NFL Week 9 Predictions: Projections for the Early Lines, Spreads and Odds

Now would be the time for bettors to capitalize on NFL Week 9 opening lines. Las Vegas is by no means perfect, and the early offerings each week always present some serious holes for savvy bettors to make some notable coin on if they invest quality research into the matchups. Whether it is a line that is entirely too large—take a look at the Seattle Seahawks spread in the table below—or a spread that will surely turn out to be downright wrong, bettors willing to invest the time early in the week can perhaps earn more than someone who waits to recover after a long weekend.Even at their best, the Cincinnati Bengals have rarely just blown away the competition this season.

The worst part about the Bengals, seemingly as always, is that they are unpredictable at best on a week-to-week basis. Case in point, Cincinnati was hot out of the gates with three wins, then suffered a blowout, a tie, another blowout and just won by a field goal over the Baltimore Ravens.Good news continues to seep out of the Queen City, though, as the team sounds as if it will have star wideout A.J. Green back for this showdown against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

"I think I'll be back. I'll practice this week and see how it goes, but I think I'll be fine," Green said, per Joe Reedy of Fox Sports Ohio. "I was at 40 percent last week and I feel about 80 percent today. I haven't had any soreness after I've worked out."

The thing is, while Jacksonville ranks 30th against the pass, Cincinnati comes in at 27th. Even worse for the home team, its defense ranks 30th against the rush, allowing an average of 146.3 yards per game on the ground. Now pair that with the fact the Jaguars have finally found a serious threat in the backfield in the form of Denard Robinson, as the numbers from his last two games show: Good news continues to seep out of the Queen City, though, as the team sounds as if it will have star wideout A.J. Green back for this showdown against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

"I think I'll be back. I'll practice this week and see how it goes, but I think I'll be fine," Green said, per Joe Reedy of Fox Sports Ohio. "I was at 40 percent last week and I feel about 80 percent today. I haven't had any soreness after I've worked out." The thing is, while Jacksonville ranks 30th against the pass, Cincinnati comes in at 27th. Even worse for the home team, its defense ranks 30th against the rush, allowing an average of 146.3 yards per game on the ground. Now pair that with the fact the Jaguars have finally found a serious threat in the backfield in the form of Denard Robinson, as the numbers from his last two games show:

Jacksonville has a load of problems, but Gus Bradley and his staff will surely look to stay on the ground and keep Andy Dalton and an erratic Bengals offense off the field. Add in the fact that the Bengals have a habit of playing down to the competition and may be ripe for a letdown, and Jacksonville—for once—seems like a sound bet.It is easy to write off the San Diego Chargers. The team enters Sunday losers of two straight, whereas the Miami Dolphins have won two straight. Add in the fact a team from out west traveling east usually spells trouble, and Miami is right to be the favorite.

Well, somewhat. As ESPN's James Walker muses, the Chargers have had plenty of time to make the proper adjustments: It is easy to write off the San Diego Chargers. The team enters Sunday losers of two straight, whereas the Miami Dolphins have won two straight. Add in the fact a team from out west traveling east usually spells trouble, and Miami is right to be the favorite. Well, somewhat. As ESPN's James Walker muses, the Chargers have had plenty of time to make the proper adjustments: Read The Full Story Here

China and Russia are considering building a high-speed rail line thousands of kilometers from Moscow to Beijing

China and Russia are considering building a high-speed rail line thousands of kilometers from Moscow to Beijing that would cut the journey time from six days on the Trans-Siberian to two. The project would cost more than $230bn (£144bn) and be over 7,000km (4,350 miles) long more than three times the world's existing longest high-speed line, from the Chinese capital to the southern city of Guangzhou.

The railway would be an authoritative physical symbol of the ties that bind Moscow and Beijing, whose political relationship has roots dating from the Soviet era and who frequently votes together on the UN Security Council. They have strengthened their relationship as Western criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin mounts over Ukraine and other issues.

The two signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this week during Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Moscow in which Beijing expressed interest in building a fast rail link between the Russian capital and Kazan in the oil-rich Tatarstan region, state broadcaster China Central Television reported. The 803-kilometre line would be the first stage of the route to Beijing, CCTV said.

At present, trains between the two run along the Trans-Siberian railway that links Moscow and Vladivostok, before switching to a branch line heading south through the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator.  Direct passenger trains between Beijing and Moscow went into operation in 1954 and there’re still two services per week, CCTV said. The new link would cut the train travel time from six days at present to less than two days; the Beijing Times quoted Wang Mengshu, a tunnel and railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as saying.

If the funds are raised efficiently the line can be completed within five years at the quickest,' he added. The paper cited a study report that put the cost of one kilometer of Chinese-built fast rail at $33 million. The country has the world's largest high-speed rail network, built from scratch in less than a decade, relying on technology transfer from foreign companies, as well as France's Alstom, Germany's Siemens and Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Its reputation was stained after a bullet train collision in July 2011 near the eastern city of Wenzhou that killed at least 40 people and injured hundreds. But China is now keen to promote the export of its technology, and has been building high-speed rail networks in Turkey and Venezuela.

Colossal volcanic eruption could destroy Japan

Japan could be nearly destroyed by a huge volcanic eruption over the next century, putting almost all of the country's 127 million-strong population at high risk, according to a new study. It is not an overstatement to say that a colossal volcanic eruption would leave Japan vanished as a country," Kobe University earth sciences professor Yoshiyuki Tatsumi and associate professor Keiko Suzuki said in a study publicly released in this week. The specialists said they analyzed the scale and frequency of volcanic eruptions in the archipelago nation over the past 120,000 years and considered that the probabilities of a devastating eruption at about 1 % over the next 100 years. The chance of a foremost earthquake striking the city of Kobe within thirty years was projected at about 1 % just a day before a 7.2-magnitude quake demolished the Japanese port city in 1995, killing approximately 6,400 people and injuring almost 4,400 others, the study noted. So, it’d be no wonder if such a colossal eruption occurs at any moment," it added.

The new research comes weeks after Japan's Mount On take erupted without warning kills 57 people and leaving at least six others missing in the country's deadliest volcanic eruption in almost 90 years. The Kobe University researchers said their study was critical since Japan is home to about 7% of the volcanoes that have erupted over the past 10,000 years. A disaster on the southernmost main island of Kyushu, which has been struck by 7 gigantic eruptions over the past 120,000 years, would observe an area with more than seven million people buried by flows of lava and molten rock in just two hours, they said. Volcanic ash would also be carried by westerly winds toward the main island of Honshu, making almost all of the country "unlivable" because it is strangled infrastructure, including important transport systems, they said. It’d be "desperate" trying to save around 120 million living in key cities and towns across Honshu, the study said. This expectation was based on geological findings from the eruption of a gigantic crater, 23 kilometers (14 miles) across, in southern Kyushu around 28,000 years ago. The study also called for new technology to precisely grasp the state of "magma reservoirs" which are feast across the earth's crust in layers a few kilometers deep.