this concept a step further in order to create a global currency. After the euro crisis however, the prospect of a global currency has realistically moved much further into the future. The political hurdles are just too enormous. I had always thought that the next step after the euro might be a pan-Asian currency. However, the countries in Asia are even more diverse than the members of the European Union, in terms of economic development, religion, demographics, geography, culture, language, political systems, in short, everything. I also doubt that Japan, the world's third largest economy, will accept the Chinese yuan as coin of the realm. Even regional cooperation has been difficult to achieve, let alone global agreement.

There was definitely a strong whiff of nostalgia for the pre-Bretton Woods era, when gold was the monetary standard that linked most of the world. I am not in favor of a return to the gold standard for many reasons, but I began to think about other ways in which we could build convergence into the global financial system, reversing the divergence that has characterized the world post-2008.

Mundell is famous for his trilemma: a country can control interest rates, maintain a fixed exchange rate, and regulate capital flows, but not all three at the same time. If one abandons the goal of a fixed exchange rate or a global currency, what about the interest rate as a lever for convergence instead? As a thought experiment, what would happen if the central banks of the world, and the handful of people who run monetary policy, decided that they would all maintain the same interest rate?

Global Interest Rates- 2011--worldinterestrates.com

It is pretty clear within the first five seconds of thinking about the problem that a single global interest rate would not work. Risks and circumstances vary in each country. Removing the ability of central banks to use one of the best tools in their kit, interest rate adjustment, could make the next financial crisis even worse. However, that is essentially what has happened in the countries that now have ultra-low interest rates, such as the US, Japan, the UK, Canada and the EU -- all are 1% or lower. With inflation tracking higher than 1% in most of these countries, that means that debtors are favored over savers. Effectively, you have negative interest rates, because you are paying the money back with money that has depreciated in value over the length of the loan.

This lack of range of monetary motion has led to what economist Alan Blinder has called the Crazy Aunt problem. Since the central banks that have reached near zero interest rate bounds cannot cut rates further, they try out other unconventional means of control, opening up the closet and bringing out their Crazy Aunt who usually doesn't see the light of day. For example, QE (Quantitative Easing), or buying assets by the Fed. In fact, as the ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy) countries lowered interest rates, they increased their balance sheets in almost reverse proportion. Banks never planned on becoming landlords, and the Fed never imagined that it would become an asset manager, but each has taken on these new roles. It might not end well.

I believe that there is a minimum level for interest rates below which policy distortions and long-term damage occur. The search for low interest rate loans has resulted in substantial speculation, particularly in the dollar and yen carry trades. Given Interest Rate Parity, an ideal state of equilibrium, investors would not prefer one country over the other and the carry trade would disappear. The Japanese experience of a near zero interest rate policy was a disaster, which resulted in the marooning of the Japanese economy for decades. I remember arguing with Japan's former central bank governor Toshihio Fukui that although lowering Japanese interest rates resulted in gains for Japanese companies, Japan's many savers, particularly in light of their stock market crash which resulted in huge retail losses, felt impoverished and would stop spending. I lost the argument, but I have always wondered what might have happened if Japan had gently raised rates and lowered sales taxes in the 90's.

We are in danger of repeating the Japanese experience. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been criticized for ultra-low interest rates that could cause the United States to fall into a liquidity and growth trap. Felix Salmon's column in Reuters quotes the legendary Bill Gross of Pimco, writing in an op ed in the Financial Times last month:

"Bill Gross has a wonky column in the FT, saying that setting interest rates at zero doesn't boost economic growth:

With policy rates at or approaching zero yields and QE facing political limits in almost all developed economies, it is appropriate to question not only the effectiveness of historical conceptual models but entertain the possibility that they may, counterintuitively, be hazardous to an economy's health.


Certainly the record will show that countries with persistently low interest rates tend to have sluggish growth, and although the obvious causality there runs the other way -- central banks cut rates in response to slow growth -- it's never been clearer than it is now that such policies don't always work.

Gross's point is that zero rates, far from encouraging people to borrow more, actually encourage deleveraging instead, at both the short and the long end of the curve. Why wouldn't people want to borrow at ultra-low interest rates? In part, because no one wants to lend at ultra-low interest rates."

Many central banks have an inflation target -- they feel, for example, that 2% inflation is optimal for growth. So why not a floor for interest rates? In 2005 economists Menzie Chinn and Jeffrey Frankel wrote a prescient paper entitled "The Euro Area and World Interest Rates":

How has European monetary integration affected the determination of world interest rates? This question comprises a number of empirical and policy debates. The first question is: Is there a "world interest rate"? In other words, has the dismantling of the legal and regulatory impediments to capital controls, accompanied by decreases in transaction costs, resulted in an essentially integrated pool of financial capital? With the rapid evolution of financial markets in the Euro area, a re-examination is warranted.

So if the world decided to adopt a floor on interest rates, perhaps based upon (as suggested by Robert Mundell) a US government US dollar denominated bond at the highest credit rating at the 2% level, then the countries which would have to raise interest rates to meet the new floor would be the US, Canada, the EU, the UK, Hong Kong and several other non-EU member European countries.

In fact, interest rates are rising in the rest of the world. Emerging market countries have already begun to tighten. According to Central Bank News:

Indeed of the 87 central banks that Central Bank News monitors, 34 made net increases to their interest rates, while 32 held their rates net unchanged, and 21 made net reductions to their policy interest rates, many of these in the second half of the year (2011).

And here is the kicker: even if central bankers do not tighten, they must raise rates at some point. Fiscal deficits will increase each country's indebtedness, and the more debt you have, the higher the interest rate you must pay to borrow more money because your credit risk increases. Coming back to China, ironically China will ensure that US interest rates move upwards. They are steadily decreasing their reliance on US treasuries, and if the Chinese withdraw from the market over the next few years, then there will be fewer lenders and those who remain will want to be paid more.

Ben Bernanke has announced that there will be no interest rate hikes for this year, and the new 2012 Federal Reserve releases will contain interest rate forecasts for the first time. But will Bernanke be able to keep his promise? Is there a calculus such that businesses are willing to pay a certain rate of interest as long as it is stable and close to the historical average, and savers, as individuals or countries, have a minimum amount of return they desire in order to invest? The current low interest policy benefits banks -- their spreads are larger, and therefore their profits. It certainly doesn't benefit the large and growing community of retired people who live off the interest earned by their investments. Is there an equilibrium point for interest rates and inflation that creates sustainability and confidence, a world in which exchange rates follow rather than lead the discussion?

I end with a quote from Tom Hoenig, the recently retired head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, long a dissident voice against the imposition of ultra-low interest rates during the recent crisis:

2012-01-12-kansascityfedchiefhoenig260.jpg

Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, discusses the economy at the Council on Foreign Relations on March 2, 2011, in New York.? (Mark Lennihan, AP)

"You create certain fragilities in the economy that when you do have to reverse your position, in terms of interest rates, whenever that is, it becomes an increasing risk of shock to the economy, whether it's your concerns about the stock market tanking or values of land being affected," he said.


"When you artificially hold down interest rates or you artificially bring short-term tools to solve long-term problems, you get worse long-term problems."

-USA Today, July 1, 2011

The concern is if we hit another big crisis, unless there is a margin for tightening interest rates, we are forfeiting one of our most important tools -- conventional monetary policy. We leave ourselves open to trying new and novel methods of intervention. A crisis is a hard time to experiment. I recommend that we create of target interest rate of 2% and ask all other countries to do the same, and implement gradual tightening. If another crisis hits, we will have something familiar to work with, and we can leave that crazy aunt in the closet.

?

Follow Lyric Hughes Hale on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lyrichues

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lyric-hughes-hale/low-interest-rates_b_1202832.html

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AMD strikes CES with brand new APUs and Lightning Bolt

AMD Trinity APUs
AMD decided to steer clear of the show floor this year, instead choosing to stick to a briefing room upstairs, where they gave us a quick tour of their current offerings as well as a sneak peek at some upcoming projects. There were two big stars, though, the first of which is the upcoming Trinity APUs, based on its Piledriver core. There will be three different versions: desktop, laptop and "thin and light." The latter of which is clearly aimed at Ultrabook-like form factors and draws just 17W, while promising similar performance to current generation 35W chips. To show off just how powerful its next-gen architecture is AMD demoed a machine playing DiRT 3 (at low quality mind you) on one display, transcoding video on another and playing a clip of a kata on third. Oh, and that third display was attached to the laptop that was driving the whole thing without stuttering.

The other big news, though we sadly don't have accompanying visuals, was a backroom demo of Lightning Bolt -- AMD's answer to Thunderbolt. The protocol is capable of driving up to four displays and several USB 3.0 ports while providing power. It can only drive two at 1080p and it won't reach the full speed of USB 3.0, but AMD did say it will be faster than 2.0. Supposedly the tech will be incredibly cheap in integrate into a PC, and a single cord running from a DisplayPort to a hub was able to handle playing back a Blu-ray and transferring files from a thumb drive while pushing two 1366 x 768 monitors -- not bad for an early prototype. Check the gallery above for a few shots of the latest AMD APUs and, for more technical details, hit the more coverage links.

AMD strikes CES with brand new APUs and Lightning Bolt originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/13/amd-strikes-ces-with-brand-new-apus-and-lightning-bolt/

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Ravens got what they wanted

FILE - In this Dec. 24, 2011, file photo, Baltimore Ravens inside linebacker Ray Lewis rallies the crowd in the first half of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns in Baltimore. Houston Texans' Arian Foster was in his first season as a starter in 2010 when the Texans hosted the Ravens, and Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis grabbed the running back after a play. Lewis had already become a fan and told Foster: 'I love the way you play this game.' Since then the pair have become friends off the field and shared their mutual admiration for each other this week as Houston is scheduled to face Baltimore on Jan. 15, 2012, in the playoffs. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 24, 2011, file photo, Baltimore Ravens inside linebacker Ray Lewis rallies the crowd in the first half of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns in Baltimore. Houston Texans' Arian Foster was in his first season as a starter in 2010 when the Texans hosted the Ravens, and Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis grabbed the running back after a play. Lewis had already become a fan and told Foster: 'I love the way you play this game.' Since then the pair have become friends off the field and shared their mutual admiration for each other this week as Houston is scheduled to face Baltimore on Jan. 15, 2012, in the playoffs. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

Baltimore Ravens' Ray Lewis reacts as he leaves the field after Baltimore defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 24-16 in an NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Houston Texans quarterback T.J. Yates (13) and Eric Winston (73) celebrate after against the Cincinnati Bengals during the fourth quarter of an NFL wild card playoff football game Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012, in Houston. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul (90) takes down Atlanta Falcons running back Michael Turner (33) during the first half of an NFL wild card playoff football game Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul celebrates after sacking Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

Ray Lewis hugged coach John Harbaugh and barked: "They're coming through Baltimore."

Yes, they are, Ray, at least this weekend.

The divisional round of the NFL playoffs will make a stop at the Inner Harbor on Sunday when the Ravens host the Houston Texans. It's the first home playoff game under Harbaugh, who led the team to a wild-card berth in his previous three seasons.

While the Ravens (12-4) don't have home-field advantage for the entire AFC playoffs unless New England loses Saturday night to Denver, it's a cozy start for Baltimore, which won all eight games at M&T Bank Stadium in 2011.

"If you look at wild-card weekend, I don't think that there was one home team that lost the whole weekend," Lewis said accurately. "When you get into that, it plays a big momentum. It's a big momentum swing for you. It's just hard to win on the road. I don't care who you are, I don't care how good you are, it's hard to win on the road.

"For us to work as hard as we did, get 12 wins, do the things we were supposed to do, and now get this home playoff game, we have positioned ourselves to be in the right place. Now we have to go finish it."

The divisional round begins Saturday with New Orleans (13-4) at San Francisco (13-3). It ends with the New York Giants (10-7) at defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay (15-1).

Houston lost 29-14 at Baltimore in October, when the Texans were healthier than they have been for the last six weeks. But they've dealt with their injuries so well that they won their first division crown and, last week in their postseason debut, beat the Bengals handily.

So if hosting a playoff game is relatively new for the Ravens ? they have done it three times, but haven't won one since 2000, the year they took the Super Bowl ? being in one is totally new this year for the Texans.

Also new would be a win over the Ravens, who are 5-0 against Houston.

"It's been pretty one-sided so, we've got to get on the board," tackle Eric Winston said. "At the same time, you've got to look back on it and I don't think a lot of that stuff is going to have a lot of bearing on this game either, though. So, there's different guys, there's a different situation and we all know from past experiences that playoffs, funny things happen in the playoffs and games turn out a lot different than they did in the regular season. So hopefully we can hold true to that."

The Packers also have a regular-season win over their opponent, a 38-35 victory at the Meadowlands. It was one of Green Bay's most difficult games.

The Giants have won four of five since that loss, including manhandling Atlanta 24-2 last weekend. Their pass rush has come alive and the running game has awakened.

So the Giants believe they match up pretty well with the NFL's best team. So much so that All-Pro defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul is predicting victory. Then again, is he supposed to predict defeat?

"It comes from the heart. Who in his right mind is going to say the team is going to lose?" he said with a wide smile. "Nobody wants that. We're trying to go all the way, win the tournament."

No one has won at Lambeau Field since Miami on Oct. 17, 2010. The Giants were blown out 45-17 in Game 15 of that season when they were in position to make the playoffs.

But New York shocked the Packers in the 2007 NFC championship game, then pulled off an even bigger upset by taking down the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl. Green Bay is wary ? as wary as a 15-1 team needs to be.

"There is a reason why we are both playing in this game. We are two of the last four teams in the NFC," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "They are playing well and they wouldn't be here if they were not, so to me, that is to be expected. I think they are playing better than when they played us and earlier in the season they had some tough defeats also. It is playoff football and they are a very good football team."

San Francisco makes its return to the postseason after an eight-year absence and gets quite a challenge: the potent Saints and record-setting quarterback Drew Brees. New Orleans was unstoppable in the second half against Detroit in the wild-card round, but the 49ers' defense is immensely better than the Lions' unit.

"They've got everything going for them right now," 49ers defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said of Brees and company. "They've got a great quarterback who's got great weapons to throw to. He's got a great offensive line in front of him. The guy's only been sacked 24 times in the regular season, and that's off of 700 times they've thrown the ball, dropped back to pass. So, that's impressive in and of itself, and to top it off, they've got a great scheme. They really give you a lot of offense to prepare for."

The 49ers offense did just enough all season, thanks to the running of Frank Gore and the overall offensive efficiency: just 10 turnovers all season. San Francisco also led the league with 38 takeaways and a plus-28 turnover differential.

New England has been maligned for a defense that gives up tons of yards, ranking 31st, ahead of only ? get this ? the Packers. It hasn't mattered much as the Patriots (13-3) won their final eight games, including a 41-23 victory at Denver last month.

While much of America is marveling over Tim Tebow's heroics for the Broncos (9-8), the response in New England isn't quite so awe-filled.

"You know they had some good things and some bad things," defensive back Sterling Moore said, "so you kind of just want to take the good things that they did and kind of avoid the bad things that they did. But it's one of those games where you're going to have to be mentally sharp and know your assignment and do your assignment only."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-13-FBN-NFL-Playoffs-Rdp/id-dac7c4a2326d477cb8c42bfafb5e5b52

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers Next Coach: Will the New Guy Simply Be a Band-Aid?

Before everyone goes bonkers, before everyone starts spewing disappointment and woe over Mark Dominik's AARP-approved "exhaustive" coaching search for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, let's take a step back and consider something about this new guy, whoever it might be.

The first of the dominoes fell today with Romeo Crennel getting the "interrim" tag removed in Kansas City. The most eye-opening development in that hire was the three-year contract given to Crennel.

Now, consider this:

Is it totally possible that the new head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will simply be a short-term solution until someone really eye-opening comes into the market?

Is it totally possible that the new guy will simply be a band-aid?

Is it possible that the owners and Dominik simply want some order restored to this asylum?

Is it possible that the Buccaneers simply need a good, short-term dose of their own version of Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway, the Clint Eastwood-portrayed character from the 1986 hit movie?

You might recall that Gunny Highway was a gung-ho Marine nearing the mandatory retirement age. He ends up with the unglamourous assignment of cleaning up "Recon" Platoon, a collection of undisciplined slackers (sound familiar?).

Is it possible that the "new coach" is simply a short-timer?

Of the AARP crowd, who would you prefer?

    Of the AARP crowd, who would you prefer?

  • A: Mike Sherman

  • B: Marty Shottenheimer

  • C: Wade Phillips

  • D: Brad Childress

  • E: None of 'em!

?

By now you?know the unglamorous list of oldie-goldie retreads:

Mike Sherman.

Marty Shottenheimer.

Brad Childress.

Wade Phillips.

Mouseketeer role call, sound off now!

You'll notice that the Bucs have already taken care of the Rooney Rule, interviewing Tennessee defensive coordinator Jerry Gray, to which 1010 AM talk show host Shaun King of the King David Show promptly declared on Monday: "The next coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will not be an African-American."

The good news for the penny-pinching Glazer clan is that the aforementioned names of "mature" gentlemanly coaches will work for a lot less than?a Jeff Fisher will.

To further fuel our possible conspiracy theory is the three-year deal given Crennel. If the new Tampa Bay guy gets a three-year deal, then this bungfuggle of a coaching search will scream "Band Aid!"

The perception of Raheem Morris' final games is that this team totally quit on him. We sat there and stared week after week at a?"Recon Platoon" version of an NFL team. No discipline, no swagger, no want-to, no nothing.

When do you expect they'll announce the new coach?

    When do you expect they'll announce the new coach?

  • A: Two or three weeks.

  • B: Sometime next week.

  • C: Who cares?

?

It's not going to take a lot to get this ship to look better than those final 10 weeks.

Enter?Sherman, Mr. 25-25 at Texas A&M.

Sherman has been declared the early favorite by some NFL observers with the wild additional theory that Mark Dominik will hire Brad Childress at the offensive coordinator and Mike Nolan as the defensive coordinator.

Also consider that Mr. 25-25 has the same agent as Dominik. Now doesn't that totally smack "Conflict of Interest?"

Yes, this is becoming an "exhaustive" search, probably meaning that the silliness of it all is becoming "exhaustive" to Buccaneer fans.

So while we're getting silly, let's just go ahead and suggest Gunny Highway as the new coach of the Buccaneers.

Raheem Morris' mantra was play faster, play harder and play smarter and all he got was slower, softer and dumber.

Gunny Highway's mantra was simple:

"You improvise.You adapt, You overcome."

And this Buccaneer team needs a lot of that.

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1016906-tampa-bay-buccaneers-next-coach-will-the-new-guy-simply-be-a-band-aid

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AlanSuderman: This Ward 5 meeting better be awesome. Doesn't @VincentOrangeDC care about college football!??

Loader This Ward 5 meeting better be awesome. Doesn't @ care about college football!??

Source:

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Merkel, Sarkozy stress growth a priority in crisis (AP)

BERLIN ? The French and German leaders are stressing that they view boosting economic growth a priority as they push through with efforts to stem the eurozone's debt crisis.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that Europe should compare countries' labor market practices and learn from the best; and they called for European funds to be used in a way that create jobs.

Both leaders also said they're prepared to consider speeding up payments into the 17-nation eurozone's permanent rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, in an effort to bolster confidence.

They're calling for a quick conclusion to negotiations on a new treaty enshrining fiscal rules.

Still, Merkel says that resolving the crisis will be "step-by-step ... there's no single-dimension solution."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120109/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_financial_crisis

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